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NOT JUST ANOTHER RACING COLUMN

by Dudley Balmer

THE VERY YOUNG GUNS

On my recent trip to IN. friend Bill Frederickson, Parker his grandson and myself were looking to fill our need for some competition near his Kokomo home. They were not running their sprint car this Saturday night and being addicted to racing as we are, we ended up at the Kokomo Quarter Midget Club. Activities were winding down for the evening when we arrived but there were lots of people willing to share their stories and fill us in on club activities.

1^st year club president, John Sargent was most helpful in giving us the current status of the club and its activities. For those of you who have never attended a quarter midget event, the participants range in ages from five to sixteen years of age. These are USAC sanctioned events and adhere to USAC rules of competition. A driver’s meeting precedes competition where rules and instructions are given. Cars and drivers race in classes determined by their equipment and experience. The equipment is off the shelf sophisticated real race cars with all the safety requirements as the big cars. Drivers likewise wear full safety gear including uniforms, arm restraints, approved helmets and all the rest. It is big time racing just shrunk down in size. We talked to Taylor Keyhoe’s dad as he set the camber on the front axle. Others were adjusting the coil springs for better handling while a couple of the moms were cooking burgers and rationing bug spray. Engines were being tuned and damage repaired all while teams shared parts and soft drinks.

Crew members for the most part are part of the family from dads, moms, grandparents to whoever else shows up. There are varying levels of racing experience from first year amateurs to those with professional sprint car experience and everything in between. You will find drivers with the names like Breanna, Tyra, Kamden, Luke, Wesley and Taylor. Some of the participants are second generation owners and drivers. Few of the kids have aspirations for moving up to the next level at least at this time. One sixteen year old was however moving on to 600 mini sprints the next week. The girls take no back seat to the boys either in the pits or on the track. Competition gets fierce at times on the track with frequently bent race cars but as the crews repair the cars the kids go off to play and do the fun things kids do. This is really great family time with everyone able to be part of the action more than in the stick and ball sports. Hold a wrench, push a car up to the track, help change a motor or tie a driver’s shoe. There is a spot for everyone.

There is a cost to all this fun and frivolity which can get pricey in a hurry. Some said they paid five grand for their car less motor and spares. A few had trailers loaded with spare cars, motors, parts and professional shop equipment. A couple of these were towed with top of the line motorcoaches and were clearly ready for any eventuality. At the other end of the spectrum were the budget racers having purchased used equipment, a small trailer towed by the family pick up and modest spare resources. One thing that was the same however was the commaradare and the enthusiasm. I had to return the next day just to watch these little folks do their thing. Forty two cars were present on this day and each team was equal in desire and anticipation. The senior heats were ready to begin when the rains came and we had to depart. If practice and the junior heat races were any indication then the features would be well worth watching. By the way, admission to watch is free. The only problem I saw was the fact that other than the participants, no one knew they existed. Certainly the local media doesn’t cover it and there is no publicity other than the club’s own news publication. That is a shame as anyone who enjoys any type of competition or family activity could not help it enjoy a day with these future stars.

When the nationals are held they get over two hundred teams that show up with multiple cars and drivers in professional haulers. This gets to be really big time for competitors and spectators alike. I am guilty also of knowing they were there but never having a look. Some of today’s top sprint car drivers began on these little tracks in the family ¼ midget. You don’t have to buy a ticket or sit in the stands. You can talk to the crews and the kids and become part of the action. Whether they are running one car and driver or two or more they are willing to share their story with all who will listen. Pride abounds as well it should. There is probably a quarter midget track not far from your location. Look up USAC Quarter Midgets and just show up. It is worth the drive and my bet is that you will go again. I know I will.

