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Traditional Sprint Car FanSite |
See You At The Races!!! |
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2005, A YEAR OF CHOICE AND FUN
by Norm Bogan |
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For the past few years, my racing agenda has been tied to time I
could take off from work. Usually
by the end of the year, I’ve pretty much drawn the vacation
account dry. Nearly
every year, two or three weeks would be set aside for summer travel
on a tour from my California base to the Midwest and occasionally
across to the Atlantic seaboard.
Often, it was necessary to use a day of vacation or two to
attend a multi-day program, maybe on a holiday weekend.
Fortunately for me, being on the job long enough to get
larger blocks of vacation time in combination with a number of paid
holidays is a benefit.
In past years, I have visited in the neighborhood of two hundred
racing venues. Many of
these have been fabled tracks with a lot of history and others are
ones that you watch weekly on television from around the country.
The large majority though, are small bullrings, maybe at a
county fairground, offering a seat in a splintery bleacher and
probably a little mud or dust in your drink of choice. With all the shuffling of organizations and venues in various
racing disciplines, I looked at 2005 as a breakout year for me.
This year I decided to just have fun and attend events to see
the racers and programs of my choice.
It has been a pleasure to view the next generation of auto
racing, with so many talented young performers coming along.
Several new tracks were added to my tally, being quite
impressed with some and their facilities. The year began in early January as my racing buddy, Lance
Jennings and I jumped a jet to Tulsa for four days of the Chili
Bowl. If any of you
have never made this trip, it is recommended.
At this time of year, nothing else is going on around the
country, so every open wheel racer drifts to the feet of the Golden
Driller for a chance to compete with two and a half centuries of
other racers on this racy little indoor bullring. Shortly after returning home, it was time to head to Phoenix for
the three-day Copper World Classic at PIR with accompanying sprint
car races at Manzanita Speedway.
Later in the month, there were a couple of World of Outlaw
races in Central California and then by March 1st,
regular schedules were beginning to get underway. I don’t believe I’ve missed a race on a weekend since. Spending more time at the Central California tracks, like
Chowchilla, Hanford, Tulare and Bakersfield, following the SCRA 360
Sprints, Bandit Sprints and Wingless Spec Sprints was very
enjoyable. As the
gasoline prices continued to rise, I found myself traveling to
nearby Ventura more often and the distant Perris less.
In addition to the VRA Pro and Senior sprint cars at Ventura,
regular shows included IMCA Modifieds, Dwarf Cars, Pony Stocks, and
Focus Midgets. A few
visits were made to Irwindale, where stock cars blazed the pavement
in a change of pace weekend. Here
again was a chance to make new friends and meet talented racers that
just do it for fun. I kept up with one of my favorite groups, the USAC/CRA 410
Sprints, whose teams and drivers; I have followed through three
different organizations in the past thirty years. A real treat for me this year was a change of pace, traveling on
the Northern Sprint Tour Speed Week in July.
Hooking up with an old friend from Arizona, Carey Davis, we
drove his Lincoln Blackwood, that’s a fancy Ford F-150, with lots
of bells and whistles, like GPS navigation.
While both of us prefer the back roads and small hamlets to
interstate highways and big cities, we followed a circuitous route
to daily destinations and in the process, got to see a lot of
beautiful backcountry in the Pacific Northwest.
The NST Speed Week consisted of five races in six days at
four tracks in Oregon and Washington. On Friday morning, our odyssey began with visits to racing
oriented facilities along the way.
Carey had never been to these venues, so it was fun for me to
share them with him. Tulare
Thunderbowl Raceway was our first stop, then a short trip to Kings
Speedway at Hanford was next, but we found out the Fair was underway
and we wouldn’t be able to sneak in, so we decided to stop off at
the nearby Stinger Chassis Company and visit with old friends, the
Harvey family. Heading
north through alfalfa, cornfields and grape vineyards, we made stops
at Madera Speedway, Chowchilla Speedway, viewed Merced Speedway from
afar and soon veered off SR 99 to roads on the levees holding back
the Sacramento River. Journeying
through pear orchards, we soon arrived at the site of the shrine to
West Capitol Raceway, now a Roadway truck terminal.
