The Hoosier Race Report: Making It Look Easy

By Danny Burton

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

I may be repeating myself, but years ago I was having a conversation with my sister-in-law about our respective jobs. Her comment was something along the lines of… if you’re making your job look easy, then you’re probably doing a good job. We all know, or should know, that driving any race car on any track is seldom, if ever, easy. But this past weekend, Jeff Bland Jr., Kevin Swindell, and Levi Jones, among many others, made it look easy as they made their way to victories at both Bloomington and Lawrenceburg.

Another hot and humid Hoosier afternoon and off to Bloomington I went, noticing the Brown County Eagles football team practicing. Must be that time of year when there may be plenty of racing left, but one can see the end of yet another Midwest racing season off in the distance.

37 sprint cars made for an impressive total with Chad Boat back in Indiana after a trip back home to Phoenix. Mike Murgoitio was in Bill Rose’s black 6; Mike is a pavement specialist who has spent much of the summer in Indiana this year. Rare have been the occasions that he has run on dirt. Casey Shuman was making one of his infrequent visits. Jared Fox was in a spare Jon Sciscoe machine.

Heat race winners were Boat, Brady Short, Sciscoe, and recent Lawrenceburg winner Jimmy Light, who prevailed in a multi-caution affair. Kent Christian won the first of two B Mains. Kevin Studley was mired back in the pack, running near the tail when he decided to try the high line. It looked like it would be only another fine effort that didn’t quite work until Ty Deckard was mugged in turn three. Ty had passed Todd Kimmel coming out of turn two and young Mr. Kimmel made a poor decision, at least it surely appeared to be so. He drove right into the back of the Deckard car and sent them tumbling. Along with A.J. Martin, both Deckard and Kimmel were done for the night and Studley found himself in the feature after starting the B in 10th spot. Out of state boys took over for the second B with Kevin Thomas Jr. from Alabama winning and Idaho’s Mike Murgoitio finishing second.

Jeff Bland Jr., who had come home second in his heat, drew the pole with Dickie Gaines beside him for the 25 lap main event. Four early caution flags flew before things settled down. Assorted bad starts, rugby like scrums, and flat tires slowed things as Gaines was one of several who had problems and had to re-start on the tail. Through it all Bland held onto his lead, eventually leaving Brady Short behind to deal with the crowd. Short held on for second with Arin McIntosh coming from 15th to take third. Russ Gamester came from 10th to take fourth. Jimmy Light made his way to fifth. Bobby Stines, Kent Christian, Jon Sciscoe, Bub Cummings, and Ricky Williams finished six through 10.

Just as Bland did, Jesse Cramer led flag to flag to win the modified feature. Chris Hillman was the super stock winner.

There will be more of the same this coming week at Bloomington with sprints, modifieds, and bombers replacing the super stocks at the famed quarter mile dirt oval.

Indiana Midget Week: A Rousing Success

USAC’s Indiana Midget Week reminds me of the late, lamented NAMARS Five Crown Series, with a group of midget/sprint doubleheaders. It began on Thursday, August 9, at Kamp’s Speedway and then moved to Gas City/I-69 Speedway on Friday. Saturday found the caravan at Lawrenceburg, where I finally caught up with the crowd.

44 USAC Midgets and 42 sprint cars jammed the pits while, for good measure, 24 mini-sprints of the AMSA were on hand. The midgets had five heats, the sprints six, and the mini-sprints “only” three heats for the night.

Jonathan Hendricks got things off by taking the first heat over Dave Darland and Brad Mosen. Brent Beauchamp won the second heat with Bobby East and Chuck Gurney Jr. trailing. The third heat saw the only flipping of the night as first Shane Cottle and then Chase Scott got upside down in separate incidents. Things settled down as Darren Hagen won the 10 lap heat over Kevin Swindell and Tom Hessert III. Brad Kuhn won the fourth heat, with Zack Daum and Shane Hollingsworth placing and showing (I like to sneak in horse racing talk when I can.). Brad Sweet was the sixth and final heat race winner. Ricky Stenhouse Jr. came from eighth to take second. Jon Stanbrough was third.

The sprints took over on what had been a classic dry, slick track and Chris Windom led Bobby Stines to the line. Dakoda Armstrong beat Blake Fitzpatrick for the second heat win. The third heat saw four Midwesterners facing three West Coasters, who had trouble negotiating such an unfamiliar surface. Levi Jones won with Matt Westfall coming in second. Dave Darland survived a bobble late in the race to hang on and win the fourth heat with Shane Golobic second. And Scott Hampton was sent to the rear for rough driving but still won the fifth heat, beating Joss Moffatt. The sixth heat saw Shane Cottle sweep from sixth to second in one lap, but he had to settle for second behind Jon Stanbrough.

It was time for the so-called dreaded B Mains and Chuck Gurney Jr. won the first one over Cory Kruseman, Gary Taylor, and Russ Harper. Jon Stanbrough took the second B Main as Dakoda Armstrong put on the show by coming from eighth to take second over Brady Bacon with Davey Ray fourth.

