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See You At The Races!!! |
| The
“New” Kokomo Wows for WoO by Kirk Spridgeon |
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June 15, 2005....My first weekend back after my initial year
of college education was apparently not a good time for Mother
Nature. Although my arrival on Thursday was not early enough for a
trip to Indianapolis Raceway Park, USAC Live! stepped up again to
offer fantastic coverage. I waited until Friday to depart with the
family for Indiana, and the ultimate destination of the 17th
Annual Sheldon Kinser Memorial at beautiful Bloomington Speedway. Unfortunately, our night of racing was quickly
thwarted when the returning rigs of Chris Kopczynski and the Jeff
Walker Racing team passed going the other way on Route 37. It was
obvious that the weekend could become a total washout. Thankfully, Saturday weather cooperated to let
us see one show on the weekend, and the Lincoln Park Speedway gave
us a chance to witness a great field of cars battle on the unique
five-sixteenths mile dirt track. With a higher chance of rain
present at Lawrenceburg, the field was bolstered a bit. Pleasant
surprises among the 42-car field included Jon Stanbrough, Bryan
Clauson, the Jeff Walker team of Dave Darland and J.T. Imperial, and
the Danny Roberts team of John Scott and Davey Ray. The track started a bit on the rough side, but
it smoothed out more toward the end of hot laps and support
divisions completed the process to provide a good surface. It held
up well for most of the race, complete with a typical Putnamville
cushion and the slick spot leading up to it. The bottom held
moisture all night, and it made for multiple grooves nearly all
night. In the first heat race of the night, newcomer
Derek O’Dell benefited from a bump between front-row starters
Aaron Mosley and Jason Robbins to take the win. O’Dell, who hails
from Alton, Illinois, claimed to enjoy his first night of wingless
sprint car racing. Of course, a heat race victory and a strong run
in the feature probably helped in his enjoyment of the evening.
“Cactus” Jack Yeley was helping O’Dell, planning to get him
acclimated to the battles of wingless sprint car racing. Yeley was
happy with the first night of racing, and plans were to run Kokomo
on Sunday. Yeley’s other news on the night is that he
would be toting his own car, sponsored by Arizona’s own Jim
Massey, back for Indiana Sprintweek. With no steady driver in the
car this year, Jack is planning to race with Indiana expert Derek
Scheffel behind the wheel. Knowing that Scheffel is capable of
winning on the Hoosier bullrings, Yeley is interested to see what
their team can do. That, coupled with his affiliation with O’Dell
and following son J.J.’s career (plus the new addition to the
family, J.J.’s newborn daughter), the Yeleys are a busy crew. The second heat of the night saw the beginning
of a tough night for J.T. Imperial. Although he drew the pole of the
heat, an early spin relegated him to the tail and he struggled
through the B Main with what appeared to be a car that was a bit too
loose. A.J. Anderson held off Bill Rose for the heat win, but the
battle for the transfer spot was between John Scott and Brady Short.
Scott held on, but Short looked for just his 12th sprint
car start. Short was an accomplished modified racer before
moving into sprint cars this year. His Bedford, Indiana team had
fielded as many as three modifieds before, and plans originally
called for a late model effort in 2005 for Brady. When a one-race
deal came about in someone else’s late model, Brady decided he
would rather go the way of sprint cars than late models. Just like
many southern Indiana racers, Brady is a laid-back country boy, but
the adrenaline rush of sprint cars has gotten him hooked. With the
acquisition of David Waltman’s arsenal of Maxims, Short has
already found five top-tens. After bending one of the Maxims,
another has been acquired to keep the team quota at two. Short is
looking to branch out more as the season goes along, but he is happy
to race the tough competition in southern Indiana circles. Short
should have some great competition for Hoosier Auto Racing Fans
Rookie of the Year as other top rookies early in the season have
included Brent Beauchamp and Broc Burton. The front row of the third heat was impressive
as Darland got the jump on Clauson to take the win. Rex Norris III
was quite impressive in his aggressive charge from the rear to
threaten Travis Thompson for the final transfer spot. Kent Christian
took the fourth heat from the front row, with another HARF sprint
car RoY contender Jason Lynch in tow. He held off both Kenny
Carmichael and Jimmy Laser while Mitch Wissmiller continuously
pounded the turn one cushion, resulting in a few trips over the
turn-one banking. Mitch missed the show tonight, but he recovered to
win the $1,000 to win sprint car race at Lincoln Speedway in
Illinois on Sunday. The final heat was a good sign for Jon
Stanbrough, who pulled away to an easy win .The first B Main was the
race of the night. Aaron Mosley, Norris, and Bobby Smith got the
jump on the field. Behind them, Kenny Carmichael, Jr. dropped back
early, but he raced back forward along with Shawn Krockenberger and
Mitch Wissmiller. Bill Baker had elected to start on the tail and
was on the move as well. Mosley dropped out of the top three
transfer spots in a hurry, and he quickly pulled off the track.
