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By Richard Golardi
Season Finale for TBARA and A Look Forward to Speedweeks
By Richard Golardi
Dave Steele has an insurmountable points lead going into the finale for the TBARA at Orlando Speedworld on Saturday. His 60 point lead in the 2013 driver points standings, over second place Joey Aguilar, is sufficient to have earned him his third TBARA driver championship. The maximum number of points that a driver can earn at one TBARA event is 55 points, so Steele cannot be overtaken for the points lead. Steele also was the TBARA driver champion in 2005 and 2009. This accomplishment also marks his second driver championship of the year, in addition to the Outlaw Winged Sprints at Showtime Speedway. Joey Aguilar, Mark Gimmler, and Dude Teate hold the next three positions in the TBARA driver points, all within 17 points of each other for 2nd, 3rd, and 4th places.
Returning to action at Orlando are the #3 car of Garrett Green, and also the #31 of Dude Teate, and the #11 of Joey Aguilar, all of whom placed well at New Smyrna Speedway in November. I have confirmed that the #22 of Johnny Gilbertson is not returning, and the #33 of Dave Steele is also not returning, as he is racing his dirt sprint car at East Bay Raceway Park. Green is completing his first full year of sprint car competition, and his second race with new Team Manager and Crew Chief Lee Cipray. Team Green Racing has also acquired a new Beast chassis to race at the Little 500 in May, and has said that Cipray will handle the Crew Chief duties at this race also.
Dave Steele 2013 TBARA Champion
On dirt in Florida, the Top Gun Sprint Series points lead is currently held by Danny Martin Jr., with three races remaining at two tracks over the next two weekends. Martin Jr. will not be able to duplicate Steele’s feat of earning multiple championships during the year, as sprint car competition has concluded at Bubba Raceway Park. The rained out November 16th race has not been rescheduled, leaving two different drivers listed at the top of the points for the two different series at the track. Robbie Smith stands atop the Bubba Army 360 Sprints points standings, while 67 year old Otto Scrape earned the top spot in the Bubba Army Limited Sprints. I have not been able to confirm if the track will issue two separate driver titles, or combine them into one. Billy Boyd, the feature race winner at East Bay Raceway Park on November 9th, also earned the 2013 East Bay Sprint Championship on that same night.
Garrett Green at Orlando
Three Palms Speedway in Punta Gorda has been confirmed for a Speedweeks TBARA event in 2014, on Saturday February 15th. This gives the track management about ten weeks to complete the necessary construction projects, which include new catch fences and grandstand seating. The Punta Gorda asphalt track released photos of the new colors on walls - black with a green stripe across the bottom. They have also reported that the catch fences have been ordered from the manufacturer, but they do not have a delivery date. They do have local fence installers ready to go once the fences are delivered. Also under consideration is a possible (not yet confirmed) two day stand for TBARA at Punta Gorda on 10/31 and 11/1. No announcement has been made yet as to whether one of the nights would be run without wings.
Showtime Speedway has revised their sprint car schedule for 2014 Speedweeks. At one time, it showed two weekends of competition, with plans to include both wing and non-wing cars. The revision means that the sprint cars now have one weekend, one race. The 75 lap "Florida State Championship Wing Sprints" is on Saturday February 22nd. This date puts the track in direct competition with two other sprint car races also on the 22nd. On the other side of Tampa Bay, East Bay Raceway Park has its last night of the 360 Winternationals, and Bubba Raceway Park has its last night of the USAC National Sprint Car Series, both on the 22nd.
Wall at Three Palms Speedway
The month of February next year will see a very different Speedweeks schedule for Florida’s 360 pavement sprint cars. After being left off the Speedweeks schedule this year, there are already three dates planned for the 360 asphalt racers in 2014. One of these dates is for a new series debuting in Florida – the CCS Wingless Sprints at Citrus County Speedway. The series unveiling will be on February 1st, and on the first Saturday of the month thereafter through November. The other dates are the aforementioned TBARA date on the 15th at Three Palms Speedway and the 22nd at Showtime Speedway. Only one Saturday night lacks an asphalt sprint car race during the month, which is quite a contrast from this year’s Speedweeks lineup.
So far, the announced Speedweeks sprint car schedule (pending release of the 2014 USAC schedule) includes a return of the same two series that visited Bubba Raceway Park this year. They are the All Star Circuit of Champions on 2/7 and 2/8, and the USAC National Sprint Car Series for three days - 2/20 to 2/22 (Thursday to Saturday). The 360 Winternationals return to East Bay Raceway Park for those same three days. Three Palms Speedway and Showtime Speedway both have sprint cars in February, and add Citrus County Speedway, minus wings. Volusia Speedway Park returns with five straight days of sprint car racing on Wednesday through Sunday, 2/12 to 2/16. The first two nights will see the All Star Circuit of Champions in action, followed by three nights of the World of Outlaws. The Friday 2/14 date at Volusia is the first race of the year for the World of Outlaws sprint cars, as has become their custom.
There are some Speedweeks unknowns also, with the status of the USAC National Midget Series returning to New Smyrna Speedway at the forefront. This series raced at New Smyrna on the Sunday and Monday prior to the Daytona 500 this year, but attendance was disappointing. On Sunday, their competition was the World of Outlaws at Volusia, and on Monday they had the Battle at the Beach racing at nearby Daytona Speedway. Also, New Smyrna has already scheduled a headline event for that Sunday (2/16) – the K&N Pro Series East stock cars. Another unknown is the return of sprint cars to Bubba Raceway Park, as the return of the Bubba Army 360 Sprints seems to be in doubt. The Bubba Army Mini – Sprints have replaced the sprint cars on the 11/16 rainout date, now racing on 12/21. Prior to this date, there was no mini-sprint series at the track that carried the “Bubba Army” moniker.
TBARA at New Smyrna Speedway – Comebacks and Disappointment
By Richard Golardi
On race morning last Saturday, Ben Fritz was uncertain if he was well enough to race that night in the penultimate TBARA Sprint Car Series race at New Smyrna Speedway. He had been sick with the flu all week, unable to work, and was still feeling the symptoms on Saturday. Fritz had one feature win this year in his #16 sprint car, coming on Labor Day weekend at Showtime Speedway in Pinellas Park. The racer and small business owner had hoped to add to the win total, and set a new career benchmark for total wins in one year. “Monday morning at nine o’clock, I got sick, and I’ve been sick all week. I didn’t really think I could make it tonight,” he said after the completion of the 30 lap feature race.
Joey Aguilar ready to race
Fritz would start the feature race from the sixth starting spot, with TBARA points leader and September feature winner Dave Steele starting in mid-pack. Steele had won two of the three races held since the series resumed competition after a summer of rainouts and race cancellations. “We were running third about the whole feature, and got around Joey (Aguilar) with a couple of laps left. Dude (Teate) broke a spud on the fuel pump and I got around him going into three for the checkered flag. I hate winning that way, but man … a win’s a win,” Fritz proclaimed. So, if Dude Teate had not broken, you were looking at a second place finish? “Second - yeah. We were running second when he broke, so if he didn’t break, he would have definitely won it.” Ben told me that the team discovered a bent axle after the last time at New Smyrna Speedway, and the axle’s replacement helped to make him more competitive.
Joey Aguilar’s doctor told him that he could race on November 23rd, as his hands seemed to be healing quickly from the third degree burns suffered four weeks prior at the Bradenton TBARA race. Taken by air ambulance to Tampa on that night, his hands received the most serious injuries in a cockpit fire caused by a fuel leak that sprayed his hands and legs with fuel. With the burns limited to the tops of his hands, and wearing special gloves to protect the healing skin, he was determined to make his racing comeback on this night. He also was quick to credit the quick response of the track crew at Full Throttle Speedway (Desoto Speedway) on that night, and his safety equipment from Simpson Safety Products. He showed me the new gear that he had – including new fire resistant underwear, shoes, socks, gloves and helmet from Simpson.
Ben Fritz
As for the #11 car, the fire damage was limited to the cockpit, and it had new seat padding and knee pads, seatbelts, and a freshly painted seat. The rest of the fire damage was minor, and even the cameras that recorded the incident made it through the flames with only cosmetic damage. Car owner Sharon Riddle graciously allowed me to place a camera on the car again, to document the comeback for the tough-as-nails racer.
“Man, feels like I’m back home again,” Joey Aguilar said. “This is what I’ve been waiting for, to get back to the race track and get back in my sprint car. Feels great.” How do your hands feel now, I asked? “Hands feel great, man. I don’t have any pain. Zero pain. We just got to watch out for the sweat tonight, and keep them clean. After the heat race, we’ll re-wrap them, and put some new stuff on them for the feature.” I remarked that he was using all Simpson products on the night of the fire, which provided impressive protection from the flames. The burns on his hands were likely caused by sweat, which boiled inside the gloves, and caused the third degree burns, he believed. “I’m sponsored by Simpson, and everything that I wear is Simpson, and I wouldn’t trade them in for the world.”
How do you feel about your new-found notoriety, with the video of your fire being viewed over 23,000 times, and being interviewed by various people in the press (including a Daytona Beach News-Journal article last week)? “Well, I always wanted to be famous, but not for being on fire. I wanted to be famous for winning sprint car races like I do, and outrunning guys like Dave Steele. The main thing I’d like to get from all the coverage that I’m getting with the fire is for all drivers to realize that they need to wear all their fire proof stuff. You don’t know how important it is to have all of that stuff on until you experience something like I did.”
Garrett Green
Joey must still wrap his hands twice a day for two more weeks, and feels that they are 75% healed. He runs a warehouse for a carpet company, and has been back to work doing what he called “light duty” for the past two weeks. He took a week and a half off from his job after being injured. “I’m not one that likes to sit around the house and stare at walls, and watch soap operas. I’d much rather be out there being involved in something, whether it be my race car or running my warehouse,” Joey said.
Dude Teate appeared to be on his way to a late-season sprint car win, for the second year in a row. After taking the lead in the feature race on the eighth lap, he held off Joey Aguilar, who pressured him throughout the remainder of the race. Heading down the back stretch on the last lap, his engine sputtered and died with only a quarter mile to go before reaching the checkered flag. Until this happened, he appeared to be the certain eventual winner. “The spud for the fuel pump and power steering – either it spun that spud, or it broke it, or whatever. Going down the back straightaway after we got the white flag, it totally shut off, and I lost the power steering too. So, I assume that’s what happened. And, I just sat there and watched everybody blow by me. It was a good car,” Dude Teate explained, still managing a smile despite the disappointment of seeing the victory slip away. “It was a rocket. I think it was the fastest thing out there in the feature, until it broke. It had plenty of fuel – it just shut completely off. I wish it had run out of fuel, because then we probably would have still won it. We would have been shaking it back and forth. Half a lap. It’s one of them deals! It’s probably the best we had the car all year. We’ll fix it and go to Orlando. We’ve got one more shot”
The Tampa Bay Area Racing Association returns to Orlando Speedworld next week, after a three and a half year absence. There was one race attempt in June, which was rained out after practice. Car owner Rex Hollinger has been in close contact with manager Ozzy Moya (who he said “is a gearhead, like all of us”), and even arranged for a car for Moya to drive in the Crasharama Enduro race at the track this Friday. “They are looking ahead to 2014, and they want to have several sprint car races. They are going to return to Friday nights (New Smyrna Speedway races on Saturday), with several big Saturday night events mixed in, and they want to feature sprint cars on several of those Saturday nights,” Rex Hollinger told me. Orlando Speedworld has bought TV and radio ad time, and has printed materials to promote the December 7th TBARA race at the track, the 2013 season finale.
