Highline Magazine Edition 11

Who is Highline Magazine Editor: Brett Swanson Contributors; Kaylene Oliver, Grant Woodhams, Ray Reed, Andy Ticehurst Artist/layout; Andy Ticehurst / PRM Group Photographers: Brett Swanson – Pirate Media Kieran Swanson – Pirate Media Matt Hines – Jigsaw Photography Andy Ticehurst – PRM Group Rachel Cooper - Inaction Photos Leigh Reynolds - Inaction Photos Geoff Gracie You – The Speedway fans Facebook Contributions / Criticism welcome.

High Line Magazine Brett Swanson 0410 198 138 brett@piratemediagroup.com.au

Front Cover: This special edition of Highline magazine was intended to be focused solely on the annual Indiana Sprint Week or ISW as it is also known, but sadly it also became a tribute to the late Bryan Clauson who graces our cover.

Clauson was undoubtedly one of Indiana’s best Open wheel racers be it Sprintcars, Midgets or Indy Cars and sadly the 2016 ISW would be his last as he was killed while competing in the

Bellville Midget Nationals just over a week after the ISW concluded.

Clauson’s incredible spirit and drive continued even in death as the donation of his own organs contributed selflessly to the continued existence and life of five other needy patients who were desperately in need of an organ donor and the esteem and respect in which Clauson was held by the wider community has seen a massive amount of thoughtful people registering as organ donors in honour of the late Bryan Clauson.

Indiana

Sprintweek

T

he 2016 Indiana Sprintweek turned out to be a significant week for the vibrant Indiana ”traditional” Sprintcar scene for a number of reasons.

Firstly throughout the Sprintweek there was no driver who was able to score more than one feature win, although a cou-

ple of guys came close.

Secondly and most encouragingly, there was a host of drivers who scored their first ever USAC feature wins and in one case their first ever Sprintcar feature win.

Bahis

winning a round but contesting spectacularly and consistently at all events.

Fourthly, all 7 rounds were run, albeit not in the preferred order. The Indiana summer weather can be a fickle beast and amongst heatwave conditions throughout the Thirdly, Brady con would score mid-west the only event first ever Sprin- to be effected was Terre Haute’s mid-week show tweek crown, the heavens despite never when

opened with a tropical deluge just as teams and fans were setting up for the night.

The event was rescheduled to the following Sunday and while it was the smallest field

of the week it did mean that no shows were lost due to rain and the full schedule could be

completed, and.

tour.

Finally and extremely sadly, it will be the last ever Sprintweek contested by one of Indiana’s and Americas best ever racers – Bryan Clauson. If you aren’t already aware Clauson would sadly succumb to massive head injuries sustained in a Midget crash less than a month later while continuing his phenomenal career and his circular insanity 200

From a personal point of view,

Highline magazine feels privileged to have had the opportu-

nity to see this maestro at work in his ultimate domain – a traditional 410 wingless Sprintcar in his Indiana home state.

His victory at Lawrenceburg would be the last one of his brilliant traditional sprint career and if not for his decision to skip a couple of rounds for the Jokers Wild, Knight before and the Kings Royal winged Sprintcar events at Eldora, Clauson

would likely have won yet another Sprintweek. We pay specific tribute to BC later in this issue. R.I.P. Thankfully Sprintweek was not subject to any serious injuries as a result of race crashes and this was probably due to the fact that there was on average less than one roll over per night.

As stated at the outset it was a tournament of emerging talent stepping up to run with, equal, or better the established stars.

Long live Indiana Sprintweek.

Gas City 8th July 2016.

During the 2015 season, Indiana’s Gas City speedway curtailed their season early causing many speedway fans to be concerned for the future of yet another racetrack.

Thankfully, the operators of the nearby rival track at Kokomo came to the rescue and a deal was done to see them operate both venues. While Gas City has lost its status as a weekly venue - and many people are upset about that fact - at least it still remains in operation as a limited schedule speedway. And for that the fans should be thankful as the Kokomo operators potentially could have had a much easier life without the competition from the nearby rival had it remained dark.

And so it was that Gas City was indeed part of the 2016 Indiana Sprintweek and what’s more it was the opening round.

A

bumper field of 47 Sprintcars and a large field of loud and raucous Modifieds opened the week on a hot and humid Friday.

First impressions from hot laps for a couple of Aussies from Highline Magazine (whose regular Sprintcar fare is 410 winged or V6 powered wingless Sprintcars) was how beautifully loud the un-muffled Sprintcars were and how sideways these un-winged Sprintcars were also.

Cars were thrown into the corners with varying degrees of

zeal with some drivers even throwing the cars in hard when barely past the flag stand. Was this the fastest way around?

Probably not, but it sure was spectacular and exciting.

At the end of qualifying one of the more flamboyant drivers in Brady Bacon in the legendary Hoffman (Dynamics) #69 had scored fast time from Aussie visitor Zach Daum in the family owned 5D who until this point had been busy crewing for a mate on the gruelling Summer Nationals Hell Tour for Late Models. The unheralded and unsponsored Cole Smith in his own #29S completed the top trio.

Heat race wins went to Chase Stockon, Kyle Robbins, Tyler “Sunshine” Courtney (another recent Aussie visitor who was making his Sprintcar debut) and Shane “the throttle” Cottle.

(Dutcher 17GP), and legends Jon Stanbrough (Stanbrough #81) and Darland.

The top six finishers Thomas, Windom, Andretti, Grant, A J Hopkins (42G) and Cummins qualified to the main event while both Leary and Darland used provisionals.

Amazingly the legendary Dave Darland, now back in the equally legendary Walker/ Curb-Agajanian #11 was in the The 30 lap final was a reC-Main where he ran second markable event for a number to Jarrett Andretti. of reasons. One was the fact that the winner actually came Similarly the Semi (B-Main) from dead last to get the win in contained other heavy hitters just 30 laps of the ¼ mile (400 like Chris Windom (Baldwin #5), Kevin Thomas Jr (4J Mo- metre) track and in doing so passed 23 cars, another was torsports #4J), Justin Grant that the winner actually passed (Phillips 71P), Kyle Cummins and beat Bryan Clauson while (Rock Steady 3R), CJ Leary

he was leading the race, something that does not happen very often, and yet another was that it wasn’t one of the established stars like Bacon or Darland, but that it was a first time winner of a USAC Sprintcar feature that achieved all of the above.

And so it was with either lightning or fireworks flashing across the sky in the distance the field saddled up for the feature event.

As reported in the official USAC media release, two-time Gas City USAC Sprint Car winner Hunter Schuerenberg started from the pole, but by

the end of the first lap, threetime 2016 series winner Chad Boespflug had bolted from his fourth starting spot to pull even with Schuerenberg at the flag stand.

action slowed with ninth-running Grant stopped in turn two, bringing out the second yellow of the night.

On the lap nine restart, Schuerenberg sprinted to the bottom as Boespflug hit the But, Courtney’s first lap spin cushion. Suddenly, Boespbetween turns three and four brought about the yellow flag, flug’s car dramatically slowed resulting in a complete restart. due to a dzus button falling out of the ignition plate and, in turn, ceasing the engine.

On the ensuing restart, Schuerenberg shot to the front Boespflug would restart from the tail, but would not play a as Boespflug slid into secfactor in the race at the front. ond. At the front of the pack, drivers found the fastest way The next attempt at resumto be around the top side where Boespflug zeroed in on ing action saw Clauson slip

by Max McGhee for the secSchuerenberg in a bid for the lead on the ninth lap before the ond position and, one circuit

later on lap 10, scooting past Schuerenberg for the lead with authority on the bottom, quickly distancing himself from the rest of the field. On the 11th lap, Bacon was able to dart by Schuerenberg for second at the entrance to turn one.

As soon as it appeared to become a two-man race between the season’s winningest driver in the national series (Clauson) and the national series point leader (Bacon), Bacon slipped off the edge of the racetrack between turns three and four, dropping the 2014 series champion all the way back to seventh.

Meanwhile, Courtney began to come into focus as he slowly, but surely, and steadfastly hit his marks on the bottom of the track’s surface, knocking off one position after another.

contact, sending Courtney sideways while popping his car up into the air as it bounced through turn one.

Though the contact knocked Courtney off his saddle for a moment, he hopped back on By the midway point, Courthis horse and was incredibly ney was running fifth as he got a major run coming off the able to lasso both Schuerenberg and Windom in as the bottom of turn four. He hit the stripe three-wide with McGhee trio stormed down the back sandwiched between Windom straightaway just moments later with Courtney able to blast on the outside and Courtney out in front of both to claim on the inside, beating them second off of turn four. both into turn one.

However, when Courtney got there, Schuerenberg was headed for the same piece of real estate. The two made

been practically unbeatable when he gets out front, but Courtney was able to dig in his heels on the bottom, cutting the interval between him and Clauson by nearly a half a second each lap.

Clauson continued to cement his trust in the high line while Courtney stuck like Loctite to the low line as the two entered lapped traffic. Clauson pushed his machine to the edge, dipping off the turn two edge on multiple occasions as he clung onto the number one position From that point forward, Court- while Courtney continued to ney had just one man to beat: sneak up on him. But a yellow Clauson. Clauson, a six-time for Thomas Meseraull flew afseries winner this season, has ter he found himself facing the

turn two on lap 24. Clauson was on the ragged edge, literSeven laps to go, Clauson and ally, as he slipped his right side tires over the turn two berm, Courtney had a clear track in biking the car, but still managfront of them. As expected, ing to stay on the gas, only losClauson took to the low side on the restart in turns one two, ing one position in the process to Windom. defending the line that Courtney had worked to perfection A three-car freight train on the all race long. Yet, as Clauson headed into turn three, he bottom consisting of Courtney, aimed his car to the high side, Windom and Shane Cottle enthus leaving the door open for sued while Clauson ripped the high side. Clauson hovered Courtney to take advantage between second and fourthand claim the lead at the line place each lap, but was unable with eight laps to go. to reach Courtney, who held off all remaining challenges to Clauson refused to relent his pick up his first career USAC high line and fall into line, inAMSOIL National Sprint Car stead, fighting back to pull victory in one of the most side-by-side with Courtney in outside turn four guardrail.

amazing drives seen in the series in years over Clauson, Windom, Cottle and Bacon.

Reminiscent of Terry Pletch’s storied charge from 21st to 1st in the 1999 Indiana Sprint Week opener at the Terre Haute Action Track, Courtney’s longshot win under trying circumstances is a performance that is sure to go down in ‘Sprint Week” lore.

“My grandpa (former Lincoln Park Speedway owner Mike Farrar) was a huge part of starting Indiana Sprint Week when it originated, so to win this is even more special,” Courtney said after driving the TOPP Motorsports’ Maxim/

Chevy to his first career series win.

“I’ve been close before, but to beat the best guy in Bryan Clauson the way we did, it’s just amazing. I’m truly speechless. I couldn’t believe he left me the bottom on the restart, but I knew I still had to hit my marks because I’ve given one away before running the bottom like that. When I got by him, I just started counting down the laps in my head and they couldn’t fall quick enough.”

able to squeak by Windom for second on the final corner of the final lap in his Dooling-Hayward/B & H Contractors – Cancer Treatment Centers of America/Spike/Stanton Mopar.

“I felt like I was as good as him once I got back up to ripping the top, but it was treacherous, so I just tried to stay close,” Clauson explained. “If he could’ve been a little closer, I think we could’ve maybe got him. But we got out front and maybe just led a little too soon.”

2011 Indiana Sprint Week Clauson saw a rare one slip away from him near the end of champ Windom, was able to the night’s 30-lapper. He was overcome mechanical issues

early in the night, but was able to come out of night one of “Sprint Week” with a solid third place effort in his Baldwin Brothers Racing/Fox Paving – AMSOIL/Maxim/Claxton Mopar.

“I couldn’t believe when Tyler (Courtney) went by me how slow he was going, but how fast he was at the same time,” said a surprised Windom.

“With how big the curb up top was getting, I never thought you could slow down that much and still go that well. But once he got by, there was no getting him back. We’ll take a podium though. We had to fix a stuck throttle and change a

rear end too, so we salvaged what we could and ended up alright.�

PROSOURCE QUALIFYING: 1. Brady Bacon, 69, Dynamics-12.175; 2. Zach Daum, 5D, Daum-12.340; 3. Cole Smith, 29s, Smith-12.460; 4. Chad Boespflug, 98E, NineEight/ EZR-12.464; 5. Justin Grant, 71p, Phillips-12.487; 6. Chris Windom, 5, Baldwin-12.488; 7. Bryan Clauson, 63, Dooling/ Hayward-12.532; 8. Max McGhee, 17, McGhee-12.535; 9. Hunter Schuerenberg, 2E, Epperson-12.598; 10.

