Belleville, Illinois.……Christopher Bell survived a grueling 40-lap “Belleville Bash” on Saturday night at Belle-Clair Speedway to post his first win of the season. The Norman, Oklahoma driver made it his eighth career win with the series and helped his title defense.

Chris Windom jumped from the pole to the lead, but Kevin Thomas, Jr. was the man on the move early on, taking the lead on lap-five. Bell was moving slowly through from row-four, but cautions were slowing his progress.

Finally, Bell started his duel through the middle course of the race with Thomas as he took the lead on lap 12. The two traded sliders as Thomas led again briefly at the line on lap 22 before Bell took over again.

Thomas stayed with Bell as they moved from the middle of the track to the top, but ignition problems sidelined the Cullman, Alabama driver late in the going.

Bell cruised to the finish late, winning by 1.453 seconds in the Keith Kunz/Curb-Agajanian Motorsports – Toyota TRD #71 Bullet/Speedway Toyota.

“I have learned that this place takes a lot of finesse. It’s really easy to over-drive it, especially when the cushion gets up on the fence like that. It’s not gonna move up there, and you have to be careful not to hit it too hard. It was a heck of a race with Kevin Thomas, Jr., and we raced clean up there for the lead. My car was great again, and obviously the package for all three of us (Kunz cars) is strong,” Bell said.

Bryan Clauson, who started tenth, picked his way to second at the end, registering his first podium of the season in the Westin Fairbury Packaged Meats – Curb Records #63 Spike/Esslinger.

“I felt like everything happened right in front of me, and I was involved in some tangles and had contact in a couple, too. We made it through, though. We needed longer runs to really get going, but overall it was a pretty good night after missing it a little in qualifying,” Clauson said.

Rico Abreu, who set ProSource “Fast Time” to begin the night, rebounded from an early tangle to storm back to third, backing up his wins at Kokomo last month. The St. Helena, California driver retained his point lead in the Keith Kunz/Curb-Agajanian Motorsports – Toyota TRD #97 Bullet/Speedway Toyota.

“I was a little too impatient early and got in the back of someone. That sent us to the back, but luckily it was early enough in the race that we were able to rebound and get back through there. I’m not a points racer, so missing an opportunity to race with those guys for the win is disappointing. The track was a handful, but we passed a lot of cars,” Abreu said.

Keith Kunz/Curb-Agajanian Motorsports teammate Tanner Thorson used the bottom to take his #67 to a fourth-place finish, while Daniel Robinson rounded out the top-five in the McCreery Motorsports – Felker Engineering #57 FSC/Esslinger.

USAC HONDA NATIONAL MIDGET RACE RESULTS: May 10, 2014 – Belleville, Illinois – Belle-Clair Speedway –“Belleville Bash” (co-sanctioned by POWRi Racing)

QUALIFICATIONS: 1. Rico Abreu, 97, Kunz/Curb-Agajanian-11.098; 2. Christopher Bell, 71, Kunz/Curb-Agajanian-11.195; 3. Austin Brown, 7, KBR-11.201; 4. Spencer Bayston, 39, Tucker/BCI/Curb-Agajanian-11.254; 5. Kevin Thomas, Jr., 9K, KBR-11.317; 6. Michael Pickens, 3F, RFMS-11.363; 7. Dereck King, 91, Harris-11.454; 8. Chris Windom, 3, RFMS-11.478; 9. Tracy Hines, 24, Parker-11.490; 10. Bryan Clauson, 63, RKR/Curb-Agajanian-11.493; 11. Tyler Thomas, 91T, Thomas-11.502; 12. Jake Blackhurst, 25, Blackhurst-11.514; 13. Parker Price-Miller, 9P, Ronk-11.520; 14. Zach Daum, 5D, Daum-11.539; 15. Tanner Thorson, 67, Kunz/Curb-Agajanian-11.606; 16. Danny Stratton, 56A, Hmiel-11.623; 17. Andrew Felker, 11A, Felker-11.706; 18. Nick Knepper, 55, Knepper-11.706; 19. Ryan Criswell, 11R, R&C-11.728; 20. Colten Cottle, 5c, Cottle-11.734; 21. Seth Motsinger, 2, KBR-11.737; 22. Garrett Aitken, 32, Aitken-11.790; 23. Justin Peck, 5x, Peck-11.820; 24. Terry Babb, 88, Babb-11.861; 25. Jacob Patton, 79J, Patton-11.884; 26. Chett Gehrke, 11c, Matteson-11.890; 27. Andy Malpocker, 22, Malpocker-11.923; 28. Daniel Robinson, 57, McCreery-11.936; 29. Tyler Robbins, 35, Robbins-11.949; 30. Jeff Flesher, 6c, Camfield-12.058; 31. Derrick Myers, 25M, Myers-12.060; 32. Tim Siner, 15, S&C-12.071; 33. Dalton Camfield, 10c, Camfield-12.085; 34. Jake Neuman, 3N, Neuman-12.087; 35. Daniel Adler, 50, Adler-12.159; 36. Darren Kingston, 94, Kingston-12.171; 37. Isaac Chapple, 52, Chapple-12.183; 38. Andy Baugh, 6B, Baugh-12.185; 39. Nathan Benson, 2B, Midwest-12.201; 40. Dave Camfield III, 16, Camfield-12.207; 41. Tom Seets, 28, Cairns-12.319; 42. Dave Camfield, Jr., 86c, Camfield-12.348; 43. Darren Hagen, 56, Hmiel-12.464; 44. Jay Mounce, 12J, Mounce-12.812; 45. Brian Rieck, 0, Murdock-12.814; 46. Danny Frye, 5, Frye-38.145; 47. Nathan Higgins, 0z, Murdock-NT.

