Racin' & Internet Stuff:
By Tom Avenengo
Volume # 17
First:
This coming Sunday, June 20th, is Father’s Day. If your father, grandfather, father-in-law or even grandfather-in-law are still with us, please don’t forget to contact them and wish them a great, happy day. Better yet, if they’re close by, how about having them over for a BBQ?
Mine went to his final resting place back on August 2, 1990. Thanks to him and his love of auto racing, you’re now able to read this stuff.
Second:
On Tuesday, notices were sent out that the AARN was holding off putting their front page on their website until after 2:00 PM on Wednesday, rather than the usual day of Tuesday, with this:
“Due to time sensitivity and embargo of a news
breaking story"
Shortly afterwards was
a notice sent out about a News Conference to be held at the Orange County Fair
Speedway on Wednesday, at 2:00 PM.
Then all kinds of
RUMORS hit the fan. Now I’m doing this
part on Wednesday, at noon, and some of the rumors were that Tony Stewart and
Kasey Kahne had bought the track. Others mentioned were Brett Hearn and Dick
Berggren. I’ll be attending that News
Conference, and to be quite honest, I was hoping that the Stewart/Kahne/Hearn/Berggren news was really true. News was leaked out a short time ago that the
News Conference was just about announcing that OCFS was for sale – with no
mention of those four names.
Here’s what went down
at the News Conference:
As
far as racing goes – not much, really. Some
politicians were there to flaunt how good Orange County is, how it’s so close
to so many millions of people (not race fans, of course) all the attractions
that are in and close to the county, the highway system that makes it so easy
to get to Orange County, along with mass transportation.
What it really boiled
down to was that they are in search of “Investors”. Uh huh, in this day and age, they’re looking
for someone to invest. No actual dollar
figures came out. No actual words saying
the place was/is for sale, but when the News Conference is really run by one of
the counties bigger Real Estate firms, well, you get the idea, I suppose?
And, sad to say,
although they’d like to see the fair and race track remain and continue, I
can’t recall them saying that the sale of the property (if actually sold) would
require continued usage of the property for the fair and for auto racing to
remain, too.
Some
of my thoughts:
Last Friday I attended the races at the Accord Speedway, a tight “small” ¼ mile banked dirt track. As usual, the racing was great with lots of side by side racing, and the “hot dogs” were able to come from the back and get towards the front the whole race long. Biggest downfall with Accord, if you can call it that, is the dust. Hey, it’s dirt track.
Then
on Saturday I attended the races at the Orange County Fair Speedway a large 5/8
mile dirt track that just before the season started had most of it’s banking
taken off of the racing surface – with the idea that it would create better
racing and more passing, while slowing the cars down some.
Well,
they’re just a tick off of what could be called the fastest laps turned at
OCFS, so some might say that, yes, they’ve slowed them down. After the first few laps, it seems to me that
the passing just isn’t there – as it was not there over these last few
years. At least it was like that
Saturday night. With most all of the
cars being what one could almost call “Spec” – basically same bodies, almost
the same horse power, track mandated certain tires, no room for any kind of
ingenuity, and you’re a short step from being a “Spec” class, as far as I’m
concerned. OCFS is also a dirt track,
but not nearly as dusty as Accord.
With
the “Big Show 2” scheduled for last night, Wednesday, June 16th, and
with them using time trials – even with a re-draw of the top 12 time trialers, I don’t expect to see much passing.
Of
course, the only day that’s scheduled for rain this week was yesterday. In the event that it was rained out, the rain
date would be Wednesday June 30th.
Yes, it’s very rare that you see a rain date shown for an SDS race prior
to it being run.
Rather
than return home after all the “BS”, I opted to stay at the track until the
“Big Show II” was ready. I’ll have
nothing about that event this week, but will give some of my thoughts about it
next week.
Going back, in time:
Note: The following
information was mostly found here: http://www.wheelsofspeed.com/history.html
Covering the days of June 10th to June 17th.
