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Tri State Outlook
column by Duane Hancock
Do you hear it? Can you hear it? It is saying
Eldora is back! See the world didn't come to an end of
anything yet and Eldora is pretty much fixed. If you
would of seen any sprint car message board in the
world since April, it was telling how the end has came
to Eldora. Well, like Tony said and many fans that
have been around for a while, it will get fixed, don't
worry. Yes, the little dip, ledge, whatever you want
to call it that made Eldora a powerhouse rim rider
special is gone but, the track actually has
multi-grooves you can race on. Yes, one of them
involves rim riding against the fence. The Eldora crew
has worked hard the past few weeks making strides on
obtaining the original goals they set out to achieve.
They even dug the Earl of Eldora out of the house and
onto a grater. So all seems to be turning well at the
Big E.
Saturday, 27 All Star sprints were pit side at
Eldora for their first visit of 07. The race was a
make-up date from the May 5th rain out. Like stated
above, the track was looking more like the Eldora of
old. I had a ring side view from the pits since my
radio duties switched at the last minute, back to pit
reporter. Danny Smith set quick time. The All Star
part of the program was running off at a great pace.
The 3 heats were to transfer the top 6 to the A. Brian
Paulus, Brandon Martin, and Brock Mayes took the heat
wins. In heat 1, ROY contender, Craig Mintz, in his
1st ever laps at Eldora, was leading the heat, when a
torsion stop fell off the left front of his car going
into turn 1. This slammed Mintz into the wall hard. As
he flipped down the track, Bill Rose, with no place to
go, tagged Mintz's car. All were OK but their cars
were junk. Rob Chaney took the dash win. Since a few
cars had scratched and only 1 car would miss the show,
it was announced all cars would be in the A Main and
the B was canceled. Next up, the 30 lap A Main. Shane
Stewart and Dale Blaney set the front row of the A.
Green, Shane Stewart gets the lead. Lap 4, Ed
Neumeister spins in 4, collecting Paulus. Restart, its
all Stewart. Chaney, Greg Wilson, and Dean Jacobs try
to reel Shane in as the laps race by. Heavy traffic
slows Stewart some but, not much. Lap 18, Dale Blaney
slows for a yellow while running 4th. Restart, Kevin
Huntley tags the wall and slows, Paul May has no place
to go and hits Huntley. This puts Chaney and Wilson
closer to Stewart with 12 laps to go. Shane Stewart
was hooked-up. It was all Stewart taking his first
ever Eldora A Main. Chaney, Smith, Wilson, and Mayes
rounded out the top 5. All in all it was a good race.
Stewart ran away and hide but an excellent battle all
race long for 2nd to 5th.
Dean Jacobs has taken the role of super sub again.
Last year DJ subbed for Terry McCarl and Tim Shaffer
due to their injures. Butch Schroeder broke his tail
bone a few weeks back at KC and it out at least 1 more
month. Enter Dean Jacobs in the Jessup 7k until Butch
is healed. Lets all hope Butch gets well soon...Tyler
Thompson made a visit to Ohio this past weekend racing
Eldora and Attica. I had a chance to talk to Tyler and
the crew and you can plan on seeing them more this
season. The 22 year old MO driver is testing some
waters for the 08 season. He would like to run a
series in 08, so look for him to run some All Star
shows this season and other shows in our region to get
laps and seat time. Tyler seems to be a very
approachable guy.
UPCOMING: Of course a HUGE weekend of racing.
Thursday: Jack Hewitt Classic Kokomo IN
FRIDAY: All Star Attica OH, USAC Silver Crown Indy
Fairgrounds Mile.
SATURDAY: USAC Midgets ORP Indianapolis IN, Little 500
Anderson IN
SUNDAY: NRA Eldora, MSCS Haubstadt IN
MONDAY: 305 sprints Lorain County OH.
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