Downtown

By Kevin Eckert

December 14, 2009 Indianapolis, Indiana: Back in the trade show loop. Winter can be lonely for a racer. Saturday friends separate for a few months. No one at home understands the rule changes. We need trade shows and banquet parties to gather friends and do business, some real and some monkey shines. “Racers do their best work at night,” was a great line from the directory book for the first International Motorsports Industry Show.

For three cold winters, Indianapolis went without the Big Show when the Performance Racing Industry flew south to Orlando. Originally, that sounded like persuasion to push Indy’s expansion, which occurred once the RCA Dome was deflated for Lucas Oil Stadium. All the PRI points however, were not honored so Steve Lewis opted for an Orlando contract extension. As soon as Steve signed off on that, wheels were turning to bring a new Big Show back to downtown Indy.

Chris Paulsen championed the idea. He’s a racer who toured with the World of Outlaws on Sammy Swindell’s Nance car, Tamale Wagon Indy Cars of Alex Morales, and saddled into his own Gambler at Putnamville on a Saturday night. All of that came before starting his C&R business in 1988. Chris is “C” and “R” stood for Ross Fisher, an original partner. C&R Radiators were the specialty that caused the company to outgrow Gasoline Alley as they added a Charlotte branch to better serve NASCAR. TV viewers saw the C&R logo whenever some poor fella ripped the nose away. C&R expanded to countless components and even complete cars.

Paulsen partnered with the Indiana Motorsports Association, a new effort aimed at things like another downtown trade show. IMA director Tom Weisenbach joined C&R as did car dealer Jeff Stoops and Jeff’s fellow USAC champion Tony Stewart, most recognized face in the state next to Peyton Manning. All four stood on stage at Lucas Oil Stadium on Tuesday with mayor and governor to guarantee that the inaugural International Motorsports Industry Show will not be the last, extending IMIS through 2015.

I am not at all unbiased about the Indy/Orlando split because I live in Indy. I chased PRI from Cincinnati to Columbus, Ohio and was delighted when its icy drive took minutes instead of hours on I-70 or I-74. I mourned my friends from California and New Jersey who no longer warmed themselves in the exhibit halls or saloons. I did not prowl PRI again until ’08, but found it as comfortable as always inside, because comfort is the feeling of being around the people you know best: racers.

“Indy or Orlando?” shouldn’t be an either/or question. Auto racing is built on competition and one of anything is too few. With any split in ranks, racing should nurture the new rather than perpetually perceiving it as an attempt to divide and conquer. Time will tell if Indy/Orlando do one day occupy the same patch of winter. There are many trade shows and not many weekends. But for 2010, Indy’s IMIS event is December 1-3 and Orlando’s PRI program is December 9-11. I wish I could’ve done both.

“Indy Is Racing” was a brilliantly simple slogan across the shoulders of show workers. There were virtually none of the show girls of SEMA or PRI to coax old, bald, fat guys like me into welcoming brochures for Italian car wax. What you get out a trade show is almost entirely based on your number of friends and/or acquaintances. It doesn’t matter if you’re talking in front of the latest, greatest torsion bar, or Howl at the Moon’s piano bar. It’s about your friends: racers.

In Indy, racers walk from IMIS to vehicle, room, restaurant or tavern without ever venturing into the elements. Orlando cannot make the same claim, but a Florida walk does not cut like Indianapolis Ice. Orlando is an international vacation place, but Indy is an easy drive for Brian Brown from Kansas City. Brownie got there after about six and a half hours on I-70, or as long as it takes us to see him in Knoxville, Iowa.

Tony Stewart keeps a suite at Lucas Oil Stadium for Colts games. When he was with TSR and Levi Jones, crew chief Rob Hart was able to bring his kids (Ella & Ethan) into Tony’s suite. The kids were awestruck. After all, they had never met Jared from Subway!

Stewart’s photo-op with Governor Daniels was digitally recorded by Smoke’s hand-picked staff of shooters: Toledo’s Frank Smith and Kokomo corner workers Travis Branch and Rex Staton. Stewart split for the first NASCAR banquet not in NYC in 27 years. He would miss seeing his photographers get shuttled into a scissor-lift like kids at a carnival.

TSR taskmaster Bill Klingbeil waited for peak traffic for the obligatory overhead shot. Bill came to Stewart with Donny Schatz and has with Misha Geisert created an avalanche of publicity. They not rest. Every time I popped into the Chris Econamaki Press Room for a free cookie, one or both were working away. What they released Friday credited IMIS with 10,000 people in 345 exhibits that filled all 572 spaces. Next year, there will be a thousand spaces.

Budweiser flowed free (viva Smoke!) inside the House that Peyton Built. Some of us took two-fisted liberty, bowing to pressure from TSR graphics guy Tony Iacobitti. Many of these same people then poured west on Washington to Rockville to BK Motorsports on Gasoline Alley, a 15-minute jaunt where two kegs of Coors Light burned up like Silver Crown tires. Actually, the spare nearly saw the dawn, according to survivors.

Bud’s Place illustrates why Indy Is Racing. A company like Maxim Chassis can use a customer like Kaeding to gather people together for business, beer and brisket carved by Pete Rose’s brother Dave.

Elite Racing used the following evening as the grand opening of its grand new Jason Meyers palace in Brownsburg. It came as some surprise that Jason nearly became World of Outlaws champ with no real shop east of California. That means D.J Lindsey and Brian Bloomfield did the bulk of their chores in car washes and motel lots. They earned a shiny new shop. “Long way from Majestic Auto Body,” I joked to D.J, as easy-going as when he and his brother ran the Two-D out of Jacksonville, Illinois. Now his shop belongs to drag racing legend John Force.

Ironic that Indy is such a hub for World of Outlaws teams despite racing nowhere near. Even its announcer occupies a trailer at 16th & Georgetown like a modern Crocky Wright. Yet the only Outlaw sprint races in the Hoosier State were in Haubstadt and Lawrenceburg, both of which could be Kentucky if you live in Avon. It would be nice to see them back at Kokomo or Lincoln Park, where no wings have been used in the three years since Tim Kaeding won with Steve Kinser’s car. The 2010 Indiana WoO agenda shows only Haubstadt on Saturday, April 24.

Elite fell short of dethroning Tony Stewart as car owner champion to Donny Schatz and crew chief Ricky Warner. The champs had their Mario Andretti STP replica at Tony’s first trade show. TSR parked cars all over the place. Tuesday, they put a pavement midget in front of Lucas Oil Can and by Wednesday, that Beast was in a booth hyped December dirt races in Kansas City’s Kemper Arena promoted by Scott Pennington and Danny Lasoski. Tony’s gold dirt midget bearing a Smoke visor (probably the piece he used on his Macon Speedway) touted the Hendricks County Economic Development Partnership. At present, the Stewart Spike will miss the Chili Bowl while Tony races in Australia, though his four Parramatta City shows do not conflict. Last winter, he did not race Chili Bowl because he was building an Office Depot/Old Spice team, which worked out pretty well. One of those red Cup cars decorated the IMIS lobby next to famed Indy artist Ron Burton.

The winged TSR 20 generated the show’s most common question, “Who will drive it?” It seemed cruel to leave Kraig Kinser’s name on a week or two after formally firing him, but its Yak Graphics were clear-coated and not so easily erased. Not until PRI did Robin Miller break the story that Steve Kinser will indeed replace his son. Speed Channel said so only one day after Kraig revealed how he will again drive dad’s Maxims powered by Scott Gerkin and maintained by Mike Kuemper, who follows Kraig over from TSR. Steve has shown his aversion to fielding two teams without primary sponsors (Quaker State 2010 has reduced to associate status to both Kinsers) ever since Kraig and Delco-Remy ran off. So when Steve hired Kraig, The King had to work for someone else. Perhaps on principal, he did not jump to join those who put his grandbaby’s daddy out of work, but he came around.

Why another Kinser? Why now? At the 2007 final when TSR replaced Paul McMahan with Kraig Kinser, it seemed to be Tony’s way of getting Gerkin to boost the Chevrolet engine program. I later came to believe that Tony hired Kraig simply because Steve asked him to. It seemed impossible to believe that Stewart watched two seasons of Outlaw races and decided his best choice was someone who was at none of those races. At the risk of defaming Kraig, he is good but not great. Time in NASCAR stunted his growth. But he is 24 years old and like his pop said, “Donny Schatz didn’t win much when he was 24 either.”

But now in the winter of 2009-2010, Steve Kinser sits at 687 wins, 2783 WoO starts and 55 years of age recovering from neck surgery. At this stage of the game, others are in their prime, others like Tyler Walker and Tim Kaeding, who both coveted the job. TSR is Corporate America, which does not let California X Games in the building unless they can jump through all of their hoops. Compared to almost anyone, Tyler and TK are rough around the edges. I’m proud to call ‘em my friends but Steve Kinser is the safest choice.

Tony Stewart Racing is a multi-million dollar juggernaut the likes of which auto racing and specifically, short track open wheel dirt racing, has never seen. As a point of reference, Tony (6.8) and his Sunday driver Ryan Newman left the stage in Vegas with almost 12 million dollars. TSR acquires teams and tracks with tornado swiftness. Now recall how Tony and Steve recently splintered away from The Outlaws (NST) and consider that owning his own series is one role Stewart has yet to play. Maybe he just needs a good push in that direction. Maybe like being forced to replace all of his Hoosier Tires with Goodyears?

By far the biggest IMIS buzz was about Goodyear’s grab of a game that had been Hoosier’s sole purple property. Unlike the transaction of say, Stewart purchasing Eldora Speedway, this was abrupt. Hoosier had no sooner successfully defended itself as beneficiary of a legal bid that the court ordered new bids, won by Goodyear. Since the prize (World of Outlaws) depends on local teams to stir rivalry in Knoxville, Attica and Williams Grove, all three tracks followed the World Racing Group to Goodyear.

Never mind that Goodyear has built no dirt tires in ten years. They had the biggest check! And never mind that they will not have a product until two weeks before the season opener. “It’ll be the same for everybody,” I can already hear from Volusia.

For just a moment, think of a mystical time before Big Capitalism began to graze on the grassy meadow of motorsport. Think of tracks and clubs that hustled up their own point fund. Think of tire rules which revolved around how big, wide or soft they were, and not which corporate logo was stamped on the side. Those days did exist. Those days are pretty gone. Racing long ago sold its soul for point funds. If a company tells a track operator that they will hand his champion $5000 just as long as that track requires everyone to use that company’s product, how can they refuse?

Hoosier backed World of Outlaws championships for sprints and late models, and made three hard compounds available. Mandate any component and a racer will grind it, drill it or soak it. Brady Short shredded an MSCS Hoosier on a Lawrenceburg parade lap and a few weeks later, Outlaw police confiscated Scott Bloomquist’s Charlotte winner, had the rubber analyzed, and determined that it had been illegally softened.

As a historian with no tire bill, I see these power shifts as cyclical. Firestone was followed by Goodyear by Hoosier by Goodyear by Hoosier and now, by Goodyear again. As king, Steve Kinser has been on both ends of tire competition, testing free Hoosiers in the 80s, becoming Goodyear’s top dog in the 90s, losing that status when Hoosier made Goodyear right rears illegal, and then having to buy his Hoosiers when they bought the series.

Steve Kinser has never been the loud, public thorn in Goodyear’s side like Tony Stewart. When told that his tires now needed the dreaded yellow letters, Stewart nearly launched an alternative series. Accountants advised more study. But the idea remains. If he did wish to start a national winged 410 club in 2011, wouldn’t it be Box Office Gold to do it on the broad back of the biggest name in sprint car racing? It could even act as The King’s farewell address, which just might move some merchandise. Speculation for sure, but where there’s Smoke, there’s fire.

I’ll guarantee this: if a 360 sprint car on Hoosiers happens to go faster than the 410s on Goodyears, heads will roll!

Good thing it’s not Roger Slack’s problem. The World of Outlaws made a wise move hiring him just before IMIS, but his title is Events Coordinator. Schooled by progressive teachers like Glenn Donnelly and Humpy Wheeler, Slack sold Speed TV on the notion of combining Outlaw sprints and stocks for a grand season finale on live TV. Until last year, Roger led The Dirt Track at Lowe’s until breaking those chains to scour America and see how other events did it.

Eldora Speedway was the only track with an IMIS booth. Wonder if Tony Stewart demanded $1500 in rent from Larry Boos? Larry laughed off schedule requests because Baltes taught him to not hurry. Earl knew to set the World 100 (September 10-11), Kings Royal (July 16-17) and Dream (June 11-12) before his last crowd left his last race, let all the clubs hammer out the rest, then fill the gaps. PRI pointed USAC to Eldora on April 2-3 and World of Outlaws on May 7-8. Four Crown Nationals opens with WoO on September 24 before USAC sprints, midgets and champ cars go on September 25.

USAC was understandably delighted to have a trade show back in its center city. USAC unfortunately, did not use the occasion to calm its competitors. Questions remain about whether sprint car will be split into dirt and pavement points, whether midget engines will carry an RPM limit, or whether champ cars can continue to use the Yates Ford.

USAC had two versions of its next super-speedway champ car idea at IMIS. Interestingly, neither one sat in USAC’s booth. When the first prototype debuted at the last Indy PRI show (C&R built the first winner), USAC opened the door to Fords by Robert Yates because he was exactly the kind of NASCAR mover and shaker they hoped to attract. If they intended to race at Darlington, why not use a Darlington engine? Well, they no longer race at Darlington. But they still use Yates, who has resources of which others can only dream. Advanced Racing Suspension threatened to park Chet Fillip if USAC continued the disparity. Connected to Carl Edwards, RE Technologies has a house full of those engines. R.E knew of no potential change in engine rules, nor did Silver Crown king Bud Kaeding.

Midget minds are in a panic. Numbers are low and drastic change is in order. To limit an engine’s Revolutions Per Minute is drastic but would seem to be designed to increase engine life, which no one should oppose. Esslinger Ford owners however, feel a proposed 9000 RPM cap is motivated more by the desire to break the domination of a series funded by Mopar and now Toyota. To direct cost-saving measures at the most cost-effective engine does seem misguided.

USAC unrest regarding midgets only makes Indiana POWRi programs more attractive. POWRi president Kenny Brown nosed around IMIS after meeting select Hoosier State hosts. Far as USAC is concerned, POWRi presence in “their” Hoosier State is as welcome as NAMARS in the 90s when USAC was struggling to sell short fields of midgets that started without a push. It took dirt festivals like NAMARS Five Crown to hasten USAC to remove batteries and wave back the push trucks. POWRi and ARDC are America’s only healthy midget clubs in 2010, partly because Brown does not stray 300 miles from St. Louis for one Friday race. Kenny has a very vested interest in midgets. Three of his Toyota Spikes are headed to Chili Bowl in January for Josh Wise, Randy Hannagan and Kenny’s kid Austin Brown.

Oklahoma City’s Shane Carson has raced in 12 of 23 Chili Bowls, making the final feature four times in midgets owned and maintained by Jerry Hatton. Shane said the second night of this year’s Oval Nationals for USAC sprints was so good that he could hardly sleep. For a veteran of thousands of races in and out of the cockpit, that’s tall praise. “And there were only about 50 people in the stands,” Carson said, exaggerating like a promoter’s son to make a point. Shane serves as consultant to the National Sprint Car Hall of Fame and World of Outlaws.

