Shane Cottle (2e) battling Jeff Bland Jr. (04) at Kokomo Speedway Sunday. (Doug Vandeventer photo)
Gas City Critical for KISS Championship
A tight point race highlights the King of Indiana Sprint Series as “The Throttle”, Shane Cottle, leads the troupe into the next round at Gas City I-69 Speedway on Friday night. The Gas City event will be the third competed in this year’s KISS competition, as the first scheduled race, at the Terre Haute Action Track, was rained out. A make-up date for the Terre Haute event has not been finalized.
With back-to-back victories at Bloomington and Kokomo Speedways last weekend, Cottle enjoys a 15-point lead over two-time champion Brady Short, and sits 20 points ahead of Jerry Coons Jr. Short notched second and third place finishes, while Coons was second (Kokomo) and fourth (Bloomington). Kevin Thomas Jr. and Robert Ballou are also close enough to challenge for the King’s crown. While Cottle now claims five KISS feature wins in his career, none have been at the Gas City powerplant. Short won last year’s KISS race, and in previous seasons Jon Stanbrough and Dave Darland have each won twice and Bryan Clauson once.
Cottle is currently at the top of Gas City’s sprint car points with Stanbrough, Shane Cockrum, Darland and Chad Boespflug at his heels. Friday’s schedule shows the grandstand opening at 4:00 pm and pit gate at 3:00. Hot laps begin at 6:15 and racing at 7:30. General admission is $20, youths 7 – 12 are just $5, and under 7 are free with a paying adult. Pit passes are $30. The racing program includes UMP modifieds, midgets and MQTRL ¾ midgets. For more information, visit the Gas City I-69 Speedway website at www.gascityi69speedway.org.
The 30-lap KISS main event will pay $2,500 to win and $250 to start. The point fund is a total of $4,200, with the series champion earning $1,200. Second in points will collect $900, and third through fifth will receive $800, $700 and $600.
On Saturday, May 17, KISS will convene at the Lawrenceburg Speedway in the southeastern corner of Indiana. As has become their tradition, Tri-State Speedway will host the KISS sprinters on Sunday of Memorial Day weekend, just hours after the completion of the Indy 500. The 2014 KISS championship will be finalized at Paragon Speedway on Saturday, May 31 at Paragon Speedway, however at this time the Terre Haute Action Track hasn’t announced whether they will reschedule the KISS event rained out.
KISS Points after Round 2: 1. Shane Cottle 360, 2. Brady Short 345, 3. Jerry Coons Jr. 340, 4. Kevin Thomas Jr. 321, 5. Robert Ballou 304, 6. Dalten Gabbard 292, 7. Chad Boespflug 270, 8. Gary Taylor 266, 9. Aaron Farney 237, 10. Lee Dakus 190
2014 KISS SCHEDULE
April 27 Terre Haute Action Track – Rain
May 2 Bloomington Speedway – Shane Cottle
May 4 Kokomo Speedway – Shane Cottle
May 9 Gas City I-69 Speedway
May 17 Lawrenceburg Speedway
May 25 Tri-State Speedway
May 31 Paragon Speedway