Bone flawless in Round 3 of the Hunt

CANEY, Kan. – Johnny Bone Jr. got the jump on polesitter Jeremy Payne at the start of Saturday night’s main event at the Caney Valley Speedway and that was all she wrote.

A pair of caution flags midway through the 40-lap WIX Filters “A” Main erased Bone’s ten-car-length advantage, but Bone was flawless on each restart and walked away from the pack to top Round 3 of the Hunt for the USMTS Casey’s General Stores National Championship presented by Bad Boy Mowers.

Rodney Sanders moved from seventh to third in the first six laps and pressured Payne for second for each of the last 34 laps, but Payne was able to navigate the preferred low line in every corner and was able to hold off Sanders for a runner-up finish 1.414 seconds behind Bone.

The win, worth $3,000, was Bone’s first of the 2010 season with the USMTS Casey’s General Stores National Tour and first since May 17, 2009, at the Monett Speedway where the series will invade in less than 24 hours.

Brandon Morton finished fourth and Zack VanderBeek held off Terry Phillips to earn the fifth spot. Seventh through tenth went to Dereck Ramirez, Jon Tesch, Tim Donlinger and Jason Hughes.

Noticeably absent from the top-10 were points leader Kelly Shryock and Ryan Gustin – the season’s winningest driver. Both struggled in their heat races and had to advance to the main event from the Real Racing Wheels “B” Mains.

On a track where passing was at a premium after a third straight day of temperatures climbing above 100 degrees, neither driver was a factor in the feature race with Shryock finishing 14th and Gustin winding up 16th as the last competitor on the lead lap.

Tommy Myer, who came into the event at the quarter-mile oval ranked sixth in the standings, brought out the race’s second caution on lap 16 and finished 15th.

Shryock continues to lead the points battle with three races in the books and 17 to go, but VanderBeek’s third straight top-5 of The Hunt allowed him to narrow the gap to just three points (323 to 320) while both Ramirez (304) and Hughes (302) leap-frogged Gustin, who sits fifth with 298 markers.

Tesch moved up to sixth with 271 points, followed by Sanders, Myer and Krohn in a three-way tie for seventh with 260 each. Donlinger, who started The Hunt ranked 18, rounds out the current top-10 with 256 points.