Cinco Stuff

By Kevin Eckert

May 6, 2009 Speedway, Indiana: Cinco de Mayo must have been created by the tequila industry. Americans celebrate any holiday involving alcohol. Last week’s Kentucky Derby was merely an excuse to drink whiskey with a mint tint.

Cinco was savored from the swingin’ bachelor pad of Casey Shuman, Russ Harper and Sean Buckley during the telecasted tomfoolery that is Buck’s Jack Slash show. Racers through the door included Jimmy Light, Robbie Rice and neighbor Damion Gardner, who was still sitting on some Yuengling from last year’s Pennsylvania swing. Strawberry margaritas were the work of Joe Devin, as handy with a blender as with a torch at DRC.

Saturday should have found me among the Kentucky Derby drunks, because horses always race. Before rain intervened, Friday forecast a ride to St. Louis for ASCS sprints and POWRi midgets at Tri-City Speedway. Saturday was supposed to be MSCS at Terre Haute before that got shoved to Sunday and then postponed until Saturday, June 13. Gas City and Bloomington also fell early. Putnamville pulled the plug to create Danville’s best field. I waited on Sunday’s opener at Kokomo but got lazy and stayed away, sealing my first weekend without a race since Valentine’s Day.

The World of Outlaws was in Knoxville with 47 drivers from 16 U.S states, three countries and two Australian states. Returning to the black Iowa dirt was Todd Wanless of Brisbane, Queensland. It began Todd’s fourth tour of America. He made California field trips for Shain Matthews (Tulare 2006) and Wright One Construction during NARC Speedweek 1999. Last summer, Wanless made seven U.S starts in Sioux Falls, Limaland, Eldora and all night to Knoxville, then to Hancock County, Iowa where he was sixth with IRA. Todd has five wins in six Brisbane seasons (including World Series ‘07) and won World Series at Charlton (‘06) and a midget race at Parramatta City in 2005.

Sydney’s Lynton Jeffrey, native to New South Wales and resident of Iowa, laid down Saturday’s ninth fastest lap of Knoxville beneath one of his Vortex wings. Outlaws have outlawed wings without a flat top surface to decrease downforce.

Winnipeg, Manitoba’s Lou Kennedy Jr and son Thomas have been all over the map. Lou started 2009 in Florida, met the ASCS Northern Plains in Nebraska, won Wisconsin’s Billy Anderson Memorial at Cedar Lake under new UMSS sanction and made his longest tow to an Outlaw race since the ‘93 Knoxville Nationals. When the World of Outlaws first visited Winnipeg in 1979, ninth-place went to Lou Kennedy Sr.

Albuquerque, New Mexico’s Johnny Herrera made his Knoxville debut for Hawaii’s Larry Woodward and Maryland native Troy Renfro by charging through the B-main and advancing ten A-main spots from row 12. Herrera has 133 A-main starts at Knoxville highlighted by five wins for Guy Forbrook (’95) and two for Craig Cormack (’99) after the first one for Ron Pack in 1994.

Brad Greer of Coulterville, Illinois followed Outlaws from Arkansas to Indiana and his first trip to Knoxville. After a rookie season at Benton and Farmington, Brad hit the road last year for 36 races on 24 tracks in 11 states. He followed Midwest All Stars seventh at Bloomington, fifth at West Plains and fourth at Summertown, Tennessee. Greer traveled the All Star Circuit of Champions for seventh in Mayetta, Kansas. Could the “3B” on his red tail be any smaller?

Des Moines electrician Bruce Williams, who began 2008 with Kaley Gharst of Illinois and ended it with Justin Zimmerman from Texas, has formed a 2009 team with Chris Morgan of Topeka, Kansas. Saturday saw their Fisher Maxim qualify quicker than Sammy Swindell, Craig Dollansky, Tim Kaeding, Wayne Johnson, Tony Bruce, Sam Hafertepe, Mark Dobmeier or Billy Alley. But in the B, Morgan missed the A-main by one spot.

