Published: July 14, 2008 11:59 pm            

Fortune shines on Darland

He wins Indiana Sprint Week event at Kokomo

Ask any racer and they will tell you that a win is a win and that they’ll take it any way they can.

A year ago Lincoln’s Dave Darland seemed to have the annual running of the Bob Darland Memorial well in hand until a last-lap bobble allowed Jon Stanbrough and Cole Whitt to get by, depriving the popular Darland a coveted win in his late father’s memorial event.

Sunday night in leg four of the Chevy Powers Indiana Sprint Week presented by Fatheadz, the roles were reversed as Stanbrough appeared to have the dominant car for the better part of the 30-lap event at the Kokomo Speedway.

With Stanbrough and Robert Ballou riding the cushion flawlessly and both seemingly in command, bad luck set in for both drivers.

First, Ballou hammered the cushion hard in turn two, packing his right rear with mud which resulted in the California driver losing the handle on his MPHG No. 81. Stanbrough’s fate was sealed on the 29th lap when Brett Burdette spun in turn one collecting Chad Boespflug, who flipped his No. 98 car. With the track essentially blocked, Stanbrough slid into the melee, flipping his Fox Brothers No. 53.

The wild turn of events set up a two-lap shootout with Ballou, Darland and Cole Whitt. Ballou, packed wheel and all, continued to run the cushion while Darland and Whitt went wheel to wheel at the bottom of the track, nearly getting together.

On the final lap Darland got a strong run off the bottom in turn two and drag raced Ballou into turn three. Exiting the fourth corner coming to the flagstand Darland found just enough grip to nose ahead of Ballou coming to the checkered flag. Ballou made contact with the wall, flipping hard just before the finish line. Levi Jones got caught up in the mayhem as well as he flipped across the stripe.

“I really hate it for Jon [Stanbrough] to lose it this way,” said an emotional Darland. “But last year I pretty much had this race won then I had problems on the final lap. I’ll take it, that’s part of racing and why you never give up.”

Stanbrough didn’t mince words when describing the incident that prevented him from his third straight Darland Memorial trophy.

“I was pretty ticked off,” said the Avon driver. “That car spun then came back across the track and got together with [Boespflug]. I came up on them pretty quick and I knew there wasn’t enough room to get by up high without getting into the wall.”

Whitt came home second while Jones’ teammate, Tracy Hines, was third. Despite his hard flip, Jones was fourth, and Darren Hagen fifth. Scotty Weir piloted the Edison Motorsports No. 10E to an 11th-place showing. Defending track champion and Sprint Week points leader heading into Sunday’s race, Shane Cottle, struggled in the feature, finishing 17th.

Dustin Morgan, Whitt, Cottle and Scotty Weir each won heat races with Hines capturing the semi-feature.

With the win, Darland now moves within one win of tying Cory Kruseman for the most wins in Indiana Sprint Week history. Darland now has 11 to his credit. In addition, Darland now holds a 26-point advantage over Jones in his bid for his second straight Sprint Week championship and fourth overall. The final three events will be at the Kamp Motor Speedway in Boswell Thursday night while Bloomington hosts Friday night’s program and the champion will be crowned Saturday night at the Tri-States Speedway in Haubstadt.

With his three Sprint Week titles to date, Darland could tie Kevin Thomas for the most championships in the 21-year history of the event. Making that accomplishment more impressive would be the fact that he would have done it with four different car owners.

Other features

The Street Stock feature set the tone for what was to come when popular veteran Glen Gamblin won by mere inches over Arnie Prater after front runners David Hurst and James Headley got together while running first and second.

Hurst took the lead on the third lap from Bob Jarrett with Headley following closely. With seven laps remaining Headley got into the rear of Hurst’s car, spinning the No. 8 in turn four. Officials deemed the contact to be intentional and put Headley’s Pace No. 35 behind Hurst at the tail of the field which handed the lead over to Gamblin.

The final five laps saw Prater reel in the multi-time track champion and on the final lap his last-ditch effort saw the pair cross the finish line in a near photo-finish.

Bill Lewis took third, Andre Missig fourth and Hurst fifth as he passed his way back into the top five.

For the second straight week, Tony Bowman blitzed the field in the Thunder Car feature event.

After trailing perennial favorite Allen Davis for the first three laps, Bowman put his Tygart Signs/Koch Performance No. 56 to the point and never trailed the rest of the 15-lap event. Davis was second, Gerald Armfield third, Cory Johnson fourth and Marvin Uitts fifth.

The track will be closed this Sunday, but return to action July 27 with its weekly program.

        

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