Two drivers crashed from the lead, another earned his sixth podium in seven races, and Zeb Wise came home with his first career All Star Circuit of Champions win.
They say, “Get your ass to Kokomo,” for a reason.
The Indiana track played home to an electric night of racing that ended with Wise holding off longtime friend and mentor Tyler Courtney. He had pretty straightforward thought about what was going down ahead of the final restart.
“Hammer the shit out of it and don’t mess up, really,” Wise said on the FloRacing broadcast. “I knew with Tyler behind me that he was going to be rolling the bottom, so I tried to hammer the top in one and two and get away from him.”
On his charge to the lead from seventh, Wise had a front row seat to see Brady Bacon spin under caution from the lead.
Bacon told Matt Weaver of FloRacing that he was trying to heat the tires ahead of a restart and the car went around on him.
Some throttle linkage issues and a broken throttle spring is what sent Brady Bacon around.
This and how much we'll see him in a Winged Sprint this season. pic.twitter.com/oMwrdOwJT3
— Matt Weaver (@MattWeaverAW) May 24, 2021
Kerry Madsen inherited the race lead after Bacon spun, however he would run into lapped traffic and flip himself.
It was as if a full moon had shined onto anyone that was in the race lead.
It didn’t quite get to Wise, and Courtney was thrilled about it.
“I regret teaching him all the things I taught him when he was driving for the midget team,” Courtney said on the broadcast. “That kid drove a hell of a race. He’s a heck of a talent. This has been a longtime coming and this is just the start for him.”
Courtney’s podium was his sixth in his past seven starts with the tour, capping off his most successful week with a wing on the car.
He took home a $10,000-prize for winning the Rayce Rudeen mini series.
“It’s a little bit of a shock to us, but it’s not at the same time,” Courtney said. “We had the speed, we just needed to clock that first one off.”
The tour will return to form this weekend, starting with Friday’s race at Williams Grove going into the Bob Weikert Memorial at Port Royal Speedway.
ASCoC Rayce Rudeen Finale Results
Kokomo Speedway
1. Zeb Wise
2. Tyler Courtney
3. Rico Abreu
4. Cole Macedo
5. Scotty Thiel
6. Justin Peck
7. Cory Eliason
8. Hunter Schuerenberg
9. Gio Scelzi
10. Paul McMahan
11. Parker Price-Miller
12. Sam Hafertepe Jr.
13. Zach Hampton
14. Danny Dietrich
15. Bill Balog
16. Brady Bacon
17. Brandon Long
18. Kerry Madsen
19. Cap Henry
20. Paul Nienhiser
21. Kevin Thomas Jr.
22. Brinton Marvel
23. Buddy Kofoid
24. Ian Madsen
25. Carson Short