The third generation of McCarl from Des Moines made his World of Outlaws debut Saturday when Austin McCarl drove the Wesmar Eagle of Janet Holbrook. Austin’s grandfather Lenard finished ninth at the very first WoO final at Devil’s Bowl in 1978. As a World of Outlaws car owner, Lenard landed third at Eldora with Doug Wolfgang (’78), fifth at I-70 and Eagle with Rocky Hodges (’84), sixth at I-70 with Jac Haudenschild (’85), fifth at Lernerville with Randy Smith (’86) and first at Rapid City with Jimmy Sills in 1986. Austin’s uncle Kenny cracked two WoO A-mains (I-70 in 1985 and Knoxville ’96) and Austin’s father Terry McCarl came five laps from winning Saturday.

On the Big Tracks that pay Big Money, Donny Schatz is still The Man as reinforced by an eighth win in his last 15 Knoxville nights. If the Outlaw trail was nothing but sticky little quarter-miles (impossible of course) Schatz would not be king. During his three-year reign, it is doubtful that Donny looked worse than in Chico, West Memphis or Haubstadt. After the latter, I happened by a Schatz staff meeting of grim faces. Haubstadt was Eric Prutzman’s second race as Keith Turney’s replacement wrench and was the first pit in a year that Donny departed without the point lead.

In all but a few cases, I’ve lost my appetite for wings on half-miles, but still love to see The Outlaws confined to quarters. When the April schedule called for West Memphis and Haubstadt on successive evenings, it may as well have been etched in stone as far as I was concerned. Nothing less would take precedence.

Brother had been wheelman on the past World of Outlaws trips to West Memphis but its Friday slot was unattainable for him. I asked Rob Hart about a hitch to The Ditch in the Titan transporter, but three Tatnells sounded like a full boat so I drove myself. I prefer to roam as a lone wolf, except at the gas pump, where fuel averaged about 1.85. Today it is 2.22.

I left Lynhurst to the Kentucky Avenue that becomes 67 past Paragon Speedway, where John’s brother Adam Andretti would make his sprint car debut two days later. Stomach rumbling, I realized that my simulated trip to Tri-State Speedway would draw me near the wonderful Haub Steak House, so I phoned to find out when the kitchen closed. “Nine o’clock,” was their answer. Soon it became clear that I could not make that dinner time. I rolled on and was reminded that Evansville observes Central Standard Time. Who gave border towns the right to choose their own time zone? I could’ve had that steak!

I carried 62 into Illinois and 45 through Harrisburg, home of Tod Bishop, who commuted 454 miles to Knoxville, Iowa every Saturday for three years. Bishop won twice at Knoxville in 1985 for the late Stan Shoff of rural Peoria. Ready to camp, I spent Thursday’s last 30 miles on I-57 to the confluence of the Mississippi and Ohio Rivers. I felt like Lewis AND Clark.

Highway 51 rolls to Memphis from Cairo and became Friday’s leisurely route of choice. It carried me back across the Ohio down the western edge of Kentucky into Tennessee at Union City, home to a huge Goodyear Tire plant. A hundred miles from Memphis, my phone rang. It was Hart asking if my Ford might fetch lunch. No problem. We are East Coast 4 Life.

Until he called, my idea had been to tape a blanket in the backstretch bleachers (Riverside Speedway fills fast) and bounce back across the river for what I hoped would be a tour of RE Technologies in South Bartlett. But after a few more miles of thought, I rang Rob with an offered to cater lunch if he saved the seats. No problem; East Coast 4 Life.

I felt three Aussies (Warren Beard arrived to replace Prutzman) and a girl from Minnesota should taste some good southern barbeque so when I saw smoke from Barb-A-Rosa’s in Millington, I wheeled in for two slabs of ribs, beans and slaw. I reached Riverside, handed it over the fence to Hart, and raced toward RE just ahead of Memphis rush hour.

Appling Center Cove revealed an old blue Channellock tail once used by Sammy Swindell behind Cofer Auto Body. When the World of Outlaws rolled into Riverside in 1981, Jimmy Cofer finished fourth. He won there in ’79, 80 and ’81 and when USAC made their only visit in 1985, Jim raced Ron Pack’s Four Aces.

RE was locked up tight. Chris Santucci had gone home early to get his daughter from high school, a chore usually handled by her big sister, who had skipped town with Justin Carver for Carolina USCS races. Gabby later informed dad that Carver was competing against Tony Stewart for the first time. Perhaps to lighten the Talladega tension, Sir Smoke did debut his Old Spice Eagle by winning his heat but after a botched start, Tony tumbled down the backstretch of the Carolina Speedway. Bartlett’s Terry Gray swept the USCS weekend at Gastonia and Harris, NC.

