Bullrings Begin

By Kevin Eckert

April 24, 2009 Speedway, Indiana: Good time to be a Hoosier. A cold gray Wednesday turned warm and bright Thursday and remained for a glorious weekend of USAC sprint car racing at Gas City and Lawrenceburg to follow an excellent Eldora opener. True, a sorry Sunday forecast postponed Winchester well in advance, but that inconvenienced only a few. What an awesome sprint series USAC could have if not for its fetish for asphalt.

Rain last week meant that USAC on Friday served as the Gas City I-69 Speedway season opener and first race ever under direction of Leroy Battieger, its former sprint steward. For 13 years, Gas City had been one of the friendliest places a fan could park, thanks to promoters Jiggs and Nona Thomason. Over the winter, all wondered if “meet the new boss” would be “same as the old boss.” Jiggs however, still wheeled his doorless utility car and Nona still greeted everyone with a smile. In all those Fridays, she has been present all but three hours when hubby had to see a doctor after crashing the water truck.

Jiggs gradually made Gas City a secret gem. I-69 action became too good and word spread to USAC, which added I-69 in 2002. Perhaps it is the increased attention, extra cars, early start or just bad luck but Gas City USAC events have been among the track’s worst. A normal Friday seems finest; Sprintweeks have been sad. Surely it would not wither on Leroy’s first night. Why would he want people grumbling out the door?

I-69 Speedway looked good around 4pm when I rolled in to high five no fewer than ten Pennsylvanians and place a blanket in USAC’s smallest bleachers. Brother and nephew arrived later as did Titan mechanics Rob Hart and Eric Prutzman, headed to Paducah, Kentucky with Brooke Tatnell prior to truck trouble.

Jesse Hockett had also been aiming at wings in Little Rock, Arkansas (ASCS) before bad weather predictions allowed him to remain with USAC. Hockett was still smiling over a landmark weekend. Ready to go at Eldora two nights, Jesse got rained on Friday and was packed to jet to Manzanita for Jim Massey when the weather cleared over Ohio. He relinquished Jim’s ride (to Lealand McSpadden?) and came from Eldora’s eighth row, off the wall, lost the ladder, yet finished third. On the phone, Steve Stroud of Parker Stores informed Jesse that Manzy would be Sunday, so Hockett naturally volunteered to steer Steve’s car. Stroud quickly consulted Bob Ream, who owned the ex-Jeremy Sherman Maxim. It was in pieces. Bob said he’d slap it together for The Rocket, who hopped a flight from Indy to Phoenix and won the last race ever at the great Manzanita Speedway.

Jesse would not be denied. At last month’s Mini Gold Cup when word came of Manzy’s imminent death, I kidded him that they had to close the place to keep him from winning there. Jesse replied, “I haven’t won there yet.” In his mind, four wins on the third-mile equated to zero if he could not conquer its fierce half-mile.

Little Rock was the latest example of Hockett’s ASCS National schedule getting shaved. After an entire weekend was flushed in Oklahoma City (promoter Lanny Edwards just completed heart bypass surgery and has yet to reschedule), more Bull’s Gap’s bullshit dropped another weekend on some hazy excuse regarding severe economic hardships in rural U.S.A. Apparently, America was doin’ swell when they “signed” Emmett Hahn’s contract. Or maybe it was just another verbal agreement like last year’s World of Outlaws weekend that Volunteer un-volunteered. And the Elvis Presley sighting in Chandler, Indiana is also on the ASCS shelf. Skepticism is thick because Chandler is a modest oval free from sprint cars for 27 years yet was to be Presleyland by the Fourth of July when it paid $15,000 to an ASCS hero.

By postponing Presleyland to September 4-5, a Fourth of July conflict was averted 20 miles up the road at Haubstadt where Tri-State’s only POWRi midget meet of 2009 is paired with MSCS sprints. Very few Boonville locals would have missed two classes of Hud Cone for one Kathryne Minter.

Little Rock’s loss was Gas City’s gain when The Rocket rolled up I-69 in VKCC rig containing Bernie Stuebgen of Indy Race Parts and ex-360 racer Andy Korte of California, Missouri. They went right to work when Jesse uncorked an engine. Like last year at Eldora, a steel ASCS 360 was all Hockett had so that’s what Bernie bolted in for the B, which they won. Could “The Rocket” really win a 410 feature with a 360?

Sacramento, California native Bryan Clauson has contested every victory since Christmas in Kansas City when he won 10k. Walled at Chili Bowl, Bryan’s midget led both nights in Fort Worth (winning one), led Manzanita until its driveline quit, led Las Vegas until pitting for tires, and led 19 laps at Perris. In a new Gaerte Maxim, Clauson led North Vernon’s chase to $3000 until tagged by Thomas Meseraull. In his first USAC sprint start since Salem, Clauson qualified fastest and came from eighth to second in his I-69 heat, one of a few to make the top work. But early in the A, he returned there and bounced to a stop.

Indiana appeared more genuine with “Fox 53” racing for the first time since last summer’s Sprintweek. It was strange to see red, black and white stripes on a J&J rather than the DRC model that Jon Stanbrough and the Fox family used for 60 wins in three seasons. On a dry I-69, Jon pedaled the J&J to a heat win.

Trucker’s 24-hour Road Service of Indianapolis brought its fourth driver of 2009 up I-69. Two weeks earlier, they opened in Vernon with Casey Shuman and Jimmy Light. Shuman left to pay respect to Manzanita so Jim Whiteside contacted Brady Bacon for Eldora. Jim and Roger Tapy’s team arrived in Gas City with Light and Shane Hmiel, who promptly burned down an engine at the back of a heat race to begin a bad weekend that ended upside-down.

Casey returned from eighth as Nathan High’s teammate at Manzanita (where three Shumans won 133 times) to start the 52nd season by sprint car owner/crew chief Paul Hazen. They seemed ready to transfer but stumbled. Saturday went better as Shuman and Hazen won the 2009 opener at Lincoln Park Speedway. Casey became the sixth shoe to net first-place at Putnamville for Paul after Tony Elliott, Kevin Thomas, Dave Darland, Jon Stanbrough and Billy Puterbaugh. Shuman has now won seven of his last 28 A-mains at Lincoln Park since 2005.

Chico, California’s Ryan Kaplan cracked the first USAC A-main he attempted, using the front row to stay in the way. After three cars passed, Ryan tightened his “huggy pole” to transfer, irritating Cole Whitt enough to deliver a shot in the ass. Cole has been a pretty model champion for Red Bull and I-69 anger was more common to Cole’s occasional Kunz sidekick Kevin Swindell. Still two spots out after the B, Whitt used provisional status into the A.

Where would Indiana be without a fresh crop of kids from California each spring? Whipping wingless 410s around Hoosier bullrings is the next phase for Ryan Kaplan, who began in Ford Focus and three more midget seasons in BCRA and USAC Western States. In 2007, Ryan ran his first sprint car and late last summer, Kaplan arrived in Indiana for eleven races in Bryan Clauson’s sprint car. On Turkey Night, Kaplan finished fourth in Clauson’s midget. Eighth at The Burg last Labor Day, Ryan recorded its third best USAC lap before being eliminated in his heat race.

Jonathan Hendrick of Indianapolis, son of a Pendleton Pike car dealer, has dabbled in wingless 410ci while excelling in winged 600cc. He made his first USAC A-mains through Gas City and Lawrenceburg heats. Jon’s coaches include Bill Baue and Shane’s dad Blake Hollingsworth, who combined to start at least 73 national USAC A-mains.

Travis Welpott was in The Show! The last USAC A-main on dirt that included Welpott was the Four Crown midget race of 2001 at Eldora. Though he rarely tried, the 1993 UMRA three-quarter midget king had never made the final grid of a USAC sprint race.

Four spots shy was Jason Holt in the Jackson 42g, a car driven by Mark Clark for the past three years. Jackson first employed Bart Grider for five years before Brian Gerster ran 42g until Sprintweek 2005 when Clark climbed in. Holt is an ex-Indy 500 mechanic who has raced his own sprint for the last five years. In his first trip to Putnamville with Jackson, Jason scored Saturday’s B-main.

