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Tri State Outlook.
by Duane Hancock
The 14th edition of the USAC Border Wars was set to be a 3 night event. Thursday at the high-bank of Winchester IN Speedway, Friday the tight Shady Bowl Speedway, and the finale at Tony Stewart's Eldora Speedway. Thursday and Saturday's events were held as mother nature took the Friday program.
The opening night of Border Wars 2008 took place last Thursday at Winchester Speedway. A flash back to the old USAC Thursday Night Thunder shows. 22 cars and an excellent crowd was on hand for opening night. One reason maybe such a good crowd, $15 general admission. A heck of a bargain for $15. One of the things I love about Winchester, you are on the edge of your seat most of the night. Its one of those places that actually scares you at times the action is so fast and furious. This night was no different. 3 heats were ran off quickly. No one really pushed the issue super hard in the heats since all cars transferred to the 30 lap A Main. Jerry Coons Jr, Dave Darland, and Tracy Hines took the heat wins. Darland made a famous Winchester dip n dive move into 3, coming to the white flag, to earn the win in heat 2. The rest of the heats were decent but Darland's move was the highlight of the heat races. In heats were ran off in just over 15 minutes. After
a few quick for the Thunder Roadsters, the A Main drivers were called to the front stretch for driver introductions. I really like this idea. It takes little time and allows fans to faces with the names of the drivers. The sun was barely setting yet and the A Main was on the track. Brian Gerster and Cole Whitt paced the field to the green. The 1st start was called back due to a bad start. Next attempt, Gerster takes the lead. A quick pace is set and Gerster is looking to pull the somewhat of an upset win. Whitt and Darren were hot on his tail tank but Brian looked pretty fast. Lap 10, yellow for a quick Chad Boat. Boat pulled pit side and a huge stream of fuel was gushing out of his car. Look like he might of bottomed out on the pavement surface and put a hole in the bottom of his fuel cell. Restart, Gerster is strong but Chris Windom, Hagen, Whitt, and Brad Sweet are all ready to battle. Lap 16, almost a repeat of the Rich Vogler Classic back in April,
Windom is on the inside of Sweet, coming off 4, battling for 4th, Windom drifts high and the two have contact. Sweet spins sideways as Windom's mount is planted into the side of Sweet's car, pushing him down the front stretch. Both cars re-fire. After the restart, and excellent battle is going on upfront. The pack has caught Gerster but can't make a move to pass him. Lap 18, Windom slows and goes pit side. Once the pack gets a moving again, a young Jacob Wilson looks like he is shot out of a cannon and is working on taking over 5th. Off 2 Wilson makes a bold move on the high side and takes over 5th. with 9 to go, Wilson is charging. He catches Hines going into 4 for 4th. Off 4, Wilson trys the same bold move, contact, Hines gets turned and flips over, sliding down the front stretch, into turn 1. Wilson hits the wall and all hell breaks loose behind them. Sweet, Brady Bacon, Damion Gardner, Dakota Armstrong, and Aaron Pierce were all collected in the
accident. Only sweet made a return to the track. Wait, under the red, the leader Gerster pulls into the pits as well. This hands Cole Whitt the lead. Only 12 cars restart for the final 1/3rd of the A. Whitt is strong on the restart and is all over the track to try and hold off his teammate Hagen. They are nose to tail and it is going to be a two car battle for the win. Hagen trys every which way he can to pass Whitt and can't get it done. Lap 24, going into turn 1, Hagen shoots way low under Whitt, slides inches in front of him, taking the lead, as both cars wiggly to keep under control. Hagen is the new lead and is hammer down. With 5 to go, its Hagen's race to lose. Hagen goes on to take the win and make it two in a row at Winchester. Whitt, Coons Jr., Darland, and Levi Jones round out the top 10. Another excellent race at Winchester. If the Winchester version was the big one didn't happen, I am not sure if Hagen still would of won but I do know he
would of made it interesting. A 5 car battle got taken down to a 2 car battle but it was still an excellent race. Plus, a Thursday night show and over at 9:06 PM. Well, the sprint car part of the program anyways. I did stay for the mods and Thunder Roadsters, even with a 2 hours 15 minutes drive home and still made it home before 12:30.
