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Traditional Sprint Car FanSite |
See You At The Races!!! |
| It’s the
most wonderful time of the year; Sprintweek arrives again by Kirk Spridgeon |
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July 19, 2004....Each year, all the races in April, May, and
June serve as a prelude to my favorite batch of racing of the
season, Indiana Sprintweek. This year, it includes seven races in
ten days, with three days of rest in the middle. With a Gas City
postponement due to relentless light rain, the second weekend will
now feature four races instead of three. With 63 cars in the pits,
Gas City decided to break out the “T” car and reschedule for
Wednesday night.
Fortunately, the fans were still excited after seeing a whale of a feature the night before at Twin Cities Raceway Park. Being their only sprint car race, I was one skeptical fan going into the night’s festivities. Promoter Terry Eaglin and the Collinses, who own the track, stepped up in a big way to produce a great racing surface and a wonderful night of racing. Sixty-five sprint cars filled the pits, and for this night, there were no other varieties of racing machines on the grounds. A healthy cushion developed during qualifying, but no one got upside down while taking time. The track did eventually slick off in the feature, but it still made for a great race with a multitude of lines from which to choose. Levi Jones blistered the track early in qualifying, barely letting the throttle breathe while posting the only time in the 13-second bracket. Dave Darland had a great lap as well, coming out 17th to get the second quickest lap. Josh Wise, Shane Cottle, Jay Drake, and Kyle Wissmiller also came out early to find the top six times. Heat races may be the best part of a USAC program, but non-qualifier’s races come first during this week. Unfortunately, a few visitors from far away participated in the two they ran on this night. Among them was Beau Binder(short “I”), a 360 hotshoe from El Paso, Texas. Visiting once before to help on the car of Jerry Coons, Jr. in 2002, Beau brought two Avenger chassis this year, which is where he works. He’ll be behind by running a 360 engine under the hood, but it’s all about coming to Indiana and racing with the best for this family operation. For anyone seeking a paid-for pit pass this week for their share of work on a sprint car, contact Beau. With limited help, he’s looking for somebody who can share some of the labor on his bright green number 25. Brandon Lane also toted his 360 to the Midwest, but he’s had a little more success. Starting badly at Vernon, where his engine wouldn’t run, Lane finally made the heat races on Sunday at Haubstadt after a strong run in the non-qualifier’s race. Rick Ziehl, from Las Cruces, New Mexico, also found himself mired in the hooligan on Thursday. He transferred through to the heats on Saturday and qualified a lot better on Sunday, although he didn’t make the feature. He’s running for Ben Lancaster out of Las Vegas, who brought cars out a couple years ago for Jordan Hermansader and Justin Marvel. Ziehl expressed interest in racing this week when he attended the Mopar Million last fall. The biggest news in the week before the racing began was
the split-up between Scott Benic and Boston Reid. With Benic wanting
to run two cars for Sprintweek, Boston disagreed, and they quickly
decided to exit their relationship. Levi Jones became an instant
favorite for Sprintweek, and Boston was looking for a ride. He’s
found one for the second weekend, driving Jason Goacher’s
newly-assembled Twister with his stout Wesmar engine under the hood.
Boston could still be a contender with Goacher’s expertise around
a sprint car. Goacher will also run this car in the month of money
with Dave Darland behind the wheel on the SCRA tour. Mat Neely pulled the front end through the first last chance race at Vernon, climbing to second. Scotty Weir and John Scott ran off and hid in the second. The first heat at Vernon quickly set the tone for the whole week. With Levi Jones and Cory Kruseman trying to work from the back, slicing and dicing was the name of the game as Tony Elliott won the race from the front row as Critter Malone and John Wolfe were shuffled to the back. After that, the most impressive run in the heat races was turned in by Bud Kaeding. He came from the rear of heat three to blow by Jon Stanbrough and Josh Ford for second. In the fourth heat, Marc Jessup won from the pole after Eric Shively scratched, but the big news in this one came when Derek Scheffel climbed over Shane Cottle and took a ride, ending his driving days for at least six weeks, as reported, with shoulder and rib injuries. John Scott then stormed around the top to take a transfer spot from his scratch starting position after coming through the non-qualifier’s race. Back to Shively, he had problems with a borrowed engine
after sending in a Foxco for refreshening. The Foxco was not ready
in time, and they weren’t in attendance at Gas City when the new
engine wouldn’t run. He did take the feature at Lawrenceburg, and
grabbed the last transfer spot in the B Main at Haubstadt. He’ll
be rock steady and ready to go for this week’s Sprintweek shows. After Dave Darland rode the curb on the high side for the B
Main, twenty-three cars would line up for thirty laps. Early on, Jay
Drake had the lead from outside the front row, but Josh Wise quickly
caught and passed him on lap 5. After leading seventeen laps, Wise
lost the lead again to Jay Drake. At this point in the race, JJ
Yeley was beginning to move. Halfway through the race, Yeley was
barely into the top ten. As the race moved toward conclusion, he
visibly cut into the advantages of those in front of him. He had a
torrid battle with Shane Cottle for fourth before disposing of Levi
Jones and Josh Wise very quickly. He closed on Jay Drake in a hurry, using his patented line
of running the cushion into turn three before stopping at the apex
and running straight down the banking into turn one. On the last
lap, Drake followed Ted Hines, a lapped car, on the bottom of the
track. Yeley flew by his former ride on the high side and pumped his
fist as he crossed the finish line. With a celebratory donut, Yeley
showed how much he really wants to win these USAC races. Charles Davis, Jr. was the biggest mover early in the race
as he was up to tenth from 21st when he spun in turn two.
