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Tri State Outlook
by Duane Hancock
For the past 27 years, if its the 3rd weekend of September, it is time for the USAC 4-Crown at Eldora Speedway. A few changes the past few years have turned it into the Chevy American Revolution Weekend and into a 3-Crown so to speak. No modified or late models, World of Outlaws run a solo show on Friday and the 3 major USAC division run on Saturday. I have been to ALL 27 years of this event and must say I loved the switch to the Friday/Saturday format many years back. I like that the WOO have been added to the program on Friday. I am just not sure how it is a 4-Crown anymore with no mods or lates. Regardless, another good weekend of racing at the world famous Eldora Speedway.
38 WOO sprints dawned the pit area on Friday. With just sprints, the show was pushed on and the track was maintained often. It was very smooth and pretty fast. The only problem I have, the WOO format just doesn't promote for much racing anymore on big fast tracks. With only 4 inverted in the heats, the Dash setting the top 10 spots in the A, the majority of the passing is on the starts of the race and not much after, unless traffic becomes a factor. This is no fault of the track's, the WOO just need to really look at a different format that might help promote some passing on big tracks without needing to be in heavy traffic. Joey Saldana, Daryn Pittman, Kraig Kinser, and Craig Dollanksy won the heats. Only 1 heat seen a driver that started in the top 4 not transfer via the heat. Why, he spun out. Saldana took the Dash, earning the pole for the 30 lap A Main. Joey has been the man to beat for the past few years at Eldora. If he don't break, he wins.
Rob Chaney took the B Main win. Put Joey on his favorite track,in the fastest car, on the pole and look out, he is on a mission for victory lane. The 30 lap A Main was pretty much the Joey Saldana show. Joey jumped to the lead and was lapping cars by lap 4. Lap 5, Dollansky spins while running in 4th. Restart, its all Joey. Chad Kemenah trys to get a run at him but never can get close enough. By half-way, Steve Kinser was making his move towards the front in traffic. A lap 21 caution for Lucas Wolfe's flat tire slow the pace. Stevie K is looking for 9 green flag laps for a run at Joey. Lap 23, a NASTY crash in turn 1. Jac Haudenschild trys a 3 wide slide job that clips Jason Meyer's left front. Meyers makes a hard right, head-on into the turn 1 wall. As Meyers was flipping back down the track, Dollansky has no place to go except full-throttle into Meyers and his flipping car. To make matters worse Tim Shaffer has no place to go and hits Dollansky,
fairly light hit, as he stops in the track. After some very tense moments, the Eldora safety crew, professionals to the utmost, get Craig to the EMS. Dollansky suffered a compound fracture of his upper arm. The Crowd Pleaser had surgery on Saturday and will make a full recovery. Docs say he will be out 6 to 8 weeks, Craig says 4. Thank God it was no worse than what it was. A VERY nasty looking crash! After the delay, 7 to go and a clean track for Joey. The King gets one shot at the start but Joey is just too strong and marches to victory lane. Kinser, Kemenah, Donny Schatz, and Kraig Kinser round out the top 5. All 5 guys in the top 5 started within the top 7 spots. Racy smooth fast track, just not much a going on with how the WOO run their current format. Not a bad night by any means, its always cool to watch Joey run inches off the wall for 30 laps, it would have been better if the traffic would have stayed a factor. Maybe next year, since they are
the only thing on the card that night, run a 40 lapper.
One of my favorite events of the year took place Saturday night at Eldora. USAC Sprints, Midgets, and Silvercrown cars ALL a full program on the same day/night. 46 sprints, 28 midgets, and 27 silvercrown cars were ready for action. With the new 4-Crown format, the event start at 3PM with hot laps and qualifying for all 3 divisions. Then an hour to an hour and half break to farm the track and make it racy again. An excellent addition to this program is a huge drivers autograph session during the down time. Very smart idea. Steve Ott crashed hard in sprint qualifying, ending his night. I like how the new format included group qualifying, another plus to this event.
