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| RACING SCENE Column (Las
Vegas Dirt Classic) by Tim Kennedy |
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Los Angeles, CA. - The two-day (Thur.-Fri. Feb. 28-29) 3rd annual
Dirt Classic on the half-mile Las Vegas Motor Speedway (LVMS) dirt
track again lived up to its name. It was even better this year than
last year with better track conditions and more exciting racing. The
USAC-CRA regional 410 cu. in. sprint car series supplied 26 cars
Thursday and 23 cars Friday, and the touring Western All-Star Dirt
Late Model Series attracted 46 cars Thursday and 45 cars Friday for
group time trials, heat races, B and 30-lap A-main events. Feature
winners in both groups received $3,000. NASCAR's Nationwide and
Sprint series fans were in town for races Saturday and Sunday at the
LVMS 1.5-mile track beyond the dirt track's turns one and two. The
10,000 seat dirt track grandstand was about 50% full Thursday and
almost 75% full of fans Friday. Many fans walked over from the
1.5-mile track Friday after watching Sprint Cup qualifying to see
classic short track action on dirt. They were not disappointed.
Last year the LVMS dirt track "took rubber" from tires and had some dust. This year the track crew had the track downright muddy Thursday for wheel-packing laps and warm-ups. Teams scraped mud off racing cars in the paved pits. The track was right on target for group qualifying by both sprints and dirt late models. Sprints ran four groups of six or seven cars from 7:11 to 7:50 p.m. Dirt L/M drivers qualified in five groups of eight to 11 cars from 7:50 to 8:11p.m. Both sprints and dirt L/M divisions set new 1-lap track records. The USAC-CRA track record of 17.036 set by Robert Ballou (# 81) in March 2007 fell to Mike Spencer's 17.015 Thursday. He qualified in the third of four groups and was the only driver to beat the former track record. The Western All-Star Dirt L/M track record of 19.168, set by NASCAR Cup driver Ken Schrader (# 52) last March, fell to Steve Drake's 18.563 in group five of five. Jimmy Mars and 2006 Tulsa Chili Bowl Midget winner Tim McCreadie won the two Dirt L/M features. The LVMS dirt track used co-track announcers and both were from out-of-state. Chris Stephan, from St. Cloud, MN, and Marshalltown Speedway's Toby Kruse, from Boone, IA provided clear, prompt information all night. The LVMS dirt track did not have a printed program for racing fans. Management received accurate entry rosters from the pits with all sprint car and dirt late model drivers present. Track staff printed lists of both sprint and stock car entrants by car numbers, driver names and hometowns and gave the two lists free of charge to incoming fans at the grandstand main entrance gate. Sprint car drivers came from eight states and one driver hauled his car from Canada. There were 18 drivers from CA, 2 from AZ and one each from IL, MO, NV, OK, SD and WA. Nadine Gardner's car was in the pits both nights but she arrived Friday and raced only night two of two. Dirt L/M drivers came from 12 states and two came from Canada. There were 17 drivers from CA, 14 from OR, two each from MT and NV, and one each from AZ, IN, KS, MO, NE, NY, WI and WY. USAC had a special racers rate at the Texas Station hotel/casino not far from the track in North Las Vegas. Nellis AFB is across North Las Vegas Blvd from LVMS and F-16 jets gave LVMS fans aerial views of their tax dollars at work. FLIPS: There were five sprint car flips Thursday and none Friday.
