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| Las Vegas Dirt Classic by Tim Kennedy |
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Los Angeles, CA. - LAS VEGAS DIRT CLASSIC: The "Las
Vegas Dirt Classic" inaugural run of two series together at the Las Vegas Motor Speedway half-mile dirt track on Thursday-Friday March 8-9, 2007 lived up to its name. It was successful out of the box and deserves to become an annual event at the North Las Vegas track. Grandstand attendance and car counts were significant. The weather cooperated (60-70-degrees) vs the cold and snow for the Dirt Track Late Model stand-alone race at LVMS last year on the same weekend. The Dirt Classic kicked off the NASCAR Busch Series and Nextel Cup weekend at the big 1.5-mile track beyond the dirt track turns 1-2. LVMS is a 1,500-acre site with multiple racing venues, campground/RV park and a bustling industrial park with many racing-related businesses, such as Andretti Enterprises and Richard Petty Driving Experience. This year the LVMS Dirt Classic featured USAC-CRA 410-cu. in. sprint cars and the two-year old Western All-Stars Dirt Late Model stock cars. On Thursday a field of 39 sprint cars and 72 stock cars were mixed together in random order in the busy pit area beyond turns 1-2. Friday had the same 39 sprint cars and 69 stock cars in the pits. Teams could leave their cars in the pits overnight or take them back to their motels to work on them. USAC-CRA drivers came from seven states-CA, AZ, IN, IL, MO, OK and NC. Dirt Late Model stock drivers came from 15 states and Canada. The main grandstand seats about 8,500 according to the LVMS facilities manager and was about 50% full Thursday and about 90% full Friday. I didn't catch the name of the LVMS dirt track announcer, but he sounds a lot like World of Outlaws announcer Johnny Gibson. It wasn't. He raved about the non-wing sprint car action and said, "You see more passing in one USAC non-wing sprint car race than you see all night in winged sprint car racing." PURSES: The USAC-CRA total purse Thursday was $14,175 and feature winner Tony Jones collected $2,600. The USAC-CRA purse Friday was $15,980 and feature winner Josh Wise earned $2,950. The Western All-Star Dirt Late Model teams raced for $17,150 each night with the Friday purse a bit higher. The features paid $3,000 to win each night and second position paid $1,500. It paid $500 to start a main event and that sum went to the 16-24 finishers. One of the first persons I saw in the pits was Sandra Bartosh, wife of former CRA official and car owner Jim Bartosh. They now reside in Texas. Sandra, who operated the famous novelty stand "Sandra's Stuff" at Ascot Park in Gardena, came to Vegas solo to assist teaching a week-long airbrush art course at the Orleans Hotel. She took a $14 cab ride Thursday from the Orleans to LVMS to visit CRA friends. Jim's son-in-law Marcus Mallett, a former NASCAR stock car driver at Ascot, was in the pits assisting the three-car Bill Bartels team. The LVMS dirt track (turns 3-4) is located about 70-yards from the Interstate 15 northbound lanes. Some truckers heading towards Utah stopped to check the action. I last attended a race at the LVMS dirt track in 1996 for WoO sprints and in 1997 for a USAC Silver Crown race won by Tony Stewart. Bruton Smith's Speedway Motorsports, Inc. almost 160,000-seat 1.5-mile track is about a quarter-mile beyond the first turn of the dirt track. The 3/8-mile paved "Bullring" oval, which seats about 6,500, is beyond the second turn of the 1.5-mile big track and close to North Las Vegas Blvd and busy Nellis Air Force Base. The dirt track has excellent lighting, sound system, concession stands and rest rooms. It has all metal grandstands that rise 33-rows and all seats have backs. Rows 1-11are painted red and are general admission. Rows 12-22 are white and are reserved, as are the blue colored rows 23-33. From the top rows sprint cars roaring down the front straight and diving into turn-one reminded me of watching the USAC S/C cars entering turn one of the Sacramento mile-track. LVMS did not print programs for the dirt track, but it did distribute free at the front gate lists of the sprint car and stock car drivers by car numbers. On Friday LVMS had a two-page printed summary of Thursday dirt track race results that fans received free as they entered the dirt track main gate. With all cars using electronic transponders, both sprints and stocks car ran group-qualifying sessions. The sprinters had seven groups with five or six cars in each session. Each group received four laps and all laps were timed, with the fastest lap being the official time for each car for race-positioning purposes. The stock car group used 11 groups of six or seven cars each to group qualify. USAC sprint cars qualified from 6:20-6:46 pm Thursday and stock cars from 6:56-7:27. On Friday