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| Musings
of An Old Racer - Part 3 by Norm Bogan |
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Upon
returning to California, I began attending Ascot NASCAR modified races on Friday
and C.R.A. sprints on Saturday. Some of the names from that era were Oskie,
Olivero, Goudy, Templeman, McElrath, Thompson, East (Jay and Bob), and Simon.
Soon I concentrated my attention to being a Saturday night spectator, as
I had found Nirvana.
I recall as many as 60 cars in the pits, when we had to run two Consi
races. We
got to see the outstanding drivers from all around the country, since most were
still topless. The
Pacific Coast Opens were a Who's Who of racing, with people like Ferkle,
Opperman, Leavitt, Dub and Van May, Bubby Jones, Roger Rager, Jack Hewitt.
Remember an 18 year old named Swindell.
The North-South civil wars brought us Leroy Van Connett, Preacher
Patterson, Jimmy Boyd, Johnny Anderson, Rendy Boldrini, while The
Arizona/California Challenges brought Billy and Ronnie Shuman, Gene Brown,
Darrell Dockery and Lealand McSpadden. As
the seventies faded and the eighties birthed, wings sprouted and division in fan
interest came about.
I'm a purist and I enjoy the non-winged cars, however, I have great
respect for the winged drivers, who have proved that they can be competitive in
a topless car.
I get goose-bumps, when I see the antique cars, especially, from the
rumble of the Offies. In
1985, the racers ventured further than Arizona or Northern California, with the
first Midwest Tour.
Traveling to some of the famous tracks was a great experience for
drivers, crews, and fans.
I made four of the last five tours and got the see places like Knoxville,
Eldora, Williams Grove, and Wichita.
The tours introduced us to many new tracks and helped us to see some of
the unique ideas that bring in the fans.
Husets Speedway and Cedar Lakes Speedway had patio decks that rented by
the year.
Husets also had corporate suites and an enclosed viewing area with
theater type seats and a bar.
Eldora sells reserved seats for general admission plus one dollar.
Williams Grove has a tunnel from the front grandstands to the infield and
a bridge over the back straightaway to those grandstands.
In
1989, the tour visited Granite City, Illinois for the only time.
Its a big half mile like Manzy, but the unique item was that the
announcer's booth was in the center of the infield so that he had to spin around
to follow the action.
Also, in 1989, the tour went to the legendary Knoxville Speedway.
This was the first non-wing race in ten years.
The fear was these cars without the help of a wing would be rocketing
themselves out of the racetrack.
Well the feature went thirty laps of green flag with a classic battle
between Jerry Meyer and Jack Hewitt, with Meyer prevailing.
Many hardcore fans declared this race to be one the greatest and exciting
they had ever seen. A
venture 30 miles west of Eldora, brings us to Winchester, Indiana, home of one
of the famous hill tracks.
This high banked paved half-mile is pretty awesome as you try to walk
from the infield to the wall.
The folks behind Winchester were Roger and Linda Holdeman, who lived
right at the track and took much pride in their shows.
They always treated us like old friends as we visited and shared stories.
We tried, but were never able to get them to put a good layer of clay on
the track. We
lost Roger recently, but we know that Linda is capable of maintaining the
tradition of a fine facility. While
at Williams Grove in 1993, we visited the Eastern Motorsports Museum.
There is a nice display of old cars along with a library with photos,
books and articles, all cataloged.
Lynn Paxton, who is the winningest driver at Williams Grove, has done
much of the restoration and is available as a talented story teller.
The highlight of visit was spending about an hour talking with Tommy
Hinnershitz, who was 81 at the time.
Tommy was one of the most successful open wheel drivers for about 30
years. He
ran midgets, sprints and champ cars and he turned a few laps at Indy. On
display at the museum is a recreation of Tommy's shop along with his Miracle
Power sprint car.
We got Tommy to sit in the car and took pictures.
Tommy related many racing stories, which delighted us all.
Lynn would jog Tommy's memory and then another story would unfold. We
got to see many drivers, some famous and some not, that we have read about over
the years, but who seldom travel to the West Coast.
Shane Carson, Danny Lasoski, Jack Hewitt, Jac Haudenschild, Tony Elliot,
Frankie Kerr, Rusty McClure, Billy Pauch, Fred Rahmer, Smokey Snellbaker, Donnie
Kreitz, Bill Rose, and several Kinsers. My
vote for prettiest track setting is Path Valley Speedway in Spring Run, PA.
This is a red clay track set on the side of a hill overlooking Amish farm
country, with the green fields and white barns and silos.
The worst track vote has to go to Hales Corners, WI.
This third mile flat track reminded me of Saugus except Hales Corners is
supposed to be dirt.
Ron Shuman said it all, when he said that he'd been to a lot of race
tracks, but had never seen wheel packing with an 18 wheeler and that is exactly
what happened.
The track surface was like concrete.
