Downtown

By Kevin Eckert

December 14, 2009 Indianapolis, Indiana: Back in the trade show loop. Winter can be lonely for a racer. Saturday friends separate for a few months. No one at home understands the rule changes. We need trade shows and banquet parties to gather friends and do business, some real and some monkey shines. “Racers do their best work at night,” was a great line from the directory book for the first International Motorsports Industry Show.

For three cold winters, Indianapolis went without the Big Show when the Performance Racing Industry flew south to Orlando. Originally, that sounded like persuasion to push Indy’s expansion, which occurred once the RCA Dome was deflated for Lucas Oil Stadium. All the PRI points however, were not honored so Steve Lewis opted for an Orlando contract extension. As soon as Steve signed off on that, wheels were turning to bring a new Big Show back to downtown Indy.

Chris Paulsen championed the idea. He’s a racer who toured with the World of Outlaws on Sammy Swindell’s Nance car, Tamale Wagon Indy Cars of Alex Morales, and saddled into his own Gambler at Putnamville on a Saturday night. All of that came before starting his C&R business in 1988. Chris is “C” and “R” stood for Ross Fisher, an original partner. C&R Radiators were the specialty that caused the company to outgrow Gasoline Alley as they added a Charlotte branch to better serve NASCAR. TV viewers saw the C&R logo whenever some poor fella ripped the nose away. C&R expanded to countless components and even complete cars.

Paulsen partnered with the Indiana Motorsports Association, a new effort aimed at things like another downtown trade show. IMA director Tom Weisenbach joined C&R as did car dealer Jeff Stoops and Jeff’s fellow USAC champion Tony Stewart, most recognized face in the state next to Peyton Manning. All four stood on stage at Lucas Oil Stadium on Tuesday with mayor and governor to guarantee that the inaugural International Motorsports Industry Show will not be the last, extending IMIS through 2015.

I am not at all unbiased about the Indy/Orlando split because I live in Indy. I chased PRI from Cincinnati to Columbus, Ohio and was delighted when its icy drive took minutes instead of hours on I-70 or I-74. I mourned my friends from California and New Jersey who no longer warmed themselves in the exhibit halls or saloons. I did not prowl PRI again until ’08, but found it as comfortable as always inside, because comfort is the feeling of being around the people you know best: racers.

“Indy or Orlando?” shouldn’t be an either/or question. Auto racing is built on competition and one of anything is too few. With any split in ranks, racing should nurture the new rather than perpetually perceiving it as an attempt to divide and conquer. Time will tell if Indy/Orlando do one day occupy the same patch of winter. There are many trade shows and not many weekends. But for 2010, Indy’s IMIS event is December 1-3 and Orlando’s PRI program is December 9-11. I wish I could’ve done both.

“Indy Is Racing” was a brilliantly simple slogan across the shoulders of show workers. There were virtually none of the show girls of SEMA or PRI to coax old, bald, fat guys like me into welcoming brochures for Italian car wax. What you get out a trade show is almost entirely based on your number of friends and/or acquaintances. It doesn’t matter if you’re talking in front of the latest, greatest torsion bar, or Howl at the Moon’s piano bar. It’s about your friends: racers.

In Indy, racers walk from IMIS to vehicle, room, restaurant or tavern without ever venturing into the elements. Orlando cannot make the same claim, but a Florida walk does not cut like Indianapolis Ice. Orlando is an international vacation place, but Indy is an easy drive for Brian Brown from Kansas City. Brownie got there after about six and a half hours on I-70, or as long as it takes us to see him in Knoxville, Iowa.

Tony Stewart keeps a suite at Lucas Oil Stadium for Colts games. When he was with TSR and Levi Jones, crew chief Rob Hart was able to bring his kids (Ella & Ethan) into Tony’s suite. The kids were awestruck. After all, they had never met Jared from Subway!

Stewart’s photo-op with Governor Daniels was digitally recorded by Smoke’s hand-picked staff of shooters: Toledo’s Frank Smith and Kokomo corner workers Travis Branch and Rex Staton. Stewart split for the first NASCAR banquet not in NYC in 27 years. He would miss seeing his photographers get shuttled into a scissor-lift like kids at a carnival.

