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Traditional Sprint Car FanSite |
See You At The Races!!! |
| June's Southwest Report by June Lowitz |
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ASCA Sprints - Manzanita Speedway |
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March 27, 2004....After a long winter off for me, I was back.
Back at work and back at the track. I didn't get to see the
first races of the season at Manzy due to a bad back that kept me
out of work for 9 weeks. Thanks to some great friends, a good
Doctor and a lot of bed rest, my back is doing so much better.
I have to welcome to the world of racing @ Manzanita, one of my coworkers, Sandra. She decided to brave it out and come with me last Saturday night and I think the ASCA boys have made a fan out of her. She really seemed to get into it and liked it and I hope to get her out to the track more often. Another thing that kept me down for a bit was the crashing of my computer. UGH!! I lost everything I had on it. All of my pictures, profiles, columns, just everything. I know what you are thinking, "Why didn't she back it up on a disc?" I would have, but my disk drive didn't work on the old computer. Thanks to a very generous and kind friend, I now have a better computer than I ever dreamed of having. This person knows who they are; I just hope they realize how thankful and grateful I am to them. This friend wouldn't take any money from me, just donated it to me. I used to wonder about people in this world today, now I realize how lucky I am to live where I live and to have made the friends I have made. Thank you to my friend. I am so happy and grateful. OK, enough with the sappy stuff, lets get down to business. RACING. I can't believe I missed The Bullet, Bob Ream, winning his 50th main event. Congrats to ya Bullet. I knew that it would happen this year. I was so happy it happened, even if I wasn't there. Now, Sat night, 3/27/04 was a really good night of racing. I had heard my good friend "Super" Rickie Gaunt was driving for Tony Smiley and that his teammate was "Chargin" Charlie Davis, Jr. and was I glad to see both cars in the pits when I walked up to my turn 1 seat. The track looked good and wet, and when I saw all of the cars in the pit area, I knew the super wet track was necessary. They had the Sprints, Mini Sprints AND the Modifieds all in one night. WOW!!! What a bunch of cars. There were 31 sprints and it seemed like just as many Mini Sprints and Modifieds. As much as I enjoy Modified racing, I do have to comment about the Modifieds at Manzanita. It seemed to me that the Modifieds were so much louder than the sprint cars. I had a serious headache after the race from the Mods. I don’t know if the Mods have to be as quiet as the Sprints, but from this fans viewpoint, THEY DON'T. There is no way that they were at the 95db @ 100ft that I thought Manzanita required. I will be checking into this. In my notes to myself, I have to say that there were a few cars that caught my eye. I noticed that Bernie Smith had a new paint job. It really looks nice. I have a soft spot for Bernie in my heart as he lost his dad last year and his dad was a big part of his racing. My dad was the same with me. Bernie looked very good and very smooth. Bernie seems to be improving with each race I see him in. Good job Bernie!!!! Keep up the good work. Remember, Bernie is one of those Car Owner/drivers that can always use sponsorship. I'd sure like to see Bernie get some sponsors behind him to help him out. Feel free to email me and I'll gladly fwd your email onto Bernie if you are interested in sponsoring him. Remember, you can always buy fuel for a night or a tire or something along those lines. Every little bit helps. As per usual, the Robbie Allen entry with Jeff Henry at the wheel sure caught my eye. The bright Day-Glo color sure makes it easy to spot Jeff on the track or in the pits. The ABC Body Shop, B & R Automotive, LL Graphix car seems to be struggling a bit at the beginning of this year. When you talk to Jeff or Robbie or the crew, they always have smiles on their faces and the "we'll get em next week" attitude. I'm sure once this team finds the combination that works for them, that they will be in the winners circle once more. Be sure to go down and say hi to Jeff, Robbie and the entire team. I wanted to go down and see my buddy Super Rickie and introduce myself to Charlie Davis, Jr., but my back was starting to tire out and I didn't want to overdo it my first night back. I can't believe how good Rickie looked Sat night. Between Rickie and Charlie, I wasn't sure who was charging harder. They might be teammates and friends off the track, but on the track you couldn't tell they were teammates at all. Rickie and Charlie raced each other as hard as you can race someone. What was nice though in watching them was how close they would come to each other and never touch. That's what I love to watch. That kind of racing is what gets my adrenaline flowing and my heart started. I think I must have held my breath for more than a couple of laps with those two. If I seem a little biased towards Rickie, maybe I am. I've watched Rickie race since my days at Ascot, when he would drive his sprint car to the track using his big semi-truck. When I was with Gardner Motorsports and they hired Rickie as a driver, I was so happy. Watching Rickie go from a young guy out of control and all over the track to the smooth, clean driver he is today has been a lot of fun. And if you know Rickie, you know along the way there's been a lot of laughs and good times as well. Sat night was a perfect night for racing. It wasn’t too warm or wasn’t too cold. It was perfect. Wheel packing seemed to take awhile as the track was so wet, but that’s ok. Notably missing from the nights activities was Jeremy Sherman. I couldn’t believe he wasn’t here, but I heard he caught a ride over in USAC/CRA for the night. I’m happy for Jeremy that he was able to get a ride, but sad that he wasn’t racing with us. Seeing as I’m getting this column written so late, the results have been posted and you know that Bob Ream won again. In the beginning of the race, it started to be a Smiley team car show between Rickie and Charlie. They were dicing and slicing until a lapped car came down in front of Rickie and he climbed over the car. Thankfully, no one was hurt and Rickie was able to restart. Here comes the test for Rickie. He had about five or six laps to go when this accident happened; and watching Rickie go from the back of the pack to finishing in the top ten was a great job of driving. Rickie’s incident gave the lead solely to Charles. I thought Charlie had it in the bag when here comes The Bullet. Living up to his nickname, Ream came to the leaders in what seemed like a flash. He diced and sliced and drove his heart out until he took the lead from Charlie. At that point it was no looking back for Bob. Win #51 was in the bag for The Bullet Bob Ream. It was a great night of racing. After the races I took Sandra into the pit area and she seemed to enjoy looking at the cars. On the way home from the races, she asked when the next race is and if all goes well she’s planning on joining me again. Good job ASCA!!! You’ve helped me turn another person into a sprint car fan. I’ll be writing a more traditional column next week. I just have been busy getting myself back into the swing of things with working and racing and doing other general things. Thank you to everyone for your emails of encouragement when I was down with my back. Feel free to email me with any ideas or anything you want to discuss; Keep on smiling; it makes people wonder what the heck you’ve been up to. And if they ask, tell them you’ve been ASCA Sprint Car Racing at the famed Manzanita Speedway!!!! |
