HARTFORD, S.D. — Tony Bruce, Jr. posted his second O’Reilly American Sprint Cars on Tour triumph of the season on the second leg of the ASCS Northern Swing at I-90 Speedway June 24.
Bruce battled into the lead on the opening lap and fought off several bids from Gary Wright to secure the win aboard the Kistler-powered Best Well Service No. 18 Maxim.
Gridding inside the second row, Bruce emerged from an opening-lap scramble for the point with front-row mates Wright and Aaron Berryhill.
With Wright pressuring Bruce for the lead, action came to a quick halt on the fifth lap when Bryan Dobesh flipped wildly in turn four and took down a portion of the fence in the process. Dobesh escaped injury, while the track crew made quick repairs to the fence.
“On that restart, I was thinking about Gary Wright passing me on the last lap at Devil’s Bowl,” Bruce commented, alluding to the final night of the Devil’s Bowl Spring Nationals in March. “I couldn’t let that happen again. I had to keep him behind me.”
Wright turned up the heat soon after the restart, pulling even on the low side of turns one and two on the seventh lap only to have Bruce power back in front as they charged down the backstretch.
Bruce adeptly worked his way through lapped traffic over the final 15 circuits, opening up a half dozen car-length advantage over Wright, who was busy fending off Sam Hafertepe, Jr. over the final half of the race.
“I saw his nose under me a time or two and knew I had to get my elbows up,” Bruce explained. “That old guy is still awful tough to beat.”
Wright came home second, with Hafertepe, Zach Chappell and Eric Baldaccini rounding out the top five.
The finish:
Tony Bruce, Jr., Gary Wright, Sam Hafertepe, Jr., Zach Chappell, Eric Baldaccini, Jack Dover, Jason Johnson, Aaron Berryhill, Scott Winters, Jake Peters, Jason Sides, Wayne Johnson, Clint Garner, Garry Lee Maier, Wade Nygaard, Chad Meyer, Donovan Peterson, Eric Lutz, Gregg Bakker, Jody Rosenboom, Troy Vink, Kathryne Minter, Nick Smith, Bryan Dobesh.