When collected by Kris Deckard and Tom Hessert, his night was done.
Davis would race the opening weekend without teammate Rickie Gaunt,
but Damion Gardner would be an ample substitute on Saturday. Gaunt
will be in for the second weekend. Deckard’s brand new Stealth
with beautiful light blue and silver paint was sidelined with some
minor damage. Fortunately, he has his Stealth from earlier in the
season that has seen some success. One of the biggest turnarounds on the night was Danny Williams, Jr. After having some problems negotiating the access road to Twin Cities Raceway Park, Williams showed some damage on his trailer. He barely made the invert in the heats before hanging onto third for the transfer. After going to the tail early in the feature, he recovered to take 12th at the checkered. He was even better at Putnamville, taking tenth. Ted Hines slipped his eye-catching red, yellow, and white
Twister into the A Main by taking the final transfer from the B
Main. He raced three-wide to the checkered with Kevin Huntley and
Matt Westfall. Huntley would go to Eldora for the King’s Royal
while leaving his Danny Roberts Twister for Westfall. Westfall’s
car owner, Steve Simon, decided to take a break from the USAC scene
due to some monetary concerns. Westfall had his own Maxim at Gas
City and Haubstadt, while his one night in Roberts’ car produced a
great qualifying run after mag problems in hot laps. He spun in the
B Main and couldn’t come back to a transfer spot. The steady
Roberts driver on the week is Davey Ray, who has been a gasser but
hasn’t had the luck yet to see his first feature. Fifty-eight cars came calling at Putnamville, and they got
to see a track that Putnamville should always have. Rough in the
early going, the track smoothed out as the night went on before
going slick in the feature with a huge ledge on top. If anyone
wanted to know what Putnamville is all about in just one night,
Saturday was it. While others may complain about the inability to
take in alcohol or where they are forced to park campers, I thought
the night went off really well. Before any racing took place, however, I had a disagreement
with Dave Allison, who runs the show at Lincoln Park. Leaving the
front gate open to put blankets down is not an occurrence you’ll
see at Putnamville, but it’s something they should look into for a
future USAC race. Waiting to open the gates at these shows only
leads to people fighting each other for seating(case in point:
Limaland). It would only make sense to let those early arrivals get
their seating in line early before the crowd converges on the front
gate. That being said, the racing was pretty good once again this
year. Although the announcer could have been better, I was happy at
the end of the night after seeing a great full program. Watching
Dickie Gaines work from back in the pack during his heat was worth
it for me. The B Main turned into a marathon, though. On the first
lap, a tangle involving Westfall, Shane Cottle, Kyle Wissmiller, and
Tom Hessert took Cottle out of commission. Brad Kuhn moved up to row
three with all the carnage, eventually transferring in the third
spot. Kuhn is now driving for Ron and Debby Lambertson in a catchy
Maxim with blue and yellow paint. They’ll run more local stuff
after Sprintweek, but it has taken them a while to get onto the
track. Kuhn became part of the race for the feature when he became
lapped traffic after a packed right rear wheel left him at the tail.
On the bottom, he moved to the top when he saw the appropriate flag,
but that put him directly in front of pressuring Dickie Gaines, who
had to work for as long as two laps before finally getting by. This
was just one of a few misfortunes for Gaines as he tried to catch
and pass longtime leader Cory Kruseman. He finally caught him, but
Kruseman’s unique line squeezed the chicken bucket coming off the
corners, leaving him with no opportunity for the pass. Dave Darland hooked the gigantic cushion on the first lap
of the feature, but he kept going and worked back to 12th.
John Scott was well within the top ten throughout the race until he
hooked the cushion in the last five laps, putting him at the back. The only nasty flip victim on the night was Karl
Roethemeier, who went back-end first into turn three. Karl has a
green and purple number 13K, bringing about the thought of bad luck
affecting his night. Hopefully his new Competition Welding chassis
didn’t receive any modification in the rollover. Scott Martin was very competitive in his Competition
Welding, winning a qualifying race and ending his night close to a
transfer spot in the B Main. Marc Jessup couldn’t come through the
NQ race to the 30-lapper either, and he got upside-down in Haubstadt
action. Brian Lee’s night looked bleak early, but he miraculously
stayed in the top 32 in qualifying and ended up 8th after
a long trek in the feature. In heat race action, Kevin Newton flipped in turn four, but
he landed on his wheels and kept moving. He got his spot back, too,
when Dickie Gaines stopped because of his flip, but he hurt the
engine in the Law Brothers older Competition Welding, and they left
early with no Haubstadt plans. Congratulations to Bryan Clauson on his second sprint car
victory, this one coming at Kokomo over 24 other cars. I’m glad to
see such a strong field showing up to race, especially with USAC
running on the same night. With this being so short, I’ll have more to write after
four more USAC shows this week. Look for me in my usual Cory
Kruseman hat, and I’ll treat you to a night with some of the most
entertaining characters I’ve ever met. I’m sorry to say that we
have no more fireworks to set off this week, and Randy Mortland will
be at every show! |
