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May
17, 2008 –- Jon Stanbrough kicked off the 2008 King of Indiana Sprint Series with an unforgettable victory at Gas City’s I-69 Speedway on Friday. After leading all but the first three circuits, Stanbrough withstood a determined challenge by Damion Gardner, prevailing when Gardner tangled with a lapped car. Jesse Hockett captured second, trailed by Brett Burdette, Scotty Weir and Casey Shuman.
“It just shows the caliber of my team,” Stanbrough said. “We came here and weren’t quite right and went up and looked at the track and went back and changed some stuff. We went back and looked again and changed it again. They probably changed it three or four times and they made the right decision. We work good together and we communicated really well tonight and I think that we hit the car setup just right.”
Matt Goodnight and Jesse Hockett each led before Stanbrough hustled around Hockett coming off turn four on the third lap. He then quickly built a straightway lead in the Fox Brothers’ DRC. Chris Malone brought the red flag with a turn four flip on lap 9, and on the restart, Daron Clayton bicycled and somersaulted hard in turn two while running third.
They call Damion Gardner “The Demon”. His effort and supernatural skills were on full display in the opening KISS feature. Working with the new Beast chassis throughout the program, he was added as a promoter’s option and started the 30-lap main event on the tail. By the 9th lap red flag, he had passed 14 cars and was seventh. Working wherever he needed, he picked off car after car, slipping under Hockett in turn one on lap 17.
Stanbrough had clearly been in command, unchallenged until a caution put Gardner on his tail with ten laps remaining. The Jason Leffler/Pace Electronics Beast quickly went for the lead, Gardner going high and pulling even in turn 2. They ran the lap side-by-side, then Stanbrough opened a car-length. The leaders quickly caught lapped cars and Gardner was looking for an opening. On the 29th lap, a small pack filled the track ahead of them. Stanbrough stayed low while Gardner went to the rim, getting past in turn 2. But in turn four, Stanbrough found a slot in between the slower cars and gunned through it, pulling inside of Gardner and driving him wide as they ran wheel-to-wheel off the turn. Stanbrough cleared the lapped cars going through turn 1, but right behind him, Gardner made contact, sending him into a high somersault, tumbling three times, slamming hard on its cage and finally stopping in the second turn.
The Demon climbed out, unscathed, and walked slowly back to the pits. Stanbrough was back in command at the restart, as Hockett, in Scott Benic’s RWB Maxim, held off Burdette’s determined thrust on the final lap.
“Yeah, me and Stanbrough got together there on the front stretch and got me a little behind,” Gardner explained as he and crew chief Daryl Saucier examined the car in the pits. “Then he went low on that lapper and I went wide around him and he pushed a little, no fault of his, he got tight and I just barely clipped him and that was it.”
Following the victory lane ceremonies, Stanbrough was concerned about the sequence. He said, “I ran the bottom the whole race and never really saw anybody. I got into lapped traffic and Damion pulled up on the outside and when a spot opened up for me to go around the outside of the lapped car I had to go, I couldn’t wait. There was some people up (in the grandstands) yelling and screaming, saying that I caused that. But I talked to my team and they said that he ran over a lapped car. That makes me feel a little better. I certainly wouldn’t want to cause anybody to have a wreck.”
Gardner went back to his West Coast roots to describe his charge from 22nd to battle for the lead of the 30-lap KISS feature. “I was telling Daryl that it was like Chico style out west there, it was pretty cowboy up. You had to put your car on extreme and we had the car really, really nice. The hardest thing was trying to miss them when I’d go by them because they were having a really hard time. I was hoping to win from the back but I’ll have to wait for another night.”
