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Tracks: Shepard continues to dominate Gumout Series at Bloomington

4 June 2000

Posted By Terry Callahan
Motorsports Editor, The Auto Channel

BLOOMINGTON, IN- The World of Outlaws developed the GUMOUT series to give young drivers an opportunity to race in World of Outlaws quality equipment without having to contend with all of the "top guns" for a feature starting berth. A starting spot in the feature event is pretty "doable"; but a feature win still seems to be a struggle. The competition is pretty stiff.

Jeff Shepard is leading the series points; and this evening we found out why. He qualified well, won his heat race, won his dash, and led the feature event flag to flag. You really can't do much more than that. For a while, it looked like Craig Dollansky would give him a race. However, Dollansky soon faded and contested the best duel of the race with cagey Frankie Kerr. Craig lost that battle too and sent Kerr on to take his shot at Shepard. Kerr closed up a little a couple of times; but he really had nothing for Shepard. Dollansky hung on to finish third.

Although Steve wasn't able to run due to the time pressure involved in replacing cars and motors trashed in the New York swing from which they just returned, he was on hand to support his sponsor (Mike Jarvis and Franklin Power Products)and to cheer on his brother Randy, his son Kraig, and his cousin Kelly - all of whom are also sponsored by Franklin Power Products.

Randy won his heat and finished fifth in the feature. Kraig, who is just starting to race full sized sprint cars, looked good in his heat race where he held off Ronald Laney for the opening laps. In spite of his difficulties, he managed to finish fourth and earn a transfer to the feature event. In the feature, Kraig had to start at the back of the pack. He was starting to move up when the GUMOUT SERIES' two spin rule ended his night early.

Since the regular Bloomington Speedway PENNZOIL CUP SPRINT CARS seldom run with a wing, it isn't surprising that they didn't fare as well as they would have liked. The highest finishing regular Bloomington competitor was Kevin Briscoe who leads the PENNZOIL CUP points. He came home 11th; and defending PENNZOIL CUP champion, Derek Scheffel, finished 18th. Scheffel, who crashed his usual winged sprinter a few weeks ago at Eldora, was in the car normally driven by Gary Hayhurst, Jr. They had trouble with the motor in hot laps; and it still wasn't at song in qualifications. This pretty much put Derek behind all night. He looked good in finishing second in the "B" Main; and he drove a good feature race. However, he just had too far to come against some strong competition.

In the most serious incident of the evening, Bob Burkle flipped hard on the front stretch. Fortunately, he was uninjured

The mini sprint feature got off to a rough start when a car go crossed up going into two at the start of their feature event. The pack of snarling winged sprint cars were just too close together to avoid a major shunt. When they got restarted, they put on a good show. Bland was particularly impressive in coming through the pack to finish second.

RESULTS:

World of Outlaws Gumout Series:

40 Lap Feature: Jeff Shepard, Frankie Kerr, Craig Dollansky, Paul McMahan, Randy Kinser, Ronald Laney, Kelly Kinser, Danny Smith, Butch Schroeder, Jason Meyers, Kevin Briscoe, Ricky Logan, Brad Furr, Kevin Huntley, Paul May, Shane Stewart, Brian Carlson, Derek Scheffel, Boston Reid, Curt Trainer, Jared Fox, Chris Gurley, Bob Bennett, Bob Burkle, and Kraig Kinser

Fast Qualifier: Paul McMahan

Manufacturers Heat 1: Shepard, Logan, McMahan, Briscoe

Manufacturers Heat 2: Randy Kinser, Dollansky, Reid, Smith

Manufacturers Heat 3: Laney , Kelly Kinser, Meyers, Kraig Kinser

Manufacturers Heat 4: Kerr, Schroeder, Furr, Curt Trainer

Weld Racing Dash 1: Shepard, McMahan, Laney, Logan, Meyers, Kelly Kinser

Weld Racing Dash 2: Dollansky, Randy Kinser, Kerr, Reid, Schroeder, Furr

Hank's Performance "B" Main: Huntley, Scheffel, Carlson, Gurley, Danny Holtsclaw, Glenn Scott, Shane Stewart, Tyler Waltz, Josh Cunningham.

AMSA 100 MINI SPRINTS:

40 Lap Feature: Tom Busch, Larry Bland, Steve Noel, Ronnie Brettnacher, Patrick Haynes, Mike Neher, Curt Trainer, Mike Gee, Tim Ewers, Steven Batchfield, David Eichenberger, Brandon Watson, Mark Newman, Eric Edwards, Scott Williams, Josh Walker, Kenny Haynes, David Waltman, Boyd Wolff, Josh Slone, David Adkins, Kenny Collins

Heat 1: Waltman, Newman, Neher, Brettnacher, Williams

Heat 2: Patrick Haynes, Busch, Walker, Wolff, Trainer

Heat 3: Noel, Ewers, Edwards, Slone, Eichenberger

"B" Main: Bland, Adkins, Gee, Collins, Batchfield, Kenny Haynes

Text provide by Tim McKinney

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