Florida Open Wheel
By Richard Golardi
The Future of the 360 Sprint Car Winternationals:
Discussion with Pete Walton
Story and Photos by Richard Golardi
February 7, 2023
After overseeing the successful completion of the
900th race for his United Sprint Car Series (USCS) on Friday,
February 3, USCS president and founder Pete Walton was feeling
cheerful and upbeat when I met with him the next night. It was the
second of two nights of racing at Hendry County Motorsports Park in
Clewiston, Florida. Getting there requires an East-Coaster like me
to traverse the width of Lake Okeechobee’s north coast, and then
turn to the south and travel the length of the lake shore to arrive
at the track. It is Pete Walton’s South Florida stop on a Speedweeks
schedule that includes North Florida (Volusia Speedway Park) and the
panhandle (Southern Raceway, Milton).
License
plate from 360 sprint car competitor at USCS Florida race in
February
“Mark Smith won the 900th race last night,” Pete
Walton told me. “That means he’s fifth all-time [in career USCS
feature wins]. He is 25 races behind Derek Hagar, with 66.” Next, I
presented my bold idea to Pete Walton, a recommendation that
concerns the soon-to-disappear East Bay Raceway Park 360 Sprint Car
Winternationals, which disappears from East Bay after the 2024
running, when the track is sold and is closed (the new owner, a
mining company, has no intention of running a race track). I said,
“You should take over the three days of 360 sprint car racing in
February each year, and then after East Bay is closed, call it your
own ‘USCS 360 Sprint Car Winternationals,’ with a $10,000
first-place prize for winning on the last day.”
Pete Walton’s next comment referenced “doing that,”
and by “that,” Walton was referring to a February 3 press release
from Volusia Speedway Park. The release announced that they, VSP,
prior to next year’s February DIRTcar Nationals, were going to have
their own 360 sprint car “high-paying three-day spectacular, Jan.
25–27, 2024.”
USCS
360 sprint car podium from January race in Florida.
Pete Walton remarked, “I don’t know if that’s us
doing that or them. They ain’t called me about it. They were real
happy about everything we did when we left. I saw they announced
that.” Volusia Speedway Park is calling it the Southern Sprint Car
Shootout, as the 360 Winternationals title will still be claimed by
Easy Bay Raceway during its last running in February 2024. There was
no mention of any desire to take over the 360 Winternationals title,
or to move the event (after 2024) to the traditional time slot
during the three nights before the Daytona 500, which this year is
Feb. 16-18.
“They’ve got everybody they need to do that,” Walton
said, referring to Volusia. “They didn’t really have to have us
there, but they did, and I don’t know if they’ll want us to come
back and do that, or not. They said there was more details to follow
– so, I don’t know. They may be getting ready to start their own 360
deal, for all I know. You know they [now referring to the DIRTcar
Nationals] started the midgets and the non-wing sprints last year,
but they got USAC comin’ to their track, maybe that’s a payback for
workin’ with ’em. Cause you remember they were kinda doin’
co-sanctioned deals, so maybe they told USAC, ‘Well, we’ll bring
y’all down in February and leave our deal home.’ Something to
trade-off, ya know? So, they have ‘peace in the valley,’ ya know?
Remember the song? That might have been what all that’s about.”
Walton admitted that it’s likely that Volusia
Speedway Park will want to do something that will be a 2025
replacement for the East Bay 360 Winternationals, and that Ken
Kinney of Hendry County Motorsports Park told him of a desire to
have a three-day 360 Sprint Car Winternationals. “But I don’t know
if you’ll ever get enough people down here [in South Florida] to do
that,” Walton stated. “I think it’s hard to get everybody down
here.” Does Walton think that Volusia is the next-best site
available after East Bay’s closing? “Yeah,” he replied, “other than
the fact it is so big. We said, ‘Yeah, we’d be glad to have our
season-opener again there next year, we’d be glad to talk about it.’
When they run late models, during the last week before the Daytona
500, well, you know that’s a real successful event for them. I’m
sure they don’t wanna change it, and it’s also following a big
sprint car race [All Star and World of Outlaws sprint cars one to
two weeks before the Daytona 500]. Really, probably two weeks out
was probably the right timing. To be honest with you, I don’t think
they did enough local promotion to have people there.”
Regarding the rest of this year’s USCS national
sprint car racing, Pete Walton says that he is looking forward to
“April on, if you don’t get rained-out too much in April, and I
enjoy our Speedweeks racing, when we race six times in nine days
[from May 26 to June 3]. We are going to West Virginia for our first
time ever to Beckley Motor Speedway. That’s a state we never ran in
– so that’s kinda cool since we never had a race in West Virginia. I
should call Senator Joe Manchin so I can say, ‘I’ve never been to
West Virginia, would you like to have dinner with me?’ Right? I’m a
Republican, but you can sit down with me! The other races I really
look forward to include Riverside Speedway in West Memphis, because
that was the location of the first race I went to when I was three
years old. Then I put on that Flip Flop 50 race at the end of the
year over there in October. And I always enjoy that because it goes
really well. We get a lot of people to come out and watch, and it’s
the fifteenth year and everybody’s always excited about that race.”
Speedweeks National Series Sprint Car Racing Begins
and “Race Village”
Story and Photo by Richard Golardi
January 26, 2023
The first national series sprint car racing during
Florida Speedweeks arrives this weekend with a surprise. It is 360
sprint car racing, but it is not at East Bay Raceway Park, or Hendry
County Motorsports Park, or Southern Raceway (those tracks that
hosted all the Speedweeks 360 racing in the recent past). It is at
North Florida’s Volusia Speedway Park. Finally, the track that
seemed to be absolutely married to winged 410 racing during
Speedweeks is branching out. Good timing, too. One of Florida’s most
iconic annual 360 sprint car events, the East Bay 360
Winternationals, will soon need a new home (2025?). Hopefully, a new
track will take on the event and its usual “race on the three nights
before the Daytona 500” time slot. Paging Pete Walton (USCS head
honcho) and Volusia Speedway Park! Are you listening out there?
USCS
in Florida -Tony Stewart leads Danny Martin Jr. at USCS race at
Bubba Raceway Park on Saturday, April 1, 2017
Volusia did take some bold steps outside of their
usual winged 410s during Speedweeks and local limited 360 racing
(during the rest of the year) in 2022. First, there were the Extreme
Outlaw Series non-wing races in February (a chilling memory I have
of that event was seeing a guy walk past wearing only a T-shirt,
shorts, and flip-flops with the temperature hovering around
freezing). Then there was the 360 non-sanctioned race in December
that attracted Floridians almost exclusively (Floridians are
increasingly getting into USCS/ASCS 360 racing, but still not
willing to totally ditch the limited 360s). That brings us up to
this weekend, now with a duo of sanctioned 360 races with USCS
(their first time back at Volusia in 18 years) for Friday/Saturday.
Perfect timing. That’s because one of the frequently downplayed
forms of Speedweeks racing, but often one of the most exciting, is
making a big stand this year – winged 360 dirt sprint car racing.
After this weekend, the USCS national sprint car
series travels to the only active short oval in South Florida,
Hendry County Motorsports Park on February 3 & 4, followed by the
panhandle’s Southern Raceway on February 10 & 11. With one weekend
of 360 sprint car racing already complete in Florida (the Top Gun
Sprint Series at East Bay, Jan. 19–21), that slots the USCS racers
into the next three weekends. But wait, there’s more. A fifth
consecutive weekend of Speedweeks 360 dirt sprint cars is next (East
Bay 360 Winternationals, East Bay, Feb. 16–18), and then a sixth
consecutive Speedweeks weekend when the USCS series is back at
Southern Raceway on Feb. 24–25. Is that enough Florida 360 dirt
sprint car racing for you?
Here are the talented artists with a steering wheel
showing up for the show this weekend at Volusia Speedway Park.
You’ve got the 2022 national 410 sprint car win leader with 23 wins
(Anthony Macri), the NA$CAR $tar bringing his NOS Energy Drink
$ponsor dollars (Ricky $tenhouse Jr.), a bloke coming all the way
across the pond from England (Ryan Harrison), two National Sprint
Car Hall of Fame inductees (Terry Gray and Danny Smith), and speedy
Floridians with recent Sunshine State wins in 2022 (Tyler Clem,
Danny Martin Jr., Garrett Green).
Speaking of dollars, I was puzzled and amused to
learn of a recent proposal made for a Manatee County/Bradenton
housing alternative for lovers of Florida short track (and drag
track) racing, something that has been called “Race Village.” I’ll
get this out right up front ... What the bleep were they thinking?
First off, this brilliant idea did not come from anybody in the
Florida short track racing community. They never would have made
such a brainless proposal. They know better. No, this idea came from
... (you saw this coming, didn’t you?) an attorney.
That’s right – a local attorney involved with the
whole mess that is a housing development planned right next to a
short oval (Freedom Factory, Bradenton) and a drag strip (Bradenton
Motorsports Park) has offered up a rip-roaringly boneheaded idea to
make the subdivision land closest to the two tracks (140 acres near
State Road 64) into some sort of paradise for wealthy people who
like racing (of the short track and drag varieties, it is assumed).
They will be close to the tracks, because who doesn’t like to have a
family dinner at which you can’t hear anyone sitting at the dinner
table, have lots of money for a house with a super-sized attached
garage, and will agree (for all time?) to never bad-mouth the track
(“raise objections” was their term) or make any trouble for them due
to excessive noise. That last point is interesting (and will never
stand up in court) due to your lot and home in Race Village coming
with a demand to give up your First Amendment right to freedom of
speech. Seems kind of ironic for an attorney to propose to people
living next to a track called the Freedom Factory that they should
give up some of their freedom, doesn’t it? Hopefully this attorney
and his law firm will say that Race Village was a really bad idea
and that it’s been given the boot. Maybe, Mr. Attorney, you could
talk to those people in the Florida short track racing community
first. That might help – heck, they might even invite you to a race,
and you may like it. You never know.
Florida Pavement Sprint Car Racing Week in Review
– This Week & 25 Years Ago
Story and Photos by Richard Golardi
December 29, 2022
As of the date of this article, a tentative 2023 BG
Products Southern Sprint Car Series schedule has seven races being
held at two tracks, Auburndale Speedway and Citrus County Speedway.
The chance of adding additional tracks to the 2023 schedule might be
nominal, and there may be only one track worth considering that is
both safe (and can be easily inspected by an independent source [not
associated with a sanctioning body, sponsor, driver, or team] to
confirm this status) and has recently hosted sprint car racing.
That’s the former 4-17 Southern Speedway, which hopefully will be
known once again as Punta Gorda Speedway in the near future (one can
hope).
Or, there’s an entirely plausible and not
off-the-wall alternative that deserves consideration for the 2023
Southern Sprint Car season, set to begin on January 21 at Auburndale
Speedway. It harks back to something that was done in Florida (and
nationally) by several sanctioning bodies. I don’t know if the rift
(the split?) between Florida pavement sprint car promoters has been
healed, or maybe just bandaged-over for the time being. But I do
know one thing – they have worked together in the recent past (in
October, when a series-sanctioned Southern Sprint Car race was held
at Pinellas Park’s Showtime Speedway).
Non-wing
Southern Sprint Car series race at Showtime Speedway in April 2016
There’s an alternative to considering unvetted,
newbie promoters and track owners (or leaseholders) with no
circle-track racing credentials. It’s this – have a 2023 Southern
Sprint Car Series season with two divisions: Division A, with the
current season schedule and all winged events; and Division B, with
all races at Showtime Speedway without wings. A solution to the
current dilemma? Yes, because the 2023 season could then easily get
to 15–18 races. No problem. Points awarded as follows: both
divisions will award points toward a division champion in their
respective division and also an overall series champion. Only the
overall champion will have the right to use the title of “2023
series champion.” Plus, there are two new divisions that present two
new sponsor opportunities, e.g., Division B Presented by STG,
Speedway-Tested Goop.
Since the race fans far outnumber the race officials
and participants in Florida sprint car racing, here’s a novel
approach that we should use on this issue. Let’s find out what the
fans think of this two-division revamping of the 2023 season for
Florida pavement sprint car racing. Since this can’t be done on the
Hoseheads website, feel free to post your fans-only opinion on my
social media page (Facebook and Twitter). Or just make your opinion
public on your own social media page. Maybe the little guy, who pays
for admission and so much more, deserves to be heard. I think they
do. Speak up. I can assure you I’m listening.
L
to R, Pancho Alvarez, Larry Tyler, and Gene Adler at the 2014 Golden
Gate Reunion
In December 1997, twenty-five years ago this week,
42-year-old sprint car driver Larry Tyler was celebrating his first
Tampa Bay Area Racing Association (TBARA) driver championship. When
the TBARA went to an all-pavement format at the beginning of 1997,
that was an advantage for Tyler, a recognized Florida pavement
sprint car expert (his 25 career sprint car wins in Florida were all
on asphalt). A couple of days after Christmas in ’97, Tyler received
the news of his second biggest accolade of the year. He was named as
the Tampa Tribune’s Short Track Driver of the Year. That was back
when the Tribune used to cover all Tampa area sports, not just the
ones that they personally liked. Within a decade, the Tribune had
shunned local short track racing and ignored it. Fortunately, that’s
around the time when the internet took up the duty of keeping Tampa
area race fans informed while local newspapers were steering into a
ditch and toward irrelevance.
Larry Tyler earned his first (and only) TBARA
championship by winning a series-high five feature races and beating
Jim Childers by a 64-point margin. Tyler said that Childers was one
of his favorite drivers when he was young and that he started racing
at East Bay Raceway in 1980 in the Thunder Car class. A later
excursion in Southern Modifieds at the Tampa fairgrounds half-mile
dirt oval was followed by his first sprint car ride in one of
champion-maker Jack Nowling’s cars in 1988. A superfluous trivia
fact about Tyler’s ’97 TBARA championship was that it was the only
year a one-time champion was crowned during a 16-year period,
1984–99. Dirt experts and multi-time champions mostly ruled the
roost in the TBARA at that time.
Other 1997 Florida sprint car racing highlights from
that year-end review 25 years ago included Gene Lasker getting 14
dirt sprint car feature wins at East Bay Raceway, Kipp Beard earning
the TBARA Rookie of the Year title and third place in series points,
1988 TBARA champ Wayne Reutimann winning four series features, and
Dave Steele solidifying his status as a top-runner in USAC national
open-wheel racing competition.
Florida’s 2022 Sprint Car Champions
Story and Photos by Richard Golardi
December 5, 2022
With two season finales and two champions crowned
this past weekend, Florida’s traveling sprint car series both ended
their 2022 seasons. Three track sprint car champions had already
been determined prior to this past weekend, so these were the final
two champions added to this year’s list of champions:
2022 Florida Sprint Car Champions
BG Products Southern Sprint Car Series – Davey
Hamilton Jr.
Top Gun Sprint Series – Brandon Grubaugh
East Bay Raceway Park 360 Limited Sprint Cars – (Tie) Joe Zuczek and
Danny Jones
Showtime Speedway Non Wing Sprint Cars – Tyler Porter
Southern Raceway Non Wing Sprint Cars – Blake Bowen
Davey
Hamilton Jr
The two traveling series, Southern Sprint Car and
Top Gun, both had young racers earning their first Florida sprint
car championship. Hamilton had previously won the 2016 King of the
Wing national sprint car series title. Two of the track series had
abbreviated seasons, with Southern Raceway conducting only one
weekend of two races in late June, and East Bay Raceway Park only
getting in three races with the deluge of rain that slammed Florida
during the summer and early fall causing multiple race
cancellations. That deluge included both summer storms and
hurricanes. The remaining sprint car track champion, Tyler Porter at
Showtime Speedway, compiled the most points during an abbreviated
five-race season, winning two of the five races. At East Bay,
Garrett Green won two of the three races but scored no points in the
third, and that took him out of contention for the championship in a
shortened season. Two other drivers were tied in points at East Bay
and were named co-champions in the limited sprint car class.
Up in the panhandle, Southern Raceway seemed to
depend on the Southeast’s traveling series, the USCS national sprint
car series, to bring in dirt open wheel fans. USCS had five races at
the Milton, FL track this year, and is expected to have more races
in 2023. East Bay’s future is very limited. A five-year deal to sell
the track (to Mosaic Co., a mining company) comes due in 2024. Next
year’s East Bay Winternationals will either be the last, or next to
last. I wonder if they’ll play Auld Lang Syne at the end of the last
race, as they did at the end of the last IMCA Winternationals at
Tampa’s Plant Field in February 1975. At least we had almost another
half-century of racing at another Tampa area dirt track before
“progress” pushed that track out. We know it’s coming – the four
saddest words in Florida dirt track racing, “So long, East Bay.”
The two rookies who garnered series Rookie of the
Year titles, youngster Steven Hollinger in the Southern Sprint Car
Series, and grizzled veteran Troy Thompson in the Top Gun Sprint
Series, both expressed gratitude for successful seasons that didn’t
exactly have an uplifting final race. Steven, who is 20 years old
and lives in Melbourne, placed fifth in the season points as the
highest-placed rookie but dropped out of the Saturday season finale
with an engine problem. His father, Rex, was the TBARA Rookie of the
Year 10 years ago. Troy, the owner of a Brooksville machine shop,
earned the Top Gun ROTY title on dirt and crashed out of Saturday’s
race, which left him and his car damaged. A trip to the hospital
revealed that the hard crash caused a broken sternum and bruised
lungs. Troy stated that he’ll be back after some recovery time.
2022 Florida Sprint Car Win Totals by Driver
9 wins:
Danny Martin Jr.
7 wins:
Davey Hamilton Jr.
6 wins:
Tyler Clem
4 wins:
Mark Smith
2 wins:
Emerson Axsom
Garrett Green
Daniel Miller
Kyle O’Gara
Tyler Porter
1 win:
Sport Allen
Blake Bowen
Shane Butler
Hayden Campbell
Tyler Courtney
Cory Eliason
Davie Franek
Justin Grant
David Gravel
Terry Gray
LJ Grimm
Brandon Grubaugh
Sam Hafertepe Jr.
Sheldon Haudenschild
David Kelley
CJ Leary
AJ Maddox
Thomas Meseraull
Michael Miller
Jacob Myers
Tommy Nichols
Aaron Reutzel
Donny Schatz
Of the 32 different sprint car feature winners in
Florida in 2022, six had names starting with the letters G and R.
All had one win during the year, except for Garrett Green, who had
two. Donny Schatz had one win during February Speedweeks, giving him
28 career sprint car feature wins in Florida. Schatz is edging
ever-closer to the current all-time leader in an obscure category:
“career sprint car feature wins in Florida by an out-of-state
driver.” Since 1969 (when such records began being recorded), the
leader in this category is Danny Lasoski, with 32 career wins in
Florida. Lasoski had many Speedweeks with a dominating run.
First-class cars along with dirt driving skills allowed him to keep
his Florida mojo going for years.
Danny Martin Jr
Danny Martin Jr. and Davey Hamilton Jr. bookended
their dominating runs in Florida this year. Martin’s run happened
early in the season, with six of his seven Top Gun series feature
wins, and one of his two Bubba Raceway Park wins, happening before
mid-May. Hamilton’s 2022 Florida success all
came (except for one early-season win) in a compressed period of
less than two months at the end of the season. He garnered six
pavement feature wins in Florida between October 8 and December 3,
with five in the Southern Sprint Car Series and one at Showtime
Speedway in their non-wing class.
The number of drivers doing double-duty racing on
both dirt and pavement during the year is decreasing. Drivers who
most recently won on both Florida dirt and pavement in the same year
(Shane Butler, Sport Allen, and Garrett Green) seemed to be cutting
back to one surface only for most of the year. All three drivers won
in 2022 on the surface they picked as their favorite, which was
pavement for Sport Allen and dirt for both Butler and Green.
Emerson
Axsom
A couple of the out-of-state drivers who stood out
during February Speedweeks were Kyle O’Gara (Indiana) on pavement
and Mark Smith (Pennsylvania) on dirt. O’Gara won on consecutive
Saturday nights at Showtime Speedway in February, with the second
feature win earning him the Dave Steele World Non-Wing Championship
title. Mark Smith got an East Bay Winternationals win (as he usually
seems to do most years) on Thursday, the opening night, to go along
with three February wins in the USCS national series at Hendry
County Motorsports Park and Southern Raceway. The Big Gator Sprint
Car Championship at Volusia Speedway Park in February went to David
Gravel with finishes of fourth, second, and first on the three
nights of World of Outlaws sprint car racing. Emerson Axsom won two
of the three USAC National Sprint Car Series races at Bubba Raceway
Park in February and also won the 2022 USAC Sprint Car Rookie of the
Year title.
Top Five
Greatest Modified Races in Golden Gate Speedway History (1962–69)
Story by
Richard Golardi
October 4, 2022
There were a lot of great races
and great rivalries during the twenty-two years of racing at Tampa’s
Golden Gate Speedway. The track, a third-mile asphalt oval known as
“the Gate,” had the good fortune to operate during racing’s “Golden
Era,” that period during the 1960s and ’70s when some of the
greatest drivers, car owners, and promoters were active. It might
seem obvious that the names of the best modified drivers in the
Tampa Bay area are seen in this list. Both modified and super
modified races are included in the list, which does not include
races after August 1969, when the modified class had its name
changed to the sprint car class. Here are the Top Five Greatest
Modified Races in Golden Gate Speedway History, May 1962 to August
1969:
1) The Pavement Master vs. the
Dirt Master, Modified Feature Race, Saturday, April 4, 1964
The modified feature in early
April ’64 matched two drivers who were both inducted into the
National Sprint Car Hall of Fame: Frank Riddle (inducted in 2010),
and Pete Folse (1995). Frank Riddle had matured into a formidable
modified driver and pavement racing expert. He had a single super
modified track championship at the Gate, winning the super modified
championship race in December ’63. His first Golden Gate modified
track championship came a few years later, in ’67.
Pete Folse had established
himself as a national racing star by winning the IMCA National
Sprint Car Series driver championship three times, 1959–61. His
expertise on dirt matched Frank’s expertise on pavement. As Frank
led the 20-lap modified feature race, Pete was right on his tail.
Pete pressured Frank throughout the race, waiting for Frank to make
a mistake that would allow him to pass. Frank was perfect, never
making the slightest bobble, holding off Pete to win one of the most
exciting modified races seen at Golden Gate (Pete was second). On
this night, the Pavement Master defeated the Dirt Master.

2) Dick Pratt Burns Up the Modified Class in 1965, Wins Super
Modified Championship Race, Sunday, October 17, 1965
The 60-lap Super Modified
Championship Race on October 17, 1965, was the first super modified
race (with no engine size limit) at the Gate in two years. It
attracted other Southeast champions such as Mobile and Pensacola
champ Ival Cooper, Herman Wise from Atlanta, and Armond Holley.
Among the local favorites were Dick Pratt, leading modified feature
winner at the Gate in ’65 (17 wins in 21 features); and Dave
Scarborough, who held the one-lap super modified track record and
was the ’65 modified track champ. The local pilots included Will
Cagle (in Willard Smith’s car), Jack Arnold, Bill Roynon, and Frank
and Jim Riddle.
Dick Pratt, the 1963 Golden Gate
modified track champion, romped to a dazzling championship race win
with a last-turn, last-lap pass while his engine was running on
seven cylinders. Fans in the packed stands, a near sellout, watched
Dick Pratt pass Georgian Herman Wise within yards of the finish line
in the most exciting finish of the year for the modified ace. Wayne
Reutimann came in third in the No. 00jr Reutimann Chevrolet
modified. His modified-sprint championship at the Gate came four
years later.
3) Pete Folse Breaks Track Record and Beats a Stellar Field of
Super Modifieds, Sunday, November 18, 1962
The team of driver Will Cagle and
car owner Willard Smith were the biggest winners of the year in the
Gate’s super modified class in ’62, taking the track championship
along with the Florida-Georgia Championship (at Jacksonville and
Savannah).
Moved to Sunday afternoon in the
fall, the super modified class had top drivers such as Dick Pratt,
Bill Roynon, and Pete Folse, who recently returned from the IMCA
sprint car circuit in which he narrowly missed a fourth consecutive
driver championship. Miami racer Donnie Allison was bringing his
modified from his home base in South Florida.
The super modified heat and
semifinal were taken by Bill Roynon and Dave Scarborough. With
Allison starting on the pole in Sunday’s feature, it looked like the
favorites were established for the feature race. Allison held the
lead until the 15th lap. Pete Folse moved up, made his
pass in the south turn, and took the lead. Pancho Alvarez followed
him a lap later and Pete and Pancho continued their battle, now for
first place, with Allison holding third in a converted sprint car
with a wing. Buzz Barton moved up to challenge Allison for third,
and at the finish it was Folse in first (taking five seconds off the
20-lap modified track record), followed by Pancho Alvarez and Donnie
Allison. Pete Folse continued racing modifieds at the Gate for
several more years in the ’60s, but this was the Tampa ace’s
greatest race win at the Gate during his career.

4) Wayne Reutimann Shows the Way with New “Sprint-Type Bodied
Modified,” Saturday, May 10, 1969
With the new “sprint-type bodies”
allowed in the modified class at the start of the 1969 season, the
advantage went to those modified drivers who already had sprint car
driving experience. The drivers with the most sprint car experience
were Wayne Reutimann and Frank Riddle, and also Bill Roynon in super
modifieds. They were starting the year with an advantage over the
rest of the modified drivers. Jim Alvis Sr. and Dave Scarborough
were also seen as having expertise in any car they drove at the
Gate.
In the Saturday night 25-lap
modified feature on May 10, Wayne Reutimann had several obstacles to
victory – the cars driven by Frank Riddle, Donnie Tanner, and Jim
Alvis Sr. After Riddle was out with mechanical problems and Tanner
flipped his car and was done, Jim Alvis moved up to challenge Wayne
for the lead and pulled even with him several times. After his
engine started faltering, Alvis fell back and settled for second
behind feature winner Wayne.
In the points battle for the
Golden Gate modified/sprint car track championship in ’69, Wayne’s
closest competition was from Alvis and Larry Brazil. Both were
within 400 points of Wayne’s point accumulation for the season.
After Wayne won the final four sprint car feature races of the
season, he came out ahead, taking the point championship and the
title as Golden Gate Speedway’s first sprint car track champion.
Alvis admitted that Wayne Reutimann had earned the championship and
just plain “outdrove” him.
5)
“Scarborough Night,” The Night When Dave Scarborough Beat Up the
Competition, Saturday, July 7, 1962
Scarborough Night, as it was
dubbed, was when Dave Scarborough, a favorite in both the super
modified and sportsman classes in ’62, displayed a “sensational bit
of driving.” The truth was that he beat up and thoroughly humiliated
the competition that night. He deserved for that night to take his
name. In a single night, Dave won five races, tied for another race
win, and broke two track records. He won the semifinal and feature
race in super modifieds, in addition to two heat races and the
feature in the sportsman class, in which he also tied for the
semifinal win. When the ’62 season ended, Scarborough was the Gate’s
first sportsman class track champion. The “Largo Flash” later was a
two-time modified track champion at Golden Gate, winning the
modified track title in 1965 and ’68, and after the switch to sprint
cars, he also took the sprint car track championship in ’70.
This coming weekend, the annual
Golden Gate Speedway Reunion is set for an 8 a.m. start on Sunday,
October 9 at the Nowling family property located at 8711 Bliss Road
in Gibsonton, Florida. The singing of the National Anthem and
scheduled speakers begins at 11 a.m.
Here’s a look back at the
inaugural Golden Gate Speedway Reunion in 2013 to get you excited
for this weekend’s event:
https://youtu.be/iXjbPC0WLDo

2012 TBARA feature race winner Dude Teate
Southern Sprint Car Series OKs 410s for 2023
Story and Photo by Richard Golardi
September 23, 2022
A recent announcement revealed planned changes to
the engine rules for the BG Products Southern Sprint Car Series for
the 2023 season. This marks the biggest change for Florida pavement
sprint car racing since the 2015 demise of the TBARA and the
introduction of a new pavement series to replace it. It was close to
seven years ago, in late 2015, when the initial press release to
announce the formation of the Southern Sprint Car Series was
released.
Chaos, fights, and feuds overshadowed the quality of
the racing during the last year that the Tampa Bay Area Racing
Association (TBARA) was active in 2014. With no schedule for 2015,
sprint car racing promoter Davey Hamilton was the first to come
forward to announce an alternative: a regional offshoot of his King
of the Wing Series. Florida and several Southern states would
comprise the outlined region, and paved short ovals would serve as
hosts for the winged pavement racing in his new series. It never
happened, save for one race in April at Five Flags Speedway. An
attempt to reinvigorate and restart the TBARA in 2015 failed. The
2014 TBARA season was their last.
Central Florida promoters, businessmen, and track
owners united to offer another alternative for 2016: a new pavement
sprint car series owned and controlled by Floridians. Showtime
Speedway, Desoto Speedway, Citrus County Speedway, New Smyrna
Speedway, and Bronson Speedway (later withdrawn) were in. The TBARA
and their few remaining supporters were out. Initial expectations,
due to the series’ competent management, placed the chance of
success for the new series at a high level. Florida pavement teams
could use their current cars and engines. There was no effort to
convince car owners that they’ll need to agree to change to 410
engines. Davey Hamilton made a convincing argument for Florida to do
that when he spoke at a meeting in Gibsonton, Florida, in January
2015. Florida car owners, who seemed supportive at first, later
withdrew their support for this proposal and his proposed series.
In Florida pavement sprint car racing, the TBARA
22-degree cylinder head, 360-cubic-inch engine has been dominant for
decades. Fast forward to late 2022, and we have the recent
announcement from the Southern Sprint Car Series: a 2023 amendment
to their Engine and Weight Rules. The BG Products Southern Sprint
Car Series stated that they would adapt the listed engine and weight
rules for 2023 and beyond (a 2023 race schedule has not been
announced as of today). There are as follows:
A. Engine Specifications:
1. CID Engine Specification and Relation to Total
Minimum Weight
3.1.1 Must be piston-driven, cam in block, production-based engine.
No superchargers, turbochargers, or nitrous oxide are allowed.
3.1.2 Minimum Weights per engine
1550 lb minimum 360 CID cast iron block with 23-degree (+/- 2
degree) heads (open injection)
1550 lb minimum ASCS 360 CID Ford or Mopar (2 3/16 restricted
injection)
1575 lb minimum 360 CID Aluminum block with 23-degree (+/- 2 degree)
heads (2 3/16” restricted injection)
1600 lb minimum 360 CID Aluminum or Steel block less than 23-degree
(+/- 2 degree) heads (2” restricted injection)
1600 lb minimum 360 CID Ford or Mopar unlimited head (2” restricted
injection)
1625 lb minimum 410 CID Aluminum or Steel (1 7/8” restricted
injection)
3.1.2 2” of total restriction on all combinations.
Weights and restrictors may be adjusted in the
fairness of competition.
Sixty Years After: Golden Gate Speedway
Story by Richard Golardi
September 1, 2022
“Welcome to our luxury apartments near Tampa!” The
blurb appears along with photos of lots of cheery, smiling
millennials for a new (supposedly opening in mid-September) upscale
apartment complex, The Livano Uptown. It has “welcoming interiors
... 24-hour spin cycling studio ... virtual training mirrors ... and
a new, fierce (huh?) property manager” who has the requisite tattoos
and beard, as would be needed by the person holding this position.
Looks like he would fit in with their target market, the young Tampa
professionals searching for that “easy-living Thonotosassa lifestyle
you deserve!”
The Livano Uptown may be the final successor to
occupy the property that once had a legendary Northeast Tampa short
track, Golden Gate Speedway, “the Gate.” It’s hard to say for
certain if this will be the final structure, the final successor for
the Gate, which was the first to occupy the property when it was
built and had its grand opening 60 years ago. The previous
businesses to occupy the property after Golden Gate’s closing in
1984 were all retail, selling groceries and flea market goods. They
were transitory. They faded away and left. The apartment complex is
selling something different – a place to live. That’s something
that’s needed now and for a long time to come. Will it be the final
business to occupy this storied property? Only time will tell.

A visionary Tampa businessman, Frank Dery Jr.,
teamed up with a public relations and marketing expert, Gordon Solie,
to devise the plans for the Golden Gate Speedway and Sports Mecca,
built in early 1962 for a planned opening in early May. It was a
time when Tampa area auto racing seemed to have fallen into a
malaise, with only a single track built in the Tampa Bay area in the
past decade (Sunshine Speedway, Pinellas Park, 1960). Meanwhile,
there had been a population explosion in Tampa during the 1950s and
early ’60s. The critics said there was no need for another track and
that it was sure to fail. Frank Dery knew better. He knew the time
was right for his track. Opening night was on May 12, 1962. The
crowd was so huge that it was a sellout, overwhelming the parking
lots, the roadways, and the spectator stands.
There were good times and bad times over the next
decade. When the attendance numbers faded in the second year, a new
race director, Pancho Alvarez, took over the duties in 1963 to get
the racing running smoothly and the attendance back up. When Frank
Dery chose Pancho Alvarez as the new race director in ’63, he had
been trying to handle the duties of track owner and race director
himself but got overwhelmed. Pancho recalled that he only needed a
couple of weeks to get things turned around. His no-nonsense
management style got the racing under control (which had been
running until midnight or later) and kept the fans pleased. The
Golden Gate Strike of ’67, started by a group of drivers and car
owners just before the season-opening race night in March 1967,
hindered the racing for a few weeks. After a few race nights were
missed, a compromise was reached in early April and the Gate was
quickly back to full speed ahead.
The track had so much going for it for decades.
There were so many racing legends making their mojo on the
one-third-mile pavement surface that it became the home of the
legends, with all of the most talented local racers either racing
there all season, or from November to April before heading up north.
The racing families grew to love the place, including the Smiths,
the Riddles, the Reutimanns, the Folses, the Campbells, the Brazils,
and many more. The racers who competed there included Richard Petty,
Joe Weatherly, Fireball Roberts, Bobby Allison, Tiny Lund, Dick
Trickle, Rusty Wallace, Mel Kenyon, Steve Kinser, Sammy Swindell,
Bobby Allen, Pete Folse, Jan Opperman, and all the Racing
Reutimanns, the father and three sons. Of those four Reutimanns,
Dale was the only one not to win a track championship at the Gate.
The Gate’s first closing came after the end of the
1978 season. Frank Dery tried all he could to resolve a plethora of
problems (declining attendance and car counts, lawsuits filed by the
local county environmental protection office for failing tests for
excess noise, and a new local dirt track, East Bay Raceway, that was
enjoying new-found popularity). Dery tried to find a buyer, and one
deal fell apart because of the unresolved lawsuits and threats to
close the track.
The closure in late ’78 was not permanent. An
eccentric promoter with big plans, Don Nerone, leased the track in
early ’81 after it had been closed for all of 1979 and ’80. Nerone
brought back the pride of Tampa racing, the sprint car division, and
along with late model racing, it succeeded for a while, lasting
three and a half seasons. By mid-season ’84, racing at two other
local dirt tracks, East Bay Raceway and the Florida State
Fairgrounds Speedway (the “new fairgrounds”), proved too popular and
the last race at the Gate was on June 8, 1984.

