Sprint Week comes to Bloomington

It won’t just be another Friday night race for Kris Kirchner this week.

The general manager of the Bloomington Speedway is working on preparing his track for the United States Auto Club’s stop at his track as part of the 26th annual Indiana Sprint Week.

The Sprint Week is a two week period across the state that includes seven races. There is one more stop Saturday in Evansville after the racers make their way to Bloomington Friday.

“It’ll attract our normal guys that come on a weekly basis, but it will also bring in a whole different national group, which really is only about 20 cars. But they are chasing national points. They run anywhere from California to Florida, to Arkansas to Michigan and all over the country. And their stop is here in Bloomington this Friday night.”

He said he hopes to see around 3,500-4,000 people at the track Friday night. He said the most he’s had this year has been about 3,000 for the June 28 race night, which included a fireworks show.

“There’s motor homes that people will pull in and camp for the night,” Kirchner said. “That whole lower lot will be packed with motor homes and parking. It’ll be quite a spectacular venue.

“People take vacations just to make sure they can travel these two weeks so they can go see the Indiana Sprint Week.”

Racing runs almost every Friday night from April through September, weather permitting at the track, Kirchner said.

On a normal Friday night, Krichner, the only full-time employee at the Speedway, said there are normally four different series races: sprint cars, modified stock cars, Indiana super stock cars and hornets.

But this Friday is one of eight special shows on the schedule.

This Friday, fans will see the sprint cars, the mini sprints, which are four-cylinder, open-wheel cars that have motorcycle engines and the Indiana super stock cars.

“It’d be a long, hot summer night, and the competition will be fierce, definitely, this Friday,” Kirchner said. “It’ll definitely be a big competition.”

He said he expects the sprint cars to go about 90 mph around the quarter-mile circular dirt track.

Kirchner said both national and local guys will compete for the 22 spots in the field for the sprint car race.

“The fans are very loyal (to the local guys),” Kirchner said. “They like to see the big names. They like to see the headliner guys come in. But, also, they’re cheering for their local favorite. I would love to see a local guy upset some of the top-10 drivers in the national series.”

One of the biggest differences between the national and local guys is money.

Kirchner said some of the national guys will spend hundreds of thousands of dollars racing, a much larger sum than most of the local competitors.

The payout does not amount to something that can cover that for the big name competitors.

“The old saying is they would race for a little trophy,” Kirchner said. “The money is not important. It’s about the competition.”

He said names such as Tony Stewart and Jeff Gordon, who both race in NASCAR now, started their careers by racing at the Bloomington Speedway.

“Anyone who’s in the who’s who of auto racing, the big names, have run at Bloomington Speedway over the years,” Kirchner said.

When attending a race at Bloomington Speedway, Kirchner said fans get an experience unlike any other. He said to prepare to, maybe, get a little dirt on your shirt and prepare for the loud roar of revving engines.

But he said it’s an experience much better than watching a race on TV.

“Unless you really go to a race, you can’t experience the speed,” he said. “You can’t appreciate the speed. You can watch it on TV, but until you’re right there and you hear and feel those cars real close to you, and how fast they’re going in a circle, you have to see it live.”