December 1, 2018 | By Lee Spencer

Bell wins big at Gateway Dirt Nationals

Christopher Bell kept the winning streak going at the Gateway Dirt Nationals.

Bell held off Shane Golobic in a one-lap dash on Saturday night to win the inaugural midget event in the Dome at America’s Center. Rico Abreu, Zach Daum and Chris Windom completed the top five.

“It ended up pretty good,” Bell said. “It was stressful with all the yellow flags. I was able to get out to the lead early and run the bottom. It was pretty smooth early but the holes kept getting worse and worse and worse. I kept hopping through them in the right direction. I felt like I was going ok, but it kept getting rougher and rougher and the bottom kept getting slicker and slicker

“I could tell that guys were moving up behind me and I knew I was going to have to move up at some point, so I moved up once earlier and I didn’t feel like I was quite there yet—like it was ready to move up yet. Then the red flag came out and I just committed.”

The 30-lap race was slowed by nine cautions. Justin Grant, who started 20th, flipped in Turn 4 three laps in. On Lap 9, Tanner Thorson went around in Turn 4 and collected Brady Bacon. Sam Johnson, 16, spun to bring out the third caution.

Bell retained the lead, followed by polesitter Courtney, Logan Seavey, Golobic and Daum. Zeb Wise spun in Turn 4 for the fourth caution on Lap 19. Bell led, followed by Courtney, Seavey, Kyle Larson and Golobic.

Caution 5 fell two laps later when Grant went around again in Turn 2. With eight laps to go, Courtney flipped into the fence between Turns 3 and 4 to bring out Caution 6.

After an extended clean up, Bell restarted at the point followed by Seavey, Larson, Golobic and Windom. Abreu, CJ Leary, Tucker Klaasmeyer and Jerry Coons Jr., rounded out the top 10

Seavey spun two laps later while running second. Larson moved up to second with six laps remaining. As Bell and Larson battled for the lead once again, Blake Hahn spun between Turns 3 and 4. The rematch between Bell and Larson appeared to be on until Larson spun in Turn 4 with one lap remaining. The No. 01 was carried off on the hook.

“I was mad that we had another restart, but I was glad he wasn’t behind me that’s for sure,” Bell added. “You can’t just give—especially a guy like Kyle—you can’t give him restart after restart to make a move because at some point he’s going to make a move and it’s going to stick.

“I was just trying to change what I was doing every time. It was tough because the top was obviously where I wanted to be but you just can’t leave the top open in Turn 1 when you’re not up to speed. It was very tricky but hopefully, it worked out.”

Although Bell took the checkers, the race reverted to the last lap with Golobic in second followed by Abreu, Daum and Windom. Bell took the green flag and sailed off to his second midget win in nine days, following up his Thanksgiving victory on Turkey Night at Ventura (Calif.) Raceway.

Despite the challenges with the track, Bell believes the Gateway Dirt Nationals has potential to grow.

“You don’t get to race in front of that many people—so that was pretty cool,” Bell added. “Overall, it was a great event. Just some slight tweaks are going to help the event a ton.”