By Kevin Eckert
November 24, 2009 Speedway, Indiana: Time to give thanks. As we shovel turkey and giblets down our collective gullet while glancing at televised football, think about how White Man thanked Red Man for teaching him to plant corn. As soon as the first dishes were cleared, systematic genocide was served for dessert. Tell me again why America has no reason to apologize?
Thanksgiving auto racing means the Turkey Night Midget Grand Prix. Well, it used to. But as much as J.C Agajanian’s children wish to believe otherwise, Turkey Night on asphalt means virtually nothing. Irwindale is an exceptional oval, but USAC pavement has long been a closed club to all but a handful of rich kids.
The last big blast of U.S clay may have been last weekend’s Western World Championship in Tucson, Arizona. Western World racing has seen almost as many changes as the western world itself. First conceived by Keith Hall as an end of 1968 gathering, the Western went from wingless to wings to wingless to wings to wingless and now, winged 360 sprint cars.
This year’s unexpected closing of the Manzanita Speedway on which the Western was conducted for 30 seasons set off a momentary power play. Feisty new promoter Kevin Montgomery was quick to announce how the Western World would go off on his USA Raceway in Tucson, which did not please USAC, sanctioning body on the last five Westerns in Phoenix. They had been in negotiations for a Manzanita replacement that ultimately became Tulare’s Thunderbowl Raceway. For a few weeks, Tucson and Tulare seemed on a collision course. Fortunately, an amicable solution was devised when Emmett Hahn extended an ASCS national title fight (originally slated to close in Little Rock) one week after Thunderbowl hosted its first national USAC event.
Montgomery drew top talent to the desert by matching Little Rock’s Short Track Nationals with a winning sum of $15,000: highest gross possible on the 360 “chitlin” circuit. The only other five-figure paydays available in the division are Knoxville, Skagit, Gray’s Harbor ($10,092 to honor Fred Brownfield), Trophy Cup (12k) and East Bay, which paid $13,000 to its Kings of 360s.
Regard point funds of course, Lucas Oil made ASCS second to none. Sunday’s banquet at the Old Tucson Studios dispensed $250,000 to the Top 15 in national ASCS points: Shane Stewart (60k), Jason Johnson (30k), Gary Wright (25k), Travis Rilat (22k), Paul McMahan (18k), Tim Crawley (16k), Danny Wood (14k), Tony Bruce (12k), Jack Dover (11k), Jesse Hockett (10k), Sean McClelland ($8500), Kenneth Walker (7k), Darren Long (6k), Chad Corken ($5500) and Gary Taylor, who relied on three different car owners to reach $5000 for 15th in point standings.
I raise a glass of Thanksgiving wine to celebrate Shane Stewart and his car owner/crew chief Paul “Pockets” Silva. After their amazing orange Doyle Harley-Davidson team dissolved after 2008, Stewart and Silva were uncertain if they could even attempt an ASCS championship. Paul’s wife Lori is a daughter to Ed Organ, a 1980 Santa Maria CRA winner who added four more with wings at Baylands Raceway Park.
Danny Lasoski took a 360 to Tucson that was no longer circling by Saturday’s final. Though he made 16 starts in 2008 with a 360, Danny’s return to the World of Outlaws made Tucson his first 360 start of the season. Likewise, Lucas Wolfe had been unavailable until Tucson, which was Wolfe’s first 360 start since 2007.
Sammy Swindell, sporting a gash over his eye from a Ricky Stenhouse supporter’s blindside punch in West Memphis, won his third Western World trophy in Tucson. Sammy’s first Western win in 1980 highlighted his second month in Nance Speed Equipment from Wichita, Kansas. His second Western win in 1989 was postponed by rain from Saturday night to a Sunday afternoon when his Harrold Annett Challenger proved vastly superior.
Steve Kinser’s only chance to defeat Swindell that day in ’89 would have been in traffic. Unfortunately for Johnny Herrera, he occupied one of the first cars lapped. Sammy passed without incident but Steve was so eager to keep pace that he forced a dive into turn three that planted Herrera head first in the concrete.
Herrera was one of 14 drivers in two classes at Tucson, where he had won four of eight before Western. Others who went with and without wings in Tucson were Brady Bacon, Ronnie Clark, Jerry Coons, Tim Crawley, Charles Davis, Don Grable, Jesse Hockett, Joshua Hodges, Dustin Morgan, Tom Ogle, Andy Reinbold, Travis Rilat and Rick Ziehl, who secured the ASCS Southwest crown despite missing the final ASCS National A-main.
Bacon has to be sorry to see the season end after a $7000 winged victory in Fort Worth, Texas followed by Tucson’s top wingless prize of $5000. Such momentum should keep Brady in the desert one more week for Canyon.
The brothers McMahan of greater Sacramento were both among Tucson’s 22 legitimate (non-provisional) A-main starters from a field of 81. Prior to the Western World, Bobby and Paul McMahan had been in the same pit only three times this year: Dave Bradway Memorial, Gold Cup and Trophy Cup. Bob’s renaissance season for car owner Steve Harris and crew chief Brian Sperry made them champions of the Silver Dollar Speedway.
Portland, Oregon’s Zach Zimmerly, a 15-year old Civil War winner at Petaluma, followed second-place in the first Sherm Toller Open at Marysville with a road trip through Chowchilla, Charlotte, Fort Worth and Tucson tuned by renowned Sacramento socket-spinners Duke and Scotty McMillen.
Sacramento’s Scott Miller and Shannon Wheatley of Washington were two former Steve Beitler mechanics in Tucson. “Sean the Shark” Becker drove the car owned and maintained by Miller, while “Rooster” Wheatley has a Wolf Weld for his son Austen.
Mike Leslie, a four-time AMRA midget winner with Kevin Montgomery, made his first start of 2009 at his car owner’s Western World Championship. Leslie ran seven Chili Bowls in eight years.
Tucson had a hometown Huebner in the house. Jeremy’s uncle John defeated RMMRA midgets at Albuquerque in 1985, father Jeff won AMRA midget meets at Manzanita and Tucson in ‘89-90, and his grandfather Bob Huebner won the second Western in 1969.
Prior to this year, Tucson’s role in Western World proceedings were three afternoon events on the Corona Speedway that became Raven Raceway and then Tucson Raceway Park. Ohio’s Rick Ferkel won the first two (1980-81) before Ron Kreppel scored one for the locals.
The common thread on those three Tucson wins was Stewart Fabrication of Phoenix, where all three winning sprint cars originated. The other consistent component was the rock-hard tire used by Ferkel for two years before he shipped it to Rick Stewart. After it enabled the unheralded Kreppel to conquer three Hall of Fame names of Keith Kauffman, Jack Hewitt and Gary Patterson, the magic slick went flat in victory lane.
The first Western World Championship in Tucson was a week too late for Rick Stewart, who died of colon cancer. Rick was a great friend to Phoenix auto racing, always quick with a joke no matter what life threw at him. He saw hip surgery as no reason to miss Chili Bowl, using a scooter to patrol the expo building. The 1990 Chili Bowl winner of John Heydenreich was built by Stewart Fabrication. One of Rick’s early students was Dan Drinan, who came to be regarded as one of racing’s best welders. It is sadly ironic that Stewart should leave in the same season as Manzanita.
Saturday’s victory in Ventura’s J.W Mitchell Classic bolstered Brad Kuhn’s campaign to be National Midget Driver of the Year. Kuhn has earned eight midget wins in 2009 over national USAC (Bloomington), regional USAC (Ventura), POWRi (DuQuoin, Jacksonville and Junction), BMARA (Sun Prairie), BCRA (Placerville) and his Chili Bowl preliminary.
Arizona’s Chad Boat scored second in Tulare sprints and Ventura midgets on successive Saturday nights despite having never raced in either arena. His father Billy had reason to smile at the prospect of returning to Ventura Raceway, where Boat toted 12 wins in 24 starts including Turkey Night ‘97.
Brad Loyet’s 18 wins in 2009 is the highest midget mark since Billy Boat bagged 21 in 1995. Before the Boat outburst, Kevin Doty won 16 midget main events in ’94; Ron “Sleepy” Tripp took 19 U.S midget wins in consecutive seasons of 1987-88; Nick “Nokie” Fornoro Jr. won 22 times in 1985; and Rich Vogler was victorious 22 times in ’85 before reaching 23 midget wins in 1988.
Chico, California’s Ryan Kaplan, losing three months of racing after a devastating Indiana Sprint Week spill at Kokomo, was back in the saddle on Las Vegas asphalt and Ventura clay, crossing third on Saturday’s natural turf.
Pismo Beach, California’s Mike Gehringer, a USRC winner at Bakersfield (‘76) and Vegas in 1978, ran the J.W Mitchell Classic at Ventura on Saturday night. Out sight for 17 seasons until the NWWT opened this year, Gehringer gathered seventh in the first Belleville Nationals of 1978.
Did you know that a driver died at that first Belleville Midget Nationals? He was Lowell Voss from Fountain Valley, California.
