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See You At The Races!!! |
| Southwest Sideways by Ken Adkins |
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Sante Fe, NM - May 10, 2005...The dust has settled (literally
and figuratively) from the recent Southwest Sprint Car Series Spring
Shootout. In spite of the strong winds that whipped across the desert
southwest on April 23rd and 24th, an
impressive group of drivers and teams from four states gathered in
Las Cruces, New Mexico and El Paso, Texas for two days of non-wing
sprint car racing. Drawn
by the sizable purse put up by the Sprint Car Racing League, the
field for both races was one of the most eclectic I’ve seen in
many years of attending sprint car races, and included both
non-winged and winged drivers in cars with 410, 360, and 305 motors.
In addition to the diversity, the field was also impressive
in terms of numbers; as the car counts of 36 at Las Cruces and 32 at
El Paso were encouraging for Southwest Series Race Director Hal
Burns and a good sign for the health of sprint car racing in the
southwest. A pit area full of non-wing sprint cars and a
strong wind from the east greeted me as I arrived late Saturday
afternoon at the Southern New Mexico Speedway in Las Cruces.
A quick tour of the pits revealed a large field that I could
roughly divide into three groups with a few wild cards thrown in.
About 15 of the cars were from the northern New Mexico area
and included a mix of regulars from the non-wing New Mexico Motor
Racing Association (NMMRA) along with some Sprint Car Owners of
Arizona (SCOA) regulars who decided to take the wing off for the
weekend. A number of
teams took advantage of a weekend off from the Arizona Sprint Car
Association (ASCA) and towed east from Phoenix and Tucson.
A strong contingent of regulars with the 305 winged sprint
car series that races at Las Cruces and El Paso Speedway Park also
turned out in force for some non-wing racing. The wild card group included some sprint car aces running
close to home for the weekend such as Johnny Herrera, Jerry Coons
Jr., and Rick Ziehl, as well as long-distance travelers Rich Bubak
from Denver, Colorado and Leighton Crouch from Lubbock, Texas. The Southwest Sprint Car Series requires the
410 cubic inch cars to use injector inserts to ensure a level
playing field between the 410s and 360s.
After seeing the big group of 305 powered cars in the pits at
Las Cruces, I was curious to see how they would fare in qualifying
against their larger displacement cousins.
The steady wind made for slippery track conditions on the
3/8-mile high-banked oval, and the locals put their knowledge of the
track to good use as four out of the top ten in qualifying were
powered by 305s. After
seeing how tricky the track was in qualifying, I wasn’t surprised
to see the top spot taken by Johnny Herrera, who after many years of
cross-country travels with the World of Outlaws, has returned home
to drive father Joe Herrera’s #45X Avenger which this weekend was
sporting a 360 motor. Local
racers Beau Binder and Shawn Sander were second and third in their
305s, while former NMMRA champion Jason Tanner rounded out the
diversity by timing fourth in his 410 powered machine. It took a few hours of heat and semi-main
racing split between the sprint cars and the supporting Barnett
Racing Series modifieds, but the track finally took some rubber and
the main event was some of the best hooked-up left front off the
ground non-wing racing that I’ve seen!
After starting third, Tanner was able to fend off the attacks
of the sixth starting Herrera, who blew a right rear tire and
smacked the front stretch wall while running second with two laps to
go, and then hold off a fast closing Leighton Crouch to take the
well-earned $1,500 victory. According
to Hal Burns, Tanner’s win was the first for a 410 cubic inch
machine in the four-year history of the Southwest Series.
It was also a first for Tanner’s car owner Bill Richards,
who after many years of pit crew work went out over the winter and
purchased the Buckley sprinter of retired NMMRA legend Bobby Seals
and put Tanner in the seat for the 2005 season.
The smile on Richards’s face after the race made it clear
that he had made the correct decision!
Crouch’s second place ended a dramatic evening for the
Texan who is now a New Mexico sprint car regular as he coasted to a
stop in his heat race with a broken drive shaft, but a heroic effort
by his crew got him back out for the semi and a transfer to the
main. Crouch bided his
time during the 30-lap main and it looked like he had the strongest
car at the end as he passed Shawn Sander for second on the final lap
and was on Tanner’s tail at the checkered flag. The post-race weigh-in was a unique scene as Tanner was followed across the scales by Crouch in his 360-powered machine, while third place Sander upheld the honor of the local 305 contingent. A great run in the main by Albuquerque driver and SCOA regular Scott Box who finished fourth in his first ever non-wing race, and local hot shoe John Carney, Jr. with a fine fifth place finish in one of Casey Minks’ stable of Maxim sprinters. Former ASCA champion Bob Ream, Jr. was sixth in a guest appearance in regular NMMRA competitor Charlie Fegan’s Buckley. The seventh through ninth positions were the payoff for a great race-long battle between the race’s biggest movers, as Tucson’s Ronnie Clark, Las Cruces’s own Rick Ziehl, and Albuquerque’s Tom Ball swapped places back and forth from their starting positions deep in the field. The final spot in the top ten spot was a fitting reward for Albuquerque’s Robert Gomez in a rare non-wing start, the SCOA regular taking the final transfer spot in the B and working his way up from the 20th starting spot in the main event. While I’m not the biggest fan of daytime
sprint car races, my hopes were raised on Sunday morning when I
awoke to see a wet hotel parking lot out of the window.
