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See You At The Races!!! |
| RACING
SCENE by Tim Kennedy |
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Los Angeles, CA - Big news on the local front this week was the
switching of the 8th annual Oval Nationals sprint car races at
Perris Auto Speedway from November 6-8 to November 13-15. PAS
president Don Kazarian wisely announced the move on September 6
because the first weekend of November became clogged with major
racing events in Southern California. Three major races that week
would be competing for newspaper coverage in the Los Angels Times
and other dailies. The following weekend was barren of major events,
so the PAS swapping of events made perfect sense. Perris switched
its PASSCAR Champions Night from November 15 to November 8. The inaugural NASCAR Toyota All-Star Showdown $500,000 event will take place at Irwindale Speedway November 6-8. Speed Channel will telecast live nationally the final two features November 8 for the 30 top point drivers in the Grand National Division (Winston West and Busch North eastern drivers) and 40 top point drivers in the Elite Division (Southwest and Northwest Series, plus the Midwest and Southeast Series). The NHRA Auto Club of Southern California Fall Nationals in Pomona will be held the same weekend and ESPN televises the drag racing finale live nationally. The final straw that made the PAS Oval Nationals week postponement a must had a direct impact on the driver field for the $100,000 Oval Nationals ($30,000 to winner). USAC scheduled a National Midget Series point race indoors at the Pontiac (Michigan) Silverdome, the former home of the NFL Detroit Lions. That event on November 8 played havoc with the Oval Nationals driver field as far as national entrants. USAC drivers J. J. Yeley, Tracy Hines, Dave Darland, Levi Jones and others annually enter the PAS Oval Nationals. They also chase USAC points and the identical race dates of November 8 created a dilemma for them. Which event would they race? This is where sanctioning bodies need to cooperate and allow their own drivers to maximize their annual earnings by avoiding unnecessary conflicts in race dates. PAS management postponement of the Oval Nationals by one week removed the dilemma for USAC drivers and in one swoop improved the Oval Nationals talented driver field for spectators in Perris. PAS track announcer Scott Daloisio was right on target Sunday night, August 31 when he blasted USAC and Silverdome for picking the November 8 date for their Midget race. Weather was not a factor at the indoor Silverdome and other Saturdays were available. The PAS Oval Nationals date was established in late 2002. It is no secret that the Silverdome is financially strapped for income producing events and they would accept other dates. One positive result of the PAS Oval Nationals date swap was the additional media publicity it generated. The Los Angeles Times gave the date swap five paragraphs (about five inches) at the top of sports page six on Friday, September 12. Under the Motor Racing banner, the headline read. "Sprint Car Race Switches Gears". The following story by Martin Henderson was free publicity for the Oval Nationals. PAS management comes out of this conflict as the fan-friendly organization willing to compromise for the betterment of racing competition, drivers and fans. The date swap was made early enough for out-of-area racing fans to make changes in their plans. Who knows, oval-racing fans may now make it a gigantic racing month by catching both the Irwindale and Perris major three-day races in person on successive weeks. Both tracks are world class and the competition at each track is outstanding. TONY STEWART: How about the most versatile driver in racing? The Indiana native, Winston Cup driver, World of Outlaws and USAC open-wheel racing team owner had major successes from mid-August to mid-September. Danny Lasoski won the Knoxville Nationals Saturday feature in Tony's No. 20 Eagle sprint car. J. J. Yeley and Cory Kruseman are winning USAC mains in his No. 20 and 21 sprinters and J. J also wins in his No. 9 Silver Crown car. J.J sits atop all three major national point series and Danny "the Dude" led WoO points in early September. Tony himself moved back into the top ten in 2003 Winston Cup point standings. Tony also raced a No. 20 Home Depot-sponsored ARCA stock car in the DuQuoin, IL 100-mile race on the mile dirt track on Labor Day. Then Tony drove the No. 33 Andy Petree-owned truck in a NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series 200-lap race on Thursday night, September 4 and he also won that race. On Friday night, Tony worked as the NASCAR Busch Series Richmond, VA 250-lap television broadcast expert analyst. Tony replaced Benny Parsons in the booth with Allen Bestwick and Wally Dallenbach for the entire telecast and he did an excellent job. Tony provided some pertinent, current driver insight about race preparation, testing and track analysis. Johnny Sauter's Busch Series victory in the Cary Agajanian-Mike Curb No. 43 with a final turn bump and run over current W/Cup point leader Matt Kenseth was a thriller. It has to rank with the front-straight, fender-banging victory by Ricky Craven over Kurt Busch at the 2003 W/Cup spring race in Darlington. Just wondering…If Winston Cup drivers stepping back to the Busch Series are called "Buschwackers", should Winston Cup drivers Stewart and Ken Schrader racing in the NASCAR Truck Series be called "Bullyboys"? |