Missing the A-main at I-69 in his first career USAC sprint car start was Steve Irwin of Columbiaville, Michigan. No wrestling crocodiles for Steve; just sprint cars like those in which he has 21 wins in 13 seasons. Until the Michigan Traditional Sprints sprouted (2006), Steve was a wing guy, other than the last champ car race at Pikes Peak (2005) for neighbor Kevin Bloomstran. Following four traditional wins at Winston, Merritt, Owendale and Lake Odessa, Irwin enjoyed himself so much fun that he began spending Sundays at Sun Prairie (a 450-mile trip) in Randy Polewczynski’s midget. Michigan Traditional Sprints will hold Eldora’s first wingless 410 show not sanctioned by USAC since CRA departed in 1993. It will be Saturday, August 1.

Friday at Gas City became a tractor show. They worked the dirt after qualifying, which only wasted time. They worked it again after heat races. By now, the sun had set and now, the work paid off. There was so much bite in the B-main that Tracy Hines stuck the right rear and flipped off turn two. He joined Whitt on the tail as provisional.

I-69 reconstruction at last developed a second lane that Hockett used to edge Josh Wise. Jesse and Josh resumed their slots outside rows one and two as per flawed USAC tradition. Wise led three laps before Jesse’s screamin’ 360 took over. Hockett had the win well in hand until betrayed by traffic. Gas City is not wide enough for three continuous grooves, so when Jesse caught Hendrick outside of Hunter Schuerenberg, he was essentially stuck.

Dave Darland capitalized to steal $5000 on lap 28 of 30. Dave presented car owner/crew chief Scott Benic of Fairmount with the first win in four years (and seven drivers) on his local skid pad. Further rubbing salt in Jesse’s cut, Levi Jones handed Hockett third-place by inches. Jesse shoved Jonathan’s car a bit but post-race, refused to blame Hendrick, who was simply where Hockett wanted to be.

After a dismal trip to Arizona and Nevada followed by Eldora spectator status, Shane Cottle finished fourth in his first Monte Edison event since last year’s Kokomo opener. Cottle and Edison won 30 times in four seasons. Fifth was Chris Windom’s best since a second at the Kokomo closer. Stanbrough started 2009 fourth in Vegas, sixth at Manzanita and ninth at Perris for Indiana Underground before tunneling to sixth in the first Foxco feature in nine months. Jerry Coons was seventh over Damion Gardner, Brad Sweet and Whitt, who carried his provisional from last to tenth.

USAC brought seven Ford Focus midgets to Gas City. “Why?” seemed to be a good question. What has become of this class? It started with good intentions as an entry-level division but has too often degenerated to upwardly-mobile drivers buying ride to win no prize money. Ford Focus engines are more cost-effective to racers than Ford Focus races are to a promoter who hosts USAC, spawning NEMA Lites in New England and SuperFocus engines that bolstered BCRA on Saturday in Marysville, California. Fans lost Focus among 35 sprints and 33 modifieds (ex-sprint star Scott Orr won again) and most missed Ronnie Wuerdeman’s win.

During the 150 miles and 24 hours from Gas City to Lawrenceburg, USAC acquired the Top Two from Friday’s opener at Bloomington, Brady Short and Jeff Bland, along with Rick Vaughn, Shawn Westerfeld, J.R Douglas, Cincinnati attorney Mike Weber and California transplant Chad Boespflug, a track regular who was parked (but now cleared ) by an eye doctor. Last summer, Douglas won an AMSA mini sprint show at Salem’s Thunder Valley before shifting to sprint cars.

Lawrenceburg Speedway has become a sparkling speed palace. To walk into The Burg today is to walk into a modern sports arena complete with concrete steps and Budweiser signage. And since the Argosy Casino is paying, accessories should add scoreboard, concert sound system and backstretch concessions, given my new fondness for the spectacular view from turn two.

Lawrenceburg looked wonderful. When throttles drop for hot laps, I want to see both back tires make tracks. Saturday sprint cars did that all night. The Burg has been so wet and fast that cars spray mud to the top, making many seats almost uninhabitable. High walls make wingless vehicles invisible directly in front of you.

Riverside, California’s Josh Wise had not seen The Burg’s new banks but turned the only lap of less than 14 seconds. Absent from outdoor dirt all of last year, Wise has gotten busy. He ran all three Manzanita classes plus sprint and midget at Vegas and Perris prior to the second Indiana Underground sprint for three USAC runs.

The Burg was fast and lumpy. Cars were coated in Ohio River bottom. Wide open like a winged race, few could pass, reminding me of USAC races in Charlotte, North Carolina or Lebanon, Missouri. Only four row four starters (Darland, Sweet, Bland and Clauson) could claim one of four transfers from any heat. Boespflug looked like the first heat winner from pole until Levi lunged under in turn three. Short won the second heat from pole.

Schuerenberg timed slowly enough to start Gas City and Lawrenceburg heats from the front row and transfer both times. Last summer, Hunter cultivated quite a fan following (2009 T-shirts were eagerly awaited) with heroic drives for Jeff Walker. This year, the Missouri teen has partnered with 6R Racing, Jet Star, Daryl Guiducci, Fatheadz and Jacob Wilson on a six-cylinder Toyota that Hunter’s heavy foot has yet to make competitive. He ran a Chevy around Eldora faster than only five of the 33 cars.

Winning three of eight at Lawrenceburg last season, Brett Burdette crashed in Vegas and twice in 23 laps at Eldora. He hit I-69 in the true blue Eleven of crew chief Jeff Walker. Brett and Shane Hollingsworth used front row starts to win USAC heats at Gas City but at Lawrenceburg, Burdette needed Walker’s provisional.

Pennsylvania native Jimmy Light, second at North Vernon in his Truckers debut, missed USAC A-mains at Eldora and Gas City, timed poorly on Saturday, yet won his heat on the Lawrenceburg Speedway where he was champion in 2008.

Lawrenceburg added only AMSA. Strapped into a 1200cc mini sprint was Merrill Calvert, retired as pilot for United Airlines and away from racing eight years. In the summer of ’86, USAC midgets carried an array of talent to asphalt and dirt. One of the ten who stayed through the whole ten days was Calvert, later to win AAMS A-mains at Anderson and Illiana Speedways. A rookie in 2008, Merrill was among seven of 27 to miss the AMSA A-main on Lawrenceburg’s wavy banks.

Xenia, Ohio’s Sam Ashworth led seven laps around Lawrenceburg in a Yamaha Bishop 92. Ashworth was a famous All Star name when Denny Ashworth fielded winged 410 sprint cars for Harry Garrett, Keith Kauffman, Kenny Jacobs, Dean Jacobs, Danny Smith, Joey Saldana, Dave Calaman, Kevin Huntley, Tyler Walker, Travis Rilat, Rob Chaney, Chad Jones, Jac Haudenschild and Jeff Shepard. In 2007, Jimmy Stinson took third in the final sprint race by an Ashworth 92.

Ashworth fell to fourth at Lawrenceburg followed by a Suzuki Bailey driven by Troy, Ohio’s Drew Pollock, who (like Calvert) is an AMSA sophomore conversion from asphalt midgets. Pollock drove four Drinan seasons on miles at Phoenix, Nazareth and Pikes Peak peaking sixth at Salem in 2001. Last year, Drew defeated AMSA at Montpelier, Indiana. Winner of the first two AMSA events of 2009 at Vernon and Lawrenceburg was Rod Henning of suburban Dayton with Suzuki in a Larry Faase “Foz chassis” distributed through Spike by John Godfrey.

Saturday went smoothly enough that A-main starters rolled silently to the frontstretch for introductions. This was a traditional piece of USAC ceremony rarely attempted in today’s era of four-division midnight cards.

