The Hoosier Race Report: Dickie Doubles Down

By Danny Burton

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

If Dickie Gaines is a gambler, maybe he should have doubled his bet this past weekend. After winning at Bloomington with a last lap pass, he had it comparatively easy the following night at Lawrenceburg, winning by several car lengths. Of course that is with hindsight, which is most always 20/20, unless you have blinders on, which way too many politicians do these days (what else is new?).

September 15 was the last night for sprint cars to tackle the red clay high banks of Bloomington this year and 37 sprint car teams wanted to try their luck. Four heats, two B Mains, and a 25 lap feature would determine a winner. California visitor Robert Ballou got things off to a rousing start, but not in the way that he’d planned. Midway through the first heat, he finally lost control of the 81 and went tumbling off turn two, landing in the staging area for modifieds and super stocks. Thankfully, there were no cars parked there at the time. Mitch Cunningham, in the Farmer 11F, won the first heat, followed by Jason Holt, soon to be wed Tim Spindler, and 2006 track champ Kevin Briscoe, who had to be nervous as he had been following Ballou earlier. Hunter Schuerenberg won the second heat over Bobby Stines, Chris Windom, and Brady Short, who came from ninth and last starting spot. Dickie Gaines outran Cole Whitt in a forecast of what was to come for the third heat win. Kenny Carmichael Jr. was third with Danny Holtsclaw fourth. Jared Fox simply checked out to take the fourth heat with Jimmy Light, Kent Christian, and Ty Deckard trailing. Jeff Bland Jr. is a local modified hot shoe who was making his sprint car debut tonight. The youngster made it through turn one, but turn two bit him, and good. It was “say hi to Bloomington, kid” as Bland got on his top exiting turn two. To be fair, this young man will likely be back next year in a sprint car and should be a fine racer as he has been in the modified division.

Each of the two B Mains would send the top two finishers to the feature. Kenny Carmichael took the first with John Memmer also moving to the main event. Dakoda Armstrong held off Kolt Walker in the other B.

The draw for the feature had Stines and Holt up front, with Fox, Whitt, Light, Scheurenberg, Cunningham, Gaines, Spindler and Windom making up the top ten starters. Whitt shot from his fourth spot to take the lead with Holt, Stines and Fox in tow. Soon afterwards Holt made an early exit with a flat tire. Gaines was biding his time, it seemed, hanging in there in fifth. About halfway through and Whitt, Stines, and Fox led Schuerenberg, Windom, Gaines, Christian, Briscoe, and Light after a yellow for Spindler. If there was a turning point of the race it came on lap 21 when Jared Fox had problems. Gaines had moved to third and wasn’t done. After having Schuerenberg run him hard into turn one, Gaines sat up in the seat a bit more and passed the kid from Missouri for second on lap 22. Next was Whitt and the baby faced kid from out West would be tough to pass. But after taking the white flag, Whitt bounced a bit too hard off the turn one cushion and Gaines pounced. Dickie took the lead and held on for the big W. Whitt was followed by Windom, Scheurenberg, and Kevin Briscoe, who had started 13th. Brady Short came from 14th for sixth. Kent Christian was seventh after starting 12th. D. Holtsclaw was eighth after starting 15th. Jimmy Light was ninth and Kenny Carmichael, from B Main land, was tenth from 17th.

Tim Wolfe and his touring WolfPack Challenge was also at Bloomington after an August rainout. 40 UMP style modifieds jammed the pits. Ray Humphrey won the feature after taking the lead from Bloomington point leader Kent Robinson midway through the feature to take the win. Ryan Thomas was second with John DeMoss third. Jeff Bland Jr. (remember him?) came from 13th to take fourth over Carlos Bumgardner.

Kevin Arthur won the super stock feature after early leader Chris Hillman’s car broke on him.

Bloomington wraps it up for another year this coming Friday when the modifieds and super stocks take center stage; both features will pay a cool $1250.

Meanwhile, at da ‘burg

Another sunny and cool evening and I could tell that my vacation was soon to end. It had been a fun and relaxing week, most of which was spent in the beautiful mountains of western North Carolina. But we’d arrived home late on Thursday, leaving me plenty of time to get to Bloomington on Friday and to Lawrenceburg on Saturday.

