The Hoosier Race Report: Comebacks and Obstacles

By Danny Burton

Danny Burton’s Hoosier Race Report appears courtesy of OpenWheelRacers.com

This was another special weekend for me. Not too often do I go to a winged sprint car race. Look at it this way. Do you like, let’s say, pecan ice cream? And do you like, let’s say, chocolate ice cream better? Well, there you have my so-called dilemma. I do like and enjoy winged sprint cars, but like the traditional sprint cars better. Oh, and I’m also a fan of most all types of racing as well.

Another part of this weekend came Friday night as I watched my first racing favorite circle the track at the Bloomington Speedway one more time. Among my first memories of going to races is that of Bob Kinser hustling his car around various and sundry Hoosier bullrings. So he and his son Steve took to the track for a brief time Friday and made lots of race fans happy. And to make it even more special, it was Steve Kinser’s birthday.

Tim Kaeding made a late race pass over Paul McMahon to win the National Sprint tour feature at Bloomington on Friday while Brady Short held off Jon Stanbrough to win the “regular” sprint feature. And Saturday night at the Lawrenceburg Speedway Brandon Petty triumphed over the field. The personable young veteran has had some trying times lately, but has taken over a Jeff Walker car recently with outstanding results.

28 sprint cars were on hand at Bloomington for the National Sprint Tour’s first of what is hoped to be many more visits. Paul Mc Mahon was quick timer at 9.72 seconds on the quarter mile high banked red clay. I watched time trials from the pit bleachers with 4 time sprint car champ Derek Scheffel, who was happy that the winged boys were in town and said that he’d never seen a bad winged race here. As it turned out, Deke’s record in that regard stayed the same.

Jason Solwald won the caution plagued first heat with Kerry Madsen and Nick Smith taking the other two heats. Jon Stanbrough won the first of the non-wing sprint car heats in a huggy polefest. The second heat saw guys trying the outside lane and having some luck as Hunter Schuerenberg edged Brady Short for the win. Josh Cunningham won the third heat over Eric Smith and Kevin Briscoe, who came back strong after a spin.

For the NST, McMahon and Tim Shaffer won the dashes which determined feature starting spots. Local boy Kevin Huntley won the B Main. Jason Holt won the B for the weekly gang. And somewhere in there the Kinser clan did their thing with Steve circling the track behind his dad, in what had to be a special few minutes for all involved.

The regular sprint cars ran their feature first with Cunningham and Derek Scheffel in the first row. Scheurenberg, Smith, Short, Stanbrough, Jon Sciscoe, Huntley (one of three doing double duty tonight; the others were Short and Briscoe), Briscoe (speak of the devil, as we say here), and Danny Holtsclaw made up the rest of the front five rows. Cunningham and Scheffel traded the lead at the beginning before Stanbrough took over on lap seven. But Brady Short was coming on. By the halfway mark he had worked his way around Stanbrough to take a lead he’d not give up, though the quiet one did give him a run for his money. Short and Stanbrough were followed by Sciscoe, Briscoe and Kenny Carmichael in fifth (from 14th on a track where it was very difficult to make a pass). Six through ten was Huntley, Smith, Scheffel, Arin McIntosh, and Cunningham. There were four different leaders and one caution flag in the race.

Next up was the NST with McMahon, Shaffer, Danny Lasoski, Shane Stewart, Tim Kaeding, and Steve Kinser starting up front. McMahon took the early lead before giving it up to Shaffer. Lasoski took the lead and was the leader at 20 laps, the halfway point. But McMahon wasn’t done. He claimed the lead on lap 23 and led until Tim Kaeding, who had been biding his time, caught McMahon as lapped traffic held up the California transplant who is driving Tony Stewart’s car this year. Kaeding made the pass on lap 38 and held on for the $10,000 win. And what of Steve Kinser, who has worked so hard over the years and had so much success? He was eighth, but still had a hand in the win as Kaeding is the driver of the Kinser team car. McMahon was second with Lasoski third. Stewart and Jason Sides were fourth and fifth. More Jasons were right behind Jason Sides. Jason Meyers was sixth and Jason Solwald was seventh. After Kinser, it was Kevin Swindell and Brian Paulus rounding out the top 10.

The NST circus moves on to Fremont, Ohio on Tuesday the sixth. Give ‘em a look.

One complaint that people make of winged sprinters is that too often the feature is of the follow the leader variety. That may be on larger tracks but put them on a bullring and see what happens. Like the weekly feature, the NST 40 lapper had four leaders and lots of passing from top to bottom. Keep that in mind if they come your way.

Saturday June 3 was a beautiful day and I celebrated by taking a short nap after arriving home from work. I woke up just in time to mosey into the Lawrenceburg Speedway as the first of three sprint heats was lining up. There was “only” 21 cars on hand tonight as Jon Stanbrough took the first heat over Derek Scheffel, Mark Hall, Derek Franks, and Travis Gregg, making a rare visit. Brandon Petty took the second heat, trailed by Ted Hines, Matt Westfall, Broc Burton, and Brent Beauchamp. And Tony Beaber won the third heat with Rodney Stone, Troy Link, Joss Moffatt, and Jason Knoke in tow. Rex Norris claimed the B Main with Jamie Williams, Toby Beck, Kyle Robbins, and Mike Weber also moving on to the main event.

During the other heat races and free time I (finally) finished the Economaki biography, and the review appears elsewhere here on owr.com. To give you an idea about our time change this summer, I was still reading at 9:30 p.m. in the parking lot with no artificial light to help. However, I did have help in reading this fine book. I believe they are called reading glasses.

The re-draw had Petty and Stone on the front row. Behind them were Scheffel, Beaber, Stanbrough, Hines, Hall, Westfall, Link, and Franks. Petty took the lead right away and kept it for the whole race. But behind him things were happening. Early on Scheffel held down second, but Stanbrough was coming on. By lap 11 he was second and had set his sights on the leader. After a lap 14 re-start after one of the five caution flags (plus a red flag as Robbins did a slow rollover and continued), Stanbrough made a strong run at Petty. But the 2005 ‘burg champ was not to be denied, taking the win.

Petty’s year has not been a breeze. His “regular” team has had money woes, prompted by too many bad breaks, crashes, etc. But a Jeff Walker car has become available and the driver has done the rest, never giving up.

Following Stanbrough was another successful story. Brent Beauchamp, who was too young to race at Bloomington the night before (NST insurance restrictions kept the youngster parked), came from 14th to take third and won the Hard Charger Award, given in memory of Gene Besecker. Westfall and Beaber were fourth and fifth. The rest of the top 10 was Stone, Moffatt (from 12th), Burton, Scheffel, and Hines.

More racing will be at Lawrenceburg this coming Saturday.

Elsewhere around Indiana this weekend, Kevin Briscoe went to Haubstadt on Saturday and won the 100 lapper and a cool $5,000. Gas City was rained out on Friday night. Billy Puterbaugh Jr. was the winner at Lincoln Park. Bill Davis was the modified winner at Shadyhill while Dennis Ireland was the victor in I-MOD action. Chad Poorman was the winner at Angola in their brand of I-MODs. 48 sprint cars were at Paragon with Jon Sciscoe and Doug Heck winning the two features.

Taking on a new job this week: giving Eddie Cheever driving lessons, I’m…

Danny Burton

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