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season turns corner as Sprintweek comes to a close by Kirk Spridgeon |
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July 29, 2004....While Indiana Sprintweek is my favorite time
of the year, it’s also the sign that the year is beginning to shut
down. This year, I was disappointed to see Sprintweek had three days
in the middle with no racing. An early rainout filled the Wednesday
date with Gas City, but the open dates in between racing really
defeat the purpose of calling it “Sprintweek.” How I would dream
of a week consisting of Gas City on Friday followed by Putnamville,
Haubstadt, Boswell, Terre Haute, Kokomo, North Vernon, Bloomington,
and Lawrenceburg in successive days. It’s just a suggestion; they
could no doubt change the order of the days and still make me
content.
Wednesday night’s Gas City dustbowl put a premium on qualifying, and those drawing a low number for qualifying had a huge advantage. Rick Ziehl was the last car to come out and make the top 32, nailing down a near-perfect lap around the bottom. He flipped hard at Bloomington on Friday after his best run of the week on Thursday, but the Ben Lancaster team from Las Vegas stuck around for the final night, on the half-mile. Kris Deckard, Danny Williams, Jr., Matt Westfall, Kyle Wissmiller, Brian Lee, Don Droud, Jr., Mat Neely, and Terry Pletch were the biggest losers, all falling within just a few tenths of making the heats while coming out extremely late. Wissmiller was one driver who impressed during the second weekend. Although he was unfortunate enough to qualify 54th in line, he moved nicely by Mat Neely and Cory Kruseman, holding off Casey Shuman for the transfer from the qualifying race. He raced well in the heat and B Main on a barren track, but couldn’t find a transfer to the rained-out finale. After wisely skipping Lawrenceburg, he nailed down 7th quick time at Bloomington before transferring through his heat, but that was called back for “not restarting nose to tail” when he began a lane higher coming to the green flag. Forced to run the B(even though he didn’t actually “jump” the start), he started fourth and ran around there before finishing fifth. He held onto 8th when the rubber locked down the surface. When he pushed off the pole during a Terre Haute heat, Kyle just drove harder, on the top lane, to snag a transfer to the feature, where he stopped before burning the tires off his 2K. After winning a heat at Gas City, Brian Gerster found himself as the next driver of the Danny Roberts white Twister. He spun on his first qualifying lap but posted the fourth best time on his second lap. In a tough heat race, he watched as Jay Drake bounced around Levi Jones for the final transfer spot. When Gerster nearly spun and lost a transfer spot in the B Main, he quickly pulled off the track. Charles Davis, Jr.’s second Sprintweek didn’t exactly go smoothly. After a decent first weekend, he won his heat at Gas City and charged into the top ten(his best finish) at Lawrenceburg. Bloomington saw a poor qualifying effort turn into a heat race lead until he looped it in turn four. When he charged back into a transfer spot, the crowd was on his side. Then, he slid over the bank and back outside the top four before coming back to nearly nab the final transfer. In the B, he found the top groove without sliding over the bank, but when he caught the last two cars on his way to the A, Ted Hines pulled up in front of him, leaving a blocked track for Tony Smiley’s Extreme. He qualified great at Terre Haute and ran in the top ten before faltering at the end, probably due to tire wear on the rubber-down track. Speaking of Hines, his beautiful car is sponsored by Gould’s Paint & Body, and he has proven to be a contender after a year of driving an older Stealth car. Gradually gaining on the new Twister car for this year, Ted could be a guy capable of sneaking a local win later this season. Seeing his first USAC transfer of the season, Darren Hagen has made huge improvements within the last month. After a great qualifying run at Gas City earlier in the month, which was rained out, and a win at Putnamville, Hagen ran the bottom of Gas City to another rained out A Main. His performance at Larryburg was impressive, qualifying 6th before racing tooth and nail for a transfer in the B, besting Bud Kaeding, Dave Darland, and Rickie Gaunt, among others. When the green flag dropped, Hagen followed eventual winner Jon Stanbrough, looking comfortable on the back-it-in surface of the ‘Burg’s A. Hagen blew the cushion later on and bent the drag link along with flattening the left rear, leaving him unable to make the call for the restart. Frequently missing the heats by just a few spots, Hagen is on the verge of becoming a consistent frontrunner in Indiana. Talking with his dad, his heightening confidence has given them enough hope to run the rest of the year here before some racing closer to home, and he is planning to return to the Midwest for the 2005 season. One car that Hagen beat to transfer at Lawrenceburg
