The Hoosier Race Report: The Great Escape

By Danny Burton

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

People need an escape. We all need to get away, if only for a short while. Home, work, family, money, and health issues can drag one down from time to time. So we need to take a break, put the issues aside for a few hours or days even. And for race fans, the method of escape is a no-brainer. Whether it’s for a weekend or for several days, the race fan needing a respite from everything from clueless bosses, ex-spouses, or the day to day trials, heads for a favorite race track, rather than watch a race on TV. So my solution to this problem of getting away was to… get away. First to Bloomington on Friday and then over to Lawrenceburg on Saturday night.

Dickie and Kent Howl Wolf

The world famous Bloomington Speedway had the modifieds taking front stage on Friday night with sprint cars playing second fiddle. Both features were of good quality and very competitive, but the sprint feature, with several lead changes among three different cars, was the best seen through these tired eyes in some time. Dickie Gaines Jr. finally prevailed over Jeff Bland Jr. and Jon Sciscoe while Kent Robinson passed Josh Eads midway through the modified feature to win this round of the Wolfpack Modified Challenge.

31 sprint cars were in the pits with Kevin Briscoe back for a rare appearance and Thomas Meseraull here from out west, probably getting ready for Sprint Week.

Heat race winners were Danny Holtsclaw, Jeff Bland Jr., Dickie Gaines, and Jon Sciscoe. Meseraull came from last to finish second in the first heat. Chad Boespflug got some air time early in the third heat. He didn’t do a total flip, but the cage didn’t impact the ground. Nevertheless, despite the team’s best efforts, they were done for the night. In the fourth heat, Kevin Briscoe and Jon Sciscoe showed that one could pass using the high groove. A.J. Martin won the B Main as Eric Smith gave away a transfer spot as he spun in turn four of the very last lap while running third.

Gaines and Sciscoe were the front row, leading Joe Roush, Bland, Andrew Prather, Holtsclaw, Arin McIntosh, Meseraull, Scott Hampton, and a very young Coleman Gulick to the line. Right away the battle for the lead began. Sciscoe took the early lead over Gaines and had control for the first six laps. Bland ran third for the time being, biding his time. Dickie took the lead and held it for the next four laps until Bland led for a lap before giving way to the Mitchell, Indiana speedster.

Halfway done and Gaines led Bland, Sciscoe, Holtsclaw, Prather, Roush, McIntosh, John Paynter (up from 18th), and Briscoe. Sciscoe had faded but still had the leaders in sight. Bland took the lead on lap 15 as Sciscoe also got past Gaines for one lap. But Jon was passed by Gaines again; Dickie was second when the race’s only yellow flag waved on lap 17. At the re-start Bland led Gaines, Sciscoe, Holtsclaw, Prather, Paynter, Roush, McIntosh, Briscoe, and Todd Kimmel. But Gaines made yet another pass for the lead, which he would keep to the checkered. Bland and Sciscoe held on for second and third. Behind them things were also busy. Paynter returned from a week’s absence to take fourth with Kevin Briscoe making a late charge to finish fifth. The second five was Holtsclaw, Prather, Kenny Niflis, Roush, and Kimmel.

In the Wolfpack feature, Eads was looking to be in control until he was hung up somewhat in lapped traffic. Kent Robinson took over from there and led the rest of the way to take the prize. He was trailed by Eads, Shelby Miles, Ray Humphrey, and Greg Amick.

I caught up with Wolfpack main man Tim Wolfe, sporting longer hair than I’ve ever seen him wear due to an accident where his head came out second best. Despite the recent Terre Haute debacle where Tim tried to make an impossible situation work, he was in good spirits and his love of racing is alive and well. I had the feeling that the 2007 season for the Action Track is probably history, but things should be looking up for 2008, no matter who will be in charge. Lessons learned, we all hope.

The super stock feature was no slouch either as Jack Frye slid across the finish line with Travis Todd spinning across the line in second. Just your average night at Bloomington it was.

This coming Friday sprint cars will not be running at Bloomington, but the UMRA/TQ Midgets visit along with the regular modified and super stock classes running too.

Night of the Hunter

“Bikinis, beer and racin’ ” was Dave Rudisell’s cry for the July 7 edition of racing at Lawrenceburg. I stayed away from the beer, but there was plenty of the other two last night. I heard that there were 127 cars in the pits, which meant that 1. It would be a long night and 2. The track might have a bit of character to it. And it turned out to be just that way with a long night of nearly everything you could want or not want happen. But Hunter Schuerenberg came away with the winner’s trophy, taking his first Lawrenceburg win in a year.

