After years of chasing an elusive series championship and coming up empty-handed, titles are coming a lot easier for Jon Stanbrough these days.
The veteran short track racer captured his second title in less than a month this past weekend at the Action Track. The latest: the coveted USAC sanctioned Indiana Sprint Week crown.
Like the King of Indiana Sprint Series crown he claimed here earlier this month, Stanbrough arrived at the local half-mile clay oval virtually assured of his championship.
Unlike his KISS title, which he sealed with a dominant race win on July 1, he didn’t even have to turn a wheel to win his trophy here Friday. Mother Nature saw to that.
A pair of questionable early cancellation calls due to the threat of rain Thursday at Lawrenceburg and here less than 24 hours later sealed the fate of those with any hopes of catching Stanbrough, who had mounted a substantial point advantage in the first five ISW races.
No one, especially the outclassed competition, can say Stanbrough backed into his championship.
The cancellation may have in fact saved the opposition two more nights of utter frustration trying to reel in the fleeing Stanbrough, who had blasted the competition in his No. 53 Foxco Engineering sprinter in spectacular fashion throughout ISW.
With the call by race organizer Dave Allison to throw in the towel on the scheduled series finale coming early, one by one, fellow drivers and crewmen came to offer Stanbrough and his crew their well-deserved congratulatory handshakes.
Stanbrough acknowledged he wished the event could have ended under different circumstances. After all there were couple more $5,000 paychecks up for grabs.
“I’m really disappointed we didn’t get to race [Thursday and Friday]. Even with just a good showing tonight would have locked things up. Still, I would have liked to race the last two but nobody can control the weather,” Stanbrough said.
While the curtain on the ISW came down on an anticlimactic note, the manner in which Stanbrough claimed his crown was anything but. Three feature wins and a second-place finish in five races revealed how dominant he was in the grueling nine-day series.
He did have his moments. When he flipped his sprinter in a heat race at Gas City, his crew was forced to make hurried repairs in order to get him to the main event.
“I stood up in the seat and saw we had some damage. I said lets give it a try. We went to the tail, came back and transferred to the feature. The car was that good,” Stanbrough said.
His other wins at Haubstadt and Kokomo also presented Stanbrough a measure of satisfaction.
“Both were special,” he said. “Haubstadt was good because I had been so close to winning there but yet so far away at times. Kokomo is my home track so it was nice to beat the big teams.”
Last weekend was not a total washout for Stanbrough. He went to Lincoln Park on Saturday and pocketed $2,500 with his win there, his 15th feature win of the year.
So is Jon Stanbrough the hottest driver in non-wing sprint car racing and that much of a better race driver than he was a year ago? He says not really.
“It might look that way but I wanted to win just as bad last year. My guys want to win as bad as I do,” said the Jamestown driver. “I’m really comfortable in the car. I have a lot of confidence in my car and my crew.
“My team’s attitude keeps me inspired. It is chemistry. It all has to mesh together. Our communication is good. It’s all coming together,” he said.
The ISW title has proven to be a career enhancer to past champions. Stanbrough’s not sure what, if anything, it will do for his future in racing.
“I don’t know if [KISS and ISW championships] will open any doors. I’d like the opportunity to drive some other type of car. I think I can. That’s not saying I want to change or quit what I’m doing,” he added.
Joe Buckles can be reached by mail at the Tribune-Star, P.O. Box 149, Terre Haute, IN, 47808.
Trackside
Joe Buckles: Veteran racer wins title at Action Track
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