TSR taskmaster Bill Klingbeil waited for peak traffic for the obligatory overhead shot. Bill came to Stewart with Donny Schatz and has with Misha Geisert created an avalanche of publicity. They not rest. Every time I popped into the Chris Econamaki Press Room for a free cookie, one or both were working away. What they released Friday credited IMIS with 10,000 people in 345 exhibits that filled all 572 spaces. Next year, there will be a thousand spaces.

Budweiser flowed free (viva Smoke!) inside the House that Peyton Built. Some of us took two-fisted liberty, bowing to pressure from TSR graphics guy Tony Iacobitti. Many of these same people then poured west on Washington to Rockville to BK Motorsports on Gasoline Alley, a 15-minute jaunt where two kegs of Coors Light burned up like Silver Crown tires. Actually, the spare nearly saw the dawn, according to survivors.

Bud’s Place illustrates why Indy Is Racing. A company like Maxim Chassis can use a customer like Kaeding to gather people together for business, beer and brisket carved by Pete Rose’s brother Dave.

Elite Racing used the following evening as the grand opening of its grand new Jason Meyers palace in Brownsburg. It came as some surprise that Jason nearly became World of Outlaws champ with no real shop east of California. That means D.J Lindsey and Brian Bloomfield did the bulk of their chores in car washes and motel lots. They earned a shiny new shop. “Long way from Majestic Auto Body,” I joked to D.J, as easy-going as when he and his brother ran the Two-D out of Jacksonville, Illinois. Now his shop belongs to drag racing legend John Force.

Ironic that Indy is such a hub for World of Outlaws teams despite racing nowhere near. Even its announcer occupies a trailer at 16th & Georgetown like a modern Crocky Wright. Yet the only Outlaw sprint races in the Hoosier State were in Haubstadt and Lawrenceburg, both of which could be Kentucky if you live in Avon. It would be nice to see them back at Kokomo or Lincoln Park, where no wings have been used in the three years since Tim Kaeding won with Steve Kinser’s car. The 2010 Indiana WoO agenda shows only Haubstadt on Saturday, April 24.

Elite fell short of dethroning Tony Stewart as car owner champion to Donny Schatz and crew chief Ricky Warner. The champs had their Mario Andretti STP replica at Tony’s first trade show. TSR parked cars all over the place. Tuesday, they put a pavement midget in front of Lucas Oil Can and by Wednesday, that Beast was in a booth hyped December dirt races in Kansas City’s Kemper Arena promoted by Scott Pennington and Danny Lasoski. Tony’s gold dirt midget bearing a Smoke visor (probably the piece he used on his Macon Speedway) touted the Hendricks County Economic Development Partnership. At present, the Stewart Spike will miss the Chili Bowl while Tony races in Australia, though his four Parramatta City shows do not conflict. Last winter, he did not race Chili Bowl because he was building an Office Depot/Old Spice team, which worked out pretty well. One of those red Cup cars decorated the IMIS lobby next to famed Indy artist Ron Burton.

The winged TSR 20 generated the show’s most common question, “Who will drive it?” It seemed cruel to leave Kraig Kinser’s name on a week or two after formally firing him, but its Yak Graphics were clear-coated and not so easily erased. Not until PRI did Robin Miller break the story that Steve Kinser will indeed replace his son. Speed Channel said so only one day after Kraig revealed how he will again drive dad’s Maxims powered by Scott Gerkin and maintained by Mike Kuemper, who follows Kraig over from TSR. Steve has shown his aversion to fielding two teams without primary sponsors (Quaker State 2010 has reduced to associate status to both Kinsers) ever since Kraig and Delco-Remy ran off. So when Steve hired Kraig, The King had to work for someone else. Perhaps on principal, he did not jump to join those who put his grandbaby’s daddy out of work, but he came around.

Why another Kinser? Why now? At the 2007 final when TSR replaced Paul McMahan with Kraig Kinser, it seemed to be Tony’s way of getting Gerkin to boost the Chevrolet engine program. I later came to believe that Tony hired Kraig simply because Steve asked him to. It seemed impossible to believe that Stewart watched two seasons of Outlaw races and decided his best choice was someone who was at none of those races. At the risk of defaming Kraig, he is good but not great. Time in NASCAR stunted his growth. But he is 24 years old and like his pop said, “Donny Schatz didn’t win much when he was 24 either.”

