Published: August 15, 2007 12:00 am            

BOWMAN: It’s been a great adventure at Speedway

Three points events left at local dirt track

With but three points events left in 2007 at the Kokomo Speedway, I thought this might be a good chance to reflect on what has happened and what remains of the season yet.

A sad note is the loss in the last year of some of the most prominent names in the 60-year history of the local track. Jimmy Taylor, Chuck Piker, Jon Casbon and recently, Paul Joyce are drivers who have left us to be in a better place. I can recall like it was yesterday watching Taylor, Piker and Casbon race while hearing of the exploits of Joyce. Joyce’s record of 19 feature wins in a single season stands to this day.

When Joyce accomplished the feat, I was yet to be born, but it would seem that Joyce was to his era what Jon Stanbrough is to the current era and Tony Elliott and Dave Darland were in the years past.

In the next week, look for a piece that will go into more detail on all the recently deceased drivers as the coming “Legends of Kokomo” event draws closer.

Though I have no numbers to back up this next statement, it seems, at least to me anyway, that the USAC National Series’ (Lucas Oils Sprints and National Midgets) have overtaken the World of Outlaws as “must see” events at the track.

Granted, the Outlaws visited on a Tuesday night this season, but there didn’t seem to be the buzz that used to be in the air when the touring series ventured into town. However, on the flip side, it has been awesome to see the transporters toting the USAC cars into town on Sprint Week Sunday as well as last Sunday when the track hosted Midget Week.

Looking at the parking lot to the south of the track where the recreational vehicles usually park on each of USAC’s visits this summer was incredible. It was virtually a small village with hundreds of RVs, many displaying banners, etc., anxiously awaiting the arrival of the teams and drivers.

Maybe it’s just me, but it seems that since the Outlaws split up, nothing has quite been the same. There’s no Steve and Sammy drama like the good old days. Same thing with Kinser, Swindell and Doug Wolfgang. The closest thing to a rivalry now would probably be Terry McCarl and Joey Saldana after their teams exchanged punches earlier this season.

Like it or not, and as badly as I hate to say it, it seems that age may have finally caught up with Kinser. In his prime, no way would the King start third in the Knoxville Nationals and not even be in the hunt at the end of the night. Donny Schatz is the new wave of winged sprint car standouts and with his announcement last week that he will be joining Paul McMahan to form a Tony Stewart Racing mega-power next season.

While it seems that fans’ interest in winged sprints and NASCAR is showing signs of wavering a bit, the traditional sprints (non-wing) are gaining momentum. With gas prices and the economy staggering, there is a bumper crop of talent each week at local dirt tracks that shows the future of racing looks very bright.

But when we talk 10 years from now about the 2007 season, Stanbrough will have to be the topic of discussion. What he does week in and week out is nothing less than incredible.

Take Sunday night’s come-from-behind win over Cottle. For most of the race, Cottle seemed to have the field covered. Stanbrough was in a car that he typically doesn’t race, Darland was mired deep in the field after a rough qualifying effort and Cory Kruseman couldn’t figure out the new configuration of the local track.

Stanbrough kept stalking and stalking Cottle until he finally seized an opportunity and pounced on it. When talking with him in the pits after the race, Stanbrough noted while signing autographs and talking to fans that there was no way to win without risking losing.

That attitude, the tenacity to never accept anything less than winning, is what once made Kinser great and is now Stanbrough’s trademark.

Mathematically Stanbrough still has a chance of getting past Cottle and earning another Kokomo track championship, but it would take a stroke of luck and a lot of bad luck on Cottle’s part for that to happen.

So, with three points events left, let’s sit back, enjoy and after Sept. 2, start counting the days until a new season arrives.

Smith, Jones earn wins

Kokomo’s Dustin Smith grenaded his motor at the Kamp Motor Speedway last Thursday and went with his brother Corey to help out Saturday night at the Waynesfield Motor Speedway in Ohio.

Then he was presented with an opportunity to take the wheel of Jason Shields’ No. 00 for a one off deal. The 2001 Kokomo track champion made the most of the opportunity as he took his fourth feature win of the season and 11th of his career. Corey Smith was second, John Heydenreich third and Dustin Morgan fourth.

While the Smith Racing team was across the state line, a slew of others were just inside the border at the Lawrenceburg Speedway in night three of the Torco Racing Fuels Indiana Midget Week.

Levi Jones grabbed the sprint car feature win over Chris Windom, Dakoda Armstrong, Dave Darland and Blake Fitzpatrick. Stanbrough was sixth, Mark Clark seventh and Cottle eighth.

Kevin Swindell took the midget feature over Hagen and Jerry Coons Jr. Brent Beauchamp was fourth and Brad Sweet fifth. Darland was ninth.

Friday night in the second leg of the mini-series, the action was at the Gas City I-69 Speedway with Cottle running down and passing Sweet by mere inches in the midget feature. Brady Bacon was third, Darland fourth and Coons fifth.

The sprint car portion was again all Jones as he piloted the Weir family No. 22W past Billy Puterbaugh Jr. Cole Whitt was third, A.J. Anderson fourth and Stanbrough fifth. Darland (ninth), Clark (14th), Marc Arnold (20th), Josh Spencer (21st) and Brandon Petty (22nd) were also in the main event.

Thursday night’s opening round for midget week at the Kamp Motor Speedway just west of Lafayette was claimed by Coons, who blistered the field aboard his Wilke-Pak/Mopar No. 10. Swindell was second, Bacon third, Gary Taylor fourth and Brad Mosen fifth. Cottle was eighth and Darland 18th.

Miami County results

In another stellar night of racing activity at the Miami County Speedway, Halen Shafer, Brandon Rose, John DeGood II, David Herron and Addison True posted feature wins Saturday night.

Shafer made it a clean sweep of the evening, garnering heat, trophy dash as well as his feature win in the Restrictor class. Nick Hamilton was second, Tyler Marsh third, Barbie Kimmel fourth and Braxton Hanft fifth.

Rose earned the win in the Open division with Jordan Lambert chasing him to the checkered flag. Jason Ormsby, Sam Kimmel and Jake Moore rounded out the top five. DeGood topped Tony Stump and Ben Taylor in the stock feature. Michael Tummey was fourth and Jake Kincaid fifth. Kokomo’s Kylee Brown was 10th and Drew Salisbury 12th.

Herron was the best of the non-wing division as 41 took part in the activities. Tyler Cooper was second to Herron when the dust settled and Todd Kirkman was third. A.J. Hopkins and Will Sylvester rounded out the top five. True took the Junior division feature over Kolt Kinsler, Dillon Beaman, Trenton Bitzel and Stanley Abbott.

The track will host a non-wing special event Saturday night.

Brett Bowman may be reached by e-mail at brettbowman29@aol.com or through the sports department.

        

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