The Hoosier Race Report: As the Sun Sets

By Danny Burton

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

As the sun sets on another Hoosier race season, one realizes one of the few pluses of getting older. I drove to the world famous Lawrenceburg Speedway on a very warm October evening, window rolled down, the little truck humming as always, surrounded by both corn fields (many of which have been picked) and trees on I-74. Turning off onto Indiana Road One that runs up and down Indiana’s east side, I had a nice view of some of the most beautiful hills our state has to offer. Arriving just before the scheduled 7 p.m. start time, I felt as much as home as I could feel. And then getting the opportunity to watch 71 sprint car teams scratch and claw their way to grab the $10,000 to win feature money made all the delays and whatever issues occurred worth it all. The plus side of getting older was that I appreciated the whole evening even more than I would have ten years ago. And hopefully, at some point in the future, feature winner Robert Ballou will also appreciate what it all means, long after that ten thousand dollars are spent.

Did I say 71 cars? Yep. And did I say something about delays? Yep again. No matter, I’ve been present all year for numerous re-working of race tracks, from Lawrenceburg to Haubstadt to Gas City and often, it’s a part of the show.

At 7:45 the first of six sprint heats shoved off and the fireworks began. I didn’t look, but I would not have been surprised to see a full moon. Each of the heats would be a multi-caution affair, and each would have a bit of everything.

I should have known it would be a strange night when Jerry Ruble, in the Reese’s Peanut Butter colored Jesusmobile (don’t get all righteous on me; I happen to think that the Lord has a sense of humor too) hit two cones in one lap. The first cone, the one which is used on re-starts, cost Jerry two spots. The second was Hud Cone, who went for an unwanted jaunt over turn two and had to re-start back there with Jerry. Thankfully, there was no ice cream cone on the track; Jerry might have hit that too.

Meanwhile, teammates Brady Bacon and Kevin Swindell ran one/two in the first heat; only the top two would transfer to the 50 lap feature. And on a lightning fast track that made passing extra difficult, Swindell came from eighth. Jon Stanbrough showed the perils that can come from a bad draw as he was caught up in a lap one scrum in the first turn of the first lap of the second heat. His Fox Brothers weapon was removed to the pits and the Dominator was headed for one of the two C mains. Daron Clayton fared no better, sliding over the bank twice and joining Stanbrough. This multi-caution affair was won by Jeff Bland Jr. with Kevin Thomas Jr. coming in second. Dakoda Armstrong won the third heat over Sammy Imel. Shane Cottle ran a strong third and wasn’t able to get any higher, showing again that this was, for now, a very fast track, but necessarily a racy track.

Derek Franks tried to launch his Law Brothers 77 in the fourth turn of the fourth heat, but failed. It was a pity, because he was leading at the time. And he was also fortunate he didn’t get upside down. Kyle Wissmiller, in the Don Short 36 for the night, won with Darren Hagen second. But consider that Matt Westfall came from 12th to finish fourth. The fifth heat provided the type of thrills we don’t really want to see, but they happen. For the first time in my years of going to Lawrenceburg (going back to the early 1960’s) I saw a car clear a fence and land in an area where people would normally be walking. Danny Williams Jr. took a mean enough tumble in turn four and I had brief hopes that he would quit the flipping before he reached the fence or else have the fence stop him. No such luck, but where the luck came in was when no one was hurt by the car. Danny Junior was okay, the fence was repaired somewhat, and the area was taped off. After all this, Robert Ballou won the heat over Ricky Williams Jr. More upside down antics in the sixth heat as Todd Kimmel took a tumble as the green flag waved. Dave Darland won this heat with Casey Shuman second after starting tenth. Before he was done for the night, little Shu probably passed more cars than anyone else in the Paul Hazen 57.