After night two was rained out, the final night of Border Wars 2008 moved to the dirt high banks of Eldora Speedway. The Eldora card not only feature the USAC Sprints, a NRA vs SOD 360 battle was on hand as well. A neat program, non wing sprints and winged 360s on the same card. 30 USAC and 36 NRA vs SOD sprints were pit side.
The track had a pretty decent cushion about 3/4th of the way up for the heats. Jerry Coons Jr had problems in USAC hot laps and didn't get to time in for the program. That meant Jerry needed to transfer in his heat from the back row or started dead last in the B. After a Neil Shepherd spin in heat 1, Cole Whitt took the win and Coons charged from 8th to 3rd to transfer. Shane Cottle used his outside row 1 starting spot to his advantage and took the heat 2 win. In the best heat race of the night, Brad Kuhn held off a fast Hunter Schuerenberg for the win in heat 3. Heat 4 was like a batch of scrambled eggs. The line-up was like a revolving door with so much early action. Off turn 2 on the original start, Robert Ballou and Chad Boat was going for the same piece f track at the same time and crashed. Boat went pit side. Next start, Steve Ott tags the back of Dustin Morgan going into turn 1, spinning Morgan and collecting Brady Short and Sammy Imel. Before
the clean-up was complete, Boat rejoins the pack on the same lap. After two cautions, for a spinning Kevin Thomas Jr., Ballou held on for the win over guess who? Chad Boat. The only thing slowing Chris Windom in the B Main was 2 more spins by Kevin Thomas Jr. KT Jr. made it an even half dozen spins at the Big E before his night was history. The cushion was getting right on the wall in 3 and 4 for the B and just a few feet off of t in 1 and 2. This had the making of a racy track for the A, even though it was dusty. It was for sure, old style Eldora for the 30 lap A Main. A tricky cushion, a black ring all away around the top side just before the cushion, a bottom that could be raced on, and some dust a flying in the air. Am I complaining about the dust, NO. You have to figure that at a dirt track race, sometime or another it will get dusty. That is part of it. I can tell you nay sayers one thing, I know for sure I have been to two other tracks this
season where the dust was worse than it was last Saturday night at Eldora. I know a select few have lit-up the message boards recently about the dust and said lets see someone write about it. Well I am writing about it. Really, unless you live under a rock over have only been to a handful of races in your life, you should know, no matter what track, what time of year, what race, it could get dusty. Does it ruin the racing? Sometimes it does, sometimes it doesn't. On this night, no way did the dust ruin any part of the racing. Anyways, off my high horse of message boards jockeys dooming everything that isn't perfect as they think it should be at every race. Tracy Hines and Brad Sweet set the pace for the A Main. Hines jumps to the lead, Sweet and Short follow. Lap 1, Schuerenberg slows. After a brief stop in the pits, he re-fires. Lap 3, Hunter tags the wall this time in turn 3, ending his night. Restart, Short bicycles going into 1, jumping the cushion.
Brady starts a wild flip and flips back down into the pack. Some guys slow, some don't, some can't do a thing but just get caught in the middle. 10 cars in all get collected, Darland, Hagen, and Mike Brecht all flip as well at the same time as Short. 4 cars flipping at once in turn 1 and others just trying all they can do to miss the pile. Imel, Kuhn, Tommy Messeraull, Coons Jr, and Whitt all got collected. Some restart, many didn't. Another huge crash in the Border Wars 08. Hines regains the lead and is looking pretty good. The 1st third is over as Sweet is closing in. Lap 15, Windom spins. Lap 18, Sweet tags the turn 3 wall hard, ending his bid for a win. With 12 to go, Hines is still looking good but all eyes look toward Ballou and Jesse Hockett. Robert restarted at the tail a few times and is back into the top 10, looking for more. Hockett has worked from 11th into the top 3. Hockett gets into 2nd and is running Hines down. Jesse trys a slider in 1
and 2 and can't make it stick. Ballou is up to 7th. Lap 24, Ballou's horrible night ends in the turn 1 wall. This will put Hockett nose to tail with Hines for the final 6 laps. Before the field reaches the cone on the restart, Coons breaks and slides into the turn 3 wall. Restart, its all Hines. Tracy jumps on the cushion and goes. Hines leads flag to flag and takes the win. Hockett, Boat, Gardner, and Daron Clayton round out the top 5. 4 of the top 5 cars started 8th or worse.
