The Hoosier Race Report: The Kid and the Dominator

By Danny Burton

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

Note: This article was written 5/29/07.

Another race weekend, Indiana’s biggest, is complete as this is written. Rain was the winner at some tracks and it also was a huge factor in our biggest race. But the rain stayed away from both Bloomington and Lawrenceburg as many of us had a glimpse of the future, Jeff Bland Jr. and the present, Jon Stanbrough. Young Bland won the Friday night feature at Bloomington while Stanbrough ran away with the 30 lap feature at the ‘burg as part of the King of Indiana Sprint Series.

28 sprint cars were in the pit area on a cloudy, mild Friday night. The format for the night would be three heats/top five to transfer. Bobby Stine won the first heat leading Danny Holtsclaw, Kent Christian, and Chad Boespflug to the line. Chris Babcock did a fine job in winning the second heat, over John Paynter, Jon Sciscoe, Cole Whitt, and Derek Franks. Brady Short, the favorite to win it all if anyone, ran off with the third heat. Jeff Bland Jr. came from eighth to finish second. Jimmy Light, Geoff Dodge, and Kenny Biro trailed.

Arin McIntosh won the B Main. She led Blake Fitzpatrick, A.J. Clark, and Eric Smith to earn starting spots 17-20 for the feature.

Holtsclaw and Stine were the front row for Rusty Nunn’s green flag. Jeff Bland, John Paynter, Chris Babcock, Brady Short, Kent Christian, Jon Sciscoe, Jimmy Light, and A.J. Martens were behind those guys and ready to pounce. Holtsclaw took the early lead over Stine and Bland. We “experts” were waiting for Short to move up and take this thing. But it was Jimmy Light making the early moves. Fairly quickly he moved to fourth when the race was stopped for a lap seven tumble by Chad Boat down the front straight. The kid from Arizona was okay, though a bit shaken, no doubt.

The re-start had Holtsclaw, Bland, Stine, Light, Short, Christian, Cole Whitt, Sciscoe, Babcock, and Martens. Jimmy Light was coming on. Soon after the red flag he passed Stine for third. On lap 14 Bland got around Holtsclaw for the lead that he would keep. Light also passed the kid from Bloomfield, IN to take second and pressure Bland. But a lap 20 re-start would be the undoing of both Light and Holtsclaw. Light’s #23 was tapped by Holtsclaw’s red #3 and spun, ending his night. Holtsclaw was black flagged and sent to the pits. Two good efforts were for naught.

This moved everyone up for the last five laps. But it didn’t matter, because no one was catching Bland. Stine held on for second, followed by Christian, Short, Sciscoe, Whitt, Martens, Kenny Biro (up from 15th), and Arin McIntosh, who came from 17th.

Matt Boknecht beat Kent Robinson by a nose in the modified feature. Jeremy Hines was the super stock winner.

One of Bloomington’s biggest races is this coming Friday, namely the Sheldon Kinser Memorial. For the 40 lap feature winner, it’s a $3000 payday. And maybe about as good, it’s the prestige of beating some of the best in the Midwest.

Same Story, Different Day, Different Track

True that Jon Stanbrough did win again in King of Indiana Sprint Series action at Lawrenceburg on Saturday night, but his domination showed that we should also watch racing in the pack. From second on back things were fun to see.

39 sprint cars were there to race, 38 of them to see if they could dislodge the Fox Brother’s team. Mat Neely won the first of four heats with Matt Westfall, Hunter Schuerenberg, and Zac Osborn all transferring to the main event. The aforementioned Mr. Stanbrough drew a front row starting spot and ran off with the second heat victory. Several car lengths back was new college graduate Shane Hollingsworth in second. Brett Burdette came from ninth to third with Brady Short, tonight in his regular Scott Benic 2B, coming from tenth to finish fourth. The Bloomington winner, Jeff Bland Jr., did a slow rollover in the third heat as Cole Whitt led Daron Clayton (in the Hoffman family’s 69 for the night!), Chad Boat, and Chad Boespflug. A.J. Anderson in the Hazen 57, won the fourth heat and Travis Welpott, Casey Shuman, and Jimmy Light all headed for the main.

The C Main took the top eight as Sammy Imel took the former Kevin Besecker car to the win and also took Tony Pederman, Brad Stevens, Jeff Bland Jr., Jamie Williams, Larry Beck, Todd Gnat, and Kevin Thomas Jr. with him to the B Main. Joss Moffatt took the B Main as Rodney Stone was second. Jamie Williams came from 17th to finish third and Ricky Williams was fourth after starting 12th.

Anderson and Welpott took the green as trouble began right away. Clayton, starting fourth, lost the handle apparently, in turn two and collected two others. The talented kid from Sikeston, Missouri was done for the night, a bitter disappointment for sure. Shane Hollingsworth and Casey Shuman were also involved but continued.

On the re-start, Anderson took the lead but Jon Stanbrough was on the prowl from his sixth starting spot. By my very unofficial count it was lap five when the plain looking 53 took the lead and began his weekly checkout. And so it went. There would be a caution, the field would gather behind the leader, and at the green, he would wave good-bye to all.

Behind Stanbrough, things were quite a sight. A lap ten caution saw Boespflug take issue with Burdette after some hard racing and spun the 17B in turn two, not winning him any more friends. At the halfway mark Stanbrough led Anderson, Neely, Westfall, Whitt, Short, Light, and Scheurenberg.

And at the end, it was as it’s been for much of the past year plus. Second place was a real dogfight with Neely winning that consolation prize. Short was third, followed by Anderson, Hollingsworth (a fine effort after re-starting from the tail spot), Westfall, Scheurenberg, Whitt, Light, and

Joey Kramer won the modified feature. The UMRA TQ midgets’ feature was taken by Oogie Goff.

Elsewhere around the state, Dario Franchitti won the rain-shortened Indianapolis 500. Eric Gordon won the Little 500, and that is eight wins for Mr. Gordon. Kevin Swindell led every lap in winning the Night Before the 500 at ORP/USAC Midget division racing on Saturday night. Levi Jones won on Wednesday in USAC sprints at Anderson. Gas City was rained out on Friday night as was the Hoosier 100. On Saturday Angola was also rained out. Don O’Neal was the late model winner at Brownstown. Shane Cottle was the Kokomo winner on Sunday night. Lincoln Park was rained out, as was Paragon. Jeremy Hines was among the winners at Twin Cities, which hosts the Wolfpack Modified Challenge this coming Saturday. Patrick Sheltra was the late model winner at Union County. And Rich, along with the rest of the Shadyhill gang, was rained out on Saturday night.

This week, it’s back to Bloomington on Friday and either Lawrenceburg or Paragon on Saturday.

Politely refusing Michael Vick’s offer to walk my mom’s dog, I’m

Danny Burton

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