February 13, 2009 Austin, Texas: Time to unplug the guitars and push off some midgets! When last we met, I was in the Continental Club shufflin’ to Choctaw Bingo by James McMurtry. Alejandro Escovedo played the next night but like a good boy, I stayed in to wrap my DMI debut. To channel the spirit of Austin music into Texas midgets, I then saluted the statue of Stevie Ray Vaughan and grave of Eugene Wesley Larson.
Jud Larson was larger than life. Born in Grand Prairie, Texas, he grew to be spiritually and physically imposing. Larson began racing in Austin in 1939 and after WWII, was 1948 AAA southwest midget champion. He topped Texas midget matches from Lubbock to San Angelo, Harbenito, Brownsville, Fair Park in Dallas, Austin’s Oak Hill Downs and Houston’s Playland Park where he taught a few tricks to a precocious kid named A.J Foyt Jr.
Just because he carried AAA membership did not mean Jud could pass up "outlaw" opportunities. Kansas City knew him as the "Roy King" who won at Olympic Stadium in 1950 or "The Lone Ranger" who romped at Riverside aboard the Vito Calia Offy. He did play by AAA rules long enough to pass his Indianapolis 500 rookie test in 1952, but abruptly departed for the dirt.
When midgets gave way to sprint cars in 1955, the world would learn of Jud Larson. He dusted IMCA in Tampa, Des Moines and Topeka and added nine more wins before A.J Watson called him up to USAC to replace an injured Pat Flaherty in the champ car owned by John Zink of Tulsa.
Larson’s legend truly began at the 1956 Hoosier Hundred. He strolled into the Indiana State Fairgrounds as if he owned it, aced a little competency exam by establishing a new track record, and led 71 of 100 miles before succumbing to Pat O’Connor, Rodger Ward and winner Jimmy Bryan. A week later in Reading, he jumped in the John Pfrommer Offy, hustled it to another track record and pushed Tommy Hinnershitz to victory. Three weeks later when champ cars got to Sacramento, Larson became a USAC winner. In ‘57, he won for Zink at Williams Grove and DuQuoin before an $8400 victory in the Hoosier Hundred that got away in ’56. Larson won on the miles of Atlanta and Phoenix in ’58 and made two straight Indianapolis 500s before a minor heart attack that was largely attributed to his boom-or-bust lifestyle.
After nearly four years away, Jud surfaced in Kansas City, competing in the third Knoxville Nationals of 1963. A wise veteran of 41, Jud returned to USAC in ’64 and was fantastic. Aboard an A.J Watson four-cylinder Offenhauser against an onslaught of V8 Chevrolets, Jud won 15 of 40 sprint races before he vanished in the first corner of the Reading Fairgrounds with eastern midget legend Red Riegel on June 11, 1966.
To find myself at the grave of a man who died where my father’s ashes are scattered seemed ironic. But upon further review, it was hardly happenstance.
Austin to Dallas/Fort Worth is typically accomplished on I-35. Me? I circled 360 to 183 to 281 north to Stephenville, scene of the 281 Speedway that I visited in 2005. On that hot August night, my scheme was to see Johnny Suggs sling a winged 305 sprint car and McMurtry sling an array of guitars near Texas Christian University. Unfortunately, a Texas flood struck Stephenville, making me doubt that Smiley Sitton’s cast of characters would race. They did, long after I had bailed for TCU, where NFL center Barret Robbins first went off his meds.
Fort Worth is home to the Cowtown Speedway. To most anyplace other than Texas, "cowtown" is not a term of affection. Cows in Texas however, are nearly as revered as in India because they represent a beloved industry, vegans be damned. Known as the dairy capital of the Lone Star State, Stephensville’s symbol is a fiberglass Holstein named Moola. And the Fort Worth Stockyards are some of the biggest in the world. Back in 1963, just before guns turned a Texan into President, the new Cowtown Speedway in Kennedale spoke to Texas pride.
