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Traditional Sprint Car FanSite |
See You At The Races!!! |
| A Return to
Normalcy by Kirk Spridgeon |
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June 23, 2004....This week featured my schedule simplified
with a short trip to Gas City on Friday. This would be my fourth
trip to the quarter-mile this year, but I hadn’t been there since
a KISS performance in early May. Only 30 cars graced the pits, but I
was glad to see a “regular” regular show for once.
Pulling that elusive double, Shane Cottle picked up his third sprint car win, all coming in three weeks, to go along with a modified score on the undercard. He qualified 4th, charged to a heat race win, and held a solid advantage for much of the 25-lapper. AJ Anderson and Corey Smith stayed close, and Daron Clayton was quite entertaining at the front of the pack as well. Michael Burthay was a prime mover throughout the race. When Burthay slipped into second on the bottom, it appeared as though the bottom-dwelling giant would steal another one. No matter if you are a fan of Michael Burthay or not, you have to respect his prowess at I-69. Under any track conditions, the blue 21B is always fast. He closed in on Cottle and passed him on lap 23. Unfortunately, a caution stopped him in his tracks. After seeing Burthay’s line on the bottom, Cottle protected the tires and took a few hits to the tailtank in the last three laps as Burthay got a run off turn two just as Cottle nearly came to a stop. Burthay credited Cottle with a smart race, noting that he would have done the same thing had he been put in Cottle’s position. The crowd had an overshadowing character to watch in the closing laps, though, in Daron Clayton, a likable kid with a tall, but lanky frame. He talks slow and smiles frequently between trips to gas up his yellow DRC chassis. He persevered on a cushion that had been riddled with right rears throughout the night, leaving it with little moisture and little hope of winning the race. Nevertheless, Clayton found himself in perfect position to take the win, pulling to the outside of the lead duo at the white flag. With a great run on the leader, Clayton barreled into turn one, leaving the correct side of the banking but tossing dust to get back onto the track. When the checkered flew, Cottle claimed a small decision over Burthay. Clayton recovered for fifth and received a record amount of congratulations from Gas City stars such as Brian Cripe and Coby Smith. He’ll head for New Mexico to battle NCRA fields in the dust, hopefully returning to Indiana for a weekend of preparation for Indiana Sprintweek. Corey Smith regained some pride after a poor showing at the Jack Hewitt Classic in Attica. He appeared to be peeved as he threw the car around early in the night, setting quick time with the elbows up in the air. Consistently up front in the featch, he ended up a satisfying third. His brother, Dustin, suffered severe engine woes at Attica, leaving him rideless tonight. Using his provisional from the 2003 season, Dustin climbed into the Parsons 35, which just missed the feature under the guidance of driver Jerad. Dustin slammed into a spinner, breaking the front end. Parsons was fresh off his first half-mile experience at the Wabash Valley’s famous oval in Terre Haute. Ending his night on the hook, Scotty Weir had his weekend conclude in a shambles. Showing his frustration afterward, Weir had to be reminded of his crowd-pleasing presentation at Terre Haute. After reaching the top five, Weir took a nasty ride after contact with the new Vigo County concrete. He was also running near the front at Gas City, but he spun and was up-ended by hard charging Kris Deckard. What most people don’t realize is that Scotty Weir has just a year and a half of sprint car experience, obviously possessing the talent it takes to be a winner in sprint cars. Here’s hoping the #22 Maxim can get back on track, and that he can find his way to that elusive winner’s circle soon. Speaking of Deckard, the thwarting of his move to the front has been standard lately, owning one of the fastest cars in the Gas City pit area week after week. Another driver improving weekly, Deckard is making shows and getting laps, which will only lead him closer to those un-altered finishes at the front. A quick-learning rookie, Marc Arnold made the feature by racing to third in the B Main, past Steve Barth and, later, Josh Spencer. He has sponsorship from two Kokomo eating institutions, Sonic and Damon’s. Damon’s had Marc hand out coupons for free food, offering more sponsorship if they would be used. Shane Hollingsworth had to work hard for a top ten after he qualified horribly in the Hajduk car. Saturday at the ‘Burg, Shane scored again as he vanquished veteran Troy Link. It is refreshing to see a good young driver who can win at a variety of tracks. Brandon Petty followed Hollingsworth’s trip, taking a promoter’s