Joey Saldana won more World of Outlaws races than its champion relying on Randy Sweet steering in Budweiser Maxims, one of which adorned the Sweet IMIS display. In the aisles was Bones Bourcier, survivor of some of Randy’s all-night escapades through Daytona and New Smyrna Beach. Bones is busy updating his Bill Simpson book of 2000. Wonder if Mike Helton gets mentioned? Joey won in New Zealand again and has entered Chili Bowl in one of three Mopars that will contain Saldana, Brad Sweet and Kasey Kahne his own self.

Joe Saldana too had a ride represented at IMIS. In fact, Saldana Sr. had pole position because Mechanical Rabbit 65 resided in the Speedway Motors display closest the door. “Speedy Bill” Smith has been the fire behind Speedway Motors since 1952 and just released an autobiography co-authored by Dave Argabright. It’s called Fast Company: Six Decades of Racers, Rascals and Rods. It is fantastic. I have been lucky to coax Bill out of a story or two and find him most captivating. His cadence is captured in Dave’s book. Bill occasionally breaks the narrative to remind the reader that strong opinions (such as USAC offering his qualifying pill from a loaded jar) are The World According to Smith. Thursday’s IMIS lesson imparted to Boston’s Bobby Seymour was how Bob’s father Louie helped inspired Smith’s signature circular black hat. Bill tried without success to crack the USAC board of directors and felt he needed a nickname like Boston Louie, or maybe a hat like J.C Agajanian. His diagnosis of USAC still rings true: arrogance with incompetence. Order one from www.coastal181.com.

Bill Simpson, godfather to the safe side of auto racing, is like Bill Smith in that their lives make for riveting reading. But to anyone Bill has met, he’s just another biker in a bar like Buffalo Wild Wings (BW3) on Crawfordsville Road, where we watched Colts come back to beat Houston three days before IMIS. I bounced into BW3 to see Kansas City’s Julie Ripperger while she scouted Indy for witness relocation. I raised the talking point that only in Indy could she sit two stools over from a character like Simpson, who once set himself on fire to prove a point.

Rick Ungar is an eastern Ohio native who called Memphis and St. Louis home before starting a family in Indy. He sells trucks for Jeff Stoops, partner in IMIS and owner of the sprint cars that carried Steve Butler to the Hall of Fame. Ungar seems underrated as a driver, having beaten the World of Outlaws, All Stars and USAC when they had wings. During that ‘87 season was Rick’s only outdoor midget race. He ran the Pontiac Challenger of Gary Runyon wrenched by Bob Murden at Kokomo, swapping pavement pieces to beat everyone except legends Mel Kenyon and Kevin Doty. Rick renewed acquaintances on the floor of the former Hoosier Dome to which he was invited in 1991, one year before his last race.

Noblesville’s Bryan Clauson circulated his hometown IMIS four days removed from a landmark Thanksgiving break. California’s native son won both the 100-lap Turkey Night Midget Grand Prix on Irwindale asphalt and Glenn Howard Memorial for USAC-CRA sprint cars on Perris clay; a feat unprecedented in that 55-mile radius. IMIS closed Thursday and at Saturday’s open house, Benic Enterprises announced Clauson as its 2010 USAC sprint car driver. Tucker cars stay holstered for races Benic might skip.

Scott Benic and Dave Darland had a dreadful season come to a dreadful end with crashes at Perris and Tulare. Wednesday after IMIS was when Scott officially gave Dave his 2B release. Benic had a Gaerte Beast in the Champion Oil booth wearing the name Levi Jones, and an RW asphalt midget in the USAC booth bearing the name Brad Kuhn, who soon became a father and will stay away from New Zealand this winter. Kuhn will do Chili Bowl in one of Scott’s two Fontana Beasts while Glenn Styres steers another. Benic is also busy with two Esslingers: one in the returning Ellis of Shane Hmiel and another in the Spike of West Virginia wonder boy Cale Conley.

Now that the entry list has reached 140, Chili Bowl fever can commence. Last year, Joe Loyet and Rusty Kunz created an Orange Crush of Esslinger Spikes for Danny Lasoski, Jesse Hockett, Jon Stanbrough and Joe’s son Brad Loyet. For the next Bowl, Rusty and Jon are out and Casey Shuman is in the Flea market. Hockett’s sprint program is in flux now that Tom Buch and Bernie Stuebgen swapped JEI and Jesse Hockett for an Eagle aimed by Paul McMahan.

Don’t worry about Rusty Kunz. He and Kelly Drake have three Esslinger Spikes owned by PRI’s Steve Lewis for Jason Meyers, P.J Jones and Kansas 305 star Tanner Mullens, winner of the wingless Weld Memorial in Grain Valley.

Three weeks removed from his richest win ever ($12,500 from Tulare), Stanbrough strolled his hometown IMIS as one of four official Keith Kunz drivers for Chili Bowl. Keith has Bullets for Stanbrough, Chris Windom and Henry Clarke (a fourth Esslinger is open) plus a Toyota for Cole Whitt and another Toyota to lease.

The Eagle 600 model at IMIS had a Keith Kunz quality to its Number 67. Jerry Russell confessed that he did indeed phone his former Springfield neighbor, who steered him to Shadow Graphics on Gasoline Alley. Jerry uses that number (67) in tribute to late car owner Math Schneider, from whom he gave Steven Mathew Russell his middle name. The kid’s first name is for The King.

Despite breaking his back and missing half a season, New York’s Tim McCreadie cannot wait to return to Chili Bowl with Wilke-Pak men Darland, Tracy Hines and Jerry Coons, all aboard Toyota Spikes. Tulsa precedes Jerry’s flight to New Zealand as part of Team USA with Scott Hatton, Tony Elliott and Kevin Swindell, who returns to Australia at Avalon aboard a Richard Petty Driving Experience midget on December 19.

While overseas, Coons will likely leave his motorhome in the Clermont shop of Rob Hart, who brought Jerry to Tulare from a list he handed to Roth Racing. Hunter Schuerenberg was on that list. Dennis picked Jerry, who probably hadn’t had a boss scream at him in a while. No more screaming for Hart either as he was home for Thanksgiving turkey. Rob and Mike Cool were ex-TSR crew chiefs seeking work at IMIS.

At present, Hart’s two-bay shop houses an Esslinger Spike that Brownsburg’s Daryn Pittman will take to Kansas City and his Tulsa birthplace. Oklahoma sponsors include car dealer Bob Hurley and Hop N’ Sack, the convenience store that backed Pittman and Hart when Daryn was replaced by Danny Wood.

Oklahoma City’s Wayne Johnson has Al Christoffer’s Esslinger Spike for Kansas City and Tulsa but nothing to race outdoors any closer than Australia. Johnson & Johnson (R.J of Florida, no relation) carted the Christoffer 360 to Tucson and made the Maxim open house on Gasoline Alley.

Just a few PRI shows ago, Triple X was chastised for Chinese labor by Chris Paulsen, co-founder of an IMIS in which XXX had Daron Clayton, Brady Bacon and Gary Taylor to answer questions. The XXX 600 chassis with its flame graphics also generated good buzz, according to Skagit announcer Caleb Hart.

British Columbia’s Travis Rutz is rehabilitating slowly in the Pacific Northwest, as is Robbie Pribnow in Wisconsin. Think of them at Christmas.

Seattle’s Design 500 took its tape measure to Don Kreitz Jr. I told Donald that he no longer races enough to need a new suit. Kreitz confines himself to Williams Grove mostly after 26 sprint car seasons and 183 wins. Randy Frank was busy crafting Design 500s. Its president James Standley explained that because he is from England, he is not therefore related to J.P Standley, who scorched Spanaway to beat USAC midgets and WMRA supermodifieds in 1972-73.

The former Weld Wheels salesmen Bob Baker and Joel Kokoska worked IMIS for the National Sprint Car Hall of Fame and Yak Graphics that ironically adjoined one another. “Yak” is Iacobitti, who has come to know Indy during TSR sticker sessions.

Weld Tech was in its hometown IMIS. It is the cylinder head created by Kenny Weld and manufactured by his widow and daughter. Former husband to Debbie Weld (they share a son), George Austin III wants it known that he would relish a return to the Knoxville Raceway on which Austin III was P2 in 1994, beating everyone except the late Danny Young of Des Moines.

“Bullet proof,” was how Kenny Weld’s late mechanic Stacey Reeves described the 1974 modified of Kenny Brightbill, who strolled IMIS. Down in Sinking Spring, DMI’s Dave Ely has grown up on tales of Kenny’s strength. Stories like carrying six-foot oxygen tanks under each arm, grooving entire Firestones without heat, or racing all day with power steering belt flapping in the dust. Ely had two generations of Brightbill in his booth as Keith trumpeted DMI’s new rear axle for modifieds. Dave said Kenny’s father could pass a quarter through his wedding ring.

BK Motorsports and IMIS included Lucas Wolfe and his father Randy, who corroborated Brightbill stories for Robby Wolfgang, himself raised on Larger than Life stories of a famous father. Doug Wolfgang builds Dave Ely’s chassis and was best man at Dave’s wedding. Robby was squired around by Charlie Patterson, who had the real estate to start Gasoline Alley.

The original Gasoline Alley divided the glorified horse stables that comprised the Indy 500 garage area in 1948, when Pat Clancy brought Billy Devore to drive a six-wheel Kurtis Offy with two rear axles. That car drew IMIS attention to the Seals-It exhibit of Skip Matczak, who chatted with incomparable car builder A.J Watson. Skip joked that Seals-It emissary John Heydenreich was so old that the Clancy car was his first. I only wondered if it had eight wheels before Heydenreich was through. John is a typical East Coast ball buster that needs to be kept in check just as John and I were taught by those Philadelphia professors of verbal abuse, the Cicconi family.

Pennsylvania prodigy Cody Darrah will train for his rookie World of Outlaws adventure with his first foray to Australia. Darrah will drive the Motorguard Maxim for John Weatherall beginning at Brisbane on Boxing Day, December 26. Weatherall has imported Randy Hannagan, Daryn Pittman, Michael Carber and P.J Chesson from the U.S and native sons Andrew Scheuerle, Trevor Green and Todd Wanless, who was Brisbane’s best on December 13. Brent and Bud Kaeding will join Cody overseas.

Darrah has unlimited potential but everyone should see it as that: potential. Most of The Outlaw trail will be new to Cody, who Kasey Kahne will pair with road-tested Bonzai Bruns. Darrah will return from Toowoomba for Tulsa and a second Chili Bowl for his father Joe Darrah, who will field two Spikes with Don Ott power for his son and cousin Rick Eckert. Car 89 and Steve Suchy remain on Joe’s payroll at J&K Salvage.

South Australia’s Trevor Green suffered a compression fracture to his L2 vertebrae. Idle indefinitely, Trevor tapped Kerry’s brother Ian Madsen for Parramatta City prior to summoning Danny Smith. Thanksgiving host Mike Trimmer (thanks Skip) cited some revolutionary energy-absorbing foam that his IRL co-workers are petitioning to lessen injuries that happen when rear ends strike the tailbone of drivers like Trevor or Doug Esh. Adding a few inches of high impact foam could however, require raising U.S roll cages as Australia has already done.

Louisiana’s Jason Johnson, who married into the Pennsylvania Posse and moved to Texas, began a ninth straight Australian tour by winning with a Haynes Eagle maintained by Brendan Telfer, who tutored under Max Dumesny before toiling for Shane Stewart and Brian Brown in the U.S.A.

Shake-ups in Springfield saw Brad Aylesworth end his Maxim service to work for Australia’s Bill Mann at Performance Wholesale, which bought into the Eagle Chassis Company of former Springfield Speedway star Jerry Russell. Aylesworth left Maxim just after Mike Long split it for Speedway Motors. Mann and surrogate son Dave Sharman showed how highly they hold Indy by flying from Brisbane and back to World Series, where Performance Wholesale is title sponsor and Sharman reunited with his old mate David Murcott from Tasmania.

New Zealand’s Simon Longdill is shipping two of his Aggressor V8 units to Oklahoma for Kiwi countrymen Brad Mosen and mighty Michael Pickens, undefeated this season. This marriage of motorcycle engines that Davenport, Iowa’s Davey Ray has raced for two winters is not legal anywhere in America beyond that place where almost anything goes: Chili Bowl.

Longdill inspired Davenport Dave to conceive has Raypro Mopar for the St. Louis Spike of Joe Dooling, who assisted the sprint of Jack Yeley (Brad Sweet ’06) and champ car driven in 2008 by J.J Yeley. Last season ended for J.J on August 22 in Kansas City when he cracked two vertebrae in dad’s sprint car. J.J promised his wife that he will return to Chili Bowl only as an owner.

Ohio’s Cap Henry will be back from Australia sprint racing for Chili Bowl Midget Nationals and four cylinders from Hall of Fame name Bob Hampshire.

California’s Cruz Pedregon, positioned in Brownsburg near John Force and Ken Bernstein, will again play midget racer at Chili Bowl while fielding a Toyota Spike for Knoxville’s rising star Dusty Zomer of South Dakota.

California’s Mike Sala and Bob Wirth will send a Chevy Spike to Tulsa for Colby Copeland and a Mopar Spike for Wes Gutierrez.

Georgia’s Mark Bush and Doug Day were in Lucas Oil Stadium before another Chili Bowl in which Bush has Esslinger Spikes for Lincoln Park thriller Thomas Meseraull and steel block star J.C Bland.

Lincoln Park will also be represented at Chili Bowl by Billy Puterbaugh, piloting a Mopar DRC backed by U.S soldier Eric Barnhill. Not only has Billy never raced in Tulsa, he has never raced a full midget. The last indoor midget race by a Puterbaugh was in 1970 when Bill Sr. scored third in the Houston Astrodome.

Don Fike of Galesburg, Illinois has Esslinger Spikes for Chili Bowl driven by Darren Hagen, A.J Fike and Casey Riggs, son of Indiana Underground’s Terry Riggs. Terry walked IMIS with Mike Dutcher (crew chief on the Tulare winner of Jon Stanbrough) and I introduced myself as the man who put Terry and his champ car on the cover of the third Flat Out in 2000 when Tracy Hines raced it in Nazareth.

Hey, it’s Christmas and I wanted to work Nazareth into the narrative. Sacrilegious scribe Gary London once used “Jesus of Nazareth” to describe the tall, bearded man who dominated the half-mile’s full body class: Jack Zeiner.

Trade shows are not all smiles and handshakes. When you sling it like me, sometimes feelings (and facts) get stretched. Last year during PRI, Danny the Dude wanted a word or three. During IMIS, it was mechanics Troy Renfro and Daryl Saucier who voiced anger. Renfro’s rub concerned my description of his criticism toward a point system that deprived his boss Larry Woodward of a Knoxville championship. I read it again and still am not sure about the fuss. I called him grouchy (he is) and said that he vented, which he continues to do. DSR told me that since Damion Gardner never actually hired him in 2008, he could not therefore have been fired. I was reminded of Argabright’s bio of Brad Doty when Brad said, “Some days, it seemed Daryl did not like anyone or anything.” Saucier says that he threw that book in the trash.