Frank Dery sold the property in early 1985. He would
get wistful and a little teary-eyed when he drove past in later
years. The Gate had meant so much to him and he was proud of his
achievement, saying that it was “everything I’d ever dreamed of
having.” Later in 1985, the track and all the buildings were leveled
and a supermarket named Family Mart was built where the track once
stood. It was replaced in October 1990 by the Big Top Flea Market,
which had about 600 dealers selling everything from antiques to
telephones to socks, and who paid $70 to $165 a month for a booth in
the 160,000 square feet of space in the wheel-shaped complex with
multiple concourses converging into a central hub. It attracted
15,000 shoppers a weekend in the early years. In its final years, a
lot of the booths were vacant and the customers were sparse as the
flea market business declined in popularity. Marvin Gill, the
developer who spent $9 million on the property purchase and the
building, had the longest-running business to occupy the property.
When the flea market closed in 2020, it had been at the location for
30 years.
The plans were announced just prior to the Covid 19
pandemic. A major new project was announced for the former location
of the Big Top Flea Market. It would include apartments, retail
shops, offices, and a bank. It would have an upscale flavor that
appealed to upwardly-mobile young professionals and millennials from
the Tampa area, home to major corporations in the insurance,
finance, and telecommunications industries. The pandemic delayed the
arrival of the wrecking ball until 2021, when the flea market
buildings were demolished to make way for the wood-frame apartment
buildings of The Livano Uptown.
For a time when the pandemic had delayed the start
of construction, a lone clue remained that told of the property’s
past life. It was a faded metal sign attached to a chain link fence
that read “No Trespassing, Big Top Flea Market.” The eerie quiet
seemed like it could be ripped apart at any moment as if the old
race track was trying to claw its way up through the soil and spring
back to life, roaring forth with the souped-up horsepower of
machines that bore the names of drivers such as Frank Riddle, Dave
Scarborough, Donnie Tanner, and Buzzie and Wayne Reutimann. But the
race track is gone. After the passing of one or two more
generations, the racers and the fans that loved it so will be gone
too.
Notes from the
2022 Lucas Oil Little 500 Sprint Car Race
Story and
Photos by Richard Golardi
May 29, 2022
§
Of the top three finishers, Tyler Roahrig (winner), Dakoda Armstrong
(second place), and CJ Leary (third place), two live within 25 miles
of the Anderson, Indiana track, and winning driver Roahrig lives in
northern Indiana. After the top three, positions four through twelve
also were taken by drivers currently living in Indiana. This was
definitely not the year for the out-of-state drivers, as the
Hoosiers took the top twelve, and seemed to have gained the
necessary expertise to dominate at Anderson.
Shane
Butler and his Butler Motorsports team on the grid.
§
The promise that this year held to be a good year for the Floridians
did not hold true in the race on Saturday. After they all qualified
grouped near the middle of the starting grid (many Floridians
qualified well back in the field in the past few years), Saturday
night was a collective disappointment. Davey Hamilton Jr. (whose
hometown is elsewhere, but currently living in Florida) was involved
in a spin and trouble in turn one and made some attempts to continue
but was out early. LJ Grimm was also out around the same time, and
Shane Butler lasted the longest and was credited with 25th
place, best of the Floridians. LJ Grimm was considered by many as a
favorite for Rookie of the Year, which went to Dalton Armstrong, a
Hoosier driver who took ninth place driving a car from Southern car
owner Terry Broadus.
LJ
Grimm holds the helmet with the 2022 Helmet of the Year-winning
design.
§
LJ Grimm was the recipient of
the 2022 Lucas Oil
Little 500 Presented by UAW Helmet of the Race Award. The Seffner,
Florida driver had an out-of-this-world design on his helmet, which
looked like a psychedelic nightmare combined with visions from an
insane trip to outer space. The helmet was produced with two
instructions from LJ to the helmet designer: (1) no red; and (2) no
skulls. It looked like "the Seffner Sizzle" got what he ordered. You
had to look at the helmet for a minute to take in all the logos,
obscure references, and other parts of the life and likes of the
stocky Central Florida speedster. Now I can spot a TikTok logo when
I see one.
§
The trend of all the most violent wrecks occurring down in turns one
and two during the Little 500 continued in 2022. That included the
most frightening crash of the night, which started when Bobby Santos
got together with Tyler Roahrig on the front stretch and didn’t end
until he had rolled down the asphalt into the grass infield in turn
one. I spoke to Bobby in the team trailer after the race and he told
me that he had no injuries, was thankful for all his safety
equipment, and that the damage on the car could be repaired. The day
had started with the DJ Racing team celebrating the induction of
team owner Richard Fieler into the Little 500 Hall of Fame, but they
still intended to work toward the team goal of a Little 500 win with
Fieler present (he missed the 2020 win due to illness in his
family).
§
The race this year had a trend not seen in a while, that of most of
the fastest cars experiencing problems, with many wrecks and
spinouts either taking out or setting back the fast runners. Even
eventual winner Tyler Roahrig had to survive the wreck with Bobby
Santos and appeared to have some damage to the car’s right front
corner that was seen in the odd tire wear on that corner. He seemed
to be using only the inboard half of the tread on that right front
tire. It didn’t seem to matter in the last green flag run to the
finish, when the second-place car was slipping and sliding as much
as the leader. Roahrig held strong in that last five-lap run and
gave all, which showed in the fatigue seen on his face in the
winner’s circle.
§
When I asked what was in Shane Butler’s onboard drink bottle, I got
the usual wise-guy answers (which I expected): “Twisted Tea! ...
moonshine ... etc.” It was probably just water, I’ll assume.
Davey
Hamilton Jr. and the No. 14 car owned by Kirk Moragn.
§
Florida car owner Kirk Morgan of Morgan Exteriors, owner of the No.
14 car driven by Davey Hamilton Jr., told me he plans to leave a car
in the area to run in the non-wing races with the 500 Sprint Car
Tour, which had its inaugural event with Saturday’s Little 500. The
tour, which has nine races remaining this year through October 22,
resumes in less than two weeks with a doubleheader weekend of races
on June 10-11 at Plymouth Motor Speedway (IN) and Berlin Raceway
(MI). Davey will be the driver for all these races, as well as the
team’s winged pavement races in Florida. Davey drove a USAC Silver
Crown champ car owned by his father from a 22nd place
start to 8th place at Lucas Oil Indianapolis Raceway Park
on Friday. He also took 8th place in the USAC midget
feature.
§
Hurricane chassis builder Jerry Stuckey pointed to the black No. 25
car driven by LJ Grimm when I asked how many of his pavement chassis
Hurricanes were in the field. It was the only one. There would have
been two if Floridian Tommy Nichols had made the field, which seemed
likely to happen after he was sitting with the 30th
fastest qualifying time on Thursday. He was bumped on Friday because
he had the 34th fastest time, and was the first alternate
starter.
§
Brady Bacon remarked that this year’s pavement sprint car from the
Hoffman Racing team was a better car than last year, but was still a
difficult to drive car. He was struggling with the handling even
though an effort had been made to make the car lighter, and it was
lighter than last year’s car. I asked about the car’s shortened stub
nose and was told, “That’s just something that Rob [Hoffman] likes.”
It was another technique to reduce the car’s weight.
Richard Fieler is Inducted into the Little 500
Hall of Fame
Story and Photo by Richard Golardi
Richard
Fieler is inducted into the Little 500 Hall of Fame at Anderson
Speedway on Saturday.
May 28, 2022
Little 500 winning-sprint car owner Richard Fieler
of Boca Raton, Florida, started going to auto races as a fan before
World War II. His father worked on racing engines and Richard
enjoyed racing, “but went off and did other things,” as he said. He
raced sailboats after retiring and felt that he got too old to do
that type of racing and decided to switch to competing in sprint car
racing as a car owner. He started with a sprint car driven by Sonny
Hartley in Florida, and also had Jeff Banyas, Jason Cox, and Troy
DeCaire drive for him prior to Bobby Santos III, his present driver.
Richard Fieler called them all “the best drivers.” Jason Cox earned
the Rookie of the Year award driving his car to ninth place in the
2011 Little 500. Richard said, “I’ve had some good finishes here
with people other than Bobby, who has won a race and run second
twice and fifth once. He’s been really good in the race all the
time.”
And what has been the highlight of his career so far
as a sprint car team owner? “The Little 500, winning in 2020,” he
answered with a knowing chuckle. “Probably the only car to win it in
September. Maybe I’ve got one track record! Unfortunately, there
were issues with my daughter’s health at the time, and I missed
being at the race and thanks to FloRacing, I got to watch it,” he
said. He has returned since 2021 to be with his team at the Little
500 with a new goal: to see his car win the Little 500 and get to
celebrate with them in the winner’s circle.
“That would be really great,” Richard said of
getting to accept the trophy as winning car owner with his team
present. He’s had many other memorable wins with Bobby driving his
car, he stated. Richard has never driven a race car himself and
remains satisfied with his past and current role as a car owner. “I
would have no idea how to drive a race car,” he said. During his
“working life,” as he called it, Richard was an executive vice
president in chemical manufacturing, which included plastics and
chlorine chemicals, for the Dow Chemical Company. He worked in this
occupation for 35 years and retired in 1994. He has been involved in
racing since 2007. He raced sailboats until he decided that “the
ocean got to be too much for me.” Richard and his wife competed
together in “The Great Race,” a coast-to-coast race for antique
cars. He has also been involved in some regional antique car races.
“Always as the navigator, never the driver,” he added.
He continues competing in pavement sprint car racing
and is entered in this year’s Little 500 with the same car and same
driver, Bobby Santos, with whom he won the pandemic-delayed 2020
Little 500 on September 5, 2020. He’s had some “new ideas” for this
car, some of which he’d had to delay because the race tire shortage
reduced planned practice time. He said, “There’s a lot of fast race
cars here. It looks like we’ve got our work cut out for us,”
referring to the effort to earn a second Little 500 win for him and
driver Bobby Santos. He confirmed that it was difficult to get a
Little 500 win, as “trouble finds you here. Trouble is looking for
everybody.”
Richard Fieler wanted all those involved with the
Little 500 Hall of Fame to know how he felt. He said, “I especially
want to emphasize the great job that Bobby Santos has done for me,
and he’s the reason I’m getting this award.” Richard Fieler’s
devotion to furthering the development of the sport of sprint car
racing, his ability to guide drivers and his team to success, and
his expertise as a businessman, family man, and race team owner, in
addition to being a Little 500-winning car owner, are surely proof
that he is deserving of his induction into the Little 500 Hall of
Fame on May 28, 2022.
2022 Lucas Oil
Little 500 Presented by UAW Odds of Winning
Story and Photo
by Richard Golardi
2022
Little 500 race favorite Tyler Roahrig qualifies on Thursday.
May 27, 2022
Here are my “2022 Lucas Oil
Little 500 Presented by UAW Odds of Winning” (for the very first
time, at least as written by me) presented for entertainment
purposes only (No wagering!) and with sincere hopes of no one
throwing a fit, or feeling like throwing one. Feel free to post your
own odds of winning, but remember that you’ll have to present odds
for all 33 starting positions (no shortcutting and only listing a
few of your favorite drivers).
So, do I intend on doing this
every year from now on, as long as I’m covering the Little 500? You
betcha. What right have I got to ... who do you think ... who do you
think you are, Chris Economaki? Well, I’ve been a motorsport writer
covering open wheel racing for over 15 years now. I’m me, that’s who
I am. No, I don’t think I’m Chris E. As I said, I’m me. So, take a
deep breath, keep breathing, and examine the odds of winning
tomorrow’s race, with a very talented group of drivers being ranked
by odds of winning. The greatest pavement sprint car drivers in the
world? You betcha!
2022 Lucas Oil Little
500 Presented by UAW
Odds of Winning as of
May 27, 2022
Tyler Roahrig 7-1
Kody Swanson 10-1
Caleb Armstrong 11-1
Dakoda Armstrong 11-1
Bobby Santos III 12-1
Brian Gerster 14-1
Tanner Swanson 14-1
Emerson Axsom 16-1
Ryan Newman 18-1
Kyle O’Gara 18-1
C.J. Leary 20-1
Shane Hollingsworth 22-1
Derek Bischak 22-1
Brian Tyler 24-1
Shane Butler 25-1
Jerry Coons Jr. 26-1
Jacob McElfresh 28-1
LJ Grimm 30-1
Davey Hamilton Jr. 35-1
Brady Bacon 40-1
Billy Wease 42-1
Eric Gordon 42-1
Travis Welpott 45-1
Aaron Willison 50-1
Scott Hampton 60-1
Isaac Chapple 60-1
Dalton Armstrong 75-1
Bryan Gossel 75-1
Shawn Bonar 100-1
Tony Main 125-1
Justin Harper 125-1
Larry Kingseed Jr. 125-1
Ken Schrader 150-1
Little 500 Preview: Will One of the “Dirt Guys” Win the 2022 Little
500?
Story and
Photos by Richard Golardi
May 25, 2022
The number of “Dirt Guys,” those
sprint car drivers who have a plethora of experience and wins on
dirt racing surfaces, seems to have been bumped up in the 2022
Little 500 entry list. There hasn’t been a Dirt Guy who has won the
Little 500 for a while now. In fact, it’s been since 2015, when USAC
racing champion Chris Windom won. That year’s race was especially
poignant in that it had an epic late-race battle with the dirt
expert (Windom) vs. the pavement expert (Dave Steele), and it was
Steele’s next-to-last Little 500.
Since 2016, the pavement experts
have been dominant, with Kody Swanson, Kyle Hamilton, Bobby Santos
III, and Tyler Roahrig winning every “Lil’ Five” since then. In
2021, a trio of pavement experts heard the “go like hell” call and
went at it to the finish of the 500 laps (Kody and Tanner Swanson,
and Tyler Roahrig), with Roahrig holding off the Swansons in
impressive fashion. Examining the ages of that trio of drivers, and
all of the recent winners (all of them younger than 35 when they
won), shows that another trend has developed in the Little 500 –
youth is king. The “old guys” no longer seem to be in a position to
challenge the youth, stamina, and skill of the youngsters. If you’re
a betting man, you’d be going against the odds to put money on one
of the guys in their 50s or older to win.
Emerson
Axsom at Bubba Raceway Park in February 2022.
But should you bet on a Dirt Guy
to win? Well, this just might be the year to do that. Their
achievements and driving talent are worthy of recognition. Take
Emerson Axsom for instance. The 16-year-old Indiana racer roared
into the 2022 USAC season by taking two of the first three series
sprint car feature races at Bubba Raceway Park on dirt in February.
Although he hasn’t won another USAC national series race since then,
the number of races completed has been reduced by rainouts. He’s
poised to win more. He’s also a rookie entrant in next week’s Little
500, with Nolen Racing and sponsor Driven2Save Lives in the No. 47BC
car.
“We ran about five USAC races
[last year],” Emerson Axsom told me earlier this year. He is
competing for the Rookie of the Year title in a full season of USAC
sprint cars this year, as well as the rookie title in the Little
500. “Just enough to where we could run for Rookie of the Year this
year. Tim [Clauson] was really happy with the speed we had and I was
happy. We decided to turn a deal for a few races into a full-time
gig [with Clauson Marshall Racing]. We were on a roll with the
midget and Tim called me and said, ‘You wanna run these three races
for me?’ and from there we had a lot of speed and had a shot to win
a few and just ... inexperience ... couldn’t get it done.”
Emerson
Axsom in USAC winner's circle in February 2022.
Emerson’s main goal for 2022 is
“to win the USAC national sprint car championship. Obviously, that’s
a high goal we’ve set but we think that we have all the right people
around us to do it, so we’re going for the national championship and
Rookie of the Year. If there’s any time to do it, it’ll be now.
We’ll do a little bit of midget stuff with Clauson Marshall, and
some select winged shows and really just focus on the non-wing
sprint car, but get ready for if we want to run winged racing here
in a couple of years.” Emerson also had his first USAC Silver Crown
series start earlier this month at Terre Haute in the No. 20 Nolen
Racing champ car and finished in fifth place after a problem
starting the car forced him to start from the back of the field.
He’s got more dirt Silver Crown races planned for this year.
The highlight of the year for
Emerson Axsom in 2021 was: “Obviously we got two national midget
wins last year – me and my dad, kind of on our own. It was under the
team of Petry Motorsports, but it was me and my dad, out racing
together. That was pretty cool.”
Other Dirt Guys entered for the 2022 Little 500:
Another Little 500 rookie who is hardly a rookie to racing and who
is also a Daytona 500 winner (2008), and Brickyard 400 winner
(2013), and has a career total of 18 NASCAR Cup Series wins is
44-year-old Hoosier native Ryan Newman. Proof of Ryan’s expertise on
dirt comes with the championship he earned in 1999 in USAC’s Silver
Crown Series.
Four-time USAC National Sprint
Car Series Champion Brady Bacon (2014, ’16, ’20, and ’21) definitely
fits the description of a “Dirt Guy.” When I asked him in October
2015 if he had any interest in pavement open wheel racing, he
replied, “No interest. No.” So, you’re going to do just dirt, I
asked? “Yup,” he replied. He had no plans to race in any pavement
races in all of 2016 and had not driven in any pavement races since
2008. Flip over the calendar pages to 2021 and Brady Bacon’s
devotion to racing exclusively on dirt had waned. He was entered in
the Little 500 and earned a top-ten finish and the Rookie of the
Year title with Hoffman Racing. This year, the 32-year-old driver
returns with that same team and the No. 69 car.
Jerry Coons Jr., a 50-year-old
USAC Triple Crown winner with championships in USAC’s Silver Crown,
sprint car, and midget divisions, and also 2014 Little 500 Rookie of
the Year, returns in 2022 driving the No. 64 Tom Brewer-owned Speed
Chasers entry. He finished seventh last year.
C.J. Leary, a 26-year-old
full-time USAC driver and 2019 USAC sprint car national champion,
has two prior starts in the Little 500 in 2017 and ’18, and a best
finish of 13th. This Dirt Guy just won the USAC National
Sprint Car Series race on the dirt at Terre Haute, Indiana, on
Friday. C.J. will be driving in USAC races this week in addition to
driving the No. 5 Klatt Enterprises Beast pavement car wrenched by
Bob East in Saturday’s Little 500. This team won the race in 2017
with Kyle Hamilton driving.
Isaac Chapple, a dirt racer who
was second in points in the Buckeye Outlaw Sprint Series (BOSS) in
2021, and also the 2016 USAC National Sprint Car Rookie of the Year,
is again concentrating on dirt with a full season in the BOSS
series. He has three prior starts in the Little 500 with a best
finish of 16th in 2017, and is back in the No. 27R Rice
Racing sprint car sponsored by Tin Plate Fine Food and Spirits.
Oh, and don’t forget the Old Pro
himself, 66-year-old Ken Schrader. He now makes a habit of returning
to Anderson each May to drive in the Little 500. This Dirt Guy won
both the USAC Silver Crown and National Sprint Car Series
championships in the early ’80s. For the sixth consecutive year,
Schrader will line up to qualify for the race and will be going for
his fourth top-ten finish. He has a team change this year, as the
team he drove for during the past five years, the Brad and Tara
Armstrong/BAR Racing team, will have Eric Gordon driving their No.
99 car this year, and Schrader will drive the No. 29 Matt Seymour
Racing sprint car with sponsorship from K-Tron Inc. Long live the
old guys (!) and who knows, maybe one of them will surprise us this
year.
Charles Ledford Induction into the Little 500 Hall
of Fame This Saturday
Story by Richard Golardi
Charles
Ledford, left, and Jim Haynes after a sprint car feature win.
May 23, 2022
Sprint car owner/sponsor Charles Ledford of Tarpon
Springs, Florida, will always be known for his Charles Ledford
Construction Racing Team and the sprint cars he fielded for a
variety of legendary Florida sprint car drivers. His greatest
success came on pavement with his team, mostly due to the importance
that Floridians gave to pavement racing up to the mid-’80s. Charles
earned the 1984 Tampa Bay Area Racing Association car owner
championship with Jim Haynes driving; and won again in 1986 with
Wayne Reutimann, Dave Scarborough, Jim Childers, and Randy Alvarez
driving. The reason he won those championships was because of his
skill at selecting talented drivers and putting them in the best
equipment. In ’86, he owned six sprint cars.
In 1984, a handsome, young sprint car phenom named
Jim Haynes, also from Tarpon Springs, was teamed with Harry
Campbell, who built a pavement sprint car for him, and car owner
Charles Ledford, who funded the team as sponsor. At the
season-opening sprint car race at Golden Gate Speedway in ’84, the
team had everything running to perfection, and 24-year-old Jim
Haynes was at the top of his skills. No one could compete with them,
and Jim Haynes got his first Golden Gate sprint car feature win by a
wide margin. “Harry Campbell had the car running super,” Jim Haynes
said. Harry had high praise for Jim’s impressive showing: “There’s
absolutely no limit to where he can go in this business,” Harry
said. “The sky’s the limit if he continues to apply himself and keep
his desire to win.” Charles Ledford and Harry were smiling like two
fatherly benefactors with Jim in the winner’s circle.
The rest of 1984 was a dream season, with a
second-place finish in the Little 500, right behind the Old Man
himself, Frank Riddle. Haynes had 15 sprint car feature wins in ’84.
There seemed to be nowhere to go but up, with a possible future in
NASCAR or Indy cars being discussed.
In the February 1985 Copper World Classic in
Phoenix, Jim Haynes was in the USAC super modified race in the
Ledford Construction sprint car when he hit the turn one wall
head-on with a huge impact. When Jim Haynes reached a Phoenix
hospital, he was breathing with a respirator due to massive head
injuries and was near death. Charles Ledford visited his driver at
the hospital. Late Wednesday morning, Jim Haynes died with his wife
and parents at his bedside.
Charles Ledford was devastated. He told his friends
that the crash and Jim’s death had ruined his love of racing. After
a short time, he decided to continue racing, to continue the Ledford
Construction team. His next drivers were experienced Florida pros
with resumes that included Little 500 wins and other sprint car
championships.
Ledford began 1986 with Wayne Reutimann as the main
driver and with Harry Campbell turning the wrenches on his car.
Wayne was injured and replaced by pavement expert Dave Scarborough
for the 1986 Little 500. A Little 500 win could go a long way for
this team. Charles was still in pain over the loss of a young driver
that he treated like a son. Harry and Dave had been working together
for years to get a Little 500 win, always heading south each year
after the race with a desire to keep trying. The team totally
dominated the race, 21 laps ahead of second place. Charles Ledford
could feel good about racing once again. Dave Scarborough and Harry
had the win that they had been trying to get for a decade. When
Harry and Charles Ledford returned to the Little 500 in 1987, they
had two cars for Wayne Reutimann and Dave Scarborough. It was a
“Superteam” of Florida legends, and Wayne Reutimann and Dave
Scarborough finished second and third in ’87.
Charles Ledford’s business and construction acumen,
ability to mentor and guide drivers, skill at picking the most
outstanding chief mechanic and drivers, and owning and operating an
impressive, winning team are proof that he is worthy of his
induction into the Little 500 Hall of Fame on May 28, 2022.
Harry Campbell Induction into the Little 500 Hall
of Fame This Saturday
Story by Richard Golardi
Dave
Scarborough, left, and Harry Campbell with the Lee Parker 7 sprint
car in 1974
May 22, 2022
Sprint car builder/owner Harry Campbell of Wimauma,
Florida, will always be associated with two pavement short tracks:
Golden Gate Speedway in Tampa and Anderson Speedway. You have to
examine his time at both tracks to appreciate Harry’s achievements
in motorsports. You also have to admire his toughness. After a
riotous mass fistfight broke out at Golden Gate in June 1977, Harry
was right in the middle of it until somebody grabbed a torsion bar
and beaned him in the head with it. Harry had Frank Riddle driving
his car that year, and Frank won many sprint car features in his car
at “the Gate,” in addition to the Little 500 Rookie of the Year
title in 1978 and Little 500 pole position in 1980. Harry earned his
first sprint car championship in 1970 with Dave Scarborough driving.
Harry and Dave also teamed up again in 1982, a banner year for them
in which they took two sprint car championships: the Sunshine
Speedway and TBARA championships.
Every so often, Harry’s health might force him to cut back on his
building and owning activities, but then there’d be a comeback,
often with a new car, a new car owner, and a new driver. That
happened in 1983, when Harry’s sprint car, with sponsor Charles
Ledford and talented young driver Jim Haynes, started getting
noticed with wins in Tampa area and TBARA races. With a new pavement
sprint car in 1984, the trio, Harry, Charles, and Jim Haynes made an
assault on the Little 500 that nearly produced a win, with Jim
putting on an impressive late-race charge to finish second.
Two years later, Wayne Reutimann was the driver for Harry (as chief
mechanic), and sponsor/car owner Charles Ledford until broken bones
in the spring of 1986 bumped him out of the seat of the number 1L
sprint car. Dave Scarborough gave up his late model rides that
weekend to substitute for Wayne in the 1986 Little 500 and take the
win in the most lopsided margin of victory in race history, 21 laps
over second place. Scarborough spoke about how he and Harry had been
coming to Anderson for years but never could win until that year.
This win marked the third consecutive Little 500 victory by a car
built by Harry Campbell, with Frank Riddle’s winning car in ’84 and
’85 also built by Harry and purchased by Riddle in 1982. When Harry
and Charles Ledford returned to the Little 500 in 1987, their
“Florida Superteam” consisted of two Little 500-winning Florida
legends, Wayne Reutimann and Dave Scarborough.
Wayne knew his chance of winning had improved with Harry on the
team. “I feel Harry is the best wrench-man in the country,” he said.
“Any time he’s associated with a car, it’s a winner.” The Florida
Superteam took second (Wayne Reutimann) and third place (Dave
Scarborough) in ’87.
Harry Campbell will also be remembered as “the Innovator.” His had
this gift, this ability to innovate in methods of sprint car
construction and setup. Harry’s ideas, his inventions, often
something totally original, were either a new type of suspension
setup or other mechanical device that would make his cars winners.
Golden Gate Speedway promoter Don Nerone said, “Harry Campbell would
come up with something new for the Little 500 every year, and then
go faster. Every year, they would outlaw that car by making a new
rule, call it ‘the Harry Campbell Rule.’ Next year, Harry would come
with something even more innovative. Buddy, he always had some new,
crazy idea. And today, you look at some of the stuff on pavement and
his ideas are still there. Harry Campbell was the man.”
When everyone had adopted Harry’s innovation on their car, it was a
sure sign of his mechanical genius. His drivers also included Steve
Campbell, Larry Brazil, Jimmy Riddle, and Jan Opperman, who once
said, “There is no finer man than Harry Campbell. He loves people
and he takes in bums like us.” Jan stayed at Harry’s home in the
’70s during the February Florida State Fair races. Harry made them
all winners and champions. His fatherly ability to mentor and
improve the results delivered by both young drivers and veterans was
his legacy. Harry Campbell is worthy of his induction into the
Little 500 Hall of Fame on May 28, 2022.
Less Travel, More Racing: A Fan’s Perspective of
the “New Look” Little 500 and Indy 500 Race Week
Story and Photos by Richard Golardi
April 28, 2022
The “old school” Little 500 and Indy 500 race week
(which ends on Sunday with the Indy 500) used to get its start on
Thursday at the Indiana State Fairgrounds for the Hoosier Hundred, a
USAC Silver Crown champ car race. It’s the place that AJ Foyt, Mario
Andretti, and Al Unser used to get the dirt flying while winning a
race that was once part of the IndyCar Series. When I started going
to the fairgrounds (in 2005) on Thursday or Friday, it was still a
USAC champ car race, but no longer part of the IndyCar Series. That
left Friday as a day to spend at “the speedway,” with the Freedom
100 Indy Lights race and an infield concert at the Indianapolis
Motor Speedway. For a while, I alternated tracks for my choice of
Saturday night race locales. It was the night before the Indy 500,
and I wanted to stay close to the speedway to avoid the race day
morning traffic nightmare, so I went to the Night Before the 500
USAC midget race at Indianapolis Raceway Park. I also went to the
Little 500 after I no longer had Indy 500 media credentials (after
2009) and have made that Anderson Speedway stop a permanent part of
my plans since then.
The race week schedule for 2021, an afterthought of
poor planning after the loss of the Hoosier Hundred in 2020 (which
was run for the last time in August), included USAC racing in both
Terre Haute and Indianapolis (IRP in Brownsburg), forcing the race
fan who was accustomed to following the best of USAC racing, the
Little 500, and the Indy 500 to make multiple cross-state trips to
take in all the events, including the Little 500 qualifying on
Thursday and Friday.
I’ll tell you that the poor planning that was seen
in 2021 has now been rectified. Hallelujah and happy face smiley
buttons all around. Forget driving back and forth across the State
of Indiana. That’s now a thing of the past, and not too soon with $4
gas (or will it be $5 by the time you read this) almost causing
credit cards to make audible shrieks of horror when inserted into
gas pump card readers. If you like the Little 500, want to attend
the qualifying days, and have always made a habit of going to those
USAC champ car and sprint car races during the Little 500 race week,
now you can see it all, as it all is taking place in Anderson and
Indy (thank the good Lord and pass the adult beverage [Diet Coke for
me, please – trying to cut down on sugar]).
2018
Little 500 Florida Driver Group
Here’s how this works: Wednesday, Thursday, and
Friday (May 25–27, daytime) are the practice and qualifying days at
Anderson Speedway, Indiana, for Saturday’s Little 500, set for
Saturday night (May 28). To catch the best racing on Wednesday and
Thursday nights, head a short way (OK – it’s 41 miles one-way) down
I-69 and I-465 to Indy and the new Circle City Raceway at the Marion
County Fairgrounds (it’s in Southeast Indianapolis). The USAC
National Sprint Car Series (the guys that are the best non-wing dirt
sprint car drivers in these parts) will be racing there both nights.
That’s the biggest improvement to the Little 500 race week for the
race fan, and you have USAC management to thank for that (See that,
USAC management? You’re not so mad at me after all, right?). Since
it’s not Indiana Sprint Week, that leaves fans with a far greater
chance of getting a seat for both nights.
On Friday night, May 27, Indy will again have the
best racing choice for the third night in a row. The USAC Silver
Crown champ cars will be racing at Brownsburg’s Indianapolis Raceway
Park in the Carb Night Classic, along with pavement midgets and
other open-wheel racing of the type that attracts foreign drivers
and followers of road racing (I’m trying [fumbling more like it] to
say that the Indy Pro 2000 and USF2000 racing is more appealing to
the “wine and cheese” crowd, and not the “sprint car types”). But
it’s all there at IRP, and you get four “features” for the price of
one admission ticket.
2021
Little 500 pace lap
Saturday night, May 28, once a night that forced you
to choose between the Night Before the 500 (now defunct) and the
Little 500, both of which served up excellent racing, no longer
forces you to make such a choice. Go to the Little 500, you’ll thank
me if you do. Sure, there’s other racing going on that night, but
it’s not as exciting, and you’ll have to drive a lot further away
from Indy to attend. The Lil’ Five is your go-to event. So go to it.
They also have a Little 500 Hall of Fame luncheon on Saturday
morning at the speedway, and this year it’s a special treat for
Floridians, as three Sunshine Staters will be inducted into pavement
sprint car racing’s shrine of honor.
Sunday, May 29, is for the Indianapolis 500. For me,
it was an annual ritual. I always went. Never would miss it. If I
had to wheel myself in a hospital bed down 16th Street from my
favorite side street parking spot near the 16th Street McDonalds,
then that’s what I would do. Sure, I’d get some strange looks, but I
wouldn’t care. Nothing could stop me from going. Except for Covid
and the closing of the Indy 500 to spectators in 2020, and before I
knew it, I was no longer motivated to go to the 2021 Indy 500. So I
didn’t go. I had too much to do on Sunday. In addition to a
post-race column to write, I had photos to edit for the UAW-sponsored
Little 500 webpage in my capacity as their race-day photographer.
That takes all day Sunday to complete. It just was not feasible to
get to the Indy 500 and do all that writing and photo editing in one
day. So, I’m tied to my hotel room and the Wi-Fi it provides to get
those tasks done. But wait, there’s more...
More sprint car racing, that is. After going to a
sprint car (or champ car) race for the past four nights, what else
could you want to do but go to a sprint car race for a fifth
consecutive night? I couldn’t think of a better alternative, thank
you very much. If I’ve been diligent, I’ve completed all my writing
and messing around with digital photos and have left enough time to
make the drive north from Anderson up to Kokomo in North Indiana
(one hour trip), where Kokomo Speedway has an event that is called
BC’s Indiana Double (honoring the late Bryan Clauson) on Sunday
night. Why go there? Because it’s a track that has somehow mixed
some voodoo powder into its clay surface that makes for sporty
racing and attracts a slew of the best sprint car racers (remember
that these guys are the best of the best non-wing dirt sprint car
pilots in the area). The voodoo that has seeped into the track also
makes the racing more visual, the broadsliding more sideways and
risky-looking, and the experience more satisfying to both the eyes
and the ears. When I went there for the first time in 2005, I
thought I’d found some sort of racing nirvana that just could not be
found anywhere else on earth.
That’s it for the best racing in the middle and
upper parts of Indiana. But on Monday ... I’ve often commented that
the best race of the weekend has on more than occasion been the
Monday, Memorial Day World of Outlaws sprint car show at
Lawrenceburg Speedway, Indiana (May 30). It also has the advantage
of allowing you to take in a sixth (exhausting) night of sprint car
(or champ car) racing and it is on the way home to Florida, even if
there aren’t any major interstate highways heading south from
Lawrenceburg. Kyle Larson has made a habit of showing up and winning
the World of Outlaws race at Lawrenceburg on Monday (at least he
used to, winning in 2019 and 2021).
To sum up, thanks USAC, thanks Diet Coke, thanks
Anderson Speedway and the Little 500 Hall of Fame, thanks to IRP and
Circle City Raceway, thanks to sandwich shop drive-through windows
for allowing one to get in all this racing and not starve, thanks
WoO, thanks to the removal of Covid mask mandates and assorted
annoying stuff, and thanks to the good ole USA, where we can all
enjoy good racing, good times, and our enviable position as
Americans who can afford the Little 500 and Indy 500 race week and
the freedom to pursue sprint car happiness.
So, all you Princes of Power Sliding, you Lords of
Loudness, you Head Honchos of Horsepower, go out there and rule the
dirt (or asphalt). And be like the happy face button – don’t forget
to smile.
Notes from
Florida Sprint Car Racing, Spring 2022
Story and
Photos by Richard Golardi
April 21, 2022

