 
|
|
|
|
|
|
Schuerenberg
Earns Kokomo KISS Victory
|
June 8, 2008 - Hunter
Schuerenberg narrowly held off Robert
Ballou on a late-race restart to add his name
to the list of King of Indiana Sprint Series feature
race winners, scoring a thrilling victory at Kokomo
Speedway on Sunday. As the '08 KISS tour wrapped up its
doubleheader weekend, Schuerenberg hustled from deep in
the field to lead the final ten circuits. Bart Grider
trailed Ballou in third, with Daron Clayton and Cole
Whitt securing top five finishes.
"That was big," Schuerenberg said after
celebrating in victory lane. "A big weight lifted
off my shoulders. Leaving Yeley's and not knowing where
I was going to go, and getting a phone call from Jeff
Walker to come do this, it's just a blessing. Walker's
given me a good car, we're running up front every night
and just having a good time."
Ballou grabbed the lead from pole-sitter Jon Stanbrough
in the second turn of the first lap, and Clayton took
second from the series point leader on the second
circuit. This set the stage for a battle between Ballou
and Clayton that lasted much of the race. On a restart
following a four-car tangle, Ballou slipped over the
cushion in turn two, opening the door for Clayton to
reclaim the point, as Stanbrough challenged for second.
By lap 6, Schuerenberg had raced from 13th to fourth,
using any part of the track that he wanted. Ballou
regained the lead from Clayton on lap 10, but when
Stanbrough got underneath Clayton two laps later,
everything quickly halted with the display of the red
flag. Shain Matthews, who had charged from 19th to
eighth in just those dozen laps, had gotten high coming
off the second turn, caught the outside wall and flipped
spectacularly through turn three. He walked away, but
the car was destroyed.
"I think the key to getting to the front was just
missing the big tall ledge coming of two,"
Schuerenberg said. "It didn't matter if you were
under it or above it, just as long as you straddled it
or got under or above it. If you didn't hit it and upset
the car, then you were okay, you could get a lot better
run down the back straightaway and into three and it
pretty much made your whole lap better."
With a car that was too tight for the track conditions,
Stanbrough began to slip back, Schuerenberg and Grider
passing him just after the green. Frequently,
Schuerenberg was driving Jeff Walker's Jam-It-In Storage
machine over the cushion in turn one and making passes
around the top of the second turn. But on lap 17, he
used the inside of turn four to pass Clayton for second.
After battling Ballou for the next four circuits, he
used a similar inside move in turn four to take the
lead.
Ron Dennis brought out a second red flag when he got
into the first turn wall and rolled over on lap 23.
Schuerenberg opened a dozen car lengths on the restart,
but Ballou began to cut into the lead and when he
challenged with a slide job in turn three, the two came
off turn four side-by-side, just as Kyle Wissmiller
rolled to a stop to bring out another caution with just
two laps remaining.
Ballou went after the lead on the restart, taking a good
look inside on the last lap, but each time Schuerenberg
used his momentum to pull ahead. With just a car length
separating them, Schuerenberg became the second driver
from Sikeston, Missouri, to earn a KISS win in as many
nights. Just outside the top five, Casey Shuman
scrambled to a sixth place finish after starting in the
last slot.
While the fans had been on their feet for the final
circuits, Schuerenberg felt he was in complete control.
"I knew he was there. I had made some previous
adjustments to the car, to free it up to run it on the
top. Right before he slid me, I was actually moving my
shocks back in to tighten the car up because I was
getting free. So that wasn't really unexpected to see
him try to put a slide job on me because I started to
fade before I got to play with the shocks. That caution
at the end came just at the right time, I really needed
that to be able to readjust the car."
"Part of starting up from and running in the lead
is you don't know where the guys behind you are
running," Ballou explained after the race. "We
were definitely faster, but I just screwed up a few too
many times and that cost me."