Another big fan is Duke Cook, who pinned Craig Dori’s ears back about the many reasons why Duke and I will never share a stage. Too bad, because Cook packs a lot of humor and knowledge that could serve our trivia contest well. Anyone who comes to the Indiana State Fairgrounds on January 30 will just have to be content with Tom Bigelow, Johnny Parsons, Steve Chassey, Tracy Hines and Casey Shuman as they field questions from me and the godfather of racing historians, Donald Davidson.

Inspirational Indy 500 story Davey Hamilton roamed IMIS with his former supermodified/champ car crew chief Larry Trigueiro Jr. Back for another chunk of Terre Haute promotions in 2010 (USAC Silver Crown is back on The Action Track on Wednesday, July 21) Davey departed to race a three-quarter midget in Providence, Rhode Island.

Winners of that Dunkin’ Donuts Coffee Cup were Canada’s ISMA supermodified racer Mike Lichty and the sole Rhode Island rep, NASCAR mod god Mike Stefanik. Now that dirt has been bladed away at Albany-Saratoga and Airborne Park, Lichty will get to visit both New York ovals with ISMA in 2010.

Philadelphia’s Chris DeRitis, a 2009 rookie to full-size NEMA midgets (fourth was best in Waterford), raced in successive weekends at three quarter scale in Providence and Wall, New Jersey. Enjoying all three ATQMRA A-main starts were Russ Bailey, Ian Cumens, Frank Fischer, Mike Isles, Mike Janish, Jeff Kot, Matt Roselli, Mike Tidaback and Tim Buckwalter, who scored second on Black Friday.

Wall’s winner was Paul Lotier Jr. His father married into the star-crossed Tobias family and dominated their Penn National modifieds before adding 27 wins in ten sprint car seasons that ended at the 1991 Sharon Nationals when Lotier landed in a wheelchair. Paul II had two fifth-place performances in Providence. He has one more TQ race in Atlantic City next month.

This is the first winter in a while that Chili Bowl does not oppose the Miller Motorsports trade show most recently in Atlantic City. Aligning these stars should enable me to return to Valley Forge like a poor man’s George Washington.

Peace on Earth from 4929 West 14th Street, Speedway, IN 46224 or (317) 607.7841 or Kevin@openwheeltimes.com.

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Talkin’ Turkey

By Kevin Eckert

November 24, 2009 Speedway, Indiana: Time to give thanks. As we shovel turkey and giblets down our collective gullet while glancing at televised football, think about how White Man thanked Red Man for teaching him to plant corn. As soon as the first dishes were cleared, systematic genocide was served for dessert. Tell me again why America has no reason to apologize?

Thanksgiving auto racing means the Turkey Night Midget Grand Prix. Well, it used to. But as much as J.C Agajanian’s children wish to believe otherwise, Turkey Night on asphalt means virtually nothing. Irwindale is an exceptional oval, but USAC pavement has long been a closed club to all but a handful of rich kids.

The last big blast of U.S clay may have been last weekend’s Western World Championship in Tucson, Arizona. Western World racing has seen almost as many changes as the western world itself. First conceived by Keith Hall as an end of 1968 gathering, the Western went from wingless to wings to wingless to wings to wingless and now, winged 360 sprint cars.

This year’s unexpected closing of the Manzanita Speedway on which the Western was conducted for 30 seasons set off a momentary power play. Feisty new promoter Kevin Montgomery was quick to announce how the Western World would go off on his USA Raceway in Tucson, which did not please USAC, sanctioning body on the last five Westerns in Phoenix. They had been in negotiations for a Manzanita replacement that ultimately became Tulare’s Thunderbowl Raceway. For a few weeks, Tucson and Tulare seemed on a collision course. Fortunately, an amicable solution was devised when Emmett Hahn extended an ASCS national title fight (originally slated to close in Little Rock) one week after Thunderbowl hosted its first national USAC event.

Montgomery drew top talent to the desert by matching Little Rock’s Short Track Nationals with a winning sum of $15,000: highest gross possible on the 360 “chitlin” circuit. The only other five-figure paydays available in the division are Knoxville, Skagit, Gray’s Harbor ($10,092 to honor Fred Brownfield), Trophy Cup (12k) and East Bay, which paid $13,000 to its Kings of 360s.

Regard point funds of course, Lucas Oil made ASCS second to none. Sunday’s banquet at the Old Tucson Studios dispensed $250,000 to the Top 15 in national ASCS points: Shane Stewart (60k), Jason Johnson (30k), Gary Wright (25k), Travis Rilat (22k), Paul McMahan (18k), Tim Crawley (16k), Danny Wood (14k), Tony Bruce (12k), Jack Dover (11k), Jesse Hockett (10k), Sean McClelland ($8500), Kenneth Walker (7k), Darren Long (6k), Chad Corken ($5500) and Gary Taylor, who relied on three different car owners to reach $5000 for 15th in point standings.

I raise a glass of Thanksgiving wine to celebrate Shane Stewart and his car owner/crew chief Paul “Pockets” Silva. After their amazing orange Doyle Harley-Davidson team dissolved after 2008, Stewart and Silva were uncertain if they could even attempt an ASCS championship. Paul’s wife Lori is a daughter to Ed Organ, a 1980 Santa Maria CRA winner who added four more with wings at Baylands Raceway Park.

Danny Lasoski took a 360 to Tucson that was no longer circling by Saturday’s final. Though he made 16 starts in 2008 with a 360, Danny’s return to the World of Outlaws made Tucson his first 360 start of the season. Likewise, Lucas Wolfe had been unavailable until Tucson, which was Wolfe’s first 360 start since 2007.

Sammy Swindell, sporting a gash over his eye from a Ricky Stenhouse supporter’s blindside punch in West Memphis, won his third Western World trophy in Tucson. Sammy’s first Western win in 1980 highlighted his second month in Nance Speed Equipment from Wichita, Kansas. His second Western win in 1989 was postponed by rain from Saturday night to a Sunday afternoon when his Harrold Annett Challenger proved vastly superior.

Steve Kinser’s only chance to defeat Swindell that day in ’89 would have been in traffic. Unfortunately for Johnny Herrera, he occupied one of the first cars lapped. Sammy passed without incident but Steve was so eager to keep pace that he forced a dive into turn three that planted Herrera head first in the concrete.

Herrera was one of 14 drivers in two classes at Tucson, where he had won four of eight before Western. Others who went with and without wings in Tucson were Brady Bacon, Ronnie Clark, Jerry Coons, Tim Crawley, Charles Davis, Don Grable, Jesse Hockett, Joshua Hodges, Dustin Morgan, Tom Ogle, Andy Reinbold, Travis Rilat and Rick Ziehl, who secured the ASCS Southwest crown despite missing the final ASCS National A-main.

Bacon has to be sorry to see the season end after a $7000 winged victory in Fort Worth, Texas followed by Tucson’s top wingless prize of $5000. Such momentum should keep Brady in the desert one more week for Canyon.

The brothers McMahan of greater Sacramento were both among Tucson’s 22 legitimate (non-provisional) A-main starters from a field of 81. Prior to the Western World, Bobby and Paul McMahan had been in the same pit only three times this year: Dave Bradway Memorial, Gold Cup and Trophy Cup. Bob’s renaissance season for car owner Steve Harris and crew chief Brian Sperry made them champions of the Silver Dollar Speedway.

Portland, Oregon’s Zach Zimmerly, a 15-year old Civil War winner at Petaluma, followed second-place in the first Sherm Toller Open at Marysville with a road trip through Chowchilla, Charlotte, Fort Worth and Tucson tuned by renowned Sacramento socket-spinners Duke and Scotty McMillen.

Sacramento’s Scott Miller and Shannon Wheatley of Washington were two former Steve Beitler mechanics in Tucson. “Sean the Shark” Becker drove the car owned and maintained by Miller, while “Rooster” Wheatley has a Wolf Weld for his son Austen.

Mike Leslie, a four-time AMRA midget winner with Kevin Montgomery, made his first start of 2009 at his car owner’s Western World Championship. Leslie ran seven Chili Bowls in eight years.

Tucson had a hometown Huebner in the house. Jeremy’s uncle John defeated RMMRA midgets at Albuquerque in 1985, father Jeff won AMRA midget meets at Manzanita and Tucson in ‘89-90, and his grandfather Bob Huebner won the second Western in 1969.

Prior to this year, Tucson’s role in Western World proceedings were three afternoon events on the Corona Speedway that became Raven Raceway and then Tucson Raceway Park. Ohio’s Rick Ferkel won the first two (1980-81) before Ron Kreppel scored one for the locals.

The common thread on those three Tucson wins was Stewart Fabrication of Phoenix, where all three winning sprint cars originated. The other consistent component was the rock-hard tire used by Ferkel for two years before he shipped it to Rick Stewart. After it enabled the unheralded Kreppel to conquer three Hall of Fame names of Keith Kauffman, Jack Hewitt and Gary Patterson, the magic slick went flat in victory lane.

The first Western World Championship in Tucson was a week too late for Rick Stewart, who died of colon cancer. Rick was a great friend to Phoenix auto racing, always quick with a joke no matter what life threw at him. He saw hip surgery as no reason to miss Chili Bowl, using a scooter to patrol the expo building. The 1990 Chili Bowl winner of John Heydenreich was built by Stewart Fabrication. One of Rick’s early students was Dan Drinan, who came to be regarded as one of racing’s best welders. It is sadly ironic that Stewart should leave in the same season as Manzanita.

Saturday’s victory in Ventura’s J.W Mitchell Classic bolstered Brad Kuhn’s campaign to be National Midget Driver of the Year. Kuhn has earned eight midget wins in 2009 over national USAC (Bloomington), regional USAC (Ventura), POWRi (DuQuoin, Jacksonville and Junction), BMARA (Sun Prairie), BCRA (Placerville) and his Chili Bowl preliminary.

Arizona’s Chad Boat scored second in Tulare sprints and Ventura midgets on successive Saturday nights despite having never raced in either arena. His father Billy had reason to smile at the prospect of returning to Ventura Raceway, where Boat toted 12 wins in 24 starts including Turkey Night ‘97.

Brad Loyet’s 18 wins in 2009 is the highest midget mark since Billy Boat bagged 21 in 1995. Before the Boat outburst, Kevin Doty won 16 midget main events in ’94; Ron “Sleepy” Tripp took 19 U.S midget wins in consecutive seasons of 1987-88; Nick “Nokie” Fornoro Jr. won 22 times in 1985; and Rich Vogler was victorious 22 times in ’85 before reaching 23 midget wins in 1988.

Chico, California’s Ryan Kaplan, losing three months of racing after a devastating Indiana Sprint Week spill at Kokomo, was back in the saddle on Las Vegas asphalt and Ventura clay, crossing third on Saturday’s natural turf.

Pismo Beach, California’s Mike Gehringer, a USRC winner at Bakersfield (‘76) and Vegas in 1978, ran the J.W Mitchell Classic at Ventura on Saturday night. Out sight for 17 seasons until the NWWT opened this year, Gehringer gathered seventh in the first Belleville Nationals of 1978.

Did you know that a driver died at that first Belleville Midget Nationals? He was Lowell Voss from Fountain Valley, California.

Cincinnati, Ohio’s Ronnie Wuerdeman, winning two of three Gas City Focus features in 2009, raced a Wally Pankratz midget in the USAC Ford Focus class Saturday at Ventura, where the cast included Washington visitors Gaylon Stewart and Seth Hespe.

Big News from Big Companies in suburban Indianapolis is that car owners Tony Stewart and Kasey Kahne will not seek USAC championships in either sprint or midgets in 2010. In the immediate future, USAC just lost four cars. But in the long run, they can stop tweaking rules and schedules to favor the elite. Let us hope it is not too late. As for their World of Outlaw pursuits, Stewart released Kraig Kinser just after Kahne hired Cody Darrah.

NASCAR may be a festering boil on the backside of American motor sports. As a product of eastern modified racing however, it was cool that so many people learned the name “Reutimann” in 2009. Could anyone have raced more often in the 1970s than Buzzie or Wayne Reutimann? Stationed on a farm just inside of New Jersey, the brothers from Florida raced three nights a week from April through September, countless Tuesdays and Wednesdays, holiday 100-lappers and winter Saturdays on the Golden Gate pavement. When URC sprints joined the Orange County bill, Wayne and Buzzie finished first and second in 1976, the same year Buzz scored sixth against ARDC midgets.

NASCAR’s shadow on the Arizona USAC landscape is not likely to keep Copper World as a November satellite show for the Phoenix mile. Copper on Dirt is likely to land in Tucson near the February USAC date in Las Vegas.

Copper World 2009 included a third RW champ car for Queensland’s Todd Wanless, who has to be the first Australian to ever enter USAC Silver Crown competition.

Dave Darland, using two RW 410 Maxims in Perris and Tulare followed by two 360 units in Tucson, recently reached the 200-win plateau at Winchester according to my database. That total (197 U.S plus three New Zealand midget wins) is a verified minimum because some may have fallen through the cracks of Indiana’s vast publicity machine.

Indiana’s Joey Saldana, Minnesota’s Craig Dollansky and California’s Jonathan Allard are all expected performers Saturday in Auckland, New Zealand. After falling just short of the ASCS crown, Louisiana’s Jason Johnson is slated for Saturday at Toowoomba aboard the Haynes Maxim in which Matthew Reed ran tenth at Brisbane last week.

Australia’s Warren Beard, displaced by Brooke Tatnell’s Titan foreclosure this summer, ended the USAC season in the Perris victory lane alongside Damion Gardner, who then fired Davey Jones for catching him on fire twice in two months.

Brisbane’s Brett Ingliss (better known as “Glenno”) left Titan and Daryn Pittman after four years to return to his homeland, where he helped Andrew Schuerele to sixth-place in Saturday’s World Series opener topped by Tatnell.

Melbourne, Victoria’s Brett Milburn, who made a two-week tour of Knoxville, Quincy, Arcade, Ohsweken and Port Royal this summer, won Saturday on South Australia’s Borderline Speedway.

“Flying Dutchman” Mike Van Bremen was second to Milburn Saturday on Mount Gambier. Following his eighth-place finish to my only Grand Annual Classic experience in 2002, Michael proposed on the Premier frontstretch. Natalie said, “Yes!” and seven years later, they are still married.

Australia’s Northern Territory produced its first Parramatta City winner on Saturday when Ben Atkinson achieved Sydney success. Geographically speaking, Atkinson’s accomplishment is the U.S equivalent of a kid from North Dakota winning at Williams Grove.

“Molly Ivins Can’t Say That, Can She?” is a book that made me laugh out loud at least ten times. Of a failed psychological experiment in college, she wrote, “I ruined a perfectly good rat.” Ivins described the homeless folks along a presidential inauguration route as “favoring a layered look.” I’ve long maintained that a sarcastic sense of humor/irony is our best defense against the random hypocrisy and treachery of politics/life. But rarely have I seen sarcasm wielded like Molly Ivins, who died of breast cancer in 2007.