In order the flippers were: Surprise CRA sprint car entrants at LVMS included Axel Walker, a 48-year old owner/driver from Olympia, WA. He has raced at Perris and made the A-main at Skagit Speedway in his home state when the California-based series raced a pair of races some years ago at Skagit. Jim Richardson, a 60-year old owner/driver from Graeagle (near Quincy, CA), is a long-time former NARC driver. He said his # 8 Rod Tiner chassis was built in 2001 and 2002 and the front half in 2008, sort of like the Cadillac in singer Johnny Cash's song, "One Piece at a Time". Joey Franklin, of Las Vegas, made his USAC-CRA debut in his own dark red, yellow flames on the hood, dark blue number # 4E. The car is a Triple-X chassis made in China and assembled in Washington. Joey works private parties as an Elvis Presley impersonator. He appeared as Elvis in his white jump suit at the 2008 Tulsa Chili Bowl. His Elvis phrases were right on for us in the pits Thursday. He did not finish Thursday and did not compete Friday. San Diego County resident Cole Whitt, 16, made his first start for Cory Kruseman's four-car team. The diminutive red-head who looks a little like NASCAR driver Jason Leffler drove the # 5K Viper/Mopar that Alex Schutte drove earlier this year. Cole, who will turn 17 on June 22, said he has been a friend of Kruseman for years since Cory started racing Glenn Crossno's # 38 sprinter. Cole looked like a sure winner in Thursday's feature for awhile. He started 7th and stormed into the lead with inside passes and led lap 10-14. Dwight Cheney was in the pits at LVMS, but without his # 42 TCR/Mopar that Brady Bacon raced for him in Phoenix and was suppose to drive at Las Vegas. It seems Brady had a stock-car opportunity closer to his Oklahoma home. Cheney came to LVMS as a spectator in the pits without his sprint car. . Jesse Hockett, 24, had his dad and girl friend in the Las Vegas pits. He also appeared to be a main event winner Thursday until a late problem dropped his # 75 VKCC car to P 6. His LVMS ride was the same chassis that he raced at Manzanita Speedway in Phoenix Feb. 16 after the team replaced the 360 engine with a 410 after his second turn flip in the other # 75 chassis. That badly bent frame was at the top shelf of the team's trailer at LVMS and will be delivered back to Joe Devin of DRC Race Cars at Gasoline Alley in Indianapolis. They will cut of the front bars and rebuilt it. The 75 team trailer also was transporting back to DRC two DRC frames owned by Arizonan Jim Massey that were wrecked at the Phoenix Copper on Dirt February event. Massey sponsors upcoming Hockett and he has raced Massey sprint cars in the past. UNUSUAL PUSH TRUCK: One of the most unusual push trucks in racing (in addition to Art & Carol Malies' "Workin' Woody" at World of Outlaws events) worked the LVMS pits and infield. It is a tan 1944 Chevrolet ex-U. S. Army WW II quarter-ton dump truck with the dumper removed. Owner Steve Taylor, of Kingman, AZ, bought the truck 22 years ago after it had been used in the 1960s to haul equipment and materials at uranium mines in Utah. Steve installed a 454 cu. in. 1987 Chevy engine in it to push race-cars. Steve hauled it home with other push trucks on a drive-up flat-bed trailer after hosing off all the LVMS dirt and mud in the parking lot. Retired CRA sprint car driver Stan Atherton, his wife Diane and their 24-year old son were in the Las Vegas pits Thursday. They were in town from their Fullerton, CA home to attend a surprise birthday party for Stan's dad who lives in Las Vegas. He was born on Feb. 29 so as a leap year baby Stan's dad would be celebrating his 19th actual birth date (in 76 years). Stan, 51, said the last time he raced was in November 1991 in a Sal Acosta-owned sprint car. He quit racing because of racing politics and it just wasn't fun any longer. The LVMS dirt track had seven racing two-seater coupes on display behind the main grandstand both nights. The cars raced at the Pahrump, NV track and once at the LVMS dirt track last November on the card with the IMCA Modifieds during the 11th Duel in the Desert event, which will take place again in November 2008. The CRA 30-lap A-main Thursday was a classic, memorable sprint car race. There were three different race leaders and four lead changes. The apparent winner was unpredictable. With an 8-car inversion, Hockett started from pole position and led L 1-9 and 15-24. Seventh starter Whitt executed an inside pass at the starting line and led L 10-14. Blake Miller, 21, came from 13th grid position to pass Hockett on the inside in the second turn on L 25 and led the final six laps in his dark blue # 93 Black Widow Sled chassis. Hockett dropped from 1st to 3rd on lap 25 when he drifted high in turn two. On the final lap (L 30) Hockett lost three more positions and coasted to a halt high in the first turn with a tire going flat at the checkers. "I rode over a brake rotor that came off another car," the disappointed driver