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Traditional Sprint Car FanSite |
See You At The Races!!! |
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LOOKING
BACK AT 2006 by Norm Bogan |
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Each New Year starts with anticipation of an
outstanding racing season. My
season started in the second week of January with four days in Tulsa
for the annual Chili Bowl event. I decided to spend this year enjoying racing
and not have an allegiance to any particular groups.
I wanted to watch my old friends, but also make new
acquaintances at different venues.
It was this quest that took me to Central and Northern
California on a number of occasions following the exploits of the
SCRA 360 sprints and several groups of Wingless Spec Sprints.
I met many new drivers and established new friendships with a
lot of grassroots racers and fans. First on the agenda was the opening event for
USAC/CRA Sprints at Perris, the dreaded “day show”.
Usually, afternoon sun coupled with prevailing breezes sucks
moisture from the racing surface, presenting the fans with a dry
slick track that consumes tires like the cookie monster.
Well, the racing gods teased us with a somewhat overcast sky
and only gentle breezes. This
day race had a tacky track and treated the fans to a new season with
some outstanding racing. For the next month or so, Mother Nature picked
Saturdays to spritz the soil and a number of opening shows were
rained out. I did get
to the VRA Awards Banquet and a week later the open practice at
Ventura, debuting the new Junior classes of Mini Dwarfs, Junior
Midgets and Junior Ford Focus.
Just about the time the cars entered the track, it started to
sprinkle and got stronger, canceling the day’s activities. March, I spread around some racing with CRA at
Perris, Stocks on the Irwindale macadam, VRA at Ventura and then
rainouts at Chowchilla and Ventura the following week.
April presented five weekends all filled with racing,
featuring two CRA shows at Perris, SCRA at Chowchilla, Stocks at
Irwindale and VRA at Ventura. May
brought me to Ventura for the first two weeks with a Sunday at
Joe’s Garage for the annual Racer’s Reunion.
A Grand Slam race at Bakersfield and CRA at the PAS finished
off the month. June featured VRA & USAC Midgets at Ventura
and CRA shows at Ventura, Santa Maria and Perris.
July started off with VRA & Midgets at Ventura and then
Stocks at Irwindale. On the 12th of July, my racing
buddy, Lance Jennings and I departed to partake of Indiana Sprint
Week (seven races in nine days).
Lance had never been to any of the Indiana tracks, so it was
our quest to see as many as we could during our thirteen-day
odyssey. Thursday was
the first day of Sprint Week at North Vernon, so we left our
Indianapolis base and traveled to Salem to visit one of the famous
“hill tracks”. While
in Salem, we stopped to check out Thunder Valley Raceway, a
quarter-mile clay track. Returning
to North Vernon, we diverted by Brownstown Speedway, site of a long
ago CRA show and then returned to Twin Cities Raceway Park for the
opening race. Friday was a short jaunt to Bloomington, but
why not check out Paragon Speedway? A small detour and we got to visit with the promoter for
while, before continuing on to Bloomington.
Saturday was the longest drive to the southwest corner of
Indiana and Tri-State Speedway at Haubstadt.
We didn’t visit any extra tracks, but enjoyed our evening
of racing at a track that was new for both of us. Kokomo has always been known as the
“Sunday” track. For
years, Kokomo was a “huggy-pole” track.
Recently, the racing surface was given a facelift, moving the
backstretch out and reconfiguring the banking, creating more
sweeping turns. Now the
fast way around is up on top. Monday was a recess day from Sprint Week, so
this was a good day to take in a few more racetracks.
We started at Anderson Speedway, home of the “Little 500”
and then journeyed up the road a bit past the Muncie Dragway to the
second “hill track” at Winchester.
The caretaker invited us to take a lap on this fabled
racetrack in our rental car. We
now hold the unofficial track record.
Just thirty miles to the east over the Ohio border is famed
high-banked, half-mile clay track at Rossburg, better known at
Eldora Speedway. As we
wandered around the facility, they were cleaning up from the past
weekend’s King’s Royal. Well,
it was still early in the afternoon, so it was on to Liberty,
Indiana and Union County Speedway, where some major upgrades were
being completed. Heading
back to Indy, we stopped off in New Castle to visit Mount Lawn
Speedway, a unique paved tri-oval quarter-mile.
Think of Pocono being dropped into a baseball park.
As the sun dipped low in the west, we approached the Indiana
State Fairgrounds, site of the Hoosier Hundred and were able to
drive right up to the track and walk on part of the one-mile
dirt-racing surface. The
tally was six tracks for the day, but no races.
Tuesday was the second recess day and we
started early at the Indianapolis Speedrome.
We found the gate open, as was the case at nearly every
racetrack in Indiana. All
we wanted to do was look over the facility, which neither of us had
seen. The designated
gendarme approached us and said that we couldn’t be there, so we
gave him our identification as members of the Media, but he wasn’t
impressed and said his boss would be upset.
