10/5/02
Terre Haute, IN
USAC Final
38 cars
By: Dan Zimmermann
A beautiful October evening greeted fans and teams in Terre Haute, IN for the final USAC sprint car race of the season. Tracy Hines was carrying a slim lead of 17 points for the points championship into the last race over JJ Yeley. There were several hard chargers also entered wanting to steal some thunder from the points battle. The Terre Haute track crew did a great job in preparing the racing surface and time trials would bring that out along with the favorable weather.
Time Trials: 37 cars actually took TT's. JJ Yeley (7th) had a second ABC 76 car entered but it wasn't necessary to run it as he had a solid run of 19.921 seconds, good for 4th overall. Bud Kaeding (6th) timed in one car before JJ and ripped off a 19.729 lap on his second lap, good enough for a new track record! However the record didn't last very long as the 17th car out was Damion Gardner running the Kunz 67 machine. Damion was out to show the Terre Haute crowd that he would be a force to be reckoned with on his initial trip to the Action Track. He blasted out of the pits to take the green but jumped the cusion pretty hard in turn one and two on his first lap. On his second lap he settled into the grove and stunned the crowd with a 19.578 second lap for another new track record! No one could touch him and he was the fast timer of the evening. Bud Kaeding was second, Boston Reid (20th) also turned a very fast lap of 19.792 for third quick. JJ Yeley timed fourth and fifth quick was Levi Jones (15th) in the Walker 39J. Two drivers that had trouble in TT's were Matt Westfall in the BWB 16 car (apparent fuel trouble) and the other Walker Racing machine of Tony Elliott (apparent ignition trouble). They did time in at the end of the session, Westfall running a 22.563 and Elliott getting his car sorted out with a 20.715. Next up after modified hot laps was the sprint heat races. For someone who is lucky to see one non wing sprint car race a year, it was refreshing to watch the USAC cars running all over the track and passing with 3 wide racing and cars coming from the back to the front. I sure hope they bring these guys to Knoxville sometime.
Heat Races - Top 4 qualify for the A Main.
Heat One: This race set the tone for the evening. On the start, the cars in the front rows were 5 wide going through turn one and two! Levi Jones came from the 7th starting spot and squirted through the gaggle of cars to the lead down the backstretch. On lap three Damion Gardner had moved up to 4th place from his 8th starting spot and started tracking down Dave Darland and Critter Malone who were running second and third. Lap 4 saw this trio going three wide down the backstretch and Gardner passed both Darland and Malone to assume the 2nd position. Jones however was long gone and set a new 8 lap track record in the process shattering the old mark by 4 seconds!
Heat One results (starting spot): 1st. Levi Jones (7), 2. Damion Gardner (8), 3. Dave Darland (4), 4. Critter Malone (6), 5. Jimmy Laser (3), 6. Matthew Neely (2), 7. Aaron Mosely (5), 8. Craig Dori (9), 9. Bryan Ruble (1), 10 Jim Mills (10)
Heat Two: Heat two started with a spin by Danny Williams Jr. inbetween turn 1 and 2 at the start. After the restart Bud Kaeding had moved up from his 8th starting spot to 4th on lap 2 with Shawn Krockenburger in the lead. Three wide racing on lap 4 had Bud Kaeding moving into the 3rd spot and Tracy Hines to 4th as they went around Jared Fox. Jonathan Vennard took the lead passing Krockenburger on lap 4 as well. On lap 6 the action heated up as BK and Hines were battling side by side and catching Vennard and second running Krockenburger in the process. BK took over second place and bumped Vennard on lap 6, eventually taking the lead on lap 7. Vennard fell back to 4th which left Hines and Krockenburger to duke it out for the second spot. BK took the win, Hines bearly beat Krockenburger at the line for 2nd.
Heat Two results: 1. Bud Kaeding (8), 2. Tracy Hines (7), 3. Shawn Krockenburger (2), 4. Jonathan Vennard (6), 5. Jared Fox (4), 6. Danny Williams Jr. (3), 7. Russ Gamester (5), 8. Dave Pepperak (1), 9. Chris Kopczynski (9)
Heat Three: Jon Stanbrough used his outside row one starting spot to shoot out into the lead at the start of heat 3. On lap 2, Derek Davidson had assumed the 4th position from his 7th starting spot and was running well and Jerry Coons Jr. had charged from 6th to 2nd. By lap 3 Davidson was up to 3rd with Boston Reid in tow. Davidson and Reid dueled for third on lap 4 with Boston taking over the 3rd position. Stanbrough and Coons Jr. were running hard on the cusion in first and second and while Reid was catching them slightly, he was not able to track them down at the finish however. Matt Westfall was still suffering from motor problems in his heat.
Heat Three results: 1. Jon Stanbrough (2), 2. Jerry Coons Jr. (6), 3. Boston Reid (8), 4. Derek Davidson (7), 5. Shane Cottle (4), 6. Scott Orr (5), 7. A.J. Fike (1), 8. Wil Newlin (3), 9. Matt Westfall (9)
Heat Four: At the start of the heat race, John Heydenreich in the Staub 44 fell back to 7th from the pole bottling up some of the cars behind him. Brian Hayden and Todd Chandler were running up front at the end of lap 1. On lap 2, Justin Marvel had moved past Chandler and Hayden into the 1st position. Tony Elliott was on the move from his 5th spot and had his car running up into the 3rd position on lap 3 and on lap 4 he passed Hayden for 2nd. In the first three heats the fast timers were able to move into transfer spots, however in the 4th heat Yeley and Jay Drake struggled to try and move into the top 4 as the cars were now starting to run the top of the track primarily and passing was a little more difficult. Elliott was reeling in Marvel through 3 and 4 on the white flag and at the finish line it was Marvel bearly prevailing over Tony in a great heat race finish! Hayden ran well to capture third and Marc Jessup held on to 4th at the end. JJ Yeley and Jay Drake were relegated to the B feature.
