The Hoosier Race Report: The Quiet One and the Kid

By Danny Burton

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

Indiana, I suppose, is a short track race fan’s dream. This past weekend a serious race fan could have seen four races in three days had (s)he the time and money. And quite a few of my friends did just that. Thanks to the weather and some of the best competition seen in these parts, short track fans in this area had to be quite satisfied, and tired, as of Sunday night.

Bloomington, IN- Only in its third year, the Elliottbrand Clash is rapidly becoming a must see for race fans and a must enter for race teams who are serious about taking home some good cash money. Steve Elliott has worked harder than most of us will ever know to make this happen. Each year it has become bigger and better (it’s quite possible for any event to become bigger, but quite often it does not necessarily become better, too). It was possible that a racer could have taken home $5100 for the night and Jon Stanbrough nearly did it. As it was, the Quiet One did score an impressive win at Bloomington and an even more impressive victory the following night at Lawrenceburg against USAC’s best in sprint car action.

42 cars were on hand at Bloomington, including Californian visitors (and honorary Hoosiers) Damion Gardner, in a third 24 Hours Truckers’ car, and Cory Kruseman, in one of three Keith Kunz machines.

Though Bloomington has gone to a draw format for lineups this year for regular shows, for the Clash, time trials would be held. Mat Neely turned quick time at 11.381 seconds. Five heats would be held, with the top three transferring. A “C” Main would move the top five to the “B”, with the top five from that race starting in the main event.

Kent Christian won the first heat over Missouri visitor Derek O’Dell and Neely. Mat’s teammate Damion Gardner spun and came back to finish fourth. The second heat was a Keith Kunz parade with Cory Kruseman leading Darren Hagen and Bryan Clauson across the line. Derek Scheffel, who had qualified second, just missed a transfer spot. Dave Darland took the third heat and 2005 Bloomington track champ Kevin Briscoe was second. Mitch Cunningham was third, beating Daron Clayton, who spun and came back to finish fourth. Dickie Gaines was the winner of the fourth heat, leading Brady Short and Bud Kaeding to the line. And the fifth heat was claimed by Justin Marvel, who has had a rough start to this season, with Jon Stanbrough second and Jon Sciscoe third. Jay Drake spun twice and fell out of the race.

Drake did win the C Main and took Brent Beauchamp, Bobby Stine, Kenny Carmichael Jr., and Dakoda Armstrong with him to the B. Clayton took the B Main (which looked like your normal A Main lineup) over Scheffel, Jared Fox, Gardner, and Jeremy Campbell, who took the final transfer spot on the last lap. Brent Beauchamp led a good group of sad racers who loaded up too early to go home.

The order of events was changed around a bit and the modifieds ran their feature first. Jesse Kramer took the lead from Ray Humphrey on lap 11 and cruised to a win.

The sprint lineup had Gardner and Stanbrough leading the way to the green, followed by Kaeding, Clayton, Scheffel, Neely, Darland, Fox, Christian, and Clauson. True, Stanbrough did take the lead on the first lap and keep it for all 30, but in the closing laps a serious dog fight developed among those behind second place Bud Kaeding and third runner Daron Clayton. Derek Scheffel, Dave Darland, Dickie Gaines, Bryan Clauson, and Cory Kruseman all sliced and diced their way in a vain attempt to join the first three. At the end, Darland passed Scheffel for fourth, with Derek getting as much out that car as anyone could. The track champ did more with less and did it better than any one of the 42 cars on hand for the Clash. The second five was Gaines, Clauson, Gardner, Kruseman, and Christian. The Kruser was quite impressive as he started 17th and made his way to ninth at the end.

The crowd was decent, not a record breaker and here’s hoping that Steve Elliott and promoter Mike Miles even made a little money after paying bills, wages, prize money, and insurance-well, you get the picture. Racing continues this Friday night at Bloomington; it will be a HARF night. Hoosier Auto Race Fans will get 50% off their general admission. That’s five dollars to get in, kids.

Lawrenceburg, IN- We need reminding every now and then not to take things for granted. Believe me, I’m playing bachelor this week as my wife is up north spoiling our grandson and I’m here having to do all this stuff myself. At least the view of the back yard is nice as I wash dishes.