Huntington Beach, California’s Nic Faas started 2009 with broken pieces from Phoenix to Perris, leaving Indiana to wonder what lay in store for the new kid on the block. Well in their first full night, Faas and crew chief Jake Argo notched a Vernon victory. Tenth in his first Eldora event, Faas missed the A-main at I-69 but bounced back at The Burg. During the B, he exhibited no fear of the hellish turf, attacking turn one in dogged pursuit of winner Wise. Outside row one of the A, Nic quickly controlled the first 13 laps.

Grass Valley, California’s Brad Sweet, losing Eldora five laps from the end, carried Mopar Maxim under Faas but eight laps from $5000, J.R Todd’s roommate was evicted by a Wise move low in turn one. Josh jumped on horsepower provided by Charlie Fisher, rare in USAC but well known for pulling wings.

Lawrenceburg was a rodeo. Cars entered a corner, got tossed like a canoe in the rapids and exited wherever they happened to land. Some came to expect it and when Darland did not, Hockett hammered him. Jesse and Gardner jumped around turn two and made Ballou the victim. Any kidney-bruisin’ oval of a rocket and a demon is fine theatre. Neither could stay straight long enough for Damion to keep sixth until the last lap when he drove under Jesse in turn three, carried momentum straight up the hill, kicked mud in Hockett’s eye and edged him to the line. It was only the second time in six meetings where Jesse finished behind Damion in 2009.

Lawrenceburg became the first national USAC win for Wise since the Western World of 2006, also the last season for USAC success by Indiana Underground at DuQuoin with Tracy Hines. Terry Riggs wrench Mike Dutcher used to help Bruce Bromme and Richard Griffin and through bustling Benic Enterprises, he won with Cameron Dodson, Levi Jones and RW champ cars. Dutcher began 2008 with Brady Short and later Bret Mellenberndt. Riggs and Dutcher started this season with Stanbrough until Josh came available. They fell from first to eleventh at Gas City but landed Lawrenceburg.

Where had Wise been? Well, Daytona, Fontana, Talladega. He ran his first ARCA races at Winchester and Toledo in 2006, made eleven more ARCA appearances (second at Pocono, Gateway and DuQuoin), nine truck stops (sixth in Vegas for Darrell Waltrip) and his first NASCAR Nationwide start at IRP. Last season, Josh ran half of the 35-race Nationwide schedule capped by fifth at IRP. Wise returned to Eldora wearing a NAPA suit from four races with Michael Waltrip.

Sweet surrendered second to Levi late at Lawrenceburg. Arizona’s Chad Boat finished fourth in his best sprint finish since last June at Eldora. Darland finished fifth to maintain the national USAC sprint car point lead after six legs. Gardner snatched sixth from Hockett while Whitt was eighth over row eight starter Short and Stanbrough, who look uncomfortable on the treacherous terrain. Burdette earned eleventh from last.

Hockett sits second in USAC points and is trying to cover all bases. Jesse is due to return to ASCS at Tri-City on May 1, seeks a pavement ride for Anderson USAC on May 2, and is likely to bridge Bloomington USAC (May 8) with Little Rock ASCS on May 9. Hockett’s Memorial Day weekend looks like Terre Haute USAC (May 21) and another champ car ride around the Indy Mile (May 22) followed by two ASCS nights in Jetmore, Kansas. CnB Mushrooms informed how Hockett will also complete the 2008 Grandview USAC card postponed to Tuesday, June 2.

Those not lucky enough to open the season in Phoenix, Vegas or Perris saw their first USAC sprint race of 2009 at the 29th annual (three were rained out) Don Branson/Jud Larson Memorial at Tony Stewart’s elegant Eldora Speedway. By the time World of Outlaws arrives on May 8-9, corporate suites will be finished overlooking turns three and four. People at The Prelude will no longer get dirty, hot or restricted to public piss stations.

For three winters under Stewart, fans and competitors have held their breath. Few made happy departures from the last two Branson/Larsons. This one however, was the stuff that makes Eldora special. Since it fell on Easter weekend, Smoke his own self was on hand to watch his Chevrolets win heats from eighth-place. His high banks reward raw aggression yet dispense violent justice to those racing without respect.

Friday rain and Saturday chill (35ish) helped the track begin wet and stack a thick cushion that remained all night. Tracks with walls build cushions that cannot hide. Indiana’s fenceless bullrings of Gas City, Bloomington, Putnamville and Paragon allow kids to haul ass, miscalculate and simply press the reset button. Such careless disregard at Eldora will alert the trauma unit.

USAC drivers decided on caution flags for 360-degree spins, also enforcing a two-spin rule. In the last Eldora heat, Alabama’s K.T Thomas spun for the second time, twirling a tight 360 to see both black and yellow flags.

The race should have ended. And on the restart, Darren Hagen fired a slide at leader Robert Ballou, who held Hagen off. Down into three, Darren got over the big berm and clouted the concrete with tremendous force that fired his Keith Kunz Bullet to an astonishing height, wrecking two of Hagen’s ribs and one lung. Fortunately for his championship dream, USAC midgets do not race until the Night Before The 500.

All of the Top Six transferred from row four to place Coons pole for the A-main. In between Cowtown cards was Oklahoma’s Brady Bacon, who won his heat from outside pole. In nine seasons, Truckers have entered Eldora with Robbie Rice, Coons, Derek Davidson, Derek Scheffel, Justin Marvel, Kent Christian, Stanbrough, Bill Rose, Mat Neely, Tony Elliott, Hollingsworth, Schuerenberg, Daron Clayton, Meseraull and Hagen.

Thomas Meseraull had the black Baldwin Five at Eldora to finish second from second in his heat. T-Mez and Baldwin brothers next opened Bloomington fifth and Danville in fourth-place. Unlike the bullrings at I-69 or Lawrenceburg, no other front row starters stayed in the Top Four. Sweet drove his Dodge from seventh to first in his heat. Big Horses pay Big Dividends on Big Banks.

Speedway, Indiana’s Critter Malone, who came to Eldora with Ohio’s Joe Seeling in 2003 and won him a winged 360 show at Limaland in 2004, stuck Seeling’s yellow bird into Eldora’s opening A-main of 2009. Last year, Seeling shifted back beneath wings with Mike Brecht and Phil Gressman but reunited with Malone at Four Crown. Critter’s kid Drake Malone is in eighth grade and was a recent page to Indiana senator Michael Young.

Brecht of Deshler (50 miles southwest of Toledo) posted a stunning second in last fall’s Four Crown and returned to Eldora aboard a Stan Courtad car that was fast early until Mike scuffed cement on the backstretch. Courtad’s crew finished fifth at Fremont on Saturday with Gressman on the gas.

Also keeping one foot in the wingless world was Oklahoma’s Jimmy Jones, sweeping Eldora in 2007 with Ballou before joining ASCS. Jones brought 17-year old Trey Robb and 40-year old Jerry Bell to Eldora. After three Sprint Bandit dates, Robb ran wingless sprints three times in eight days from Jimmy’s shop near the Indianapolis Speedrome. As for the 1999 Boone Nationals winner, Bell had wings off only once and when the 2004 ASCS Gulf South king began Eldora hot laps, he gave a mighty pitch, abruptly lifted and tossed his nose at the wall. Next lap, Bell was well below. Robb and Faas became Eldora’s only rookies to reach the final.

Tucson, Arizona’s Jerry Coons led a lap at Eldora before a four-car crash on the backstretch involved Whitt, Malone (both done) and Burdette. On the restart, Levi laid a slide on Coons. On lap 11, Sweet also blitzed beneath Jerry and was ready to lay the same flyer on Jones when the red flashed for Gardner’s backstretch dump. On this restart, Jones guarded against The Big Dive one lap before Brad blazed low into three. Three laps later, Coons followed under Jones in three. On lap 17, Hines passed his TSR teammate for third and on lap 24, Burdette flipped.