Cowtown is unique in sitting smack dab alongside Kennedale Raceway Park. Texas Dragway also shares space along New Hope Road. All three operate independently. Cowtown is conducted by Bo Rawdon, a local legend in modifieds. Rawdon reigned as NASCAR Sunbelt champion in 1990, became Cowtown manager in 2001 and its promoter by 2004 when I dropped in on one of Bo’s regular Saturday sprint car programs.
Cowtown was my kind of Texas tea: a high-banked quarter of quality clay. Kevin Ramey was The Show that night, knocking Chris Downing cattywampus in his heat, and then lapping all but seven winged 360 sprint cars. As the Chili Bowl discovered, Ramey also races a midget now. It is an Esslinger Spike owned by Tom Williams of City Vending, which added two nights of SMRS midgets to the 2009 Cowtown Speedway season opener.
SMRS is the Southern Midget Racing Series organized by John Stewart of Sallisaw, Oklahoma. Beginning its ninth season, SMRS serves midget racing to folks in West Siloam Springs and Minneapolis, Kansas. Last year, SMRS was the primary sanction on 13 midget races on ten tracks in a four-state radius.
Cowtown’s sanction was inconsequential in lieu of a $3000 prize that made Fort Worth ripe for USAC racers headed for Arizona. Dallas dynamo Darin Short hyped the midgets as he had for Cowtown’s two-night sprint shows that closed 2007 and 2008. Short sounded the word that J.J Yeley, veteran of Indianapolis and Daytona 500s, would race a midget in the DFW metroplex.
Fifth among 281 midgets at Chili Bowl, Yeley’s Odyssey Battery cart was one of 41 midgets in Fort Worth. Most annually dot the grid of Chili Bowl H-mains with notable exceptions like Bryan Clauson, Brad Loyet, Brady Bacon and Gary Taylor, trailered after hot laps in the Mike Minarik TCR that P.J Jones jockeyed through Chili Bowls of 2004-2005.
I met Short (he co-owns Wayne Brown’s sprint car) and stepped in Cowtown to find Tim Aylwin practicing photography in turn three and St. Louis shooter Allen Horcher down in turn one. Al found round-trip airfare for $100 and could not stay away. It is doubtful that any Horchers have set foot in DFW since CRA sprint cars (’88) or MARA midgets (’90) departed the Devil’s Bowl.
Friday featured the first documented midgets at Cowtown since the SWIMS tours of 1982 (Ken Schrader beat J.R Miller and Jack Yeley) and 1983 when California’s Rick Bussell contained Conroe’s Ron Hughes Jr, Kevin Doty and Gene Gennetten.
Hot laps were what Cowtown midgets had promised as drivers attacked the banks with boots on the boards and mud peeling from right rear tires. Let the season begin! Chad Frewaldt gave his Zero hell and plenty of gas. When four heats began, so did SMRS smash ups. Evan Pardo ate it in heat one and Donnie Ray Crawford rode a wheel in heat two and trimmed the field of another contender.
Renowned wrench Rusty Kunz, teaming with Rich Vogler to sweep the 1990 Devil’s Bowl weekend that claimed Ron Hughes Jr, was released from Loyet Motorsports after Chili Bowl. On his way to Arizona from Missouri, Brad Loyet had new crew chief George "Flea" Ruzic. Loyet lit into his SMRS heat from ninth to first to position himself on pole for the 20-lap preliminary.
Starting second by winning the second heat was Broken Arrow, Oklahoma’s Jonathan Beason, restricted winner at the Tulsa Shootout of 2002 before veering into pavement late models. Two winters ago, Beason was the ASA champion of ten nights in New Smyrna Beach, Florida. In his first midget season, Jonathan became 2008 SMRS champ. As at Chili Bowl, father Mike Beason had a second Toro riding mower for Frank Flud before a Friday crash caused Flud to scratch Saturday.
A year ago, Bryan Clauson (like Yeley) was in Daytona on the cusp of NASCAR. America’s depreciating dollar has however, squelched most of the development driver programs such as Clauson and Bacon enjoyed with Chip Ganassi. Television’s loss was Cowtown’s gain when Bryan bagged a Friday heat in which J.J proved outside options had diminished.