Jerry Coons Jr., 10E, Edison-12.602; 11. Kevin Thomas Jr., 4J, 4J Motorsports-12.621;

12. Colten Cottle, 1RL, Lambertson-12.642; 13. Isaac Chapple, 52, LNR-12.645; 14. Kyle Robbins, 17R, Robbins-12.675; 15. Robert Ballou, 1, Ballou-12.692; 16.

Thomas Meseraull, 66, Amati-12.692; 17. Kyle Cummins, 3R, Rock Steady-12.728; 18.

Tony DiMattia, 50, DiMattia-12.736; 19. Tyler Courtney, 23c, TOPP-12.753; 20. Logan Jarrett, 29, Jarrett-12.767; 21. Chase Stockon, 32, 32 TBI-12.793; 22. Jamie Williams, 31, Williams-12.808; 23. C.J. Leary, 17GP, Dutcher-12.810; 24. Shane Cottle, 57, Hazen-12.832; 25.

Casey Shuman, 50x, Barnhill-12.844; 26. Brandon Mat-

tox, 28, Mattox-12.847; 27.

Jon Stanbrough, 81, Stanbrough-12.869; 28. Landon Simon, 24, Simon-12.873; 29.

Jarett Andretti, 18, Andretti-12.884; 30. Aaron Farney, 15F, Farney-12.893; 31. Brent Beauchamp, 34, Olson-12.898; 32. Cole Ketcham, 41k, Ketcham-12.901; 33. Ted Hines, 12, Hines-12.915; 34. Josh Hodges, 74x, Hodges-12.917; 35. Dave Darland, 11, Walker/Curb-Agajanian-12.932; 36. Dickie Gaines, 44, Soudrette-12.939; 37. Tim Creech, 2c, Creech-12.955; 38. Jimmy Light, 23, Two-Three-12.955; 39. Tyler Thomas, 04, Burton-12.994; 40. A.J. Hopkins, 42G, Jackson-13.085;

41. Mario Clouser, 6, Clouser-13.147; 42. Kent Schmidt, 5k, Schmidt-13.180; 43.

Matt Goodnight, 39, Goodnight-13.183; 44. Josh Spencer, 66J, Spencer-13.238; 45.

Travis Hery, 21H, Hery-13.260; 46. Bret Mellenberndt, 97, Mellenberndt-13.268; 47. Joe Bares, 19, TEST-13.390.

FEATURE: (30 laps) 1. Tyler Courtney, 2. Bryan Clauson, 3.

Chris Windom, 4. Shane Cottle, 5. Brady Bacon, 6. Jerry Coons Jr., 7. Max McGhee, 8.

Robert Ballou, 9. A.J. Hopkins, 10. Zach Daum, 11. Kyle Robbins, 12. Hunter Schuerenberg, 13. Chase Stockon, 14.

Kyle Cummins, 15. Jarett An-

dretti, 16. Dave Darland, 17.

Aaron Farney, 18. C.J. Leary, 19. Brent Beauchamp, 20. Justin Grant, 21. Chad Boespflug, 22. Thomas Meseraull, 23.

Kevin Thomas Jr., 24. Isaac Chapple. NT

con-1,560, 2-Meseraull-1,416, 3-Stockon-1,388, 4-Ballou-1,385, 5-Darland-1,314, 6-Leary-1,246, 7-Boespflug-1,222, 8-McGhee-=1,119, 9-Windom-1,095, 10-Farney-903.

FEATURE LAP LEADERS: Laps 1-9 Schuerenberg, Laps 10-22 Clauson, Laps 23-30 Courtney.

NEW USAC INDIANA SPRINT WEEK POINTS: 1-Courtney-78, 2-Clauson-74, 3-S. Cottle & Bacon-69, 5-Windom-68, 6-Coons-62, 7-McGhee-59, 8-Ballou-55, 9-Daum-54, 10-Robbins-49.

KSE RACING PRODUCTS/B & W AUTO MART HARD CHARGER: Tyler Courtney (16th-1st) NEW USAC AMSOIL SPRINT CAR NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIP POINTS: 1-Ba-

Kokomo 9th July 2016.

The drive between Gas City and Kokomo is less than an hour so in between a visit was made to the Kokomo Automotive Museum where over 100 antique cars, exhibitions and displays are held and where you may also strike up a conversation with other Sprintweekers.

The museum highlights an interesting fact and that is that Kokomo, which still has a large automotive industry presence with manufacturing plants for both GM and Chrysler on opposite sides of the road, was the birthplace of the Haynes, Apperson and Haynes-Apperson automobiles.

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he Haynes-Apperson Company was a manufacturer of Brass Era automobiles in Kokomo from 1896 to 1905. It was the first automobile manufacturer in Indiana, and among the first in the United States. Elwood Haynes, one of the founders, was the inventor of stainless steel and stellite, and many of the early advances in automobile technology were first invented by the company.

The company ed by Elwood and brothers Edgar Apper1894, the trio

of the first gasoline powered vehicles in the United States.

Haynes-Apperson automobiles were known for their “long distance running� capability and the company regularly competed their cars in endurance races. A Haynes-Apperson was among the cars entered in the first automobile race in America, the Chicago Times-Herald race from Chicago and Evanston, Illinois in 1895.

A 1894 Haynes is in the perwas found- manent collection of the Smithsonian Institution’s National Haynes Elmer and Museum of American History with a beautiful collection obson. In display at the built one viously on

Kokomo Museum.

It is equally as obvious that Indiana, and more specifically Kokomo, boasts a long and rich history of Automobile racing so it should come as no surprise that they also have one of the best dirt short track ovals in the country. As ace California lensman Steve La Fond stated, “This is my favourite track of anywhere in the country.” And that alone is a ringing endorsement of the man who regularly shoots at tracks such as Perris, Calistoga, Watsonville and others.

The feature race again continued the previous nights’

trend of putting first time USAC winners in victory lane after a thrilling conclusion that saw the lead two cars cross the line side by side.

What made the race even more memorable was that it was also named in honour of Indiana legend Tony Elliot who died in a plane crash in October last year.

Spurred on by the confidence of last nights win, Tyler Courtney set quick time with Kyle Cummins and Clauson next.

Chase Stockon, Bacon,Tyler Thomas and Boespflug all took heat wins around the concrete lined oval.

The C-Main was bereft of heavy hitters except for Aaron Farney but did contain the uniquely named Critter Elliot who was the 1999 Indiana Sprintweek (ISW) Cham- Malone. Jeff Bland Jr, Tony DiMattia, Farney and Jimmy pion scored three of his five Light transferred to the Semi ISW victories at Kokomo and in total won 11 USAC features which was won by Stanbrough at the venue on his way to the from Darland, Schuerenberg, 1998 and 2000 National Sprint- fast timer Courtney, Josh Hodges and Kent Schmidt. car Championships.

late-race turmoil and a massive charge by defending ISW champ Robert Ballou on the final corner of the last lap to take the win by a foot (300mm) Joe Bares became the first roll-over of the event when he in his Rock Steady Racing/ ProGlide Bearings – Tim Maflipped in the 4th heat. son ReMax/Mach-1/CumAs USAC stated in their official mins-powered machine, and thereby penning his name into media release, “Bridesmaid.

Perennial runner-up. Call him the record books as a USAC AMSOIL National Sprint Car what you will, but Kyle Cumwinner. mins certainly cannot be labeled as such any longer. For, at Kokomo Speedway, the long Twenty-four hours after Tyler Courtney pulled a stunner with wait came to an end for the his victory on Friday night at Princeton, Indiana driver.

Gas City, Cummins became the second consecutive new After passing Chris Windom for the lead with just nine laps face to emerge in ISW victoto go, Cummins emerged from ry lane, marking the first time Gassers Farney (10th) and McGhee (7th) used provisionals to start the main event.

since September of 2008 there have been first-time winners in back-to-back USAC National Sprint Car races. Kasey Kahne Racing teammates Brad Sweet and Brady Bacon accomplished the feat in two straight races at Rossburg, Ohio’s Eldora Speedway and Winchester (Ind.) Speedway, respectively.

Cummins victory following Courtney’s on Friday also was only the second time Indiana Sprint Week has produced two straight first-time USAC National Sprint Car winners.

In 1997, Brad Fox (Bloomington) and Bill Rose (Paragon) notched their initial series wins

one after the other.

After many close calls and near triumphs throughout the years, Cummins’ breakthrough performance came 13 years after his USAC debut at the Terre Haute Action Track in late 2003.

and got into him. I hate that it happened because I want to beat them all. That yellow with one to go had me all sorts of nervous. I knew if I slipped up even a little bit, Robert (Ballou) would pounce. Our car would get super tight if I got into the corner straight, so I opened up my entry a little bit. I was too tight to run there at the beginning, so I started making a bigger arc as the race went on.

I knew as long as I could keep the arc up, I could catch the moisture on the bottom and I’d be okay.”

“Finally,” Cummins exhaled.

“I about teared up when I got out. I’m so tired of second and third; I started sixth and looked at those guys ahead of me and thought, ‘man, this is going to be a tough race to win.’ I got better and better as the race Chris Windom shot to the lead went on. Once I got around on the opening lap from his Windom, the infield tire got moved down and I hit the slime outside front row starting po-

sition with pole sitter Kevin Thomas, Jr. running three to four car lengths back throughout much of the first half of the race.

A lap 14 incident involving Tyler Thomas, McGhee, Meseraull and Stanbrough in turn two slowed the pace just before the halfway point, setting up a restart with Windom at the point and Kevin Thomas right on his tail tank.

Kevin Thomas shadowed Windom through turns one and two on the restart. As the pair headed into turn three, Kevin Thomas threw a massive slider on Windom for the lead, briefly

taking the top spot before Windom clawed back to the lead at the line by a fingernail’s length.

However, a yellow due to the stopped car of Meseraull in turn three reset the order once again.

On the following lap 14 restart attempt, Windom pulled the front wheels off the ground twice after standing on the throttle leading the pack to the green flag. Windom finally got the power to the ground just past the flag stand, but Kevin Thomas was ready to pounce, pulling within striking distance of Windom as he drove down the hill off the high side of turn two, splitting between leader

the ensuing restart.

Windom and Stockon to take the race lead heading into turn Once action resumed, three. sixth-starting Cummins began However, Thomas’ timing was his methodical dissection of ill-fated once again as fifth-run- the front runners. Using the bottom side of the racetrack, ning Bacon found himself sitCummins drove by Stockon off ting backwards in turn three the inside of turn two for the just after the restart. As the field scattered to miss Bacon, third spot on lap 19 and, one lap later, slipped past Kevin C.J. Leary, Logan Jarrett, Tyler Thomas and Schuerenberg Thomas on the bottom of turn three to steal second. couldn’t avoid the trouble.

Schuerenberg received the With eight laps to go, Cummins worst end of the deal, getting upside down after climbing the caught Windom and got the pull off the moisture on the botwall with the right side tires. tom of turn two to propel him He was uninjured.

Since the lap wasn’t fully com- by Windom for the lead headpleted, Kevin Thomas lined up ing into turn three. behind Windom once again for

Windom countered midway between turns three and four, crossing over to get underneath Cummins at the exit of turn four. But Cummins got a tad bit sideways at the exit, initiating contact with his left rear tire and Windom’s right front, sending Windom sideways and, in turn, setting off a chain-reaction incident that also collected frontrunners Stockon and Clauson.

Kokomo “ISW” winner Kevin Thomas, Jr. and defending “Sprint Week” champ Robert Ballou for the final eight circuits.

Cummins remained dedicated to the low line as did Ballou while Kevin Thomas stayed true to the top side in the final laps. Kevin Thomas was able to hang close with Cummins for the lead, engaging in a battle that saw him just one car length behind at the stripe a In the blink of an eye, the entire complexion of the race had lap after the restart. changed with the second, third and fifth-place cars now out of Kevin Thomas (outside) and the picture. Yet, Cummins ride Ballou (inside) swarmed Cummins from both sides. The rapwouldn’t be free and easy as idly closing Ballou inched closhe now had to fend off 2013

er and closer on the bottom, peeking his nose inside Cummins for the lead off of turn four at the conclusion of lap 26 and in turn one on the 27th lap, but just wasn’t close enough yet to attempt the knockout punch.

A four-car tangle involving Farney, Leary, Darland and McGhee brought out the night’s final yellow, setting up a twolap shootout to the finish line.

