The Hoosier Race Report: The New and Not So New
While A. J. Hopkins has run his share of laps at the Paragon Speedway, winning never gets old as he dominated the 25-lap sprint car feature on a typical Hoosier Friday night. Emerson Axsom, it’s probably safe to say, has not run very many laps on the three eighths mile paperclip oval. However many laps the youngster has run at Paragon or anywhere else, it didn’t matter as he hung on to win a rare regional midget feature over a charging Kyle Cummins. And finally, my youngest grandson became the fourth (or is it fifth) generation of my family to pay a visit to Paragon. As the midget feature ended at midnight, he was just as animated as he was when we arrived.
Give or take one or two, there were 116 race cars in Paragon’s pits. Of note, there were no surprise entries among the 32 sprints in the pits. But there were a few to be noticed in the midst of the gathering of 37 midgets. Hot Rod John Heydenreich was on the premises, as was Russ Gamester and my grandson’s good friend Donnie Gentry.  These three might have as many years of racing than any dozen of their competitors. The KKM team checked in with four drivers, all youngsters (at least from my aging eyes).
For the sprints, it was the usual four heats/top four/one semi-feature/top four format. As for the midgets, it was five heats/top four/two B’s/top two from each, making a 24-car lineup.
Dustin Clark led the first heat on two different occasions, including the last lap. A. J. Hopkins was second and Parker Fredrickson survived a major biking to finish third with Joey Parker taking fourth.
In the second heat, Jake Scott won by a straightaway over Pat Giddens, Travis Thompson and Andrew Prather.
Braydon Cromwell won his first heat within the Hoosier state, the third heat. Trailing were Josh Cunningham, Harley Burns and Brandon Spencer.
Braxton Cummings led a high speed parade in the fourth heat, leading Brandon Morin, Travis Berryhill and Jesse Vermillion to the feature. Matt McDonald flipped in turn three after tangling with Berryhill. He exited the car, less than pleased.
Midget heat race winners were Brenhan Crouch, Kyle Cummins, Tyler Nelson, Hayden Reinbold and Emerson Axsom.
The caution plagued sprint B was won by Blake Vermillion with Colin Parker, Hunter O’Neal and Michael Clark all tagging the feature field.
For the midgets, Chet Gehrke and Billy Lawless marched to the feature as they ran one/two in the first B while Chase McDermond and Alex Watson did the same in the second.
The sprint feature was first so Morin and Cunningham led the way to the green with Giddens and Hopkins in row two. Josh got the jump at first, but a yellow flag negated that effort. The boys tried again and Cunningham vaulted to the lead. This would be short lived as Hopkins dove low in turn one on the second lap and edged ahead on the drag race down the backstretch.
Hopkins was busy building a lead when the race’s second yellow waved on the seventh lap for a spin. On the re-start, he led Cunningham, Giddens, Scott and Cummings. Again, Hopkins’ plan to increase his lead was foiled when Fredrickson flipped at the start/finish line a couple of laps later. The Kokomo resident gingerly made his way to the ambulance for the usual checkup.
Another re-start and this time, Hopkins began to check out. Just before the crossed flags, Cunningham parked in the infield, his race done. Cummings inherited second, but he had his hands full with Scott hounding him with an assortment of slide jobs that didn’t quite get the pass completed.
Once again, Hopkins saw his straightaway lead disappear with a lap 19 yellow flag. There was, however, plenty of drama behind him as Cummings and Scott resumed their duel on the re-start. Coming to the white flag, Scott finally made his pass attempt work. Hopkins, Scott, Cummings, Berryhill (from 12th) and T. Thompson were the top five. Jesse Vermillion came from 16th to finish sixth, winning the Brian Hodde hard charger award. Harley Burns took seventh while Brandon Spencer started 15th and finished eighth. Blake Vermillion motored from the B main to begin the feature 17th and take the checkered while running ninth. Dustin Clark was tenth.
Up next was the 20-lap midget feature. Gamester and Axsom led the horde to the green and it was promptly interrupted by a yellow. On the re-start, Axsom took control and Nelson grabbed second. By lap 15, another yellow bunched the field with Axsom leading Daison Pursley, Kyle Cummins, Tyler Nelson and Kaylee Bryson. This would be a stern test to see what Axsom could do. All he did was keep his lead and win over Cummins, who worked extra hard to get around Pursley. Bryson was fourth and Jayden Reinbold finished fifth.
The second five contained Jonathan Shafer, Aaron Leffel, Chet Gehrke, Donnie Gentry (to my grandson’s delight) and Chris Baue, who started 17th and earned the Joe Spiker hard charger award.
It was midnight and I was not quite out of gas, but the energy level wasn’t too great. The drive home was a typical August trip in Indiana with patchy fog and lots of Hoosier humidity.
The little guy promptly conked out but the little white truck was as dependable as ever. There were no complaints on what was a full night.