Bixby, Oklahoma’s Kevin Bayer busied himself Friday in an ASCS Outlaw class and by winning the final SMRS midget heat on a Cowtown gone to pasture. Texas natives say the wind rarely blows from the north, yet it came hard, chilling the bones and blackening the track.
Friday’s first B-main was won by Justin Melton, a local from Flower Mound who also ran an ASCS2 Non Wing car when smoke was not rolling from the right rear of his Triple X midget. Yeley was forced to the second B, where the tightening track lifted his left front wheel.
For a rubber match, Friday’s feature was pretty good. There was a groove and a half that enabled Clauson to pressure Loyet inside and out. Brad and Bryan are both smart racers. One tried to draw the other from the preferred line, but the leader would not vacate. Down the backstretch, Clauson got inside Loyet, who made him lift, push the nose and slow dramatically. Beason blasted into Bryan and brought a caution.
To defend against a repeat, Loyet was lifting early enough into turn three that Clauson contemplated a tight outside pass, which he accomplished around lap 15 just as Dustin Morgan’s tire exploded. Under caution, Brad reclaimed the lead until SMRS officials validated Bryan’s lead pass. That should have ended the drama until with two laps to go, Clauson’s tire went flat.
Last season, Loyet landed ten wins in 58 starts on two continents, a tall order for a midget. Brad’s first outdoor start of 2009 had the checkered in sight exiting the final corner, where he washed wide and saw Brady Bacon pull a winning wheelstand.
The width of a wheel was the difference between a $1000 victory and $600 second-place. Of the 11 to complete 20 laps, the Top Five was filled by Chad McDaniel, George White, and Yeley from row eleven. Clauson claimed the same $100 for 18 laps as Gary Taylor did for two hot laps. It is simply understood that midgets are the one financially-insane division.
Not surprisingly for a car count that exceeded 250 (Kennedale Raceway Park surrendered some pit space), Friday ran to Cowtown curfew. I lingered to see my pal J-Rock (Jerrod Wilson) open defense of his 2008 ASCS2 title until qualifiers were curtailed to Saturday, which began earlier than announced. Those listening for guidance were disappointed. Cowtown’s announcer called the leader "Loy-ay" as if French and during the caution after Brad lost the lead, instructed the crowd to "keep an eye on that 39" leading.
Shane Carson, sixth at Cowtown with a winged 305 sprint car in 2007, watched Friday’s midget races on his way to Corpus Christi to help a friend in a wheelchair acquire a new motorhome. During his trackside interview, Shane hyped the World of Outlaws return to Lone Star Speedway on Friday, April 10.
Cowtown clay was not ruined by rubber. Saturday’s surface began slimy and slow but soon developed grip. Four heat races around 3:30 were glorious. The second one was best: ten uninterrupted laps when Clauson came from seventh to edge Matt Sherrell and Brady Bacon.
Ohio’s Ricky Williams, who finished the 2008 sprint season under the care of Steve and Brad Fox, was in Texas with a DRC built, owned and wrenched by Joe Devin of Gasoline Alley. Williams missed Friday’s A-main but ran an inspired heat from last to second Saturday behind Kevin Bayer.
Casey Shuman, occasional welder at DRC, had been in Dallas socially and dropped by Fort Worth to help Devin and Williams. Shuman said father Ron had just shaken down Rex Foster’s Don Ott engine at Manzanita for Casey’s arrival. Casey’s uncle Billy Shuman scored fifth at Cowtown in a SWIMS midget in 1983.
Missouri’s Hunter Schuerenberg also stopped by Cowtown to spectate Saturday on his way to the Phoenix debut of a new Daryl Guiducci sprint car. The midget that Hunter had at Chili Bowl was reserved as Clauson’s spare for Manzanita, Las Vegas or Perris. Hunter (11), Gary Taylor (8) and Shuman (7) were Cowtown observers with a collective 26 sprint and midget wins in 2008.
