NEWTON, N.C. – Jessica Bean completed a weekend sweep with the USAC Speed2 Eastern Midget Ass’n on Saturday and continued her rise in the record books in the process.
Bean charged to the inside of Radical Race Gear teammate and race-long leader Dameron Taylor on lap 17 of 35 at Hickory Motor Speedway, powering through off turn four to assume command and never looking back after that.
The Farmland, Ind., native led the remaining 19 circuits for her second-consecutive victory and the 10th of her USAC career, joining Toni Breidinger (14) as one of only two female drivers with double digit victories in United States Auto Club history.
“To reach this point means a lot,” said Bean. “I’m working on the goal of being USAC’s winningest female driver, and two wins this weekend certainly helps toward reaching that goal. We’ve still got a few more to get
“Kudos to this team, because we’ve had a great weekend,” Bean added. “I finally got my first pole (fast time) and now we’ve got the win as well. I’m tired; that was a tough race.”
While she may have made things look easy once she got into clean track, Bean said that her battle was Taylor for the top spot was fierce once she fought through traffic from sixth on the grid.
“I’ve raced with Dameron for years and he’s always been a tough one to try and pass,” said Bean. “He’s a fighter and I knew it’d be tough … especially knowing he had a really good race car. He didn’t make it easy, but I just kept working the bottom until we finally got through and then we finally pulled away.”
Sam Hatfield charged back through the field to finish second after spinning in turn one with 13 laps complete.
The incident came just after Hatfield had passed Taylor for the lead, with the duo making contact entering the first corner that sent Hatfield spinning to the top of the race track.
Though he came all the way back to the runner-up position, Hatfield said after the race he believed he had a car of taking home the win had it not been for the incident on lap 13.
“Dameron told me he just over-judged his cornering speed down there and we made contact,” said Hatfield. “It’s racing and mistakes happen, but it’s really unfortunate because I honestly feel like we had the fastest race car in the field tonight. I don’t think she (Bean) would have run us down if I’d been able to get into clean track, but it just wasn’t meant to be tonight.
“I was hoping for a yellow in the last few laps to close up the gap and hopefully make a race out of it, but we just couldn’t get the break we needed. I would have loved to race her for it though, that’s for sure.”
Taylor completed the podium and was apologetic after climbing from his machine.
“I knew he (Hatfield) was there; he got under me a few times and I was hoping to battle with him, but we got together. I did not mean to take him out at all,” stressed Taylor. “As soon as it happened, I felt horrible. I thought I was going to be sent to the tail for it, honestly.
“There’s a lump in the track down there in turn one and he got off at the exact same time I hadn’t got off yet. All the timing was wrong … just a racing accident. After talking with him, I think we’re good and we’ll go on from here.”
Anthony McCune crossed fourth, but was disqualified from his finish after the race. That elevated Nolan Allison to a fourth-place finish, with Jordan Empie completing the top five.
The finish:
Jessica Bean, Sam Hatfield, Dameron Taylor, Nolan Allison, Jordan Empie, Neal Allison.
