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Tag: Jon Stanbrough

  • USAC Amsoil Sprint Cars Start Season in High Gear

    The first points race of the USAC Amsoil Sprint Car series is in the books. Tonight was the first race of the season and the first of a 3 night show at Bubba Raceway Park in Ocala Florida. The USAC stars were out in force with names like Bryan Clausson and series champion Levi Jones in the field.

    The qualifying of the 30 car field was smooth and uneventful save for one accident involving Jake Simmons who hit the wall and over turned following his second lap of qualifying. Simmons crawled from the car under his own power and walked away. He was however, unable to make call for his heat race and was done for the evening.

    Fast time went to Bryan Clauson with a lap of 14.409 seconds around the 3/8ths mile track. Clauson broke team mate Levi Jones record set last year with his run.

    The 30 car field ran 4 heat races with the top 4 transferring to the A main and a B main with the top 6 transferring to the A main.

    The heat races were hotly contested races with three and four wide competition through out the pack. Heat race winners included Brady Bacon, Jon Stanbrough, Damien Gardner, and Casey Schuman.

    The B Main was action packed event that was won by Justin Grant with a hard charging Chris Stockon coming home 2nd. The B main would set up an interesting scenario when Chris Windom would spin out of the final transfer spot with just 5 laps to go. Unable to climb any further than 7th, Windom would be forced to take a provisional to get into the A Main and start next to last.

    The A main was a fast paced event that ran with only one caution until lap 25 of the 30 posted laps. The hot dry track had begun to take rubber out of four and passing became difficult. On lap one Silver Crown Champion Levi Jones spun coming out 4 and collected two other cars. All cars were able to continue but it forced a complete restart with the three cars involved going to the back of the field.

    Damien Gardner lead for nearly the whole race only giving up the lead briefly on lap 25 when the caution flew for another series of spins out of turn 4. After 4 attempts the field finally went green and Gardner took the point for the final time. Brady Bacon ended up 3rd but paced Gardner for most of the race fading in the last 3 laps.

    Gardner whose A main victory is his 5th out of 6 attempts in Florida, made the victory seem effortless with the exception of the restart when he briefly lost the lead to Bacon.

    The final finishing order for the opening night of the season was: 1) Damion Gardner 2) Jon Stanbrough 3) Brady Bacon 4) Darren Hagen 5) Bryan Clauson 6) Bud Kaeding 7) Dave Darland 8) Casey Shuman 9) Kevin Thomas 10) Justin Grant 11) Chris Windom 12) Levi Jones 13) Tracey Hines 14) Robert Ballou.

    Silver Crown Champion Levi Jones made a courageous recovery after his 1st lap spin finishing 12th.

    Also on the card tonight was the unvieling of an electric midget built in Columbus Indiana. The car was driven around the track by Casey Shuman. The car which made almost no noise at all, seemed to have enough power to slide it sideways and get it’s front wheel off the ground out of four. The midget is the only car of it’s kind and Shuman seemed pleased with it’s performance. “If they can build a few more of them we can take them out and see how they stand up.” He stated.

    Tomorrow nights action begins at 6 PM EST and can be viewed via live stream pay for view at

  • Cole Whitt Wide Open

    What makes Cole Whitt, driver of the No. 60 for Turn One/Red Bull Racing in the Camping World Truck Series, tick? Whitt explains it simply as running his life on and off the track “wide open.”

    [media-credit id=62 align=”alignright” width=”227″][/media-credit]Whitt’s exposure to his now wide open racing style started at a very young age. And, as with many drivers in the various levels of NASCAR, he credits his family with initiating him in the sport.

    “I’d say who got me hooked is my cousin Brandon,” Whitt said. “He used to race and got me started in go kart racing and then moved up into the stock car world with late models.”

    “I watched him race the trucks a lot while I was just racing go karts,” Whitt continued. “I’d say my cousin Brandon got me my real start, but my dad and my grandpa all raced so, it’s really been in my family.”

    While Whitt’s cousin may have gotten him going in the wide open world of racing, his dad is the one that he credits for his competitiveness in the sport.

    “My dad helped me be competitive,” Whitt acknowledged. “A lot of my good characteristics come from my dad.”

    “He’s a hard worker,” Whitt continued. “He just raised me that way, to be competitive and be at the top.”

    In learning to race wide open, Whitt not only credits his father with being his mentor along the way but also mentions several other racing mentors. Tops among them are Cory Kruseman and Jon Stanbrough, both from the sprint car racing world.