USAC cars qualified from 7:00 to 7:15, followed by 11 groups of stock cars from 7:20-7:59. USAC fast time Thursday was Mike Spencer's 17.062; he qualified in group-two. Robert Ballou turned Friday's quick time of 17.036; he qualified early and watched from the first turn exit road to the pits as other drivers tried to beat his time. He said the old track record for non-wing sprints was a 17.1 so he set a NTR. The stock-car fast times were Josh Richards (Thur.) and NASCAR vet Ken Schrader (Fri.) at 19.168 in his own No. 99 Red Baron Pizza car. Ballou, a 17-year old from Rocklin, CA, made his first 2007 USAC-CRA start at LVMS. He will turn 18 March 29 and will be racing on the USAC National Sprint Car circuit full-time starting March 31at Eldora Speedway in Ohio. He and his new team, the red & white No. 81 (USAC Nat'l number), have four dirt cars (Maxims) and two pavement cars (Beasts). They use Chevy engines from two builders-Don Ott of PA and JD Performance. Robert raced for his dad John in a blue and white No. 12 last year and impressed at the USAC Manzanita Speedway Western World event in Phoenix (Nov. 2006). Robert's father and two Indianans (Dallas Mullvaney and Jim Pluew) merged their teams after they met Robert racing in the 2006 Knoxville Nationals and liked his racing and attitude. The combined team left LVMS and towed directly to the Midwest to get ready for their assault on the USAC National Sprint rookie of the year and series championship. I asked Robert Friday how he liked LVMS. He said it was slick and he had to learn to run on a track that took rubber. He started sixth and won Thursday's fourth 10-lap heat race. He started the feature from pole position and was in P2 on lap two when his left front tire hooked a big tire marking the second turn infield and spun out. It ended his race with a bent drag link, broken front axle and broken steering. "I was going to win that race," he told me Friday. He came back strong Friday in the repaired car and set quick time. He started first and finished second in the 12-lap B main before dropping from ninth to 18th in the 30-lap feature with 24 of 27 starters racing at the finish. Ballou finished third in 2006 Golden State winged sprint points and earned rookie of the year. J. J. Yeley, 30-year old NASCAR Busch Series and Nextel Cup driver, was the subject of a Thursday, March 8 USA TODAY three column, 19-paragraph story that took 17-inches at the center of sports page 10. The coverage included a photo of JJ and his No. 18 Interstate Batteries Chevrolet. He was busy at LVMS, qualifying the No. 1 BGN and No. 18 N/C cars at the 1.5-mile big track. JJ returned to his roots-sprint car racing-both nights at LVMS. His ride was a brand new dark blue No. 2a Extreme chassis owned by Tony Smiley. He did not qualify the sprinter Thursday because he was qualifying his NBS ride. He started last in heat three and finished fifth. In the 21-car B main JJ started last and charged to second place. He went to the outside for clear track and passed cars quickly during the first two laps to get to seventh place. He was sixth (the last A-main transfer) at lap four, third a lap later, fourth from lap 6-8 and second lap 9-12. Eighteen cars were RAF. In the feature JJ started 22nd and finished third. His sensational ride caught the attention of the announcer and fans. JJ was 15th of 19 cars after lap one. He was sixth on lap 11, fifth on lap 17, fourth at lap 20 and third from lap 21-30. Melvin Patterson, the black pit worker on Smiley's crew who looks like a double for movie actor Michael Clarke Duncan, warmed up Yeley's sprint car both nights at LVMS. He wore his own blue uniform. Patterson qualified the car in the first group Friday with five cars on the track and turned the 39th best time (26.684). Melvin was the former Weld Wheels hauler driver known to many racers. He currently works in Phoenix. Although other drivers have asked Smiley to drive his new No. 2a sprinter he said it is for Yeley's exclusive use whenever he wants to race it. Yeley told Smiley his NASCAR schedule will allow him to race his 2a sprinter four times during the July 2007 Indiana Sprint Weeks. Smiley had a fleet of 2a and 8a 410 and 360 sprint cars last year for Rickie Gaunt and Chas. Davis, Jr. He parked them this year. Chris Windom, of Canton, IL, turned 17 December 24. He qualified for both main events at LVMS. He dropped out on lap 1 of the Thursday main with an engine problem. His team was unable to find the cause Friday so they unloaded their back-up DRC No. 17x sprinter and raced it Friday. He started seventh and finished eighth in the 30-lap main event. On Thursday, Jeremy Sherman's 75x was the only car with a radio that did not work according to a USAC official. At the USAC feature first lap green flag Thursday, 14th starter Chas. Davis got hit from behind by 16th-starter Casey