Dave Steele in his car prior to
the start of the 2015 Little 500

LJ Grimm
·
The most uplifting
news for Florida sprint car racing so far this year has been the
announcement in March that three members of the Florida open wheel
racing community have been selected to be inducted into the Little
500 Hall of Fame. This Class of 2022 consists of Harry Campbell,
Dick Fieler, and Charles Ledford. The induction ceremony is set to
take place at Anderson Speedway, Indiana, on Saturday, May 28, 2022,
also the date of the 74th running of the Little 500.
·
I had personally
advocated for Harry Campbell’s selection and was pleased to see this
Florida racing legend get the past-due recognition that he deserved.
One of the most impressive achievements during his career was when
the cars he built were driven to three consecutive Little 500 wins
during 1984–86 (1984–85 was won by the car he built and sold to
Frank Riddle, and ’86 was when the car he built for Charles Ledford
was driven to the win by his friend, Dave Scarborough). Dick Fieler
is best known in Anderson for sharing the winner’s circle with his
driver, Bobby Santos III, as the Little 500-winning car owner in
2020.
·
For those Floridians
wishing to attend the Little 500 Hall of Fame induction luncheon on
May 28, purchasing tickets in advance is the only way to guarantee
you have a seat. Tickets may be ordered by sending a check or money
order ($15 ea.) to Little 500 Hall of Fame, 5027 Pearl St.,
Anderson, IN 46013.
·
I believe that we are
in a “there’s just no way to know” phase for Florida sprint car and
short track racing. It may be unwise to try to predict what the
effect will be of higher gas prices, supply chain problems, a
looming possibility of a recession, and raging inflation taking away
the money that working families used to have available for
entertainment and are now spending on necessities. Has anyone been
to a gas station or supermarket recently and not found themselves
remarking, “Wow. That used to cost ___ dollars.”?
·
The Southern Sprint
Car Series has attained an enviable parity in their competition so
far in 2022, with three winners in three races: Daniel Miller, LJ
Grimm, and Davey Hamilton Jr. They have also had two rainouts going
into this weekend’s fourth race of 2022 at 4-17 Southern Speedway.
The only thing that’s been lacking so far has been a variety of
venues, Punta Gorda plays host on Saturday to the third race in four
2022 dates. With the loss of Desoto Speedway (sold, no oval racing),
Showtime Speedway (hosting its own series), Orlando SpeedWorld
(closed to weekly racing), and New Smyrna Speedway (good
relationship gone bad ...), a previous plethora of pavement dangles
on the precipice of an unknown future. Average feature car count
this year: 13.
·
Danny Martin Jr.
blitzes on in his dirt sprint car racing comeback, continuing his
string of wins by taking the feature race last Saturday in the
return of Bubba Raceway Park’s BRP Sprints, using limited 360
engines to match those used by Top Gun Sprints. Danny had to beat a
field of 18 starters and a hard-charging Tyler Clem to take his
fifth sprint car feature of the year (the four previous wins were
all Top Gun Sprint features).
·
In addition to Danny
Martin’s domination, the other two 2022 feature race winners in the
Top Gun Sprint Series have been Tyler Clem and Brandon Grubaugh.
Average feature car count this year (available from 4 races): 19.
·
As of today, the
entry list for the 2022 Little 500 has the names of four Floridians
included: Shane Butler (Bushnell, best finish: 8th); LJ
Grimm (Seffner, rookie); Tommy Nichols (Tampa, best finish: 12th);
and Davey Hamilton Jr. (currently residing in Tampa, best finish: 6th).
LJ Grimm, winner of multiple asphalt sprint car features in Florida,
should be considered the leading rookie candidate; and Hamilton is a
former Little 500 Rookie of the Year (2015) and pole sitter (2018),
and will be making his first 500 start since 2018. The list
currently has the names of 32 entrants.
·
This weekend’s
Florida sprint car racing consists of three races: Southern Raceway
in Milton will have non-wing dirt sprint cars on Friday; the BG
Products Southern Sprint Car Series is at 4-17 Southern Speedway in
Punta Gorda; and the Top Gun Sprints are at East Bay Raceway Park in
Gibsonton, these two are both on Saturday.
·
This week marks the
26th and 24th anniversaries of two feats of
blistering speed set by the late open wheel champion from Florida,
Dave Steele. On April 20, 1996, at Phoenix Raceway, he set a world
record in USAC sprint car qualifying. His lap of 137.509 mph was a
record for a non-winged sprint car on asphalt. Two years later, he
beat his own Phoenix sprint car track record with a lap of 144.167
mph on April 18, 1998, which was over 6 mph faster than his old
mark. This lap was another world record for a non-winged sprint car.
Dave was his usual nonchalant self after the jaw-dropping lap:
“Totally unexpected ... it was a shot in the dark. The lap didn’t
even feel all that good.”
·
Florida sprint car
and stock car racing legend Pancho Alvarez turned 95 years old on
Wednesday. He is the oldest living World War II veteran and Florida
racing legend that I’ve had the honor to interview and get to know.
Notes from the
2022 East Bay 360 Sprint Car Winternationals
Story and
Photos by Richard Golardi
February 22,
2022
--- The orange, black, and white
number 82 sprint car is owned by Gary Green and driven by his
23-year-old son, Garrett, and sponsored by the car owner’s general
contracting company, Green Development Services in Valrico, FL. This
team had its most impressive East Bay 360 Winternationals night ever
on Friday at East Bay Raceway Park. The brand new car, along with a
new borrowed Fisher motor, led co-crew chief Brian Maddox to state,
“This is the cat’s meow.” He added, “The only thing the driver is
lacking is a little more seat time.” Garrett won a heat race and had
his best-ever Winternationals feature finish on Friday, a third
place, and posted a blistering fast lap of 12.82 seconds on the 24th
lap, almost one and a half seconds better than any lap posted by the
rest of the top five on Friday. After Friday, the top six in points
were locked into the Saturday finale, a 40-lap feature, and Garrett
missed that honor by one only position, placing seventh.
Jack
Nowling tribute car driven by Danny Smith
--- Danny Smith, driving a
“Nowling blue” number 66 Jack Nowling tribute sprint car during this
year’s February Speedweeks, won a heat race at East Bay Raceway on
Saturday, making it the feel-good story of the 2022 East Bay
Winternationals. Jack Nowling, a Florida sprint car racing legend as
a promoter, car owner, and mentor to countless race car drivers,
passed away in 2021 and a “Celebration of Life” was recently held
for him in Gibsonton, FL, where both East Bay Raceway and his home
are located.
--- Danny Smith told me that he
does intend to race with the blue number 66 theme on his car later
this week in the USCS series races at Milton, FL, but has not
committed to running the full USCS race schedule this year. He won
the 2021 USCS national sprint car driving championship at age 64,
which appears to make him the oldest driver ever to become a
national sprint car champion. I asked Danny if he has heard of an
older national sprint car champion other than himself, and he said
he does not know of any. He is unsure if he will race with the blue
number 66 design after this week. He still has the white number 4
body panels used last year on another car.
Mark
Ruel Jr. with a young race fan
--- Thirty-two-year-old Mark Ruel
Jr. from Jacksonville, FL, and the number 83 MRR Racing team were
the winners of a USCS sprint car feature race at Needmore, GA,
earlier this month. I learned that Mark has won five of the last
nine races he’s run (as of Saturday), all five of these wins in the
USCS national sprint car series (four in ’21). Anything new with the
car that contributed to all these wins, I asked? “We put another
motor together and had a new shock program,” Mark replied. I asked
if there was anything different about his driving after 17 years of
racing with his family-owned team. “No, I’m just getting older,”
Mark deadpanned. “I feel like I’m getting less cranky as I get
older.” He did race a Frank Carlsson-owned car in the Top Gun Sprint
Series during the East Bay races in late January. His racing is “All
funded by me, my dad, and my girlfriend. We plan on going to those
USCS races that are within six hours of Jacksonville. We are
planning on 20 USCS races this year and we raced in 18 last year.”
Mark said that the 2021 USCS feature win at Hendry County
Motorsports Park was special because it was the first time he won a
360 USCS race in Florida.
--- Doug Shaw, owner of the Shaw
Racing Products number 24 sprint car driven by Danny Martin Jr. to
three consecutive Top Gun Sprint Series wins at East Bay Raceway
Park in late January, was present at East Bay Raceway last week.
Doug said that although the team won the first three Top Gun races
of the year, they are not planning to run the full Top Gun race
schedule in 2022. Instead, they will likely run some of both the
USCS and Top Gun schedules during the year, but not a full schedule
with any series.
--- Pennsylvanian Mark Smith, who
drove his sprint car to the East Bay 360 Winternationals King of the
360s title in 2015 and ’17, did not bring his car, the Mach 1
chassis number M1, to East Bay Raceway this year. He was driving the
number 43M car owned by Floridian Terry Witherspoon. Smith drove
this car to one USCS series feature race win (Hendry County
Motorsports Park, Feb. 5) and one East Bay 360 Winternationals
preliminary win (East Bay Raceway Park, Feb. 17) during February
Speedweeks in Florida.
--- I asked Mark Smith why he was
driving a car owned by someone else, and not his own car? “They
asked me to drive,” Mark said, “and I can’t afford to bring my stuff
down here this year.” Why not? “Because it takes money.” Lots of
money? “Yes. We’ll probably run some more shows [after East Bay]. I
think we’re going to go to Milton next week.” Are you going to run
the rest of the USCS races outside of Florida after February? “We
don’t know. We’ll get past this weekend and next weekend and go from
there. I started racing this car for Terry Witherspoon a couple of
weeks ago, at Hendry. I still have mine [number M1 car], I just
didn’t bring it down here. I’ll spend all my money coming down here
and I won’t have nothing to go home and race with. Most of my racing
is going to be close to home this year [in his car]. It’s pretty
much in Pennsylvania unless these guys call and want me to come
down. It’s mostly 410, I’m hoping. I’ll be doing 410 non-wing, some
360, just a little bit of variety. I’m doing local USAC 360 non-wing
stuff too. That’s the plan anyway. We’re sitting on the front row
for tonight, it’s 40 laps, anything can happen in 40.” Mark finished
second in that East Bay 360 Saturday finale, missing his third King
of the 360s title by one position.
Q & A with Logan
Seavey
Story and Photo
by Richard Golardi

February 18,
2022
Twenty-four-year-old California
driver Logan Seavey, who has national midget driving championships
in both the POWRi National Midget Series (2017) and the USAC
National Midget Series (2018), is making a full-out assault on all
USAC national open wheel series in 2022. He won feature races in all
three USAC national divisions in 2021 (which included earning the
Rookie of the Year title in the Silver Crown champ cars) and intends
to race in all three, USAC Silver Crown, Sprint Car, and Midget
again this year. He already has finishes of 7th and 12th
in the first two USAC national midget races at Bubba Raceway Park
last week.
I spoke to Logan while he was at
Volusia Speedway Park with the Xtreme Outlaw Sprint Series on
Monday, February 14. This series was racing non-wing sprint cars in
the two days leading up to the beginning of USAC sprint car practice
and racing on Wednesday at Bubba Raceway Park in Ocala.
Q. Have you ever driven here at
Volusia Speedway Park before?
A. No, I’ve never been in any
kind of race car here. I’ve never even seen this place. I drove past
it 15 times going to Ocala and Daytona and all sorts of travels
through Florida, but I’ve never actually stopped and seen the
facility or been on the track. This is my first time.
Q. So what is your first
impression of the track?
A. I think it’s going to race
really good, I’m excited. I really love big tracks and it’s looking
like it’s in great shape right now. We’ve had a lot of success on
big tracks with this car, winning at Terre Haute and Arizona
Speedway. I think the track’s going to be good all night, and this
new No. 5 Baldwin Fox racing car is going to be really good also.
Q. How long have you been
driving this No. 5 car for Baldwin Fox Racing?
A. A little under a year. I
started in early May of last year. It’s been under a year, but we’ve
had a lot of success and I’m really comfortable in this race car.
Q. What is your main goal for
this year?
A. My main goal is to win the
USAC championship. I’m just trying to win as many races as I can
altogether. This isn’t a USAC race, but we’re here to win and get
our season off to a good start. I’ve got Ronnie Gardner working with
me this weekend, helping me out. He’s on my Silver Crown car and
he’s going to be a lot of help. He’s doing a great job already. I
know we’re going to be good and it’s going to be a really fun year.
Q. What was the highlight of the
year for you last year?
A. We had a lot of them. Winning
three nights during Sprint Week, Turkey Night, Western World. We had
a lot of good nights, a lot of highlights. It’s hard to pick one,
but if I had to, I’d say it’s between winning at Eldora, Terre
Haute, or Turkey Night. Those are all three really big ones.
Q. You mentioned both midget and
sprint car races.
A. Yeah. I won one Midget Week
show [Lawrenceburg Speedway, June 5] and three Sprint Week shows
[Lawrenceburg Speedway, July 25; Gas City I-69 Speedway, July 26;
and Terre Haute Action Track, July 28], and those are tough to win.
Eldora is just cool to win at in general ... Terre Haute is awesome
to win at. Hopefully, we can back those up this year and maybe win
some more.
Q. Do you have any plans to
compete in any more races with this new Xtreme Outlaw Series? Are
you running all 14 of their races?
A. That’s not the plan at the
moment. We’re going to run as many as we can but I’m full-time with
the USAC sprint car, midget, and Silver Crown, every single race, so
I don’t think I can make all the Xtreme races when I’m running all
the USAC races. That kind of takes those off the plate for me. We’re
going to run whatever we can, wherever we can. But our main goal is
trying to win in USAC and the Triple Crown bonus this year, so we’re
trying to go after some money.
Q. What teams are you racing for
in the USAC Silver Crown and midget divisions?
A. In Silver Crown, I’m running
the Rice Motorsports entry with Robbie Rice, the owner, and Ronnie
Gardner works on it, the No. 22 Fatheadz Eyewear car for pavement
and dirt both. We have a pavement [Beast chassis] and a dirt car [DRC/Pink]
for the Crown Series. The midget is just for dirt only, and we’re
running the Trench Shoring car owned by Tom Malloy from Southern
California and Jerome Rodela works on it. And this one right here
[No. 5 sprint car] from West Lafayette, Indiana, with Baldwin and
Baldwin Fox Racing.
Q. And that’s a car that’s had a
lot of wins and is very fast.
A. Yeah – very, very fast. I was
happy when they called me and I didn’t really know how we’d do but
obviously, I knew it was a good race car, and it blew my
expectations out of the water, so I’m really happy.
Fan in the Stand
Interview with British Fans Con and Liam Friel
Story and Photo
by Richard Golardi
British
race fans Liam Friel, left, and Con Friel, right
February 16,
2022
February is an ideal time for
British race fans to plan a trip to Florida, especially if they are
fans of dirt short track racing (and NASCAR, too, of course). That
description may aptly be applied to two blokes (regular guys in
American English) from England, a father and son who are both lorry
drivers (truck drivers) back on their home island.
These two fans of American auto
racing, which includes dirt sprint car racing and NASCAR stock car
racing, are Con Friel, 55, and his son, 30-year-old Liam Friel, who
are both from London. They are fans of Kyle Larson and were both
wearing Larson gear when I spoke to them in the front stretch stand
at Volusia Speedway Park recently during a night of World of Outlaws
sprint car racing. In addition to dirt sprint car racing, they have
also planned their American racing vacation around the Daytona 500
and will be spectators at that iconic race in Daytona Beach on
Sunday.
“We are here for the sprint cars
and for NASCAR, the Daytona 500,” Liam told me. “We come for the
World of Outlaws at Volusia, all three nights, the non-wing on
Monday and Tuesday next week, and then we are going to go to either
East Bay or Bubba’s, but we are not sure what track we will go to
yet. But, we’ll go to both. We might do the trucks on Friday night
at Daytona. We’ve got tickets for NASCAR on Sunday. There is eleven
altogether in our group [from England], and we know probably another
15 or 20 out here as well.” I learned that this group of eleven are
going to races together and are staying in Orlando during their
14-day vacation. They had planned on attending other races prior to
Thursday last week, but these Volusia Speedway Park races had all
been rained out.
One of the highlights of their
tour of American race tracks had already occurred on Thursday. “We
met Kyle Larson today in the pits,” Liam said. “That’s the
highlight.” Con gave his highlight: “I hadn’t been to Volusia
before, so this was my ‘tic-off.’ I wanted to do this.” And meeting
Kyle Larson? “That was a big thing for me, as well! I liked that,”
he added with a chuckle. Con said that he was looking forward to
Saturday night’s final World of Outlaws race the most.
Con and Liam have both been to
BriSCA Formula 1 stock car races in England, mainly held on
quarter-mile ovals. The speeds on these small tracks are
significantly lower than the speeds achieved by winged sprint cars
at Volusia, a banked half-mile track. “They’re allowed to make
contact with each other,” Con explained. “Push each other out wide,
and stuff like that.” England also has banger racing, which is like
a destruction derby race, according to Liam: “They go around the
track, and that’s full contact. That’s banger racing. They are on a
quarter of a mile, not half-mile.” Con also has been to Formula 1
races in England at Silverstone and “the last ever at Brands Hatch
about ’86. Where I live in London, I’m on the borders of Kent, so
Brands Hatch is only a half an hour from where I live. But, I find
it [F1] a bit boring. It’s like, ‘Vroom, vroom!’ [imitating race
cars whizzing past].” Getting to see the entire race track at
Volusia is also a marked contrast to viewing F1 racing. “I love it,”
Con exclaimed, “and I love America as well.”
Con’s favorite thing about
America: “Just the respect that everyone’s got for each other and
the military and the national anthem, the manners everyone has. In
England now, we’re really losing that. We’re really losing
self-respect even, that’s why I was pleased when Liam got married
and had a baby. He’s moved out of London and moved to more of the
country. He was brought up in South London and he’s done well. I was
born and bred in South London. I love America, I absolutely love it.
It’s only my second time here; I couldn’t wait to come back.”
Liam mentioned Brad Sweet as the
driver that he has not met but would like to meet. Their favorite
American food is:
Con – “All of it!”
Liam – “The barbeque, pulled
pork, brisket, there’s good barbeque. In the U.K., it’s ‘imitation.’
It’s trying to be like it [here].”
Any message for all the American
sprint car racing fans?
Liam – “Just appreciate what
you’ve got. It’s a good formula, good racing, and it’s a lot quicker
than anything we’ve got in the U.K.”
Con – “I’d say the same. You meet
people, they’re so well-mannered, they’re so polite, you know?
They’re interested in where you’re from, what you do. They are so
nice, I feel so comfortable here. I feel very comfortable in
America.”
Logan Schuchart
– Making the Right Moves
Story and Photo
by Richard Golardi
February 15,
2022

Shark Racing, with 29-year-old
Logan Schuchart in the seat of the white and orange No. 1s Drydene/DuraMAX
sponsored entry, will compete in the full World of Outlaws NOS
Energy Sprint Car race schedule in 2022. Logan also has a valuable
asset in his team who’s overseeing things: Pennsylvania sprint car
racing legend Bobby Allen, his grandfather. The two-car Shark Racing
team, competing in their ninth World of Outlaws season together, has
Bobby’s son, 27-year-old Jacob Allen, driving the other team car,
the black No. 1a. I spoke to Logan at Volusia Speedway Park on
Thursday, the season-opening night for the World of Outlaws.
Logan’s highlight of the year in
2021: “We had a lot of successful things, we won seven races, but it
was probably the Jackson Nationals, winning that for the second time
in a row. Also, winning at Devil’s Bowl Speedway for the third time
in a row was pretty neat too. We’ve got a lot to be proud of, but
it’s a new year and we’re starting over.” The main goal in World of
Outlaws racing in 2022: “Win a championship. That’s the goal. I
believe we have the team to do it and just have to stay strong and
make the right moves.” Do you think you are inching closer to that
first championship each year? “Yeah, I think we’re getting better. I
think our experience shows. We go back to certain race tracks and
we’re a lot better than we’ve ever been. I think our engine
[program] continues to grow, we’ve got great crew guys that continue
to improve and show their experience, and the race cars keep getting
better and better. I feel like we have a great race team and can
accomplish a lot this year.”
Regarding what’s new for 2022,
Logan remarked, “We’re bringing back a lot of the same sponsors, but
something new this year is Drydene, who has been with us since 2018,
a company named RelaDyne bought them out and DuraMAX is their engine
oil. We’re still repping the Drydene name along with DuraMAX and
we’re proud to represent them along with a lot of great sponsors
that have helped Shark Racing for the last few years, including C &
D Rigging, and NGK Spark Plugs, and many more. We have a lot of
people to thank and a lot of people who have to do with putting us
on the road.” Returning crew members include: “We have the same two
guys, Ron and Ben, and then Jack and Tyler on Jacob’s car also have
a lot to do with helping my car.”
Lots of family members help out
and tag along to the races, according to Logan. That includes, “My
grandfather, Bobby Allen, is still the boss and still on the road
with us, so we’re very fortunate to have him here with us. I’ve got
my stepdad, Bill Klingbeil, my girlfriend, Summer Small, and also my
mom, Dana Allen, who is in the T-shirt trailer. They are all here.”
Sheldon
Haudenschild – Subdued and Wanting More
Story and Photos
by Richard Golardi
February 14,
2022
Sheldon
Haudenschild, Volusia Speedway Park, 2-12-2022
If you imagined Sheldon
Haudenschild wearing a perpetual smile all Saturday, the day after
his stunning last lap, last turn pass to win Friday’s World of
Outlaws NOS Energy Sprint Car feature race at Florida’s Volusia
Speedway Park, forget that idea. He was more subdued. It was likely
because he wanted more.
That’s understandable. The season
had just begun, and it was just one feature win. There’s a lot that
Sheldon has yet to achieve: his first ... well, first of many
things. First Knoxville 410 Nationals win, first World of Outlaws
driver championship, for example.
I spoke to the 28-year-old driver
of the Stenhouse Jr./Marshall Racing No. 17 winged sprint car on
Saturday, less than 24 hours after the big win. At Saturday’s driver
meeting, drivers were asked to remember that the timing loop/finish
line was located five feet before the flag stand, a spot marked by
red tape on the wall. The pass for the lead made by Sheldon on
Friday was so close to this spot it could have caused controversy,
if not for the trust that everyone automatically gives to results
attributed to electronic scoring.
Sheldon
Haudenschild, center, with David Gravel and Brad Sweet at Volusia
Speedway Park, 2-11-2022
I mentioned that he must still be
on somewhat of a high from last night. Sheldon responded, “No, not
really. It’s the Outlaw tour, you go one night, and you move on to
the next. To me, that’s what it’s all about. We’ll enjoy ’em later
and focus on the next one while we can.”
During Friday’s World of Outlaws
feature race, “It felt good all night. I had good confidence all
night. When you have that, it’s just putting the pieces together and
being there at the end. That was the position we put ourselves in,
to be there in the last five laps. That’s where these races are
won.” When that last lap came down to three cars in contention for
the win (Sheldon, along with David Gravel and Brad Sweet), it
encouraged many to say, “There was no way to know who was going to
win.”
“I always feel like I’m gonna
beat ’em every night,” Sheldon said. “That’s just the attitude
you’ve gotta have. We’ve seen many races won on the last lap or the
last corner. You never think you’ve got it until you have it, and
that’s just how you’ve got to be.”
The main goal for 2022: “Be there
for the championship at the end of the year and win as many races as
we can. I think if we keep winning races, we’ll be there for sure.”
What was the highlight of the year for him in 2021? “Probably
Ironman weekend, sweeping the weekend there. That was a good
weekend. Had a good Kings Royal, just stuff to build off of. We want
to have a good Nationals this year, and another good Kings Royal.
We’d like to pick off some of these big races and working towards
what we want to be. I want to win all the big races. Kings Royal is
probably at the top of my list because of growing up there at Eldora
and paying $175,000 to win is good motivation too.” Does this year
feel like a championship year? “Yeah, for sure. We’ve got the team,
we’ve got the equipment, and I’ve just got to do my part and be
consistent each night.”
As for anything new with sponsors
or the car or crew, Sheldon remarked, “We’ve got a couple new crew
guys with Jacob and Steven, and we’ve got [Kyle] Ripper and myself.
We’ve got a great group of guys and we’re just looking forward to
having fun. We’re all pretty young.” His next remark seemed to coin
a phrase that might just be that group’s motto: “Have fun and go
racing.” NOS Energy Drink and their bright orange and blue colors
are back on the car as primary sponsor, and the associate sponsor
list seems to be unchanged. “They’ve been supporting us for a long
time,” he remarked. “We’re thankful for them, and just hope to do
them proud.”
Could Sheldon possibly be racing
in any series outside of sprint car racing in the future? “I don’t
think so. I’m pretty focused on this and I have a good time doing
this and making some money. If I can have fun and make a living, I
don’t think you can ask for much more.”
Gio Scelzi –
Standing Out at Volusia
Story and Photo
by Richard Golardi
February 12,
2022
Gio
Scelzi at Volusia Speedway Park, 2-10-2022
Twenty-year-old dirt sprint car
racer Giovanni “Gio” Scelzi, from Fresno, California, recently
released his 2022 schedule of planned races, which stated that he
“will be running a handful of World of Outlaws events, All Star
Circuit of Champions, Knoxville Raceway, and most of the prestigious
events happening throughout the year.” The son of former drag racer
Gary Scelzi is the younger brother of dirt sprint car driver Dominic
Scelzi. Gio’s stunning win over a field of 50 cars at Williams Grove
Speedway in 2018 at 16 years old made him the youngest World of
Outlaws feature race winner in series history (also the youngest
ever winner at Williams Grove).
In 2022, he is driving the bright
orange and white No. 18 car of KCP Racing, a 410 sprint car team
based in Iowa, which explains their plans to run at Iowa’s Knoxville
Raceway. The team was taking part in Toyota Racing Development’s
engine program. I spoke to Gio in the pits at Volusia Speedway Park
prior to the Thursday season-opening race with the World of Outlaws
NOS Energy Sprint Car Series. In addition to the orange fluorescent
paint on his car, Gio stood out by having that same bright orange on
his firesuit.
Gio’s 2021 racing highlight was,
“Definitely winning the 360 Nationals (Knoxville Raceway, 8/6 &
7/2021) and starting on the pole at the 410 Nationals (World of
Outlaws, Knoxville Raceway, 8/14/2021). Two good accomplishments.
That was a great two weeks and something that I’ll remember
forever.” As far as the single most enjoyable win of the year, He
replied, “Lakeside was pretty cool (World of Outlaws, Lakeside
Speedway, Kansas, 10/22/2021). That was a big relief to win another
Outlaw race and I gotta say that was a tie with winning the 360
Nationals. That was pretty fun, too.” His main goal for 2022 is, “I
think, consistency, for sure. Just be a contender night in and night
out with the Outlaws, it’s getting tougher every single year.”
He is not running the full World
of Outlaws schedule but is instead running what he called a
“hit-and-miss schedule,” which is an accurate description of the
schedule he ran last year. He explained what this entails: “It’s
about 60 Outlaw races, 25 All Star races, and some local races here
and there.” Is that more races than if you ran an Outlaws-only
schedule? “I think it’s pretty close,” Gio replied. “Eighty-nine or
so is what we’re doing, and I think the Outlaws is ninety-something.
Local [races are] Knoxville and there’s a couple of local
Pennsylvania races that pay really good that we’ll run.”
Regarding that fluorescent orange
design for this year, “Actually, it’s the same design we had last
year, we painted everything instead of powder coating it so it’s a
very, very vibrant orange now.” Wearing, and standing out in, that
bright orange firesuit: “You won’t be able to miss me. My other
suit’s white,” he replied with a chuckle, seeming to revel in
playing the role of “the guy who stands out in the crowd.” He paired
that orange suit with bright white shoes, perfectly coordinating
with the tiny white polka dots seen in his firesuit.
Aspen Aire is the “title sponsor
in Iowa – they’re a heating and cooling company. Obviously Bell,
Sparco, KCP Racing ... all of our same guys.” Crew: “We added [crew
chief] Dylan [Buswell] at the end of last year, Aaron was with us
last year, and Adam’s been with us two years. We’re starting to get
to know each other pretty well. I think we were at 87 races last
year.” With KCP Racing: “I was hired in June 2020, so I only ran
half the season with them in 2020. Last year was my first full year
with them.”
Let the Winter Sprint Car Games Begin
Story and Photos by Richard Golardi
February 11, 2022
With the start of the heart of Florida Sprint Car
Speedweeks having begun at Volusia Speedway Park last night,
Thursday, the “Winter Sprint Car Games” have begun. They aren’t that
blah, totally “meh,” boring winter games taking part on the other
side of the world at the same time as this year’s national sprint
car racing debut. Oh, no. They are the ear-deafening, alcohol-fueled
variety of entertainment. They are the “you gotta go there to
experience the noise, the speed, and the majesty of high-speed
American open wheel racing” variety. You might even get smacked by a
dirt clod or two, but heck, that’s just part of the experience.
Brush yourself off and remain tough, or just sit higher in the
stands next time!
World
of Outlaws sprint cars at Volusia Speedway Park, 2-10-2022
Last night’s only downer for the fan was the
condition of the dirt surface at Volusia Speedway Park’s half-mile
dirt oval. A common refrain from many of the World of Outlaws sprint
car drivers, who were participating in Thursday’s 2022
season-opening series race, went like this, “I don’t know what they
did to the track, but ...” James McFadden, driver of the No. 83
sprint car, commented, “It’s pretty rough out there, but it’s the
same for everyone. It’s pretty brutal.”
Despite the plethora of rain this week leading up to
Thursday’s race, the track did not appear overly muddy. Rather, the
problem was the dirt itself, which has been criticized as not being
up to the quality that has been used in the past at this track. By
the last heat race, won by David Gravel, there was a second, high
groove in use after the sun had gone done, the temperature had
dropped, and the track had been run-in by prior racing and hot laps.
A pre-race visit to Daytona Memorial Park, a Daytona
Beach cemetery that once was the final resting place of Bill France
Jr. and other France family members (their remains have since been
moved to another Volusia County cemetery) allowed me to visit the
gravesites of Florida racing legends Fireball Roberts and Marshall
Teague. Fireball, winner of the 1962 Daytona 500 and the second
Floridian to win the race, is buried in a well-kept above-ground
mausoleum not far from the main entrance of the cemetery. Teague
died in an Indy car crash at the nearby super speedway during its
first month of racing in February 1959. I was told by the helpful
cemetery staff that I was the first person this month to ask for
directions to the gravesites of these two Florida racing legends,
but they expected many others to visit during this time of the year
since the cemetery is located just on the other side of the Daytona
airport and south of the Daytona International Speedway. I was told
that Marshall Teague’s race shop was very close by and that his
grave and that of his wife were just recently moved to an area that
is marked as a family section. Don’t believe the websites that list
the France family as being buried here (not Bill France Sr.), as
there are no France family members here now. The Fireball Roberts
mausoleum was impressive, with a large concrete structure in the
shape of an open Bible with carved Bible verses arching above the
main block-like entombment.
Fireball
Roberts gravesite in Daytona Beach, FL
In addition to several World of Outlaws driver
interviews that I conducted on Thursday, one of the more enjoyable
interviews I conducted was with a father and son pair from England
that sat in the main grandstand near me. The fans of American auto
racing, to include dirt sprint cars and NASCAR stock car racing, are
Con Friel (55) of London, and his son, Liam Friel (30), also of
London. These English truck drivers, who are fans of BriSCA Formula
1 stock cars and Banger racing in their home country, were decked
out in Kyle Larson gear as they watched cars go by at far higher
speeds than they are used to seeing on their home island. I will
have more of my fan-in-the-stand interview with these two visitors
from the U.K. in my column next week.
2022 Florida
Sprint Car Racing Wish List
Story by
Richard Golardi
January 4, 2022
These are the things that I am
wishing for during 2022 for Florida sprint car racing:
1) Orlando SpeedWorld to cover
their asphalt surface with dirt and bring in dirt sprint car racing
in 2022. Of course, this should have been done years ago and would
have made the track an ideal location for the newly formed Xtreme
Outlaw Sprint Car Series, which has already added Florida dates to
its inaugural season this year (Volusia Speedway Park, February 14
and 15). I hope for success for this national non-wing dirt sprint
car series since they’ve had the foresight to include Florida in
their plans. A dirt surface at SpeedWorld would also attract Central
Florida race teams after they lose East Bay Raceway Park (due to the
2024 track sale), the last remaining dirt track on Florida’s I-4
corridor.
2) Florida pavement sprint car
promoters to work together and don’t counter-schedule races.
3) A Driver Development Program
for Florida’s young sprint car drivers. A feeder series for 11–13
year-old drivers would be ideal. Rather than having these drivers
immediately move into the premier series, this type of feeder series
would be appropriate for younger, inexperienced drivers looking to
work their way up to Florida’s premier pavement (or dirt) sprint car
series. Florida needs this, as it has twice seen 11-year-old drivers
quickly advance in the past decade. Neither of these young lads had
such a program available. See Wish No. 4 – a good option for such a
program.
4) That 4-17 Southern Speedway
(Punta Gorda) recommit to having a 602 crate engine non-wing sprint
car series at their track, as they did early last year.
East
Bay Raceway, Sept. 1, 2012, Richard Golardi Photo
5) That a Floridian wins the
Saturday finale at East Bay Raceway Park’s annual East Bay 360
Winternationals in February. Danny Martin Jr. got robbed of the
opportunity to go for this Saturday win in 2021 when the Saturday
grand finale was rained out. He had just put in a career performance
in the prior two days at East Bay, winning on Thursday and finishing
third on Friday. Maybe 2022 will be the year. If not in 2022, then
he (and all Floridians) will only have another year or two (maybe
three?) before that 2024 track sale goes through and the property
fulfills its ultimate end-use by becoming a mound of phosphate
waste, just like that monstrous refuse mound that looms over the
track to the east.
6) Since multiple Florida
pavement sprint car teams have announced their intention to race in
the inaugural season of the “500 Sprint Car Tour,” a 10-race
Midwest-based non-wing pavement sprint car series, my wish is that a
Floridian wins the first series driver championship. It seems as
though it is past due for a Floridian to do this. After all, it has
been ten years since a Floridian won a national sprint car driving
championship, which last occurred with the second of Troy DeCaire’s
two Must See Racing sprint car titles in 2011.
7) That pavement sprint car
racing returns to New Smyrna Speedway. Not every pavement short oval
in Florida lends itself to exciting, close sprint car racing. New
Smyrna Speedway always did, and it’s a shame that prior mistakes led
to the track forsaking future sprint car events from Florida
promoters. Maybe there’s a way to patch up that relationship? One
can hope.
8) That 2022 become a year when
a greater number of Florida sprint car racers make forays into both
national pavement and dirt sprint car racing. Dirt sprint car racing
is the arena most in need of more racers to make the leap to race on
the national level. Mark Ruel Jr. led the charge of Florida dirt
racers making the leap in 2021, and he had the greatest level of
success by taking four USCS national sprint car series feature wins.
Dave
Scarborough, left, and Harry Campbell with the Lee Parker No. 7
sprint car, Golden Gate Speedway
9) That the Floridian who is most deserving of being inducted into
the Little 500 Hall of Fame (but has not yet been inducted) will
finally be inducted into this prestigious hall of fame in 2022. His
name is Harry Campbell. This genius/wizard sprint car
builder/fabricator/engine man has an impressive record of
achievement at the Little 500, pavement sprint car racing’s most
significant annual event. He was the builder/chief mechanic of the
car that sponsor/car owner Charles Ledford entered in 1986 and that
Dave Scarborough drove to the Little 500 win on May 24. And it
wasn’t just a win, it was a beat-down, with a 21-lap advantage over
second place. This was the third consecutive year that a Harry
Campbell-built car won the Little 500, as Frank Riddle’s car that
won the race in 1984 and ’85 was also built by Harry and was
purchased from Harry by Frank Riddle in late 1982. The cars that
Harry Campbell owned and entered won the Rookie of the Year in 1978
(driven by Frank Riddle) and the pole position in 1980 (Frank Riddle
again). Frank Riddle drove that Harry Campbell-built car to five
career Little 500 pole positions, still an event record (tied with
Dave Steele). The cars that Harry wrenched and entered with Charles
Ledford also finished in second on two occasions (Jim Haynes, 1984;
and Wayne Reutimann, 1987). Another of the Campbell/Ledford cars had
a third place in 1987 (driven by Dave Scarborough). One of Harry
Campbell’s finest achievements was his well-earned reputation for
being a sprint car innovator. His ideas and inventions almost always
brought new-found speed and competitiveness. Some even believed that
later rule changes were brought about in an effort to nullify
Harry’s innovations and slow down his cars. But you couldn’t slow
down Harry Campbell. He’d just come up with a new innovation the
next year. “The Innovator” was certainly a Little 500 legend. He is
also certainly deserving of being inducted into the Little 500 Hall
of Fame in 2022. This should be the year that Harry Campbell is
awarded this well-earned designation.
Wayne Reutimann once said, “I feel Harry is the best wrench-man in
the country. Any time he’s associated with a car, it’s a winner.”
After winning the ’86 Little 500,
Dave Scarborough said that he and Harry and the crew were going to
have an epic celebration that night. Let’s hope that Harry’s family
and friends can have “Harry’s Lil’ Five Celebration, Part 2” after
this year’s race is complete. Make a note of the date: May 28, 2022.
Hail Harry!
10) Finally, I wish that 2022
will not be a year that sees so many members of the
Florida sprint car community taken away from us due to illness. Last
year was tough to endure, and I had some close friends who passed.
My last and most-hoped-for wish is for that to never happen again.
Florida Year-End
Sprint Car Review: 2021 Champions
Story and
Photos by Richard Golardi
December 13,
2021
Florida’s
2021 Sprint Car Champions:
Traveling
Series:
BG Products Southern Sprint Car
Series: Sport Allen
Top Gun Sprint Series: Tyler Clem

Shane Butler and his number 18
dirt sprint car.
Track Champions:
Showtime Speedway, Non-Wing
Sprint Car Track Champion: LJ Grimm
4-17 Southern Speedway, Non-Wing
602 Sprint Car Track Champion: Scotty Adema
East Bay Raceway Park, Winged
Limited 360 Sprint Car Track Champion: Frank Beck
Southern Raceway, Non-Wing Sprint
Car Track Champion: Blake Bowen
Notable drivers and teams in Florida pavement sprint car racing
during 2021:
Colton Bettis, a rookie driver
from Lutz, made his sprint car debut this year as an 11-year-old. He
was second in points in Showtime Speedway’s Non-Wing Sprint Car
Class (only nine points behind track champ LJ Grimm) and has made a
splash in the class this season, taking his first sprint car feature
win on October 2, 2021, at age 12. In his first sprint car race
outside of Showtime Speedway, which occurred at 4-17 Southern
Speedway with the Southern Sprint Car Series on December 4, he had a
respectable 8th place finish going up against the best
pavement drivers in the state.

