By Mike O’Leary
August 19, 2012 – Six-time King of Indiana Jon Stanbrough will receive the traditional KISS Champion’s Helmet Friday, at Kokomo Speedway. This is the sixth year that a fully race-ready helmet will be presented to the KISS champion by the promoters of the tracks that comprise the KISS series. The unique helmet award is made possible by sponsors Sprint Car and Midget Magazine, Simpson Performance Products and VanHorn Tint & Accessories.
Stanbrough earned the crown by a 15-point margin over Dave Darland, with back-to-back wins in the last two races, at Tri-State and Paragon Speedways. Darland also won consecutive races during this year’s KISS competition, at Gas City and Lawrenceburg Speedways. Robert Ballou claimed the opening race at the Terre Haute Action Track, and programs at Bloomington and Kokomo were rained out.
The presentation will take place before Friday’s running of Kokomo Speedway’s Sprint Car Smackdown, a three-night event featuring the USAC AMSOIL national sprint car series.
The Simpson helmet is fully state of the art in the critical areas of safety, materials and construction, it comes equipped with everything a driver needs to strap it on and go racing. Yet, each of the Champion’s who have won a helmet (Jon Stanbrough in ’07, ’08 and ’10, Brady Short in ’09, and Dave Darland last year) have chosen not to wear it for racing, but rather to display it with their personal trophies. This only makes sense in that there are no other helmets like the KISS Champion’s, and the only way to get one is to earn it on the race track.
As in previous years, the helmet will be highlighted with artwork specially designed for the KISS champion by Jeff VanHorn. The KISS series promoters basically give the artist a blank sheet of canvas to work on, a plain white helmet. There are no directions or guidance, other than “Make it special.” This approach has been highly successful, given the artistic design seen on the previous helmets.
Simpson Performance Products and Sprint Car and Midget Magazine are nationally recognized as established leaders in their fields, with Simpson’s broad safety and racing product base, and the magazine’s reputation for strong feature articles, photos, editorials and race reporting.
Located in Bloomington, Indiana, VanHorn VanHorn Tint and Accessories offers a broad range of products, including window tinting, LED lights and truck bars, rear window graphics, specialized graphics for everything from racing cars and helmets, to personal, company and fleet vehicles.
Final 2012 KISS Points: 1. Jon Stanbrough 852, 2. Dave Darland 837, 3. Robert Ballou 832, 4. Jonathan Hendrick 722, 5. Hunter Schuerenberg 712, 6. Brady Short 590, 7. Coleman Gulick 492, 8. Seth Parker 483, 9. Kyle Cummins 447, 10. Braylon Fitzpatrick 430
More information about KISS sponsors can be obtained directly from their websites at:
King of Indiana Sprint Series – http://kissracing.com/
Simpson Performance Products – http://simpsonraceproducts.com/
Sprint Car & Midget Magazine – http://www.sprintcarandmidget.com/
VanHorn Tint and Accessories – http://www.vanhorn1.com/