The Hoosier Race Report: The Road Less Traveled

By Danny Burton

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

When someone takes the road not traveled by others, the risks can be greater, but so can the rewards. When taking the less popular path, one assumes the attitude that they will either reach that desired destination, or at least will have done their best. And when that someone is a young man perhaps the reward is even more so. Friday, May 5th, at the Lawrenceburg Speedway, that young man was Chris Windom and his road less traveled was the low groove on what most thought was a one groove track. He showed more patience than many trained professional drivers and stuck to his guns in winning the 25 lap sprint feature at the ‘burg.

Cloudy skies and a significant breeze greeted fans and teams alike as yours truly arrived just in time to see the first sprint car heat line up. The car count was healthy (32 sprint cars) with four heats on the program. My own guess is that weather kept the crowd’s numbers down somewhat. Two storied race fan clubs, the Hoosier Auto Race Fans and the Dayton Auto Race Fans, were guests of the track, with members getting in at a discount.

Danny Burton, Chris Windom, John Hoover

Chad Boespflug won the first heat, leading Scotty Weir (back for a weekend before heading back out west), Tim Spindler, and Derek Franks to the line. New daddy Matt Westfall passed Jimmy Light on the last lap to win the second heat with Brett Burdette, and the ageless Troy Link trailing. Rookie Todd Noblitt won the third heat, holding off Chris Windom, Toby Beck, and Tony Reed. In the fourth heat, Shane Cottle had his own little race, romping to the win with Wil Nedderman, Bobby Stine (opting out of racing at Putnamville for his own reasons), and Joss Moffatt.

Most all of the racing during the heat races for all classes was around the top, with the low groove playing the role of a girl (or guy) jilted on Prom Night. With the AMSA mini-sprints racing on Friday, combined with the robust breezes from the north and northeast, the track dried out quicker than promoter Dave Rudisell would have liked. Few, if any, tried the lower groove, but one could still speculate how long it would be before anyone would try and make it work. So race fans in that mindset would be rewarded come feature time.

Chris Nabor took the B Main, with Arin McIntosh, Bret Mellenberndt, and Springer Smith all trailing and tagging the A Main lineup.

The re-draw had Boespflug and Westfall on the front row. The second row had a rookie, Noblitt, who had made a successful debut the week before with a fifth place run, and a veteran, Shane Cottle. Weir, Light, Windom, Nedderman, Spindler, and Burdette would be hoping for a move to the front.

Westfall took the early lead as, sure enough, most all ran up top. But Windom looked low for a few laps, and then decided to stay high as he trailed Westfall, Cottle, and Weir. By the halfway mark, Windom has moved to third as he’d gone the huggy pole route. It was tough sledding as Weir got around the kid from Illinois by the time a lap 19 caution flew. Six laps to go and it was still Westfall, Cottle, Weir, Windom, Light, Burdette, Nedderman, Boespflug, Moffatt (from 16th), and McIntosh (from 18th).

On the re-start, it was plain that Windom’s domain of the low groove was finally paying dividends. The top shelf was slowly fading. Others behind him were trying the low side as Chris passed two of the best around the Midwest, first Cottle, then Westfall. Windom would win by several car lengths as a last minute dogfight ensued for the other top spots. Westfall held on for second with Weir edging Cottle for third. Jimmy Light was a steady fifth. The second five was Burdette, Moffatt, McIntosh, Boespflug, and Spindler.

Two races I’ve seen at Lawrenceburg this year so far and both features have been nothing short of outstanding. First, it was Levi Jones’ photo finish two weeks ago and then last night’s action. Now, if only we can get this Indiana weather to co-operate…

I managed to get a laugh out of the sprint winner as John Hoover and yours truly presented him with his HARF t-shirt and free membership when I told him that now he’d won back some of that Super Bowl bet that he’d lost. (Oh, Chris is a Chicago Bears fan, by the way. Enough said?)

Danny Burton and Mike Kiser

Hoover bailed out and I didn’t mind sticking around to hand out HARF awards to mini-sprint feature winner Mike Kiser, all the way here from New York, and Matt Boknecht, who also used the low groove to win. Matt’s dad is Denny Boknecht, whom I recall seeing race at Brownstown just a few years ago and who still races. I should also mention that the sprint feature was over at 9:45.

My Lincoln Park source said nothing about a full moon in the western Indiana skies, but did say that both leaders in the feature were taken out in separate incidents. On the same lap. So as Jon Sciscoe and Jon Stanbrough stewed in the pits, Casey Shuman was the winner. Elsewhere in our state, James Robertson, Chett Gerhke, and Kyle Hamilton were among feature winners at Anderson. Bloomington was rained out on Friday night. Scott Hantz was the winner in late model action up at Angola. Jon Stanbrough won on Friday night at Gas City. Brownstown was rained out. Billy Leslie, Tracy’s boy, won in ARCA action up at Winchester. Brent Londeree and Steve Godsey were among Twin Cities’ winners. Union County was rained out on Friday night. The Jeffersonville Sportsdrome didn’t race on Saturday because of some horse race just across the river.

Two short track racers were killed in separate accidents up in Michigan over this weekend just concluded. Stan Perry, who raced at Angola and many other tracks, apparently died as a result of a medical issue, rather than the crash that he had at Spartan Speedway near Lansing. Scott Seaton, who raced with the AVSS, was killed at Auto City Speedway near Flint. They will be missed.

Busy working on a racing etiquette book for individuals (let’s not call them race fans) who throw lethal objects onto a race track, I’m…

Danny Burton

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