option after a grumbling Gas City engine, which was put in after a detonation of another at Terre Haute. Petty protected points at Lawrenceburg by finishing last in the feature. After a night of slight slumber and much sprint car racing on the PlayStation2 at the Darland household, I took off for my true destination on the weekend, Paragon Speedway. An intriguing operation to witness, I wanted to see the foreign cars of the forgotten Saturday track along with a stout set of KISS racers. Among those missing from the field was Kurt Gross, who camped at the Briscoe trailer all night, content to side with a winner. Experimenting with multiple business ventures, Gross is trying to build a surplus of cash before blowing it on his baby, which will be a ‘97 J&J. Hoping to get the unused ‘02 out, Gross has decided that he would rather be racing than giving excuses as to why he’s not racing! Vowing to be out next week, here’s to a hard-working racer/owner/mechanic who gasses his red 48. 51 cars planned to compete, but Jason Holt bowed out after a freak incident in preparation for hot laps. Fifteen-year old Kyle Nicholas, a Florida transplant, could not fire when he pushed on the track for hot laps. Stopped dead in the middle of a greasy turn three, Holt’s push truck accelerated on, moving him toward a truck bumper with no ability to move on the mud. He slid underneath the starter, ripping up his front end and damaging the truck in the process. Turning the field from 51 to 50, six posted heats were changed to five, which, in turn, put five groups of sprinters to the back of heats when they had originally been starting on the front. Throwing some controversy into the mix, some racers were pissed at their poor luck while others were pleased with the “improvements.” Among those mired in the back was Jon Stanbrough, who picked his way through track regulars to fourth place in heat two before setting sail for the top three and a transfer spot. Coming up just a few car lengths short, it was the indication of an odd night that would feature bottled-up contenders, front-running pretenders, and some gallant gains from the back. Mat Neely returned from Richmond with “Otter,” who made up his crew in Virginia. Getting some help from pavement guru Jack French, Neely learned a lot after a long blacktop race, averaging upwards of 130 on the three-quarter mile track. Neely swapped his stuff for a dirt race, scrambling to be ready for hot laps and his precious draw of number one. He started on the pole of heat one, sliding Dusty Wright into turn two and surviving some contact for the lead. He held a healthy lead on future feature winner Briscoe, and Eric Shively finally got past Wright to take the final transfer. Huntley had a few tough moves to make, but he got to fourth, setting himself up for the pole of the B Main in Danny Roberts black Twister. Ride-searching Jonathan Vennard was making a trip to greet Wayne Simmons with a request for another tornadic car for the Roberts stable. On a rail in heat two, AJ Anderson pulled out to a huge lead and victory. After problems in the Buckeye state, car owner extraordinaire Paul Hazen prepared an engine after some upgrades, pulling more horsepower now than any time previous according to the wily wrench-turner. Rick Waltman kept his orange #11W DRC chassis on the cushion to stay in second. Derek Scheffel continued the trend of finishing where one started as he crossed third, not able to gain an advantage for second. As mentioned before, Stanbrough was fourth while local Amanda Huntington surprised with a pass of “Taterhead” Glenn Scott, who presented four cars in the pits, for fourth. Another Paragon regular, Jeff Miller, got out front and dominated heat three. With a home-built engine under the hood, both Jeff and Jerry, Jr. have been fast whenever they have raced. Unfortunately, Jeff hooked a big tractor tire and collapsed his front end, closing a promising night which found him on the front row of the feature and in the top five halfway through. Heat three contained what was likely the best racing of the five, all of which came behind Miller. Kyle Cummins twisted his non-downtube Cummins car into second by putting it anywhere he wanted and lifting the left front to freedom from the slower cars. Although he couldn’t get by Miller, he held o ff Deckard in his 2K4 Stealth. Also, Mitch Wissmiller utilized the bottom to obtain a promising commencement in the B Main, and Clayton climbed very high on the track, including off the actual racing surface on the back straightaway, to get up to 5th. Bill Babcock’s new yellow Competition Welding was fairly fast, but he gradually dropped in the demanding group. Former track champion Scott Townsend was another victim of the changed lineups, and he exited the heat in his sharp #42. Justin Marvel, John Wolfe, and Bryan Clauson started and finished one-two-three. Clauson was in second and challenging for the lead before the bottom