But now in the winter of 2009-2010, Steve Kinser sits at 687 wins, 2783 WoO starts and 55 years of age recovering from neck surgery. At this stage of the game, others are in their prime, others like Tyler Walker and Tim Kaeding, who both coveted the job. TSR is Corporate America, which does not let California X Games in the building unless they can jump through all of their hoops. Compared to almost anyone, Tyler and TK are rough around the edges. I’m proud to call ‘em my friends but Steve Kinser is the safest choice.

Tony Stewart Racing is a multi-million dollar juggernaut the likes of which auto racing and specifically, short track open wheel dirt racing, has never seen. As a point of reference, Tony (6.8) and his Sunday driver Ryan Newman left the stage in Vegas with almost 12 million dollars. TSR acquires teams and tracks with tornado swiftness. Now recall how Tony and Steve recently splintered away from The Outlaws (NST) and consider that owning his own series is one role Stewart has yet to play. Maybe he just needs a good push in that direction. Maybe like being forced to replace all of his Hoosier Tires with Goodyears?

By far the biggest IMIS buzz was about Goodyear’s grab of a game that had been Hoosier’s sole purple property. Unlike the transaction of say, Stewart purchasing Eldora Speedway, this was abrupt. Hoosier had no sooner successfully defended itself as beneficiary of a legal bid that the court ordered new bids, won by Goodyear. Since the prize (World of Outlaws) depends on local teams to stir rivalry in Knoxville, Attica and Williams Grove, all three tracks followed the World Racing Group to Goodyear.

Never mind that Goodyear has built no dirt tires in ten years. They had the biggest check! And never mind that they will not have a product until two weeks before the season opener. “It’ll be the same for everybody,” I can already hear from Volusia.

For just a moment, think of a mystical time before Big Capitalism began to graze on the grassy meadow of motorsport. Think of tracks and clubs that hustled up their own point fund. Think of tire rules which revolved around how big, wide or soft they were, and not which corporate logo was stamped on the side. Those days did exist. Those days are pretty gone. Racing long ago sold its soul for point funds. If a company tells a track operator that they will hand his champion $5000 just as long as that track requires everyone to use that company’s product, how can they refuse?

Hoosier backed World of Outlaws championships for sprints and late models, and made three hard compounds available. Mandate any component and a racer will grind it, drill it or soak it. Brady Short shredded an MSCS Hoosier on a Lawrenceburg parade lap and a few weeks later, Outlaw police confiscated Scott Bloomquist’s Charlotte winner, had the rubber analyzed, and determined that it had been illegally softened.

As a historian with no tire bill, I see these power shifts as cyclical. Firestone was followed by Goodyear by Hoosier by Goodyear by Hoosier and now, by Goodyear again. As king, Steve Kinser has been on both ends of tire competition, testing free Hoosiers in the 80s, becoming Goodyear’s top dog in the 90s, losing that status when Hoosier made Goodyear right rears illegal, and then having to buy his Hoosiers when they bought the series.

Steve Kinser has never been the loud, public thorn in Goodyear’s side like Tony Stewart. When told that his tires now needed the dreaded yellow letters, Stewart nearly launched an alternative series. Accountants advised more study. But the idea remains. If he did wish to start a national winged 410 club in 2011, wouldn’t it be Box Office Gold to do it on the broad back of the biggest name in sprint car racing? It could even act as The King’s farewell address, which just might move some merchandise. Speculation for sure, but where there’s Smoke, there’s fire.

I’ll guarantee this: if a 360 sprint car on Hoosiers happens to go faster than the 410s on Goodyears, heads will roll!

Good thing it’s not Roger Slack’s problem. The World of Outlaws made a wise move hiring him just before IMIS, but his title is Events Coordinator. Schooled by progressive teachers like Glenn Donnelly and Humpy Wheeler, Slack sold Speed TV on the notion of combining Outlaw sprints and stocks for a grand season finale on live TV. Until last year, Roger led The Dirt Track at Lowe’s until breaking those chains to scour America and see how other events did it.

