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Indiana Sprint Week Provides “Instant Classic” At Kokomo

Kokomo, IN: In one for the ages, Hoosier hero Dave Darland scored an improbable victory in the Indiana Sprint Week event at Kokomo Speedway Sunday night; a race named in honor of his father Bob. The outcome, however, was in doubt until the final few inches!

The recently re-configured banked dirt oval allowed for three-wide racing all night, and the stars of USAC’s sprint division took full advantage of that fact. It would be hard to imagine more drama in any murder mystery or soap opera.

As lap one of the 30 lap feature neared completion, the Number 9 Mopar car of Brad Sweet executed a series of barrel rolls coming out of turn four. Sweet walked to the ambulance with some assistance.

After the complete restart, former Indiana Speed Weeks champ Jon Stanbrough jumped out front and a yellow was waved at the end of lap one for the 5k of Henry Clarke stopped in turn one. Darland, who started 7th had blasted his way to 2nd.

Stanbrough was on a mission as he was lapping cars early on and Robert Ballou took over 2nd on lap seven. Stanbrough was running a perfect race as the 17B of Brett Burdette spun in turn one. The running order was Stanbrough, Ballou, Darland, Cole Whitt, Tracy Hines and Levi Jones.

For a time it looked as though Ballou might have something for Stanbrough but a right rear wheel packed with mud slowed his furious charge.

As the white flag was displayed, Burdette spun in turn one and Chad Boesphlug made contact and hit the turn two wall. Stanbrough, holding a comfortable lead, was bearing down on this and could not avoid clipping Burdette which resulted in Stanbrough turning over and bringing out the red flag. After 29 perfect laps, Jon Stanbrough found himself on the hook done for the night.

Reverting back one lap created a two lap race to the checkers with a limping Ballou, trying to hang on with a still mud-packed right rear wheel, back in front, trailed by Darland, Cole Whitt, Tracy Hines and Darren Hagen.

Ballou and Darland raced side by side with Darland on the low side and Ballou high. As the white came out again, it remained the same with the capacity crowd on their feet. Coming out of four Darland gained the slight advantage and Robert “The Madman” Ballou, still “running high not afraid to die”, hit the wall at the exit of the final turn and began a series of vicious flips, stopping in a smoking heap just short of the finish line. As Darland took the checkers, Levi Jones collided with disabled Ballou car, and tumbled down the front straight. Thankfully, all drivers emerged unhurt.

When the smoke cleared, the crowd let out a collective “sigh”, and welcomed Dave Darland to Kokomo’s Victory Lane. This one will be hard to forget

55 cars were in the pits tonight as Cory Kruseman and Chad Boat won the qualifying races

Four very fast and close heats were won by Dustin Morgan, Cole Whitt, Shane Cottle and Scotty Weir.

Tracy Hines won the 12 lap semi.

Darland became the 4th winner in four nights of USAC Indiana Sprint Week racing.

USAC NATIONAL SPRINT CAR SERIES RACE RESULTS: July 13, 2008 – Kokomo, Indiana – Kokomo Speedway – 21st Chevy Powers “Indiana Sprint Week” Presented by Fatheadz – “Bob Darland Classic”

QUALIFICATIONS: 1. Brad Sweet, 9, Kahne-12.932; 2. Damion Gardner, 71, Leffler-13.052; 3. Tracy Hines, 21, Stewart-13.073; 4. Jon Stanbrough, 53, Fox-13.098; 5. Jerry Coons Jr., 69, Dynamics-13.109; 6. Jeff Bland Jr., 21s, Bland-13.129; 7. Dave Darland, 2B, 2B Racing-13.146; 8. Robert Ballou, 81, MPHG-13.172;9. Hunter Scheurenberg, 11, Walker/Guiducci-13.179; 10. Cole Whitt, 67k, Kunz-13.326; 11. Neil Shepherd, 4N, Shepherd-13.336; 12. Jesse Hockett, 75, VKCC-13.339; 13. Brady Bacon, 99, Kahne-13.400; 14. Ryan Pace, 44, Pace-13.406; 15. Bryan Clauson, 2, Jones-13.440; 16. Levi Jones, 20, Stewart-13.453; 17. Daron Clayton, 10, R & B-13.483; 18. Brett Burdette, 17B, Burdette-13.486; 19. Thomas Meseraull, 10T, R & B-13.489; 20. Ron Dennis, 32, Dennis-13.531; 21. Dustin Morgan, 93, M & M-13.549; 22. Kyle Wissmiller, 0, Price-13.567; 23. Darren Hagen, 67, Kunz-13.591; 24. Dickie Gaines, 11p, Porttoff-13.594; 25. Blake Fitzpatrick, 10F, Fitzpatrick-13.594; 26. Chad Boespflug, 98, Gatten-13.659; 27. Shane Cottle, 4, Contos-13.698; 28. Scotty Weir, 10E, Edison-13.711; 29. Chris Windom, 1H, Triple Crown-13.746; 30. Bret Mellenberndt, 97, Mellenberndt-13.750; 31. Casey Shuman, 57x, Hazen-13.752; 32. A.J. Anderson, 5, Baldwin-13.793; 33. Austin Mero, 71k, Kruseman-13.803; 34. Chad Boat, 30, Boat-13.816; 35. Cole Carter, 7, Carter-13.819; 36. Zach Martini, 6, Rose-13.832; 37. Josh Spencer, 66, Batcheldor-13.899; 38. Kyle Cummins, 1C, Cummins-13.915; 39. Kyle Robbins, 17R, Robbins-13.922; 40. Ted Hines, 12, Hines-13.959; 41. Cory Kruseman, 21k, Kruseman-13.979; 42. Sammy Imel, 35, Imel-14.000; 43. Kent Christian, 1X, Christian-14.022; 44. Gary Rooke, 42A, Concept Motorsports-14.110; 45. Henry Clarke, 5k, Kruseman-14.122; 46. Kevin Studley, 57, Studley-14.136; 47. Anthony Peterman, 7p, Peterman-14.210; 48. John Memmer, 4m, Memmer-14.260; 49. Craig Dori, 38, Shoestring-14.340; 40. Rex Norris III, 63, Norris-14.352; 51. Chris Urish, 77u, Urish-14.368; 52. Brent Beauchamp, 112, B & B-14.372; 53. Kevin Thomas Jr., 9k, Thomas-14.380; 54. Casey Riggs, 37, Riggs-14.465; 55. Matt Goodnight, 39, Goodnight-14.561.