Cincinnati, Ohio’s Ronnie Wuerdeman, winning two of three Gas City Focus features in 2009, raced a Wally Pankratz midget in the USAC Ford Focus class Saturday at Ventura, where the cast included Washington visitors Gaylon Stewart and Seth Hespe.
Big News from Big Companies in suburban Indianapolis is that car owners Tony Stewart and Kasey Kahne will not seek USAC championships in either sprint or midgets in 2010. In the immediate future, USAC just lost four cars. But in the long run, they can stop tweaking rules and schedules to favor the elite. Let us hope it is not too late. As for their World of Outlaw pursuits, Stewart released Kraig Kinser just after Kahne hired Cody Darrah.
NASCAR may be a festering boil on the backside of American motor sports. As a product of eastern modified racing however, it was cool that so many people learned the name “Reutimann” in 2009. Could anyone have raced more often in the 1970s than Buzzie or Wayne Reutimann? Stationed on a farm just inside of New Jersey, the brothers from Florida raced three nights a week from April through September, countless Tuesdays and Wednesdays, holiday 100-lappers and winter Saturdays on the Golden Gate pavement. When URC sprints joined the Orange County bill, Wayne and Buzzie finished first and second in 1976, the same year Buzz scored sixth against ARDC midgets.
NASCAR’s shadow on the Arizona USAC landscape is not likely to keep Copper World as a November satellite show for the Phoenix mile. Copper on Dirt is likely to land in Tucson near the February USAC date in Las Vegas.
Copper World 2009 included a third RW champ car for Queensland’s Todd Wanless, who has to be the first Australian to ever enter USAC Silver Crown competition.
Dave Darland, using two RW 410 Maxims in Perris and Tulare followed by two 360 units in Tucson, recently reached the 200-win plateau at Winchester according to my database. That total (197 U.S plus three New Zealand midget wins) is a verified minimum because some may have fallen through the cracks of Indiana’s vast publicity machine.
Indiana’s Joey Saldana, Minnesota’s Craig Dollansky and California’s Jonathan Allard are all expected performers Saturday in Auckland, New Zealand. After falling just short of the ASCS crown, Louisiana’s Jason Johnson is slated for Saturday at Toowoomba aboard the Haynes Maxim in which Matthew Reed ran tenth at Brisbane last week.
Australia’s Warren Beard, displaced by Brooke Tatnell’s Titan foreclosure this summer, ended the USAC season in the Perris victory lane alongside Damion Gardner, who then fired Davey Jones for catching him on fire twice in two months.
Brisbane’s Brett Ingliss (better known as “Glenno”) left Titan and Daryn Pittman after four years to return to his homeland, where he helped Andrew Schuerele to sixth-place in Saturday’s World Series opener topped by Tatnell.
Melbourne, Victoria’s Brett Milburn, who made a two-week tour of Knoxville, Quincy, Arcade, Ohsweken and Port Royal this summer, won Saturday on South Australia’s Borderline Speedway.
“Flying Dutchman” Mike Van Bremen was second to Milburn Saturday on Mount Gambier. Following his eighth-place finish to my only Grand Annual Classic experience in 2002, Michael proposed on the Premier frontstretch. Natalie said, “Yes!” and seven years later, they are still married.
Australia’s Northern Territory produced its first Parramatta City winner on Saturday when Ben Atkinson achieved Sydney success. Geographically speaking, Atkinson’s accomplishment is the U.S equivalent of a kid from North Dakota winning at Williams Grove.
“Molly Ivins Can’t Say That, Can She?” is a book that made me laugh out loud at least ten times. Of a failed psychological experiment in college, she wrote, “I ruined a perfectly good rat.” Ivins described the homeless folks along a presidential inauguration route as “favoring a layered look.” I’ve long maintained that a sarcastic sense of humor/irony is our best defense against the random hypocrisy and treachery of politics/life. But rarely have I seen sarcasm wielded like Molly Ivins, who died of breast cancer in 2007.
Molly described the JFK shooting as a Great Shame of the Great State of Texas. Anyone with a television remote will notice an abundance of assassination specials around Thanksgiving, which was ruined in ’63 when Dallas riflemen silenced John F. Kennedy. The question of “Who dunnit?” will remain as eternal as the flame on his grave. But of all the theories, can anyone dispute the mess that Dallas made after the shooting? We can start with how its police force allowed the alleged killer to die in its basement.
I will leave you with a happier Thanksgiving memory of munching turkey and taters in the Manzanita grandstand in 1991. By that point, the Turkey Night Midget Grand Prix had survived 56 years, four tracks and one World War. But when Ascot Park closed in 1990 and Agajanian Enterprises moved Turkey Night to Saugus pavement, Keith Hall held one in Phoenix for the dirt folks. It looked good on paper. But even at half of the traditional distance, only a handful of Manzanita midgets completed 50 laps. Jumping in the Dave Ellis house car that night was Jac Haudenschild, who humbled everyone.
I’m still checking the mailbox for cash flow at 4929 West 14th Street, Speedway, IN, 46224. Voice mail an alibi to (317) 607.7841 or e-mail excuses to Kevin@openwheeltimes.com.
Ok
Wednesday, November 25, 2009
Wednesday, November 11, 2009
Three Kings
By Kevin Eckert
November 11, 2009 Speedway, Indiana: America hosted three major sprint car events last weekend. There was the 22nd annual Short Track Nationals in Little Rock, Arkansas; the 14th consecutive running of the Oval Nationals in Perris, California; and third annual World Finals in Charlotte, North Carolina. As winter descends on our continent, summer has again opened Australia and New Zealand to sprints and midgets.
Pushed back by a week, the Short Track Nationals brought 101 cars from 18 states to I-30 Speedway. Much applause is extended to Tony Bruce for banking $15,000 for a second straight year. Tony’s success is good for racing, because he is an independent who sees the Big Picture. At age 25, Tony competed 74 times on 41 tracks in 18 states, yet found time to promote two events. After a full pull with the World of Outlaws (nailing that elusive first win), Bruce recognized ASCS as a sensible alternative to someone from the center of America. His pit area brims with an optimism that is refreshing in an era when everyone whines about their pill draw. As his souvenir shirt might say: Pimpin’ Ain’t Easy.
Wayne Johnson, an Oklahoma native now residing in Iowa, was forced to choose between a Glenn Styres 410 at Charlotte and Al Christoffer 360 when Short Track Nationals bumped back one week. Selecting the second one, Wayne won his I-30 prelim (do they still pay $50 to win?) and grossed $10,000 for second on Saturday. Styres and Mason Hill filled Wayne’s vacancy with Brandon Wimmer, who made both Outlaw A-mains.
Jason Johnson, raised in Louisiana before becoming a Texan like his car owner Lanny Row, won the other I-30 prelim but flipped from Saturday’s final when a flat tire on leader Sammy Swindell scattered pursuit. From Friday’s win circle (eleventh of his stateside campaign), Jason revealed that Row will close The Shop Motorsports after 2009. Together for nine of the last eleven years (apart in 2002-03), Lanny and his Cajun Sensation compiled 69 wins on 41 ovals in 16 states.
Whenever someone stops the financial insanity of owning a race car, the question is not “Why?” but “Why not?” Drivers are a special breed of crazy because they risk death and dismemberment. But in the right situation, they can also earn a living and even raise children. But no sprint car owner can feed a family on what they net after expenses. The only people at a speedway crazier than car owners are the race organizers who burn thousands of dollars every time it rains. Think of them at Christmas.
Busiest man on four wheels (100 starts), Missouri’s Jesse Hockett thrilled the Arkansas audience with a patented charge from deep (row ten) to eighth-place pay of $2400. At the risk of poking holes in a $54,000 A-main purse, Hockett’s reward for advancing 12 spots was only $200 better than if he had taken only one lap, reminiscent of early Kings Royals.
Prior to postponement at I-30, Jesse flew to California to crash with Cody Darrah at Tulare and abandon Trophy Cup for Ventura, where he led until stopping for a red light that inexplicably turned yellow. Lawrenceburg was another weird outing. Upside-down in a multi-car calamity, Jesse jumped out to hammer the bend from his drag link and delayed the restart to lock it in gear. Soon as it fired, Jesse bumped the throttle and clouted the concrete when his fractured steering turned him hard right. Short Track Nationals saw Hockett surrender wrenches to renowned Rod Tiner and boy wonder Kyle Larson, who hustled Jesse’s personal Frankenstein on Friday from B-to-A before flipping on the final lap.
Chico, California’s Jonathan Allard teamed with Mississippi’s Bobby Sparks for sixth at I-30 after winning Thursday heat and Saturday qualifier. Allard will soon arrive in New Zealand along with Little Rock’s Ricky Logan, who made his hometown final. Sparks was the guy who in 1974, unleashed a 19-year old Sammy Swindell for his first laps of Knoxville, Manzanita and Ascot Park.
Missouri’s Dr. Christopher Sloan had two of 107 cars at Short Track Nationals and both made the final 40-lapper. Doc’s drivers were Danny Smith and Tommy Worley Jr. Smith took tenth on the I-30 Speedway that he visited 30 years ago while subbing for an injured and unheralded Bobby Marshall.
