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Traditional Sprint Car FanSite |
See You At The Races!!! |
| HOT LAPS WITH NORM BOGAN
#04C by Norm Bogan |
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After a couple of months of turmoil, mostly in the minds of the fans who are coping with the off-season blues, racing broke out in southern California. While some fans are purists, meaning they don’t consider World of Outlaw Sprints in the same genre as real racecars, sans the roofs, many chose WOO over another week of no racing and only several Message Boards to vent on. Trust me, the message boards will be alive now with criticism of winged racing at the revered Perris Auto Speedway, compounded by a companion feature of Taxi Cabs (Western Dirt Late Models). This should keep the rabid fans occupied until their style of racing begins next Saturday. Now was the show as bad as the first paragraph sounds? Not really, but the racing is different than what the seasoned non-wing sprint fan expects. Actually, the Late Models probably simulated the non-wing sprinters more than the Outlaws, with some good, clean side-by-side racing. Only one altercation occurred when a car fishtailed and spun in front of about three others, causing enough damage that only one of the contestants was able to restart. A member of an iconic racing family from the Salinas area, Bobby Hogge IV, captured the feature. Bobby advanced to Late Models from the IMCA Modified ranks at the end of last year. Hogge acknowledged the help and assistance from his buddies, who are also his sponsors and made an open invitation to any interested parties to come on board as a major sponsor in a quest for the season’s championship. Bobby has shown that he has the skills to get the job done. Twenty-seven cars clocked in for the World of Outlaw show. Danny Lasoski is three for three with quick times for the new season, turning the PAS oval at 14.112, tied later by some guy named Kinser. Most of the teams chasing points on the Outlaw circuit were present, with several from the Northwest coming in to challenge on the Outlaws Western Swing, joined by a couple of local drivers, who just want to brag that they raced with the Outlaws. Naturally, the WOO regulars are the fastest cars and the format is devised to keep them at an advantage, by inverting the fastest six in heat races and transferring the top six finishers to the feature. Sammy Swindell, Joey Saldana and Jason Sides gathered in the heat race victories. The top sixteen cars then ran two dashes to set up eight front rows inside and outside. The B Main transferred another six cars to the back of the feature with Washington’s Jason Sowold collecting the spoils. The A Main lined up with Jason Meyers and Craig Dollansky on the front row. Funny, that is how they finished also. It wasn’t quite that easy though, as that Kinser guy, the one they call the King, didn’t appreciate a starting spot beyond the front row, so derailing that section of the freight train, passed Dollansky on the second lap and Meyers on the fifth lap and motored toward feature victory 499. Meyers showed no respect for the King, taking the lead back on Lap 16, only raising the King’s ire, who promptly set the pesky Meyers back in a proper place, SECOND. Life was good for Steve Kinser, until he had a close encounter first with a lapped car and then the backstretch wall. Kinser suddenly slowed and pulled to the inside with a flat right rear tire, only to collect Dean Jacobs, parking them both in turn three. Meyers dashed by on Lap 29 taking the checkered flag, claiming his first victory for his new team. Meyers was very gracious in Victory Circle, thanking his crewmembers for their efforts in providing a racecar that allowed him to dice with the King. Meyers appears to have a strong team and coming off his substitution assignment for the injured Craig Dollansky last season, could be a power to deal with this season. By the way, it was noticed that Steve Kinser has two haulers and two #11 cars. One car was painted the green and white Quaker State colors with the familiar #11 and the other was a red, white and black #11k with a skinny, bespectacled kid named Kraig hanging around. Steve claims it is his kid and so does that make him the Prince? I will tell you this; it looks as if Kraig’s apprenticeship with Grandpa, Bobby and now fine-tuning by Dad, Steve is turning this nineteen year old into one heck of a racecar driver. Young Kinser scored an eighth place finish in the feature and seems like a pretty nice guy too! The hardcore sprint fans finally got a methanol injection and all should be good on the left coast. Next week will start the new season for the non-winged racers, with the opening USAC/CRA show at Perris and the popular VRA 360s at Ventura. The bywords for this week is, “Let the racing
begin”!!
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