Norris and Smith battled for the lead as Krockenberger moved in on
them. Meanwhile, Carmichael, Wissmiller, and Baker were reeling in
the top three. Krockenberger got the lead from Norris while Smith
was shuffled back to sixth, with Baker taking the final transfer
spot. Carmichael ran out of time to grab a transfer. The second B Main started with a bang when
Short and Troy Link touched and Link spun right in front of Davey
Ray, who catapulted over him and both took a quick flip. Both
restarted the race, and Ray was able to make his way to fourth, but
he could not get around Ty Deckard to make the feature. Sciscoe ran
away with the win, and Jimmy Laser moved up to second. The invert of eight put Bryan Clauson on the
pole for the feature, and although his car pointed to the sky
continuously while exiting turn two, he kept his car right-side up
and went on to win. Darland and Christian tried to run him down, but
Darland’s line up on the cushion went away, and Christian did not
catch the breaks through lapped traffic. It was an important win for
Clauson, who righted his ship in time for his USAC debut this Friday
at Limaland Motorsports Park. The car ran perfectly all night, and
Bryan ran a strong race to take the checkered with room to spare. A.J. Anderson made some late moves to garner
fourth, and Sciscoe came from 17th to 7th on
the bottom, and he nearly nipped Robbins at the line. O’Dell’s
debut ended with an 8th, and Jon Stanbrough and the
Trucker’s team back-pedaled from their starting spot outside row
two to finish just ahead of Casey Shuman in 9th. While my chance to see the new Kokomo Speedway
did not come to fruition on Sunday, I was hoping that first glimpse
would be for the World of Outlaws race on Tuesday. Winchester’s
Kenny Irwin, Jr. Memorial was also rained out on Sunday, leaving a
possible doubleheader in the gutter. Assisted in my trip to Kokomo by Bob Cundiff,
we arrived to witness a pretty strong field of 35 cars come calling
for the return of the Outlaws to Kokomo. A lot of familiar faces
were found around the pit area, including Steve Butler, the Darlands,
A.J. Anderson, Shane Cottle, Jerad Parsons, Mat Neely, Jon
Sciscoe(assisting Jared Fox), Kenny Carmichael, Jonathan Vennard,
Daron Clayton and mentor Bubby Jones, Kevin Briscoe, Terry Pletch,
Marc Arnold, Tyler Pearce, Michael Burthay, and other assorted
Indiana drivers, mechanics, and fans. It was good to see so many
familiar faces. All drivers were looking forward to this coming
Sunday’s KISS series event at the track, upon seeing the
renovations. Jason Goacher, who sported a brand new Shane Cottle
t-shirt, was impressed with the new layout, adding that he will
hopefully be back this weekend with Tony Elliott still at the wheel.