An early morning thunderstorm had passed through the Las
Cruces area and left behind some welcome moisture, and the 1/3-mile
track at El Paso Speedway Park looked very wet indeed when I arrived
on Sunday afternoon. But
my hopes were soon dashed when the wind that was ever present the
night before at Las Cruces returned with a vengeance as the
Southwest Sprint Cars took to the track for hot laps.
The qualifying session and the heat races were tiptoe through
the bottom of the corner affairs as the wind howled across the
track. Bo Baker put his
early pill draw to good use as the NMMRA regular from Grants, New
Mexico took the top spot in qualifying before the wind did a number
on the track. The local
305 contingent’s horsepower deficiency was more apparent on the
flatter El Paso D-shaped track, as they seemed to be gasping for air
on the straights compared to the 360s and restricted 410s. Indeed the top five were all 360s as Jerry Coons Jr., in a
weekend off from his USAC travels, was second in the Joe Morales
Buckley, and was followed by Scott Box, Johnny Herrera, and ASCA
regular Mike Martin. A visit by the water truck before the Barnett
modified main event widened the racing groove and improved the
prospects for the sprint car main, but the consensus among the
drivers was concern about the 40-lap distance and the prospects for
tire wear on the dry track. Indeed, it turned out to be a tale of two races as some great
racing between Herrera, Martin, and former NMMRA champion Tom Ball
marked the first 30 laps. Coons
Jr. was the first top runner to be hit by tire woes on lap 21, and a
torrid battle for positions 3 through 6 between Ball, Baker, John
Carney Sr. and Rick Ziehl ended on lap 30 when Ball stopped with a
flat right rear. The
final ten laps were not kind on right rears, as a succession of
challengers to the still leading Herrera were forced into the pits
for new rubber including Baker, Leighton Crouch, Carney Sr. and
Ziehl. Having spent the
entire race fending off challengers to his second place spot, Martin
suffered the heartbreak of the race when he blew a right rear coming
through turn four on the final lap and dropped back to 11th.
Herrera took the substantial winner’s check of $2,500,
while Box survived with his right rear intact to take the $1,400
second place payday and his second top five of the weekend.
Shawn Sander finished third for the second day in a row while
Colorado’s “Travelin’ Man” Rich Bubak climbed from deep in
the pack to take a well deserved fourth.
Ball recovered from his flat to take the fifth spot, and was
followed to the checkered by NMMRA regular Jimmy Scott in sixth,
Arizona’s Brandon Lane, Ziehl, Ronnie Clark, and Crouch rounded
out the top ten. All in all the Spring Shootout was a successful
debut weekend for the SCRL’s Southwest Sprint Car Series that
bodes well for the rest of the 2005 season.
A quick glance at some of the average car counts in 2005 for
the USAC/CRA series, the SCRAs’s new 360 series and the ASCA in
Arizona puts the Southwest Series’ car counts among the season’s
highest so far in the southwest.
The next race on the SCRL schedule will be the two-day
Hawaiian Challenge Races on Memorial Day weekend at the USA Race
Park in Tucson, in which the non-wing regulars from the Hawaii Motor
Speedway will travel to the mainland to compete against the
Southwest Series regulars. Methanol Meanderings:
While there’s still no official word on the 2005 season at
Hollywood Hills Speedway, the San Felipe Pueblo Tribal Council has
given the approval for practice sessions at the track, which started
several weeks ago…..Pictures from the practice sessions and some
excellent shots from the Southwest Sprint Car Series Spring Shootout
races by James Dal Santo can be found at photosbyjsd.com…..The New
Mexico Motor Racing Association will be kicking off its 2005 season
on Saturday, May 14th, at the Fairgrounds Speedway in
Cortez, Colorado…..Belated congratulations to Leighton Crouch who
was due to be married in Lubbock, Texas the weekend after the SCRL
events in Las Cruces and El Paso. As usual, information and feedback is appreciated at adkinsrule@aol.com |