Cummins worked the low-line throughout the 30-lap feature, but Ballou sunk his teeth firmly into the moisture a car length lower than Cummins while Kevin Thomas put his

the top-five. right rear Hoosier up against the outside wall for the last two It was yet another solid second laps. place run for Rocklin, CaliforOn the final lap, Ballou gave it nia native Ballou, who nearly one last shot, skimming the in- ripped away the win from Cumfield tires with his front wheels mins at the end in his Ballou Motorsports/MPHG Promoas he pitched his machine sideways through the final two tions – Blakesley Auto/Maxim/ corners a car-width underneath Ott. leader Cummins.

“I got hit in the helmet with a rock and it shattered my helBallou got a big bite commet. It felt like it broke my ing off the last corner in a jaw,” Ballou explained. “But side-by-side drag race to the chequered flag with Cummins, we salvaged a good run. I but Cummins had just enough had the best car I’ve ever driven here. We made some last to eke out the victory by a minute changes once we were foot (30cm) over Ballou while Thomas, Jerry Coons Jr (from on the track before the feature 22nd) and Bacon rounded out and everything we changed

was the right decision.”

Kevin Thomas, Jr. has been a rocket during his six visits to Kokomo Speedway during the 2016 season in his 4J Motorsports/Franklin Equipment CEP Concrete/DRC/Chevy, finishing third Saturday night after results of 1st, 1st, 3rd, 2nd and 5th in his five previous visits in non-USAC, weekly competition shows at the ¼-mile oval this year.

“There was a hole in (turns) three and four and, if you hit it wrong on the restarts, it would get the car upset, Thomas said. “Windom did that a few times and protected the bot-

13.069; 2. Kyle Cummins, 3R, Rock Steady-13.095; 3.

Bryan Clauson, 63, Dooling/ Hayward-13.113; 4. Chad Boespflug, 98E, NineEight/ EZR-13.115; 5. Chase Stockon, 32, 32 TBI-13.135; 6.

Dave Darland, 11, Walker/ Curb-Agajanian-13.192; 7. Chris Windom, 5, Baldwin-13.210; 8. Kevin Thomas Jr., 4J, 4J Motorsports-13.213; 9. Josh Hodges, 74x, HodgUSAC AMSOIL SPRINT CAR es-13.225; 10. Brady Bacon, 69, Dynamics-13.276; 11.

NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIP RACE RESULTS: July 9, 2016 Hunter Schuerenberg, 2E, Epperson-13.292; 12. Logan - Kokomo, Indiana - Kokomo Jarrett, 29, Jarrett-13.297; Speedway - “Indiana Sprint 13. C.J. Leary, 17GP, DutchWeek” - “Tony Elliott Classic” PROSOURCE QUALIFYING: er-13.303; 14. Robert Ballou, 1. Tyler Courtney, 23c, TOPP- 1, Ballou-13.310; 15. Mario tom, and then I could get some momentum built up and slide him the next time around. I thought that was going to work for a while, but then I went to the bottom and got swarmed.

Unfortunately, those guys got collected in that wreck, so we couldn’t race it out. But I lived and died by the top and, tonight, it just didn’t work out for us.”

Clouser, 6, Clouser-13.329; 16. Jon Stanbrough, 81, Stanbrough-13.336; 17. Brent Beauchamp, 34, Olson-13.355; 18. A.J. Hopkins, 42G, Jackson-13.383; 19. Cole Ketcham, 41k, Ketcham-13.389; 20. Shane Cottle, 57, Hazen-13.400; 21. Thomas Meseraull, 66, Amati-13.404; 22. Jarett Andretti, 18, Andretti-13.436; 23. Tyler Thomas, 04, Burton-13.450; 24. Kent Schmidt, 5k, Schmidt-13.513; 25. Jerry Coons Jr., 10E, Edison-13.517; 26. Max McGhee, 17, McGhee-13.522; 27. Brian Karraker, 23k, Karraker-13.530; 28. Joe Bares, 19, TEST-13.554; 29. Justin Grant, 71p, Phillips-13.582; 30. Zach

Daum, 5D, Daum-13.589; 31. Colten Cottle, 1RL, Lambertson-13.617; 32. Landon Simon, 24, Simon-13.628; 33. Jeff Bland Jr., 38, Bland-13.633; 34. Tim Creech, 2c, Creech-13.636; 35. Ted Hines, 12, Hines-13.657; 36.

Tony DiMattia, 50, DiMattia-13.674; 37. Aaron Farney, 15F, Farney-13.701; 38. Critter Malone, 7, Seven LLC13.702; 39. Dickie Gaines, 44, Soudrette-13.724; 40. Isaac Chapple, 52, LNR-13.727; 41. Brandon Mattox, 28, Mattox-13.763; 42. Matt Goodnight, 39, Goodnight-13.766; 43. Bret Mellenberndt, 97, Mellenberndt-13.788; 44. Jimmy Light, 23, Two-Three-13.798;

45. Josh Spencer, 66J, Spencer-13.818; 46. Kyle Rob-

FEATURE: (30 laps) 1. Kyle Cummins, 2. Robert Ballou,

bins, 17R, Robbins-14.020; 47. Jamie Williams, 31, Williams-14.119.

3. Kevin Thomas Jr., 4. Jerry Coons Jr., 5. Brady Bacon, 6. Chad Boespflug, 7. Tyler

Courtney, 8. Jarett Andretti, 9. Chris Windom, 10. Shane

Cottle, 11. Thomas Meseraull, 12. Tyler Thomas, 13. Logan Jarrett, 14. Chase Stockon,

15. Dave Darland, 16. Aaron Farney, 17. Max McGhee, 18.

C.J. Leary, 19. Bryan Clauson, 20. Kent Schmidt, 21. Hunter Schuerenberg, 22. Jon Stanbrough, 23. Josh Hodges, 24.

Cole Ketcham. NT

SHIP POINTS: 1-Bacon-1,626, 2-Meseraull-1,464, 3-Ballou-1,458, 4-Stockon-1,433, 5-Darland-1,351, 6-Boespflug-1,288, 7-Leary-1,279, 8-Windom-1,148, 9-McGhee-1,148, 10-Farney-934.

NEW USAC INDIANA SPRINT **Bares flipped during the WEEK POINTS: 1-Courtfourth heat. Schuerenberg flipped on lap 14 of the feature. ney-137, 2-Bacon-135, 3-Ballou & Coons-128, 5-Windom-121, 6-S.Cottle-119, FEATURE LAP LEADERS: 7-Cummins-116, 8-ClauLaps 1-21 Windom, Laps 22son-109, 9-Boespflug & Thom30 Cummins. as Jr.-97.

KSE/B & W AUTO MART HARD CHARGER: Jerry Coons Jr. (22nd to 4th).

NEW USAC AMSOIL SPRINT CAR NATIONAL CHAMPION-

Lawrenceburg 10th July 2016.

A leisurely couple of hours away to the east on the Indiana/Ohio border sits historic Lawrenceburg Speedway, just across the road from the Hollywood Casino (who were we believe instrumental in assisting the rebuilding and continued improvement of the venue), and in the shadow of the MGP distillery that was established in 1847.

Ten years ago back in 2006 as part of Sydney Racer Troy Littles’ America campaign, Highline Magazine visited the venue for a World of Outlaws show that was won by Jac Haudenschild. Back then the facility resembled Sydneys’ Parramatta (Valvoline) Raceway.

S

o what a shock it was to come back in 2016 and see the massive changes and the height of the wide corners on this now concrete lined track that is now shaped like a…well I don’t know how to describe it except to say that you go uphill from the straights as you enter the turns at each end (and obviously run downhill coming off) and that if you crashed and rolled over at the highest apex of the outside of the corners it would take minutes for you to stop rolling all the way down the hill to the infield.

To be honest with you I’m

not sure you could even simply just stop a Sprintcar at the top apex of each end without it rolling over sideways down the slope. Yes it really is that high and steep. Wow, what a difference.

This hot Sunday night would prove in hindsight to be significant for another reason and that being that if was the site of the last Wingless Sprint win by the awesome Bryan Clauson.

Luck certainly seemd to be riding with Clauson this night as his time trial draw was less than ideal but a timing glitch saw him given another run so he was able to get four

to five consecutive laps and made the most of his opportunity to set fast time from Courtney and Justin Grant.

Clauson’s close mate Bacon, local racer Nick Bilbee, Windom, and Stanbrough all took heat wins.

Leary, Ballou, Kevin Thomas, Tyler Thomas, last nights’ winner Cummins and Stockon to make the feature event.

Boespflug (15th) and Meseraull (16th) used provisionals.

Bryan Clauson continued his winning ways Sunday night during the third round of Indiana Sprint Week at LawrenceChad Boespflug and Meseraull were the big names in the burg Speedway, holding off a mid-race challenge from Josh C-Main, T-Mex in particular was mired deep in the grid af- Hodges and snookering the ter the Amati teams transporter field on a late race restart to earn his 41st career USAC broke down on the road and T-Mez was only permitted one AMSOIL National Sprint Car qualifying lap at the end of time victory, surpassing Gary Bettenhausen for seventh on the trials. all-time list.

The semi-main allowed guns

Clauson also collected his 111th career USAC-sanctioned feature victory, moving him into the top-five on the all-time list alongside some of the giants of the sport. Clauson now stands behind only Rich Vogler (171), A.J. Foyt (162), Sleepy Tripp (161) and Mel Kenyon (131) in career USAC wins.

Schuerenberg started the race from the pole position and, just as he did at Gas City two nights prior in the “Sprint Week” opener, shot out to the lead on the opening lap.

Fast Qualifier Clauson, meanwhile, had already made quick work disposing of Courtney,

Grant and Hodges to move from sixth to third on lap one.

With a single lap in the books, Kyle Wissmiller, who was making his first USAC Sprint Car start exactly eight years to the day of his last feature appearance in 2008, slid to a stop, bringing out the first yellow of the night.

his lead quickly evaporate as Clauson reeled him in in notime flat by lap five. The duo drag raced to a dead heat at the flag stand, but Schuerenberg was able to hold steady for the time-being until Clauson was able to jet off the topside of turn four to complete the pass for the lead on lap six.

back to second.

On the restart, Clauson dove low, grabbing the bite off the bottom of the banking to recapturing the lead from Schuerenberg on the sixth circuit. Clauson would secure the spot for good in turn two as he slid up to the top, ripping away Schuerenberg’s line and pullHowever, at the same moment, ing away to a healthy advanOn the ensuing restart, Clautage. son wasted no time resuming Jarett Andretti found himself his charge to the front, slipping turned around on the main Quickly thereafter, Hodges past April 2015 Lawrenceburg straightaway, bringing out the grabbed second as Schuerencaution. winner Logan Jarrett for secberg began to slip into the ond on the bottom off the exit distance from the front of the Due to the lap not being fulof turn four. pack. Hodges still had a more ly completed, Schuerenberg would be reinserted into to the than half-straightaway deficit to Next on BC’s radar was leadovercome Clauson’s lead, but lead with Clauson relegated er Schuerenberg, who saw

a turn three tangle between April’s Lawrenceburg USAC Sprint winner Darland as well as Bilbee and Daum brought the yellow out, thereby erasing the gap and putting Hodges, an April USAC/CRA Sprint Car feature winner at Perris (Calif.)

Auto Speedway, squarely behind the rear bumper of Clauson on the restart with 17 laps to go.

by-side with Clauson, pulling even with the leader while utilizing the bottom line between turns three and four and the middle in turns one and two to pose a formidable challenge to Clauson’s throne at the front throughout the middle portion of the 30-lap event.

On the 17th lap, Clauson dove to the bottom between turns three and four to see if that suited his liking, but that was After the green flag waved, Hodges was able to hang right short-lived as Clauson migrated back to the topside for lap along with leader Clauson, 18, and each lap thereafter, as chipping away at the interval little-by-little. Clauson ran his he began to gap himself and Hodges, constructing his lead machine up top against the to three seconds as Hodges wall at both ends of the racebegan to drop. track while Hodges ran side-

With eight to go, Friday night Gas City winner Courtney started to come alive during crunch time, sticking a slide job on Schuerenberg for third in turn three and repeating the move on Hodges in turn one for the second spot with five laps remaining.

Third-running Schuerenberg’s race came to an abrupt end just three laps from the finish, slowing to a stop in a puff of smoke between turns three and four, which set up one final restart - a rematch between the rapidly-closing Courtney and Clauson for a three-lap shootout.

