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Gaines scores Lincoln Park sprint win
By CAREY FOX
PUTNAMVILLE - With Indiana Sprint Week heading to
Haubstadt on Saturday night, several top drivers opted
to make the haul to Lincoln Park Speedway following
their visit to Bloomington on Friday evening.
Dickie Gaines assuredly is glad he made the decision
that he did as he outran a solid field, topping Robbie
Rice, Jeff Bland Jr., Billy Puterbaugh and Thomas
Meseraull.
Gaines is having a pretty nice month of July with a
win to his credit on the red clay of Bloomington and a
solid 13th there with sprint week. The Pottorf Logging
sponsored machine was dominant in Putnamville on
Saturday, taking his heat win and running wire-to-wire
in the feature.
His lightning run left the rest of the field to battle
for the scraps and the action was intense, especially
amongst the top five spots.
Puterbaugh, the season points leader, held a slim lead
over Case Shuman over the early laps with Rice and
Shawn Krockenberger giving chase. However, Puterbaugh
made a rare mistake in turn three, spinning his
sprinter in traffic. He was able to make a terrific
recovery while not drawing any contact with other cars
who got past. Unfortunately for Puterbaugh though, he
lost quite a few spots in the process.
Shuman assumed second for a short time before he
slipped out of the race with mechanical woes leaving
Rice to take over the second spot.
The spot was tentative as Todd Kimmell and Meseraull
were measuring Rice's spot up immediately. Bland had
meanwhile reeled in the group with Troy Link and Kent
Christian in tow as well. Puterbaugh kept picking off
drivers on his way back through the field, eventually
making it back to finish fourth.
A late caution bunched the field, setting up a short
dash to the checkers. No one would have anything for
Gaines who was hooked up perfectly. Rice wasn't able
to make a final move, but was able to hold off the
hard charging Bland who showed off his talents by
winning his heat race at Bloomington on Friday over a
field that included Daron Clayton, Kevin Swindell and
Cory Kruseman.
Puterbaugh regained a fourth place finish with
Meseraull in fifth, Kimmell in sixth, Christian in
eighth followed by Andrew Prather and Blake
Fitzpatrick.
Twenty-nine sprinters unloaded for the night and
Puterbaugh maintained his points lead with a 685 to
649 advantage with Krockenberger in third followed by
Christian.
In the UMP Modified feature, Travis Shoulders had his
hands full the entire event piloting the Cardinal
Contracting, Patterson Driveline, Eubank & Sons
Transport machine. He outlasted several yellows and an
intense battle with Matt Bex and Paul Bumgardner. He
was able to cross the line mere feet ahead of Bex who
made a pass with a two laps remaining to take the
runnerup spot.
As if the competition wasn't enough, Shoulders managed
to nail down his first feature of the season despite
two sparkplug wires that had come off and a gearing
problem that locked up his car after the checkers
rendering the #166 machine unavailable for the victory
lane photo.
Shoulders started on the pole and had Bumgardner and
Harry Shepherd on his tail at the green with Bex
slipping to the front along with Bradley Sterrett and
Jeff Wellum. Dan Lewellen was having a solid run near
the front before mechanical problems and Wellum was
eliminated after contact with Sterrett early.
Bex and Bumgardner put on a great show for the crowd
over the entirety of the race as Shoulders kept his
nose clean up front. Bumgardner had the high side and
Bex was getting great bite on the bottom of three and
four. Bex was able to continually get alongside
Bumgardner, and occasionally Shoulders as well, out of
the final corner, but momentum kept the lineup the
same.
With two laps remaining, Bumgardner got penned up
behind Shoulders down the front stretch and Bex got
the opening he needed and dove to the second spot
where he would finish.
Bumgardner, the season points leader, stayed in third
ahead of another good run by Shepherd and Phil
VanSant. Kenny Carmichael Sr. made his way to sixth
from the back of the field for hard charger honors.
