Racin' & Internet Stuff:
By Tom Avenengo
Volume # 24
8/05/2010
First:
I had a major problem with my computer,
starting Sunday AM when I turned it on – all the way up to about 4:00 on
Tuesday, so this weeks column might be a little
shorter than usual, with maybe some parts not even being used. Hope you don’t mind!
Second:
Weather permitting, tonight is the night for the 358 Modified Hard Clay Challenge race at OCFS – 40 green flag laps with $10,000.00 going to the winner, and $400.00 to take the green. In a way, I hate seeing time trials for this event, but, hey, I ain’t promoting it. I just hope that all those drivers that are shown in the “Entry list” show up. No, I have no idea as to why the entry list hasn’t been updated in a couple of weeks, either. And, I’ve read that some of those names on that list will not be in attendance, too. Guess we’ll find our either tonight or next Thursday – the rain date.
Any
additional info on this event can be found if you go here:
http://www.orangecountyfairspeedway.net/Hard-Clay-Challenge-40.html
Some
of my thoughts:
I see Castroneves was penalized a nice piece of change (no to him, maybe) and put on probation for his touching an official a week ago. That never should have happened, as far as I’m concerned, since I still can’t see where he actually blocked another car during the race.
Going back, in time:
Note: Most of the following
information was found here:
http://www.wheelsofspeed.com/history.html
Covering the days of July 29th to August 4th.
JULY 29
1951
Cecil Green ... Died ... An American racecar driver from Dallas,
Walt Brown ... Died ...
AAA driver from the 1940's and early 50's who ran in 3 Indy 500's with a best
finish of 7th in 1947. He died in a race at the Williams Grove
Bill Mackey ... Died ...
AAA driver from 1949 to 1951. His name at birth was William Gretsinger,
Jr. He was killed in a sprint car crash at
Black Sunday .. On this day, three big-time
drivers, each of whom were veterans of the
JULY 30
1946
Neil Bonnett
... Born ... NASCAR driver who compiled 18 victories and 20 poles over his
18-year career and died from injuries suffered in a practice crash at Daytona.
He was part of the famous "
1981
Bud Tingelstad...
Died ... USAC driver from 1957 to 1972 in the Midget, Sprint, Stock Car and Championship Car series. In the Championship
Cars he raced in the 1960-1971 seasons with 120 starts, including the
JULY 31
1916
Louise Smith ... Born ...
She was tied for the second woman to race in NASCAR at the top level. She was
known as "the first lady of racing." She went as a spectator to the her first NASCAR race at the
1963
Bill Randall ... Died ...
He raced sprint cars and midgets, winning the
1991
Al Loquasto
... Died ... Al drove in the USAC and CART Championship Car series, racing in
the 1969-1980 and 1982-1983 seasons, with 61 combined career starts, including
the 1976 and 1977
AUGUST 1
1964
"Big Daddy" Don Garlits became the first drag racer to run the 1/4
mile at over 200 mph. He drove his Swamprat dragster
to 201.34 mph at Island Dragway in
1971
Richard Petty became the
first NASCAR driver to win over $1 million in a career when he won the Dixie
500 at
1988
Sheldon Kinser...
Died ... He was the 1977, 81, 82 United States Auto Club (USAC) National Sprint
Car Champion. Winner of the prestigious Tony Hulman Classic at the
1998
Len Duncan... Died ... Len
Duncan, of
1999
Tommy Hinnershitz...
Died ... Eastern AAA driver from 1932 to 1960. Also known as "The Flying
Dutchman", Hinnershitz ran in the Indy 500 three
times with a best finish of 9th in 1948. He captured seven Eastern sprint-car
championships and posted 103 feature victories during his 30-year racing
career. While he first gained success and popularity near his
AUGUST 2
1958
Eddie Johnson
won the USAC Midget race at the Blue Island, Chicago, IL.
Dutch Schaefer won the
ARDC Midget race at the Danbury Fairgrounds, Danbury,CT.