Shuman. Davis' No. 12az turned sideways, peeled a tire and hit the outer wall. It flipped and spilled fuel. The car had broken front and rear end parts and was sidelined. Shuman's No. 42 also stopped at the scene at the turn four exit, but he restarted and finished 11th. There were 22 starters and all 18 finishers ran 30 laps. Davis told me Friday he was unhurt and raced the 12a Friday. He started fifth and was still fifth on lap 26 when a flat RR tire sidelined him, dropping him to P.22 again. Friday's main event had 27 cars in it instead of 22, thanks to an eight-car transfer from the B main instead of the usual six cars. Gaunt and Rip Williams were the beneficiaries of the two extra positions. LVMS promoter Chris Powell also exercised a promoter's option to add Thursday's star Yeley to the back of the field. Two USAC-CRA teams (No. 38 Scotty Weir and No. 4 Tony Jones, the Thursday feature winner and 2007-point leader) used provisional starting positions. Two owner provisionals were available to the top two car owners in 2006 points who did not make the feature. Two provisionals brought the field to 27. They forfeited last place money to start. Owner provisionals change on June 1 from 2006 point standings to the 2007 standings according to Dick Jordan, USAC VP. Despite a slick track USAC-CRA drivers made LVMS a passing spectacle both nights. Ten-car heat race winners started fifth, third, seventh (Gaunt remarkably led all 10 laps) and sixth. Winners came from seventh in both the B and A mains. The 30-lap main had two race leaders-Gaunt (L 1-5) and Jones (L 6-30). He won by 20-yards over Damion Gardner. Three CRA rookie of the year contenders made the LVMS feature-Garrett Hansen finished 14th, Tyler Brown 16th and Michael Trimble 17th. Friday heat winners in ten-car fields started fourth, third, third and seventh. Mat Neely started eighth and won the B main, leading lap 8-12 in Warren Dorathy's No. 21a. Tony Jones had a flat tire during his group qualifying session and ran a best lap of only 22.788 (38th best of 39 qualifiers). That is one problem with group qualifying. If you have a problem early in the session you will have to start last in every race all night. Individual qualifying allows a driver with a flat tire to come back at the end of qualifying to post one lap. Jones, the son of Indy 500 vet/sprint car champion Bubby Jones, was able to race from 22nd to 16th in the B main. By using a provisional, Jones started 26th and finished 14th. Those main event points enabled Jones to retain a 19-point lead over Spencer. Feature points earned March 9 via a provisional could be significant at the end of the season as Jones tries to win his first sprint car championship and the first for car owner Mark Alexander. Danny Shjeridan (Kittle No. 18) started second in Friday's feature and led the first 21 laps by as much as 30-yards at the lap 15 caution. He built another 30-yard advantage by lap 18. He entered turn one on lap 22 at speed to lap 25th-running Rodney Argo with second place closing on him. Sheridan, trying for his second USAC-CRA career victory, went to the outside of Argo's No. 19 and slid up the track. He dropped to third place before he recovered and continued. Josh Wise started tenth and was second by lap two. He and Rickie Gaunt passed sliding Sheridan on the inside at turn one and they finished in that order. Wise built an 80-yard lead by lap 23, but caution flags on laps 24 and 29 cut his winning margin to 35-yards. Gaunt had a steady 10-yard advantage over Sheridan, who had to be disappointed with third. The sprint main concluded at 11:00 pm vs 11:34 Thursday. Wise became the sixth different USAC-CRA feature winner in six races this season. Darren Hagen, Ricky Stenhouse, Jr, Garrett Hansen, Mike Spencer and Jones were the others. When interviewed over the track PA system, Wise said, "He (Sheridan) just got messed up there entering turn one. The track took rubber. I was kind of worried. We (the Keith Kunz No. 67 Bullet team) were way too free. Last night we went backwards (to 12th position). We went the opposite way tonight." On Thursday in the pits Josh told me enjoyed racing on the 2.5-mile Daytona banks in the ARCA race last month. "A guy spun out in front of me and I couldn't miss his car. My next ARCA stock car race will be April 7 in the Nashville, (TN) 150. This is my first time racing at this track. I saw a midget race here from the grandstand about 14 years ago when I was 10." He had to have a favorable impression after his convincing victory Friday. Runner-up Gaunt (No. 94) went home to Torrance, CA with second place money and points, plus one of the 2006 Tony Smiley 2a sprint cars he drove and just bought. Smiley told me he gave Rickie "a sweetheart deal" on the car. TCR's Larry Brown also gave his driver, Wally Pankratz, a sweetheart deal on a midget about ten years ago. |
