By James Essex
Brownstown Speedway hosted its opening points night April 3.
Tyler Neal of Paragon, Jordan Wever of Bloomington, J.T. Huffman of Salem, Dusten Carr of Underwood and Jacob Owens of North Vernon all visited victory lane as feature winners.
For the second straight weekend, Neal would get the feature win in P3 Graphix Indiana Pro Late Models. Neal was followed by Shelby Miles, Steve Peeden, Raymond Humphrey and Colton Sullivan.
Completing the top 10 were Tyler Collins, Brad Barrow, Keegan Cox, Keaton Streeval and Tory Collins. Heat race winners were Miles, Sullivan and Peeden. Justin Bowling won the B-main.
Wever got his first Modified victory for 2021. Brayden Watson, Matt Boknecht, Tim Rivers and the previous week’s winner, Zachary Stalker, completed the top five in the Modified feature.
Rounding out the top 10 were Wes Leigh, Logan Mounce, Brent Lee, Jacoby Hines and Bill Lewis. Watson and Wever were heat race winners.
Huffman in the Pewter Hall Super Stocks would record his first Brownstown win. He took the win ahead of Zach Sasser, Brad Frye, Tim Eddelman and Derek Clegg.
The remainder of the top 10 were Troy Knorr, Tanner Chastain, Greg Amick, Tommy Earl and Dennis Boknecht. Heat race winners for the 22 entries were Sasser, Huffman and Clegg.
Carr picked up where he left off last year in Pure Stocks, getting another victory. Josh Hayes, Tommy Fleenor, Sheldon Oberle and Brent McMillan would follow Carr at the checkers.
The rest of the top 10 were Brent McMillan, Eric Lewis, Conner Mertens, Donnie Wilson and Buddy Stearns. Heat race winners among the 19 entrants were D.J. Dunn, Streeval and Carr.
Owens visited victory lane, winning the Hornet division feature. His victory was ahead of Shannon Walp, Michael Brewer, Shane Wheeler and Zach Johnson.
Shane Reed led the next five finishers over Michael Paxson, Scott Smith, Brandon Crockett and Gabe Caudill. Heat race winners among the 33 entries were Logan Salsman, Owens and Zach Johnson. Curtis Roccia took the B-main.
Tonight, Brownstown will host Fan Appreciation Night with super late models, pro late models, super stocks, pure stocks and crown vics. For information, visit brownstownspeedway.com.
Bacon sizzles in Lawrenceburg opener
Lawrenceburg Speedway is the focal point in which Brady Bacon and Dynamics Inc./Hoffman Auto Racing reached yet another zenith in their successful racing relationship.
On April 3, the team, based in nearby Milford, Ohio, received its rewards for the previous season’s title, which concluded with a win at Lawrenceburg, during a stirring prerace ceremony and saw Rob Hoffman being presented the Richard Hoffman USAC National Sprint Car Entrant Championship trophy, which named in his father’s memory.
Akin to so many prior occasions throughout much of the past decade, when the evening was all said and done, the rewards were aplenty and the gifts, well, they kept on giving.
Exactly six months to the day of Bacon and team reigning victorious at The Burg in their most recent foray to the southeastern Indiana venue, the team reigned victorious for the 28th time together with the series and for the second consecutive time at the ⅜-mile dirt oval.
The third-winningest combination in the history of USAC AMSOIL National Sprint Car racing carried its mojo into its return trip to Lawrenceburg, as the Broken Arrow, Oklahoma, native raced from the sixth starting position to the lead in just six short laps, carrying on to a complete annihilation of the 24-car field by a 2.924-second margin at the end of the 30-lap feature.
It was a seemingly comfortable win for the now 36-time USAC National Sprint Car driver, who surpassed Rich Vogler and Jon Stanbrough for sole possession of 10th alltime. However, Bacon’s comfort cruise was more like a four-lane highway in the thick of rush hour traffic for the majority of the contest.
“You never know,” Bacon remarked, referring to how much of a lead a driver possesses in a sprint car race at any given time.
“Traffic can really slow you down, and I got to where I wasn’t in the right spot on the track and I wasn’t really gaining on the lapped cars, so I assumed they were gaining on me,” he said. “We had a good lead, but you never really know. But we passed two of the best cars out there, and if you can do that, you’re rolling around pretty good.”
Trailing Bacon across the finish line were C.J. Leary, Chris Windom, Justin Grant and Thomas Meseraull.
Tonight, Lawrenceburg will be racing a regular show consisting of sprints, open wheel modifieds, pure stocks and hornets. For information, visit lawrenceburgspeedway.com.
Twin Cities opener tonight
Twin Cities Raceway Park in Vernon will run its season opener tonight with a full card of crate late models, open wheel modifieds, super stocks and hornets.
For the latest info, visit twincitiestrack.com.
USAC in Indiana next weekend
The USAC National Sprint Car Series will return to Indiana with a triple-header of racing action next weekend. On Friday night, the series will visit Bloomington Speedway. Then Saturday, a trip to Tri-State Speedway in Haubstadt will precede for the first time in several years a visit to Paragon Speedway on Sunday night.
For updates, visit usacracing.com.
This week in racing history
On this date 50 years ago in 1971, Brownstown Speedway opened its racing season with Teako Ray taking the late model feature win. Jim Curry was second, followed by Don Hobbs, Fats Coffey and John Sharp.
From 40 years ago in 1981, second-generation racer Pete Willoughby won the season-opening race at Brownstown over Paul Crockett, Ira Bastin, Pat Patrick and Bob Fleetwood. Willoughby was debuting a new Jim Erp and Larry Moore-built late model. Troy Burton won the modified street stock feature over Regis Scaggs, Dave Barnett, Earl Plessinger and Dee Haub.
Also from 1981, Gary Herbert won the season opener at Twin Cities for late models over Vern LeFevers, Danny Eichler, Steve Trabue and Larry Moreland. Willie Sallee took the street stock main event over Bob Poole, Jim Jordan, F.F. Fallis and Randy Spry.
From 10 years ago in 2011, Scott Bloomquist won the Indiana Icebreaker at Brownstown over Don O’Neal, Earl Pearson Jr., Brian Birkhofer and Jimmy Owens. Derek Groomer took the open wheel modified main event over Nick Allen, Ryan Thomas, Clint DeMoss and Matt Boknecht. Jason Hehman was victorious in the super stock feature over David Brewer, Tim Clark, Tim Schumpe and Troy Clark. Aaron Fields won the bomber feature over Josh Turner, Nathan Baker, Ronnie Pardue and Steven Watson.