Clauson quickly thwarted any thoughts Courtney had of repeating his Gas City triumph, blasting away to a substantial advantage heading into turn one on the restart. Nobody was able to mount a serious challenge to Clauson’s supremacy during the final three laps as he pulled away for the victory over Courtney, Windom, Leary and Hodges.

The win moved Clauson into the top-five in all-time Indiana Sprint Week wins with his seventh career chequered flag Sunday night at “The Burg” while also capturing his seventh USAC AMSOIL National Sprint Car victory of the 2016

season, already equaling his best single-season win total in the series, which he accomplished during his back-to-back championship years in 2012 and 2013.

“I wanted to catch everybody by surprise on that last restart and it worked,” Clauson said.

“We were a little tight on the curb, so I didn’t know how aggressive to be on it, but we were able to get to the front early on. It’s hard sometimes, when you’re out front, to know what pace to run, but we held them off. When I saw Hodges on the bottom, I went down there just to feel it out, but felt like it’d take me too long to

figure out how to run it. The cushion on both ends on exit was pretty big and, if you hit it wrong, it would throw the nose. I had to be careful, but those guys behind us made me pick up the pace more than what I had been doing up to that point. Our car was good, I just had it on cruise control and tried not to make any mistakes.”

Courtney, not only retained his Indiana Sprint Week point lead with his second place run, but extended it from 2 to 22 points over Brady Bacon and Chris Windom heading into the final four-race stretch of “Sprint Week”.

“I can’t ask for much more, other than to have won the last two nights,” Courtney said.

“That last restart shows why Bryan (Clauson) is the best because he snookered the whole field. I didn’t really know what to do because we’re supposed to stay in line but that’s the way it goes. We were pretty decent; Bryan was a little better, obviously, but we’ll get it tuned up again and probably head to Terre Haute now.”

Windom, took the Baldwin Brothers Racing Mopar to another solid third place run, tying him for second in Indiana Sprint Week points alongside Brady Bacon.

“I didn’t need all those cautions at the beginning because we were better on the long run,” Windom admitted. “I was trying to make something work on the middle to bottom and I could get those guys off the bottom of four when they’d get bottled up running the top. We fell back to 11th or something at some point, so to charge back up to third is good. We’re right there in the hunt for this Sprint Week title, so if we can keep knocking out podiums, we’re going to be in good shape.”

PROSOURCE QUALIFYING: 1. Bryan Clauson, 63, Dooling/Hayward-14.166; 2.

Tyler Courtney, 23c, TOPP14.179; 3. Justin Grant, 71p, Phillips-14.188; 4. Aaron Farney, 15F, Farney-14.292; 5. Kyle Robbins, 17R, Robbins-14.297; 6. Josh Hodges, 74x, Hodges-14.312; 7.

Kevin Thomas Jr., 4J, 4J Motorsports-14.363; 8. Logan Jarrett, 29, Jarrett-14.375; 9.

Hunter Schuerenberg, 2E, Epperson-14.432; 10. Tyler Thomas, 04, Burton-14.444; 11. Chris Windom, 5, Baldwin-14.447; 12. C.J. Leary, 17GP, Dutcher-14.463; 13.

Brady Bacon, 69, Dynamics-14.470; 14. Shawn Westerfeld, 89, Westerfeld-14.473; 15. Zach Daum, 5D, Daum14.493; 16. Jon Stanbrough,

81, Stanbrough-14.506; 17.

Mario Clouser, 6, Clouser-14.509; 18. Kyle Wissmiller, 3, Simmons-14.516; 19. Cole Ketcham, 41k, Ketcham-14.516; 20. Dave Darland, 11, Walker/Curb-Agajanian-14.530; 21. Jarett Andretti, 18, Andretti-14.619; 22. Nick Bilbee, 17N, Bilbee-14.623; 23. Landon Simon, 24, Simon-14.676; 24. Joss Moffatt, 5J, Moffatt-14.678; 25. Matt Goodnight, 39, Goodnight-14.682; 26. Chase Stockon, 32, 32 TBI-14.709; 27. Kyle Cummins, 3R, Rock Steady-14.745; 28. Tony DiMattia, 50, DiMattia-14.766; 29. Robert Ballou, 1, Ballou-14.780; 30. Isaac

Chapple, 52, LNR-14.817; 31. Chad Boespflug, 98E, NineEight/EZR-14.832; 32.

Justin Owen, 4JO, Fischesser-14.846; 33. Garrett Abrams, 32A, Abrams-14.897; 34. Max McGhee, 17, McGhee-14.953; 35. Dickie Gaines, 44, Soudrette-14.962; 36. Bret Mellenberndt, 97, Mellenberndt-14.977; 37. Michael Fischesser, 4, Fischesser-14.990; 38. Travis Hery, 21H, Hery-15.147; 39. Thomas Meseraull, 66, Amati-15.254; 40. Jamie Williams, 31, Williams-15.509; 41. Steve Thomas, 20, Thomas-16.206; 42.

Shane Cottle, 57, Hazen-NT. FEATURE: (30 laps) 1. Bryan

Clauson, 2. Tyler Courtney, 3.

Chris Windom, 4. C.J. Leary, 5.

Josh Hodges, 6. Justin Grant, 7. Brady Bacon, 8. Kyle Cummins, 9. Robert Ballou, 10.

Kevin Thomas Jr., 11. Jarett Andretti, 12. Chase Stockon, 13. Jon Stanbrough, 14. Zach Daum, 15. Landon Simon, 16.

Dave Darland, 17. Tyler Thomas, 18. Thomas Meseraull, 19. Hunter Schuerenberg, 20.

Logan Jarrett, 21. Nick Bilbee, 22. Chad Boespflug, 23. Kyle Wissmiller, 24. Joss Moffatt.

NT FEATURE LAP LEADERS: Laps 1-5 Schuerenberg, Laps 6-30 Clauson.

NEW USAC AMSOIL SPRINT CAR NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIP POINTS: 1-Bacon-1,696, 2-Ballou-1,507, 3-Meseraull-1,491, 4-Stockon-1,473, 5-Darland-1,389, 6-Leary-1,344, 7-Boespflug-1,311; 8-Windom-1,220, 9-McGhee-1,158, 10-Clauson-964.

NEW USAC INDIANA SPRINT WEEK POINTS: 1-Courtney-215,

2-Bacon-195. 3-Windom-193, 142, 8-Andretti-138, 9-Stock4-Clauson-190, 5-Ballou-177, on-130, 10-S.Cottle-129.

6-Cummins-166, 7-Thomas Jr.-

Terre Haute 13th July 2016.

Terre Haute Action Track (also The Action Track) is a half mile dirt track located at the Vigo County, Indiana fairgrounds on U.S. Route 41 along the south side of Terre Haute, Indiana.

The track hosts annual United States Automobile Club (USAC) midget car, sprint car and Silver Crown events. Notable drivers that have competed at the track include A. J. Foyt, Jeff Gordon, Parnelli Jones, and Tony Stewart The track has held events sanctioned by USAC, its predecessor American Automobile Association (AAA), and the World of Outlaws.[3]

Was it the fact that it was July 13th or just pure bad luck that after all the teams had assembled and the fans were starting to flock into the fairgrounds that the heavens opened to the point of forcing flash flood warnings to issue and postponing the classic event.

Unfortunately the weather was not playing ball lately doing exactly the same thing the night before in Northern Indiana as Highline Magazine awaited a round of the Late Model hell tour at Plymouth speedway.

Putnamville 14th July 2016.

Putnamville is located not that far from Terre Haute which leaves quite a few hours during the day to fill in. Highline magazine elected to do an impromptu tour of some of the many famous “covered” bridges that cross various rivers and creeks throughout the nearby region thus getting off the highways and interstates and onto the backroads for some sightseeing of the “real” America.

The Putnamville venue also is quite picturesque set into the side a grassy hillside with excellent views of the race track and a couple of additional photographic platforms to give a different perspective. The thoughtful promotional team have also come up with a unique system that allows fans to hire a hard back plastic chair and then position it anywhere along copious rows of timber bleachers.

B

etween Indiana and Terre Haute’s rain delay some of the race seats had also been moved with Meseraull being punted from the Amati #66 despite sitting 2nd in the National points chase after allegedly uttering some unkind comments towards the crew and/or sponsors. Stanbrough, who had been racing his own equipment to that point was slotted into the #66 and T-Mez found a ride in the Landon Simon #24. Simon being happy to put another driver in the car so he could experiment with set-ups and concen-

trate on making his car fast.

In qualifying Courtney continued his two lap speed taking fast time from Brent Beauchamp and Leary. Tyler Thomas who was having his first week of Sprintcar racing was showing his growing comfort with 4th fastest time. Clauson was absent having elected to contest the Winged events at Eldora.

Courtney, Meseraull, Brady Short and Ballou all took heat wins while Jimmy Light, Englishman Tom Harris and Cole Kethcham all flipped during the heats or qualifying.

Farney (3rd) and Hodges (4th) were the two young guns that were forced into the C-Main while Colton Cottle, A J Hopkins, Tim Creech and Jamie Williams also transferred to the semi. Issac Chapple and Farney (for the second time) used provisionals to make the field.

challenged down the stretch to take the victory Thursday night at Putnamville’s Lincoln Park Speedway.

Winning an Indiana Sprint Week event is one of the most daunting tasks a USAC AMSOIL National Sprint Car competitor will face all season, but on Thursday night, Short After being absent from the and the Pottorff number 11p first three races of “Indiana worked in perfect harmony as Sprint Week,” Brady Short made his triumphant return to the driver collected his fifth cathe seven-race series a mem- reer ISW victory at a fifth differorable one, quickly picking his ent racetrack exactly 10 years to the day of his very first ISW way through the field one-bytriumph at Bloomington Speedone from his 11th starting position before taking the lead on way in 2006. lap 12 from Dave Darland and pulling away to go virtually un- Aside from Bloomington and

Lincoln Park, Short has also scored ISW wins at Lawrenceburg Speedway in 2008, Brownstown Speedway in 2010 and Tri-State Speedway in 2015, moving him into a tie for eighth on the all-time ISW win list alongside Kevin Briscoe, Tony Elliott and Kevin Thomas.

After a torrential downpour hit Lincoln Park Speedway throughout late Wednesday afternoon and Thursday morning, the 5/16-mile dirt oval became “Lake Putnamville” for a period of time. Due to the incredible effort by Joe Spiker and the rest of the LPS crew, the track was in tip-top shape

though by the time hot laps began and throughout the night, provided a smooth, racy, multiple-lane surface.

Regardless, in this stacked field, Short would have to get his elbows up to reach victory lane from his 11th starting spot.

three, ISW point leader Tyler Courtney hopped over the right rear tire of Justin Grant while battling for fourth. Courtney slid a lengthy distance over the turn three banking toward the pit exit guardrail before coming to a stop. Courtney would restart from the tail of the field in the 24th position, the very same spot he began his charge from six days earlier during his spectacular comefrom-behind victory at Gas City I-69 Speedway.

Darland crossed over off the turn four banking, sweeping inside of Stockon, beating him by a bumper in a drag race to the flag stand.

Stockon countered with a slider on Darland at the entrance of one, briefly securing the lead before Darland crossed over to the inside of Stockon once again, driving by him Up front at the beginning of to grab the top spot for good the 30-lap affair were Stockon down the back straightway. and Darland. The two battled Meanwhile, Short’s steady, meback-and-forth throughout the thodical drive through the midfirst circuit until Stockon lunged dle in turns one and two and ahead for the lead at the exit of On the restart, Darland, the the bottom in turns three and winningest driver in the histoturn two on lap two. four put him in the top-three ry of “Indiana Sprint Week,” by lap nine. On lap 11, Short engaged in a war for the lead However, just moments later as the field funnelled into turn with Stockon. On the third lap, worked the low groove to slip

by Stockon for second by the length of a wheel at the line.

Just one lap later, Short threw his machine toward the bottom of turns one and two to pull even with Darland. The two battled down the back straight with Short outracing Darland to turn three before motoring off with the lead and a stranglehold on the top spot.

Short continued to stretch out his lead by a country mile in the forthcoming laps and, with less than 10 to go, held a halflap lead over second-running Stockon, who had just gotten

by Darland for the runner-up spot one lap prior. However, that substantial lead would be

erased after a Zach Daum 360 spin in turn two with five laps remaining that brought out the yellow flag.

Stockon and the remainder of the field who had no answer for Short at the end. Short put the race on ice, winning by a second and a half over Stockon, Boespflug, Robert Ballou (from 16th) and KSE Racing Products/B&W Auto Mart Hard Charger Thomas Meseraull who darted his way from 18th to 5th in his debut for Landon Simon Racing.