Worthwhile Doesn’t Get It
If you are visiting this web site and reading this column you probably are more than a casual fan of sprint car racing. I try here to look at the people in our sport. For many years the warriors who towed these things around the country and were pretty much thought of as the people your mother warned you about and to some degree that might have had some truth to it. Only in the last couple of decades with the big dollars entering the sport has it gained the credibility it deserves and has come to be thought of as good family entertainment.
Many years ago at the funeral of Pennsylvania sprint car star Dick Linder, the priest delivering the eulogy said that racing was not necessary but that it was worthwhile. Perhaps that sums it up better than a lot of analogies I have heard but still leaves something lacking. To risk physical injury and sacrifice financially and pretty much put the rest of your life on hold to pursue a racing career, one has to feel it is at the very least worthwhile.
Owners often take working capital and other assets from their businesses to field a competitive racing effort. Crew members leave more stable positions and more secure futures to travel with teams to wrench often less than winning efforts and keep coming back for more of the same season after season. The drivers risk injury, stability and often relationships to gain racing stardom that few attain. With all the challenges there are few if any of the professionals I just mentioned, when looking back on their racing careers would not say that it was all definitely worthwhile.
Perhaps it is the fact that though every fan in the stands envisions themselves as a potential WOO regular, few could survive even a hot lap session. Every paying fan feels they could turn the wrenches on their favorite driver’s car and make it more competitive but not many would make the sacrifice of countless hours of labor, travel and frustration to achieve even the minimum results of putting a car in the show. Even fewer would take the financial risks involved to field a competitive effort. Not many would take the chance that a major part of their investment could be wiped out in a single night of racing. The efforts of each member of the team has rewards that I believe surpass that of a touchdown, a home run or a win on the basket ball court. The pride that an owner feels as he fields a competitive effort or the elation of the crew when the car is hooked up and their driver is moving to the front is certainly more than worthwhile.
Sprint car fans who travel great distances to follow their favorite series or driver would tell you that their sport is not only worthwhile but a necessary part of their life. Many have tried other sports either as participants or spectators but once bitten by the sprint car bug find all others totally lacking. Many of the true fans of the sport make exceptional sacrifices of time, finances and often home life to support their sport. Worthwhile just doesn’t seem to describe our sport.
Whether the winged cars of central PA, the All Stars or WOO at Eldora or Knoxville or the non winged racers in the mid west are your choice, one thing remains the same. It is sprint car racing and the finish of no other sporting event can equal the slide job on the last lap of the feature for a win for pure excitement. You can’t bet on it, the outcome can’t be fixed, it is just what it is. Men and machines both on the edge of their limits. For those of us who are part of this circus night after night and have pretty much seen it all, worthwhile seems like describing your favorite ice cream as just being cold or your partner in love as just being adequate.
When a person loves something enough that their very being could end or financial ruin is a real possibility or job and family stability could be in question, yet the risks are outweighed by the rewards of the moment then this pursuit is more than worthwhile.
I have been blessed to be a part of this sport for nearly fifty years and though it has changed dramatically there is still no other endeavor that comes even remotely close. I am not sure if it is the human competitive nature, the allure of doing something most could not or would not do, the sound and feel of the power, the inevitable danger or all of these combined that makes the sprint cars special. Own them, mechanic them, drive them or travel to watch them, one thing is a given, worthwhile doesn’t sum up the totality of the experience. I find very few people that once were regulars in the sport that have totally just walked away. No matter where you fit in the racing puzzle, enjoy, for you are truly part of something special and using worthwhile to describe it seems oh so lacking.

Something Completely Different

I have been pretty tough on promoters and the state of sprint car racing in general, so it may be time to lighten up a bit. Things can be awful stressful during a night of racing but occasionally there can be a lighter moment too. A few of these times come to mind and it might be fun to share a couple of them.

In the early days of my driving career special races were much longer than those of today. One such event was a hundred lap late season event at the long gone Heidelburg Raceway near Pittsburgh. I had dropped out mid way through the race with a mechanical problem and walked down to turn one to watch the remainder of the race. One of the more famous western PA car owners was standing there by himself watching his car’s progress. I walked over and we began a conversation. Shortly thereafter for some reason unclear then or now, his driver just lost the handle and stuck the car into the turn one wall at full throttle. He just stood there with his arms folded and spit a couple of mouthfuls of tobacco juice and didn’t say a thing. As the safety crew worked to remove the motionless driver I finally had to ask if he was not going to go over to see if his driver was ok. I said as hard as he hit he could be dead. His unflinching response was “he had better be”. Things were tough back in those days.

On a Saturday night at Mercer Raceway Park a driver tangled with one of the top names in PA racing sending him into the pits during a heat race. This driver proceeded to the offending driver’s car to make his displeasure known. After being told to leave a couple of times the angry driver received a solid right hand to the face doing considerable damage to his nose and mouth. As the crowd gathered and the medics did their work someone ask the late Ted Wise as he walked by, what had happened in the other end of the pit area. Ted answered without breaking a stride “ once again, ------was talking when he should have been listening”. Ted was a unique old school driver and one you could go to for advice. Early in my career I was talking to Ted just after he had run the famous Little 500 in Anderson, Indiana. In response to my asking how it felt to run five hundred laps on a quarter mile, Ted responded by asking me “you know how you feel after running a hundred lapper right”? I said that I did. Ted said “ well then think, you only have four hundred more to go”.