Steve Wilmot, a ‘burg regular, outran Kruseman to win the first of two sprint B’s. How often will that happen? Tim Spindler and A.J. Anderson also transferred to the main. John Memmer won the second consolation with Jimmy Light, Shane Hollingsworth, and Zac Osborn trailing.

Things were running somewhat smoothly, all things considered, and the USAC main event lined up with Beauchamp and Hendrick on the front row. Beauchamp would lead the first two laps before Darren Hagen took over. Lap nine brought out a caution with Armstrong tapping Brad Kuhn in turn two. Dakoda had already come from deep in the pack as this dry/slick deal was to his liking. The re-start saw Hagen leading Beauchamp, Kevin Swindell, Hendrick, Jerry Coons Jr., Brad Mosen, Armstrong, Bobby East, Ricky Stenhouse Jr., and Dave Darland trailing. But Swindell was on the move. Quickly he got around Beauchamp and began to pressure Hagen, even passing him to lead laps 10 and 11. Hagen regained the lead and led at the halfway mark over Swindell, Coons, Beauchmap, Armstrong, Stenhouse, Hendrick, East, Brad Sweet, and Darland. But Swindell was not to be denied as Sammy’s kid took over the lead on lap 20 and would hold it to the end. Hagen finished second, followed by Coons and Beauchamp, who had a fine run. Fifth was Sweet, with Stenhouse, East, Armstrong, Darland, and Hendrick rounding out the top 10.

With many guys doing the double dip tonight, many of the same faces would be in the sprint feature. Chris Windom and Dakoda Armstrong were on the front row. But Levi Jones, in the Weir family’s 22, jumped from third to first right away. Armstrong, Windom, Dave Darland (in one of the Truckers’ 10 cars), and Scott Hampton gave early chase. But Mr. Jones, from Olney, Illinois, would not be stopped and ran away with the win, and securing himself a HARF t-shirt and membership. Windom was second, followed by Armstrong, and Darland, with Blake Fitzpatrick fifth. Jon Stanbrough (in the Baldwin black 5) was sixth with Hampton, Shane Cottle, Cory Kruseman (from 15th), and Matt Westfall rounding out the top 10.

Jason Soudrette won both his heat and the mini-sprint feature. As the mini-sprints were lining up, it occurred to me that maybe Lawrenceburg promoter Dave Rudisell might wish to consider offering up a bit of extra money to anyone who can find a ride in all three classes that ran on this night and who can win all three features. This guy has shown that he is not afraid to do things like that and neither is he averse to good old fashioned promoting.

This coming weekend at the ‘burg it is Hoosier Auto Race Fans night (as it was this past Saturday). HARF is kicking in a bit of extra cash to whoever can gather the most points at three Hoosier tracks over the weekend, those being Gas City, Lawrenceburg, and Kokomo.

USAC Midget division will be at Macon, Illinois on Friday the 17th. The mini-sprints return to Lawrenceburg on the 25th.

Family Reunion

For years and years one can go to any event and see the same familiar faces over time. Quite often what is great about this is when one gets first a name to go with the face. And as one gets to know that other one better, a bond is formed. Before you know it, you’ve a new friend. Not necessarily a bosom buddy, but a friend, often for life, no matter how frequently your paths may or may not cross. You find yourself a richer individual for the experience, by the way.

Such was the case on Sunday night as I headed for Indianapolis to join my newlywed friend John Hoover, who would escort me to Kokomo for the final round of Indiana Midget Week. Throughout the evening we had the privilege of exchanging stories, saying hi to old friends and meeting new ones. Thanks to the still relatively new technology we had the opportunity to call absent friends with either updates about the night’s races or just to say hello or even both.

The night ran long and John fretted about the drive home, but more so because he had to work on Monday, which happened to be my day off (today). He took a merciless ribbing from retiree Bob Clauson, who is off work all week, of course.

But we headed out just past midnight and though a bit tired, we’d enjoyed a great time at the races. Ricky Stenhouse Jr. won the midget feature while Jon Stanbrough came on strong at the end to take the sprint feature. To quote my buddy Rich Hollmeyer, “It’s great weather, I’m with friends, and I’m at a race track. What more could I ask?”

Elsewhere…

Dickie Gaines won at Lincoln Park. Jerry Coons Jr. won the opening round of IMW at Kamps’ Speedway while Jon Stanbrough was the sprint car winner. Shane Cottle won the USAC/IMW race at Gas City while Levi Jones won the sprint finale. Scott Townsend won at Paragon. The ageless Ron Koehler won in HOSS action up at Anderson. Oogie Goff was the UMRA winner at Union County. Alan Terry was the late model winner at Angola. Mike Kingma was the IMOD winner at Plymouth, Mike’s first win of the year with the IMOD series and also car owner RacerRich’s first win this year. Brent Londeree was the modified winner at Twin Cities.

Signing up for lessons at the Dario Franchitti Flying School, I’m…

Danny Burton

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