I was ready to return to Riverside when Robert Hubbard parked his pick-up. Front Row Bob gave me the guided tour. It was well worth my time. RE Technologies began as a division of the Kele & Associates electronics firm owned by Roger Johnson, who entered sprint racing as sponsor to Greg Hodnett, did several WoO tours (three in one year) and international projects (World Challenge) before shifting to USAC champ cars. RE has remained despite radical rule changes. Johnson sold Kele and partnered with Carl Edwards, who brought Roush Fords. Assorted brands of champ cars fill RE, including one of the late Paul Dana’s Ethanol Indy Cars. Scrapbooks of the storied careers of Sammy Swindell and Hooker Hood are in the lobby with tons of trophies and artifacts. Santucci is clearly a fan of the Miami Dolphins.

Dropping by RE on his way to little league baseball was Tony Wilson, who defeated the ASCS National tour at high banked Crossville, Tennessee in 1998. Wilson began Builtwiser chassis, which is now an Absolute like Marshall Skinner. Wilson, Santucci and Don Young’s dad Curtis were all TMC crewmen to Swindell around 1990. Hubbard never came to terms with Harrold Annett. “I figured I’d spend most of my time polishin’ Sammy’s chrome,” Bob once admitted. Hubb refused to pay $45 for a Friday pit pass so I promised to hook him up. How hard could it be to find one driver willing to tear loose a wristband for good ol’ Bob?

Bartlett had a Yuengling sign! The Ditch would be beaten Black & Tan. America’s oldest brewery took over a Budweiser plant in Tampa that distributes to Alabama and Tennessee. On souvenir row, Shannon Saldana asked where I found such a beer because husband Joey (and Hoosier predecessor Mark Kinser) is known to enjoy a cold Pottsville lager.

Riverside was a good gauge on how $35 World of Outlaws tickets sell during economic strife. West Memphis has always raced on Saturday. Friday’s crowd came late but came strong. Clayton Allen has spruced his speedway to where it is hard to call it The Ditch. He planted a nice scoreboard and grass in the infield! Who knew grass could take root in the dense river bottom goo that locals call gumbo?

Riverside began greasy as usual. Extra hot laps followed. By the qualifying beam, the fastest laps were the last ones. The signature surface in West Memphis is wet slick until sunset when it turns to glue. The top of turns three and four provided more passing than the north end and was where Tim Kaeding passed Tony Bruce for the sixth World of Outlaws victory of his career.

West Memphis marked the 44th WoO win for Dennis Roth and first with Tim since a rainy night in Sheboygen County, Wisconsin when he drove around Steve Kinser. Riverside recorded Guy Forbrook’s first WoO win as crew chief since he and Sammy smoked Eldora in 2006. A traveling wrench since 1988, Guy had never seen The Ditch because 410 mechanics from Minnesota had little reason, until Clayton Allen.

Kaeding raced at Riverside in 2007 when Larry Woodward’s driver Brooke Tatnell returned to Australia for his ailing father. Friday’s win prompted none of the doughnuts or wheelstands that Tim pulled into Silver Dollar legend. “I’d kill him,” Forbrook said. Guy believes that their recent 360-degree spin at Chico helped break the rear end a week later. “When he wins the Knoxville Nationals,” Guy said, “he can do doughnuts all night long.”

Tim’s brother Bud Kaeding calls mom after each race. Tim was on the phone to manager Todd Ventura, the first Roth driver in 1994. It is common knowledge in NorCal that Tim and Bud are not biological brothers. Both share JoAnn as mother but Tim’s father is Pikes Peak hill climber Garry Lee Kanawyer. Until he was 16, Tim did not know that mom’s husband Brent Kaeding was not his dad. I assumed that Brent adopted Tim to give him the Kaeding name (much as Jack Yeley did for J.J) but in reality, Kaeding is still Tim’s stage name. According to his California driver’s license, Riverside was won by Tim Kanawyer. For a kid from San Jose (no beacon of urban pride), Tim was slightly shocked by the poverty of West Memphis, Arkansas and only too happy to help a poor boy like Hubbard.

