June 15, 2007 – Jon Stanbrough continued his old school domination of
the King of Indiana Sprint Series with his fourth victory in as many races, this
one on Bloomington’s wicked fast quarter mile. Stanbrough passed Mat
Neely on the eighth lap, and lapped all but the first seven finishers on his
road to the checkers. Neely finished second, followed by Larry Bland Jr.,
Chad Boat and Brady Short.
Drawing for a front row heat race starting slot, Stanbrough won that handily,
then drew to start fourth in the 30-lap main. When pole sitter Chad Boat
pushed high in the second turn, he opened the door for Mat Neely to drive into
the lead on the opening lap, with Stanbrough on his tail. Neely built a
half-straightaway lead until a pair of cautions bunched the field.
Stanbrough moved up to mid-track
and outside Neely on the restart, pulling ahead as they exited turn two.
But Neely battled back, nosing back in front as they exited turn four. But
Stanbrough drove hard into the first turn and pulled cleanly ahead before they
reached the backstretch on the next lap. He steadily built his advantage
to a full straightaway by mid-race, and even though he spent the closing laps
slicing through traffic, Stanbrough’s Fox Brothers DRC held a six-second lead
at the finish.
While many of the top finishers
came from the front rows of the grid, Short hustled his Lucas Oil Products Maxim
from the last row to fifth. Bland and Jared Fox also had great runs to
third and seventh after starting side-by-side in 12th and 11th.
The victory was Stanbrough’s
16th of the year and eighth consecutive. He explained that the restart
gave him the best opportunity to pass Neely. “I just rode there for
awhile, watching what he was doing and seeing what I could do and he wasn’t
making any mistakes on the bottom. I thought I needed to do something while I
was close to him and not let him get out away from me again and have to try to
run him down.”
“I knew that it was going to
be hard to get by somebody where I passed him because there was a lot of
moisture on the bottom. They were going to wear it out, but I just
didn’t feel like I should wait until they wore it out. I thought on that
restart it would be a good opportunity to make my move.”
Neely admitted that his car got
loose as the race progressed and that the wheel he wanted to run on the right
rear had been damaged in a flip the night before. Then he added, “I knew
Jon would be back there, he comes on about lap 15 or 20. He’s so good,
so smooth, I just fell short.”
Results, King of Indiana Sprint Series, Bloomington
Speedway, June 15, 2007
Heat 1: Mat
Neely 17N (3), Chris Babcock 35 (1), Bobby Stines 9 (2), Ty Deckard 48 (5), Matt
Westfall 54 (4), Shane Hollingsworth 10 (6), John Paynter 23 (7), Bub Cummings
19 (8)
Heat 2: Chad
Boat 30 (1), Jonathan Vennard 26G (3), A. J. Anderson 57 (2), Kent Christian 11P
(4), Jesse Hockett 75 (6), Eric Smith 14 (7), Brady Short 2B (5)
Heat 3: Jon
Stanbrough 53 (1), Ted Hines 12 (3), Jared Fox 56 (7), Danny Holtsclaw 3 (4),
Jimmy Light 23L (5), Jon Sciscoe 7 (6), Kenny Niflis 01 (2)
Heat 4. Hunter Schuerenberg 10T
(1), Cole Whitt 29 (3), Jeff Bland Jr. 21S (5), Jake Martens 48J (2), Dakoda
Armstrong 7A (4), Matt Rossi 2 (6), Joe Gilbert 10G (7)
Semi: Hockett (2), Light (3),
Sciscoe (7), Short (10), Cummings (13), Niflis (11), Paynter (9), Rossi (8),
Westfall (1), Hollingsworth (5), Smith (6), Gilbert (12), Armstrong (4)
Feature: 1.
Stanbrough (4), 2. Neely (3), 3. Bland (12), 4. Boat (1), 5. Short (19), 6.
Schuerenberg (5), 7. Hockett (16), 8. Deckard (13), 9. Fox (11), 10. Sciscoe
(18), 11. Holtsclaw (14), 12. Vennard (2), 13. Babcock (7), 14 Stines (9), 15.
Hines (6), 16. Cummings (20), 17. Martens (15), 18. Anderson (10), 19. Whitt
(8), 20. Light (17)
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The win
boosted his point lead to 55 over Brady Short going into this weekend’s
Saturday and Sunday races. Current KISS standings are: 1. Stanbrough 540,
2. Short 485, 3. Hollingsworth 394, 4. Neely 375, 5. Schuerenberg 354, 6. Whitt
274, 7. Anderson 262, 8. Hines 254, 9. Martens 240, 10. Bland 237.
Saturday’s KISS program is at
Lincoln Park Speedway, located in Putnamville, IN. The main gate will open
at 4:30 and hot laps begin at 5:30, with the first races lining up at 7 pm.
The schedule will include a School Bus Race, modifieds, super stocks and
bombers. Kids 5 and under are free, and admission for 6 – 10 year olds
is just $5. The Lincoln Park Speedway website is at http://lincolnparkspeedway.homestead.com/.
Sunday, June 17th, the KISS show
is at Kokomo Speedway, where the front gate will open at 4 pm. Ages 6 and
under are free, and admission for 7 – 10 year olds is just $5. The
program will include UMP Thunder Car, UMP Street Stock and Pure Stock divisions.
The front and pit gates open at 3 pm with racing at 6:15. The track
website is at www.kokomospeedway.net.
Each KISS feature will pay
$2,500 to win and $250 to start. B-Main starters who don’t transfer will
take home $100. The KISS point fund is worth $1,400 to the 2007 King, with
$1,000 for second, and pays eight places deep.
2007 King Of Indiana Sprint
Series Schedule
Gas City I-69 Speedway
Friday, May 11
Stanbrough
Twin Cities Raceway Park
Saturday, May 12
Stanbrough
Lawrenceburg Speedway
Saturday, May 26
Stanbrough
Bloomington Speedway
Friday, June 15
Stanbrough
Lincoln Park Speedway
Saturday, June 16
Kokomo Speedway
Sunday, June 17
Paragon Speedway
Saturday, June 23
Terre Haute Action Track
Saturday, June 30
Tri-State Speedway
Sunday, July 8
SPONSORS. Sponsorship from
Indiana Stone Works has boosted the payoff at each event and B-Main
starters are guaranteed $100. Elliottbrand Web Designs, in
Westport, IN, created the KISS website, which provides a highly functional and
effective tool that places the King Of Indiana Sprint Series within arms length
of racing fans around town and around the world. Visit them at www.Elliottbrand.com.
Sprint Car & Midget Magazine, Simpson Performance Products and RockStar
Paint sponsor the unique KISS champion’s helmet. Kiva Networking in
Bloomington is the host of the KISS website.
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