It was then on to visit with an old friend over dinner and
gather a night’s rest. Saturday morning was race day with our mission being “gold
country”. Passing
through rice paddies and sunflowers soon giving way to peach and
plum orchards and later large stands of almond and kiwi fruit trees.
We headed up the Feather River Gorge, for about seventy miles
into the foothills of the Sierra Nevada Mountains to the town of
Quincy, home of the American Valley Speedway, where the SCRA 360
sprinters would be performing.
This is a very scenic locale with quaint shops and eating
emporiums adding to the ambience of the community.
The following morning, our route took us through tall
evergreen trees and circled around Mt. Lassen and Mt. Shasta over
the Siskiyou Pass, then dropped down to Medford, Oregon for the
first race on the NST Speed week at Southern Oregon Speedway on
Monday. Tuesday morning found us once again on the road for several hours
to reach that night’s venue, Cottage Grove Speedway.
Wednesday it was on to Willamette Speedway in Lebanon, Oregon
for round three. Thursday
was a longer journey to Grays Harbor Raceway in Elma, Washington.
On Thursday evening, a special fan fest was held with many
racecars on display near the entrance of the grandstands.
There were raffle drawings for the fans and a contest with
the fans voting for their favorite driver and best appearing car
with $500 awarded to each winner. This was an opportunity for us to also visit with several drivers
like Travis Rutz from Langley, B.C., Canada, seventeen years old and
winner of the prestigious Edmonton Gold Cup event earlier in the
year and forty-two years old, Billy Nutter from Central Point,
Oregon, who is the NST point leader.
I visited with twenty-five year old Dave Gilmore from Maple
Valley, Washington, who won the Best Appearing Car award and Danny
Horner, a young driver from Cottage Grove, Oregon, that had made
every NST feature this year. Friday and Saturday was the wrap up of the Speed week events.
Brent Kaeding traveled north, skipping a Golden State
Challenge race to pursue the Speed Week title, claiming it with
three victories and good finishes, while Roger Crockett, gathered in
the Evergreen State Challenge title with the other two victories,
running head to head with Kaeding every race. The NST Speed Week was a fun outing, where the promoters welcomed
us, providing an opportunity to meet lots of great fans and very
friendly racers. Averaging
about fifty cars a night offered outstanding racing of a variety
that we seldom see. Non-Wing 360 racing has been in a bit of turmoil for the past
several years with different sanctioning bodies, each with unique
rules that limited them from crossing over to other clubs.
This year, promoters moved to make the cars compatible, so
that a number of All-Star races could be held, giving the fans an
opportunity to see how their guys measured up against the stars from
other series. With a
car count around forty for each of the five events, the spectator
attendance was outstanding and the racing was quite even between
clubs. The racers
seemed to enjoy the challenge of racing against their peers and
disagreement with rules was at a minimum.
The success of this year’s VRA/Bandit Grand Slam Series has
caught the interest of other promoters and racing clubs and 2006
could see an expansion to other venues with various clubs getting
involved. A number of young drivers are making inroads with various
associations and tracks. Keep
you eyes open to seventeen year olds, Chad Boespflug and Tyler Spath,
eighteen year olds, R.J. Johnson and Blake Miller and others like
Danny Olmstead and Steven Williams. Congratulations to Greg Porte from Atascadero, California for
winning both the Bandit Series and Santa Maria Sprint titles for
2005. Also,
twenty-eight year veteran, Rip Williams captured victories #100
& 101 and needs three more to become the All-Time Leader in West
Coast Non-Wing 410 Sprint competition.
This has been a different, but very enjoyable year. Traveling to new tracks and meeting a whole new group of racers, while maintaining long time friendships have made this season the best of all worlds for me. In fact, I may do it again in 2006! |
