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| “Buckeye Nationals”
weekend is a roller-coaster by Kirk Spridgeon |
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June 21, 2005....As the only visit of the year to Limaland
Motorsports Park for USAC’s sprint and midget divisions, the
Buckeye Nationals Friday night stop is always an interesting night.
Comparable to the short tracks of Indiana, the racing is always
tight, but the challenge arises with the unfamiliarity with the
track. Always a fast track thanks to steep banking, Limaland is a
track that features compact quarter-mile racing and breathtaking
speed all at the same time. It is also one of the best facilities
USAC will visit all season, complete with paved roads and an asphalt
infield. Most of the people reading this will already
have known that this race was Bryan Clauson’s USAC debut. Excited
about taking on the best in the sprint series along with a chance to
wheel Bob Parker’s Stealth midget, Clauson would be busy in his
first USAC night. Although his weekend ended in a heap after a
turn-one practice crash, Clauson made everyone aware of his prowess
on the dirt tracks at Lima. Coming out 24th in line to
post the fifth and final time below thirteen seconds, his sprint car
feature would begin from inside the second row. His night in the midget did not end the way he
had hoped when Ryan Pace slipped by on the last lap of the B Main to
steal a transfer spot after Clauson’s red 24 had been bounced
around a little by an erratic field of midgets. Obviously, this made
Bryan sit up in the seat a bit, as he manhandled a tight Stealth
sprint car chassis around the bottom of the speedway. Showing
patience early, he searched for the fastest way to circle the tires,
running just inside the top-five for most of the race. When he
finally found a rhythm in attacking the bottom, he quickly surged to
the front. Making it a three-car battle for the lead with just a few
laps remaining, two lapped cars had nowhere to go in avoiding the
leaders and clogged the lower line. With Clauson taken out of the
hunt, Levi Jones powered around the cushion to take the win over Jay
Drake. The win completed what had been a tough week
for Levi. His grandmother died earlier in the week, preventing him
from racing against the World of Outlaws at Kokomo. His midget
effort had trouble taking off, but Rob Chaney spinning from
contention in the B Main moved Levi into a front-row start. He
followed Bud Kaeding for the first third of the race, but after the
red flag for Tom Hessert’s flip on lap 9, Levi powered by Bud and
stretched out his lead. Drake seemed to be the only one who could
keep up with the Scott Benic-wrenched Ultramax. Ultimately winning
his second race of the year and his first with USAC, Jones is still
in the thick of the battle for the top of the points standings, and
his new tee shirts for this season are top-notch! Drake’s night ended on the podium, but it did
not go all that smoothly. Following his Infinity Pro Series duties
at Indianapolis Motor Speedway earlier in the day, Jay and his wife
Heidi arrived late to the track. Luckily, hot laps had not yet
started and Jay was able to race without missing any of the
night’s events. In the midget A Main, Drake made his move to the
lead and had the race won as he exited turn two on the final lap.
With Brad Kuhn and Josh Wise battling behind him, Drake looped the
Kunz 67, and the two split the 67 safely. Unfortunately, this
caution led to a number that was way too high for a thirty-lap
midget race. It ended in Brad Kuhn’s first USAC victory, though,
so my excitement over the race was saved. The USAC midget series again proved that they
can provide a solid field of cars for a short dirt track. In
addition to the usual suspects along the championship trail, the
field was bolstered by names such as Michael Pickens and Jimi Quin
from “Down Under,” California’s Ryan Pace, Josh Lakatos, and
Johnny Rodriguez, New Jersey’s Frank Polimeda, Missouri’s Greg
Lueckert, and more. Brian Gerster, Levi Jones, Kevin Besecker, and
Matt Westfall all had problems that took them out of contention for
the night. Dickie Gaines did not register a top-five in
either division, but he was a steady sixth-place in each, despite
making his midget debut. Showing that A.J. Felker still had the
place figured out after nearly winning a late-‘90s NAMARS midget
event, Felker set the car up perfectly for Gaines to run up-front.