The USAC Midgets part of this program alone is worth the price of admission. If you like hardcore all out flat-ass racing, then go to Eldora and see a midget race. The Eldora track crew did an excellent job of getting the track back into racing shape after a afternoon of qualifying events. Brad Kuhn, Darren Hagen, and Dakota Armstrong took the midget heats. 6 of the 15 heat transfer cars started 6th or farther back. Hate to say because I DO like the WOO but,more passing in 1 midget heat than in the entire WOO A Main from the night before. Kevin Swindell got taken in in a heat 2 incident. The Bulldog was hooked-up on the high side when Kody Swanson got tangled with another car and spun to the top of turn 3, just as Swindell entered the spot. Both drivers flipped hard and were OK. Levi Jones took the wild B Main win. Ricky Ehrgott took a hard tumble in the B. then Chase Barber works from the tail to 4th place, only to spin in turn 4 on the last lap,
losing a transfer spot. The 25 lap midget A Main was, as Terry Baltes would state, a barn burner! JJ Yeley and Dave Darland put on a midgets racing 101 clinic. Wait, that was for only 3/4th of the A Main, other drivers were just as good, if not better. JJ took the early lead and was looking to make his return to USAC a profitable one. Lap 2, Tracy Hines tumbles after contact with another car. Not sure who it was but, Tracy was hunting them down before the cars were pushed back off. JJ set the pace but a dog fight with Dave Darland was on. The duo exchanged the lead, slide hob for slide job, several times, JJ officially leading at the flag stand. Wait, Ricky Stenhouse says, guys I haven't forgotten how to drive a midget and blows past both of them on lap 12 for the lead. Yeley and Darland still battle but Stenhouse is checking out. Ricky opens up a 20 car length lead quickly. That was until lap 16. Ricky got stuck behind Brad Kuhn while trying to lap
him. Kuhn lost a left rear tire, just as Stenhouse passes him, collecting Ricky. The Fike entry is OK and Ricky restarts on the tail. This hands JJ the lead again. Darland and JJ fight it out again but many eyes shift to Stenhouse. Ricky is flying past cars on the rim like they are sitting still. Passing 8 cars in 2 laps, Stenhouse is going for more until lap 19. Ricky comes off 2 just a little too high and gets loose. About 2/3rds of the way down the back stretch, Ricky climbs the wall and takes a NASTY tumble that ends hard into the turn 3 fence. Several mid-air tumbles with a hard ending into the fence. Ricky is walking and talking but request a trip for a check-up. I cant blame him one bit. Another nasty looking crash that actually turns out REAL well. Ricky checked out A-OK, just very sore. The final 6 laps, another Yeley Darland slide job special. I am not kidding one bit, these guys had to exchange the lead at least 20 times through out this
race. When the dust settled, Yeley took the win. Darland, Brad Sweet, Brady Bacon, and Cole Whitt rounded out the top 5. An excellent race!
With 46 sprints, only 32 were sent to the heats, the other 14 went to the non-qualifiers race. The top 4 from the NQ race advance to 1 of the 4 heats. Aaron McFadden all but flipped when he tagged the wall in the NQ race. Josh Clemons took the NQ win. The sprint car heat action was pretty good with much passing. Jon Stanbrough, Damion Gardner, Jesse Hockett, and Brady Bacon took the heat wins. 7 of the 16 A Main transfers started 6th or worse in the heats. Hunter Scheurenberg was 3rd quick but ended his night early with a hard flip at the start of heat 3. The front end of the car got torn off and was non-fixable on this night. A stacked B Main seen Tracy Hines take the win. Josh Clemons made an impressive run from the NQ race to, almost earning a transfer in his heat, starting 16th in the B, to a 8th place run. Wait, Stenhouse now is a scratch, finished 7th in the B, the puts Clemons and Yeley in the added spots to the A Main. Now a 24 car starting
