|
Traditional Sprint Car FanSite |
See You At The Races!!! |
| What Spridge Sees by Kirk Spridgeon |
|
|
|
May 5, 2004....With three races in the books in Valvoline's
USAC National Sprint Car Series, Jay Drake and Levi Jones have
distanced themselves somewhat from the rest of the field. Jay has
done it on the strength of back-to-back wins to start the year,
along with a fourth-place finish at Gas City. Levi has had three
top-five finishes of his own, with a runner-up his best at Beaver
Dam. Jay has replaced JJ Yeley in the Tony Stewart
Motorsports #20, but they've switched to Kunz chassis on dirt
instead of JJ's patented Twister. Levi has teamed with veteran car
owner Bill Biddle, who struggled last year until placing Mike
Spencer in the car during Sprintweek. Biddle has gone to Twisters
this year for Levi, and that has seemed to be the difference for
them. Mike will again run for Biddle this season, possibly starting
at Terre Haute on May 22nd. Levi debuted a four-bar Twister on
Friday night at Gas City, qualifying seventh and following former
teammate Tony Elliott to a transfer spot in heat three. He finished
5th in the feature after battling the whole race with a large pack
of cars including Shane Hollingsworth, Jay Drake, Josh Wise, Dave
Darland, and Cory Kruseman. Also with a good start to the season has been
Tony Elliott, who is once again racing for Jeff Walker. Tony
switched to Twister chassis late last season before getting hot
again and winning the Western World at Manzanita. Tony will have
Twisters under him again this year, and they have brought him back
to his old form. He ran third for most of the race at Beaver Dam,
struggling to pass Jones on a rubbered surface. Elliott tried every
line possible on Levi, but he couldn't pass the white and red #62.
Elliott, who was in the top ten at Gas City before stopping on the
last lap, ran for Marv and Jerry Carman at Anderson in the orange
and blue #61 out of Michigan. He was very competitive there,
finishing 2nd in his heat and moving up to tenth in the feature.
Look for more shows from this combination, especially if Elliott
continues to run well in their car. The next USAC pavement show is
also at Anderson, giving Elliott a good chance to be within striking
distance in the points race heading toward Indiana Sprintweek. Dave Darland has teamed with Boston Reid's dad,
Lynn, for this season. They also have a Twister for the dirt portion
of the program. He has been consistent this season, finishing all
three feature events, but coming across no higher than seventh. Lynn
has had many drivers in his cars over the past few seasons,
including Blake Feese, who is now running ARCA stock cars. Casey
Shuman raced Lynn's back-up Stealth last season at Terre Haute and
Charlotte, while Lynn's Twister was wheeled by veteran midget and
champ car star Russ Gamester, who opened eyes at the Mopar Million
in September. Speaking of Boston Reid, he is back again with
Scott Benic in the Lucas Oil #2B. They have upgraded to a much
larger, doubledecker hauler while contuing to campaign Benic's Big
Max along with a Beast on pavement. Boston has started slow with two
top tens before floundering at Gas City to a disappointing 17th
place finish. Picked by many to be a contender for the championship,
Boston is looking for a strong finish in Memphis, which is where his
USAC Silver Crown car is stationed. He is running for RE
Technologies, who fielded cars for Tyler Walker and Jerry Coons, Jr.
in the past few seasons. Reid sits right behind Brian Tyler in points
for the season. Brian continues in his second season with Don Kruse,
but they have a new look. Brian now has a Twister dirt car painted
white and red, while he is a teammate to Eric Gordon on the pavement
in a black car. The former series champion has been fast to start
the season, but he struggled at Gas City, forced to take a
provisional to race his way to 16th at the checkered. His team also
fielded a second car at Beaver Dam for Indiana star Jon Stanbrough,
who was 9th at Gas City. Both cars were fast at the Wisconsin
speedplant, but Stanbrough suffered problems, relegating him to
20th. Tyler thrived on the tight surface, moving into the top 5. Jay Drake's teammate, former SCRA champion Cory
Kruseman, has started slow. He failed to finish on the tar of
Anderson before claiming a top 5 on both ends of Wisconsin's
doubleheader. After falling outside the top ten at Gas City, he'll
look to a tacky quarter mile in Memphis to climb back up the
standings. Shane Hollingsworth, one of the young guns in
Hoosier circles, put on quite a show at Gas City. After qualifying
sixth, he dropped back at the start only to fight his way
comfortably into third at the finish. Coupled with a decent run from
the back at Beaver Dam, he also sits in the top ten in USAC points.