Nebraska’s Jack Dover closed the NCRA calendar by winning Wichita for Gary Swenson before bringing ol’ blue to the Arkansas A-main.
Terry Brown of the I-44 truck stop town of Joplin, Missouri returned to the ranks of car owner with Gary Taylor, a Washington native who has followed car owners to Colorado, Oklahoma and Mississippi. Brown was a sprint car winner with Charlie Fisher (’87), Gary Tapp (’88), Jason Earls (’91), Terry Gray (’92-93), Shane Stewart (’96) and son Toby, who brown-bagged a pair of WOW wins in 2006-07.
Ohio’s Ron Hammons, winning five times with J.R Stewart and four more with Dale Blaney in 2009, tapped Kaley Gharst of Decatur, Illinois to drive in Arkansas but they were done after Saturday heat races.
Alto, New Mexico’s Kyle Sager, a Renegade 305 winner in Las Cruces this year, acquired a Tony Stewart Maxim that he brought to Knoxville 360 Nationals and Short Track Nationals.
Texas travelers Marty Stanford and Junior Jenkins were two of Smiley Sitton’s 305 graduates at the Short Track Nationals. Junior jumped to 360s this winter, while Marty made the move in spring.
That provisional starting spots have tarnished the actual accomplishment of making a main event is difficult to dispute. They do little more than please a privileged few. And to throw slow cars in the lead path has changed many an outcome. Little Rock raised the risk factor by adding an A-main spot for Don Grable via raffle. Grable and fellow provisional Justin Sturch also received full starting money ($2200), no doubt irritating those who finished heats and qualifiers ahead of them.
Things That I Wish Would Go Away: Dick Cheney, provisional starting spots, Bud Selig, Geico insurance commercials, Al Davis, holiday roadblocks, Joe Lieberman, dead leaves, and that hollow noise that my car makes when I hit a bump.
Rain on the Razorback State kept Wayne Johnson from Charlotte and Jesse Hockett from defending his Oval Nationals win. But the event most affected by Little Rock’s rescheduling was the USCS Gumbo Nationals at Greenville, Mississippi. Marshall Skinner and Anthony Nicholson finished fifth and tenth Thursday at I-30 and second and fourth Friday at Greenville before returning to Arkansas.
Oval Nationals pulled 52 drivers from six states and Australia. Former prince of Perris, Damion Gardner passed his old Madera Produce ride driven by Mike Spencer after 36 of 40. The $12,500 triumph also served as successful homecoming for Davey Jones, who raised a family near his kid brother Tony in Corona before conjuring The Demon. Davey and Damion’s final Indiana laps of 2009 came in a Dan Drinan Dri-Bar test on Paragon pebbles.
Jerry Coons and Richard Hoffman also took part in the Dri-Bar demonstration with Hunter Schuerenberg and Jeff Walker. The 2009 Oval Nationals was the first in six years to not include the famous Hoffman 69, causing Coons to find a ride with Josh Ford. Jerry closed Kokomo in a Spike owned by New Zealand’s Denny Lendich, an 18-time winner with Sleepy Tripp in 1990-91.
Coons and The Demon (along with Jon Stanbrough, Daron Clayton, Casey Shuman, Thomas Meseraull, Robbie Rice, Bryan Stanfill, Tyler Franklin, Dane Carter, Bones Bourcier, Tony Funk, Craig Dori, Dan Laycock and a band of merry pranksters) converged on Brickyard Crossing to help Dean Mills live the dream of turning 40. A celebration of such scope has not gone off on that hallowed patch since Jim Rathmann won the 500 in 1960.
Bryan Clauson, a California native to the Sacramento suburb of Antelope, extended his incredible 2009 by opening Oval Nationals with a win (still $1500?) in his first Perris sprint race in four years. A week earlier, the eight-year Hoosier displayed his asphalt skill in Las Vegas by winning with Marc DeBeaumont’s midget, raising DMS data to two wins and two seconds in four races.
Anderson, California’s Keith Bloom blitzed from C-to-B-to-A in his first trip to Perris ever. In one Indiana month this summer, Keith made 14 starts on seven tracks that included the revitalized Lincoln Park Speedway, where Bloom won from dead last.
Bedford, Indiana’s Brady Short towed 2000 miles to his fourth straight Oval Nationals (finishing tenth) and brought a second car for Jeff Bland, an Oval rookie last year with Jim Whiteside.
Peter Murphy, a 1995 World Series winner at Claremont and Wagga in his native Australia, won eight of 21 wingless starts this season from his adopted home in Fresno. Oval Nationals lifted Murphy from C-main to within three spots of the A-main. This weekend’s $12,500 plum in Tulare is the most money that Murphy has been able to seek in central California without wings.
R.J Johnson of Phoenix, Arizona (not to be confused with the R.J Johnson who has lived in Florida, Tennessee, Texas and Iowa) has had a quietly exceptional season. Ricky Johnson’s prodigy won six AMRA midget races and four more with an ASCA/ASCS sprint car. And his opportunities are not over because Tucson has three straight nights (November 19-21) plus its New Year’s Eve affair, while Canyon has sprints and midgets on November 27-28.
Bruce St. James, the artist formerly known as Radio Flyer, cracked his first USAC/CRA A-main in three years Thursday at Perris. As we fellow Hall of Fame execs passed in the hall during Knoxville Nationals, St. James had this sage advice: “Stay black.”
Black Angus hatchet man Dennis Roth considered sending a second car to Oval Nationals for Jon Stanbrough before Indiana Underground committed to ship a second unit. Second in both Perris prelims, Stanbrough did not finish in the Saturday money. Roth was represented in Perris by Kevin Swindell, who flipped twice in three nights. So thoroughly did Dennis enjoy Tim Kaeding’s last-to-first run through Trophy Cup that he sent a rig to Charlotte, where Tim topped a C-main ignored by Speed TV. Short Track Nationals would have likely included Kaeding had bad weather not forced a choice.
I try not to be too critical of televised sprint car racing, because I know how valuable it is to sponsors. But they (Speed, ESPN, Versus, Diamond P, Diamond Joe) still don’t get it and probably never will. They’ll show one driver measure another for an inevitable pass, abruptly cut to a car all alone, and then return to the first two subjects, now in a new order. In-car cameras are a large waste of time. And anyone who orders a commercial break in the middle of the last World of Outlaws A-main of the year should be slapped.
World Finals was all-worldly with 57 pilots representing Australia, Canada and half of the 48 continental United States. Car count at The Dirt Track@Lowe’s Motor Speedway was boosted by 25 cars from Pennsylvania, plus Quaker State drivers Cody Darrah and Tim Shaffer. Speed TV’s piece on Cody crushing cars at his dad’s JK Salvage yard was pretty cool.
Pennsylvania Posse sheriff Fred Rahmer raced with the World of Outlaws in Texas (his first Lone Star appearance in 22 years) and North Carolina, where Rahmer finished fifth from row seven.
Pancho’s Racing Products in New Oxford, Pennsylvania (home to Lincoln Speedway) sent a new car to Charlotte for Sam Hafertepe, who was one spot (Joey Saldana) from winning his family’s Outlaw promotion at Lone Star Speedway. Pancho Lawler’s last known associates were Glenndon Forsythe (2006), Jonathan Eriksen (2007), Doug Esh (2008) and Mike Bittinger, who won four Trail-Way 358 features in 2009. Another breath of fresh air like Tony Bruce Jr, Sam Jr. made 80 starts on 45 tracks in 22 states this season.
New York memorabilia merchant Michael Heffner had Curt Michael back in the saddle for the first time since May’s Keystone Cup at Port Royal. Thursday marked Curt’s first Lowe’s laps since 2003. For the first time in six years, URC has a champion other than Curt. That rim riding someone is The Jersey Jet, J.J Grasso.
Kramer Williamson, winner of 66 URC A-mains and three titles, joined the World of Outlaws at World Finals. In his Hall of Fame career, Williamson had an especially versatile 1974 that won seven times with wings, once without (Tampa IMCA), against ARDC midgets at Penn National (in a George Ferguson Offy) followed by SMRC midget success at Bloomsburg in the Meiss 89. Meiss topped the previous Bloomsburg Fair with Kenny Weld before ‘74 SMRC wins with Williamson, Billy Osmun at Flemington and Jim Kirk on Penn National’s flat half-mile.
Nebraska’s Don Droud Jr. and Bernie Stuebgen of Indy Race Parts were fourth at Charlotte with USAC in 2004 and returned to crack Saturday’s World of Outlaws final for Pennsylvania’s Tom Buch.
Ohio’s Ron Gorby, who threw his America’s Best Value Inn support behind Michigan’s Jeremy Campbell for a 2007 World of Outlaws campaign, took Campbell to Concord and made Friday night’s A-main in Jeremy’s first laps in over a year.
