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Tri-State Outlook

by Duane Hancock

Now that the holiday season has passed up by, its time to start focusing on the 2010 racing season. Before I enter the 2010 season, i must finish up the 2009 season. Over the holiday season, the annual Rumble In The Expo takes place in the Fort Wayne Indiana Expo Center. This event always draws huge support in all division and its a great way to cure the winter blues. This year's event took place on the Saturday and Sunday between Christmas and New Years. 39 Midgets were ready for action on opening night. Another focus on this weekend was Mel Kenyon. At 76 years old and in his 5th decade of racing, this would be Mel's final weekend ever behind the wheel of a midget. In typical fashion, the track had plenty of rubber down and was quick from the start. Tim Jedrejek, Bryan Nuckles, Geoff Kaiser, and David Gough took the heat race wins. With such a huge field of cars, 3 B Mains were ran transferring to the top to the A Main. Mike Fedorcak, Adam Wilsdon, and Local racer, Cory Setser took the B Main wins. The tight quarters makes for some close bump and run indoor racing. Like some drivers say, its more like wrestling on wheels at times. Oh by the way, the Mel Kenyon watch seen Mel earn the last and final transfer spot via the 3rd B Main. The 60 lap A Main seen David Gough and Tim Jedrejek pace the field. Gough used his inside line the best he could and took the lead when the green flag waved. With lap times in the low 8 seconds, things happen quick at the Rumble. Lap 7, Jon Stanbrough spins. Gough gets a good restart and sets a fast pace. With the leaders entering traffic in just a handful of laps, the action is nose to tail towards the front of the pack. That is until lap 20 when Gough, the leader, spins. Jedrejek inherits the lead. Timmy J leads the pack but Dave Darland, Kaiser, and Fedorcak are all fast and pushing towards the leader. I mean actually pushing at times. Lap 28, the action is slowed as a tractor tire used for the barrier on the inside of the track finds its way on to the racing surface. This tighten ups the field, with several fast cars now nose to tail. Lap 30, Darland, Kaiser, and Fedorcak all pile into each other in turn 2 after Kaiser and Darland had some contact battling for 2nd place. This took out the 2nd, 3rd, and 4th place cars, not to mention 3 drivers that were favorites to win the Rumble event. Jedrejek is on cruise control out front now as Gough and Fedorcak work their way back through the pack from the spins. Bryan Nuckles is having another excellent Ft Wayne run as well. 10 to go, Timmy J looks like the winner as Billy Wease, Gough, Nuckles, and Fedorcak chase him down. Lap 52, Jedrejek slows and comes to a stop. Just 8 laps to go and Timmy J's night is over. Billy Wease is the new leader. Always strong indoors, Wease jumps out into the lead on the final restart and never looks back. After some major car woes last season indoors, Wease scores the win. Nuckles, Gough, Fedorcak, and Joe Liguori round out the top 5. 600 cc mini sprint A Main was a good one too. Ryan Smith was giving Rumble King, John Ivy all he could handle the entire 40 lap distance. In an A Main then seen Russ Gamester get on his side and Richard Smith flip, and drive away, Ivy was looking to extend his Rumble win record. Smith gave him all he could but Ivy showed why he has more Rumble wins that any other driver in Rumble history by taking the win. Smith, Paul Price, Ben Taylor, and Mark Zumbrun round out the top 5. Of course the go-karts and quarter midgets are always a blast to watch too. Plus, its always interesting to see what local short track racers, or what family members they might have up and coming are present running the feeder classes. Sad to say but I didn't make day 2 of the event due to getting really sick a few hours after getting back to the motel Saturday night.