He drove his own Maxim in Wisconsin along with a midget wrenched by
Rusty Kunz, and he hopped into Larry Hajduk's sprint car at Gas City
as a teammate to Don Droud, Jr., the winged sprint car veteran from
Nebraska. Droud missed the cut for the heat races. Hollingsworth
finished behind another local Indiana driver, Shane Cottle. Cottle
replaces AJ Anderson in Monte Edison's red #10. He started right
behind Hollingsworth in row two after qualifying fourth and
finishing 3rd in a photo finish with Drake and Stanbrough in his
heat race. After fighting off some early-race challengers, Shane
pulled away from the rest of the pack, trying to track down Tracy
Hines. He never had a caution and Tracy worked traffic to
perfection, leaving Cottle with no hope of catching him. It was a
promising run in Cottle's second time in this car. He is a veteran
of just about everything, excelling in both modifieds and midgets
around the Indiana tracks. He'll run a modified again when he can
along with the midget that he ran to four top-six finishes against
USAC last year. Providing as much excitement as any other team
in the series is the Keith Kunz stable of Joshes Ford and Wise.
Ford, running the black 73, is tucked just inside the top ten in
USAC points. He missed the opening feature race at Anderson, but has
looked very stable in both dirt starts. He will benefit from the
expertise of Kunz all season, as will Wise. Wise raised eyebrows
long before coming to the Midwest, but his performance in the midget
and sprint car at Beaver Dam kept those eyes open. He won the
opening night regular show at Bloomington Speedway before climbing
to 2nd in the midget race and the lead in the sprint car race at
Beaver Dam. Unfortunately, he became a little too aggressive, only
holding those positions for one corner before depositing both mounts
in the fence. All fans agreed, however, that he'll be very exciting
this season. Wise came home sixth after qualifying second at Gas
City. One has to wonder if a pavement car will come about if he
continues to run strong and climbs the USAC standings. Other full-time USAC competitors include John
Scott, who has made all three features in the Pace Electronics #83
with Bubby Jones on the team again. Mat Neely has made both dirt
shows, including a third quick time at Gas City. He is experimenting
with a Twister pavement car as his family is the owner of Twister
chassis based out of Indianapolis. They recently took some time off
from building chassis as they had enough in stock to fill any
incoming orders. Their business has gone down some this season
because of the influx of "copies" on the market that other
companies have made. The Competition Welding "Twist-Em" is
hot along with Tom Chalk's "RaceCar". Dickie Gaines was
picked up for the Hoffman Racing ride after his performances in
their car, including a podium finish at the Eldora Million. He's
running his own pavement car, a former Arctic Cat beast. He has
struggled at the first
two shows, which are tracks that obviously don't fit his driving
style. He has always struggled at Gas City, but he snuck his way
into the feature, finishing 15th. He'll be going to some tracks that
he has had more success with, including two tracks that he has
competed at in the Hoffman Racing entry: Terre Haute and Eldora. Tom
Hessert is no longer with Keith Kunz, but he is going for sprint car
Rookie of the Year in his own #5H. With only a handful of starts in
a sprint car, Tom is still getting experience, but he made the first
two shows of the year before missing the show at Gas City.
Unfortunately, he has failed to finish both features he's made.
Kevin Newton is a former NAMARS Midget Champion, and he has spent
the past few years running winged sprint cars on pavement with some
success. He has always been fast, but he had trouble putting it
together in the feature events of the Auto Value Super Sprints. He
is teaming with the Law Brothers sprinter that has had drivers such
as Jon Stanbrough, Rusty McClure, Jason Knoke, and Brian Gerster
over the past few seasons. They have a Beast for the pavement rounds
and got a Maxim for the dirt. He was an impressive 5th quick at
Beaver Dam and also made the heats in a tough Gas City field. He'll
be interesting to watch as the season goes on, being a great
qualifier teamed with a veteran team that has seen it's fair share
of success in Indiana. Also, Derek Crasi comes to the sprints this
year from the Ford Focus Series. He's driving for a team that
includes Tyce Carlson, but they are starting him out slow in an
older Competition Welding car. He has already shown improvement in
three dirt races, but he will need to improve a lot more to be able
to make the ultra-difficult USAC features for the season. Brian Lee, formerly known as Hayden, has
started off the year with two USAC features made. He worked his way
to eighth by the end at Gas City. Lee, who is a former track
champion in Indiana and was a contender in USAC, took a step back in
his career after a scary, fiery crash at Winchester that has been
shown on RealTV. Brian has slowly come back to his old form, and he
looks as good now as he ever has. He will be tough on the dirt this
year, especially during events such as Indiana Sprintweek. John
Wolfe, another Indiana warrior, is coming off a serious arm injury
late last season. He came back in a hurry, posting second quick time
in Gas City's first regular show, and he was quick time during the
USAC program last Friday. He ended his night 12th in the final
rundown, but he will be another crowd pleaser at the USAC dirt
events. Kevin Briscoe, who skipped the Gas City USAC show to win his
first of the year at Bloomington, will split time with Kevin Huntley
in the second Danny Roberts entry. They will be teammates to Bryan
Stanfill, who is fast out of the gate in a Twister chassis. He was
going for the lead at Bloomington before blowing up on their opening
night, then posted the sixth best time at Beaver Dam. He dropped in
the feature, and he retired after an early incident in the Gas City
B Main. The Wissmillers have had an up-and-down season
already. Kyle and Mitch, both from Saybrook, Illinois, attended
opening night at Bloomington. Mitch struggled while Kyle was a
rocket-ship in his Wayne Simmons(Twister)-built sprinter. While
racing up front, Kyle clipped a marker tire sending himself skyward.
