From Dick Jordan
The so-called “silly season” of racing has concluded as a wholesale of driver changes dot the landscape in the AMSOIL/USAC Sprint Car National Sprint Car Championship series for “Winter Dirt Games VI” at Bubba Raceway Park in Ocala, Fla. and East Bay Raceway Park in Gibsonton, Fla.
Among the expected entries that can be found in new rides for the series’ opening events in 2014 include 2011 “Indiana Sprint Week” champion Chris Windom of Canton, Ill. who moves to the no. 2 owned by longtime midget campaigner Hans Lein and crewed by Greg Nelson. Windom’s former ride, the Jeff Walker Racing Maxim/Claxton no. 11 sponsored by Jam-It-In Storage and Hoosier Tire, will be wheeled by Hebron, Indiana’s Chris Gurley for the six-race set in Florida.
Last year’s Belleville (Kans.) Nationals preliminary night winner Zach Daum, of Pocahontas, Ill. will look to make his debut in the AMSOIL/USAC Sprint Car National Sprint Car Championship this weekend wheeling the Daum Motorsports no. 5D. 2014 Turkey Night Grand Prix “Rookie of the Race” Isaac Chapple of Willow Branch, Ind. will test his talents in the seat of the Goacher no. 7G.
Three particular drivers are returning to teams that they have recent experience racing for in USAC competition. Kevin Thomas, Jr. of Cullman, Ala. returns to the seat of the Michael Dutcher Motorsports/Bakken Concrete – Griffin’s Propane/Maxim/Fisher no. 17RW. The combination of Thomas and Dutcher won a season-high seven AMSOIL USAC National Sprint Car features in 2013. Hanford, California’s Chad Boespflug, who made three feature starts late last season in the Baldwin Brothers Racing/Fox Paving – Claxton Engines/DRC/Claxton Mopar no. 5, will attack the entire USAC Sprint Car schedule in 2015. Kyle Cummins of Princeton, Ind. will steer the Bates Commodities/Maxim/Advanced Engines no. 21x fielded by Rick Pollock. Cummins’ most recent ride in the Pollock-owned entry netted him Rookie of the Year honors in “Sprint Car Smackdown III” at Kokomo Speedway in August of last season.
Two-time AMSOIL USAC Sprint Car champion Bryan Clauson from Noblesville, Ind. has entered all six events in this year’s “Winter Dirt Games VI” in the Physical Medicine Consultants – Kercher Engines/DRC/Kercher Chevy no. 41 owned by SST Motorsports.
Avon, Indiana’s Jon Stanbrough, whose 35 career AMSOIL USAC National Sprint Car feature wins puts him in a tie with Rich Vogler for ninth place on the series’ all-time wins list, has started his own team and has numbered his car 81, the same number that he ran in his first years of sprint car racing in the late 1980s/early 1990s.
The AMSOIL USAC National Sprint Car season commences with “Winter Dirt Games VI” beginning with three consecutive nights of racing at Bubba Raceway Park in Ocala, Fla. on February 19-20-21 before the series heads to East Bay Raceway Park in Gibsonton, Fla. for events on February 26-27-28.