An odd thing about this track was that the starter still stood on the
track at the edge of the infield, just like in the "old days". Limaland
Speedway in Lima, Ohio had wooden bleachers, which must have been built back in
the forties and never repaired since.
Adding to the ambience, was a short crash wall, where if you got over it
in turn one, you ended up in the pond where they got the water for track
preparation. Grandview
Speedway in Bechtlesville, PA probably has the most unique way to exit the
track. You
enter off turn 2 and you exit coming off turn 4, cutting across the infield and
going up and over the bank between turns 1 & 2.
Qualifying looks like a wreck waiting to happen.
For hardcore sprint car fans, central Pennsylvania offers about ten
tracks within a fifty-mile radius of Harrisburg.
While
the purpose of the tours was to see much great racing, new tracks and new
drivers, we also got to do some sightseeing.
While on these tours, we visited the Pro Football Hall of Fame in Canton,
Ohio, Independence Hall and the Liberty Bell in Philadelphia, visited the
Smithsonian and took a Gray Line tour of Washington D.C. and went to Chocolate
World in Hershey, PA.
A
real treat for the two years we went to Pennsylvania, was dinner at the
Shartlesville Hotel.
This was Pennsylvania Dutch style with about seventy-five racers and fans
sitting down and dining on platters and bowls of food and topping it off with
shoo-fly pie and tapioca the size of pearl onions. In
1992, Ken Wagner and I attended the Knoxville Nationals, which in the religion
of sprint car racing is like returning to Mecca.
It's an experience that I recommend for any fan.
There are four days of racing and numerous events during the week.
Knoxville is one city who greets sprint car racing with open arms.
While at Knoxville, you must visit the National Sprint Car Hall Of Fame.
Tom Schmeh has done an outstanding job of accumulating all types of
memorabilia and some finely restored old racecars. One
of the entertaining events at Knoxville, was a visit with Bubby Jones.
Bubby was here with his boyhood friends from Danville, IL.
His buddies were trying to sell Bubby Jones "T" shirts to
finance their trip, but complained that they had to pay people $5 to take them.
Bubby seemed to really cherish these friends, who grew up, raced and
played together.
It was a kick to listen to their banter. In
1987, my friend Tad Lent entered a sprint car in the Copper World races.
The driver was Lealand McSpadden.
I went with Tad to help out and get to see this spectacle up close.
Tad had an old upright '78 Tognotti car from Ascot.
We were running against some pretty exotic cars with offset chassis and
laid-over engines.
The car was running some special Barnes heads, which seemed to give it a
pretty good kick.
Lealand started seventh and was running second at the end of the first
lap. While
battling with eventual winner Bob Frey, for the lead they touched wheels and
Lealand's steering arm broke putting him out of the race. In
1988, Tad brought the car back for Lealand.
He had done some aerodynamic work on the car to gain some speed.
When Lealand took the car out for practice, his head vibrated so bad, he
saw three straight-aways.
Two days of removing the trick stuff finally got it stable enough for
Lealand to drive.
He qualified up front and jumped into the early lead, but was challenged
by Frey. As
Lealand took the checkered, it was an exciting day for Tad and all of the rest
of us. This
was to be the final Copper World Sprint Car Race and we had won!
Since
1989, I have been associated with the WAGTIMES entourage.
I have worked closely with Ken and Terry Wagner in our efforts to keep
the low buck racers on the track through fan contributions.
I have found this to be very rewarding and have developed many
friendships with racers and fans, while involved with this work.
It was an honor to be named C.R.A. Sportsman of the Year in 1993, for my
efforts to support the racers. Just
about every fan has secretly wanted to sit in a sprint car and wheel it around
at speed. Many
of us fantasize about how great we could have been if only we had an
opportunity. Well
I got my opportunity early this year to strap into the Rick Bosscher/Don
Flanders #911 car.
The track was a paved parking lot, instead of a banked clay oval, but I
was in a sprinter and I was running at speed.
What a thrill to take the car into the corner, set it and roll on the
throttle and feel the car launch down the straightaway.
It'll take your breath away.
As
I near retirement, I would like to contribute to the sport by continuing to
write about it.
I am currently preparing driver profiles on many of the lesser-publicized
drivers. In
1996, I was asked to become the Nostalgia Editor for Lead Lap News and Review
and later became the Associate Editor, providing feature stories on different
racing events.
When Lead Lap closed its operation in 1999, I was contacted by
Motorsports Digest to be their Motorsports Editor, contributing various stories
on racing events and human-interest stories.
Recently Speed Media News asked me to draw on my open wheel experience
and provide stories for their publication.
Currently, I am submitting stories to two different tracks for their
programs, doing research for some in-depth stories on racing pioneers and
looking at possibilities of putting together a book with a collection of my
nostalgia stories.
I
love racing and it has been a big part of my life.
As most of you who know me are aware, I'm not a bashful sort and I would
enjoy sharing old racing war stories with any of you.
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