Bloomington resutls 2004-09-17

BLOOMINGTON, IN (September 18, 2004) -- As often occurs before a big race, Bloomington Speedway had a flyover last night. However, this flyover was more symbolic than most. This particular flyover was a huge flock of geese heading South for the winter. As if we weren't well aware of it, these geese were telling us that the racing season is about over. We know that. We don't like it; but we are all too well aware of it.

When hot laps were over, the sprint drivers assembled behind the flagstand to meet their fans and sign autographs. This year's points leaders are receiving thousands of dollars in cash and contingency awards for their performance during the 2004 season. Along with his third Bloomington Speedway sprint car championship trophy and a sizable wad of cash, Kevin Briscoe received engine rebuild and dyno work from Snyder engines, a $520 helmet from Bell, a $100 gift certificate on a new HANS device, a $200 gift certificate from Engler Tool & Machine, a $250 certificate toward a new Hinchman uniform, a $380 bleeder kirt from Kwik Change Enterprises, a $469 rocker/recliner from the Furniture Exchange. For a complete list of prizes awarded check www.bloomingtonspeedway.com. Briscoe speculated that rocker/recliner probably should be installed in the trailer for his father who worked so hard on the car.

In route to his championship Briscoe scored six wins, five seconds, and a third. It will probably be a long time before a driver dominates a season at Bloomington Speeway the way that Briscoe did this season. He was quick to give credit to his car owner and father, Dick Briscoe who always gave Kevin a competitive car.

Fifteen year old Bryan Clauson finished second in the points with a record that would almost certainly win a championship anywhere else. Along with his second place finish in the points, Clauson was named Jeff Gordon Rookie of the Year. While Clauson is almost certainly headed for bigger things, he will at least start the season with us in 2005; because he won't be 16 until mid June.

Kenny Carmichael, Kevin Chambers, Jon Sciscoe, Bobby Stines, Steve Rone, Kenny Carmichael, Jr., Josh Cunningham, and Jared Fox rounded out the top ten in points.

Steve Rone was named the most improved sprint car driver. Rones finishes were consistently better than last season's. He continued to project a professional image to his fans. His car sparkled each Friday night when it rolled off of the trailer. Steve inherited a work ethic from his father that demanded that everything on the car be checked thoroughly every week. Needless mistakes would not hurt their performance.

In addition to his tenth place award in the points, Jared Fox was named the hard luck driver. No driver wants to receive this award; but it did get him a little extra prize money. Among the bad luck that plagued Jared was the night that he crashed two cars. Another example was the fact that he missed two races due to injuries suffered when he dropped an engine on his hand.

SPRINT CARS --

Last night's competition marked Kevin Briscoe's worst finish of the season -- a fourth. Being the sportsman that he is Kevin gave the guys a good shot at him. First, he had won two features in a row and would, based on the track rule covering such situations, start no better than tenth. As if that weren't enough, he left his dad's car at home and drove Austin King's car. And, he still very nearly won the feature.

The track was lightning fast. Nineteen of the 25 qualifiers were in the 11 second bracket. Bryan Clauson had quick time followed by Matt Westfall, A.J. Anderson, Kevin Briscoe, Bobby Stines, and Kent Christian.

Briscoe, Jon Sciscoe, and Mike Hunnicutt won the heat races.

Jared Fox started the "B" feature on the pole and led it from green to checker. Mark Hall, Danny Holtsclaw, Brandon Petty, and Dave Peperak followed Fox across the finish line to earn a transfer to the feature event.

Kent Christian started on the pole and led the feature flag to flag to take his first Bloomington Speedway feature win. They were only two laps deep in the feature when the race's only yellow flag waved for a spin by Jared Fox. This was particularly helpful to Christian as he had slipped over the edge and lost several positions. However, the yellow moved the order back to the last scored lap. Since Christian hadn't come to a stop he got the lead back. He didn't make that mistake again. When the race restarted Christian was in the lead and Briscoe was running seventh. On the fourth circuit Briscoe took fourth place; and he rode there until the 15th lap when he took third. On the 20th circuit, Briscoe slipped past A.J. Anderson to take second. However, Christian had pulled out to a fairly comfortable lead. But, almost no lead is big enough when you're racing against Kevin Briscoe on the red clay. When the white flag waved, Kevin had gotten within striking distance of Christian; but time was running out; and Christian wasn't getting any slower.

Briscoe made one last charge at Christian. In an effort to catch Christian Briscoe slipped over the edge coming out of the fourth turn; and A.J. Anderson and Matt Westfall got past Briscoe to take second and third respectively.

Bryan Clauson's car was just a little off last night. He was set up to run the high side; but the car kept wanting to slip over the edge. He would lose just a little distance; and it would take him laps to get it back. He ended up with a respectable fifth place finish; however, a great opportunity to gain his second Bloomington Speedway win had eluded Bryan.

