By John Rittenoure - BELLEVILLE, Kans. (June 12, 2021) - AJ Brochu is no stranger to the historic Belleville High Banks, and that experience paid off on Saturday.
Brochu drove off the pole and turned back a strong challenge from Clay Julian midway though the race on the high banked half-mile to win the Complete Well Testing Sooner Late Model Series feature.
Racing at Belleville is not new to Brochu and he relied on that experience to hang on to the lead from start-to-finish.
“I love Belleville,” Brochu said. “We have been here several times In a modified and now a late model. It is a nice place.
“You really have to watch your marks and stay on your toes a lot more. Don’t mess up. It does not take much and you are in the wall.”
While Brochu was setting the pace Julian started to close the gap midway through the race. Three yellow flag restarts on lap 13 allowed Julian to jump alongside of Brochu. But the Enid, Oklahoma driver managed to pull away each time.
“I was fortunate I got to start on the front, but you got to stay there. The 00 was quick,” Brochu said of Julian. “I thought any minute they are going to start challenging, don’t lift. Thank goodness I was on the top.”
A cushion allowed Brochu to drive where he likes to run.
“The track ended up being great.” Brochu said. “I thought it would be dry and dusty, but when they watered and it started taking some rubber it made for a heck of a cushion up there. I love a high side track.”
Veteran Delbert Smith charged from sixth starting to third to claim the $1,000 pay for the highest finishing crate engine. Three-time defending champion Kip Hughes came from eighth to finish fourth and CWT points leader Hayden Ross rounded out the top five.
Racing resumes next weekend with a Friday stop in Texas at Monarch Motor Speedway followed by Oklahoma Sports Park on Saturday.
Complete Well Testing Sooner Late Model Series Results
Belleville High Banks, Belleville, Kans.
June 12, 2021
O'Reilly Auto Heat 1 (8 Laps)
1, 22-AJ Brochu. 2, 92-Delbert Smith. 3, 84-Gary Kilbourn. 4, 00-Clay Julian. 5, 4-Kip
Hughes. 6, 4C-Cole McDaniel. 7, 66-Hayden Ross. 8, 88S-Richard Shepler. 9, 47B-Chris
Bratcher. 10, 30M-Jim Melton. (DNS).
Design One Race Wear Heat 2 (8 Laps)
1, 7D-Dusty Leonard. 2, 92S-Daniel Smith. 3, 229-Damian Patocka. 4, 33-Steven
Hawkins. 5, 15-Wayne Bush. 6, 77-David Lane. 7, 29S-Scott Donnell. 8, 49-Wylan
Petrie. 9, 1-Eddie Tidwell.
Complete Well Testing A Feature (20 Laps)
1, 22-AJ Brochu. 2, 00-Clay Julian. 3, 92-Delbert Smith. 4, 4-Kip Hughes. 5, 66-Hayden
Ross. 6, 92S-Daniel Smith. 7, 47B-Chris Bratcher. 8, 229-Damian Patocka. 9, 88S-
Richard Shepler. 10, 29S-Scott Donnell. 11, 15-Wayne Bush. 12, 4C-Cole McDaniel.
13, 33-Steven Hawkins. 14, 84-Gary Kilbourn. 15, 1-Eddie Tidwell. 16, 7D-Dusty
Leonard. 17, 77-David Lane. 18, 49-Wylan Petrie. 19, 30M-Jim Melton. (DNS).
About Complete Well Testing
Based in Oklahoma, Complete Well Testing is a family owned and operated company specializing in hydrostatic tubing testing and EMI tubing scanning.
Sooner Late Model Series
The Sooner Late Model Series was formed in 2016 by Enid Speedway co-promoter Mark Brill. Brill felt there was not many opportunities for late model competitors to race in Oklahoma and the Sooner Late Model Series was formed. Now the series has grown beyond the borders of Oklahoma with events held in the neighboring states of Kansas, Texas and Arkansas as well.
Delbert Smith earned $1,000 as the highest crate motor finisher. Smith finished in third place.
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