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The second week of July has become the biggest week
of sprint car racing in Ohio. With the Brad Doty
Classic, Knight Before the King's Royal, and now the
Summer Sizzler that week. Due to some sickness I
missed the Summer Sizzler but hit the other 3. Plus,
took a Sunday trip to Kokomo for round 5 of USAC's
Indiana Speedweek.
The Brad Doty Classic is in its 2nd year at
Limaland Motorsports Park. The 1st year the crowd
wasn't as big as expected but, this year made up for
it in a huge way. 42 cars and the largest crowd of
people in Limaland Motorsports Park history welcomed
the BDC this year. Plus, some excellent weather. That
was change from the past 3 or 4 BDC. Jac Haudenschild
and Brad Doty grew up in the same area and started
racing pretty much in the same time frame, racing side
by side many times. One thing missing from Jac's
trophy case is the nice Brad Doty Classic hardware.
The minute the Wild Child drove onto the high banked
Limaland oval, you could tell he was ready to rock and
was on a mission to take home that trophy and add his
name to the great list of past winners of the BDC.
Haud set quick time. Mean Gene Frankert had the track
racy and ready for action. I love seeing the World Of
Outlaws on a racy 1/4 mile where its no holds barred
racing. A 1/4 mile joint also helps even the playing
field a little. The heats were excellent. Several side
by side and 3 wide battles and REAL passing. What do I
mean by real passing? It consist or more than just the
top 4 cars that are inverted switching a spot or 2.
Guys punching the go button and moving several spots.
9 cars that started past the top 4 fastest inverted
cars earned transfer spots. That means almost half of
the 20 cars that transferred out of the heats were not
the fastest cars ion time trails and was on the
hammer. Haud, Danny Lasoski, Craig Dollansky, and
Terry McCarl took heat wins. Mike Brecht flipped in
heat 3. A few other crashes and the rest was just all
out racing. One incident in heat 4 turned pretty
interesting. Jason Martin and Jason Solwold had some
contact and a wreck occurred. Solwold's ride kept
going but, instead of moving down the track, Solwold
does a 180 and go backwards down the track and tags
Martin's stalled car. It wasn't any major type of hit
by any means. The 2 seemed to be discussing the
terrible food they had the night before and after a
few gestures of who got stuck with the bill, a little
scuffle broke out. A few pit crew members later and
some good moves by the pit security, it was back to
the races. The field of 42 cars was a very strong
field. 2 WOO regulars found the C Main and 9 found the
B. Daryn Pittman took the C. Dollansky held off the
Wild Child in the Dash. NASCAR star Kasey Kahne took
the B Main win. The 40 lap A was next. Yes, another 40
lapper at Limaland Motorsports Park. I am so glad they
got off the 30 lap kick for big shows! Haud started
outside row 1 and jumped to lead. Lap 1. Kerry Madsen
flips. Haud and Dollansky battle on the restart as a
fast Terry McCarl enters the picture. Steve Kinser
works towards the front as well. Lap 12, McCarl was
getting ready to pass Kinser as the traffic bunched
up. T-MAC had no room and took a nasty tumble. After
the T-Mac clean-up it was all out racing. Haudenschild
and Kinser put on an excellent battle. In and out of
traffic, high side, low side, the battle was on and
Haud was determined to get a win in honor of one of
his best friends. The King gave it all he had but Haud
was too strong on this night. Finally, The Wild Child
parks it in victory lane during the Brad Doty Classic.
A true honor finally as Jac gets a BDC win.
The Knight Before the King's Royal brought the WOO
and NRA 360's to Eldora once again for this July
classic. 49 WOO and 34 360s were on hand. The Eldora
crew was ready and the track was in pretty good shape.
No real major incidents in the heats as Joey Saldana,
Tim Shaffer, Terry McCarl, and Brock Mayes took heat
wins. The heats were pretty good races. Jeff Williams,
Phil Gressman, Dwain Leiber, and Mike Brecht took the
NRA heat wins. As always at a big WOO show, many good
cars found their self in the C and B Main. A hero on
Tuesday, Lucas Wolfe took the C on this night. Shane
Stewart found his Ohio Speedweek groove and took the B
Main. Lucas Wolfe tried the run from C to b to A but
fell one spot short at the checkered flag. Mike Miller
took the NRA B. All of the races were pretty decent
and the track was holding on pretty well. One thing
about it, no matter how old he gets or how good or bad
of season he is having, Steve Kinser can still find
his way around Eldora Speedway. Friday night he did
just that. The old Eldora was back, high side to the
wall, slick in the middle, dry slick on the bottom.
