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| Southwest Sideways by Ken Adkins |
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Santa Fe, NM - June 30, 2005...Latest update from the “no
news is good news” or perhaps it’s the “news too good to be
true” department. The saga that is the 2005 racing season at Hollywood Hills
Speedway (HHS) took an interesting and positive turn over the past
several weeks for the state-of-the-art racetrack near Albuquerque
that experienced growing pains after opening in 2002 but seemed to
have turned the corner with a 2004 season that featured visits from
the Sprint Car Racing Association, the All Star Circuit of
Champions, the ASCS National Tour and Rocky Mountain Region as well
as frequent shows by the New Mexico Motor Racing Association and the
Sprint Car Owners of Arizona. Of
particular note last year was the July 4th sprint car
extravaganza that featured the NMMRA non-wing sprint cars, the ASCS
360 winged sprint cars, and the SCOA 410 winged sprint cars all on
the same bill and a pit area overflowing with over 75 sprint cars! On June 10th 2005, San Felipe Pueblo
officials issued a press release stating that the 2005 season at HHS
had been delayed “in order to finalize internal operating
plans,” and that the Pueblo is “excited about racing this
season, but [we] are unable to announce an official start date or
schedule at this time.” The
statement was the first official communication from the Pueblo about
the 2005 season and followed months of speculation on local Internet
message boards about the track’s future that included rumors of
the huge Knoxville-style grandstands being sold for scrap!
So from my perspective the fact that the press release did
not contain any specific information was “no news is good news.” But just last week came the “news too good to
be true” from new track promoters Lonnie and Tracie Oliver that
they will be opening HHS for the Fourth of July weekend with a
two-day non-wing sprint car show.
The action on Saturday July 2nd will feature the
NMMRA sprint cars as the Albuquerque-based club gets to race on
it’s home track after opening this season with two races at the
Fairgrounds Speedway in Cortez, Colorado.
The race on Sunday July 3rd will be an open
competition show dubbed the “Non-wing Sprint Car Challenge” that
is likely to attract drivers from across the state as well as
Arizona, Texas, and Colorado given the top prize of $1,500 and lack
of any competing races in the area.
What is unclear at this point is whether this weekend’s
action will be the curtain raiser for an abbreviated 2005 season as
hoped for by the local racing community or just a one-off event, but
in any case it will be a sight for sore eyes to see sprint cars in
action again at what is truly one of the finest dirt track
facilities in the country. HHS promoter Tracie Oliver is hoping for car
counts of 30+ for this weekend’s shows and at first glance this
seems to be a realistic estimate.
The NMMRA has averaged about 15 cars so far this year and
will be led into the HHS shows by 2004 champion and current point
leader Jon Taylor and second place point man and 2002 champion Tom
“T” Ball. The
unsettled situation at Hollywood Hills has had a big impact on the
2005 SCOA schedule and the scarcity of dates has left northern New
Mexico’s winged sprint car drivers looking for places to race, so
I expect some of the SCOA stalwarts such as Johnny Herrera, Scott
Box, Dion Hindi, and Robert Gomez to take off the wings for the
weekend and challenge the non-wing regulars. Add to this mix the possible influx of regular visitors to
HHS such as Rick Ziehl, Shawn Sander, and the John Carney father and
son duo from the Las Cruces/El Paso area, Rich Bubak and Gary Taylor
from Colorado, Leighton Crouch from the Texas panhandle, Jason
Martin from Kansas, and a half dozen or so ASCA regulars from
Arizona and the outlook is good for an exciting weekend of racing in
the desert southwest. Methanol Meanderings:
Starting with the Memorial Day weekend, it’s been a busy
month for tracks across the southwest.
Hal Burns and his Southwest Sprint Car Series had an
incredible car count of 54 non-wing sprint cars for the two-day
Hawaiian Challenge Races at the new USA Race Park in Tucson,
Arizona. Unfortunately
a sudden monsoon thunderstorm late on Saturday afternoon threw a
wrench into the plans and caused the races to be shifted to Sunday
and Monday. Many of the
teams did not stay for the Monday finale that was won by ASCA
regular Jeremy Sherman in true “Shermanator” fashion.
Johnny Herrera was second followed by Rick Ziehl, Jason
Tanner, and SCOA regular Jeff Slinkard rounding out the top five. On the following weekend, long-tow award winner
Jason Martin from Kansas and the ever present Johnny Herrera traded
victories and runner-up finishes at the ASCS Rocky Mountain Regional
Fiesta Days event at Aztec Speedway in Farmington, New Mexico.
The Rocky Mountain region brought a strong field of cars led
by Colorado racers Gary Taylor, Patrick Bourke, Jake Pierson, and
2004 champion Keith Rauch while the New Mexico contingent was not
large in number but well represented by Bud Goodwin, Jesse Baker,
John Stroud, Jr., and Scott Box, but it was Martin and Herrera who
dominated the weekend action. The
two-day show drew about 25 winged sprint cars.
Some excellent pictures from the ASCS weekend by James Dal
Santo can be found at photosbyjsd.com. On Saturday June 18th, the NMMRA made its second appearance of the 2005 season at the Fairgrounds Speedway in Cortez, Colorado. Only 12 sprint cars made the four-hour tow from Albuquerque as several of the NMMRA regulars, including previous Cortez race winner Tim West and Jimmy Scott among others, were the victims of wild rides during the Hawaiian Challenge weekend and were unable to make the trip to Cortez. Tom Ball took the feature win and was followed to the checkers by his current nemesis Jon Taylor, as the duo is currently running second and first respectively in the 2005 point standings after finishing the 2004 season in the same positions. And finally, just to prove that bigger isn’t
always better and that I’ve got to ease up on my fixation on large
car counts, the Southwest Sprint Car Series raced this past weekend
at Thunder Raceway in Show Low, Arizona.
After having a car count of over 50 for the previous race in
Tucson, a small but diverse field of 17 non-wing sprint cars was at
the ¼ mile bullring but from all accounts the race was one of the
best sprint car mains in the history of the track as the top five
traded positions back and forth throughout the race.
Rick Ziehl emerged victorious from the battle that included
second place finisher Rich Bubak, Jon Taylor, Ronnie Clark, and Bo
Baker. Taylor and Clark
were headed for a 1-2 finish when they tangled on lap 22 and created
the opening for Ziehl and Bubak to zip by and take the top spots. I’ll have a full report from Hollywood Hills Speedway in my next column. As usual, information and feedback is appreciated at adkinsrule@aol.com |