Mike Tharp, racing at New Smyrna Speedway for the first time, was asked for his impression of the track’s long straightaways. “Holy Mackerel,” he exclaimed. “I never felt anything quite like that. Pretty long – I could have eaten a sandwich going down through there. I’m anxious to see if I can get a little better down there. Definitely the first time out there, when I looked at it, it was a little intimidating. But after I’ve been on it, it’s quite exciting and I’m looking forward to doing it some more.” Tharp told me that he had raced a dirt car on St. Augustine Speedway, an extinct dirt track that was also known for its long straights.
Stands at New Smyrna Speedway
Garrett Green, winding down his first full year of sprint car competition, was at New Smyrna for the first time in a sprint car. It was not his first high-banked oval race, as he had raced in a HOSS series sprint car race at Angola Speedway in Indiana in September. Starting in the rear of the starting field of fifteen cars, he managed one on-track pass of Dave Steele near the start, and finished in fifth place. He described his car as being tight in the center and loose off, and he was completely down on the apron at one point trying to complete a third turn pass. His team is planning a program of wing and non-wing sprint car racing next year. They may add more races in the Midwest during the warm weather months, in addition to a return to the Little 500 at Anderson Speedway. Two of Green’s rookie accomplishments during the year involved this central Indiana track. In addition to the Rookie of the Year award at the Little 500, Garrett Green earned the USSA Rookie of the Year award in competition at Anderson.
Q & A with Tyler Godwin
By Richard Golardi
Cool, calm, and calculating. That is the impression that one gets from dirt sprint car driver Tyler Godwin. He says that he tries to keep his emotions under control while on the track, so that his single purpose is to get the car to the front, and then win. And winning is just what he has been doing on Florida’s dirt tracks. In his last six sprint car races, he has four feature race wins and two third place finishes. There was no finish lower than third place. At Volusia Speedway Park in October, he led every lap of the feature race in a dominating win. When I spoke to him on Saturday at Ocala’s Bubba Raceway Park, we were waiting out the rain, which would eventually cancel the night of racing.
Q. What first got you interested in racing?
A. When I was seven, my grandfather took me to a go kart race out at Dirt Devils out on 52. I got pretty interested in that. It was either that, or race dirt bikes, and we chose to race go karts.
Q. Are you a lifelong Floridian?
A. Yes, sir. All my life. I was born and raised in Tampa. (He still lives in Tampa.)
Q. But – you’ve got a little bit of a Southern accent. How could that be possible for a “city boy” from Tampa?
A. My dad is originally from North Carolina, and my Mom’s side of the family is from Macon, Georgia.
Q. OK – there’s a lot of Southerners on both sides of the family. Although, if you’re from Tampa, you’re hardly a “country boy”, right?
A. I don’t consider myself a “city boy”. Probably half and half.
Q. Was your first race in a go kart?
A. Actually, my first race we went to Dirt Devils and we lapped all the way up to third place.
Q. How old were you?
A. Seven years old. My grandfather took me on my birthday, and at Christmastime I had two go karts sitting in the front of the Christmas tree.
Q. Why two go karts?
A. Originally, I was going to run one, and so was my grandfather. That way, he could figure out what did what, and that way he could help me get faster and better as a driver.
Q. Kind of be your mentor – your grandfather?
A. Yes, sir. My third race out, the track was real slick, and I was leading the race and a lapped kart spun in front of me, and I smacked him, and bent the chassis. So, I had to use his chassis for the rest of the season, and that kind of ended his career in racing. Every corner of the chassis was bent. It’s actually hanging up in my shop. It was my first go kart, so I kept it.
Q. What are the other types of race cars that you have driven?
A. Besides the go karts, we jumped in the sprint cars when I was fourteen. We looked at open wheel modified, but I said ‘no, I don’t want to do that’. We went to my first Winternationals, and I said ‘this is what I want to race’. On October 14th, when I turned fourteen, my grandfather pulled up at my house, and we opened the back door of the trailer, and there was a brand new sprint car sitting there. We started at Okeechobee because I couldn’t race anywhere yet, because I was too young. Actually, I’m the youngest sprint car feature winner in the State of Florida. I beat Jeff Gordon and Sport Allen.
Q. When was that first win?
A. We rented the track a couple of times and after my sixth or seventh time, they said, “alright, you’re ready to race.” That night they made me start in the back at Okeechobee, and that was my first race, and my first win.
Q. Your first start, and your first feature? You won it?
A. First race, first start, first win. Once a month, we would rent the track out, on a Sunday. We’d try different things. I had to prove that I could flat-foot it around the race track before I could race. Finally I got to the point where I could do that. The next time they raced, I started in the back in the heat race and the feature and came from the back and won the race. From there, we started racing East Bay, because I went in front of a judge and got emancipated. Brian Maddox, my car owner, actually beat me in my first race there. That was pretty ironic, with how I’m now driving for him. Then we sold the limited sprint, and bought an open 360.
Q. And your car owner was still your grandfather at that time?
A. My grandfather was my car owner up until three years ago, and then I drove for other people.
Q. Did you ever venture outside of sprint cars into other classes?
A. I had the opportunity to drive one of Jeff Matthew’s open wheel modifieds when we came to Ocala, but we got rained out. That kind of went out the window, so it’s always been a sprint car or a go kart. Then we started traveling with the USCS and ASCS divisions, and won a bunch of races with them. We traveled in the Southeast states. Then they had the ASCS Rebel Region, and we raced that series for two or three years. I was in first in the points, and later finished fifth in the points that year. Then we picked up a good sponsor and went to the Knoxville Nationals one year. We made the A main one night, and the second night we missed it by one position because I blew a motor. Now, I’m driving for the Maddox’s, and I’m grateful that they are able to provide me with a good car, and good equipment. So far, we’ve been doing pretty well, and hopefully we can continue the rhythm we have. Just drive smart, and don’t let my emotions take over. If I can continue what we’re doing, then we’ll be alright for next year.
Q. Have you ever had a bad crash, or been injured at the track?
A. I’ve had a bunch of pretty good wrecks in the sprint car, but I’ve never gotten really injured.
Q. So you haven’t had any ‘sheet time’, when you were admitted to the hospital?
A. Well, a couple of times, I hurt my knee. But, the worst wreck I’ve been into was in a go kart where I flipped over and the kart landed on me. I ended up breaking a collar bone, and a couple of other bones. Actually, you have a better chance of getting hurt in a go kart than you do in a sprint car, because you’re not strapped in. In a go kart, I’ve had a bunch of state championships and a couple of national championships.
Q. Have you had any track championships or series championships in a sprint car?
A. I’ve come close, but we’ve always had some bad luck in a race.
Q. What was your most rewarding win in a sprint car?
A. Probably the most rewarding win in a sprint car would be at Volusia this year (October 12th). It was the most rewarding because Danny Martin’s always won there, and the Maddox’s have never won there, regardless of who was driving. I did very well there.
Q. What’s your favorite track?
A. I like Volusia. Actually, my favorite track’s not in Florida. It’s Phenix City, Alabama and Knoxville Raceway out in Iowa. In Knoxville, we ran the Nationals. It was the 360 Nationals. We ran there in’09, I believe it was. We did pretty well there.
Q. What do you think is the reason why you have done so well just recently, with four wins over six races?
A. I think it comes down to maturity. As I’m getting older, my maturity is growing with my age. I’m settling down in the car. The biggest factor is not letting your emotions take over. I’ve seen it in a lot of drivers, and I’ve done it numerous times. I have good equipment underneath my butt. My grandfather and Brian – they wrench on the car.
Q. Can you continue this type of dominance for the remainder of this year (3 races), and again in 2014?
A. We are going to try our hardest. Robert Delgado’s building me a carbureted motor for next year, and I’ve got a brand new car coming. So, we’re going to do some limited races in the State of Florida, and then we’re going to also travel and do some ASCS and USCS races. The new car’s going to be for traveling. We’re going to run Top Gun, and whenever they are not running, we’re going to go up north and run.
Q. Do you think that makes you the favorite then for next year in Top Gun?
A. I wouldn’t say the favorite. I would say we’re going to be one of the best competitors in the series, between Danny and myself.
Q. Do you think Danny Martin Jr. is your number one main competitor?
A. Yes, sir. Danny’s always been my number one main competitor. You know, he’s one of the best in the State of Florida, and he has a lot more seat time than me. He’s raced longer than I have. He’s been struggling. You know, with his new car owner, they’re trying to get like they were two years ago. Everybody else has figured out how to go fast. They thought they would go out and dominate and they realized that everybody else has figured out what makes the car go faster, and getting the most out of their motors. I don’t believe that they are getting the most out of their motors, like they were a couple of years ago. They are one of the ones to beat for next year. We’re going to have to try the best that we can, just like we have been for the past couple of weeks.
Q. Thank you, Tyler.
East Bay Sprint Season Finale and Other Dirt News
By Richard Golardi
The list of female sprint car drivers in The Sunshine State is limited. Right now, it consists of one driver, seventeen year old Rebecca George. Rebecca is a young woman with her priorities set for the next decade of her young adult life. She knows that she wishes to continue racing her George Motorsports dirt sprint car in Florida. The blue and orange car was purchased earlier this year by her father and team owner, Tim George. It was previously driven by Amanda Ferguson in Florida competition.
Keith Butler
At East Bay Raceway, Rebecca recounted her top five finish at Clewiston one week earlier, her best career finish in a sprint car. She had led laps early in the feature at Clewiston, and had a top ten finish at East Bay last Saturday night. “I’m definitely getting more used to the car. I had a really strong finish last week when we went down to Hendry County with the Top Gun,” Rebecca told me. “This is the end of my second year in a sprint car. I’ll just keep on trying to do better and better. I know we have one more Top Gun race this year. Just keep getting seat time, and hopefully have a good strong car for next year.”
Her daily activities include caring for her cows and pigs, her “show animals”, and preparing for her chosen career path as a large animal Veterinarian. “I show ‘show cows and pigs’, so I’ll be spending a lot of time with them. I have two cows, and then I have a show pig for the South Florida Fair. It’s definitely a lot of hard work and responsibility, and it definitely teaches you a lot,” according to Rebecca.
So, you told me that you are working in a Veterinarian’s office, in addition to taking care of the animals, and going to school, and a race car driver. How do you find enough hours in the day to do all these things? “You have to really manage your time well. I’m hoping to go to school to be a large animal Vet. So, being able to put the hours in at a Vet’s office really makes it easier for me to learn things. I know the outcome will be very well for me.”