Eldora Speedway was the only track with an IMIS booth. Wonder if Tony Stewart demanded $1500 in rent from Larry Boos? Larry laughed off schedule requests because Baltes taught him to not hurry. Earl knew to set the World 100 (September 10-11), Kings Royal (July 16-17) and Dream (June 11-12) before his last crowd left his last race, let all the clubs hammer out the rest, then fill the gaps. PRI pointed USAC to Eldora on April 2-3 and World of Outlaws on May 7-8. Four Crown Nationals opens with WoO on September 24 before USAC sprints, midgets and champ cars go on September 25.

USAC was understandably delighted to have a trade show back in its center city. USAC unfortunately, did not use the occasion to calm its competitors. Questions remain about whether sprint car will be split into dirt and pavement points, whether midget engines will carry an RPM limit, or whether champ cars can continue to use the Yates Ford.

USAC had two versions of its next super-speedway champ car idea at IMIS. Interestingly, neither one sat in USAC’s booth. When the first prototype debuted at the last Indy PRI show (C&R built the first winner), USAC opened the door to Fords by Robert Yates because he was exactly the kind of NASCAR mover and shaker they hoped to attract. If they intended to race at Darlington, why not use a Darlington engine? Well, they no longer race at Darlington. But they still use Yates, who has resources of which others can only dream. Advanced Racing Suspension threatened to park Chet Fillip if USAC continued the disparity. Connected to Carl Edwards, RE Technologies has a house full of those engines. R.E knew of no potential change in engine rules, nor did Silver Crown king Bud Kaeding.

Midget minds are in a panic. Numbers are low and drastic change is in order. To limit an engine’s Revolutions Per Minute is drastic but would seem to be designed to increase engine life, which no one should oppose. Esslinger Ford owners however, feel a proposed 9000 RPM cap is motivated more by the desire to break the domination of a series funded by Mopar and now Toyota. To direct cost-saving measures at the most cost-effective engine does seem misguided.

USAC unrest regarding midgets only makes Indiana POWRi programs more attractive. POWRi president Kenny Brown nosed around IMIS after meeting select Hoosier State hosts. Far as USAC is concerned, POWRi presence in “their” Hoosier State is as welcome as NAMARS in the 90s when USAC was struggling to sell short fields of midgets that started without a push. It took dirt festivals like NAMARS Five Crown to hasten USAC to remove batteries and wave back the push trucks. POWRi and ARDC are America’s only healthy midget clubs in 2010, partly because Brown does not stray 300 miles from St. Louis for one Friday race. Kenny has a very vested interest in midgets. Three of his Toyota Spikes are headed to Chili Bowl in January for Josh Wise, Randy Hannagan and Kenny’s kid Austin Brown.

Oklahoma City’s Shane Carson has raced in 12 of 23 Chili Bowls, making the final feature four times in midgets owned and maintained by Jerry Hatton. Shane said the second night of this year’s Oval Nationals for USAC sprints was so good that he could hardly sleep. For a veteran of thousands of races in and out of the cockpit, that’s tall praise. “And there were only about 50 people in the stands,” Carson said, exaggerating like a promoter’s son to make a point. Shane serves as consultant to the National Sprint Car Hall of Fame and World of Outlaws.

Joey Saldana won more World of Outlaws races than its champion relying on Randy Sweet steering in Budweiser Maxims, one of which adorned the Sweet IMIS display. In the aisles was Bones Bourcier, survivor of some of Randy’s all-night escapades through Daytona and New Smyrna Beach. Bones is busy updating his Bill Simpson book of 2000. Wonder if Mike Helton gets mentioned? Joey won in New Zealand again and has entered Chili Bowl in one of three Mopars that will contain Saldana, Brad Sweet and Kasey Kahne his own self.