L.J.Grimm
LJ Grimm had eight feature wins
in Showtime’s non-wing sprint car class, winning on February 20,
March 27, April 24, June 12, June 26, July 10, August 7, and October
23. He added a winged sprint car feature win on January 30,
thoroughly dominating Showtime Speedway competition with a total of
nine sprint car feature wins in 2021. He added another two feature
wins in Southern Sprint Car Series competition for a total of 11
feature wins in Florida this year, the most Florida sprint car wins
of any driver. He also came in a close second in points in the
Southern Sprint Car Series, only 41 points behind 2021 point champ
Sport Allen, who was also his teammate this year.
Other Showtime Speedway sprint
car winners during the year: Troy DeCaire won at Showtime Speedway
on January 23 (winged sprint car) and July 24 (non-wing). Sport
Allen won on June 5, and Kody Swanson (February 27) and Kyle O’Gara
(February 26) were non-wing feature winners during the Dave Steele
World Non-Wing Sprint Car Championship weekend.
Too bad there isn’t a trophy for
“2021 Florida Sprint Car Team of the Year,” as it would most
certainly be awarded to the Taylor Andrews-owned Dayton Andrews
Dodge pavement sprint car team. Taylor Andrews, a four-time TBARA
champion, guided his dynamic duo of racing legend Sport Allen along
with youngblood LJ Grimm to a total of 13 wins in Florida (11 for
Grimm and 2 for Allen).

Danny Martin Jr
Troy DeCaire was the most
successful Floridian in out-of-state pavement sprint car racing
during the year. In addition to the six Florida races mentioned
previously, he had a seventh Florida win in a short-lived effort to
bring sprint car racing back to Pensacola’s Five Flags Speedway,
winning on July 9. Three trips to the far-away Northwest (how much
further could he have gone – Alaska?) resulted in two wins on May 22
and June 19. After racing sporadically in the Midwest-centric Must
See Racing Sprint Car Series in recent years, he raced in five
series events in 2021, which included three of their four Southern
races, winning two (Anderson Motor Speedway, May 15; and Montgomery
Motor Speedway, October 8.)
2021 feature race winners in the BG Products Southern Sprint Car
Series:
Troy DeCaire (4 wins): January
16, February 13, March 20, and April 3.
LJ Grimm (2 wins): May 8 and
October 16.
Sport Allen (1 win): October 9.
Shane Butler (1 win): November
13.
Davey Hamilton Jr. (1 win):
December 4.
Bruce Brantley (1 win): May 15.
2021 feature race winners in the Top Gun Sprint Series:
Tyler Clem (3 wins): May 1,
October 16, and October 23.
Danny Martin Jr. (3 wins): May
22, July 3, and October 30.
Justin Webster (3 wins):
February 4, 5, and 6.
Brandon Grubaugh (2 wins): March
20 and September 25.
AJ Maddox (1 win): May 15.
Shane Butler (1 win): December
11.
The year’s most versatile sprint
car driver in Florida? Well, obviously that was Shane Butler. Call
him “Mr. Versatile,” “Mr. November,” and also “Mr. December.” He was
the only driver with sprint car feature wins on both dirt and
pavement during the year in Florida, again with distinctive year-end
punch, winning iconic races in both November and December. After
getting his second Frank Riddle Memorial Race win in November on
pavement, he followed that up with his second Don Rehm Classic race
win on dirt in December. Want some more versatility for “Mr.
Versatile"? In those two year-end wins: one was with wings, one
without.
In addition to the short-lived
return of sprint cars to Five Flags Speedway, similarities could be
made to what happened at Showtime Speedway with their early-year
foray into winged sprint car racing (two races in January only), and
also 4-17 Southern Speedway, who after announcing a five-race
non-wing 602 sprint car series lasting through December, scuttled
the plan after running two races through May. With a limited number
of teams purchasing and readying a 602 crate engine, the track’s
series was opened up to other engine types and the two races saw a
mix of pavement and dirt cars. Management at 4-17 Southern Speedway
had said that they did not want their 602 class to take away from
the Southern Sprint Car Series events, but rather to provide an
introductory class to those looking to move up in Florida sprint car
racing. Veteran sprint campaigner Scotty Adema was a vigorous
supporter of the concept of racing with 602 crate engines and won
one of the two feature races and the track championship. I asked
Scotty about the future of this class at 4-17 Southern Speedway.
“We are looking forward to
getting some dates in 2022,” Scotty replied. “The track wants a
feeder series to the BG Southern Sprint Car Series (pavement and
torsion bar cars allowed).” Scotty then mentioned that others wanted
the racing to be for converted dirt cars only. “It’s still too good
of an idea to put it on the shelf. We’ve been running our 602 car
against the BG cars the last two races, and it’s only a half-second
off the pace of a $30k motor.”
Scotty’s next comments were
regarding the future of Florida racing and his vision for it: “I
think we need a feeder class to the BG series. Late models have 3–4
different levels of cars to drive before making it to the super late
level. We need that. New teams, new drivers, and fresh faces can be
introduced by a class like the 602 cars. Us old guys are retiring,
dying, or going broke and there’s not a line of cars behind us to
backfill our spots. I don’t ever want it to be a replacement for the
ground pounder type cars, but I would like to see it be a
development/feeder class.”
This reporter has sometimes
wondered what type of feeder series is best suited for younger or
inexperienced drivers looking to work their way up to Florida’s
premier pavement sprint car series. A feeder series would be
appropriate for drivers in the 11–13 year-old age range, instead of
these drivers immediately moving into the premier series. The TBARA
had a short-lived driver development program for young drivers
during their tenure. That was a good start. Maybe that’s what
Florida needs and deserves.
Turning to the dark (dirt) side
of Florida sprint cars, the “2021 Florida Comeback Driver of the
Year” must be none other than (Well, what to call him? He’s too
young to be old, been around too long to use any descriptive term
that implies youth!) 35-year-old veteran racer and multi-time
Florida champion Danny Martin Jr. After a win on Thursday, the
opening night of the 2021 East Bay 360 Winternationals in February,
he was in the running again on Friday, beaten only by two hot-shot
Northerners (Tim Shaffer and Mark Smith), and came in third. After
years of saying, “We’re not running Top Gun anymore,” Danny and car
owner Doug Shaw did just that in ’21. They took three Top Gun
feature wins, one each in the spring, summer, and fall.
Runner-up in that “Comeback
Driver of the Year” category was deservedly earned by another
veteran, 51-year old Sport Allen, the 2021 Southern Sprint Car
Series driver champion. His two feature wins and his first-ever
championship in a Florida-based traveling sprint car series (he had
previous sprint car track championships at East Bay Raceway Park and
Showtime Speedway) made 2021 his best year in the past five seasons.
Another notable achievement on
dirt by a Floridian, mostly in out-of-state races with the USCS
Outlaw Thunder Tour, was by Mark Ruel Jr. of Jacksonville. He won
four 2021 USCS feature races at Senoia Raceway (GA) on August 13 and
14, at Travelers Rest Speedway (SC) on September 10, and got a
Florida win at Hendry County Motorsports Park on November 6.
Seeing an 11-year-old sprint car
driver in Florida this year brought back memories of the last time
an 11-year-old made a noteworthy debut in Florida sprint car racing.
He was also from a Florida racing family. When I interviewed
11-year-old Tyler Clem at Bubba Raceway Park in 2013, he was in his
first year of sprint car racing in a car owned by his father, Bubba
Clem. Almost a decade later, he’s now 19 years old and just won his
first Florida sprint car championship, the 2021 Top Gun Sprint
Series championship. That’s a natural follow-up to earning dirt
sprint car feature wins in Florida in both local and national series
in the intervening years since that first awkward interview with a
reporter in Ocala in August 2013. What a difference a decade makes.
It is satisfying to see the Rehm
family carrying on with owning and operating the Top Gun Sprint
Series since the death of the family patriarch, Don Rehm, in 2018.
The ascension of one of their drivers, Tyler Clem, to become a
championship-winning driver is one of the things they can be proud
of, in addition to the professional manner in which they bring dirt
sprint car racing to Florida in those 11 months of the year when the
national dirt series race everywhere but Florida.
Frank
Riddle on his three-wheeler in the pits at Golden Gate Speedway
in the '80s, three-wheeler and cart painted in the blue and
yellow team colors, Bobby Day Photo
Blue and Yellow Forever – The
Legacy of Frank Riddle
Story by Richard Golardi
October 29, 2021
The colors that Frank Riddle became known for –
blue and yellow – became symbolic of the blue-collar man, “the
Flying Trainman,” the hard-working family man, sprint car
owner/driver, and businessman who could also keep in touch with
the wild side every so often. As an example of that side of
Frank, there was that night at the Little Manatee Lounge.
Celebrating another sprint car win at Tampa’s Golden Gate
Speedway, the closest to a home track for Frank, car owner Harry
Campbell, who once gave Frank an Andy Granatelli-like winner’s
circle kiss, had a silly moment in a close-dancing clinch with
his driver, Frank Riddle.
“Frank Riddle was a tough old SOB now,” former
Golden Gate promoter Don Nerone said. “He didn’t take no crap
from nobody. He was as tough a man as there was in the world.”
Nerone had taken over from Frank Dery Jr., owner and promoter at
Golden Gate from 1962 to ’78, who then leased it to Nerone in
’81. Dery liked to take guests up to the scorers’ box to watch
Frank race. Before any race with Frank entered, Frank Dery would
tell his guests to keep an eye on Frank Riddle’s car. He knew
Frank was going to make the race entertaining.
“Watch No. 11 down there,” Dery said. No. 11 was
the blue and yellow Mar-Har Special sprint car, driven during
the summer of ’76 by Frank. “Perhaps the best-known sprint
driver in these parts,” one Tampa reporter crowed about Riddle.
Another said he was “the dean of local sprint car racing.” Frank
liked to try to hoodwink the competition by downplaying his
chance of winning, saying it was just luck and that if he won,
it was just by chance. Everyone knew better. “The old man around
here,” as he called himself (and he was in his 40s when he said
it), was still as sharp as ever.
Frank Dery pointed out the No. 11 car, telling
them, “Just keep watchin’. Ol’ Frank is comin’ on.” Dery’s
guests were in for a treat because Frank was about to put on a
show. Frank was near the back of the pack. It was a foregone
conclusion. You just expected Frank to blow past everyone and be
in a position to win by the last lap. It didn’t happen every
Saturday night. But on this Saturday night, it did (July 24,
1976). Frank won. He stood in the winner’s circle at “the Gate”
wearing his colors, blue and yellow, of course.
Frank
Riddle at Golden Gate Speedway in Tampa, FL in the '80s, Bobby
Day Photo.jpg
In their mid-50s, many men spend time looking
forward to their retirement years, fretting about having enough
money to retire when they wanted and being healthy enough to
enjoy those years. Not Frank Riddle. He headed for the track.
Running the full season at Golden Gate, or any other track, was
now in the past. He had a goal in mind and it was to win the
Little 500 sprint car race at Anderson Speedway, Indiana. He was
55 years old in 1984, still looking for his first “Lil Five”
win. His facial wrinkles made him look grandfatherly, maybe
about 10 years older than his real age, and that only made him
more likeable. Back in Tampa, they were trying to figure out how
a racer could be getting better as he aged. It defied logic.
“Creating the Riddle legend,” a Tampa columnist said, left fans
and friends scratching their heads as Frank offered no
explanation for his continued success. He had Social Security on
his back bumper and old age was encroaching, with all its pains
and aches and diminished physical capabilities.
“Old Man Riddle” slowed his sprint car to a stop
in the front stretch winner’s circle at Anderson Speedway on May
26, 1984. He looked fresh and steady as a rock as he rose out of
his seat and thrust both fists into the air. He had just won his
first Little 500, old age be damned. “Old Bones” repeated the
feat the next year.
Jumping forward eight years, the Central Florida
Sprint Car Association had its 1993 season-opening race at
Lakeland Interstate Speedway, a quarter-mile asphalt track, on
March 26, 1993. Frank Riddle arrived for the race towing his
thirteen-year-old car with an eight-year-old engine under the
hood. He was 64 years old and had been spending a lot of time on
his Thonotosassa farm. He was spending less time racing, but
intended to win or at least contest for the win. Everybody
seemed to know Frank. Everybody liked him. Even the Tampa
Tribune’s motorsport columnist revealed that his father-in-law
had worked on the Florida railroad with Frank for years.
Whenever Frank raced during this time late in his career, it was
a special event. This was one of those nights.
Frank went into the race with 93 career sprint
car wins in Florida. The car was the same one he drove to two
Little 500 wins in ’84 and ’85, and he started on the front row
for the 25-lap sprint car feature in Lakeland. The race was
called one of the greatest of Frank Riddle’s career. He hadn’t
won a sprint car feature in two years. Two laps from the
checkered flag, a yellow flag bunched up the field with Frank in
first place. Close behind were two younger racers in second and
third, Wayne Reutimann and Eddie Kelley. In the two-lap dash to
the end, they tried everything, threw everything at Frank while
attempting to pass, but they failed. It was Florida career win
No. 94 for Frank. A question was posed: Which milestone would
Frank reach first, (1) 100 career wins in Florida, or (2) his
70th birthday?
Frank only got one more sprint car feature win,
his 95th in Florida. It came at Punta Gorda on June 5, 1993,
well before his 70th birthday. He held the top position on the
All-Time Florida Sprint Car Win List (which compiled all feature
wins in Florida) for the rest of the ’90s and into the 2000s.
Four years later he retired from driving race cars. Induction
into the Little 500 Hall of Fame happened just a year before he
drove his last race in ’97, and was followed by induction into
the National Sprint Car Hall of Fame in 2010. Family and friends
gathered in Knoxville, Iowa, when Frank’s name was added to the
list of national honorees on June 5, 2010. Frank was not
present. He died on March 14, 2007, at 78 years old.
With about two weeks until the Frank Riddle
Memorial Sprint Car Race, scheduled for Saturday, November 13,
2021, at Citrus County Speedway in Inverness, Florida, now is
the time to honor and remember a man who is a Florida auto
racing icon. Those memories of blue and yellow are going to be
in our consciousness for a long time.
The Frank Riddle Memorial Sprint Car Race Returns
in 2021
Story by Richard Golardi
September 11, 2021
The Frank Riddle Memorial Sprint Car Race, which
is scheduled for its 10th annual edition on Saturday, November
13, 2021, at Citrus County Speedway in Inverness, Florida, is
being held to honor a man who is a sprint car racing icon and a
Florida racing legend. This memorial race was held at Desoto
Speedway three times previously, in 2007, 2008, and 2014; and at
Showtime Speedway once in 2016; and also at Citrus County
Speedway in 2013, 2015, and 2017–2019.
The BG Products Southern Sprint Car Series has
confirmed that the Frank Riddle Memorial this year will be a
regular season, 40-lap winged race for the pavement-only sprint
car series. Series sponsor BG Products is providing sponsorship
of the sanctioning body, the Southern Sprint Car Series, as they
have since the series took over the sanctioning of the Frank
Riddle Memorial in 2016. The Frank Riddle Memorial race winners
include Troy DeCaire, Shane Butler, Dave Steele, Joey Aguilar,
Mickey Kempgens, and John Inman.
Frank
Riddle's plaque awarded for the 1980 USAC Rookie of the Year
title, sprint car division, Richard Golardi Photo
Frank Riddle was a family man, a working man, a
businessman, and a racer. He was inducted into the Little 500
Hall of Fame in 1996 and the National Sprint Car Hall of Fame in
2010. This last honor came three years after he died in 2007 at
age 78. Frank is known for winning the Little 500, one of the
most prestigious and grueling auto races, twice in the 1980s
when he was in his mid-50s. Frank had always wanted to race and
win in the Midwest. In his first attempt at the Little 500 in
1978, he started fifth and finished in fourth place, earning
Rookie of the Year. In just his fourth 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, this time at age 56. In his first
five attempts during the ’80s, 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
seven top five 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, Speedway Park, and the half-mile dirt oval at
the Florida State Fairgrounds. Early in his career, Frank raced
stock cars, modifieds, and super modifieds. He would run two or
three super modified races a week, frequently ending his night
in the winner’s circle. During this time, Frank also raced 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,
and Frank would show his expertise at taking care of his car and
making it to the checkered flag.
Frank
Riddle at Golden Gate Speedway, Bobby Day Photo
When sprint cars replaced the modifieds at
Golden Gate Speedway in 1969, car owners sought out Frank to
drive their cars, as he had already shown his abilities at “the
Gate” and other local tracks. When the Tampa Bay Area Racing
Association was formed, Frank was a regular sprint car
competitor on both the dirt and pavement with his fellow Bay
area racers. He had 95 lifetime Florida sprint car feature wins
during his years of racing in the Sunshine State, which places
him third on the overall Florida winners list, behind only Wayne
Reutimann with 97 wins and Dave Steele with 101 wins.
Tall and lanky, Frank’s friends called him
“Bones,” or “Old Bones,” and when he raced at Golden Gate, he
called himself “the old man around here.” The press called him
“Old Pro,” and “the Flying Trainman,” and “the dean of Florida
sprint car racers.” His facial wrinkles always made him look at
least 10 years older than his actual age, and he used that to
his advantage. He’d lull his opponents into thinking he was too
old and past his best days, and then he’d go out and beat them.
During the 1980 season, he ran the USAC National Sprint Car
Series in the blue and yellow number 11 J.W. Hunt Produce car
owned by Harry Campbell, and earned the USAC Rookie of the Year
title at 51 years old. At that time, it made him the oldest ever
USAC Rookie of the Year.
A well-known story from Frank’s career involved
a frightening crash and fire at Anderson Speedway in 1993. His
car caught fire after crashing and coming to rest in turn one,
where a fan crawled under the catch fence and ran to the car to
tell Frank, who appeared to be stunned from the impact, 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 starting his racing career in 1948 and
getting his first feature race win on March 3, 1951, at Tampa’s
Phillips Field, Frank Riddle racked up 250 feature wins over the
next 49 years. After he retired from his job as a CSX railroad
engineer in 1987, he spent his time farming at a small farm in
Thonotosassa, and later retired from racing in 1997 at age 68.
That year, he made his last trip to Anderson to drive in the
Little 500. He is one of the racers responsible for motivating
Floridians to make an annual trek to Central Indiana and the
Little 500. Each year, the highest finishing Floridian at the
Little 500 earns the Frank Riddle Award. This is why the BG
Products Southern Sprint Car Series and Citrus County Speedway
are honoring Frank Riddle, naming the race the “Frank Riddle
Memorial.”
The Frank Riddle Memorial Race,
Race Winner History
1) 9/29/2007, Desoto Speedway, Winner - Dave
Steele
2) 9/27/2008, Desoto Speedway, Winner - Troy DeCaire
3) 10/19/2013, Citrus County Speedway, Winner - Joey Aguilar
4) 10/18/2014, Desoto Speedway, Winner - Shane Butler
5) 10/3/2015, Citrus County Speedway, Winner - Jason Kimball
6) 10/29/2016, Showtime Speedway, Winner - Dave Steele
7) 10/14/2017, Citrus County Speedway, Winner – Mickey Kempgens
8) 11/10/2018, Citrus County Speedway, Winner – John Inman
9) 11/9/2019, Citrus County Speedway, Winner – Troy DeCaire
(NOTE: the race was not run 2009–2012, or 2020.)
Top Five Greatest Two-Man Duels in Golden Gate
Speedway History
Story by Richard Golardi
August 18, 2021
There were a lot of great races and great duels
during the two decades and two years of racing at Tampa’s Golden
Gate Speedway. I’ve been researching the speedway’s history for
an upcoming book, in addition to dozens of interviews with
racers who turned a wheel at “the Gate.” The track, a third-mile
asphalt oval, had the good fortune to operate during racing’s
“Golden Era,” that period during the 1960s and ’70s when some of
the greatest drivers, car owners, and promoters were active. It
might seem obvious that the best, the greatest two-man duels in
the Gate’s history involved these legends. For the most part,
they did. Here are the Top Five Greatest Two-Man Duels in Golden
Gate Speedway History, May 1962 to June 1984:
1) 1965 Florida Governor’s Cup late model
championship race, Sunday, November 14, 1965
Wayne
Reutimann crosses finish line ahead of Bobby Allison to win '65
Governor's Cup, Buzzie in foreground, Golden Gate Speedway,
Tampa.
Wayne
Reutimann, left, and Bobby Allison at Golden Gate Speedway, 1965
Governor's Cup late model race.jpg
The first race at Golden Gate designated as “The
Governor’s Cup” turned into an epic two-man battle between local
racer Wayne Reutimann and Alabama modified and stock car driver
Bobby Allison. Reutimann, of the Zephyrhills “Racing Reutimanns,”
was a frequent winner in the Gate’s late model class. Allison
had honed his championship-winning form in NASCAR modified
racing. Wayne set the fastest qualifying lap on Saturday night;
Bobby didn’t arrive in town until Sunday morning. He had to earn
a spot for the 200-lap championship race in a Sunday afternoon
25-lap qualifying race. Bobby made a furious charge through the
field after starting last and won it. Wayne and Bobby had
already established themselves as the two fastest. The 200-lap
contest was going to determine who the Florida State Late Model
Champion was.
Wayne was in the lead by the 25th lap as Bobby sliced through a
gaggle of slower cars. He looked like he knew the track as well
as the weekly racers, including Wayne. Soon he was in second,
trailing closely behind Wayne. Despite locking bumpers with
another car coming off a turn, Wayne had the lead for more than
170 laps. Bobby was looking to pass the entire time. Once, he
dove low in the turn, getting his front bumper up to Wayne’s
door. There was no bumping. The two racers respected each other
too much, and both wanted it to be a clean race. Bobby fell back
in behind Wayne again. His best chance to pass had failed, or so
it seemed. Wayne appeared to be on the way to winning.
That all changed on the last lap, coming off the fourth turn.
Wayne let his guard down for just a moment, a split-second lapse
of concentration. Bobby pounced. He pulled alongside Wayne
coming off the last turn. They floored it. It was an all-out
drag race to the checkered flag. This was what the Golden Gate
fans had come to see, the two best drivers in the field in the
two best cars, dashing to the finish. Buzzie ran through the
infield toward the edge of the track, urging his brother on.
Wayne beat Bobby to the start/finish line by less than a car
length. It was the biggest win of his six-year racing career.
Bobby was sure that Wayne was going to be joining him soon on
the NASCAR circuit. He was just that talented. That 20-year-old
kid from Florida had skill, nerves of steel, and was a winner.
2) The Pavement Master vs. The Dirt Master,
modified feature race, Saturday, April 4, 1964
Frank
Riddle at Golden Gate Speedway. (Bobby Day Photo)
The modified feature in early April ’64 matched
two drivers who were both inducted into the National Sprint Car
Hall of Fame: Frank Riddle (inducted in 2010), and Pete Folse
(inducted in 1995). Frank Riddle had matured into a formidable
modified driver, using the weekly racing on the Gate’s asphalt
to develop his expertise on pavement. He had one track
championship, winning the super modified championship race in
December ’63. His first modified track championship came a few
years later, in ’67. Pete Folse had established himself as a
national racing star by winning the IMCA National Sprint Car
Series driver championship three times, 1959–61. His expertise
on dirt matched Frank’s expertise on pavement. As Frank led the
20-lap modified feature race, Pete was right on his tail. Pete
pressured Frank throughout the race, waiting for Frank to make a
mistake, allowing him to pass and take the win. Frank was
perfect, never making the slightest bobble, holding off Pete to
win one of the most exciting modified races seen at Golden Gate
(Pete was second). On this night, the Pavement Master defeated
the Dirt Master.
3) 1970 Season Finale Sprint Car Feature, Grand
Champion-Deciding Race, Saturday, November 7, 1970
Dave
Scarborough, left, and Harry Campbell with the Lee Parker #7
sprint car, Golden Gate Speedway
The right to be named the “Grand Champion” of
Golden Gate Speedway, the overall driving title earned by the
driver earning the most points in all classes, was going to be
decided in the season’s last sprint car feature race on
Saturday, November 7. It was set to be a bumper-bashing, intense
duel between two 1970 track champions, Dave Scarborough (sprint
car track champion), and Jim Alvis Sr. (late model track
champion). They had an intense rivalry going on during the year,
and even though Scarborough was the sprint car champ, he wasn’t
assured of a victory in the sprint car race. Alvis could, and
had defeated him in the past, and was the Grand Champion title
holder the past two years, 1968 and ’69. A simple outcome would
determine the 1970 Grand Champion: The driver to finish ahead of
his arch-rival in the 25-lap sprint car feature would earn
enough points to take the overall point title.
In the feature race, Jim Alvis Sr. led early. Dave methodically
advanced past slower cars until he was right there, inches off
Jim’s bumper. Dave swung out high to pass leader Jim Alvis Sr.,
who slid into Dave’s car, sending them both sliding off the
track. Both drivers were required to start at the rear when the
race restarted. What happened next was astounding. Leaving Jim
behind, Dave carved through the field, making passes on every
turn. He passed four cars on one lap, six the next, followed by
the pass for the lead on the last lap. Taking the checkered flag
first ahead of Jim made Dave Scarborough the 1970 Golden Gate
Grand Champion. The come-from-the-back win has long been held to
be one of the most amazing displays of driving skill by any
driver in Golden Gate’s history.
4) Brother vs. Brother Match Race, The Racing
Reutimanns, limited late model race, Saturday, March 31, 1973
With all of the Racing Reutimanns present at
Golden Gate Speedway (Emil, Buzzie, Wayne, and Dale) just before
the two oldest brothers, Buzzie and Wayne, were due to leave for
six months of modified racing in the Northeast, it seemed like
the ideal time for a match race. Track owner Frank Dery Jr.
resolved to have this match race for the Reutimanns on the last
Saturday in March. In April, Buzzie and Wayne would be a
thousand miles away, racing in New York. The ideal match race
was going to be a duel between all four Reutimanns, including
Emil, who refused to say he was retired, and 17-year-old Dale,
who got his first win at the Gate in ’72. But there weren’t four
cars available. There were only two, the limited late models
being raced by Wayne and Dale on Saturdays in March.
Dery wanted the match race to be between Wayne and Buzzie, both
track champions at the Gate, Buzzie twice in a late model, and
Wayne in a sprint car. Dale was asked to loan his limited late
model to Buzzie to set up the five-lap match race. Wayne had the
advantage, as he had won the limited late model feature for the
past three Saturday nights. Unlike his two brothers, Buzzie was
not a regular racer at the Gate. This race could reveal how far
one brother might go to defeat the other.
When the green flag was waved, Buzzie and Wayne raced closely,
with a few bumps, through the first four laps of the match race,
setting up a deciding last lap. Buzzie tapped Wayne’s late model
on the rear bumper, sending it up high in the third turn and
allowing Buzzie to pass and take the unexpected win.
Dale was hoping to see his car in the same condition as before
the race. It wasn’t. It had gotten bounced around some during
the race and it showed on the car’s sheet metal when the battle
of brothers had gotten a little intense. He wasn’t pleased. His
consolation – he wouldn’t have to race his brother in the Gate’s
limited late model class for the next six months. More wins were
coming for the youngest Racing Reutimann.
5) The Veteran vs. The Kid, sprint car feature
race, Friday, May 11, 1973
Now a beloved star and multi-time champion at
Golden Gate, 44-year-old Frank Riddle was still looking for his
first sprint car track championship there. In a few years, he’d
start calling himself “the old man” while still in his 40s. It
was a perfect ploy, the wrinkled, grandfatherly racer that the
kids all loved, lulling his opponents into underestimating him.
The Veteran already had Golden Gate super modified and modified
titles. The Kid, 18-year-old Robert Smith, had won his first
sprint car feature at the Gate less than one year earlier,
October 21, 1972. The teenage sprint car phenom’s breakout year
was in ’73. Now he was winning more frequently in the Gate’s
weekly sprint car races (moved to Friday night in ’73). Not only
was he winning, but he also wasn’t letting the veterans
intimidate him, including Frank Riddle. When he was little,
Robert would tag along with Frank to go fishing in Gibsonton’s
Bullfrog Creek. He looked up to Frank as a mentor, and Frank
drove cars for his father, Willard Smith. In the May 11 sprint
car feature race, a two-man duel developed between Robert and
Frank Riddle, who was right on Robert’s rear bumper from the
first turn of the first lap until the last turn of the last lap,
but could not pass Robert, who won the feature. Many more duels
(and a few punches) between the Veteran and the Kid were ahead,
all through the ’70s and ’80s, both in Florida and at the Little
500 in Anderson, Indiana.
Origin Story: Florida’s First Long-Distance Sprint Car Race
Story by Richard
Golardi
July 29, 2021
If one considers a long-distance
sprint car race to be longer than 100 laps, then Florida’s first
race to qualify (with sprint cars on a short track) was the
inaugural Florida State Championship Sprint Car race. It was a
300-lap race held at Tampa’s Golden Gate Speedway, a paved
third-mile oval, on Sunday, December 12, 1971. It was the first
100-mile sprint car race ever held in Florida. Except, that’s
where things sort of get a little murky.

Johnny Hicks,
starter at Golden Gate, left, and Art Moody, competition
director, on race day, Dec. 12, 1971.
There was a prior long-distance
open wheel race in Florida, held far from Tampa, then the
epicenter of Florida sprint car racing. It was the Fiesta 200
super modified race, which was run for four years in the
mid-’60s at Pensacola’s Five Flags Speedway, a half-mile paved
oval. It was 200 laps, 100 miles. In its first year, it was the
Fiesta 200 (Modified) Stock Car Race, according to the track’s
1963 newspaper ad. By the final race in ’66, it was the Fiesta
200 Super Modified Stock Car Race. But by then, some cars looked
just like a sprint car, with the IMCA-required “streamlined
body,” except with a roll cage and top wing added (not all
cars). That’s the murky part – the race had morphed into a
sprint car race with wings and cages. By today’s standards, that
would be a winged sprint car race. Not every car looked like
that, but Ellis Palasini’s No. V8 did. That car was a sprint
car, but that race wasn’t a sprint car race.
Floridians raced in the Fiesta
200, including Jimmy Riddle, Dave Scarborough, Bill Roynon, and
Dick Pratt. None of them won it. The drivers from the Deep
South, not Florida, did better in endurance races, matched with
a fast car and high bank race skills. Texan Wayne Niedecken won
in ’64, followed by Mississippian Armond Holley, who won in ’65
and ’66. Super modified racing fell out of favor at Pensacola,
and Mobile Speedway had their own race later in the ’60s, the
World 300.
Dave
Scarborough at Golden Gate Speedway on race day, Dec. 12, 1971.
Golden Gate Speedway’s longest
sprint car race prior to ’71 was during the Fourth of July
championship races in ’69, a 100-lap sprint car race. Jim Alvis
Sr. was having his best season yet in sprint cars in ’69 at “the
Gate” (as Golden Gate Speedway was known), even beating the cars
with offset engines. Alvis, wearing all-white, flashed his
winning smile in the winner’s circle on July 3. He won the
100-lap sprint car race and took second in the late models. Over
the next few years, several other drivers ascended in the sprint
car ranks at the Gate while Jim Alvis Sr. spent his time
concentrating on late models, winning multiple track titles. The
first two sprint car track championships, in ’69 and ’70, were
taken by Wayne Reutimann (for car owner Sam Posey) and Dave
Scarborough (car owners Harry Campbell and Paul Urbanek).
Scarborough dominated the sprint car points through most of the
’71 season at the Gate. That point lead evaporated by September
– Jim Riddle was coming on fast, now driving his own No. 1
sprint car, and he took over the point lead from Scarborough
later in the month. The last sprint car race of the regular
season, Saturday, November 6, was going to determine the 1971
sprint car track champion. When it concluded, Jim Riddle had the
advantage, winning his first sprint car driver title at the Gate
by seven points over Dave Scarborough.
That seemed to set the stage for
the locals entered in the inaugural Florida State Championship
Sprint Car race a month later in mid-December. The locals had a
familiar refrain when asked if they could beat the
out-of-staters – they would remark that they knew the track,
knew which tires and setups to use, and that gave them the
advantage. The favorites appeared to be Jim Riddle, Dave
Scarborough, Larry Brazil, Frank Riddle, and Wayne Reutimann.
Scarborough, upon arriving in Anderson for the Little 500 back
in May, was described by a local reporter as the driver who “has
won almost every sprint car race at the Golden Gate Speedway.”
Wayne Reutimann’s feature win in October proved that wasn’t
true, but Wayne was having a mediocre year in sprint cars, out
of the top five in points. Not so for Frank Riddle, third in
points in ’71. Jim Riddle had another advantage in addition to
his hot streak in the Gate’s sprint car battles – the new car
that Harry Campbell was building for him especially for this
race.
Harry Campbell spent November and
the early part of December converting an ex-Indy car roadster,
which had been driven in the Indy 500 by Troy Ruttman, to a
sprint car. Before Jim Riddle could drive it on December 12,
Harry’s rebuilding process involved shortening the wheelbase,
putting in a new engine, and adding a roll cage. All the cars
entered would have roll cages, not only the racers coming from
the USAC sprint car circuit (which required roll cages starting
in ’71), but all the Floridians as well, who had weekly Saturday
night racing at Golden Gate. Sprint cars raced there with
“roofs,” sheet metal over the top of the roll cage, and
302-cubic-inch Chevy engines, some of them offset (pushed over
to the car’s left side). Cars from the Southern super modified
circuit had to remove their wings.
News was coming in about the
Midwest drivers who were expected: Cliff Cockrum from Illinois,
Todd Gibson from Ohio (also with an offset roadster), and Dick
Gaines from Indiana. There was also a Georgia boy, Herman Wise,
who won the Little 500 in ’71, and Chuck Amati from Tennessee.
Unlike the Governor’s Cup late
model race in November, which took up a weekend of racing, the
Florida State Championship race for sprint cars was a one-day
event. Qualifying for the 32 starting spots was planned for just
prior to the 2 p.m. start of “the longest and richest ($11,000
total purse) sprint car championship in Florida history.” Track
owner Frank Dery chose to break up the race into three 100-lap
segments, with a 15-minute pit stop after the first two
segments. That eliminated the need for green-flag stops and the
frenzied, dangerous conditions they would create. Golden Gate
chief starter Johnny Hicks made an investment to make the Gate a
little safer – foam fire-fighting equipment to put in use at the
Gate and the Florida State Fair track during the February IMCA
sprint car races.
Jim Riddle broke the one-lap
qualifying record during his pole position-winning qualifying
run. In the race, he appeared to settle into a strategy of
laying back to see if others went out too hard at the beginning
of the 300 laps and subsequently broke or crashed. At first, it
was uncertain if this was a wise plan, as Dave Scarborough and
Larry Brazil fought an intense battle for the lead throughout
most of the race, making it appear as if they were sure to
finish one-two. They were the fastest, or so it seemed …
The two-man battle for the lead
was interrupted twice by accidents that sent two drivers to the
hospital. When Tony Lavata’s onboard “USAC approved” fire
extinguisher exploded, he was sprayed with shrapnel which caused
bad cuts on his chest, stomach, and arms. University Community
Hospital later reported that his condition was fair. He
survived. Wayne Reutimann was the second driver hurt, getting
burned on both legs when his car caught fire. He was less
seriously injured and left the hospital later that night.
Into the last hundred laps, Dave
Scarborough had already led for 200-plus laps, followed by Larry
Brazil, who had led for less than 20 laps. Then they were both
out. It was serendipity, or luck, or just being right where he
needed to be, waiting for the hotshots to wear out and go out,
that Jim Riddle was there, the new leader as the last few laps
dwindled down to a checkered flag. Jim Riddle was the victor at
the so-called “first annual” Florida State Championship Sprint
Car race. It seemed unusual for a brilliant promoter like Frank
Dery Jr. to make such a goof when titling the race. There never
was a second annual race. Later that decade, Dery made plans for
an even bigger annual sprint car race. But that’s another story
...
Finish, Florida State
Championship Sprint Car Race
Golden Gate Speedway, Tampa, FL,
300 laps
Sunday, December 12, 1971
1. Jim Riddle (FL); 2. Ollie
Silva (MA); 3. Hardy Maddox (FL); 4. Dick Gaines (IN); 5.
Bill Roynon (FL); 6. Todd Gibson (OH); 7. Buzz Barton (FL);
8. Billy Yuma (FL); 9. Jerry Mann (TX); 10. Cliff Cockrum (IL)
Photos from Golden Gate Speedway
are courtesy of Brenda Huskey Hudnell.
Reporter’s Notes from the 2021 Little 500
Story and Photos by Richard Golardi
May 30, 2021
The 2021 Pay Less Little 500 Presented by UAW
turned into a race of attrition as wrecked and broken cars
gathered at the west end of the track showed that turns 1 and 2
had become the “crunch corners.” Not a single accident occurred
in turns 3 and 4, and there was only one spin down in those
“quiet corners.” Tyler Roahrig steered through trouble, had a
deft hand at dealing with slower traffic, and held off the
late-race charge mounted by the Swanson brothers, who both were
in the cars of teams new to them in 2021. Kody Swanson appeared
to have the best chance to overtake Roahrig but failed to make
the crucial pass late in the race. Roahrig later built up almost
a half-lap lead over the Swanson brothers.
Tyler
Roahrig holds the winner's trophy at the 2021 Little 500 on
Saturday.
By lap 280, half the field was out of the race.
The infield became a parking lot for many cars steered by
veteran racers (including Kenny Schrader, Brian Tyler, Shane
Butler, Aaron Pierce, and Eric Gordon). Sixteen cars were still
making laps, and a few more dropped by the wayside during the
last 200 laps. The number 51 car of Scott Hampton seemed to have
gained speed over prior years to challenge for the lead and take
4th place; and the number 55, driven by Florida veteran racer
Tommy Nichols, took the checkered flag at the conclusion of 500
laps for the first time. Nichols’ 12th place was his best-ever
here for the 500.
Although a substantial number of fans still
believed that air jacks had been banned from the Little 500 this
year (they were banned for a short time), the rule banning air
jacks had been rescinded, and I spotted them on the cars of
Shane Butler, Aaron Pierce, and Kody Swanson. Although two-car
wrecks in the first and second turns were a recurring calamity
through the first half of the race, none compared to the
frightening wreck that occurred on the front straight during
Thursday qualifying. The car of Rob Keesling seemed to take a
sharp left turn at the start/finish line and veer directly into
a temporary infield concrete barrier set at an angle to the
track. The sharp impact knocked over the barrier, sent
Keesling’s car into a pinwheeling flip, and when it landed in
the infield grass, the car tore into a series of crazy donuts
caused by a stuck throttle or unconscious driver or both.
Keesling was awake and alert when taken to an Anderson hospital.
I hope that a permanent barrier will soon replace the temporary
movable concrete barriers, but the aging, rusted catch fences
and safety cables are the structure that is most urgently in
need of replacement at Anderson Speedway.

