Published: May 05, 2008 12:06 am            

Dirt-track racing returns to Action Track

Robert Ballou takes checkered in race that goes down to last lap

TERRE HAUTE — A vintage day of dirt-track racing at the Terre Haute Action Track was capped by a fabulous finish Sunday as Robert Ballou held off Jesse Hockett to take the inaugural Clabber Girl Don Smith Classic presented by Indiana State University.

The two weaved in and out of the lead in the turns and went side by side for most of the straightaways in the last five laps, but Ballou stretched his lead to four car lengths with two laps to go on the historic half-mile dirt oval.

Ballou, who came from a 12th-place start, took home $3,000, winning the third straight Midwest Sprint Car Series race card as one-time race promoter Don Smith watched from the infield tower.

Smith, the First Financial Bank officer, put on many racing shows on Sundays in the 1960s and 1970s at the Action Track, which featured only one race all of 2007.

Ballou won the final two races in the fall of 2007, and was thrilled to take the 2008 series opener in front of at least 3,000 fans curious to see the first race under a new promotions team.

Ballou is now 3 for 3 in MSCS races.

“Me and Hockett, we run against each other the last couple years. We’re good buddies. We’ll go back to his house or my house and hang out. We’ll race clean. We’ll bump and bang, but we don’t do anything intentional to take each other out,” Ballou said.

A dejected Hockett could still appreciate the show they two put on for the fans.

“Robert’s a good driver and we ran wheel to wheel there at over 100 miles an hour sideways,” Hockett said. “Anytime you can do that, it’s a good race. It just sucks coming up second. You come here to win and we didn’t win so I guess we didn’t do our job today.”

Ballou was thrilled with the conditions of the track, on which one major crash took out five cars on the 13th lap of the 30-lap feature. Dusty Wright’s car flipped as he tried to gain ground on the high side of turn 3. Four other cars also flipped as a result, but all five drivers escaped unscathed.

Ballou credited the work of the DHK Promotions LLC team of Brian Dorsett, Davey Hamilton, Mike King and recently added Chris Novotney for getting the track back in action.

“This race track’s a lot better since they’ve redone it,” Ballou said. “I’ve got to thank the three guys for getting this thing back together. Getting in the pits is a pain … but it brings back to the sport for the fans. It’s great for them to see what we’re doing on the race car. It’s really good that they’ve done this.”

The lead changed about once a lap after Hockett looked dominant in the race’s early going, leading by as many as 10 car lengths.

But Ballou creeped up from his starting spot of 12th place. Ballou first took the lead on turn 2 of the restart after the crash on the 13th lap.

“I was just kind of cruising there for a little while,” Hockett said. “You know you never know how hard to push it when you’re out there in the lead. You can push it as hard as you want to at this track, but I just didn’t push it as hard as I needed to in those middle stages.”



Feature results

1. Robert Ballou, 2. Jesse Hockett, 3. Brady Short, 4. Damion Gardner, 5. Levi Jones, 6. Mitch Wismiller, 7. Dan Holtsclaw, 8. Bill Rose, 9. Chase Stockon, 10. Neil Shepard, 11. Thomas Messraull, 12. Coleman Gulick, 13. Critter Malone, 14. Jimmy Light, 15. Brent Mellenbrendt, 16. Kevin Thomas, 17. Shane Matthews, 18. Joshua Clemons, 19. Ty Deckard, 20. Ken Biro, 21. Dusty Wright, 22. Daron Clayton, 23. Rick Williams, 24. Dickie Gaines.



Sunday’s qualifying heat races

Heat 1

1. Neil Shepard, 2. Ken Biro, 3. Coleman Gulick, 4. Dusty Wright, 5. Joshua Clemons, 6. Donnie Gentry, 7. Ryan Pace, 8. Matt Goodnight, 9. Chase Stockon, 10. Donnie Brackett

Heat 2

1. Jesse Hackett, 2. Levi Jones, 3. Dan Holtsclaw, 4. Mitch Wissmiller, 5. Shane Matthews, 6. Sam Imel, 7. A.J. Anderson, 8. John Irvin, 9. Eric Krockenberger, 10. John Boyd.

Heat 3

1. Daron Clayton, 2. Bill Rose, 3. Rick Williams, 4. Ty Deckard, 5. Critter Malone, 6. Tim Light, 7. Dickie Gaines, 8. Kyle Cummins, 9. Chris Babcock, 10. Kyle Wissmiller.

Heat 4

1. Brady Short, 2. Damien Gardner, 3. Robert Ballou, 4. Tom Messrault, 5. Brent Mellenbrandt, 6. Anthony Peterman, 7. Shawn Krockenberger, 8. Kevin Thomas, 9. Darin Krockenberger, 10. Chad Boespfling.



“B-Main

1. Chase Stockon, 2. Tim Light, 3. Dickie Gaines, 4. A.J. Anderson, 5. Donnie Gentry, 6. Kyle Cummins, 7. Peterman, 8. Boespling, 9. Matt Goodnight, 10. Sam Imel, 11. Aric Gentry, 12. Thomas, 13. K.Krockenberger, 14. Babcock, 15. E.Krockenberger, 16. R.Krockenberger, 17. Ryan Pace, 18. John Irvin, 19. John Boyd, 20. Donnie Brackett.

        

• Click to discuss this story with other readers on our forums.