Two of Lernerville’s top contenders in the eighties were Eddie Murphy and Johnny Beaber. They drove for Jim and Bob Zeigler respectfully. The Zeiglers were cousins and weekly rivals both fielding very competitive rides for their drivers. Sometimes driver’s minds come disconnected from their foot and that is what happened during Friday night hot laps. As neither Murphy or Beaber would allow the other to get ahead they locked wheels and flipped both cars multiple times destroying both mounts. This incident nearly cost each driver their ride but cooler heads did prevail during future hot lap sessions. Discourse at the Zeigler family picnic might have been a fun thing to overhear as well.

During the first lap of the first heat race of the season as cars were jostling for position a car got into my front end damaging the steering. It was not till I tried to set the car up at the end of next straight did I realize the car would not steer and spun it out. As I sat in the middle of the track every one missed me except the late Buddy Barris. He spun his car and the rear wheel came in my cockpit against my chest. I remember thinking that as soon as I could breath, I would straighten this guy out for hitting me when everyone else had gotten by. As Barris realized the condition I was in, he quickly exited his car, picked it up by himself and set it off of my car. (Buddy was well over six feet and around three hundred pounds) My anger quickly subsided upon getting a look at the stature of this fellow and I expressed my gratitude to him for his getting the car off my chest. My three broken ribs reminded me of the incident for the remainder of the season.

I really enjoy talking to drivers from earlier days of races long since forgotten by most. Often it is not the wins, championships or crashes that are remembered, but the human part of the sport. Friends lost but still remembered and perhaps regrets that those days shall not return. Sprint car racing is probably the most emotion filled sport one can imagine. Relationships are built, sometimes stressed and then rebuilt again but seldom forgotten. It only takes the mention of a driver’s name to bring back a story or a memory. Even with the high dollar business like atmosphere of today’s racing it is still about the people. People different than those who watch. No matter how technologically advanced the cars become it is still about the people who prepare them and those who drive them. The sprint car racers.

5/2 CHATTER IN THE RAIN

I visited the I69 Speedway at Gas City, Indiana this past Friday night. Rain was the order of the night as we drove in and out of it on the way to the track. The cars were unloaded but continuing drizzle halted further activities. Things cleared up a bit and the driver meeting was held about an hour late. Minutes later the sky opened up and the rain cancelled the night’s activities.
Usually during a long delay the pit chatter would be about motors, who was doing what, or who had roughed up someone the week before. Not so this week however. No matter which trailer you stopped by the conversation was of a much more negative nature. The gist of the conversations often centered on how long the individual teams would be able to continue to field their respective operations. Even the higher dollar multiple car teams expressed fear of cutbacks in the future under present circumstances. Rising equipment and fuel costs were often pointed to as a big part of the problem as were the tire requirements of many of the tracks and series. The difficulty in securing sponsorship in the present economic climate has put constraints on many teams with some leaving cars in the garage. One team told me that they would run as long as the money held out but that they were on a night to night basis. If they lost a motor or seriously damaged the car, they were done.
I have been in the pits across the country for fifty years and everyone is always growling about something. This was different though. Nearly everyone you talked to had serious concerns. Even the parts folks said business was off and that they were selling only enough tires and equipment to meet the teams basic needs. One driver told me he was going to race as much as he could, because he did not know how much longer local teams and tracks could survive.
“So what” you may say. “It is only a sport”. You would be right too, but if you look at the ads on a site like Hoseheads.com you see how many suppliers support our sport and how many people they employ. There are thousands around the country who manufacture then wholesale or retail parts and equipment for sprint cars. Thousands more work in shops or travel with the cars or support the sport in some way. Knowing that a few high dollar teams can’t put on a show to fill the stands our sport could conceivably take a serious hit in the near future. Perhaps the only bright spot is that our sport is not much different than many others that are feeling the financial pinch. The local motorcycle store is offering some great deals as is the nearby bass boat store because of the lack of customers. They are just not selling their products. Attendance is down at other traditional sports as well. It is hard to imagine that on a night when thirty sprint cars are in the pits, how many people have been employed in the manufacture and equipping of the teams. They all require tow and support equipment as well as the cars themselves. Someone made and sold the generator, the lawn chair and the pit pass wrist bands as well.
Another gripe was the lack of support for the sponsor’s ads on the cars. One participant challenged the announcer about not mentioning the sponsors on the car as they announce the driver and home town. He was told that fans don’t care about that and they can’t read most of the ads on the cars anyway. Where do they get these people? We market our advertising opportunity to prospective sponsors assuming they will get coverage from the announcing staff and the press. This is not an isolated problem unfortunately. Is it a chore to say the driver’s name, home town and add that he is driving the “so and so” sponsored car? Again we have a lack of cooperation between the tracks and the racers.
Racing has survived since they put gas engines on carriages formerly pulled by one tired old horse. It made it through two world wars and even through the hippy generation. Surely our 800 plus horsepower carriages will survive this too but we may have some casualties along the way. People are truly concerned as they should be. You can pick and choose who is to blame but doing nothing is going to get us more of what we have. We can’t fix the fuel prices or the other burdens that are being placed on us from the outside but we can run our racing business as a business and demand the tracks do the same. God bless and watch for our next effort which will come from our new digs in beautiful Wewahitchka, Florida.

