Bloomington Results/Season Finale

[DannyB]

4 time track champ Derek Scheffel won in a close finish over Dickie Gaines. Deke jumped out to a big lead before Dickie caught him. But Scheffel must have woke up and held on to win by a fender. Oops, by a tire length. Kenny Carmichael was 3rd, followed by Kevin Chambers and Kent Christian (from last!).

And that does it for Bloomington and sprint cars this year.

[Elliottbrand Designs]

WOW! That sure was a good one huh? I've attached Tim McKinney's article below!



By Tim McKinney: BLOOMINGTON, IN (September 13, 2003) - Friday night's show was the final race of the season for the sprint cars; and they began their evening by receiving their awards for a long season of the hard won battles over their competitors.

Derek Scheffel of Columbus was crowned sprint car champion for the fourth time in six years. That's a pretty good average in any league. For his efforts the Scheffel Brothers Racing team collected over $3,000 in cash and merchandise thanks to the sponsors and friends of racing who stepped up to the plate to make the tangible benefits of winning this championship a little closer to the prestige that goes with the Bloomington Speedway championship. In addition to two feature wins, Scheffel finished second five times and finished outside of the top ten only twice. As icing on the championship cake, Scheffel became the only four time sprint car champion. What's next for Scheffel? - probably a fifth championship.

For the second season in a row, Justin Marvel finished second in the points to Scheffel. His season got off to a good start. However, as the season wound down, mechanical woes took their toll on the Marvel effort. That they were able to hold on and finish second speaks volumes for their effort. Each week turned into a matter of finding enough usable pieces to put a car on the track for another week. You can bet that Justin's father, Brad, and grandfather, Bill, will be working hard over the winter putting together resources needed to give Scheffel a season-long battle for the championship.

Kenny Carmichael, Bobby Stines, Mike Hunnicutt, Kevin Chambers, Jon Sciscoe, Kent Christian, Jared Fox, and Rick Hayden comprised the balance of the top ten in points.

Jon Sciscoe of Bloomington turned in probably the best rookie season since Derek Scheffel's rookie year. He made the feature five times and finished seventh overall in a very tough points race.

Mike Hunnicutt of Seymour finished fifth in the points to win most improved honors. He missed the feature only four times and turned in some very good performances. While not all of Hunnicutt's improvement showed up in the final results; but his fellow competitors noticed it. The off seaons seemed to work off the rough edges of Hunnicutt's driving style. He has become an accomplished sprint car racer.

Kurt Gross, Kenny Carmichael, Jr., Kevin Briscoe, Tim Creech II, Jimmy Laser, Steve Rone, Tim Spindler, Dick Gaines II, Shawn Krockenburger, Kris Deckard, Mike Slater, Dave Peperak, Jerry Coons, Jr., Kevin Thomas, and Josh Cunningham made up the balance of the top 25 in the sprint car points. You can look for a lot of these guys to move into the top ten next season.

SCHEFFEL SCORES SECOND FEATURE WIN -

Derek Scheffel came to Bloomington Speedway Friday night to collect his prize money and other awards for winning his fourth Bloomington Speedway sprint car championship. However, while he was there, he took the opportunity to chalk up another feature win on the red clay.

Derek qualified sixth quick. That would put him where he wanted to be to start the feature - on the front row. All he had to do was earn a transfer to the feature. He finished third in his heat race to earn the transfer. When the green flag dropped to start the feature, Kenny Carmichael took the lead; but he wasn't to hold it for long. Scheffel passed him to take the lead on the third lap. Derek held the lead; but Dick Gaines II was coming. Gaines caught Derek near the middle of the race. From that point until the checkered flags waved, Scheffel and Gaines race wheel to wheel for the win. Gaines was actually in the lead at the line for a couple of laps; but the lead actually changed hands many times during the final half of the race. In fact, it was so close that Gaines wasn't certain whether he won or came home second. Like the tough competitors that they are, both of them showed up in victory lane. However, the fans were the real winners. They raced hard; and they raced clean. You can't ask for more than that.

Kent Christian turned in a spectacular performance in coming from dead last to finish fifth.

