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Traditional Sprint Car FanSite |
See You At The Races!!! |
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View From The PAS by Scott Daloisio |
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March 3, 2001 Lets see, opening night at The PAS saw 51 cars in the pits. Of those 51, 30 of them qualified in the 16-second bracket. The track record was broken 4 times in qualifying and in the main event. To cap the night in storybook fashion, Cory Kruseman won the main event on a night dedicated to his late team member Don Barnes. It will be a night that will be remembered for year and years to come… Second night at The PAS there were 53 SCRA Sprint Cars in the pits and as usual, the main event was a thriller with Tony Jones using the outside to pass Cory Kruseman as they came off turn four and headed for the white flag. Kruseman had dropped a cylinder earlier in the race, but the car worked fine on the bottom… It looked like three-time defending SCRA Champion Richard “The Gassman” Griffin finished third behind Jones and “Kruserman” (Rickie Gaunt’s pronunciation). His car crossed the line third, but when SCRA officials weighed the car, it was found to be underweight. He was thus placed last, lost his points and third place prize money… Haulin’ Hollywood John Scott dropped a cylinder as well and later managed to drop an engine. He dumped a huge amount of oil and metal halfway down the back straight all the way to turn three… In addition to Hoseheads & SCRAfan.com, there are a three other web sites to follow SCRA Sprint Car racing. scra.com, wagtimes.com and perrisautospeedway.com… Reading in National Speed Sport news that Ted Johnson is contemplating selling his majority share in the World of Outlaws and that Bruton Smith is a potential buyers is a scary thought, but it gets worse. According to National Speed Sport News, another interested party is Vince McMahon of WWF and XFL fame!!! How many of you SCRA fans are also fans of NHRA Championship Drag Racing? Does Super Rickie Gaunt remind you of multi-time Funny Car Champion John Force or what??? Second time out in his sled chassis, the “Golden Greek” Alex Grigoreas was second fast qualifier and finished 9th in the main… By the way, did you know that Grigoreas drives home with his fire suit on??? Back to the Gardner built Sled Chassis for one moment. Did you know that in two SCRA races at The PAS this year the Gardner built Sled chassis’ have qualified 1-2 each time? Rickie Gaunt was the quick timer in each outing… Hard to believe that Mexican National Champion Steve Ostling has no sponsors on his car. He was telling people in the pit line that he was going to go to a surf shop at the beach and load up on a bunch of “cool looking” stickers to put on the car… The other day I had some extra time on my hands and I started looking at Allan Brown’s National Speedway Directory. I decided to compile a list of the ten most unique names for oval tracks in the USA. First problem was, I could only get it down to 12 so the first two get an honorable mention and they are: Cannonball Motor Speedway (Ohio) and Rattlesnake Raceway (Nevada). Now the top ten: 10. Fireball Raceway (North Carolina), 9. Monster Hall Raceway (Wisconsin), 8. Dog Hollow Speedway (Pennsylvania), 7. Uranium Capital Speedway (New Mexico), 6. Frogtown International Speedway (New York), 5. Devils Bowl Speedway (Texas), 4. Dirtona Speedway (Kansas), 3. Spud Speedway (Maine), 2. Soggy Bottom Speedway (Kentucky). Now for #1: Glad Rag Raceway (New York)… The Pennzoil World of Outlaws makeup date at The PAS is Monday August 17th. Advance tickets are on sale now by calling (909)940-0134… The original PAS date fell victim to rain twice and was rescheduled for March 4th, but when the Las Vegas Motor Speedway had to move their three day show back one day, it conflicted with the March 4th date and forced the cancellation. Sad to say it was cancelled because, like usual, the Vegas track surface was a piece of junk. All dirt tracks have an off night every so often when it comes to the track surface. That is the nature of the game. However, the Vegas track never seems to be right… Unique car in the pits the last time SCRA was at the PAS was the #81 driven by two-time USAC TQ Midget Champ J.J. Ercse. It was powered by a 302 Ford… Jim Scribellito, who made his SCRA debut two weeks ago is a former Dwarf Racer here at the PAS… Nice job by 18-year-old Ventura 360 driver Greg Taylor on the 3rd of March at the PAS. Running against a field of 410 cars, he qualified in the top 10 and took 14th in the 30 lap main. This kid is gonna’ be a good one… Surprise visitor to The PAS on March 3rd was 2000 USAC National Sprint Car rookie of the year Bud Kaeding. Driving as a teammate to Jimmy May in one of Cory Witherall’s identical (#61 & #61X) blue sprinters, Kaeding finished sixth in the “B” main, missing the transfer spot by two positions… Brian Venard was engaged over the winter. For power this year Venard is driving an ex-Mark Kinser Mopar… The World Famous Tom Downing got married and he and his wife are awaiting the birth of their first child. Look for “World Famous Tom” to be back on the track later this year… The “King of Trona” Michael Smith became the proud parent of a baby girl over the winter… One of the nicest looking cars in the pits at the opener was the #14 of Bobby Graham. To go with it the Silver State Motorsports Team has a beautiful new hauler… Speaking of haulers, remember about 20 years ago when a team was considered high buck if they had a van or pickup painted the same color as their car and open trailer. Oh yeah, to be cool the trailer had to have an enclosed tool box? Oh my, have times ever changed… How many of you are fans of Speedway Motorcycle Racing? Do you remember Southern California legend Wild Bill Cody? His son Bobby should be in a 410 Sprint Car sometime soon. Cody and Tom Burba were in the pits on the 17th looking for a chassis. Cody already has a sponsor for a 410 engine lined up. Burba, who in his riding days was known as “The Nicest Guy in Speedway,” would like to jump into a Sprint car as well… Needless to say Dale Earnhardt was a great NASCAR Winston Cup Driver. Arguably the best of all-time. Had he so chosen early in his career, he had the stuff that would have made him a great sprint car driver, too… |