While he could never get over the hump to battle for the win, Gaines
was steady in the latter half of the top-ten to secure his
sixth-place finish. His sprint car trip was very similar, keeping
him just outside the top-five. A podium finish at Eldora locked up
the Buckeye Nationals sprint car title for Gaines, and his new
shirts are well worth the 20 bucks! A tangle late in the race took a quality finish
away from Mat Neely. Continually heading to the cushion in order to
get his white number 35 wound up, Mat was disappointed that the
midget would not be going to Eldora, despite being over-powered by a
lot of midgets in the field at Lima. Neely’s sprint car charge
took him into the top-ten from 16th, but a sticking
throttle dropped him back to 11th. At Eldora, Neely followed through with his plan
to follow Rob Chaney early in the race, vaulting from 8th
to 5th in the first few laps. As he put pressure on
Chaney and Gaines late in the race, including a near-pass of both
cars at once, Neely checked-up on more than one occasion to stop his
momentum from running into the back of Chaney. While building
another run on the two cars, Neely had to slide sideways in order to
avoid Chaney, catching the right rear on the front-stretch wall,
exploding it and tearing up the right-rear corner of the car. Neely
would save his weekend from total heart-break on Sunday, though. John Godfrey’s return to building midget
chassis was formally celebrated at Lima and Eldora. Godfrey was
forced to stop building midget chassis early in the year after a
legal snafu. With that problem by-passed, he will be able to
continue building cars, meeting the demand after fielding the
Buckeye Nationals’ top midget. Darland could not get by Kuhn on
the last lap at Lima, but he completely decimated the field at
Eldora. One guy who had a tough weekend was Tom Hessert
III. It appeared as though Hessert beat Lee Boss in the sprint car B
Main at Lima, but he was not granted the position. He was allowed to
tag the field, either by provisional or by alternate, but that only
led to him flipping his sprint car and keeping him from racing it
the next night. He also got upside-down in the midget, but he was
still able to race it the next night. Hessert has dropped to 9th
in sprint car points now after missing the feature at IRP and
Eldora, and flipping early at Lima. Daron Clayton and Brad Sweet battled for the
title of “Mr. Excitement” all weekend. They went 1-2 in Friday
night qualifying. Clayton had trouble staying away from the walls
around Limaland, especially during his heat race. He would
repeatedly pass his way up to fifth in his heat only to jump the
cushion and ride the back straightaway wall, relegating him back to
eighth. Sweet was exciting while moving to fourth in his heat via
the top, and they both attacked the cushion with vigor in the
feature. Clayton suffered some damage at Eldora after getting into
Bud Kaeding on the front-stretch when he simply had nowhere to go.
Sweet claimed his third top-ten at the track in as many starts.
Clayton was out of action Sunday because of Saturday’s damage, but
he did assist Neely in victory. Sweet was back in his own car, and
he will be switching around as the season goes on. John Scott’s season may have turned the
corner with two solid runs. He charged into the top-ten on Friday,
and his late qualifying run on Saturday put him at the front where
he needed to be. A steady race found him in 4th at the
end, but he had to hold off hard-charging Jonathan Vennard. Vennard
used a pick from Rob Chaney, who had slowed with a failing right
rear tire, to motor around the top of four cars with just a couple
laps remaining. He put pressure on Scott at the end, but he had
nowhere to go to pass the 83. A solid second-place in midget points right
now, Ron Gregory’s 2005 is a lot better than his 2004, according
to him. Although he was frustrated at losing the “Night Before the
500” midget race at Indianapolis Raceway Park. He indicated that
their program stepped up before the season, and that could be the
most significant reason for Ron vying for the championship. He also
found himself in a sprint car for the first time just two weeks ago
at IRP, and he will return to the seat of Bill Biddle’s Beast for
more work. Gregory was steady in both dirt races, but he will surely
make up points on the pavement. Gregory excels on short dirt tracks,
as well, so he could be a surprise points champion this year with
the little cars. I, for one, am rooting for him! After Clauson’s flip in hot laps at Eldora,
the surface quickly took rubber. Qualifying had times coming in
nearly three seconds slower than the first two USAC sprint car races
of the year at Eldora. After qualifying, track owner Tony Stewart
looked concerned and slightly embarrassed about the track surface,
and a quick rejuvenation took place. The newly-prepared track did
not hold up the entire night, but it was nice to see a decent track,
at least for a little while. Now, the question is what will happen
with Larry Kemp? Kemp is now in charge of track preparation, and
from all reports there has been friction between him and the rest of
the crew at Eldora. Will Stewart fire Kemp? Will Kemp turn the
corner on the track? Will rumors of an ultimatum from Larry Boos
prove to be true? Only time will tell, but I can say that both Larry
Boos and Chad Schmitmeyer work extremely hard, and the common
denominator of the extreme track problems this year is Larry Kemp. I
am interested to see how it all works out. Heat races were fast and made for little
passing. Seven of the top eight qualifiers did not transfer through
heats, which made for a stout B Main. Dickie Gaines was the lone
driver to start his heat in the fourth row and make the transfer,
which came when he used Lee Boss to pin Scotty Weir and Levi Jones
behind him. John Scott and Jerry Coons, Jr. quickly went backwards
in the B Main. Scotty Weir followed the wall to fourth from his
eighth starting spot. He kept abusing his right rear tire by
bouncing it off the concrete, eventually giving up fourth to Kevin
Huntley when he slowed down because of vibrations. On the last lap,
he climbed the banking and hit the wall with force, exploding the
right rear tire and throwing debris everywhere. He limped across the
line in sixth, but USAC officials made an unfortunate call to place
him at the tail of the field for causing them to throw a caution.
