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| RACING SCENE By Tim Kennedy |
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Los Angeles, CA - The National Sprint Car Hall of Fame Museum and Knoxville Raceway in Iowa will have a free to the public evening called "A Salute to Earl Wagner" on Tuesday, October 30 from 6:00 to 10:00 p.m. The honoree is a plumber by trade at his hometown in Pleasantville, IA, just a few miles north of Knoxville. Earl is a three-time Knoxville Raceway track champion (1958-59 and 61). He won 43 main events on Knoxville's black clay half-mile in super-modifieds and then sprint cars. Earl won the 1973 Western World Sprint Car
Championship at Manzanita Speedway in Phoenix, AZ driving for Hank Smith. The prestigious WWC event was then part of the triple-crown of sprint car racing with the Knoxville Nationals and Ascot Park's (Gardena, CA) Pacific Coast Championship race being the other two components. After he retired from driving sprint cars
Earl served as chief steward at Knoxville Raceway from 1975-2000. He also was mayor of Pleasantville and a Marion County (IA) supervisor. He clearly deserves the tribute. On Tuesday, July 31 four of us with the Irwindale Speedway press box in common met for a leisurely lunch at Tulipano's Italian Restaurant between Covina and Azusa. Former Irwindale Speedway Communications Director Doug Stokes joined us for lunch. His two-year job connection with the Autobooks/Aerobooks bookstore in Burbank had ended earlier in July when Chet Knox, owner of the bookstore turned 80 and sold the business. Doug, a voting member of AARWBA, was between jobs and was making contacts for new employment. By chance Doug met old friend Gale Banks having lunch at another table. He asked Doug how he was able to be so far from his "shop"-the bookstore in Burbank. Doug said he was no longer employed there and would e-mail him more information later that day. He did so and a day later Mr. Banks called Doug and asked Doug to meet with him at his company in Azusa that afternoon. After a wide-ranging two-hour conversation Gale asked Doug to come work for his firm and he accepted Thursday, August 2. Doug and Gale selected the job title "Corporate Publicist" for Doug's newly created position. Banks Engineering is a diesel applications company with hundreds of employees. It sure pays "to do lunch". Incidentally, retired Los Angeles Times motor sports writer Shav Glick and long-time NSSN publisher/editor Chris Economaki followed Doug's advice to have dinner at Tulipano's Restaurant several years ago and they loved it. Congratulations are in order for some recent main event winners. BRAD SWEET, from Grass Valley, CA., won his first USAC Western Midget feature September 15 at Bakersfield Speedway. It could have been his first race at the Kern County third-mile banked clay track. He drove the No. 75 Spike chassis with a Toyota engine and set fastest qualifying time in a 21-car field. He led the final 13 laps of the 30-lap feature. ROBBY JOSETT, the 2006 Ventura Raceway Junior Ford Focus Midget champion at 15, drove his No. 2 Josett family FF Midget to victory in the USAC California Dirt FF Series feature the same evening at Bakersfield Speedway. He led the final 19 laps of the 20-lap race. It was his third victory in a USAC FF Midget main event of 2007-his rookie season in USAC. He is a definite rising star. Another rising star, NIC FAAS, finished second to Josett at Bakersfield and now leads the USAC FF Dirt Series point standings by 123 points with two races remaining. TIM SKOGLUND, a 19-year old from Fresno, has a solid lead in the USAC FF Midget Pavement Series that he won for the first time in 2006 en-route to 2006 California FF Midget rookie of the year. RYAN KAPLAN, a 21-year old FF Midget graduate and fifth place driver in 2006 USAC Western Midget final points, stepped up to run the USAC 360 cu. in Western Sprint Car Series this year. Ryan, from Chico, won features recently at Roseville and Altamont. He has the series point lead by a 38-points with only the series finale at Irwindale Speedway remaining on the schedule on Thanksgiving evening, Nov. 22. The teenage racing SWANSON brothers of Kingsburg, CA (KODY and TANNER) have been making headlines as well. On September 15 older brother KODY, 19, won both ends of the USAC doubleheader at Altamont Motorsports Park in Tracy, CA. Kody set fastest qualifying time, started sixth, took the lead on lap 18 and won the USAC Western Midget feature. Then KODY started fifth in the USAC Western Sprints 50-lap main and took command on lap 28 for his fourth series triumph this year. Steve Lewis, who knows racing talent, tapped Kody to drive his No. 91Midget in recent weeks. Younger brother TANNER, 16, has been racing a USAC FF Midget successfully in the Carolina-Virginia Series and is the series point leader. TANNER won USAC FF Midget features at Shenandoah, VA, plus Elkin and Rougemont, N.C TANNER also has raced the SWANSON family USAC Western Series 360 sprint car successfully as well. CORY KRUSEMAN sub-drove the No. 4 Alexander Trucking DRC sprinter for injured USAC-CRA point leader Tony Jones to victory at his home track in Ventura on September 8. Nice guy DAVID CARDEY, 31-year old Riverside resident, won his first career USAC-CRA 410 sprint car feature at Perris and then proved it was not a fluke by winning his second feature in a 40-lap race on September 1 at the same half-mile clay PAS track. He drove Glen Crossno's No. 83 Bullet chassis and moved to seventh place in USAC-CRA point standings. CLINT BOWYER (No. 07 Jack Daniels Chevy) picked the right time to win the first Nextel Cup race of his career. He made the first of ten races for the Cup lackluster by starting first and leading 222 laps (74%) of the 300-lap race. IRWINDALE SPEEDWAY NOTES - If you were wondering why fastest qualifier Rip Michels started 12th in the September 8 AC Delco Super Late Model feature you were not alone. The fastest qualifier for years had spun a wheel for the inversion and the possible numbers did not reach 12 for the inverted start by qualifying times. To improve competition at IS track GM Bob DeFazio and racing director Lester Boyer put the inversion wheel aside about a month ago. Lester selected a pill with the inversion number early Saturday before time trials started. "I pick 8, 9, 10, 11 or 12 and put the pill in a pill box for safe keeping." The pill box is opened and the inversion number for that night is revealed at the drivers meeting. The new system certainly created a more competitive SLM race September 8. Michels started the 50-lap feature 12th and became the fourth race leader on lap 23 before winning his 11th SLM main of 2997 in his march to his fourth IS track championship (one in Grand Am Modifieds and two in SLM). If you wondered why IS driver Brandon Loverock has not been racing this year here is the answer. He broke his foot/ankle in an off-road racing vehicle earlier this year and recovery has been slow. Brandon might make his return to oval racing at the 4th annual Toyota All-Star Challenge event October 19-20. The Friday, October 19 Super Late Model new event will have the top 20 in Irwindale's points guaranteed spots in the 40-car feature field, but they will have to qualify for their starting positions. The SLM race has a $50,000 purse with $10,000 going to the race winner. The other 20 positions are open and there could be two promoter's options also. If the car could is high enough there also could be a Last Chance race to put top finishers into the feature, which will be televised on Speed Channel. The TV on-air broadcasters will include veterans Mike Joy and Dick Berggren. The Saturday, October 20 Grand National West vs GN East race carried the major portion of the $500,000 purse and that race will be televised live on Speed as usual. Jace "the Ace" Meier is an 18-year old two-year USAC Ford Focus Midget veteran (2005-06) as a member of Ron Sutton's Winner's Circle Driver Development Program. The Las Vegas resident had an eventful September as a NASCAR late model rookie driver at Irwindale Speedway. He won his first NASCAR feature in a 50-lap feature at IS on September 15.His September 1 NASCAR effort at IS proved to be eventful. Jace had the fastest lap of 24 late model drivers who made the first practice session at 12:30. During 4:00 time trials Jace had a quick lap in progress when he