From Mike O’Leary
Bloomington, IN — Brady Short opened the King of Indiana Sprint Series with a brilliant victory at Bloomington Speedway, Friday night. Short hustled his Indiana Stone Works Maxim past Kent Christian to take the lead on the tenth circuit and never looked back, claiming the win by 1.5 seconds, as Bobby East collected second and Jon Stanbrough third.
“It’s huge,” Short said afterward. “We won the KISS points two years ago and I’d really like to win again. It’s a fun deal and it’s hard competition running these different race tracks. It’s a good way to start off this KISS deal, coming to my favorite race track. I’ve never won a KISS race here at Bloomington and it’s pretty special.”
Kent Christian took the early lead from the pole, ahead of East, Short, Jon Sciscoe and Dave Darland. As drivers ran both high and low, looking for an advantage on Bloomington’s quarter-mile oval, Short moved up to a mid-track line and quickly powered into the lead. Once out front, Short was able to build a sizable advantage, extending it to a third of a lap as the race ran all 30 laps without a caution. When Short caught the tail of the field with a handful of laps remaining, East cut into the gap, but didn’t get close enough to challenge for the win.
Jon Stanbrough showed why he is a five-time champion of the KISS series, racing to third from a seventh row start. Stanbrough worked steadily around and between cars on the busy oval, getting to ninth in the first six laps and into the top five by lap 20. Other drivers with notable runs included Casey Shuman, who battled from 18th to tenth, and Bryan Clauson, finishing right behind Shuman after starting 17th.
Racing on his home track, Short, who is from nearby Bedford, Indiana, noted that he predicted what the track was going to be like and where he needed to run. “I always say that when Bloomington Speedway it gets slick and I can run my lane through the middle, it’s the fastest way around here. It’s tough to do and there’s very few people who can do it, I chose it real quick and the car really liked it. It was probably the best handling race car I’ve had here in a long time. I kind of cruised around and when I got to lapped traffic, at the end, I kind of slowed down. It had a lot more in it, I was just trying to be smart, you know, and not get around those lapped cars and get in a wreck.”
Back in the pits, East allowed that he was pleased with his runner-up finish in his own Beast sprinter. “It was blown off all the way from the bottom to the top and I started running about three quarters up, and just kind of moved around from there. I went to the bottom and was sizing the leader up and Brady went by us both. That’s what happens when you start in the front. We wound up second and there’s fifty some cars here, so we’re fairly happy and its a pretty small operation, really.”
“I really would have liked to have won that deal, especially starting on the front row, but Brady is really fast here and he had a good car. We had a really good car, too, we just were a little off at the start and made a couple of adjustments halfway through the race.”
It was Short’s third KISS series victory, with previous wins coming at Tri-State Speedway in 2009, and at Lawrenceburg Speedway last year. With 54 cars on hand, heat races were won by Short, East, Danny Holtsclaw, Darland, Ty Deckard and Robert Ballou. Jordan Kinser claimed the C-Main, and Bub Cummings outran Levi Jones in the B-Main.
The KISS series continues on Friday, May 13th, at Gas City I-69 Speedway, in Gas City, Indiana. Dave Darland won last year’s Gas City round.