Ohio’s Kory Crabtree logs as many laps as possible. He won twice at Wayne County and once at Lakeville this season while peeling wings for Lawrenceburg and Waynesfield whenever feasible. Concord was only second World of Outlaws appearance of Kory’s young career.
Crabtree’s fellow Skyline/Chillicothe competitor Keith Baxter was one of the surprises in the final World of Outlaws A-main of 2009 along with Bob Felmlee and Oregon’s Zach Zimmerly.
Minnesota resident Brooke Tatnell was the lone Aussie in North Carolina on November 7 and will open defense of his World Series crown in Brisbane on November 21. Brooke’s buggy is again built by John Cooley for Shane Krikke and wrenched by Shane Finch, who just completed his second season with Jason Sides.
The main obstacle between Tatnell and a sixth World Series crown will probably be Robbie Farr, who won his third straight Parramatta City show last week. In their August preparation for Gold Cup, Rob’s crew chief Nick Speed hot-lapped the East Coast Pipeline piece at Petaluma. Farr raised the number of Aussies who circled Silver Dollar in 2009 to six, following Kerry Madsen, Clem Hoffmans, Trevor Green, Paul Morris and Wayne Rowett.
Kerry Madsen, recently bagging Brisbane as sub for Todd Wanless, is driving for Western Australia’s Geoff Kendrick, who employed U.S pilots Brock Mayes (2006), Mark Dobmeier (2007), Chad Blonde (2008) and Tim Shaffer in 2009. Kerry and Kendrick will race Saturday at Manjimup Speedway.
Roddy Bell-Bowen, who made 23 starts on 16 U.S speedways in 2009, finished seventh Saturday at Parramatta City, matching his best stateside finish at Hartford, Michigan.
Matthew Reed, racing 26 times on 18 U.S speedways in 2009, was second Saturday at Avalon to match his best stateside finish at Mercer, Pennsylvania.
Bellevue, Ohio teenager Cap Henry, twice a winner with 305 cubic inches before becoming a 410 rookie in 2009, is four weeks into his first Australian adventure in Brisbane, Queensland. It has not gone well.
Wichita, Kansas crewman Brandon Ikenberry, a member of Terry McCarl’s team in 2009, went halfway around the world in South Australia to begin his sprint car driving career in Adelaide, Tolmer and Murray Bridge.
Davenport, Iowa’s Davey Ray, losing three months of 2009 to heal leg injuries incurred during the Chad McDaniel tragedy at Knoxville, won the Magic Man 34 that honors Mike Figliomeni in Perth, Western Australia. Davey defeated Nathan Smee, who had won three straight from Brisbane to Sydney.
Western Australia’s Dene McAllan did not finish the Magic Man 34. McAllan made 20 U.S starts this season, beginning with six midget appearances before belting into the Baldwin sprint car. Ninth at Lincoln Park proved to be Dene’s best for Baldwin, who returned to Oval Nationals last week with Justin Grant.
I just finished reading Mickey Thompson’s biography, learning how he created organized drag racing in 1955, how Bobby Ferro’s father was an accomplished desert racer, and how Michigan swamp buggy enthusiast Ted Nugent became such a good friend that he suggested a Thompson gun upon hearing of the threats on Mickey’s life that became very real on March 16, 1988. I was also unaware that the murder of Mickey and wife Trudy was eventually (19 years after the shooting) pinned on rival stadium promoter Michael Goodwin. On a happier note, The Munsters episode when Herman and Grandpa turn a coffin into a rail dragster was filmed at the Lions Drag Strip promoted by Thompson.
Colorado’s Sid Bubak, proprietor of Sid’s Golden 66, never approached Mickey Thompson for acclaim but to my knowledge, was never the target of a murder plot. Sid was my friend and Sid is gone, as a recent phone call from his son Rich did reveal. It was the 1986 Western World at Manzanita that prompted Sidney and wife Marlys to pool resources for one World of Outlaws season that forever affected the lives of Rich and his overwhelmed crew chief (come to think of it, since Mile-High Racing had no crew, I could not have been crew chief). Death did not come swiftly for Sid, but he lived long enough to see Rich race a modified coupe alongside granddaughter Jaime. For a guy who smiled so easily, Sid must’ve really been grinnin’ at Colorado National that night.
My new neighbors hope the leaves get raked at 4929 West 14th Street, Speedway, IN, 46224. But the business end of (317) 607.7841 and kevin@openwheeltimes.com says that snow will soon cover that problem.
Ok
November 11, 2009 Speedway, Indiana: America hosted three major sprint car events last weekend. There was the 22nd annual Short Track Nationals in Little Rock, Arkansas; the 14th consecutive running of the Oval Nationals in Perris, California; and third annual World Finals in Charlotte, North Carolina. As winter descends on our continent, summer has again opened Australia and New Zealand to sprints and midgets.
Pushed back by a week, the Short Track Nationals brought 101 cars from 18 states to I-30 Speedway. Much applause is extended to Tony Bruce for banking $15,000 for a second straight year. Tony’s success is good for racing, because he is an independent who sees the Big Picture. At age 25, Tony competed 74 times on 41 tracks in 18 states, yet found time to promote two events. After a full pull with the World of Outlaws (nailing that elusive first win), Bruce recognized ASCS as a sensible alternative to someone from the center of America. His pit area brims with an optimism that is refreshing in an era when everyone whines about their pill draw. As his souvenir shirt might say: Pimpin’ Ain’t Easy.
Wayne Johnson, an Oklahoma native now residing in Iowa, was forced to choose between a Glenn Styres 410 at Charlotte and Al Christoffer 360 when Short Track Nationals bumped back one week. Selecting the second one, Wayne won his I-30 prelim (do they still pay $50 to win?) and grossed $10,000 for second on Saturday. Styres and Mason Hill filled Wayne’s vacancy with Brandon Wimmer, who made both Outlaw A-mains.
Jason Johnson, raised in Louisiana before becoming a Texan like his car owner Lanny Row, won the other I-30 prelim but flipped from Saturday’s final when a flat tire on leader Sammy Swindell scattered pursuit. From Friday’s win circle (eleventh of his stateside campaign), Jason revealed that Row will close The Shop Motorsports after 2009. Together for nine of the last eleven years (apart in 2002-03), Lanny and his Cajun Sensation compiled 69 wins on 41 ovals in 16 states.
Whenever someone stops the financial insanity of owning a race car, the question is not “Why?” but “Why not?” Drivers are a special breed of crazy because they risk death and dismemberment. But in the right situation, they can also earn a living and even raise children. But no sprint car owner can feed a family on what they net after expenses. The only people at a speedway crazier than car owners are the race organizers who burn thousands of dollars every time it rains. Think of them at Christmas.
Busiest man on four wheels (100 starts), Missouri’s Jesse Hockett thrilled the Arkansas audience with a patented charge from deep (row ten) to eighth-place pay of $2400. At the risk of poking holes in a $54,000 A-main purse, Hockett’s reward for advancing 12 spots was only $200 better than if he had taken only one lap, reminiscent of early Kings Royals.
Prior to postponement at I-30, Jesse flew to California to crash with Cody Darrah at Tulare and abandon Trophy Cup for Ventura, where he led until stopping for a red light that inexplicably turned yellow. Lawrenceburg was another weird outing. Upside-down in a multi-car calamity, Jesse jumped out to hammer the bend from his drag link and delayed the restart to lock it in gear. Soon as it fired, Jesse bumped the throttle and clouted the concrete when his fractured steering turned him hard right. Short Track Nationals saw Hockett surrender wrenches to renowned Rod Tiner and boy wonder Kyle Larson, who hustled Jesse’s personal Frankenstein on Friday from B-to-A before flipping on the final lap.
Chico, California’s Jonathan Allard teamed with Mississippi’s Bobby Sparks for sixth at I-30 after winning Thursday heat and Saturday qualifier. Allard will soon arrive in New Zealand along with Little Rock’s Ricky Logan, who made his hometown final. Sparks was the guy who in 1974, unleashed a 19-year old Sammy Swindell for his first laps of Knoxville, Manzanita and Ascot Park.
Missouri’s Dr. Christopher Sloan had two of 107 cars at Short Track Nationals and both made the final 40-lapper. Doc’s drivers were Danny Smith and Tommy Worley Jr. Smith took tenth on the I-30 Speedway that he visited 30 years ago while subbing for an injured and unheralded Bobby Marshall.
Nebraska’s Jack Dover closed the NCRA calendar by winning Wichita for Gary Swenson before bringing ol’ blue to the Arkansas A-main.
Terry Brown of the I-44 truck stop town of Joplin, Missouri returned to the ranks of car owner with Gary Taylor, a Washington native who has followed car owners to Colorado, Oklahoma and Mississippi. Brown was a sprint car winner with Charlie Fisher (’87), Gary Tapp (’88), Jason Earls (’91), Terry Gray (’92-93), Shane Stewart (’96) and son Toby, who brown-bagged a pair of WOW wins in 2006-07.
Ohio’s Ron Hammons, winning five times with J.R Stewart and four more with Dale Blaney in 2009, tapped Kaley Gharst of Decatur, Illinois to drive in Arkansas but they were done after Saturday heat races.
