Bloomington Speedway report 2001-07-28

BLOOMINGTON, IN (July 28, 2001) - A.J. Anderson of State Line, Indiana scored the biggest win of his career so far when he slipped past Jay Drake and Indianapolis 500 veteran J.J. Yeley to take the lead in the Larry Rice Classic at Bloomington Speedway Friday night which went green to checkers without interruption. The three hit heavy lapped traffic on the 25th circuit; and Anderson spurted through the traffic and left Drake and Yeley behind Robbie Rice and J.T. Stapp who were both a lap down. Two laps later Yeley got past Drake to move into second. They finished in that order trailed by Dave Darland, Bud Kaeding, Levi Jones, Terry Pletch, Kevin Briscoe, Kevin Thomas, and Bill Rose. The race established a 30 lap track record of six minutes and 57.79 seconds.

Jay Drake grabbed the lead when the green flag fell; and it looked like he would take his second feature win of Pennzoil Indiana Sprint Week. He continued to stretch out his lead until his car seemed to go away; and Yeley began to reel him. Anderson was just a little further back from Yeley; but didn't seem to be a threat to either Drake or Yeley.

Drake still grabbed the Lion's share of the of the $1800 lap prize money awarded by Eleanor Vogler and the Rich Vogler Scholarship Fund with Anderson and Yeley sharing the rest. Kevin Thomas won the $100 Hard Charger money also provided by the Rich Vogler Scholarship Fund.

In preliminary action, Jason Robbins and Derek Davidson transferred to the heat races via the first non qualifiers race while Jerry Coons, Jr. and Ed Carpenter came out of the second of the non qualifiers show. Terry Pletch, Kevin Miller, Alex Shanks, and Kevin Thomas grabbed the heat race wins; and fast qualifier Tony Elliott won the "B" feature.

The "B" Feature provided most of the problems of the evening for the USAC sprint cars. The yellow came out on the first attempt to start the race when Jason Robbins, Jimmy Laser, and Ed Carpenter all tangled in the first turn. The second attempt to start the race was foiled by Dave Darland and Jonathan Vennard tangled in the first turn. The third attempt was stopped by a red flag when Derek Davidson, Dennis Veach, and Jack Hewitt tangled - again in the first turn. Hewitt got on his head; but he escaped injury. However he was done for the evening. A shunt involving Jimmy Laser, Brandon Petty, and Jared Fox brought out yet another red flag before a lap was scored.

Tony Elliott led every lap followed by Bill Rose, A.J. Anderson, and Ande Possman for the entire distance of the race. Dave Darland moved into a transfer spot on the fifth circuit and passed Bud Kaeding for fifth on the eighth lap. Kaeding held on to take the last transfer spot.

At the end of the evening Dave Darland continued to lead the Indiana Sprint Week points race by 22 points over Jay Drake. Levi Jones was in third place in points trailed by Tony Elliott, J.J. Yeley, Terry Pletch, Brian Hayden, Bud Kaeding, Bill Rose, and Kevin Thomas

Darland also leads the USAC championship points race by 32 points over Drake,

O'Neal Wood Products Open Wheel Modifieds

Adam Sasser led the O'Neal Wood Products OpenWheel Modified feature flag to flag to score his second feature win of the season. Ray Humprey stalked Sasser for 17 laps before John DeMoss moved up to take second away from him. Humphrey held on to take third followed by Clint DeMoss, Matt Boknecht, Shelby Miles, Donnie Parson, Roy Bruce, Jr. who was celebrating his birthday at the track, Rodney Harris, Jr., and Jay Scott.

The hillside of the beautiful red clay Bloomington Speedway was full probably the biggest crowd of the season so far.

-BS