Billy Boyd
George Clooney's new movie 'Tomorrowland' is filming in New Smyrna Beach this week. Some buildings in New Smyrna Beach were used for filming, along with some road closures in the area to accommodate the film crew. Now, all Florida needs is to get Clooney and crew out to Bubba Raceway Park this weekend, or New Smyrna Speedway next weekend. After all, Clooney has the clout, and Hollywood is always looking for a good story. Small town boy makes it big in a sprint car on Florida’s short tracks, then moves on to the big time, with the two main characters cast as a father and son duo. George Clooney as the father, and playing the son would be …
The newest notable driver to be added to the ranks of dirt trackers in Florida is Dave Steele. The new dirt sprint car was a project that was under way in his Tampa race shop for several months, but kept under the radar. The car made its first appearance in social networking discussions only days before its first race at East Bay on Saturday night. A white #33 design, it shared most of the same sponsor stickers seen on his pavement car. It looked the same, but would it be as dominant on dirt as Steele has been on pavement since his 2012 racing comeback? The answer is maybe. Steele would challenge Billy Boyd for the lead in both his heat race and the feature race, but finish second to Boyd in both races. Boyd would win the feature and clinch the 2013 East Bay Sprint driver championship in the process.
Keith Butler brought back his blue and yellow #19 dirt car, which had been missing from competition, due to the lack of an engine. He looked strong in his heat race, with an easy win. Problems came in the feature, including a second turn spin, and he eventually earned an eleventh place finish. He plans more dirt track racing in the future, which has been limited in the past 12 months.
I have learned that Tyler Godwin, who I spoke to at East Bay Raceway, has earned the seat in the #82 sprint car for the remaining dirt races at Bubba Raceway Park and in the Top Gun Sprint Series for the remainder of the year (East Bay and Clewiston). After an impressive string of finishes as a substitute for the injured Matt Kurtz (who will return to action at Bubba Raceway Park), Tyler was an observer at East Bay Raceway on Saturday, but he was readying for the four remaining 2013 dirt races. While earning his title of Florida’s Super-Sub, Tyler’s finishing record while substituting (September to November 2013) consisted of four feature race wins and two third place finishes. There was no finish lower than third place.
The outlook for Florida dirt sprint car racing in 2014 appears to be on track to mirror much of what we saw in 2013. Without a 2014 racing schedule from either Bubba Raceway Park, or the Top Gun series, it is still anticipated that the two will race separately in 2014, and try to avoid schedule conflicts. The only 2013 track that appears to be gone is Putnam County Speedway, which shut down in July. February again will see Bubba Raceway Park with the All Star Circuit of Champions and USAC National Sprint Car Series making visits. Tony Stewart’s planned return to sprint car racing may see him make an appearance in his #14 car at the track owned by his friend.
Remaining 2013 Florida dirt sprint car races:
11/16 - Bubba Raceway Park, Ocala, FL - Limited Sprints
12/7 - East Bay Raceway Park, Gibsonton, FL - Eagle Jet Top Gun Sprint Series
12/14 - Hendry County Motorsports Park, Clewiston, FL - Eagle Jet Top Gun Sprint Series (Night)
12/15 - Hendry County Motorsports Park, Clewiston, FL - Eagle Jet Top Gun Sprint Series (Day)
The videos from the Florida Open Wheel channel are here (Rebecca George driver profile video from East Bay, and also East Bay Raceway Park 11/9/2013 feature race video):
http://www.youtube.com/channel/UCSdPdgmUo6WfkfR6Eo__QBA
The Recovery – Geoff Styner Looks to the Future
By Richard Golardi
“It was exactly four months from the day of the accident and we went in for final x-rays. Everything is aligned, everything healed straight … perfect. They took the halo off. I wasn’t in a neck collar for more than a day. I took it off. It was uncomfortable. They told me that the more I could keep it off, the better. The movement in my neck has been really good. I still get a little stiffness turning to the left. The prognosis is that we’ll be really fine. We’ll be like brand new. No surgeries, thank God. No rehab. Just taking it easy and waiting on the final healing process,” Geoff Styner told me.
It had been close to six months of recovery for TQ midget and sprint car driver Geoff Styner when I spoke to him at Full Throttle Speedway in Bradenton, the track where he was injured on May 4th. The TQ midget that he was driving in the FMARA feature race flipped on its side and hit the third turn wall roll cage first. His helmet impacted the wall and his C1 neck vertebra was broken. There was no paralysis, and he would be required to live with a halo screwed into his head for four months while his neck healed. He did not know if he would ever return to driving a sprint car again, as he wanted to delay the decision until he was further along in the healing process.
Geoff told me that he has no lingering neck pain, and no headaches. He said he remembered everything that happened at the track, but a few things in the hospital were a little hazy, as he was given morphine for pain relief. “I went in every two weeks for them to retighten the bolts in my head. It wasn’t painful. It was just uncomfortable. It’s nice to have it off. No surgeries. Fortunately, the care I was given at the first trauma center, they set everything square and straight. With the halo on, nothing could move.” Geoff slept in a hospital bed while the halo was on his head, and was unable to drive or work. The support of friends and family and his wife Linda played an important role in the healing process.
Geoff Styner sprint car
“For the first week or two after the halo came off, I spent a lot of time lying in bed. The neck muscles weren’t strong enough. Little by little, the neck starting coming back. Right now, I can only turn that far to the left (turns head about 30 degrees to the left). I have a lot of movement to the right, but not as much to the left. That will come back. They told me, “don’t force it, don’t try to stretch your neck, just let it come back naturally.”
Have you returned to work, I asked? “Yes. I’ve been back to work for a month now.” Full-time? “Yes, and it’s going good – a little sore. You know – getting the muscles to work again. The back muscles were the main ones, being immobilized for four months. The back muscles took a while to start working again. We’re still on the mend. I’m about as normal as I’ve ever been. I drive a sprint car. How normal can you be?”
Beyond strengthening muscles that had been unused for months while wearing the halo, Geoff’s recovery process was nearly complete. Was this the time to make a decision regarding his future behind the wheel of the sprint car that he owned, the yellow number 15JR car? In October he put his friend Jay Stutz in the car for the TBARA series race at Full Throttle Speedway. He wanted to give his friend his first experience driving a sprint car in competition. Jay was a driver with many miles of open wheel experience, all of it in a TQ midget. In a race that resulted in many damaged cars, Jay avoided all the wrecks and finished the feature race in eleventh place.
Styner TQ midget crash damage
Are you getting back behind the wheel of your sprint car again? “Yes, in January. I can’t do anything until January. The neurosurgeon told me that in January I’m fine. I’m good to go. What they’re worried about right now is the G forces. They don’t want the G forces and the shaking on the neck. So, he told me that in January I can get back in the car. So, January we’re going to get back in the car. Get some practice, and see if I’m still able to do it physically and mentally. I want to get in the car tonight. I feel 100% that I can still do it. But, I won’t know until I get in the car, and I realize that.”
“This has made me look at life in a whole different way. My life changed in a matter of ten seconds. I’m fortunate. I’m alive. It’s changed the way I feel, and the way I look at life every day. You can’t really take tomorrow for granted. We all know that as race drivers. There’s that chance that you come to the race track, and you may not go home. We don’t think about that. When I get back in the car, I’m not going to think about that. I’ll be honest. Unfortunately, tonight we had another scare. The life flight was very emotional for me.” Watching it? “Yeah. Unfortunately, I know where they’re at. I know emotionally where they’re at,” Geoff related to me. Joey Aguilar was burned in a cockpit fire in his car that night, and is now recovering from third degree burns to both hands, with plans to return to racing later this month.
Geoff said that he considers himself to be a “true believer” in safety equipment. He has ordered all new safety equipment from Simpson, including a new helmet and the Simpson Hybrid Pro for his head and neck restraint. He credits the safety equipment worn on the night of the accident with saving his life. “Getting back in a car? My car is safe. I do all the precautions to make sure my car is safe. I feel pretty good. I haven’t really announced it yet, but I will not be driving a midget again.” So you are getting back behind the wheel of a sprint car only? “Right. My future in a midget is no more. I’m not saying the cars are not safe. They are. I’m going to stick with the sprint cars. I feel more comfortable in a sprint car.”
Do you know the date or race that will be your planned return to racing? “No. We’re going to go to the old Punta Gorda Speedway (Three Palms Speedway) sometime in January, and I’m going to get on the track alone.” Is this to prepare for the February 15th TBARA race that will be at Punta Gorda? “I don’t know about that. My focus actually is going back to strictly running dirt again. I’m a dirt guy. I grew up on dirt, and I built a sprint car to run dirt, and I enjoy the dirt. We’ll run East Bay. I love East Bay. It’s a really fun track. It’s a fast track. Maybe venture to Bubba’s – I don’t know.”
Why the change from asphalt to dirt? “Because I’m running a dirt car on asphalt. I don’t have a lot of money to run an asphalt car.” The car that he will run on dirt is the same number 15JR that raced at Full Throttle Speedway in October. It has a limited motor in it, what Geoff said is an “East Bay legal motor”. He felt he could be more competitive on the dirt with this setup. He seemed to have some sadness with leaving TBARA competition, having felt that they treated him very well, but he reiterated, “I’m a dirt guy, you know.”
“I want to thank everybody – the racers, the fans, everybody. It’s nice that a small town guy like me, a real low-budget guy, can get the love from the sport and everything. It just shows that you don’t have to be one of the big names. You know … that people care. It’s great to be back at the track, and I just look forward to getting back in the seat, and being out with my friends. You know – back doing what we do.”
Arduous Night for TBARA at Full Throttle Speedway
By Richard Golardi
“Can we get the car ready for the feature?” That was the question asked by Joey Aguilar, while being treated for burns, and being prepared to be transported by air ambulance to Tampa. He was concerned about the car. This was a car that had a fuel line douse him with fuel while racing in a TBARA Sprint Car Series heat race at Full Throttle Speedway. TBARA President Buff Fritz informed me that a high speed bypass came loose, and then it sprayed him and the car with fuel, which got on the rotor. "And the rotor's hot, and boom, an instant fire", as Buff told me. The cockpit was instantly filled with fire, and Joey steered the car into the infield and bailed out. Fire crews reached him quickly, and put out the flames covering his legs. Aguilar was treated for his burns at Tampa General Hospital’s burn center, and released later that night, while many were still at the track. He later said that he had third degree burns on both hands, and a first degree burn on his left leg.
“It was a serious fire and to come away with burns on both hands and on my left shin, all around it was handled in a great manner. When my car caught on fire, I knew I needed to get to the middle of the track. I knew Richard Boyer had safety equipment on his 4 wheeler for which I am very thankful. And I want to thank him for his fast response and thinking ahead of the game and checking his equipment,” Joey said. “I would like to thank all the officials, and safety crew at the track and all involved that put me out. Without all of them, I'm not sure where I would be,” he added. Joey has also stated that he intends to be back in the car for the next TBARA race at New Smyrna Speedway on November 23rd. This gives him four weeks for his hands to heal sufficiently. Two weeks later, on December 7th, the season’s last TBARA race takes place at Orlando SpeedWorld.
Wrecks and attrition whittled down the field of 19 cars that started the feature race. There were eleven cars still on the track at the finish. This benefitted the rookies, who took three of the top six finishing positions. Garrett Green finished in fourth place after a ninth row start. Matt Alfonso had a third place finish, and has the TBARA Rookie of the Year title virtually sewn up. Chris Gimmler appeared to be on his way to a fifth place finish, only to be passed by his father, Mark Gimmler, on the last lap. He took sixth place. Rookie Devin Curl was out early after a driveshaft joint broke, and his ankle was injured. He did not leave the track, and had wanted to get back in the car. Repairs could not be made to get back in the feature race. “It was my third time in the car, and then boom,” he said, still managing to laugh about his luck.