To finish 2009 off, a little recap of the races I chased. It all started in January with the Chili Bowl and ended at the Rumble Series event in Ft Wayne. 96 events in all, with 14 of those getting rained out. 24 tracks in 6 different states. One of my downers, I didn't make a new track in 2009. My goal is to hit at least one new track a season but I failed this year. I did however make it to handful tracks I haven't been to in a few years. I really think the car counts were very strong for the most part of the season. Very few nights did I witness a low car count. Track conditions were pretty good for the most part that I seen. I would say 85 to 90 percent of the programs were ran very efficiently. Of course a few of those that were not, were places I haven't been to in a while and quickly remembered why I haven't. Aka marathon races at Butler MI for no reason besides jacking around most of the night. I liked the majority of the shows I seen in 2009. Many stick out in my mind, a few of them: Sammy's Chili Bowl run to take the win, the USAC midget week A Main at Kokomo that Bryan Clauson won, Jason Sides WOO win at Eldora in the closing laps, the HOSS pavement show at Angola, the super-cross race in Indy, I know its bikes but they put on an excellent show and know how to showcase their program. Maybe I shouldn't say but a few of the downers were the World Finals at Lowes, very inconsistency track conditions and hours of useless messing around made the show a bummer in 09. Another huge event that I attended for the first time in 09 that didn't live up to the hype was the Dirt Track World Championships. The first night/day of the event was by far the worse racing I have seen in years. An excellent effort by the track crew on day 2 made for some good A Mains but it was between the guys starting on the front row, others had no shot at winning unless the leaders would of crashed. Robert Ballou did one of the most controlled balls to the wall drives I have seen in a while tho in the sprint car part of the event.

Each off-season it seems like more and more racing events pop up. Which is just fine by me. Some upcoming events to check out: Eldora Banquet Jan 23, the 4th annual Chuck Roelle Bowling Tourny at the Seneca Lane Fostoria Ohio. The event takes place Jan 30 with a 1 PM start time. Oh yeah, I think defending champs of the event, which happens to be my team, is ready to take on all challengers again. Just announced, the 2nd annual Chili Challenge benefiting F.A.S.T and hoservilleohio will take place Feb 20 in Fremont Ohio at the Ballville TWP Hall. Go to www.fastondirt.com for more details.

Waiting for opening night, Duane

Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays. While there has been plenty of off-season action already, I am using this article to pre-view the upcoming Rumble Series event in Fort Wayne Indiana on Saturday December 26th and Sunday the 27th. In recent years, the Rumble Series has had up to 6 nights on indoor racing during the winter season. This year, Fort Wayne in the stand alone event for the winter. Ft Wayne has always been a strong hold for indoor winter racing and produces the best car counts for the series. Usually, with the help of Tony Stewart racing, the crowd is overflow as well. This year the event will be Smokeless since Tony is racing down under the next few weeks. Do that mean a less show? I say NO, I think it will make for a BETTER show. It wasn't if Tony took the lead the last few years, it was when on how good the show would be. Unless Smoke broke or crashed, he pretty much stunk up the past few Rumble in Ft Wayne events. With 33 plus midgets already entered, this year's event is wide open for a winner. The field features a wide variety of seasoned indoor racers, to new ones, to ones that has a few years of indoor racing experience but yet have been towards the front of the pack in a short period of time. With 2 complete shows, names like Dave Darland, Jon Stanbrough, Mike Fedorcak, Tony Elliott, Russ Gamester, David Gough, Tim Jedrezjek, and Johnny Heydenreich should be towards the front of the A Mains. These guys always run well indoors and have several years of experience plus, a handful of wins indoors between them. I am saying, don't look past some names like Matt Westfall, Geoff Kaiser, Billy Wease, Brandon Knupp, Bryan Nuckles, and Kim Hughes. All these newer names have had some great runs indoors the past year or 2 and could easily take the win. With 30 plus midgets already entered, 30 plus 600cc mini sprints, and the excellent go-kart races, this year's event won't miss a beat. I am going out on a limb and saying Geoff Kaiser and Matt Westfall will both score their first Ft Wayne Rumble Series A Main wins this weekend. I will return next week with Rumble Series news and results plus, some rumblings of some off season changes and new.

