Kudos to the staff at Twin Cities Raceway Park for sticking it out during a night when Mother Nature was not cooperating. Their perseverance was appreciated and paid off many times over as the night unfolded. I thank them for their hard work and dedication. Jon Sciscoe’s nasty flip in turn one during North Vernon’s program halted the action in order to fix the fence, which collapsed down upon his red DRC chassis. After a night full of rain delays, this likely could have been the end to our night. The staff at Twin Cities Raceway desperately needs to repair the chain-link fence that has circled the track for a little too long. What a great race track, though! It’s just a shame that sprint cars only visit this racy joint once a year.

A surprise visitor from the left coast, Alan Ballard’s week was cut short when he broke a driveshaft at Haubstadt and had no way to fix it. Alan had cashed in his own money to make the trip, and the plan had been to stay out here as long as the money lasted. With their best engine not rebuilt in time for the trip, the team had just one car to last the week, and their spares were not sufficient. Ballard is such a likable young driver, but Sprintweek forces you to be prepared for the worst to make it through the week.

“Cactus” Jack Yeley was busier than ever for Sprintweek. His tutoring of youngster Derek O’Dell continued, telling Derek he should never put the wing back on his Maxim. He put together a DRC of his own, and Derek Scheffel made the first three features before being fired for a lack of aggressiveness. Yeley went even younger with his next choice, putting TV star Brad Sweet, who had already driven three cars during the week, in for the last three races. Sweet’s appearance on “Good Morning America” was an unexpected bit of entertainment that lightened up the week a bit. His wicked flip may not have been the most outrageous I have ever seen, but it did provide Sweet and the sprint car racing community as a whole some always-needed publicity.

The week for Dan Roberts team was definitely of roller-coaster quality. John Scott made the first two features while Dickie Gaines missed the first three, even after switching to his DRC for Haubstadt. Scott took a provisional in the third race. After two terrible nights for Scott, the 83 was parked and Scott was apparently no longer with the team after Gas City. Gaines finally made a show at Putnamville but exited early, then charged to 4^th at Gas City. He won twice in three days at Lawrenceburg, along with two DNFs in features at Terre Haute and Kokomo. What will become of this team in the near future should be interesting.

Bloomington Speedway faced similar complications to those at North Vernon. Although USAC seemed less willing to work the track into a more race-able condition, the night easily could have been scrapped if not for the endless exertion of the staff to put on a race for the large crowd. “Sacramento” Bob Clauson counted around 75 campers at Bloomington, which seemed like more than any other Sprintweek race I have personally attended.

The racing was not quite spectacular at Bloomington, thanks in large part to a greasy surface where the track did not come in until later in the evening. The early heats were a matter of staying on the track. First, Scotty Weir had problems with a vehicle running in the track, leaving him broken in the infield. As car after car pushed up the track, Jared Fox kept it straight and moved up from his last starting position to make the feature. Damion Gardner and Bryan Clauson seemed to be starting a Sprintweek struggle when neither made the feature. Clauson’s car appeared to be overly tight, as he had to stomp on the breaks to get the car sideways in the corners, but his efforts ended when he ran into the back of Jon Stanbrough’s car and the front-end broke.

Of the few cars to move forward in the A Main, catastrophe seemed to be waiting for them. Kruseman moved up seven spots to claim a top-five, but both Shane Cottle and Jonathan Vennard looked like top-five possibilities before having problems. When a few cars bottled up in turn four, Mat Neely launched over Cottle’s right rear, leaving Neely’s car trashed and Cottle’s right rear flat. Vennard was battling Kruseman for 6^th when the latter moved the former up the track and over the bank going down the backstretch, so Vennard consulted Keith Kunz on the ability and inability of his drivers.

Although weather moved Putnamville’s race from Saturday to Tuesday, the rain delay did offer a chance to conduct some informative conversations. Marc Jessup was on hand to collect some “Chalk Stix” and joined in relaying some old micro stories with Bobby Stines. In one particular race at Macon, Stines beat more than 140 other racers while Jessup ran 7^th in a severely battered car. Stines, a Purdue graduate, is now fielding a shoestring-budgeted sprint car and nearly won at Bloomington early in July. Jessup fielded a new Eagle purchased by his grandfather, just so the elder Jessup could watch his grandson run. The car’s first race came at Terre Haute where track conditions made things a bit dangerous. Stines was fast against USAC at Putnamville, almost catching the transfer spot in the B Main.

I acquired my first modified t-shirt at Putnamville, coming from Bedford, Indiana’s Brady Short. Short had originally planned to run late models this season, but he received a chance to run one for another owner and did not enjoy it. The adrenaline rush of a sprint car has him smiling now, and he seems ready to race more and more in his sprint car. Brady made three feature events during the week, which was quite impressive for a rookie. He also qualified in the top-fifteen three times during the week. He indicated some interest in running pavement in the future also, so sprint car racing is now a serious matter for the Short Racing team.

As usual, the track for the third stop of Indiana Sprintweek at Tri-State Speedway was simply immaculate. I second-guessed his decision to re-work the track quickly before the A Main to reduce a bump or two that had developed, and the results were perfect. With a healthy cushion up high and plenty of racing room through the middle, Bryan Clauson and Cory Kruseman were splitting lapped traffic like a hot knife through butter. A caution took away lapped cars and Kruseman used a quick slider to put away Clauson, who bobbled a bit simultaneously. A last-lap jumping of the cushion let Damion Gardner by for the runner-up spot as well.

The “Racin’ with D.O” radio show on Monday in the Kelly’s Pub Too parking lot was a resounding success. I must say it was a thrill to be interview on the show alongside a guy for whom I have mucho respect, Kevin Eckert.