Mitch Cunningham, Danny Holtsclaw, Casey Shuman, Kenny Carmichael, and Brandon Petty rounded out the top ten.

O'NEAL WOOD PRODUCTS MODIFIEDS --

Brady Short came to Bloomington Speedway last night with a 27 point lead in the O'Neal Wood Products points race. The draw gave Short a third place starting position in his heat race. Jesse Cramer held the second spot in the points going into last night's competition; and he drew a fifth place starting position in his heat race. Clint DeMoss and Shelby Miles went into last night tied for third in the points; and they drew they drew seventh and third respectively. Short, Cramer, and Miles all won their heat races while DeMoss finished third in his heat. Ray Humphrey took the fourth heat.

Matt Bex and John Davis won the two "B" features with Joe Gilbert and Nathan Voorhies also transferring from the "B" features. The most serious incident of the evening occurred in the second "B" feature when Justin Hillenburg flipped and barrel rolled off the track between turns one and two. However, he crawled from the wreckage uninjured.

Shelby Miles won the dash followed by Ray Humphrey, Brady Short, and Jesse Cramer.

Miles led the first two laps of the feature before Short took over for good. On the seventh circuit Cramer passed Miles to take second place where he would run to the finish. Ray Humphrey and Shelby Miles would battle for third for most of the race with Humphrey prevailing in the end while Miles came home fourth.

Greg Deckard and Lee Hobbs battled for fifth the entire race with Hobbs passing Deckard for the final time with eight laps to go. Gary Barrow, Michael Sterrett, J.P. Hume, and Nathan Voorhies rounded out the top ten.

Obviously, Short and Cramer retained their squatter's rights on the first two spots in the point. The balance of the points rundown should be released before the weekend is over.

TIRE & WHEEL CENTER SUPER STOCKS --

Going into last night's Tire & Wheel Center super stock competition, Randy Petro had made only one appearance of the red clay this season; and that outing had not been up to Petro's normal performance standards. In truth, though he has beautiful super stock, most of his attention of late has gone to helping his son get his racing career underway. The younger Petro is campaigning a pure stock primarily at Twin Cities.

Last night Petro seemed to be in top form. He started ninth in his heat race and drove to a strong second place finish. The super stock heats were won by Danny Harris, Tom Ault, Michael Vest, and Gary Trammell. Harris took the dash trailed by Trammell, Ault, and Vest.

Randy Howe started fifth in the "B" feature. He took third place on the seventh circuit, second on the fourth lap, and took the lead for good on the sixth circuit. He led to the finish. David Woolston came home second trailed by Troy Clark and Mike Jones. Everyone else in the "B" was done for the evening.

Petro started sixth in the feature; and on the fifth circuit, he passed Michael Vest to take third; and, on the following lap, he passed Trammell to take second. On the ninth lap Randy passed the lead that he would hold until Rusty Nunn waved the checkered flags. Randy comes with the kind of racing heritage that builds some of the best racers around. His father, Russ Petro, was a legend in dirt late model racing; and his uncle Gene ventured into pavement stock car racing. While Gene was more of a full time racer, the rest of the Petro clan pretty much had day jobs. Probably any of them could have made a living racing; however, they have mostly chosen to have day job to provide stability to their families. They certainly represent the best in weekend racing. The appearance of Randy's car is evidence of the pride that they take in their racing. The fact that he has put his own racing on the back burner to get his son's racing career started is further evidence of the importance the he places on keeping the tradition moving forward. There are countless drivers racing on the red clay every week with this same kind of heritage.

Danny Harris kept Petro in sight; but he was finally forced to settle for second place. Tom Ault turned in another strong performance finishing third ahead of Michael Vest. The 2004 Tire & Wheel Center super stock champion, Ben DuBois came from mid pack to finish fifth. Gary Trammell, Jack Frye, Greg Kendall, Chris Deweese, and Jay Deckard made up the balance of the top ten.

RESULTS:

Qualifications: 1. Bryan Clauson, 7c, 11.148, 2. Matt Westfall, 7R, 11.364, 3. A.J. Anderson, 7, 11.378, 4. Kevin Briscoe, 9, 11.429, 5. Bobby Stines, 88, 11.463, 6. Kent Christian, 1c 11.483, 7. Jared Fox, 56, 11.518, 8. Ted Hines, 12, 11.518, 9. Kenny Carmichael, 92, 11.632, 10. Mitch Cunningham, 91, 11.654, 11. Casey Shuman, 57, 11.659, 12. Danny Holtsclaw, 11P, 11.681, 13. Steve Rone, 9R, 11.701, 14. Jon Sciscoe, 9, 11.835, 15. Kenny Carmichael, Jr., 92c, 11.838, 16. Kevin Chambers, 18, 11.842, 17. Mark Hall, 2HL, 11884, 18. Michael Hunnicutt, 12H, 11.936, 19. Brandon Petty, 3R, 11.947, 20. Dave Peperak, 77, 12.062, 21. Jason Holt, 99, 12.086, 22. Chris Babcock, 35, 12.474, 23. Rex Norris III, 63, 12.505, 24. Patrick Giddens, 26, 12.666, 25. Josh Cunningham, 6s, 12.901