1963
Bobby Marshman
won the USAC Midget race at the 25th Street Fairgrounds, Columbus,IN.
Johnny Mann
won the ARDC Midget race at the Freeport Speedway, Freeport, NY.
1990
It
was on this date that Lucien Gerard Avenengo left
this world of ours. Yes, he was my
father and yes, I still miss him. A lot of
thanks have to go to him, for without him taking me to the races back in the
‘40’s and ‘50’s, you would not be reading this, now.
AUGUST 3
1960
Lee Petty
and his sons, Richard and Maurice, race against each other for the first and
only time, at Birmingham, Alabama's, Dixie
1966
Greg Ray ... Born ...
Former IRL IndyCar Series driver.
AUGUST 4
1932
Joe Leonard... Born ...
American motorcycle racer and racecar driver. Leonard won the first AMA Grand
National Championship Series in 1954 and won it again in 1956 and 1957. His
record totals 27 wins, including the 1957 and 1958 Daytona 200. He retired from
motorcycle racing at the completion of the 1961 season and turned his attention
to auto racing. Leonard raced in the USAC Championship Car series in the
1964-1974 seasons, with 98 career starts, including the 1965-1973 Indianapolis
500, sitting on the pole in 1968 in the Granatelli
turbine car. He finished in the top ten 60 times, including 6 wins: 3 times at
1971
Jeff Gordon... Born ... NASCAR driver.
2008
Greg Weld... Died ... Weld
was known as both a driver and a racing entrepreneur. As a driver, Weld won the
1963
Racing
on TV - http://www.racefantv.com/USTV.htm
Here’s one casualty of my ‘puter problems. This week, I’ll let you go to the link, above, and see what’s on and when.
Track
news – (for tracks in my area):
Accord: http://www.accordspeedway.com/
A regular show this Friday at the “Big A”. Next week, (Friday the 13th)
the ARDC Midgets will return. You
can use your rain check for the rained out show on the 13th, if you
haven’t used it yet. You can also use it
this Friday, too. For additional info on
that, go to the speedways website.
OCFS: http://www.orangecountyfairspeedway.net/
After the Thursday show, there will be a regular show on Saturday.
This
Saturday - LegendStock 2010
Legends
and Bandoleros (LegendStock 2010/INEX Asphalt Nationals Qualifier), Dirt Sportsman, Pro
Stock, 4 Cylinder
Note: Rain date for this show is Sunday, the 8th.
OVRP
– the dirt track: http://www.oaklandvalleyspeedway.com/
Karts and Slingshots on Saturday, along with the World Formula racers. On Sunday, it’s Bikes and Quads.
Hamlin: http://www.hamlinspeedway.com/
Hamlin will be closed this coming weekend.
The
History of the Sport:
NASCAR
– some race fans of today more than likely are not aware that “Back in the day”
NASCAR also sanctioned some open wheel races.
Yep, sure did -
Midgets and cars similar to the days “Indy” cars. Back then, most of their races were held on
the east coast.
For the
“Big” cars, they held 7 races in 1952 and 3 in 1953, not counting the measured
mile runs at
Some of
those that ran the “Big” cars back then:
Buck
Baker, Tom Cherry, Al Keller, Jack Smith, Buddy Shuman, Jiggs
Peters, Speedy Thompson, Wally Campbell, Steve McGrath, Tony Bonadies, Herb Swan, Frankie Schneider, Steve Yanigan, Bill Spear, Budd Olson, Mike Magill, Charlie
Miller, Ed “Dutch” Schaefer and Dick Rathmann
So, are
you interested in some of those races?
For
1952, go here: http://www.champcarstats.com/year/1952n.htm
For
1953, go here: http://www.champcarstats.com/year/1953n.htm
The
late Ron Heddendorf had a website that pictured most
of those “Big” cars, but with his passing the website was shut down. I know who has those photos, and maybe one
day they’ll be up on a website once more.