Alto, New Mexico’s Kyle Sager, a Renegade 305 winner in Las Cruces this year, acquired a Tony Stewart Maxim that he brought to Knoxville 360 Nationals and Short Track Nationals.
Texas travelers Marty Stanford and Junior Jenkins were two of Smiley Sitton’s 305 graduates at the Short Track Nationals. Junior jumped to 360s this winter, while Marty made the move in spring.
That provisional starting spots have tarnished the actual accomplishment of making a main event is difficult to dispute. They do little more than please a privileged few. And to throw slow cars in the lead path has changed many an outcome. Little Rock raised the risk factor by adding an A-main spot for Don Grable via raffle. Grable and fellow provisional Justin Sturch also received full starting money ($2200), no doubt irritating those who finished heats and qualifiers ahead of them.
Things That I Wish Would Go Away: Dick Cheney, provisional starting spots, Bud Selig, Geico insurance commercials, Al Davis, holiday roadblocks, Joe Lieberman, dead leaves, and that hollow noise that my car makes when I hit a bump.
Rain on the Razorback State kept Wayne Johnson from Charlotte and Jesse Hockett from defending his Oval Nationals win. But the event most affected by Little Rock’s rescheduling was the USCS Gumbo Nationals at Greenville, Mississippi. Marshall Skinner and Anthony Nicholson finished fifth and tenth Thursday at I-30 and second and fourth Friday at Greenville before returning to Arkansas.
Oval Nationals pulled 52 drivers from six states and Australia. Former prince of Perris, Damion Gardner passed his old Madera Produce ride driven by Mike Spencer after 36 of 40. The $12,500 triumph also served as successful homecoming for Davey Jones, who raised a family near his kid brother Tony in Corona before conjuring The Demon. Davey and Damion’s final Indiana laps of 2009 came in a Dan Drinan Dri-Bar test on Paragon pebbles.
Jerry Coons and Richard Hoffman also took part in the Dri-Bar demonstration with Hunter Schuerenberg and Jeff Walker. The 2009 Oval Nationals was the first in six years to not include the famous Hoffman 69, causing Coons to find a ride with Josh Ford. Jerry closed Kokomo in a Spike owned by New Zealand’s Denny Lendich, an 18-time winner with Sleepy Tripp in 1990-91.
Coons and The Demon (along with Jon Stanbrough, Daron Clayton, Casey Shuman, Thomas Meseraull, Robbie Rice, Bryan Stanfill, Tyler Franklin, Dane Carter, Bones Bourcier, Tony Funk, Craig Dori, Dan Laycock and a band of merry pranksters) converged on Brickyard Crossing to help Dean Mills live the dream of turning 40. A celebration of such scope has not gone off on that hallowed patch since Jim Rathmann won the 500 in 1960.
Bryan Clauson, a California native to the Sacramento suburb of Antelope, extended his incredible 2009 by opening Oval Nationals with a win (still $1500?) in his first Perris sprint race in four years. A week earlier, the eight-year Hoosier displayed his asphalt skill in Las Vegas by winning with Marc DeBeaumont’s midget, raising DMS data to two wins and two seconds in four races.
Anderson, California’s Keith Bloom blitzed from C-to-B-to-A in his first trip to Perris ever. In one Indiana month this summer, Keith made 14 starts on seven tracks that included the revitalized Lincoln Park Speedway, where Bloom won from dead last.
Bedford, Indiana’s Brady Short towed 2000 miles to his fourth straight Oval Nationals (finishing tenth) and brought a second car for Jeff Bland, an Oval rookie last year with Jim Whiteside.
Peter Murphy, a 1995 World Series winner at Claremont and Wagga in his native Australia, won eight of 21 wingless starts this season from his adopted home in Fresno. Oval Nationals lifted Murphy from C-main to within three spots of the A-main. This weekend’s $12,500 plum in Tulare is the most money that Murphy has been able to seek in central California without wings.
R.J Johnson of Phoenix, Arizona (not to be confused with the R.J Johnson who has lived in Florida, Tennessee, Texas and Iowa) has had a quietly exceptional season. Ricky Johnson’s prodigy won six AMRA midget races and four more with an ASCA/ASCS sprint car. And his opportunities are not over because Tucson has three straight nights (November 19-21) plus its New Year’s Eve affair, while Canyon has sprints and midgets on November 27-28.
Bruce St. James, the artist formerly known as Radio Flyer, cracked his first USAC/CRA A-main in three years Thursday at Perris. As we fellow Hall of Fame execs passed in the hall during Knoxville Nationals, St. James had this sage advice: “Stay black.”
Black Angus hatchet man Dennis Roth considered sending a second car to Oval Nationals for Jon Stanbrough before Indiana Underground committed to ship a second unit. Second in both Perris prelims, Stanbrough did not finish in the Saturday money. Roth was represented in Perris by Kevin Swindell, who flipped twice in three nights. So thoroughly did Dennis enjoy Tim Kaeding’s last-to-first run through Trophy Cup that he sent a rig to Charlotte, where Tim topped a C-main ignored by Speed TV. Short Track Nationals would have likely included Kaeding had bad weather not forced a choice.
I try not to be too critical of televised sprint car racing, because I know how valuable it is to sponsors. But they (Speed, ESPN, Versus, Diamond P, Diamond Joe) still don’t get it and probably never will. They’ll show one driver measure another for an inevitable pass, abruptly cut to a car all alone, and then return to the first two subjects, now in a new order. In-car cameras are a large waste of time. And anyone who orders a commercial break in the middle of the last World of Outlaws A-main of the year should be slapped.
World Finals was all-worldly with 57 pilots representing Australia, Canada and half of the 48 continental United States. Car count at The Dirt Track@Lowe’s Motor Speedway was boosted by 25 cars from Pennsylvania, plus Quaker State drivers Cody Darrah and Tim Shaffer. Speed TV’s piece on Cody crushing cars at his dad’s JK Salvage yard was pretty cool.
Pennsylvania Posse sheriff Fred Rahmer raced with the World of Outlaws in Texas (his first Lone Star appearance in 22 years) and North Carolina, where Rahmer finished fifth from row seven.
Pancho’s Racing Products in New Oxford, Pennsylvania (home to Lincoln Speedway) sent a new car to Charlotte for Sam Hafertepe, who was one spot (Joey Saldana) from winning his family’s Outlaw promotion at Lone Star Speedway. Pancho Lawler’s last known associates were Glenndon Forsythe (2006), Jonathan Eriksen (2007), Doug Esh (2008) and Mike Bittinger, who won four Trail-Way 358 features in 2009. Another breath of fresh air like Tony Bruce Jr, Sam Jr. made 80 starts on 45 tracks in 22 states this season.
New York memorabilia merchant Michael Heffner had Curt Michael back in the saddle for the first time since May’s Keystone Cup at Port Royal. Thursday marked Curt’s first Lowe’s laps since 2003. For the first time in six years, URC has a champion other than Curt. That rim riding someone is The Jersey Jet, J.J Grasso.
Kramer Williamson, winner of 66 URC A-mains and three titles, joined the World of Outlaws at World Finals. In his Hall of Fame career, Williamson had an especially versatile 1974 that won seven times with wings, once without (Tampa IMCA), against ARDC midgets at Penn National (in a George Ferguson Offy) followed by SMRC midget success at Bloomsburg in the Meiss 89. Meiss topped the previous Bloomsburg Fair with Kenny Weld before ‘74 SMRC wins with Williamson, Billy Osmun at Flemington and Jim Kirk on Penn National’s flat half-mile.
Nebraska’s Don Droud Jr. and Bernie Stuebgen of Indy Race Parts were fourth at Charlotte with USAC in 2004 and returned to crack Saturday’s World of Outlaws final for Pennsylvania’s Tom Buch.
Ohio’s Ron Gorby, who threw his America’s Best Value Inn support behind Michigan’s Jeremy Campbell for a 2007 World of Outlaws campaign, took Campbell to Concord and made Friday night’s A-main in Jeremy’s first laps in over a year.
Ohio’s Kory Crabtree logs as many laps as possible. He won twice at Wayne County and once at Lakeville this season while peeling wings for Lawrenceburg and Waynesfield whenever feasible. Concord was only second World of Outlaws appearance of Kory’s young career.
Crabtree’s fellow Skyline/Chillicothe competitor Keith Baxter was one of the surprises in the final World of Outlaws A-main of 2009 along with Bob Felmlee and Oregon’s Zach Zimmerly.
Minnesota resident Brooke Tatnell was the lone Aussie in North Carolina on November 7 and will open defense of his World Series crown in Brisbane on November 21. Brooke’s buggy is again built by John Cooley for Shane Krikke and wrenched by Shane Finch, who just completed his second season with Jason Sides.
