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Traditional Sprint Car FanSite |
See You At The Races!!! |
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HOT LAPS WITH NORM BOGAN (10/7/02) |
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Session 1: Perris Auto Speedway hosted an open-wheel double header with
USAC Midgets joining the regular SCRA sprints.
The pits were filled with thirty-eight sprinters and 19 midgets.
Three drivers did double duty, competing in both classes.
Rip Williams, Cory Kruseman and Josh Wise vied for the spoils in the big
and little cars. When it all shook
down, some of the youngsters spread their wings and made strong performances,
before a couple of cagey veterans prevailed. Wally Pankratz who tries for the senior discount with his AARP
card at the pit gate and a pretty good driving school instructor, gave the
midget boys a lesson on the track this evening. Youngsters like Alex Harris, Steve Paden and Danny Stratton
all made charges at the old man, but Wally collected the trophy.
In the SCRA feature, Bobby Graham had an impressive run and looked to be on
the way to his first victory, when Mike Kirby chased him down and took the
point. Kirby collected another win, with Graham scoring his best
finish of second. Josh Wise
garnered his second top-five finish in his last two races.
Cory Kruseman scored a third with the SCRA, but flipped his midget while
qualifying and again in the feature. Rip
Williams was gathered up in an incident in the midget and dropped out.
Things got worse during the SCRA feature, when he collided with another
car on the opening lap and broke the front end.
He jumped into teammate, Mike English’s car and promptly got into
another incident, putting him out for the night.
Hard Charger was Tony Jones, who started the SCRA feature in 21st
position. With several altercations
taking out a number of cars before one lap was completed, Jones ended up
starting in the seventh spot and finished fourth.
Once the feature got going, it went green to checkered. Session 2: As noted last week, Damion Gardner traveled to Terre Haute
for the season ending USAC sprint car show. He was tooling the Keith Kunz Mopar. He must have been somewhat impressive as he set a new track
record in qualifying. He finished
thirteenth in the feature after what I understand was some contact with the
wall. Damion’s West Coast fans
are proud of his accomplishments and look forward to his return home. Session 3: While putting this together, I just received a call telling
me I have lost one of best racing buddies to the Big C.
Willie Bandy has been my friend for over twenty years.
We have become close friends during the past ten years or so and while I
knew he was suffering and the prognosis was not good, it is still a shock when
the call came that he was gone. Willie
was an OKIE, coming from the metropolis of Loco, Oklahoma.
He migrated to northern California in the sixties and later relocated to
southern California for his job as a factory manager with Ethan Allen Furniture. Willie first was attacked with cancer about 1994, when he had to have his
lymph glands removed and underwent a rigorous treatment regimen.
He beat it and was clean for seven years. Last Christmastime, he took his family on a trip to his
in-laws in South Dakota and upon returning home, had a terrible cold, which he
thought might turn into pneumonia. The
visit to the doctor revealed an inoperable tumor encompassing both lungs.
It wasn’t a recurrence of the former condition, but a whole new
attacker. Willie had fought and won
before and he was poised to once again attack this demon.
He went through the chemotherapy and lost his hair and about fifty
pounds, but tests revealed that the tumor had reduced in size and he got back
some use of his lungs. When he felt
well enough, he returned to his love of auto racing, attending several races at
Perris, Ventura and even Lakeside as part of the NWWC tour. A couple of weeks
ago, he went in for a routine exam and they found new spots on his lungs and it
was necessary for him to be on oxygen twenty-four hours a day.
His condition deteriorated quickly and today as he went in for another
exam, he slipped into a coma and passed away. Willie was a good man. He had
many friends among the regular CRA/SCRA fans.
Early on Willie was an Eddie Wirth fan and has been a longtime Rip
Williams fan and more recently, rooted for John Scott also.
He was quite special to me, as we shared many interests and experiences
in our lives and were able to relate to each other.
I will miss my hairy-legged Okie buddy, but I am relieved to know that
his suffering is over. I now grieve
for his wife Sonia, who has stood by him during all these tribulations.
He leaves his children, stepchildren and a bunch of grandkids, who all
loved him. He was so proud of those
kids and their accomplishments. Willie
Bandy just collected the checkered flag at the big racetrack in the sky.
Godspeed my friend.
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