Joe Saldana too had a ride represented at IMIS. In fact, Saldana Sr. had pole position because Mechanical Rabbit 65 resided in the Speedway Motors display closest the door. “Speedy Bill” Smith has been the fire behind Speedway Motors since 1952 and just released an autobiography co-authored by Dave Argabright. It’s called Fast Company: Six Decades of Racers, Rascals and Rods. It is fantastic. I have been lucky to coax Bill out of a story or two and find him most captivating. His cadence is captured in Dave’s book. Bill occasionally breaks the narrative to remind the reader that strong opinions (such as USAC offering his qualifying pill from a loaded jar) are The World According to Smith. Thursday’s IMIS lesson imparted to Boston’s Bobby Seymour was how Bob’s father Louie helped inspired Smith’s signature circular black hat. Bill tried without success to crack the USAC board of directors and felt he needed a nickname like Boston Louie, or maybe a hat like J.C Agajanian. His diagnosis of USAC still rings true: arrogance with incompetence. Order one from www.coastal181.com.

Bill Simpson, godfather to the safe side of auto racing, is like Bill Smith in that their lives make for riveting reading. But to anyone Bill has met, he’s just another biker in a bar like Buffalo Wild Wings (BW3) on Crawfordsville Road, where we watched Colts come back to beat Houston three days before IMIS. I bounced into BW3 to see Kansas City’s Julie Ripperger while she scouted Indy for witness relocation. I raised the talking point that only in Indy could she sit two stools over from a character like Simpson, who once set himself on fire to prove a point.

Rick Ungar is an eastern Ohio native who called Memphis and St. Louis home before starting a family in Indy. He sells trucks for Jeff Stoops, partner in IMIS and owner of the sprint cars that carried Steve Butler to the Hall of Fame. Ungar seems underrated as a driver, having beaten the World of Outlaws, All Stars and USAC when they had wings. During that ‘87 season was Rick’s only outdoor midget race. He ran the Pontiac Challenger of Gary Runyon wrenched by Bob Murden at Kokomo, swapping pavement pieces to beat everyone except legends Mel Kenyon and Kevin Doty. Rick renewed acquaintances on the floor of the former Hoosier Dome to which he was invited in 1991, one year before his last race.

Noblesville’s Bryan Clauson circulated his hometown IMIS four days removed from a landmark Thanksgiving break. California’s native son won both the 100-lap Turkey Night Midget Grand Prix on Irwindale asphalt and Glenn Howard Memorial for USAC-CRA sprint cars on Perris clay; a feat unprecedented in that 55-mile radius. IMIS closed Thursday and at Saturday’s open house, Benic Enterprises announced Clauson as its 2010 USAC sprint car driver. Tucker cars stay holstered for races Benic might skip.

Scott Benic and Dave Darland had a dreadful season come to a dreadful end with crashes at Perris and Tulare. Wednesday after IMIS was when Scott officially gave Dave his 2B release. Benic had a Gaerte Beast in the Champion Oil booth wearing the name Levi Jones, and an RW asphalt midget in the USAC booth bearing the name Brad Kuhn, who soon became a father and will stay away from New Zealand this winter. Kuhn will do Chili Bowl in one of Scott’s two Fontana Beasts while Glenn Styres steers another. Benic is also busy with two Esslingers: one in the returning Ellis of Shane Hmiel and another in the Spike of West Virginia wonder boy Cale Conley.

Now that the entry list has reached 140, Chili Bowl fever can commence. Last year, Joe Loyet and Rusty Kunz created an Orange Crush of Esslinger Spikes for Danny Lasoski, Jesse Hockett, Jon Stanbrough and Joe’s son Brad Loyet. For the next Bowl, Rusty and Jon are out and Casey Shuman is in the Flea market. Hockett’s sprint program is in flux now that Tom Buch and Bernie Stuebgen swapped JEI and Jesse Hockett for an Eagle aimed by Paul McMahan.

Don’t worry about Rusty Kunz. He and Kelly Drake have three Esslinger Spikes owned by PRI’s Steve Lewis for Jason Meyers, P.J Jones and Kansas 305 star Tanner Mullens, winner of the wingless Weld Memorial in Grain Valley.

Three weeks removed from his richest win ever ($12,500 from Tulare), Stanbrough strolled his hometown IMIS as one of four official Keith Kunz drivers for Chili Bowl. Keith has Bullets for Stanbrough, Chris Windom and Henry Clarke (a fourth Esslinger is open) plus a Toyota for Cole Whitt and another Toyota to lease.