Brooke was back at The Ditch for the first time since winning an ASCS 360 show for Kele & Associates at the end of 1997. He thanked me for lunch as we reminisced about that ASCS A-main in which Roger Johnson teamed Tatnell with Ryan Berryhill and Andrew Scheuerle of Queensland. Jason Sides later complained that all the yellow ‘7k’ cars made him disoriented. A dozen years later in a pit with Hart, Brooke and wife Amy Richert, I pondered the staggering sum of victories represented by their fathers Bob, George and Jerry, who won 81 times in IMCA alone.

Brent “Glenno” Ingliss incidentally, returned to Australia to buy a condo on the Gold Coast. He had the Titan toolbox before Hart and Beard, who built a new Maxim that may have challenged the Kaeding KPC if the Tony Bruce Maxim had not grown wide. Riverside is narrow enough that cars can come off the bottom and cut off a rim-rider like Tatnell.

Tony timed fastest, started second in the dash and was wheeled by Randy Hannagan, who apologized after winning. Back outside the front row, Bruce did not reach traffic until lap 16 because of two stops by Danny Lasoski, who restarted each time. Tony actually lapped the champ (hardest Schatz ran all night) on his way to second-place. He had a Lucas Oil ASCS logo, father, sister and Stephanie Chappell in his Arkansas pit.

How good is Ricky Stenhouse Jr? Name another who can quit sprint cars, learn to draft on asphalt and return to the World of Outlaws as anything but a castrated tiger. As the boys at RE recognized long ago, little Ricky is special. His red J&J looked like a handful, floating the front but doing nothing to deter Stenhouse from stompin’ the accelerator. Far in front of his heat race, Ricky would pin the left rear on each entry to turn three, raising the right front yet driving away. In typical Outlaw style, Stenhouse took a blast above the cushion after the checkered. Two weeks after his first NASCAR Nationwide race, the Roush-Fenway flyer was fourth at The Ditch where his career began.

Hannagan finished fifth at Riverside, which he had seen with Outlaws in 2007 and All Stars in 2008 when he was third. Riverside resulted in Randy’s third Top Five of the WoO season. Last year, it took him until the season finale in Charlotte to crack their Top Five once. Sixth was also the best finish in three hometown WoO starts by Jason Sides, veteran of eleven Riverside ASCS A-mains that peaked second in 2000 to Kenny Coke.

Australian Hawkeye Kerry Madsen was seventh ahead of an all-too-brief clash of the titans between Steve Kinser and Sammy Swindell in their first Ditch dice since 1989. Sammy did return to Riverside as an All Star in a deal between Randy Dukes and Guy Webb, who wisely wanted Swindell at last summer’s event. At the end of its 2009 WoO date, Riverside widened out to allow the legends to slide and cross each other. In front of the grandstand were displayed the cars with which Sammy and Steve battled each other in 1978. Karl Kinser’s car was built by Denny Mitchell while Sammy’s M.A Brown Trucking 44 was a J&J.

Riverside was the first World of Outlaws event to contain the Swindell brothers since the Kings Royal and Knoxville Nationals of 2002. To conform to the “no bend” wing rule, Jeff hoisted a vintage unit with fully-lowered right panel. All total, three Swindells (Jeff’s nephew Kevin was dropping Australian jaws with a midget) have tagged the World of Outlaws for 447 wins.

West Memphis was the first World of Outlaws A-main for A.G Rains since 1995 at Memphis Motorsports Park and the first for Mississippi’s Jan Howard since 2003 in Pevely, Missouri.

Arkansas terror Tim Crawley, who made last year’s Riverside WoO A-main with a 410 borrowed from the Titan team of Daryn Pittman (son-in-law to Tim’s car owner Mike Ward), had to use a 360 that qualified faster than Dollansky Mopar, Charlie Garrett Chevy of Jason Meyers or either Tony Stewart Chevy. The next night saw Ward in Tim’s hometown of Little Rock winning for the fourth time in six 360 starts.

St. Francois County, Missouri was represented in West Memphis by Brad Greer, Joey Moughan, Doc Sloan and Tommy Worley Jr. Worley was on pole for his heat but penalized a row for jumping. Joey drives for Jerry Baker, who won three wingless MSCS titles with Alex Shanks. Dr. Christopher Sloan has employed a host of talent in his D12 and A12 (Meyers, Tim Shaffer, Jesse Hockett, Hunter Schuerenburg) but insisted on driving himself.