4/14

PARTLY TO BLAME

I began driving super modified cars in 1962 in western Pennsylvania and joined the east coast URC sprint car group in 1963. This was a different time in racing to be sure. During my first year with the United Racing Club the cars were truly open cockpit machines with only a “sprint” bar behind the drivers head for protection in case of a crash. Nomex was several years away as was any of the safety equipment our drivers of today enjoy. Other differences that were obvious in the pits were the color green was nowhere to be found and peanuts were a no no. Perhaps the greatest difference from those days to the pit scene of today was the absence of any women in the pits. The pit area was truly a man’s world.

The Indy car scene with the invasion of the European teams in the mid sixties began changing that venue and also the SCCA road racers were allowing women in the pit area but the dirt tracks held on to tradition longer than others. Women were making strides in the business world, politics, and in life in general so the pit area at the local dirt track was about to change.

I attended a wedding in what was probably the 1970 off season. There I met the daughter of local modified driver Allen Chambers, Gloria Chambers, who expressed a great interest in working on our sprint car. My wife was not terribly happy about this at the time but we needed the help and this young lady’s dad and brother-in-law were part of the deal. This was the beginning of Gloria becoming the actual crew chief on our car. The first problem after convincing fellow competitors this was not a publicity stunt, or something more questionable, was to get her access to the pit area. Her attempt to sign in became a war with track management each night. I still have a picture of my son taking down the “No Women Permitted In The Pits” sign at Jennerstown Speedway. Change was coming to dirt track racing and the pit area would never be the same.

Gloria took a lot of heat, mostly from driver’s wives and track management. The respect as an actual contributing crew member took time to earn but she was personable, fun to be around and more importantly quickly learned the race car. By mid season she was doing all the set up on the car. Her learning the chassis so quickly impressed her dad, fellow competitors and certainly myself. Gloria knew nothing about the motor other than it was up front and made a lot of noise but by watching hot laps and looking at the track she could set the car up and more often than not get it right. Bowing to outside pressures she was in the stands instead of working on the car on a particular late season Friday night. We struggled to make the feature which upset her enough to purchase a pit pass and go to work on the car. Nearby competitors watched in amazement as she changed gears tires and setup. I had a different car in the feature and long time crew members were amazed. We ended up moving up from the back and earning a very respectable finish. She was breaking new ground though that was not our intention at the time. A Washington DC area television station did a five minute spot with her and she received both local and national coverage in the print media.

So where are we now? Every team has ladies with the car in some capacity. Women quickly progressed from signing in to the pits to climbing into the cockpit. Sarah Fisher has to be one of the first and best examples of a lady attaining success from the sprint car ranks. Today not only has it become common place to race against a lady it is almost as common to be beaten by one. From my experience I find these young women to be as knowledgeable, dedicated and competent as their male counter parts. I will not try to give them credit by name as I am sure I would miss a deserving lady. Times have certainly changed since I first put on my open faced helmet and climbed into a cageless race car. I hope somewhere along the way I have added something positive to this sport. The pits of today are a much more civil and certainly attractive place. The color green is everywhere and the driver that just finished ahead of you may well be a female. Depending on your point of view I might deserve just a bit of credit for the appearance of things in the pits, or a bit of the blame.

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