field. 30 laps of A Main racing for the sprints. Brad Sweet has always been fast at Eldora in the sprints but seems to get snake bitten more often than not at the Big E. Sweet used his pole starting spot to his advantage and took the lead as the green waved. Coming off 4 to complete lap 1, Chris Windom gets loose and spins into Dave Darland. Both cars get going but Darland slows and stops just past the start/finish line. DD pulled pit side and never returned. Sweet was riding high and opening up a decent lead each lap. Many times Sweet would brush the wall entering 4 due to the cushion being right on the wall. Almost looked like the olden USAC days when Pancho Carter used the wall as a back stop many laps to keep him on the racing surface. Hell I was 7 years old when Pancho did it and still remember it. Lap 10, Brady Bacon flips in turn 4 collecting Hockett and Critter Malone. Brady was done, the others pushed back off. Sweet gets another great restart
and leads. Robert Ballou is running high, looking to chase Sweet down. Lap 13, Ballou plants the turn 4 wall hard and bends a right rear rim, sending him pit side for the night. No yellow, Robert just quickly pulled in. Sweet is running traffic like a pro, still using every inch of the Eldora surface. Just past half-way, Mike Brecht and Dickie Gaines are in the top 5 making charges to the front. Brecht rarely runs a non-wing car but have many laps around Eldora. 5 to go, its still all Sweet. Brecht has broke away from the pack and is closing on Sweet. Checkered in hand, Sweet holds on to take the win. Brecht, up from 13th, Coons Jr., Gaines, up from 16th, and Hockett, after restarting dead last on lap 10, round out the top 5. Sweet lead wire to wire but there was plenty of passing for 2nd on back. Brad was just one mistake away from being a hero or a zero and he rode it out to be a hero. Good race, excellent rim riding job from Sweet.
The Silvercrown B Main transferred 12 of the 14 starters so no one really took many chances during the B. Shane Hollingsworth took the B, or qualifying race as they call it in the big car division. I always look forward to the 50 lap Silvercrown A Main. It lately has been the only show of the year I have gotten to see USAC's big cars run. By the time the 50 lapper rolls around, it is more finesse that win you the race than, quickness. Kevin Swindell takes over the Stenhouse ride for the A. Jerry Coons Jr. cruises to the lead as the green waves. Lap 1, in almost the same spot he spun in the midget heat, Kody Swanson spins, collecting Derek Hagar. Hagar climbs the wall and tumbles down the bank. Coons gets a good restart as Darland works into 2nd. DD has always been strong in the big cars at Eldora. Lap 18, Darland slides past Coons for the lead. Coons trys to hang strong but Darland drives away. The only thing slowing DD now is a lap 43 caution for
Patrick Bruns's wall climb. Brian Tyler had been making a charge towards just before the caution waved. Tyler could never get close enough to make a serious run at Darland. Dave drives off in into the night and takes the win. Tyler, Coons Jr., Shane Cotttle, and Levi Jones rounded out the top 5. A pretty decent race to close the night. Not the most passing or fastest speeds but, a decent races for the big cars on the 1/2 mile.
Jac Haudenschild and the R19 gang announced Friday night they would team-up again for the 09 WOO tour...Jesse Hockett ran the 13 car Friday and the VKCC 75 on Saturday. These two teams will combine efforts in 09 running for the ASCS title. Since the ASCS new tour will only have 40 shows, give or take, the team will run many other winged and non-winged shows...A new look at Eldora will happen in 09. 16 luxury suites will be constructed over the turn 3 and 4 grandstands starting in October...Attica Raceway Park has brought back a 2 day format for the Attica Spring Nationals in 09. The event will take place on Good Friday and the day before Easter. Look for several activities to be planned for this weekend of racing and fun. The show will run under the All Star banner...The Racing World show is helping HoserVille Ohio raise some money towards the injured drivers fund. A benefit go-kart race with several area drivers will take place October 2nd at the
Putt N Pond Park, between Findlay and Fostoria OH. I believe the event starts at 6 PM. It should be a great night of fun.
UPCOMING
Saturday
Non Wings 410 and 305 at Fremont OH
WOMS & AVSS Berlin MI
Sunday
410s, 305s, ALMS lates Millstream OH
USAC Sprints Winchester IN
I will see you at Gas City IN Friday, Fremont Saturday, and Millstream on Sunday. Thanks for to all that have came up and said hey recently. I like to meet all the fans like myself that I can.
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