For the restart, Stockon was right on the tail of Short, but as soon as the green flag dropped, Short got an excellent jump, quickly distancing himself from the pack. Just one lap, later, though, the yellow flew for ninth-running Beauchamp, who slid to a stop Courtney, who restarted from the tail of 24-car field with just next to an infield tire in turn one lap complete, fought back two. through the field to salvage an On what would prove to be the eighth-place finish and, in turn, final restart, Short once again maintained his solid 32-point lead in the “Indiana Sprint shot out of a proverbial canWeek� standings with just non, distancing himself from

good spot,” Short said. “When we took off in the heat race, I knew we were going to be one Throughout the first four ISW events, the winner has started of the good cars and it was going to be up to me. I tried no better the sixth: Courtney (16th at Gas City), Kyle Cum- to give it away a couple times, just because I kept missing my mins (6th at Kokomo), Bryan Clauson (6th at Lawrenceburg) marks and overdriving. I was on vacation last week and deand Short (11th at Lincoln Park), putting the average win- cided to come run this second ners’ starting position at 9.75. week, so it’s pretty special. To come here and beat 50 cars, However, Short attributed his you have to have a lot of luck. success to getting off on the I didn’t think we’d even be racright foot in Qualifying, which set the tone and put himself in ing today, so that’s a credit to Joe Spiker and his crew bea position to be a contender cause they gave us an awecome feature time. some race track.”

“Qualifying was huge tonight, but I went out early and made Stockon led the first pair of the best lap I could to give us a laps during the feature before three events to go.

fading back, running fourth, in fact, with just 10 to go. But he responded in a strong way, making his way back to the second spot at the checkered.

“I knew we could rip the bottom pretty well, but I had to go somewhere they weren’t,” Stockon explained. “I thought the cushion would blow completely off, but we freed it up quite a bit and couldn’t quite roll the bottom like we needed to. I could run higher up in it in turn one and diamond it off to make up some decent ground.

We just tried to maintain in (turns) three and four, but we never gave up and rallied back for a good finish.”

Hanford, California’s Boespflug returned with a vengeance Thursday night after struggling last Sunday night at Lawrenceburg and followed up his second place run at Lincoln Park on July 1 with another podium finish, bagging third at the finish.

“I thought I’d have something for them when I found something on the bottom in (turns) one and two, but we just had to hang on there at the end,” Boespflug said. Overall, though, it was a good night for us and we’ll take this momentum to Bloomington. I haven’t ever been great there, so hopefully we can keep these

12.670; 2. Brent Beauchamp, 34, Olson-12.697; 3. C.J. Leary, 17GP, Dutcher-13.040; Meseraull, of San Jose, California, stepped into the Landon 4. Tyler Thomas, 04, Burton-13.053; 5. Chad Boespflug, Simon Racing entry after he 98E, NineEight/EZR-13.054; and the Amati Racing team 6. Justin Grant, 71p, Philparted ways after Lawrenceburg. Meseraull was a rocket lips-13.100; 7. Chase Stockon, during the feature, driving from 32, 32 TBI-13.142; 8. Dave the outside of row nine into the Darland, 11, Walker/Curb-Agatop-five to earn his best finish janian-13.154; 9. Jerry Coons Jr., 10E, Edison-13.267; 10. of ISW 2016.

Hunter Schuerenberg, 2E, Epperson-13.303; 11. Brady “This car was on kill tonight,” Meseraull exclaimed. “I strug- Short, 11p, Pottorff-13.320; 12. Jarett Andretti, 18, Andretgled at the beginning of the ti-13.373; 13. Shane Cottle, week, obviously, but I’m just 57, Hazen-13.415; 14. Jon stoked to have a good run.”

Stanbrough, 66, Amati-13.450; PROSOURCE QUALIFYING: 15. Brady Bacon, 69, Dynam1. Tyler Courtney, 23c, TOPP- ics-13.458; 16. Robert Balstrong runs up.”

lou, 1, Ballou-13.485; 17. J.J. Hughes, 76, Hughes-13.500; 18. Thomas Meseraull, 24, LSR-13.505; 19. Zach Daum, 5D, Daum-13.571; 20. Max McGhee, 17, McGhee-13.592; 21. Brandon Mattox, 28, Mattox-13.642; 22. Cole Smith, 29s, Smith-13.678; 23. Casey Shuman, 50x, Barnhill-13.704; 24. Logan Jarrett, 29, Jarrett-13.748; 25. Tony DiMattia, 50, DiMattia-13.751; 26. Kyle Cummins, 3R, Rock Stea dy-13.761; 27. Cole Ketcham, 41k, Ketcham-13.874; 28.

Shane Cockrum, 24p, Paul13.912; 29. Kevin Thomas Jr., 4J, 4J Motorsports-13.916; 30. Chris Windom, 5, Baldwin-13.953; 31. Colten Cot-

tle, 1RL, Lambertson-13.959; 32. Isaac Chapple, 52, LNR13.960; 33. Tom Harris, 5E, East-13.984; 34. Aaron Farney, 15F, Farney-14.034; 35. Bret Mellenberndt, 97, Mellenberndt-14.043; 36. Riley Kreisel, 90, Smith-14.134; 37. Tim Creech, 2c, Creech-14.331; 38. Jamie Williams, 31, Williams-13.354; 39. Dickie Gaines, 44, Soudrette-14.426; 40. Lukas Smith, 61, Smith-14.492; 41. Kent Schmidt, 5k, Schmidt-14.495; 42. Nate McMillin, 24x, McMillin-14.599; 43. Daylan Chambers, 4c, Chambers-14.627; 44. Mike Gass, 17G, On The Gass-14.667; 45. A.J. Hopkins, 14H, Hopkins-14.753;

46. Lee Underwood, 24L, Underwood-14.868; 47. Matt Brannin, 27, Brannin-15.031; 48. Josh Hodges, 74x, Hodges-17.996; 49. Jimmy Light, 23, Two-Three-NT; 50. Robert Bell, 71, Bell-NT. FEATURE: (30 laps) 1. Brady Short, 2. Chase Stockon, 3.

Chad Boespflug, 4. Robert Ballou, 5. Thomas Meseraull, 6.

Jerry Coons Jr., 7. Shane Cottle, 8. Tyler Courtney, 9. Kevin Thomas Jr., 10. Dave Darland, 11. Brady Bacon, 12. Aaron Farney, 13. Jarett Andretti, 14.

Tyler Thomas, 15. Brent Beauchamp, 16. C.J. Leary, 17.

Justin Grant, 18. Logan Jarrett, 19. Chris Windom, 20. Zach

Daum, 21. Isaac Chapple, 22.

Hunter Schuerenberg, 23. J.J. Hughes, 24. Jon Stanbrough.

NT FEATURE LAP LEADERS: Laps 1-2 Stockon, Laps 3-11 Darland, Laps 12-30 B.Short.

KSE/B & W AUTO MART HARD CHARGER: Thomas Meseraull (18th to 5th) NEW USAC AMSOIL SPRINT CAR NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIP POINTS: 1-Bacon-1,734, 2-Ballou-1,576, 3-Meseraull-1,557, 4-Stockon-1,545; 5-Darland-1,437, 6-Boespflug-1,384, 7-Leary-1,382, 8-Windom-1,251, 9-Mc-

Jr.-193, 7-Bryan Clauson-190, 8-Coons-184, 9-S.Cottle-182, NEW USAC INDIANA SPRINT 10-Andretti-181.

WEEK POINTS: 1-Courtney-278, 2-Ballou-246, 3-Bacon-243, 4-Windom-224, 5-Stockon-202, 6-K.Thomas Ghee-1,168, 10-Farney-986.

Bloomington 15th July 2016.

The distance between Putnamville and the famous Bloomington – Home of many of the legendary Kinsers – is not too onerous, again leaving time to explore some underground caves, a fun park or maybe a trip to French Lick for a scenic rail or tram car ride or the historic French Lick Casino.

Historic Bloomington is similar in many ways to Putnamville being carved into the side of a grassy hill and it wouldn’t be a sprintcar race at Bloomington without a racing Kinser.

So it was with great relief that the entry list revealed Kinsers in both ISW (Jordan) and Racesaver 305 winged sprintcars (Kerry).

C

had Boespflug continued on his good form from the previous night scoring fast time ahead of Kevin Thomas Jr and Josh Hodges.

He then converted that fast time heat inversion to a transfer behind Windom and Brandon Mattox. Stockon, Jarrett and Schuerenberg won the other heats.

Stanbrough led home the C-Main from Cole Smith, Riley Kreisel, Daylan Chambers, Dickie Gaines and Ted Harris.

Kevin Thomas Jr, Meseraull, Tyler Thomas, Andretti, Dakota Jackson and Jordan Kinser also qualified from the Semi while Stanbrough and Chapple utilised provisional starts.

The feature event itself proved to be possibly the best of the week with a brilliant side by side battle for the majority of the race with another first time USAC winner.

In a week chock-full of veteran drivers entering USAC victory lane for the first time, Brent Beauchamp became the latest to break through after prevailing in a classic duel with Dave Darland throughout the

first one-third of the race, Darland and Beauchamp swapped the top spot a dozen times in the first eight laps. Darland’s strong suit was on his entry into turns one and three where he was able to pull ahead by a car length midway through With Darland up on the high the corner while Beauchamp line and Beauchamp hugging Beauchamp would start third was able to propel himself off the infield tires, the two enin the 30-lap event, directly the exit of turns two and four to behind Darland who began his gaged in a side-by-side war race from the pole position for lap-after-lap with neither driver pull even on the inside of Darthe second consecutive night. able to put more than a half car land down the front and back straightaways. length’s advantage between As the green flag flew, Darland each other at the flag stand for The two put on a show for the the first eight laps of the feadrew first blood, sliding up in ages, running several identifront of outside front row start- ture. cal-looking, side-by-side laps er Brady Bacon as the 24-car resulting in numerous photo Though credited with only field filed into turn one. three “official” lead changes at finishes at the line with each successive circuit appearing the start/finish line during the Immediately, Darland gained majority of the 30-lap event during the Speedway’s 28th annual “Sheldon Kinser Memorial.” A race that featured the most lead changes in a USAC AMSOIL National Sprint Car race in 15 years!

company as Beauchamp utilized the bottom of the racetrack to pull even with Darland entering turn three, resulting in a dead heat at the line at the conclusion of lap one.

After the stoppage of Chase Stockon brought out a caution at the halfway mark, the lap 15 restart saw Darland find his Without either able to break second wind. Just as the topaway up front, Beauchamp side of the red clay surface apwas able to edge ahead of Darland by mere inches at the peared to fade, Darland quickly scoring loop on lap five, but the proved there was still something left up top as he clawed lead would be short-lived as his way back on the outside to Darland fought back to claim the top spot at the stripe on the beat Beauchamp to the line on lap 16 by 14-thousandths of a sixth and seventh laps. second.

On lap eight, Beauchamp got a titanic run on the bottom that Meanwhile, Beauchamp drove lunged him forward off the exit his machine as straight as an arrow on the bottom, re-taking of turn four and into the lead, the lead by a car length on the putting a five-car-length gap 17th lap before Darland found between himself and Darland another bullet in the chamber, in the ensuing laps. reloading for another run at as if the two were on a highspeed pace lap.

Beauchamp to reclaim the lead by a car length on laps 18 and 19.

By lap 20, the exit of turn two began to slip away as Darland was still able to pull even alongside Beauchamp between turns one and two, but was unable to find any moisture at the top of the second turn, hindering his forward motion as he faded and Beauchamp raced by on the inside and distanced himself from the rest of the field in the waning laps.

In the last 10 laps, it was all Beauchamp, who pulled away to join Tyler Courtney and Kyle

Cummins as the third different driver to claim his first career USAC victory during 2016 ISW over Bacon, who slipped by Darland for second on the final lap. Kevin Thomas, Jr., a 2012 Bloomington ISW winner, was fourth Meseraull drove the Landon Simon Racing car to its second straight fifth place finish.

Bloomington Speedway, the only track to host an ISW event in each year of the series’ existence dating back to 1988, has now produced six firsttime USAC National Sprint Car feature winners during its ISW round over the years: Brad Fox (1997), Cory Kruseman (1999),

A.J. Anderson (2001), Brady Short (2006), Kevin Thomas, Jr. (2012) and now Beauchamp.

The spectacular 30-lap affair featured the most lead changes in a USAC National Sprint Car race since Lincoln Park Speedway’s “ISW” feature on July 21, 2001 that also involved Darland. In that event, Stanbrough got by Darland on the final corner of the final lap to take a photo finish victory.

