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Traditional Sprint Car FanSite |
See You At The Races!!! |
| RACING SCENE by Tim Kennedy |
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Los Angeles, CA. - The 3rd annual Performance Racing Industry (PRI) two-day racing event at the three-eighths mile paved Orlando, (FL) Speedworld oval had crowded grandstands again this year. The PRI trade-show held in conjunction with the racing event was another hit for PRI creator Steve Lewis, of Laguna Beach, CA. The Thursday-Friday December 6-7 racing attraction on chilly evenings had four racing classes in action. Headlining were Midgets and Sprint Cars, with Ford Focus Midgets and Legend Cars also in competition on the same oval. Feature winners Friday were 16-year old Dakoda Armstrong (Midgets-24 car main), Bobby East (Sprints-24-car main), 16-year old Jordan Pennington (FF Midgets-12-cars) and Craig Goess, Jr. (Legends-22-car feature). Via the Internet (MyLaps.com) persons could follow Midget and Sprint Car times set by all drivers during the three practice sessions and official qualifying Thursday, plus the times set during two practice sessions on Friday. The Thursday morning Midget practice session had 31 of 39 listed cars post lap times, with most drivers logging 15 to 21 laps. Josh Wise (# 75 Cruz Pedregon Toyota) was fastest at 13.303 (101.481 mph) in his 15th lap of 21. Session two had Adam Kramer (# 32) atop the list with a 13.121 on his 10th of 13 laps. Most of the 30 drivers ran 11 to 18 laps. Session three had Kody Swanson (# 19 S. Lewis Toyota) fastest at 13.163 on lap 11of 14. Most of the 29 drivers with recorded laps ran 10-14 laps. In official time trials Ricky Ehrgott set the fastest time of 13.188 (102.366 mph). The fastest 14 drivers (to 13.507) advanced directly to Friday's feature. They were: Chuck Gurney, Jr. (# 51), Ron Gregory (# 22), J. Wise (# 75), D. Armstrong (# 7A), Justin Melton (# 11D), K. Swanson (# 19), Dave Steele (# 91), B. East (# 4), Brent Beauchamp (# 112), David Byrne (# 20D), Dave Darland (# 9), Bobby Santos III (# 98) and Zach Schiff (# 5). Midget practice Friday morning had Bobby East (on L 9 of 14) fastest at 13.126 in session one. Brady Bacon (# 99) was fastest in Friday's second session on his sixth of nine laps. Most of the 28 drivers ran 10 to 13 laps. With more rubber on the track, the fifth and final practice session during the two days had the fastest recorded laps by the 28 drivers who ran laps. Bacon's 13.035 (103.567 mph) edged Brian Clauson's 13.067. Wise's 13.105 and Stephanie Mockler's 13.110 were next fastest. The first of three Sprint Car practice sessions Thursday morning had Bobby East (# 5 Klatt) fastest of 29 drivers in action from a list of 40 drivers. He turned his fastest lap (13.151-102.654 mph) on lap 13 of 15as most drivers ran 15 to 20 laps. B. Santos (# 98) was fastest in session two at 13.129 on lap 8 of 12. B. Clauson (# 67x Kunz) was quickest of 29 drivers in Thursday's third session. His 13.096 (103.085 mph) came on lap 10 of 13 as most drivers ran 10 to 14 laps. In Sprint Car best of two laps qualifying Thursday afternoon 31 rivers recorded a time. Unheralded Brian Gingras (# 50x) set fastest time of 13.160 (102.584 mph). The 14 fastest qualifiers earned main event berths. Second quickest Clauson (67x) ran a 13.411 and was followed by Steele, East, Santos, Darren Hagen Jacob Wilson, Aaron Pierce, Dakoda Armstrong, Tanner Swanson (# 17 Swanson), Shane Cottle, Chris Windom, K. Swanson (# 75) and Cole Whitt (# 29W). Sprint drivers ran two practice-sessions Friday. East was quickest in session one at 12.921 (104.481 mph) on lap 11 of 14. He was fastest in the second session also at 12.930 on lap 7 of 8. Most of the 28 drivers in action ran six to 11 laps. In contrast to the Mopar Sprint and Midget teams, the 13 Ford Focus Midgets present qualified from a fastest time of 13.965 (96.670 mph) to 14.562 (92.707 mph). There were 27 Legend Cars present and the fastest qualifier was Chelsea Schilling at 15.970 (84.534 mph). The Midget field at Orlando had 20 cars that competed across the country two weeks earlier at Irwindale (CA) Speedway on Thanksgiving Day. The Orlando Sprint Car field had five cars that competed two weeks earlier at the Thanksgiving Grand Prix in Irwindale. One FF Midget (Mike Maier's # 32) raced at Irwindale; November 22 in the FF Midget portion of the Thanksgiving GP and again in Orlando after a cross-country tow. HELIO: Indy 500 winners have departed the Indy Racing League for NASCAR in significant