The biggest winner in St. Francois history, Tim Montgomery watched the World of Outlaws in West Memphis as did Eddie Gallagher, Gary Taylor and Ernie Ainsworth. Gary has been bunking in Mississippi as driver for Bobby Sparks. They would chase Crawley at I-30. WoO spectators at Haubstadt on Sunday included Levi Jones, Mat Neely, Jonathan Vennard and Brian Paulus, who lost Dawn Pender’s purse strings after 18 years.

The 330 miles between West Memphis and Haubstadt held down attendance at Two Sides Tavern, a post-race Memphis destination since before everyone had children. This year, the most exciting thing to happen to us old farts was when Paul Sides (“NST tech inspector,” Forbrook scoffed) set off the smoke detector after deciding that bacon and biscuits were in order.

Saturday morning found my skull slightly Black & Tan. I are some aspirin and left Memphis on 70/79, stopping to see the remains of the Milan Speedway that launched the Hall of Fame careers of Swindell and Rickey Hood. When the World of Outlaws stopped on its high banks in 1982, Steve Kinser swept both nights and seven of the Top Ten landed in the Hall of Fame. Milan hosted three 1993 AWOL races and Mike McElya (Sparks 91) won ‘em all. Ainsworth was its last sprint winner in 2005. Silenced last season, Milan moved bleachers up highway 70 to Clayhill Motorsports in Atwood.

Santucci said the Delta Bowl had re-opened in Tunica, Mississippi. It is now called Good Buddy Speedway. He actually slipped to call it Cotton Boll, which was the track in Byhalia, Mississippi that opened in ’86, closed after ’90, re-opened in ’96, shut down for eight years and is active again as Rabbit Ridge Raceway Park. Chris won at Byhalia in 1987 with Bobby Davis Jr. Cotton Boll was one of 277 wins that Santucci has had a hand in with Sammy (148), Davis (51), Ward (36), Ronnie Daniels (14), Mike Hoover (6), Stenhouse (5), Tony Wilson (4), Jan Howard (3), Cofer (3), Cameron Dodson (2), Ed Polich, Hodnett, Jeff Shepard, Bobby Santos III and Ricky Stenhouse II.

I stopped to see another advertiser at J&J Auto Racing in McKenzie but no one was home on Saturday afternoon. J&J president Jack Elam was a 2009 Outlaw observer at Riverside and at the end of this month, Elam will fly employees to Knoxville to see him be inducted to the National Sprint Car Hall of Fame.

I crossed Kentucky Lake and hooked a left at Fort Donelson through the Land between the Lakes into the Blue Grass State. I entered I-24 long enough for the Western KY Parkway split and took 293 to Alt 41 to Henderson, home to the Gentry gang. Saturday saw no fewer than four of them 140 miles away at Paragon. Approaching the Tri-State Speedway from the south, the left lane was completely choked by fans of the World of Outlaws.

Haubstadt was harmed by the loss of A-main contenders Hannagan, Kaeding and McCarl. Hannagan had Arizona’s J.T Imperial back for a second season. They lost the dash to Kinser but beat him on the start, leading 25 laps through the middle until the injector body broke. Kaeding climbed from fifth to second before McCarl slid him in turn two. When the caution clicked for Schatz, crime scene investigation indicated that McCarl slowed for the yellow, Tim jumped Terry’s right rear and slammed the backstretch wall with enough force to move the left front torsion tube two inches.

McCarl was second fastest at Riverside, where he ripped around three cars in two corners of his heat only to lose them to a caution. Tri-State received a Maxim set-up similar to the Huset’s Speedway that Terry used to dominate. Qualifying quickest, McCarl was two laps from his first Haubstadt win since Labor Day 1996 for Brad Gray and Jack Hickman (now of Waterman Fuel Pumps) when he drifted to the wall to find The King. McCarl’s right front slapped the left rear of streaking Steve Kinser and put Terry on his head.

Kinser crossed second in the third heat yet swapped to a second Scott Gerkin engine that won the Crane Cams Dash. In the early A-main laps, Steve fell to fourth before fighting off Madsen and making the middle work. But when Terry took that away, Steve began buzzin’ the rim until squeezing to his first win of 2009. Kinser’s record at Tri-State is an astounding 22 wins in 42 documented starts. And for the first time since 2005, Steve stood atop the World of Outlaws points.