“Christopher did an outstanding job. I passed him on the last lap,” Mark Gimmler told me. He would have had a top five, if not for … “If not for me passing him on the last lap,” he said, chuckling. So why did you pass him on the last lap? “He screwed up, and went low, trying to stay out of the speedy dry going into one, and I took him. Went right around him on the outside,” he explained to me, still smiling. He’s another competitor on the track, as you view it? “Yes he is.”
Mark Gimmler also told me that there was disappointment among the drivers that a spin in the second turn early in the race did not bring out a yellow light, and four of the following drivers got caught up in a second turn wreck, along with the car that had spun. “The guy that was spun out in the corner was spun out for more than half a lap, and the yellow light was not on,” he said. Gimmler told me that he got some damage in the wreck, and that Jimmy Alvis Sr. ran over his left rear tire.
Scotty Adema had been trailing closely behind four cars that were involved in the second turn wreck, but backed off on the front straight. He then deftly placed his car between the outside wall and the crippled car of Dude Teate, while Teate’s car was sliding up to the wall. Completely missing the wreck, he exclaimed, “first time in my day, I went into the corner ninth and came out fourth.” How did you know to back off, and avoid getting caught up in the wreck? “I heard Danny screaming caution a bunch of times when I was getting into three, but the lights and flagman weren't reacting to anything. I backed off just before the flag stand and found a hole up top. Almost got hit by Dude’s wounded ride on my way out, then almost hit Ben down the back straight,” Scotty Adema replied. He eventually finished second to feature race winner Dave Steele.
Geoff Styner returned to competition at Full Throttle Speedway, where he was badly injured in a TQ midget crash in May. But he was not driving this day. He brought his sprint car to allow Jay Stutz to drive his first sprint car feature race. Jay told me that he had many miles of open wheel racing experience, all of them in a TQ midget. He was also the car owner of the TQ midget that Geoff Styner crashed at the track in May, an accident where Geoff’s helmet impacted the concrete wall. “There’s good drivers out there. First time in the car – got some good seat time. It was a lot of fun,” Jay told me at the end of the evening. We also spoke about how he was able to avoid all the wrecks, and see the checkered flag for an eleventh place finish. “I drove TQs, so it’s something similar. A little more horsepower, though,” Jay said. He thought that he had a close call when the turn two wreck happened, but “heard something coming up behind me, and I said I’m out of here, and I mashed the gas.”
The safety team at the track, a combination of track personnel and personnel from TBARA, received praise for the quick response to the fire in Aguilar’s car. A mere ten seconds after Aguilar dove out of the car and hit the grass, a firefighter had driven a pickup to the fire scene, grabbed an extinguisher, got out of the truck, and had the extinguisher opened and spraying while running to Joey. With two extinguishers soaking him with water, the fire on his legs was out mere seconds later. A GoPro camera on the car also made it through the fire to record the entire event, despite being in the flames.
At the end of the evening, the messages coming from the Tampa General Hospital burn center conveyed reassuring news that Joey Aguilar would recover, and was already making racing plans. “He is doing great, and will be back to 100% in 3 weeks,” read the message from Joey’s wife Tiffany. “Joey wanted to make sure that all drivers and owners know he is doing great, and he really felt like he was a part of a big family,” the message continued. What was the first question that he had for the doctors who were treating his burns in Tampa? “Can I race on the 23rd?”
The videos from the Florida Open Wheel channel are here (Cockpit fire in Joey Aguilar’s car and also TBARA 10/26/2013 feature race video from Full Throttle Speedway):
http://www.youtube.com/channel/UCSdPdgmUo6WfkfR6Eo__QBA
2014 Golden Gate Speedway Reunion: A Proposal
By Richard Golardi
Golden Gate Speedway Reunion signboard
TO: Golden Gate Speedway Reunion Organizers & Participants, and TBARA, and Citrus County Speedway
RE: A Proposal
In order to promote an enhanced and more exciting Golden Gate Speedway Reunion, and Frank Riddle Memorial event for 2014 (and beyond), the following is proposed:
Golden Gate Reunion
1) With the release of the 2014 NASCAR Sprint Cup schedule, we know the Charlotte night race is 10/11/2014. The ideal dates for both the reunion and Frank Riddle Memorial TBARA race would therefore be on the following weekend.
2) It is proposed that the Frank Riddle Memorial TBARA race be held on Saturday, 10/18/2014, and the 2nd annual reunion be held on Sunday, 10/19/2014. This will allow out-of-town participants to attend both events over the course of one weekend.
3) The benefit to both events would be as follows - increased attendance at both events due to crossover participants. Also, car owners would have an additional venue to display their cars, at the speedway main spectator entrance. Reunion organizers would have an ideal opportunity to promote their event the next day while at the speedway on Saturday. There will be increased media interest and the possibility of a TV deal via MAV TV or other network. Nostalgia sells, and fits well with the Florida promoter’s target market.
4) (Q) When racers get together, what's the one thing that they'd really like to be doing? (A) Race. A unique opportunity exists now with so many "Legends of Florida Sprint Car Racing" still active, but nearing retirement from racing. With vintage sprint cars, and legendary sprint car drivers in town, put the two together on the track. The "First Annual Florida Sprint Car Legends Race", a joint Golden Gate Speedway Reunion / TBARA sanctioned 10 lap exhibition race would be held on the night before the reunion, as part of the Frank Riddle Memorial event.
5) The exhibition race could take on 2 possible scenarios: (1) race the vintage cars with the "Florida legends" sprint car drivers, or (2) race the modern versions of the cars (presumably safer) with the same "Florida legends" drivers. Several of the “Florida legends” drivers are even car owners, and some are owner/drivers.
Riddle family members celebrate with race winner
Golden Gate Reunion Vintage Cars
TBARA Driver Group
Frank Riddle Memorial Returns – Complete with Fairytale Ending
By Richard Golardi
The Tampa Bay Area Racing Association (TBARA), once it approved a petition request to name the October 19th race at Citrus County Speedway as the Frank Riddle Memorial, likely did not foresee the race turning into the feel-good story of the year. Frank Riddle’s daughter, Sharon Riddle, is the owner of the number 11 sprint car, a number used by her father on his car. In addition, the car has the yellow and blue colors seen on Frank’s car. This is the car that won the Frank Riddle Memorial on Saturday night.
Joey Aguilar, chosen to drive the car this year, made his racing comeback in late 2012, which followed two years out of the cockpit. It was his second win this year in what he calls a “Frank Riddle Memorial” car, the first win coming at Showtime Speedway in June. He was determined to win this event, and it showed in the aggressiveness and bravado that he displayed on the track. Going three-wide down the front straight and deftly handling the heavy traffic that clogged the 3/8 mile track, he brought the number 11 car (built to honor Frank Riddle) home first in the feature race. “All for Frank Riddle, baby,” Aguilar proclaimed, after being handed the trophy. Looking skyward, he added, “thank you very much,” his voice showing the emotion of the moment.
“This was all for Frank Riddle, and for his daughter Sharon, who gave me the opportunity. This is the Frank Riddle Memorial, and we won it baby!” Aguilar said that he believed that he would be on a two win streak, if not for the magneto problem at the last TBARA race in September. He also proclaimed that a new JRE engine was coming soon, adding “we got a new one coming, so they better watch out.” After an inopportune start to the evening that involved missing out on practice, he went on to win both a heat race (expanded to eleven laps to match Riddle’s car number) and the feature race. “It’s my wife’s birthday today. Happy Birthday, baby,” Joey told the fans, adding a little extra to a night that the Aguilar and Riddle families would remember for a long time.
A chain reaction crash on the third lap of the feature race in a tightly packed bunch of cars led to a broken radius rod for Ty DeCaire, limiting him to only three and a half circuits during the feature race. Devin Curl, the 16 year old currently racing in the #84 car, completed his first sprint car feature race outside of Showtime Speedway, bringing the car to a fourteenth place finish. Another rookie driver, Chris Gimmler, overcame a spin in his heat race to finish behind Curl in fifteenth. Ray Bragg II celebrated the return of the #66 machine to competition with a ninth place finish, in a car that is still for sale. Two-time TBARA champion Shane Butler was seventh, and fellow two-time champion Johnny Gilbertson was noticeably absent from this race.
This event marked the return of the Frank Riddle Memorial after a five year hiatus. I did see the Citrus County Speedway and TBARA officials in an impromptu meeting after the racing card was completed. I believe there is some progress toward a return of the event in 2014, but nothing has been finalized. The positive attendance numbers should be a strong push to see the event return, and the decision to begin a track non-wing sprint car series in 2014 could be a detriment to the return. A reunion held the prior weekend for former Golden Gate Speedway racers did bring in some vintage cars and retired racers from the Tampa Bay area, and other states. I have already proposed to both parties that they hold both events on the same weekend next year, possibly the Saturday and Sunday of the third weekend in October. This should hopefully be the weekend after the Charlotte NASCAR race (a Saturday night event that could cause a short track downturn in attendance).
With the vintage sprint cars in the area for the reunion event, could a “Florida Legends Sprint Car Race” even be a possibility? Both the Golden Gate Speedway reunion and the Saturday night race event were lacking in one area, but it wasn’t the same for each event. The reunion was fun on many levels. But to only be able to hear the sound of a racing engine start and rev up, without any racing? To add a vintage racing event with the legends of Florida sprint car racing at the wheel of the cars, even if only an exhibition race, would add that dose of live racing excitement that the reunion lacked.
Joey Aguilar Winners Circle
For the speedway, the nostalgia factor was at a low level, with only one vintage sprint car on display, and none that made any laps of the track. To have a fleet of vintage sprint cars on display, and then put them on a track for the first ever (to my knowledge) race with only Florida sprint car legends behind the wheel? That would put the nostalgia factor through the roof. Another alternative would be to have the “Legends drivers” compete in modern day sprint cars for a 10-lap exhibition race, which would allow modern, safer cars to be used. Among those drivers who have raced recently in Florida, or who have told me of an interest to get behind the wheel, are Sonny Hartley, Stan Butler, and Bill Riddle. Then there is other Hall of Famers such as Jim Childers, a three-time Little 500 winner (most wins by any Floridian).
TBARA, after leaving the positive vibe of a sizable crowd and an exciting race with a feel-good ending, moves on next Saturday to race at Full Throttle Speedway in Bradenton. This is a race that originally was to be run without TBARA sanctioning, but was added to the TBARA schedule within the last week. Drivers were told that the regular TBARA purse structure would apply. The sanctioning body also confirmed two dates at Punta Gorda’s renamed Three Palms Speedway for 2014, on February 15th and October 31st. I was told by TBARA President Buff Fritz that a joint race event was planned for New Smyrna Speedway in 2014 with the X-1R Pro Cup Series, a stock car series that last raced in Florida at New Smyrna in March 2011, also a joint event with TBARA. The April to May 2014 period is under consideration for this joint race event. TBARA is also working on getting other New Smyrna Speedway dates on its 2014 schedule.