Results: King of Indiana Sprint Series, May 16, 2008, Gas City I-69 Speedway
Heat 1: Daron Clayton 10 (4), Brady Short 36 (2), Mark Clark 42G (1), Bill Rose 6 (5), Steve Barth 14B (6), Damion Gardner 71 (8), Ted Hines 12 (3), Matt Rossi 2j (7), Ryan Hamilton 91 (DNS)
Heat 2: Jeff Bland 21S (3), Critter Malone 71 (2), Brett Burdette 17B (5), Scott Hampton 42H (9), Kyle Robbins 17R (1), Ron Dennis 32 (6), Tony Manis 74 (7), Hunter Schuerenberg 11S (8), Travis Welpott 18 (4)
Heat 3: Matt Goodnight 39 (1), Kyle Cummins 3C (5), Andrew Prather 8P (3), Shane Hollingsworth 85 (8), A.J. Anderson 11A (7), Steve Ott OTT (6), Kent Christian 1c (4), Tony Sessions 17(2)
Heat 4: Jesse Hockett 2B (4), Josh Spencer 66J (2), Thomas Messeraull 10T (8), Shain Matthews 67 (7), Jason Holt 99 (1), Rex Norris III 63 (5), Jonathan Hendrick 68 (3), Brent Smith 7 (6)
Heat 5: Scotty Weir 10E (1), Jon Stanbrough 53 (6), Adam Byrkett 78 (5), Casey Shuman 57 (4), Jared Harris 81H (3), Nevil Algieo 11A (2), Greg Van Alst 08 (7), Sammy Imel 35 (DNS)
C-Main: Hendrick (4), Mains (2), Welpott (7), Christian (3), Hines (1), Rossi (6), Sessions (8), Smith (5)
B-Main: Rose (1), Matthews (4), Shuman (5), Hollingsworth (3), Hampton (2), Robbins (7), Gardner (11), Anderson (8), Hendricks (16), Barth (6), Norris (14), Hines (20), Holt (9), Christian (19), Mains (17), Algieo (15), Harris (10), Welpott (18), Dennis (12), Ott (13)
A-Main: 1. Stanbrough (4), 2. Hockett (3), 3. Burdette (12), 4. Weir (8), 5. Shuman (19), 6. Messeraull (14), 7. Short (9), 8. Cummins (6), 9. Prather (13), 10. Matthews (17), 11. Hampton (20), 12. Rose (16), 13. Clark (11), 14. Robbins (21), 15. Goodnight (1), 16. Byrkett (15), 17. Gardner (22), 18. Bland (7), 19. Hollingsworth (18), 20. Spencer (5), 21. Clayton (2), 22. Malone (10)
KISS Points: 1. Stanbrough 150, 2. Hockett 145, 3. Burdette 140, 4. Weir 135, 5. Shuman 130, 6. Messeraull 126, 7. Short 122, 8. Cummins 118, 9. Prather 114, 10. Matthews110
SCHEDULE. The second round comes next Saturday with Lawrenceburg Speedway’s 2008 Grand Opening, adding wheel-to-wheel sprint car racing to the Memorial Day Weekend. Bloomington Speedway hosts the KISS racers and fans the following Friday night, May 30. The fourth weekend of KISS racing is a double-header, with Haubstadt’s Tri-State Speedway running Saturday night, June 7, followed by Kokomo Speedway’s annual Sunday show on June 8. The series will then celebrate the first day of summer by crowning the 2008 King Of Indiana on Saturday, June 21 at Paragon Speedway.
2008 King Of Indiana Sprint Series Schedule
Gas City I-69 Speedway Friday, May 16 Stanbrough
Lawrenceburg Speedway Saturday, May 24
Bloomington Speedway Friday, May 30
Tri-State Speedway Saturday, June 7
Kokomo Speedway Sunday, June 8
Paragon Speedway Saturday, June 21
SPONSORS. Bedford’s Indiana Stone Works, Elliottbrand Web Designs, in Westport, IN, and Kiva Networking in Bloomington are returning sponsors for the KISS series. The 2008 KISS Championship Helmet is sponsored by Simpson Performance Products, Sprint Car & Midget Magazine and Eagle Graphix.
The King of Indiana Sprint Series is organized and conducted by the individual Indiana sprint car race track promoters to provide the best sprint car racing. More information is available on our website,
www.kissracing.com.
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