The Eagle 600 model at IMIS had a Keith Kunz quality to its Number 67. Jerry Russell confessed that he did indeed phone his former Springfield neighbor, who steered him to Shadow Graphics on Gasoline Alley. Jerry uses that number (67) in tribute to late car owner Math Schneider, from whom he gave Steven Mathew Russell his middle name. The kid’s first name is for The King.

Despite breaking his back and missing half a season, New York’s Tim McCreadie cannot wait to return to Chili Bowl with Wilke-Pak men Darland, Tracy Hines and Jerry Coons, all aboard Toyota Spikes. Tulsa precedes Jerry’s flight to New Zealand as part of Team USA with Scott Hatton, Tony Elliott and Kevin Swindell, who returns to Australia at Avalon aboard a Richard Petty Driving Experience midget on December 19.

While overseas, Coons will likely leave his motorhome in the Clermont shop of Rob Hart, who brought Jerry to Tulare from a list he handed to Roth Racing. Hunter Schuerenberg was on that list. Dennis picked Jerry, who probably hadn’t had a boss scream at him in a while. No more screaming for Hart either as he was home for Thanksgiving turkey. Rob and Mike Cool were ex-TSR crew chiefs seeking work at IMIS.

At present, Hart’s two-bay shop houses an Esslinger Spike that Brownsburg’s Daryn Pittman will take to Kansas City and his Tulsa birthplace. Oklahoma sponsors include car dealer Bob Hurley and Hop N’ Sack, the convenience store that backed Pittman and Hart when Daryn was replaced by Danny Wood.

Oklahoma City’s Wayne Johnson has Al Christoffer’s Esslinger Spike for Kansas City and Tulsa but nothing to race outdoors any closer than Australia. Johnson & Johnson (R.J of Florida, no relation) carted the Christoffer 360 to Tucson and made the Maxim open house on Gasoline Alley.

Just a few PRI shows ago, Triple X was chastised for Chinese labor by Chris Paulsen, co-founder of an IMIS in which XXX had Daron Clayton, Brady Bacon and Gary Taylor to answer questions. The XXX 600 chassis with its flame graphics also generated good buzz, according to Skagit announcer Caleb Hart.

British Columbia’s Travis Rutz is rehabilitating slowly in the Pacific Northwest, as is Robbie Pribnow in Wisconsin. Think of them at Christmas.

Seattle’s Design 500 took its tape measure to Don Kreitz Jr. I told Donald that he no longer races enough to need a new suit. Kreitz confines himself to Williams Grove mostly after 26 sprint car seasons and 183 wins. Randy Frank was busy crafting Design 500s. Its president James Standley explained that because he is from England, he is not therefore related to J.P Standley, who scorched Spanaway to beat USAC midgets and WMRA supermodifieds in 1972-73.

The former Weld Wheels salesmen Bob Baker and Joel Kokoska worked IMIS for the National Sprint Car Hall of Fame and Yak Graphics that ironically adjoined one another. “Yak” is Iacobitti, who has come to know Indy during TSR sticker sessions.

Weld Tech was in its hometown IMIS. It is the cylinder head created by Kenny Weld and manufactured by his widow and daughter. Former husband to Debbie Weld (they share a son), George Austin III wants it known that he would relish a return to the Knoxville Raceway on which Austin III was P2 in 1994, beating everyone except the late Danny Young of Des Moines.

“Bullet proof,” was how Kenny Weld’s late mechanic Stacey Reeves described the 1974 modified of Kenny Brightbill, who strolled IMIS. Down in Sinking Spring, DMI’s Dave Ely has grown up on tales of Kenny’s strength. Stories like carrying six-foot oxygen tanks under each arm, grooving entire Firestones without heat, or racing all day with power steering belt flapping in the dust. Ely had two generations of Brightbill in his booth as Keith trumpeted DMI’s new rear axle for modifieds. Dave said Kenny’s father could pass a quarter through his wedding ring.

BK Motorsports and IMIS included Lucas Wolfe and his father Randy, who corroborated Brightbill stories for Robby Wolfgang, himself raised on Larger than Life stories of a famous father. Doug Wolfgang builds Dave Ely’s chassis and was best man at Dave’s wedding. Robby was squired around by Charlie Patterson, who had the real estate to start Gasoline Alley.