King of Indiana Sprint Series, Round 1
Bloomington Speedway, Bloomington, Indiana
Friday, May 6, 2011
Heat 1: 1. Danny Holtsclaw 3 (1), 2. Brett Burdette 17b (2), 3. Chris Windom 5 (9), 4. Casey Riggs 37 (4), 5. Mark Perry III 3m (7), 6. Arin McIntosh 34m (8), 7. Seth Parker 38p (6), 8. Jared Harris 81h (5), Lance Grimes (DNS)
Heat 2: 1. Brady Short 36 (3), 2. Jon Sciscoe 7 (6), 3. Jon Stanbrough 53 (8), 4. Bub Cummings 71 (1), 5. Chase Briscoe 5 (4), 6. Jonathan Vennard 9t (2), 7. Jordan Kinser 5k (7), 8. A.J. Clark 3ac (5), 9. Dakota Jackson 3 (9)
Heat 3: 1. Dave Darland 21 (3), 2. Shane Cottle 10e (1), 3. Bobby Stines 88 (5), 4. Levi Jones 57 (9), 5. Jesse Cramer 12t (6), 6. Coleman Gulick 14 (7), 7. Troy DeCaire 82 (2), 8. Tracy Hines 24 (4), 9. Kurt Gross 1x (8)
Heat 4: 1. Ty Deckard 48 (1), 2. Kent Christian 1c (5), 3. Chris Babcock 35 (4), 4. Logan Hupp 9h (3), 5. Jonathan Hendrick 68 (8), 6. C.J. Leary 30 (7), 7. Seth Motsinger 44 (6), 8. Wes McIntyre 83 (2), 9. Logan Jarrett 29 (9)
Heat 5: 1. Robert Ballou 81 (5), 2. Chad Boespflug 98 (3), 3. Bryan Clauson 7 (9), 4. Ethan Barrow 15 (4), 5. Keith Bloom 27 (7), 6. Kevin Studley 57 (8), 7. Andrew Elson 27a (6), 8. Nick Bilbee 17 (2), 9. Braylon Fitzpatrick 3f (1)
Heat 6: 1. Bobby East 5 (1), 2. Jerry Coons Jr. 71p (2), 3. Casey Shuman 4g (5), 4. Damion Gardner 71 (7), 5. Hunter Schuerenberg 35 (6), 6. Joe Liguori 6rr (3), 7. Eric Edwards 44 (4), 8. Brent Beauchamp 11 (9), 9. Jeremy Giles 3g (8)
C Main: 1. Kinser (2), 2. Elson (5), 3. Bilbee (11), 4. Parker (1), 5. Beauchamp (12), 6. DeCaire (3), 7. Harris (7), 8. Edwards (6), 9. Fitzpatrick (16), 10. Jackson (13), 11. Jarrett (15), 12. McIntyre (10), 13. Clark (8), 14. Giles (17), 15. Motsinger (4)
B Main (12L): 1. Cummings (2), 2. Jones (3), 3. Gardner (6), 4. Hupp (4), 5. Briscoe (8), 6. Riggs (1), 7. Barrow (5), 8. Vennard (14), 9. Perry (7), 10. Hendrick (10), 11. Bloom (11), 12. Liguori (18), 13. Kinser (19), 14. McIntosh (13), 15. Studley (17), 16. Elson (20), 17. Gulick (15), 18. Leary (16), 19. Cramer (9), 20. Schuerenberg (12)
A Main (30L): 1. Brady Short (3), 2. Bobby East (2), 3. Jon Stanbrough (14), 4. Jon Sciscoe (6), 5. Kent Christian (1), 6. Dave Darland (8), 7. Shane Cottle (7), 8. Danny Holtsclaw (4), 9. Jerry Coons Jr. (10), 10. Casey Shuman (18), 11. Bryan Clauson (17), 12. Chris Windom (13), 13. Robert Ballou (9), 14. Levi Jones (20), 15. Damion Gardner (21), 16. Brett Burdette (5), 17. Bub Cummings (19), 18. Logan Hupp (22), 19. Bobby Stines (15), 20. Chad Boespflug (12), 21. Chris Babcock (16), 22. Ty Deckard (11)
KISS 2011 Points: 1. Brady Short 180, 2. Bobby East 175, 3. Jon Stanbrough 170, 4. Jon Sciscoe 165, 5. Kent Christian 160, 6. Dave Darland 156, 7. Shane Cottle 152, 8. Danny Holtsclaw 148, 9. Jerry Coons Jr. 144, 10. Casey Shuman 140
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 Sprint Car & Midget Magazine and Van Horn Tint & Accessories for the KISS champion’s helmet, Elliottbrand Web Designs, in Westport, IN, and Kiva Networking in Bloomington for the KISS website (www.kissracing.com).
2011 KISS SCHEDULE
May 6 Bloomington Speedway Brady Short
May 13 Gas City I-69 Speedway
May 21 Lawrenceburg Speedway
June 19 Tri-State Speedway
June 25 Paragon Speedway
June 26 Kokomo Speedway