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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 took a trip back in time (for the first
time since 1999) to Jim Naylor's beach-side Ventura Raceway on
Saturday, March 8 for a three-division Ventura Racing Association
show-Pro Sprints, Senior Sprints and Pony Stocks. The Seaside
Park oval is known officially as "The Best Little Dirt Track in
America" and unofficially as "The Roar by the Shore"
in racing circles. The banked, fifth-mile clay bullring is arguably the most picturesque track in the nation. With Pacific Ocean waves and surfers in the background, the north/south Amtrak and freight railroad tracks and Highway 101 just beyond the backstretch, and hillside homes in the distance, how could any other track match the setting? Palm trees even provide shade in the pits and add to the unique nature of the fairgrounds. Some teams even use the space between barns in the north pits for their pit stalls. Ventura's racing season extends eight months from March to November. The VRA car-turnout March 8 on a low-60s day and mid-50s evening was impressive. There were 36 Pro Sprints, 25 Senior Sprints and 19 Pony Stocks. Six sprint cars did double duty, with separate drivers in the Pro and Senior Divisions. Ventura had an excellent, informative 28-page printed program on sale for $2. Admissions were reduced this year to $12 for adults and $10 for seniors. Parking is $3. To be a better neighbor, starting time for racing was moved forward to enable racing to conclude before 10:00. Pits open at 2:00, car tech is 2:00-5:00, drivers meeting is 4:00. Warm-ups, wheel-packing and hot-laps for all divisions are 5:00-6:00 and the first race is 6:00. All main event trophies are given to drivers and interviews are conducted over the PA system from the front straight at the completion of the final race. After weathering a post-season move to end racing at the Ventura track, Naylor got a one-year contract renewal from the Ventura County Fair Board to continue racing in 2003. Thousands of racing supporters helped make the continuing of a 25-year Ventura racing tradition possible by their signed petitions, E-mails to authorities and vocal attendance at fair board meetings. An 18-paragraph story in the Los Angeles Times (page B.6) on March 8 revealed that the fair board is developing a master plan for Seaside Park that may not include racing. An upscale restaurant at Seaside Park is planned. Ventura is developing quickly. Former thrift stores on nearby Main St. have been replaced by upscale boutiques. Real estate developers are building million dollar hillside condos and penthouses with views of the Pacific Ocean. With the economy in the doldrums and the unsettled world political situation, the best one can hope for is a series of one-year renewals for racing at the site. Fans should fill the grandstands this year in a solid show of support for racing in Ventura. The VRA Pro Division list in the program has 71 cars and the VRA Senior class shows 24 cars. What is so impressive is the way VRA teams have upgraded their equipment. Most of the cars are new TCRs and Stingers and no longer old Gamblers or Stealths. They are not just older CRA or SCRA sprint cars. Paint jobs and graphics are attractive on most cars. Most of the sponsors are small firms or family businesses. While some teams compete only locally and haul their cars on open trailers, many teams now have modern enclosed trailers. VRA Pro Sprint teams are scheduled to hit the road more in 2003--to Perris seven times and Bakersfield twice --so that equipment upgrade is to be expected from teams chasing VRA points. There are 27 VRA Pro and 13 Senior Sprint race dates scheduled this season. SCRA Pro Sprints had 44 and 34 cars at Perris for the first two events during February and had 36 cars at their home track opener March 8. It is interesting to note that former CDCRA dwarf car drivers (e.g.-Tom Stansberry and Ron Bach) and USAC TQ-Midget drivers (e.g-Chris Wakim, Wiley Miller, Richard McCormick, Steve Conrad, Jeff Heaton, Dale Harwood, and Gene Godepski) have made the jump to VRA 360 c.i sprint car racing. Stock car racing sent Oren Prosser, Sr and Jr; karting sent brothers Josh and Jake Ford, while Midget racing sent Gary W. Howard, Dwayne Marcum, Larry Lloyd, Mike Gilmore and Steve Stasa. The Stasa No. 22-sprint car wears the magenta and chartreuse colors that the late C & W singer Marty Robbins used on his No. 42 NASCAR Winston Cup Dodge in the '70s. When SCRA 410 c.i sprint cars are not scheduled some SCRA drivers like to keep sharp by racing with VRA. Cory Kruseman and Steve Ostling, in a Nygaard chassis built in the Midwest and based in Denver, CO, ran one-two in the March 8 feature. Mike English was aboard the No. 0 Buzz Shoemaker Chevy that fellow SCRA vets Gary W. Howard and Mike Kirby raced during February. English, who drew third grid position for the third heat race, was unable to