The original Gasoline Alley divided the glorified horse stables that comprised the Indy 500 garage area in 1948, when Pat Clancy brought Billy Devore to drive a six-wheel Kurtis Offy with two rear axles. That car drew IMIS attention to the Seals-It exhibit of Skip Matczak, who chatted with incomparable car builder A.J Watson. Skip joked that Seals-It emissary John Heydenreich was so old that the Clancy car was his first. I only wondered if it had eight wheels before Heydenreich was through. John is a typical East Coast ball buster that needs to be kept in check just as John and I were taught by those Philadelphia professors of verbal abuse, the Cicconi family.

Pennsylvania prodigy Cody Darrah will train for his rookie World of Outlaws adventure with his first foray to Australia. Darrah will drive the Motorguard Maxim for John Weatherall beginning at Brisbane on Boxing Day, December 26. Weatherall has imported Randy Hannagan, Daryn Pittman, Michael Carber and P.J Chesson from the U.S and native sons Andrew Scheuerle, Trevor Green and Todd Wanless, who was Brisbane’s best on December 13. Brent and Bud Kaeding will join Cody overseas.

Darrah has unlimited potential but everyone should see it as that: potential. Most of The Outlaw trail will be new to Cody, who Kasey Kahne will pair with road-tested Bonzai Bruns. Darrah will return from Toowoomba for Tulsa and a second Chili Bowl for his father Joe Darrah, who will field two Spikes with Don Ott power for his son and cousin Rick Eckert. Car 89 and Steve Suchy remain on Joe’s payroll at J&K Salvage.

South Australia’s Trevor Green suffered a compression fracture to his L2 vertebrae. Idle indefinitely, Trevor tapped Kerry’s brother Ian Madsen for Parramatta City prior to summoning Danny Smith. Thanksgiving host Mike Trimmer (thanks Skip) cited some revolutionary energy-absorbing foam that his IRL co-workers are petitioning to lessen injuries that happen when rear ends strike the tailbone of drivers like Trevor or Doug Esh. Adding a few inches of high impact foam could however, require raising U.S roll cages as Australia has already done.

Louisiana’s Jason Johnson, who married into the Pennsylvania Posse and moved to Texas, began a ninth straight Australian tour by winning with a Haynes Eagle maintained by Brendan Telfer, who tutored under Max Dumesny before toiling for Shane Stewart and Brian Brown in the U.S.A.

Shake-ups in Springfield saw Brad Aylesworth end his Maxim service to work for Australia’s Bill Mann at Performance Wholesale, which bought into the Eagle Chassis Company of former Springfield Speedway star Jerry Russell. Aylesworth left Maxim just after Mike Long split it for Speedway Motors. Mann and surrogate son Dave Sharman showed how highly they hold Indy by flying from Brisbane and back to World Series, where Performance Wholesale is title sponsor and Sharman reunited with his old mate David Murcott from Tasmania.

New Zealand’s Simon Longdill is shipping two of his Aggressor V8 units to Oklahoma for Kiwi countrymen Brad Mosen and mighty Michael Pickens, undefeated this season. This marriage of motorcycle engines that Davenport, Iowa’s Davey Ray has raced for two winters is not legal anywhere in America beyond that place where almost anything goes: Chili Bowl.

Longdill inspired Davenport Dave to conceive has Raypro Mopar for the St. Louis Spike of Joe Dooling, who assisted the sprint of Jack Yeley (Brad Sweet ’06) and champ car driven in 2008 by J.J Yeley. Last season ended for J.J on August 22 in Kansas City when he cracked two vertebrae in dad’s sprint car. J.J promised his wife that he will return to Chili Bowl only as an owner.

Ohio’s Cap Henry will be back from Australia sprint racing for Chili Bowl Midget Nationals and four cylinders from Hall of Fame name Bob Hampshire.

California’s Cruz Pedregon, positioned in Brownsburg near John Force and Ken Bernstein, will again play midget racer at Chili Bowl while fielding a Toyota Spike for Knoxville’s rising star Dusty Zomer of South Dakota.

California’s Mike Sala and Bob Wirth will send a Chevy Spike to Tulsa for Colby Copeland and a Mopar Spike for Wes Gutierrez.

