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GAS CITY, IN-RIS- Night three of the 2007 Indiana
Sprint Week had Daron Clayton driving the Hoffman Racing Dynamics
#69 as a substitute for the regular driver Jerry Coons Jr. who was
in Chicago racing a silver crown car. It was a memorable first start
for Clayton in the Hoffman car as he won leading 28 of the 30 laps.
Clayton and Hoffman crew after victory
After qualifying sixth Clayton
dropped out of his heat race and had to run the B feature where he
started fourth and
The six car inversion put Daron on the pole with Scotty Weir next to
him on the outside of the front row. Darren Hagen, Levi Jones, Shane
Cottle and Jon Stanbrough filled the front three rows. Weir came off
well at the start and took the lead. A. J. Anderson flipped on the
second lap and brought the race to a stop after only one lap. The
running order was Weir, Clayton, Jones and Hagen. The race was
restarted but Cole Whitt flipped on the front straight after only
one lap and Brady Short added to the confusion by running into Dave
Darland and getting the front of his car hooked on the back of
Darland's.
It wasn't like Darland needed more problems at this race. After
winning the night before in Lawrenceburg Dave shocked everyone by
qualifying 39th of 40 participants. He finished third in the Consy
and third again in his heat so at least he avoided the B feature,
but he did start 22nd in the feature. He had a good car in that race
but it was very tough to gain so many positions and he ended up
finishing ninth.
With only two laps down the race was started for a third time and
this time Clayton was able to nip Weir at the line to take the lead
which he never lost, though Weir kept him close for three laps.
And there were others giving chase, most important of which was Jon
Stanbrough. By the tenth lap Stanbrough had become involved with
Shane Cottle in a fight for fourth place. A few laps later
Stanbrough began to slow with a flat left rear tire and officials
prepared to black flag him. Stanbrough beat them to it as he stopped
between the second and third turns and drew the caution. He was
towed to the work area and the tire was replaced and he was able to
rejoin the race on the lead lap with nine laps remaining. Nineteen
cars were ahead of Jon at the restart, though many were lapped and
he managed to salvage a tenth place finish.
The last restart had Levi Jones in second place but with three
lapped cars between him self and leader. Brady Short was one of the
lapped cars who held off Jones the longest and he was not clear to
chase Clayton until only three laps remained. Jones explained after
the race that his right rear tire was loosing pressure and that was
spoiling the handling of his car so he didn't feel he really could
have chased down Clayton anyway.
Darren Hagen had slipped to fifth but passed Shane Cottle and Scotty
Weir to take third. Marion Indiana's Scotty Weir was fourth and
Brady Bacon was fifth. Dave Darland added some to his sprint week
point lead over Stanbrough with a ninth place result.
Tomorrow the fourth round of sprint week will be held at the same
track but Jerry Coons Jr. will be back in the Hoffman #69 car. Daron
Clayton will be there driving the #92 car that has been his regular
ride and is owned by his family run team.
Stanbrough, Josh Ford, Bret Mellenbrendt and Matt Westfall were the
heat race winners. Brady Short won the consy race. Shane Cottle won
the B feature.
A pleasant surprise in the Gas City pits was the appearance of Tracy
Hines. He was moving about on crutches and looked well although he
warned that he looked better than he really was and he had a long
way to go before he would be ready to return to competition.
Tracy Hines in pits
Dave Darland holds 176 points toward
the 2007 ISW title. Levi Jones trails with 169 and Darren Hagen is
third with 163. Jon Stanbrough slipped from second to fourth with
154, only three ahead of Brady Bacon's 151.
Note- Hardly anyone mentioned the fact that they were racing on
'Friday The 13th'.
The fourth round starts tomorrow back at Gas City I-69 Speedway.
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