Molly described the JFK shooting as a Great Shame of the Great State of Texas. Anyone with a television remote will notice an abundance of assassination specials around Thanksgiving, which was ruined in ’63 when Dallas riflemen silenced John F. Kennedy. The question of “Who dunnit?” will remain as eternal as the flame on his grave. But of all the theories, can anyone dispute the mess that Dallas made after the shooting? We can start with how its police force allowed the alleged killer to die in its basement.

I will leave you with a happier Thanksgiving memory of munching turkey and taters in the Manzanita grandstand in 1991. By that point, the Turkey Night Midget Grand Prix had survived 56 years, four tracks and one World War. But when Ascot Park closed in 1990 and Agajanian Enterprises moved Turkey Night to Saugus pavement, Keith Hall held one in Phoenix for the dirt folks. It looked good on paper. But even at half of the traditional distance, only a handful of Manzanita midgets completed 50 laps. Jumping in the Dave Ellis house car that night was Jac Haudenschild, who humbled everyone.

I’m still checking the mailbox for cash flow at 4929 West 14th Street, Speedway, IN, 46224. Voice mail an alibi to (317) 607.7841 or e-mail excuses to Kevin@openwheeltimes.com.

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Three Kings

By Kevin Eckert

November 11, 2009 Speedway, Indiana: America hosted three major sprint car events last weekend. There was the 22nd annual Short Track Nationals in Little Rock, Arkansas; the 14th consecutive running of the Oval Nationals in Perris, California; and third annual World Finals in Charlotte, North Carolina. As winter descends on our continent, summer has again opened Australia and New Zealand to sprints and midgets.

Pushed back by a week, the Short Track Nationals brought 101 cars from 18 states to I-30 Speedway. Much applause is extended to Tony Bruce for banking $15,000 for a second straight year. Tony’s success is good for racing, because he is an independent who sees the Big Picture. At age 25, Tony competed 74 times on 41 tracks in 18 states, yet found time to promote two events. After a full pull with the World of Outlaws (nailing that elusive first win), Bruce recognized ASCS as a sensible alternative to someone from the center of America. His pit area brims with an optimism that is refreshing in an era when everyone whines about their pill draw. As his souvenir shirt might say: Pimpin’ Ain’t Easy.

Wayne Johnson, an Oklahoma native now residing in Iowa, was forced to choose between a Glenn Styres 410 at Charlotte and Al Christoffer 360 when Short Track Nationals bumped back one week. Selecting the second one, Wayne won his I-30 prelim (do they still pay $50 to win?) and grossed $10,000 for second on Saturday. Styres and Mason Hill filled Wayne’s vacancy with Brandon Wimmer, who made both Outlaw A-mains.

Jason Johnson, raised in Louisiana before becoming a Texan like his car owner Lanny Row, won the other I-30 prelim but flipped from Saturday’s final when a flat tire on leader Sammy Swindell scattered pursuit. From Friday’s win circle (eleventh of his stateside campaign), Jason revealed that Row will close The Shop Motorsports after 2009. Together for nine of the last eleven years (apart in 2002-03), Lanny and his Cajun Sensation compiled 69 wins on 41 ovals in 16 states.

Whenever someone stops the financial insanity of owning a race car, the question is not “Why?” but “Why not?” Drivers are a special breed of crazy because they risk death and dismemberment. But in the right situation, they can also earn a living and even raise children. But no sprint car owner can feed a family on what they net after expenses. The only people at a speedway crazier than car owners are the race organizers who burn thousands of dollars every time it rains. Think of them at Christmas.

Busiest man on four wheels (100 starts), Missouri’s Jesse Hockett thrilled the Arkansas audience with a patented charge from deep (row ten) to eighth-place pay of $2400. At the risk of poking holes in a $54,000 A-main purse, Hockett’s reward for advancing 12 spots was only $200 better than if he had taken only one lap, reminiscent of early Kings Royals.

Prior to postponement at I-30, Jesse flew to California to crash with Cody Darrah at Tulare and abandon Trophy Cup for Ventura, where he led until stopping for a red light that inexplicably turned yellow. Lawrenceburg was another weird outing. Upside-down in a multi-car calamity, Jesse jumped out to hammer the bend from his drag link and delayed the restart to lock it in gear. Soon as it fired, Jesse bumped the throttle and clouted the concrete when his fractured steering turned him hard right. Short Track Nationals saw Hockett surrender wrenches to renowned Rod Tiner and boy wonder Kyle Larson, who hustled Jesse’s personal Frankenstein on Friday from B-to-A before flipping on the final lap.

Chico, California’s Jonathan Allard teamed with Mississippi’s Bobby Sparks for sixth at I-30 after winning Thursday heat and Saturday qualifier. Allard will soon arrive in New Zealand along with Little Rock’s Ricky Logan, who made his hometown final. Sparks was the guy who in 1974, unleashed a 19-year old Sammy Swindell for his first laps of Knoxville, Manzanita and Ascot Park.

Missouri’s Dr. Christopher Sloan had two of 107 cars at Short Track Nationals and both made the final 40-lapper. Doc’s drivers were Danny Smith and Tommy Worley Jr. Smith took tenth on the I-30 Speedway that he visited 30 years ago while subbing for an injured and unheralded Bobby Marshall.

Nebraska’s Jack Dover closed the NCRA calendar by winning Wichita for Gary Swenson before bringing ol’ blue to the Arkansas A-main.

Terry Brown of the I-44 truck stop town of Joplin, Missouri returned to the ranks of car owner with Gary Taylor, a Washington native who has followed car owners to Colorado, Oklahoma and Mississippi. Brown was a sprint car winner with Charlie Fisher (’87), Gary Tapp (’88), Jason Earls (’91), Terry Gray (’92-93), Shane Stewart (’96) and son Toby, who brown-bagged a pair of WOW wins in 2006-07.

Ohio’s Ron Hammons, winning five times with J.R Stewart and four more with Dale Blaney in 2009, tapped Kaley Gharst of Decatur, Illinois to drive in Arkansas but they were done after Saturday heat races.

Alto, New Mexico’s Kyle Sager, a Renegade 305 winner in Las Cruces this year, acquired a Tony Stewart Maxim that he brought to Knoxville 360 Nationals and Short Track Nationals.

Texas travelers Marty Stanford and Junior Jenkins were two of Smiley Sitton’s 305 graduates at the Short Track Nationals. Junior jumped to 360s this winter, while Marty made the move in spring.

That provisional starting spots have tarnished the actual accomplishment of making a main event is difficult to dispute. They do little more than please a privileged few. And to throw slow cars in the lead path has changed many an outcome. Little Rock raised the risk factor by adding an A-main spot for Don Grable via raffle. Grable and fellow provisional Justin Sturch also received full starting money ($2200), no doubt irritating those who finished heats and qualifiers ahead of them.

Things That I Wish Would Go Away: Dick Cheney, provisional starting spots, Bud Selig, Geico insurance commercials, Al Davis, holiday roadblocks, Joe Lieberman, dead leaves, and that hollow noise that my car makes when I hit a bump.

Rain on the Razorback State kept Wayne Johnson from Charlotte and Jesse Hockett from defending his Oval Nationals win. But the event most affected by Little Rock’s rescheduling was the USCS Gumbo Nationals at Greenville, Mississippi. Marshall Skinner and Anthony Nicholson finished fifth and tenth Thursday at I-30 and second and fourth Friday at Greenville before returning to Arkansas.

Oval Nationals pulled 52 drivers from six states and Australia. Former prince of Perris, Damion Gardner passed his old Madera Produce ride driven by Mike Spencer after 36 of 40. The $12,500 triumph also served as successful homecoming for Davey Jones, who raised a family near his kid brother Tony in Corona before conjuring The Demon. Davey and Damion’s final Indiana laps of 2009 came in a Dan Drinan Dri-Bar test on Paragon pebbles.

Jerry Coons and Richard Hoffman also took part in the Dri-Bar demonstration with Hunter Schuerenberg and Jeff Walker. The 2009 Oval Nationals was the first in six years to not include the famous Hoffman 69, causing Coons to find a ride with Josh Ford. Jerry closed Kokomo in a Spike owned by New Zealand’s Denny Lendich, an 18-time winner with Sleepy Tripp in 1990-91.

Coons and The Demon (along with Jon Stanbrough, Daron Clayton, Casey Shuman, Thomas Meseraull, Robbie Rice, Bryan Stanfill, Tyler Franklin, Dane Carter, Bones Bourcier, Tony Funk, Craig Dori, Dan Laycock and a band of merry pranksters) converged on Brickyard Crossing to help Dean Mills live the dream of turning 40. A celebration of such scope has not gone off on that hallowed patch since Jim Rathmann won the 500 in 1960.

Bryan Clauson, a California native to the Sacramento suburb of Antelope, extended his incredible 2009 by opening Oval Nationals with a win (still $1500?) in his first Perris sprint race in four years. A week earlier, the eight-year Hoosier displayed his asphalt skill in Las Vegas by winning with Marc DeBeaumont’s midget, raising DMS data to two wins and two seconds in four races.

Anderson, California’s Keith Bloom blitzed from C-to-B-to-A in his first trip to Perris ever. In one Indiana month this summer, Keith made 14 starts on seven tracks that included the revitalized Lincoln Park Speedway, where Bloom won from dead last.

Bedford, Indiana’s Brady Short towed 2000 miles to his fourth straight Oval Nationals (finishing tenth) and brought a second car for Jeff Bland, an Oval rookie last year with Jim Whiteside.

Peter Murphy, a 1995 World Series winner at Claremont and Wagga in his native Australia, won eight of 21 wingless starts this season from his adopted home in Fresno. Oval Nationals lifted Murphy from C-main to within three spots of the A-main. This weekend’s $12,500 plum in Tulare is the most money that Murphy has been able to seek in central California without wings.

R.J Johnson of Phoenix, Arizona (not to be confused with the R.J Johnson who has lived in Florida, Tennessee, Texas and Iowa) has had a quietly exceptional season. Ricky Johnson’s prodigy won six AMRA midget races and four more with an ASCA/ASCS sprint car. And his opportunities are not over because Tucson has three straight nights (November 19-21) plus its New Year’s Eve affair, while Canyon has sprints and midgets on November 27-28.

Bruce St. James, the artist formerly known as Radio Flyer, cracked his first USAC/CRA A-main in three years Thursday at Perris. As we fellow Hall of Fame execs passed in the hall during Knoxville Nationals, St. James had this sage advice: “Stay black.”

Black Angus hatchet man Dennis Roth considered sending a second car to Oval Nationals for Jon Stanbrough before Indiana Underground committed to ship a second unit. Second in both Perris prelims, Stanbrough did not finish in the Saturday money. Roth was represented in Perris by Kevin Swindell, who flipped twice in three nights. So thoroughly did Dennis enjoy Tim Kaeding’s last-to-first run through Trophy Cup that he sent a rig to Charlotte, where Tim topped a C-main ignored by Speed TV. Short Track Nationals would have likely included Kaeding had bad weather not forced a choice.

I try not to be too critical of televised sprint car racing, because I know how valuable it is to sponsors. But they (Speed, ESPN, Versus, Diamond P, Diamond Joe) still don’t get it and probably never will. They’ll show one driver measure another for an inevitable pass, abruptly cut to a car all alone, and then return to the first two subjects, now in a new order. In-car cameras are a large waste of time. And anyone who orders a commercial break in the middle of the last World of Outlaws A-main of the year should be slapped.

World Finals was all-worldly with 57 pilots representing Australia, Canada and half of the 48 continental United States. Car count at The Dirt Track@Lowe’s Motor Speedway was boosted by 25 cars from Pennsylvania, plus Quaker State drivers Cody Darrah and Tim Shaffer. Speed TV’s piece on Cody crushing cars at his dad’s JK Salvage yard was pretty cool.

Pennsylvania Posse sheriff Fred Rahmer raced with the World of Outlaws in Texas (his first Lone Star appearance in 22 years) and North Carolina, where Rahmer finished fifth from row seven.

Pancho’s Racing Products in New Oxford, Pennsylvania (home to Lincoln Speedway) sent a new car to Charlotte for Sam Hafertepe, who was one spot (Joey Saldana) from winning his family’s Outlaw promotion at Lone Star Speedway. Pancho Lawler’s last known associates were Glenndon Forsythe (2006), Jonathan Eriksen (2007), Doug Esh (2008) and Mike Bittinger, who won four Trail-Way 358 features in 2009. Another breath of fresh air like Tony Bruce Jr, Sam Jr. made 80 starts on 45 tracks in 22 states this season.

New York memorabilia merchant Michael Heffner had Curt Michael back in the saddle for the first time since May’s Keystone Cup at Port Royal. Thursday marked Curt’s first Lowe’s laps since 2003. For the first time in six years, URC has a champion other than Curt. That rim riding someone is The Jersey Jet, J.J Grasso.

Kramer Williamson, winner of 66 URC A-mains and three titles, joined the World of Outlaws at World Finals. In his Hall of Fame career, Williamson had an especially versatile 1974 that won seven times with wings, once without (Tampa IMCA), against ARDC midgets at Penn National (in a George Ferguson Offy) followed by SMRC midget success at Bloomsburg in the Meiss 89. Meiss topped the previous Bloomsburg Fair with Kenny Weld before ‘74 SMRC wins with Williamson, Billy Osmun at Flemington and Jim Kirk on Penn National’s flat half-mile.

Nebraska’s Don Droud Jr. and Bernie Stuebgen of Indy Race Parts were fourth at Charlotte with USAC in 2004 and returned to crack Saturday’s World of Outlaws final for Pennsylvania’s Tom Buch.

Ohio’s Ron Gorby, who threw his America’s Best Value Inn support behind Michigan’s Jeremy Campbell for a 2007 World of Outlaws campaign, took Campbell to Concord and made Friday night’s A-main in Jeremy’s first laps in over a year.

Ohio’s Kory Crabtree logs as many laps as possible. He won twice at Wayne County and once at Lakeville this season while peeling wings for Lawrenceburg and Waynesfield whenever feasible. Concord was only second World of Outlaws appearance of Kory’s young career.

Crabtree’s fellow Skyline/Chillicothe competitor Keith Baxter was one of the surprises in the final World of Outlaws A-main of 2009 along with Bob Felmlee and Oregon’s Zach Zimmerly.

Minnesota resident Brooke Tatnell was the lone Aussie in North Carolina on November 7 and will open defense of his World Series crown in Brisbane on November 21. Brooke’s buggy is again built by John Cooley for Shane Krikke and wrenched by Shane Finch, who just completed his second season with Jason Sides.

The main obstacle between Tatnell and a sixth World Series crown will probably be Robbie Farr, who won his third straight Parramatta City show last week. In their August preparation for Gold Cup, Rob’s crew chief Nick Speed hot-lapped the East Coast Pipeline piece at Petaluma. Farr raised the number of Aussies who circled Silver Dollar in 2009 to six, following Kerry Madsen, Clem Hoffmans, Trevor Green, Paul Morris and Wayne Rowett.

