By Mike O’Leary
May 26, 2013 – Daron Clayton portrays himself as a David, racing against sprint car Goliaths. Clayton scored another victory against the bigger teams on Sunday as he won the King of Indiana Sprint Series event, co-sanctioned by MSCS, at Tri-State Speedway. It was his third KISS triumph at the South Western Indiana oval in seven years, as Kyle Cummins finished second, followed by Kevin Thomas Jr. and Levi Jones.
“It’s big,” Clayton readily admits as the team celebrated in the pits after the race. “I’m doing this deal and I don’t even have the money to start doing it. I come out here and kick these guys butts with 18-wheel rigs. We do it on about 10% of most guys budgets. I didn’t know long we could last and I had to win one soon, to pay some bills. We hung on tonight, I wasn’t going to let it go.”
When pole sitter Hunter Schuerenberg’s engine broke at the start, Clayton’s #92 Merry-Go-Round Restaurant Spike moved from third to the pole, and led the field off the second turn. While Clayton built a half-straightaway lead, Chase Stockon battled Robert Ballou for second until Ballou’s engine let go on the seventh lap. Stockon dove inside of Clayton on the restart, but Clayton held him back. Stockon got around Clayton, but Clayton retook the lead, then their battle came to quick end when they got together going into turn one and Stockon flipped after hitting the wall.
Jon Stanbrough was second for the restart, after lining up sixth, and chased Clayton until the 17th circuit, when Clayton bounced hard off the first turn wall and Stanbrough raced into the lead. But just four laps later, Stanbrough hustled to the work area to change a flat left rear tire under the caution and Clayton resumed the lead. Kyle Cummins was next to challenge Clayton. The ninth-place starter pressed Clayton relentlessly as the laps ran down, and finally shoved his machine into the lead with an inside pass in turn one on lap 28, but Clayton returned the favor, driving under Cummins as they came off the second turn.
Clayton held a five-car length lead at the checkers, with Cummins holding off Thomas for second. Thomas had worked hard on the inside throughout the race, virtually the only driver committed to the bottom, after starting twelfth.
Clayton’s win was far from easy. He had lost the right rear shock when he clouted the wall, and that wasn’t all. Initially he joked that he must have been just too dumb to notice, but then he explained, “When I went up on the cushion that time, it fell on the right rear real bad and biked up. I thought I just got in there too hard, but then the tire started hopping getting off the corner. I could tell that something was messed up, I just didn’t know what. Then my brakes went out when I lost a brake pad. Finally under caution I was able to pump my brakes up to get the bucks out of the calipers on the rotor for a little bit of something and I was able to hold on the last two laps, I was nervous.”
With a fifth place finish, Brady Short extended his lead in the KISS standings to 80 points over Kevin Thomas Jr. Robert Ballou, Hunter Schuerenberg and Casey Shuman round out the top five, all within 144 points of Short.
The sixth stop of the 2013 KISS tour will be next Saturday, June 1, at Paragon Speedway. The King of Indiana will be crowned at the series finale, scheduled for July 2 at the Terre Haute Action Track. As a reminder, the KISS races are being covered on MAVTV, on Thursdays at 3:30 and 5:30.
King of Indiana Sprint Series, Round 5
Tri -State Speedway, Haubstadt, IN
May 26, 2013
(29 cars)
Heat 1: 1. Chase Stockon 2x (3), 2. Jon Stanbrough 66 (9), 3. Mitch Wissmiller 1 (1), 4. Kent Schmidt 5k (2), 5. Brady Short 11p (5), 6. Bradley Sterrett 90x (8), 7. Kurt Gross 1x (10), 8. Patrick Budde 90 (4), 9. Alex Pettas 64 (7), 10. Chet Williams 38w (6)
Heat 2: 1. Hunter Schuerenberg 35 (2), 2. Robert Ballou 5 (9), 3. Dakota Jackson 304 (3), 4. Aric Gentry 10 (4), 5. Jordan Kinser 5k (7), 6. Mark Smith M1 (10), 7. Nick Johnson 15j (1), 8. Carson Short 21 (8), 9. Donny Brackett 4b (6), 10. Bub Cummings 71x (5)
Heat 3: 1. Daron Clayton 92 (4), 2. Levi Jones 12 (2), 3. Kyle Cummins 3c (8), 4. Kevin Thomas Jr. 17rw (6), 5. Casey Shuman 21k (9), 6. Seth Parker 38p (9), 7. Chase Briscoe 504b (5), 8. Kevin Chambers 18 (3), 9. Matt Humphrey 79 (1)
B Main: 1. Smith M1 (2), 2. Brackett 4B (11), 3. Parker 38p (3), 4. Sterrett 90x (1), 5. Cummings 71x (14), 6. Gross 1x (4), 7. Chambers 18 (9), 8. C. Short 21 (8), 9. Johnson 15j (5), 10. Pettas 64 (10), 11. Humphrey 79 (12), 12. Budde 90 (7), 13. Williams 38w (13), 14. Briscoe 504b (6)
Feature (30 laps): 1. Daron Clayton 92 (3), 2. Kyle Cummins 3c (9), 3. Kevin Thomas Jr. (12), 4. Levi Jones 12 (4), 5. Brady Short 11p (13), 6. Jon Stanbrough 66 (6), 7. Mark Smith M1 (16), 8. Donny Brackett 4b (17), 9. Bub Cummings 71x (20), 10. Bradley Sterrett 90x (19), 11. Dakota Jackson 304 (8), 12. Aric Gentry 10 (11), 13. Casey Shuman 21k (15), 14. Jordan Kinser 5k (14), 15. Mitch Wissmiller 1 (7) 16. Chase Stockon 2x (5), 17. Kent Schmidt 5k (10), 18. Robert Ballou 5 (2), 19. Hunter Schuerenberg 35 (1), 20. Seth Parker 38p (18)
KISS Point Standings
1. Brady Short 680, 2. Kevin Thomas Jr. 600, 3. Robert Ballou 581, 4. Hunter Schuerenberg 577, 5. Casey Shuman 536, 6. Levi Jones 492, 7. Dave Darland 479, 8. Shane Cottle 427, 9. Jerry Coons Jr. 400, 10. Chris Gurley 351
2013 KISS SCHEDULE
May 3 Bloomington Speedway – Brady Short
May 5 Kokomo Speedway – Robert Ballou
May 10 Gas City I-69 Speedway – Brady Short
May 18 Lawrenceburg Speedway – Rain
May 26 Tri-State Speedway – Daron Clayton
June 1 Paragon Speedway
July 2 Terre Haute Action Track