Racing was fast and competitive on Saturday at Ben Hur Speedway during the 35th Annual Indiana Dirt State Championships.
The work never stops on the carts before and after racing at Ben Hur Speedway.
A trio of carts come around a corner at Ben Hur Speedway on Saturday.
Labor Day weekend is known to be a pretty big weekend for auto racing. The U.S. Nationals for the NHRA Drag Racing series come to Lucas Oil Raceway in Brownsburg and NASCAR’s Southern 500 at Darlington Raceway returned to its traditional Labor Day weekend date in 2015. While most of the national attention may be placed on those events, there was another major racing event that took place over the Labor Day weekend.
Ben Hur Speedway hosted the 35th Annual Indiana State Dirt Championships on Saturday. A total of 12 classes of go-karts took to the dirt for a chance to win one of the most historic karting events in Indiana. It was a cloudy afternoon, but no rain dampened the event. It was perfect weather for fans to come out and watch the action.
Practice and qualifying began early in the afternoon before the heat races were run to determine the lineups for the feature races. The time differences in qualifying were slim, with most of the fields being separated by only a few tenths of a second. This meant that the heat races and feature races were likely to see close, side by side racing.
With times being so close in qualifying, this set up for some entertaining feature races with everything a fan could want in a short track Saturday night showdown.
The first feature race of the night saw the Clone Super Heavy class take to the track. Justin Messick started on pole by virtue of winning his heat race and began to pull away not long after the green flag. There was an intense battle for 2nd through 5th place that ended up with Ryan Goon spinning in turn 3 to bring out a yellow flag. This bunched the field up for a shootout between the first two cars of Messick and Stephen Gregory. Gregory gave everything he could to catch the leader, but in the end he was no match for Messick who went on to win his class by about a second and a half.
Next up was the Rookie class with two karts entered. It was set up to be an all-out duel between Ryker Miller and Kaleb McClaskey. However, problems with McClaskey’s kart allowed for an easy win for Miller, who took the checkered flag by almost 3/4ths of a lap.
Ten karts then lined up for the 34 and Over class feature race. After winning his heat, Buddy Wilson started on pole, but would have Juan Grino and Rob Bowers breathing down his neck. Wilson and Grino swapped the lead a few times, but continued to be more or less evenly matched throughout the 15 lap feature. Grino passed Wilson first on lap 5, but Wilson passed Grino back a few laps later on lap 9. As the white flag flew, Grino had to attack each turn. Wilson defended as best he could, but it was Juan Grino who got by Wilson to take the victory in class.
“My son, Alex, did a great job setting my car up,” said Grino after the race. “Once I got in the kart, it was easy to drive, it was like driving a Cadillac. When it’s right, it’s right.”
Third place finisher in the 34 and Over class, Rob Bowers, took some time to get into another kart for the 206 Heavy Class feature race immediately following the previous race. Bowers started on pole after winning his heat race but was quickly passed by Noah Caouette. Caouette had to fight hard to defend his position against Bowers. On lap 2, Bowers managed to pass Caouette, but then had to hold off another challenger in KC Price who took it three-wide for the lead on lap 3. One lap later, Caouette would have a spin in turn 4 setting up for a restart. Price and Bowers then fought it out to the bitter end. Price would try to bump Bowers coming to the line, but he just couldn’t move Bowers out of the way. Rob Bowers went on to take his first victory of the night.
Bowers would go on to win the very next race in the Clone Medium class, adding another championship to his belt that night.
“The kart handled really well tonight, it was real fast and I had a lot of fun,” said Bowers after the race.
As the night went on, the battles picked up, and a few different winners started to emerge. Braeden Patterson held off Liam Gray to win the Junior 2 LO 206 feature, but Justin Messick won his second event of the night in the Stock Super Heavy Class after and intense battle between him and three other drivers. For the Stock Medium feature, Nolan Canada took an easy win in class, followed by Braeden Patterson winning his second event of the night in the Junior 3 class.
Once the night began to wind down, the kart counts went up and so did the action. The Clone Heavy feature saw Rob Bowers and Nolan Canada fight for several laps before Canada took the lead from Bowers and grabbed the win, robbing Bowers from a third event win that night. The Open class saw 17 karts entered, the most of any class that night, and a dominating win for Tracy Butt. An accident on the backstretch halfway through the Open feature briefly caused a red flag, but all competitors were reported OK.
Buddy Wilson won the final race of the night in the Stock Heavy Class, holding off Alex Grino, the son of 34 and Over class winner Juan Grino.
It may have been a long night of racing, but there was no shortage of action at Ben Hur Speedway. Once again, the small, egg-shaped oval just west of downtown Crawfordsville delivered fantastic racing with an excellent fan experience. The season is not over however. There are still three more standard race nights before the Spooktacular on Oct.12. If Saturday night was any indication, the upcoming races will be just as action packed.