Next
week: Some of the NASCAR Midget racing
history.
Former
Dirt Oval (
Last
weekend, Michael Storms had a 6th at Brewerton, 7th at
Corey
Ziegler was 10th in the Sportsman feature at Penn Can.
At
Big Diamond, Mike Mammana was 6th in the
Sportsman feature.
Davie
Franek was 6th in the 358 Sprint Car feature at Selinsgrove.
Luke
Schostkewitz was 6th, Geordan
Farry 11th and Brittany Tresch 22nd in the wingless 600 Micro Sprint
feature at Hamlin. I see where JJ Yeley was 9th.
Joe Kata was 1st in the 600 rookie
Micro Sprint feature. Emily VanInwegen was 14th and brother
Billy was 15th in the Slingshot feature.
At Borgers, in the wingless 270 Micro Sprint feature, Tiffany Wambold was 6th on July 30th, while
on the 31st she was 5th in the regular 270 feature and
won the 270 rookie feature.
At
Kutztown, last Wednesday, Tiffany was 11th in the 270 Micro feature.
Alex
Bell was 9th, Kyle Armstrong 10th in the Sportsman
feature at
Johnny
Guarino was 19th in the “Friend of Mike”
100 lap feature for Modifieds at New Egypt.
At
Cori
Tufano was 4th in the 750 Sportsman Micro
Sprint feature at
At
Nick
Pecko was 10th in the 100 lap Modified
feature at Sundance Vacations Speedway.
At
OCFS last Saturday, in the 358 Small Block Modified feature, Danny Creeden was 6th and Tom Hindley
20th. In the Sportsman
feature, Matt Janiak was 2nd, Brian Krummel 8th, Joe Conklin 9th, Keith
Still 11th, Zack Vavricka 17th,
Matt Hitchcock 18th, John Lodini 20th
and Doc Young 22nd.
Jimmy
Johnson was 6th, Danny Creeden 19th,
Greg Hastie 20th, Jamie Yannone 23rd,
Clinton Mills 24th and Tom Hindley 25th in the Modified feature at
Accord. In the Sportsman feature,
Anthony Perrego was 2nd, Mike Ruggiero 3rd,
Brad Szulewski 14th and Brian Krummel 18th.
Kayla Smykla was 3rd, Kyle Rohner 6th, Jason Roe 19th and RJ Smykla 21st in the Spec Sportsman feature.
Hope
I didn’t miss anyone!
More racin’
stuff:
If you’re a big fan of NASCAR, you might know
what these eight drivers all have in common:
Tony Stewart, Kasey Kahne, Matt Kenseth, Jeff Gordon,
Brad Keselowski, Mark Martin, Joey Logano and Brian Vickers.
Don’t know?
Well, you’ll have to scroll down towards the end of this column to find
out.
I found this over on Jayski’s
website – how hard did Elliott Sadler hit last week at Pocono.
Sadler's crash
hardest recorded by NASCAR: #19-Elliott Sadler says NASCAR officials told him
his head-on collision with the inside retaining wall at Pocono Racing on Sunday
was the hardest recorded in the history of the sport. NASCAR did not give
Sadler the number of G-forces recorded by the black box device and the
governing body typically does not release that information. "We do not
share those numbers except with the team and the folks at the Midwest Roadside
Safety Facility at the
Other forums/message boards and websites:
You might find some interesting reading if you go to the links below.
Track
Forum: - http://www.trackforum.com/forums/
Frontstretch.com:
http://www.frontstretch.com/
Jayski: - http://www.jayski.com/
Open
Wheel Racers3: http://www.openwheelracers3.com/
Race
Pro Weekly: http://raceproweekly.com/
Video
time:
It was
on August 5, 1968 – 42 years ago, when we lost Luther Perkins. For those of you that don’t recognize the
name, he was the guitar player for Johnny Cash.
