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Traditional Sprint Car FanSite |
See You At The Races!!! |
| Saturday
Night Special by Norm Bogan |
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For many of us, it becomes a weekly grind of going to races to cover them from a media perspective. Often we travel long distances and go through the credential shuffle in the pursuit of a story. Don’t take this the wrong way, as I am very pleased with an opportunity to be able to have access to many events and witness some of the shining stars of motorsports along the way. For me personally, I am often committed to covering events with IRL, CART or NASCAR on their national tours, at least following the SCRA sprint cars and also keeping tabs on the competitors at Irwindale. After years of involvement in auto racing, this is my chance to give back something from a sport that I love, by chronicling the events and preparing profiles on some of the competitors to pass along to the fans. It is a rare night, that I don’t have a schedule conflict and must pick and choose which races to cover. On April 8, I was able to return to the grass roots of racing and visit one of my favorite tracks, Ventura Raceway in Ventura, CA. It was a regular Saturday night show, featuring four classes of cars. The headliner division is the VRA 360 Non-Wing Sprint Cars, which presented thirty-one cars for the fans this evening. Also on the card were the I-4 Modifieds, Street Stocks and the CDCRA Dwarf Cars. The stands were fairly full with families and friends of the competitors and hard-core local fans. The same people will greet you each week at the track. One of the neat things about Ventura is that the racers are able to join their families in the stands, once their racecar preparation has been completed. This allows the regular fans an opportunity to meet and greet the racers, establish long-term bonds and in some cases, secure local sponsorships. Ventura is a hometown track, with most of the competitors coming from the nearby communities. Track management has worked diligently with the Fair Board and local enterprises to make this small quarter-mile oval a showplace. You will find all the billboard space is made up of local merchants and racing product companies, many located in Ventura County. One of the early eye-catchers after the scenic location of the facility is that unlike most tracks around the country, Ventura Raceway has a full entourage of equipment, both for safety and service purposes, all painted in the Raceway’s color scheme. This includes everything from the water truck and grader to tow trucks, ATVs and a golf cart. This equipment was all purchased by the Raceway, mostly at auctions, and then refurbished for service. Ventura Raceway has made changes over the years to upgrade the facility, many with the focus on the fan. Several years ago, the old roof was removed and new high-powered lighting installed. The racing surface was made as large as possible without having to remove other fair facilities. This allowed the track to host a number of ESPN “Thunder”, USAC Midget shows. When the SCRA sprint cars scheduled races in 1994, the banking was increased to accommodate these fire-breathing beasts. Last year, in an area behind the grandstands, a fan viewer section was established at the fence adjacent to the pit area. The catch phrase was, “that the fans could go into the pits without buying a pit pass”. Something new this year is Cory Kruseman’s Sprint Car Driving School. The 1999 Non Wing World Champion and 2000 Chili Bowl victor, is passing on some of the knowledge that has taken him from local citizen to racing glory. With the popularity of the 360 Sprint car series over the past several years, many of the racers had gone to Cory for guidance. He decided to capitalize on this and established the school. Many of the racers from the regular VRA series and also a number of SCRA rookies have become students. Cory claims to have schooled over one hundred twenty five pupils. A number of crewmembers and just plain fans have enrolled to get the feel of what their heroes go through each week. Of particular interest tonight was one of Cory’s latest graduates, who after completing the beginning, intermediate and advanced courses, including a flip which was not choreographed, actually wanted to rent the car and race it. Chris Fischer of the Fischer Motorsports #29 SCRA sprinter, was looking to become the world’s oldest rookie at fifty-two. Somehow Chris ended up on the pole for the first Rookie heat race. He was able to parlay this to his first heat race win, leading wire to wire. Gaining entry into one of the regular heats, would afford him an opportunity for a direct transfer to the Main Event or at least another chance through the Semi-Main. Missing the transfer from the heat to the feature and an incident in the Semi put him on the hook and out for the night. Next week, Chris will be telling his regular driver, Michael Smith, just how it is done, but Michael is also a Kruseman Grad. The VRA 360 class has really stepped up their program over the past several years. What started out as a class for hand-me-down racecars has developed into a very representative showing, with a number of the competitors fielding new chassis and nearly every car in the pits was freshly painted, sporting bright color combinations. The races are very competitive and a number of budding stars are developing at this level, which we can expect to see with SCRA or USAC soon. This class has also given an avenue for drivers at the lower levels, such as Pony Stocks or TQ Midgets, a chance to move into the more powerful racers. The I-4 Modifieds also presented some good-looking equipment. These racers run a downsized IMCA type chassis, with a four-cylinder, single overhead cam engine around 2000 cc. You will find various engines, both foreign and domestic running with this class. The CDCRA Dwarf Cars have been a long-standing competitor at Ventura. They put on some good racing in two divisions, PRO for the young lions and SENIOR for the old men in the field. Scaled-down versions of old thirties racers, operate with a 1250 cc motorcycle power plant. Finally, the Street Stocks are the backbone of most of the “hometown” tracks around the country. The cars are basically refugees from the junkyard, with some safety equipment added, operated by a bunch of frustrated freeway drivers. Don’t sell these guys short though, since many of today’s heroes started out a Winston Cup career, at the wheel of Street Stock. For me, this was a night when I was able to just
sit and visit with many friends in the stands and also hobnob with racers and
crews in the various classes, whom I have gotten to know over the years.
It is always a pleasure to go to Ventura, because it is like coming home.
If you have a free Saturday night, try on Ventura Raceway and you’ll
find it will fit. Fan friendly
admissions, good food, great racing and an ambience missing at many of the
big-time tracks, make this as advertised, “The best little dirt track in
America”.
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