Ty DeCaire in car
Stan Butler, now confirmed as the race director for the Citrus County Speedway non-wing sprint car series (dubbed “CCS Wingless Sprints”), did confirm some race dates for the new series. The 2014 inaugural race for the series will be on January 4th, with racing to continue on the first Saturday of each month thereafter, through November. Bill Riddle, son of Frank Riddle, told me that he is considering a two-car team for the series with entries for sons Billy Riddle and Bryan Riddle, who were at the track on Saturday. He even added himself into the mix, saying he might consider getting in the car himself.
Notes from Top Gun Sprint Series at Volusia Speedway Park
By Richard Golardi
Florida’s own Super-Sub, Tyler Godwin, has a record of two wins and one third place finish since substituting for an injured Matt Kurtz in the number 82 car. The most recent feature race win, at the Eagle Jet Top Gun Sprint Series race at Volusia Speedway Park, saw him lead all 25 laps, as none of the other competitors was able to mount a challenge. He had finished in third place at Bubba Raceway Park one week earlier, in a race won by teammate AJ Maddox. Two weeks prior to this race, at Hendry County Motorsports Park, he racked up his first win of the three-race streak, again with the Top Gun Sprint cars.
Tyler Godwin
Other notes from the night of racing at Volusia Speedway Park:
· With larger stands than most of Florida’s dirt tracks, the size of the crowd had to be disappointingly small for both the promoters and the sanctioning body. I do admit that I am used to seeing sizable crowds during my annual visit for the World of Outlaws race in February, and this memory is hard to wipe clean. At one point during the evening, I counted a total of one fan seated in the second turn grandstand.
· Matt Kurtz was at the track, sporting a removable cast on his right hand, which was broken last month (in an off the track accident). It looked like a hybrid type plaster cast, but with parts of a wrist splint connected to it. He’ll be wearing it for a few more weeks, before his anticipated return to action next month.
· With Kurtz’s return, what happens to Tyler Godwin’s stint in the number 82, previously driven by Kurtz before his injury? The talk I heard in the pits was that a three-car team may be coming, with Kurtz and Godwin as teammates. Both drivers have multiple wins on Florida’s dirt tracks this year, so any wise car owner would do what’s necessary to keep them. AJ Maddox did win the last race at Bubba Raceway Park, and appears safe in his number 3A ride, making him the third team member. I could not confirm if this car will be operating the same as it is now, or would see some changes in other personnel.
· J R Steele was splashed with boiling water from his car in the feature race, and his crew did confirm that he appeared to have suffered some burns on his hand and leg. After struggling to get out of his car when it stopped on the front straight, he hurriedly tore off his gloves and the shoe and sock on his right foot, which apparently got splashed with the super-heated water. There was no fire in the car, and he managed to get it stopped on the front stretch dirt without damage. He was taken from the track by ambulance for treatment of the burns.
· A new pace car was present at the track – a BMW with pastel pink paint. Under the track lighting, it looked almost purple / pink. The pink pace car was present, it is assumed, to recognize National Breast Cancer Awareness Month.
· Despite having one of the fastest cars in the feature race, and passing two of the top three finishers early in the feature race, Mark Ruel Jr. would have a disappointing end to his evening. First a shredded rear tire put him to the back of the field. After a quick tire change, the restart saw him make less than one lap before another car spun in front of him and he was struck in the right rear corner by the spinning car. He rolled into the infield, but the damage to the right rear of the car put him out for the night. With my GoPro camera on the car, Mark warned me that I would hear his cursing when reviewing the video, once the car rolled to a stop in the infield. I replied that it was something that I had heard from many other cars, on many other tracks.
· With Volusia Speedway Park providing the Top Gun Sprint Series competitors with a bigger track and higher speeds, it is a nice contrast to the smaller tracks seen during the rest of the year. This was the last sprint car race of the year at Volusia. Were the mostly empty stands filled with sufficient ticketholders to warrant bringing back the sprint cars? Have the current promoters made an adequate profit to warrant returning in 2014? These questions are still unanswered as of this date.
· Motorheads LLC was the engine supplier for all of the top three finishers, which included teammates Tyler Godwin and A J Maddox in first and second, and Danny Martin Jr. in third place. Motorheads LLC is the engine shop that is run by Martin.
· A reunification for dirt sprint car racing in Florida, which would help with car counts, appears unlikely for 2014. The two main reasons are that 11 year old Tyler Clem, currently racing a sprint car at Bubba Army race events at Bubba Raceway Park, would be too young for other Florida series, and Bubba Clem (his father) had previously stated that he wants to run the sprint car racing taking place at his track in Ocala.
· In the Winners Circle, feature race winner Tyler Godwin could be heard asking his crew, “were they catching us?” Their answer was, “you drove away every time.” Godwin’s lead was never challenged during the race, but seemed to get smaller later in the race. He told me that the motor wasn’t taking off on restarts the way he had wanted later in the race. “The motor got a little rich at the end, but that’s just a minor adjustment,” he said. His crew’s expertise with the adjustments made after their heat race, where Tyler got passed for the heat race lead, allowed him to cruise to his second race win since his “Super-Sub” status began.
The feature race video from the Florida Open Wheel channel is here (Eagle Jet Top Gun Sprint Series from Volusia Speedway Park on 10/12/2013):
Citrus County Speedway to Host the Return of the Frank Riddle Memorial
By Richard Golardi
The Frank Riddle Memorial, which will be run for the third time on October 19th at Citrus County Speedway, is being held to honor a man who is a Florida sprint car racing legend. This memorial race was held at Desoto Speedway twice previously, in 2007 and 2008. The race will be run as part of the TBARA Sprint Car Series schedule. Who is Frank Riddle, you may ask? He was a family man, a working man, a businessman, and a racer. Frank Riddle was elected to the Little 500 Hall of Fame in 1996, and also the National Sprint Car Hall of Fame in 2010. This last honor came three years after he died in 2007, at age 78.
"Citrus County Speedway to Host the Return of the Frank Riddle Memorial"
Frank is known for winning the Little 500 twice in the 1980s when he was in his fifties. The Little 500 is known for being one of the most prestigious and grueling sprint car races. It is a test of both man and equipment. Frank had always wanted to race and win in the Midwest. He had already won his share of 100, 200, and 300 lap races throughout the Southeast. In his first attempt at the Little 500 in 1978, he started fifth and finished in fourth place. In just his third try in 1984, he qualified on the pole and won the 500 lap race. He came back the next year and repeated the same feat. In five of those attempts through the 1980s, he was the fastest qualifier each time. In his career at Anderson Speedway, he had sixteen starts in the Little 500, with two wins, five top ten finishes, and nine top ten starting positions.
Frank Riddle’s status as a fierce and talented race car driver was initially earned in Florida, while competing at tracks around the Tampa Bay area. These tracks included Phillips Field, Golden Gate Speedway, and the half mile dirt oval at the Florida State Fairgrounds. Phillips Field, in Tampa, was where he drove his first race in a 1935 Ford. Early in his career, Frank raced stock cars, modifieds, and supermodifieds, which ran with wings in the 1960s, well before their use in Formula 1 and IndyCar racing. He would run two or three supermodified races a week, frequently ending his night in the Winners Circle. During this time, Frank would also race all over Florida, from the Southeast coast to Pensacola, and also in the Deep South. Some of the races would be as long as 300 laps, where Frank would show his expertise at taking care of his car, and making it to the checkered flag.
When sprint cars replaced the supermodifieds at Golden Gate Speedway in 1967, car owners sought out Frank to drive their car, as he had already shown his abilities in IMCA sprint car races at the Florida State Fair dirt track. When the Tampa Bay Area Racing Association was formed two years later, Frank was a regular competitor on both the dirt and pavement with his fellow Bay area racers. He has 95 lifetime TBARA feature wins during twenty years of racing with the association, which places him second on the overall winners list, behind only Wayne Reutimann with 97 wins.
Tall and lanky, Frank’s friends called him “Bones”. He was known for his big smile and his worn blue driving uniform. During the 1980 season, he ran the USAC National Sprint Car Series in two blue and yellow number eleven J.W. Hunt Produce cars (one for dirt, and one for pavement), and earned the Rookie of the Year title at 52 years old. A popular story from Frank’s career involved a frightening crash and fire at Anderson Speedway. His car caught fire after coming to rest in turn one, where a fan crawled under the fence, and ran to the car to tell Frank that he was on fire, and to get out. Frank would meet with the fan when he returned to Anderson to race, remembering the good deed for many years after that fateful day. After he retired from his job as a CSX railroad engineer in 1987, he spent his time farming when he wasn’t at the track.
After starting his racing career in 1948, Frank Riddle racked up 250 feature wins over the next 48 years. It was said that he loved racing, and that he loved the people that he knew through racing. His wife, Margaret, and his family, and a small farm in Thonotosassa became his life after he retired from racing in 1997 at age 68. That year was his last trip to Anderson to drive in the Little 500. To this day, he is still credited with starting the tradition by so many Floridians of heading to Central Indiana each year to race in the Little 500. The highest finishing Floridian at the Little 500 earns the Frank Riddle Award. That award was won this year by a rookie in his first Little 500 effort, Garrett Green.
For all of these accomplishments, and for living a life that was both memorable and admirable, that is why the Frank Riddle is being remembered with the revival of the TBARA Sprint Car Series feature race “The Frank Riddle Memorial”. Jimmy Riddle, Frank’s brother and another Florida racing legend, passed away earlier this year. He will also be remembered during the pre-race ceremonies at the track. The race will take place in Inverness, Florida on October 19th at the Citrus County Speedway. (Credit: Ken de la Bastide, The Herald Bulletin; and Carlton Calfee)
TBARA Fall Season Opening Race – Scotty’s Back, Steele Smelts the Competition
By Richard Golardi
At New Smyrna Speedway on Saturday, for the Tampa Bay Area Racing Association fall season opening race, Scotty Adema brought his small crew and a new car. He also brought the skill and determination that he would need when multiple obstacles were thrown in his path during the first half of the day’s events. The first practice session saw smoke pouring from the left side of his engine, due to an oil leak. With the leak repaired, the second practice session on the high banks brought proof that he had the speed needed to compete for a feature race win. Scotty had spent the summer preparing the new car, a Diablo chassis, for TBARA’s return to competition. His last race was in May, almost five months ago. The Diablo, emblazoned with a fire engine red Firefighter theme complete with flames, did not disappoint and was one of the fastest cars all night.
67 car of Scotty Adema
In his heat race, Adema settled in behind the yellow car of Mark Gimmler. While running closely behind Gimmler, he had a fraction of a second to react to a medium-sized metal object that appeared on the track, in the third turn racing groove. Maneuvering safely around the object, which appeared to go unnoticed by officials, he next had to anticipate where the object would show up on the next lap. It appeared to move further down the track and closer to the inside line at least once, due to being struck or brushed by another car. Adema would follow the yellow #51 car of Gimmler across the line to finish second in the heat race, after a caution period allowed the track crew to retrieve the errant metal object from the third turn.