On this last restart, Coons put a perfect slide on Sweet. In two laps, Brad was back on Coons tail and a lunge at the lead was inevitable. Six corners from the end, observers braced for an assault that was postponed. Waiting for the last two corners cost Sweet because he never made it that far. Brad got in the chop outside turn two and tumbled down the hill to get clipped by Hines. The second hit injured no one but took Tracy from a Top Five.

After all the wall-banging, smooth Jerry Coons was on the ramp with $5000. It seemed sad that he could not bid farewell to the Manzanita Speedway where he won 44 times (turns out, he could have as Hockett proved) but those are yesterday’s yellow headlines. Jerry is a three-sport USAC champion now, one perpetuating the rich legacy of the Hoffmans from Cincinnati. Richard Hoffman entered Eldora with Gil Hess (1967), Doc Dawson (’69), tried Cannon brothers Larry and Steve (winning with Larry), Johnny Parsons, Andy Hillenburg, Kevin Huntley, Rich Vogler, Steve Butler, Robbie Stanley (first in ’93), Cary Faas, Terry Shepherd, Davidson, Darland, Rose, Levi Jones, Stanbrough, Haudenschild, Tyler Walker and first with Hines in 2006.

Darland won three of ten Eldora events for Hoffman and won hot laps in 2009. Tripping the beam last, Dave qualified first with foot to the back of a Gaerte Engine. Darland ended second ahead of Hockett as Levi fell to fourth. Short emerged fifth following a nice dice with Ballou and Bud Kaeding’s new white Maxim. Ballou brought NorCal pals Darrin Smith and Randy Frank to make Eldora feel like a Friday night at Silver Dollar.

Grinning over my description of his post-Tulare condition, Kaeding has had a typically scattered season of World of Outlaws at Chico, Mike Sala’s 360 on the Ocean Speedway and the last USAC champ checkered at Manzanita, where Kaeding won seven of 26. After a few days in Disneyland, Bud scored second at Watsonville (Ocean) and eighth at Petaluma.

Windom was eighth from Eldora’s row ten. Clauson claimed ninth in his first appearance in the three years since a broken neck and super-speedway convalescence. Starting a season later than Josh Wise, Clauson climbed in six ARCA windows (getting a Gateway win) and five NASCAR events before 21 of 35 Nationwide races that reached fifth in Kentucky and sixth at Daytona.

Sonoma County, California’s JoJo Helberg, the 18-year old brother of 21-year old NASCAR diversity hopeful Jessica Helberg, took third Saturday in a wingless 360 on Roseville tar after flying to El Paso to race a winged 305 on dirt.

Boise, Idaho native Davey Hamilton celebrated entry to a ninth Indianapolis 500 by joining JoJo at Roseville to wheel a Western Speed 360 to seventh. Hamilton had not been to Roseville since running Ed Shefcik’s winged BCRA midget to a pair of seconds behind Craig Dillard (Hagopian 14) and Ray Derby at the Rose County Fair of 1994.

Tarlton Motorsports of Fresno fielded three of 21 sprint cars in Hanford on Saturday. Peter Murphy finished second without wings and Tommy Tarlton was second with the winged Rebel 360 series. Michael Faccinto’s third Tarlton 21 did not finish the wingless go. Central California managed to silence SCRA and bust up Bandits.

Saturday’s early rain in Dallas, Tulsa and Meeker made for a big (really) 13-car field of two-barrel 360 winged sprint cars at Lawton, Oklahoma operated by Lanny Edwards. In a twinbill born of bad weather, Norman’s Brent Swift swept the opener before Brill king Cody Metscher managed second to dominant Robert Sellers but ahead of Martin Edwards, who has ten wins in five seasons in the Devil’s Bowl of grandpa Lanny.

Russ Harper, a native to Watkins, Colorado now in Indianapolis, won six races in four seasons before selling his DRC midget to Jody Rosenboom to purchase Jimmy Light’s 2008 DRC sprint car. In his first three sprint races, Harper won a heat at North Vernon, missed the cut at Bloomington but went B-to-A in Putnamville.

The wet Wabash clouds that delayed openers in Bloomington, Gas City and Eldora enabled me to absorb Alejandro Escovedo, the 58-year old elder statesman of Austin, Texas at the 82-year old Royal Theatre in downtown Danville, Indiana. Flanked by the guitar of David Pulkingham and violin of Carrie Rodriguez (my new crush), Alejandro offered “Chelsea Hotel ‘78” about the death of Nancy Spungen (companion to Sid Vicious) when Escovedo was in a punk rock band called The Nuns.

South Bend, Indiana’s Ryan Newman, among the A-main of the 1997 Branson/Larson Memorial at Eldora, was among four NASCAR names (Matt Kenseth, Reed Sorenson and Brian Vickers) at this week’s Goodyear tire test on the Indianapolis Motor Speedway.

As for the ol’ Brickyard, did you know the Speedway Motel is no more? Many a marriage began and ended on what is now a vacant lot. My only night there was as undeclared guest of Bob Cicconi before the Hoosier Dome Invitational of 1988.

Weedsport, New York’s Craig Keel, infamous in Indianapolis for his savage crash of 1987 on the mile (“I even broke the glass in the gauges,” he told me) has relocated to Green Springs, Ohio to be near his young son. Ten miles from Fremont Speedway, Craig cracked its A-main Saturday after failing at Attica for three weeks. During the great traction control scare of Ohio Speedweek 2003, Keel stormed out of Attica when acting All Star comp director Jack Hewitt ordered the magneto out of Craig’s cockpit.

Gibsonburg, Ohio’s Craig Mintz won Friday’s opener at Skyline and took tenth Saturday at Fremont, where Tim Shaffer of Pittsburgh produced his third win in eleven events for Aaron Call and Brian Kemenah. In between Volusia and Williams Grove, Shaffer flew to Western Australia to guide Geoff Kendrick’s car second at Kalgoorlie, third in Perth and ninth in the Krikke Boys Shootout at Bunbury City.

And there was no 305 or 360 for The Wild Child’s child. Though he told me last month how Attica would not permit his (soon) 15-year old boy, Attica is exactly where Sheldon Haudenschild ran his first race. His second start against All Stars saw Sheldon qualify quicker than Keel, Ed Lynch or Mark Keegan. In his third week, young Haud was as high as third Friday at Lakeville and outside eventual winner Troy Vaccaro on Saturday in Wayne County.

Sinking Spring, Pennsylvania’s Dave Ely posted his first 410 feature win in nine years Saturday at the Port Royal Fairgrounds. During time away from The Grove, Ely won 13 times with 360 cubic inches (URC, Mercer ESS and Virginia ASCS) and four of ten ARDC midget starts in 2007.

Chad Layton from the Pennsylvania capital of Harrisburg has enjoyed enough success in the United Racing Company (two wins in nine starts) that he wants to be an $11,700 champion like Curt Michael. In his first Delaware descent on Saturday, Layton was first in heat and second to The Jersey Jet, J.J Grasso.

From the shadow of Bridgeport Speedway resides Grasso in Pedricktown, New Jersey. J.J became the fourth URC winner for car owner/crew chief Pat Palladino. Beginning as Bud Lawrence crew chief to Frankie Kerr and Fred Rahmer, Palladino compiled a dozen wins with Sean Michael, another 21 with Sean’s kid brother Curt, three in ’03 with tall Trevor Lewis and Saturday in Delmar with J.J in a J&J.

Bucks County, Pennsylvania’s Michael Carber crossed seventh Saturday at Delaware. Two weeks after last year’s URC tour did wrap, Carber opened his third tour of Australia. Michael made a dozen starts with John Weatherall that won twice in Brisbane and took third at Maryborough and tenth in Toowoomba World Series. In the U.S, Carber’s car owner is John Pinter, an Audi dealer from Wilmington who raced New Jersey modifieds.

Flemington, New Jersey’s Art Leidl, graduating from Jasper crate engines to tenth in last year’s Big Diamond URC show, cracked the Delaware A-main on Saturday after a Port Royal shakedown. Leidl Well Drilling fielded the “L” modified built by Scott Pursell’s father-in-law and carried by Billy Pauch to ten straight Flemington features in 1981. “Go like L!” was their battle cry.