Thinking that maybe I should cast my ballot right after Labor Day this year, I’m…
Danny Burton
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The Hoosier Race Report: The Inevitability of Kody Swanson
After watching Kody Swanson run a near flawless 75 laps in the USAC Silver Crown race on Saturday night at the Salem Speedway, my grandson asked me who was the best I’ve seen race at Salem. Talk about a loaded question. Over the years I’ve seen Parnelli, A.J. and Mario race sprint cars at Salem. I’ve seen Darrell Waltrip, Bobby Allison and Iggy Katona (no, really) wrestle those behemoths called stock cars at Salem. I’ve also seen Dave Steele, Bryan Clauson and Ryan Newman race those little bullets they call midgets at Salem. I’ve seen Kody Swanson and Bobby Santos race Silver Crown cars at Salem, most recently a few hours ago. It would appear to me that Mr. Swanson owns, in a sense, the storied .555 mile paved oval. Since the SC cars returned to Salem in 2016, Swanson has yet to lose.
Boys Night Out
This road trip included my grandson and his step-dad, who was duly impressed with the proceedings. We arrived in time for qualifying. The order seemed to be backloaded with the faster cars going out later. Kyle Robbins was the first to post a sub-17 second lap. He was followed by Brian Gerster, Kyle Hamilton, Derek Bischak, Justin Grant, Bobby Santos and, finally, Kody Swanson in setting fast time. Swanson’s time was 16.107 in the Nolen Racing special. Eleven of the 20 cars turned in laps under 17 seconds.
While there were no cars on the track, we visited the display of vintage cars. My grandson was particularly animated and, after looking at a collection of pictures featuring Parnelli Jones, so was I.
The front row of Swanson and Santos might have persuaded the rest of the field of 20 to ponder how much money third place paid. It would have been understandable to think that third place on back was up for grabs.
It might have been a surprise as Santos took the lead at the start, but as it turned out that was delaying the inevitable. Bobby put a few car lengths between himself and Swanson as David Byrne occupied third. But alas, as Byrne slowed on the ninth lap, yellow lights blinked. Santos and Swanson led Grant, Chris Windom and Gerster.
The next green flag segment was all too brief as Windom and Gerster made enough contact to put Windom out of the race. Aaron Pierce replaced Windom in the top five. Racing resumed with Swanson almost on the rear bumper of Santos’ car for the first two laps before the New Englander pulled away slightly.
Lapped traffic greeted the leaders on the 29th lap. Eventually, that would play a role in Swanson’s taking the lead. During this portion of the race, Santos would pull away for a few laps until Swanson would close the gap. Was Kody saving his tires? Biding his time? Or checking text messages? Just call it racing.
With lapped traffic making things problematic for Santos, Swanson chose to pounce, making a tense high side/three wide pass in turn one on the 50th lap. For the next few laps, it was Santos’ turn to pester Swanson. But the California native began to put some distance between himself and Santos. By the 57th lap, that gap was easily six car lengths.
The yellow flag waved on lap 66 when Kyle Hamilton stopped on the frontstretch. Swanson’s lead of a full straightaway was gone. As he drove by Hamilton while under the yellow, Swanson shook his fist at Hamilton. (Not really.) Behind the Dynamic Duo was Pierce, Grant and Bischak.
The green came out on the 70th lap and Swanson steadily put some space between him and Santos. But as he expected to see the white flag, he saw the yellow instead. Joe Ligouri had spun in turn two and made mild contact with the wall. Hello, Green/White/Checkered. Swanson still had work to do.
One last time Barry Smedley waved the green and again Swanson held on to his lead. Not a lot changed behind him as Santos gave his all only to fall short by little more than a second. Pierce was a solid third after starting ninth. Grant, who admittedly says pavement racing is not his biggest strength, came through with an impressive fourth. Bischak started and finished fifth.
Austin Nemire was the KSE Racing Products Hard Charger as he advanced from 15th to sixth. Kyle O’Gara had one of those under the radar runs, moving from 14th to seventh. Kyle Robbins was eighth. Mike Haggenbottom moseyed from 18th to ninth. And Joe Ligouri took tenth despite his late race spin.
My hope is the younger fans at Salem came away with an appreciation of how dominant Kody Swanson has been, not only because of the five straight O’Connor/James Memorial triumphs, but his excellence in the Silver Crown series overall. Add the fact that he’s one of the nicest guys you’ll find in the pits—before he turns into Conan the Barbarian on the track. And he’s still only 32 years old.
The local street stock feature was won by Brandon Deckard, who avoided a lap 22 melee when the top three attempted to enter turn three side by side. The top five were eliminated (first time I’ve ever seen that) leaving Tony Conway in the lead and Deckard second. The young man from Shepherdsville KY took the lead on lap 28 and led the rest of the way.
Side note: I’m so happy that the Hoosier 100 has been resurrected to its rightful place in USAC Silver Crown/Hoosier racing.
Another side note: There are at least two ways one can determine an all-time great. First, one must consider the competition. Who did the champ beat? Second, how many all-time greats accomplished what they did with two different teams?
I rest my case.
Wishing that I had the megabucks needed to field a two car team for the Indianapolis 500 with Kody Swanson and Bobby Santos as my drivers, I’m…
Danny Burton