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Traditional Sprint Car FanSite |
See You At The Races!!! |
| SPRING
TIME AT THE THUNDERBOWL by Norm Bogan |
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Weather wise, this is a perfect time for sprint car racing. SCRA Sprints at Tulare on April 24th. During the day with the thermometer tickling the eighties and cooling off to balmy mid-sixties, it was shirtsleeve time for the fans. No heavy jackets and blankets, more sodas and beer, less coffee and cocoa. Competitors started arriving around noontime and were able to go in and establish their pit location for the evening. For most, it is a leisurely afternoon, as racecar preparation had been accomplished last week when rain cancelled many venues presentations. The teams perform routine tasks of selecting the right gear ratio, grooving tires, plus extra attention to all of the nuts and bolts making sure that they were properly tightened. This is also the time that a lot of the teams get to socialize and catch up on the latest gossip. Usually problems have not been encountered yet to cause a team to thrash to make the show. Also, it is mostly racers in the pits at this time, able to talk freely amongst themselves about the state of the Sprint Car World. Often, a team will be searching for a part to give them the optimum setup and canvass the pits for the needed item. After the races, most teams have endured the usual roller coaster of emotions throughout the evening and are fatigued. Family, friends and fans stop by for a recap of the night and T-shirt sales are booming. Early afternoon is the calm before the storm. As the pits fill with haulers, eventually it is time to get signed in and acquire a pit pass. Now the evening becomes more structured, as first there is a pill draw for qualifying position, soon followed by wheel packing of the track and then several practice sessions, known as hot laps to tune the chassis set up for qualifying. From this time on the racers live by the “white board”, which tells them when to qualify and where to line up in what race. As these pit activities are going on, the fans are filling the parking lot and filing through the turnstile to select the perfect viewing location for the evening as the smell of the Kettle-Korn wafts through the atmosphere. If the breeze is blowing from the right direction, your nose radar will pick up the aroma of Tri-Tip and Linguisa being cooked on a large barbeque. On a warm afternoon, the Shaved Ice booth does a booming business. Once all the fans have taken their places, the announcer greets them and asks them to please rise for the National Anthem. This is when things get serious. Cars start entering the speedway for the heat races, lining up according to their qualifying effort earlier in the afternoon and inverted with the quickest cars starting in the rear of the pack. The Pruett Group, sponsor of the car driven by young Alex Pruett, added a new twist at this race, with the implementation of the “Young Guns Dash” for drivers under twenty years old. The inaugural dash had six cars with a front row of 32-Logan and 98x-Boespflug, row two of 1-Sweet and 33-Clark and the last row of 97-Ballard and 56az-Pruett. It was a pretty racy display as Chad Boespflug stretched out to a lead and held on to best the hard charging Ballard, followed by Clark, Sweet, Logan and Pruett. The winner gets $200, while the others get $25 each. Additionally, the top finishing teen in the feature is awarded a $100 bonus. The program is designed to call attention to the younger drivers in sprint car racing and encourage more teens to channel their interests into racing away from some of the negative issues of today’s society. It also gives the young lions some exposure, usually reserved for the more seasoned veterans. A special thanks goes to the Pruett Group for bringing a new innovation into sprint car racing. Because there were only twenty-five cars on hand, we witnessed three heats with the winners being the youngster from northern California, Brad Sweet in his second outing without wings in heat one. Veteran Kevin Urton charged to the front and claimed the spoils in heat two. Danny Sheridan came home up front in heat three. Charles Davis Jr. and his Smiley Racing teammate Rickie Gaunt book-ended the Aussie racer Peter Murphy for the top three spots in the Passing Masters Dash. The Semi saw local driver, Mike Faria hold the lead from the pole, followed by Seth Wilson in the cockpit of the “Warbird”, and then Pruett, Martin, Nation and Ricci Faria coming from last spot to make the transfer. Ricci was on his way to a Golden State race at Santa Maria, when the hauler blew a tire and by the time repairs were made it was late, so they turned around and came to Tulare, missing qualifying and tagging the Semi. For the feature, it was Davis and Murphy setting the pace, followed by Gaunt and Ostling, then Ballard and Urton. The first yellow of the night occurred at the start of the “A” Main when M. Faria and Sheridan tangled coming off turn four, putting Danny out with a broken front end. Peter Murphy at the wheel of the Martin Chaney #69 hooked up and was running strong with pole sitter Davis falling back, when Gaunt charged to second and Ostling moved to third. Ballard and Urton put on a side-by-side dice with Ballard offering some fireworks as sparks were coming from the rear brake rotor at each corner. Alan said the brakes were gone after about seven laps. Murphy’s car was got tighter as the race went on and about midway, Peter pushed up a little coming off four and Gaunt did a slingshot underneath and moved ahead. At the checkers, Davis had worked his way back to the front and squeezed past Murphy on the last lap for the runner-up position. Ostling came home fourth, followed by Urton, Ballard, M. Faria, Sweet, R. Faria, Altaffer and Wilson. Running with the sprinters this evening, were the California Clash Dirt Late Models. Steve Drake from San Luis Obispo was the class of the night, setting fast time, winning the Dash and the Feature. The fans appeared to be pleased with the racing they saw tonight. With a fairly good crowd, hopes are up for an increased field and more fans, when the SCRA returns on May 15th. |
