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LAWRENCEBURG, IN-RIS- Night two of Indiana Sprint
Week was the night that
proved the old line about 'all good things', at least for Jon
Stanbrough. Of course others thought it was high time for a change
and their champion was Dave Darland who took the second night
feature victory at Lawrenceburg Speedway. It ended Stanbrough's ISW
winning streak at three.
Darland, Short & Levi Jones at Lawrenceburg.
Forty six cars took out to qualify
for night two and Dave Darland was the surprise winner of the fast
time honors with a 12.508 second lap. Stanbrough had an unusually
lack luster effort at 13.140 seconds which looks in hindsight to be
the start of his problems. In his heat Stanbrough looked as tough as
ever when he took the lead from Brandon Petty at the
start on two successive occasions and then went on to win easily.
The key problem was that he was still starting the feature in 18th
position.
At the start of the feature Scotty Weir took the lead but before a
lap was finished Stanbrough was looking at the world in an odd way
because he had flipped in the third turn. Jon declined to try and
place blame for the accident saying that it was just normal racing
and part of the price had to pay for his poor qualifying. His car
suffered little damage and was able to restart at the back of the 25
car field but he was never able to get further up in the order than
mid-pack.
Up at the front of the field Levi Jones fought Weir for the lead for
the first few laps until Ricky Stenhouse and Daron Clayton got
'hooked' together in the third turn, went over the banking and were
passed by most of the field before they got free. Stenhouse kept
rolling while Clayton stopped just short of turn one and brought out
the caution. After he was
restarted Clayton showed his extreme displeasure by giving the back
of Stenhouse's car a couple of well measured taps which should
certainly have gotten Ricky's attention.
At this point we will note Dave Darland's progress from his sixth
place starting position. Dave went to fourth almost at once and then
held his place while Brady Short fought his way past Levi Jones for
second and continued on the start work on Weir and the lead
position. On the fourth lap he took the lead which he would hold
until mid-race when Darland took over. During this part of the event
a long period of green conditions
prevailed and this resulted in some interesting situations when the
leaders started to lap traffic on about lap 20. Weaving past the
back markers was Darland's biggest challenge of the night and what
was occupying him the most during the closing laps.
About his victory Dave was his usual humble self as he ascribed it
to the Pace Brother's racing team and the car they gave him and to
the luck of having the right conditions all come together. When
asked about any disappointment's in not having to fight Stanbrough
for position during the race he replied "It's a win and that's
all I was after. There's 21 other
drivers who were out there and I don't try and single out anyone in
particular."
As noted earlier Stanbrough had run away with his heat. The other
heat winners were Shane Cottle, Matt Westfall and Dustin Morgan. The
heat racing was especially good at Lawrenceburg this night as the
track was very wide and passing was common. One of the heat winners,
Morgan actually transfered from the consy and started the heat in
ninth. Dustin was still suffering from his flip the night before
where he had suffered a painful
wound to his right knee. Jerry Coons Jr. won the 14 car consy race.
Darren Hagen won the B feature.
Sprint Week pulls out of Lawrenceburg and heads north for a two
night stand at the great Gas City I-69 Speedway on Friday July 13
and Saturday July 14. It might be interesting to see who has the
'luck' on Friday the 13th! Darland now leads the ISW points with 134
compared to 107 for Stanbrough and 103 for Levi Jones.
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