Throughout the feature race, Scotty Adema was close to the front, after a mid-pack start in the same row as Dave Steele, a heat race winner from earlier. “I haven’t raced that close at this speed in a long time, and I missed it,” Scotty told me after the evening’s racing had concluded. “It really is fun to know you can trust these guys, and do that. It was a blast.” That’s why you’re smiling then, I asked? “Oh yeah,” he replied. “I haven’t raced at this track since 2006 Speedweeks. We ran a couple of non-wing races, but both times we showed up, either the water pump or the fuel pump broke. So we never got more than two or three laps.” The race’s finish would be determined after a late race red flag, with Joey Aguilar and Adema and Dave Steele at the front. Early leader Larry Brazil Jr., who played the role of the rabbit and pulled out to a huge early lead, lost the lead after 19 laps. He eventually finished in fifth place.
Top Three at New Smyrna Speedway
The restart with five laps to go, although it was not the final restart, was the one that sealed the fate of the eventual feature winner, Dave Steele. This restart began with Steele in third place, behind Aguilar and Adema. With Aguilar drifting high to block Adema’s pass attempt down the long front straight, Steele dove low and passed them both by the first turn. “Dave kind of bonzaied us when we both backed out and he took the lead. I went to the outside, and all of a sudden here comes this white ghost,” Scotty told me. “I honestly thought Dave was going to slide right up into the side of him, but he made it through there.” Steele would retain the lead and power to the win after one final restart with three laps remaining. It was at this last restart that Adema made his move to take second place from Joey Aguilar. “It looked like Joey’s motor stumbled a little bit, and I went to the outside there, and he gave me the outside. I’ve got to thank him for that. He’s a tough competitor, and he gave me plenty of room out there. I was smiling the whole time we were running side-by-side there.” He would finish the feature race in second, behind only Dave Steele.
Summarizing his night, Adema told me, “we had a couple of little leaks here and there, but other than that, we couldn’t ask for a better night. Well I mean you could – you could get a win. But as far as what we were competing with, and as many laps as I had in the car, I’m happy. This is only the second time I’ve raced all year. I had to knock the rust off of it for here, quick.” The oil leak in practice was a valve cover improperly installed, and there was also a minor rear end leak.
Adema revealed that Dave Steele had helped with putting his car together, and that it was “pretty much a copy of his car. There’s a couple little differences here and there, but it’s about the same.” The Diablo chassis had a Gaerte engine under the hood. “He likes the car on one end, and I like it towards the other.” Are any changes planned for the next TBARA race at Citrus County Speedway? “Yes, once I get the adrenaline out of my head, and can sit down and analyze it, and watch the videos of the car. I’ll look at what exactly was the car doing, because out there you’re kind of just reacting. Then I’ll go back, and maybe just fine tune it.” Driving at New Smyrna, he would crack the throttle for the turns, and then accelerate again quickly, without touching the brake pedal. “Go into the corner, roll out to about quarter throttle, and then right back down.”
Dave Steele in Winners Circle
After getting two second place finishes in his last two races (both at Showtime Speedway), Dave Steele was determined to get back to his usual winning ways. This was evidenced by the brave move to pass both the first and second place cars by diving low into turn one at the restart. “It was either lapped traffic cobbing those guys up pretty bad, but they seemed to be getting through that pretty good. Or… try something on a restart. Luckily, our engine is really crisp on starts and restarts, so it worked out good for us,” Steele told me. And you got by both those guys with no contact? “No contact. I was able to get along side of them on the front straightaway, by the flag stand, and get underneath them going into one. Whatever it takes, I guess.” What if there had not been a yellow flag? “Unfortunately, it was looking like probably third.”
A blistered tire, first noticed in the heat race, became a badly blistered tire in the feature, but did not deter Steele from being the first to the checkered flag. “Our car was pretty good once we got in clean air. At this track, when you get the dirty air off the guys in front of you, it’s tough. It limits your passing attempts to traffic and restarts.” Do you think this makes you the favorite for the remaining TBARA races, and the championship? “I don’t know about the favorite for the races. I guess we’re looking OK for the points. I’d say the sixty seven is probably second.” Do you intend to run the non-TBARA race in October at Full Throttle Speedway? “Oh, I think so. We’re just out there to race. There’s politics involved in it. If you’ve got a race car, you might as well race it.”
Steele did openly admit that there is still some work to do to improve his car. “The last two races prior to this, we had a couple seconds. If you’re not winning, you’ve got to do something. There’s a couple of things we need to try.” Was it the car or the driver? “That’s hard to say. I’m no spring chicken any more, but it’s hard to say. The guys we’re racing against are getting tough too. So, you’ve got to give those guys credit.” I’ve asked other drivers if everyone else’s car and driving ability was getting better, and they thought that could be the case, I remarked. “Yup. I agree,” Steele stated.
I also spoke to fourth place finisher Ben Fritz, who told me that he was battling a tight race car all night. Did he think the result would have been different if the late race cautions hadn’t happened? “The yellow came out, and I ended up getting one car with three laps to go (Larry Brazil Jr.), and we ended up fourth. What ifs? The top three guys could have blew up.” There was no contact in turn one, but what if they had taken each other out? “Exactly. I don’t believe in what ifs, so …” But, you would have been in first place! “Yeah, that would have been nice. Overall, at New Smyrna, if everything’s going home in one piece, and your motor’s still running, it’s a good night.”
TBARA Fall Season Preview – Buff Fritz Interview
By Richard Golardi
The Tampa Bay Area Racing Association returns to the track this Saturday, at New Smyrna Speedway, after a one and a half year absence from the track. After the state’s pavement sprint car competition was limited to only Showtime Speedway all summer, New Smyrna constitutes a dramatic shift to high speeds and high banks. For this reason, the racing club will limit competition to racers who are sixteen years of age or older.
Two competitors raced at Showtime Speedway last Saturday for the track’s last sprint car race of the year, and were under this minimum age (Ty DeCaire and Garrett Green, both fifteen). DeCaire impressed with a top five qualifying performance, and followed this up with a fifth place finish in the feature, his best performance of the year. DeCaire and Green would battle for position throughout the latter portion of the race. Green would be hindered by failing brakes late in the race, and DeCaire would pounce at the last restart to take the position. Another teenage rookie made his first sprint car start in the number 84 car previously driven this year by Ben Fritz and Mickey Kempgens. Devin Curl, who had competed against Garrett Green in go karts since the age of five, missed a top ten finish in his first start by one position. Prior to the Showtime race last Saturday, his only other time behind the wheel of a sprint car was one practice session earlier this month.
Buff Fritz and Devin Curl
Some of the competitors who have expressed a desire to join the TBARA trail for the remaining four races are Scotty Adema (debuting a fire engine red Firefighter themed car with an “Engine 67” logo), and three drivers seen at Showtime Speedway in the past month. These three are Russell Jones, Bobby Gordon, and Terry Taylor. The two drivers under sixteen years old, DeCaire and Green, will be able to rejoin the TBARA at the next race at Citrus County Speedway in October. This race marks the return of the Frank Riddle Memorial since it was last run in 2008. The series returns to New Smyrna Speedway again in November, and concludes its 2013 season at Orlando SpeedWorld in December. One other pavement sprint car race this year, at Full Throttle Speedway on October 26th, is not part of the TBARA schedule.
I asked TBARA President Buff Fritz to tell me what he was looking forward to in the upcoming four series races during the fall? “Well, we’ll be out of the gate next week at New Smyrna. We haven’t been back there in two seasons. So, it’ll be good to get back at that venue.” Do you think the cooler weather will help with increasing attendance? “Sure. Heck yeah! Who wants to come to the races when it’s one hundred degrees out? I’d like it to be about sixty to seventy degrees.” I also asked about if there was a desire to continue scheduling races through January, February, and March. That seems unlikely, as there is a desire to give teams some time off to “get their equipment back together”. There was nothing to announce about possible February 2014 Speedweeks events, or if they included New Smyrna Speedway. That track had the USAC National Midget Series race this year, during the two days that had seen the TBARA race in previous years (Sunday / Monday prior to Daytona 500 weekend). But, Fritz did reveal that “we are talking to Mr. Hart about Speedweeks. Mr. Hart is ready to have us back.”
Ty DeCaire
Where will the series be racing beyond Speedweeks next year? “Well, we’re working the 2014 schedule right now,” Fritz told me. “I don’t know. After we get this week in, I was going to start working promoters next week.” Including Jamie Haase at Three Palms Speedway in Punta Gorda? “Yes. We have been in contact. Josh has done a real job working with those fellows down there, and they are ready.” What have they been saying? “Verbally – four races.” Starting when? “The first part of the season. They want to go, like every other month. He’s still trying to get that track put back together.”
Right now, there are no anticipated changes in rules for the TBARA, but the next annual meeting is in December, when rules changes may be proposed. The series is pursuing the new drivers and cars to get involved, and Fritz was proud to talk about the “young boy in the eighty four car tonight – Devin Curl. He’s sixteen. He’s a state champ in go karts. He’s kind of a little protégé of ours – between Ben and I. He’s been with us since he’s been eight years old. Now he’s sixteen, and we practiced with him a couple of weeks ago, and tonight he gets his first shot in the eighty four car. He looked good out there. We’re really focused on his car control. We’ve been coaching him, and he’s listening, so we’re real proud of that.”
Regarding the younger drivers and New Smyrna Speedway, Buff Fritz said that this would be evaluated on a race-to-race basis. “Club members voted on that deal. In the beginning, the agreement was not to have them on the half miles. The speeds are just way, way too high for those fellows to be on the half miles yet. Their day will come. They’re just young fellows and they’re getting seat time and paying their dues.”
“A lot of these promoters are starting to do their own deals. There’s some concern in the racing world, especially sprint cars here in Florida. Some of these tracks are starting to hold sprint car races in-house, and that’s a concern to us in the TBARA,” according to Buff Fritz. “Coming into 2014 will be our 42nd year as an organization. With an agreement, we bring stabilization. We bring something stable. We bring rules and we bring a structured purse that’s in place. You know when you leave the house exactly what each position pays. We bring our own officials and we’re a totally self-contained series, and we bring the best quality sprint car racing in the State of Florida. I try to stress with my guys – hey, if they pay better than our purse, then there’s not much you can say. But if they go, and their purse is less than ours? Guys - we need to stay together with some unity and loyalty, and we’ve got to stay together as a series. We can’t give our services away.”
The relationship between the series and Full Throttle Speedway, which hosted one series race in early May, appears to be stagnated. A disagreement over the purse resulted in the removal of two additional 2013 races from the schedule. “I have no problem with the fellows down there at Full Throttle. I’d really like to come back to that venue. It’s a great place, and the drivers like it, and it’s centrally located,” Buff admitted. Any possibility of patching up the relationship and bringing Full Throttle Speedway back into the fold looks unlikely for the near future. It may grow more remote with Three Palms Speedway added to the 2014 schedule for four races, and more frequent racing at New Smyrna. Citrus County Speedway has confirmed a new non-wing series for 2014, and has not stated their intentions to schedule their usual supplement of two TBARA races.
What about expectations for car count? “Well, we hope to be at 22 to 25 cars. That’s where we’ve been. Last year, we averaged 18 cars for the whole season. The highest we had was 26 cars. There’s a lot of cars sitting in Florida on the pavement side, and we’re working hard to get these guys back out.”