Georgia’s Mark Bush and Doug Day were in Lucas Oil Stadium before another Chili Bowl in which Bush has Esslinger Spikes for Lincoln Park thriller Thomas Meseraull and steel block star J.C Bland.

Lincoln Park will also be represented at Chili Bowl by Billy Puterbaugh, piloting a Mopar DRC backed by U.S soldier Eric Barnhill. Not only has Billy never raced in Tulsa, he has never raced a full midget. The last indoor midget race by a Puterbaugh was in 1970 when Bill Sr. scored third in the Houston Astrodome.

Don Fike of Galesburg, Illinois has Esslinger Spikes for Chili Bowl driven by Darren Hagen, A.J Fike and Casey Riggs, son of Indiana Underground’s Terry Riggs. Terry walked IMIS with Mike Dutcher (crew chief on the Tulare winner of Jon Stanbrough) and I introduced myself as the man who put Terry and his champ car on the cover of the third Flat Out in 2000 when Tracy Hines raced it in Nazareth.

Hey, it’s Christmas and I wanted to work Nazareth into the narrative. Sacrilegious scribe Gary London once used “Jesus of Nazareth” to describe the tall, bearded man who dominated the half-mile’s full body class: Jack Zeiner.

Trade shows are not all smiles and handshakes. When you sling it like me, sometimes feelings (and facts) get stretched. Last year during PRI, Danny the Dude wanted a word or three. During IMIS, it was mechanics Troy Renfro and Daryl Saucier who voiced anger. Renfro’s rub concerned my description of his criticism toward a point system that deprived his boss Larry Woodward of a Knoxville championship. I read it again and still am not sure about the fuss. I called him grouchy (he is) and said that he vented, which he continues to do. DSR told me that since Damion Gardner never actually hired him in 2008, he could not therefore have been fired. I was reminded of Argabright’s bio of Brad Doty when Brad said, “Some days, it seemed Daryl did not like anyone or anything.” Saucier says that he threw that book in the trash.

Another big fan is Duke Cook, who pinned Craig Dori’s ears back about the many reasons why Duke and I will never share a stage. Too bad, because Cook packs a lot of humor and knowledge that could serve our trivia contest well. Anyone who comes to the Indiana State Fairgrounds on January 30 will just have to be content with Tom Bigelow, Johnny Parsons, Steve Chassey, Tracy Hines and Casey Shuman as they field questions from me and the godfather of racing historians, Donald Davidson.

Inspirational Indy 500 story Davey Hamilton roamed IMIS with his former supermodified/champ car crew chief Larry Trigueiro Jr. Back for another chunk of Terre Haute promotions in 2010 (USAC Silver Crown is back on The Action Track on Wednesday, July 21) Davey departed to race a three-quarter midget in Providence, Rhode Island.

Winners of that Dunkin’ Donuts Coffee Cup were Canada’s ISMA supermodified racer Mike Lichty and the sole Rhode Island rep, NASCAR mod god Mike Stefanik. Now that dirt has been bladed away at Albany-Saratoga and Airborne Park, Lichty will get to visit both New York ovals with ISMA in 2010.

Philadelphia’s Chris DeRitis, a 2009 rookie to full-size NEMA midgets (fourth was best in Waterford), raced in successive weekends at three quarter scale in Providence and Wall, New Jersey. Enjoying all three ATQMRA A-main starts were Russ Bailey, Ian Cumens, Frank Fischer, Mike Isles, Mike Janish, Jeff Kot, Matt Roselli, Mike Tidaback and Tim Buckwalter, who scored second on Black Friday.

Wall’s winner was Paul Lotier Jr. His father married into the star-crossed Tobias family and dominated their Penn National modifieds before adding 27 wins in ten sprint car seasons that ended at the 1991 Sharon Nationals when Lotier landed in a wheelchair. Paul II had two fifth-place performances in Providence. He has one more TQ race in Atlantic City next month.

This is the first winter in a while that Chili Bowl does not oppose the Miller Motorsports trade show most recently in Atlantic City. Aligning these stars should enable me to return to Valley Forge like a poor man’s George Washington.

Peace on Earth from 4929 West 14th Street, Speedway, IN 46224 or (317) 607.7841 or Kevin@openwheeltimes.com.

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