FIRST HEAT: (10 laps) 1. Felker, 2. Abreu, 3. K. Thomas, 4. Hines, 5. Price-Miller, 6. Patton, 7. Robbins, 8. Motsinger, 9. Chapple, 10. Dalton Camfield, 11. Rieck, 12. Seets. NT

SECOND HEAT: (10 laps) 1. Knepper, 2. Daum, 3. Clauson, 4. Pickens, 5. Aitken, 6. Gehrke, 7. Flesher, 8. Baugh, 9. Camfield, Jr., 10. Neuman, 11. Frye, 12. Bell. NT

THIRD HEAT: (10 laps) 1. Thorson, 2. T. Thomas, 3. Brown, 4. King, 5. Hagen, 6. Myers, 7. Adler, 8. Criswell, 9. Malpocker, 10. Peck, 11. Benson, 12. Higgins. NT

FOURTH HEAT: (10 laps) 1. Babb, 2. Stratton, 3. Windom, 4. Robinson, 5. Cottle, 6. Bayston, 7. Siner, 8. Blackhurst, 9. Kingston, 10. Mounce, 11. Camfield III. NT

QUALIFYING RACE: (10 laps) 1. Adler, 2. Hagen, 3. Dalton Camfield, 4. Chapple, 5. Kingston, 6. Baugh, 7. Camfield, Jr., 8. Frye, 9. Benson, 10. Mounce, 11. Camfield III, 12. Neuman, 13. Rieck, 14. Higgins. NT

SEMI: (12 laps) 1. Bell, 2. Price-Miller, 3. Bayston, 4. Blackhurst, 5. Peck, 6. Cottle, 7. Aitken, 8. Hagen, 9. Malpocker, 10. Motsinger, 11. Myers, 12. Gehrke, 13. Flesher, 14. Patton, 15. Dalton Camfield, 16. Adler, 17. Siner, 18. Robbins, 19. Chapple. NT

FEATURE: (40 laps) 1. Christopher Bell, 2. Bryan Clauson, 3. Rico Abreu, 4. Tanner Thorson, 5. Daniel Robinson, 6. Andrew Felker, 7. Austin Brown, 8. Jake Blackhurst, 9. Justin Peck, 10. Tracy Hines, 11. Spencer Bayston, 12. Tyler Thomas, 13. Darren Hagen, 14. Danny Stratton, 15. Parker Price-Miller, 16. Zach Daum, 17. Terry Babb, 18. Nick Knepper, 19. Kevin Thomas, Jr., 20. Chris Windom, 21. Michael Pickens, 22. Colten Cottle, 23. Dereck King, 24. Seth Motsinger. NT
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FEATURE LAP LEADERS: Laps 1-4 Windom, Laps 5-11 Thomas, Laps 12-21 Bell, Lap 22 Thomas, Laps 23-40 Bell.

NEW HONDA NATIONAL MIDGET POINTS: 1-Abreu-206; 2-Bell-194; 3-Thorson-161; 4-Hines-152; 5-Clauson-143; 6-K.Thomas/Felker-125; 8-Daum-112; 9-T.Thomas-111; 10-Windom-108.

NEXT HONDA NATIONAL MIDGET RACE: June 11 – Gas City, Indiana – Gas City I-69 Speedway – “Indiana Midget Week”