Haubstadt, IN – May 11, 2013 – Kevin Thomas Jr. won the MSCS and USAC co-sanctioned feature Saturday night at Tri-State Speedway. Although Thomas led most of the 30 lap event in the Dutcher/RW/Tri-Star Sprinter he found himself under mounting pressure from Robert Ballou in the Baldwin Brothers Sprint. Both had won their heats!
Ballou took the lead on lap 20 of the feature but lost it back to Thomas on lap 25 as the dual continued. Thomas swept by as Ballou corrected his line in turn four. Thomas then paced the field the last 6 laps to earn his very first Hoosier Tire Midwest Sprint Car Series feature victory. His hot streak in Amsoil United States Auto Club competition now includes a third national win in a row.
After an open throttle, on track celebration, Thomas responded to questions in victory lane. “What a great feeling it is to win 3 races in a row! Robert and I had a great race. I was lucky in qualifying so I got to start on the pole. After struggling in local shows the last few races it is great to come back here and get a win.”
Robert Ballou took his turn at the microphone. “I felt we had the race car to beat when we unloaded tonight. I just made a mistake out there.” The drive he characterized as a “letdown” was actually a very strong, competitive second place run which kept him well ahead of most of the trouble.
USAC points leader Chase Stockon made a couple of tough late race passes to move up from fifth to third. Brady Short also moved up to finish fourth. Dave Darland settled for fifth. Levi Jones was next with fast qualifier Wes McIntyre, Landon Simon, Hunter Schuerenberg, and Brady Bacon rounding out the top ten.
Landon Simon was the Keizer Aluminum Wheels Hard Charger of the Race in advancing 11 spots in the feature. Chase Briscoe was also on the move improving 10 places after using an MSCS provisional opportunity.
Casey Schuman was 11th on the field which earned him the Wilwood Tuff Brakes Award for the event.
The feature was interrupted numerous times with spinning cars or contact between cars. Fans saw the yellow flag waved seven times.
The first caution was the longest as the track crew was compelled to renew efforts to separate the cars of Tracy Hines and Shane Cottle.
The two cars had hooked together and proved to be almost inseparable.
The only driver to flip his car was C.J. Leary. Leary’s crash on the front stretch brought out a red flag. At that point race officials elected to have an open red. Crews were allowed to come onto the track to refuel and attend to the cars.
Seth Parker won the Semi Feature. Dakota Jackson and Daron Clayton took the other two heat races. The field included 34 entries!
The next MSCS race is set for Lincoln Park Speedway at Putnamville, IN, on Saturday night May 25th. The MSCS drivers will then return to Tri-State Speedway the next night for an encounter with the King of Indiana Sprint Series drivers. It will be a great Memorial Day Weekend with 2 nights of great racing!
IN THE MODIFIEDS
Zach Fair was victorious in the UMP Open Wheel Modified division.
The Petersburg, IN, driver led throughout the 25 lap event to record his first win at the track this season. The battle behind him for second grew and grew until it was a four or five car contest. Trent Young finished ahead of Josh Harris to earn the runner-up spot.
Tyler Nicely and Dave Beck completed the top five. NASCAR’s Ken Schrader finished sixth in the event and Brian Shaw was seventh.
Shaw had battled his way up to second before encountering problems with the high line he was using to generate momentum.
Young, Fair, and Stephen Schnapf won the three heats. Shawn Cates took the B Main.
The modifieds will be on the card again for the upcoming Memorial Weekend Classic.
SUMMARY
“Spring Showdown”
Tri-State Speedway
Haubstadt, IN
May 11, 2013
USAC and MSCS Sprint Cars:
(34 Entries)
Top Qualifier – 83 Wes McIntyre, 13.182 seconds
First Heat – 3 Dakota Jackson, 3c Kyle Cummins, 69 Brady Bacon, 3H Danny Holtsclaw, 4 Tracy Hines, 38p Seth Parker, 83 Wes McIntyre, 5B Chase Briscoe, 3x Jake Simmons
Second Heat – 17rw Kevin Thomas Jr., 71p Dave Darland, 41 Landon Simon, 12 Levi Jones, 2e Shane Cottle, 23c Tyler Courtney, 1x Kurt Gross, 30 C.J. Leary, 38w Chet Williams
Third Heat – 92 Daron Clayton, 20 Bryan Clauson, 04 Josh Burton, 21k Casey Shuman, 35 Chris Babcock, 90 Patrick Budde, 35 Hunter Schuerenberg, 21x Justin Grant
Fourth Heat – 5 Robert Ballou, 32 Chase Stockon, 55 Nick Drake, 11p Brady Short, 56 Jon Stanbrough, 90 Bradley Sterrett, 9p Parker Price-Miller, 18 Kevin Chambers
Semi Feature – Parker, Leary, McIntyre, Schuerenberg, Stanbrough, Hines, Grant, Cottle, Sterrett, Courtney, Briscoe, Price-Miller, Babcock, Gross, Chambers, Budde, Williams, Simmons
Feature (30 Laps) – 1) Thomas Jr., 2) Ballou, 3) Stockon, 4) Short, 5) Darland, 6) Jones, 7) McIntyre, 8) Simon, 9) Schuerenberg, 10) Bacon, 11) Shuman, 12) Cummins, 13) Hines, 14) Drake, 15) Briscoe, 16) Holtsclaw, 17) Cottle, 18) Jackson, 19) Burton, 20) Clayton, 21) Parker, 22) Leary, 23) Courtney, 24) Clauson, 25) Stanbrough,
UMP DIRT CAR Open Wheel Modifieds:
First Heat – 10y Trent Young
Second Heat – 95 Zach Fair
Third Heat – 85 Stephen Schnapf
B Main – 14 Shawn Cates
Feature (25 Laps) – 1) 95 Fair, 2)10y Young, 3) 37 Josh Harris, 4) 5 Tyler Nicely, 5) 71 Dave Beck, 6) 9 Kenny Schrader, 7) 1 Brian Shaw, 8) 0j Bryce Jewell, 9) 66 Michael Fox, 10) 18 Brandon McDowell , 11) 85 Schnapf, 12) 57 Matt Hines 13) 14 Willie Madison, 14) 03 Zach Dennis, 15) 14c Shawn Cates, 16) 7 Mark Lamont, 17) 84 Stan Beadles, 18)4 Chad Boone