numbers lately. Dario Franchitti and Sam Hornish, Jr., the last two Indy 500 winners, joined past Indy 500 winners and Formula One deserters Juan Pablo Montoya and Jacques Villeneuve in NASCAR. Two-time Indy 500 winner Helio Castroneves gave the IRL some much needed positive publicity. The recent Scott Sharp versus Rahal-Letterman Racing break-up and dueling lawsuits for alleged breach of contract is the opposite of good PR for the IRL. Touch gloves and may the best lawsuit and lawyer win in court. Affable Helio, 32, and his professional dancer-partner Julianne Hough, 19, beat 11 other celebrity dance teams and won the fifth year of ABC-TV "Dancing with the Stars" dancing competition in Los Angeles. The No. 1 show in TV Neilsen ratings attracted more than 20 million viewers each Monday and Tuesday and the final two shows approached 25 million viewers. Helio really wanted the mirror ball trophy to go between his two Indy 500 mini Borg-Warner trophies. He and co-finalist, Brit Melanie Brown of the Spice Girls, both received perfect 10 scores from all three pro dance judges during their final dances. As the TV show progressed over ten weeks to the Tuesday, November 27 finale, the show showed video of Helio racing and winning in his Indy car. His enthusiastic, earnest, friendly, outgoing personality came across well on TV. Perhaps IRL races will gain some new fans or at least IRL TV race watchers because of Helio's appearance on the dancing show. Even his IRL boss Roger Penske, Tim Cindric and IRL teammate Hornish received air-time on the TV dancing show talking about Helio. He danced the walltz, paso doble, quick step, mambo, samba, etc. His yellow suit and hat one-week reminded some of a Batman movie costume. Helio deserved to win. USA TODAY (LIFE Section) on November 19 printed photos of the final four couples on the dancing show. Their celebrity odds were Melanie Brown at even money, Jennie Garth at 5 to 1, Helio at 8 to 1 and Marie Osmond at 15 to 1.The narrative section on Helio called him a Formula One race car driver. Haven't they ever heard of the Indianapolis 500? It's in the USA folks at USA TODAY. According to the newspaper, Helio never expected to last long and his goal was to avoid being the first of 12 celebrities eliminated from the show. Olympic speed skater Apolo Anton Ohno, the show's last celebrity winner, proposed Helio as a celebrity contestant for the dancing show after he met Helio and learned of his interest. The Sunday newspaper magazine, "Parade", offered insight about the pay received by contestants on "Dancing with the Stars". One model was offered $125,000 for the first two weeks, plus $20,000 for each week she remained on the show. That's a possible $285,000 to contestants who survive all ten weeks. Helio and celebrity dancers attended the recent Las Vegas championship fight involving Floyd Mayweather, Jr., one of the 2007 dancing show contestants. Some race-tracks in 2008 will exploit Helio's dancing prowess with special race-day promotions. The Indy Motor Speedway will have some of Helio's dancing show fellow celebrities, such as Mark Cuban, Wayne Newton, Jane Seymour, Marie Osmond and Mayweather attend the Indy 500 practice, downtown parade and 500 mile race. Infineon Raceway, in Sonoma, CA, plans to let fans go on the race track August 24 to break the Guinness Book of Records mark for most people dancing to Chubby Checker's 1950s song "The Twist". The existing-record is 1,691 people. With Helio racing in the IRL Sonoma event later that day, he will most likely be part of the new record. Newspapers reported via AP on December 14 that retired seven-time Formula One champion Michael Schumacher was riding in a taxi from an airport in his native Germany recently. He decided the cabbie wasn't going fast enough so he took over driving the cab. Schumacher drove so fast he made the cabbie nervous. "He took the curves at full speed and you couldn't even notice it," the account quoted the cabbie. The story reported that Schumacher, who retired as a Ferrari F.1 driver after the 2006 season, gave the cabbie a $146.72 tip plus the $88.03 fare. With seven F.1 driving championships, Schumacher may hold that F.1 record forever. The late Juan Manuel Fangio, of Argentina, ranks second in total F.1 driving championships with five during the 1950s. He won in 1951 with Alfa-Romeo, in 1954 with Maserati and Mercedes-Benz cars, in 1955 with Mercedes-Benz, in 1956 with Ferrari, and in1957 when Maserati reigned supreme. NECROGLOGY: Flamboyant Robert "Evel" Knievel, 69, died Friday, November 