Shane Cottle’s plans for the weekend include both Buckeye
Nationals events to go with the Kokomo show. Jerad Parsons is still
awaiting the return on his Competition Welding sprinter after
sustaining frame damage at Eldora in early May. They have the older
car put together to get back on the track until the new car is ready
to go again. Briscoe was re-considering going to Haubstadt
Sunday after seeing the new Kokomo confines. Carmichael was scoping
out the premises in preparation for Sunday trips to northern
Indiana, but he was still unsure if the following Sunday would see
his Chalk Racecar on the track. Vennard related that he would attack
Bloomington on Friday with Tom Miller’s 4M, but his hopes to run
with a wing at Haubstadt on Sunday might be exchanged to run Kokomo.
Obviously, the consensus about the track was impressive on Sunday. It just so happened that the new track surface
turned the Outlaw show into a hell of a race. Keeping moisture all
night long and developing a healthy cushion near the top of the
newly-banked speedway, a wide variety of racing lines were employed
in the feature. The heats did not feature much in the way of
passing, but that all changed when the green flag flew for the
40-lapper. Earlier in the night, though, Brooke Tatnell
came out 20th to set the standard at 11.461 seconds.
Top-ten qualifiers came out as late as 32nd, when Joey
Saldana turned an 11.651. Qualifying was definitely a flat-out
affair. The B Main was a decent race even though Tatnell backed up
his qualifying time by checking out on the field. Terry McCarl had
problems with a shock, and he fell back before coming to a stop for
one of two yellows. Paul May had worked up to third by that point,
and Brad Sweet recovered from early engine trouble to put all kinds
of pressure on Cameron Dodson for the final transfer spot. Sweet’s
run for the A Main came to an end when he looped it exiting turn
four while running the cushion. It would have been nice to see Brad
make the feature after the trouble he had, and he easily would have
been employing the smallest trailer of the A Main field. Sweet will
be using his own car this weekend in assaults on USAC at Lima and
Eldora. Dodson took third from May, who held off Tom Busch to make
the main. Saldana built a substantial lead over the first
five laps of the feature, catching lapped traffic (Paul May) on the
fourth lap and getting by him in turn one of the fifth lap. Saldana
looked very loose in exiting turn two on lap six, and he got over
the cushion and into the wall in turn four. Other accidents slowed
down the first ten laps. Tim Kaeding spun from the turn-two cushion
on the restart, trying to steer it to the bottom only to be nailed
by Daryn Pittman, who rolled. Five laps later, Terry McCarl pulled a
wheelie and came down hard with Dodson piling in. They waited for
McCarl to return to racing action, but Dodson was done. Dodson’s
focus will remain on winged racing, both dirt and pavement, while
his pavement USAC sprinter is parked after splitting with Scott
Benic. He is also planning to run pavement and dirt midget shows as
the year goes along. The action over the final thirty laps of pure
green-flag racing was incredible. The battle for the lead eventually
turned into a three-car battle between father and son Kinser and
Jason Meyers. Using lapped cars as picks and splitting one another
to gain position, these three put on a great show for most of the
latter half of the race. Meyers repeatedly got good runs high on
Steve Kinser only to have the door shut on him. He finally got by
Steve and appeared to have enough to get by Kraig, who was spewing
smoke from under the hood, but that never happened. Kraig held on to
the point and took the win as the 11K blew up crossing the finish
line. Steve Kinser proved just how good he is,
holding a podium finish despite a broken front nose wing. Tatnell
had been moving quickly from his 13th starting spot,
using the cushion as his primary path for passing. Although he could
not get by the King, Tatnell’s performance was quite a show for
the fans. The battle between Donny Schatz and Craig Dollansky was
not necessarily a battle for the win, but I watched them quite a bit
as they criss-crossed back and forth, nearly taking each other out
over and over. Needless to say, this 40-lapper was one whale of a
feature. Kudos to the Kokomo Speedway crew, as they
surprised and impressed a lot of people, including me, by providing
such a great race track for the Outlaw show. I will certainly be
back on Sunday, looking forward to the Bob Darland Memorial, which
is also a KISS series race. My weekend plans also include the Buckeye Nationals, so we will get to stay close to home, watching races at Lima and Eldora. These shows will definitely be worth attending as the shows at Lima have been good every year of the Buckeye Nationals, and Eldora is just Eldora. Have a safe weekend, folks! |