Heat four results: 1. Justin Marvel (3), 2. Tony Elliott (5), 3. Brian Hayden (4), 4. Marc Jessup (6), 5. JJ Yeley (8), 6. Jay Drake (7), 7. Todd Chandler (2), 8. Brian Barger (9), 9. John Heydenreich (1)
B Main: With JJ Yeley and Jay Drake not transferring to the A main through their heat race, it was almost a forgone conclusion that these two would run away with the B. That is basically what happenend although there was some good action going on behind them. Jim Mills was unable to start the B main. Jared Fox spun in 3 and 4 on lap 2. Shane Cottle had moved up into 4th on lap 2. Lap 4 saw the biggest melee of the evening as Fox, A.J. Fike, and Craig Dori were involved with Dori going on his head. Fortunately Dori walked to the ambulence and didn't seem to be injured. On the restart Matt Neely moved into 6th and on lap 5, Cottle was gaining ground as he had passed Russ Gamester for 3rd. On lap 7 the action slowed again due to a Kopczynski spin. After the restart, Cottle did challenge Drake for 2nd but could not get by him. Then Scott Orr spun and hit the wall causing another yellow. Orr was knocked out of the race. Quietly Matt Westfall was moving up through the pack. The BWB team had figured out the engine woes and had his car hooked up well on the low side of the track. While most cars were running up top, Westfall had charged from 19th up to 5th by lap 10. Toward the end of the race, Gamester came back on Cottle and took 3rd. At the checkers it was Yeley, Drake, Gamester, Cottle, Westfall, and Neely transferring to the A.
B Main results: 1. JJ Yeley (1), 2. Jay Drake (2), 3. Russ Gamester (4), 4 Shane Cottle (7), 5. Matt Westfall (19), 6. Matthew Neely (11), 7. Bryan Ruble (18), 8. Danny Williams Jr. (9), 9. Aaron Mosely (3), 10. AJ Fike (15), 11. Brian Barger (20), 12. Todd Chandler (12), 13. Jared Fox (6), 14. Jimmy Laser (8), 15. Scott Orr (5), 16. John Heydenreich (16), 17. Chris Kopczynski (18), 18. Wil Newlin (10), 19. Craig Dori (17), 20. Dave Peperak (14), 21. Jim Mills (21)
A Main: Tracy Hines jumped off the pole into the lead at the start of the A feature. On lap 2 Derek Davidson was charging up to 4th place from 7th and pulled a big wheelie off turn 4. JJ Yeley had moved into second and Levi Jones had backslid out of the top 5. On lap 5 Hines was leading Yeley, followed by Boston Reid, Davidson, and Bud Kaeding. On lap 7 Damion Gardner tried to assert himself passing BK for 5th. Jonathan Vennard slowed on the backstretch with front end damage on lap 8 bringing out a yellow flag, unfortunately he was towed in the pits and didn't return. JJ Yeley began his attack for the lead on the restart. On lap 9 he tried a big slider on Hines in 3 and 4 but didn't have enough momentum to pull it off.
Yeley pulled back into the high groove following Hines and made the dive bomb work in 3 and 4 on lap 11. Single file racing on the cusion followed at the half way mark with the cusion only a couple feet from the wall. Matt Westfall had started last in the A but was again patiently running the bottom picking off cars. Gardner was having a little trouble keeping the handle on the 67 car as the track was getting slicker. He had a bobble in 4 on lap 16 and bounced off the wall. As the race wore on, Yeley held his advantage over Hines with Reid and Kaeding in tow. Toward the end of the race, Gardner had another encounter with the guardrail and lost several positions. Westfall continued his stellar charge from last as he was battling with Kaeding for 4th. At the checkereds it was Yeley winning the A with Hines running a few car lengths behind in second. Reid finished third with Kaeding and Westfall rounding out the top 5. Hines won the points championship by 13 over Yeley. I hadn't seen a race at the Action Track before, it was well worth the 6 hour trip from Iowa. My group and I met a lot of nice folks there and it was a great time!
A Main results: 1. JJ Yeley (3), 2. Tracy Hines (1), 3. Boston Reid (4), 4. Bud Kaeding (5), 5. Matt Westfall (22), 6. Derek Davidson (7), 7. Russ Gamester (13), 8. Dave Darland (15), 9. Jerry Coons Jr. (11), 10. Jay Drake (8), 11. Levi Jones (2), 12. Tony Elliott (14), 13. Damion Gardner (6), 14. Jon Stanbrough (21), 15. Critter Malone (9), 16. Shane Cottle (16), 17. Justin Marvel (18), 18. Brian Hayden (17), 19. Marc Jessup (12), 20. Matt Neely (19), 21. Shawn Krockenberger (20), 22. Jonathan Vennard (10)