JUNE 10
1956
Tommy Hinnershitz
won the USAC Sprint Car race over Mike Magill, Bill Brown, Joe Barzda and Len Duncan at the
Bobby Courtwright
won the URC Sprint Car race over Ed Solobub, Lucky Loux, Eddie Gallione and Bert
Brooks at the
Note: Kinda hard to
believe – USAC & URC – same track, same day
JUNE 11
1939
Jackie Stewart ... Born
1950
Pancho Carter ... Born
1966
Jimmy Davies... Died
Jud Larson and Red Riegel... Died. In the '66
season, Jud was once again leading the sprint division until the night of June
11 at Reading
1927
Bill Cheesbourg
... Born
JUNE 13
1962
Davey Hamilton ... Born
JUNE 14
1913
Henry Banks ... Born ... He was the son of an early
European race-driver. Henry began competing in 1932, when he was 19-years-old,
and became successful in the midget cars. He was the first driver to pass the
qualifying "rookie test" at the
Note: As far as I know, Henry was the only foreign
born ARDC champion. Johnny Ritter, who
had some track championships, was born in
1958
George Fonder... Died ... He was one of the best midget
drivers around at the time.
1961
Dr. Jack Miller... Born
1968
Scott Sharp... Born
JUNE 15
1916
Gene Force ... Born
1920
Keith Andrews... Born
1929
Ray Keech ... Died
JUNE 16
1917
Earl
Cooper drove his Stutz to
victory in the 250 mile AAA race on the 2 mile board Maywood Speedway in
Chicago,
Note: Hmmm – 1917 and he AVERAGED over 103 MPH!
1943
Buzz Gregory... Born
JUNE 17
1956
Bob Sweikert... Died ... AAA / USAC
driver. Best known as the winner of the 1955 Indianapolis 500 and the
1955 National Championship, as well as the 1955 Midwest Sprint car championship
- the only driver in history to sweep all three in a single season. His
"Indy 500" win was over-shadowed by the fatal crash of two-time winner
Bill Vukovich during the race earlier that day. Sweikert finished sixth at
Racing
on TV - http://www.racefantv.com/USTV.htm
Friday,
June 18th:
3:00
PM to 4:30 PM on SPEED – Cup practice from,
6:30
PM to 8:30 PM on SPEED – Cup qualifying
Saturday,
June 19th:
12:30
PM to 1:30 PM on SPEED – Cup practice
1:30
PM to 3:00 PM on SPEED – Cup final practice
3:30
PM to 7:00 PM on ESPN2 – Nationwide race from
5:00
PM to 8:00 PM on SPEED – Grand-Am Rolex race from
6:00
PM to 7:00 PM on Versus – Indycar qualifying from
7:00
PM to 9:00 PM on ESPN2 – NHRA qualifying from
Sunday,
June 20th:
9:30
AM to 10:30 AM on SPEED – FIM MotoGP World
Championship from
1:30
PM to 4:30 PM on Versus – Indycar race from
3:00
PM to 6:30 PM on TNT – Cup race from
4:00
PM to 7:00 PM on ESPN2 – NHRA Eliminations from
Track
news – part 1:
OCFS
– Michael Sanchelli (Suitcase) has finally gotten to
fulfill one of his wishes – to promote a race.
It will be on Thursday, August 5th and will be for the 358 Modifieds. A 40 lap feature with $10,000.00 going to the winner and $400.00 to
take the green. From what I’ve
heard, quite a few of the
More
info on this event can be found here: http://www.orangecountyfairspeedway.net/Hard-Clay-Challenge-40.html
There
is also a rain date for this event, too – Thursday, August 12th.
Note: What with OCFS doing away with their 358
class, I wonder how many OC regulars might make the show?
The
History of the Sport:
If you
recall, last Saturday night at the Orange County Fair Speedway, it was “Richie Eurich Night”.
Here’s some of what Pete Kessler had to say about Richie in the Hard
Clay program:
Here’s some of what happened in 1967, Rich Eurich’s first year at the speedway:
Gablinger’s beer, named after Swiss chemist Hersch Gablinger, was launched by Rheingold Breweries. Joseph Owades, brew master, developed the process to remove starch from beer and gave the formula to Meister Brau. The product failed but Meister Brau was sold to Miller Brewing. Miller successfully marketed the beer as Miller Lite.
