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by Kevin Oldham

The KO Interview With Paul Hazen is Here

The KO Interview With Eric Gordon is Here

The KO Interview With Jiggs Thomason is Here

The KO Interview With Greg Staab is Here

(Editor’s note: Please enjoy the words of guest columnist Chris Hoyer as I continue to tweak my wintertime Question and Answer interview, which should arrive in about a week or so. A veteran of the Indiana sprint car scene while acting as a driver, mechanic, car owner, and fan, look for more from Chris in the months to come, possibly posting his own perspective on Hoseheads as well.)

The East Bay Chiller

By Chris Hoyer

                It was sunny and I was in Florida. I won’t complain too much about that. Hooters still served me wings and beer and the ocean still had waves. But it was cold; colder than I can ever remember it being at Eastbay.

                The first time I went to East Bay Raceway Park was with Travis Branch and Skip Forman in 1998 and we actually got in the pool at the hotel and it was also the year that Travis coined the term, “swim pants”! I vaguely remember Jeff Shepard taking home the big money in a dusty sandstorm and swore I’d never return. Eldora was envious of the dust that Eastbay produced that evening.

                One to ALWAYS stick to my word, I returned to Eastbay in 2003 after swearing off winged sprint cars all together in 2002, with Jeff Donelson as the voice of reason for me and Travis.   Danny Lasoski took home the big cash that year in the Stewart 20, in a race that was difficult to watch but far less dusty.

                Non-wing or traditional sprint cars came to East Bay in 2006. Now you can call this the “modern” era like I do, more commonly known as “my era”, but this was the first time I had a chance to go and I wasn’t going to miss it. Check my facts here, but I think this was the first time in the modern era that traditional sprint cars had been at the Winter Nationals since the late 70’s or early 80’s, when they raced at the fairgrounds.   Not sure, not my era. I travelled with Jeremy “Jerky” Rhodes and again, Travis Branch. 2006 was the year I learned what the term “bikini bar” meant. It was, needless to say, an utter, no pun intended, disappointment, but it was also the same year I discovered Jaeger Bombs, so it wasn’t a total loss. I watched with D.O. Laycock from the top of the press box, in various states of un-sobriety as Kruseman made a big splash early in ’06 aboard the Crossno 38, winning two of three nights, split in the middle by Brady Short.

                The non-wing or traditional sprint car had taken hold in Florida, because they returned again in 2007. I travelled this time with Jon Stanbrough and Shane Cottle, only to meet up later with the infamous Coby Smith. There were duties involved for me this time on the Dan Roberts 21x that JRS would pilot to an eventual 5^th on the final night while Levi Jones took home the money and the chicks. Jesse Hockett and Brady Short won preliminary nights. In the nights off, Coby, Jon, Shane and myself proceeded to cave in the roof of the rental car, peg the rev-limiter and do neutral drops, flat spot the rear tires with the emergency brake, and bent the radio antenna 90 degrees the wrong way. Thank you to the guy at Hertz with the impaired vision that checked me in on my way home. All he asked about were those seven, Jon Stanbrough, HARF driver of the year stickers that were all over the car. I said, “Damn neighborhood kids!”

                After a three year hiatus, traditional sprint cars returned to East Bay and the Winter Nationals on Feb 8, 2010. The New Year would bring USAC as the sanction and Jason Smith as the director of a fine production.

                32 cars singed in and all took time with Brady Short posting a new track record of 15.027. Along with the usual suspects, there were surprises, like Caleb Armstrong, Ricky Williams and Casey Riggs, who strapped their spurs on to dig into a very tacky, very fast racetrack. There were surprises of the other sort as well. Tracy Hines, Hunter Schuerenberg, and Rob Chaney ran well but failed to crack the top 16 spots.

                Only six spots inverted in the heats meant qualifying in the bottom eight positions would mean you had a lot of work to do all night long. Shane Hmiel won the first heat and led every lap. Henry Clark won the second heat and led every lap. You get the idea. Not great heats, not two grooves.

                The B saw Riggs, Windom, JRS, Armstrong, Darland and Burdette transfer to the A.

                It was 48 degrees at 9:30pm when the feature pushed off. Ummm, that’s cold for a sprint car race. I don’t care who you are. I was informed by Steve Fox that the tide had already come in fifteen minutes earlier at 9:15. There was no comment on how that affected the set-up of the 53.

                A failed attempt at the first start put Shane Cottle on the pole of the re-start where Shane Hmiel spun, so we re-start again. Damion Gardner promptly jumped out to the lead where he was never seriously challenged. He hit back markers on the twelfth lap and even on the last restart, when his challengers had a chance to turn the knobs and close the gap; he still pulled away with authority.

                He was sick fast. A sickness that was not uncharacteristic of DG. It was his type of racetrack. Heavy, smooth and when he had clean air, no one even compared. If you saw him win the Chili Bowl, it was reminiscent of that very performance, minus the death defying bicycle toward the end of the race.   It was a completely controlled ass-kicking.

                The also rans: Bryan Clauson in the Benic 2B. Solid run and after quals I actually picked him to win. His father said he and Scott were like two peas in a pod, and that is what makes a race team.   Two guys who see eye to eye are hard to beat.

Brady Short: A typical run for him at East Bay. After all, he’s run well here for a few years now.

Shane Cottle: The eventual pole sitter backed-up a few spots but ran a great race. I love to see a local fella with a passionate team run well that far from home. I’m sure it made the trip worthwhile and you represented K-Town well.

Jon Stanbrough(JRS): Gets the best move of the race award with a clean calculated slider on lap thirty to take fifth way from Levi Jones. I can only imagine how many times he visualized making that move before he made it, a true searcher.

