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Traditional Sprint Car FanSite |
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| FRIDAY
NIGHT AT THE SAN BERNARDINO COUNTY FAIR by Norm Bogan |
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On Friday, May 16th, I was invited to cover the auto-racing portion of the San Bernardino County Fair program at what is known as Route 66 Speedway. Last Thanksgiving weekend, I went to see the track and some of the various classes of racecars that competed there. Promoter Rob McDonald announced at that time, that he planned to schedule about seven open wheel events featuring Non-Winged 360 Sprint Cars. A few weeks back, an exhibition practice was held with about a dozen cars participating. Today’s race was the first competition for sprint cars at Victorville. Eight cars took a hot lap period and then ran a twenty-lap feature for the crowd. For many of the fans, it was their first exposure to the open-wheel, open cockpit style of racing. The theme of the program was “Race to the Fair”, designed to pique the interest of the local fair attendees into returning for some of the ongoing racing programs during the next few months. The short field tonight was due in part to the difficulty in traveling around southern California on a Friday, with overstressed freeways. Most of the competitors had to take time off work to get to the track, while others are possibly wrapped up in point chases at different venues and were apprehensive about exposing their racecars to possible damage preventing them from running the following night. In attendance tonight were John Aden, moving into sprint cars after enjoying success in Go-Karts and Micro Midgets. John operates a small track adjacent to this one, where the above cars race in addition to Speedway motorcycles. Local racer, Will Perkins has run in both SCRA and VRA events this year, while Kevin Kierce, former VRA champion, raced the past two years on the USAC Western States series. VRA driver, Richard Terry made the trip up to test the Route 66 Speedway. Keith Williamson, normally with SCRA ran in a 360 car of a friend tonight and was all smiles at the end of the evening, with his best finish in a year after suffering several DNFs in his own car. Chris Smith brought down his Dad’s car that his brother Michael had driven before moving to Texas and also did double duty wheeling an IMCA Modified. Two other entries were made up of a recent transplant from Washington, who had run the winged cars at places like Skagit and another youngster, whose name I didn’t get, completed the field. The feature went green to checker without incident. The track had come in much better than was experienced at the earlier hot lap session and the drivers all seemed to be excited after completing their show. Nobody damaged their racers and each made a few bucks to cover expenses. The crowd seemed to enjoy the “back-em-in” style of driving and the power of the engines launching the cars down the straights. Perkins put on a little extra show for the crowd as he executed a complete 360 spin and continued on, finishing in third position. Aden claimed the victory, followed by Kierce, Perkins, Williamson and Terry. While I was here specifically to cover the sprint cars, this was a special reunion for me. In 1976, I worked with a NASCAR Modified team at Ascot with a driver contending for the season championship. His name was Bob Forster Jr. Well, here we were twenty-seven years later and Bob is still competing in the IMCA Modifieds. It was a nostalgia trip for all of us as I spent some time with Bob and Donna, his wife of forty years. There was a sort of “Déjà vu”, just like the races at Ascot years ago; Bob was sitting on the pole of the feature and in victory circle at the end of the night. Another who raced at Ascot with us in 1976 was Gary Lane, now part of the track management. In addition to the above two classes mentioned, Mini Stocks, Street Stocks and Super Street also competed tonight. Since this was a Fair show, there was a good crowd in the stands and hopefully, some of them were impressed enough to come back for one of the regular shows. They may return because they liked one of the stock car classes or maybe, they were hooked by the more powerful sprint cars. What matters is that auto-racing may have gained a few new fans to support this nice facility. For fans in the high desert region, Route 66 Speedway could be their weekly alternative to traveling an hour or more to other venues. There is a good base of stock cars, many from the local area, which brings in family and friends. If McDonald can get the open wheel program underway, racers from other tracks will want to try out this new racing plant. All in all it was a pleasant afternoon and evening. What more could I ask for, sprint cars plus a reunion with old friends and a night of outstanding racing. If you are ever on your way to Las Vegas, but not feeling too lucky, why not stop short at Victorville and see a good race. |