was Brian Lee. Unfortunately, this would be the end of Lee’s week
as he would enter the hospital suffering from head injuries. While
Lee is now out of the hospital, it was a big scare in hearing about
it at the track. Lee was having another strong week, but his
accident at Haubstadt turned out to be the culprit in his ailment,
although he ran two more nights after Sunday. His heat race tangle
and a rough race track couldn’t have helped matters any. Send
Brian a note at: 2332 E. CR 125N
Fillmore, IN 46128 A heat race winner at Lawrenceburg, Kenny Carmichael faithfully follows Sprintweek except for Saturdays. Citing his son’s racing as the reason for skipping USAC’s Saturday shows, Kenny worked overtime during the week in order to get to Lawrenceburg and Bloomington. Still working on setups for his Twister, Kenny is the epitome of the local Indiana racer, owning his own body shop in Terre Haute and putting most of his money into racing. With a newer rig toting his older trailer(with the trademark grass along the sides), you’ll continue to see the Carmichael crew at a lot of MSCS shows as they support the hometown series along with their trips to Saturday night mainstays Putnamville and Paragon. Bloomington’s red clay fills the C&W weekend, a place where Kenny has won in the past and continues to run up front. Backing up his first weekend results, Dickie Gaines picked up a heat race win at Gas City, where he always struggles the most. Runner-up finishes at his best tracks Thursday and Friday and a charge to the top ten on the half-mile nearly earned him the week’s title. Levi Jones superb qualifying helped him in the end, outscoring Gaines by 20 racing against the clock. Gaines, on the other hand, gained 23 points on Levi in heat race and B Main contests, as Levi found himself in the B Main four times while Dickie transferred through his heat every single night. Just five points separated their feature performances as the Olney, Illinois driver held the only finish outside the top ten between the two of them. These two crowd favorites define what Indiana Sprintweek should be, as the two make perfect champions to represent Indiana bullring racing. Congratulations to both Levi and Dickie on outstanding weeks! Finding a ride in a back-up car to Tony Elliott’s effort, Brandon Petty couldn’t find grip at Gas City, but he missed the heats by one-hundredth of a second at the ‘Burg. As Bloomington’s quick qualifier, he was entertaining on the top in his heat and made the A with his last chance before a busted radiator left some much-needed moisture on the track. More problems at Terre Haute ended the week, but this could be a relationship that creates some noise as time goes on. While I didn’t get to celebrate BP’s retirement, I’m glad to see he’s collecting some money besides his social security check. After AJ Anderson and Paul Hazen split, both parties made the feature at Lawrenceburg, where Casey Shuman put Paul’s potent Kercher/Stealth combination in the top five. Although he had a chance to pass superteams led by Jones and Kruseman, this was a great start for this new pairing. Anderson’s best showing after the ‘Burg was a strong run at Bogey’s go-cart fantasy world on Saturday, dueling with drivers such as Chris Hoyer, Jonathan Vennard, Bryan Clauson, Trenton Darland, myself, and the entire Levi Jones’ camp, including his mom. While she struggled on the track, her cheering skills were honed as Levi stormed through the pack at Bogey’s, set quick time on the night, and picked up five spots after he dropped to ninth and rubber was both high and low. One surprise on Thursday was the appearance of Arizona Sprint Car Association competitor Chuck Buckman, Jr., driving the white Gambler formerly driven by Kevin Thomas. Noting a friendship with the elder Chuck, this team will hook up again in the fall when the Miller car heads west for the Western World at Manzanita. Kevin Besecker challenged the second weekend of Sprintweek, and his best finish against USAC happened Thursday when he finally found a setup that worked well on his car, working all the way to 7th by the end. He qualified well for the second year in a row at Bloomington, but after missing it’s show, he headed back to the ‘Burg for a top-five finish in the regular show. MASS regulars Tom Busch and Curt Trainer joined Sprintweek, but it ended poorly for both of them. Busch qualified well at the ‘Burg, where both have seen feature racing on the local circuit this season. After he scratched from the B, both found trouble in Bloomington qualifying, with Trainer going over hard just outside turn two. Busch scratched from the hooligan while Trainer tagged the tail, getting six laps for his trouble. New Focus points leader Rex Norris III(tied with Tate Martz) raced