However, this night belonged to Beauchamp, who came into Friday night’s race with only one career top-five finish in USAC National Sprint Car competition - a third at Bloom-

ington’s ISW round in 2012.

He drove to a 1.85-second victory that was not indicative of the fierce battle that was waged between first-time winner Beauchamp and Darland, the winningest ISW and USAC National Sprint Car driver of all-time.

“I can’t put this into words,” Beauchamp said. “I said last night that winning a ‘Sprint Week’ race would be something that I literally would not be able to describe and, to do it here - a place that has eluded me for so long- it’s a place I’ve wanted to win at so bad, but to do it during ‘Sprint Week,’ it’s amazing. I felt like

I was running a Kenyon car at the Speedrome when I was down there on the bottom. I just tried to roll it smooth and not get off the tires. I knew Dave was out there and I could sense that if I just hit my marks that I was better and could get away from him. When I got to the lapped cars, I just told myself not to do anything dumb and stuck it on bottom and then went wide coming to the checkered to try and block any sort of run. I am just so excited. This is amazing!”

Indy Race Parts fourth heat, ISW point leader Courtney skated over the turn one cushion and embarked on a wild series of flips over the backside of the banking. Though Courtney returned in a backup car for the semi-feature, he was unable to transfer, thus missing the feature and having to stand on the sidelines to witness his 32-point lead coming into Friday night quickly evaporate.

Courtney’s misfortune was all Bacon’s gain, as the Broken Arrow, Oklahoma driver’s secIn “Indiana Sprint Week,” every little thing matters. Though ond place finish helped him he’s run spectacularly all week, leapfrog past Courtney to take over the ISW point lead headearlier in the night, during the

ing into the final two races at Tri-State Speedway in Haubstadt and at the Terre Haute Action Track.

“We caught a break when Hodges went by me and we got a yellow,” Bacon admitted.

“I calmed down after that and just tried to run the bottom and not make too many mistakes.

I thought the top was going to be the place to be, but the bottom was just too good and the top was treacherous. Hats off to the track prep crew, though.

To go through 50 cars in the middle of the summer without any prep breaks is fantastic.

These last three tracks are three of our best, so we’ve got

some momentum. We had to battle back all week, but tonight, we could get to the front and just sort of hang out, so that was nice. But I padded my bank account a little bit this week, so, hopefully, we can keep it up these last two nights.”

It was a valiant effort for Darland, who led on four different occasions for a total of nine laps and finished a strong third.

“We’ve been decent this year, but we’re still learning,” Darland acknowledges. “Jeff (Walker) and I are getting better. We were good last night and then tonight, obviously,

too. We could get around Brent (Beauchamp) a few times, but the cushion just got so tough to run. I slipped the right rear over the edge a couple times in turn two, and then would just get hung up, so it was difficult. I had to shoot off of it a little early as we got going towards the end. But we were good tonight, so it’s a step in the right direction.”

PROSOURCE QUALIFYING: 1. Chad Boespflug, 98E, NineEight/EZR-10.737; 2. Kevin Thomas Jr., 4J, 4J Motorsports-10.846; 3. Josh Hodges, 74x, Hodges-10.858; 4. C.J. Leary, 17GP, Dutcher-10.961; 5. Jarett Andretti,

18, Andretti-10.974; 6. Thomas Meseraull, 24, LSR-10.981; 7. Brent Beauchamp, 34, Olson-10.986; 8. Brady Bacon, 69, Dynamics-10.988; 9. Tony DiMattia, 50, DiMattia-10.988; 10. Dave Darland, 11, Walker/Curb-Agajanian-11.005; 11. Dakota Jackson, 3, Jackson-11.005; 12. Jerry Coons Jr., 10E, Edison-11.026; 13. Tyler Thomas, 04, Burton-11.038; 14. Chase Stockon, 32, 32 TBI-11.043; 15.

Kyle Cummins, 3R, Rock Steady-11.046; 16. Hunter Schuerenberg, 2E, Epperson-11.061; 17. Chris Windom, 5, Baldwin-11.062; 18. Brady Short, 11p, Pottorff-11.074; 19. Bret Mellenberndt, 97,

Mellenberndt-11.085; 20.

Tyler Courtney, 23c, TOPP11.085; 21. Brandon Mattox, 28, Mattox-11.087; 22. Robert Ballou, 1, Ballou-11.124; 23. Logan Jarrett, 29, Jarrett-11.129; 24. Aaron Farney, 15F, Farney-11.136; 25. A.J. Hopkins, 14H, Hopkins-11.144; 26. Jordan Kinser, 70, Hurst-11.158; 27. Shane Cottle, 57, Hazen-11.161; 28. Justin Grant, 71p, Phillips-11.211; 29. Max McGhee, 17, McGhee-11.231; 30. Jeff Bland Jr., 38, Bland-11.247; 31. Isaac Chapple, 52, LNR11.267; 32. Cole Ketcham, 41k, Ketcham-11.270; 33. Cole Smith, 29s, Smith-11.282; 34. Aric Gentry, 10, GBR-

11.312; 35. Jon Stanbrough, 66, Amati-11.322; 36. Daylan Chambers, 4c, Chambers-11.329; 37. Kent Schmidt, 5k, Schmidt-11.355; 38. Dickie Gaines, 44, Soudrette-11.417; 39. Nick Bilbee, 17N, Bilbee-11.453; 40. Riley Kreisel, 90, Smith-11.489; 41. Matt McDonald, 5M, McDonald-11.508; 42. Tom Harris, 5E, East11.661; 43. Jamie Williams, 31, Williams-11.688; 44. Nate McMillin, 15J, Johnson-11.790; 45. Chris Babcock, 35, Babcock-11.798; 46. Matt Brannin, 27, Brannin-11.945; 47. Lukas Smith, 61, Smith-11.971; 48.

Robert Bell, 71, Bell-12.046.

FEATURE: (30 laps) 1. Brent

Beauchamp, 2. Brady Bacon, 3. Dave Darland, 4. Kevin Thomas Jr., 5. Thomas Meseraull, 6. C.J. Leary, 7. Josh Hodges, 8. Jerry Coons Jr., 9. Jarett Andretti, 10. Robert Ballou, 11. Chad Boespflug, 12. Brady Short, 13. A.J. Hopkins, 14. Chris Windom, 15. Brandon Mattox, 16. Kyle Cummins, 17. Jon Stanbrough, 18. Isaac Chapple, 19. Chase Stockon, 20. Logan Jarrett, 21. Tyler Thomas, 22. Jordan Kinser, 23. Dakota Jackson, 24. Hunter Schuerenberg. NT NEW USAC AMSOIL SPRINT CAR NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIP POINTS: 1-Bacon-1,808, 2-Ballou-1,625,

3-Meseraull-1,619, 4-Stockon-1,578, 5-Darland-1,508, 6-Leary-1,445, 7-Boespflug-1,437, 8-Windom-1,294, 9-McGhee-1,178, 10-Far-

ney-996.

4-Windom-267, 5-K.Thomas Jr.-263, 6-Coons-239, 7-StockNEW USAC INDIANA SPRINT on-237, 8-Boespflug-233, WEEK POINTS: 1-Bacon-317, 9-Andretti-230, 10-Meser2-Ballou-295, 3-Courtney-288, aull-215.

Haubstadt 16th July 2016.

Under a blue and clear sky the travelling circus made its way to what normally would have been the final round of the ISW at the very tidy and well prepared Haubstadt Speedway.

The pre-race watering of the track and the infield was relentless in the lead up to the event with numerous pieces of top quality equipment doing lap after lap to try and provide the best racing surface of the tournament.

Similar in shape and style to Kokomo but smaller, this track would provide yet another surprise with a first time feature winner beating the best of the Indiana USAC gang. Who was this kid in the plain black #21 who would also win USAC’s milestone 10,000th sanctioned event some 60 years after its first?

Y

oung Californian Hodges took an instant liking to the Tri-State venue setting quick time from Boespflug and local hero Cummins.

Defending ISW champ Ballou, Meseraull, Logan Jarrett and Carson Short parlayed their heats into wins while budget race Brian Karraker won the C-Main.

Again with the quality and depth of the field the Semi was stacked with big hitters including Kevin Thomas Jr, Bacon, Windom,

McGhee, Darland and Farney who made the main event.

Leary just missed the cut but utilised a provisional as did Chapple.

In the main event Carson Short continued the roll of firsttime USAC AMSOIL National Sprint Car winners into victory lane at Tri-State Speedway, becoming the fourth different driver to pick up his initial career series victory in the first six races of the 29th edition of ISW. Short, joined Tyler Courtney (Gas City I-69 Speedway), Kyle Cummins (Kokomo Speedway) and Brent Beau-

Short, unrelated to Thursday champ (Bloomington Speedway) as one of the new names night’s winner at Lincoln Park to join the USAC record books. Speedway Brady Short.

The run of new winners hasn’t been seen in the series since five drivers - Hunter Schuerenberg, Jacob Wilson, Brad Sweet, Brady Bacon and David Cardey - triumphed for the first time during a seven-race stretch late in the 2008 season.

On this night, USAC celebrated its 10,000th sanctioned event since its debut in January of 1956. Starting from the pole position for the 30lap event on this momentous occasion was the 20-year-old

Tyler Thomas and Jeff Bland, Jr. would help tighten up the gap between first and second, placing Cummins right on Short’s tail tank for the restart.

Short bolted to the lead in the first turn at the start, sliding up in front of fellow front row start- Both Short and Cummins occupied the middle groove on er, Jarett Andretti for the race both ends of the racetrack, setlead on the opening lap. ting a blistering pace as both entered lapped traffic.

As Short began to distance himself from second-running With ten laps remaining, Short Andretti, Tri-State Speedway favorite Cummins was able to would have to weave his way through a bevy of slower trafsneak by Andretti for the secfic with the Haubstadt master, ond spot with a move on the Cummins hot on his trail as the inside of turn two. laps wound down.

Cummins began to run down With lapped cars running high, leader Short by the sixth lap, but a turn four tangle involving low, middle and everywhere

During the final laps, Short hit all of his marks correctly and was able to manoeuvre around a handful of lapped machines with relative ease to collect not only his first career series victory, but his first ever sprint car win of any kind, in his ISW debut of 2016 over Cummins and With just five to go, Short almost saw the race slip through Chase Stockon. his fingers after getting exRobert Ballou took KSE Ractremely sideways at the exit of turn four. Short momentar- ing Products/B&W Auto Mart Hard Charger honors for the ily sliced down on Cummins’ second straight night after inside line, forcing Cummins coming home fourth from his to back off the throttle, which 16th starting position and now slowed his momentum as trails seventh place finisher Short regained control and maintained his place atop the Brady Bacon by just 10 points heading into Sunday’s ISW leader board. finale at the Terre Haute Acin between, Short had to be nearly perfect as he worked his way through the nooks and crannies in the back of the field while simultaneously being shadowed and hounded by Cummins.

tion Track, a place where he’s been victorious in his two most recent USAC AMSOIL National Sprint Car starts.

Meanwhile, Andretti tied his career-best series finish of fifth, set at Bechtelsville, Pennsylvania’s Grandview Speedway just a little over a month ago.

It’s been quite a successful week for the young lions of USAC racing who’ve responded to the challenge night-in, night-out at racetracks all around the state of Indiana this week in front of packed houses during ISW. Carson Short became the latest to meet the challenge, stepping up to take

the Haubstadt round, marking just his second career top-five finish in his 28th career start dating back to his series debut at Tri-State in 2013.

“This is unreal,” Short exclaimed. “With about five (laps) to go, I was thinking, ‘man, I’m leading this and I know Cummins is down there.’

My car started getting better right around half way and on those last five laps, we were really fast. I saw lapped traffic, but they were fast enough to concern me and I think, for sure, played a role in me getting away from Kyle (Cummins) at the end. To beat Kyle makes this even better be-

cause he’s the best here. The top just wasn’t there tonight, so we stuck it on the bottom and Kyle showed me that about half way through, so I owe him one. You can’t beat this feeling of winning during Indiana Sprint Week!”

With his second place run on Saturday night, Cummins tallied his seventh podium finish in 17 series starts this season.

Though Cummins has been known for his close-but-no-cigar moments over the years in USAC competition, after his recent win at Kokomo, Cummins freely admits this second place run doesn’t sting as much as it once would have.

“Since I won one already, I’m actually happy to run second tonight,” Cummins admitted.

“The track stayed tacky from beginning to end, so we were just too tight. I was hoping Carson (Short) would make a mistake or get bottled up in the lapped traffic, but it seemed like every time he did, he picked the right line and would get away. It’s been an up and down week for us, but we’re happy to run second tonight.”