went away a little and Wolfe blasted by. After Mike Mossi spun in turn two, both Darren Hagen and Terry Pletch appeared to have enough to get by someone to transfer, but neither could get the job done. Proving that it is worth working hard to transfer through the heats, neither made the show through the B Main. Jon Sciscoe went nowhere in this heat and would have to race through the C. He busted his way around the top before making a slick move on the bottom of turn two to get under Jake Scott on the final lap for the last transfer spot, just beating out the “Tater” tot. Racing a red and white 1, Randy Johnson was a surprising transfer from the C after finishing in front of Sciscoe in the heat. He clarified the simplicity of Paragon sprints as he featured no flashy equipment, nor some regular safety accessories. His performance left me wanting to see what a large group of drivers do there every week. Scott Martin fell from the pole in his simple, but eye-catching red #25 in heat five. Hud Cone took advantage and pulled away from Kent Christian in an experimental Dynamite race car that somehow resembled a Twister. Cone’s car shows the same sponsors as last year, but he is now the car owner after long-time sprint supporter Doug Dougherty exited the ownership obligation after last season. Kent Christian backed his self-built chassis into the moist bottom groove, closing on the lead but eventually settling for second. Matt Westfall carved up the traffic for the final transfer spot, and Michael Burthay overcame a horrible halfway spot to salvage fourth. He got by slick track specialist Joe Roush, Martin, and Jay Scott before the end. Jason Trader caved his rear end early, packing it up and choosing not to run the C. Winning the C in fine fashion was Josh Cunningham, and he came up just short of a transfer to the A Main in the B after a late-race restart. Scott Townsend raced from the tail to 7th, but he could have used a few more laps to pass his way into the B as well. In the B, Stanbrough led a fine line of Huntley, Burthay, and Wissmiller at the end. Burthay worked under Mitch in turn four for that spot. Roush found fifth after a torrid battle with Pletch, Wright, Clayton, and Glenn Scott ended in a turn two spin. Doug Heck was also a hard-charger, finishing behind Cunningham in 7th. Although Briscoe won in the A over front-row starter Marvel, it was a great race underneath the obvious. Marvel had a huge lead for most of the race, but Briscoe chopped it down in just a few laps after finding the sticky upper line that was covered with rubber. Behind the top two, Bryan Clauson backed up his first win on the very same track a week ago with a spirited run from 14th to 3rd. Hud Cone found the rubber as well and improved his position after sliding back, fighting a tight race car on the bottom. It was fun to watch the guys who stuck with a deteriorating top line be rewarded, as Kevin Huntley and Jon Stanbrough were the hardest chargers on the night. Both got most of their spots early, as did Clauson, but they made some big passes late in the race to take 6th and 7th, respectively. Matt Westfall continued to make progress on their black Big Max, coming as far as 6th before being passed by the previously-mentioned passers Huntley and Stanbrough. He wound up 8th, good enough to grab 300 bones for a top-five KISS points finish. I have to say that I was pleasantly surprised with what I saw at Paragon Speedway. Things were clean, run off in a reasonable amount of time, and the racing was good. The only things I could point out as negatives to my night were a track that went away quickly, nacho cheese on my cheeseburger, and the two hot lap sessions that left cars with no way to get on the gas. Of course, it was fun to watch and take a picture of a superior selection of cars racing close together, throwing roostertails over the sizable cushion in turns one and two. For those going in the future, spring for a pit pass and find a buddy with a trailer on which to stand. You can't see the front straightaway well from the main grandstands, but you can see everything clearly from the pits on the back straightaway. Sure to thank Mat Neely and company for a great seat in the feature, I sat on his hauler with a great view overlooking turns three and four. I was definitely pleased with my first trip to the southern Indiana oval in almost ten years, and I'd really like to visit again for a regular show, seeing the obscurity that makes it such an attraction to me. The fireworks weekend affords no opportunities for
sanctioned racing, but it will be a great time for more local shows,
likely Bloomington, Lawrenceburg, and Kokomo. Further Sprintweek
readying will come the next weekend with possibilities of two USAC
pavement sprint shows, an MSCS assemblage at Boswell, and a MASS/TQ
doubleheader at Liberty. I’m willing to weather the rain if it
stays away for seven USAC sprint shows in just a few weeks! |
