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| News & Results |
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August 2, 2001
by Chris W. LovettRed carpet rolled out at Belleville: Let the fesivities begin! " ... It's a big party that also has a big race too."
- Two-time Midget Nationals winner Steve Knepper
BELLEVILLE, Kan. (Aug. 1, 2001) - Twenty-year-old Enumclaw, Wash., native and current USAC National Midget Series point leader Kasey Kahne lead the last 18 laps of the nation's richest midget race to further prove himself as the hottest midget driver in the country. In the process the current Indianapolis resident picked up $10,000 and delivered car owner Steve Lewis his second straight Nationals championship. Kahne was also almost able to deliver Belleville their first 40 lap record as the only red flag of the three day event appeared just twelve laps from the end.
Ed Carpenter jumped into the lead at the start from outside the second row but was immediately feeling heat from outside front row starting Dave Darland. 1999 Midget Nationals Champion Darland and driver of the other Lewis' entry never got to pass Carpenter as his Ed Pink Ford powerplant expired thirteen laps in. Third running Kahne immediately started pressuring the leader and made a gutsy pass between Carpenter and the wall exiting turn two on lap 22 to take lead.
The only thing hotter than the Kansas weather and possibly hotter than Kahne was Thursday night preliminary winner Jay Drake. During the pole dash the motor in Keith Kunz's Stealth expired leaving Drake no option but to jump into their second car which was supposed to be piloted by Jerry Coons Jr. As a result the team had to start dead last in the feature line-up.
Drake was up to the challenge as he started working his way through the field at the drop of the green. While Kahne was working on Carpenter at the front of the field the number 67 Kunz car was steadily making progress towards the front. Drake decided to go between fourth place Tracy Hines and the double high guardrail entering turn three on lap 28 in a move that ended up being the only red flag of the weekend.
The only thing that slowed the airborne car down was brief contact with the guardrail and the turn three signal light which shattered into hundreds of tiny pieces as it sailed out into the darkness of the deep end of the Highbanks. The search party that went to look for Drake had their work cut out for them as he had somehow managed to land not only a football field away but upright behind a tree. The disoriented pilot actually got out of the car under his own power and walked from behind the tree before anyone was sure where or how he was.
Once it was confirmed that Drake had survived one of the National's most spectacular incidents all that was left to do was throw the green flag on the final twelve laps. Kahne cruised easily to the $10,000 victory over Carpenter, Hines, Steve Paden, and A.J. Fike.
RANDOM RACE NOTES:
The decision was made at the annual pill draw in town square on Thursday to split the field of entries for the second straight year. The efforts of the Fair and Amusements Committee to involve not just USAC but seven endorsing sanctioning bodies has turned the tide in what was an increasingly lagging car count. Between the years of 1994 and 1998 there were not enough entries to justify running separate preliminary programs.
Sarah McCune made her first appearance at Belleville. After watching Thursday she qualified twentieth before starting on the outside front row of the second heat. McCune put on a great show in what was clearly the best heat race of the weekend. After leading the first lap she won a three abreast battle with J.J. Yeley and Bobby Boone for third place. She went on to finish sixteenth in the preliminary feature and twentieth in the finale after placing third to transfer through the semi.
Thomas Meseraull made his first appearance at the Midget Nationals an impressive one. After clobbering the wall in qualifying the young quarter midget veteran hustled through the semi to an eighth place finish in Thursday's prelim. The kid then capped off the weekend by progressing from fourteenth to ninth in the finale and would have, along with his team, easily won a perseverance award if they presented one.
One thing that was never pointed out during the weekend is just how significant Kahne's domination of the event was. It was announced on Thursday that a new 25 lap record had been set by Drake that evening. The record, however, was USAC's record and still three seconds shy of the mark Jeff Gordon set ten years ago.
It wasn't until Kahne blazed around the speedway in 7:42.55 on Friday that Gordon's mark of 8:00.34 was finally eclipsed. Underscoring the significance of the accomplishment is the fact that not only did he beat the record by a full 17 seconds but that several preliminary night features (the Friday night feature has gone non-stop the last three years in a row), which are always 25 laps, have gone non-stop since Gordon set his mark in 1990. Gordon also accomplished his only Midget Nationals championship in what turned out to be not only his first appearance but his last.
In addition to the 25 lap record that Kahne shattered on Friday new eight and ten lap marks were set on Saturday. A.J. Fike bettered Ricky Shelton's two year old eight lap standard by a second with a 2.22.22 run in the fourth heat. Tracy Hines eclipsed a five year old Kevin Doty ten lap mark by winning the pole dash in 2.59.52.
The track went from a fast, bone dry, run the rail surface on Thursday to a lightning quick tacky one both Friday and Saturday. Since there is no water falling from the Midwest sky in Kansas the track prep crew had their work cut out for them on 100 plus degree days to make it possible for anything but a reminder of the Depression Era Dust Bowl to take place. Their work and plenty of heads up driving greatly contributed to the records that were set.
The pole dash produced the most twists to the plot out of any other event run during the Nationals. Favorites Drake and Yeley both popped their motors in the 10 lap affair that was supposed to just determine the first four rows of the feature. The last minute mechanical failures did a lot more than re-shuffle the first eight starters.
