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Tri State Outlook
column by Duane Hancock
The weather in this area is just crazy anymore. We
have went from rainy wet days and nights straight to
HOT dry drought weather. Don't get me wrong, I love it
when it don't rain on race day and HATE rain outs but,
it is getting tougher and tougher for dirt tracks to
keep a good racing surface with all of the bone dry
weather. I think so far all of the track crews have
done pretty darn good for the recent dry spell. By the
way, when its dirt track racing, dust will always be
part of the game, no matter how great the track prep
is.
Last Thursday it was off to Gas City Indiana for
the make-up USAC Boarder Wars race. Usually, when
summer rolls around I can sneak out of work a little
early and get a decent start to get to the track at a
fair time for a work day. Lately, my crew has been
beat-up health wise so it was a slow start on getting
to Gas City. Well, since I had to work early the next
day I decided to hook-up with mom and dad and let them
drive to Gas City. Good idea until dad's taxi blows a
radiator hose along route 69 about 15 miles before the
track. Now, when you start a little behind the time
you wanted to leave and then this happens, it makes a
few bad words fly out of your mouth. Let me tell you,
sitting 2 feet off the side of 69 with big rigs flying
past at 70 mph, isn't too fun. After an hour and a
half limping the van to the track we make it. Mom and
Shelby get the easy job, go watch the races, dad and
I, well we got to chase parts, borrow tools, and get
to look like grease monkeys. Thanks to a lot of help
from our friends, Jason at El Shaddai Wear, Neil
Shepherd Racing, and Jon Henry Racing, we got the hose
repaired and entered the track just as the green flag
flew for the 1st heat. Well, we did get to see and
hear Ricky Stenhouse Jr. set quick time then dump it
on the 2nd lap and have to bring out the back-up ride.
Oh yeah, 34 cars were on hand. Dustin Morgan also had
some problems with his main ride and had to bring a
2nd Walker car out of the trailer. With a dry slick
track, the heat race action was pretty much follow the
leader. There was some passing and decent battles but,
it wasn't your typical Gas City fling'em in side by
side wheeling pop-in racing. Steve Ott, Jerry Coons
Jr., Darren Hagen, and Dustin Morgan won the heat
races. Robert Ballou flipped in heat 1. Ricky
Stenhouse Jr. tested the back-up car by flipping it in
heat 2. I thought our night was going bad until I seen
the night Ricky was having. One other incident in the
heats seen Jon Stanbrough mow over Critter Malone's
left front. I tell you what. I have only seen this
Steve Ott guy drive a sprint car 3 times this year but
he is pretty impressive for a rookie. Granted, he
raced a modified for a few years but he has looked
good the times I have seen him this season. I wouldn't
even know the guy if he walked up to me but, I think
he is on track to win some type of ROY the award this
season. The Gas City crew went to work and put some
heavy water on the track. A fast Shane Hollingsworth
took the B. Not to be out done by Ricky, Ballou makes
it a 2 fer night and flips in the B. Once again, the
Gas City track crew goes to work, This time they dig
the track surface up and put a shot of water on it
again. This helped a ton and made the track very quick
for the 30 lap A Main. If you are anywhere near non
wing country, you know Jon Stanbrough has been on a
mission this season, racking up win after win. When he
was starting on the front row of the 30 USAC A Main,
you pretty much knew the battle would be for 2nd. When
the green fell, Jon was on his way to sticking up the
show. With a much faster track, the action was good
but, Stanbrough was hooked-up. Lap 9, Mat Neely takes
a nasty tumble down the front stretch. Mat was OK but
his car was a mess. After that, as we all feared, it
was the Jon Stanbrough driving school. Jon was never
really challenged the entire race. Many drivers worked
to the front of the pack but, could never get close
enough to Jon to make any type of pass. Stanbrough
wins over Brady Bacon, Levi Jones, Brady Short, and
Brad Sweet.
Friday, the fastest short track show in the world
was on tap at Toledo (OH) Speedway. The AVSS sprints
and the IMSA super mods were on the card. 21 sprints
and 28 supers were on hand. I had radio duty for the
AVSS part of the program. This allowed me to get a
good look at the supers, it had been a while since I
have seen them race. I see why its the fastest short
track show in the world. Ryan Litt set the sprint car
pace at 13.238, just over 135.9 mph average on the 1/2
mile oval. The supers, Chris Perley set the 1 lap
record at 13.116, 137 mph average. The 3 sprint heats
went off without any incidents. Litt, AJ Lane, and
Jeff Bloom won the heats. Speaking of Lane and Bloom,
Lane has all of his stuff for sale as he is racing the
Busch North series. Bloom had none other than the
world famous Tony Stewart turning some wrenches on his
mount at Toledo. It was decided no B Main would be ran
and all car made the A Main. The 30 lap AVSS A Main
was excellent. Toledo Speedway seems like it has the
right formula that produces good sprint car features.
Many of the recent USAC shows have been good ones and
Friday's AVSS, you couldn't ask for any better racing.
