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Traditional Sprint Car FanSite |
See You At The Races!!! |
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OLD
GUYS RULE by Norm Bogan |
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This is the age of many young drivers coming
into grown up racing, while they still are not yet old enough for a
driver’s license, but impressive with their prowess in a racing
vehicle. But this isn’t about them, its about guys with little hair
or at least gray! When the Ventura Racing Association (VRA)
started their own sprint car series, they noticed that a number of
older gentlemen were interested in competing with the youngsters.
Some though, were a little tuckered out after thirty laps and
thought that maybe the features were way too long for concentrated
racing action. The
solution was in hand from a page taken from the Dwarf Car racers,
who split their series into two groups, Pros and Seniors (must be
over 45). So, as the
VRA Sprint Cars debuted, a senior division was established.
The seniors would race about 2/3 of the shows that starred
the pro drivers. Their
features were cut back from 30 to 20 laps, allowing these old guys
to get back to the “home” before curfew. Many of the older racers competed years ago and then went off to find fame and fortune, but still had that burning desire to outrun the other guys. The senior division quickly grew and the field included some former icons on the racing circuits. Oren Prosser, five-time Saugus Speedway champion and winner of hundreds of features in stock cars, joined his son, Oren Jr., who tried sprint cars as a lark and got hooked. Oren now in his early sixties was embarking on an open-wheel career. Ron Butler started racing in his native New Zealand in 1949. Later, he came to America to join Carroll Shelby in the development and testing of the original Cobras, plus the GT-40s and others. Butler bought the original tooling from Shelby and constructed about 100 replica Cobras. He also served as the Crew Chief for Ken Miles on the World Sport Car circuit. Butler built and raced his own midgets and campaigned on the vintage sport car tour. At nearly seventy, Butler acquired a sprinter and went racing. John Richards raced differently, competing on the Super Marathon circuit, winning several hundred-mile foot races. He was also an avid motorcyclist. Richards has ridden in twenty-eight countries throughout the world and made one journey from Alaska to the tip of South America. John is also a pilot with several vintage aircraft that he flies for pleasure. He became the first Senior Rookie of the Year at 69. One of the young whippersnappers is Bruce Douglass, who still has dark hair and looks like a surfer. In fact, he is a surfer and presents his own tournaments on the beach across from the Ventura Raceway. At 56, he still races with both the pros and seniors, keeping him busy nearly every week. A number of former T.Q. Midget racers have stepped into sprints and joined the senior ranks, to name a few, Dale Harwood, Steve Stassa and Wiley Miller. A few former Go-Kart racers have jumped into the action and Jim Porter became the first Senior Champion. The Senior division has become a race for
Grandpa. The crowd is
quite supportive of these old men, who feel they still have a couple
of good races in them. Pro
driver, Kevin Kierce thought the show for the low-buck racer;
WAGSDASH would be a great idea for a senior event.
He collected sponsorships from fans, businesses and suppliers
to put together a purse that would about double the normal weekly
take and dedicated this event to the memory of his father, Jim
Kierce, who was the CRA Rookie of the Year in 1963. In its first year, 2006, Dale Harwood led from start to
finish and pocketed about $1800. On October 20, 2007, racing at Seaside Park
included VRA Pro Sprints, VRA Senior Sprints and the Kierce Memorial
Race. The Pro Main
found Troy Rutherford collecting the spoils.
The Senior Main was significant in that John Richards scored
his first feature victory after some strong runs this year,
following laser eye surgery. It
is amazing how deep you can go into the corner when you can see the
wall. Richards win was
well received and the 76-year-old racer plans to add to that victory
total before retiring. The Kierce Memorial Race was the pinnacle of
the evening, with a group of senior racers, vying for bragging
rights. There were a
couple of altercations and John Richards was hard on the gas, as the
adrenalin from his earlier win had not worn off yet.
What if he could double on the same night?
Well, about the time the question was asked, Richards and
another car tangled and damaged his rear tire sending him to the
sidelines, but the old guys had another ace in the hole, as Ron
Butler went up high and quietly overtook first one, then another
until he was dicing for the lead and suddenly, he was the leader,
holding off the challengers. A
late yellow allowed the field to close up, but Butler showed them
what nearly 60 years of racing had taught him and the wily
74-year-old claimed the spoils. Race fans got to see first hand the
Septuagenarian Shuffle as these two dedicated racers joined the
record books as two of the oldest drivers to score feature wins. This story is a salute to all the racers, who were not willing to sit in front of the television at home, but wanted to be part of the action. Kudos to all those old guys that made racing fun for all. Ventura Raceway and VRA officials are to be commended for putting together these series and continuing to nurture them as they have grown and become one of the best sprint cars shows, week in and week out in the country. Often the combined show of Pros and Seniors will find over fifty cars in the pits on Saturday. For the fans, it was one heck of a night at the “Best Little Dirt Track in America”. |