Saturday evening I was ready with a plan. I meant to leave work and head straight to the ‘burg after changing clothes. But ominous looking clouds to the east gave me pause. So….home I went to check the radar. The only green spots on the radar were fleeting and off to the southwest, so off I went to see the USAC boys tackle the quarter mile high banks hard by the Ohio River.

43 sprint cars were signed in for the night. Those people who favor a draw system had to be chuckling as the track went through some major changes as qualifying went on. Basically those with a late draw were out of luck, as the track went dry/slick midway through time trials. (Later, a good watering, the sun setting, a 9 p.m. brief rain shower, and the moisture that typically rises out of the ground after sunset made for a decent surface, with lots of passing, slide jobs, etc.)

Levi Jones was quickest with a 12.281 lap. Levi did go out fairly early, as I recall. Kevin Briscoe, who gets around this place fairly well, went out late and was stuck with a 13.493. The popular southern Indiana racer would be in the non-qualifiers’ heat, with the top four tagging the end of each heat race. Marc Arnold won that six lap sprint, followed by Briscoe, Shane Hollingsworth, Derek Franks.

Tony Stewart’s team ran one/two in the first heat with Josh Wise winning and Levi Jones coming on late to take second. Both came from the fourth row to run up front. Ted Hines and Scotty Weir were third and fourth. The lineup for the second heat looked to be evenly matched from top to bottom and sure enough, it was a 10 lap barnburner. Shane Cottle came from eighth to win it with Daron Clayton, Jay Drake, and Bryan Clauson right behind. Jerry Coons qualified late, started on the pole of the third heat, and won. Justin Marvel was second. Cory Kruseman and Jon Stanbrough, fresh off his Elliott Brand Clash win of the night before, ran third and fourth. The fourth and last heat was taken by Dickie Gaines. Dave Darland, another late qualifier, was second with John Wolfe and Brandon Petty (with a sick sounding engine) both coming from the back row to finish third and fourth. Normally fast guys who qualified late would be starting in the back half of the feature. The guys and I were all thinking that the fine track conditions and the backloaded field would make for a great race.

Bud Kaeding won the last chance race with Derek O’Dell, Mat Neely, Matt Westfall, Jason Knoke, and Brady Short also transferring into the feature. For the second weekend in a row, Broc Burton missed a transfer spot by one position, tough luck for my “cousin.”

How appropriate that lightning flashed off to the north as the feature lined up. This used to be called the “Thunder and Lightning” division of USAC, so why not a bit of a light show during the race?

Drake and Wise led ‘em to the green, with Petty, Westfall, Cottle, Jones, Kaeding, Wolfe, Weir, and Neely ready to pounce. A red flag would wave right off the bat as Coons and Darland got together in turn two with the Arizona kid doing a soft rollover. Coons was done, and not long after, Darland would be too. Drake took the lead on the re-start with Westfall, Wise, Jones, and Cottle in hot pursuit. After a lap 11 caution flag for a spin, Drake led Cottle, Wise, Kaeding, Neely, Jones, Westfall, Stanbrough (from 14th), Short, and Petty. As things shook out, Cottle made his way to the front, using the lowest line possible out of turn four on lap 12. Soon Kaeding joined him for a classic duel, with each passing the other at least once per lap. By now, at the midpoint of the race, Stanbrough was up to fourth. Perhaps the turning point of the race was lap 23, when a debris caution came out. Cottle, Kaeding, and Drake all had to know that the black and white 53 was right behind them and ready to rumble. Sure enough, on the re-start, Stanbrough passed Drake and set his sights on the front two, Kaeding having passed Cottle for the lead. By the time the white flag flew Stanbrough had Kaeding in his view and made the pass on the last lap to take his second win in two nights, this one also worth $4000. There had been four leaders in the 30 laps; Stanbrough led only one lap, but it was the biggie.

Also at the ‘burg Bub Balsley was the super stock winner. The modified and the mini-sprint features were rained out. By then I was headed west as the road became drier and drier. By the time I reached Greensburg the stars were shining and the temperature had dropped.

This coming Saturday, April 29, Lawrenceburg Speedway will feature more of the same: non-wing sprints, modifieds, mini-sprints, and super stocks. And yes, Virginia, make-up features will be run for the mini-sprints and modifieds.