Tyler
Roahrig's race winning car at the 2021 Little 500 on Saturday.
The crew of Tommy Nichols’ number 55 entry
discovered that their refueling hose was damaged and unusable,
and when a replacement was pressed into service, another part
was still needed for their refueling rig. A trusted friend made
the trip to Michigan, picked up the needed part, returned to
Anderson, and hand-delivered the part right to the infield pits,
where it was installed on their refueling rig within hours of
the race start. Everyone was left feeling, “It sure is nice to
have good friends!”
Rookie Cody Karl from Gulfport, Mississippi, was
the second-ever racer from that Deep South state to become a
Little 500 starter. He had raced at Mobile (Alabama)
International Speedway when they previously had sprint car
racing, and Cody had a Stealth chassis at that time. Cody
finished 20th in a Beast chassis Jett Motorsports car after
starting 30th. He told me that he enjoyed racing at Mobile and
that he liked that type of high-speed, banked track. A bullring
like Anderson was a new experience for him, as was a race with
pit stops.
I got a chance to take a close-up look inside
the cockpit of Shane Butler’s number 18 Butler Motorsports
sprint car and I peppered Keith Butler, Shane’s brother, with a
series of questions regarding all the dials and knobs that I saw
inside the cockpit. Unlike the high-tech end of open wheel
racing, in which all the car controls are clustered on and
attached to the steering wheel, sprint cars still have a basic
steering wheel with other controls on the dashboard and to the
right and left of the cockpit, within easy reach. There are
right (marked R on the knob) and left (a big L) weight jackers,
and a fuel adjustment dial, and others. A carbon-fiber
containment seat protects the driver, and it’s light and strong.
The days of open wheel drivers emerging from a wreck with broken
bodies and broken seats seem to be a thing of the past, thanks
to these new, rugged seats.
The high level of talent seen in the current
class of Little 500 pavement racers, including Tyler Roahrig,
the Swansons, and Bobby Santos III, is a stroke of luck for
short track pavement racing, as their talent adds to the
excitement, coupled with the knowledge that we’ll likely be able
to see them race in the Little 500 for years. At a time in the
early ’60s, that wasn’t the case. Parnelli Jones, Jim McElreath,
and Johnny Rutherford all came to the Little 500, each for only
one race before moving on to successful Indy car racing careers.
This weekend, there was a lot of fretting and gnashing of teeth
over the lack of opportunities being offered to Kody Swanson,
even some anger and indignation directed at Indy car racing. At
times, I find that behavior puzzling. Other than that short
“prime time for pavement short track talent” during those three
years in the early ’60s (1960–62), pavement short track racing
has not been a path to Indy 500 glory in recent history. Sure,
there was a time in the ’90s when that “prime time” seemed to be
having a revival. Steve Kinser and Jack Hewitt raced an Indy car
at the Brickyard. None of the pavement short track talent won
the Indy 500, none of them ever drank the Brickyard’s milk. Fans
of the Little 500 are the winners. The Swanson brothers will be
back next year. It’s a safe bet that they’ll be competing for
the win. And I’ll back too, and enjoying it.
Tommy Nichols: Bravery, Determination, and a
Desire to Win the Little 500
Story and Photos by Richard Golardi
May 28, 2021
Fifty-one-year-old sprint car owner/driver Tommy
Nichols sits in a folding chair with a large RV looming directly
behind him, which serves as a shield from the late afternoon sun
in a parking/camping area at Indiana’s Anderson Speedway. The
affable racer is showing a few signs of aging, his trimmed beard
sprouting some gray and there’s maybe a little added mid-torso
weight from a decade or two of middle-age. Two small dogs romp
under and around his feet, and when their stares reach a
critical level of pity, he feeds them small chunks of pulled
pork from his plate.
Tommy
Nichols discusses car setup with crew, 2021 Little 500, Anderson
Speedway.
Tommy is here as an owner/driver to attempt to
qualify for his fifth Pay Less Little 500 Presented by UAW. It
seems certain that he’ll qualify and be racing in his fifth
“Lil’ Five” on Saturday night. His previous starts were in 1991,
’94, ’96, and last year, when he had his best race finish, 13th
place with 439 laps completed in his purple and yellow No. 55
Tommy Nichols Enterprises Hurricane chassis. “Tommy Gun” Nichols
also fielded a car for Florida driver Garrett Green in 2018,
getting 14th place that year as solely an owner. Tommy has been
to the winner’s circle in both TBARA and Southern Sprint Car
Series competition in Florida, most recently on August 11, 2018,
at Citrus County Speedway in Inverness.
His team for the 2021 Little 500 consists of, “A
‘George Rudolph Hurricane’ that was put together for him, built
for him a couple of years ago. And ‘Pops,’ my dad, built a
brand-new 410 [cubic-inch] motor for this year, and Mike Alvis
and Tra Pissot worked on the suspension and the set-up of the
car. I came in here very happy. The first time out on the track
today [Wednesday], and the car worked really, really well.
Throughout the day, with the adjustments, we kept getting faster
and faster. I never put on another new set of tires. We did get
a scare today with the motor, blew an oil plug out of the bottom
of the motor. We’ve got Wilo USA as a sponsor again this year,
also PSI Technologies, Royal Electric, TNT Fabrication, and a
couple other product sponsors. Also Troy Thompson, TTI Machine.
I’m very grateful for the help and the sponsorship that we’ve
got. I think we’ve got a pretty good team this year.”

Tommy
Nichols in the infield during a 2021 Little 500 practice day.
The original plan that Tommy had for this year’s
Little 500 was to have Florida driver LJ Grimm drive a second
team car, the blue and black Hurricane chassis that is raced as
his Florida winged car. A new 360-cubic-inch aluminum motor was
to be matched with that car for Grimm to drive but now serves as
Tommy’s backup car. “LJ backed out, probably a month ago,” Tommy
explained, “and said that he had other plans, and other things
to do, and he appreciated the offer. So, we decided to just come
and run one car.” LJ Grimm has revealed that he is driving in
this weekend’s Must See Racing winged sprint car race in
Kalamazoo, Michigan, making it impossible to also race in the
Little 500. “I said, ‘That’s fine.’ ” Subsequently, that blue
and black winged car got damaged in a head-on wreck at
Auburndale Speedway in April, breaking the front axle and
“taking out the front clip,” which is being repaired now.
Last year’s best-ever finish in the Little 500
for Tommy came with some frustration and disappointment. “We
were at lap 472, and we were sitting ninth place and I was
passing Kenny Schrader for eighth when the motor blew.
Twenty-something laps left to go and we were almost there. We
were the highest-placed Florida guy at the time in the race. A
bunch of us in the top ten, we were lapping everybody in the
field. I guess I was ‘counting my chickens before they hatched,’
and then the motor popped. But – it was a lot of fun.”
One of his Little 500 memories involved reaching
a top-five position early in the 1996 race and then getting
“tangled up” with a lapped car. “He tapped me on the front end,
it broke the brake line, and I had no brakes. Basically ran into
the wall, came off the wall and went down into the pits and took
out Frank Riddle’s pits. Frank Riddle came up to me after the
race and he had a five-gallon plastic bucket, and he goes,
‘Nichols, this is the only thing I have left from this whole
race! I blew my motor up, I crashed the car, you destroyed
everything in my pits, and this is the only thing I have left.’
I felt bad. They said I even wiped out his generator and hit his
fuel tower, and I had no brakes and no steering because after
the brakes went out, I hit the wall and the steering went out.
So, I was just a speeding bullet going into the infield. I was
just sitting there waving my hands, like, ‘Watch out! Watch
out!’ and went into the pits.”
During the time that Tommy was running the full
USAC sprint car season (dirt and pavement) with his father as
the car owner, and after qualifying for the 1994 Little 500,
“That was back when USAC was running and we would go over to
Winchester. I normally qualified in the top fifteen every year
we came up here. I qualified and I was happy, we were locked in,
and I go over to Winchester and that was the night with the bad
accident with Robbie Stanley.” Stanley was going for his fourth
consecutive USAC National Sprint Car Series championship in ’94,
after winning the USAC title in 1991, ’92, and ’93. Tommy found
himself swept into the accident that involved Robbie Stanley. “I
destroyed my car, “Tommy recalled. “Larry Tyler hit him in the
tail tank, which spun him around and I T-boned him right in the
side, and we’re pretty sure that’s what got him. It was
horrifying. It was devastating to me for a while. At that point,
I kind of got out of racing for a month or two, and then,
believe it or not, some Indiana people called me and said, ‘Hey,
come back racing. We miss you!’ So, I came back racing. I kinda
felt bad, but slowly got over it. That’s just something that you
never get over – you learn to deal with it.”
On the USAC sprint car trail in the early to
mid-’90s, Tommy would make the drive back and forth to Florida
every weekend. “Now, we stayed up here sometimes with Brad
Armstrong. They had their shop up here and we kept our cars up
here and we would drive back and forth. Sometimes, we’d leave
the rig up here and just drive a car or truck back and forth. It
just depended. It was pretty hectic. It was a lot of fun. My dad
[Dennis ‘Pops’ Nichols] and Jack Nowling were very good friends.
They worked in the marine business, the marine trailer business
together. Jack helped us out. I was getting out of go-karts and
said, ‘I want to get into sprint cars,’ and Pops takes me over
to Jack Nowling’s place and Wayne Hammond put me to work on a
sprint car. That’s where I started to learn to work on ’em, with
them. That was probably in the mid-’80s. There’s a lot of good
memories there.”
The next stage in Tommy’s racing career was
helped by a sponsorship deal with Hooters Restaurants. The
Hooters Pro Cup late model series was starting and Tommy was
involved from its beginning. A trip to Alan Kulwicki’s shop
found them picking up tow rigs, motors, and late model cars for
their racing. That was when Lakeland’s USA International
Speedway was a prominent part of the Hooters Pro Cup racing.
“I’ve got probably five thousand laps over there
on that track. Hooters owned that. It was the start of the
series, and that’s what I ended up doin’. I kinda transitioned
to the late models for a couple of years – ’96 and ’97. In ’98,
I broke the contract with Hooters and went to drive for Lang
Engineering in ARCA. So, I went and ran the ARCA Series for a
while, I think a full year. We were going to try to shoot for
the Daytona 500 and were getting ready to run some NASCAR
practice and then the team kinda fell apart. I went right back
to sprint car racing.”
There was also some USAC Silver Crown racing, in
a car previously driven by Dave Steele and owned by Mac Steele,
Dave’s father. “Put it together, Hooters sponsored me, and we
ran some IRP and some pavement.” Tommy was away from the Little
500 for an extended period, from the mid-’90s until the past
four years, due to these other racing pursuits. Technology had
changed, for the cars and the tires, and just about everything
else. The new way of endurance pavement sprint car racing
involved a short learning curve, and Tommy adapted quickly,
qualifying in his own car last year for the first time in 24
years.
“I definitely feel a lot older, I can tell you
that,” Tommy remarked. “I sit here and look at some of the young
kids that are running, these twenty-something young guys, and
I’m like, ‘Yeah, I used to be you, you know, thirty-something
years ago!’ I don’t know – I think I’m a little smarter now.
Back then it was: Put the foot down and go. Didn’t care if you
crashed, didn’t matter. Now, it’s smarter, more methodical in
what we do, the changes we make to the car, the changes I make
in driving style. I wish I would have had the sponsors and this
attitude twenty years ago, and I probably could have made
something here with this. But, it comes when it comes … and I’m
happy.”
How much longer will he race? “I thought about
it,” Tommy replied. “With number 55, I was planning on when I
became 55, that would be my final year. But, ya know, I was
sitting down with Kenny Schrader at the drivers’ meeting and we
were talking. I know he’s in his sixties, and he said basically,
‘You’ll know when you’re done.’ He goes, ‘Until you stop having
fun …’ And I’m really having fun right now. I really am. I mean,
win, lose, draw, or break.”
Kody Swanson:
Crossroads Decisions, Throwback Races, and Pavement Domination
Story and Photo
by Richard Golardi
Kody
Swanson at the 2017 Little 500, Anderson Speedway, IN
May 20, 2021
Thirty-three-year-old Kody
Swanson is a race car driver whose character and demeanor makes
you think of drivers from a past era. It’s almost like he
materialized from another era when drivers raced hard and clean,
still treated others with respect and courtesy, and then went
home to their families and their regular day jobs when the
weekend was over. When he wins, you can’t help but feel a little
tinge of “things are right with the world.” With talent in
abundance, you might also wonder, “How come this guy hasn’t
advanced to the highest level in American auto racing?”
Swanson is a five-time USAC
Silver Crown Series driver champion, but won’t be in contention
for his sixth championship this year, a crossroads year in which
he is eschewing the dirt Silver Crown races to allow more time
for a burgeoning stock car racing career. But, he’s hardly
fleeing from those throwback races in which he’s dominated in
the past, a couple of them prominently part of the “Week of
Indy” races leading up to the Indianapolis 500. One of those
races is gone, the Hoosier Hundred dirt champ car race in Indy.
One remains, the Little 500 in Anderson, Indiana. He’ll race in
Anderson one week from Saturday in the 2021 Little 500, as he’s
already put together a pavement open wheel program (Silver Crown
champ car and pavement sprint car) with Doran Racing. Kody’s
talent for pavement open wheel racing is another throwback,
evoking memories of another pavement virtuoso, Dave Steele.
This crossroads year for Kody,
which got its big jump-start at New Smyrna Speedway during
February Speedweeks, will see more chances to dominate on
pavement as Kody reduces the amount of dirt racing on his
schedule. He recently revealed a race schedule for the last half
of May with all pavement races. He’s already racked up wins in
pro late model and super late model racing in 2021, along with a
pavement sprint car win in Florida.
There was a time when Kody was
not that positive about an opportunity coming his way to advance
in pavement racing and eventually get to the highest level of
American auto racing. It was in late 2015, when he had just
clinched his second USAC Silver Crown championship in Syracuse,
New York. When I interviewed him in October 2015, Kody remarked,
“I would like to make it on at some point to maybe the NASCAR
ranks, but I just don’t have the real certain hope that will
happen. I’m old in my career, but I’m not as young as the guys
that they’re taking. I don’t have some of the rest of the pieces
that are needed to make that work. So for now, I’m enjoying my
time in the Silver Crown Series …”
Kody has obviously made a
concerted effort to put some of “the rest of the pieces”
together this year, adding a hearty dose of pavement late model
racing and winning the pro late model driver title in February
during New Smyrna’s Speedweeks racing. He’s also downplayed dirt
racing. In late 2015, he planned “a little bit of everything.
Winged pavement, winged dirt … Silver Crown – that’ll be my main
season-long goal …” Fast forward to 2021 and those goals from a
half-decade ago have been subject to a major makeover. Winged
sprint cars (pavement and dirt varieties) seem to have gotten
the ax, along with dirt champ cars and having the Silver Crown
champ car title as his main goal for the year. Meet the new
goals.
While he was at Florida’s New
Smyrna Speedway earlier this year, I asked about the crossroads
in his racing career that he has reached in 2021 and his future
plans: “I’ve been really fortunate to have had a great career in
Silver Crown and open wheel stuff thus far,” Kody Swanson told
me. “I’ve always wanted to continue to move up, whether that be
in NASCAR’s Cup Series, or moving toward the Indy 500. In the
last year, I’ve had a couple of opportunities to kinda break
free.” The ARCA stock car race at Iowa Speedway in July 2020, in
which he finished eighth, was described by Kody as “the first
time I’ve been in anything with fenders in a while. I drove for
Chad Bryant in a late model stock a couple of times. The
opportunity came to race here with Team Platinum and they do a
really great job with the pro late models and super late models.
To come to New Smyrna here, we get a lot of experience in a
short amount of time. With successive days in the car and trying
to improve each night, it’s a great opportunity to learn.”
Kody also expressed how much he
appreciated the Team Platinum crew, and the great cars that they
prepared for him. He also said that he’d been close to winning
in the pro late model class, and wanted to win a race in that
class during eight days of racing in February, a goal he
achieved later that week at New Smyrna Speedway, a track he
described as “one that’s hard to pass at.”
Pavement sprint car racing has
been one of his most successful pursuits in recent years, with
three wins in the Little 500 and two wins in the Dave Steele
World Non-Wing Championship race in Florida the past two
winters. Those wins in Florida were both with Doran Racing, and
Kody returns to the Little 500 for the first time with one of
the Doran Racing No. 77 sprint cars later this month. “I still
love open wheel stuff and I’m going to run all the pavement
sprint car races we can with Doran Racing, and the pavement
Silver Crown stuff,” Kody stated. Not the dirt Silver Crown
races – he admitted that he’s not seeking a ride for those
races.
“If my goal for the year is to
get moved into new things,” Kody remarked, “and I keep doing the
same things over and over, expecting something different, then
some people will think that’s insanity! And I’m half a decade in
here, been doin’ the same thing. I don’t want to take that focus
and put it toward a championship-type thing. I want to continue
to try to move forward into new types of racing on the pavement,
and see where that goes for a little while.”
Earlier this year, I also asked
Kody about his 2015 comments, when he spoke of not having that
“real certain hope” about getting to NASCAR eventually. Was he
implying that he was too old, then or now? “I probably still
am,” he replied. “But I think there’s at least a little hope
left. At one point, I was too old and had no opportunities to do
something different. I’m older now, but I’ve been fortunate to
have some opportunities shake loose, so I’m just trying to
pursue those as best I can and I’m enjoying the challenge of
learning something new. I’ve been really fortunate to have a lot
of good years and a lot of success with those [USAC Silver
Crown] cars.”
For the future, Kody told me that
he wants to “put more effort into trying these new things, and
doing everything I can to pursue them. If it’s things that are
along the path to the Indy 500, or even things that are sports
car-related, I’ve been enjoying trying them all.”
Dust and Rain: An Indiana/Ohio Adventure
Story and Photo by Richard Golardi
May 9, 2021
Part 1 of the weekend for this writer involved
choosing to go to the dirt sprint car races at one of two tracks
on Friday evening, either Gas City I-69 Speedway or Eldora
Speedway, “across the border” in Ohio. I admit that I often
don’t have much luck in guessing which track will rain out, and
which track will not. Luck was with me this night, sort of. I
chose Gas City.
The rain was falling while approaching Gas City,
Indiana, by way of the interstate highway (thank you President
Eisenhower for the push to build the interstate highway system,
imagine not having it!). It was a good choice, as Eldora had no
racing that night after making the decision to not have another
“24 Hours of Eldora,” as another endless night at Eldora was
dubbed. Gas City was delayed, did have racing, and it became
“T-Mez Night” when Thomas Meseraull won both open wheel feature
races in non-wing sprint cars and the USAC Midwest Regional
Midget Series. I stayed until midnight, allowing me to catch the
driving clinic displayed by T-Mez in the sprint car feature.
Eldora had no features. They (all four features, two with USAC
and two with the World of Outlaws) were all delayed until
Saturday.
World
of Outlaws sprint cars at Eldora Speedway, 5-8-2021
Gas City on Friday was a chilling experience, as
temperatures dipped and frozen race fans mostly headed for the
exit well before the first feature race started just before
midnight. I only stayed for that single feature race and then
left while I could still feel my fingers through my thin gloves.
It was worth the trip – Meseraull is able to make it enjoyable,
even when he beats up the competition, as he did. Of course, it
also leaves unanswered an obvious question: “How come T-Mez is
here, racing in a ‘weekly series’ when he should be racing in
the national series over at Eldora with USAC?”
With the planned Sunday USAC Silver Crown Series
season-opening race at Winchester Speedway (my main reason for
coming north) already postponed until July (good choice, as it’s
raining now on Sunday), that left Eldora’s planned day of sprint
car racing on Saturday (Let’s Race Four?) as my last day of
racing for this trip “up north.” With the afternoon start of
racing, taking up with hot laps and then right into heat races
for the USAC sprint cars, the biggest challenge of the day for
Eldora’s track crew was evident from the first race – big,
billowing clouds of dust. At one point from my vantage in the
front stretch stands, I could see all of the front stretch and
about two-thirds of the back stretch, and that’s all. The turns
had disappeared into the tall clouds of dust. The Eldora track
boys got to work quickly. They knew what to do – put down lots
of water, and do this after each heat or feature race. Even
though the fans’ view of the track suffered (for a short while),
the racing did not. An enjoyable feature of Eldora, especially
for a Floridian, is the passing, often by way of the slide job,
something seldom seen in Florida racing. The fun part is
watching the slide job get set up, and attempting to guess, at
this early stage, if the slide job will be successful and result
in a pass for position. Robert Ballou provided another bit of
fun for the fans. His brutally honest comments and
hold-back-nothing criticism of other racers, teams, and track
owners are always a highlight and a character trait that
journalists always want more of.
Back in Florida, the obvious star of the racing
weekend was a relative newcomer to Florida sprint car racing, LJ
Grimm. He won the Saturday night sprint car feature with the
Southern Sprint Car Series, a first win in the series for him,
which seemed inevitable with the wins he has been accumulating
in pavement races outside the series. His next big hurdle in
pavement sprint car racing will be as a rookie driver at the
Little 500 in Anderson, Indiana, later this month. Grimm will be
piloting the No. 25 Wilo USA-sponsored entry owned by Floridian
Tommy Nichols. Rookies from Florida have had a tendency to have
great success in earning the Little 500 Rookie of the Year
award, last accomplished by Garrett Green in 2013. Among the
Floridians to earn this award are the following: Dave Steele
(1992), Robert Smith (1976), Frank Riddle (1978), and Bo Hartley
(1997). Every one of those drivers were Florida race winners,
TBARA champions, or future “Lil’ 500” winners. LJ Grimm seems to
be on track to be the next.
Kody Swanson Not
Actively Seeking Ride for USAC Silver Crown Dirt Races in 2021
Story and
Photos by Richard Golardi
May 5, 2021
Five-time USAC Silver Crown
Series champion Kody Swanson recently told me that he is not
actively seeking a ride for the dirt races in the USAC Silver
Crown Series in 2021, and will apparently only race in the five
asphalt races currently on the schedule. Since more than half of
the series races are on dirt in 2021, seven of twelve races,
that makes it impossible for the 33-year-old Swanson to earn a
sixth USAC Silver Crown Series title.
Kody
Swanson in late model at New Smyrna Speedway, 2021
The early front runner for the
USC champ car title in 2021 may likely be defending Silver Crown
champ Justin Grant, who earlier this week tested his car on
Winchester Speedway’s high-banked asphalt half-mile oval. Grant
posted the day’s fastest lap while practicing for this Sunday’s
season-opening Silver Crown Series race. If he can win at
Winchester on May 9, it will be his first Silver Crown Series
win on asphalt. Although the entry list for Winchester Speedway
does not list any Florida drivers, a champ car owned by a
familiar Florida car owner will be present. That’s the No. 22 DJ
Racing car, fielded by Floridian Dick Fieler for the 2020 Little
500 winner, Bobby Santos III.
One of the reasons Kody Swanson
decided not to seek a ride for the seven USAC Silver Crown dirt
races in 2021 is because of the increased time he has committed
to being successful in asphalt late model racing, especially
since the beginning of this year. At New Smyrna Speedway’s World
Series of Asphalt Stock Car Racing in February, he had one
feature win along with three second-place finishes in pro late
model racing, which earned him the track’s pro late model
championship during the World Series racing.
Kody
Swanson's late model on pit road at New Smyrna Speedway, 2021.
That championship motivated the
late model team he raced with during February, Team Platinum, to
sign him to drive in more super and pro late model races this
year. Those dates will be fit in so that they don’t conflict
with the commitment that Swanson has already made with Doran
Racing to drive in the asphalt Silver Crown races (May 9, May
28, June 25, August 14, and October 10), and select sprint car
races, including the Little 500 (May 29), a race he has won
three times. Swanson subsequently won the ARCA/CRA Super Series
super late model race at Salem Speedway on April 25, again with
Team Platinum. It was his first super late model race win. In
addition to his late model success, Kody Swanson also won his
first Indy Pro 2000 race, also his first race in a rear-engine
open wheel race car, in August 2020 at Lucas Oil Raceway at
Indianapolis. Kody’s name was also recently added to the 2021
driver lineup for the Superstar Racing Experience (SRX) in its
inaugural season, which CBS will broadcast in primetime this
summer on Saturday nights.
Non-Wing 602 Sprint
Car Class Debuts at 4-17 Southern Speedway
Story by Richard Golardi
April 29, 2021
Although the 602 crate engine has been seen in
Florida sprint car racing in the recent past, this past weekend
brought the debut of a new class of sprint cars on the asphalt
at Punta Gorda’s 4-17 Southern Speedway. One of the participants
in Saturday night’s non-wing 602 sprint car class feature race
was veteran Florida sprint car campaigner Scotty Adema from Fort
Myers. Florida promoter Don Rehm had previously allowed 602 and
604 crate motors to compete against the mainstay limited-360
motor in the dirt-only Top Gun Series that he owned and
operated. This big change came in 2016, allowing engines other
than the limited-360 engine that was (and still is) the main
power plant in the series for years. In Florida pavement sprint
car racing, the TBARA 22-degree cylinder head, 360-cubic-inch
engine has been dominant for decades.
Referred to as a “602 crate engine”, the engine
is designed for short track racing weekend warriors and is a
350-horsepower (at 5,000 rpm), 350-cubic-inch GM (Chevrolet)
sealed racing crate engine. Sprint car owner/driver Scotty Adema
stated that the engine had slightly more horsepower, “375–400
horsepower … on alcohol. On my car, I used a traditional fuel
pump in the stock location to avoid using a $500 Waterman pump
and costly regulators. It works fine so far.” He added that he
was using a battery out of a mini-sprint race car and estimated
that a good car with a new motor could be built and assembled
for $12,000–$13,000.
“That’s a lot of fun for pretty reasonable
money,” Scotty Adema stated. He gave his thoughts prior to
Saturday’s race: “I’m ready to see who’s coming. This class will
definitely concentrate on the set-up and the drivers’ ability
more than just the amount of money you can spend on a race car.
It’s a concept to use the Chevy 602 motor combined with a
non-wing car to offer an affordable option for those who may be
interested in sprint car racing. I like the concept and enjoy
non-wing racing. I’m in. It’ll take a little bit to get a few of
them together, but it’ll be a great class. Won’t be a great car
count, but a great concept that may spark Florida sprint car
racing. I think it’ll grow …”
One sprint car fan stated that he was “Glad to
see they are trying to make sprint car racing a little more
affordable. I have been learning more about the LS motor as an
option. A more modern version of the old, small block 602 engine
…”
Scotty Adema won the 25–lap feature race last
Saturday in the debut of 4-17 Southern Speedway’s 602 sprint car
class. “What a blast racing with the 602 crate motor,” Adema
said. “It was so much fun and was a great opening night for the
new class. These things are so simple to work on. It’s actually
fun to drive.”
There were four cars in the feature race, all
with drivers who live in Southwest Florida, and it is believed
that more cars will be joining the class shortly. Future 602
sprint car races at 4-17 Southern Speedway are planned for May
22, September 18, October 23, and December 18, 2021. There are
also another six winged sprint car races planned at the track in
2021, all with sanctioning from the Southern Sprint Car Series,
Florida’s touring winged sprint car series.
4-17 Southern Speedway, 602 Non-Wing Sprint Car
Feature Race Results, April 24, 2021:
(1) #67-Scotty Adema, Fort Myers, FL; (2)
#3-Travis Bliemeister, Venice, FL; (3) #2B-Nick Andrade, Venice,
FL; (4) #13-Chaz Hambling, Cape Coral, FL
Shane Butler:
Seasons of Change
Story and Photos
by Richard Golardi

February 11,
2021
Thirty-nine-year-old Florida
businessman and sprint car driver Shane Butler, a three-time
Florida state pavement sprint car champion (TBARA champion in
2002, ’10 and ’14), has undergone some changes in his chosen
career and also his racing career in the last couple of race
seasons. In early 2019, he made the change to concentrate on
Florida dirt sprint car racing, after a late-season battle for
the all-pavement 2018 Southern Sprint Car Shootout Series point
title, which it appeared he would win, saw the point lead slip
out of his grasp late in the season. The point title that year
went to another driver, and Shane was second. The changes
continued in 2020, a year that brought a change to how Shane
spent the hours of nine-to-five during the workweek. With the
new year, 2021 will be another season of change for Shane, with
his entry into national 410 dirt sprint car racing, beginning
this week with Bubba Raceway Park’s races on Thursday through
Saturday with the USAC National Sprint Car Series.
Shane has spent part of the fall
and winter preparing a chassis and 410-cubic-inch engine for the
arrival of non-wing national dirt sprint car racing,
specifically with USAC, beginning today. Shane has dabbled in
national series dirt sprint car racing previously. This year
brings a bigger commitment and effort into this type of sprint
car racing, now with his own team.

Shane was primarily a Florida
pavement sprint car racer for most of his racing career, at
least up until the end of the 2018 race season. “Yeah,” Shane
remarked. “Around 2008 … I think I ran maybe 10 dirt races. We
put a car together and started out at East Bay during Speedweeks
and broke a motor. Before that, I got the opportunity to drive a
car for Kenny Mulligan and we went and ran two shows in Alabama
with USCS. I might have run one or two shows before then with
the dirt car and probably had 10 races on dirt. I was still
learnin’ it and we didn’t put a Top Gun motor [limited
360-cubic-inch] together. My wife, Katrina, was pregnant with
Landon when I first got the dirt car. We ran it a little bit in
’08, didn’t want to spend money on a Top Gun motor, so we sold
the dirt car and then stuck with pavement up until 2018. I think
the race with Wayne Davis [Southeastern Sprint Car Series] at
All-Tech Raceway was our first race in a dirt non-wing sprint
car. I took my ‘asphalt buddies’ with me, LJ and Devin McLeod,
and my dad, and we were like a bunch of pavement racers who
didn’t know what the hell to do, and just kinda winged it.”
This was going to be a major
change for Shane, a pavement racer, who now was taken by the
dirt and wanted to inhale some fine dirt particles along with
his usual race day fix of methanol fumes and burnt rubber. This
was not unusual for the majority of Florida’s most talented
sprint car champions, to race on both dirt and pavement and even
in fendered race cars. Shane was merely following a tradition of
Florida racers, going back to the late ’40s and early ’50s, who
regularly raced sprint cars and stock cars on both asphalt and
dirt. The dirt racing and pavement racing “specialist” is a
modern invention, mostly seen in Florida in the ’90s and later.
It didn’t use to be that way. “If it had a steering wheel, they
drove it” was an often-heard refrain in Florida in prior years.
Shane
Butler and his son, Landon.
Wayne Davis’ idea for a regional
non-wing dirt sprint car series, based in the South, with an
“open motor rule,” is what at first attracted Shane to commit to
concentrate on dirt sprint car racing in 2019. He wouldn’t have
to travel outside of Florida and nearby states, and wouldn’t
need a limited 360 engine, required for Florida’s Top Gun sprint
car series. He liked this plan and decided he’d race in this
series. It lasted for a short time, and the at-first promising
plans for a regional non-wing dirt series later fell apart and
the series failed.
“It was gonna be a good deal –
open motors, and we had a 410 sittin’ here. I’m like, ‘Man
that’s perfect.’ I can go get a dirt car, I can put a 410 in it,
because Jimmy Brown owned it, and he’s like, ‘Whatever you wanna
do, go for it!’ ” Shane decided to sit out the first series
races in Hendry County, which he wanted to compete in but
decided against after a job loss in the family – which was
Katrina’s job. He then planned for his first race with the
Southeastern Sprint Car Series at North Florida’s All-Tech
Raceway on March 16, 2019. He nearly won it, or had thought he
won it until a ruling by the series that he was not the winner.
It would have been his first career sprint car feature win on
dirt.
“We had a blast,” Shane said,
“and we were set to run more of his stuff, and we did. What
attracted me was that I always wanted to run non-wing dirt
sprint cars. I loved non-wing, period, whether it’s dirt or
asphalt. I’ll still always love my pavement, but I really love
the dirt too. The things I’ve learned, and the challenges that
go with running a dirt car, with keeping up with the race track,
and lane changes, it’s made it more enjoyable to try to figure
out what to do next. It’s kind of a challenge, and it’s been an
enjoyable challenge.”
Shane’s third place finish with
the Southeastern Sprint Car Series at Southern Raceway in the
Florida panhandle, a race that included some of the Midwest dirt
hotshots, fed his desire to keep up his effort in non-wing dirt
racing. “I was like a kid in a candy store,” Shane recalled. “It
was something I’ve always wanted to do, and we’re doin’ it, and
we’re runnin’ good at it. The non-wing deal is pushed so much
more in the driver’s hands.”
The first dirt sprint car feature
win was not long in coming. It occurred at the Don Rehm Classic
on November 30, 2019, a race honoring the long-time Florida
sprint car driver and promoter. It’s a non-wing Top Gun sprint
car series race held annually at East Bay Raceway Park. Shane’s
feature win, like the previous dirt feature that he initially
was told he had won, came with some controversy. A failure of
the transponder scoring system left officials to eyeball a close
finish, and without a camera or official at the finish line,
that eyeballing of the side-by-side finish with AJ Maddox was
the subject of debate. Shane was awarded the feature win. He had
his first career dirt sprint car feature win after 31 sprint car
feature wins on Florida pavement tracks.
A deal was made with Taylor
Andrews in late 2019 to trade one of Shane’s pavement sprint
cars for a dirt chassis for Top Gun winged sprint car racing in
2020, and Shane added three more dirt sprint car feature wins in
Florida last year. Shane’s 2020 wins also included his first
winged sprint car feature win on dirt. It was at East Bay
Raceway in Gibsonton. Shane now sits in 18th place on
the All-Time Florida Sprint Car Win List with 35 career sprint
car wins in Florida, four of them on dirt.
“Some people were mad at me,”
Shane said of that first dirt sprint car win, “and I wasn’t
scoring the race. The track was, and I’m not going to give it
back. There were some pictures and some videos, and some
questioned it. They made the call, not me! We took that one, and
we came back this past year, 2020, started out at East Bay, and
wasn’t going to run points, was just going to kinda
hit-and-miss.” Another change was ahead for 2020, a career
change.
Steele Performance Parts, started
by the late Florida racing legend Dave Steele, was going out of
business in early 2020 and was going to sell its inventory of
parts and other items in their Tampa race shop. The Butlers,
Shane and his wife, negotiated to buy the parts inventory, and
the shelving that held the parts, from the Steele family in
January 2020. Shane then left his regular day job, and an
employer he was with for 15 years, to concentrate full-time on
building his speed shop business. They would not be purchasing
the business name – “They didn’t want to sell the name,” Shane
explained – and would also not be purchasing any race cars,
engines, or business equipment. They did not purchase the Tampa
building that housed the shop, as they planned to locate their
speed shop in their Bushnell race shop in North Florida. They
also had the advantage of being well-known in the Florida short
track racing community and having many friends in the community.
Many racers stop by for advice, as well as to make a purchase.
Shane and his father, Stan, share their knowledge with these
Florida racers, some of them young and inexperienced but willing
to listen and learn.
One of the sprint cars inside the
race shop holds a clipboard with a neatly printed list of items
needed to get the car race-ready. “Disassemble … fix nose wing
mount … build new lower panels … paint Troy’s colors, etc.” That
last item reveals the car’s future owner/driver – it’s retired
sprint car/USAC champ car driver Troy Thompson. He’s about to
get back into racing, with the help of the Butlers. Their speed
shop, originally called TCB Speed South, has now been renamed
Butler Speed & Supply as of January 1, 2021. “We wanted our name
on it,” Shane explained. He and his wife, Katrina, are the sole
owners of the company. The company logo uses red and black,
familiar colors used by the Butler race team.
Nearby sits another sprint car.
It’s the black number 18, displaying Shane’s name as the driver
and also the Butler Speed & Supply sticker. It’s the Maxim dirt
car chassis Shane will use this week for USAC dirt racing, and
its engine is installed, sponsor stickers are applied (Keene
Services Inc., Cobb Glass Co. Inc., and others), and it is only
in need of Shane’s hands to take the wheel, a track, some
competition, and a push to get started. That happens on
Thursday.
For 2021, Shane has a desire to
build his speed shop business – “The number one goal is to
concentrate on the business,” he said – and that may involve a
plan to “slow down racing a little bit.” He is undecided if he
will race the complete 2021 Top Gun series schedule, but will be
at the track for every one of the Top Gun series races with his
speed shop trailer to make parts sales in the pits. His shop is
also frequently open on weekends, when the weekend racers are
often working on their cars and in need of parts and advice. The
shop has opened its garage doors late at night for that
last-minute, gotta-have-it part that a racer could not do
without. Orders come in by phone and from in-person visitors to
their race shop. Cars come in for maintenance and repairs. New
racers have requested a car and engine be built for them to
race.
Next in 2021 is “what I’m really
excited about,” as Shane stated. This week in Ocala will not be
his first attempt to qualify for a USAC National Sprint Car
Series race. That first attempt came in 2004, a pavement USAC
sprint car race at Toledo, Ohio. Since he didn’t advance to the
feature, Shane will be looking to qualify for his first USAC
sprint car feature this week. He has two previous USAC national
race starts, both in the USAC Silver Crown champ car series.
Shane has a new 2020 Maxim dirt sprint car chassis with a
Claxton 410-cubic-inch engine under the hood, and a sponsor
group in place. The engine is the same one used by Shane in the
2020 Little 500 in Anderson, Indiana, and has not been used
since then.
Then, there’s the future of the
Butler racing family, the 12-year-old son of Shane and Katrina,
Landon Butler, who got his start in go-kart racing. “We’re gonna
keep practicing [a dirt sprint car],” Shane replied when asked
what was next for Landon. “His most recent practice was at The
Bullring [one-quarter mile dirt oval in Ocala]. It’s perfect for
him.” The small, flat dirt track gives a new driver a place to
learn throttle control and the feel of a sprint car without any
big banking or high speeds. It’s a tight, little track that fits
Landon’s needs for now, while he’s learning. He’s already put in
dirt laps both with and without a wing. “It’s perfect for what
we’re trying to get him to learn. I can stop him on the race
track and tell him some things that he can do a little
differently, or ask him if he feels something wrong with the car
or whatnot. I can stop him, talk to him for a second, and we can
push him off, and he can go again,” Shane said. Landon’s sprint
car practice laps have all been on dirt. Shane estimates he
already has between 100 and 150 practice laps completed in four
practice sessions at two tracks, and has had no throttle
restriction after the first session. His first sprint car race
will be at a smaller track, no Florida half-miles yet. “He’s
smooth,” the proud papa said.
Look out, Florida short track
racing, as another Butler appears to be closing in on his
Florida sprint car racing debut (maybe this summer) and the
seemingly inevitable trip to the winner’s circle and eventually
into the Florida record books. He’s Landon Butler … remember
that name.