Chase Stockon earned his sixth straight Tri-State Speedway top-five finish Saturday night, taking third place at the chequered.

ti-13.510; 8. Carson Short, 21, Short-13.549; 9. Aaron Farney, 15F, Farney-13.601; 10. Jon Stanbrough, 66, Amati-13.660; 11. Dakota Jackson, 3, Jackson-13.677; 12. Tyler Thomas, 04, Burton-13.725; 13. Tyler Courtney, 23c, TOPP13.742; 14. Critter Malone, 7, Seven LLC-13.743; 15. Isaac PROSOURCE QUALIFYING: Chapple, 52, LNR-13.782; 16. Max McGhee, 17, Mc1. Josh Hodges, 74x, Hodges-13.319; 2. Chad Boespflug, Ghee-13.785; 17. Robert Ballou, 1, Ballou-13.793; 18.

98E, NineEight/EZR-13.367; Thomas Meseraull, 24, LSR3. Kyle Cummins, 3R, Rock 13.812; 19. Chris Windom, 5, Steady-13.416; 4. Chase Baldwin-13.854; 20. Donny Stockon, 32, 32 TBI-13.462; Brackett, 4B, Brackett-13.855; 5. Brady Bacon, 69, Dynam21. Brady Short, 11p, Potics-13.495; 6. Kevin Thomas Jr., 4J, 4J Motorsports-13.497; torff-13.910; 22. C.J. Leary, 17GP, Dutcher-13.931; 23. Lo7. Jarett Andretti, 18, Andret“We banked on the track blowing off quite a bit and it never really came to us,” Stockon said. “We were set up for the end of the race and the track just didn’t behave like we thought it would. We just needed it to be about five or 10 laps longer.”

gan Jarrett, 29, Jarrett-13.963; 24. Jeff Bland Jr., 38, Bland-14.066; 25. Tom Harris, 5E, East-14.069; 26. Dave Darland, 11, Walker/Curb-Agajanian-14.184; 27. Jamie Williams, 31, Williams-14.208; 28. James Lyerla, 11x, Lyerla-14.216; 29. Riley Kreisel, 90, Smith-14.262; 30. Dallas Hewitt, 69R, Pearson-14.273; 31. Kent Schmidt, 5k, Schmidt-14.277; 32. Brandon Morin, 98, Morin-14.305; 33.

Brian Karraker, 23k, Karraker-14.377; 34. Daylan Chambers, 4c, Chambers-14.387; 35. Bret Mellenberndt, 97, Mellenberndt-14.453; 36. Brandon Mattox, 28, Mattox-14.495; 37.

Aric Gentry, 10, GBR-14.705;

38. Cole Ketcham, 41k, Ketcham-14.824; 39. Robert Bell, 71, Bell-15.923.

FEATURE: (30 laps) 1. Carson Short, 2.

Kyle Cummins, 3.

Chase Stockon, 4.

Robert Ballou, 5. Jarett Andretti, 6. Critter Malone, 7.

Brady Bacon, 8. Chad Boespflug, 9. Kevin Thomas Jr., 10.

Max McGhee, 11. Josh Hodges, 12. Jon Stanbrough, 13.

Brady Short, 14. Logan Jarrett, 15. C.J. Leary, 16. Aaron Far- FEATURE LAP LEADERS: Laps 1-30 C.Short. ney, 17. Dakota Jackson, 18.

Chris Windom, 19. Thomas KSE/B & W AUTO MART HARD CHARGER: Robert Ballou (16th to 4th)

Meseraull, 20. Jeff Bland Jr., 21. Tyler Thomas, 22. Tyler Courtney, 23. Isaac Chapple, 24. Dave Darland. NT

NEW USAC AMSOIL SPRINT CAR NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIP POINTS: 1-Bacon-1,863, 2-Ballou-1,696, 3-Meseraull-1,652, 4-Stockon-1,650, 5-Darland-1,532, 6-Boespflug-1,496, 7-Leary-1,478, 8-Windom-1,323, 9-McGhee-1,222.

10-Farney-1,028.

NEW USAC INDIANA SPRINT WEEK POINTS: 1-Bacon-374, 2-Ballou-364, 3-Courtney-318, 4-K. Thomas Jr.-314, 5-Stockon-307, 6-Windom-296, 7-Andretti-295, 8-Boespflug-292, 9-Cummins-291, 10-Meseraull-248.

Terre Haute 17th July 2016.

Finally, the delayed Terre Haute event came around on its rescheduled Sunday night, and while the Sunday evening fixture may have had an effect on numbers due to Monday morning work commitments for some of the teams and drivers, it was still the realisation of a long held desire to see a real “old school” style race event the likes of which we never had the opportunity to witness back home in Australia.

History shows us that grass roots American racing grew up on the fairgrounds venues and horse tracks that dotted the rural towns across the USA, and frequently they went hand in hand with the annual fair. Not only could you enjoy side show alley, the agricultural displays, a Ferris wheel and all the other gimmicks, rides, shooting galleries, food and other entertainment that evolved across the years, but you could also take in a death defying thrill show on the speedway.

T

erre Haute, as part of the ISW, is one of the few, if not last remaining events where the carnival continues just over the safety fence while the modern day gladiators do battle in caged 410 cubic inch “traditional” Sprint cars, just like their T-shirt wearing leather flying helmeted counterparts did all those years ago without the benefit of roll cages or modern day flame resistant fire-suits or even seatbelts for that matter. And what’s more, it’s still raced on the flat, dirt, half mile track that it’s always been on.

It is the closest thing still reminiscent to the burgeoning days of our magnificent sport. It is living history.

A lot was still on offer at Terre Haute with the opportunity to write your name into the long list of heroes to have won at this storied venue, but also the ISW championship was still up for grabs along with the traditional hand crafted Bridgeport Rocking Chair and the obvious cash awards.

It was at this stage a two horse race between championship points leader Brady Bacon and defending champion Robert Ballou both of whom had

Ballou was more than a formidable challenge to Bacon evidenced by his prowess on the half-mile dirt oval, picking up Bacon’s finishes of 5th, 5th, victories in the two most recent 7th, 11th, 2nd and 7th in the USAC AMSOIL National Sprint first six ISW races put him in Car visits to the “Action Track” the catbird seat coming into the night’s “Don Smith Classic” at the Wabash Valley Fairfeature. The Oklahoma driver grounds. held a 15-point advantage over defending ISW champ Ballou. But Bacon’s mission was clear.

Finish in the top-five and the ISW title was all his.

Due to their solid qualifying efforts earlier in the evening, It was not quite that simple both Bacon and Ballou were however as Bryan Clauson in an enviable position at the start of the 30-lap main event. had returned to the fold and there was a swathe of other Ballou would roll off third with hopefuls looking for individual Bacon directly behind him on glory who didn’t care about the the inside of row three.

Bacon/Ballou battle and were been winless to this point of the ISW.

not concerned about the points battle. All but Bacon and Ballou were intently focused on getting the win no matter who they had to beat or pass to get it.

Bryan Clauson announced his return to all to see by setting fast time in qualifying ahead of Bacon and Windom. Ballou also timed in 6th fastest and ironically this would place him in the same heat as Bacon.

Clauson, Bacon, Courtney and Meseraull all took heat wins while Ballou was second to his points nemesis.

For the first time there was no C-Main, but as usual the

At the start, pole-sitter Stockon gallantly streamed to the lead into turn one, sliding up to the high side as outside front row starter Courtney skated sideways in the middle of the corner, yet was able to maintain When the final was over Chase the position as the field shot Stockon had become the sev- down the back straightway. enth different winner on the On lap two, the red flag flew for seventh night of the 29th anthe night’s only incident involvnual “Indiana Sprint Week” at ing Englishman Tom Harris, the Terre Haute Action Track. who took a nasty-looking tumYet, it was fourth place finishble between turns three and er Brady Bacon who, despite four. He was uninjured. going winless throughout the seven races, used a string of consistent finishes to accumu- On the ensuing restart, Courtlate enough points to claim his ney took a run at Stockon for the lead on the bottom of turn first ISW crown. one, but was denied, forcing semi was full of talent including Windom, Farney, Harris Kevin Thomas Jr, Kreisel and McGhee. Also for the first time there were no provisional starters in the feature field.

him to fall back into line in the second position at the exit of turn two.

One lap later, third-running Ballou attempted a similar move on Courtney, shooting to the inside guardrail in turn three for second, but wasn’t able to make it stick as Courtney motored away to hold steady in the runner-up spot.

Meanwhile, Stockon was gone, checking out on the field for a half-straightaway lead by lap six as the drivers throughout the pack settled into a groove on the high, wide and handsome cushion.

With each position in the topten paying three points for every spot gained, points were of utmost importance and Ballou needed his share. Ballou began to erase the separation that was wedged between himself and second-running Courtney on lap 13 as he shadowed “Sunshine” up against the concrete.

worked to overtake the lapped car of previous night’s Haubstadt winner Carson Short.

Two laps later, with Courtney and Ballou just a few footsteps behind, Stockon was able to gain some much-needed breathing room as he slid Short to create a little separation for himself just past the halfway point.

Courtney never lifted, instead, throttling his way off the exit of turn two while crop dusting western Indiana soil into the Vigo County Fair midway to remain in second.

However, three laps later, Ballou gave it another shot. This time, he made the move on Courtney stick, slipping past the Gas City ISW winner for second. One lap later, with six As the two battled for their own supremacy, leader Stock- With 11 laps to go, Ballou tried to go, Bryan Clauson smoked

by Courtney for the second a colossal slider on Courtney on was now within an arm’s position as well, but his stay in for second in turn one. Balreach of Courtney and Ballou the top-three would be shortlou drifted his way toward the as he became hung up on lived after his right rear tire lapped cars on the 14th circuit. topside in a classic, patented Terre Haute slide job, appear- blew out on lap 25, bringing Now nose-to-tail and running ing to pinch Courtney just a tad out the night’s final caution and one, two, three, Stockon felt setting up a final six-lap dash enough to slow him up. But the pressure intensify as he

for glory.

Stockon, Ballou and Courtney marched single-file at speed up against the cushion, right up next to the wall on the restart with ISW point leader Bacon behind in a distant fourth, holding stable and unwavering in his steadfast resolve.

Shortly thereafter, Stockon and Ballou broke away from Courtney, creating a two-man, twocar race for the race win.

Three to go, Ballou was closer to Stockon than he’d been all race, prompting Ballou to toss a short-slider at Stockon in turn one that came up short,

but Ballou refused to be fazed, unprecedented, historic sevstaying right with Stockon two en night ISW of 2016, a feat that hasn’t been accomplished to three links back in second. since 2001.

Though Stockon was just withBacon’s fourth place run was in Ballou’s grasp during the the centerpiece at the end of final laps, Ballou was never the night after he was able to quite close enough to mount garner enough valuable points a serious challenge to make the winning move. As Stockon to pocket the ISW title by nine gassed his machine sideways markers over Ballou. In the process, it marked the ninth off of the final corner with the time the ISW champ won the checkered flag in clean sight, series without a feature victory, he had the victory in the bag, joining Randy Kinser (1988), his second win at the track in Gary Trammell (1990), Bob USAC competition and first since 2012, followed to the line Kinser (1991), Tony Elliott (1999), Levi Jones (2004, 2008

by Ballou and Courtney. & 2012) and Robert Ballou Stockon was the seventh driv- (2015). er to win a feature during the

takes earlier in the week and a tion because they know not to good enough car to keep it up get too down on themselves.

If you can only run 7th or 11th front every night. some night, they know to just take what we can get and “You never know what’s gomove on to the next one.” ing to happen at this place,” Bacon continued after deliverStockon led wire-to-wire on his ing the Hoffman Auto Racing way to victory. The win was “This means a lot,” Bacon said team its first ISW championan emotional one for Stockon proudly after driving to the ISW ship since Dave Darland’s whose career was aided by the title. “Anytime you can put an one-point victory for the team financial help supplied by the in 1998. “When Bryan (Clauaccomplishment like this on race’s namesake: Terre Haute your resume, that’s pretty spe- son) passed me, I was a little nervous, but I thought we were businessman, sponsor and cial. I’m glad to get another still good enough to get in line Action Track promoter, Don one for the Hoffman’s. This and not make any mistakes. I Smith. is a lot more intense place to don’t think any team had the end it than some of the other “This is pretty awesome,” “Sprint Week” we were wantplaces. We’re usually good here and these guys gave me ing, but we got the best of ev- Stockon exclaimed. “This is a good enough car that I could erybody else. The experience the ‘Don Smith Classic’ and of the team helps in that situa- I’ve wanted to win this one remake up for some of my misBacon’s title staked the claim for the traditional hand-crafted Bridgeport Rocker that is awarded annually to the ISW champions by longtime supporters John and Terri Youngs, as well as the $5000 top prize.

ally bad. Once I knew nobody was going to get to me coming to the chequered, I was about in tears. Don Smith has been a big part of my career with First Financial Bank. They helped us out a lot and I think this win means more than any I’ve ever had. Getting through lapped traffic was tricky, trying to slide across the track and get to the top as quick as possible. I knew Robert would be back there because this is his kind of race track and he’s proven time and time again that’s he’s the car to beat here.

