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Indiana Sprintweek-ends; three basic shows highlight the weekend by Kirk Spridgeon |
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July 8, 2004....Skipping a Friday MASS for my third Friday
night at Bloomington, the red clay was strangely rough early in the
night as just 28 sprinters turned laps. The youngest of those was
Bryan Clauson, whose 15-year old frame steered to second while Chuck
Amati, the oldest competitor at 63, enjoyed a weekend with his
family while proving competitive in the B Main. Amati had grandson
Shane Wade with him, and Chuck impressed longtime competitor Kevin
Besecker with his zest for life and racing. “The One-armed
Bandit” got rained out Saturday at Putnamville while Bryan slid
from third to fourth on Lawrenceburg’s final lap.
Bloomington was made into a great race after an odd opening. The track was largely slick except for a juicy bottom, and a huge ledge developed up top to save those from sliding over the crimson banks. On the second lap, conscientiously clean Derek Scheffel tapped Jared Fox, who was second in line at the time. Spinning both, it triggered a four-car pileup that also involved Kevin Briscoe and Arizona visitor Alex Pruett. Over the final 24 laps, the fans received a show that saw Scheffel and Briscoe slice and dice their way through traffic with the aid of only one early caution. Briscoe dove to the bottom to get by Scheffel before an attempt to run down the leaders in the final two laps. Quickly catching the lead duo, Briscoe settled for third as Clauson resisted the temptation to climb banks on the last lap in a try for his second career win. Soft-spoken Jon Stanbrough took the win, but he tumbled during qualifying at Kokomo, erasing the possibility of anyone defeating him for a bounty of $500. His Truckers teammate Scheffel finished fourth, and also found the fence on Sunday as he had problems on the first lap. Pruett finished at the back after catching the craziness early in the race, and he also ran at Kokomo on Sunday. After being pushed into turn three on the first lap by Scheffel, he put his right rear into Darren Hagen, who snuck up on his right side. Hagen was the fourth and final concrete-meeter on the night. Pruett has Jimmy May as his crew. May, who used to drive himself and was a loyal worker for Cory Witherill’s sprint car effort, wrenches on the Ellis car that has sponsorship from AJ Felker Racing and For-Teens, an organization that will try to help kids who need assistance in staying out of trouble and reaching their goals. Steve Rone charged to the top ten from deep in the field, describing earlier in the night his three years of Indiana State University experience. With a 3.8 GPA, Rone is looking forward to his final year of school and continued improvement in the world of sprint cars. The lone flip at Bloomington was a high-flier as Darr Lawson went backwards over turn three and turned over in the process. Josh Cunningham joined him with a small tipover of his own. Kent Christian dropped from the Bloomington A, but he attacked the moist bottom groove at Kokomo for his first win on the season. Christian looks rejuvenated as he is gassing it harder than nearly everyone else in Indiana right now, and it’s his own chassis to boot! After seeing the Bedford Sprint Car Museum replaced by a Lowe’s in Bedford, we traced Route 50 nearly all the way to Ohio, ending very near the Ohio River and directly across from the Argosy Casino. 33 sprint cars came calling to Lawrenceburg along with a small field of ARCA trucks, trying for a second time to run dirt. With the trucks coming off their initial appearance on soil, they requested a barren surface that saw dust before any acceleration, and black streaks by the end of truck practice. Not only was the track horrible because of their presence, the trucks put on a “show” that can only be described as a glorified hot lap session that could hardly be distinguished from a parade as the cars gained minimal speed after idling under yellow, never even going sideways. All in all, the trucks are terrible! Although Lawrenceburg sprints don’t qualify, the surface was already gone by their heat races. Leaving some wetness on the bottom and a ribbon of support on the top of the banks, passing was still very possible. Kevin Briscoe took heat one from fourth and Dickie Gaines the second from fifth, but Eric Shively and Chris Naber stunk up the last two from the pole. Clauson and Tony Beaber each came from the back of their heat races to second place. Lawrenceburg displays the most unique group of sprint cars this side of Paragon. While they are all competitive on the highbanks, and often the ruts, of Lawrenceburg, most never race outside of Dearborn County, Indiana. Brad Stevens took second in heat two and told of Al Consoli pictures lining his basement wall. MoleTrapper.com was painted onto the side of his very vibrant #97. Derek Franks was Rock Steady as a teammate to Eric Shively. Travis Gregg is a former USAC heat race winner here, toting two cars to the track this week. It became very apparent that Lawrenceburg can thank the United Midget Racing Association three-quarter midgets for the sprint group’s livelihood. No less than six TQ vets were in the pits at the ‘Burg, including Eric Zellner, who recently competed in the Rushville Nationals. Purchasing an Eagle from the Simons, who now own Maxims for B Main winner Matt Westfall, Zellner will frequent the same track throughout the season before branching out next season. Mike Miller, a former track champion and the current point leader, struggled in his heat race. He drew the front row, but Beaber, Gregg, Joss Moffatt, and Scott Martin all drove by the orange #82. He did move to the front for the B Main, and he salvaged a top-ten finish at the end of the night. For the feature, a girl named Kassidy, who helps the Briscoe team with her father while also associating with the Clausons, drew that elusive pill for “Risky Brisky” to start from the pole. While Bryan was betrayed, he began right behind his teacher and fellow Stealth supporter. They jumped to the top two spots while twisting around the bottom, lifting left fronts in the dust. Soon, however, a new horse galloped into the equation, with Eric Shively finding the top lane and driving right by Clauson. With the youngster now tucked in behind him, Shively sought the lead, but he was stopped by a caution flag just as he caught the white #5. Under the caution, Briscoe’s father pointed him to the top lane as it was laying heavy rubber. With a superior car and driver now in the superior lane, the race for first was nearly over. All hope was gone when a second caution flag flew just as Briscoe reached lapped traffic. Before the rubber restricted racing, Matt Westfall charged up to 7th. Troy Link was another hard charger, steering his un-downtubed racer from 11th to the top five at the end. Dickie Gaines embarked from eighth, but he made some slick moves early, and he took a podium finish when Clauson tried to hard to take second on the last lap, going over the bank in turn two. On Sunday, I got to visit one of my favorite institutions, the hallowed grounds of Kokomo. While the place still needs some work after new owners took it over earlier this year, they did spend time watering down the flat quarter. It turned into a minefield by the end of the night, however, with cars being upset at every turn. There were four distinct wrecks, but none was directly caused by the rough track. Jim Reser got over during a qualifying attempt that saw him driving harder than I’ve ever seen him go before. Twisting his car into turn three, he threw it upside-down mainly for being too soft in the right rear. Cutting the frame just in front of the motor, it will be some time before Reser gets back out onto the track, contrary to what the Kokomo announcer claimed. Jon Stanbrough broke an axle and flipped in hot laps, while Derek Scheffel drove into the third turn wall, possibly because of some failed brakes from the looks of it. Hagen was the other crash victim. Besides some strange lineups after Kokomo’s first try at qualifying this season, the rest of the night went off without much intrigue. I will say, however, that the stock car races were some of the best I’ve ever seen, with the top two in the feature splitting traffic before a last lap pass for the win. Kokomo is still in need of some improvements and more
fan-friendliness, but I did not find it to be the horrible place
that some made it out to be. I’ll certainly be back, but Sundays
are a hard trip to take. This weekend, I’ll attempt to make up for
missing MASS last week by attending Liberty Saturday at Union County
Speedway. They’ll double up with the UMRA TQ midgets. Kokomo is a
possibility again this week as they host MSCS, but it will all
depend on the lucrative world of umpiring little league baseball
tournaments in the farmlands of northwest Ohio. |
