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Traditional Sprint Car FanSite |
See You At The Races!!! |
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PRECISION MANUEVERS AT TULARE by Norm Bogan |
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On May 14, 2005 a SCRA 360 race was scheduled
at the Tulare Thunderbowl. For
this club it has been an uphill battle against established 360 clubs
in the California Central Valley and along the Gold Coast.
Each time SCRA scheduled a race, it ended up going head to
head with several other tracks and associations for racecars, so the
car counts have been slim at many events. Richard Harvey of Stinger Chassis, along with
Tulare Promoter, Steve Faria, Visalia businessman, Don Sharp and
several others worked hard behind the scenes to even the playing
field. Through diligent effort by these individuals, they were able
to secure funds to increase the purse for each race and have also
gained some donations into the seasonal point fund.
This evening’s feature offered a payout of $2000 to win,
$1000 for second and $800 for third with minimum starting money to
be $200. Twenty-four cars qualified with reigning USAC
Western States Midget Champ, Johnny Rodriguez setting the standard
at 15.599. Qualifications
are a new wrinkle for many of these racers, who have run with
organizations that use a pill draw to set their fields.
Imagine the feeling of some of these drivers having to go on
the track all by themselves in front of the crowd and try to go
fast, hoping they don’t do anything stupid while all eyes are on
them. There were four six-car heats with Rodriguez,
Tyler Spath, Todd Hunsaker and Steve Williams claiming victories. The eight fastest qualifiers that transferring through their
heats then raced six laps in the Dash, with this race finish setting
the first four rows of the Forty-Lap Feature. Joining the show this evening were the BCRA
Vintage Midgets. It was
a chance for fans to see the variety of body styles and engines that
once plied the surfaces of racetracks throughout Northern
California. This group
would perform on the track in between the heats and Dash, then again
between the Dash and “A” Main.
The fans got to see some beautiful cars with the bit of
nostalgia watching them perform on the track. Early in the day, a breeze was blew and some
fans wondered if the track would become dry-slick, but the wind
subsided about Anthem time and the crowd enjoyed a pleasant
shirtsleeve evening. No blankets or jackets needed tonight. Since there were only twenty-four cars, it was
decided to scuttle the “B” Main and start all twenty-four in the
feature, giving every competitor at least a $200 payday.
As the Dash queued up, we found Davey Pombo and Jim
Richardson in row one, Danny Olmstead and Chad Boespflug in row two,
Chris D’Arcy and Todd Hunsaker in row three with Steven Williams
and Johnny Rodriguez at the rear. Now, an aside to the reading public:
Davey Pombo is leading the Bandit points and was en route to
Santa Maria for a show there, when a spring broke on his hauler.
Once repairs were completed, it was too late to complete his
journey to the coast, so he doubled back and made the Tulare show in
time. The Dash was a mix of generations. Most of the field was young racers in their early twenties,
but also included a couple of teenagers and of course, some cagey
veterans. The Dash
exhibited some hard driving antics and when the dust settled, the
youngster had edged the veteran.
Boespflug bested Pombo, followed by Rodriguez who charged
from the back row, Olmstead, Richardson, Spath, D’Arcy and
Williams. Earlier predictions of the track conditions
proved the experts wrong. The
track surface was near perfect for this forty-lapper.
There was a caution on the first lap for a couple of cars
that got together and stalled.
Once restarted, they ran twenty-five laps of green condition.
The fans got their money’s worth.
Boespflug appeared as a valedictorian in the Damion Gardner
Driving School making all the moves as he sliced and diced through
lapped traffic, while trying to hold off the strong run by Davey
Pombo. The lead changed
at each of the four corners, with some outstanding slide jobs.
Pombo was very fast and also quite smooth as he would dive
below Chad going into three and slide up in front of him, only to
have Chad jerk the car to the bottom and drive back past Davey.
Entering turn one, the same scenario was repeated with this
continuing lap after lap. Lurking
right behind these two was Rodriguez, who made several attempts to
overtake Pombo. With
four laps to go, Johnny had his right rear go flat and caused a
caution. He was unable
to get to the work area and make the repair before the restart.
Pombo went right after Chad again, but Boespflug seemed to
have a little left in reserve, driving past Davey coming off turn
four to the checkers. Forty laps is a long race for these guys, who
usually run about 25 to 30. Of
the twenty-four starters, seventeen completed the program.
Surveying the track surface after the feature, it appeared
that they could have run another forty laps.
Kudos go to Steve Faria and his track staff for an
outstanding racing surface. While the crowd cheered the top three finishers
in the award ceremony, the podium found runner-up vet, Pombo book
ended by two seventeen year old hot shoes in Boespflug and Spath.
Chad is no “flash in the pan” as he has scored four
feature victories this year to back up two last year and he is only
a junior in high school. These racers are gaining respect for each other and while often in close quarters, they have tried to keep from taking out one of their competitors. A testament to this is that 25 lap run of green flag racing in the forty-lap feature. With purses being increased, more racers are taking a look at this series and hopefully, the fans will pass along the message to their friends of the quality of racing. |
