From Mike O’Leary, Jan Dunlap Photo
Kokomo, IN – Few sprint car drivers have the depth of experience on Indiana’s dirt ovals that Jon Stanbrough does. On Sunday, Stanbrough took advantage of that experience and a little luck to capture the second round of the King of Indiana Sprint Series at Kokomo Speedway. After leading most of the race, Chris Windom earned second, followed by Hunter Schuerenberg, Tracy Hines and Dave Darland.
Fighting for the lead, Stanbrough saw Windom and Bryan Clauson get together right in front of him. Avoiding debris while squeezing past, Stanbrough led the remaining three laps for his 16th KISS feature win. “I guess it’s better to be lucky than good, and you have to be in that position to capitalize on the luck and we did tonight. I’m glad to get a “W” here at Kokomo and get another win in the KISS series,” he acknowledged after the victory lane photos.
Windom jumped into the lead from the outside of the front row, dueling with Andrew Elson through the first lap. He quickly established a comfortable lead, while Stanbrough also quickly worked past Elson. In spite multiple cautions and restarts, Windom flew around the top groove , building more than a straightaway advantage several times. Moving quickly through the field after starting seventh, Clauson took second from Stanbrough on lap 10, but wasn’t able to gain ground on Windom’s Jam-It-In-Storage Maxim. Then while working through lapped cars on lap 20, Windom got tangled with Elson in turn four and Elson spun, putting Clauson on the leader’s tail for the restart.
While nearly everyone else was running the high groove, Clauson began diving across the inside in turns one and two, trying to pass Windom as they exited the turn. He got the lead on lap 23, but another caution made him restart behind Windom. Windom had been running so hard, he was bouncing off the second turn wall on almost every other lap and when he did it on the 24th circuit Clauson came out of the turn with the lead. But the battle wasn’t over.
On the 27th lap, Windom closed quickly on Clauson as they went through turn three, and they made hard contact in four. As they came off the turn, Clauson’s left rear tire exploded and he skidded wildly down the front straightaway. Running just a couple feet behind, Stanbrough quickly dodged the debris, narrowly avoided Clauson, and took the lead while Windom was regaining his momentum. A final two-lap shootout didn’t mature as Stanbrough kept the Fox Brothers’ DRC out front to the finish.
“The bottom was just too slick for me to even get a run on them and all I could do was run there on the top and hope that maybe they made a mistake. They got to racing pretty hard and got together and actually I thought I was going to get collected in their mistake. The tire was going everywhere and nerf bars and bumpers, and I managed to squeeze through there,” Stanbrough said later.
Then he added, “I knew those guys were going to race hard and, nothing against them, both of them are good racers, and I just kind of stayed there and watched. That was really truthfully about all I could do.”
Clauson said that when he saw Tracy Hines try to pass him on the inside in turn two, he knew he had to begin to work that lower line. “I wasn’t going to beat Jon and Chris where I was running. I got a run on (Windom) there and a couple of times I had the yellow come out. Then I got a run on him again and cleared him and I’m not really sure what happened. Obviously, he got in the back of us. I can’t see behind me, so I don’t really know what was going on there. It was a great night for this 2B team. We could have had three wins this week. They know we’re here, we just have to start stringing them together before too long.”
Further back in the pits, Windom was disappointed with his finish. He explained, “I guess I was just tossing my front end too much in turns one and two, there, at the end. Stanbrough got around when me and Clauson got together. I did all I could, the car was great, we just couldn’t pull it off.”
Schuerenberg, Hines and Darland had strong races as they worked their way from the fifth and sixth rows, but weren’t able to move into the top 3. Darland retained the KISS point lead with his fifth place finish, but Hines, Stanbrough and Windom are all within nine points.
The 2010 KISS tour continues with the third and fourth rounds next weekend, unloading at Bloomington on Friday (May 21) and traveling to Lawrenceburg on Saturday (May 22).
King of Indiana Sprint Series; Round Two
Kokomo Speedway, May 16, 2010
Heat 1: 1. Jon Stanbrough 53 (4), 2. Brady Short 36 (1), 3. Bryan Clauson 2b (7), 4. Hunter Schuerenberg 2e (9), 5. Wes McIntyre 83 (5), 6. Chris Urish 77u (2), 7. Anthony Peterman 7p (3), 8. Shane Cottle 10e (8), 9. Robert Ballou 81 (6)
Heat 2: 1. Chris Windom 11 (2), 2. Blake Fitzpatrick 10f (1), 3. Thomas Meseraull 57 (3), 4. Dave Darland 39 (4), 5. Casey Riggs 37 (7), 6. Justin Grant 5 (5), 7. Billy Puterbaugh 71p (8), 8. J.J. Hughes 76 (6), 9. Josh Spencer 66j (9)
Heat 3: 1. Andrew Elson 27a (1), 2. Kurt Gross 1x (3), 3. Tracy Hines 24 (6), 4. Steve Ott 41 (2), 5. Ted Hines 12 (8), 6. Caleb Armstrong 7a (9), 7. Matt Westfall 4 (5), 8. Chris Gurley 12g (7), 9. Todd Kirkman 16k (4)
B Main: 1. Armstrong (3), 2. Grant (2), 3. Gurley (7), 4. Puterbaugh (5), 5. Spencer (9), 6. Westfall (4), 7. Hughes (6), 8. Urish (1), 9. Kirkman (10), 10. Ballou (8), Cottle DNS, Peterman DNS
Feature (30 laps): 1. Jon Stanbrough (3), 2. Chris Windom (2), 3. Hunter Schuerenberg (10), 4. Tracy Hines (9), 5. Dave Darland (11), 6. Thomas Meseraull (8), 7. Brady Short (6), 8. Blake Fitzpatrick (4), 9. Billy Puterbaugh (19), 10. Ted Hines (15), 11. Steve Ott (12), 12. Josh Spencer (20), 13. Bryan Clauson (7), 14. Caleb Armstrong (16), 15. Wes McIntyre (13), 16. Andrew Elson (1), 17. Justin Grant (17), 18. Casey Riggs (14), 19. Kurt Gross (5), 20. Chris Gurley (18)
KISS points (after May 16): 1. Darland 290, 2. Tracy Hines 285, 3. Stanbrough 282, 4. Windom 281, 5. Schuerenberg 264, 6. Fitzpatrick 263, 7. Clauson 256, 8. Ted Hines 230, 9. Puterbaugh 222, 10. Armstrong 203
2010 King Of Indiana Sprint Series
Gas City I-69 Speedway Friday, May 14 Dave Darland
Kokomo Speedway Sunday, May 16 Jon Stanbrough
Bloomington Speedway Friday, May 21
Lawrenceburg Speedway Saturday, May 22
Tri-State Speedway Saturday, June 5
Paragon Speedway Saturday, June 26
The King of Indiana Sprint Series is organized and conducted by the individual Indiana sprint car race track promoters to provide the best sprint car racing. Many thanks to the series sponsors, including Indiana StoneWorks for the B-Main, Simpson Performance Products, Sprint Car & Midget Magazine and Van Horn Tint & Accessories for the champion’s helmet, Elliottbrand Web Designs, in Westport, IN, and Kiva Networking in Bloomington for the KISS website (www.kissracing.com).