Q & A with Carson Macedo at Volusia Speedway Park
Story and Photo by Richard Golardi
February 9, 2021
Q. What was the highlight of your 2020 racing
season?
A. We won the CBS race there at Haubstadt [World of Outlaws
sprint car race broadcast live on CBS Sports Network on June 20,
2020, at Tri-State Speedway, Indiana, a race which was
considered a thriller], really big race, obviously being on TV.
That was pretty special. I feel that I learned a lot last year.
I feel like I’m bringing that into 2021 here with JJR [Jason
Johnson Racing]. Nice to have a fresh start with a new team
[Carson has already won once during Florida Speedweeks, at
Volusia Speedway Park with the All Star Circuit of Champions on
Thursday].
Q. So that’s the biggest change for you in 2021,
with transitioning to a new sprint car race team?
A. Yeah. Last year, I raced with Kyle Larson Racing in the
number 2 car [a team that has been disbanded]. This year, I’m
racing the Jason Johnson Racing number 41. I’m happy to get
things rolling here with [crew chief] Phil Dietz and Nate and
Clyde. We have some really good sponsors on board, and I’m
really excited for 2021.
Q. What is your primary racing goal in 2021?
A. I just wanna win races, be our best. Our team – our very
best, night in and night out. I don’t really have a whole lot of
expectations for this year; I wanna win as much as I can. I
wanna compete in the points championship in a respectable manner
and just be our best every single night. That’s my goal, that’s
what I’m looking forward to.
Q. Are you competing in any other races other
than the full World of Outlaws schedule for the rest of 2021?
A. No, just the World of Outlaws series.
Q. Are there any big World of Outlaws races that
you haven’t won yet that you are especially determined to go out
and win this year?
A. We always wanna win those marquee events that pay big money.
Eldora, the Kings Royal, there’s two of them this year, the
Knoxville Nationals – these are all really big marquee events
that pay really good money. There’ll all important to us.
Q. How do you feel things have gone for you so
far at Volusia Speedway Park?
A. Not bad. We ran seventh on the first night [Wednesday with
the All Star Circuit of Champions], and we were able to pick up
a win on the second night at the All Star show, and then fifth
at the first Outlaw show of the year [on Friday]. I think that’s
three pretty respectable positions, and we’ll keep building on
that and keep looking forward to the future [Carson had a
sixth-place finish in Sunday night’s World of Outlaws feature
after this interview was completed].
Q. The World of Outlaws is heading for the Deep
South states next, so I’m curious if you have ever raced at any
tracks in these states in the Deep South – like Alabama,
Mississippi, or Louisiana, for example?
A. Never. No, that’ll be some new race tracks. We’ll try and
tackle it the best we can.
Q. So, it’ll be your first trip to race at a
track in the Deep South. It should be fun.
A. Yeah.
Q. Thank you, Carson.

Joey Saldana: The Full-Time Retired Racer Who
Still Races
Story and Photo by Richard Golardi
Monday, February 08, 2021
“Last year? Huh!” Indiana sprint car driver Joey
Saldana replied when asked about his year in racing in 2020. It
was almost as if he was somewhat shocked by the question. He
hadn’t disappeared from dirt sprint car racing. Not hardly. He
was there at Volusia Speedway Park for sprint car racing with
both the All Star Circuit of Champions and the World of Outlaws.
He just isn’t seen in the cockpit of a winged sprint car as
frequently anymore.
When interviewed on Sunday afternoon, he spoke
of his son’s racing exploits in 2020, not his own. His 2020
racing highlight: “Probably watching my son win the first race
he ran at Macon, Illinois in a micro. Then we went to the POWRi
show a couple of weeks later and he ran third, so that was
definitely the highlight of my year last year.” For himself: “I
only dabble in it five times a year, so probably the coolest
part for me is going to all the big races, making the shows, and
at least being competitive for not racing but five, six times a
year.”
What about 2021 for Joey? “Actually, I wasn’t
even going to come down here, but the times I have run this car
for Charlie and James Fisher, we’ve had some engine failures,
and they tried some different things, and wanted to come down
here. This is always a good place to check your motor package to
see how good you are. So far, we’ve been competitive all three
nights. We had brake issues the first night, which took us out.
For not racing in five months [the car and himself], to come
down here with the quality of the cars and run eighth and tenth
and be competitive, I’d say your motor program is pretty good.”
Joey expressed some slight remorse that his team “could have
maybe got a win,” if they had a top-notch, full-time driver in
the seat. His Sunday night feature finish was 25th place.
Despite completing his fourth race at Volusia
Speedway Park in one week as a part-time, semi-retired racer, he
felt like a retired racer. “I consider myself full-time
retired,” Joey said. “People like yourself talk about it in
weird ways. For me, I was a full-time World of Outlaws driver
for 18 years.” Now, in 2021: “When you’re running five to ten
times a year, that’s pretty much full-time retired when you’re
accustomed to making a living and racing a hundred times a year.
Yeah, I am really retired. I’m just out here having fun and it’s
cool to get your adrenaline pumped up. These cars are the
baddest cars to watch, to witness, to drive, so when you get an
opportunity to drive one, I enjoy it because I know how lucky I
was to do it at a high level for a long time. But, I consider
myself retired. I guess I’m not ‘officially helmet on the shelf’
yet. But to me, I am.”
This was Joey’s first time in Florida to race in
three years. He has enjoyed racing here and recalled his
previous Florida Speedweeks wins with a smile. Getting out of
the Indiana winter weather for a brief Florida respite also is a
perk, whether it comes with wins or satisfying finishes. “You
may not see me again this year …,” Joey added, “or you might see
me at the Kings Royal or the Nationals. But, I’d say if that’s
the case, that’d probably be it [for his five or six annual
races].”
Aside from those races that his son enters, and
limited racing in sprint cars, Joey has spent time building his
own business as a part supplier to race teams, including many in
the World of Outlaws. “I have an oil tank business [Saldana
Racing Oil Tanks] I bought last year, and I do probably 80
percent of these guys out here, so they keep me busy. That’s
kind of cool to have my name on Donny Schatz’s car, or Brad
Sweet’s. There’s a little piece of me still out here, so I enjoy
that. We do all the manufacturing and welding of the oil tanks.
It’s a little part of a big piece, but you’ve got to have it to
make that big piece function.”
Joey’s father had a similar business, Saldana
Racing Products. “It was a company my dad started a long time
ago and then sold it,” Joey said. That put him in a situation
that was “kinda weird,” as he previously found himself in
competition with his father, but “my dad’s no longer involved in
that.” Joey went ahead at speed to get as many teams as possible
to use his oil tanks on their race cars and has found success.
“The Saldana name continues,” Joey stated
proudly. It can be found on the oil tanks of the World of
Outlaws cars, and even in block letters on a World of Outlaws
driver’s firesuit … but that’s something you’ll see only every
once in a while in 2021. After all, he’s “full-time retired,”
and he’s on a Florida racing vacation of the high-speed variety,
enjoying how “it’s cool to see the Saldana name out on a race
car.”
Florida Pavement
Sprint Car Racing Heading Toward Split in 2021
Story and Photo by Richard Golardi
January 14, 2021
It last happened at the end of 2014. The Tampa
Bay Area Racing Association (TBARA) had become disorganized and
unable to put together a race schedule for 2015 and eventually
dissolved. The conditions led to a season without a traveling
Florida pavement sprint car series in 2015, the first time this
had happened in Florida since 1980. Several tracks stepped in to
have their own non-sanctioned sprint car races, including
Showtime Speedway. By the end of 2015, the Southern Sprint Car
Shootout Series was formed, an ambitious effort by several Tampa
area racing concerns to keep the tradition of a Florida
traveling series going for the state’s pavement sprint car
teams. Overall, it has been a success, but is still bedeviled by
low car counts.
The continued success of the series will
therefore be mostly dependent on keeping the car counts from
falling any further, since there is already in place competent
management, about 15 active race teams, a primary sponsor, and a
small collection of pavement tracks that are happy with the
racing provided by the series. In addition to keeping most of
the management team from 2020, the BG Products Southern Sprint
Car Shootout Series has also planned a 13-race schedule for 2021
across four Florida tracks stretching from North Florida’s
Citrus County Speedway to 4-17 Southern Speedway in the state’s
southwest corner. Although it lacks the high-speed punch offered
by the bigger tracks like New Smyrna Speedway and the defunct
Desoto Speedway, the series has managed to build their brand
with name drivers, controversies, and races that sometimes
become wheel-banging brawls that lack nothing but the pit
fistfights.
The limited racing and scramble for resources
and sponsor dollars that emerged in 2020 may be partly
responsible for what is coming in 2021: a split in Florida
pavement sprint car racing. A glance at the 2021 schedule for
the Southern Sprint Car series shows no races at their anchor
track, Showtime Speedway in Pinellas Park. Track management
there has decided to run separately in 2021 by having their own
non-sanctioned sprint car races, both with and without wings. So
far, three races have been announced (the first race is next
week), although there were prior plans being discussed for
twice-a-month sprint car races. Robert Yoho, leaseholder at
Showtime Speedway, apparently is no longer associated with the
Southern Sprint Car Shootout Series.
The man with the unenviable duty to keep the car
counts up for the Southern Sprint Car series in 2021 is series
manager Rick Day, and I spoke to him at a recent race in
Inverness. “We’ve got 13 dates already booked for 2021,” Day
told me. “We’ll be at 4-17 Southern Speedway, Auburndale
Speedway, back at Citrus County Speedway, and we are announcing
that for the first time since 2013, the sprint cars will return
to Orlando SpeedWorld in 2021 for two dates. We’re going
full-bore, everything’s looking good, we’ve just got to work out
a few details on some sponsorship stuff. 2021 should be pretty
good.”
At the time of this interview in November, it
was known that BG Products would return as the series title
sponsor, and Rick Day stated that there was still a desire to
have some series races at Showtime Speedway “because of our
sponsor, BG Products. That is their main market area, so we need
to be there. Taylor Andrews is trying to work out with Robert
[Yoho] to secure some dates there for 2021, but at this time, we
don’t know for sure. Through this partnership with Dayton
Andrews Dodge, that’s how we got the BG Products sponsorship to
start with. That relationship is a long-standing relationship.
The marketing partnership [both Dayton Andrews Dodge and BG
Products] will continue in 2021.”
The 2021 schedule has a sizable mid-season break
that will last a little over four months, from May 15 to
September 18. Winter season races now include the first 2021
race this Saturday at Punta Gorda’s 4-17 Southern Speedway, a
return trip there in mid-February, and two December races that
include a season finale at Orlando SpeedWorld planned for one
week before Christmas Day. “We want to take the summer months
off, that way, we’re not fighting the heat and the rain. It just
makes sense, it’s better for the teams, and they won’t waste
money on travel only to get there and we rain out. We’re just
electing not to book anything in those four months.”
Regarding the option of having a non-wing
“Little 500 Warm-Up” race, as was considered recently, Rick Day
stated, “We’re open to a non-wing race. We tried to do it a
couple of years ago, but to be honest, with the sponsor
commitments, they like having that great, big BG logo up there
on that sideboard. They like the bigger decals. We’re not
opposed to a non-wing race. Actually, I would welcome some
non-wing races, especially before the Little 500, like a tune-up
race that TBARA used to do back in the day. We’ve just got to
work out some of the details with sponsorship and the race
track.”
If the non-wing Little 500 Warm-Up race is a
possibility for 2021, the May 15 race date at Auburndale
Speedway seems to be a perfect fit, maybe even make it the “BG
Products Classic” to placate the primary sponsor. The pavement
sprint car racing media members are already onboard as far as
their support for such a race.
Rick Day continued, “He [Robert Yoho] has
indicated that he wants to do a Showtime sprint car class, but
he’s only wanting to do 25-lap races. It might work for him, but
I’m not sure what his plans are. He’s wanting to do a 25-lap,
twice-a-month type deal over there. He’s wanting to run the
second and fourth Saturday of the month, as to where we’re
trying to work with him. We’ve tried to book most of our races
on the first and third Saturdays of the month, to kind of stay
off of those dates, to work with him just in case we do end up
getting some Showtime Speedway dates.”
A schedule of Florida pavement sprint car racing
this ambitious (races on the first through fourth Saturday each
month) would likely see high attrition of teams participating
and the inevitable low car counts getting even lower. Whether
this will happen during any month in 2021 is unknown as of
today.
“Unfortunately, there could be some months that
sprint cars would be racing every weekend of the month. It’s
actually probably too much,” Rick Day admitted. Weekly sprint
car racing was successful at several Florida tracks in the past
(Golden Gate Speedway in the ’70s, the Florida State Fairgrounds
Speedway in the ’80s), but there isn’t much of a possibility
that it could be successfully resurrected in modern times. There
aren’t enough active teams to sustain it. “We’re going forward
with our deal,” Rick Day stated. “This is our sixth year.
There’s still a possibility of some Showtime Speedway dates.”
Remembering Those in
Florida’s Pavement Sprint Car Community Who Have Passed,
2019-2020
Story and Photos by Richard Golardi
Another superlative was needed … because calling
Ralph Liguori a legend just wasn’t enough, it just didn’t
describe the level of accomplishment seen in his auto racing
resume, which covered the entire second half of the 20th
century. Ralph’s “membership” in the Florida pavement sprint car
racing community was also cemented by his one “official Florida
sprint car feature win” in a pavement sprint car (supposedly
there was a second win, according to Ralph, but I couldn’t
confirm this), at Sunshine Speedway in 1979. Add more wins in
NASCAR Short Track stock car racing, sprint cars, midgets,
modifieds, late model stock cars, and even sports cars, which
was in NASCAR’s SCODA division. They raced sports cars on
NASCAR’s oval tracks.
Ralph
Liguori and his grandson, Joe Liguori
In Raleigh, North Carolina, Ralph was given the
name “the Fayetteville Yankee” during his NASCAR years. They
even listed him as coming from Fayetteville, getting rid of his
heritage as a New Yorker from the Bronx who later moved to
Tampa. He set a Raleigh Speedway track record by winning six
stock car features in a row and then earned the track’s stock
car championship in 1954.
Then there was “that race,” the one that Ralph
loved to talk about. It was the 1970 Hoosier Hundred, a USAC
Indy car dirt race in which Ralph had a late-race battle with
A.J. Foyt for second place. It was all-so-memorable because
Ralph saw A.J.’s car wiggle a little at the end of the back
straight with two laps left, dove to the inside of him going
into the third turn, and made the pass to take second place away
from Foyt.
“He finally did it!” exclaimed the network TV
announcer. He knew what a big achievement it was, and how it was
going to be a big deal to Ralph. There was one racer who
received the biggest, most raucous greeting from the crowd after
the race concluded. It wasn’t A.J. It wasn’t Al Unser, the race
winner. It was Ralph. Although he never won an Indy car race,
Ralph enjoyed that day as much as a win.
Ralph said that he led a comfortable life after
driving in his last race in 2000, a midget race in Ohio. He made
a lot more money from his businesses and prudent investments in
real estate than he ever did in auto racing. But when it came
time to tell stories, his racing stories and those about his
family that he loved dominated his memories. He was especially
proud of mentoring and supporting the racing career of his
grandson, Joe Liguori. He’d spend his summers up north to follow
Joe on the circuit and be involved in his racing, right up to a
few years before he died at age 93 on July 21, 2020. He and his
wife, Jane, had four sons: Ralph Jr., Michael, Frank, and
Nicholas.
Upon learning that he had earned the 2013 TBARA
Rookie of the Year title, Matt Alfonso remarked, “Special thanks
to Jimmy Alvis and Sharon Riddle for letting me drive the car
this year. I would also like to thank J.R.E. Racing Engines. To
all that have helped me out this year, thank you.” I personally
remembered Matt as having a quick smile and being easy to talk
to at the track. A friend remembered, “He was a great guy.
Always in a good mood, very funny, and never asked for a single
thing. RIP Matt Alfonso, and thanks for the wild times we had
growing up.”

Matt
Alfonso
Matt undoubtedly had his best two years in
sprint car competition during 2013 and ’14. In addition to the
TBARA Rookie award, he had several top three finishes during
that time. During our talks in the pits during this time, Matt
spoke of the change in his appearance, as he had lost a lot of
weight after the cancer diagnosis. He continued racing a sprint
car until he was gone from the Florida sprint car circuit for a
while, and then passed away due to cancer on December 11, 2020.
He was 52 years old. On his Facebook page, Matt posted a
background picture of tiny, colorful birds, as if he was finding
great enjoyment from the little things in life during his last
months. He also decided to give himself a nickname. It seemed
like it fit him, as he never seemed to have another nickname at
the track. Beneath his name, he wrote: “The Quiet One.”