The NRA vs SOD showdown was pretty decent too. 3 of the 4 heats were run aways but had some good action for transfer spots. Ralph Bracenberry flips in heat 1 after running over a slowing Bryan Sebetto. Dustin Daggett took that heat. Joe Bares took heat 2. Darren Long was in a different time zone in heat 3. The race did see an excellent battle for the final transfer spot that Brett Mann took on the last lap at the flag stand. Dain Naida and Ben Rutan had a shoot out in heat 4 while Mike Brecht was hitting everything in site. Brecht and Dennis Yoakam made contact going down the back stretch battling for 5th. Yoakam took a wild tumble. then Brecht and Greg Dalman collide battling for 4th. Brecht restarts tail again. Naida and Rutan swap the lead a few times with Naida taking the win. Where's Brecht? Back to 4th and in the A. Luke Hall lead flag to flag in the B. Sean Robinson and Rutan pace the field for the 20 lap A Main. The 1st 5 laps of the A were
excellent. 3 cars nose to tail, side by side, fight for the top spot. Lap 6, Long finally got the advantage, after shooting from 7th to 3rd on the start, and took off. Long was on a rail and just flat out kicking some butt. Lap 11, Naida spins collecting Mann. Mann took an easy tumble. Restart, Ryan Ruhl finds the turn 3 wall. After that, it was all Long. Long takes the win over Jared Horstman, Butch Schroeder, Daggett, and Kent Wolters with a great run in the final 5 laps. 3 of the top 5 cars started 9th or worse and the winner started 7th. Once again, some pretty good passing going on.
The silly season is upon us. Dean Jacobs is now officially out of the Jessup 7k. Enter Blake Feese into the 7k. Dean has landed a ride in the 55 ride out of PA that Mike Wagner seems to no longer be in...Dave Darland has parted ways with the Pace 44 after last weekend. Look for Dave to run the Peterbuilt of Northwest Ohio car at local shows and a ride TBA soon at the bigger shows...Tim Shaffer has parted way with the Parsons 6 car on the WOO tour. Many rumors on who will replace Tim. Sit down for this one, Millstream Speedway in Findlay Ohio is reopening July 20th!!!! Dean Miracle has leased the place for 2 shows and has scheduled the All Star Sprints and a 305 VS 360 showdown for opening night. I sure hope this works outs and we get a Sunday track in our region again. Many many memories over the years at Millstream. Hope we can create some more.
UPCOMING:
Saturday:
All Stars Waynesfield OH
HOSS Anderson IN
SOD Butler MI
MTS Thunderbird MI
WOMS Berlin MI
KISS Paragon IN
Plus, don't forget the 26th annual Ohio Speedweek opens Sunday at Attica. 36 cars are pre-entered for Speedweek points. Once again a $50,000 bonus is on the line is any driver can win 4 of the 7 events. How can you forget Dale Blaney's attempt at it last season? Add names like Hannagan, DeWease McMahan, Kenny Jacobs, and Feese this year. Along with the tough All Star regulars and the locals, it has the making of for another excellent week. I say Ellenberger, Martin, Chaney, or Gressman could easily break into the win column this week. Or how about the locals of Harrison, Mintz, Andrews, or Keegan taking a win. Who knows? I really think at least 25 to 30 guys each night have a real shot at winning depending on how their night falls. I really don't see anybody taking more than 2 wins this year. You can catch Speedweek 26 at Attica Sunday, Wayne County Monday, Hilltop Tuesday, Skyline Wednesday, Fremont Thursday, Limaland Raceway Park Friday, and Eldora
Saturday the 28th. You can catch me and my lovely daughter at all 7 shows, plus, Waynesfield. Don't be afraid to stop and say hey. The majority of the nights I will have a mic stuck in my face either pit side or in the tower helping Bash and the crew.
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