On the restart for McCarl’s mess, Sides was not poised to pressure The King and in fact, Jason surrendered second on the last corner to Saldana, who rebounded from tenth in West Memphis to drop Schatz to third in points. Jason had mom, dad, Kimball Wetherington (Tractor Service) and (Shawn) Dancer Logistics watching a fourth Top Five that exceeds Jason’s total of 2008.

Jason and Doug Rankin tailed the Kinsers back to Bloomington to work on Maxims at the home of Jason’s publicist Stevie Kinser, who is engaged to Mike Kuemper, employee of Tony Stewart. Kuemper helped get the Eagle ready for USCS and in return, Jim Carr allowed Mikey to take a third TSR car around Jordan Goldesberry in a Haubstadt heat that elicited a cheer from Levi Jones and me.

Kerry Madsen, winning two of eight at Parramatta this winter, was seventh in West Memphis and fourth at Haubstadt with Sonny Kratzer no longer crew chief. Swindell towed to Haubstadt from Memphis on many a Sunday (winning in ’74 and ’77) and finished fifth in 2009. He showed a Sammy lack of conscience by lifting on the frontstretch as soon as he realized a spot in the dash would not happen. Danny Lasoski lost crewman Chris Strait to Sam Hafertepe and scored sixth after a lousy night at The Ditch.

Danny Smith has a rich Haubstadt past, winning twice for Foxco, once for Guy Webb and over a 1997 cast spiked with Dollansky and Saldana. Smith was seventh in the Doug Williams Trucking Maxim to match his best WoO finish in 42 races since Fulton, New York. Smith has 32 starts since Christmas from Adelaide to Abbottstown All Stars. Dollansky earned eighth and Bruce was in the Top Nine for the second straight night.

In his first winged season in five years, Missouri native Daron Clayton came from dead last to tenth with an Indy Powder Coating XXX attended by Anthony Knighton of New Egypt, New Jersey. Clayton had not run wings since 2004 at Farmington, where he won in 2003 (Daron owns another four winged wins at Benton). Knighton took The Cowboy to Jersey before All Stars at Lincoln and Outlaws in Delaware despite being so cash poor that they held a fundraiser. Had a hat been passed to keep Clayton wingless and wild, a greater sum would have resulted.

After the A-main as those Hoosiers with a pit pass lined up for The King’s scrawl, I saw Scott Gerkin and thought it high time to get him in the Hall of Fame. Danny Smith pitted alongside Kinser (he has often raced Steve’s used components) and agreed that Scott should be in the hall. The shadow of Karl Kinser has long expired. Gerkin’s engines have won 225 races for Steve Kinser and made The King’s kid immortal at the 2005 Knoxville Nationals.

Daryl Tate is an Indiana crew chief who has no problem adding wings, winning many such trophies with Rickey Hood, Chuck Amati and Saldana’s Steve Mox 17. After fourth on Friday at Bloomington without wings, Daryl and driver Jeff Bland met The Outlaws at Haubstadt, where Bland made the bottom work until spinning from a B-main transfer.

Terre Haute’s Paul May made his first start of 2009 by tackling outlaws at Haubstadt. He grabbed the last transfer from the last heat with crew chief Todd Kelley, fourth as a Great Lakes guest of Tri-State in 2003.

Missouri’s Tommy Worley, winning 11 of 25 starts last season, chased the World of Outlaws from West Memphis to his first Haubstadt appearance. The closing by Randy Dukes of the track in Benton has deprived Tommy of a Friday night home.

Colorado native Geoff Dodge, one of four outlaws at Haubstadt with Indianapolis Motor Speedway experience (Sammy, Steve and fellow IPS veteran Dollansky) qualified quicker than 21 of 33 cars. Last summer, Dodge partnered Ray Morgan’s car with an engine sponsor that keeps Geoff at Fremont, where he peaked eighth. Geoff said that he should be scolded for failing to hold a Top Five transfer from the pole of his Haubstadt heat.

Joey Moughan of Springfield, Illinois (grandfather dusted Des Moines in ’67 with Hector Honore’s black duece) chased outlaws to Arkansas and Indiana before taking a midget to the BMARA opener at Beaver Dam, Wisconsin.

Mike Hess won the BMARA opener handling the Hawk Buzzard of “Jerryatric” Hardy, who fielded a second midget for Dean Erfurth’s daughter Courtney.