Steven
Bradley
Since he died on December 31, 2019, I have
decided to include Steven Bradley in this remembrance, and to
include him with others who passed away from December 31, 2019,
to December 31, 2020. Steven won the non-wing sprint car feature
at Citrus County Speedway on April 5, 2014. He also was a
feature winner in the Checkered Flag Sprint Series in November
2009. He was 34 years old when he died suddenly last year, and
is survived by his wife Amanda and four children.
When he got his 2014 sprint car win, Steven told
me that he had been out of racing for most of the past three
years. It was the second race in his new car, and he already had
a third place finish to go with the win. “I’m excited,” he
stated, as the win came on his birthday. “I had some family
problems and some stuff I had to take care of, and I ended up
having a baby, a little boy. I had to help out at home, and
didn’t really have the time to put in at the garage. We took a
couple of years break, and now he’s old enough, and it’s not as
hard on my wife. We’re back in the garage again, back at it. We
stuck together a new car.” Steven thanked Jerry Stuckey for
putting together the Hurricane chassis that he wheeled to the
winner’s circle that night. “We’re real happy with it,” he
added, smiling broadly.
Danny
Smith at Hendry County Motorsports Park, 11-21-2020
A Dirt King’s
Reign Concludes
Story and Photo
by Richard Golardi
November 23,
2020
Hendry County Motorsports Park,
Clewiston, Florida, Saturday, November 21, 2020.
If 63-year-old Ohio dirt sprint
car racer Danny Smith won the Top Gun Sprint Series feature
race, then he would extend his streak of getting a sprint car
feature win into a 46th consecutive year. He could
return to his Ohio home, satisfied with his accomplishment and
feeling happy. What if he didn’t win? “Then I’d still go home
feeling happy,” Danny Smith replied.
And why shouldn’t he feel happy?
He would head home knowing that his feat, 45 consecutive years
with a sprint car feature win, was in the uppermost levels of
difficulty during decades when names like Kinser, Swindell, and
Wolfgang racked up countless wins, all during a time when sprint
cars were far more dangerous and sometimes killed or crippled
their occupants. A serious enough injury could have broken
Danny’s win streak long ago. But it didn’t.
Danny had a habit of steering
around trouble, frequently winning, and garnering fans and
friends, especially in the Midwest and Florida, and … don’t
forget Australia. Along that long, winding trail came a big win
on pavement, as a relief driver in the 1979 Little 500 (infamous
for having a wild, unpredictable finish), a plethora of track
championships (Ohio mostly), a status as an “honorary Floridian”
due to his winning ways on Florida tracks and close friendship
with legendary Gibsonton car owner Jack Nowling, and induction
into the National Sprint Car Hall of Fame in 2015.
Hendry County Motorsports Park,
Clewiston, Florida, Friday, November 6, 2020.
A last weekend of racing, that
was Danny’s original plan. That Friday and Saturday, the 6th
and 7th, were going to be his last two nights of
racing for 2020. But he could stick around Florida for a little
longer, I said convincingly (or so I thought). There were two
more dirt sprint car races coming up in Florida through early
December, I mentioned. But … he probably wouldn’t be interested.
I couldn’t recall Danny entering a Top Gun series race
previously. Plus, he’d need a limited 360 c.i. engine, which he
didn’t have. He probably wouldn’t be interested. Danny shook his
head slightly. That meant no.
Funny thing though, mention more
racing to a race car driver, and he’ll scheme to borrow, buy, or
cajole his way into that extra racing. A phone call or two was
made. Florida car owner Andy Cobb had a Racesaver 305 c.i.
engine, an engine eligible to compete along with the limited
360s in Top Gun. If Danny Smith could arrange to borrow it, he’d
have another chance to extend that amazing win streak into a 46th
year. If not, Danny’s streak would end at 45 consecutive years,
as his last win was in 2019. Andy Cobb gladly loaned the 305
engine to Danny. He’d make a last stand, one last effort to
extend that streak into a 46th year, and it was
planned for Saturday, November 21 at Hendry County.
Danny was smiling and looking
confident before buckling in and heading out onto the third-mile
dirt oval in Clewiston. He was going to head home to Ohio after
this race, win or lose, he stated. It was his last race of 2020.
Passing rain clouds had mostly missed the track, drenching other
parts of South Florida. Three-inch-long frogs were romping
through the spectator stands, startling race fans as they sought
out popcorn kernels and discarded hot dog rolls and providing
entertainment by jumping into the laps of unsuspecting fans. If
you heard a sudden “AHH!” then you knew what just happened.
After the green flag flew, Danny
fell back to somewhere close to mid-field shortly after the
start of the 30-lap Top Gun sprint car feature race. With the
flips and crashes that plagued the early laps, it was a smart
move. He missed the spinning and crashing cars, including one
that spun directly across his nose in the fourth turn. Then came
the methodical stalking, passing, and trying different grooves
until he came upon a couple of Top Gun dirt aces, AJ Maddox and
Garrett Green. He passed them too. He was up to third place.
Ahead were Tyler Clem and Danny Martin Jr.
He stalked, he powered ahead, but
those last two passes were a bit too far off. Clem and Martin
both headed for the bottom groove as the track slicked up, and
that’s the way they finished, taking first and second. It was
Tyler Clem’s first win in two years, and he was smiling and
thankful in his return to winning. Danny Smith was third.
Danny Smith was through with
racing, but just for this year. He’ll be back for 2021, he said.
He’ll be 64 years old and he’ll still be a full-time race car
driver. That’s what he liked doing, so he was going to continue
doing it … at least for one more year. He knows that question
about retirement will come up again, but not for another 12
months.
You’ll just have to imagine
Danny’s smile on the long trip home to Ohio. It was one of those
smiles of satisfaction upon setting a goal, and then completing
it, a well-earned, deep-seated satisfaction that you feel deep
down inside of you. Then you reach your destination, pull into
your driveway, and you’re back home, back with your family. It
doesn’t get any better.
Congratulations to Danny Smith on
one hell of a 45-year run of success … and welcome home.
Feature Race Highlights Video,
Top Gun Sprint Series at Hendry County Motorsports Park,
Saturday, November 21, 2020:
https://youtu.be/OJXGSGDjG7g
Sunshine State
Invitational at Hendry County Featured 360 Sprint Cars
Story and Photos
by Richard Golardi
November 11,
2020
When plans for two nights of USCS
sprint car racing at Hendry County Motorsports Park, just south
of Lake Okeechobee in South Florida, were scuttled by wind,
rain, and a changing USCS schedule, promoter Ken Kinney moved
swiftly to change last weekend’s plans. He replaced the USCS
races with his own Sunshine State Invitational, an open 360
sprint car two-day event, with hopes of drawing some Midwest and
Deep South teams along with the Florida teams that had raced
with USCS in the past. The result was impressive racing, less
than adequate numbers of paid race fans, and one race win each
for the old (middle-aged?) pros and the teenage Florida dirt
racing contingent.
Andy
Cobb at Hendry County Motorsports Park, 11-6-2020.
That teenage contingent, the
Young Guns of Florida, has seen past success with both USCS
mini-sprint and 360 sprint car racing. One of their members,
16-year-old Conner Morrell, took to Hendry County’s dirt on the
first night, Friday, to battle Danny Martin Jr. for the lead
early in the race, only to drop back some when Martin put on his
usual dirt racing clinic, deftly handling the slower traffic and
the track’s sandy surface. Saturday night held greater success
for Conner Morrell, and he won the feature for one of his most
remarkable Florida wins yet.
Garrett Green seems to have
completely shrugged off the effects of a frightening flip in a
wingless show at East Bay Raceway seven weeks ago, and the
concussion and black eyes he suffered when the right rear corner
of his sprint car’s roll cage was pounded down into the dirt by
almost a foot. He pointed out the depth of the penetration on
his car’s roll cage, which occurred on the packed dirt of East
Bay’s fourth turn groove. He is foregoing the next weekend of
Florida dirt racing, this Friday and Saturday in the panhandle
at Southern Raceway’s two-day USCS season finale, to concentrate
on the remaining Top Gun Sprint Series races. He is still in the
running for the Top Gun series point title with two races
remaining. The next series race takes him back to the Hendry
County dirt on November 21.
Danny
Martin Jr. wins at Hendry County Motorsports Park, 11-6-2020
Car owner Andy Cobb had a
multi-car team at Hendry County last weekend. He had the number
18 car for teammate Shane Butler, and for himself, he had the 1
(Eleven) car, with an “Eleven” placed inside the numeral one.
The number was a throwback to his family’s racing legacy and his
own admiration for Jimmy Riddle, and the number 111 sprint car
that he drove and the number 11 later fielded at the 2000 Little
500 for Jim Childers, who won the race. Andy told me that he has
been gone from auto racing for the past seven years while he
took a foray into drag boat racing during that time. “I came
back to auto racing in the middle of this year,” Andy said. He
is also back in sprint cars, with plans for 2021 that include
racing in both ASCS and USCS 360 racing with a number 1C car,
since the 1 (Eleven) doesn’t seem feasible, and there are other
number 1 cars.
Andy’s grandfather passed away
this summer, so the family’s racing legacy has been on his mind
lately. The family’s business, Cobb Glass Company Inc., is
celebrating 50 years in business this year, and was involved in
sponsorship at Golden Gate Speedway during the 1960s and ’70s.
The Cobb Brothers Auto Glass cleanup crew was an iconic group at
Golden Gate, running the push trucks, crash trucks, and
sponsoring the race cars of various owners. They also sponsored
Jim Childers’ first bomber stock car at “the Gate.”
In the developing trend of
grandsons of Florida sprint car legends getting involved in
Florida short track auto racing, the latest addition is likely
going to be 11-year-old Landon Butler, son of Shane Butler and
grandson of Stan Butler. Landon has taken some practice laps on
dirt in the family racing team’s sprint car at both The Bullring
(Marion County Speedway, Ocala) and at Hendry County Motorsports
Park. His grandfather told me that he looked smooth and had no
problems during his practice sessions. His previous racing
experience is in go kart racing. Landon joins Stephen Hartley,
son of Bo Hartley and grandson of Sonny Hartley; and also Bryton
Horner, who is Frank Riddle’s great-grandson. Both are currently
racing Legend cars, recently at Auburndale Speedway and Citrus
County Speedway.
Danny Smith looked calm and
confident, almost serene, prior to taking to the track at Hendry
County Motorsports Park on Friday. The Friday and Saturday
sprint car features were going to be his next-to-last chance to
continue his current consecutive year sprint car feature race
win streak into 2020. His last feature wins came in 2019, which
marked his 45th consecutive year with a sprint car
win. He plans one last weekend of 2020 sprint car racing at
Southern Raceway, near Pensacola, this weekend with the USCS
Outlaw Thunder Tour. That will be his last chance to get a win
and mark his 46th consecutive winning year. If he
doesn’t get a win during his November tour in Florida, and with
no 2020 races planned beyond Florida, his win streak would end
at 45 years.
Danny has had some second and
third place finishes this year, and his 410 cubic inch engine
has gotten so well-worn from this year’s All Star Circuit of
Champions and Ohio 410 racing that he just “shoved it under a
bench” in his race shop for the present time. He has been
concentrating on 360 racing for several months. He has missed
more races this year at his usual Ohio home track, Atomic
Speedway, than in the past several years, but has still competed
in most of the races there. This year included more races with
his 360 engine, in which he has gotten higher finishes.
At Hendry County last year, Danny
Smith won two feature races, in January and November. That last
win included one comedic moment when he slipped and fell off the
top wing while celebrating, fortunately avoiding injury in spite
of the hard fall. Often the USCS 360 wins required defeating
other “Northern Invaders” and nationally-known stars such as
Tony Stewart and Mark Smith, who have also grown fond of USCS
360 racing in the past five years.
Video: feature race highlights
from Hendry County Motorsports Park, Clewiston, FL, Friday,
November 6, 2020, from the Florida Open Wheel channel:
https://youtu.be/xGY30sjVD-c
Don Heckman: A
Florida Pavement Sprint Car Racing Icon
Story by Richard
Golardi
October 21, 2020
Don
Heckman
Our story begins at one of those
race tracks that used to attract Florida open wheel racing fans,
but has been long gone. You might assume that it was one of
those tracks somewhere in the Tampa Bay area, one of many tracks
that used to host sprint car, midget, or even USAC Silver Crown
races, as did the Florida State Fairgrounds Speedway. But it’s
not.
The track was in Southeast
Florida – the Florida City Speedway, in Florida City, near
Homestead. It became known as a haven for TQ midget racing, a
class still popular in Florida today. One of the racers who
could be seen taking a victory lap of the high-banked, asphalt
speedway in one of the toy-like, little TQ midgets was Gary
Smith. His entire upper body seemed to extend beyond the tiny
car’s body, with a small roll bar that seemed more for
decoration than protection in his number 88 TQ midget. Smith
would bravely climb into the little race car, clothed in grimy,
grease-covered pants, short-sleeve shirt, and bubble-faced
helmet. He was a “hard-charging winner who deeply loved the
sport … [who] raced in an era before roll cages and adequate
driver protection. As a result …” Then the day of tragedy
arrived at the tiny, one-eighth mile Florida City Speedway.
Twenty-two-year-old Gary Smith
was killed in a wreck at the track in 1969, just two weeks after
his last victory lap at the track he loved. “As a result, Gary
was the only fatality at the Florida City Speedway. After his
accident, the track closed for a year, but when it reopened, his
dad, ‘Smitty,’ stayed on as the starter.” Florida City’s
reputation as a small track with reduced speeds, thereby
supposedly making it a safer track, was damaged permanently. The
track made a comeback in 1970 under the auspices of the SMRA
(Southern Mini-Stock Racing Association). The club racers even
cut the grass and maintained the track facility, and TQ midget
racing was part of the comeback until ’74. Then the club closed
it, and the racing was gone for good in ’76. Another asphalt
race track, Homestead-Miami Speedway, was built about five miles
away in the ’90s. NASCAR now ruled the roost in Southeast
Florida auto racing, bringing their season-ending Cup Series
race to their track in Homestead up until 2019.
But Florida City Speedway was not
gone and forgotten, thanks to those who helped keep the memories
alive, such as racer Rex Hollinger. A Speedway reunion in 2002
leads us to the present day and news from October 2020. “I have
just acquired my most prized materialistic possession,” wrote
Gary Smith Jr., son of racer Gary Smith. Don Heckman’s family
had reached out to Gary.
Gary
Smith after a TQ midget win.
Don Heckman had a long and fabled
career in Florida short track auto racing, both as a racer and
sprint car owner. The local newspaper headlines in
Miami/Homestead from 1971 would often read: “Heckman Wins Auto
Feature (3-14-1971) … Heckman’s victory in the three-quarter
midget 20 lapper was his second …” A third, and then fourth
victory followed. Often, he was “the man to beat” in the TQ
midgets, and also was a friend of Gary Smith at Florida City.
Sprint car racer and TBARA Rookie
of the Year Rex Hollinger went to Florida City Speedway as a
boy. After the TQ midget racers bolted roll cages onto their
cars, he did witness one shocking wreck there involving Don
Heckman. “Don was very aggressive,” Rex recalled, “and very
impatient. He was wild. In 1973, he went barrel-rolling on the
back straightaway in a TQ midget, all the way to the wall in
turns three and four, up and over the fence, and landed on top
of a truck in the pits. They took him to the hospital, and he
was back at the track later that night. He was kinda pissed-off
because the EMTs had cut up his firesuit. He’s old-school tough
as nails!” The two racers later became friends after Don helped
Rex get his mini-stock car set up, and then they had a shared
involvement in Florida sprint car racing and enjoyed reliving
the good ole days back in Florida City.
Heckman’s most successful period
came while partnering with legendary Florida sprint car driver
Wayne Reutimann. They racked up dozens of wins on Florida’s
short pavement ovals, including winning multiple TBARA sprint
car championships together.
When Don Heckman first asked
Wayne to drive his car in Anderson Speedway’s Little 500 in ’92,
Wayne was somewhat surprised, but took him up on the offer. He
was impressed with Heckman’s enthusiasm to win the race, and
knew that he had a quality car. Still, he couldn’t understand
why a car owner would take on the costs of driving to Indiana,
and all the other costs, for a race where “the wear and tear on
a car in a 500-lap race is unbelievable. And the chances of
winning are almost as high as they are for winning the lottery.”
The car owner from Miami was pumped to go to Anderson, wanted
Wayne Reutimann as his driver, and wanted to win. That was
enough to convince Wayne to say yes to his offer.
Gary
Smith Memorial Trophy, TQ midget at Florida City Speedway.
Although that highly talented
Florida duo of Heckman and Reutimann never won at Anderson’s
“Lil’ Five” together, Heckman had one of his most enjoyable
years at the Little 500 in 2008. That’s when Doug Heveron, then
a Floridian, won the pole position in the number 22 Heckman
Motorsports car. Even though they didn’t win the race, Don was
still beaming with pride. Heveron had said that he was going to
retire as a driver after the race, so Heckman decided that he
would join him in retiring from racing.
“He was as good as there is,” Don
Heckman said of Wayne Reutimann’s racing expertise. “Wayne would
very seldom mess up, he always raced a lap ahead of where he
was. I had three TBARA championships through Wayne, I have five
altogether.” Heckman praised Reutimann as a great person, a
great family man, and “just a super driver.” What Heckman most
admired about Wayne was his expertise at protecting his car,
while still being fast enough to get to the front and win, which
he did 97 times in Florida sprint car competition. That’s second
on the All-Time Florida Sprint Car Win List, with only Dave
Steele having more sprint car wins (101) in Florida. Lots of
Wayne’s wins came in Don Heckman’s number 22 sprint car
beginning in 1992.
The reason that Don Heckman’s
family was reaching out to Gary Smith Jr. was because Don had
requested that Gary come to see him. They also revealed that Don
was feeling under the weather. Florida City Speedway had begun a
Gary Smith Memorial race after Gary’s tragic death, and a trophy
went to the winner, inscribed “Gary Smith Memorial T.Q. Midget.”
Don Heckman had the trophy. He won the inaugural Gary Smith
Memorial race during his time as a racer at Florida City
Speedway. Gary remembered that Don was “one of the six that
walked my dad to his final resting place.” Don Heckman was
special to Gary and the Smith family, and many other Florida
racers who Don helped achieve success on and off the race track.
The news about Don is disheartening. He is dealing with illness,
and has not been feeling well lately.
Gary Smith Jr. added his
thoughts: “Don also told me he is right with the Lord, his
family, and friends. The world needs more people like Don
Heckman … #CANCERSUCKS.” Gary went to visit Don, calling it an
“honor and a humbling experience that a person not feeling very
well at all … would think of me.” Don presented the Gary Smith
Memorial trophy to Gary as a gift. He wanted Gary to have it and
keep it. Gary admitted that he was speechless and greatly
honored by the gift. He also heard some stories about his father
that he’d never heard before. Don Heckman had remembered the
tragedy of that crash more than 50 years ago, the sadness of
burying one of his competitors, and the fatherless little boy
who was left behind, but not forgotten.
The gift said a lot about the
giver, Don Heckman. It said that he was worth remembering too.
Thanks to Rex Hollinger (credit
for the story idea), Don Heckman, and Gary Smith Jr.
Rex Hollinger’s Florida City
Speedway web page is here:
http://floridacityspeedway.homestead.com/
Tim
George and his dirt sprint car at East Bay Raceway, Sept. 5,
2020
Tim George: The King
of the East Bay Raceway Limited Sprint Cars
Story and Photos by Richard Golardi
September 30, 2020
Even if one says that Tim George has dominated
the 360-cubic-inch limited sprint car class at East Bay Raceway
Park in Gibsonton, it’s still an understatement. You need a more
powerful word or phrase, like “ruled,” “made a mockery of,” or
maybe just say: Tim George is the King of the East Bay Raceway
360 Limited Sprint Cars.
Tim George was at East Bay Raceway with his
family and family-owned race team. Tim George was home. As he
moved around the two winged sprint cars, stacks of tires, the
race car hauler, various members of the race team, and other
observers (along with one journalist), he seemed at ease. The
sky seemed to be troubled, seemed to be threatening another
summer downpour. The cars were pulled out of the hauler after he
took a last look at the skies above East Bay and declared that
he was ready for that night’s racing, which included the 360
limited sprint cars. The evening’s one interview was complete,
and now it was time to go racing.
A few drivers can be classified as one of the
legends of East Bay Raceway, and Tim George is certainly one of
them. A plaque just inside his race car hauler lists the years
that Tim earned the title of East Bay Raceway Park limited
sprint car track champion. Those years are: 2000, ’02, ’03, ’04,
’06, ’08, ’10, and ’11. That makes him an eight-time East Bay
Raceway champion. He also earned the 2005 USA (United Sprintcar
Alliance) Sprints series championship. “We were running asphalt
with ’em. That was all-asphalt that year,” Tim said regarding
that USA Sprints title. “And I won a championship with Top Gun,
too.” That was 2010, when he earned the championship with the
Top Gun Sprint Series, a Florida traveling dirt sprint car
series.
“My father did it [auto racing] when I was real
young,” Tim explained earlier this month. “And I just picked it
up from there. Everybody’s got to have bad habits! He was
running down here then. Basically, SaraMana Speedway track, late
models. Never did much good with ’em, never really put forth the
effort. It was asphalt. That was all we had back then around
here was asphalt. You had SaraMana, the old Punta Gorda track,
right off of 41, and you had St. Pete. That was the first track
I ran was the old Punta Gorda track, when I was 13, in a ’57
Chevrolet bomber. What year? I’m 61 now – do the math!” It was
1972. Tim classified his result in that first feature, in a
bomber, as “not good. I only ran one late model race, and that
was in Okeechobee. I started out in the Super Sixes here, at
East Bay.”
Tim
George and his family racing team at East Bay Raceway Park,
Sept. 5, 2020
His transition to improved
race results: “Around 1985.” The transition to being a winner:
“Probably somewhere around 1990. The first win was around 1989
or ’90, that was in Southern Modifieds.” The Southern Modifieds
became popular in Florida in the late 1980s and early ’90s, and
looked remarkably similar to the sprint cars of that time. The
series later evolved and morphed into the limited sprint car
class at East Bay Raceway, and for some years, some still
believed them to be modifieds. The statistician keeping the
All-Time Florida Sprint Car Win List didn’t include the limited
sprint cars in his sprint car win totals, considering them to be
modifieds.
Although his father helped him get into racing,
another member of Tim’s immediate family was less enthusiastic
about him moving into sprint cars. “My wife, Robin, told me if I
got a sprint car, she’d divorce me. She lied! We’ve been married
for 37 years. The first night she came, she called it ‘the
stupidest thing she ever saw.’ She still comes to every one she
can, she’ll work on the car, and she can change the gears in
’em, she’ll change tires.”
Tim’s favorite track (a question with an obvious
answer) is East Bay, of course. “I like this track. I like
Volusia [his second-favorite track], but I like this track,
too.” Tim believes his sprint car feature win total “is probably
somewhere between 20 and 30. Other than in the sprints, I won
one other feature race in the late model. I’ve won at probably
two-thirds of the tracks in Florida.” Tim’s nine-to-five job: “I
drive a tow truck. I’ve got six of ’em, which makes it hard to
get away.” His company, Venice Wrecker Service, based in Venice,
Florida, has a problem experienced by many employers: “People
don’t like to work too much anymore.” He hopped behind the wheel
of a tow truck to head to the site of a wreck by himself for the
first time at age 13. The driver that he admired more than any
other: “Probably Steve Kinser.”
Tim would have liked to have headed out onto the
World of Outlaws tour, as many legendary sprint car drivers did
when Tim was a young man. “It might have been nice when I was
younger, but when you get older, you just gotta take what you
got and go on and try to be happy with what you got.” Going
wheel-to-wheel with Steve Kinser, well, that “would have been
fun to try.”
“For 21 consecutive years, until I hurt my back,
I was in the top three in points in that [class], the East Bay
limited sprints. The worst I finished was in third, up to 2017.
It ended two years ago when I had my back surgery. I kinda tried
to go out of the park here. I’ve got nine screws, three cages,
and two rods in my back. I caught the gate post about 15 feet in
the air, and it stopped me. I came back onto the track. I
flipped one a month later, and it got to where I could hardly
walk. I was out of racing for about a year. I was still fielding
a car with Billy [Bridges], my son-in-law. I came back at the
end of 2018, when I ran two races. The first race I ran here in
2019, I won it. Last year, I ended up upside down on the front
chute again while lapping somebody and took a left knee out. Now
I have a ‘fake knee.’ It chipped a bone when I hit the steering
box.”
He had been avoiding the knee replacement
surgery, but after the chipped bone, “I couldn’t put it off no
more.” That surgery caused him to miss the first two races of
this year at East Bay during the February Winternationals. Danny
Sams took over a backup for the number 1* car for those two
races. Another surgery is looming in December, this time the
other knee is due for replacement surgery. It’s becoming one of
the most common orthopedic surgeries, and Tim will soon have
contributed to the statistics on two occasions.
“This year’s been ‘up and down.’ I got the new
car, it takes a little bit to figure ’em out and I had a few
motor problems. We ran third the first night here, fourth last
time we were here, that was the second race this year. They’re
not getting the cars up here [for East Bay limited sprints], but
they’re not wanting to pay no more money either. Money’s a big
deal, there’s more of ’em runnin’ the Top Gun because Top Gun
pays better. That’s just the way it works out. With the track
being sold, and it’s not gonna be around, there’s not too many
people for our class of sprint cars in Florida, which is
basically a ‘bastard class.’ You can’t go really nowhere else
and run that motor combination. You can run 305s just about
anywhere, or the 360s, you can run them – ASCS or USCS. But with
the motor rules that we have, basically they’re all on their
own.
“I mean, it’s a dying sport. Now, most kids
would rather sit at home and play on their video games than do
anything that takes manual labor – hot, sweaty work. When I was
a kid, you didn’t have air conditioning, you had maybe three TV
channels, if you were lucky. You went to the races on Saturday
night somewhere. Now, there’s just so many things to do. The
local racing, there’s just not much money in it.”
Some cars were wrecked during the time that Tim
sat out a year while recovering, and now Billy Bridges is
driving what amounts to something like a “team car,” which
travels to the track in Tim’s hauler, but which is owned by the
Bridges family. The car driven by Tim is easy to spot, it’s the
“one-star,” 1*. “We started out with a number 10, and we kinda
crinkled the tank one time and my father just cut a star to
cover the spot and it lost the zero. The star covered where the
paint was gone and it stayed. Generally, the cars were yellow.
This one ain’t, it’s white.”
Tim recited the names of his family members, in
addition to his wife, Robin: “I have four daughters: Brandi,
Susanne, Rebecca (Becky), and then Cheyanne, the youngest. She’s
19 now. We basically adopted her, she’s my wife’s niece’s
daughter, but we’ve had her since she was like two years old.
I’ve raised her. Susie and Becky have run sprint cars with me.
Brandi was into beauty pageants. Susie works for me, runs the
office for me. Rebecca quit racing to show cows. She’s loved
cows her whole life. It’s been a family affair with us. My
mother’s here, my wife’s here, my daughter’s here.” Brandi may
be most familiar to Florida racing fans as a trophy queen at
Florida short track races, often at East Bay, and is a
professional model, now doing marketing for a group of lawyers.
There’s also one grandchild, a four-year-old girl.
What’s the future for the East Bay limited
sprints, and what about Tim’s future? “The series will [return];
me, I don’t know yet. I’ve done it a long time. I’m getting
tired. My body obviously won’t handle me getting wiped out, and
it’s got nothing to do with me, it’s just ‘right place, wrong
time.’ When you run one of them, it happens. It can get violent
– quick. And you gotta know that. I mean, it’s gotta be
something you can’t get mad about. It keeps really workin’ on my
body. I mean, my back, my knee. Ya just don’t heal the way ya
used to – or at least I don’t. I don’t know what would be next.
I’ve run this track basically since it opened in 1977, in one
class or another. I still enjoy it. It’s cost me a lot of money,
but it’s been a lot of fun. If I was bad at it, it’d be real
easy to quit. When you’re not bad at it, it’s hard to quit when
you still enjoy it,” he said with a laugh. “It’s kind of a
catch-22.”
Tim George had been thinking about making this
year his last driving sprint cars. “Yeah,” he said, “back when I
had my back surgery done, there when I was out for the year. My
wife says I’m unbearable when I don’t go racing.” So, he went
back and became “bearable” again. “I guess! So much that she can
put up with me anyway, but you know how that goes.” When that
question about retiring from driving race cars comes up, he
responds: “I don’t know. I keep saying it over and over and
every time I seem to come back, so I don’t know. It’s hard to
quit. I always said when it quits being fun, I’d quit. And it’s
still fun. It’s gotta be something you do for the love of the
sport.”
As he posed for a photo with his car at East
Bay, a structure in the background loomed over the iconic
Florida dirt track, the racer, and his race car. It was an
ever-growing mound of phosphate waste from the nearby phosphate
mines. Soon, like time itself, it would take over. The mining
company had profits to spend and had contracted to buy the track
by 2024. They needed the land for another mound of waste. Racing
at East Bay, and Tim George’s time there as a racing legend,
would both be coming to an end. The racer and his track had
grown old together, but you can’t hold back time. It always
moves on.
2020 Florida Sprint Car Mid-Season
Review
Story and Photo by Richard Golardi
July 21, 2020
Kyle
Larson, winner, All Star Circuit of Champions, East Bay Raceway
Park, Feb. 11, 2020
Florida sprint car racing has had its most
difficult year in recent memory, with Florida now being
identified by numerous media organizations as one of the “latest
coronavirus epicenters.” In addition to putting a damper on
fans’ enthusiasm to attend crowded sports events, the situation
in Florida has seen a record number of new infections in recent
weeks. The only bright spot has been that all February
Speedweeks sprint car events were completed before the lockdown
began in March. Some of the February feature race winners
included Kyle Larson, Donny Schatz, Kody Swanson, Brad Sweet and
Aaron Reutzel, and the racing was excellent. Larson’s Tuesday
night All Star dominance at East Bay Raceway was especially
impressive.
The Southern Sprint Car Shootout Series had held
two races since Memorial Day, and has canceled two races planned
for Showtime Speedway in Pinellas Park, due to restrictions
imposed by the coronavirus. Surprisingly, Troy DeCaire, who
dominated in early season action, has not won a series feature
race since early March, when the last race was held before the
lockdown and restrictions on sports events by the State of
Florida. Up to that time, DeCaire had won the first three points
races in the 2020 season, with Kody Swanson winning the Dave
Steele Non Wing World Finals (non-points race) in February.
After his win at Punta Gorda’s 4-17 Southern Speedway last
Saturday, John Inman needs one more feature win to equal
DeCaire’s win total for the year. Inman, with top five finishes
in all six series races this year, leads the current standings
by 52 points over second place Troy DeCaire. The only other
driver with a series win this year is Daniel Miller, winner at
Punta Gorda in early June.
Yesterday, Showtime Speedway leaseholder Robert
Yoho stated that, “There will be no sprint cars at Showtime this
week. Showtime is electing not to race again,” regarding the
race planned for this coming Saturday, July 25 at Showtime. The
next scheduled race is a return trip to 4-17 Southern Speedway
set for August 15. The remaining races through early December
are all at the two tracks already mentioned, save for one race
at Citrus County Speedway in November. Races at Auburndale
Speedway were canceled, and no races were planned for New Smyrna
Speedway.
That mirrors a similar situation for the Florida
dirt series, the Top Gun Sprint Series. They also have found
that their racing has been limited to a reduced number of
tracks, as compared to previous years. After two races at East
Bay Raceway Park in January and February, both won by Garrett
Green (who got married during the lockdown), the only other
track to hold a Top Gun race this year has been Hendry County
Motorsports Park in Clewiston, the advertised “Southernmost Dirt
Track in the USA.” A.J. Maddox has won two of the races held
there in the vicinity of the Everglades, in March and May, and
Shane Butler won the most recent race, on June 13. The track’s
next race on September 12 has an advertised first place prize of
a minimum $2,000. It is also being recognized by the series as
the planned “biggest Top Gun Sprints payout ever.”
In August, the Top Gun Sprints intend to resume
racing at both East Bay Raceway (August 1) and Volusia Speedway
Park (August 29). There are additional races scheduled at these
two tracks through early December, when the season concludes at
East Bay Raceway on December 5. Another notable event in Top Gun
racing has been the “comeback tour” of Florida sprint car legend
Stan Butler, who has raced with the series this year, in
addition to his steady participation in DAARA and classic sprint
car competition. Garrett Green, A.J. Maddox, and Shane Butler
currently hold the top three places, in that order, in series
points for 2020. Green is the only one of the three who is
looking for his first sprint car series championship in Florida.
Pavement Sprint Cars Highlight
2020 Indy Race Week, Plus Indy 500 and Little 500 Race Week
Schedules
Story by Richard Golardi
May 22, 2020
With the 2020 Indianapolis 500 scheduled for
Sunday, August 23, and the usual races at Terre Haute and the
one or two USAC Silver Crown races in Indianapolis and
Brownsburg now off the schedule, the 2020 Indy Race Week takes
on a new look. A major part of that new look is the prominence
that pavement sprint car racing takes this year. They will be in
the national spotlight for three consecutive days.
Pavement sprint car racing will take place on
the three nights prior to the Sunday, August 23 race date for
the Indy 500. The Must See Racing Sprint Series visits the
Indianapolis Speedrome on both Thursday, 8/20 (winged speed
trials only) and Friday, 8/21 (winged speed trials and feature
races). Then, the wings are off for both non-wing sprint car and
midget races for the Night Before the 500 at Lucas Oil Raceway
at Indianapolis on Saturday, 8/22. The sprint car race will
likely interest several Florida pavement sprint car teams, as it
serves as an Indiana warm-up race for the Little 500, set for
two weeks later on Saturday, 9/5.
Here’s some news that definitely fits into the
category of: "I didn't see that coming, but I'm not shocked at
the development." USAC has quietly, without a press release,
gotten back into sanctioning pavement sprint car racing, and
pavement midget racing too. As of today, the pavement sprint car
and pavement midget races at Lucas Oil Raceway at Indianapolis
on Saturday, August 22 are now USAC sanctioned races. They
silently slipped them onto the national sprint car and national
midget race schedules, listed as "SE," a special event with no
points awarded.
“New Look” Indy 500 Race Week Schedule:
Pavement Sprint Car Races Scheduled, Indiana
races only:
• Indianapolis Speedrome: Thursday, August 20,
Indyana Shootout, Must See Racing Midgets, TQ midgets, Ford
oval,
Figure 8, speed trials with winged sprint cars
• Indianapolis Speedrome, Friday, August 21,
Indyana Shootout, Must See Racing sprint cars (winged, Twin
50s),
Must See Racing midgets, TQ midgets, Factory FWD, speed
trials with winged sprint cars
• Lucas Oil Raceway at Indianapolis, Saturday, August 22,
Night Before the 500, Pavement sprint cars and pavement
midgets (both non-wing)
Dirt Sprint Car Races Scheduled, Indiana only:
• Bloomington Speedway, Bloomington, IN, Friday,
August 21,
Non-wing 410 sprint cars
• Gas City I-69 Speedway, Gas City, IN, Friday, August 21, Twin
20s, Non-wing 410 sprint cars
• Lawrenceburg Speedway, Lawrenceburg, IN, Saturday,
August 22, Dick Gaines Memorial, Non-wing 410 sprint cars
• Lincoln Park Speedway, Putnamville, IN, Saturday, August 22,
Midwest Sprint Car Series, Non-wing 410 sprint cars
• Plymouth Speedway, Plymouth, IN, Saturday, August 22, All
Star Circuit of Champions, Winged 410 sprint cars
USAC Silver Crown Races Scheduled:
• Illinois State Fairgrounds, Springfield,
Illinois, Bettenhausen
100, Saturday, August 22
Little 500 Race Week Schedule:
There are currently two USAC national series
events on the same weekend (but a different date) as the current
date for the 2020 Pay Less Little 500 Presented by UAW, which is
Saturday, September 5:
• USAC National Midget Series: Sept 4, Sweet
Springs Motorsports Complex, Sweet Springs, MO
• USAC Silver Crown Champ Car Series: Sept 6, Du Quoin State
Fairgrounds, Du Quoin, IL
Indiana sprint car races that same weekend, not
including 9/5 (as of 5-22-2020):
• Friday, 9/4: Bloomington Speedway, Midwest
Sprint Car Series, Josh Burton Memorial
• Friday, 9/4: Gas City I-69 Speedway, Non-wing 410 sprint cars
• Sunday, 9/6: Kokomo Speedway, Non-wing 410 sprint cars
• Sunday, 9/6: Tri-State Speedway, Midwest Sprint Car Series,
Labor Day Weekend Challenge
April’s Mixed Bag of (No) Racing
Story and Photo by Richard Golardi
April 10, 2020
April’s usual mixed bag of sprint car racing in
the Midwest and Florida has brought no racing in either locale
this year. News about the immediate future of racing is another
mixed bag of both good and bad news. I’ll get some of the worst
bad news out of the way first, leaving the good news until a
little later. Speaking of little, the Little 500 seems to be
holding fast to its intended Memorial Day weekend race date of
Saturday, May 23 (at least as of today, 4/10). This commitment
has meant that an excellent alternative race day, Saturday,
August 22, has already gone to Lucas Oil Raceway at Indianapolis
and their revival of “The Night Before the 500,” now with both
pavement sprint cars and midgets. A decent purse structure seems
likely to draw most of the major pavement sprint car teams. It
remains to be seen if there will be enough midget teams to take
their cars out of storage to race, but the date is a good choice
for such a doubleheader. Crowds drawn to Indy for the next day’s
Indy 500 make it so.
A recent University of Chicago study reported by
Scientific American (see link below) has detailed a fascinating
find: numerous coronavirus “hidden hotspots” across the country.
The reason that they are hidden is because they have not
received much of any exposure in the press (that may change now
with the study’s release). These are areas that are
“disproportionally affected by COVID-19.” The researchers looked
at infections per county, then made their adjustments. It
revealed a significant number of locations in the South where
the proportion of people who have COVID-19 is quite a bit
higher.
These hidden hotspots also show another
disturbing trend, especially for those Florida sprint car teams
intending to head north to Indiana in a little over a month for
Indy race week and the Little 500. These hidden hotspots are
concentrated right along the route almost always taken by
Central Florida race teams to travel from the Tampa Bay area to
Indianapolis and Anderson, Indiana, which is I-75, to I-24, and
then to I-65. They include Albany, GA (bordering I-75), Atlanta
(on I-75), Nashville, TN (on I-24), and then Indiana (I-65
bisects the state right up to Indianapolis). That “route most
taken” from Tampa now leads through four of the nation’s
COVID-19 hidden hotspots and puts those Florida race teams at
increased risk of exposure to the virus twice, going north, and
then heading home.
2018
Little 500 Florida Driver Group Photo
In addition, a just-released survey conducted by
Seton Hall University on April 6–8 has found that a majority of
Americans (72%) would not feel safe attending a sports event
unless a vaccine for COVID-19 had been developed. Among those
persons who identified as sports fans, 61% stated that they
would not feel safe. Most Americans are not at the point where
they feel safe and without fear of illness while at a crowded
sports event.
A readily available alternative for the Little
500, in fact probably the best alternative as of today, is to
postpone the date of the race, and not just for the benefit of
the Florida teams, but also for the benefit of the race fans who
attend the Little 500, a group that includes a large percentage
of over-65 seniors, a group identified by the CDC as “at higher
risk for developing more serious complications from COVID-19
illness” (CDC.gov, 4-10-2020).
There is one alternative date for the Little 500
that stands out, and it is the only date providing all these
advantages: there are no competing USAC national races on this
date, Kokomo Speedway has no race planned (but probably will
have one soon), Lucas Oil Raceway has no oval race planned,
there is a major daytime race being held in Indianapolis the
same day (Brickyard 400), and Anderson Speedway will benefit
from the fans already in Central Indiana looking for another
race. That date, with all these advantages, is Sunday, July 5.
Why this day? Because there are already races
planned for July 4 for USAC and for the Indianapolis Motor
Speedway (which has two races) in Central Indiana. That date
won’t work. The “speedway” will probably run late into the day
with their two races, and many families will have BBQ and
firework parties, and will not be inclined to leave the beer and
BBQ they plan to consume to go to a race. Little 500 qualifying
could be held on Thursday and Friday, July 2 and 3, and the race
on July 5. There’s another benefit: owners, drivers, and crew
members that have non-essential jobs, and are now out of work
and cutting back on all their expenses, have a greater
likelihood of being back to work by July, and can therefore
afford the costs of running a race team once again. In April and
May, many teams have no way to gather funds to afford the cost
of racing in the Little 500, which is estimated to cost several
thousand dollars.
A July race date for the Little 500 would also
align the race with scheduling decisions made by the
Indianapolis Motor Speedway, IndyCar Series, and MLB pro
baseball, all of whom have no plans to hold events in occupied
stadiums during April or May. The IndyCar Series will not hold
their season-opening race until June. The speedway will not race
until July. Other auto races planned for April and May are being
canceled and postponed. That makes sense.
Now, on to that promised good news: Both of
Florida’s sprint car series, the Southern Sprint Car Shootout
Series and the Top Gun Sprint series, have both expressed their
intention to return to racing when stay-at-home orders have been
called off and race fans may once again safely gather at
Florida’s short tracks, both dirt and paved. Two of Florida’s
legendary sprint car team owners, Jack Nowling and George
Rudolph, have both recently celebrated their 80th birthdays,
with George the most recent to turn 80 on March 30. Nowling and
fellow Florida car owner Bob Gratton were also the Grand
Marshals for the February running of the Dave Steele World
Non-Wing Championship at Showtime Speedway in Pinellas Park.
George Rudolph can still be seen in the pits, wrench in hand, in
Florida and at the Little 500 to this day. Wrench on, George!
Two early favorites for 2020 championships in Florida’s sprint
car racing have already emerged, even though both Florida series
have shut down since early March. Troy DeCaire has won three
features with the Southern Sprint Car series, and seemed poised
to resume that dominance when the season resumes. On the dark
(dirt) side, Garrett Green, driving the No. 82 Hardy Maddox car,
has taken the checkered flag in two of the three Top Gun series
races this year, and is one of the few Florida racers to have
multiple sprint cars wins on both dirt and pavement. He’s one of
the early favorites to take his first sprint car championship
this year with the Top Gun dirt racers, and would be a popular
champion. On the pavement side, the next Florida race is
tentatively planned for Saturday, June 27 at Showtime Speedway.
Top Gun does not have a confirmed date to resume racing.
Here’s the link to the Scientific American
article on “hidden hotspots”:
https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/map-reveals-hidden-u-s-hotspots-of-coronavirus-infection/
Jeff Walker –
The Master Mentor of the Champions
Story and Photo
by Richard Golardi
February 15,
2020

The names and places were rolling
off his tongue. Stories of sprint car races and sprint car
places, all told by legendary sprint car team owner Jeff Walker,
owner of Jeff’s Jam-It-In Storage in Noblesville, Indiana. Then
there are the names – all those young hot-shots that he tutored
and molded and made into consistent winners and racing
champions. You can start with Dave Steele, a racer who he moved
right into his office at his storage facility, and made it into
a bedroom for the 22-year-old in May 1996. Then, add the
following names to his list of drivers: Tony Elliott (for almost
10 years), Levi Jones, Dave Darland, Ricky Stenhouse Jr., Kyle
Larson, Brad Sweet, and “I can’t even think of all of them,”
Jeff remarked.
Jeff Walker has experienced loss,
too. If you have been around short track auto racing as long as
Jeff Walker, it has happened. He was close to Robbie Stanley, a
USAC sprint car champion, who died in a sprint car at Winchester
Speedway on May 26, 1994. “He was good at a young age,” Jeff
said. “Him and I were pretty good friends. We had a pretty long
talk, that day that he got killed. That was a pretty sad day for
me. We sat in the parking lot there and talked. He wasn’t very
happy with that car there at Anderson. We ran [Little 500]
qualifying at Anderson that day, and then ran Winchester that
night, and that’s when he got killed. I’ve been close to a
couple of guys that got killed – and it’s hard. Luckily enough,
it wasn’t in my car, so I’m glad of that. I haven’t had anybody
really hurt in any of my cars, and we’ve run a lot of races.”
Levi Jones, present at Bubba
Raceway Park last night in his current position as USAC
executive vice president, was another of those protégés of Jeff
Walker who had success and multiple championships in a sprint
car. He also won his last feature race, at Gas City Speedway,
driving a sprint car owned by Jeff Walker. “Levi ran for me a
lot too. He ran for me before [car owner Tony] Stewart, that was
his first ride out of his family car, and he drove for me for a
while. It was at the same time I was fielding two cars then,
with Tony Elliott.”
When Levi Jones made a decision
about his future, a decision to leave race car driving, he came
to Jeff Walker, and let him know, “Jeff, I’ve got three kids
that rely on me.” It was when Jeff had just built a whole new
race team. “I get it,” Jeff said to him. “If you want to throw
in the towel, I understand.” Levi was concerned: “I don’t want
you mad at me!”
“I’m not mad at you!” Jeff
responded. “I understand.”
Jeff believes that the reason his
cars have won so many races is because of the high level of
talent possessed by his drivers. “Hire the right driver, and
you’ll be a winning team,” he proclaimed. Of course, he is
downplaying his mechanical genius at preparing his cars, and his
ability to pick the future champions – those drivers that he
could mold, mentor, and develop into champions, as he has done
for decades. Frequently, they were USAC racing champions, who
often went on to win their championships in later years, such as
Dave Steele’s USAC Silver Crown titles in 2004 and 2005 driving
Bob East’s champ car.
“I’ve probably helped a few of
them!” Jeff Walker said of his drivers over the decades. “And
today, I’m here in Florida with a rookie out of Arizona,
Sterling Cling.” Jeff’s rookie driver, competing for the USAC
Rookie of the Year title, is considered one of the favorites for
the 2020 sprint car division rookie title along with Anton
Hernandez and Anthony D’Alessio.
“I just started working for them
[Cling family] last June,” Jeff said, “and they’re out of
Arizona, so I’ve been out there all winter, building cars. Now
we’re here, and we’re going to give it a go, and see how he
does.” Jeff revealed that Sterling Cling is an off-road racing
champion, and is an experienced race winner. Of course, learning
sprint car racing “is way different: 800 horsepower in a 1,200
pound car. In 410 sprint cars, he’s had maybe 10–12 races. We
ran last year. He’s got a 360, they call it Challenge Cup. We
won one of those, a Challenge Cup race in Arizona a few weeks
ago, and a third place last week.
“They’ve hired me to run the
whole team. They said, ‘We want you to do it all.’ That’s the
only way I probably would have done it, because I didn’t really
want the job. We’re going to run up until June with USAC,
through Pennsylvania, and just see how we’re doing. Then, we’re
going to reevaluate how we’re doing. If we’re not running well,
and not staying up with them, then we’re going to run local
races, and get some more experience, and then come back for USAC
the next year. If we’re doing alright, we’ll keep running the
USAC stuff.”
Greg Wilson –
The Long-Time Visitor
Story and Photos
by Richard Golardi
February 13,
2020
Ohio sprint car racer Greg
Wilson, driver of the No. w20 car, has been a long-time visitor
to Captain Jack’s place, the name often used for the home of
Jack Nowling. It’s down at the end of a dead-end road in
Gibsonton, Florida. It’s a location that becomes a gathering
place for dirt sprint car racers during February Speedweeks, and
especially during those three days of racing at East Bay Raceway
Park for the 360 Winternationals, which begins today through
Saturday. In fact, Greg has been coming to Captain Jack’s and
his iconic “Cracker House” for 29 years, about as long as
Captain Jack has been living in Gibsonton.

Greg may just be the racer who is
not only a long-time visitor, he may have been visiting for
longer than any other racer. He recommended to fellow dirt
sprint car racer Danny Smith that he should join him at Captain
Jack’s during those weeks of racing during February. Danny
joined him, as did many other racers, and has also been a
regular visitor there for as long as many can remember. Of
course, a highlight of their stay is visiting with that iconic,
rough, tough, gruff, but extremely lovable, Florida sprint car
team owner and owner of Jack’s Place: Jack Nowling. If you have
been one of the visitors there, then you know there is one
overwhelming emotion that everyone experiences. It’s that
everyone loves Jack Nowling.
Jack opens up his property, his
home, and the social gathering place, The Cracker House, to this
diverse group of racers from the Northeast, Midwest, and the
rest of the country. Also, there is the bunkhouse, like
something out of the Old West, and a fire pit, where racers can
be found telling stories and spinning tales (sometimes truthful)
of racing from decades gone by, and at race tracks that have met
the developer’s bulldozers (Boo!). Sometimes, the story telling
and the card games go on until the sun comes up. Greg Wilson has
been there to greet the sun after the all-night games and
stories have wound down, and believe it or not, that happened on
days that the racers then headed over to East Bay Raceway to
drive their sprint cars.

