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Traditional Sprint Car FanSite |
See You At The Races!!! |
| First Race Stories | |
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| Chuck Freeland | |
| First Race at Ascot. Was working for Pop Miller on his car. Broke the steering in time trails. | |
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| Stephanie Kay | |
| All I need to say is MY DADDY!! Thanks!! | |
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| Alex Grigoreas | |
| Well, it all started like this. I got a call from Kinser and he said he wasn't feeling well...... Sorry, wrong story. Really though, I was invited to run Jim Ruth's car at a practice the week before the 96 Oval Nats. The practice went better than expected and he decided to let me run the car at the Oval Nationals. I qualified 15th, ran 5th in the heat and made it all the way to 7th in the Friday night B main. On Saturday, we ran 5th in the B and finished 15th in the A main. To say the least, it seamed easy at the time, but I have been trying to make it seem easy ever since. It was definitely a shock to think that you were hauling the mail and have Cory and Rip pass you in hot laps like you had shut the car off. What a rush. To say that I wasn't nervous would be a outright lie. I was ***ting bricks and I am sure I wet my self somewhere along the way. I had an instant respect for all of the guy's I had been a crew chief for in the past. Shifter karts where not too bad, but SCRA Sprints are the ultimate. | |
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| Tom Stansberry | |
| Racing has been in my family my whole life. When I was a little guy my dad raced sprints for a little but moved on to race stock cars at the Antelope Valley Fair grounds, the track was a tiny one that they cut the morning before the race. He was awesome beating a guy name Ron Horn day Jr. I don't remember much of those days especially the sprint car part. He then went to Saugus and raced pavement. My first sprint car race that I can remember would have to of been at Ascot when my father (Ray Stansberry) took my brother a couple of our friends and me to watch CRA. I remember my whole body vibrating from the rumble of the cars pacing around J.C's playground. Once we got to the top of the grandstands the cars flashed down the front straight away and I thought that's strange on tire is bigger than the other. I asked my dad what that was all about and he said he would show me with a paper cup when we got home. He never did show me but I did figure that one out on my own. What really got me hooked was lap 12 of the main event. I don't know who's car it was or what really happened but I knew I wanted to get closer to the action so I walked down to the front row of the stands to watch the cars come off of turn four when two cars banged wheels and came flying hard into the catch fence just in front of me. The crash scared me so much that I jumped back three or four rows before I realized nothing was going to happen to me. After some time both cars got cut from the catch fence and the drivers were okay. From that moment on, I was hooked for life. | |
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| Bud Hurn | |
| I was 11 years old. It was 1966 I think, (oops, just gave away my age) I still have the vision of A.J.Foyt screaming down the front straight at Ascot in that 4 cam Ford Sprinter as he pitched er in to turn one. I was sitting there in about the fourth row from the top and held my breath along with everyone else as ole A.J. backed that sprinter across the apex of one nearly putting the rear nurf into the outside fence, and standing on the gas he blasted across two and down the back straight. I'll never forget the awesome sound that the ford made out of those straight pipes as he drove away from me and toward turn three. I couldn't tell much about turns three and four but then in a heartbeat he reappeared on the front straight coming straight for me. I remember the frenzy of the crowd as the announcement came blaring through the PA speakers. "A.J. Foyt just set a new track record" Yeah.......I was HOOKED! | |
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| Eric Reiman | |
| I attended my first sprint car race on July 22, 1978 at Calistoga Speedway with my father and uncle. I believe Hank Butcher or Ron Horton won that night. Berry Lewis of Sydney, Australia had one of the worst wrecks down the front straight away I have ever seen (even some 400+ races later). That accident frightened me so bad that I stopped going for about three months but my curiosity got me going again. Calistoga remained non-winged through the 1985 season. In 1986 NARC was all winged. My dad and I had season tickets from 1979 to 1986. We gave the wings a try for one year but did not like them. We knew enough to know that when Louie Vermeil would relinquish his presidency of NARC, the younger board would turn to all wings. We were going to stop all going to the races but wanted to try Ascot once. We loved it and have been following CRA and now SCRA ever since. The day NARC died was the beginning of the 1986 season. I haven't seen a winged race since September 1986 and don't ever care to see one again. | |
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| Michael Folland | |
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I honestly don't recall my first sprint car race. I just can't remember NOT going. I do however, remember the joy I had as a kid sitting in the stands at Ascot. As I got older, my father and I had a deal - If I mowed the lawn, he'd take me to the races. Needless to say, we had the most manicured lawn on the block!
I sat at Ascot with our regular crowd, just behind the "19 second club" wall. We sat with names like Al Barnes, and his son's Greg and John (Barnes Oil Systems - the dry sump system run on many of today's cars), Nick Arias (Arias racing engines), Ed Iskinderian (ISKY Cams), Joe Fontana, Gil and Artie Johnson (parents of midget driver AJ Johnson) and occasionally, Ralph Tracy would make an appearance in the stands (We miss you Ralph). I still remember the ugly plad pants old Ed Isky wore to the races - It was like halloween every saturday night! In my early adult years, I continued to go to Ascot semi-regularly until it's close almost a decade ago. Until the PAS opened in 1996, I attended only 1 sprint car race (at Ventura). Now, I hit every race I can! |
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| Jenny | |
| My first race was in 1985. My boyfriend at the time (now husband) had been going to Ascot since he was a child and had stopped when his ride decided not to go anymore. He asked me if I would be interested in going with him on a Saturday night. So, I agreed and we went. Needless to say, I have been going ever since with him and we even planned our wedding on a Sunday as not to miss a race. | |
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| O. Penn Wheeler | |
| In the early 60’s, after the San Diego Chargers moved into Balboa stadium from LA, they built a dirt track for midgets and mods in El Cajon, and called it Cajon Speedway. We could hear the noise from our house in La Mesa that came from the Speedway on Saturday nite, about 10 miles away, as they ran without mufflers in those days. I asked my dad about the racing, so he took me to a race in about 1965. I think that was the last year before they paved the track and expanded it to 3/8. All I remember was it was loud and very exciting for a 7 year old kid. | |
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