Casey Riggs ran a great race as well and was the beneficiary of Levi’s JRS confusion and ended up sixth. Casey rode high and stayed up front. If this behavior continues, the checkers will follow.

                Tuesday we rained out. Eckert made the call to Skipper’s Smokehouse where Reverend Raven and the Chain-Smokin’ Alter Boys laid out some classic blues. An eclectic crowd of racers in one corner and the “cougar den” in the other made for some interesting banter throughout the night. While the cougars were enticing, we were later informed that they prey on the weakest or most naive of a group. Good thing we had Jack Hanna to lay it out there for us via Facebook. No cougars were harmed during the rainout. We did, however, get our picture taken and it ended up on Hosehead’s. It’s hell being famous, I tell ya!   The paparazzi is always following you and your friends around, snapping pics of your group. I guess this is the life I have chosen. I’ll just have to live with it.   HA!

                Wednesday morning was rough but I got my head together with some Chili’s Chips and Salsa and began to ponder. Why was Damion so dominant? Was it his new crew chief, Kevin Briscoe? The Dri-Bar he had attached to the rear of his racecar? Or was it just his type of racetrack? Investigation was necessary and Kevin and I set out for the racetrack early.

                I found out some interesting things. The top three from Monday night’s race had a version of the sway-bar on the front and rear of the racecar. Fourth through eighth had only the front version and ninth had both. Tenth had only the rear version while eleventh had just frontal fifth bar. But twelfth and thirteenth had both. What does all this mean? I don’t know! So, I had to ask. Now it sort of goes against sprint car etiquette and just normal, everyday manners to go ask someone these types of questions so I just asked the people who already knew I was abnormal. When I asked Monte Edison, the owner of the highly successful 10e, who is an engineer by trade, and an occasional drinking buddy of mine, I knew I wouldn’t get a “standard” answer. ME: Monte, the top three cars Monday night had sway bars on both ends. MONTE: Do you work for Drinan now?   You get the idea. He was busy so I moved onto the 53 pit. I proudly told Steve my news and he was uninterested so Tim became the spokesperson. He told me it was neat looking and liked the shiny ones the best.   So I still don’t know what to think about the rear sway-bar. I do know that IF, the research and development is shown to work on the racetrack at the local level, it will come standard on most non-wing cars, much like the front sway bar has. Then again, if I had wheels, I’d be a wagon. It’s no accident that the big teams have them. That’s where it always starts. When they win races, which they will do, is it because they have a rear sway bar or because these guys are just good? Is it the Rear sway bar, or the spacer between the steering wheel and the fuel tank? It’ll be fun to watch and find out by the results this year.

                Henry Clark was out first in quals and blistered the track just a split second off the track record. Kurt Gross stepped up his game and qualified third quick. The track appeared to be showing some wear toward the end but Jerry Coons Jr. proved that he can get the 69 going lickety-split with a quick time run just seven cars from the end, at a 15.039. Just .012 seconds off the track record.

                One half of a second separated the first twenty one cars in qualifying. That is a stat that tells just how competitive USAC racing is on any given night.

                All the heats were won by the car and driver starting on the outside of the front row except the last heat, which was won by Shane Hmiel, who started in the second row, outside of heat four.

                The B main pushed off at 8:15pm. Cincinnati driver and Lawrenceburg regular Dwayne Spille had the only major incident of the week with a tommy tip-over on lap six. The B went to Windom, Cottle, Burdette, Armstrong, East and Cummins. Riggs had a great battle with Cummins for the final transfer and was forced to take a provisional.

                9:00pm. 43 degrees.

                Entering turn one, where the cars exit the racetrack, it had gotten a little choppy while the exit of two and the entrance of three was black, shiny slick. The exit of four was slick on the top and had a very fine line of moisture coming off on the bottom. When the line-up came out, DD was on the pole and DG outside; I knew it would be hard to talk Gardner out of running away with this race.

                Right from the start, on the slick racetrack, DG jumped out to a lead that he would never let go. He hit traffic on lap ten, and weaved his way through with a confident swagger and a veteran’s patience. When the first caution came out on lap 24 an odd sight was the 53 of JRS the first car a lap down. The new USAC rule is: within 5 to go, all lap cars go to the tail in official running order. The only way DD or Jerry Coons Jr. had a chance was if that caution had come out one lap later, and even then, Damion was in a league all his own. That caution gave drivers a chance to tweak the knobs and get their heads together to try and give DG a run but he has knobs in his car too. In six laps, DG stretched out a ten car lead to take the victory, about five seconds ahead of Dave Darland.

                In victory lane, DG praised his crew and new crew chief Kevin Briscoe. I know from experience that when a driver gives application to those who have given their time and heart for such a dominating performance, that those words might as well be made of gold. The entire crew of the 71 should be proud of themselves. Momentum and confidence are wonderful allies to have on your side.

2^nd place DD: Solid run for Dave. Look for him and KK to make some noise this year with a double duty effort. I know I’m really going out on a limb here, but I like Dave; he’s The People’s Champ!

3^rd place Jerry Coons Jr.: The top three qualifiers on Monday finished in the top three of the feature. When Jerry qualified well, he was sure to run up front.

One final note: when the track slicked off Wednesday, six of the top eight qualifiers had front and rear sway bars. Coincidence?

                Special Thanks to Kevin Oldham for letting me guest write for him. I really do appreciate the opportunity. I want to thank Jason Smith for the press pass and running a fantastic, quick program at East Bay. Thanks to Kevin Price for making sure I didn’t miss a second of the action, and reminding me why I was there. Thanks to Allan Holland for a great web-site in Hosehead’s and the front page pic on Wednesday morning.   T-bone for helping me recall the past East Bay experiences and Openwheeltimes for keeping very thorough records.

I’m out………………

CH

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