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| RACING SCENE Column - (Sprints in AZ) by Tim Kennedy |
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Los Angeles, CA. - The 2nd annual "Copper on Dirt" at Manzanita Speedway in Phoenix February 15-16 ran only Saturday, Feb. 16 after rain washed out Friday action. I had more notes than I used in my Feb. 27 column, so this column will revisit that successful event. USAC triple-header victories went to Darren Hagen (No. 67) in the 25-lap Midget main, Shane Cottle (No. 4) in the 40-lap Sprint Car feature, and Jerry Coons, Jr. (No. 27) in the 50-lap Silver Crown finale. WINNER'S QUOTES: Midget winner Hagen alighted from his car at the finish line and climbed the front straight reinforced wire fence to the starter's stand. He then waved the checkered flag to fans as Tony Stewart has done following NASCAR victories. "I had awesome power and an awesome car. Cole Whitt (2nd place, 1.604-seconds back) is on board our team and is a great teammate," Hagen told the crowd. He then used the PA microphone and apologized to Dave Darland for contacting Dave's No. 2az Jim Massey DRC sprint car during their afternoon heat race two. The impact caused Dave's violent 8 to 10 flips, nose-to-tail down the front straight. "He (Darland) helps me a lot and got me Silver Crown rides now and then. I apologize." Sprint winner Cottle had a lot of right rear tire left following his 40-lap race victory despite swapping the lead four times with Jeremy Sherman. "We got passed and tried different lines. It was a good race for fans. He (Sherman) hauled it into turn three and showed me something. He did a good job." S/C winner Coons earned his early fame on the Manzanita half-mile. He said, "Scott Benic set-up a great race car. It was too tight early, but it got better and better as the race went on. It's my first Silver Crown ride and we won the 4-Crown Silver Crown race (at Eldora Speedway in Rossburg, OH on 9/22/07) in this car (the No. 27 Beast/Chevy). After tonight I'll fly out to Australia to race there for the midget title." Coons won by 2.507 seconds (about 40-yards) over 2006-07 USAC S/C champion Bud Kaeding. There were two lapped cars between winner Coons and runner-up Kaeding. Ironically, drivers of the two lapped cars were Darland and Hagen, who had that eventful meeting in the second sprint car heat race earlier that afternoon. That meeting of their cars resulted in Darland's wild flip from between turn four and the starting line to turn one. Hagen started Manzy's S/C race 10th in the No. 92 car formerly driven by Darland and Jimmy Kite. Darland started 11th in his usual No. 56 Foxco ride. Darland passed Hagen during the first five laps and they ran together without contact from lap 18 to the lap 50 checkered flag. Darland got Hagen the No. 92 ride for Manzy. Coons lapped both drivers during the final two laps. Darland finished 9th and Hagen 10th, 0.450 behind his friend and mentor Darland. In another bit of irony, one of Darland's "Copper on Dirt" rides was pitted next to one of Hagen's three Manzy rides in the mid-infield pits. Good guy Darland, although angry about his sprint car second heat flip, handled the incident in a typically classy manner. One added fact regarding Darland's wild heat two sprint car flip: Hagen (No. 67) and Darland (No. 2az) were the row one starters in that race with Hagen on the pole and Darland on the outside. Following one bad start, CRA chief steward Steve Ostling radioed a warning to both drivers that they had one more chance to make a good start or they would both have to start from the back row of the eight-car field. Their second start did not meet Ostling's approval, so he radioed both drivers to go to the back row for the third attempt at an acceptable start. They complied. They most likely would've finished in top four positions easily from the front row and earned automatic transfers to the main event without having to race in the B-main. On lap 3 Hagen raced into fourth place and Darland arrived in fifth position simultaneously as they passed Seth Wilson. Hagen, running the inside, and Darland, on the outside, exited turn four on lap 6 of 10 and Hagen's 67 drifted up and contacted Darland's 2az, triggering his violent flip. Darland's rear tire knocked the flag from the starter's hand and brushed his shoulder as his car flipped nose-to-tail parallel to the top of the front stretch protective fence. The car reached a height of more than 20-feet above the track. Dave's ability to walk from the totaled car is a tribute to the safety built into modern sprint cars. If the duo had not been penalized from the front row to the back row they wouldn't have been fighting so hard for the final transfer from that heat to the main event that evening and the 2az car would not have been totaled. Actually, owner Massey sent the battered No. 2az frame back to the builder-DRC in Indiana-in Jesse Hockett's VKCC team 75 trailer following the February 29 race in Las Vegas. Wrecked stock cars frequently get a new front or back clip and return to racing action. We will check later this year on the outcome of Massey's battered 2az DRC chassis. Joe Devin builds