BEAN BECOMES USAC’S WINNINGEST FEMALE WITH WIN AT LAKE HAVASU
Lake Havasu, Arizona (March 20, 2021)………Jessica Bean (Farmland, Ind.) became the winningest female driver in USAC history Friday night with her victory in the Radical Focus Midget season opener at Arizona’s Havasu 95 Speedway.
Bean’s 20th career USAC win moved her past Toni Breidinger to set the all-time mark after she raced to the lead on lap 15 of the 50-lap feature event, taking over the top spot after both River Merrill (laps 1-4) and Kyle Cline (laps 5-14) held the point early on.
Bean, the four-time and defending USAC Eastern SpeeD2 Midget champion, set fast time to start the night, then led the final 36 laps to record the win, her third in her three most recent USAC feature starts dating back to end of 2020.
Merrill (Salt Lake City, Utah) took second with Nathan Byrd (Goodyear, Ariz.) third, Austin Barnes (Surprise, Ariz.) fourth and Ashlyn Powell (Salt Lake City, Utah) rounding out the top-five.
The event was also a non-points special event for the USAC Eastern SpeeD2 Midgets.
USAC RADICAL FOCUS / EASTERN SPEED2 SPECIAL EVENT MIDGET RACE RESULTS: March 19, 2021 – Havasu 95 Speedway – Lake Havasu, Arizona
QUALIFYING: 1. Jessica Bean, 5, Radical-14.601; 2. Kyle Cline, 99, Creevan-14.777; 3. Nathan Byrd, 89, Creevan-14.878; 4. Devin Westover, 13G, Groat-15.138; 5. Mike Anderson, 68, Anderson-15.282; 6. River Merrill, 9m, Merrill-15.295; 7. Ashlyn Powell, 25, Powell-15.305; 8. Austin Barnes, 88, Creevan-15.454; 9. Cheyenne Merrill, 31m, Merrill-15.517.
FEATURE: (50 laps) 1. Jessica Bean, 2. River Merrill, 3. Nathan Byrd, 4. Austin Barnes, 5. Ashlyn Powell, 6. Devin Westover, 7. Mike Anderson, 8. Cheyenne Merrill, 9. Kyle Cline.
FEATURE LAP LEADERS: Laps 1-4 River Merrill, Laps 5-14 Kyle Cline, Laps 15-50 Jessica Bean.
USAC RADICAL FOCUS SPEED2 MIDGET POINTS: 1-Jessica Bean-76, 2-River Merrill-68, 3-Nathan Byrd-68, 4-Austin Barnes-61, 5-Ashlyn Powell-58, 6-Devin Westover-58, 7-Mike Anderson-54, 8-Kyle Cline-51, 9-Cheyenne Merrill-49.
NEXT USAC RADICAL FOCUS / EASTERN SPEED2 SPECIAL EVENT MIDGET RACE: March 20, 2021 – Havasu 95 Speedway – Lake Havasu, Arizona