69 year old, Hank Lower started on the pole and was
looking to use his 47 years of racing experience to
his advantage. That he did. Hank jumped to the lead on
the start. Lower looked good but hard charging Jason
Blonde and Jimmy McCune was fast too. Lower was fast
enough and running in just the right place to make it
very hard to get past him. Lap after lap, Blonde ran
in Lower's tire track. Hank had the advantage 1 and 2,
Blonde in 3 and 4. As they enter lapped traffic, Lower
gets a slight advantage. Once cleared, Blonde gets a
good run, goes high in turn 3, passes Lower, just
then, Troy Underwood slams the turn 1 wall HARD. Lower
gets the lead back, Underwood gets to build a new car.
With a clear track, Lower stays upfront on the
restart. 5 to go, and its Lower, Blonde, and McCune
nose to tail. They go high, go low, and Hank still
holds them at bay. White flag, Blonde high, McCune
low, Lower in the middle, 3 wide into 1. Blonde gets
past a little but Lower comes back at him off 2,
McCune is inches away. Going into 3 on the last lap,
Blonde takes over for good. off 4, its Blonde, McCune
and Lower side by side, McCune takes 2nd by inches.
Lower goes from 1st to 3rd the last 1/2 of a lap. Dave
Baumgartner, and Litt round out the top 5. A great
race. The supers, let just say Chris Perley put a
major butt kicking on those guys. He lapped up to like
5th spot.
Saturday, I made it a 3 day race weekend with a
trip to Oakshade Raceway. It was dad's Father's Day
present, he wanted to see some late models at Oakshade
for some reason. I didn't keep stats because this is a
sprint car site. It was a nice relaxing night with a
BUNCH of beer drinking. See the trade off was I would
watch late models if he drove, so me and a few of the
guys could drink a few. Well, you know a few turns
into many when its a late model race. I think I
figured it out though, the more you drink, the better
the late model racing looks. No, I do like a good late
model every now and then, but it wasn't one of the
best late model show I have seen. Anyways, it wasn't
about how good or bad it was or wasn't, it was about
spending time with dad on Father's Day weekend at our
most favorite place in the world, a race track.
Cameron Dodson was walking the pits of Gas City
trying to find some seat time. Looks like since his
split with Dick Meyers, Cameron only has his Silver
Crown ride for right now. He did have a 1 race deal at
ORP last weekend, so it will be interesting to see
where Cameron shows up next...HoserVille Ohio with
help from Wix Filters and El Shaddai Wear Inc, will
sponsor the Dash event for the 25th annual Ohio Sprint
Speedweek. The 1st 6 nights of the week, $40 will go
to the Dash winner. Its $40 more than it pays now.
Then, Saturday at Eldora, a Hard Charger's Dash will
be ran with 6 cars for a $900 purse. A special points
system will be used all week to earn one of the six
spots in the Saturday night Dash.
Time for a little fun. Feel free to e-mail me
thoughts on the week. As stated the 25th annual Ohio
Speedweek starts Sunday. With a $50,000 bonus up for
grabs, 2 new tracks on the tour, and many different
winners this season, it could be the best Speedweek
ever. Make sure you catch a Speedweek show or 7, I
think they all will be good ones! Will anyone take the
50g? Not sure. I will start by saying, I like all the
drivers out there and am friends with some of them, so
I hate to pick favorites. Plus, I like any track with
a sprint car race. But, I am not smart enough to keep
me mouth shut sometimes. So, I will make a few
educated guesses (LOL) on what will be the best show
of the week and who has the best shot at the 50g. I by
no means am doing this to pick favorites, just having
a little fun. I will say the tight bullring of
Waynesfield will have the closest finish of the week.
The 1st ever winged show they had a few week backs
seen 3 cars, side by side, off turn 4, on the final
lap fighting for the win. OK, who has the best shot at
50g. 1) Dale Blaney. He is good at Attica, Fremont,
Lima, Eldora, and has some laps, plus a win at
Waynesfield. 2) Danny Smith. Danny can run anywhere
and be tough. With 2 new tracks on the tour, Danny
could look good quickly. Plus, don't look now, Danny
is off to one of best years in quite a while. 3) Greg
Wilson. Greg was the man to beat all year with the All
Stars and started 07 that way. He has slid back a
little of late but I believe is hungry to get in the
winners circle. If he gets on a roll, look out, 50g
could be his. Like I said, this is just for fun and is
in no way meant to down play any track or driver
because it looks to be a great race each and every
night. I would love to see a last lap pass and a
different winner each and every night.
That's it for now, caused enough damage. Due to
chasing Ohio Speedweek all week, its more than likely
my next ramblings will be some time the 1st part of
July. Have a safe one and be sure to get to a race,
there are plenty to choose from in the next 3 weeks.
UPCOMING:
Saturday: All Stars KC, HOSS Anderson IN, MASS
Haubstadt IN.
Sunday: All Stars Attica
Monday: All Stars Wayne County
Tuesday: All Stars Waynesfield
Wednesday: All Stars Hilltop
Thursday: All Stars Fremont
Friday 29th: All Stars Limaland Motor Sports Park,
AVSS Dixie MI, SOD Hartford MI
Saturday 30th: All Stars Eldora, AVSS Berlin MI
Tuesday July 3rd: AVSS Angola IN
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