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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. - I made my annual trek to Phoenix and
"The Valley of the Sun" which lived up to its sunny
reputation for three days (Friday 3/21-Sunday 3/23) of top quality
open-wheel racing. The venues were the four races in one event
26th Copper World Classic at the mile, paved Phoenix Int'l Raceway
with USAC Midgets, & Silver Crown cars, plus IRL Infinity Pro
Series & IRL Indy Cars. My other stop was at promoter Keith Hall's fast, half-mile clay Manzanita Speedway amid the auto junkyards of SW Phoenix. The two tracks are only 17-18 miles apart and the trip only takes about 25 minutes via State Route 85 (Buckeye Road). This column will review only Friday-Saturday night racing at Manzanita. The PIR-CWC will follow in my next column. With so many out-of-state visitors in the area for the CWC, Manzanita wisely tapped into the augmented attendance possibilities by adding two SCRA sprint car races to their schedule some years back. The rewards were immediate for fans, track management and the Southern California-based sanctioning body (SCRA) with the Phoenix-area president (Ron Shuman). This year was the "3rd annual Gary Sokola Classic" for SCRA at Manzy. Mark Sokola, Gary's son and a former CRA sprint car driver, represented the family of the late CRA president and USAC Sprint Car Coordinator. Dick Jordan, USAC V-P Communications, came from his duties at the PIR-CWC to Manzy Saturday night for a joint presentation of the Sokola race trophy to the winner. Extra cash for the main event and lap prize money for all 40 laps were part of the event again this year. The 16-page Manzanita Speedway $3.00 race program showed 43 SCRA entries and featured profiles of drivers Cory Kruseman, 32, Levi Jones, 20, and Tony Jones, 32. The program listed all 40 lap sponsors and had six photos from ace photographer Stan Hansen of broad-sliding SCRA sprinters. Fan-favorite USAC driver Jack Hewitt, who finished 11th in the 1998 Indianapolis 500, was seated at a table inside the main entrance to Manzy selling and signing his new book, titled "Hewitt's Law". His co-author Dave Argabright, the noted journalist, broadcaster, author, was present also with Jack and his wife Jody. Speaking of books, former CRA/IMCA sprint car driver Buzz Rose, of Phoenix, has his new book about CRA-the early years (1946-79) more than half finished. Buzz told me his first of two books on CRA will be for sale before the end of this year. Then he will work on his second CRA book (Part II) that will cover 1970-1993. Manzanita, which has races scheduled this year from March 1 to November 22, conducts races each Friday and Saturday night. It is home to AZ 360 non-wing sprint cars and SCRA 410 non-wing sprint cars, AZ Midgets, IMCA dirt modifieds, super stocks, dwarf cars, winged mini-sprints, bombers and factory stocks. Attendees for the SCRA races included announcer Pat Sullivan, from Indiana, who handled interviews both nights at Manzy from the infield via a wireless mike. IRL Indy 500 car owner Ron Hemelgarn and all his team from PIR, including driver Buddy Lazier, attended Saturday night. Tulsa Chili Bowl Midget Classic promoter Emmett Hahn and an abundance of out-of-state visitors spectated as well. Manzy's parking lot Saturday night was full before time trials started and drivers had to park their cars as far as a block or two away on 35th Ave. and Broadway Road. SCRA had 45 cars present Friday night and 41 cars on Saturday, including the first four finishers from the Friday night main who had byes to Saturday's feature. Levi Jones, from Olney, IL, was missing from the No. 38 Glenn Crossno sprint car ride Saturday night and the car sat inactive in the pits. Jones had received injuries at PIR late Saturday afternoon during the 15-lap consolation race for Silver Crown cars that qualified 25th and slower Saturday. He crashed the Glenn Crossno S/C No. 18 on lap 7 in the first turn with Teddy Beach and was being checked at a hospital for possible injuries. Manzy's track was lightning fast Friday and the one-lap track record almost fell during the 6:53-7:42 p.m qualifying runs by the 45 cars. Local driver Bob Ream, Jr, the 16th driver to qualify, turned laps of 18.808 and 18.626. That was close to the 18.551 (97.030 mph) SCRA track record set by Brad Noffsinger during 1999. Long-time Manzy track announcer Windy McDonald was in his usual mid-season form at the start of the season. I loved the joke he told over the PA system about the church painter who thinned his paint and then became contrite. SCRA races Friday began at 8:00 and concluded at 10:19 with Richard Griffin's flag-to-flag dominant victory in the 20-lap preliminary main event in Ron Chaffin's No. 50. SCRA Saturday races at Manzy started at 8:30 and concluded at 11:19. Griffin, Troy Rutherford and Jeremy Sherman led the exciting feature. Sherman was 2.97 seconds (about 40 yards) in front of Griffin at the finish with two lapped cars between them. It was Sherman's second consecutive Sokola Classic victory before a near capacity crowd. Sherman started 20th and finished seventh in the Friday main event. On Saturday he started 15th and won the 40-lap main in the No. 21 Dave Ellis Chevy, prompting infield announcer Pat Sullivan to say, "in two nights at Manzy Sherman passed more cars than Michael Schumacher (Formula One World Driving Champion for Ferrari) passed in years." Sherman then praised his Ellis chassis and "an engine that puts out great horsepower". |