The main obstacle between Tatnell and a sixth World Series crown will probably be Robbie Farr, who won his third straight Parramatta City show last week. In their August preparation for Gold Cup, Rob’s crew chief Nick Speed hot-lapped the East Coast Pipeline piece at Petaluma. Farr raised the number of Aussies who circled Silver Dollar in 2009 to six, following Kerry Madsen, Clem Hoffmans, Trevor Green, Paul Morris and Wayne Rowett.
Kerry Madsen, recently bagging Brisbane as sub for Todd Wanless, is driving for Western Australia’s Geoff Kendrick, who employed U.S pilots Brock Mayes (2006), Mark Dobmeier (2007), Chad Blonde (2008) and Tim Shaffer in 2009. Kerry and Kendrick will race Saturday at Manjimup Speedway.
Roddy Bell-Bowen, who made 23 starts on 16 U.S speedways in 2009, finished seventh Saturday at Parramatta City, matching his best stateside finish at Hartford, Michigan.
Matthew Reed, racing 26 times on 18 U.S speedways in 2009, was second Saturday at Avalon to match his best stateside finish at Mercer, Pennsylvania.
Bellevue, Ohio teenager Cap Henry, twice a winner with 305 cubic inches before becoming a 410 rookie in 2009, is four weeks into his first Australian adventure in Brisbane, Queensland. It has not gone well.
Wichita, Kansas crewman Brandon Ikenberry, a member of Terry McCarl’s team in 2009, went halfway around the world in South Australia to begin his sprint car driving career in Adelaide, Tolmer and Murray Bridge.
Davenport, Iowa’s Davey Ray, losing three months of 2009 to heal leg injuries incurred during the Chad McDaniel tragedy at Knoxville, won the Magic Man 34 that honors Mike Figliomeni in Perth, Western Australia. Davey defeated Nathan Smee, who had won three straight from Brisbane to Sydney.
Western Australia’s Dene McAllan did not finish the Magic Man 34. McAllan made 20 U.S starts this season, beginning with six midget appearances before belting into the Baldwin sprint car. Ninth at Lincoln Park proved to be Dene’s best for Baldwin, who returned to Oval Nationals last week with Justin Grant.
I just finished reading Mickey Thompson’s biography, learning how he created organized drag racing in 1955, how Bobby Ferro’s father was an accomplished desert racer, and how Michigan swamp buggy enthusiast Ted Nugent became such a good friend that he suggested a Thompson gun upon hearing of the threats on Mickey’s life that became very real on March 16, 1988. I was also unaware that the murder of Mickey and wife Trudy was eventually (19 years after the shooting) pinned on rival stadium promoter Michael Goodwin. On a happier note, The Munsters episode when Herman and Grandpa turn a coffin into a rail dragster was filmed at the Lions Drag Strip promoted by Thompson.
Colorado’s Sid Bubak, proprietor of Sid’s Golden 66, never approached Mickey Thompson for acclaim but to my knowledge, was never the target of a murder plot. Sid was my friend and Sid is gone, as a recent phone call from his son Rich did reveal. It was the 1986 Western World at Manzanita that prompted Sidney and wife Marlys to pool resources for one World of Outlaws season that forever affected the lives of Rich and his overwhelmed crew chief (come to think of it, since Mile-High Racing had no crew, I could not have been crew chief). Death did not come swiftly for Sid, but he lived long enough to see Rich race a modified coupe alongside granddaughter Jaime. For a guy who smiled so easily, Sid must’ve really been grinnin’ at Colorado National that night.
My new neighbors hope the leaves get raked at 4929 West 14th Street, Speedway, IN, 46224. But the business end of (317) 607.7841 and kevin@openwheeltimes.com says that snow will soon cover that problem.
Ok
Thursday, November 5, 2009
Moody Mile Memories
By Kevin Eckert
November 4, 2009 Speedway, Indiana: First words from a new house. I have changed addresses all of my life. There were three in New Jersey, four in Allentown, six months in California and two residences in Reading, Pennsylvania. Three army bases and three years of national discovery later, father fielded my mail from Arizona, recycling press releases by typing race results on the back. I did discover that Indiana was the place for me. But after four Hoosier home spaces, I drifted to Oklahoma to build Open Wheel Times, out to Arizona for six months (thanks Ty) before coming back to Indiana where as of November 1, Dean Mills and I reside at 4929 West 14th Street. Yes, we actually moved one block north and four clicks east. Excluding the army, it is my 18th home.
Halloween candy would have been a good way to meet my new neighbors. But that required purchasing chocolate for strangers. I withdrew instead to my grand new Stat Cave, of which I am very proud. Thirteen milk crates now stand precisely stacked full of Open Wheel, Flat Out, Trackside, Sprint Car & Midget, Stock Car Racing, National Speedway Directory, National Sprint Car Annual, Dirt Track Fury, USAC media guides, World of Outlaws yearbooks, Penn National programs, Sports Illustrated swimsuits and any artifact of Oakland Raider respectability. Milk crates have long doubled as my magazine racks and furniture. To read the dairies (Johanna, Freeman, Clover) from which they originated is to map my own origins north on the Delaware and west on Lehigh and Schuylkill Rivers.
Barring a flight to Tucson, frosty ride to Kansas City or some act of god (quite a stretch for an atheist), my 2009 racing season is complete. It will soon be trade show season. And since bigger houses require bigger rent, I must sell, sell, sell, which I hate.
My first Saturday in the new digs clicked Syracuse modifieds on Speed TV. Syracuse still holds a special place in my heart. It was (is) the biggest event on the biggest track for the eastern cult of modified stock car racing. We natives of New Jersey followed those cars. Everyone we knew went to Syracuse at the end of September, beginning with my uncle George, who attended its first Schaefer 100 in 1972 and to this day, demands its latest program book to keep his collection complete.
George was a garage rat; just the type of modified man that college boy Glenn Donnelly hoped to recruit to the New York State Fairgrounds. Glenn’s timing was perfect because George was among the thousands displaced by the 1971 loss of Langhorne, home to the Race of Champions that climaxed each modified season. Almost immediately, they flocked to Syracuse. We followed them up I-81 in 1974.
I was 11 years old, and waking at three AM for a four-hour ride to the biggest race of the year was a Big Deal. Mom packed sandwiches and everything. Sunrise over Scranton held the promise of something special.
Windshield wipers were on as we approached the Salt City. Weather is the constant enemy of any multi-day outdoor event, but never more so than Syracuse around Columbus Day. The Great Lake of Ontario is 30 miles away, bringing anything from snow to rain and every ten years or so, sunshine. To a half-mile hero from Weedsport or East Windsor, it took gumption to wake to sleet, down a cup of coffee and barrel down the mile’s bicycle path of a backstretch to a shaded turn three that may or not have defrosted.
On that first trip, the sky cleared, we found our seats overlooking turn one, and Bob made the acquaintance of someone from Lebanon Valley. Dad did this frequently, usually when he overheard someone asking who drove a particular car. A quarter of the way through the ’74 Schaefer 100, Reading messiah Kenny Brightbill grew tired of tucking low to protect fourth-place and sailed into the lead with one outside sweep of turn one, a move which may still be unduplicated and one which brought dad’s new friend to his feet.
“Did you see that?” The Valley guy asked.
Bob Eckert smiled, puffed on his Telly Savalas cigarette and said, “Buddy, I watch him do that every week.”
Brightbill’s junkyard Chevy seized 12 miles from the finish and it would take 14 years for him to finally win his division’s biggest race. Taking over was the gleaming Gremlin built by Whip Mulligan for Billy Osmun, who led Merv Treichler’s asphalt conversion when rain reached turn three. Under caution, Osmun pointed skyward to the flagman, who dropped the checkered on lap 95 of 100. “Marvelous Merv” rammed “Billy O” with an anger eventually tempered somewhat in 1981-82 when Treichler topped Syracuse with a Maynard Troyer-built Mud Bus.
So rich was the Syracuse purse in 1974 that the biggest sprint car stars of the era, Jan Opperman and Kenny Weld, were among its 53-car field. By our arrival, Weld had already established a one-lap modified mark that would stand for some time. In 1977, he returned with big wings and big Chevy sprint car to reclaim the World Record he set at Dover in ‘73. And as anyone from New York or New Jersey will tell you, 1980 is when Kenny was contracted on a deal with the devil (Gary Balough) to destroy modified racing via Miami vice.
Opperman ran the ’72 Race of Champions at Trenton for Jack Tant and ’74 Schaefer 100 at Syracuse for Joey Lawrence. Like most of Jan’s rides, Joey’s car was not much to see: a flat black Mustang with a splash of gold and white Number 16. But the owner knew how to make horsepower. Opperman timed tenth of 152 qualifiers. A week later, Jan ran the Schmidt’s 200 at Reading for Bob Eppihimer, so pleased to have the legendary preacher grace his seat that he carved Opperman’s trademark cross in the nose. A year later, Jan skipped Syracuse for Gold Cup but was ready to return for a possible 1976 USAC Dirt Championship when he suffered life-altering injuries in the Hoosier Hundred.