For 2020, Greg Wilson told me
that his main goal is to compete for the driver’s championship
with the Ollie’s Bargain Outlet All Star Circuit of Champions.
“And win some races,” Greg told me at Volusia Speedway Park. “We
had a decent year last year, didn’t win some races that we felt
like we should have. Kinda changed some things around over the
winter time. Got a really good mechanic [Dean “Bonzai” Bruns]
starting in April that will take some pressure off me, and
hopefully that equals out to be some wins. He’s going to do the
full All Star schedule for our points season. We changed some
stuff around, worked on the motors a little bit, and just tried
to fine-tune some things that we felt like we were starting to
learn at the end of last year. So, maybe we won’t start so far
behind this year.
“You always do this to win
races,” Greg added. “We do a lot of stuff for our partners, so
we’ll be really busy doing stuff for Hercules Tire and all the
people that are involved with our team.” Regarding the highlight
of his 2019 racing season, Greg remarked, “I don’t know if there
was one real highlight. I just felt like there was a lot of
times that we started showing signs that we could win some races
again. You know, we kind of went through “a low” being out on
the road with the World of Outlaws, and not really having our
ducks in a row. And we felt like, last year, we needed to work
toward getting things simplified, and trying to figure out what
it was going to take to get back to being competitive. We felt
like there was times that we showed that, but we couldn’t quite
get over that hump. Hopefully this year, we can get some wins.”
In addition to running the full
All Star Circuit of Champions schedule, Greg plans to race in
about 20–25 World of Outlaws races, and another 10–15 weekly or
360 shows somewhere. This week, “If we’re ready, we’ll be at
East Bay for the 360s, if not, we’ll be in Alabama the following
weekend.” Greg revealed that he’s got his 360 engine with him,
meaning that he’ll race, if that is the final decision this week
to enter the 360 Winternationals. “We’re ready. Oh, yeah!” he
remarked.
“We like East Bay Raceway. It’s a
cool place,” he said. “It appears it ain’t gonna be around
forever, and we’d like to get us a big win there. But, we also
have to do what’s right for our team.” Greg plans to reevaluate
the teams’ status on Wednesday, a day without racing, and then
make his plans for the rest of the week of racing in Florida.
“And then we’ll go from there.”
This happens, all while his
anticipation grows about the coming reunion of racers over at
Captain Jack’s place in Gibsonton. “We’re excited to be over at
Captain Jack’s,” Greg stated. “I’ve been going there probably
longer than any of “the clan” has been goin’ there. I started
going there when I was 15 years old, and I’m 44 years old. So,
he’s like a father. Jack’s been a huge part of my life, and we
love the man, and he’s struggling right now with some health
issues. We’re excited to get back there and spend some time with
him this week. I actually started coming around right when “the
move” [Jack’s move from Brandon to Gibsonton] happened. Right
when he moved to Gibsonton, like the first or second year, I met
him at the race track at East Bay. I was there.”
And, that is what makes Greg
Wilson “The Long-Time Visitor.”
Terry McCarl –
East Bay Time is Happy Time for This King of the 360s
Story and Photo
by Richard Golardi
February 12,
2020

In February 2019, Terry McCarl
won another East Bay 360 Winternational Saturday finale, the Ronald
Laney Memorial race. That’s the race with the biggest payday in 360
sprint car racing during February Speedweeks in Florida. It was the
fourth time winning that race for the 55-year-old Iowa racer, which
includes one race with a 410 engine, and the other three during the
360 Winternationals. His main competition for that Saturday finale
this year may be another two experts on Florida dirt, Aaron Reutzel
and Mark Smith. They have both won two feature races so far during
2020 February Speedweeks, Reutzel in 410 racing, and Smith in 360
racing.
“Man, I just love East Bay
Raceway Park,” “T-MAC” had said previously about the small, racy
West Coast Florida dirt track. “We had our ups and downs,” Terry
said about his 2019 season, “but [Knoxville] Nationals is always our
biggest goal, and we had a bad Nationals, had some mechanical
problems. We won six features in six different states. We won one at
Texas Motor Speedway, one of the finales with the ASCS national
group. Picked up our 59th win at Knoxville, we’re only
one behind [Doug] Wolfgang on the all-time list. We’re inching up
there, slowly but surely. East Bay was our highlight last year, that
was our fourth one, the third with 360s, we won one with a 410. That
was also our second in a row, only person to do that. Pretty proud,
I love East Bay, I love comin’ down here, I love Florida, we’ve got
a lot of great friends and have been comin’ down here for so many
years. And of course, you can’t beat the weather, compared to Iowa.
I’ve said this story a lot, but as a little boy, I used to listen to
my dad’s stories about comin’ to Tampa, and racing at the Tampa
Fairgrounds and all those places that you see in the history books.
My dad was there for quite a few of those and it means a lot to me
to come down here and put my name into the record books. I’m into
the history of sprint car racing quite a bit.
“We teamed up with Rick and Barb
Rogers at Destiny Motorsports last year, it’s T-MAC Motorsports and
Destiny Motorsports, it’s a ‘combo deal.’ They’re good folks, we’ve
been friends a long time. They sponsored me for years with Destiny
Motorsports on the front wing, and this last year, we combined more,
we got their truck and trailer and all their goodies and put a deal
together. We’re going to get bigger and better every year, I think,
with Dick and Barb. I’m looking forward to being with them, they’re
great people. And Mondak Portables, and that really helped us out to
get back on track. We had a good year for our first year teaming up
with those guys, and I’m looking forward to this year. Florida’s
kinda tough, and it’s always been that way. Gary Wright and I always
used to joke about it: ‘If you win every night in Florida, or lose
every night, you still get to the Georgia line on your way out of
town, and throw away all your notes, because they don’t work
anywhere else.’ ”
On Sunday at Volusia Speedway
Park, Terry remarked, “I’ve dominated down here, and I’ve run bad
down here, like this week. Florida’s a tricky, tricky place for
everybody. I really enjoy it, I’m looking forward to being at East
Bay this week.” Terry intends to race at all five sprint car races
at East Bay Raceway this week, the two All Star series races, Monday
and Tuesday; followed by the three nights of the East Bay 360
Winternationals, Thursday–Saturday. Then he heads home, with the
possibility of getting in a USCS sprint car race on the way. The
World of Outlaws sprint car dates through the beginning of April are
also in his plans. Beyond April, it’s “kind of pick and choose,” and
after speaking to Rick and Barb, “we might be at Knoxville weekly,
I’m not sure. I live 30 minutes from ‘the best track in the world.’
I think we ran 60-some races last year, but we were there for all
the weekly shows. What’s nice about where we live, and about
Knoxville, is that it pays really well, their point fund is really
good, but their season is very short. It lets us race with the
Outlaws up until April, and it lets us race with the Outlaws after
that [late August end of Knoxville’s sprint car season]. You never
know where you’re going to see us, or where we’re going to be –
360s, 410s, we could be just about anywhere.”
Terry mentioned that his son,
Carson, we be racing at East Bay this year, and that he’s “excited
about that. Hopefully, next year we can get Austin down here too,
and have a ‘McCarl – Fest.’ Carson, my youngest, was the 360
champion at Knoxville last year, and will be racing a 360 at East
Bay. Austin is kinda ‘crew-chiefing’ for us. He’s putting his own
team, his own ride together with Brandon Ikenberry, they’re looking
at doing some racing together. He’s a long-time friend of Austin’s
and he’s worked for me for years and years, a great crew guy.”
Daryn Pittman:
Back with Roth Motorsports, Building on Last Year
Story and photoo by Richard Golardi

February 10,
2020
Daryn Pittman, the 41-year old
racer from Owasso, Oklahoma, has already won a World of Outlaws NOS
Energy Drink Sprint Car Series championship. That happened in 2013.
He has a career win total of 85 feature wins with the Outlaws. But
Daryn Pittman is looking to improve on his first season with Roth
Motorsports last year, when he won four World of Outlaws races, half
of which occurred during the February Speedweeks visit by the
Outlaws to Volusia Speedway Park. Although he leaves Volusia without
any feature wins this year, his speed and impressive car-handling on
the last night, Sunday, when he was in contention for the win with
Brad Sweet and Logan Schuchart, is a great start to more wins and
improved consistency for 2020.
Later in 2019, Daryn added
another win in the Gold Cup Race of Champions at California’s Silver
Dollar Speedway in September, and that put him on the way to a
fourth place in the final 2019 point standings with the World of
Outlaws. Back in the No. 83 Roth Motorsports sprint car this year in
his 23rd year of racing, Daryn remarked that he was “glad
to be back again. Definitely would like to get to victory lane a few
more times than what we did last year, but obviously excited to be
back and try to build on what we started last year.”
Highlight of the year in racing
for Daryn in 2019: “We started off awfully good,” he said. “But,
honestly, I’d say the highlight for me, especially with how much
I’ve struggled there, was running third at the [Knoxville]
Nationals. Ran well, we started 10th and got to 2nd
and contended for the lead for a few laps, and weren’t quite good
enough. But that was really a pretty big step for me, and I think
that was a really good effort by the team, and big improvement by
myself, as far as performance-wise at that race. So, I actually
think that might have been one of my highlights. Winning Gold Cup
was obviously a pretty big win for us, as well, and being in Dennis’
[car owner Dennis Roth] back yard in California.”
Main goal for 2020: “We’ve gotta
win races. We only won four last year. I think a realistic goal is
we’d really like to try to get close to double digits, if not, as
close as we can. We’ve got to do a better job of winning more races
and being competitive and contend for more “crown jewels” and be
there again for Knoxville. The National Open [at Williams Grove
Speedway] is one that’s been there on my radar, and one I’ve been
close to winning for way too many years. So, we’d love to be able to
click that one off. I’ve run second, five times now, I believe. You
gotta go out there and win ’em, and earn ’em. It’s one that we’ve
always been good at, and been close, and we’ve love to be able to
finally check off the list. If we could be as good as we were at
Knoxville this year, I definitely think that we can contend for that
one, as well.”
After Sunday night at Volusia
Speedway Park, “We’re done until Texas,” Daryn said. They were not
staying around for another two days of 410 racing at East Bay
Raceway, as many of the other 410 teams were doing before heading
back north for the rest of the 2020 season. “We’ll get ready for
just the Outlaws races. We’ll probably run the Front Row Challenge
at Oskaloosa, but other than that, no. The Outlaws schedule keeps
’em busy enough. We don’t need to seek too many other races.”
A track that he’d choose to get a
win in 2020: “Knoxville. Only race I’ve ever won in Knoxville is a
World Challenge race, so I’d be happy with a July, or June, or
whenever we go there, or any race in August, for sure. It’s
definitely a track that I’d love to get a win at. Wins have been
only the World Challenge race – I’ve won that three times, I think,
but that’s the only race I’ve ever won there.”
Jacob Allen
Interview: “Try Again Tomorrow”
Story and photo by Richard Golardi
February 9, 2020

It almost happened in 2019. Jacob
Allen’s first feature race win in the World of Outlaws NOS Energy
Drink Sprint Car Series, that is. He was leading a race at the
Stockton Dirt Track, one lap away from winning it, when a part
failure took a “sure win” away. That makes the 25-year-old racer
from Hanover, Pennsylvania want that first win even more this year.
He took 12th place in the World of Outlaws points last
year, after a best placing of 11th in Outlaws points in
2018. He is back with Shark Racing, a team owned by his father,
Bobby Allen, in 2020, again with Logan Schuchart as his teammate.
Jacob was a full-time “PA Posse” racer, racing full-time in Central
Pennsylvania through 2013, and then went full-time in the World of
Outlaws series in 2014 for the first time.
Jacob’s main goal for 2020: “Just
to have fun,” he remarked, “and to be a good teammate, and have a
good attitude.” Highlight of the year for him in 2019: “In a weird
way, I’d say, getting that close to winning my first Outlaw race.
That was a heartbreak, but that was probably my highlight – just
being up front, leading that race, and being fast on a track that we
have struggled at in the past.”
The definite main goal for 2020
is the effort he’ll put forth to get his first World of Outlaws
feature win: “Yeah, that’s obvious, just to get that first Outlaw
win.” Jacob plans to “just take one race at a time and do the best I
can. I come to every race, and it doesn’t matter if I’ve won one
Outlaw race, or a hundred Outlaw races, I feel like I’m always gonna
treat that the same – one race at a time and try to win it.”
If he could choose a track for
that first Outlaw win, would he choose Stockton, California, or
would it be a different track?: “I’ll take it tonight, here at
Volusia. If it doesn’t happen today, I’m gonna try again tomorrow,
and see how it all plays out. This [Volusia Speedway Park] is a fast
race track. It’s pretty technical. After a few months of the
off-season, you come right into a lot of speed and great
competition, but that’s everywhere. It’s a pretty tricky and
aggressive half-mile, but it doesn’t make me intimidated or anything
like that. I just take that all into perspective, and I go out there
and I give it the best shot I can.”
Shark Racing plans to compete in
the full 2020 World of Outlaws race schedule, and also has plans for
the few weeks after the sprint car racing at Volusia ends on Sunday,
February 9. “We’re going to go back home after we race here in
Volusia,” Jacob stated. “We plan on racing in the Icebreaker, that’s
at Lincoln Speedway [Saturday, February 22], and anything with the
right scheduling that we have time to do and we’re able to race it,
I know my dad is gonna want to race, and we are too. Back home, or
wherever it might be. Back in Pennsylvania is where you can find us,
if we’re not racing with the Outlaws. At the end of the year, if
BAPS [Motor Speedway, Pennsylvania] has that race after the Outlaw
season, we always do that one.”
2019 Champion’s
Interview - Aaron Reutzel, All Star Circuit of Champions
Story and
Photos by Richard Golardi
February 8,
2020

Aaron Reutzel was already on a
roll coming into the Friday night season-opening race for the World
of Outlaws NOS Energy Drink Sprint Cars. He had already won at
Volusia Speedway Park this week, taking the Thursday night Ollie’s
Bargain Outlet All Star Circuit of Champions feature race with
impressive speed. Earlier this year, he also had a sprint car win in
Australia on January 5, his first win “Down Under.” With 18 overall
feature wins (16 with the All Star series) and his second
consecutive All Star Circuit of Champions driver championship in
2019, what’s left for the 29-year old sprint car virtuoso?
How about conquer Florida
Speedweeks for a start? Aaron and his Baughman-Reutzel Motorsports
No. 87 team plan to race in ten nights of competition in Florida
this week, and all the way through to the end of next week. After
Volusia, it’s off to East Bay Raceway Park on Monday and Tuesday,
and that’s where he’ll stay for the rest of the week after the All
Star series races on those first two nights. Out comes the 410
engine, replaced by their 360 engine for the East Bay 360
Winternationals on Thursday–Saturday. The rest of the year consists
of attempting to win their third straight All Star series
championship, while also including a major portion of the World of
Outlaws sprint car schedule in their 2020 plans.

“We’re gonna do the All Star deal
again,” Aaron remarked at Volusia Speedway Park on Friday. “So, we’d
like to win that again. Last year, I felt like it was a big one for
us to win it again. When we won it the first year [2018], it was our
rookie year. Last year, we felt like we needed to back it up to
prove that we were the team that we were. That was good. This year,
I think we want to back-up everything that we did, you never want to
go backwards. Sixteen wins, that’s going to be hard to do; and then
an Outlaw win, that’s going to be hard to do as well. If I have any
goal, it’s going to be to at least get two Outlaw wins this year,
and win the All Star championship again.
“I would like to have a little
bit more of a consistent year,” Aaron continued, “where we have a
little less DNFs, and try to get more consistent – me as a driver,
and also as a team together.” When asked about a track where he has
not won, but where he’d like to be a winner, he was quick to
respond: “I’d like to get Knoxville out of the way, I haven’t won
there yet.” Highlight of the year in 2019: “Winning the Tuscarora
50.” Goal for this weekend at Volusia: “Try to win one of these next
three [weekend races at Volusia], and go down to East Bay, I’d like
to win the Ronald Laney Memorial [Saturday finale at East Bay
Raceway], ’cause Ronald grew up about an hour from me and he was
always “the hometown guy,” so, I’d like to win that race. I haven’t
been there [East Bay 360 Winternationals] since 2015.”
All the Thursday speed he showed
was quite a contrast from Wednesday night at Volusia, when he
struggled for speed. Not on Thursday, when he had speed in
abundance, and a trophy. What happened? “I don’t know! At the end of
last year, it seemed like it didn’t matter where we went, we were
able to make speed and last night just wasn’t any different.” Any
other big half-mile tracks similar to Volusia that he’s looking
forward to in 2020? “I always enjoy getting back to Eldora, and
definitely Port Royal,” which was the location of Aaron’s “favorite
win” from 2019, the Tuscarora 50, at Pennsylvania’s Port Royal
Speedway on September 7, which was a $52,000 payday for Aaron and
his team, their biggest ever.
USAC Rookie Interview – Anthony D’Alessio
Story by Richard Golardi
February 4, 2020
When legendary Florida sprint car racer Frank Riddle
competed for the USAC National Sprint Car series Rookie of the Year
title in 1980 (he won it at age 51), he had three decades of racing
experience behind him. He was hardly a “rookie.” When Floridian
Anthony D’Alessio races for that same USAC Rookie of the Year title
this year, four decades after Riddle’s try, he measures his sprint
car experience in years, not decades. Next month will mark three
years since his first sprint car feature win, in an East Bay Sprints
race at East Bay Raceway Park on March 11, 2017. He went on to win
another sprint car feature in Florida that year, a Top Gun Sprint
Series race at East Bay. By the next year, the Apollo Beach resident
had moved on and was racing in the Midwest. New tracks, new
competition, and new goals were ahead for 2018 and ’19. Now, when he
sits in his dirt sprint car and looks out over the car’s hood, ahead
of him he sees 2020.

Anthony plans to race in the full USAC AMSOIL
National Sprint Car Series tour in 2020, beginning with the
season-opening race at Ocala’s Bubba Raceway Park on Thursday,
February 13. He’ll still be a teenage racer, 19 years old. But that
will change soon. On April 6, he’ll turn 20, leaving his teenage
years behind, and also embarking on an arduous spring and summer
tour of Midwest and Eastern race tracks, most of them new to him. He
did race at a number of Indiana tracks last year; highlighted by a
feature win at Lincoln Park Speedway during their “King of Non-Wing
Sprints” event in August, and also a USAC heat race win at Kokomo
Speedway in July during USAC’s Indiana Sprint Week. He raced at a
couple other USAC events, and lots of weekly sprint car shows at
tracks such as Kokomo, Gas City Speedway, and Lawrenceburg Speedway.
During early 2020, he showed off the new car colors,
with a flash of bright blue and black, on both social media and at a
kick-off event held at a pub in Anderson, Indiana last Saturday.
Anderson was a short hop down the interstate from where he currently
lives, in Gas City. He raced the full season of races at Gas City
Speedway in 2019, and will be back there in 2020 with USAC as an
owner/driver in company with Parallax Motorsports and owner Joe
Brandon. He’ll be driving the No. 01 DRC/ Claxton Mopar. Brandon
stated that he decided to move forward with this united team effort
after meeting Anthony, who immediately impressed him as “a genuinely
nice young man.” Nice … and fast, that is.
Anthony’s already got a history of success in
winning Rookie of the Year titles, winning three of them in Florida
before that move to the Midwest about 1 ½ years ago. First came the
Rookie of the Year designations in both the East Bay Raceway sprint
car division, and the Top Gun Sprint Series in 2016 (his first full
season in sprint cars), followed by a half-year of pavement racing
and Rookie of the Year with the Southern Sprint Car Shootout Series
in 2017. That came at the wheel of Johnny Gilbertson’s No. 22X. He
led laps and got a top ten at the Frank Riddle Memorial race in
October 2017. That pavement experience plays an important role in
one of Anthony’s future goals – getting to race a champ car in USAC
Silver Crown, which races on both dirt and pavement.
But first, it’s time to gain experience in USAC
competition on USAC tracks in a USAC sprint car. “When I moved to
Indiana, it was always the plan to go USAC racing,” Anthony said.
“Last year was my ‘build season,’ I like to call it. I wanted to get
one good season of local Indiana racing under my belt before I went
full-bore USAC racing, so I used last season to build my operation
and just learn as much as I could.” His parents are “still down in
Florida. I’m actually living up here by myself – all on my own.”
Other racing plans for 2020: “If the time comes when
we have a week off, and can go hit Kokomo, and any local Indiana
track, I probably will. I’m just kind of going to play it by ear. My
number one goal is to go out and have fun and that’s what I came
here to do. This is going to be a learning season and there’s a lot
of tracks on the schedule that I haven’t been to yet. So, I’m going
to have to really buckle down, and learn all I can while I can – get
my notebook together, I guess you can say, for the coming seasons.
Most of the tracks on the schedule, outside of Indiana, I haven’t
been to.”
His family’s plans to come see him race outside of
Florida: “They’re going to try to come to the majority of them. My
mom’s kind of sick right now, and she can’t travel as much as she’d
like. But, my dad is going to try to come to just about all of them.
He wants to be there for me, to support me.”
His opinion of his chance of winning USAC Rookie of
the Year: “I think I have a pretty good chance. There’s some stiff
competition for Rookie of the Year this year, but I feel I’ve put a
pretty good program together, and can definitely be a contender for
it. It’s going to be mostly about consistency, and who can make the
most races, and right now, that’s all I’m focused on.” On the other
two USAC rookie contenders, Anton Hernandez of Texas, and Sterling
Cling of Arizona, Anthony said, “I’ve raced with them quite a bit.
Anton Hernandez is a great shoe, and he’s got a great car owner,
Kenny Baldwin, behind him this year, so I think he’ll definitely be
stiff competition. Sterling Cling, as well, he’s also gonna be
pretty tough. He’s got Jeff Walker behind him turning the wrenches,
he’s one of the most notable [car owners] there is. It’s definitely
going to be tough, but I hope I’ve put a good program together, so I
can at least contend for it. I actually work over at Scott Benic’s
speed shop right now; we also build for Baldwin’s team for Anton’s
car. I’ve worked alongside Anton putting the cars together.”
Would he want to do more pavement open wheel racing?
“Yeah, I’d be interested in doing pavement, either at the Little
500, or pavement Silver Crown stuff. I’d love to get behind the
wheel of anything on pavement. I’d never turn anything down, that’s
for sure.”
Racing plans beyond 2020: “I don’t know really – I
guess it depends on the opportunities that arise. I love the USAC
racing, I love the community behind it. I’d love to be able to drive
in Silver Crown, and get behind the wheel of a midget. I’ve always
said that wherever I go, I just want to be good at it. That’s what I
want to do – whatever I race, whether it’s USAC sprint cars, Silver
Crown, or midgets, or World of Outlaws, or if I’m lucky enough to
make it to higher levels, like IndyCar or NASCAR, I just want to be
good at whatever I do.”
Champion’s Interview – AJ Maddox, Top Gun Sprint
Series
Story and Photos by Richard Golardi
January 29, 2020
Rounding the one-third mile dirt surface at
Gibsonton’s East Bay Raceway Park for a last time on the night of
November 30, 2019, AJ Maddox was in an intense battle with Shane
Butler for the feature race win, a race that later was declared the
season finale. Going into this Top Gun Sprint Series finale, he had
a 20-point lead in the season-long points over second-place Keith
Butler. AJ had just surpassed Butler in the series point standings
earlier in the month, when Butler had a stretch of bad luck. As AJ
and Shane Butler approached the front straight and the checkered
flag, with a first or second place feature finish almost certain, AJ
had the 2019 Top Gun sprint car driver championship firmly in his
grasp. Keith Butler was just inside the top ten in the race,
allowing AJ to gain points and sew up the title. That was his. One
thing was left … win the race.
With a win this night, AJ was going to earn his
fifth Top Gun series feature race of the season. The four prior 2019
wins came at East Bay Raceway during Speedweeks (two wins), at
Volusia Speedway Park in April, and also at East Bay in October. He
had already established a record of earning the driver championship
in Top Gun Series racing during odd-numbered years, going back to
2015, his first driver championship in the series. That was followed
by championships in 2017, and now, 2019. These all came at the wheel
of the No. 3A car owned by Ray Bolin. His car had now carried AJ
into a tie with Danny Martin Jr. (champion in 2011, 2013 and 2014)
for the most career Top Gun driver championships. Both drivers now
had three titles.
AJ
Maddox at Volusia Speedway Park, 2016
Let’s go back to that East Bay race on November 30:
Earlier in the evening, race officials informed the teams that the
transponders, an electronic device installed on each car for timing
and scoring, would not be used, as the computerized system used in
conjunction with the transponders had malfunctioned. Teams were
informed to return the transponders. There was no system to capture
a “photo finish” by a camera at the start/finish line, if one was
needed in case of a close finish. The finish was going to be decided
by race officials by eye.
AJ and Shane were now side-by-side coming off the
fourth turn on the last lap, and seemed to stay that way upon
crossing the finish line. But, one of them was just slightly ahead.
The race was now over. The arguing was just beginning. One view of
the finish line, slightly askew from directly straight-on, appeared
to show AJ and the No. 3A ahead at the line. But he was not declared
the winner. Shane Butler was declared the winner, and got the honor
of celebrating in the front straight winner’s circle at East Bay.
AJ had a different opinion of that declared
finishing order. He stated that if the transponders had been present
and were functioning properly, that he, and not Shane, would have
been declared the winner. “I chalk up the last race of the year as a
win,” AJ said defiantly. “If we would have had transponders on the
cars, I think the end results would have been a little bit
different. There’s video evidence of the finish, at the finish line,
and at the time, we couldn’t do anything about it, so I didn’t want
to make a fuss. It was a Memorial Race for Don [Rehm], and his
family was all involved. That’s the way it goes sometimes: sometimes
the calls go your way, and sometimes they don’t!”
About Top Gun Series racing: “It’s one of series
where you have to run every race. You gotta support the series, and
show up every week. Sometimes that’s difficult to do – life gets in
the way, and you’ve gotta truly be dedicated to it. Luckily, every
year that I’ve won the championship, it’s been one of those years
where I’ve been lucky enough to make every race, and finish well,
and have a good car underneath me. That’s what it takes to win
championships. It takes dedication, and a good car, and good
support.”
About the oddity of winning his championships only
in odd-numbered years: “Some of those years, we’ve been trying to
branch out, and run some 360 stuff,” which for dirt racers in
Florida, that often consists of the East Bay 360 Winternationals,
and USCS national sprint car series races, which require an
ASCS/USCS 360 engine to be competitive. Top Gun Series racing does
not allow these engines, only limited 360 engines (and some others).
“One or two of those years, I didn’t have a motor for some of the
races, we had some motor issues” he added. AJ has had a goal to run
more USCS races, and those “even-numbered, non-championship years”
sometimes marked the time when his team had that goal in mind. USCS
races in Georgia and South Carolina were sometimes within reach
during the summer months, but the desire not to lose points in the
Top Gun rankings often kept them closer to home.
His goal for the 2020 race season: “Try to not run
as much Top Gun stuff, but run a lot more 360 stuff. From 2012 to
2018, I did have a 360, and we ran quite a bit with the 360.” Engine
builder Robert Delgado began the rebuild on his USCS 360 engine in
2018. After health issues delayed the rebuild and set back Delgado’s
work timeline, car owner Ray Bolin decided to stick with Delgado and
wait out the delay. Delgado’s engine work was worth waiting for,
they decided.
AJ
Maddox, with car owner Ray Bolin, and Ashlynn Durden in 2015
After missing last year’s East Bay Winternationals,
they’ve got their USCS 360 engine back, and are now ready for more
360 racing in 2020. “It’s a bullet, for sure – came off the dyno
with good numbers,” AJ said of his confidence in the rebuilt 360,
which will be ready to race in the East Bay Winternationals in two
weeks. His 2018 Winternationals results included getting a top six
start to get locked into the feature on the final night, Saturday,
February 17. Those top six qualifiers are often considered among the
best 360 dirt sprint car racers in the nation.
AJ’s highlight of the year in 2019 racing:
“Honestly, it’s going to sound kinda selfless, but, helping Matt
Kurtz during the 2019 360 Winternationals was kinda the highlight of
my year, in racing. He didn’t make the show the first two nights,
and kept workin’ at it, and he went on to start last in the heat
race and win. Raced his way in, came from the back in the feature, I
think he started 16th, or so, and drove right up to the front, got
to second. I think he got a little tired there towards the end of
the race; it’s certainly special when you get to do that with that
kind of company – even workin’ on ’em and helping somebody else.
Seeing an effort like that is really satisfying. We ran the Top Gun
stuff, we won some races and it’s always fun to win the non-wing
races. Other than the last race, according to the history books,
I’ve won every Top Gun non-wing race at East Bay that they’ve held,
heat and feature, since 2012. Probably one of the highlights of my
career.”
On Sunday, January 19, the Top Gun Series Annual
Banquet saw Ray Bolin and AJ Maddox take the check and trophy for
their 2019 series driver championship. I asked who gets the check,
is it split between owner and driver? “Any money that is awarded
goes to the owner of the car,” AJ replied. “I’m not sure what the
amount is, they kinda keep going up every year. It’s between three
and five thousand for the championships [driver and car owner both].
Ray will get that. That’ll help out for the following year, and
we’ll keep on movin’. I get a picture, and a handshake, and a jacket
[Hoosier Tire purple], and get to drive race cars for another year.”
But … the check split? “Ahh – we don’t really have anything set in
stone. I take care of the cars, and house the cars here. Ray lives
in Orlando. He covers the cost of all the racing, I get to enjoy
driving and working on the cars. That’s pretty much my payment of
the whole deal. It costs a lot to keep these cars goin’. I don’t
expect anything in return, honestly. Just get to drive them, and be
around it, and live my dream is plenty payment enough.”
AJ’s “thank yous” to all who helped him achieve
another Top Gun Series driver championship in 2019: “First would be
Ray Bolin, then his business is the sole sponsor of the car, as of
right now: AMP Agri Machinery and Parts. And Robert Delgado Racing
Engines, he’s always provided reliable, great power. That’s pretty
much all we’ve got right now. And Ashlynn [his girlfriend], of
course, for helping me work on it and maintain it.” Is she being
assigned the “crew chief” title? “Oh, yeah, for sure,” he answered.
“She’s usually got it washed on Monday or Tuesday, and on stands,
ready to be worked on. She’ll do most of the work on it if I get
hung-up at work, or I can’t make it over there, and she can. She can
do full maintenance, and do anything and everything making sure that
car’s ready to race.”
That certainly makes AJ a lucky guy, many would say.
“Yeah … I ought to marry her one of these days,” he stated. When I
called AJ for this interview, there was the possibility that “home
shopping” for he and Ashlynn might necessitate a change of day and
time for the interview. They were looking for the perfect home – for
the two of them. “Ashlynn and I are trying to get our first house,
we’re in the process of that right now. Actually, we put an offer in
on one today. I’m working pretty hard at my job
[plumber/pipefitter], I’m doing at least 60 hours a week. Between
moving, and that, and getting ready for the Winternationals, I’m a
pretty busy guy.”
Racing plans for the next month: “We’re going to do
all the Winternationals stuff we can for the next month.” At most,
that’s six nights of racing: possibly three nights of the Top Gun
Series, limited 360 engine, on January 30, 31, and February 1; and
“definitely” three nights of the East Bay 360 Winternationals, on
February 13–15. Also – “The majority of the Top Gun stuff throughout
the year, and whatever USCS stuff we can break-off and hit, we’re
gonna do that. Usually, there’s 10 to 12 USCS races throughout the
year that we try to plan on hitting. It doesn’t always work out that
way, but we’ll at least try to hit that many. Most of the places are
within reason [with cost considerations] – Georgia, and Alabama, or
North or South Carolina. Try to look at it as a mini-vacation, just
get outta town. We’ve talked about it a little bit.”
Home plans, looking to the future, looking ahead to
more championships, AJ was willing to say how he was putting it all
together, his current perspective: “We are plenty excited about it,
hopefully it all works out, and we can start another chapter of life
here.” The house being considered, it’s “a little three bedroom, two
bath, it’s got a pretty decent size shop in the back – plenty of
room for us to expand, and get our race car hauler in and out of.
It’s a good starter home, at least for now.” His own race shop,
right next store to his home: “That was the idea in mind when we
started the process. I haven’t been able to keep the race cars where
I live yet, since I’ve been racing.”
If you are wondering: did I ask about a wedding, and
family, and children, and so on, in the future? Here’s the answer:
No. I didn’t. I’d already demanded that the “ought to marry her”
comment be on the record (pretty good – huh?). I decided not to
press any further. I believe AJ will tell us what he’s thinking, and
what’s he’s feeling. All that will happen … when the time is right.
A Look Ahead – To 2020 February Sprint Car
Speedweeks
Story and Photos by Richard Golardi
December 22, 2019
The swift-approaching February Sprint Car Speedweeks
in Florida will have a different look in 2020. The national series
will hold their races during a condensed period of just 11 days
during the first half of the month. Compare that to 2019 – when just
one track, Bubba Raceway Park in Ocala, had national sprint car
series races for three consecutive weekends during February. Of the
three sprint car series that raced during those three weekends, only
one returns to Bubba Raceway Park in 2020 – the USAC national sprint
car series.

Bubba Raceway will have two weekends of national
open wheel racing in 2020, as they will once again host the USAC
national midget series on the weekend prior to the arrival of the
USAC sprint cars. But, the All Star Circuit of Champions and the
USCS Outlaw Thunder Tour, the other two national sprint car series
to visit in 2019, will both be absent from Bubba Raceway in February
2020. Rumors of financial difficulties for track co-owner Bubba Clem
have been swirling all through this year, but the truth is that the
track will be back with racing in 2020, although with a shorter
Speedweeks schedule.
Despite the announcement that East Bay Raceway Park
will likely be sold and closed in 2024, long anticipated as the
mound of phosphate waste that looms higher in the east with each
passing year seemed destined to overwhelm and supplant the track
eventually, the East Bay 360 Sprint Car Winternationals return. If
the 360 Winternationals are held each year until the end (which
seems sure to happen), then the 2020 edition will be followed by
four more before the last ever 360 Winternationals in February 2024.
East Bay management is hardly rolling over and waiting for the
inevitable, however. They are bringing back national 410 sprint car
racing for the first time in years with the return of the All Star
Circuit of Champions, filling in the Monday–Tuesday gap between the
Florida dates for the World of Outlaws sprint cars and the USAC
sprint cars.
With that “gap” filled in, which was a three-day gap
without a national sprint car series race last year, there now will
only be a one-day gap without a national sprint car series race
during the week before the Sunday, February 16 date of the Daytona
500. In fact, beginning on Wednesday, Feb. 5, there will be a
national sprint car race in Florida for all of the rest of that
week, and almost all of the next week. The only day without a race
will be Wednesday, Feb 12, and it will have national sprint cars on
track, but just for practice, and not racing, in Ocala at Bubba
Raceway. For an 11 day period from Feb. 5 to Feb. 15, the dedicated
sprint car race fan can see cars from a national sprint car series
on track for those 11 consecutive days, and all but one of them with
racing.
Despite the disappointment that came with their
previous “Big Speedweeks sprint car race,” which saw a depleted car
count, few cars with 410 engines, and sparse attendance in 2014,
Showtime Speedway will make a try at another big February Speedweeks
race, this time a non-wing, non-points race to honor the memory of
Dave Steele. The race will be held on Thursday, February 20, at
Showtime Speedway, and will be designated as the Dave Steele
Non-Wing World Finals. The planned distance is 125 laps on the
quarter-mile pavement oval.

Feeling up to the challenge of going to the track
for 11 consecutive days of national sprint cars on dirt? Well, then
you’ll need the 2020 February Sprint Car Speedweeks schedule for
Florida, and here it is:
Thursday, Friday, and Saturday, 1/30 to 2/1: Top Gun
Sprint Series, East Bay Raceway Park, Gibsonton.
Wednesday and Thursday, 2/5 to 2/6: All Star Circuit of Champions,
Volusia Speedway Park, Barberville.
Friday, Saturday, and Sunday, 2/7 to 2/9: World of Outlaws Sprint
Car Series, Volusia Speedway Park, Barberville.
Friday and Saturday, 2/7 to 2/8: USCS Outlaw Thunder Tour, Hendry
County Motorsports Park, Clewiston.
Monday and Tuesday, 2/10 to 2/11: All Star Circuit of Champions,
East Bay Raceway Park, Gibsonton.
Thursday, Friday, and Saturday, 2/13 to 2/15: East Bay 360
Winternationals at East Bay Raceway Park, Gibsonton; and the USAC
National Sprint Car Series at Bubba Raceway Park, Ocala.
Saturday, 2/15: Southern Sprint Car Shootout Series, 4-17 Southern
Speedway, Punta Gorda.
Thursday, 2/20: Southern Sprint Car Shootout Series, Dave Steele
Non-Wing World Finals, Showtime Speedway, Pinellas Park (special
non-points, non-wing race).
NOTES:
The 2020 schedule for the Southern Sprint Car Shootout Series, which
does not include any race dates for New Smyrna Speedway, means that
next year’s races will be lacking any high-speed, high-banked track.
In fact, with a second race date added for Auburndale Speedway, that
means that the 2020 schedule will be heavily weighted toward the
tighter, slower tracks. No half-mile tracks are on the 2020
schedule. It is unknown if a national pavement sprint car series may
be coming to Florida next year, but the only national schedule still
open is the King of the Wing series.
When asked to comment on the lack of New Smyrna Speedway races on
their 2020 schedule, the Southern Sprint Car series management
responded as follows: “It’s hard to get cars there and they didn’t
ask us back next year. Not saying [we] wouldn’t go.”
Florida’s 2019 sprint car racing champions are: East Bay Raceway
Park limited 360 sprint car track champion; Joe Zuczek; Top Gun
Sprint Series driver champion: AJ Maddox; Southern Sprint Car
Shootout Series driver champion: Troy DeCaire.
If Troy DeCaire’s new sprint car team for 2019, a team that he took
to multiple wins in Florida, plus some visits to Mobile
International Speedway’s victory lane, and finally to the
championship in the state’s most prestigious pavement sprint car
series, the Southern Sprint Car Shootout Series, sounded like a
familiar achievement accomplished by a driver from a previous
generation of Floridians, then you must be fairly old (or really
knowledgeable about Florida sprint car racers). I state that because
the last time that a sprint car driver from Florida accomplished
something eerily similar was 50 years ago – in 1969.
That’s when Wayne Reutimann’s 1968–1969 race seasons included a new
team beginning in 1968 (with Florida car owner Sam Posey), then a
trip to Mobile’s victory lane, a super modified/sprint car race win
on April 28, 1968, followed by multiple Florida wins and taking the
championship in Florida’s most prestigious pavement sprint car
series at that time in 1969 – the Golden Gate Speedway sprint car
track championship. November 2019, when DeCaire virtually locked up
the Southern Sprint Car title, marked 50 years from when Wayne
Reutimann locked up the Golden Gate Speedway sprint car title in
November 1969.
E-mail Richard Golardi
floridaopenwheel@gmail.com