John Scott took the final transfer. Jerry Coons, Jr. and Lee Boss
would use provisionals to run the A Main. The sprint car A Main was a bit of a snoozer as
rubber was applied heavily from near the top of the track down to
the middle. Huntley’s right rear tire came to victory lane
completely flat. Second-place Josh Wise still had a small amount of
tread left, but Dickie Gaines had an absolutely smooth right rear
tire. Sunday’s trip to Kokomo was made easier
knowing that a healthy field of sprint cars would be in attendance.
46 sprint cars greeted me, and a lot of them were stout competitors
with USAC. Needing additional help to iron in an extremely
soupy surface, hot laps started a little later than originally
scheduled. Chris Kopczynski was impressive in leading the first heat
race until looping it after getting his tires down into the greasy
bottom lane of the track. Bryan Stanfill had nowhere to go and ran
straight into Kopczynski’s car, folding the front clip of his DRC
chassis to the left. Bill Rose looked impressive in winning the
heat, noting that he would run all of Ohio Speedweek, but besides
that, he is a true outlaw this season. Jon Stanbrough snookered
Vennard on the last lap to steal the final transfer spot. A.J. Anderson and Dickie Gaines got together
early in the second heat, forcing Anderson from competition. Darr
Lawson was strong for the majority of this heat, but Gaines
eventually got by for the final transfer spot. The third heat had
Justin Marvel showing his hand. More bad luck forced him from
Friday’s feature, but he was strong running Kokomo’s top line.
Ron Dennis spun on the final lap while running in tight formation
with Shane Cottle and Dustin Smith, leaving him far from what would
have been a fourth-place finish. Mat Neely checked out on heat three, but most
impressive was sprint car rookie Chris Windom pulling away on the
cushion from Dave Darland and Scotty Weir. Weir tried hard to get by
on the bottom, but Darland held him off and Windom was nowhere near.
The fourteen-year old from Illinois got his first feature win the
night before at Paragon, and his second visit to Kokomo found him in
a KISS feature. He has only competed at those two tracks so far.
Shane Hollingsworth’s night came to an early end when a broken
stop vaulted him into the first turn wall, twisting the front end of
his Maxim frame. Trying to get a quick lead in heat five, Jesse
Hockett dived to the bottom of turn one and slid up to the cushion.
When he stabbed the accelerator upon reaching the thick cushion, he
found more grip than he anticipated, turning over Lynn Reid’s
deuce. It was a tough weekend for this duo, but they will be faster
with more races under their collective belt. The last chances for the night saw moves late
in the race to make the feature. Michael Burthay charged from row
four in the first consy to win on the last lap over Corey Smith.
Vennard was left out in the cold. Mitch Wissmiller slid ahead of
Scotty Weir for the lead of the second race, and Brandon Whited
found his way forward from row five on the very bottom to steal the
transfer spot from Weir on the last lap. The first start of the feature was spoiled when
Dickie Gaines spun to the outside wall in turn one. Justin Marvel
took a healthy lead early in the race, and Mat Neely’s slide job
on Bill Rose for third was spoiled when Kyle Wissmiller spun. He
pulled into the infield after being restarted. Darland charged from
row eight to the top-ten early, and Shane Cottle was very
competitive from the third row. Brandon Petty also charged from the
fifth row. Neely showed that he was fast soon after
getting a longer green flag run, despite this being his first race
with the car he was piloting. A new Kistler powerplant was installed
for Friday and Saturday, but the thumper was left at home on Sunday
as Neely tried to sort out this car as a back-up for Indiana
Sprintweek. Neely used a slide-job in turn three and
another one in turn one to get to the lead, taking a shot to the
tail-tank after he cleared Marvel’s 47. Marvel made a run at Neely
but could not make a move to get back to the lead. Cottle came out
on top of a great battle with Rose, Petty, and Darland to take
third. He also took the runner-up spot in the modified feature.
Darland presented Neely the trophy for winning his father’s
memorial race. Neely’s win solidified his idea to drive
straight to Paragon following Friday’s event in Richmond, Virginia
for the second year in a row. Darland leads KISS points, but he will
be running a champ car on Saturday while Marvel and Gaines battle
for the new point lead. Eldora’s track surface was a major
disappointment, but both Limaland and Kokomo stepped up to provide
beautiful racing surfaces. Limaland’s was one of the better tracks
I have seen in a little while, staying wet all night and providing a
few lines for racers to choose from. Kokomo became a race of
slide-jobs in the feature, but that made for high drama as well. It
is too bad that Lima has no more USAC sprint or midget shows this
season, although they do host the Ford Focus national championship
race later in the year. This weekend will likely find me at Gas City on
Friday. Saturday is still up in the air, but I would like to return
to Paragon. Kokomo looks good for Sunday. I am gonna have a hard
time not heading over to Kokomo this season. Have a great racing
weekend!! |