After two years and four weeks with a central Pennsylvania 410, Saturday in Delaware marked the first URC 360 start by Nick Schlauch Jr, son of another New Jersey modified champion.

Fort Lee, New Jersey’s Frank Polimeda, shaking off a Chili Bowl concussion to win the ARDC midget opener at Big Diamond, was leading the Lincoln Legends race Saturday until spun by Jason Rochelle, son of the URC champion of 1979-80.

Winning the 1250cc contest at Lincoln was 50-year old Tom Mayberry, who won the Freedom 76 for Grandview mods in 1986 and piloted the first Zemco sprint car as top Williams Grove rookie of 1989.

Phillipsburg, New Jersey’s Stephanie Stevens, seventh at Big Diamond and eighth at Susquehanna in the year’s first two ARDC A-mains, interrupted her fifth midget campaign for ninth in the winged 305 sprint car opener at Path Valley.

Tracy Trotter, who started the Carolina Ford Focus midgets in 2004, won six in that series with Bradley Riethmeyer of Texas, five with Iowa’s Robbie Ray, four with California’s Tanner Swanson, once with Australia’s Adam Clarke and another Saturday at Hickory with New York’s Jeremy Frankoski, a NEMA winner in 2007 at Beech Ridge, Maine.

Brandon, Florida’s Blaze Martin, third in Citrus County as 2008 TBARA rookie, reached second at the famous Greenville-Pickens Speedway and returned to USCS for three straight wins worth a collective $6500 from Georgia’s Watermelon Capital, North Carolina’s Ace Speedway and Florence, South Carolina.

This screed is dedicated to Fremont, Ohio’s Harold McGilton and Burlington, Iowa’s Bud Taeger, who passed away Tuesday and Wednesday. Bud was father to my friend “Odd Todd” Taeger. McGilton was a legend who made three Knoxville Nationals finals and raced sprint cars past the age of 65.

Off to The Ditch and Tri-State for (hopefully) the pinnacle of the World of Outlaws season from 4979 West 13th Street, Speedway, IN 46224 or (317) 607.7841 or Kevin@openwheeltimes.com.

ok

Home Cookin’

By Kevin Eckert

April 8, 2009 Speedway, Indiana: Winter was supposed to be over. I thought my timing was better. No small coincidence how two months in (by day) warm weather returned to flowers in bloom, before they froze and died below snow.

Present plans call for greeting USAC sprint cars at Eldora Speedway on April 10-11. Throughout my decades as a sprint car gypsy, the end of March/beginning of April annually signals an Eldora opener. Of course, if there is wintry weather in Ohio, the radius will tighten to either opener at Bloomington or Gas City. Just writing that makes me grin. It’s good to be home.

Sunday’s crossing of the Wabash River represented my first time in Indiana in eight weeks. Mine was another adventure of indelible images from the Speedway stoop to Louisville, Kentucky; Nashville, Tennessee; Muscle Shoals, Alabama; Philadelphia, Mississippi; New Orleans, Louisiana; Cowtown, Texas; Socorro, New Mexico; Manzanita, Arizona; Las Vegas, Nevada; Chico, California; Tucson, Arizona; Las Cruces, New Mexico; ASCS over Texas; Edmond, Oklahoma; Fort Scott, Kansas; WOW of Missouri; Pocahontas, Illinois and ultimately, Speedway USA.

The primal attraction to explore the unexplored has been breaking marriage vows since the dawn of time. I was not coming home without a few new beaver pelts on my belt. Two of the rascals got away in Crandall and Waco, but the Gator Motorplex in Willis, Texas and L A Raceway in La Monte, Missouri bumped my number of speedways to 469.

Sentimentality would have followed the World of Outlaws from Tulare to the final winged event on the Manzanita half. Wings on half-miles however, are seldom scintillating, which Manzy has scarcely disproven. Rather than choke on the tire smoke of a funeral, I chose to rest on memories of Lealand’s lunge into three, Yeley’s way with one, Sherman’s surge out of turn two, cold beer, hot tacos, tailgating against the building, my family.

I skirted Phoenix to hole up in Van Horn, Texas for two days writing the last column. Van Horn has Chuy Uranga’s restaurant made semi-famous by John Madden of Pleasanton, California. Madden played football in San Luis Obispo and Philadelphia before winning the 1977 Super Bowl as head coach of the Oakland Raiders. John likes Chuy’s chicken picado. Make mine machaca.

Not for nothing, but I’d like to be the John Madden of motorsports, where I simply step into my luxury bus, inform the driver of our destination, and then go sleep, screw, shower, snack, smoke, scribble or scratch. That would be travelin’ right.

Upon dishing the Van Horn column to DMI, I began the arduous task of driving across West Texas, some of North America’s least interesting terrain. Iraan was the Pecos River home of England Dan Seals, a member of the morning obituaries. Seals and John Ford Coley sang “I’d Really Love to See You Tonight” in 1976, one of the finest summers of my youth.

Ozona, Texas has a monument to Davy Crockett, born in Tennessee (1786) to die at The Alamo in San Antonio in 1836. Ozona is home to Tom Mitchell, owner of the Circle Bar Truck Corral that helped Chet Fillip into the Indy 500 and fields NASCAR trucks for Rick Crawford and young James Buescher.

Fillip is a West Texas success story. Born in San Angelo in 1957, Chet raced a rear-engine supermodified all the way to Star, New Hampshire. Fillip flogged Cosworths into the 1982-83 Indy 500. He switched to NASCAR and made the ’87 Daytona 500 with brother Corey, proprietor of Advanced Racing Suspensions on Gasoline Alley, where they built an ugly sprint car that won eight times in five USAC seasons. Chet drove Dick Fuller’s sprint car to a $20,000 victory at the Little 500 of 1999. Once the boy toy of soap starlet Morgan Fairchild, Fillip became the only champion of PRA at age 50. He will drive a factory Mercedes in Madagascar and in his spare moments, Chet teaches violin with a Texas swing.

A grueling 456 miles into Texas on I-10 is Junction, where Bear Bryant drove Texas A&M football recruits into the ground in 1954. Only ten of 100 made the team. One was Jack Pardee, later a linebacker for the Los Angeles Rams and coach of the Houston Oilers. “Junction Boys” became an ESPN movie in 2002 starring Tom Berenger as The Bear.

On the road (290) to Austin is Luckenbach, Texas, which became part of the “outlaw country” landscape when Jerry Jeff Walker recorded Viva Terlingua there in 1973. Four years later, Luckenbach became the title of a song by two native Texans, Willie Nelson of Abbott and Waylon Jennings from Littlefield.

Navasota, Texas on 105 was home to a quarter-mile dirt track called Moody-Clary Speedway. USAC midgets were part of its first season of 1969 when Denver’s Dave Strickland (Shannon 22) was the winner. When they returned in 1970, Merle Bettenhausen (Lockard 69) finished first.

Midget memories were conjured by Lake Conroe, home to two generations of Ron Hughes, two men who gave their lives to a very specific form of motorsport. It is a special racer who continues without the use of his legs. Ron Hughes Jr. had to be the greatest to ever thumb a throttle. I watched him win at Belle-Clair in 1989, climbing from midget to wheelchair for an interview. It is also a special racer who fields the midget in which his own son dies (Devils Bowl 1990) yet continues dragging midgets to Chili Bowl, Belleville Nationals, or Savannah, Missouri where Hughes and Kevin Olson beat MARA in 1992. At the end of ’97, Ron summoned John Heydenreich for a West Texas win on the Odessa oval called Permian Basin.

North of Conroe in Willis is the Gator Motorplex that opened in 1998. All three SSMA midget races at Gator have gone to Aaron Kirk in the Hughes 45. During last month’s SMRS midget meet in Fort Worth, I asked Bryon Harvey which SSMA stop should be seen before all others. “Gator,” answered my friend Harvey.

