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Keeping Tabs - Jones Has Been Scoring for
25 Years
By Ken de la Bastide
(February
22, 2011) –
It was kind of like an umpire for a Little League
being called out of the grandstand to work a World Series game when Sandy
Jones started scoring at Anderson Speedway.
Jones has been around racing all of her life with her dad, who raced at
Anderson Speedway.
For the competitors, as chief scorer for Anderson Speedway, Jones makes sure
all of them are credited with the correct finish in every race at the local
track. She also supervises qualifications.
Her involvement in racing took a sudden change 25 years ago when former
Anderson Speedway owner John Hellis asked if she would help score the Pay
Less Little 500.
“I had never done it before,” Jones said recently. “There were three scorers
when I started.”
Back when Jones started scoring, the Little 500 had to be one of the most
challenging races to keep track of. Thirty-three sprint cars turning 500
laps on a quarter-mile oval. There were no transponders or computer scoring.
Jones helped score that race the way it probably was done when Anderson
Speedway first opened, line scoring.
“You just watched the cars and leaders and circled the lapped cars,” she
said. “I don’t remember if I enjoyed it.”
Jones must have liked the challenge because she is the chief scorer at
Anderson Speedway and has scored races over the years at many Indiana
tracks.
The list includes Plymouth, Winchester, Lucas Oil Raceway, Baer Field,
Indianapolis Speedrome, Bloomington, Putnamville, Kokomo, Gas City and the
Shady Bowl Speedway in Ohio.
“I still enjoy line scoring,” Jones said. “The transponders make it easier
when they work. I still keep track of the cars and where they’re running at.
If a transponder dies or falls off a car, I still have to score the number
of laps completed.”
Jones said she checks the car in front and in back of the car not getting a
hit with the transponder to make sure the driver is credited with the proper
finish.
She doesn’t like dirt track racing because the cars are slower than on
pavement. She admits to no favorite driver, adding she enjoyed the older
late model drivers that used to compete on a regular basis at Anderson
Speedway.
“I’ll keep scoring as long as I’m able to,” Jones said. “I’m looking forward
to the start of a new season. It does get frustrating at times with the
economy creating a lack of car counts.”
During the week Jones works as a supervisor overseeing five local workshops
for disabled workers.
“It’s rewarding work,” she said. “It’s nice to know that every client gets a
pay check.”
Jones has been working with the Muncie based company for 22 years, 13 years
in the accounting department. She currently supervises a staff of 16 and 325
clients that perform packaging and assembly work.
“When the weather got warm last week, I was ready to head to the track,” she
laughed. “I almost called Rick (Dawson) to say let’s go racing.”
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