During his agonizing road to recovery, Opperman was befriended by modified legend Will Cagle, who provided a car for Jan at the ’77 Syracuse 100, which rained out. Before that difficult verdict, I remember Jan addressing early arrivals in some kind of Sunday service/solicitation for his Montana ranch for troubled kids.
When he was hurt in ’76, Opperman was replaced as Bobby Hillin’s driver by Al Unser, winner of 14 mile grinds in eight seasons yet too slow for the ’76 Salt City 100. That never happened to Unser again because he left Syracuse so humiliated that he rejected any more Dirt Champ car offers.
Kenny Weld’s strategy for his only Schaefer 100 was to pit late and hope a heavy fuel load would increase traction on the ultra-slick surface. But he hit the raised road to the pits too hot, bounced in the air and broke a shock. That was Kenny’s original modified, which he sold to the Statewide Fencing team of Osmun, nitrous oxide system intact. During the ’75 Syracuse 100, “Billy O” made an extra pit stop yet was all over winner Dick Tobias at the end.
Toby’s triumph stirred mixed emotions. I was not a fan. To me, he was the dull guy downstairs perpetually stretching the rules. I had seen him disqualified so therefore, he was a cheater. Only later did I come to appreciate the indelible mark that Richard Lincoln Tobias left on all of eastern auto racing. It was also lost on my young mind that unlike most weekend warriors, Tobias had raced on miles from Langhorne and Nazareth to Springfield and DuQuoin before starring at Syracuse, where he was such a perennial polesitter that the achievement was posthumously named in his honor after Toby turned his last lap at Flemington in ’78.
As a 12-year old, I naturally boarded the bandwagon by declaring Toby’s Syracuse score one for the Reading regulars. Brother and I grabbed the soot-covered fencing and cheered our little lungs out. We helped convince the gate guard that the lady in the pink pantsuit was really Mary Tobias, wife and winning car owner (Toby keen to tax shelters) who must get to victory lane at once. Color photos show a black soot smudge on Mary’s pink sleeve.
Heading home from Syracuse on a Sunday night never left many options for food. When father finally found a greasy spoon somewhere north of Binghampton, we were surprised to see Toby, Davey Brown and crew at the same diner. Though he had just reached the peak of his sport, Dick Tobias considered himself an everyday Dutchman.
Super DIRT Week ’75 grew into a two-day experience so that father could fulfill his goal of seeing supermodifieds at Oswego. We arrived late from rain-delayed time trials for 248 modifieds to a shining Steel Palace on the hill. I can still feel my seat shake when those big blocks opened the throttle off turn four. The wildest weapon was a gun metal gray rear-engine, four-wheel drive device built by Bill Hite and driven by Fred Graves, who cut through the field twice before losing a wheel in a shower of sparks. It was the car’s last race at Oswego because four-wheel drive was banned before their 1976 opener.
We dirt trackers chose Oswego asphalt over the KARS sprint race at Weedsport in an indication of the high regard that dad had for Oswego, home of one division for one solid purse just like Reading. The following afternoon, Donnelly invited a handful of sprint cars to the mile for an exhibition. The following Fourth of July was the first winged sprint race ever at Syracuse. It was won by the Weikert Livestock big block of Paul Pitzer. Before the ’76 Schaefer 100, Bentley Warren hot lapped his ragged super to feed the reality of pitting Oswego cars against Pennsylvania sprint cars for Super DIRT Week ‘78. To help the heavy supers stay competitive, sprint teams were told to leave wings at home, which became a recipe for disaster. The carnage was incredible. Randy Wolfe bounced down the backstretch like an orange basketball.
Sprint cars were given their wings for the ’79 Syracuse Super Nationals. But by that time, father had enough of the Moody Mile. Though he had seen through the charade right away, dad probably continued coming to Syracuse for the sake of his sons. Sure, there were stars from Buffalo and Albany who rarely if ever reached Reading. But the track has never been a place to see a good race, and a factory worker with two boys could not justify the expense.
Looking back, I can see dad’s difficulty. He rented a motel room in ’75 but slept three to a Hornet in ’76, waking to snow flurries. That was the year when Donnelly moved his USAC Champ Car date to Super DIRT Week. Dad knew how much I wanted to see those cars but could not afford three tickets, so he sent us in without him. By the ’77 USAC return, father was part of Keystone Auto News and hoped persuasive editor Barry Shultz might swing a press pass. But ol’ Gert was unmoved, so we began the long walk around turns three and four to watch the Salt City 100 from the bed of a truck outside the backstretch.
Suddenly, there was the horrible sound of metal on concrete and an over-revving engine. We peered through the railing and dust to see Jim Hurtubise scramble from his botched time trial. What may have been the final Dirt Car attempt by the native New Yorker was sadly, the last for James McElreath, who was killed a day later at Winchester while the Schaefer 100 was being rained out.
The charred hands of Jim Hurtubise brought Leon Harrison’s words to mind. Leon won big with little engines but never quite clicked with a modified. He tackled Syracuse a few times with an orange car built by John Burnett and owned by Henry Verity, who counted uncle George Eckert among its volunteer crew. Super DIRT Week ’76 was the first champ car event to ever have modifieds in the same pit. Leon watched various Indy Car heroes hobble by with bent or useless limbs and asked, “Does a driver have to be half crippled to run USAC?”
Leon was no longer racing by the sixth Syracuse modified classic, postponed until April of ’78. We returned for its one-day conclusion to witness more mangled modifieds than I had ever seen. Virtually all B-main transfers were trashed on the absurdly-skinny backstretch. Kevin Collins cleaned the cage above Wayne Reutimann while Glenn Fitzcharles burst into flames.
Dad never did return. He correctly determined that the best aspect of Syracuse were the Syracuse qualifiers that visited selected short tracks on Tuesdays and Wednesdays of summer. These races brought some of the biggest modified stars to Nazareth and Flemington like the All Star League of old.
These were but a handful of memories that washed over me when I saw Syracuse on Speed TV. When the enormous starting field funneled blindly into the first dusty corner, I was glad to be somewhere else.
To make the broadcast interesting, I downed a shot of tequila each time the imbecile Kenny Wallace began a sentence with, “I’m ‘on tell you what” like his southern fried mentor Larry McReynolds. To hear talking heads like Larry, Kenny, Dee Dubya and retarded Terry Bradshaw is to easily understand why kids can’t read.
I’m hoping the snail mail will find me at 4929 West 14th Street, Speedway, IN 46224.
Ok
November 4, 2009 Speedway, Indiana: First words from a new house. I have changed addresses all of my life. There were three in New Jersey, four in Allentown, six months in California and two residences in Reading, Pennsylvania. Three army bases and three years of national discovery later, father fielded my mail from Arizona, recycling press releases by typing race results on the back. I did discover that Indiana was the place for me. But after four Hoosier home spaces, I drifted to Oklahoma to build Open Wheel Times, out to Arizona for six months (thanks Ty) before coming back to Indiana where as of November 1, Dean Mills and I reside at 4929 West 14th Street. Yes, we actually moved one block north and four clicks east. Excluding the army, it is my 18th home.
Halloween candy would have been a good way to meet my new neighbors. But that required purchasing chocolate for strangers. I withdrew instead to my grand new Stat Cave, of which I am very proud. Thirteen milk crates now stand precisely stacked full of Open Wheel, Flat Out, Trackside, Sprint Car & Midget, Stock Car Racing, National Speedway Directory, National Sprint Car Annual, Dirt Track Fury, USAC media guides, World of Outlaws yearbooks, Penn National programs, Sports Illustrated swimsuits and any artifact of Oakland Raider respectability. Milk crates have long doubled as my magazine racks and furniture. To read the dairies (Johanna, Freeman, Clover) from which they originated is to map my own origins north on the Delaware and west on Lehigh and Schuylkill Rivers.
Barring a flight to Tucson, frosty ride to Kansas City or some act of god (quite a stretch for an atheist), my 2009 racing season is complete. It will soon be trade show season. And since bigger houses require bigger rent, I must sell, sell, sell, which I hate.
My first Saturday in the new digs clicked Syracuse modifieds on Speed TV. Syracuse still holds a special place in my heart. It was (is) the biggest event on the biggest track for the eastern cult of modified stock car racing. We natives of New Jersey followed those cars. Everyone we knew went to Syracuse at the end of September, beginning with my uncle George, who attended its first Schaefer 100 in 1972 and to this day, demands its latest program book to keep his collection complete.
George was a garage rat; just the type of modified man that college boy Glenn Donnelly hoped to recruit to the New York State Fairgrounds. Glenn’s timing was perfect because George was among the thousands displaced by the 1971 loss of Langhorne, home to the Race of Champions that climaxed each modified season. Almost immediately, they flocked to Syracuse. We followed them up I-81 in 1974.
I was 11 years old, and waking at three AM for a four-hour ride to the biggest race of the year was a Big Deal. Mom packed sandwiches and everything. Sunrise over Scranton held the promise of something special.