Kerry Madsen, recently bagging Brisbane as sub for Todd Wanless, is driving for Western Australia’s Geoff Kendrick, who employed U.S pilots Brock Mayes (2006), Mark Dobmeier (2007), Chad Blonde (2008) and Tim Shaffer in 2009. Kerry and Kendrick will race Saturday at Manjimup Speedway.

Roddy Bell-Bowen, who made 23 starts on 16 U.S speedways in 2009, finished seventh Saturday at Parramatta City, matching his best stateside finish at Hartford, Michigan.

Matthew Reed, racing 26 times on 18 U.S speedways in 2009, was second Saturday at Avalon to match his best stateside finish at Mercer, Pennsylvania.

Bellevue, Ohio teenager Cap Henry, twice a winner with 305 cubic inches before becoming a 410 rookie in 2009, is four weeks into his first Australian adventure in Brisbane, Queensland. It has not gone well.

Wichita, Kansas crewman Brandon Ikenberry, a member of Terry McCarl’s team in 2009, went halfway around the world in South Australia to begin his sprint car driving career in Adelaide, Tolmer and Murray Bridge.

Davenport, Iowa’s Davey Ray, losing three months of 2009 to heal leg injuries incurred during the Chad McDaniel tragedy at Knoxville, won the Magic Man 34 that honors Mike Figliomeni in Perth, Western Australia. Davey defeated Nathan Smee, who had won three straight from Brisbane to Sydney.

Western Australia’s Dene McAllan did not finish the Magic Man 34. McAllan made 20 U.S starts this season, beginning with six midget appearances before belting into the Baldwin sprint car. Ninth at Lincoln Park proved to be Dene’s best for Baldwin, who returned to Oval Nationals last week with Justin Grant.

I just finished reading Mickey Thompson’s biography, learning how he created organized drag racing in 1955, how Bobby Ferro’s father was an accomplished desert racer, and how Michigan swamp buggy enthusiast Ted Nugent became such a good friend that he suggested a Thompson gun upon hearing of the threats on Mickey’s life that became very real on March 16, 1988. I was also unaware that the murder of Mickey and wife Trudy was eventually (19 years after the shooting) pinned on rival stadium promoter Michael Goodwin. On a happier note, The Munsters episode when Herman and Grandpa turn a coffin into a rail dragster was filmed at the Lions Drag Strip promoted by Thompson.

Colorado’s Sid Bubak, proprietor of Sid’s Golden 66, never approached Mickey Thompson for acclaim but to my knowledge, was never the target of a murder plot. Sid was my friend and Sid is gone, as a recent phone call from his son Rich did reveal. It was the 1986 Western World at Manzanita that prompted Sidney and wife Marlys to pool resources for one World of Outlaws season that forever affected the lives of Rich and his overwhelmed crew chief (come to think of it, since Mile-High Racing had no crew, I could not have been crew chief). Death did not come swiftly for Sid, but he lived long enough to see Rich race a modified coupe alongside granddaughter Jaime. For a guy who smiled so easily, Sid must’ve really been grinnin’ at Colorado National that night.

My new neighbors hope the leaves get raked at 4929 West 14th Street, Speedway, IN, 46224. But the business end of (317) 607.7841 and kevin@openwheeltimes.com says that snow will soon cover that problem.

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Moody Mile Memories

By Kevin Eckert

November 4, 2009 Speedway, Indiana: First words from a new house. I have changed addresses all of my life. There were three in New Jersey, four in Allentown, six months in California and two residences in Reading, Pennsylvania. Three army bases and three years of national discovery later, father fielded my mail from Arizona, recycling press releases by typing race results on the back. I did discover that Indiana was the place for me. But after four Hoosier home spaces, I drifted to Oklahoma to build Open Wheel Times, out to Arizona for six months (thanks Ty) before coming back to Indiana where as of November 1, Dean Mills and I reside at 4929 West 14th Street. Yes, we actually moved one block north and four clicks east. Excluding the army, it is my 18th home.

Halloween candy would have been a good way to meet my new neighbors. But that required purchasing chocolate for strangers. I withdrew instead to my grand new Stat Cave, of which I am very proud. Thirteen milk crates now stand precisely stacked full of Open Wheel, Flat Out, Trackside, Sprint Car & Midget, Stock Car Racing, National Speedway Directory, National Sprint Car Annual, Dirt Track Fury, USAC media guides, World of Outlaws yearbooks, Penn National programs, Sports Illustrated swimsuits and any artifact of Oakland Raider respectability. Milk crates have long doubled as my magazine racks and furniture. To read the dairies (Johanna, Freeman, Clover) from which they originated is to map my own origins north on the Delaware and west on Lehigh and Schuylkill Rivers.

Barring a flight to Tucson, frosty ride to Kansas City or some act of god (quite a stretch for an atheist), my 2009 racing season is complete. It will soon be trade show season. And since bigger houses require bigger rent, I must sell, sell, sell, which I hate.

My first Saturday in the new digs clicked Syracuse modifieds on Speed TV. Syracuse still holds a special place in my heart. It was (is) the biggest event on the biggest track for the eastern cult of modified stock car racing. We natives of New Jersey followed those cars. Everyone we knew went to Syracuse at the end of September, beginning with my uncle George, who attended its first Schaefer 100 in 1972 and to this day, demands its latest program book to keep his collection complete.

George was a garage rat; just the type of modified man that college boy Glenn Donnelly hoped to recruit to the New York State Fairgrounds. Glenn’s timing was perfect because George was among the thousands displaced by the 1971 loss of Langhorne, home to the Race of Champions that climaxed each modified season. Almost immediately, they flocked to Syracuse. We followed them up I-81 in 1974.

I was 11 years old, and waking at three AM for a four-hour ride to the biggest race of the year was a Big Deal. Mom packed sandwiches and everything. Sunrise over Scranton held the promise of something special.

Windshield wipers were on as we approached the Salt City. Weather is the constant enemy of any multi-day outdoor event, but never more so than Syracuse around Columbus Day. The Great Lake of Ontario is 30 miles away, bringing anything from snow to rain and every ten years or so, sunshine. To a half-mile hero from Weedsport or East Windsor, it took gumption to wake to sleet, down a cup of coffee and barrel down the mile’s bicycle path of a backstretch to a shaded turn three that may or not have defrosted.

On that first trip, the sky cleared, we found our seats overlooking turn one, and Bob made the acquaintance of someone from Lebanon Valley. Dad did this frequently, usually when he overheard someone asking who drove a particular car. A quarter of the way through the ’74 Schaefer 100, Reading messiah Kenny Brightbill grew tired of tucking low to protect fourth-place and sailed into the lead with one outside sweep of turn one, a move which may still be unduplicated and one which brought dad’s new friend to his feet.

“Did you see that?” The Valley guy asked.

Bob Eckert smiled, puffed on his Telly Savalas cigarette and said, “Buddy, I watch him do that every week.”

Brightbill’s junkyard Chevy seized 12 miles from the finish and it would take 14 years for him to finally win his division’s biggest race. Taking over was the gleaming Gremlin built by Whip Mulligan for Billy Osmun, who led Merv Treichler’s asphalt conversion when rain reached turn three. Under caution, Osmun pointed skyward to the flagman, who dropped the checkered on lap 95 of 100. “Marvelous Merv” rammed “Billy O” with an anger eventually tempered somewhat in 1981-82 when Treichler topped Syracuse with a Maynard Troyer-built Mud Bus.

So rich was the Syracuse purse in 1974 that the biggest sprint car stars of the era, Jan Opperman and Kenny Weld, were among its 53-car field. By our arrival, Weld had already established a one-lap modified mark that would stand for some time. In 1977, he returned with big wings and big Chevy sprint car to reclaim the World Record he set at Dover in ‘73. And as anyone from New York or New Jersey will tell you, 1980 is when Kenny was contracted on a deal with the devil (Gary Balough) to destroy modified racing via Miami vice.

Opperman ran the ’72 Race of Champions at Trenton for Jack Tant and ’74 Schaefer 100 at Syracuse for Joey Lawrence. Like most of Jan’s rides, Joey’s car was not much to see: a flat black Mustang with a splash of gold and white Number 16. But the owner knew how to make horsepower. Opperman timed tenth of 152 qualifiers. A week later, Jan ran the Schmidt’s 200 at Reading for Bob Eppihimer, so pleased to have the legendary preacher grace his seat that he carved Opperman’s trademark cross in the nose. A year later, Jan skipped Syracuse for Gold Cup but was ready to return for a possible 1976 USAC Dirt Championship when he suffered life-altering injuries in the Hoosier Hundred.

During his agonizing road to recovery, Opperman was befriended by modified legend Will Cagle, who provided a car for Jan at the ’77 Syracuse 100, which rained out. Before that difficult verdict, I remember Jan addressing early arrivals in some kind of Sunday service/solicitation for his Montana ranch for troubled kids.

When he was hurt in ’76, Opperman was replaced as Bobby Hillin’s driver by Al Unser, winner of 14 mile grinds in eight seasons yet too slow for the ’76 Salt City 100. That never happened to Unser again because he left Syracuse so humiliated that he rejected any more Dirt Champ car offers.

Kenny Weld’s strategy for his only Schaefer 100 was to pit late and hope a heavy fuel load would increase traction on the ultra-slick surface. But he hit the raised road to the pits too hot, bounced in the air and broke a shock. That was Kenny’s original modified, which he sold to the Statewide Fencing team of Osmun, nitrous oxide system intact. During the ’75 Syracuse 100, “Billy O” made an extra pit stop yet was all over winner Dick Tobias at the end.

Toby’s triumph stirred mixed emotions. I was not a fan. To me, he was the dull guy downstairs perpetually stretching the rules. I had seen him disqualified so therefore, he was a cheater. Only later did I come to appreciate the indelible mark that Richard Lincoln Tobias left on all of eastern auto racing. It was also lost on my young mind that unlike most weekend warriors, Tobias had raced on miles from Langhorne and Nazareth to Springfield and DuQuoin before starring at Syracuse, where he was such a perennial polesitter that the achievement was posthumously named in his honor after Toby turned his last lap at Flemington in ’78.

As a 12-year old, I naturally boarded the bandwagon by declaring Toby’s Syracuse score one for the Reading regulars. Brother and I grabbed the soot-covered fencing and cheered our little lungs out. We helped convince the gate guard that the lady in the pink pantsuit was really Mary Tobias, wife and winning car owner (Toby keen to tax shelters) who must get to victory lane at once. Color photos show a black soot smudge on Mary’s pink sleeve.

Heading home from Syracuse on a Sunday night never left many options for food. When father finally found a greasy spoon somewhere north of Binghampton, we were surprised to see Toby, Davey Brown and crew at the same diner. Though he had just reached the peak of his sport, Dick Tobias considered himself an everyday Dutchman.

Super DIRT Week ’75 grew into a two-day experience so that father could fulfill his goal of seeing supermodifieds at Oswego. We arrived late from rain-delayed time trials for 248 modifieds to a shining Steel Palace on the hill. I can still feel my seat shake when those big blocks opened the throttle off turn four. The wildest weapon was a gun metal gray rear-engine, four-wheel drive device built by Bill Hite and driven by Fred Graves, who cut through the field twice before losing a wheel in a shower of sparks. It was the car’s last race at Oswego because four-wheel drive was banned before their 1976 opener.

We dirt trackers chose Oswego asphalt over the KARS sprint race at Weedsport in an indication of the high regard that dad had for Oswego, home of one division for one solid purse just like Reading. The following afternoon, Donnelly invited a handful of sprint cars to the mile for an exhibition. The following Fourth of July was the first winged sprint race ever at Syracuse. It was won by the Weikert Livestock big block of Paul Pitzer. Before the ’76 Schaefer 100, Bentley Warren hot lapped his ragged super to feed the reality of pitting Oswego cars against Pennsylvania sprint cars for Super DIRT Week ‘78. To help the heavy supers stay competitive, sprint teams were told to leave wings at home, which became a recipe for disaster. The carnage was incredible. Randy Wolfe bounced down the backstretch like an orange basketball.

Sprint cars were given their wings for the ’79 Syracuse Super Nationals. But by that time, father had enough of the Moody Mile. Though he had seen through the charade right away, dad probably continued coming to Syracuse for the sake of his sons. Sure, there were stars from Buffalo and Albany who rarely if ever reached Reading. But the track has never been a place to see a good race, and a factory worker with two boys could not justify the expense.

Looking back, I can see dad’s difficulty. He rented a motel room in ’75 but slept three to a Hornet in ’76, waking to snow flurries. That was the year when Donnelly moved his USAC Champ Car date to Super DIRT Week. Dad knew how much I wanted to see those cars but could not afford three tickets, so he sent us in without him. By the ’77 USAC return, father was part of Keystone Auto News and hoped persuasive editor Barry Shultz might swing a press pass. But ol’ Gert was unmoved, so we began the long walk around turns three and four to watch the Salt City 100 from the bed of a truck outside the backstretch.

Suddenly, there was the horrible sound of metal on concrete and an over-revving engine. We peered through the railing and dust to see Jim Hurtubise scramble from his botched time trial. What may have been the final Dirt Car attempt by the native New Yorker was sadly, the last for James McElreath, who was killed a day later at Winchester while the Schaefer 100 was being rained out.

The charred hands of Jim Hurtubise brought Leon Harrison’s words to mind. Leon won big with little engines but never quite clicked with a modified. He tackled Syracuse a few times with an orange car built by John Burnett and owned by Henry Verity, who counted uncle George Eckert among its volunteer crew. Super DIRT Week ’76 was the first champ car event to ever have modifieds in the same pit. Leon watched various Indy Car heroes hobble by with bent or useless limbs and asked, “Does a driver have to be half crippled to run USAC?”

Leon was no longer racing by the sixth Syracuse modified classic, postponed until April of ’78. We returned for its one-day conclusion to witness more mangled modifieds than I had ever seen. Virtually all B-main transfers were trashed on the absurdly-skinny backstretch. Kevin Collins cleaned the cage above Wayne Reutimann while Glenn Fitzcharles burst into flames.

Dad never did return. He correctly determined that the best aspect of Syracuse were the Syracuse qualifiers that visited selected short tracks on Tuesdays and Wednesdays of summer. These races brought some of the biggest modified stars to Nazareth and Flemington like the All Star League of old.

These were but a handful of memories that washed over me when I saw Syracuse on Speed TV. When the enormous starting field funneled blindly into the first dusty corner, I was glad to be somewhere else.

To make the broadcast interesting, I downed a shot of tequila each time the imbecile Kenny Wallace began a sentence with, “I’m ‘on tell you what” like his southern fried mentor Larry McReynolds. To hear talking heads like Larry, Kenny, Dee Dubya and retarded Terry Bradshaw is to easily understand why kids can’t read.

I’m hoping the snail mail will find me at 4929 West 14th Street, Speedway, IN 46224.

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Hall of Fame Games

By Kevin Eckert

October 14, 2009 Speedway, Indiana: Home of the Speedway Spark Plugs. What else would American alliteration tag such a team? October is deep into the season of football, still America’s strongest religion. Even speedways as fiercely supported as Williams Grove know better than to continue to compete against the Friday Night Lights cast on Cumberland Valley Eagles, state high school champs in 1992 when they were led by that poster child for bloody fullbacks, Jon David Ritchie.