Who knows the old style any better than Kinser? Well
on this night it looked like Terry McCarl. Once Kinser
got in the lead and the race got a going, the King
worked lapped traffic to perfection. T-Mac was
actually faster but couldn't get around Kinser. Wait,
T Mac takes the lead, oh man, yellow is on the track,
Kinser goes back to the point. Now they are nose to
tail and we all see T Mac seems faster. Restart,
instead of using the cushion and high side that got T
Mac to 2nd and past Kinser, he starts slide jobbing
turns 3 and 4. This just allows Kinser to the break he
needs to gain enough distance to keep the pack behind
him. When lap 30 was complete, the green 11 was in
victory lane over T Mac, Donny Schatz, Solwold, and
Jason Meyers. Meyers is another guy who has had
excellent runs all year at Eldora finishing in the top
5 I think every showing this season at Eldora. The NRA
360 A Main got off to a wild start. Mike Brecht and
Caleb Griffith started upfront in the A Main. The duo
had contact as the field came off 4 for the green.
Griffith and Brecht both slammed the wall before the
start finish line. Both exited their rides quickly and
exchanged a few words. It sucked for Caleb as he was
looking pretty strong. Brecht always runs strong too
but has had a handful of them end on the wrecker as of
late. Just when Brecht was counted out, he re-fires.
Once Dale Blaney got to the front, it was all him on
this night. Brecht made an excellent recovery, racing
back to 5th from his last place restarting spot.
Gressman, Jeff Williams, and Jared Horstman were 2nd
through 4th. All in all a good night of racing.
The 24th annual King's Royal is more than just a
race, its an event. From the many cookouts, to corn
hole games, to beverages drank, to all the just
mingling in the camper lot and on the speedway grounds
before the race, this is the sprint car event of the
year at Eldora. I have been to all 24 KR's and can't
wait for that day. Once again, great weather on tap.
After some major corn hole over at camp Dingus, its
time to focus on race night. 52 WOO and 37 NRA's are
pit side. There was a strong wind part of the day and
with 2 races on the track already that week, the track
was a lot slicker on Saturday. A handful of cars
tagged the wall coming off turn 2 or brushed it pretty
good. After time trails, since the cushion was already
gone in turn 2, the track crew brought the grader out
and worked the surface some. The track was ready for
heat race action. I for one, love the King's Royal
format! One, it allows for a bigger invert. Since the
World Of Outlaws went to the 4 invert in the heats,
not much happens in the top 4 spots. Exception being a
small track like Limaland Motorsports Park. Anyways,
the King's Royal format does make or break you in time
trails. Plus, it awards you for passing. 1st in heat
in Dash, 2nd in heats start the next spots in the A,
so on and so forth. Same as the B and C. I hate it
when a guy goes from 9th or 10th or so and gets up to
missing the transfer by one and still has to run the C
because he drew a late pill on a hard slick track and
his time was slow. The Eldora format awards passing,
that is what we are there to see isn't it? Anyways,
like the format. Plus, I like that they tried to work
the track some after the show started. Do we remember
how much people on message boards complained when they
graded the track last year to make it a better race?
Now those same people are complaining that the track
was too dry. Its dirt track racing in an area that has
seen little to no rain 6 weeks. Anyways, as always
the heat races at the Royal were alright. With the
tough format only 2 of the top 6 qualifiers made the
heat transfers. Dollansky, Brian Paulus, Dean Jacobs,
Kerry Madsen with a pass with 1 to go, Jason Solwold,
and Donny Schatz won the heats. Randy Hannagan took
the C. Schatz the Dash. Steve Kinser took the B.
Brandon Martin took a wild ride in the B. Rain started
to hit all around the Eldora area, so the show was
pushed on. No pre-race driver intros like the Royal
usually has. That was always a neat part of the show
of the King's Royal that seems to get slided more than
not anymore because we are in too big of a hurry to
get home. Terry Baltes made that a vital part of the
show and it is missed by some. The 40 lap KR A Main.
Usually a pretty decent race. Green, Dollansky makes a
sweet move form 6th to 1st by the 2nd turn. The Crowd
Pleaser looks for his 1st Royal win. It didn't take
long and we seen Donny Schatz wasn't going to mess
around. Lap 6, Schatz took the lead. the track got
slicker and slicker as the laps went on and Donny was
running away with it. No one is even close or can get
enough grip to make a run at Donny. Jason Meyers
starts to make a move. Lap 22, Madsen blows and inside
rear tire. After that, its all Schatz. Donny takes his
1st ever Eldora Woo win and 1st ever Royal win by 8
seconds over the field. Meyers, McCarl, Solwold, and
Saldana round out the top 5. As far as Royal A mains,
this was a run away, unlike most of them. Schatz had
them covered and stunk up the show by putting a
whipping on the field. Don't know if you noticed or
not but 4 of the top 5 from Friday was in the top 5
again Saturday. So no matter what format you use, the
dreaded Eldora one that actually promotes passing or
the Outlaws one that puts the quickest few guys up
front, the best cars find there way to the front. The
proof is right there, 2 formats, 2 different track
conditions, and 4 of the same 5 guys get top 5's both
nights. The NRA 360 A Main a good one. Kent Wolters
lead all but the last 5 laps when Blaney and Gressman
got passed him. I like all 3 guys and am friends with
all 3 of them but I really wish Kent could of held
them off. His 3rd place run was like a win for him but
a 1st would of made his year, if not his career.