told me Friday. CRA sprinters raced high and low and the track remained racy all night, allowing passing anywhere on the track. The track did not take rubber as it did last March. The temperature was a comfortable 72 degrees at 5:30 p.m and still in the low 60s when the 10:33 to 11:10 p.m CRA feature concluded. Jubilant winner Miller stopped at the starting line after his cool-off lap. He climbed out, stood on the roll cage, gave a victory shout-out with his arms raised in triumph. It was the third CRA feature victory for the third year CRA driver. His other victories came at Ventura and Perris. A review of Miller's sensational drive through traffic from 13th showed he was 8th on L 3, 5th on L 8, 6th at L 11 when Kruseman passed him, 5th on L 19, 2nd on L 20 and then 1st at L 25. Cars raced inside and outside and three-wide at times. Miller's # 93 excelled on the inside. From L 17-20 Kruseman and his driver Whitt battled closely with Casey Shuman's Bob Price # 0 in the mix. Second place Kruseman cut into Miller's 15-yard lead quickly during the final four laps as the two leaders ran the inside groove. Kruseman was a car length back at the white flag and appeared ready to pounce, but he drifted high in the second turn. Miller told me on Friday "that's when I knew I had it won." He beat Kruseman by 10-yards, with third place Shuman 30-yards behind Kruseman. Whitt, Tyler Brown, 22, Hockett, 17th starter Levi Jones, Josh Ford, Garrett Hansen and rookies Austin Mero, 16, and Nic Faas, 18, completed the top 11 finishers; all ran 30 laps. Three drivers were down one lap with 14 drivers racing at the finish (RAF). The track announcer was correct when he told the crowd, "Any one of four or five drivers could have won the sprint car main event." The progressive elevation of the 33-rows in the grandstand gave spectators a bird's eye view of all the action; the cars sliding into the first turn were spectacular. Quickest qualifier Mike Spencer was 5th on L 20 at turn two on the outside of Kruseman's # 21K when Cory's car drifted up the track into Spencer's car. The impact shot Spencer's # 50 to the right and it slammed into the wall very hard and spun out. The Spencer car left the scene on the back of a tow truck. Champion crew chief Bruce Bromme, Jr. told me Friday that the # 50 damage included broken front and rear ends, broken birdcage, radius rods and torsion bars, plus three broken wheels. The 50 team had a backup car present, but Bruce decided to repair the damaged car despite some frame damage and Spencer raced it again Friday. I spoke to Tyler Brown Friday about his thoughts during his position-swapping duel for 4th place (final A-main transfer position) with his teammate Blake Miller in the second B-main race on February 16 at Manzanita. "I thought I have to beat him to make the main event. He had a provisional starting position to use and I didn't." Brown finished 4th and Miller 5th, so they both raced in the feature. USAC-CRA sprint teams turned out 23 cars Friday. Nadine and Jack Gardner arrived and raced their # 16 car. They missed Miller's victory in their Gardner # 93 car. Following three sessions of group qualifying, three heats and a 30-lap feature were the only sprint car races. With all cars present going directly to the feature, a B-main was not necessary. Hockett's 17.850 was the fastest qualifying time and the only sub-18 second lap Friday. CRA rookie point leader Nic Faas led all the way in his 8-lap heat for his first sprint car race victory. He came from 11th starting spot to finish 10th in the feature, two positions ahead of fellow impressive CRA rookie Austin Mero. Both teens finished on the lead lap in both mains at Las Vegas. Chad Boat, 16, had bad luck in both mains, being taken out in mishaps both nights. The CRA rookie crop this year appears to be very talented and promising. USAC National Sprint Champion Levi Jones started second and led all 30 laps Friday in Jeff Walker's blue # 11and won by 15-yards over Hockett, with Kruseman 50-yards in back of Hockett. The winner led by 35-yards on lap 29 so he clearly backed of on his final lap. His teammate Dustin Morgan came from 15th to 9th in Walker's red # 11D. Morgan dropped out of seventh place on lap 18 Thursday with no brakes. "I didn't have any brakes from the first lap and with a race to run the next night I didn't want to crash the car," Morgan told me Friday during warm-up sessions. There were 15 cars RAF and 12 were on the lead lap. Reasons for DNF in the features: Kenny Perkins, 16 year old rookie, had overheating problems in his # 34 Maxim both nights. John Butler's # 54 ran out of fuel both nights. On Friday they were sure the tank was full, so they expect a fuel pick-up problem. Axel Walker said during Thursday's feature one of his legs felt cold, so he looked down on a lap 4 caution and saw fuel leaking into his cockpit. He quickly pulled out of the race to the pits from the pit entrance at the end of the front straight. |