Have a great holiday, Duane

Last weekend for the first time in 29 years, sprint cars were added to the Dirt Track World Championship weekend. With the event moving to Lawrenceburg Speedway this season, in the heart of sprint car country, the DTWC crew added the sprints with a pretty healthy purse. After a terrible week of rain, almost 7 inches in a few days around the Lawrenceburg area, the event was moved to a Saturday and Sunday show, both starting around noon. 20 traditional sprints were pit side for the big event. With all the rain ending Friday night, the Lawrenceburg track crew worked their butts off to event get a racing surface for Saturday. The major problem was, all the moisture was scraped off the track. it was super hard and dry slick for the Saturday show. Brady Short set quick time with a 16.661. 3 heats were ran on Saturday. With a straight-up start, the event promoter did that for all the classes, the heats were just bottom feeding, huggy pole, parades. Short, Jeff Bland Jr, and Nic Faas won the heats, all from front row starting spots. Don't get me wrong, there really wasn't anything the track crew could do to get the show in. They had to scrape all the mud off to event get to a surface, then time was an issue to make it race-able. I give them credit. I would go out on a limb and say if it wasn't Lawrenceburg and their track crew, all most any other track in the US would of called the race off for the entire weekend. The track crew can't help the format. Tho I will say, on Saturday, no matter if it was the quickest of slowest guy on the front row, if he ran a straight line, he would of won the heat. On Sunday Dave Rudisell and crew did an excellent job of putting moisture back into the track. So good of a job, the shows start time was pushed back almost 2 hours because the track was way too wet to race on. After all the B Mains for the lates and mods, plus the 100 lap late model A Main, it was time for the $5000 to win 25 lap sprint car A Main. Brady Short and Ty Deckard paced the field to the green flag. Short had the preferred line on the bottom and shot to the lead. With not much to grab in the middle, tho there was a little, and a very narrow cushion right against the wall, the bottom was the favored line. Except, for Robert Ballou. Ballou was cowboy up and was running within an inch or 2 of the wall. With Short on the bottom and Ballou on the fence, the battle was on. Brady had the shorter distance to run but, Ballou momentum off the banks would put them about even at times at the stripe. Lap 7, Deckard spins, just as Ballou was about to take the lead. Short gets a good restart as Ballou winds it up again on the top side. A few others try to follow Ballou's line, well not quit right up against the fence like Robert but, closer than they were before the yellow. It takes Robert a few laps to get the rhythm a rolling again to pull even with Short. Once he gets a rolling tho, watch out. Lap 11, Ballou flys off turn 4 and takes the lead. With all the other cars back on the bottom, Ballou was old style Pancho Carter driving on the fence. Running merely centimeters off the big white wall, Ballou was smooth but living or dying on the high side. Lap 13, Terry Babb spins. Ballou gets a good enough run off 1 on the restart to stay in the lead. Lap 16, Josh Moffatt, Ethan Barrow, and Decekard crash in turn 2. This draws a red flag for clean up. It was funny watching Short and Bland talk to their crew by the fence and decide if they had what it took to cowboy up on the cushion like Ballou. Green, Ballou goes high, Short low, Bland trys the high side as well. Ballou gets a great run and stays out front. Short is smooth on the bottom and is about dead even with Ballou at the line. Bland drops back to the low side and follows as John Memmer fights him for position. The last 9 laps was amazing. Short and Ballou was just inches apart each lap at the line. Driving two of the most different lines as you could but, both would be about even at the line. Ballou had just a little advantage off the turns with the momentum off the banks. With the white flag in the air, both was driving as fast as they could but as smooth as they could too. Ballou has the advantage off 2, into 3, Short gains, into 4 Short looks to have the lead, off 4, Ballou mats the go peddle and beats Short to the line as they cross the line side by side with Ballou about 4 feet ahead. Memmer, up from 10th, Faas, and Bland round out the top 5. For a day time race, on a very tricky track, it was an excellent race. Robert Ballou gained some respect on this day. He went all out and just one little bobble could of ended his day, season, or career they was he was riding the cushion. Bouncing off the wall aka Jack Hewitt style at times, Ballou deserved the win. Not that I don't like Brady Short or anything like that but, Ballou drove to win, the rest just followed huggy pole on the bottom, that was the difference in the winner and loser on this day.

Lincoln Park Speedway in Putnamville Indiana added a sprint car show this Saturday the 24th...The Rumble Series hit Ft Wayne Indiana this winter on December 26th and 27th. If you plan to race in the rumble event, new rules have been posted, so you better check them out. For those who haven't ran the indoor deal, check the rules now, they seem to event the playing field a little more now.

Plan to make my first ever trip to Putnamville Saturday, say hey if you want.

Thanks Duane

E-mail Duane Here

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