Daryl Herbert was seventh ahead of Gary Hall, Jeff
Wellum and John Martin.
In the super stock main event, Carlos Bumgardner led
from green to checkers in convincing fashion ahead of
Paul Wright who made a strong bid down the stretch for
the top spot. However, Bumgardner was able to maintain
his top spot for his first win of the season. Kenny
Carmichael Jr. kept up his string of solid finishes
with a third place and Doug McCullough was hot on his
heels for the fourth spot. Cullen Goodman made his way
up to a fifth place finish followed by Jeff Starks,
Ritchie Hawkins, David Bumgardner, Joe Whisler and
Tony Erdly at the finish line.
Carmichael's tenuous points lead stands at just 681 to
677 heading to next week with Curt Leonard in third
place.
In the bomber bus bash feature, run with a school bus
on the track as well as the race cars to make things
interesting, Ron Smith got his first feature win of
his career ahead of Arvis Shepherd and Chad Nolte.
Kevin Kemp and Ron Wallen Sr. rounded out the top five
ahead of Ron Wallen Jr., Michael Thompson, David
Wallen, Larry Shelley and Stan Sandusky.
Next week will feature the 20th annual Putnamville
Clash for sprint cars as well as modifieds, super
stocks and bombers.
Sprint Car Feature
1. Dickie Gaines, 2. Robbie Rice, 3. Jeff Bland, 4.
Billy Puterbaugh, 5. Thomas Meseraull, 6. Todd
Kimmell, 7. Troy Link, 8. Kent Christian, 9. Andrew
Prather, 10. Blake Fitzpatrick, 11. Kenny Niflis, 12.
Daren Krockenberger, 13. Shane Golobic, 14. Kenny
Carmichael SR., 15. Casey Shuman, 16. Shawn
Krockenberger, 17. Rick Vaughn, 18. Josh Clemons, 19.
Stephanie Tuttle, 20. Kenny Carmichael JR
UMP Modified Feature
1. Travis Shoulders, 2. Matt Bex, 3. Paul Bumgardner,
4. Harry Shepherd, 5. Phil VanSant, 6. Kenny
Carmichael SR., 7. Daryl Herbert, 8. Gary Hall, 9.
Jeff Wellum, 10. John Martin, 11. Jeremy Edmondson,
12. John Gurley, 13. Brian Kempf, 14. Jared Hix, 15.
Dan Lewellen, 16. Don Grant, 17. Michael Sterrett, 18.
Bradley Sterrett, 19. Shelby Miles, 20. Tim Meany
Super Stock Feature
1. Carlos Bumgardner SR., 2. Paul Wright, 3. Kenny
Carmichael JR., 4. Doug McCullough, 5. Cullen Goodman,
6. Jeff Starks, 7. Ritchie Hawkins, 8. David
Bumgardner, 9. Joe Whisler, 10. Tony Erdly, 11. Ray
Humphrey, 12. Larry Raines, 13. Mark Dickerson, 14.
Curt Leonard, 15. Robert Haberle, 16. Joey Cox, 17.
Larry Rowley JR., 18. Kris Starks, 19. Mike Wright
JR, 20. Harry Shepherd, 21. Stefan Latham
Bomber Bus Bash
1. Ron Smith, 2. Arvis Shepherd, 3. Chad Nolte, 4.
Kevin Kemp, 5. Ron Wallen SR., 6, Ron Wallen JR., 7.
Michael Thompson, 8. David Wallen, 9. Larry Shelley
JR., 10. Stan Sandusky, 11. Dallas King, 12. Windel
Payne, 13. Gary Long, 14. Brandon Dunogan, 15. Chris
Wood, 16. Robert Hogan, 17. Marlin Burns, 18. Lloyd
Walls, 19. Gary Hayden, 20. Ben Williams, 21. Dustin
Colvin, 22. Tony Tidwell JR., 23. David Daniels, 24.
Sean Yakel
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