His car was torn up enough to keep him from going to Beaver Dam,
where Mitch qualified tenth. After racing his way to fourth in the B
Main, Mitch was caught up in a late-race tangle, taking him from the
transfer. Mitch's car owner, Jim Mahan, was celebrating his wedding
anniversary and skipped Gas City's USAC show while Kyle was ready to
go again. After qualifying poorly, Kyle won his heat easily in the
white #2K. In the feature, Kyle dropped out early, possibly from a
problem they had been experiencing all night that was lingering from
the wreck at Bloomington. Kris Deckard is another young guy who has
experienced the view from all spectrums. Kris, in his predominantly
black #97 Stealth, showed some speed in Gas City's opener before
falling from competition in the B Main. He went to Beaver Dam and
was running in a transfer spot in his heat when a flipping car came
down the track right in front of him. In the B Main, he had once
again gotten into contention for a transfer spot when a tangle in
front of him left him with nowhere to go. He came back at Gas City
only to qualify 40th overall. He clawed his way out of the
Non-Qualifier's Race and stuck his nose in the battle for the
transfer spot in heat four. Then, in the B Main, he benefitted from
a tangle on the start and drove past a few cars, including Jon
Stanbrough, to take 5th. He struggled in the feature, but he has
certainly shown that he will be fast this season. The Roger and Barb Tapy car has seen a strange
beginning to the season. After agreeing over the winter to have USAC
driver Marc Jessup in the car for all dirt shows this season, they
split up before running a race. Derek Scheffel is now the driver,
seeing their first USAC main together at Gas City. The team also had
JJ Yeley in a car at Beaver Dam. Jessup, who is now without a dirt
ride, quickly moved into second at Anderson and reeled in the
leader, Drake. On his first attempt to get under Drake, Jessup
caught the apron and spun when he stabbed the throttle. It was a
terrible way to end his attempt at a first USAC win as he was the
fastest car on the track at the time, and he had a great opportunity
to get by Drake. He came back to score 11th, and he is now searching
for a dirt ride to race anywhere, anytime. Jessup's ride from the last year, the Rock
Steady #3R, is now the saddle of bullring cowboy Eric Shively.
Shively had a quiet year last year, but he is now hooked up with a
team that is a great fit for him. They grabbed Bloomington's regular
show on April 23rd ahead of Briscoe, Jared Fox(who has a Twister),
Bryan Clauson(the 14-year old who has a new Stealth and set quick
time), and Bill Rose, who drove the John Baker #34. Shively then
finished second at Lawrenceburg to Brandon Petty, who already has
two wins in his #30 DRC chassis. Brandon won opening night at Gas
City over 45 other cars. Behind Brandon was John Scott, who stole
second on the last lap from Ellliott(4th) and Michael Burthay.
Burthay is the reigning Gas City track champion, and the young man
with the huge frame(I would estimate that he's 6'6") fell just
short of his third straight opening night victory at I-69. Burthay
was ninth quick at the USAC race, but he came to a halt on the last
lap of his heat while leading. He has a handle on running the bottom
of the Gas City track, but he was unable to come back to run the B
Main. Staying on the theme of regular shows, Paragon
also got a show in on the 24th of April. Always getting a healthy
car count, the showing of 42 was actually lower than normal. Bobby
Stines, another young guy who's had some success there and
Bloomington, won a feature in his #88. Dusty Wright, who now was a
bright green Twister-appearing car #12, took one as well. With Gas
City, Lawrenceburg, and Paragon all seeing one regular show in the
books and Bloomington with three, it gives us a good indication of
what to expect for the season. Bloomington is averaging just over 30
cars a night so far, while Gas City saw 46, Paragon 42, and
Lawrenceburg 27. This week, Gas City has the King of Indiana Sprint
Series which offers $2500 to the winner. These shows feature no
qualifying. Bloomington is not running sprint cars against this
show, so Gas City should have a great car count. Lawrenceburg and
Putnamville both run Saturday, and Lawrenceburg also has a World of
Outlaws show on Thursday that will include a special 20-lap wingless
race for the top 20 in points. USAC is in Memphis for the Big M
Motorfest, with sprints on the quarter-mile Friday and Silver Crown
on the three-quarter pavement on Saturday. Also, Red Hill is running
one of their few races on Saturday. |
