Last weekend for the first time in 29 years, sprint cars were added to the Dirt Track World Championship weekend. With the event moving to Lawrenceburg Speedway this season, in the heart of sprint car country, the DTWC crew added the sprints with a pretty healthy purse.
After a terrible week of rain, almost 7 inches in a few days around the Lawrenceburg area, the event was moved to a Saturday and Sunday show, both starting around noon.
20 traditional sprints were pit side for the big event. With all the rain ending Friday night, the Lawrenceburg track crew worked their butts off to event get a racing surface for Saturday. The major problem was, all the moisture was scraped off the track. it was super hard and dry slick for the Saturday show. Brady Short set quick time with a 16.661.
3 heats were ran on Saturday. With a straight-up start, the event promoter did that for all the classes, the heats were just bottom feeding, huggy pole, parades. Short, Jeff Bland Jr, and Nic Faas won the heats, all from front row starting spots. Don't get me wrong, there really wasn't anything the track crew could do to get the show in. They had to scrape all the mud off to event get to a surface, then time was an issue to make it race-able. I give them credit. I would go out on a limb and say if it wasn't Lawrenceburg and their track crew, all most any other track in the US would of called the race off for the entire weekend. The track crew can't help the format. Tho I will say, on Saturday, no matter if it was the quickest of slowest guy on the front row, if he ran a straight line, he would of won the heat.
On Sunday Dave Rudisell and crew did an excellent job of putting moisture back into the track. So good of a job, the shows start time was pushed back almost 2 hours because the track was way too wet to race on. After all the B Mains for the lates and mods, plus the 100 lap late model A Main, it was time for the $5000 to win 25 lap sprint car A Main.
Brady Short and Ty Deckard paced the field to the green flag. Short had the preferred line on the bottom and shot to the lead. With not much to grab in the middle, tho there was a little, and a very narrow cushion right against the wall, the bottom was the favored line. Except, for Robert Ballou. Ballou was cowboy up and was running within an inch or 2 of the wall. With Short on the bottom and Ballou on the fence, the battle was on. Brady had the shorter distance to run but, Ballou momentum off the banks would put them about even at times at the stripe. Lap 7, Deckard spins, just as Ballou was about to take the lead. Short gets a good restart as Ballou winds it up again on the top side. A few others try to follow Ballou's line, well not quit right up against the fence like Robert but, closer than they were before the yellow. It takes Robert a few laps to get the rhythm a rolling again to pull even with Short. Once he gets a rolling tho, watch out. Lap 11, Ballou flys off turn 4 and takes the lead. With all the other cars back on the bottom, Ballou was old style Pancho Carter driving on the fence. Running merely centimeters off the big white wall, Ballou was smooth but living or dying on the high side. Lap 13, Terry Babb spins. Ballou gets a good enough run off 1 on the restart to stay in the lead. Lap 16, Josh Moffatt, Ethan Barrow, and Decekard crash in turn 2. This draws a red flag for clean up. It was funny watching Short and Bland talk to their crew by the fence and decide if they had what it took to cowboy up on the cushion like Ballou. Green, Ballou goes high, Short low, Bland trys the high side as well. Ballou gets a great run and stays out front. Short is smooth on the bottom and is about dead even with Ballou at the line. Bland drops back to the low side and follows as John Memmer fights him for position. The last 9 laps was amazing. Short and Ballou was just inches apart each lap at the line. Driving two of the most different lines as you could but, both would be about even at the line. Ballou had just a little advantage off the turns with the momentum off the banks. With the white flag in the air, both was driving as fast as they could but as smooth as they could too. Ballou has the advantage off 2, into 3, Short gains, into 4 Short looks to have the lead, off 4, Ballou mats the go peddle and beats Short to the line as they cross the line side by side with Ballou about 4 feet ahead. Memmer, up from 10th, Faas, and Bland round out the top 5. For a day time race, on a very tricky track, it was an excellent race. Robert Ballou gained some respect on this day. He went all out and just one little bobble could of ended his day, season, or career they was he was riding the cushion. Bouncing off the wall aka Jack Hewitt style at times, Ballou deserved the win. Not that I don't like Brady Short or anything like that but, Ballou drove to win, the rest just followed huggy pole on the bottom, that was the difference in the winner and loser on this day.

Lincoln Park Speedway in Putnamville Indiana added a sprint car show this Saturday the 24th...The Rumble Series hit Ft Wayne Indiana this winter on December 26th and 27th. If you plan to race in the rumble event, new rules have been posted, so you better check them out. For those who haven't ran the indoor deal, check the rules now, they seem to event the playing field a little more now.

Plan to make my first ever trip to Putnamville Saturday, say hey if you want.

Thanks
Duane