The loss of the motor in Yeley's ride proved to be the end of Andy Bondio's 2000 quest to return to the glory of a National's Championship. Leland McSpadden, who both wrenched the Bondio car and coached Yeley, won the '92 Nationals in that year's version of the unique creation. For Drake losing a motor affected not just him but Jerry Coons Jr. as well. Coons had detonated the motor in the CED entry on Thursday and jumped into the Kunz number 67. There was no argument as Drake replaced Coons having to start scratch in the feature as a penalty.
The Lewis team had a third car set aside for 1997 Nationals Champ Jason Leffler to drive. Had Leffler arrived he would have had to start everything from the back which he did last year on his way to a heat race win before falling out of the feature event with mechanical woes. Between the rained out IRP Silver Bullet race that was re-scheduled for Sunday and his Busch series commitments Leffler was a no-show for the first time since 1994.
RANDOM NOTES II:
Show up on Tuesday night in Belleville before the Nationals and you get treated to the awesome display of speed that is winged Sprintcars on the Highbanks. Granted that you have to skip the midget show at Eagle in order to do it but it isn't until you've seen winged sprintcars on this track that you can truly appreciate what is possible at this place. The NCRA 360's again put in a very efficient appearance that does away with qualifying and was in the books by 9:30. John Blurton dominated the evening with a heat win and victory in the 20 lap feature over Mike Peters and Gary Lee Maier.
Information from a very reliable source has it that there is an effort to get the Non-Wing World Series to make a stop in Belleville. Apparently there is resistance on the part of the regulars of the series to run the High Banks and President Shuman has indicated the car count might be short as a result. Non-wing sprintcars on the Highbanks is something that would justify a special trip in this corner's opinion.
Show up on Wednesday and get to enjoy a fun evening in the park across from the fairgrounds. An autograph party and softball game winds down to Wednesday Thunder on three televisions provided by perennial host Marty Boyer. It's a great way to kick off the Midget Nationals and the crowd grows every year.
Speaking of Boyer a last minute run in with him produced one of the biggest adventures of the week for yours truly. The last minute decision Sunday evening was made on the way to the 4H pavilion for dinner to make a trip up to Thayer County Speedway in Deshler, Neb., to witness Nebraska Sprint Car Association 360 sprints and modifieds.
The racing at the interesting facility itself wasn't the highlight as much as what happened on the way there. Cresting the hill before an intersection we spotted a little yellow car with a Nebraska CHP patrol car parked behind it with flashing lights in full effect. We immediately recognized the car as that of Stan Fox's. The quick decision was made to pull over to see if we could help and, besides, I had to get pictures of this.
It turned out that neither of the officers were race fans and weren't at all impressed by the fact that Fox had driven in the Indy 500. Even his pictures of the terrifying crash that ended his career didn't impress them. While all of this was going on I asked Fox if I could take pictures and he said "@#$%" you!". I, of course, did any way and after a lot of convincing by us they let him off with a "formal memorandum to slow down". Their chief, who was a race fan, scored an autographed copy of Fox hurtling through the air with his legs in plain view a split second after the head-on contact with the wall that caused his head injuries.
I got the "pleasure" of riding along with Fox in this little yellow car (which makes a Yugo look big) back to the race track in Deshler. We received a full police escort back to the speedway. The seat belts in the contraption don't work and keeping up with Fox's sense of humor (who piloted the New Zealand manufactured car from the right-hand side) proved to be a challenge. There was a noise that he kept trying to get me to hear which I of course I didn't hear until after he decided it had stopped. By the way, he had been pulled over for doing 90 in a 45 and the officers that pulled him over were headed the opposite direction.
If you show up the weekend before the Nationals, which is why I was there so early, every other year and you are treated to a vintage midget and sprintcar meet. Getting to see these cars on a track as historic as this is something everyone should experience at least once. Many of the drivers seemed to forget the event was just an exhibition and really gassed it up getting warnings to "cool it" in the process. The next event is slated for the weekend before the Nationals 2002.
Also occurring the Saturday a week before the Nationals was the inaugural induction ceremony for the soon to be constructed Highbanks Hall of Fame and Museum. The classes of 1999 and 2000 were presented in the ceremony held at the high school. Between a raffle and a silent auction $20,000 was raised for the museum which is expected to break ground next spring.
The number of people camped in the park across the street from the fairgrounds grew significantly this year. By Wednesday evening the area around the pool looked like it usually does closer to Friday and there were still more to come. A good time was definitely had by all with the Wisconsin gang again hosting the best party. Making its first appearance was the Belleville "Wall of Shame" which will continue to chronicle what have always been legendary Midget Nationals parties.
A wedding was performed on Friday in front of the grandstands after qualifying. Long time Nationals fan Tim "Tex" Koyan married his fiancée Amanda on the victory podium. Fast qualifier Jerry Coons Jr. and trophy girl Marti were recruited as witnesses to the nuptials.
Even with the severe draught that has hit Kansas the community of Belleville went out of its way to welcome everyone. Everywhere from the power plant which opens its doors wide for impromptu tours and use of the shower to the police which give party goers an amazingly long leash all week long to individual residents throughout town the feeling is that the welcome mat is more like a red carpet.Source: |
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