What about the new non-wing sprint car series at Citrus County? Is that a good thing for TBARA, or a bad thing? “That’s a bad thing for TBARA, and it’s a bad thing for sprint cars, especially pavement racing. It’s not like the North, or the Midwest. They think they can run non-wings, by themselves, and what rules are they going to run? There’s too many opportunities to spend your dollar, and when you flood or saturate an event like sprint car racing, it becomes – oh, we’ll go the next time. People will say – they run again next month, we’ll go see them next month. Nine events at one track is too much.” Could TBARA have started a second series themselves, but exclusively non-wing, under TBARA sanctioning? “No, no. Any promoter has the discretion to make the show either a wing or a non-wing.” But, would TBARA have considered running more than one series? “We don’t need one. That’s the problem. There’s only five pavement tracks left in business, and there’s not enough race cars, and not enough race tracks to continue having a non-wing and a wing series.”
Schedule for remaining 2013 TBARA Sprint Car Series races:
9/28 – New Smyrna Speedway, New Smyrna Beach, FL
10/19 – Citrus County Speedway, Inverness, FL
11/23 – New Smyrna Speedway, New Smyrna Beach, FL
12/7 – Orlando SpeedWorld, Orlando, FL
Non-wing Pavement Sprint Car Racing Returns to Florida
By Richard Golardi
Non-wing pavement sprint car racing has become somewhat rare in America. Michigan and Indiana see these cars race on a couple of tracks. An undetermined amount of support (which seemed limited to social media) appeared in late August for the Tampa Bay Area Racing Association (TBARA) to hold its first non-wing race in decades at Citrus County Speedway. The race is now scheduled for Saturday, October 19th and will be run as a winged race. I can’t confirm the date of the last non-wing race held by the association, but apparently it was 25-30 years ago, when they held races on both dirt and asphalt. I can confirm that the conversations that I held during this period, in late August, appeared to show some level of support for this history making change.
Non-wing pavement sprint car racing is coming to Florida in 2014. It won’t be under the aegis of the TBARA, which appears to be committed to only winged sprint car racing. It will take place at Citrus County Speedway in Inverness, beginning in January 2014. In fact, the first race is already scheduled for Saturday, January 4th. Thereafter, it will run on a monthly basis, with 9-10 races scheduled for the year. The speedway appears to be the only venue for non-wing pavement sprint car racing in Florida next year. Showtime Speedway did mention an intention to add non-wing sprint car racing to a multi-day event in February 2014, but those plans may have been changed.
Gary Laplant is the new operator and promoter at Citrus County Speedway, after successfully petitioning the fair board to take over the track lease from the previous leaseholder. When we spoke in August, I asked if he was in favor of having a non-wing race at the track. “I support it. I heard that they wanted to make it a memorial race, on top of that, for Frank Riddle. I’ve talked to drivers, and they are for taking the wings off. I’d rather have the wings off, because I think it would be a good selling point for me,” Laplant told me. At the time when a non-wing TBARA race was the subject of discussion, Laplant said, “for the TBARA, the wings have not come off for twenty five years, since they left dirt. I think it would be a great selling point for the track, and for the series. I think it would be a great decision for them, honestly.” Subsequently, a decision by TBARA officials to race only with wings may have prompted Laplant to make the move to add non-wing sprint cars to the plans for the 3/8 mile pavement oval in Inverness.
“You’ve got people that love wings, and you’ve got people that don’t care for the wings,” Laplant told me. I asked about the plans for the race to be named as the Frank Riddle Memorial, and if it seemed appropriate for a non-wing race to be held (a subject still being debated at the time of our August interview). Many of Riddle’s biggest wins came in non-wing races. “It’s a tribute to Frank, and then you’re going to get the people that like the non-wing racing, and so you’re going to put them together,” Laplant said.
The last non-wing pavement sprint car race held in the state was in September 2011, a race held by an independent group at Citrus County Speedway. A video recording of the feature race shows two and three-wide racing in the corners of the 3/8 mile track. The driving skills of the competitors were on display with lower cornering speeds, and cars sliding in the corners. Plans for Citrus County Speedway to have a non-wing sprint car series in 2012 were later dropped, and only winged TBARA sprint cars have raced at the track since then. It is unknown if the TBARA cars will return to the speedway in 2014, in addition to the new non-wing sprint car series.
I spoke to renowned Florida sprint car veteran (and proponent of non-wing sprint car racing) Stan Butler earlier this week. He told me that there are hopes for at least fifteen cars for the first race in January, with purses that are comparable to TBARA. “I was at the very first race that TBARA ever ran,” Butler told me. “The plan is not to schedule races when any of the other tracks are running. If they actually did a winged race on the night of a non-wing race, I think there are enough supporters out there to support both of them. I think there are a lot of guys who haven’t been running with a wing, because a lot of them don’t think they can run with the Steeles and the guys who run up front with a wing. And they are right. It doesn’t take as much motor, and I don’t think you are going to use the tires as bad.” Looking ahead to next year, he said, “I’m excited.”
Is there a possibility that Dave Steele could come along, and dominate all the races in this series as he has done for most of this year with wings? “Honestly, I don’t think so,” Butler said. “You never know what he’ll do. I don’t think you’re going to have anybody dominate. I really don’t.”
Concerning the genesis of this idea to bring back non-wing sprint cars to Central Florida, Butler told me that Gary Laplant had helped support Michael and Carla Rudolph’s non-wing sprint car series. This was the now defunct Central Florida Wingless Sprint Car Association. “So that’s when they were trying to get that Frank Riddle Memorial race changed, to make it a non-wing race. That’s what Riddle, and most all of us, always ran weekly at Golden Gate. We were a non-wing sprint car class. And then TBARA started, and wanted to go to West Palm, and stuff. We started TBARA, and there weren’t more than two or three races a year with a wing. As time went on, the tracks let TBARA be their sanctioning body.”
We also discussed which teams would likely enter cars for a new non-wing series, and Butler mentioned names that have not been running their car lately, but may be enticed to return to the track. With Laplant having planned to take over the lease of the prior track leaseholder for several weeks, and receiving county fair board approval just this week, he already had discussions with participants prior to this week. That explains how a planned first race date in January could be revealed so quickly. Butler also revealed to me that School Bus Figure 8 racing will be returning to Citrus County Speedway. School Bus racing has been trying to recover from a tarnished image, due to some fatal race accidents in Florida. Some planned changes are being implemented to reduce the danger to drivers in the buses.
“I’ve been around sprint cars all my life. I’ve got the experience, and I had a little taste of running the TBARA. I think everything will run smooth. We ought to be in good shape,” Butler said confidently. Do you think it’s a good thing for Florida to have another sprint car series? “Well, I’m not saying it’s another series, because actually it’s not. It’s no different than track-run late models, and track-run modifieds. And that’s how we all started. We had a track, and we ran weekly back in those days. Personally, I can’t afford to support a traveling series, because I can’t afford it. There are a lot of guys that I think would be OK with a one-track deal a month. Then that leaves them other nights, if there’s something else going on, they can go run their sprint car.”
In conclusion, Butler admitted that he would feel disappointment if the series did not reach adequate car counts, and show it was financially viable. “I think it’s a perfect place for non-wing sprint car racing. It’s easy on cars. It’s easy on motors. I think it’s going to be a good thing. I think it takes Florida sprint car racing back to its roots, where it started at one race track every week. Only, this will be once a month. If it doesn’t work out, I’m going to be really disappointed, but I think it’ll work.”
Here Comes Florida’s Fall Blitz of Sprint Car Racing – and Some New Players for 2014
By Richard Golardi
Florida’s fall blitz of sprint car racing begins this Saturday, and extends for a full three months of sprint car racing every weekend (save for one Saturday after Thanksgiving) through December 14th at Hendry County Motorsports Park. Pavement fans will have multiple tracks offering up winged pavement action, including returns to two East Florida locations (New Smyrna Speedway and Orlando Speedworld). TBARA returns to New Smyrna Speedway’s high-banked half mile on September 28th, after Showtime Speedway monopolized the summer’s pavement racing schedule. The fall season will have six pavement sprint car races across five different tracks, starting with Showtime Speedway in September and ending with Orlando Speedworld in December. Two other tracks that will add December dates on dirt are East Bay Raceway Park and Hendry County Motorsports Park.
Bryan Riddle
The fall season will also mark the return of the Frank Riddle Memorial as part of the TBARA schedule, which was last run in 2007 and 2008 at Desoto Speedway. This year’s date will be at Citrus County Speedway on October 19th. A successful petition process, launched on the popular internet petition website Change.org, was begun on April 24th, and garnered its one hundredth supporter signature on August 29th, reaching its stated goal. The petition asked for this TBARA race to be named the Frank Riddle Memorial, after the legendary two-time Little 500 winner and member of the National Sprint Car Hall of Fame. Several members of the Riddle family are slated to attend the memorial race, including Frank’s grandson, Bryan Riddle. Bryan has told me that he is hoping to have the #11 car that was raced by his grandfather ready to enter for the full race in October. This is the same car that he raced in the Florida 400 in 2007, his first ever sprint car race.
Several new car and driver combinations have been seen at Showtime Speedway recently, including two new cars that made their debut at the last race on August 31st. One of these new cars was the #99 car driven by Bobby Gordon, with sponsorship from StreetNASCAR.com. This car was previously run out of the Reutimann race shop, and will run with Gordon behind the wheel for Showtime and TBARA races. The only upcoming race that Gordon will miss is the November TBARA race date at New Smyrna, as he has another race commitment. Bobby Gordon was last seen in the #90 car at New Smyrna Speedway last year, so he has recent experience at that track.
The second car to take to the track for the first time that night at Showtime Speedway was the #63 car of Terry Taylor. The 65 year old owner/driver was making his first ever start in a sprint car on August 31st. Taylor told me that he had raced midgets up north for twenty years in Ohio, Michigan, and Indiana, including some USAC midget shows. In Florida, he has raced in a TQ midget and dwarf car. The car was previously run as the #1 car. It was purchased from Dave Steele on July 3rd and was built by Mac Steele. “It takes some time to learn how to drive the car,” he replied, when I asked him how it was going. His wife, Tamara Taylor, had given the car to him as a 65th birthday present, he said. He was quick to praise Johnny Gilbertson, Mac Steele, and Dave Steele for their help in getting the car ready to race in August. He is planning to enter the remainder of the Showtime Speedway and TBARA races this year.
The #75 car was also seen in action recently, with new owner Russell Jones, who purchased the car from Curtis Sutton. His last race at Showtime Speedway was his fourth race in this car. Stan Butler confirmed that he is starting preparations for a two car team for himself and his son, Shane, for next year’s Little 500. They need about $10,000 of sponsorship money to make the deal feasible. Keith Butler was also spotted with a car nicknamed “Ms. Liberty”. The car is one he bought from Kenny Adams in 2009. When I asked about the sprint car he had been racing recently, he told me that “the rust bucket got retired”. It was a car driven by Tom Bigelow in the ‘70s. “It was previously called ‘Foxy”, but I called it rust bucket,” Keith told me. He is not making plans for a return to the Little 500, as he is concentrating on pavement races at Showtime Speedway and possible upcoming non-wing races.
With the retirement of the Speed Channel, and the emergence of MAV TV as an alternate auto racing based network, the new player in TV auto race programming may turn to Florida in the future. There are no announced plans to televise any of the upcoming Florida races, as the network has depended heavily on Indiana sprint car racing and the Must See Xtreme sprint cars, which conclude their racing by the fall season. With each passing year, Florida has garnered increased attention for its late fall and winter racing, and hopes remain high for a TV package in the near future, bringing even getter attention.