Skill behind the wheel of a raging race car always inspired me more than anything with a ball or stick. That being said, football has forever been my favorite of the four major U.S games. Baseball, basketball and hockey have never reduced me to a raving lunatic like pro football. I am, after all, from Pennsylvania - first place to ever pay a man to play the game.

On most weekends in the winter my corner of Allentown asphalt, young turks would select a patch of frozen turf on which to wage the game. We’d layer on the thermal, sweaters and jerseys of our favorites (I was Fred Biletnikoff: 25), comb the field for rocks or dog droppings, choose sides and knock the snot out of each other all afternoon. We hoped for snow to cushion the blow. The injured were shamed back into play and those who begged out were roundly ridiculed. It remains a rite of passage in Pennsylvania. I later recognized this same “never too cold to have fun” attitude at those early eastern openers at Reading, Bridgeport and Hagerstown. Some of the same people who brave frozen football stadiums in Penn State and Philadelphia stand also on Beer Hill at The Grove.

The reasons about why football appeals to auto racers and their brethren are vast. First off, eighteen weeks of professional games fall perfectly between what is traditionally the off-season of U.S racing. In some years, the Super Bowl (NFL finale) has gone off mere days and miles from the year’s first Florida sprint car race. Secondly, football is a violent collision sport like auto racing; far less deadly yet far more destructive to body and mind.

That last point was pounded home by a recent profile of John Mackey, drafted out of Syracuse University to revolutionize the “tight end” position as a Baltimore Colt. A decade of meeting linebackers now finds Mackey suffering dementia like Mike Webster, the great Pittsburgh Steeler center who, according to autopsy, accumulated the equivalent of “25,000 car crashes.”

Auto racing has no cautionary tale like Webster or Mackey; no one on a slow degenerative path to mental illness such as a prize fighter. In racing, head injuries are swift and severe. The incomparable Jan Opperman took two blows to the brain (Hoosier Hundred ’76 and Jennerstown ‘81) and remained incoherent for most of his remaining days. Travis Rutz is right now in the same Methodist Hospital as Opperman was 33 years ago. Rutz regains movement a little each day.

The affects of comparatively minor concussions is a study that football was forced to make. Webster’s family was awarded 1.18 million dollars. Most of us can name a racer knocked unconscious who climbed back in just as soon as the car (rather than the brain) was fixed. John Heydenreich and Dennis Moore spring to mind. Even a junior high quarterback has to bluff a team doctor before he gets to put the helmet back on. By contrast, has a car ever been parked simply because its driver has amnesia? I only saw it once in 1996 near the litigation capital of Los Angeles when a mysterious man in a trench coat stepped between Richard Griffin and his third ride of the night, looked deep in his eyes and waved his hands in the air the way a boxing referee stops a fight.

The fast kid from Silver City, New Mexico who grew to be The Gas Man, Griffin has been five years out of the saddle, which qualifies him as candidate for the hall of fame. Another parallel between sprint racing and football is that such selections come at the close of the calendar year. Does The Gas Man get in? I believe that he will, though maybe not immediately. In racing and football, that immediacy is important to people who view anything longer than a First Ballot slam dunk as some backhanded compliment.

I am not one of those people. When a person’s plaque hits the hall, there is no distinction that it came by first, second or third ballot. It simply does not matter. What should matter is that for every knee jerk reaction to someone’s 50th birthday (the other criteria with death), another old guy gets forgotten. I do not feel as strongly for Richard Griffin as I do about Bobbie Adamson, Johnny Anderson, Jimmy Boyd, Gene Brown, Bobby Davis, Frankie Kerr, Charlie Lloyd, Jon Singer and Gary Wright.

From the Pittsburgh suburb of Corapolis, Bobbie Adamson came east to drag central Pennsylvania kicking and screaming into the sprint car era. He and Wilbur Hawthorne won 23 times during that pivotal 1967 campaign capped at Ascot Park when they showed what a wing could do. Just as good without a cage over his head, Bob beat IMCA on the Tampa sand and Allentown cinders. Adamson won the Williams Grove National Open in 1968, and teamed with Al Hamilton to be the biggest winners on the very first All Star circuit of 1970.

Johnny Anderson of Sacramento, California is another pioneer of the late-60s shift from square supermodifieds to round-tail sprint cars. That same sprint car set off a second revolution in Australia, which should merit some extra U.S credit. John won at Calistoga with and without a roll cage, and won on the Phoenix mile asphalt. Summoned to the fledgling World of Outlaws in 1979 by Sacramento neighbor Ken Woodruff, he won at East Bay, Tulsa and Champaign on his first trips. He won the Gold Cup in ‘74 and again in 1980 just five weeks before a massive head injury rendered John half the racer he used to be.

Jimmy Boyd from Hayward, California was Woodruff’s driver before Anderson. They are most famous for winning the first World of Outlaws final in 1978, but Boyd had long been a star. Eleven years earlier, Jim became a Calistoga NARC winner without a roll cage, later conquering San Jose pavement as well. Drifting east in the early-70s, Boyd came home with a Charlie Lloyd-built dagger that was a full second faster than any of supers that trailed him at the Gold Cup of 1973. Moving to Pennsylvania for two seasons, Boyd won on both Groves, New York and New Jersey. Home again, Boyd and Woodruff helped develop sprint racing in Washington, where Jim won three Dirt Cups. They dropped south to Ascot Park and beat CRA. They won in Knoxville and Nebraska. Upon parting with Woodruff, Boyd continued to win for six years, embracing wings at the new Baylands Raceway Park. For extra credit, Jim married Jay Opperman’s widow.

Gene Brown from Phoenix, Arizona won anything Manzanita Speedway had to offer: sprint cars without roll cages, midgets with roll cages, supermodifieds with wings, quarter-mile, half-mile or the dirt mile at the state fairgrounds. “Tiger” won at least one sprint race at Manzanita for eleven solid seasons. For the first Pacific Coast Open at Ascot in 1972, Brown defeated six Hall of Fame names in Gurney, Hogle, Oskie, Thompson, Weld and Wilkerson. Sprint car numbers for Anderson and Brown would loom larger had they not divided time as some of their region’s finest midget racers. The National Sprint Car Hall of Fame now contains Davey Brown, Don Brown and Allan Brown. The time has come to add Gene “Tiger” Brown.

Memphis, Tennessee’s Bobby Davis Jr. was the complete package who “could take a pile of tubing to victory lane” as Bob Weikert once said. When he was 15, little Bobby was garage rat to his dad’s Davis Electric sprint car built by Tommy Sanders and driven by Sammy Swindell, jumping in the rig whenever school allowed. By the time he began, Bob was wise beyond his years. It took less than two full seasons to become the first 18-year old winner of a World of Outlaws race. Before he won another, Davis was off to central Pennsylvania to pound out 25 wins in 75 Weikert Livestock starts in 1983. After one season, Bob began pursuing an outlaw championship that took six years largely because Bob’s career labored under the shadow of Steve Kinser, Sammy Swindell and Doug Wolfgang. That three-headed hydra even haunted Bob’s biggest accomplishments like his ’86 Western World (Wolfgang was disqualified), 1989 Kings Royal (Doug and Sammy got wrecked) and only outlaw, which came during something of a strike season. Davis did not dominate but became a Top Five fixture with numbing efficiency, especially satisfying to someone who often served as his own crew chief. Also recognize how Ford dealer Casey Luna required Davis to drag an extra 60 pounds for three years. During an earlier three-year stretch, everyone at the East Bay Winter Nationals left Florida with less money than Bobby Davis Jr.

Frankie Kerr from the Philadelphia suburb of Bensalem, Pennsylvania was another complete package. When he was a kid in quarter midgets, Frank was already building and selling engines to the competition. To the end of his driving career, Kerr remained a rare bird by rebuilding his team’s engines. Frankie won more races with brains than balls by learning to grip some the slickest dirt. Before twice breaking his back, when he was a 22-year old with 454 cubic inches of modified motor, Frankie Kerr let it rip around the rim. Few adapted as quickly from a 2600-pound Gremlin to 1400-pound Buckley. In his tenth time in a sprint car, Kerr became a Selinsgrove winner. It took him a dozen races at Williams Grove to win, closing that rookie 1983 season with a $10,000 win on the Nazareth mile. Upon boarding the Bob Fetter Ford, he moved to Selinsgrove and seemed content to knock off his URC once in a while. Teaming with Stan Shoff changed Kerr’s life. He relocated to Fremont, Ohio to better chase the All Star Circuit of Champions. Acting as crew chief to a car that never fell out, Kerr’s consistency was epic: 501 of 591 All Star races ended with him in the Top Five. To try to match his points seemed pointless as four years ended with Frank as champ. His wingless record was remarkable: 13 wins in 37 A-mains. During the great pavement scare of ’91-92, Kerr took his common sense to asphalt and became the fastest man at Flemington or Kansas City. Can you name another sprint racer who won with the World of Outlaws, All Stars, USAC, CRA, SCRA, NCRA, IRA, URC and AWOL?

Did you know that all 1979-1980 World of Outlaw wins by Lynn Paxton, Smokey Snellbaker, Kramer Williamson, Allen Klinger and Bill Stief occurred in cars from Lloyd Enterprises in Highspire, Pennsylvania? Charlie Lloyd and his son Mike came ashore from hydroplane boat racing to revolutionize The Grove. As a driver, Mike won four of five Selinsgrove shows to end 1973 but after two years, he surrendered the seat. California’s Jim Edwards won six times in three years (worse than Mike) and in the summer of ’77, the Lloyds began a legendary six-year run with Larry Snellbaker that netted 62 checkereds highlighted by the National Open, Tuscarora 50 and Syracuse Super Nationals. Lloyd thrived beneath skinny 4x4 wings, lowering the right sideboard to increase air flow, and shifting it to the left to better drive that corner with the 312 inches of the KARS era. In this department, Charlie went to such extremes that Smokey began carrying the right front wheel down The Grove’s pipeline chutes; a tactic still in vogue.

Such mechanical innovations or contributions to winning automobiles are difficult to quantify. In that respect, sprint car crewmen are like offensive linemen in football because there are few statistics to measure them. Only the winning team can know who steers the ship and who is along for the ride. A good crew chief is a good coach. And like a coach, sometimes their best work happens with the least talent. When a winning driver chooses a chief mechanic and continues to win, the mechanic will compile impressive numbers but less respect than if they had won less with someone of lesser ability. Adding to this fog of dispensing accolades is the uncertainty of exactly when a certain mechanic played on a particular team.

All of that aside, Jon Singer of Tipton, Missouri belongs in the hall. During my Davis research, I realized how a persuasive case can be made for Tom Sanders but for now, Singer is the subject. The man walked with Jesus for Christ’s sake and absolutely helped Jan Opperman become a mythic figure. Most agree that the 1976 Tony Hulman Classic victory over USAC by the outlaw Opperman was a watershed moment. Well, without Singer staying up all night to make chicken salad from a chicken shit 302, Jan would have been wiping oil off his moccasins. Jan and Jon first joined forces for a successful summer of ’71 in central Pennsylvania that culminated at the Knoxville Nationals. Singer won Nationals again in 1976 with Eddie Leavitt and Fred Aden. He helped Roger Rager into the 1980 Indianapolis 500, Shane Carson into the Knoxville Nationals, and Ron Shuman’s orange Ofixco cars at times. When Wolfgang assembled his dream team in 1989, Doug enlisted Singer to build engines that won 43 of 80 including another Knoxville Nationals. In recent local business, Jon Singer assembled the 360 that propelled Josh Fisher to the Winged Outlaw Warrior championship of 2009.

The stigma of 360 racing in an era when 410s still rule the turnstiles will prove interesting as that climate continues to change. Despite considerable 410 accomplishments early in his career, Gary Wright of Hooks, Texas was expected to be a 360 test balloon. Racing the Masters Classic this year signifies Gary as a 50-year old candidate for 2010 induction. He should be as automatic as anyone with 318 wins in a division that was not even Gary’s first choice. In 1993, he took a seat on the NCRA 410 throne and stayed for seven years. After switching to 360s like any good businessman along the Texas/Arkansas line, Wright added four consecutive crowns against ASCS. Also in ’93, he defeated the World of Outlaws, All Star Circuit of Champions and Interstate Racing Association. Told that the recent induction of URC 360 king Glenn Fitzcharles might help his case, Wright said, “Who?”

Just for kicks, I pieced together my own football dream team from those not yet in the Pro Football Hall of Fame in Canton, Ohio. On offense, my guards are Russ Grimm and Steve Wisniewski, tackles are Tony Boselli and Jimbo Covert, and Jay Hilgenberg centers the ball to Ken Stabler, who hands to Roger Craig or Herschel Walker, fires deep to Cliff Branch or short to Allentown’s Andre Reed or tight end Russ Francis. To stop such a juggernaut, I’d send Charles Haley and Ed "Too Tall" Jones around the edges while Joe Klecko plugged the run. In my 3-4, Pat Swilling, Cornelius Bennett, Karl Mecklenburg and Sam Mills would play linebacker, safeties are Steve Atwater and Nolan Cromwell, and Albert Lewis and Lester Hayes act as shutdown corners. If I ever need a punter, Ray Guy’s the guy.

The punter has proven to be the best player on the last seven versions of the Oakland Raiders. And when Shane Lechler hits the mammoth video screen of the new Cowboy Stadium, it might be the highlight of the Raider season.

On my typically atypical path through 100-person towns that require three houses of worship, I was struck by a way to lessen America’s money trouble. California’s pending legalization and taxation of marijuana is of course, an idea too good to suppress any longer. But what if we were to tax churches? Half would go out of the business of selling salvation, and then those nice abandoned buildings could become affordable housing.

Radical ideas always percolate at 4979 West 13th Street, Speedway, IN, 46224 or (317) 607.7841.

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Autumn Arrives

By Kevin Eckert

October 2, 2009 Speedway, Indiana: Hoosier State sprint car devotees have long included Eldora Speedway as part of Indiana. In physical terms, Rossburg, Ohio is only 15 miles from Union City, Indiana. And spiritually speaking, Eldora has forever provided the high speed proving ground of the type of traditional open cockpit competition that is Indiana’s identity.

The shadow of a roll cage had yet to cross a sprint car in 1962 when USAC champions Jim Hurtubise and Parnelli Jones first visited Eldora and were dusted by Little York, Indiana’s Stan Bowman, the first Terre Haute fatality two months later. In the 47 years since Stan’s upset, every Eldora season has included a USAC visit. An annual rite of winter was a cold spring afternoon (Jan Opperman won in ’74 with nose broken by a frozen clump), summer shows under the lights and for nine autumns in a row, Eldora USAC activity closed with Sunday afternoon Twin 50s.

The last Twin 50s at Eldora were shared by Larry Dickson and Sheldon Kinser in 1980 when USAC sprint numbers plummeted. Then as now, pavement proved as unpopular as a 355 engine in a “run whatcha brung” world. Motor rules relaxed to accept local iron. That pivotal 1980 season was also the first in USAC history to award champ car points on half-miles at Williams Grove, Tulsa and Terre Haute. Beyond his backstretch, Eldora’s Earl Baltes had been building a mile for champ cars among other things. But once USAC consented to run Big Cars on half-miles, Baltes booked two dates beginning with the ’81 opener for ABC-TV.

