Hall of Fame Games

By Kevin Eckert

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

ok

Autumn Arrives

By Kevin Eckert

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Ok