The first successful heart transplant was performed in
Simon Sze and Dawon
Kahng, researchers at Bell Labs in
The Andy Griffith Show was the top ranking network show on television with a ranking of 27.6%.
The first Super Bowl was played as the Green Bay Packers of
the National Football League defeated the Kansas City Chiefs of the American
Football League, 35-10 in
"Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band," was
released in the
The 3-day Monterey Pop Festival featured Pete Townshend and The Who on the Sunday finale. They nearly stopped the show with the destruction of guitars, drums and microphones on stage. They were immediately followed by Jerry Garcia and The Grateful Dead. The festival also featured Janis Joplin, Jimi Hendrix and Otis Redding.
Jayne Mansfield (b.1933), stage and film actress was killed
in a car crash in
The movie "Bonnie and Clyde," starring Warren
Beatty and Faye Dunaway, had its
The original version of the television game show "What's My Line?," hosted by John Charles Daly, broadcast its final episode after more than 17 years on CBS.
"Rowan and Martin's Laugh-In" aired as a one-time special on NBC; its success led to a regular series beginning in January 1968.
Orange County Fair Speedway became the official, legal name of what was once called the “Harry Clay Oval,” and “Victory Speedway.” Your humble correspondent regrets this name change and hopes that, someday, it will be renamed “Victory Speedway.”
The drive-in section made its debut. There are only one or two other speedways in the United States that have drive-in sections.
The lighting was upgraded, as was the sound system.
In 1967, Rich Eurich turned his first laps on the legendary 5/8-mile hard clay and would, indeed, become legendary himself. On August 16, he won his first feature in the Limited Sportsman Division.
Congratulations, Rich – for that win, for all the wins since, and all the wins yet to come.
Former Dirt Oval (
Note: In most cases, the names that appear in this section are names of those that have run at the Dirt Oval for an extended period of time. And, in some cases, maybe some only had occasional appearances at the Dirt Oval, too. And, yes, some I’m not even sure about!
From last weekend:
Davie Franek was 14th in the 358 Sprint Car feature at Selinsgrove.
At the newly named I-88 Speedway – formerly
Tiffany Wambold was 2nd and 3rd in the 270 Micro features on 6/12, while Geordan Farry was 3rd in the wingless 600 Micro feature on 6’11.
At New Egypt, in the Modified feature, Johnny Guarino was 2nd.
At Accord, in the Modified feature, Danny Creeden was 4th, Clinton Mills 14th and Jimmy Johnson 21st. Lex Burrit, Tom Hindley and Greg Hastie were all DNQ’s.
In the held over Sportsman feature, Mike Ruggiero was 3rd, Brian Krummel 8th and Anthony Perrego 17th.
In the nights feature, Brian was 3rd, Anthony 5th and Mike was a DNQ.
In the Spec Sportsman feature. Kyle Rohner was 5th, Jason Roe 13th and Kayla Smykla 17th.
Mike Ruggiero was 2nd in the Modified feature at OCFS, with Danny Creeden 12th and Billy VanInwegen 17th. Clinton Mills was a DNQ.
In the Sportsman feature, John Lodini was 2nd, Joe Conklin 3rd, Matt Janiak 4th, Brian Krummel 5th, Keith Still 7th and Bobby Hassenmayer 9th.
Note: Joe ran about 10 laps - under caution, with three laps to go, with a flat left front. Bobby crossed the finish line on his ROOF, after a multi car wreck at the end of the Sportsman feature.
Last week, I forgot about
More
racin’ stuff:
Well,
in a way I guess it would fall in the category of “More racin’
stuff”, but it looks like I’ll be making a trip on September 5th to
the place where I saw my very first midget race, back in 1946 – Hinchliffe Stadium in
Other forums/message boards and websites:
Track
Forum: - http://www.trackforum.com/forums/
Quite
interesting thing about Simona's Fire vs.