I then told him we were considering buying the place, but
would need more understanding employees.
This is the only track of the tour that found it necessary to
oust us, while most were more than cordial. The next several hours were spent at the
Indianapolis Motor Speedway. It
was like a pilgrimage to Mecca, touring the museum, trying to absorb
the aura of “Greatest Spectacle in Racing” and then taking the
track tour, allowing us to visit the “yard of bricks”
(start/finish line) and stand atop the Formula One podium, just like
Michael Schumacher. Visits were made to the extensive four-story Media Center and
to the suite complex along pit road.
These are “Must-Dos” for any visitors, well worth the
money! In the late
afternoon, we traveled out to O’Reilly Raceway Park (ORP)
formerly, IRP. We got
to see both the 5/8 mile paved oval and also the drag strip, which
was preparing for evening grudge races.
Completing our second day of racetrack visits was Lincoln
Park Speedway in Putnamville. As
we were checking out the track, the promoter’s wife came by and
invited us to return for their special show on Saturday evening.
Wednesday was our return to Sprint Week at the
I-69 Speedway in Gas City. We
added another track with a visit to Montpelier Motor Speedway, not
too far from Gas City. The
gate was locked, but we could get close enough to view the facility,
which is supposed to be a pretty good Modified track.
Gas City was the fifth night of Sprint Week.
This venue is known as one of the best Friday night
racetracks throughout the year.
Thursday, we took a leisurely drive to
Lawrenceburg, in the southeast corner of the state along the Ohio
River. I hadn’t been
there since 1998 and immediately noticed the upgraded grandstands
and restrooms that had been added.
The track sits in the shadow of the longtime Seagram’s
distillery, which is now being converted into an ethanol refinery.
A couple of early arriving haulers had staged in the pit
area, before the pit gate was secured and everyone else was queued
up at the gate in a long line.
Track and USAC officials seemed reluctant to open for
business and finally the announcement was made that the show was
called because of imminent rain.
Rain did arrive about 4:30 the next morning.
Something was rotten in Lawrenceburg!
Friday was the last show at Terre Haute.
Racers had set up in the pits and were chomping at the bit to
get on the fabled Action Track.
Well over the past couple of decades, Terre Haute has run a
close second to Hales Corners, Wisconsin for rainouts.
In an effort to gain status, the show was cancelled after a
light shower, creating a lot of hate and discontent amongst the fans
and racers. Sprint Week
was declared over and Jon Stanbrough was named as the Champion for
2006. Well, if you can’t see a race, you go where
you can see racers. Returning
to Brownsburg, we met up with former California buddy, Don
O’Keefe, who took us on a tour of the new Gasoline Alley in
Brownsburg and some of the shops in the area.
We had a good Mexican dinner and bench-raced until about 1:30
a.m. Saturday would be our final racing date and we
arrived at Lincoln Park Speedway at Putnamville for this big purse
event. Most all of the
Indiana teams were on hand. During
our little adventure, Lance and I visited twenty-three racetracks,
seeing six races and two rainouts. The last Saturday of July found me at Santa
Maria for the second leg of the Grand Slam series.
August included travels to two CRA shows at Perris and one at
Santa Maria, plus a SCRA show at the reopened Kings Speedway in
Hanford. September
brought the Grand Slam series to Ventura for two shows over Labor
Day weekend. The
following week was CRA at Ventura, then Spec. Sprints at Chowchilla
before going to Arizona for a Friday/Saturday program at Tucson and
then Manzanita. The
final Saturday was VRA at Ventura.
October was the start of many of the big “end of the
season” shows. The
first weekend, I attended the two-day Dirt Nationals at Kings
Speedway, following with the two-day Wingless Sprint Nationals at
Chico’s Silver Dollar Speedway on the next weekend. Returning to work after the weekend at Chico, I
fell and broke my ankle, proving the point that work can be
hazardous to racers. For
the next five weeks, I was on the shelf.
Finally, on Thanksgiving, I made it out to Irwindale for
Turkey Night, where I was able to maneuver my wheel chair, skipping
the pits. On the first
Sunday in December, now able to maneuver in a walking cast, I took
in the Ventura Racers Swap Meet.
Plans for Chili Bowl have been cancelled so next season will
start some time in February. This season tallied racing events at seventeen
different racetracks, taking in a total of 48 programs.
I missed nine additional days of racing due to my broken
ankle. One of the
enjoyable things about this season was the fact that I spent more
time at the little fairgrounds throughout California, experiencing
grass roots racing. Many
new friendships have been cultivated around the state, while tales
have been created about several of these people.
Next year, I will probably continue to follow racers from
around the state. I
must acknowledge the courtesy of the various racing venues that have
given me access to their racers.
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