While Putnamville’s track surface was near the opposite end of the spectrum, we were witness to a cushion ride to beat all others by Dave Darland. His battle with fellow northern Hoosier Shane Cottle was a fan favorite. Cottle’s line off turn four slicked off slightly in the final five laps, and he could not launch off the corner to beat Darland. The billboard breaker Daron Clayton had heat race problems as his steering broke and he coasted straight into a turn-four sign. Matt Westfall’s flip into turn-three was much more spectacular, though, and he was done for the night.

Gas City’s qualifying process was a sight in itself. Daron Clayton banzaied his “Banana Boat” to quick time at 12.562. This came after he pulled a complete wheelstand in the middle of the corner during hot laps. Amazingly, the top 32 qualifiers were all in the 12-second bracket. If you were in the thirteens, you had to run a non-qualifiers race. That’s how tough Indiana Sprintweek is!

Scotty Weir was unfortunate enough to be 33^rd with a time of 13 seconds flat. He won the hooligan easily, and he moved up well in his heat race. On the final lap, things fell apart in front of him, and he was caught in a tangle with Justin Marvel and Brian Gerster. Weir gassed his ex-Westfall Ultramax, running over a tire en route to finishing 5^th, just short of a transfer. In the B Main, he again stormed through the field, missing the sweet six spots by two this time. On Thursday at Lawrenceburg, Weir bounced through turn one during his heat race, doing everything but go over. In the B Main, he made it to sixth place, right in front of Damion Gardner before taking off on a restart. He eventually moved around Jerry Coons, Jr. to take the exciting B Main victory, but fell out of the A Main early. He was fast again at Lawrenceburg on Saturday, willing his way through the rough bottom groove, nearly winning before settling for third.

The Gas City feature was obviously all Brandon Petty until he broke just over two-thirds of the way through the race. Kruseman took another win, but he admitted in victory lane that the race was all Petty’s, again showing his modesty. Of course, modesty might come easier from victory lane!

Lawrenceburg produced a cowboy track that showed who had the grit to last thirty laps. The track’s character led to a race that played right into the hands of Dickie Gaines. As the race went on, some drivers fell off and other drivers stayed strong until the end. Mat Neely disclosed that his car did not work the best, but he picked off position after position at the end of the race to grab a top-five. Shane Cottle was even better, even though he was fighting a vibration thanks to a packed right-rear wheel. He cut through the choppy middle to get 2^nd, but he could not run down Gaines.

Speaking of Cottle, he had a great week after Putnamville was rained out. He made the first two races of Sprintweek, but the results were not there. The team skipped Haubstadt, which is “in another country” for the team, and won Kokomo. They went second at Putnamville before missing the show at Gas City, likely Cottle’s best track. Runner-up spots at Lawrenceburg and Terre Haute were a sign of things to come. Cottle took home five grand at Kokomo on Sunday, making some great changes to his line to catch and pass Damion Gardner for the win.

Trucker’s cars owned by Roger & Barb Tapy were improved, but they still haven’t found the mark that led to so many wins last year. Bill Rose was a lot of fun during his time in the second entry, numbered 10T. Unfortunately, the cars got upside-down on successive nights with Jon going over at Gas City after taking a provisional and Bill flipping in turn one after transferring through non-qualifiers race and the back of a heat.

Speaking of Kokomo, it was very impressive to see such an immaculately prepared race track with extreme heat and a stiff breeze hitting the northern Indiana oval. Improvements still have to be made in the future, but it is obvious that the track is serious about making it a gem. The racing was great on Sunday, and I will return on the 7^th to see a regular show and Ford Focus midgets. That should definitely be worth it to any outsider.

Before Kokomo, however, we made a much-needed return visit to Paragon Speedway. I must say that the hospitality I received there rivals that of any other track. It was not the best racing I saw all week, I will admit. It may have been the most fun I had at any track all week, though. Besides an overall fun racing atmosphere, we also saw an all-around show on the track. Although I hate to see flips, the ride to the woods by Randy Johnson in the make-up feature was nothing short of spectacular. As Kevin Oldham and myself stood on top of the bathrooms (the best view from the pits), we shook our heads in amazement after watching the orange 72J catapult over the banks and fairly deep into the woods. The lucky driver eventually stumbled out of the woods and back into view, apparently injury-free.

On the other side of things, Pat Gidden’s flip while battling for the lead in the feature terrified me. Landing just short of the pond in the infield just off the back straightaway, Gidden’s gyrations were more than a surprise after watching him take the lead from Jake Scott. That was Scott’s last threat, and he led the rest of the way to take the Mike Johnson Memorial. Steve Rone won the make-up feature from the week before on a quite tacky race track. We also witnessed a barrel-roll of a street stock as it rolled over the bank in turn three. Of course, some scuffling ensued. Tempers were hot in the stock car divisions, and their racing was some of the best racing I’ve seen from support groups in quite some time.

Congratulations to Eric “Aero” Lehman’s wife, Amy, for her unexpected victory on Saturday. She won a prestigious season pass to Paragon Speedway when they read off her ticket number. Although she may not use it, that was just another bit of entertainment for our group of race-watchers.

That’s it for this week. This is coming out very late, but I will mention that I am going to Gas City for a regular show again. Nothing beats one of those regular shows! On Saturday, I’m hoping many people will join me at Tri-State Speedway in Haubstadt for the $10,000 to win MSCS Sprint Car championship race. It should be another excellent race with a track surface prepared to perfection and a field of cars up and over 50 strong. Many big names are planning to run, and the draw for heats always leads to some interesting moves during the preliminary events. You can never beat a big sprint car race at “The Class Track”……..