The second Eldora champ car race provided the final 50 laps of the first Four Crown Nationals: USAC Silver Crown, USAC Sprints, USAC Midgets and USAC Stock Cars on one ticket. Yes, children, USAC once had a semi-viable fender class. This year’s World 100 winner Bart Hartman is the son of a Butch who won five straight titles. By adopting contemporary late model skin, USAC delayed its execution. To fans, it barely mattered because Four Crown is an open wheel festival. Stock cars were never more than a distraction, though it was cool when Billy Moyer blew in from Pittsburgh on Sunday morning to start last and blitz the field. Once full fenders perished, Baltes substituted UMP modifieds that continued through the rain-soaked 2007 edition under Tony Stewart, the new boss who began the next two with World of Outlaws on Friday as a Four Crown weekend.

Midgets never enjoyed solid footing under Earl. Until his first Four Crown, the screaming four-cylinders had only run five Eldora events. Frankly, they scared Earl as much as anyone with an ounce of concern for flesh and blood. After the first Four Crowns went without incident, Baltes added two years of WWAR midgets until a brutal backstretch calamity paralyzed Jeff Nuckles in 1984. Despite the advances of safety in 25 years, everyone at Eldora still holds their breath knowing that any midget that starts to flip will do so for a sickeningly long time. During qualifying in 1986, Joe Corrigan covered most of the frontstretch and last year, Ricky Stenhouse struck the concrete exiting the second corner and landed near turn three.

Eldora midgets may be as frightening as on the Phoenix mile but just like at PIR, they are almost always the best part of Four Crown’s asphalt equivalent: Copper Classic. Last year’s Eldora midget match between J.J Yeley and Dave Darland was an absolute classic as they traded the lead four times per lap for six mesmerizing miles. After an ambulance shipped Stenhouse, they went right back at it until Yeley ultimately prevailed.

USAC midgets were so good at Eldora in 2008 that fans partially excused the weak sprint and champ car races that followed. If dusty sprint racing and rubbery champ car chicken is what we must swallow for a spectacular midget race, hand me the goggles. This year however, even Eldora midgets blew, and I don’t mean dust.

Part of that was Brad Sweet’s fault. He reminded me of Stenhouse (without the violence) because each attacked Eldora at World of Outlaws warp speed with 410 cubic inches less than 24 hours before squeezing everything from 174ci. The difference in speed is vast. Sweet’s first DirectTV hook-up circled at 13.07 compared to 16.88 in the Mopar midget, which must look like a 100mph change-up to a batter looking for fastballs. From the start of his heat, Sweet drove a Spike through the heart of all in his wake, though Brad Kuhn kept him in sight.

Brad Sweet’s appearance in the World of Outlaws ride previously reserved for Craig Dollansky was a hot topic, as is anything pertaining to NASCAR-funded Super Teams. Before the 2009 season, the winged side of Kasey Kahne Racing matched Tony Stewart Racing by adding a second team. As with TSR and Donny Schatz, KKR’s choice was an already-established package: hard-drivin’ Dollansky and his seasoned crew of Mike Woodring and Lester Groves. Rather than impose products on guys who routinely outran Joey Saldana in 2008, KKR converted Saldana to the Maxims favored by Dollansky. The shock package however, can never be questioned. Willie Kahne builds those for WoO and USAC sides of the shop. As the 2009 outlaw season has transpired, the Joe/Willie combination has clearly balanced its Maxims under the new wing rules better than Dollansky and Woodring understood their new components. Woodring was handed his walking papers at Burlington, Iowa in July. Dollansky lasted two more months until the Wednesday he promoted in Spencer, Iowa. Two nights later when the DirectTV Maxim pushed out at Eldora, it had Sweet in the seat. KKR appears headed away from any USAC commitment for 2010, though Kahne seems committed to versatile Mr. Sweet.

In this last month of the season, Kahne and Saldana have a very real possibility of replacing Stewart and Schatz as champions of the World of Outlaws. With eight events remaining, 38 points separate leader Donny Schatz, second-place Jason Meyers and the circuit’s biggest winner, Saldana. KKR has yet to be a championship organization. But an acquisition by millionaires Kahne or Stewart would not inspire like one by Elite Racing, built by Meyers through the sale, finance, development and landscaping of central California. And where KKR abandoned its in-house JEI chassis, Meyers pioneered a KPC from (Steve) Kent Performance Center and convinced Charlie Garrett to make Elite exclusive to his Pennsylvania horsepower.

About his KKR termination, Mike Woodring said simply, “There were things that I wanted to do to the car that I was not allowed to do.” The eight-time Empire Super Sprint champ hastily assembled a Maxim that he numbered “59” as a Thank You to Tom Leidic, who provided the truck and trailer that Mike pulled from Ohsweken to Oskaloosa, Knoxville Nationals, Grand Forks, Sioux Falls, Superior and Cedar Lake for Erin Crocker. This past weekend, Woodring had one of five rigs at Eldora on Friday and Fremont on Saturday night. Also making that 140-mile tow were Dean Jacobs and nephew Lee, Sam Hafertepe and Chad Kemenah (who won) but only Erin and Sam made each A-main. This weekend, Dollansky reunites with Woodring and Lester Groves at Williams Grove’s National Open as Mike Heffner’s teammate to Keith Kauffman.

USAC hopes to mimic the World of Outlaws by gathering a dozen drivers or so into something resembling a Mean 15. On its face, the idea of “building a brand” by secluding stars from $1400-to-win slave wages has merit. But the best way that Ted Johnson kept point chasers from non-point appearances was a weary 100-race schedule. After a few years, Steve Kinser no longer wished to waste his night off at Bloomington Speedway like Cole Whitt just did. When a driver commits to the World of Outlaws, he or she is saying, “This is what I do for a living.” The day USAC creates a 60-race dirt sprint schedule for a $50,000 championship is the day when racers come running to be in the Mean 15 or Sweet 16 or 17 will get you 20.

Outlaw announcer John Gibson caught two Eldora events on successive evenings after an early Lernerville postponement to Saturday, October 31. The new date is the only weekend without Pittsburgh Steelers football, which can only help Lernerville. John (Stallworth) Gibson explained the new rule regarding extra curricular activity states that none of its Elite Eight with perfect attendance can run a sprint race anywhere which does not have the World of Outlaws on its schedule.

Snohomish, Washington’s Drew Church won Friday’s feature for winged NSRA 360 sprint cars on the asphalt at Meridian, Idaho. Drew’s dad Vern Church was a commercial airline pilot who beat Sandusky supers with an upright (Ohio 1975), ran the Knoxville Nationals (1980) and tried a USAC champ car at Phoenix in 2000.

Theo McCarty, an Arizona racer who ran Mexico’s only World of Outlaws race (Juarez 1992), won Friday’s wingless 360 race at Cottage Grove Speedway from his home in Hillsboro, Oregon.

Indigenous to Idaho, eight-time Indianapolis 500 starter Davey Hamilton has relocated from Las Vegas to Jamestown, Indiana for the sake of a son’s education, Indy 500 and one-third partnership to the beleaguered Terre Haute Action Track. Hamilton has also competed in more open wheel events in 2009 than any year in ten: six sprint and midget races with Western Speed, three supermod starts and three champ car races for fellow supermodified product Jim Paternoster. Saturday saw Davey do two divisions in Roseville, California.

All American asphalt attracted dirt talents Tyler Walker (Kaiser 1) and Kyle Larson (Finkenbinder 3f) to Roseville. In three times on tar this year, Tyler has three Top Sevens.

All American was dirt until 1970 when the first BCRA midget meet was won by Karl Raggio in the Rosen 30. Rosen midgets met USAC at Roseville with Ken Nichols (third in ’73), BCRA with Jimmy Screeton (first in ‘90) and fifth Saturday under Tony Hunt.

Seven of the last eight events for USAC 360 sprint cars at the All American Speedway in Roseville have been won by the sons of Madera supermodified legend Mike Swanson.

Tijeras, New Mexico’s 14-year old Joshua Hodges won Saturday’s wingless NMMRA 360 show at Show Low, Arizona. Hodges has raced 27 times on ten tracks in five states with ASCS 360 and Renegade 305 from Waco to Wyoming’s Sweetwater Speedway where he became an ASCS Rocky Mountain winner.

Saturday marked Jeff Swindell’s first feature win at the I-30 Speedway in Little Rock, Arkansas since 1990 NCRA action in the Catcam Schnee 511 of John Sabolich and Roger Leeskamp, the crew chief who helped Terry McCarl win Terre Haute this week. That 19-year gap between I-30 victories is misleading because Swindell was absent in the 13 years before the last two Short Track Nationals. Two years from now when Jeff Swindell turns 50 and is eligible for the Hall of Fame, it will be interesting to see if winning from Dirt Cup to Florida Winter Nationals looms larger than his brother’s sizable shadow, just as Mark Kinser’s numbers will be prejudiced by his famous father.

Open Wheel Times credits Jeff Swindell with 125 sprint and champ car checkereds on 55 speedways in 25 states from Skagit, Washington to Medford, Oregon; California courses at Chico, Calistoga, San Jose, Baylands, Santa Maria, Hanford and Ascot; Arizona arenas of Manzanita, Firebird and Canyon; Las Vegas, Nevada; Erie, Colorado; Billings, Montana; Fargo, North Dakota; three Texas tracks in Houston and Dallas; Oklahoma ovals at Lawton, Tulsa and Oklahoma City; Eagle, Nebraska; Knoxville and Davenport, Iowa; Wisconsin at Cedar Lake and Hales Corners; DuQuoin and Hinsdale, Illinois; Missouri at Farmington, Odessa and West Plains; Arkansas arenas at Texarkana, Little Rock and West Memphis; Paducah, Kentucky; Indiana at Paragon, Haubstadt and the Indy Mile; Eldora, Ohio; Pennsylvania paths at Williams Grove, Port Royal, Lernerville and Pittsburgh; New York at Lebanon Valley and Rolling Wheels; native Tennessee tracks in Memphis, Bargerton, Hohenwald and Summertown; Gadsen, Alabama; Chatsworth, Georgia; and Florida facilities at Jacksonville, Tampa and East Bay.

Granted, Jeff Swindell was no Steve Butler or Glenn Fitzcharles. But a strong case for inclusion can be made.

Shane Stewart turned from Okie to Hoosier to better chase a World of Outlaws circuit of which he is no longer part. Five years ago when Rudeen Racing was powered by mIn, Shane insisted on XYZ brakes by Tim Norman. This year, Norman designed a chassis to accommodate a Joe Gaerte 360 that Stewart steered to a $9000 victory in the Canadian Sprint Nationals at Ohsweken, Ontario. Saturday in Wheatland, Missouri marked Shane’s ninth win on eight tracks in two countries this season.

South Lineville, Missouri was the dateline of my last column as I met Winged Outlaw Warriors in Grain Valley. The National Speedway Directory under my seat was from 2004, before Grain Valley directions existed. But since the eastern Kansas City suburb occupies only one exit, I peeled off I-70 and looked for a sign. There were none for Valley Speedway but one for Grain Valley Motorsports Park, an ATV course that did indeed contain the desired quarter-mile oval.

Valley Speedway looks better suited to midgets like the SMRS, MARA and POWRi programs won there by Luke Icke, Toby Brown, Brady Bacon, Donnie Lehmann, Cody Brewer, Greg Lueckert and Mike Hess. Valley victory was one of 17 by Brad Loyet this year. In its first four seasons, Valley waved WOW checkereds over Eric Schrock, Randy Martin and Brian Brown, the hometown hero who ran off with his 2009 heat race.

Just when I wondered whether Jesse Hockett might wander 100 miles from Warsaw, I spotted Frankenstein, which is Jesse’s name for a chassis clipped front and rear with the remains of dead cars. It was born at the beginning of the decade when Dover’s Danny Lasoski was designing station wagons. Another extended Eagle haunts these parts with Tom McGarry. Hockett’s roll cage is so long that a 5x5 wing looks like it belongs over the nose.

Soon as he saw me, Jesse laughed, as did Brown; always a good greeting. As we watched the last set of hot laps (WOW pulled 23 cars), Hockett addressed the disappointment of flipping from the lead at Calistoga five days before. Upside-down before he could blink, Jesse wondered if the rear suspension might have failed.

“So did Hart leave a bolt out of the shock?” I asked Hockett of Harold Main’s wingless wizard Rob Hart. Hockett grinned slightly and shook his head, attributing his loss at the Louie Vermeil Classic to pure pilot error.

Rocket Hockett lost his Valley heat to Bradlee Ryun, progressing from 305 to 360 with some ex-Kantor Oil inventory. WOW brings the Top Six to the frontstretch to play poker for position, perfect for Scotty Cook to thank the Isle of Capri casino. Ryun drew the pole. Josh Fisher however, slapped the kid on the start and never trailed. Through countless cautions, Fisher was flawless to his seventh win in 29 starts with a 360 assembled by Hall of Fame-worthy Jon Singer of Tipton.

Chris Walker wedged himself under a rail and tow truck operators stood baffled. During the long yellow, Taylor Walton chugged to a stop and Dakota Carroll climbed his left rear. The little girl was livid and had to be restrained, which stirs several thoughts such as, “If a female racer punches a male, what recourse does he have?” Go ask Amy Gray how Jack Hewitt would vote.

Hockett made no friends in Grain Valley, storming under Cody Baker and Brian Brown in turn three but unable to clear the Factory Value Parts Maxim until Brownie braked hard.

“Was that dirty?” Jesse asked on a red flag.

“Oh yeah,” I told him. “You weren’t even close.”

Rather than remorse, Hockett showed Ryun a right rear that spooked the teenager into surrendering more spots. One week later, Bradlee raced both Valley nights of the Weld Family Memorial in a 305 with and without wings.

Brown yelled to WOW director Randy Combs to open one of the red flags, a request Randy may have refused simply because it was Brian who suggested it. Randy’s regulars regularly get humiliated by Brown. To allow Brian’s crew to service his car would have been unpopular. Before the finish, Brown shut it down with no brakes or methanol.

Sedalia’s Jonathan Cornell is the latest to trace the time-honored path from Kansas City to Knoxville like Weld, Lasoski and Brown. After closing Knoxville with three wins, Cornell came to Grain Valley to vault from tenth to second before Hockett retrieved runner-up. Frankenstein was the only non-Maxim in the Top Five.

Kansas City’s Bobby Layne was in the house! The 54-year old machinist ran the very first World of Outlaws race at Devil’s Bowl (’78) and won the 1979 version of Cheaters Day on the Sioux Empire Fairgrounds. Bob ran the ’78 Missouri State Fair at Sedalia alongside Curtis Evans, another 2009 Valley dweller. After a stint in modifieds, Layne brought a Yamaha Beast that finished fourth in a 1200cc feature won by Mark Billings. I was happy to have watched the little creatures (Lauren Klem won at 600cc) because their races proved far better than the 360 sprint cars.

