While the first 150 laps of the Indianapolis 500 may not have caught your attention, other than going green for longer than ever before, those last twenty-five laps should have had you on the edge of your lounge chair! The next to last pass that Ryan Hunter-Reay made on Helio Castronves just before entering turn three nearly made me fall out of my seat as I thought that he would surely crash them both with that daring move. I would have been just as happy about another win by Castroneves, but it was definitely cool to see a driver born and raised in the USA take the thrilling victory.
I must say though that I was more than a little irritated that I had to watch most of the dramatic final laps of racing on a split screen with the other side showing either Helio's girlfriend or Ryan's wife. Maybe I am in the minority on this but I would loved to have slapped the director upside the head and say "knock that off!" This trend seemed to really get started when we had to watch Ashley Judd cheering on Dario Franchitti and, with Judd being a celebrity, I could maybe understand the need to do that a little more. Plus, I am frankly more inclined to want to look at Ashley Judd.......but for crying out loud, do not make it overshadow the race!
I have to think that Kurt Busch earned a few more fans on Sunday as well as he drove a clean and competitive race at Indy finishing in sixth before returning to Charlotte where his night came to a premature ending with motor issues.
Not long after the Indy 500 wrapped up Morgan and I headed over to 34 Raceway where I would partner up with Bill Wright to call the night's action. And with the track's regular announcer Rich Adams attending to his daughter's graduation, Bill W and I had a busy night ahead of us so I left the notebook in the car. Bill's story and results are here and I will add the following few notes:
With so many winged sprint car events on the card for Sunday night we were a little concerned about what the car count might be for the Sprint Invaders at 34. The MOWA Sprints were just down the road in Quincy, the IRA sprint Cars were running in southern Wisconsin, the ASCS Warrior Region was three hours down the road in California, Missouri, the ASCS Midwest Region was at I-80 Speedway in eastern Nebraska and it was a regular Sunday night of racing at Husets Speedway. That is a lot of choice for the winged warriors and we were pleasantly surprised to have thirty cars on hand at 34 Raceway. That count was bolstered by the Buffalo Wild Wings car driven this night by Roger Crockett, Davey Heskin in the Dale Oaks owned #41, two drivers from Oklahoma who were visiting Sprint Invaders point leader Jon Agan for the week, plus first-time appearances for 2014 by Harold Pohren, Andy Krieger, Corey Timmerman, Damian Getchell and Kyle Peterson.
The two Oklahoma teammates, Kris Miller and his girlfriend Jordan Weaver, were impressive on the evening although their feature finishes may not show it. Weaver won her heat race, was running as high as fourth early in the main event and was sitting in seventh for the final restart when her right rear tire went flat. Miller held off persistent challenges from Agan to win the Budweiser King of Beers Shake Up Dash and then finished twelfth in the main event.
Morgan and I had a chance to talk with Roger Crockett just before the driver's meeting and he told us that he is definitely looking for a regular ride here in the Midwest as he has accomplished just about all that he can out in the Pacific Northwest. Obviously the BWW #82 would be a prime seat for him to land in and it would be a good bet that they would be very competitive. Crockett was running third early in the feature when the right front wheel came off the car of Andy Huston. The caution waved and the field was slowing when the second place car of Josh Schneiderman caught the loose wheel with his right rear punting it up in front of Crockett who ran over ot causing his car to rise up and tip over in turn four. It was a very disappointing way to see the night end for a driver that I am now a very big fan of after talking with him personally. If he doesn't stick with the #82, hopefully somebody else will give him an opportunity soon!
Andy Krieger and Corey Timmerman had rough endings to their nights getting upside down hard. Hopefully both will be back with the series soon.
Next up for the Brockway Mechanical and Roofing Sprint Invaders will be a return to the Independence Motor Speedway this Friday night May 30th. Not only do I look forward to another great night of winged sprint car racing, but I also look forward to working with my Positively Racing colleague Ryan Clark. I hope that you might join us!
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