Windshield wipers were on as we approached the Salt City. Weather is the constant enemy of any multi-day outdoor event, but never more so than Syracuse around Columbus Day. The Great Lake of Ontario is 30 miles away, bringing anything from snow to rain and every ten years or so, sunshine. To a half-mile hero from Weedsport or East Windsor, it took gumption to wake to sleet, down a cup of coffee and barrel down the mile’s bicycle path of a backstretch to a shaded turn three that may or not have defrosted.
On that first trip, the sky cleared, we found our seats overlooking turn one, and Bob made the acquaintance of someone from Lebanon Valley. Dad did this frequently, usually when he overheard someone asking who drove a particular car. A quarter of the way through the ’74 Schaefer 100, Reading messiah Kenny Brightbill grew tired of tucking low to protect fourth-place and sailed into the lead with one outside sweep of turn one, a move which may still be unduplicated and one which brought dad’s new friend to his feet.
“Did you see that?” The Valley guy asked.
Bob Eckert smiled, puffed on his Telly Savalas cigarette and said, “Buddy, I watch him do that every week.”
Brightbill’s junkyard Chevy seized 12 miles from the finish and it would take 14 years for him to finally win his division’s biggest race. Taking over was the gleaming Gremlin built by Whip Mulligan for Billy Osmun, who led Merv Treichler’s asphalt conversion when rain reached turn three. Under caution, Osmun pointed skyward to the flagman, who dropped the checkered on lap 95 of 100. “Marvelous Merv” rammed “Billy O” with an anger eventually tempered somewhat in 1981-82 when Treichler topped Syracuse with a Maynard Troyer-built Mud Bus.
So rich was the Syracuse purse in 1974 that the biggest sprint car stars of the era, Jan Opperman and Kenny Weld, were among its 53-car field. By our arrival, Weld had already established a one-lap modified mark that would stand for some time. In 1977, he returned with big wings and big Chevy sprint car to reclaim the World Record he set at Dover in ‘73. And as anyone from New York or New Jersey will tell you, 1980 is when Kenny was contracted on a deal with the devil (Gary Balough) to destroy modified racing via Miami vice.
Opperman ran the ’72 Race of Champions at Trenton for Jack Tant and ’74 Schaefer 100 at Syracuse for Joey Lawrence. Like most of Jan’s rides, Joey’s car was not much to see: a flat black Mustang with a splash of gold and white Number 16. But the owner knew how to make horsepower. Opperman timed tenth of 152 qualifiers. A week later, Jan ran the Schmidt’s 200 at Reading for Bob Eppihimer, so pleased to have the legendary preacher grace his seat that he carved Opperman’s trademark cross in the nose. A year later, Jan skipped Syracuse for Gold Cup but was ready to return for a possible 1976 USAC Dirt Championship when he suffered life-altering injuries in the Hoosier Hundred.
During his agonizing road to recovery, Opperman was befriended by modified legend Will Cagle, who provided a car for Jan at the ’77 Syracuse 100, which rained out. Before that difficult verdict, I remember Jan addressing early arrivals in some kind of Sunday service/solicitation for his Montana ranch for troubled kids.
When he was hurt in ’76, Opperman was replaced as Bobby Hillin’s driver by Al Unser, winner of 14 mile grinds in eight seasons yet too slow for the ’76 Salt City 100. That never happened to Unser again because he left Syracuse so humiliated that he rejected any more Dirt Champ car offers.
Kenny Weld’s strategy for his only Schaefer 100 was to pit late and hope a heavy fuel load would increase traction on the ultra-slick surface. But he hit the raised road to the pits too hot, bounced in the air and broke a shock. That was Kenny’s original modified, which he sold to the Statewide Fencing team of Osmun, nitrous oxide system intact. During the ’75 Syracuse 100, “Billy O” made an extra pit stop yet was all over winner Dick Tobias at the end.
Toby’s triumph stirred mixed emotions. I was not a fan. To me, he was the dull guy downstairs perpetually stretching the rules. I had seen him disqualified so therefore, he was a cheater. Only later did I come to appreciate the indelible mark that Richard Lincoln Tobias left on all of eastern auto racing. It was also lost on my young mind that unlike most weekend warriors, Tobias had raced on miles from Langhorne and Nazareth to Springfield and DuQuoin before starring at Syracuse, where he was such a perennial polesitter that the achievement was posthumously named in his honor after Toby turned his last lap at Flemington in ’78.
As a 12-year old, I naturally boarded the bandwagon by declaring Toby’s Syracuse score one for the Reading regulars. Brother and I grabbed the soot-covered fencing and cheered our little lungs out. We helped convince the gate guard that the lady in the pink pantsuit was really Mary Tobias, wife and winning car owner (Toby keen to tax shelters) who must get to victory lane at once. Color photos show a black soot smudge on Mary’s pink sleeve.
Heading home from Syracuse on a Sunday night never left many options for food. When father finally found a greasy spoon somewhere north of Binghampton, we were surprised to see Toby, Davey Brown and crew at the same diner. Though he had just reached the peak of his sport, Dick Tobias considered himself an everyday Dutchman.
Super DIRT Week ’75 grew into a two-day experience so that father could fulfill his goal of seeing supermodifieds at Oswego. We arrived late from rain-delayed time trials for 248 modifieds to a shining Steel Palace on the hill. I can still feel my seat shake when those big blocks opened the throttle off turn four. The wildest weapon was a gun metal gray rear-engine, four-wheel drive device built by Bill Hite and driven by Fred Graves, who cut through the field twice before losing a wheel in a shower of sparks. It was the car’s last race at Oswego because four-wheel drive was banned before their 1976 opener.
We dirt trackers chose Oswego asphalt over the KARS sprint race at Weedsport in an indication of the high regard that dad had for Oswego, home of one division for one solid purse just like Reading. The following afternoon, Donnelly invited a handful of sprint cars to the mile for an exhibition. The following Fourth of July was the first winged sprint race ever at Syracuse. It was won by the Weikert Livestock big block of Paul Pitzer. Before the ’76 Schaefer 100, Bentley Warren hot lapped his ragged super to feed the reality of pitting Oswego cars against Pennsylvania sprint cars for Super DIRT Week ‘78. To help the heavy supers stay competitive, sprint teams were told to leave wings at home, which became a recipe for disaster. The carnage was incredible. Randy Wolfe bounced down the backstretch like an orange basketball.
Sprint cars were given their wings for the ’79 Syracuse Super Nationals. But by that time, father had enough of the Moody Mile. Though he had seen through the charade right away, dad probably continued coming to Syracuse for the sake of his sons. Sure, there were stars from Buffalo and Albany who rarely if ever reached Reading. But the track has never been a place to see a good race, and a factory worker with two boys could not justify the expense.
Looking back, I can see dad’s difficulty. He rented a motel room in ’75 but slept three to a Hornet in ’76, waking to snow flurries. That was the year when Donnelly moved his USAC Champ Car date to Super DIRT Week. Dad knew how much I wanted to see those cars but could not afford three tickets, so he sent us in without him. By the ’77 USAC return, father was part of Keystone Auto News and hoped persuasive editor Barry Shultz might swing a press pass. But ol’ Gert was unmoved, so we began the long walk around turns three and four to watch the Salt City 100 from the bed of a truck outside the backstretch.
Suddenly, there was the horrible sound of metal on concrete and an over-revving engine. We peered through the railing and dust to see Jim Hurtubise scramble from his botched time trial. What may have been the final Dirt Car attempt by the native New Yorker was sadly, the last for James McElreath, who was killed a day later at Winchester while the Schaefer 100 was being rained out.
The charred hands of Jim Hurtubise brought Leon Harrison’s words to mind. Leon won big with little engines but never quite clicked with a modified. He tackled Syracuse a few times with an orange car built by John Burnett and owned by Henry Verity, who counted uncle George Eckert among its volunteer crew. Super DIRT Week ’76 was the first champ car event to ever have modifieds in the same pit. Leon watched various Indy Car heroes hobble by with bent or useless limbs and asked, “Does a driver have to be half crippled to run USAC?”
Leon was no longer racing by the sixth Syracuse modified classic, postponed until April of ’78. We returned for its one-day conclusion to witness more mangled modifieds than I had ever seen. Virtually all B-main transfers were trashed on the absurdly-skinny backstretch. Kevin Collins cleaned the cage above Wayne Reutimann while Glenn Fitzcharles burst into flames.
Dad never did return. He correctly determined that the best aspect of Syracuse were the Syracuse qualifiers that visited selected short tracks on Tuesdays and Wednesdays of summer. These races brought some of the biggest modified stars to Nazareth and Flemington like the All Star League of old.
These were but a handful of memories that washed over me when I saw Syracuse on Speed TV. When the enormous starting field funneled blindly into the first dusty corner, I was glad to be somewhere else.
To make the broadcast interesting, I downed a shot of tequila each time the imbecile Kenny Wallace began a sentence with, “I’m ‘on tell you what” like his southern fried mentor Larry McReynolds. To hear talking heads like Larry, Kenny, Dee Dubya and retarded Terry Bradshaw is to easily understand why kids can’t read.
I’m hoping the snail mail will find me at 4929 West 14th Street, Speedway, IN 46224.
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