I just drove every lap as hard as I could and hoped the car would hang on.”

Ballou finished second in the feature and second in the final ISW points. Many competitors would be satisfied with that result, but for the 2015 USAC National Sprint and ISW titlist, his 2016 ISW experience was a disappointment.

I’m happy for the Stockons, but we just missed it a little bit tonight. We were too tight and had to settle for second.”

Courtney rebounded from two consecutive less-than-stellar nights at Bloomington and Haubstadt after a hot start to his “Sprint Week” to earn a “We just didn’t have a very good ‘Sprint Week,’ Ballou said respectable third-place finish bluntly. “You have to put com- in both the race as well as the ISW standings. plete nights together to win championships and the Hoff‘Hats off to my guys,” Courtmans deserve this the most because they did that the best. ney said. “I tore up that car at Bloomington and all we had up We’ve been off all week and I’m not really sure why. Chase top was our wing car that we (Stockon) was really good and run. It had a non-wing front Tyler Courtney was too. Both axle in it, but we pulled it out and struggled through the rest of those guys did a great job.

of the night. Then, we worked all day in the hot sun at Haubstadt just to get it ready, but they worked their tails off to make this the best non-wing car possible. A third tonight is one of the only things I could do to repay them for all their hard work.�

PROSOURCE QUALIFYING: 1. Bryan Clauson, 63, Dooling/Hayward-21.051; 2.

Brady Bacon, 69, Dynamics-21.077; 3. Chris Windom, 5, Baldwin-21.131; 4. Logan Jarrett, 29, Jarrett-21.192; 5.

Kevin Thomas Jr., 4J, 4J Motorsports-21.206; 6. Robert Ballou, 1, Ballou-21.244; 7.

Tyler Courtney, 23c, TOPP-

21.398; 8. Chase Stockon, 32, 32 TBI-21.430; 9. C.J. Leary, 17GP, Dutcher-21.448; 10. Max McGhee, 17, McGhee-21.487; 11. Aaron Farney, 15F, Farney-21.503; 12.

Thomas Meseraull, 24, LSR21.558; 13. Brandon Mattox, 28, Mattox-21.714; 14. Chad Boespflug, 98E, NineEight/ EZR-21.819; 15. Jarett Andretti, 18, Andretti-21.940; 16. Riley Kreisel, 90, Smith-22.031; 17. Dave Darland, 11, Walker/Curb-Agajanian-22.065; 18. Tyler Thomas, 04, Burton-22.067; 19. Jon Stanbrough, 66, Amati-22.085; 20. Jerry Coons Jr., 10E, Edison-22.138; 21. Carson Short, 21, Short-22.192; 22. Bill

Rose, 6R, Rose-22.212; 23.

Bret Mellenberndt, 97, Mellenberndt-22.670; 24. Tom Harris, 5E, East-22.672; 25. Chris Phillips, 6p, Phillips-22.758; 26. Mitch Wissmi ller, 1w, Wissmiller-22.920; 27. J.J. Hughes, 76, Hughes-23.035; 28. Cole Ketcham, 41k, Ketcham-23.667; 29. Steve Thomas, 20, Thomas-23.724; 30. Robert Bell, 71, Bell-25.021; 31. Isaac Chapple, 52, LNR-NT; 32. Daylan Chambers, 4c, Chambers-NT.

FEATURE LAP LEADERS: Laps 1-30 Stockon. 9-McGhee-1,264, 10-Farney-1,089.

KSE/B & W AUTO MART HARD CHARGER: Jerry Coons Jr. (18th-8th) NEW USAC AMSOIL SPRINT CAR NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIP POINTS: 1-Bacon-1,939, 2-Ballou-1,769, 3-Stockon-1,725, 4-Meseraull-1,695, 5-Darland-1,575, 6-Boespflug-1,540, 7-Leary-1,528, 8-Windom-1,386,

FINAL USAC INDIANA SPRINT WEEK POINTS: 1-Bacon-448, 2-Ballou-439, 3-Courtney-390, 4-Stockon-382, 5-Windom-359, 6-K. Thomas Jr.-340, 7-Boespflug-336, 8-Andretti-327, 9-Coons-295, 10-Kyle Cummins-291.

Bryan Clauson BC

our sports pinnacle.

In typical BC style, he and his car owners and crew had set out on “The chase for 200 tour – circular insanity.” The concept was an attempt As stated in the opening of this edition of High- to compete in 200 nights of speedway racing line, the 2016 Indiana Sprintweek was in hind- in a 12 month period including the Indianaposight, a bittersweet event for thousands of fans lis 500, World of Outlaws sprint cars, wingless around the world as it would be the last time sprint cars, and midgets. BC and co were well on that the supremely talented wheelman would the way to achieve this gruelling task. compete in the event that he has won twice before.

BC was more than just one of the worlds premier dirt track speedway racers he was also a No one was to know, or even suspect, that not NASCAR Nationwide Series, Indy Lights, and long after the ISW concluded that Bryan ClauIndyCar Series driver and was a former developson, or BC as he was known to many, would die ment driver for Chip Ganassi Racing. from injuries sustained in another of his favourite events, the Belleville Midget Nationals. Bry- Over the past decade or more, many Americans an was just too good for this to happen to him, have lamented the loss of home grown, grass right? roots racers making it from the dirt short tracks to the world stage of the Indy 500. In that reBC was, it seemed, at the peak of his career with gard Bryan was a massive inspiration to those a growing stature as a winged Sprintcar racer, American fans who’d watched the overseas competing with and beating the established drivers with big budgets buy their way into the stars in the division that is argueably held to be Indy field and push the home grown, but un-

15 June 1989 – 7 August 2016.

derfunded talent out.

Seizing on an opportunity arranged by the United States Auto Club (USAC) who once controlled Indy racing but had since been pushed back to looking after their own brand of oval track racing, BC grabbed his opportunity with both hands and proved that given the breaks, American dirt trackers were more than capable of taking on the Indy oval and even led laps at the famed Speedway.

On August 6, 2016, Bryan was involved in a midget crash at Belleville High-Banks Speedway in Belleville, Kansas, and sadly died the following night.

In typical BC style however, that’s not where it ended as

even in death, BC was still inspiring others to become organ donors.

mentator

“Our deepest sympathies to the family, friends and fans of Bryan Clauson. Ever the Gifted, yet humble. Talented, yet personable. He was every- bright spot and star in whichthing you’d want a racecar driv- ever genre of motorsports he was competing in, Tony Stewer to be. art/Curb-Agajanian Racing is That was Bryan Clauson.” proud to have had the privilege of not only having him be– Richie Murray, USAC Public hind wheel, but as a friend and Relations part of our organization. We’re “Bryan was the ultimate racer. all better people for having I will deeply miss seeing Bryan had Bryan as part of our lives.

Clauson going after 200 starts We ask that you keep his family - Tim, Diana, Lauren, Taylor this year. I will miss seeing Chevy Clauson bark out ‘Barked & Zach - along with his extendIt.’ I will miss everything about ed family and many friends and fans in your thoughts and the complete Bryan Clauson gang. To Lauren and everyone prayers. Rest in peace, BC, and with Bryan, I am so sorry and I Godspeed. love you.”

– Tony Stewart Racing – Kenny Wallace, NASCAR Com-

“Still hard to believe or even understand why we lost one of the racing legends of our time.

I’ve had the pleasure of racing against Bryan Clauson for the last 10-11 years. He’s proved time and time again that he is the best open wheel racer and I know we will miss that every time we sign in to the pit gate.

My deepest condolences to the whole Clauson family, Bryan has touched so many lives during his short time here with us.”

– Chase Stockon, USAC Sprint Car competitor “Racing has lost one of the best. It’s hard to understand why these things happen, but we must keep our trust in God and know that he controls all and has a plan for each of us.

Bryan Clauson was a special driver and person that only comes around once in a blue moon. He was a threat to win in everything he drove and just kept getting better. To say you got to battle with him on the track is an honor and I’m sure every driver is privileged to do so. Prayers for the Clauson family. Rest in peace BC.”

spend racing with him. Looking back on it now, there were so many good times and I hope this teaches me to always cherish the good times and to keep the ones I love close, always.

Bryan did a lot of good things for a lot of people. One of the many good memories that pops into my head was when the 2012 “Gold Crown Midget Nationals” were approaching – Kyle Cummins, USAC Sprint and I was a 16-year-old kid who Car competitor wanted to go race. I was working hard to get my old Stealth “The first time I met Bryan, I midget ready to go. Bryan was a 15-year-old kid whose knew how badly I wanted to mom dropped him off at his shop so I could go to the races. go, but he also knew I couldn’t really afford to. Long story I had no idea what I was getshort, Bryan paid my $300 enting myself into or how much try fee, gave me used tires out I was going to learn, not only of his shop to use and gave about racing, but also about me a hotel floor to sleep on. life. Bryan taught me a lot in He didn’t care if I ran last in the the couple of years I got to

C-main; he just cared for me and wanted to help me.

“Thank you Bryan for TRYING to teach me how to play golf, for giving my first truck its nickname, for helping me (doing it for me) with my algebra homework while we were on the road, for always giving me tips on how to pick up chicks even when they didn’t work for me like they would have for you, for constantly reminding me ‘you’re an idiot’ for filtering my tweets when I tweeted something stupid, for all the times you made me mad when you would tell me I was doing something wrong. Because, looking back now, you were always just trying to make me a better person.

I now realize that Bryan was more than just a boss, a friend or a competitor to me. He was, and will always be, my hero. I can’t wait to meet him again someday. Until then, rest easy BC. We all love you and we’re going to keep racing on just like you want us to.

him some day. Watching him so gracefully wheel a nonwing sprint car and dominate sparked my love and passion for the pure excitement that is non-wing racing.

Ever since I met the Clausons back in 2012, they have been so supportive of me and my dreams. I’ll never forget the Prayers go to Tim, Di, Lauren, Taylor, his best friend Ben and first year racing at the Chili all of Bryan’s family and friends Bowl for them and the continuous advice and support from through this hard time.”

Bryan from that week on. I’ll never forget my first race in a – Isaac Chapple, USAC Sprint non-wing sprint car at Bryan’s Car competitor favorite place on earth - Koko“This world has lost not only a mo Speedway - and how much Bryan supported me and went legendary racer, but an even better man, son, friend, broth- above and beyond to help that night when we had some raer and mentor. I have looked diator trouble. That’s just who up to Bryan since my early Bryan was - the kind of guy days of racing karts knowing with a big heart who’d do anythat I wanted to be just like

day. Thanks for all the memories and for not only being a This year, getting the opportu- mentor to me, but a friend as nity to wrench for Bryan on the well. Love you. Rest in peace buddy.” #63 non-wing sprint car, has been a blast and filled with so many memories that so often – Payton Pierce, crew member for Bryan Clauson ended on the front stretch of some race track in victory lane.

Bryan embodied what it meant “Still hard to believe or even to truly be a racer and he’ll for- understand why we lost one of ever, in my eyes, be the great- the racing legends of our time.

I’ve had the pleasure of racing est to ever strap in a race car. against Bryan Clauson for the last 10-11 years. He’s proved My heart hurts for his fiancée Lauren and the rest of his fam- time and time again that he is ily, Tim, Diana, Taylor, Kimberly, the best open wheel racer and Greg, Austin and Tyler. I pray for I know we will miss that every time we sign in to the pit gate. comfort for them during this My deepest condolences to hard time. Bryan had such an the whole Clauson family, Bryamazing impact on everyone whose life he touched. I know, an has touched so many lives during his short time here with for myself, that I will dearly miss everything about him and us.” can’t wait to see him again one thing to help others.

– Chase Stockon, USAC Sprint Car competitor “Honored to have had the chance to race against Bryan Clauson. Gutted I won’t get to again. Thinking of Lauren and his family.”

– James Hinchcliffe, IndyCar competitor