AUTO HEAVEN AUTO PARTS HEAT 1: 1.(5) Kevin Briscoe, 2.(6) Bryan Clauson, 3.(1) Kevin Chambers, 4.(3) Mitch Cunningham, 5.(2) Steve Rone, 6.(7) Brandon Petty, 7.(4) Jared Fox, 8.(9) Josh Cunningham, 9.(8) Chris Babcock

PAUL D. BAUGH LAW OFFICE HEAT 2: 1.(2) John Sciscoe, 2.(3) Casey Shuman, 3.(6) Matt Westfall, 4.(5) Bobby Stines, 5.(4) Ted Hines, 6.(1) Mark Hall, 7.(7) Dave Peperak, 8.(8) Rex Norris III

WALNUT STREET AUTO SALES/CAMPUS RENTAL HEAT 3: 1.(1) Mike Hunnicutt, 2.(2) Kenny Carmichael, Jr., 3.(5) Kent Christian, 4.(4) Kenny Carmichael, 5.(6) A.J. Anderson, 6.(8) Patrick Giddens, 7.(7) Jason Holt. 8.(3) Danny Holtsclaw

JB SALVAGE B FEATURE: 1.(1) Jared Fox, 2.(3) Mark Hall, 3.(2) Danny Holtsclaw, 4.(4) Brandon Petty, 5.(5) Dave Peperak, 6.(9) Patrick Giddens, 7.(6) Jason Holt, 8.(8) Rex Norris III, 9.(10) Josh Cunningham, 10.(7) Chris Babcock

ROOTS RV FEATURE: 1.(1) 1c, Kent Christian. 2.(3) 34 A.J. Anderson, 3.(4) 7R Matt Westfall, 4.(10) 9 Kevin Briscoe, 5.(5) 7 Bryan Clauson, 6.(9) 91 Mitch Cunningham, 7.(12) 11P Danny Holtsclaw, 8.(11) 57 Casey Shuman, 9.(8) 92 Kenny Carmichael, 10.(19) 3R Brandon Petty, 11.(7) 12 Ted Hines, 12.(20) 77 Dave Peperak, 13.(16) 18 Kevin Chambers, 14.(15) 92c Kenny Carmichael, Jr., 15.(13) 9R Steve Rone, 16.(6) 56 Jared Fox, 17.(14) 7x Jon Sciscoe, 18.(17) 2HL Mark Hall, 19.(18) 12H Mike Hunnicutt, 20.(2) 88 Bobby Stines Lap Leaders: Kent Christian (1-25)

O'NEAL WOOD PRODUCTS OPEN WHEEL MODIFIEDS

SONS OF THE AMERICAN LEGION HEAT 1: 1.(3) Shelby Miles, 2.(1) Greg Deckard, 3.(4) J.P. Hume, 4.(6) Ryan Lawrence, 5.(5) Ron Fedor, 6.(7) Beau Hendrich, 7.(9) Wendell Wisley, 8.(2) Daniel Lewellen, 9.(DNS) John Davis

COLOR TYME HEAT 2: 1.(3) Brady Short, 2.(9) Gary Barrow, 3.(5) Ralph Groomer, 4.(8) Kenny Carmichael, 5.(1) Joe Gilbert, 6.(7) Mike Phillips, 7.(2) Jim Reynolds, 8.(6) Billy Thurnall, 9.(4) Bobby McIntosh

CURRY GMC TRUCK CENTER HEAT 3: 1.(5) Jesse Cramer, 2.(6) Lee Hobbs, 3.(7) Clint DeMoss, 4.(9) Jared Bailey, 5.(8) Josh Eads, 6.(3) Chad Combs, 7.(4) Matt Boknecht, 8.(1) Jeff Harris, 9.(2) Justin Hillenberg

Terry Cummings Engines Heat 4: 1.(3) Ray Humphrey, 2.(1) Michael Sterrett, 3.(5) Don Parson, 4.(7) Phil VanSant, 5.(4) Nathan Voorhies, 6.(8) Matt Bex, 7.(2) Rodney Harris, Jr. 8.(6} Webb Lee

BTI CRUSHED STONE SALES DASH FOR CASH: 1.(1) Shelby Miler, 2.(4) Ray Humphrey, 3.(2) Brady Short, 4.(3) Jesse Cramer

