Justin Zoch's Upper Midwest Ramblings from Florida
Thursday, February 2, 2006
Cory Kruseman didn’t mind coming to Florida. He got to fly. The rest of the Crossno crew did the 41 hour haul through the desert, the mountains and all of Texas to get to Florida. The drive home may only feel like 39 hours as they swept the final two nights of the Bandits, including a great drive to hold off Daron Clayton in the 40-lap finale. Kruseman is now six-for-six in the top-five finish category for 2006. He already has three wins as he heads back to Perris for the opener, where he won six times last year…Scott Benic debuted his new driver on Tuesday night with the Sprint Bandits. Bud Kaeding won the spot vacated by Levi Jones and has some real work to do to live up to Levi’s legacy. Last year, Jones won the USAC and Sprint Bandits title and won four of the five races contested last August. The only guy to beat him? Bud Kaeding at Lakeside’s finale. Benic admits to being slightly relieved that he will not have to trouble with scheduling Mid-American Sprint Series shows now that series is on a one-year sabbatical. Benic will not rule out the possibility that MASS could return toward the end of the season, depending on what happens with the NST and the World of Outlaws. Kaeding salvaged two decent performances with a third in the finale…Matt Westfall was in the pits helping out friend Luke Hall. Westfall reports that he’ll run the family Sprint Car, primarily at Lawrenceburg, in 2006.
Kevin Briscoe will drive for Tony and Jared Fox in 2006 and will certainly be tough to beat at Bloomington on Friday nights. After getting involved in someone else’s mess in the afternoon show, Risky Brisky had a great run in the evening show. As for his father’s car, Levi Jones is rumored to be making runs in it when his Tony Stewart Motorsports duties allow. Another Fox family racer, that of Brad and Steve Fox, will be hustled by Jon Stanbrough at Bloomington and Kokomo and mix in Saturday night shows…Rumors in the grandstand from closer to home have pegged Dave Westercamp as a possible return runner at Knoxville…The infield at East Bay Raceway is a great place to see racing and it’s also a great place to hang out with photographers, the most skeptical, cynical lot in racing. But even these guys were jacked for the return of non-wing racing to East Bay. Some even went so far as to call in sick for work so as not to miss the Tuesday afternoon show. Long-time track photographer Max Dolder related that he believed it had been since 1982 since a prominent non-wing race was held there…To capture the hearts of these guys, it takes something. Right now, they’ve got the “Sikeston Spectacle” Daron Clayton locked in their lenses. Clayton is has hard a gasser as there is in the business and he proved it again at East Bay, driving deeper than anyone on Tuesday night. And, according to some, he was wilder in practice. The video guys were joking that they should install a “Clayton Cam” just to watch him. After Wednesday night’s 20th-to-second run, Clayton had the largest crowd at his car. Clayton will run the full USAC schedule and some veteran race chasers are already salivating at the thought of Clayton at Salem and Winchester on the pavement.
Terry McCarl had only run wingless once and it was the last time the SCRA ran through Knoxville, several seasons ago. McCarl quickly impressed, out-dueling Cory Kruseman in an afternoon barnstormer heat race. On Tuesday night, McCarl passed Dave Darland on the outside in a heat race; an admitted thrill for McCarl. He finished the weekend in the seventh spot in the finale, missing his shot at the $50,000 bonus for sweeping all three finales at East Bay. If he wins the 410 finale, he’ll earn an extra $5,000…Jason Sides made his non-wing debut a successful one as he finished sixth in the finale and fourth on Tuesday night. To make it even more impressive, Sides was running a 360…Another driver with a 360 was Michigan’s Mark Broughman, who actually has won a non-wing race at the Butler Battlegrounds…Mark Cole towed down from New Hampshire to race at East Bay and make his non-wing debut. He’ll return for the winged 410s this weekend. Cole runs with the Sprint Cars of New England organization but his car owner, Tad Uzzle, is starting a new 305 Race Saver group in the Northeast, patterned after French Grimes’ success with the Virginia Sprint Series…Emmett Hahn hopes to schedule more Sprint Bandits Tour-N-Topless races this summer, perhaps in Indiana. The shows pay well and the fans, and most drivers, love the qualifying free format.
McTwo Promotions will promote the POWRi Midgets at the Warren County Fairgrounds in Indianola, Iowa, on Saturday, August 19, while Knoxville lies dormant. The track normally runs figure eight races on Friday nights but should be great for Midgets…Roger Rager was the show, the whole show and nothin’ but the show on Tuesday night, charging Kevin Frey’s 2K from 21st-to-second. Rager did it the old way, busting the cushion around the rim of the raceway. I’d be willing to bet there was not a single person in the entire place that was not thrilled for Rager and Frey…Wayne Johnson flipped the Sather 94s down the backstretch on Tuesday afternoon and sat out the rest of the non-wing program. Johnson was a little stiff and sore while Kenny Woodruff and he prepared the 410 winged racer…Local racer Joe Melnick also took a wild ride down the backstretch but was not as lucky as Johnson. Melnick reportedly has a trio of broken vertebrae among other injuries. Best wishes to Joe and his family and we all hope for a speedy recovery.
Brandon Petty and the Reynolds Racing team will perhaps do a little more traveling this season and chase more USAC shows. The team struggled through Tuesday with a coil-over configuration before going back to basics on Wednesday to finish to 21st in the finale…Brady Short looked stunned in victory lane on Tuesday afternoon. The 2005 National Rookie of the Year had only one Sprint win, at Bloomington last August, prior to this victory. Congrats to Short on the victory and it is nice to see a new face in victory lane, much like Josh Wells at last year’s East Bay Winternationals…Badger Midget competitor Harley Slotten drove Randy Sippel’s 51 car to a Strawberry Dash win on Tuesday night. It was his first time ever running a non-wing car…A quick correction to last week’s report from the Ronald Laney King of 360s. Scott Winters made the A-main on Saturday night and finished 21st…As for the All Stars and World of Outlaws at Volusia, as of now, the Outlaw drivers are eligible to run the All Star events. As for the National Sprint Tour guys, a handful of them are in Florida and will be running East Bay and Volusia, but, will reportedly not be running the Outlaws events at Volusia but may run some All Star shows. Basically, this is all subject to change by the time you’ve read it.
Heading for the beach to catch some sun before the clouds roll in this afternoon. There’s bad weather scheduled for this weekend but hopefully East Bay will luck out and get the 410 shows in this weekend. In the meantime, keep my inbox stacked with comments, questions and corrections at Justin@mompub.com.
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