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LAPS WITH NORM BOGAN #19 (8/24/03) by Norm Bogan |
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It has been a busy couple of days here in Traffic Central, with
Perris Auto Speedway hosting the 360 Nationals on Friday and Saturday nights.
For those of you not familiar with the southern California motoring
public, trying to commute on a Friday afternoon/evening from the Los Angeles
basin to Perris, a distance of about 75-80 miles is akin to riding a bicycle
across the Mojave Desert in the middle of August.
With about fifteen million human beings all trying to get home from work
or get away for a leisure weekend, a trip down any of the maze of freeways is
comparable to entering Baghdad unarmed. Former
Tonight show host Jack Paar once joked that he drove twenty-six miles down the
freeway and never left the scene of the accident. Many of the storied racers who
migrated from the southern California area to places like Daytona, Indianapolis
and other famous racing venues throughout the world, credit their early
upbringing of negotiating the L.A. freeway system with developing their skills
on the racing circuits. A few racing venues in the southern
California area that have tried to schedule Friday night shows, have placed them
on the brink of bankruptcy. By the
time a race fan has fought bumper-to-bumper traffic for one to two hours just to
get home, he is not in the mood to return to the melee, in order to enjoy an
evening of racing. For those of us
hardcore racing fans, we take a day of vacation or call in sick, then wait for
the morning rush hours to pass, before making a beeline out of town and beat the
afternoon rush, which often starts about noon.
Since I had opted not to go on the NWWC Tour this year, I still had
vacation credit and found it easy to use a day on Friday.
The ninety-mile drive was uneventful as I arrived at the Perris Auto
Speedway just past the noon hour. I checked in at the speedway office
and found both the Perris management team and those from Ventura Raceway, the
sanctioning body for the 360 Nationals. It
was interesting to listen to these promoters discussing problems from their
perspective. Many times the fans complain about the tracks (promoters)
ripping off the fans, but with the downturn in the economy for the last year, it
has affected racing here in southern California.
Not only are there less fans coming through the turnstiles, but the
revenue from back gate or pits are off over twenty percent.
Racers are finding it difficult to race on a regular basis, when their
jobs are in jeopardy or one of the family breadwinners has lost their job.
Racers who are businessmen probably echo the sentiments of the race
promoters, as many of them have also suffered a loss of revenue.
Hopefully, the economy will rebound and the fans will once again be able
to enjoy this leisure activity and the racers will have adequate funding and
available sponsorship to race on a regular basis. Alluding to all of the above, the
Friday night crowd was quite sparse, but fifty-two cars had entered the event.
On this night, the format would be to conduct six heat races, with the
top two finishers from each heat going to the “A” Main. There would be two “B” Main events with the first five
from each race added to the field for the twenty-two car “A” Main.
VRA does not use qualifying to
determine their field, but instead has a pill draw.
In addition, passing points are awarded, so a competitor coming from the
back of the field, i.e., 10th and finishing second, may accumulate
more points than the winner who started on the front row.
For the feature, they draw a pill for the invert, which is usually 2,4,6
or 8. The top point-getters are
subject to the invert and then it is a straight up start behind them.
For tonight, the top six finishers in the “A” Main will go
automatically to the front of tomorrow’s feature and line up by the determined
pill draw. The balance of the field
will go through the whole process on the second day and then line up according
to points behind the front six. With competing shows being held in
other venues, the cars coming in from out of the area varied.
There were two cars from northern California, four from central
California and about ten from Arizona, with most of the others being VRA
regulars. Since SCRA was back east,
there were a number of SCRA drivers who did not make the trip that had lined up
rides for this event. Mike Kirby
winner of the last two VRA shows at the PAS was back in the familiar #0 of Buzz
Shoemaker, Steve Ostling was in the #14k car out of Denver, while Rickie Gaunt
saddled up in Tony Smiley’s #2A out of Arizona.
Charles Davis Jr. jumped into his regular 360 ride, the Fred Bryan #77,
Gary W. Howard stepped into the Jerry Welton #62, Keith Williamson was again in
the Mastroleo #55W and Jordan Hermansader was a late entry in the Alexander #4X,
after someone loaned them a 360 engine. Veteran
Wally Pankratz was aboard Kevin Kierce’s backup car. Heat winners were Dwight Cheney,
Josh Wise, Steve Ostling, Mike Kirby, Chris Wakim and Tom Stansberry.
Ron DiDonato and Mike Knopf captured the “B” Mains.
During the evening, a number of cars biked in the corners and several got
upside down with no injuries. In
the “A” Main, Ostling jumped in front from his third starting position,
quickly followed by Wise coming from fifth.
These two put on a long dice as Wise would slide and show a wheel, but
never really tried to pass. With
about twenty laps down and a number of yellow laps, Ostling suddenly bobbled and
slowed, pulling into the work area, with what they thought was an empty gas
tank. Wise took up the lead and was
never headed. Ostling added fuel
and pushed back off, but pulled back in and was out of the show after a
brilliant drive. Later it was
discovered that a magneto wire had come loose.
Wise took the victory followed by Kevin Kierce, Dwight Cheney and Charles
Davis Jr. On Saturday evening, there were
forty-eight cars in the pits, as four cars had suffered problems and returned
home. Four heat races were again
held with the top two going to the “A” Main.
Shon Deskins, Greg Taylor, Rickie Gaunt and Will Perkins were victorious.
The two “B” Mains were captured by Mike Kirby, now in the Jake Ford
#72, after blowing his engine the previous night and Chris Wakim, who was
plagued with hard luck both nights and had about emptied all the spares from his
trailer. The “A” Main was decided by the
end of the first lap. Josh Wise jumped with Charles Davis Jr. to the front from the
second and fourth starting positions and by the time lap one was over, Wise was
in the lead. He led it all the way
to the checkers, but it wasn’t without drama.
There were laps under yellow and a couple of red flag conditions due to
flips. Davis dogged Wise lap after
lap, but didn’t seem to have the strength to catch the twenty-year-old driver
from nearby Riverside. On each
restart, Wise would again pull away from the field and was truly the dominant
car this evening. Wise ran the high line, up against
the cushion, very close to the wall. On
several occasions, Josh seemed to bobble between turns three and four with the
car jumping over the cushion. This
may have been the only encouragement to those following Wise that his car may
get out of shape and maybe they could overtake him.
When a red flag came out for a flip by Chris Wakim, Josh was frantically
motioning to his crew. It was later
discovered that Josh had lost his contact lenses, thus he couldn’t see the
cushion and wall in three and four. A
quick trip to his equipment bag, brought out the spare contacts and at the
reconvening of the race, Wise looked a little smoother. Now, I have been around racing for
many years and I have seen some real panic attacks on red flags, with teams
trying to rebuild cars and often providing more tear offs for the driver or
adjusting the air pressure or the suspension, but I don’t ever recall a
contact lens change out. Josh Wise continued on to a sweep
of the 360 Nationals, adding the $5000 winner’s share for Saturday evening to
his recent winnings from the Belleville Nationals, just a couple of weeks back.
Following Josh to the flag was Rickie Gaunt, who tried for a number of
laps to get some traction down low and sling shot past the top running Wise.
Greg Taylor gathered in third and Charles Davis Jr. posted his second
fourth place finish. The much larger Saturday night
crowd seemed to enjoy the program and the racing.
Both the PAS and VRA management appeared pleased with the show and
hopefully, this might become an annual event, especially if other sanctioning
bodies cooperate and allow their racers to showcase skills against an All-Star
field. See you “Along the Way”.
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