Winchester, IN- Seems as if the kid did it again, this time holding off a snarling pack of sprint car/pavement experts to win at the scary fast Winchester Speedway. If you are a casual race fan, or a NASCAR fan who has wandered here for whatever reason, know this name: Bryan Clauson. There is a decent chance you’ll be reading that name in years to come. Be patient, the young man is still 16 years old, and is a few years away from Nextel Cup-land. But his victory at Winchester on Sunday, a track where he has never raced (only about 50-60 laps early last week in a test session), was, at the very least, impressive.

I’m inclined to think that you could have trashed Winchester Speedway owner Charlie Shaw’s car and you still could not have wiped the smile off his face. A good field of cars, a lovely day, weather wise, and a packed house had Charlie in a good mood.

22 sprint cars were on hand and Jay Drake, in the BWB #62, set fast time at 14.210. Dave Darland’s troubles for the weekend continued as he had a u-joint break, keeping him from posting a qualifying lap. Dave would eventually run in the feature, dropping out at the end. Mark Jessup, Aaron Pierce, and Jerry Coons were the heat race winners. There were no significant incidents except for Eric Gordon’s car jumping out of gear during his heat. There was no need for a B Main; all who could start the feature, did.

Bryan Clauson and Levi Jones were on the front row for the feature, followed by pavement wizard David Steele, Darren Hagen, Tracy Hines, Drake, Josh Wise, Gordon (fixed!), Bud Kaeding and Jessup. Clauson would lead all 30 laps, but would have Jones as close company for much of the first part of the race. A yellow flag waved on lap 13 right after Jones had made a pass on Clauson, but, with positions reverting back a lap, the Keith Kunz-owned sprinter went back to the lead - for good. As laps wound down the thinking here was, when would Dave Steele make his charge? After a lap 16 caution, Clauson led Hagen (who had passed Jones for second), Levi, Steele, Hines, Wise, Gordon, Kaeding, Darland (from last), and Jessup. Soon after the re-start Steele finally passed Jones and nearly got around Hagen, but time ran out on the Florida runner. Clauson led his teammate Hagen to the line, followed by Steele, Hines, Jones, Wise, Gordon, Kaeding, Jessup, and Drake, who recovered from a spin to take tenth.

After the race, the winner allowed that this victory had exceeded all expectations he had. And he was emphatic in saying that he had never, ever, raced on a track like Winchester. The young man is saying all the right things, making all the right moves and learning from his mistakes. Do not be shocked if what was once a storm on USAC’s horizon just a year ago, eventually ends up giving fits to the NASCAR gang.

Several people ran off to Kokomo for the Sunday night show there, but I stuck around long enough to watch the CRA late model’s 100 lapper. Jeff Lane led all 100 laps from the pole to take the win. Brian Rievely provided the excitement as he came from 10th to take third behind former open wheeler Chris Gabeheart. And in the CRA Street Stock feature, Beau Mitchell came up from Owensboro, Kentucky to show the boys the quick way around, winning the race from eighth starting spot.

The ARCA Series invades Winchester on May 7, along with the CRA Street Stocks.

Elsewhere around the state, Greg Johnson won the Hoosier Dirt Classic at Brownstown. At Gas City, it was Shane Cottle winning the sprint feature with 35 sprint cars present. Other winners were Steve Ott and James Headley. Billy Venturini Jr. got his first ARCA win at Salem on Sunday afternoon, edging NASCAR race junkie Ken Schrader. At Kamp’s Speedway Randy Korte won his heat and feature in dirt late model action. Shane Cottle was the winner at Kokomo while A.J. Anderson won at Lincoln Park. Over at Paragon it was the Josh, Jon and Johnathan show as Josh Cunningham, Jon Sciscoe, and Johnathan Vennard won features with a Paragon-like 56 cars on hand. Chris Streeval was the modified winner at Twin Cities. And winners up at Shadyhill were Bill Davis and Chris Arihood.

We’re headed up to Gas City this week for Borders Wars, USAC Sprints at Gas City on Friday and Eldora on Saturday. We’ll put away the notebook Saturday to answer the many questions that my grandson will be asking as we head for Eldora. Both nights will be the labor of love for sure.

Signing up for driving lessons with my teacher being Kyle Busch, I’m…

Danny Burton

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