Gas City and the ‘Burg, losing a front shock in hot laps after climbing all over a slower car. He qualified poorly without practice, and they took off for an Ohio date with Robby Parish in a second car. While both won heats, they didn’t have great success in the feature, but they’ll be headed for the Focus Nationals this week at Belleville. While others complained about the rough track conditions at Lawrenceburg, Davey Ray was busy finding the top groove. When he drove to second in his heat race, it only set up his charge in the feature. Finding the top five early in the 30-lapper, Ray came to a stop before a pending restart after problems with a detached arm guard led to the kill switch being tripped. When he banzaied from the tail of the field, Davey eventually found a rough spot in turn three, turning him over fairly hard. He made the A Main at Bloomington after driving to Milwaukee and flying back. Ray was one of nine drivers who were transported back and forth through the air to compete in USAC action over the weekend. Ray picked up his second USAC score of the year when he led from flag to flag in a tune-up for Belleville, benefitting from Johnny Rodriguez’s problems, giving him the pole. Brad Kuhn was another, and he made his second feature event of the week after finishing fifth in his heat at Bloomington. When Wissmiller was penalized, Kuhn got the transfer spot after coming through the non-qualifier’s race. Kuhn put it in the show on Saturday, too, before heading for Angell Park to race in the top five with his midget. Kuhn also scored a top five against USAC midgets at Eagle, Nebraska. Finally finding some luck after his split with the Simon sprinter, Matt Westfall returned to the top ten, and he ran with the leaders at Bloomington before the track locked down with rubber. Finishing just behind friend and fellow Buckeye Besecker at the ‘Burg, Matt was relieved to be back to where they should have been from the start. Slipping to 7th at the end of thirty laps on the half mile, he still found three key top-tens to finish the week. While waiting for the return of USAC combatants from Wisconsin, led by a police escort, I did my own fair share of racing around the Vigo County Fairgrounds. After some hard wheel-to-wheel racing on the high-banked slick track at Bogey’s, we took to the track for some practice of the two-wheel variety. After battling handlebar-to-handlebar with Trenton Darland for many a lap in the tight confines of the swine barn, my throttle stuck, sending the Mortboyz-owned, East Alton Fire Department, Hoosier Tires Eagle chassis hard into the outside fence. Upon impact, I was thrown to the ground while my mount continued to scream, probably from the pain of serious front end damage, coupled with a bent fork and a bent seat. Lucky to rise relatively unscathed from the incident, I immediately retired. That is, I retired until D.O. put money on another race, finding a different ride for the exhibition won by Darland. I can say that I had a great time racing with some of the best in the under-18 realm, and I also caught wind of some big news from the state of Pennsylvania. With such a large contingent of fans abandoning the Posse for a weekend while the Outlaws were in town, I heard of a new promotion at the Grove. This exciting new publicity stunt offers a brand new Aero bobblehead doll, with the one-of-a-kind item offered only to the first 300 spectators to sneak their way into William’s Grove. While I wouldn’t often find a good reason to visit the Keystone state, this is one special occasion I don’t think I can miss. Congratulations to race winners Jon Stanbrough, Kevin Briscoe, and the awe-inspiring JJ Yeley. Sprintweek points ended like this: 1. Levi Jones-338 Track conditions are huge at Terre Haute, and I truly hope Jamie Reed and company take up Brent Goodnight’s offer for some of Kokomo’s finest to prepare the track for a Labor Day event. Former Kokomo Speedway owner Kent Evans has thrown his hat into the ring as a co-conspirator in the track preparation world. With “Tony Funk” at the helm, this could be the best thing that’s happened to the Action Track this year. I won’t be there for the September 4th return of USAC’s finest, but I hope to see mud-slinging highlights. As Sprintweek ends, a weekend off is necessary for an orientation to college in Athens, Ohio. After that, the weekend of the touted Mopar Thunder is still up in the air. For any Indiana racers or fans looking for the best pictures of Indiana Sprintweek, look no farther than Al Consoli’s shots at http://www.pbase.com/consoli/root and, although he doesn’t like to sell photos, shoot him an e-mail if you want to buy any. I’ve found that they look great on my wall. Congratulations once again to Levi Jones for his Indiana
Sprintweek crown, and good luck to the 2B Racing team as they try to
get Levi his first win.
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