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Traditional Sprint Car FanSite |
See You At The Races!!! |
| Fantasy
Fulfilled For An Old Wanna Be by Norm Bogan |
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This
is a description of an experience that I enjoyed in late 1995. As
a youngster, I sat by the radio and let Sid Collins describe the Indy 500 for
me. There were descriptions of
daring fetes and the frustrations of mechanical problems for this one big show
each year. I hung on the edge as he told about all those heroes; Ted Horn, Tony
Bettenhausen, Bill Vukovich, Bill Holland, Bob Sweikert, Troy Ruttman, and
later; Eddie Sachs, Parnelli, A.J., Marshman and Hurtibise. Indy
was the annual Grand Ball for all these drivers, who plied their trade for the
rest of the year on dusty bullrings and numerous fairgrounds throughout the
country. Many departed through
spectacular and horrifying crashes, which made the survivors even braver to
continue to pursue the dream of an Indy victory. While
other kids wanted to be Joe DiMaggio or Otto Graham, leading their teams to
championships, I wanted to compete and claim victory against all those who
traveled the racing circuit. In my
twenties, I obtained a stock car ride and competed for about five years with
little success, although the dream was still there and I still had eyes for
Indy. In my thirties, my career
took a different direction as I joined the Winston Cup circuit as a crewmember
and I still dreamed of a ride, only now at Darlington and Daytona.
After three years, I returned to California and started following the
C.R.A. sprint cars. By now, I was
getting old enough that my dream had faded and I was very happy just being a
spectator. Like many spectators, we
all would like a chance to drive one of these fire breathing beasts, just once
!! Recently,
I was afforded the opportunity to strap into a sprint car and take a few hot
laps. The track was a large parking
lot with orange cones marking the oval, but as I pushed off, suddenly it was
Eldora and I was on the high banks with all my heroes chasing me.
As I pitched it in the corner, I glanced over my shoulder and saw
tremendous rooster tails flying off their knobby tires, as they scrapped and dug
to catch up. Today, I rolled into Victory Circle in that parking lot. I
want to thank Rick Bousscher and Don Flanders and all the others affiliated with
the 911 car for a thrill of a lifetime and an opportunity that many can only
dream about. |
