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Traditional Sprint Car FanSite |
See You At The Races!!! |
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Johnny Key Classic by Norm Bogan |
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This annual event is
in honor of Johnny Key, a racer who migrated from his hometown of
Wichita Falls, Texas to Salinas, California.
For four years, Key raced hardtops and roadsters scoring four
championships. 1952 was
his best year, when he accumulated 54 feature wins, including a 500
lap race at San Jose and once scored eight wins in seven days. With the dream of
racing at Indianapolis, Johnny relocated to Indiana to drive
midgets, winning a race
at Winchester, beating Eddie Sachs, a week before the 1954
“500”. Key was to
team with Sachs at Indy that year, but the car was damaged in
practice and Johnny didn’t make the show. In late June, 1954,
Key and his boyhood friend, Elmer George entered a midget show at
Cincinnati. During the
feature, Johnny’s front end broke and sent him into a series of
flips. His seat came
loose throwing him on to the track, where he was struck by George
and succumbed to his injuries. The 2008 edition of
the Johnny Key Classic was held at Ocean Speedway in Watsonville,
California, not far from Key’s adopted home of Salinas.
On tap for the evening were twenty-five 360 winged Sprinters,
plus twelve of the Ocean Wingless carbureted sprints.
Qualifying found Rick Williams setting the standard at 15.763
(a new track record). Twelve of the 360 Sprints were prequalified and did not test
the clock. Of those
running for a time, Cory Eliason was the quickest at 13.814. The two Wingless
heats were captured by Rick Williams and Devon Ostheimer.
The two Dashes for the 360 Qualified Sprints were claimed by
Evan Suggs and Ricky Wright. The
360 “B” Main for the non-qualified cars found Keith Day to be
victorious. Now, it was down to
the features. The Wingless Sprints would lead off with their 25-lap event.
A good number of these competitors cannot drive legally in
California, but on this closed-course oval, they became stars.
The field is filled with veterans like Rick Williams and Dave
Press, but many of the youngsters have already been racing for
nearly a decade, having moved up from the Micro-Sprint ranks.
Devon Ostheimer-14, Ryan Bernal-14, Mark Chaz-15, and Howard
Ferguson Jr.-16 are still high school students.
It was an exciting dice with Williams and Bernal challenging
each other for the lead as the novice prevailed over the vet
tonight. The 360 Sprints
planned to run two twenty-five lap races with a maintenance stop in
between. The start
seemed to indicate a long night, with two red flags before a lap was
completed. The second
red lasted nearly an hour after Cory Eliason tangled with another
car landed him on the turn 2 wall.
Two fire engines, an ambulance and a Fire Captain, all with
flashing red lights were brought in to extricate the driver, who was
reported to be conscious and talking before being transported to the
hospital. On the
restart, the first twenty-five laps were completed in less than nine
minutes. The second
twenty-five lap segment got underway with a continuing fight for
position with Evan Suggs, Craig Stidham and Tommy Tarlton all in the
mix. Stidham pulled off one lap later and after the restart, Suggs
in pursuit of Tarlton, caught the cushion and flipped in turn 2 on
lap 30. A multi-car tangle in turn 4 on lap 39 sent several cars to
the pits along with a few more on lap 41.
As the green flag waved, only ten cars were left to compete. Brent Kaeding had
been lurking behind Tarlton and took advantage of a lapped car to
jump in front. At the
checkers, Brent Kaeding scored yet another victory, followed by
Tarlton, Jason Statler, Bud Kaeding and Ricky Wright. The track was well prepared. The Winged racers said it was too tight and the wingless contingent thought it was just right. During the feature, a fog layer hovered above the oval, keeping the moisture in the clay. The track did widen out some in the features, but never went dry-slick, therefore, no slide jobs. |