In recent memory, the TBARA has been Florida’s only pavement sprint car racing show. Then, the Outlaw Winged Sprint Series at Showtime Speedway in Pinellas Park saw its debut in July 2012. Add another two players to that pavement racing list:
· A race that was originally listed with TBARA sanctioning, and then dropped from the TBARA schedule, will be run at Full Throttle Speedway (previously Desoto Speedway) on October 26th. This is the only sprint car race listed on the track’s updated fall calendar. It is unknown if further races will be planned, or if it will return as a track series in 2014.
· I spoke to Gary Laplant, promoter and operator of Citrus County Speedway, and he has confirmed that a non-wing sprint car series is being considered for the track in 2014. There are no dates set yet, as Laplant stated that he will know more next week, after a meeting of county officials puts a final stamp of approval on his lease proposal. He will move forward with plans for this non-wing series once that occurs.
As previously reported, Jamie Haase of Three Palms Speedway (previously Punta Gorda Speedway) will bring sprint car racing back to Southwest Florida in 2014, and wants to have the TBARA sprint cars race at his track. The Punta Gorda area has been a home to sprint car teams, and several TQ midget teams. Haase told me that he wants to have the TBARA stage four races at his track next year.
The 2013 sprint car season at Showtime Speedway will come to an end next week, with the season’s last race on September 21st. A revised Winter Series for the track, to include sprint car racing, will move its start date forward to January 2014, in preparation for a very busy month of February. Gone are the Winter Series dates in the months on November and December, now replaced by a multi-day event in February which will encompass the last weekend of the month (Daytona 500 weekend), and also Saturday, March 1st.
· This “2014 Florida Championship Figure 8’s and Winged Sprints” is set for Showtime Speedway on 2/22/and 3/1 next year.
· The other Winter Series dates, to include sprint car racing, are 1/18, 2/1, and 2/15/2014.
· As happened when the original 2013 race dates were announced early this year, the rest of the 2014 sprint car dates are limited to those months with a fifth Saturday (there are only four in 2014 - 3/29, 5/31, and 8/30/2014 with the last weekend of November as an off week). There were more dates subsequently added to the 2013 calendar, beyond the “fifth Saturday” limitation.
Winter Series Will Return to Showtime Speedway in 2013
By Richard Golardi
The 1956 USAC Florida Winter Sprint Car champion was Don Branson. In a series that raced at Palm Beach Speedway, Jacksonville Speedway, and Medley Stadium (Miami), Branson had two second place finishes, and one third place. In 2012, winter sprint car racing (outside of the few weeks of racing during February Speedweeks) returned with the Winter Series at Showtime Speedway. This November 2012 to January 2013 series was thoroughly dominated by Dave Steele, earning him the 2012-2013 Winter Series crown. Fortunately, present day Floridians will not have to wait for an entire generation for the return of a Florida winter sprint car series. The Winter Series will return to Showtime Speedway in 2013, according to promoter Robert Yoho. It will include sprint car racing, and will likely include some Thursday night races during the winter season.
Yoho told me that he will continue a tradition of having a Winter Series, as he still intends to race at the Pinellas Park track on a year-round basis. The schedule of race dates are about 80% complete, will include some Thursday nights, and will include sprint car racing. He also confirmed for me that he will continue to manage and officiate all of the sprint car racing at the track, which will preclude the participation of the TBARA. The track series, dubbed the “Outlaw Winged Sprint Series”, will continue with double file restarts, and without heat races, in favor of longer 40-lap feature races. Dave Steele is still a dominant force in Florida, having won two out of the last four Outlaw Winged Sprint Series races, and one of the two TBARA feature races in 2013. Steele should be a favorite to repeat as Winter Series champion, but he has not been as dominant during the summer as he was during the last Winter Series.
Robert Yoho conducts interview
I asked Robert Yoho to tell me how he felt about the track’s oval success, including profitability, and oval attendance numbers. How are things going overall? “We’re behind schedule,” he replied. “We don’t have the attendance that we want. It’s just taking time to build the place back up, but it’s probably due to the weather, and you don’t know whether it’s going to rain, or not rain. It’s a pot luck shootout. So, people stay home and listen to the weatherman.” Will the Winter Series return? “Yes. Let me explain something to you – Showtime doesn’t close. We’re going to have a two-week event in March, with Thursday night and country & western music and qualifying and racing, and the works.” Do you mean two Thursdays in March? “Probably a Thursday, Friday and Saturday, and then a Saturday. It’ll be the last week of February, and the first week of March. The dates are already scheduled. March 1st will be the last day of it.”
Yoho had told me previously of an event tentatively called “Showtime Goes Indy”. I asked if this was the same event being planned, and if this was the name that would be used. “Showtime Goes Indy. We’ll have the World Championship Figure 8’s and sprint cars.” Will you have November, December, and January race dates, in addition to this special event? “We’re going to go music, with racing. We’re going to try something different, on Thursday nights.” What Thursday nights are you looking at? “We don’t know that yet.” This would be during November and December? “And possibly January and February.” So it would include sprint cars, and it would be the return of the Winter Series, as it was last year? “Yeah. I’ve got the schedule 80% done.”
Showtime Speedway
I also asked if he still wished to run all of the sprint car racing himself, without any other race sanctioning bodies (such as TBARA) involved? “Evidently, TBARA has done better that I have. I’ve got more dates but I just don’t have the number of cars. And, they can’t seem to put it together because of their expectations and everything in their contract since it’s a little bit different. If we could get the crowd back, sprint cars will pay more. You know, we’ve got to get the crowd up. Our goal is a thousand people a week. We’re not hitting it. You know, so we’re working on it.”
So you still feel the same about running and managing sprint car racing here – it’s going to be done by you? “Yes. TBARA is more than welcome to come and tech them and use my results and my payout. All they’ve got to do it tech it and give the guys the points and they get more races, and that’s fine. But, as far as me going with what they want to do, I want double file restarts and I want the way I do things.” What if they OK’d the double file restarts, but wanted to do something that you’re not doing now? “Their contract needs a lot of help. Their contact has got a little bit of a problem. This is 2013, and you need a contract? Tough. I need a handshake and a verbal. I’ve got a $50,000 deal coming in here in November with the Sons of Anarchy and this band here (picks up CD case) – Soul Circus Cowboys, and we did all that on a handshake.”
The videos from the Florida Open Wheel channel are here (winning driver interview from Showtime Speedway, and also Showtime Speedway 8/31/2013 feature race video):
http://www.youtube.com/channel/UCSdPdgmUo6WfkfR6Eo__QBA
Meet the Newest Member of Florida’s Sprint Car Young Guns – Daniel Pollitt
Daniel Pollitt
By Richard Golardi
The fact that another Florida teenager is entering the world of high-powered sprint car racing in Florida may not be news. But fourteen year old Daniel Pollitt, who has plans to start racing his sprint car in East Bay Sprints and in Top Gun Series dirt races, and then possibly add TBARA, has 2-time TBARA champion Johnny Gilbertson as his Crew Chief and mentor. 3-D Motorsports driver Daniel Pollitt is pursuing a lifelong dream to race sprint cars. The team has purchased a 2007 Maxim dirt sprint car from Johnny Gilbertson, and is preparing it for the remainder of the 2013 race season. The car has previously raced 15 times, winding up in Victory Circle on 8 occasions.
The car is currently being converted over to an asphalt car, but may be raced on both dirt and asphalt, as Daniel has racing experience on both surfaces. “We bought a 2007 Maxim dirt car although Johnny is looking for axles, etc. to covert over to asphalt,” according to Jeff Pollitt, Daniel’s father. “We plan on starting out at East Bay Raceway and the Top Gun Series and some TBARA events as well. Certainly the Three Palms Speedway and Full Throttle Speedway if at all possible, as those tracks are both within ten miles of Boy Scouts camps.” The team has already added the Boy Scouts of America as one of its team sponsors. The fourteen year old racer lists Marco Island, Florida as his hometown, and he has been racing for nine years. The team members are listed as Daniel, Danielle (Mom), and Dad (father Jeff Pollitt), which explains the 3D in 3-D Motorsports. His racing experience comes from the Heavy World Formula and Quarter Midget and Half Midget classes.
Daniel Pollitt’s victory lap at Heavy Honda State Championship
The team has benefitted their main sponsor, The Boy Scouts, by recruiting scouts from Florida to the Northeast and Midwest. “We hope to operate similarly within the sprint car ranks racing in Florida in the cooler months, and in the Central Pennsylvania area and travelling in the summer. We would however entertain spending time anywhere that an opportunity might present itself,” stated Jeff Pollitt. Pollitt also feels that they have a great advantage in having Gilbertson, who is the Manager at Steele Performance Parts in Tampa, as Crew Chief and also as a mentor to the teenage racer. “Johnny works on these machines full-time, so he has access to and knowledge of the latest sprint car racing technology and safety equipment. His help will be invaluable in getting our team up to speed and keeping our driver safe,” Pollitt said.
Daniel is the second young sprint car driver to make his debut, or announce plans to debut, in Florida sprint car racing this month. On August 10th at Bubba Raceway Park, 11 year old Tyler Clem made his first sprint car start in a Limited Sprint Series race at the track owned by his father. Clem has plans to race in a late model and sprint car at the Ocala track. He sits in first place in the Limited Late Model points at the raceway, with one late model win in 2013.
New 3D Motorsports sprint car
Daniel Pollitt Racing Highlights from recent years:
· 2009 First feature win on dirt at Keystone
· 2009 2nd at USAC Eastern District Championships in Heavy World Formula
· 2009 3rd at USAC Eastern District Championships in Heavy Honda
· 2010 2nd at the USAC Dirt Nationals in Half Midget
· 2010 6 QMA Feature wins on Dirt
· 2010 USAC Tampa Winter Series Heavy World Formula Champion
· 2011 1st USAC National Feature Win at Hagerstown
“Daniel loves the Boy Scouts and is quite a remarkable recruiter. He is a small step away from being an Eagle Scout. His goal is to attain that distinguished honor before he enters his first sprint car race. We hope to make some of the end of the year Top Gun events around Thanksgiving, which should be the beginning of an incredible Florida Open Wheel season,” remarked Jeff Pollitt.
The tracks that Daniel has competed at include Keystone, Eldora, Tampa Bay, Oaklane, Pocono, Silver City, Hagerstown, Little New Smyrna, and Indianapolis. “We are also trying to secure funding for Johnny Gilbertson as well. A seasoned veteran and a rookie trying to keep things together and only God knows what may take place. With our past experiences and love for racing it should be a lot of fun to be involved in or even just watch,” Pollitt told me. He sees a five year plan in which Daniel is eventually traveling the World of Outlaw schedule. Daniel grew up going to Williams Grove Speedway, and camped there when the Outlaws were in town. He isn’t interested in NASCAR or IndyCars at this point.
The family-owned team is offering marketing partnerships to interested businesses, organizations and individuals. You may contact Jeffrey Pollitt at (239) 394-7325 or Team3Dmotorsport@aol.com for more information.
E-mail Richard Golardi quickterm@yahoo.com
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