Blaney took the w for the 2nd night in a row.
Sunday it was off to Kokomo IN Speedway for leg 5
of the Indiana USAC Sprint Speedweek. 40 cars were on
hand. The 40 cars on hand were all pretty strong ones.
I personally think USAC handicaps them self on their
format. I realize they don't want big fields in a heat
race and not all locals will run because of the Hans
Device rule, which is one of the best rules in racing,
but why do they still send a handful of cars home
after just a few on track laps. You got the fastest 32
to the heats, then the rest in an NQ race, top 4 to
the heats. So you got an 8 car NQ race, with 4 to the
heats, and 4 to the trailer after just hot laps, 2
time trails laps and a quick NQ race. Why not run a 10
car heat? Anyways, the Kokomo track crew did an
excellent job. The track was very tacky as the program
started. Actually, it started a little late because it
was so messy, not a bad deal at all. Jeff Bland Jr
flipped in hot laps. Non wing cars on a tacky 1/4 mile
track is just plain ass awesome. The action was
excellent. 3 and 4 wide battles, wheelies, cars
bicycling, and plenty of passing with a wicked
cushion. Bret Mellenberndt flipped in the NQ race. The
heats were very good. Jon Stanbrough, Levi Jones,
Shane Hollingsworth, and Mich Wissmiller took the
heats. Chris Windom did a slow roll in heat 1. Brett
Beauchamp took a wild tumble in heat 2. Brad Sweet was
wreckers of checkers in heat 2 and took a hard tumble.
Ricky Stenhouse Jr. tried to out due Sweet's tumble by
taking a bad nasty, then bursting into flames with an
oil fire in heat 3. All drivers were OK! With the wild
heats in the books, what would the B and A Main be
like? The B Main was just as wild but no flips.
Literally, 7 cars were battling for 3rd to 6th for the
transfer spots. An excellent fight between 7 cars for
3 spots. Windom and Kevin Swindell crashed in turn 2.
Damion Gardner and Hunter Scheurenberg crashed in turn
2 also. Damion was a little hot and had a few words
for the youngster. A great battle now from 1st to 9th
as 10 car fought for 6 spots. The race and transfers
were not settled until the finish line. Cory Kruseman
took the win. What an A Main. The 30 lap contest was
excellent. Dave Darland took the lead on the start.
Lap 1, Brady Short stops. The next 29 laps were green
flag racing. Wheel banging, cars bouncing off the
cushion, wheelies, just all out racing. Darland was
tough but Stanbrough was on the charge from 12th. The
last 10 laps, Darland, young Cole Whitt, and
Stanbrough were battling upfront. Whitt just turned 16
a few weeks back and was running his 2nd full weekend
with USAC. Whitt and Stanbrough closed on Double D as
the laps past. 3rd to 8th had its own battle. White
flag, Darland leads, looks to take the win in honor of
his dad, wait, going into 1, he missing the cushion,
jumps it, Stanbrough and Whitt fly past. Whitt gives
Jon a shot in 3 but its Stanbrough with a last lap
pass to take the win over, Whitt, Darland, Darren
Hagen, and Dustin Morgan. 3 of the top 5 finishers
started 9th or worse. What a race. Stanbrough was on
the edge more than I think I have ever seen him. He
would bounce into the cushion hard, jump all over and
just keep the throttle mashed. If you didn't like this
one, you better take up another sport. It doesn't
matter if you are a fan of the winner or not, you had
to give him credit for a great race.
OK, in closing, I am changing the subject a little.
I know this is a racing site and that its not Dear
Abby or Oprah or anything but I have just a little
thing to keep all of us racing fans aware of our
surroundings. Some times were are racing too fast in
life to see or care about what we could or might have
had a chance to stop or change. Crying for help! Some
times we have friends, family members, co-workers,
racing friends, or just someone we see but don't
really know that well. We just go on, no matter what
might be said or showed and just keep doing our normal
routine without thinking much of what that person
might really be saying. So please, no matter how big
or small someone that talks to you problem might seem,
take a little time to listen and see what they might
actually need. A cry for help might be small or it
might be big but, its a cry no matter what. It may not
always be spelled out for us but, please take the
time, seconds matter. It may make the difference in
life or death.
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