Two C mains would take two cars each to the two B’s. Attrition trimmed the 12 car starting field of the first C in half as Stanbrough and Clayton both advanced. In the second C, it was Cole Whitt and Chad Boespflug running first and second. The two B mains would each send the top four to the feature. Kent Christian won the first, with Cottle, Jerry Coons Jr., and Bret Burdette trailing. Clayton ended a less than stellar night by flipping as the checkered waved, and it wasn’t even his fault. A.J. Anderson won the second last chance race, followed by Matt Westfall, Kevin Briscoe and Alex Shanks.

Four provisionals were taken by Kyle Cummins, Chris Windom (both via the MSCS), Joss Moffatt, and Derek Franks (both via the Lawrenceburg points standings). I didn’t mind these type of provisionals so bad, partly because these are four good guys, but mostly because they didn’t knock anyone else out of the starting lineup for the feature.

That lineup had Bacon and Ballou on the front row with K. Wissmiller, Darland (in the 24 Hour Truckers’ 10t tonight), Bland, Armstrong, Swindell, Thomas, Imel, and Hagen all ready to move up. Let the record show that I predicted seven yellows for the feature, earning a lot of dirty looks from my companions. I guessed high, though at the start we all wondered.

Bacon took the early lead with lots of pressure from Ballou. Three early cautions made sure that lapped traffic would not be a factor. And when Coons brought out a lap 16 caution flag just as the leaders were reaching lapped traffic, both the leaders and the lappers got a reprieve. On the re-start it was Bacon, Ballou, Darland, Swindell, Imel, Armstrong, Wissmiller, Shuman, Thomas, and R. Williams. It was a couple of laps later when Ballou took the lead and would keep it the rest of the way.

One thing we should learn by reading any sports box score is that the numbers don’t lie, but also don’t tell the whole story. And so it was here too. True, Mr. Ballou led the rest of the way, but eventually Swindell would make it interesting during and after the race. Halfway at 25 laps and by now Swindell had moved to second behind Ballou. Bacon was third, trailed by Darland, Imel, Armstrong, Shuman (from 12th), Wissmiller, Anderson (from 14th), and Thomas. Only 16 of the 24 starters were still running, all on the lead lap.

As the laps wound down I could not help but recall early this year at Terre Haute when Ballou and Swindell had an unfortunate meeting. Ballou had stalled on the back stretch and Swindell nailed him in the tail tank, sending both cars flipping wildly. And here they were again.

Positions changed behind them but Swindell stalked Ballou’s every move to the end, but could not get around the California speedster. Imel had problems, ruining a fine run. Bacon retired from the race as well. But Ballou won by a small margin over Swindell, with Darland third. Shuman was coming on strong and finished fourth. The same was true for Anderson, who was fifth. The second five was Cottle (a late charge from 13th), Armstrong, Wissmiller, Bland, and Thomas.

Post-race interviews went on as I was talking on the phone (to the third place finisher’s sister) and suddenly the crowd began to boo and hoot. As it turned out Swindell had commented that he had been blocked throughout much of the race. We could only chuckle at that.

Not that I minded, but the hour was late and the crowd was large. The crowd was also in a hurry to leave. Not me, I was glad to let the departees leave before I made my escape. This was probably my last trip to Lawrenceburg this year and I was in no hurry to leave such a place. I hung around long enough to see most of Jerry Back’s win in the super stock feature.

But leave I did and took the “back roads” home, meaning that I stayed away from the interstate. So one last time it was just me and the little truck with the radio still tuned to the NPR station making our way through the Indiana hills. From Aurora to Osgood to Greensburg, the stars were out and not the Hollywood types either. These stars tend to stick around a bit and make for an attractive backdrop.

2:30 a.m. and the long, 21 hours awake, day was nearing its end. I’d said my good-bys to another track for the 2007 season. Bloomington, Haubstadt, Gas City, and now Lawrenceburg, good-by to you all, friends. Hope to see you all in a few short months.

Laughing off George Steinbrenner’s threats to fire me, I’m…

Danny Burton

Visit OpenWheelRacers.com for all of the latest open wheel racing news, results, and information.