There would be six heat races for sprinters, which followed John Draper’s win in the mini-sprint makeup feature and Jerry Back’s triumph in the super stock makeup. Dakoda Armstrong, Blake Fitzpatrick, A.J. Anderson, Hunter Schuerenberg, Chad Boespflug, and Bub Cummings were heat winners. The fourth heat was marred by a double flip. Mark Hall got sideways going into turn one and Brad Stevens, along with Toby Beck, flipped as they tangled. Shane Cottle narrowly missed it. Toby was taken to the hospital and the last report was that he had a concussion with some bumps and bruises. Brad was okay, but his 2007 race season took another hit. He trashed the car back in April, had some other troubles with the car, and had it fixed for Saturday night. Hopefully the car wasn’t hurt too badly. The fourth heat finished with only three cars running.

Scott Hampton, remember that name; this young man is starting to impress folks around here. He won the first of two B Mains with Joss Moffatt taking the other. Loading up early was Russ Gamester and Dickie Gaines, among others. Dickie’s misfortune showed both the fickleness of racing as well as the level of competition in these parts.

The heat race winners started in the order of the heat races they won with second place finishers starting behind them, so Larry Beck, Derek Franks, Brett Burdette, Shane Cottle, Casey Shuman, and Rodney Stone made up rows four through six.

Fitzpatrick took off from his front row starting spot to grab the lead which he would keep for eight laps until Schuerenberg made a nifty move to take command. Hunter didn’t exactly run away from everyone but held enough of a lead so he wasn’t really threatened for the rest of the race. In the pack would be found the best racing. Fitzpatrick held onto second until after the last re-start for a lap 20 caution. A.J. Anderson had run fourth at the halfway mark behind the two kids, and Dakoda Armstrong, followed by Burdette, and Cottle. In the last five laps people seemed to have that sense of urgency that my supervisor at work wishes that I had. Many positions behind the leader changed hands. Anderson moved to second as Fitzpatrick and Armstrong faded. Hampton came from 13th to take third while Matt Westfall (a Friday night winner at Ohio’s Moler Speedway) came from 18th to finish fourth. Casey Shuman also made a late charge to take fifth after starting 11th. The second five were Fitzpatrick, Armstrong, Cottle, Shane Hollingsworth (from 17th), and Burdette.

I hung around long enough to see Joey Kramer win the modified feature. The wristwatch and common sense, for a change, persuaded me to leave, but Dustin Hueston won the regularly scheduled mini-sprint A Main. As for the super stocks, Jerry Back repeated his earlier win with another, which meant he had won two features at the ‘burg on one program in two calendar days of racing.

This week at Lawrenceburg is the biggie, or at least one of them as USAC sprints come to town for the first two rounds of Indiana Sprint Week. Mini-sprints will be the support class on Wednesday night while modifieds will serve that role on Thursday. The USAC road show will move to Gas City on Friday and Saturday this coming week. “Da ‘burg” will not have any racing on Saturday night. Dave Rudisell will hopefully take the night off.

From around Indiana…

Danny Smith won as the Midwest All-Stars invaded Paragon. Billy Puterbaugh Jr. won at Lincoln Park while Shane Cottle was the Gas City winner. Shelby Miles took the Brownstown edition of the Wolfpack Challenge. Frank Kimmel II won the Firecracker 200 at Salem. Lee Hobbs went north to Montpelier to win in modified action. Marty O’Neal was the late model winner at Union County while Ed Hounshell was the modified winner. Jeff Parr was the late model winner way up at Angola, another Hoosier track you should visit. More late models, Jack Landis won at Plymouth. Jeff Leka traveled to Shadyhill to take home the $3000 prize in modified action on July Fourth. McKay Wenger won up there last night while Toby Howard got ‘er done for the IMOD’s. Thanks, Kris. Things are getting underway at Haubstadt as this is written. The UMRA was rained out at Rushville, but local boy Derek Fisher won here (well, about five miles south of downtown) in TQ midgets on Friday night. HOSS and winged sprints were at New Paris and Jason Blonde was the feature winner up there.

Still More!

Perhaps you’ve read by now about the weirdness of the date 7-7-07. At Lawrenceburg Marv and I talked a bit with Kevin Besecker, who spends a good part of his time wrenching for the Armstrong team. Jokingly Marv made a comment about Dakoda’s number 7a. And then someone said he’d probably finish seventh in the feature. Read above and you’ll see that, sure enough, he came in seventh.

Speaking of the Beseckers, I offer belated thanks to Kevin for giving me some Tylenol last week for my aching back. And also I’d like to thank his wife Lauren for the Maid-Rite hamburgers last week on John Hoover’s birthday.

Recently racing lost two good friends, Bill Biddle and Bob Daniels. They will be missed.

Sprint Week is only three days away. For teams, officials, and fans, it will be a grind, but yet a labor of love. There should be many interesting stories come out of this. Hopefully it will be a safe and prosperous time for all concerned. And hopefully the weather will co-operate. Finally, we hope for no more rainouts, phantom or otherwise.

Getting myself a referee’s shirt for my next match, Sam Hornish Sr. versus Tony Kanaan, I’m…

Danny Burton

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