QUALIFYING RACE #1: (8 laps) 1. Kruseman, 2. Clarke, 3. Mero, 4. Robbins, 5. Christian, 6. Peterman, 7. Thomas, 8. Goodnight, 9. Spencer, 10. Urish, 11. Dori, 12. Carter. NT

QUALIFYING RACE #2: (8 laps) 1. Boat, 2. Imel, 3. Ted Hines, 4. Martini, 5. Memmer, 6. Norris, 7. Studley, 8. Rooke, 9. Beauchamp, 10. Cummins, 11. Riggs. NT

FIRST HEAT: (10 laps) 1. Morgan, 2. Windom, 3. Scheurenberg, 4. Sweet, 5. Bacon, 6. Clayton, 7. Coons,8. Fitzpatrick, 9. Kruseman, 10. Mero. 2:20.74

SECOND HEAT: (10 laps) 1. Whitt, 2. Boespflug, 3. Gardner, 4. Burdette, 5. Robbins, 6. Mellenberndt, 7. Bland, 8. Pace, 9. Wissmiller, 10. Clarke. NT

THIRD HEAT: (10 laps) 1. Cottle, 2. Darland, 3. Shuman, 4. Meseraull, 5. Tracy Hines, 6. Hagen, 7. Boat, 8. Clauson, 9. Ted Hines, 10. Shepherd. NT

FOURTH HEAT: (10 laps) 1. Weir, 2. Jones, 3. Gaines, 4. Stanbrough, 5. Hockett, 6. Ballou, 7. Anderson, 8. Dennis, 9. Imel, 10. Martini. 2:20.17

SEMI: (12 laps) 1. Tracy Hines, 2. Clauson, 3. Coons, 4. Bland, 5. Hagen, 6. Ballou, 7. Bacon, 8. Hockett, 9. Clayton, 10. Boat, 11. Pace, 12. Mellenberndt, 13. Anderson, 14. Dennis, 15. Kruseman, 16. Imel, 17. Robbins, 18. Clarke, 19. Martini, 20. Shepherd, 21. Wissmiller, 22. Ted Hines, 23. Mero. NT

FEATURE: (30 laps) 1. Dave Darland, 2. Cole Whitt, 3. Tracy Hines, 4. Levi Jones, 5. Darren Hagen, 6. Jerry Coons Jr., 7. Brady Bacon, 8. Bryan Clauson, 9. Damion Gardner, 10. Dustin Morgan, 11. Scotty Weir, 12. Jeff Bland Jr., 13. Robert Ballou, 14. Jon Stanbrough, 15. Brett Burdette, 16. Chad Boespflug, 17. Shane Cottle, 18. Chris Windom, 19. Casey Shuman, 20. Dickie Gaines, 21. Thomas Meseraull, 22. Ryan Pace, 23. Henry Clarke, 24. Hunter Scheurenberg, 25. Brad Sweet. NT

**Riggs flipped during the second qualifying race. Sweet flipped on lap 1 of the feature. Stanbrough and Boespflug flipped on lap 30 of the feature. Ballou & Jones flipped on lap 30 of the feature.

FEATURE LAP LEADERS: Laps 1-28 Stanbrough, Laps 29-30 Darland.

NEW NATIONAL SPRINT CAR STANDINGS: 1-Jones-761; 2-Whitt-724; 3-Coons-718; 4-Tracy Hines-686; 5-Bacon-655; 6-Hagen-650; 7-Darland-645; 8-Cottle-621; 9-Gardner-575; 10-Sweet-552.

NEW CHEVY POWERS “INDIANA SPRINT WEEK” STANDINGS: 1-Darland-232; 2-Jones-206; 3-Whitt-201; 4-Cottle-200; 5-Hagen-197.

NEXT NATIONAL SPRINT CAR RACE: – July 17 – Boswell, IN – Kamp Motor Speedway – 21st Chevy Powers “Indiana Sprint Week” Presented by Fatheadz

Dick Jordon/USAC contributed to this report.

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