Beyond an Abilene offer of Scott Brown’s winged 305 sprint car, Taylor has no solid plans. Though grateful for two splendid seasons, Gary is not completely content with the timing of his Tel-Star termination. But if Mike Eubanks had released him earlier, who would have prepared three midgets for Chili Bowl?
Collinsville, Oklahoma’s Dustin Morgan and Illinois crew chief Willie Ator won Saturday’s final heat when Dustin perfected the dive from the top of turn three to the bottom of turn one inside Jonathan Beason.
Paul White was in three Cowtown classes. First in a Friday heat in a limited modified and fifth in Saturday’s modified main, White had his Wells Chevy midget aimed at the top of turn one of Friday’s heat. But when he turned down the bank, White got whacked. He missed that A-main but won Saturday’s first B. Twice a winner in two-barrel sprint cars in 2008, Rafe Essary of Arkansas aced Saturday’s second B-main over Melton and a last corner rim-ride by Brandon Moller.
Missing the cut was Brian Harvey, an Oklahoma native who relocated to California to help the family’s Stinger chassis business and SCRA 360 circuit. When both were rendered inactive, Brian moved to Texas. He debuted a Stinger at the Chili Bowl of 2007 and has taken it outdoors to Houston, Paris, Grayson County, Killeen (Texas Thunder), Alvin (Gulf Coast) and the high banked Gator Motorplex in Willis that he highly recommended.
Cowtown contained open wheel talent not restricted to open wheels. White was one as was Kevin Ramey, who won two limited mod races on Friday and finished fifth Saturday from a pit that included an ASCS2 Non Wing car for Bobby Huddleston, former sprint winner at Devil’s Bowl, Lone Star in Kilgore, and North Texas Motor Speedway in Royse City.
Sam Hafertepe, a World of Outlaws regular who resides "45 minutes" away in Sunnyvale, missed modified A-mains both nights. Asked how Florida went, Sam said that he lost three engines but would be in Las Vegas on Thursday, February 26.
Sean Jones (not the All Pro pass rusher for the Houston Oilers) was Cowtown modified king in 2003 and winner of 11 sprint races there in 2005 before returning to the limited mod class in which he was second on Saturday.
Michael McNeil, hailing from Nolan Ryan’s hometown of Alvin, was third in last year’s Ronald Laney Memorial at Houston as an ASCS 360 rookie and ran ASCS2 Non Wings at Cowtown in 2009.
Aaron Reutzel of the Texas seaside town of Clute was another ASCS rookie in 2008 that reached fourth at Gator and was an ASCS2 Non Wing contestant at Cowtown.
Oklahoma’s Scott Sawyer built many of the ASCS2 Outlaw cars in his wake Saturday at Cowtown when he was trailed by Jerrod Wilson, Andrew Felker, Tyson Hall, Frank Flud, Nick Ivy and Bacon. Hunter Jones was eighth as an ASCS2 Outlaw and first in ASCS2 Non Wings over one of Felker’s three beautiful blue cars wrenched by Toby Brown, fourth in 2005 Cowtown ASCS sprints. Bacon, Felker and Donnie Ray Crawford were the only drivers in all three of Cowtown’s open wheel classes.
ASCS2 was created by the president of ASCS1, Emmett Hahn, who had three grandchildren in Cowtown competition. Tommy and Steve Hahn, both of whom followed in father’s tire tracks for a spell, had sons Blake and Brandon in action along with cousin Matt Ward, son of Emmett’s daughter Donna.
New Zealand’s Dean Alexander, third in an SCRA 360 sprint car at Hanford and Bakersfield in 2007, flew from his California home to Dallas to drive a winged 600 at Cowtown.
Arkansas bounty hunter Travis Senter and new sidekick Dereck King of Illinois were at Cowtown on Friday but absent Saturday. King and Pennsylvania’s Mike Dicely joined Senter on Team USA in Australia, where Dereck won on Murray Bridge and Mike landed Laang, Victoria. Travis was a January winner on Mount Gambier, Hamilton and Warrnambool and added an East Bay 600 championship in February.