Ed Carpenter's Fire: Compare the Response.
Frontstretch.com:
http://www.frontstretch.com/
5 Points to Ponder:
One: Who You Didn’t See This Weekend, Two: Kahne to Phoenix Racing Makes It Clear: Hendrick Satellite Cars Are Hendrick Motorsports Cars, Three: HMS Isn’t The Only Dominant Force Out There Right Now, Four: ARCA Flavor To Be Had At Road America and five: Casey Mears Not Proving To Fit Red Bull Like A Glove.
All can be found, here:
http://www.frontstretch.com/bkeith/29898/
Jayski: - http://www.jayski.com/
http://jayski.com/cupnews.htm#news09fri2
Race
Pro Weekly: - http://raceproweekly.com/
Covers mostly local racing stuff for my area, and Jordan Sheehan is one of the columnists and he covers the full fendered cars, mostly at OCFS.
Video
time:
First, I think I must make mention of this: I was never in favor of our young men and young women being sent overseas to Iraq, Iran and Afghanistan to fight in a war that started off, as far as I’m concerned, as a lie to the American people.
This
video did get to me, though, as it might you.
I’m not sure if you’ll be able to click on “Part 2” and have it work, so
I’ll link to that video too.
http://www.youtube.com/watch_popup?v=hkGzqpGx1KU
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GSTKoKjJ5XA&annotation_id=annotation_817305&feature=iv
Is this true?:
Seems that in an election that was held the other day in
“Hispanic apparent
winner in unusual NY election”
Check it out here:
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20100616/ap_on_el_st_lo/us_voting_rights_election
Note: What they’ve done makes
absolutely no sense to me, whatsoever!
Other
(non racing) news:
I only caught bits and pieces of President Obama’s talk on Tuesday night. One thing that I did hear was him say that drilling off shore was necessary because we’ve run out of places to drill ON LAND.
Well,
excuse me Mr. President, but apparently you haven’t been told of the huge
amounts of oil that are underground in places like North Dakota, South Dakota,
Idaho and other states – not to mention Alaska, too. Like those states are so heavily populated
that drilling for oil and gas would be difficult?
And:
“Aircraft can accidentally punch holes in clouds,
leaving a trail of snow or rain in their wake, a
new study finds.”
http://news.yahoo.com/s/livescience/20100614/sc_livescience/wowjetspunchholesincloudsandcreaterain
Closing with this:
TEXAS
HAS IT ALL Part 2
No need to travel to Washington D.C.
Whitehouse , Texas 75791
We even have a city named after our planet!
We have a city named after our state
Exhausted?
Cold?
Blanket , Texas 76432
Winters, Texas
Like to read about History?
Alamo ,
Gun Barrel City
Robert
Need Office Supplies?
Staples,
Want to go into outer space?
You guessed it. It's on the state line.
Texline , Texas 79087
For the kids...
Kermit , Texas 79745
Elmo , Texas 75118
Nemo , Texas 76070
Tarzan , Texas 79783
Winnie , Texas 77665
Sylvester , Texas 79560
Other city names in Texas , to make you smile.......
Frognot , Texas 75424
Bigfoot , Texas 78005
Hogeye , Texas 75423
Cactus , Texas 79013
Notrees , Texas 79759
Best, Texas 76932
Veribest , Texas 76886
Kickapoo , Texas 75763
Dime Box , Texas 77853
Old Dime Box , Texas 77853
Telephone , Texas 75488
Telegraph , Texas 76883
Whiteface , Texas 79379
Twitty, Texas 79079
And last but not least, the Anti-Al Gore City
Kilgore , Texas 75662
And
our favorites...
Cut n Shoot, Texas
Gun Barrell City , Texas
Hoop And Holler, Texas
Ding Dong, Texas and, of course,
Muleshoe , Texas
May “Guardian Angels” sit on the shoulders of all of our race drivers and race fans, and guide them safely around the tracks!
Drive safe!
As usual, you can reach me
at: ygordad@yahoo.com