41 sprint cars (along with 54 modifieds) helped fill the pits as Lawrenceburg moved into the final weeks of the Tom Wieck era as the ‘burg’s promoter. He will be missed, but it is hoped that the new promoters will carry on much as Tom has these past few years. (Don’t get me started on the concept of politicians trying to dictate to racing people how racing should be conducted.)

Tonight we’d be treated to five heats, a C and B Main, along with the feature. Only the top three would transfer to the main event. With the impressive car count, no doubt some people who would normally make the big show would be loading up early.

Mike Miller came from sixth to win the first heat over Troy Link, who came from last (ninth), and Donnie Brackett. Matt Westfall won the second heat, leading Shane Hollingsworth and Joss Moffat, from last, across the line. Jon Stanbrough, in the Daughtery 14x tonight, led Hunter Schuerenberg and Brent Barry, from last. Dickie Gaines was the fourth heat winner with Chris Windom and racin’ Jason Knoke trailing. Jerry Ruble came all the way from the banks of the Wabash to win the fifth heat over Rick Vaughn and John Memmer. All this in maybe 30 minutes too.

The six modified heats only ran a bit longer than that, even with a brief red flag. At some point during the evening I wandered, dinner in hands, back to the old truck, only to be accosted by none other than Rodney Reynolds, sometime sprint car owner. We’d known of each other, but Rodney was good enough to come up and say hello. As I ate dinner and John Hoover joined us, Rodney averaged about a funny story per minute as we stood and talked, with much laughter as well. It was time well spent, to be sure.

And then Rodney, John, and the rest of us saw another Rodney, young Mr. Stone, win the C Main. Rodney Stone wasn’t done. From his 16th starting spot, he moved through the field to nearly transfer into the feature. Derek Franks won the B Main, which superfan/friend Marv said contained no less than three ‘burg feature winners, Franks, second place Matt Hardin, and third place Tony Beaber. Dakoda Armstrong was fourth and Kyle Simon held off Stone for the 20th starting position in the feature.

The re-draw for the main had Miller and Schuerenberg in the front row. Gaines and Stanbrough made for a hard hitting second row. Ruble, Hollingsworth, Windom, Vaughn, Link, and Westfall would trail, but in some cases, not for long. Things got off to a nasty start, at least for Larry Beck, who ran over a wheel and went for wild ride in turn one on the first lap. Larry was okay and action resumed. Mike Miller took a brief, early lead, but Schuerenberg soon took over. Gaines and Windom were on the move early. Gaines soon joined Schuerenberg for the battle at the front. Before lap 10 the leaders reached lapped traffic and the veteran Gaines caught and passed the kid. After a mid-race yellow flag the order was Gaines, Scheurenberg, Windom, Stanbrough, Westfall, Memmer (from 15th to sixth), Link, Hollingsworth, Miller, Knoke, and Moffat. Gaines would hold the lead and expand it a bit to the end, but behind him and Scheurenberg was quite a fight to the very end. Troy Link used the high groove to make his way to the top five, then made a great dive bombing move off turn four down low to take third from Westfall. Jon Stanbrough was fifth. Windom faded late to sixth, followed by Hollingsworth, Knoke (from 14th), Memmer, and Moffat. This was Dickie’s first Lawrenceburg feature win of the year.

Jerry Back won the modified feature over John DeMoss. Jerry wasn’t happy to stop there; he also was the super stock winner. Herb Asbury, a new Hoosier Auto Race Fans member, was the pure stock victor.

Elsewhere around the state, the weather was the winner at the Premier Racing event at O’Reilly Raceway Park. At Brownstown nice guy Steve Barnett was the dirt late model winner. Shane Hollingsworth won at Gas City on Friday night. Terry English was the Kamp’s Speedway late model winner. Blake Bjorklund won the ARCA race at Salem, beating Frank Kimmel. Cole Whitt won on Saturday night at Lincoln Park. My old buddy Kevin Chambers and Danny Holtsclaw won at Paragon on September 9.

Persuading Dave DeSpain to loosen up a bit, I’m…

Danny Burton

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