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Saturday, 25 May 2019

CLING HOLDS FIRM GRIP IN BLOOMINGTON MIDGET VICTORY

Winner Sterling Cling (Tempe, Ariz.) Winner Sterling Cling (Tempe, Ariz.) Neil Cavanah Photo

CLING HOLDS FIRM GRIP IN BLOOMINGTON MIDGET VICTORY

Bloomington, Indiana (May 24, 2019)………Sterling Cling raced to his first career midget win in Friday night’s Josh Burton Memorial USAC Midget Midwest Special Event at Bloomington (Ind.) Speedway.

Cling (Tempe, Ariz.), a veteran of off-road and sprint car racing in the Southwest, took over the lead just before the halfway point from Kendall Ruble (Vincennes, Ind.) who led the first nine laps.  From there, Cling led the final 11 laps for the victory aboard the Petry Motorsports No. 35.

Five different states were represented in the top-five with Ruble finishing 2nd behind Cling while Chett Gehrke (Broken Arrow, Okla.), Aaron Leffel (Springfield, Ohio) and Patrick Ryan (Springfield, Ill.) rounded out the top-five.

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USAC MIDGET MIDWEST SPECIAL EVENT RACE RESULTS: – May 24, 2019 – Bloomington, Indiana – Bloomington Speedway – Josh Burton Memorial

FIRST HEAT: (10 laps) 1. Kendall Ruble (#11m Martin), 2. Chase McDermand (#40 McDermand), 3. Patrick Ryan (#23 Ryan), 4. Cory Guingrich (#62 Guingrich), 5. Nick Spiedel (#21 Spiedel), 6. Cory Trammell (#34T Trammell), 7. Alex Watson (#3 Watson), 8. Jon Watson (#25 Watson), 9. Cindy Chambers (#18c Chambers), 10. Kenneth Key (#5T Key), 11. Brent Watson (#17 Watson). NT

SECOND HEAT: (10 laps) 1. Sterling Cling (#35 Petry), 2. Stratton Briggs (#71 Briggs), 3. Aaron Leffel (#11L Taylor), 4. Brent Fordyce (#4 Fordyce), 5. Jacob Denney (#11T Taylor), 6. Tyler Kalb (#32T Kalb), 7. Tim Key (#6K Key), 8. Michael Koontz (#17K Koontz), 9. Ian Creager (#36 Creager). NT

THIRD HEAT: (10 laps) 1. Emerson Axsom (#25A Petry), 2. Cody Beard (#7 Beard), 3. Mark Nieft, Jr. (#20N Nieft), 4. Kyle Kriegbaum (#12 Kriegbaum), 5. Zane Briggs (#10B Briggs), 6. Chris Baue (#9 Baue), 7. Bryce Dues (#23D Dues), 8. Tim Light (#14L Reynolds), 9. Gunnar Lucius (#22L Lucius). NT

ALSO AT THE TRACK: Kevin Blue (#DW7 Blue)

FEATURE: (20 laps) 1. Sterling Cling, 2. Kendall Ruble, 3. Chett Gehrke (#10 Moore), 4. Aaron Leffel, 5. Patrick Ryan, 6. Jacob Denney, 7. Cody Trammell, 8. Cory Guingrich, 9. Ian Creager, 10. Jack Routson (#14 Routson), 11. Jon Watson, 12. Zane Briggs, 13. Brent Fordyce, 14. Kyle Kriegbaum, 15. Tyler Kalb, 16. Stratton Briggs, 17. Michael Koontz, 18. Brent Watson, 19. Mark Nieft, Jr., 20. Kenneth Key, 21. Cindy Chambers, 22. Tim Key, 23. Chase McDermand, 24. Nick Spiedel, 25. Alex Watson, 26. Emerson Axsom, 27. Cody Beard. NT

**Bryce Dues flipped during the third heat.

FEATURE LAP LEADERS: Laps 1-9 Kendall Ruble, Laps 10-20 Sterling Cling.