New tracks “ain’t” free. We explorers often suffer for our craft. If you lift a lot of rocks, some snake will eventually bite. Grain Valley’s endless string of spins and skirmishes sent me screaming down the highway. With all the wisdom of hindsight, I should have teamed with Scotty Cook for an excursion to Eagle where Jesse “The Rocket” Hockett and Tony “The Pimp” Bruce feverishly split lapped cars in a Nebraska Cup ultimately hoisted by Bruce Jr.

I had a better idea, at least on paper. Since it had been 30 days since I had last seen sprint cars in their natural state, Terre Haute seemed necessary. It had also been a long 60 days since I hoisted a Hacker-Pshorr with Aero or my favorite drag racer, Akili Smith. Akili’s roommate Brad Sweet skipped Terre Haute to stay at Gold Cup, and Bryan Clauson chose to chase National Midget Driver of the Year by sweeping Illinois POWRi programs at Morgan County and Spoon River. Bryan Gapinski must’ve been proud.

Sweet and Clauson were pleased to choose Chico and Canton because Terre Haute is still a mess. Men of the soil such as Bubby Jones and Tom Helfrich have worked the half-mile to no avail. Even the chutes are cratered and rippled. The famous Action Track was heavier but rougher than during Indiana Sprint Week. Drivers could enter high and hard but had to chase their nose on exit, unable to get next to each other for fear of getting tossed. Everyone was “doin’ tank slappers” as Jim (McMahon) LeConte might say. Jonathan Hendrick darted all over the backstretch and watched his left front sheared away by J.C Bland. Both executed lazy flips that could have been catastrophic.

Sunday saw the Terre Haute Action Track become the scene of medical action. The occasion was a winged All Star 410 race twice rained out in July. To its credit, Action Promotions felt it owed the All Stars a race, to the point of hastily adding a third rain date. Terre Haute’s heritage may have been forged on Sunday afternoons, but its Action Track is no longer any place for a day race. Down the backstretch is due west into the sun.

Sunday in the dust and glare, prone leader David Gravel was drilled by Miranda Throckmorton and Travis Rutz. Miranda ripped up fence and flag stand, shortening the race but suffering no injury. Less than 48 hours after the strongest race of his rookie 410 season (seventh w/WoO at Eldora), David was headed home to Connecticut with fractured vertebrae.

Travis took the worst beating and was airlifted to Indianapolis in critical condition. Monday placed him in an induced coma. Tuesday surgery stopped an artery leak behind his left eye. “Roots” was a Skagit 410 winner with Kevin Rudeen, who promptly flew the kid’s mom to Indy with the Anderson brothers. Half the Pacific Northwest is praying for the kid from Langley, British Columbia.

Rutz had been wrapping his first excursion east of Swift Current, Saskatchewan. In three successive weeks, Travis topped an Alberta A-main in Edmonton, did the Canadian Sprint Nationals and won the C-main at Eldora before an ill-fated Indiana debut.

Terre Haute’s conclusion to the All Star season found Daron Clayton edging Gravel and Ryan Bunton for a Rookie of the Year award worth $10,000. There had to be nights this summer when Clayton considered kickin’ it sideways. But he steadfastly refused, perhaps to show how Indiana wingless fans miss him more than he misses Indiana wingless racing.

Cajun-turned-Texan Jason Johnson scored second Saturday behind Shane Stewart and came 400 miles overnight from Wheatland to Terre Haute, where he swapped from 360 to 410 to finish fifth.

Yes, IBRACN, I be aware of the second Jason Johnson in Wisconsin that skewers my stats. At present, Open Wheel Times is not able to differentiate between two drivers of the same name. But thank you for thanking me.

Wisconsin’s 13th annual Frank Filskov Memorial for winged IRA 410 cars was won Saturday in Sheboygen County by Mike Kertscher. Filskov found victory lane eleven times with IRA at Wilmot, Santa Fe and Beaver Dam before his 1996 demise at Hartford, Michigan. Before using eight cylinders, Frank began in midgets, finishing seventh against USAC at Hales Corners (1978) and touring as far as Huron, South Dakota and Cannon River, Minnesota.

If I attended a midget race that pulled 15 cars and Badger jacked around with meaningless heats and dashes just before the A-main rained out, I’d be mad as a wet hornet! Beaver Dam’s Billy Wood Memorial was the second such BMARA infraction this year. Sure, they split the money evenly between competitors, which is the right thing to do. As for the fans, they took it in the shorts.

In this age of dwindling car counts, it might be wise to reconsider the conventional racing program. Twin 20s with inverted starts are a far better bang for the buck than a dash to determine nothing.

By comparison, the MSCS weekend at Bloomington and Haubstadt had to trim 65 and 46-car fields to 20. Bloomington was brutal: 11-car heats to transfer two, followed by B-mains that promoted four of 20. Some of those left standing were Jeff Bland, Bryan Clauson, Damion Gardner, Darren Hagen, Tracy Hines, Hunter Schuerenberg, Brady Short, Casey Shuman, Cole Whitt and Chris Windom.

Bloomington was in better shape in 2009 for MSCS than USAC. The red clay retained moisture longer, though the towering ledge was unusable in three and four and the only safe path through turns one and two was narrow. The first corner threw Logan Hupp and Justin Grant down the hill for lengthy extrications. It was an unfortunate way for Justin to begin for the Baldwin brothers, who shipped Dene McAllan home to Western Australia. Eight days after his Bloomington flip, Grant’s eyes were still beet red.

Dave Darland’s flip made clear that Scott Benic’s “half bar” car skips no better than a four-bar when a driver strikes one of Bloomington’s stiff infield markers. Fourth at Eldora in the “standard” Benic Big Max, Darland closed Four Crown with his fourth win in six years with the Foxco 355.

Waynesfield, Ohio on Sunday marked Jon Stanbrough’s fourth win in the last five weeks. Terre Haute was a $5000 gift. Jon struggled to pass Chase Stockon as Levi Jones and Jerry Coons walked away. But the former shredded his right rear and the latter starved for fuel. Bloomington saw Stanbrough school Eric Smith on a restart. Coons circled Smith before Jerry followed Jon to the bottom. Bobby Stines stayed upstairs for third-place.

Illinois midget champion Mike Hess scored second in his Bloomington MSCS heat and seventh in his first look at the new Lawrenceburg Speedway high banks. Hess had been on its old quarter-mile twice in sprints and once with a midget.

Hines missed an MSCS transfer in one of the Kraig Kinser Maxims that Tracy has handled since Oskaloosa. Hines skipped Haubstadt to take his own midget to Columbus, numbering it “05” in some point partnership with Joe Loyet. Hines has fielded his own midget since the last TSR Chevy shit itself on the Belleville High Banks. Second-place at Eldora was Tracy’s best dirt sprint finish since Indiana Sprint Week 2008 at Kamp.

Bloomington sanctions poor taste by allowing redneck vendors to sell the Confederate flag. Paragon’s Keith Ford would see no problem but Mike Miles should be a better man. Of course, J.R Todd insisted on flying one all the way from Monroe County to Gibson County. I called him Clayton Bigsby after the blind white supremacist as black as Dave Chappelle or J.R.

South on 37 past Briscoe Mobile Homes in Mitchell, I wondered how many sprint car wins came out of Dick and Kevin’s shop. The best answer I could calculate was 134 between Kevin Briscoe (99), Jack Hewitt (12), Randy Kinser (11), Steve Butler (5), Dick Gaines (2), Kevin Huntley (2), Dave Blaney (Volusia), Andy Hillenburg (Bloomington) and Chase Briscoe.

As a travelers tip, Starbucks still has a coffee bar in Bedford just east of where 50 crosses 37 near the Stone City Mall that houses an awesome auto racing museum. In less than a year, I’ve lost three Starbucks within three miles of home. If all remaining franchises stayed open 24 hours like the one at 70 & 41 in Terre Haute, roads would have more alert drivers. Sorry to sound like Peter King, a lover of football and coffee that I read every week at www.si.com.

MSCS lost 19 cars in 24 hours but added Byhalia, Mississippi’s Jan Howard to Tri-State Speedway. Jan ran three Tri-State All Star races beginning with second to Danny Smith in 2002. Howard has won half of his 14 wingless starts with 305 cubic inches.

Haubstadt heat races were five bundles of joy. Demon Gardner won his hot lap session and opening heat over Darland; Clauson baited Windom lap after lap down low until opening his Gaerte around the rim off the final corner; Blake Fitzpatrick stopped out-hustled Hunter, Stanbrough could not unseat Nic Faas and Wise was way sideways to stop Short. Martinsville meteorologist John Jones warned that if Helfrich did his normal reconditioning, rain would claim the MSCS A-main. Aero and Bob Clauson had already taken their beer to Putnamville because Haubstadt weather looked grim. Such second-guessing caused Bob to miss seeing his grandson win Ten Grand.

Bryan Clauson came into Tri-State Speedway seething. Bloomington had been only his second outdoor start in 65 where he failed to transfer. That wound was fresher than the pain of Bryan’s last trip to Tri-State when he lost the race and Sprint Week to Levi by scant feet. Clauson caught Fitzpatrick on lap 20 of 50 and dropped into defensive mode. Wise tried to burrow Indiana Underground but Bryan had none of it. With any justice, Clauson will be Driver of the Year for the Hoosier Auto Racing Fans.

Before the top went away, a fine four-car joust ended when Scotty Weir clipped the XXX that Darrin Smith built for Robert Ballou before his MPHG release. Though the accident was reminiscent of Robert wrecking Stanbrough last summer, Ballou had to let everyone know that Weir was responsible.

After the checkered, I exited Tri-State’s backstretch bleachers, passed its diligent party police, and thought Haubstadt had let me down with a 50-lapper that was 20 too many. Immediately, it began to rain, so I let Helfrich off the hook. In fact, it rained all the way home. I parked at Patoka Lake (spooking a wolf with my headlights) but the storm proved too loud to sleep.

Bloomington, Indiana’s Ty Deckard began his career in 2005 with an ex-Steve Kinser Maxim and used SKR horsepower to win his first USAC heat at Terre Haute. Also earning one of the precious few MSCS transfers in his hometown, “Tie Bow” attacked Eldora for the first time by going C-to-B with SKR power in a second Bland 38.

Since we first met in 2000 at the Tulare Thunderbowl, I’ve liked Damion Gardner. Back then, The Demon drove for Rod Tiner, which was all the character reference I needed. When he handed me subscription money, I liked Gardner even more. So it hurts that Damion has been three years of disappointment. He came from California as a consistent winner on dirt with pavement experience and proper funding, hired Daryle Saucier and Davey Jones and posted zero wins with USAC or MSCS or KISS. In his 40 starts this season, Gardner’s lone success was beating Ryan Pace one night at Lawrenceburg. Haubstadt dropped Demon from second to fifth and Saturday saw him spend an entire Eldora heat race waiting to be wrecked by Kevin Thomas Jr.

Donnie Beechler’s first Eldora event in eleven years turned upside-down when Derek Hagar of Arkansas spun from the champ car lead after three of 50 laps. The first Four Crown for the little guy from Springfield, Illinois was its 1988 champ car race for Donnie Conrad. Beechler’s best Four Crowns ended third in the Bob Kammerer champ car (’93) and third with Gary Zarounian’s midget in 1994. Donnie had a diverse career that achieved 69 wins split sprint (46), midget (18) and champ cars (five).

Justin Carver of Drummonds, Tennessee captured seventh in Friday’s feature for winged USCS 360 sprint cars in Beebe, Arkansas before getting 650 miles to Eldora for one of three Roger Johnson/Carl Edwards Ford champ cars.

Zach Daum of Pocahontas, Illinois enjoyed a strong Four Crown, passing Chad Boat to win his heat before earning eighth in his best USAC midget performance. Zach then climbed in his champ car and finished tenth.

Connecticut rebel Shane Hmiel, who nearly won the last Macon midget race with Levi Jones as POWRi crew chief, seems completely without fear. Hmiel exploded too early at Belleville but at Eldora, he slapped the wall to second-place like Jac Haudenschild. “Sugar Shane” qualified his Silver Crown car almost half a second (.405) faster than anyone.

In sharp contrast, Von McGee of Spring Run, Pennsylvania occupied Eldora’s slowest champ car. Von was victorious five times in seven 305 seasons on his hometown Path Valley Speedway (one cool quarter) and just cracked the 41st annual Tuscarora 50 at Port Royal in the Steve Miller 22z.

Cairnbrook, Pennsylvania’s Mike Lutz won the first 410 sprint race in six seasons at Conneaut, Ohio. “Raceway 7” (also known as Speedway Seven or Ace High) staged winged sprint races every Saturday for two months of 1981 when Kenny Jacobs won four straight. Twenty-eight years later, Mark Keegan and Cole Duncan finished fourth and eighth at Conneaut and towed 150 miles to Fremont for a Saturday show in which Keegan placed fifth.

York, Pennsylvania’s Cory Haas won the 358 feature Friday at Williams Grove and the Hank Gentzler Memorial 410 feature postponed from Saturday to Sunday evening at Lincoln Speedway. Had Haas been the first to win 410 and 358 features on the same weekend? After hours of exhaustive research, I discovered that a Splendid Six of Fred Rahmer (1992), Cris Eash (1998-99), Blane Heimbach (2003 & 05), Eric Stambaugh (’04), Chad Layton (’05) and Pat Cannon (’08) turned the trick first.

To answer such a question meant sifting through 21 years of regional 358 racing to find Layton the leading winner (52) followed by Mike Lehman (50), Cannon (36), Heimbach (32), Bob Beidleman (30), Haas (26), Brad McClelland (26), Billy Dietrich (25), Greg Leiby (25), Jeff Rohrbaugh (25), Cris Eash (19), Dale Hammaker (19), T.J Stutts (18), Darren Eash (17), Doug Esh (16), Brian Seidel (15), Adrian Shaffer (15), Nate Snyder (15), Mark Richard (14), Kevin Nouse (11), Bill Albright (10), Mike Bittinger (10), Stambaugh (10) and Chad Trout, who also won ten times.

John Matrafailo of Milford, Pennsylvania won Saturday’s winged CRSA 305 feature at Accord, New York. Matrafailo has tried every motor size from URC units (366 in ’86) and to Port Royal 410s and Selinsgrove 358s before CRSA sprouted near his home in the PA/NJ/NY corner coveted by deer hunters.

More than ice, snow, rain, fog, falling boulders or dope dogs, I fear deer more than anything on the road. I may beat the backwoods by day but stick to interstates at night, tucking behind the big rigs so that they might leave only small chunks of venison to dodge. I see deer as strikingly beautiful, which is a horrible pun.

Half of the Ford Focus midgets in Dillon, South Carolina and Stockton, California were owned by a single team per site. How do such rent-a-rides help anything? The dead fish known as midget racing is rotten at the head. Until it is treated as a destination series, Ford Focus kids will continue to go sprint racing. It only took 56 years to lose the Hut Hundred.

I’m thinking about the lives of Jim Carroll and Sadie Mae Glutz from 4979 West 13th Street, Speedway, IN 46224 or (317) 607.7841 or Kevin@openwheel.com.

Ok