Chili Bowl rookie Austen Wheatley of Lake Stevens, Washington was fourth in Beaver Dam in his second start for Scooter Ellis, a Washington native and Indianapolis resident.

Charter Raceway Park paired Badger midgets with winged IRA 410 sprint cars defeated by Ricky Logan of Little Rock, Arkansas. Logan lured Dr. Joe Probst back into car owning. Probst drove eight years (winning once at Farmington in ‘94) and took eight years off before returning in 2007.

POWRi lost Tri-City to Friday rain (promoter Kevin Gundaker gave it an honest try) but the sky was dry for Belle-Clair on Saturday when Nick Knepper captured the first win of his midget career. Nick now joins Junior Knepper’s illustrious list of K&K Garage winners Bob Wente, Mel Kenyon, Larry Dickson, Tom Bigelow, George Snider, Dana Carter, Rich Vogler, Larry Rice and Nick’s dad Steve Knepper, who cannot stay retired.

Ione, California’s Justin Grant won the Belle-Clair B-main in his first start east of Arizona. Last summer’s BCRA winner at Petaluma was slated to crew for Jeff Walker, who has employed Brett Burdette, Jerry Coons, Dave Darland and Levi Jones in the past three weeks.

Twice a winner of the Belleville Nationals on the sweeping Kansas half-mile, Josh Wise made his first appearance on the fifth-mile known as Little Belleville. He brought the Pedregon Toyota to ninth-place from deep in the field.

Belle-Clair’s final included Danny Frye III. The first Danny Frye beat USAC midgets on Tri-City dirt (’61) and St. Louis asphalt in 1964. Danny Jr. also won at Lake Hill with the St. Louis Auto Racing Association, finished fourth at Tri-City against the World of Outlaws, topped SWIMS midgets at Oklahoma City and Little Rock, and finished first and second at the Chili Bowl of 1988. It was the summer of ’88 when Danny II and Danny I used Jack Hitt’s Chaparral trailer to tote Jim Viviano, myself and an orange Cosworth Challenger to the Belleville Nationals.

Andrew Felker from Joplin, Missouri has raced his Mopar Spike fourth in Jacksonville, sixth in Fort Worth, seventh indoors at DuQuoin, and fifth Saturday at Belle-Clair where Andrew, Austin Brown, Tony Roney and winner Dereck King penetrated POWRi finals with four-cylinder and 600cc capacity.

Shane Cockrum made his POWRi A-main at Belle-Clair. Shane is a modified graduate and son of Cliff Cockrum, who opened 1970 by winning in Jacksonville, Florida and 1971 by topping the 25th Street Fairgrounds in Columbus, Indiana. Cliff ran three Little 500s, the ’69 Knoxville Nationals final, 1972 Williams Grove National Open, the first two East Bay Winter Nationals (his ride in ’78 was for Hall of Fame owner Dizz Wilson) and earned eighth against the new World of Outlaws in the Paragon 150 of 1978. Cliff Cockrum was three times a champion of Tri-State and twice king of Lawrenceburg.

Let The Brown Dog loose! The biggest winner in Australian Speedcar racing, Mark Brown is coming to America with no fewer than 24 midget wins in the last 30 months. Brown has been to two Chili Bowls but never outdoors in America. He arrives at Knoxville (May 29-30), Sun Prairie (May 31) and probably POWRi at Donnellson (June 5) and Moberly (June 6) before Indiana Midget Week of June 10-14.

Owasso, Oklahoma’s Matt Sherrell was seventh Saturday at Belle-Clair. Last week, Matt won the first midget race ever on the North Central Arkansas Speedway between Yellville and Flippin. It also marked the first SMRS event co-sanctioned by USAC, giving USAC a slight presence in Emmett Hahn Country where ASCS harbors outdoor midget plans.

Glenpool, Oklahoma’s Matt Covington was an ASCS rain victim Friday at Granite City before whipping his Wesmar 360 to victory Saturday in his fifth night at Knoxville. The field behind Matt represented 14 states and Canada.

Bonney Lake, Washington’s Samantha Taylor made 21 starts last season in a Florida 360 sponsored by Kimball Wetherington, who owns the Gray’s Harbor Raceway Park on which Sam won six Ford Focus midget races. Sunday at the Indianapolis Speedrome signified Taylor’s asphalt debut. She drove a midget that Katie Hargitt guided in 2008.