The first rig glimpsed at Gator housed ASCS sprints for Trey Robb and Jerry Bell, meaning Jimmy Jones was in the house. I steered to the front for a gander at Gator and nearly got stuck in the mud. Much rain had fallen in 24 hours. No one was taking tickets yet. The promoter bulldozer around turns three and four so fans could open lawn chairs. Gator is a bring your own seat, bring your own beverage kind of Texas juke joint. I blindsided Jones, asking if he must smoke to unload Robb’s racer and winch down another (without wheels) for Bell, money man of the operation.

Like me, Perry Robb III (aka Trey) sought a substitute for the frozen weekend in Oklahoma City, which cancelled before some departed Dallas. Jason Johnson, Travis Rilat, Eric Baldaccini and Kathryne Minter are all based in the Dallas-Fort Worth Metroplex and dialed down ASCS from national to regional.

ASCS Gulf South began Gator’s fifth season of sprint racing. ASCS faces the same problem as most open wheel touring divisions: sharing space with acres and acres of junk. ASCS heats are generally followed by hours of stock cars. After the California utopia of the premier class being the only class, Gator was a painful bite of five-division reality.

My pitch for press credentials seemed rare in these parts. No radios meant no verdict. I told ‘em to chew it over while I chewed some dinner. Super Burger was worthy of Discovery Channel hype. Bouncing back to Gator got the same blank stare (promoter still clearing brush) so I took refuge in Molly’s Pub and her wonderful wall of taps. Wireless internet enabled me to update Friday race results over a Shiner Black, best of that Texas brewery. Should have returned to the raceway sooner but I am a sucker for a good jukebox. Staying to hear all my songs cost me all five ASCS heats.

One last chance for the girl at Gator’s gate, who was being shepherded away when I asked about a press pass for a third time. She still knew nothing, suggesting that I follow the cop to the promoter. I had a better idea. Why don’t I wait for you to drive away so I can drive in? I parked among “these East Texas pines” (McMurtry) and took in two B-mains and an A. ASCS will run three or four B-mains before a single C. Gator pulled 37 cars.

Having no wristband relegated me infield or in some of the smallest backstretch bleachers ever braced. Gator was said to suffer from the same lack of moisture as most U.S dirt. Cold damp openers often alter that equation. ASCS heats saw Gator peel a bit, causing management to overreact and flash the blade. I climbed the bulldozer inside turn two for two last chance races.

Gator ASCS winner in 2006 and 2008, Chris Sweeney won the first B. Beaumont’s Gary Watson secured the last transfer 20 years after making the World of Outlaws A-main in Houston’s Big H Speedway. Darryl Wills was two spots out aboard the 2004 Avenger he won in the National Sprint Car Hall of Fame raffle. Behind him was Kathryne Minter, who clipped a tractor tire in her heat and damage repaired by R.J Johnson, the Florida native who ran Knoxville last year. R.J is the son of Roland Johnson, an 18-time East Bay winner between 1985 and 2000.

Who better to tame a Gator than a Cajun? Native of Eunice, Louisiana, Jason Johnson now resides in Dallas-Fort Worth near his money maker. He is the busiest sprint racer on the planet, competing internationally in 74 of 76 months since 2003. Jason is able to stay doubly active with a Wesmar Eagle to match the one that made $50,000 national ASCS champions of Johnson and Lanny Row in 2008. Jason and Lanny opened their title defense by banking $6000 from the Devil’s Bowl. As soon as OKC was DOA, Johnson and crew chief Craig Stevens arranged for Marvin Pearson’s car to be in Willis, where it spun the rear end assembly.

From the back of a B, Jason advanced cautiously until only leader Scottie McDonald remained. After winning the B, Johnson did not open the A-main with any huge burst and in fact, spun in turn three. Saturday seemed to someone else’s night.

For 21 laps, someone else was Aaron Reutzel, an 18-year old February face of Cowtown 600cc sanctioned by ASCS2. Aaron won his heat for the front row, riding the brake around the bottom until his rotor was so hot it threatened to melt the tail. The red flag for Matt Clevenger (second until flipping over Brandon Corn) cooled the leader’s brakes but also brought Travis Rilat in range. Native to suburban Houston now living in suburban Dallas, Travis started his Shark XXX in row seven and like Johnson, was no early threat. After a long delay (one wrecker for a two-car wreck), Rilat rattled Reutzel for the lead.

That seemed to be the shootin; match until The Cajun began ragin’ around the rim. Since virtually everyone in front of Jason Johnson was low to middle, he blasted the top of Gator’s tall banks. Even the chutes have rake and Jason went all the way to the wall in one and two, tempted the trench through the middle of three and four, and surprised Rilat on the final corner for the 122nd win of Johnson’s career. Jason did a reverse victory lap.

Reutzel ran third. Ray Allen Kulhanek rode the rim from row seven to fourth followed by heat winner Channin Tankersley, son of the Rickey Lee Tankersley who made six starts in Houston with the World of Outlaws in 1988-91. Trey Robb retreated from third to sixth ahead of Eric Baldaccini, bagging the last transfer from the B-main and seventh in the A-main. Back to Molly’s.

Monday brought a decision. Finances were weak. They could stand another few days in Texas so long as the U.S Mail made them well by Wednesday midnight for James McMurtry’s weekly appearance at the Continental Club in Austin.

While waiting on the pony express, I pondered a tour of some of Houston’s long gone pillars to midget history; the places that created the most accomplished auto racer man has ever seen, Anthony Joseph Foyt Jr. Several were on South Main. There was the (9300) South Main Speedrome, a half-mile dirt track cut in half in 1946-47; Playland Park at 920 South Main, a quarter-mile dirt track in an amusement park from ’48 to ’56 (A.J began there) and paved when it closed in 1960; and Arrowhead at South Main Street and Old Spanish Trail, where an 18-year old Foyt won his first trophy dash on July 11, 1953.

Joseph F. Meyer Stadium on South Main and Hillcroft in Houston was a paved half-mile that had as its second winner ever, A.J Foyt and A.J Watson on October 11, 1959. USAC midgets at Meyer were beaten by Gene Force (Shannon 22), Dale Swaim (’60) and Arlington’s Jim McElreath in 1962. USAC sprints opened 1960 at Meyer defeated by Don Branson’s Offenhauser, returning to end the season behind the Fike Chevrolet of Parnelli Jones. J.F Meyer closed in 1979.

USAC midget wins by Dave Steele (2006) and Bobby East (2009) in Rusk, Texas marked the first Austin appearance by the Indianapolis organization since Longhorn Speedway waved checkereds over Bob Tattersall (1960) and Chuck Rodee in 1962.

I had no business on Galveston Island and had to punt like Shane Lechler of Texas A&M. I headed north through Klein, home to Lyle Lovett, the Texas A&M journalist who led Lyle Lovett & His Large Band, married Julia Roberts and had his leg broken by a bull. The last accident kept Lyle off of his beloved Ducati motorcycles. Lovett rides through the Hill Country, where he was told Germans settled because it looked like Germany. Texas A&M (Agricultural & Mechanical) in College Station is where stuttering Lester Hayes of Houston was drafted into the NFL in 1977. As a Raider, he earned two Super Bowl rings.

College Station established the World Closed Course Speed Record at Texas World Speedway in 1973 when Mario Andretti achieved 214mph in the turbocharged Offenhauser of Parnelli Jones. Texas had long been a haven for extreme speed. In 1963, Foyt and his trusty Trevis Offy turned the first 200mph lap on the five-mile Goodyear test track in San Angelo. South of there in Fort Stockton is where Chicago’s Fred Lorenzen lapped a 7.7-mile Firestone facility at 170mph with a ’64 Ford. Just this winter, the new NASCAR ban on testing brought Jack Roush Fords to Texas World. Washington’s Greg Biffle reached 218mph.

