Rumble Series of Indoor Racing
‘‘Buckeye Bowl Indoor Midget Nationals’’
Ohio Expo Center Coliseum, Columbus, Ohio
Saturday, Nov. 1, 2008
Stanbrough notches first career midget victory
By RON WARE
Classic Motorsports
COLUMBUS, Ohio –- Jon Stanbrough has spent 20 years carving a reputation as one of the nation’s best non-winged sprint car drivers.
Saturday night, in a race that resembled something out of roller derby, the 41-year-old Hoosier put a few more notches on his belt.
Stanbrough, slamming and banging his way through traffic, outran Geoff Kaiser to capture the Buckeye Bowl Indoor Midget Nationals for his first career victory in a midget, first on anything other than dirt and first indoors –- all in one fell swoop.
The driver known as The Silent Gasser didn’t even try to conceal his glee as he celebrated in victory lane at the 1/10-mile track in the Ohio Expo Center Coliseum.
“This is special,’’ said Stanbrough, who began dabbling in midgets about four years ago. “Being on pavement (actually, concrete) and especially to win for the first time in a midget –- I never figured it would happen here. I’m really excited.”
Stanbrough, who started alongside Kaiser on the front row of the 12-car feature, made it happen with a hard-charging style that included occasional use of his front nerf bar. After running on Kaiser’s tail most of the way, he finally darted by with an inside pass entering turn one on lap 35 after his rival slipped high in the previous turn.
‘’People were banging me, so I had to bang him,’’ Stanbrough said. ‘’Maybe I got him flustered. Once I got past him, I didn’t make a mistake. I was lucky.”
Stanbrough pulled away to win by a half-lap in the 50-lap feature, with Kaiser settling for second, followed by newly crowned USAC Ford Focus champion Kyle Hamilton, 55-year-old Kevin Olson and Team Penske development driver Billy Wease.
Kaiser, the 2008 champion of the HOSS winged sprint car series, said a long green-flag stretch following three early caution periods played into Stanbrough’s strengths.
‘’I figured he was coming,” said Kaiser, 30, who made his indoor debut just last December at Fort Wayne, Ind. ‘’We were good for the short runs, but on the long ones, the car kind of got away from us a little bit.”
Stanbrough got away from everybody in giving Rick Daugherty the early lead in the $7,020 championship point fund that Rumble Series promoter Tony Barhorst created to recognize car owners. The three-city, five-race indoor series continues Dec. 19-20 at the SeaGate Centre in Toledo, Ohio, and wraps up Dec. 26-27 at the Memorial Coliseum Expo Center in Fort Wayne.
Ken Schrader will join the Rumble Series regulars in Toledo, while Tony Stewart has confirmed that he will compete again at Fort Wayne, where he is one of the defending champions. Mel Kenyon, the 75-year-old driver known simply as Mr. Midget, also plans to race at both venues.
Sharing the spotlight with Stanbrough were Billy Murphy, who won the 600cc non-winged modified midget 50-lapper after Erick Rudolph crashed, and sprint car veteran Matt Westfall, who came from the back to win the Slingshot by Tobias feature. Zack Riddle doubled in karts.