Cowtown made a concerted effort to conduct its conclusive SMRS event on the best surface possible. Midgets fired their feature around six o’clock. Loyet got under polesitter Bayer for the initial lead until Clauson made another outside move stick in turn four. The first 21 laps went without a yellow. The first ten were frantic. The last ten were run without much of an outside groove.
Yeley worked to Bryan’s tail but had nothing for Clauson, who put $3000 toward the golf clubs that crew chief Al Scroggin had stolen from the Tucker trailer on Friday night. Indiana sprint racer Kyle Robbins was also on the winning Fastenal crew. Bacon shadowed J.J and on the last lap, gave the top a futile try. He was trailed by Beason, Loyet, Felker and Dustin Morgan’s best run in the family midget since 2005. Eighth was ageless Rick England over Ramey, Ricky Williams and Paul White.
The accelerated agenda caused Darin Short’s pre-race autograph session with Clauson and Yeley to become a post-race affair in which both stars disarmed the crowd with their openness and candor. Sounds as if I should’ve stayed for ASCS2, but it was damn cold and I was damn far from Phoenix, so west I went.
I-20 makes Texas too wide so I chose 180 to Mineral Wells, birthplace of Alvin Garrett. One of Joe Theismann’s smurfs, Garrett was an ’83 Super Bowl champion blanketed by the Oakland Raiders in the 1984 version. Sunday morning took me through Rotan, home of Sammy Baugh’s last ranch. "Slingin’ Sam" played college football at TCU before becoming a Washington Redskin quarterback, defensive back, and peerless punter. Baugh died one week before Christmas 2008.
The little league baseball field in Post, Texas was named for Norm Cash, who hit 373 home runs for the Detroit Tigers. I entered New Mexico at Bronco bound for Roswell, world renowned for the Unidentified Flying Object(s) spotted there in 1947. UFOs have to be seen to be believed, but to think that earth has the only intelligent life is conceited. I toasted the possibility with Alien amber ale and Carrizozo cherry cider, though not in the same cup. The Capitan Mountains (10,000 feet) are where in 1950, a baby black bear emerged from a huge forest fire and became the symbol of fire prevention. "Smokey Bear" lived for 26 years in the zoo at Washington, DC.
Monday took me past the place where the face of the earth changed on July 16, 1945. That was the first successful test of an atomic bomb. Three weeks later, "Fat Man & Little Boy" reduced Hiroshima and Nagasaki, Japan to melted rubble.
Socorro, New Mexico was home to Roy Hicks, who preceded Al Unser Jr in the Lyle Dill sprint car. Hicks and Dill joined USAC with a champ car that earned eighth at Syracuse (’75) and sixth at Springfield during a 1976 when they added a sprint that netted eighth on the Indy mile. Hicks opened ’77 eighth at Eldora for Mississippi’s Bobby Sparks before joining Glen Niebel for tenth at Salem. USAC sprint races in 1978 found Hicks and Niebel eighth in Chicago, Cincinnati and Wayne County. Roy’s last USAC season of 1979 was curtailed when he sailed Dave Hodson’s sprint car out of Salem. Friends said Hicks was never the same.
Socorro also contains the Stage Door Grill in the historic Baca Building. It is historic because Elfego Baca worked here in 1884 when he stole some guns, bought a mail order sheriff’s badge and appointed himself deputy to defend Mexican Americans from murderous white settlers. Past the National Radio Astronomy Observatory (where 27 dishes monitor for a Roswell repeat) in Reserve is where a statue stands immortalizing Baca.
Arizona’s Apache National Forest sent me to Globe, scene of a quarter-mile dirt track on which Gary Faucett won an AMRA midget race over Buster Linne and Jack Yeley in 1990. AMRA should be represented at Manzanita when midgets open the 2009 USAC season on February 20-21.
You can reach me at Kevin@openwheeltimes.com or 4979 West 13th Street, Speedway, IN, 46224 or by dialing (317) 607.7841.