I exited I-35 to look into the Heart O’Texas, where ASCS Gulf South sprints would race four days later. The quarter-mile is Waco’s second Heart O’Texas Speedway, opening in ‘66 to replace the one closed in 1965. Heart O’Texas hosted SWIMS midgets mastered by Johnny Parsons (’82), Kevin Doty (‘84), Gene Gennetten (’84) and Arizona’s Mark Passerrelli in 1985. MARA sanctioned the last Waco midget race won by Steve Knepper in 1988.

Richard Summers was a Texas racer who wheeled a sprint car against anyone. He won the only recorded Waco sprint race prior to the 1999 invasion of IMCA claimers. Richard ran the 1985 Gambler of Bob Wagner and James Helms, later to back Steve Perry and Shane Carson. Summers and Helms won at Beaumont, Big H, Devil's Bowl and Texarkana; ran sixth when CRA came into The Bowl, eighth in the only USAC visit to Devil’s Bowl, eighth with the WoO at Big H, and tenth in USAC/CRA at Manzy.

The 2004 season was when Heart O’Texas held its first Gordon Woolley Classic. ASCS winners in Waco are Claud Estes, Jason Johnson (Pearson 11), Brandon Berryman, Ryan Hall (Woolley Classic 2008), Greg Rilat and four times by Kevin Ramey. Texas 305s touched Heart O’Texas in 2006 when Shane Carson became a Waco winner. The first ASCS event of 2009 (higher banking) saw Ramey reach for a fifth win from row six, passing everyone except veteran Skip Wilson in an Avenger from El Paso.

Gordon Woolley incidentally, is very much alive. Born in 1922, Woolley won 17 straight stock car races in Waco’s Suicide Bowl before seeing USAC sprint cars at Meyer Stadium in ’59. From that day on, sprint cars ruled Gordon’s world. He beat IMCA at Meyer (’61) and ran a roadster T-bucket second in the second Knoxville Nationals of 1962. A long tall Texan of 6’3” in black boots, red suit and yellow helmet, Woolley was possibly the first “outlaw” to travel with little more than a helmet bag. He won the 1963 IMCA championship with three cars, taking Tampa in Chet Wilson’s Offy Killer, teaming with Don Shepherd to land LaCrosse and Eldon before leaving Shepherd for Sid Weinberger, who had lost Johnny White to a wheelchair. Woolley and Weinberger won seven times in two months. Gordon got Hector Honore and Pop Miller to victory lane in 1965. He ran his last sprint at Devil’s Bowl in 1972 yet continued in stock cars, becoming an ‘82 Heart O’Texas champ at age 60.

I entered the metroplex on 287 and exited I-35 through Dealey Plaza to Deep Ellum for coffee and internet. This area is akin to Sixth Street in Austin, Beale Street in Memphis or Bourbon Street in New Orleans as places where people can walk to several choices of live music. According to my barista, Deep Ellum is in Deep Trouble from forces economic and political. If the Club Dada ever becomes a batch of condominiums, it would only continue the theme of tragedy that will forever be downtown Dallas.

A cup of Sumatra helped mulling my options. Waco was out. The 305 sprints that I intended to see last Friday were rescheduled in Crandall, but I opted for the original objective of WOW 360 sprints in LaMonte, Missouri. It was cold and raining in Denton, Texas, where I took a TA truck stop shower. They cost ten dollars now. It seems like only yesterday they were five bucks, an easy choice over a $30 motel. Now that the gap has narrowed, it makes more sense to rent a room.

Oklahoma City is where Scott Chilcutt and Lonnie Wheatley would depart for the final race at Manzanita. Scott and Shane Stewart were World of Outlaws winners in Louisiana in 2004. Chad Kemenah helped Jon Kantor match Chilcutt as a WoO winner from Oklahoma, where I arrived as Jon pulled the plug. I camped in OKC for three days, sampling pork chops and trout from Chilcutt’s culinary library and Hobby’s Hoagies by day.

My years in the Sooner State escaped on every conceivable road. This flight exited Edmond east on 66 to Stroud north on 99 past Hallett road course across the Arkansas River through the Osage Indian Reservation to Caney Valley, Kansas.

Fifteen summers have passed since Gordy Killian and I raised Caney to see Terry Gray (Brown 61a) open the first ASCS Speedweek by holding off 16-year old Lance Blevins in an ex-Hamilton 77. Lealand McSpadden was in that 1993 ASCS field as was John Hunt, a 100-inch MAPS winner at Caney with Dean Bayouth (’92) and Aaron Lemmons in 1993. Nebraska’s Mike Chadd won a Caney NCRA 360 show in 1993. Caney conducted one SMRS midget weekend in 2004 taken by Joe Boyles and Arizona’s Steve Sussex. Caney’s only regional ASCS A-main went to Wayne Johnson (Harvill 44) in 2004 also. Oklahoma’s two-barrel 360 sprint cars visited Caney for cards won by Mike Goodman (’94, 99), Sean and Brian’s dad Mike McClelland (’95), Kenneth Walker (2000) and the track’s most recent sprint race, an OCRS affair won by Jamie Passmore in 2007. Caney will welcome back OCRS on June 20 and SMRS on September 19.

I cut Kansas for Independence on 75 to 400 to Pittsburg up the east edge of the Jayhawk State on 69 to Fort Scott into Missouri on 54 past Lucas Oil Speedway in Wheatland over Lake of the Ozarks on 83 around Warsaw, home of Rocket Hockett. L A Raceway would be my sixth speedway in common with Jesse in 2009 after Chili Bowl, Manzanita, Vegas, Perris and Chico. Cold weather kept us apart in Oklahoma City and kept him away from Jacksonville, Illinois. Faced with a Friday without a helmet, Jesse did what folks do around Bass Pro Shops. They go fishin!

Last year’s return to the Missouri State Fairgrounds in Sedalia recalled an American Inn on 65 for $35. Stowing saddlebags, I hunted provisions and found Patricia’s Mexican Restaurant. “Happy hour ‘til close” its sign said. The bartender was kin to Bill Utz, the local blacksmith who forged three IMCA sprint crowns and four Missouri Futurity wins on his hometown mile. Morning brought me downtown for coffee at the Hotel Bothwell built in 1927. It was in the Bothwell where Harry Truman announced his U.S Senate candidacy in 1934.

How many racers roamed these marble hallways to shower away state fairground soot? For at least 40 men, the road to the National Sprint Car Hall of Fame stopped in Sedalia’s win circle. They are Mario Andretti, Buzz Barton, Jerry Blundy, Shane Carson, Jack Elam, Rick Ferkel, Pete Folse, Earl Gaerte, Ray Lee Goodwin, Bobby Grim, Jack Hewitt, Bill Holland, Hector Honore, Doug Howells, Grant King, Karl Kinser, Steve Kinser, Jud Larson, Harold Leep, Eddie Leavitt, Frankie Luptow, Jim McElreath, Laverne Nance, Fred Offenhauser, Jan Opperman, Jerry Richert, Ron Shuman, Bob Slater, Bill Smith, Dick Sutcliffe, Sammy Swindell, Bob Trostle, Bobby Unser, Earl Wagner, Greg Weld, Dizz Wilson, Doug Wolfgang, Ken Woodruff, Jay Woodside and Gordon Woolley.

In the lobby of the Hotel Bothwell was a guy in a Jesse Hockett 77 T-shirt. Later at L A, a quarter of the crowd seemed to sport at least one piece of Rocket science.

Saturday silence was shattered by a street-legal sprint car, a Schnee that won Linn County Speedway titles for Denny Moore and son Mitchell of Edgerton, Kansas. It lured me to a classic car show complete with contemporary sprints of Randy Martin, Josh Fisher and Jesse Hockett, who dragged two cars 45 miles. Hockett had the ex-Brad Sweet JEI obtained from Kasey Kahne, the Tom Buch JEI that took $13,000 from East Bay, T-shirts, hero cards (listing his engagement to Tina Marie) and Tootsie rolls. And because he is The Rocket, Hockett also had a 305 to drive.

