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Traditional Sprint Car FanSite |
See You At The Races!!! |
| Southwest Sideways by Ken Adkins |
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Santa Fe, NM - May 28, 2005...More cowbell!
Or in other words here are my quick hits as sprint car racing
heats up along with the weather in the desert southwest.
Over the past three weeks, the temperatures have gone from
highs in the 60’s to well over 90, and for most of the area tracks
the 2005 season is now in full swing. Still waiting for their home track of Hollywood
Hills to open, the New Mexico Motor Racing Association (NMMRA)
kicked-off the 2005 season at the Fairgrounds Speedway in Cortez,
Colorado. A total of 16
sprint cars made the tow from northern New Mexico to the four
corners region of Colorado on May 14th, with
Albuquerque’s Tim West capturing the main event over 2004 NMMRA
champion Jon Taylor and Jason Tanner, the winner at last month’s
Southwest Sprint Car Series show in Las Cruces.
Fourth place was taken by 2004 rookie of the year Jody
Williams, while 2003 champion Bo Baker rounded out the top five.
For West, who made it a clean sweep by also winning his heat
and the trophy dash, the evening was a welcome change in fortune as
he got upside down at Las Cruces and was not able to make the El
Paso race the following day. The
Mach 2 team of 2002 NMMRA champion Tom Ball and JC Powell claimed
the other two heat races, with Ball taking seventh in the main and
Powell getting caught up in an altercation with Kristy Smith and
ending the night early in the pits.
Fairgrounds Speedway is definitely one of the most unique
tracks in the southwest as it is framed on the east by the
snow-capped 13,000 ft. peaks of the San Juan Mountain range, and
track promoter Boyd Hurford and the NMMRA hope to run several more
non-wing sprint car shows at the 3/8-mile high-banked oval during
the 2005 season. With the situation at Hollywood Hills, the
local sprint car drivers are looking for places to race.
So given that, a number of the NMMRA drivers, Tim West
included, will be heading southwest this weekend for the Southwest
Sprint Car Series Hawaiian Challenge Races at the new USA Race
Park’s 3/8-mile track in Tucson.
This two-day show will pit the Southwest Series regulars
against the top non-wing drivers from the Hawaii Motor Speedway.
In addition to the NMMRA drivers, the mainland contingent
will feature regular Southwest series competitors such as Rick
Ziehl, Leighton Crouch, Mike Martin, and the Casey Minks team cars
of John Carney Jr. and Sr. It will be interesting to see how the
Hawaiian drivers fare against this tough competition, as I think
they’ll be at a distinct disadvantage given their lack of
experience on tracks bigger than the quarter-mile Hawaii Motor
Speedway. Saturday’s
show will pay $1,500 to win and $225 to start, while the Sunday show
increases the payout to $2,500 to win and $325 to start.
The hefty weekend purse of over $20,000 offered by Southwest
Series Race Director Hal Burns should ensure that the Hawaiian
Challenge Races will have a strong car count and some excellent
racing. While the Hawaiian Challenge Races mark the
second appearance of the non-wing sprint cars at the USA Race Park
this season, the track has created a regular home for winged-sprint
car racing in Arizona with its own USA Winged Sprint Car Division.
In an effort to increase the car counts, the track has
followed the example of the Southwest Sprint Car Series in allowing
410 powered cars to race alongside 360’s with the use of an
injector insert to equalize horsepower.
So far the USA Winged Sprints have had five races this
season, including one race run in conjunction with the Sprint Car
Owners of Arizona (SCOA). The
legendary Rickey Hood has won four of the races and leads the points
as of the last race on May 14th, followed by Rick Ziehl
and Kaylene Verville. So
far the USA Winged Sprint Cars have been averaging about 15 cars per
show with the joint race with the SCOA drawing closer to 20. Over the past few years the SCOA expanded its series outside of Arizona to include many events at various tracks in New Mexico, including a half dozen Friday and Saturday night double headers at Hollywood Hills last season that drew drivers from Colorado, Kansas, and Texas as well. Similar to the NMMRA, the SCOA has been another series hard hit by the limbo status of Hollywood Hills in 2005. I would not be surprised to see many of the SCOA regulars drop a 360 engine in their sprinters and make the trip to Aztec Speedway in the four corners region of New Mexico for next weekend’s ASCS Rocky Mountain Regional Fiesta Days event. The ASCS Rocky Mountain Region races a little further up the road this weekend at the Thunder Mountain Speedway near Montrose, Colorado. A full rundown of the Memorial Day weekend action in my next column. As usual, information and feedback is appreciated at adkinsrule@aol.com |