    “There have been a lot of people that have helped me along the way,” Whitt said. “I’d say my dad definitely got me my main start. My cousin helped me out.”

    “But even along the way in sprint car ranks there are people like Cory Kruseman, who helped me find my way to Indiana and got me my start with Skeeter Ellis,” Whitt continued. “As I was racing out there, I became friends with Jon Stanbrough, who is the ‘King of Indiana’, in sprint racing.”

    “I became friends with Jon and we really hit it off,” Whitt continued. “We became good friends and had a lot of good battles throughout our career. Jon helped me out a lot.”

    With his support wide open, when did the light bulb go off for Whitt so that he knew that racing would be his career of choice? The young rookie Truck Series driver has an interesting response.

    “I don’t think the light bulb has gone off yet if racing is it for me,” Whitt said. “Trust me, if I can do it, I want to do it.”

    “The problem is actually being able to do it,” Whitt continued. “It’s hard.”

    “So, I’m not saying necessarily this is it for me,” Whitt said. “But at the same time, this is what I want to do for sure.”

    “As a kid racing go karts and I was doing good, winning races and championships, it was so much fun just enjoying all that with my family,” Whitt continued. “That was the time where I really wanted to race. That’s when it all happened for me.”

    Progressing from his early sprint car racing roots to being wide open in the Truck Series, Whitt has seen his share of ups and downs, especially in this his rookie year. Yet Whitt remains steadfast as well as confident in his abilities.

    “You can never quit,” Whitt said. “If it was easy, everybody would do it.”

    “Racing is a hard sport,” Whitt continued. “There are ups and downs.”

    “Obviously, the days that are great are the days you live for,” Whitt said. “But then the days that are bad, you just want to come back and redeem yourself and be that much better.”

    “You love to hate it,” Whitt continued. “It’s tough but it’s almost like an obsession to me.”

    Throughout his racing obsession, Whitt has had moments to remember, as well as moments that have broken his heart.

    “I’d say probably the pole at Darlington was my best moment,” Whitt said. “Also, running second to Kyle (Busch) at Dover was good.”

    “But another good moment would be Charlotte, when we ran third,” Whitt continued. “It was the last run of the day and we were running eighth to tenth.”

    “We jumped up to the high groove and worked our way up to third at the end,” Whitt said. “I was pretty proud of that moment too.”

    As wide open exciting as his career has been, Whitt also has had his moments of heart break.

    “There’s been a few,” Whitt said. “Missing the show at Daytona was crazy and one of the worst feelings I’ve ever had.”

    “And also another heart break was blowing the motor at Texas running fourth,” Whitt continued. “And we were running fourth at Atlanta and blew a motor.”

    “It seems like we can’t get any luck,” Whitt said. “The days that we run tenth to twelfth all day, nothing can go wrong.”

    “You’re sitting there thinking ‘Why couldn’t the motor blow up on a day like that instead of when we’re running up front?’

    “I guess that’s part of rookie luck and a first season,” Whitt continued. “You’ve got to pay your dues, just hopefully long enough to cash them in.”

    Whitt admitted that he also has some interesting ways to cope with these vagaries of the sport. He not only throws himself into fishing and hunting, but channels all of his energy right back into his racing career.

    “My life is pretty much all racing,” Whitt said. “When I’m at home, I go to the shop every day and work on the truck.”

    “I grew up that way,” Whitt continued. “My dad wanted me to be ‘hands on.’ It makes me appreciate my equipment more and my team appreciates me working with them.”

    What does Whitt want to accomplish for the remainder of this 2011 season? The rookie has only one thing on his mind.

    “Hopefully we can get a win,” Whitt said. “We’ve been chasing that win since the beginning of the year.”

    “I want to be a front-runner,” Whitt continued. “When I walk through the gate, I want people to know that I’m the guy to beat and that I have a fast truck.”

    “More than anything, I want to get a win and win this rookie championship.”

    While Whitt focuses on running wide open for the win and the rookie championship, he also acknowledged the need to think, at least briefly, about his future. And that is unfortunately wide open as well.

    “I don’t know,” Whitt said simply. “It’s going to be a weird and pretty crazy off season.”

    “The rumors started flying this year earlier than they ever have,” Whitt continued. “It’s kind of tough. I really don’t know what’s going to happen.”

    “Hopefully we can finish off the season strong and move on to something different,” Whitt said.  “Racing is all I’ve ever done.”

    “It’s the only way of life that I understand.”