Ludlow Falls, Ohio’s Matt Westfall ran a POWRi midget sixth at Jacksonville, lost last Sunday’s wingless 410 opener at Waynesfield to Mike Dunlap, finished sixth Saturday at Lawrenceburg and ninth at the Speedrome on Sunday in his first pavement start since driving a Daugherty Ford Focus at Kil-Kare in 2005.

Ohio whirlwind Tony Barhorst is the promoter who staged the first midget race at the Indianapolis Speedrome in four years. Its flat paved quarter-mile has long served as a skid pad for emerging talent like Tony Stewart, Tracy Hines and Bobby East.

Billy Wease, a NAMARS midget winner at the Speedrome at age 14, returned from Roger Penske’s star-making machine and 100 laps of Madera for Western Speed (he was third) to score second to Mario Marietta on Sunday at the Speedrome.

Bobby East, winning four of six at the Speedrome by age 16, has returned from the NASCAR truck of Jack Roush to belt into his first dirt sprint car: an ex-TSR Maxim he has taken to North Vernon, Bloomington, Danville and Kokomo. Just wait ‘til he hits the dirt with the midget. It’ll feel like a toy. Bobby’s father Bob East earned six CRA wins at Ascot Park and won at Riverside for Bobby Sparks in 1977. Back on the asphalt where he has won 12 of his last 31 open wheel starts, Bobby lapped every USAC sprint car at Anderson except Tracy Hines.

Darren Hagen strapped broken ribs into one of three Keith Kunz sprint cars at Anderson on Saturday night. Opening day Kokomo winner Cole Whitt was Keith’s primary pilot and the third Bullet contained California’s Henry Clarke, who made 95 starts for Cory Kruseman. Ventura was where Henry won two Ford Focus races, was fourth with USAC Western midgets and fourth in a 360 Grand Slam. Clarke’s best career finish with a 410 was fifth at Paragon.

Bryan Clauson, second to Western Speed’s Kody Swanson at Madera, won Danville in his first try and was leading Sunday at Kokomo when a Corey Smith crash claimed Clauson too.

Robert Ballou bagged Lawrenceburg on Saturday but was wrecked by Hunter Schuerenberg in their Kokomo heat race. Robert rapped the wall upside-down and backwards, knocking him cold and pressing the cage of his Maxim on his head. Cut from the car, Ballou visited two hospitals to recover from a brain contusion.

Of the 68 sprint car racers in Fremont, Ohio on Saturday, nine were named Keegan (Mark, Jody & Dustin), Linder (Mike & Matt), Jacobs (Dean & Lee) or Haudenschild (Brad & Sheldon). Keegans (153) and Linders (79) have 232 Fremont feature wins.

Pennsylvania’s Tri-City Speedway welcomed sprint cars Sunday after a year’s absence. Tri-City posted $2500 to win and caught a pack of All Stars headed home from the “gallows” of Pennsylvania. Tim Shaffer, Dale Blaney, Brandon Wimmer (Ferkel 0), Greg Wilson finished 2-3-4-5 behind Ed Lynch Jr. Wimmer had never seen the place. AMB transponders prove Rod George to be a veteran who reached peak speed on lap one of the B-main, then slowed down.

Carl Bowser, who lives in Sarver in the shadow of Lernerville Speedway, made three Tasmanian A-mains this winter at Carrick and Hobart, where he scored sixth-place.

Erie County, New York mini sprint graduate Scott Kreutter, second as an ASCS Patriot rookie to Ransomville and Penn Can, posted his first full-size sprint win Saturday at the Genesee Speedway promoted by Mike Lauterborn.

Is the Robert Parrow from Fort Lauderdale who performs wingless with the Checkered Flag Sprint Series the same Bobby Parrow of Waterloo, New York who raced Oswego supers? Parrow of New York won 21 ESS events on dirt in 1991-99.

And finally, it makes me uneasy to see people employed to hold signs on a street corner. If a pizza parlor hung a sign on a mule, they’d be cited for cruelty to animals.

Hoping for sunshine from 4979 West 13th Street, Speedway, IN 46224 where the phone is (317) 607.7841 and e-mail is Kevin@openwheeltimes.com.

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