Austin Mundie wins "All Star Sprint Car Showdown" prelim at TMS

[NickHolt]

Bandits TMS Thriller Leaves Fans in a Dither! No Limit(s) to What Tonight’s Finale May Bring!

 

Ft. Worth TX (06/11/21) by DarinShort.com. Fans that are familiar with the Bandits Outlaw Sprint Series know that unpredictable feature event outcomes are a commonplace. And by the conclusion of the opening night of the All Star Sprint Car Showdown at Texas Motor Speedway’s Dirt Track, it put a huge exclamation point on that statement…all while giving fans and teams a huge blinking sign of ‘things to come’ with the unveiling of the new event promotional team of X.CELERATED, based out of Minnesota.

 

A warm breezy night would greet fans from near and far at the opening night of the highly anticipated Bandits Outlaw Sprint Series All Star Sprint Car Showdown at Texas Motor Speedway’s Dirt Track located in “No Limits” Texas.

 

44 Bandits Outlaw Sprint Series teams would assemble from seven states to tackle the ultra-fast 4/10- mile dirt track - that has been sitting dormant for over a year.

 

Five qualifying heat races would be contested to set the stage for the balance of the event with the top 16 drivers in finishing, plus passing points going directly, straight up to the championship feature. 

 

After the conclusion of the heat races, two veteran championship winning drivers would garner the most points and punch their ticket directly to the front-row of the A-feature, those two would be none other than Johnny Herrera and Sammy Swindell.

 

The feature event would fire off with the crowd anticipating a thrilling duel between Herrera and Swindell – and that pair would pull out to a 10-car lead over the field until a quick caution would come out for young up-and-coming driver Austin Saunders, who suffered engine woes. 

 

As the event would resume, Swindell would take the point in the Delaware restart. He would resume the lead, pulling away to a 10-car lead, when Herrera would teeter on the corner four cushion and allow a freight train of teams past him – including a hard-charging 9th place starter Austin Mundie.

 

Swindell would encounter lapped traffic by the sixth circuit and would breeze by cars as if he were on a track by himself, while Mundie quietly picked off cars, about 20-car lengths behind in distance.

 

With the field racing across several lines atop the hammer-down speedplant, the event would remain under green flag conditions until lap 17, when near disaster would strike the polesitter, Johnny Herrera, when his left-front shock would become unbolted, quickly leading to a variety of front suspension issues causing him to come to a stop on the backstretch, thus ending his great outing.

 

Then, another driver that was lurking in the wings would throw his hat into the ring on the ensuing restart, when “J2”, John Carney II, would power by Swindell on the low groove of corner two, only to have Swindell throw a massive slider in return the next pair of corners.

 

Undaunted, Carney would repass Swindell the next lap by, with Swindell powering back on the high side and build a 10-car length cushion. 

 

During this swath of lead changes, five laps would quickly click off, when the yellow lights would flicker for 19-year-old Casey Burkham, who would coast to a stop at the top of corner four.

 

The restart to follow would see Swindell jet out to the lead with Carney and Mundie in tow – with the 24th place starter of Channin Tankersley clearing his path into the top four.

 

After two laps of racing a couple of cars exiting corner two would make contact, resulting in a spin and another quick yellow.

 

On what would become the final restart with five laps to go, Austin Mundie would dive across the bow of John Carney to take over the second-place position with his eyes set on the high-flying veteran Swindell.

 

The next pair of corners, Mundie would keep the throttle mashed to the floorboard on the high side squeaking by Swindell – with Tankersley powering by Swindell in the middle.

 

Mundie would amass a 15-car length distance at the checkers over Tankersley and Swindell, much to the delight of the Texas Motor Speedway Dirt Track crowd.

 

Mundie has competed several ‘Bandits events over the span of the past six seasons, with Tankersley doing the same…in a ribbing manner, and similar fashion to the “PA Posse’s vs. Outlaws” comparison, the All Star Showdown ‘score’ is now ‘Bandits, 1, Veteran Champions, 0, going into tonight’s Bandits Outlaws Sprint Series All Star Sprint Car Showdown finale.

 

If you couldn’t make to last night’s event and are now kicking yourself for missing it, grab the fam, get in your vehicle and head over for another great night of outlaw sprint car racing at Texas Motor Speedway’s Dirt Track.

 

Tonight’s hot laps are slated for 7:30pm and racing at 8pm. If you happen to notice, that is a half-hour later than originally scheduled, due to the position of the sun in the sky. It’s warm and dry and the track officials want to make sure the drivers have optimal racing conditions to show off their driving prowess – and the track’s potential, as evidenced by both in last night’s racing program.

 

No major crashes took place throughout the course of the sprint car event, and not one car in the field ended up getting upside down. 

 

For event tickets, you can purchase them now at www.raceXR.com or you can buy them at the gate tonight.

 

Tonight is a completely brand new event, with no carry-over from last night’s show. Rounding out the three-division racing card will be the Southern Modifieds and Factory Stocks.

 

Here are the A-feature race results from the June 10, 2021 Bandits Outlaw Sprint Series All Star Sprint Car Showdown at Texas Motor Speedway’s Dirt Track:

 

4 – Austin Mundie (started 9th)

17g – Channin Tankersley (started 24th, also collected the $300 Hard Charger Award presented by Patriot Garage Door & Home Services and Pony Express Honey Company)

72s – Sammy Swindell

J2 – John Carney II

7m – Chance Morton

26 – Dalton Steed (from the B-feature)

36 – Chad Wilson

01j – Jeb Sessums

44 – Gary Floyd

71w – Weston Gorham (first-ever ‘Bandits outing)

B99 – Blake Mallory

8m – Kade Morton

2d – Michael Day (highest finishing 305CI driver, collecting $500 bonus from Cabinets by Tommy, D-UP Racing and GO 2 Electrical Service LLC.)

67x – Rodney Henderson

32 – Corby Scherb

72 – Colby Estes

42p – Preston Perlmutter

45b – Casey Burkham (also picked up $100 for being the 8th place driver on lap 8 award, presented by Patriot Garage Door & Services)

1j – Danny Jennings (also picked up $100 for being the 9th place driver on lap 9 award, presented by Cabinets By Tommy)

72p – Jason Howell

25 – Chase Brewer

45x – Johnny Herrera

9 – Josh McCord

82 – Austin Saunders

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