The United Rebel (305) Sprint Series sent 11 of its top 41 in 2008 Eastern points from Kansas to support 21 of the larger wings. URSS Rebels were Reed Bernbeck, Darren Bowman, Dennis Fair, Smokey Fairbank, Keefe Hemel, Craig Jecha, C.J Johnson, Corey Lutters, Ken Lutters, Willie Wynn and Eastern champ Cody Salem of St. Joseph, Missouri.

The URSS champ is the son of its founder Rick Salem, who won sprint and midget races at Colorado National and Rocky Mountain, recorded RMMRA midget wins in McCook, Nebraska and Colby, Kansas; ran the 1985 Ted Horn 100 for Frank Marcello, Western World, Knoxville Nationals, produced a Port Royal win in 1987; and made WoO A-mains at Colorado for Sid Blandford (’87) and Albuquerque with Shawkeet Hindi in 1990.

The Salems spent Saturday in LaMonte, which is 75 miles southeast of Arrowhead Stadium in Kansas City. L A Raceway is a fenceless third-mile of gentle banking that opened in 2003. As a special attraction those first two seasons, LaMonte booked SMRS midgets beaten by Joe Boyles and Rik Forbes. In 2005 and successive years, midgets were replaced by WOW sprint cars conquered by Hockett, Brian Brown, Bryan Grimes, Josh Fisher and “The Dude from Dover” Danny Lasoski.

Like last week, I made my pitch for press credentials. Unlike last week, there was resistance over indifference. Carolyn White complained how she had “been bombarded by requests from internet websites” and decided to deny them all. Ah the progressive mindset of Middle America. The reason for the crush is because the internet is the media in 2009. I wondered if Carolyn noticed all the dying newspapers.

Like last week, gate guardians did not play ball. Unlike last week, Plan-B was less bold than driving right in. It involved walking to the window anyway to say that I had contacted Carolyn regarding credentials, omitting the part where she said, “No!” After a few confused minutes, I had a yellow wristband.

Saturday suffered for our craft. Sun and wind overpowered what little water promoter Mike White laid down. Soon as tires touched clay, the surface was gone. I told Hockett we should have been 500 miles away in North Vernon, though it may have been every bit as dusty. I spent much of the spin-plagued heat races reading three-volume biography of Smokey Yunick on loan from Leslie Goodhue, who bought it for her late brother.

URSS raced first. Zach Clark led Lone Jack’s Casey Baker and C.J Johnson, son of “Kansas Tornado” Jon Johnson. Dodge City’s Keefe Hemel had a big move negated by caution lamp. C.J challenged Clark for command into turn three, where they took opposite sides of a slow car. Zach zipped through on the bottom; Johnson spun in the dust.

Grandview granddad Ken Potter, a Knoxville regular before wings arrived in 1982, was out of the Top Five yet on the restart, Potter locked into the middle for the win. Cody Salem, Gavin Galbraith, Hemel and Chris Coleman was the Top Five prior to Potter, Galbriath and Clark declining inspection to make Salem, Hemel and Coleman 1-2-3. C.J Johnson journeyed back to seventh, which became fourth over Mitchell Moore, Fairbank and Bill’s grandson Tyler Utz.

Falling short of the URSS A-main was Kansas City’s Jerry Potter, who won his only Knoxville feature for Gil Sonner in 1979, the year of his only Nationals final. Joe Booth Towing (sponsor of the infamous Gary Balough 112 modified built by Kenny Weld of KC) placed Potter in USAC for Hulman Classic, Indy Mile, Santa Fe and the first Knoxville champ car race in 1981.

Winged Outlaw Warriors get elbows up when Brian Brown visits. In eight seasons of WOW, Brown has 23 wins in 44 A-mains. He started outside row two and led LaMonte immediately. Nixa’s Kyle Bellm started second and stayed there, actually pressing Brown a bit. Bellm had never been second with WOW.

Randy Martin is the godfather of WOW. At age 48, Randy rolled into the opener as top winner (37) and champion of the last four seasons. As all Missouri Tigers are encouraged, he took his shot at Knoxville, winning 360 titles in ’96 and 2001 while dabbling in 410s. Winner of the final sprint race on the Missouri mile in 1994, Martin passed Rusty Potter for third on lap seven at L A. Potter and Dustin Barks banged together in two just as Bellm slid over the hill in turn four. Kyle twirled 360 degrees but stalled.

Since a south wind was blowing toward three and four, I stood in turn one with Steve Gennetten and guest Jon Singer, the legend who lives 40 miles east in Tipton. Only in researching Sedalia winners in the Hall of Fame did I realize Singer not to be among them, which must be an oversight. Singer rode with Jesus (Jan Opperman) to win Missouri Futurity and Hulman Classic before Jon snared the 1976 Knoxville Nationals with Eddie Leavitt and ’85 Missouri State Fair WoO race with Ron Shuman and Ofixco. Singer Warheads won 43 of 80 races for Doug Wolfgang in 1989. Until recently, Singer built midget engines for Colorado’s Luke Icke until one too many phone calls from Luke’s dad Lane. I asked Singer if he ever met Smokey Yunick and indeed he had during winter summits at Gaerte Engines, Indiana.

LaMonte’s lap eleven restart read Brown, Martin, Hockett, Jon Corbin and Jonathan Cornell, the kid from Sedalia who was last year’s top U.S 360 sprint rookie as voted by the National Sprint Car Poll. Corbin is the grandson of 1976 Sedalia winner Tom Corbin of Carrollton. Martin dove inside Brown but drifted wide and watched Brian drive back to first. After breaking his 305, Hockett extended his 360 and almost clobbered Martin when Randy spun wheels. Jesse pushed the nose and allowed Corbin and Cornell underneath. Down the frontstretch, Brown aimed outside hometown girl Dakota Carroll, who entered in the center. Black Jack 21 hung in the dust as Martin became leader and Corbin pulled inside. Corbin and Brown both wanted the bottom of turn three. Both got upside-down instead, tearing the top wing from the Kahne car of Hockett.

Saturday had been beautiful but the first drops of rain fell during the 305 feature. I had glanced up to see only moon and stars. Those sprinkles drifted north with the wind until the third turn train wreck wiping out second, third and fifth-place. As everyone pushed off and aligned for the restart, a shift in wind direction brought real rain. The A-main was checkered after 16 of 20 laps.

Martin’s midnight blue J&J was the first WOW winner of 2009. The gleaming cars of Randy and son Evan Martin (black and gold like a good Missouri Tiger) were two very sharp Diamond Pets in the 36-car zoo. Cornell inherited second in a Maxim backed by the Kiowa Line Builders that sponsored the race.

Frank Brown, a farmer from Marshall, moved the Linda Brown Tax Service Maxim from sixth to third to match his WOW best from Double X in 2006. Nebraska’s Don Droud Jr. is due to race the 410 of Gil Sonner on Saturdays at Knoxville. In his first look at L A, Junior finished fourth in the Eagle of Jeff and Jerry Smith.

In the Missouri 360 opener of 2000, Dean Yoder and I saw the “Jerry Jeff 86” sweep two features in one Capital night steered by Steve Gennetten, who reports brother Mike out of jail after 14 years. Steve just completed an Ozark Barge & Dock for Clint Bowyer. Gennetten jockey Josh Fisher (voted top 360 rookie of 2007) finished fifth in father Rusty Fisher’s Maxim over Mark Shirshekan and Terry Hinck at L A.

Indianola, Iowa’s Dustin Selvage, a Knoxville 360 winner these last two seasons, ran his first WOW race as the only Hawkeye State representative in the Show Me State, other than Luke and Seve of Brown Bus fame. Selvage salvaged eighth-place.

O’Reilly Auto Parts Winged Outlaw Warriors next bolster the Lucas Oil ASCS National Tour at the Tri-City Speedway in suburban St. Louis (Pontoon Beach, Illinois) on Friday, May 1.

The grass is high at 4979 West 13th Street, Speedway, IN 46224, where the phone is (317) 607.7841 and e-mail is Kevin@openwheeltimes.com.

ok