strong cars and Hockett's crew expected the car to see more racing action. MANZY IMPROVEMENTS: Credit goes to Manzanita's new owner-Bobby Martin-and his management team, including GM Steve Dunn, for making improvements to the historic 57-year old speedway. They included added height to the front straight fence, newly contoured main concourse concession stand, new paint and six new metal grandstands (with seat backs in the reserved section) that replaced old wooden grandstands. Paving the front parking lot is planned later. The southwest Phoenix track has booked 39 racing weekends and 79 nights of racing. The color cover, 24-page "Copper on Dirt" $5.00 program had a nice tribute to Roger McCluskey and Gene Brown. It was the second annual tribute to the two late, popular racing champions from Arizona. Indy Racing League driver and Indianapolis 500 winner Buddy Rice, a Phoenix-area resident, was spotted among the spectators at Manzy Saturday, Feb. 16 for the "Copper on Dirt" event. Manzanita chief announcer Windy McDonald's new 506-page book-Manzanita Speedway's Desert Thunder"-about racing in Arizona was on sale on the main concourse. It covers all racing divisions-open wheels to stock cars-from the years 1981 to 2005 and sells for $75.00 ($81.00 for Arizona residents). It is printed on slick paper and covers racing history, points, head-shots, and hundreds of racing action photos. Windy became Manzy's announcer in 1957 and he has seen more racing in Arizona than anyone you can mention. His first "Thunder in the Desert" book covered Arizona racing from the early years through 1980. He deserves inclusion in the National Sprint Car Hall of Fame in Knoxville, IA for his work as an announcer, racing historian/publicist and author. Contact Windy at Win-Di Publishing, P. O. Box 82727, Phoenix, AZ 85071. Win-Di stands for Windy and his wife of 25 years Diana. To obtain your book in person you may buy one from Windy's daughter at her table on Manzy's main concourse when you visit Manzy this season. Numbered copies autographed by the author are available. Following the "Copper on Dirt" weekend I stayed over in Phoenix a few days for relaxing and checking sites in the Valley of the Sun. On Monday, Feb. 18 about noon I visited Billy Boat's B & B Performance Exhaust business at 23045 N. 15th Avenue near Deer Valley Airport about 20-miles north of downtown Phoenix. When you enter the modern two-story gray and red-horizontal stripe building the first thing you notice is the dark green and white numeral No. 11 Conseco 1998 Dallara Indy Car body hanging on the lobby wall near the ceiling. It was the A. J. Foyt-owned car that midget/sprint car star Boat qualified for the 1998 Indianapolis 500 pole position. Billy won a new Harley-Davidson Sports motorcycle as the Indy 500 pole-sitter and that H-D motorcycle is on display in the lobby as well. It has never been started or taken for a ride on streets or highways. The lobby also has on display a yellow Corvette back end showing one of his firm's dual exhausts for prospective customers. Billy, who turned 42 on February 2, began racing in Arizona and Manzy was his home track. He raced CRA sprint cars in the 1980s and drove Bruce Bromme's red sprinter to the all-time non-wing one-lap track record at Ascot Park during the track's final season in 1990. He also drove John Lawson-owned midgets in the 1990s. Billy won three USAC Turkey Night Midget Grand Prix 100-lap features at three different dirt tracks from 1995-97 at Bakersfield, Perris and Ventura. He won 18 USAC Western features during 1995 en route to the series championship. He was the series title runner-up in 1994 and 1996 and he piled up 36 main event wins on the circuit and 9 national midget career triumphs. Billy raced USAC Silver Crown cars from 1991 until he became an IRL Indy Car driver. He drove the No. 99 car for Pagan Racing in 1996. Driving the No. 11 Conseco G-Force/Olds Aurora for A. J. Foyt in 1997, Billy charged from 22nd to finish 7th on 5/2797 as an Indianapolis 500 rookie. A week later on June 7 at the 1.5-mile Texas Motor Speedway Billy drove the same G-Force/Olds Aurora and finished second to Arie Luyendyk. That's the race where Billy drove into victory lane, but Arie walked in to protest that he had won the race. Then A. J.angrily threw his infamous punch at him. Arie won his assertion and had a full lap (208) on runner-up Boat's 207 in a 26-car field. Davey Hamilton was Foyt's second driver that year in the No. 14 car. Billy won his one-IRL Indy Car feature at Texas Motor Speedway in 1998 driving Foyt's No. 11Conseco Dallara. A. J. kept that car. Billy drove his last race in 2003 and then devoted his time to building his successful business and helping his son Chad race. Billy had his 80,000-sq. ft. building built to order and he owns it. He has space for tenants in the modern, attractive building and there are no vacancies. Billy's company now employs 60 people, including his own family members. Mom handles bookkeeping/accounting for Billy's firm and "keeps track or the money" as she put it. He wisely put his race track earnings to use in establishing his business. Dad Bill Boat is involved as well, so three