spun across the finish line, flat-spotting his tires. IS-rules only allow drivers two new tires per week in a cost-cutting move. So Jace had to race on his flat-spotted tires that adversely affected his car's handling. His spin slowed his qualifying run to 15th best in the 27-car field. He started 15th and climbed to 11th by lap 20 but he faded to 13th at the finish after battling Brian Jones, Mike Varela and Sean Bennett for the final 30 laps of the 40-lap race. Jace's spin and less than normal finish September 1 could be significant, perhaps as much as 14 points. He will start the final point race of 2007 on September 29 second in series points, only 10-points behind his team owner Tim Huddleston. That 10-points is only five positions at 2-points per position. The championship tie-breaker is most feature victories (Tim has three triumphs to one for Jace), so Jace will have to beat Tim by six positions September 29 to beat his boss for the 2007 Auto Club Late Model championship. Jace has already clinched the 2007 ACLM rookie of the year trophy. He has failed to finish only one of 14 ACLM races at IS this season. Jace crashed on June 9 and his car was towed to the pits and did not finish. In the 13 races he was running at the end Jace has averaged sixth place. His finishes in order have been 10th, 12th, 9th, 4th, 2nd, 2nd, 25th (on June 9), 5th, 2nd, 6th, 8th, 5th, 13th (on Sept. 1) and 1st. That record is outstanding for any driver. For a rookie in his first season of late model stock car competition, that record of 7 top five and 11 top tens in 14 races is outstanding. The fifth season of "Dancing With the Stars" popular TV show on ABC has six female and six male celebrity dancers paired with professional dance partners. One of the male celebrities is two-time Indianapolis 500 winner Helio Castroneves. Other well-known male celebrities are boxer Floyd Mayweather, Jr, billionaire NBA Dallas Mavericks team owner Mark Cuban and Mr. Las Vegas Wayne Newton. Female celebrities, including singer Marie Osmond and actress Jane Seymour, danced on the Monday, Sept. 24 show. The six male celebrities danced on the Tuesday, Sept. 25 show. Gregarious Castroneves and his partner, blonde Julianne Hough (who won with Olympic Games speed skater Ohno last season) danced a fox trot and were remarkably good. Helio and Julianne received scores of 8-9-8 from the three judges on the show. No other male score topped 7. The Helio/Julianne combined score of 25 was the best of the night. Other scores were three 21s (including Cuban), 19 (Newton) and 18 (Mayweather). The top female score Monday was 26, so auto racer Helio had the second best score of the 12 celebrities. Viewers also voted, as they do on the other hit TV show "American Idol". Scores of the show's three judges and viewer votes determine who is eliminated each week. Helio finished in the top four on the Wednesday vote off show. The first celebrity voted off came down to a female model and NBA team owner Cuban. The female model was voted of and Cuban survived to dance again next week. Clearly, Helio should be one of the favorites on the show and one of the finalists. The AMA Speedway Cycle April to September Industry Speedway season at the Industry Hills Expo Center concluded September 12. The site in The Grand Arena has a roof and open sides and a giant jumbo-tron TV screen over the infield for replays of close finishes and crashes. Industry races were shown world-wide on the Internet and fans in Europe, Australia and New Zealand (hot-beds of the two-wheel racing) kept abreast of the Industry action at various odd hours. Industry track announcer Bruce Flanders, a fixture for decades at Ascot, Perris and Irwindale speedways, made sure he worked in various well-known sites such as Disneyland and made sure he periodically paged "Jessica Alba please come to the scoring/announcing stand" in the grandstand at the starting line. Speedway Cycle racing will move to Perris Raceway (not PAS) for Sunday racing starting at 3:00 p.m September 30 and October 7. All divisions-D-1, D-2, D-3 (rookies), Juniors, Pee Wees, Sidecars and Mini Bikes--will compete. Entrants who want to race should contact pit steward Ryan Evans. |