After winning the night before, Clayton was pleased with
his fourth place run. "This is not one of my best
race tracks and this is definitely a good finish for me
here. The track changes throughout the race and if
you're not searching around, and I've been passed so
many times by not sticking to a line here. So I was
trying to kind of stick with one thing tonight, and it
backfired on me. I wasn't staying on top of the track
changing. We've struggled a lot, and we ran good
tonight. The car's in one piece and I had a good time.
Everybody's happy."
King of Indiana Sprint Series Results, Kokomo
Speedway, Kokomo, IN, June 8, 2008
Heat 1: Robert Ballou 81 (2),
Josh Spencer 66j (1), Jerry Coons Jr. 5 (3), Hunter
Schuerenberg 11 (8), Scotty Weir 10e (4), Sammy Imel 35
(6), Shain Matthews 67 (7), Kevin Thomas Jr. 9k (5),
Kenny Biro 22b (9)
Heat 2: Jon Stanbrough 53 (1), Cole Whitt 29w (9), Bret
Beauchamp 112 (3), Blake Fitzpatrick 10f (7), Coleman
Gulick 14 (2), Kyle Robbins 17r (5), Matt Goodnight 39g
(8), Dakoda Armstrong 7a (6), Anthony Peterman 7p (4)
Heat 3: Dustin Morgan 93 (1), Daron Clayton 10 (5),
Caleb Armstrong 71 (2), Kyle Wissmiller 0 (3), Thomas
Meseraull 10t (6), Casey Shuman 57 (9), Dave Darland 2
(7), Lance Grimes 87 (4), Todd Gnat 51 (8)
Heat 4: Bart Grider 82 (2), A.J. Anderson 34 (4), Ron
Dennis 32 (6), Jeff Bland Jr. 21s (5), Adam Byrkett 78
(7), Chris Windom 17 (3), Kyle Cummins 3c (8), Scott
Hampton 42 (1)
B Main: Weir (1), Meseraull (3), Matthews (9), Shuman
(7), Darland (11), Peterman (18), Hampton (16), Robbins
(6), Cummins (12), Goodnight (10), Gulick (2), Thomas
(13), D. Armstrong (14), Grimes (15), Gnat (19), Byrkett
(4), Imel (5), Windom (8), Biro (17)
A Feature (30 laps): 1. Schuerenberg (13), 2.
Ballou (2), 3. Grider (5), 4. Clayton (3), 5.
Whitt (8), 6. Shuman (20), 7. Stanbrough (1), 8.
Anderson (7), 9. Meseraull (18), 10. Bland (16), 11.
Weir (17), 12. Coons (9), 13. Morgan (4), 14. Beauchamp
(10), 15. Spencer (6), 16. C. Armstrong (11), 17.
Wissmiller (15), 18. Dennis (12), 19. Matthews (19), 20.
Fitzpatrick (14)
KISS Points: 1. Stanbrough 567, 2. Bland Jr. 452, 3.
Schuerenberg 423, 4. Anderson 419, 5. Cummins 417, 6.
Clayton 405, 7. Meseraull 326, 8. Weir 314, 9. Hampton
287, 10. Matthews 273
SCHEDULE. The KISS series will celebrate the first day
of summer with the final event of the season, crowning
the 2008 King Of Indiana on Saturday, June 21 at Paragon
Speedway.
2008 King Of Indiana Sprint Series Schedule
Gas City I-69 Speedway Friday, May 16 Stanbrough
Lawrenceburg Speedway Saturday, May 24 canceled
Bloomington Speedway Friday, May 30 Stanbrough
Tri-State Speedway Saturday, June 7 Clayton
Kokomo Speedway Sunday, June 8 Schuerenberg
Paragon Speedway Saturday, June 21
SPONSORS. Bedford's Indiana Stone Works, Elliottbrand
Web Designs, in Westport, IN, and Kiva Networking in
Bloomington are returning sponsors for the KISS series.
The 2008 KISS Championship Helmet is sponsored by
Simpson Performance Products, Sprint Car & Midget
Magazine and Eagle Graphix.
The King of Indiana Sprint Series is organized and
conducted by the individual Indiana sprint car race
track promoters to provide the best sprint car racing.
More information is available on our website,
www.kissracing.com.
|
|
|