30, 2007 at his condominium in Clearwater, FL. The Butte, MT daredevil Harley-Davidson XR-750 motorcycle stunt jumper lost his on-going battle with idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis (scarred lungs) and diabetes. Knievel picked up his name Evel while spending time in a Montana jail with fellow prisoner "Awful" Knaffel. Evel got his inspiration for jumping his way to success at age 8 when he watched a Joey Chitwood Auto Daredevils show. Attired in patriotic American motif leathers and with showmanship in abundance, Evel performed some of his earliest jumps from 1965 into the 1970s in Southern California for promoter J. C. Agajanian. Evel jumped cars and busses at Ascot Park in Gardena and in the 1970s Aggie staged a major successful Evel motorcycle jump over a line of luxury cars parked side-by-side inside the Los Angeles Memorial; Coliseum. The luxury cars were then used in a "luxury cars demolition derby" on the floor of the Coliseum. Some Indy 500 drivers, such as Bobby and Al Unser and Mario Andretti, were behind the wheels of Cadillacs, Rolls-Royces, Mercedes, Jaguars and Lincolns. Evel appeared on ABC's Wide World of Sports show in the 1970s. At various times he jumped 14 Mack trucks, 14 Greyhound busses, and a shark tank. His most famous jumps were 141-feet over the fountains at Caesar's Palace in Las Vegas during 1968, the jet-assisted, motorcycle jump of 1,700-feet over Idaho's Snake River Canyon in 1974 that was a $6 million closed circuit TV production, and his jump over 13 double-decker busses at London's Wembley Stadium. While these jumps were not artistic successes, they brought Evel great publicity and fame, income and admiration for his daring. He also received major injuries (about 40 broken bones) and spent hospital sheet time in a coma from his numerous falls. Evel's son, Captain Robbie Knievel, in 1981 followed in his dad's footsteps as a daredevil jumping his motorcycle over various obstacles in patriotic leathers and with great showmanship. Robbie even jumped obstacles on the deck of a retired US Navy aircraft carrier successfully. Evel made a reported $60 million and spent $61 million. Actor George Hamilton starred as Evel in the B-movie "Evel Knievel" decades ago. Within the last year there was a stage musical titled "Evel Knievel, the Rock Opera" that ran for weeks in a small theater in Los Angeles near Hollywood. Evel attended the show about him one night according to the LA Times and he approved of its depiction of his life. Sports Illustrated magazine marked Evel's passing with a two-page story about his life and exploits. The title was "The Man Who Jumped over Stuff". The story sub-title was, "He didn't have a great record, but that was part of Evel Knievel's allure." Don Freeland, 82, died November 2 in San Diego after battling health problems (Alzheimers) for years. The eight-time Indianapolis 500 starter from 1953-60 was a long-time sprint car and Indy Car driver for Bob Estes, a Lincoln-Mercury dealer in Inglewood, near LA International Airport. Don, a long-time resident of Torrance, CA, finished third in the 1956 Indy 500 for Estes. He finished seventh in 1954 and 1958 and dropped out of the 1955 Indy 500 when his transmission failed 22 laps from the finish while he was in second place. Don raced CRA roadsters and AAA sprints and midgets before USAC took over sanctioning duties in 1956. He had ten finishes of second or third places in National Champ Trail races and 36 top tens in those races from 1952-60. He finished third in points one season. Upon retiring from racing, Don became a member of the Champion Spark Plug Highway Safety Team. It used veteran Indy 500 drivers to visit high schools and speak to students about safe driving. Several years ago Don, his wife Jan and daughter Deana, of Torrance, attended the annual California Roadster Assn. reunion luncheon in January at Knott's Berry Farm Hotel in Buena Park. That Walt James organized event might have been the final time most of his long-time racing friends saw Don in person. Shortly after the death of Shav Glick, fellow Los Angeles Times sportswriter Jerry Crowe wrote a tribute to him. Crowe's page 2 column read, "The most inspiring thing about the late Shav Glick, whose writing and reporting entertained and informed Southland sports fans for 70 years, was that even though he was 87 when he died he never really grew old. Apropos of a reporter best known for covering auto racing, Glick ran circles around younger colleagues right up until the day he retired last year." |