BELL'S EXHAUST SHOPS "B" Feature #1: 1.(10) John Davis, 2.(2) Joe Gilbert, 3.(4) Mike Phillips, 4.(1) Ron Fodor, 5.(8) Billy Thurnall, 6.(3) Beau Hendrich, 7.(5) Wendell Wisley, 8.(6) Jim Reynolds, 9.(7) Daniel Lewellen

MONROE COUNTY PIZZA DEPARTMENT "B" FEATURE #2: 1.(4) Matt Bex., 2.(2) Nathan Voorhies, 3.(1) Josh Eads, 4.(3) Chad Combs, 5.(7) Jeff Harris, 6.(8) Webb Lee, 7.(9) Justin Hillenburg

BLACK LUMBER MODIFIED FEATURE: 1.(3) 36 Brady Short, 2.(4) 12T Jesse Cramer, 3.(2) 1H Ray Humphrey, 4.(1) 76 Shelby Miles, 5.(7) H0 Lee Hobbs, 6.(5) 5 Greg Deckard, 7.(6) 14 Greg Deckard, 8.(8) M21 Michael Sterrett, 9.(9) 5H J.P. Hume, 10.(20) 0x Nathan Voorhies, 11.(17) 27 John Davis, 12.(11) 4T Clint DeMoss, 13.(19) 10G Joe Gilbert, 14.(12) 7P Don Parson, 15.(14) 92 Kenny Carmichael, 16.(13) 8L Ryan Lawrence, 17.(16) 31v Phil VanSant, 18.(15) 24 Jared Bailey, 19.(10) 48 Ralph Groomer, 20.(18) 31 Matt Bex Lap Leaders: Shelby Miles (1-2), Brady Short (3-25)

TIRE & WHEEL CENTER SUPER STOCKS:

MCCAMMON TREE SERVICE HEAT 1: 1.(2) Danny Harris, 2.(3) Chris Deweese, 3.(1) Brad Cummings, 4.(5) Jay Deckard, 5.(4) Anthony Walker, 6.(9) Randy Howe, 7.(6) Mike Jones, 8.(7) Kent Robinson

PATRIOT CHASSIS HEAT 2: 1.(2) Tom Ault, 2.(9) Randy Petro, 3.(7) Ben DuBois, 4.(1) Gerald Todd, 5.(8) David Woolston, 6.(11) Troy Clark, 7.(5) Marty Cooper, 8.(6) Larry Babbs, 9.(DNS) Kris Starks

WILD BIRDS UNLIMITED HEAT 3: 1.(1) Michael Vest, 2.(5) Winston Howe, 3.(6) Michael Purtlebaugh, 4.(8) Greg Amick, 5.(4) Jason Clark, 6.(3) Steve Hollars, 7.(2) Bill Hobbs, 8.(7) Jerry Burton

HEAT 4: 1.(2) Gary Trammell, 2.(6) Jack Frye, 3.(4) Greg Kendall, 4.(1) Terry Arthur, 5.(5) Kevin Arthur, 6.(7) Steve Bowlen, 7.(3) Geoff Strange, 8.(8) Tim Neal

SEARS & SONS TRASH REMOVAL DASH FOR CASH: 1.(1) Danny Harris, 2.(4) Gary Trammell, 3.(2) Tom Ault, 4.(3) Michael Vest

TOM CHERRY MUFFLER "B" FEATURE: 1.(5) Randy Howe, 2.(2) David Willston, 3.(6) Troy Clark, 4.(9) Mike Jones, 5.(7) Steve Hollars, 6.(10) Marty Cooper, 7.(4) Kevin Arthur, 8.(16) Tim Neal, 9.(1) Anthony Walker, 10.(15) Jerry Burton, 11.(3) Jason Clark, 12.(13) Kent Robinson, 13.(12) Geoff Strange, 14.(11) Bill Hobbs, 15.(8) Steve Bowlen, 16.(14) Larry Babbs

TIRE & WHEEL CENTER SUPER STOCK FEATURE: 1.(6) 95 Randy Petro, 2.(1) 19 Danny Harris, 3.(3) 1A Tom Ault, 4.(4) 22K Michael Vest, 5.(10) 55 Ben DuBois, 6.(2) 69E Gary Trammell, 7.(8) 2 Jack Frye, 8.(12) 44 Greg Kendall, 9.(5) 23 Chris Deweese, 10.(13) 75 Jay Deckard, 11.(15) 27A Greg Amick, 12.(19) 98 Troy Clark, 13.(17) 143 Randy Howe, 14.(14) T15 Gerald Todd, 15.(20) 70 Mike Jones, 16.(11) 7P Mo Michael Purtlebaugh, 17.(7) 4 Winston Howe, 18.(9) 51T Brad Cummings, 19.(16) 5 Terry Arthur, 20.(18) 28 David Woolston

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