race because No. 0 broke a crankshaft during 5:00-6:00 hot-lapping. Ron DiDonato, a sprint car vet since the 1980s at Ascot, won his VRA Seniors heat race March 8 and finished third in the 20-lap feature. Sid Carlson, Mike Cook and Wiley Miller are other CRA/SCRA veterans racing with the VRA Seniors. During 2002 VRA Pro Sprints held 24 races and had 11 different main event winners. Greg Taylor scored nine victories, Chris Wakim had three, Josh Ford, Ronnie Case and Tom Stansberry all tallied two. Solo triumphs went to Jimmy "Neutron" Crawford, Tony Dighera, Alan Ballard, younger brother Jake Ford, ex-USAC W/S racer Kevin Kierce and SCRA vet Troy Rutherford. Exactly 100 drivers raced in VRA, an increase of 13 from 87 drivers in 2001. Eleven drivers raced in all 24 VRA point races. First-time sprint car champion Crawford, who resides in Ventura and has ten sponsors on his sprinter, finished in the top ten 21 times in 24 mains. He was in the top five 17 times and had an average finish of fifth, proving that consistency pays off in championships. Ventura Raceway paid out a record $149,100 in purses to VRA Sprint Car competitors during 2002. Champion Crawford took home $10,265 after piling up 19,370 points in the point-rich VRA point system. In 15 VRA Senior races last year there were four main event winners-Wiley Miller had eight, Ron Bach four, Oren Prosser, Sr two and Jim Porter one. First time champion Miller had 13 top ten finishes in 15 features and 12 of the 13 were top fives. However, Crawford's 2003 season started on a sour note. On March 1 his red, white & blue No. 17 VRA sprint car was crashed in VRA's third heat and was parked for the night. Then his SCRA No. 25 Jim Ruth Chevy was heavily damaged on the first lap of SCRA's semi-main when Crawford and Charles Davis, Jr cars collided and flipped several times simultaneously into turn one. When interviewed by promoter/announcer Naylor at Ventura March 8 after winning the first heat race from second starting spot, Crawford said he was sore all week. He added that he used a deep heating rub product and hot showers during the week. Crawford started third and faded to tenth in the 30-lap VRA feature. He was tied for tenth in VRA points as of March 9. Diversity is found in VRA Sprint ranks. There are two female drivers--Kristine Lindahl and Renee Boudreau. Driver ages run from 16 to 71. In fact, Ventura residents 71-year old John Richards (No. 52x) and his son Curtis (No. 7c) both raced in VRA Seniors second heat race March 8 and started next to each other in row two. Dad John finished fourth and transferred to the main, while son Curtis was seventh. Family involvement extends to brothers Wiley and Danny Miller in the Seniors Division, and Danny's son Blake uses his dad's car in VRA's Pro Division. Roy Miller Freight Lines, the family trucking business, sponsors Wiley's No. 75 and Danny's No. 10A. Kyle Hancock drives Ron Bach's second No. 49 sprinter, works for Bach's construction company and dates Bach's daughter. Topping off my March 8 visit to Ventura Raceway was post-racing visits with writer/friend Norm Bogan and scrafan.com guru Lance Jennings in the pits. We talked to VRA teams and drivers for about an hour and then went to Carrow's Restaurant south of the track for food and another hour of bench-racing. I learned from Norm that March 1 VRA 360 sprint car driver Carrie Smiley, from Buckeye, AZ, is married to Tony Smiley, who raced with SCRA in his 410 sprinter that evening. Carrie is the sister of SCRA driver Charles Davis, Jr, of Buckeye. Davis and Bobby Cody have had two flips with SCRA at Perris February 15 and March 1 with heavy damage to their cars both times. I also learned from Norm that Gary A. Howard, the Ventura Raceway 360 sprint car champion several years ago and a many-time sprint main event winner at Ventura, has relocated to Kentucky to build Keith Kunz-designed sprint cars. Their new shop is located near former Phoenix, AZ-based sprint car and engine builder Gary Stanton, who now is the exclusive Mopar engine builder out of Frankfort, KY. Gary A is the son of the late CRA sprint car owner Chuck Howard and the brother of USAC W/S, IRL and Indianapolis 500 starter Bryan Howard. VRA Senior driver Mike Cook, who has the No. 96 Shrike that Jack Gardner's team campaigned in SCRA, raced a bit in the 1990s for Danny Pivavroff's CRA team. Danny Ps son Mike raced in CRA a bit for his dad's three-car team, but the math/physics major at MIT went on to earn his Ph.D and now works in an important job for NASA. Carrows was crowded with VRA racers and fans. The racers friendly banter shows that VRA racing is more for fun than for money and fame. The VRA Pro Sprint "A" main paid $1,000, $750 and $500 to the top three finishers at Ventura and $1,250, $950 and $600 to the top three at Perris for the road shows. VRA offers retrospective "fun" racing in the dirt, the way CRA sprint car teams did it during the l950s, 60s and 70s. |
