Chad Boat Wins Sprint Week Round Three At Kokomo

[RIS-Ed Hollowell]

KOKOMO, IN -RIS- Round three of Indiana Sprint Week was contested at Kokomo Speedway under mostly clear skies and comfortable temperatures. As nice as it was for the sell out crowd, it was even nicer for Chad Boat who won his first sprint week feature and the second USAC National Sprint Car Series race for the 17 year old.

Starting on the outside of the front row which he shared with Brad Sweet, Chad took the lead at the start and was only challenged once. That was by Bryan Clausen who got beside Boat on a lap 20 restart. After a few laps Boat had reestablished his dominance and held a comfortable lead at the end of the 30 lap event.

Behind the leader it was a different story as drivers were taking full advantage of the wide turns at Kokomo. The two top qualifiers, Blake Fitzpatrick and Jerry Coons Jr. started in the third row. Coons fell back after the start but Fitzpatrick made a run for the front. Blake took the John Fitzpatrick/Forsythe Racing Maxim to third by lap 17 and moved into second on a lap 20 restart when he passed Josh Wise for second. Behind Fitzpatrick Bryan Clausen was also making a push forward and it really was a three car race for the lead for a few laps after the caution on lap 20. It had sorted it's self out by lap 24 when Clausen took over second and Brad Sweet was giving Fitzpatrick a fight for third.

Complicating the action at the front of the race was the fact that sometime in the first half of the race Boat had suffered an equipment failure and he had no spring on the left front corner of his car. That is the least important of the four wheels of a sprint car, but still they wouldn't put a spring there if it was unnecessary. Those who knew what was going on were watching closely and asking themselves 'how can he keep running that good with his car like that?' Boat never showed any sign that he was ever bothered in the least. After the race his father, Billy Boat was asked if three springs was going to be the way they would run from now on. He just gave a big grin and said 'maybe'.

In the final laps the driver who had dominated this event and led 29 of 30 laps last year before a lapped car wrecked him, Jon Stanbrough was making a last effort for a good finish. He had been sixth on lap 20, had moved up to fifth on lap 25 and in the final laps had passed Fitzpatrick and Sweet to take third place 'at the line'.

Brad Sweet ended up fourth with Hud Cone and Blake Fitzpatrick in fifth and sixth.

Of the top contenders for Indiana Sprint Weeks 2009 title, Levi Jones finished seventh and Jerry Coons Jr. finished ninth. Dave Darland spun on the 21st lap and finished 15th. Clausen leads with 201 points over Boat with 186 and Levi Jones with 177.

In the preliminaries Blake Fitzpatrick set a new track record with a 12.723 second qualifying lap breaking the old record of 12.818 seconds set by Jerry Coons Jr. Coons had qualified earlier and set a new record of 12.766 seconds. Fitzpatrick passed the whole field in the first heat to win and was joined by Levi Jones, Hud Cone and Brad Sweet as the nights heat winners. Josh Wise won the B main and Kevin Thomas the C.

Damion Gardner had an interesting night as he flipped in qualifying. He was unable to get his car repaired for the start of the C main but got a second chance when Josh Moffatt flipped at the start. The time to clean up after that incident gave him the time he needed to get back out on the track for the restart, where he claimed sixth place. He then had to go through the B main where he got fifth.

The racing was delayed for some time by the biggest incident of the night when Ryan Kaplan and Nic Faas flipped at the start of the third heat. Kaplan got into the fence and landed on top of Josh Spencer and it took some time for the wreckers to get the cars off the fence and apart.

Later on in the fourth heat Shane Hmiel flipped and came down on Michael Spencer. Hmiel was able to make repairs and made the feature, but Spencer, who was the innocent bystander was done for the night.

Bryan Clausen leads Indiana Sprint Week Points with Chad Boat shown in second. The next round will be held on Wednesday, July 15th at Terre Haute Indiana's  Action Track.