generations of Boats make the racing division work. Billy's brother Mike works in exhaust system sales. I spoke to Mike, 37, during my visit. He was the 2002 USAC New Mexico/Arizona Sprint Car champion when he won three of 11 series races (Tucson, Aztec, N.M and San Felipe Pueblo, N.M) and won the championship over Rick Ziehl by 143-points; 65 drivers scored series points. Mike also was a USAC Western States 360 cu. in. sprint car competitor in his own No. 74. Mike, who lives in Glendale, AZ with wife Jennifer and their two daughters, retired in 2005 because of back problems that also kept him from working as a crew chief. The Boat Racing shop is in a separate, spacious, modern and super-clean race shop across a dead-end street, appropriately named Victory Lane. It houses all seven Boat racing cars--two dirt Maxim sprint cars, two dirt Spike midgets, plus paved track sprint and midgets-all white and blue cars carry No. 30. There is a No. 30 show car without engine. Billy's son Chad was born on 1/30/92 so 30 is appropriate. Third generation racer Chad is a sophomore at Sandra Day O'Connor High School in the Deer Valley community of northern Phoenix. Billy and his wife Andrea, a 7th grade school teacher, have two daughters (Brooke and Emily)--born after Chad. Billy's step-daughter Trisha is 21 an about to graduate from Arizona State University in Tempe. Personable and friendly Chad resembles his dad Billy in smaller physical size, but they both have a heavy throttle foot. Chad is an excellent student and carries a 3.8 grade point average on a 4.0 scale. He will keep up with his high school courses with the cooperation of his teachers while he races this spring in the Midwest. Chad had a brief foray in the Midwest last summer at age 15 as a learning experience. I spoke to Chad, Billy and Bill in their shop Monday as they worked on their midget and sprint cars that both finished sixth two nights earlier in Saturday night features at Manzanita. Chad started his Spike/Esslinger midget 9th and finished 6th in the 25-lap main with 23 of 29 starters racing at the end and all on the lead lap. Then Chad started his Maxim/Chevy sprinter 24th and finished 6th in the 40-lap feature for an impressive gain of 18 positions. There were 29 starters and 22 finishers, with 15 drivers on the lead lap. Clearly the young man is a racer. Following the "Copper on Dirt" Chad raced at the Las Vegas half-mile dirt track on Feb. 28-29 in the USAC-CRA sprint races. He did not finish either feature and earned positions 17 and 20. Chad and Billy brought their No. 30 Maxim to Perris Auto Speedway near Riverside, CA for the March 8 USAC-CRA sprint race. Chad flipped spectacularly four or five times on the turn 3-4 crash-wall and did not race that night. A week later on March 15 they raced their No. 30 with USAC-CRA at Manzy and finished 18th-another DNF. The Boats said their racing plans for 2008 call for relocating their midget/sprint car team to Indiana to further Chad's career. They departed in late March for the Midwest. Their first races were to be the USAC sprint car event at Eldora Speedway in Rossburg, OH on Sat. April 5 (postponed by rain to May 10) and the USAC midget race Sunday, April 6 at the paved quarter mile Anderson, IN track. After leaving the Boat's race shop I visited Turf Paradise Race Track, the thoroughbred horse racing track that runs north/south at North 19th Ave. and Bell Rd in northern Phoenix. It opened in 1956. As a fan of auto racing I couldn't help but visualize a Silver Crown race in that beautiful setting. Such racing happened at horse racing tracks Bay Meadows in San Mateo and at Del Mar north of San Diego on 10/20/96. Jimmy Sills won the 100-lap 24-car race in 1996 on the picturesque Del Mar mile-dirt track. Other competitors that day included future NASCAR Cup drivers Ryan Newman and the late Kenny Irwin, Jr. At Turf Paradise on Monday, Feb. 18 I watched a pair of mid-afternoon thoroughbred races that had a couple of competitive female jockeys. Turf Paradise is a mile or two north of Thunderbird High School near Windy McDonald's home in the Cave Creek/Moon Valley area. Horse owner/breeder Kjell Qvale's four-year old bay gelding "Tribesman" was shipped to Turf Paradise from California and won the nine-horse $100,000 Phoenix Gold Cup featured race on Saturday, Feb. 16. I wonder if Qvale is the former SCCA sports car race driver/owner of the 1950s-60s era from the San Francisco Bay Area? How many persons with that unusual Norwegian name could there be in California? I also made a visit Monday, Feb. 18 to the Dave Ellis Race Cars shop at 2602 N. 31st. Avenue, at the corner of W. Virginia Avenue and No. 31st Avenue, not far from Manzanita Speedway. Ellis' shop was closed when I arrived after 5:00 p.m. The fenced in back lot at Ellis' shop had surplus metal, race car frames and an engine-less black & white No. 24 sprint car visible from the sidewalk. My choice for best-looking 3/4-midget is the No. 87 NMRA-TQ midget still owned and driven by original owner Ron Ahrendt. Ellis built the car in his Phoenix shop during the late 1980s. Dave also built many midgets and sprints that are still active on various circuits. |