In preliminary action, Kevin Chamber set quick time while Jared Fox, Kurt Gross, and Mitch Cunningham won the heat races. Mike Miller drove the Law Brothers sprinter to victory in the "B" Feature.

RESULTS:

Qualifications: 1. Kevin Chambers, 18, 11.684; 2. Dick Gaines II, 70, 11.921; 3. Josh Cunningham, 31, 11.926; 4. Mike Miller, 77x, 11.966; 5. Kenny Carmichael, 92 12.080; 6. Derek Scheffel, 21s, 12.125; 7. Bill Baker, 99, 12.150; 8. Kris Deckard, 97, 12.173; 9. Kenny Carmichael, Jr., 92c, 12.180; 10. Dusty Wright, 12, 12.227; 11. Bill Boggs, 75, 12.263; 12. Justin Marvel, 81c, 12.269; 13. Travis Gregg, 76, 12.269; 14. Kurt Gross, 48, 12.271; 15. Dave Peperak, 77, 12.281; 16. Jared Fox, 7, 12.310; 17. Terry Eup, 47T, 12.323; 18. Mitch Cunningham, 63, 12.380; 19. Bobby Barger, 55, 12.386; 20. Tim Spindler, 31, 12.395; 21. Mike Hunnicutt, 12H, 12.403; 22. Kent Christian, 1c, 12.542; 23. James Mills, 45, 12.608; 24. Jon Sciscoe, 10, 12.753; 25. J.T. Stapp, 5JT, 12.825; 26. J.L. Brewer, 14, 13.239; 27. Karl Rothemeier, 13K, 13.538; 28. Joe Cansdale, 5c, 14.134

AUTO HEAVEN AUTO PARTS HEAT 1: 1.(1) Jared Fox, 2.(2) Travis Gregg, 3.(3) Dusty Wright, 4.(6) Kevin Chambers, 5.(4) Bill Baker, 6.(8) Kent Christian, 7.(9) J.T. Stapp, 8.(5) Mike Miller, 9.(7) Bobby Barger, 10.(10) Joe Cansdale

PAUL D. BAUGH LAW OFFICE HEAT 2: 1.(2) Kurt Gross, 2.(6) Dick Gaines II, 3.(1) Terry Eup, 4.(3) Bill Boggs, 5.(5) Kenny Carmichael, 6.(7) Tim Spindler, 7.(9) J.L. Brewer, 8.(8) James Mills, 9.(4) Kris Deckard

WALNUT STREET AUTO SALES/CAMPUS RENTAL HEAT 3: 1.(1) Mitch Cunningham, 2.(3) Justin Marvel, 3.(5) Derek Scheffel, 4.(4) Kenny Carmichael, Jr., 5.(7) Mike Hunnicutt, 6.(8) Jon Sciscoe, 7.(9) Karl Rothemeier. 8.(2) Dave Peperak, 9.(6) Josh Cunningham

JB SALVAGE B FEATURE: 1.(2) Mike Milller, 2.(6) Tim Spindler, 3.(1) Josh Cunningham, 4.(7) Kent Christian, 5.(3) Kris Deckard, 6.(5) Bobby Barger, 7.(10) J.T. Stapp, 8.(12) Karl Rothemeier, 9.(11) J.L. Brewer, 10.(8) James Mills 11.(13) Joe Cansdale, 12.(9) Jon Sciscoe

ROOTS RV FEATURE: 1.(1) 21s Derek Scheffel, 2.(5) 70 Dick Gaines II, 3.(2) 92 Kenny Carmichael, 4.(6) 18 Kevin Chambers, 5.(20) 1c Kent Christian, 6.(3) 77x Mike Miller, 7.(9) 92c Kenny Carmichael, Jr., 8.(15) 7 Jared Fox, 9.(10) 12 Dusty Wright, 10.(18) 31 Tim Spindler, 11.(13) 81c Justin Marvel, 12.(7) 99 Bill Baker, 13.(19) 12H Mike Hunnicutt, 14.(12) 76 Travis Gregg, 15.(4) 91 Josh Cunningham, 16.(11) 75 Bill Boggs, 17.(17) 63 Mitch Cunningham, 18.(8) 97 Kris Deckard, 19.(14) 48 Kurt Gross, 20.(16) 47T Terry Eup