Personally, I always admired the sounds that Luther could get out of his
guitar. I can still recall watching him
in the Newburgh, NY Armory back in the mid ‘50’s when they were on their first
tour (that I know of) – even before they had an album out. There were some girls from the
Doing a
little research on Luther, I came across, this, in part:
“Luther then sat down at the kitchen table
and began to fill out the tax papers. At some point within the next hour or so,
he decided to take a break. He lit up a cigarette and went into the den and laid down on the couch. He drifted off to sleep with that
cigarette in his hand. When the burning cigarette hit the floor, the room was
filled with smoke and flames within minutes. Luther woke and attempted to flee
to the sliding glass doors which led outside, but was overcome by the smoke and
heat and collapsed on the floor.
A little before 6:00 a.m., his
little daughter Kathy found most of the den and kitchen in flames. She saw her
dad lying on the floor, propped up against the sliding glass doors, surrounded
by smoke and flames. Immediately, she went to wake Margie who called the fire
department. She was then met by a neighbor, who with Margie's help, dragged
Luther's body from the blaze that was consuming the den.
Hendersonville Fire Department
received a call about a house fire on
The Saturday night Grand Ole Opry
show had a moment of prayer for Luther before the regular show.[citation needed]
Perkins never regained
consciousness and died at the age of 40 as a result of severe burns and smoke
inhalation. He was buried on August 7 at Hendersonville Memory Gardens in Hendersonville, Tennessee. His
pallbearers were Marshall Grant, WS Holland, Roger Miller, Billy Graves, Gene
Ferguson, Charlie Dick (Patsy Cline's husband), and Johnny Cash. At the burial,
before Luther's casket was lowered into the ground, the mourners stepped back
to let Cash have a moment by himself. Tommy Cash
recalls over-hearing Johnny say, "Thank you Luther."
Yes, I agree – Thank you Luther!
The above was found here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Luther_Perkins
Here are some of the sounds that Luther was able to get from his guitar:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uexMVUsEazk&feature=related
And, to
the best of my knowledge, here is probably the only video of him singing. Note:
The volume on this video is very low, so you might want to increase the
volume on your computer.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7O0H7hqA9Vw&feature=related
Other
(non racing) news:
This might be a big waste of time and taxpayers monies, but check this out:
Republicans
want review of birthright citizenship
In part: “Leading
Republicans are joining a push to reconsider the constitutional amendment that
grants automatic citizenship to people born in the
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20100803/ap_on_go_co/us_republicans_birthright_citizenship
And:
I
think this will be another waste of time – fighting the proposed mosque that
they want to have close to “Ground Zero” in NYC. Why all the politicians are so much for this
I can’t figure out.
“The debate over a planned
Islamic community center and mosque near ground zero became a court fight
Wednesday, as a conservative advocacy group sued to try to stop a project that
has become a fulcrum for balancing religious freedom and the legacy of the
Sept. 11 attacks.
The American Center
for Law and Justice, founded by the Rev. Pat Robertson, filed suit Wednesday to
challenge a city panel's decision to let developers tear down a building to
make way for the mosque two blocks from ground zero.”
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20100805/ap_on_re_us/us_ground_zero_mosque
Is this true?:
Skipping this part this week. Will return next week.
From above (More racin’
stuff):
“If you’re a big fan of NASCAR, you might
know what these eight drivers all have in common:
Tony Stewart, Kasey Kahne, Matt Kenseth, Jeff Gordon,
Brad Keselowski, Mark Martin, Joey Logano and Brian Vickers.”
Answer: They
all won at least one Cup race in 2009, but have yet to win a Cup race in 2010
Closing with this:
Dear
Child,
I am writing this slow because I know that you can't read fast.
We don't live where we did when you left home.
Your
dad read in the paper that most accidents happen within 20 miles from your home
so we moved.
I won't be able to send you the address, as the last family that lived here
took the house numbers when they left so that they wouldn't have to change
their address.
This place is real nice. It even has a washing machine. I'm not sure if it
works too well though.
Last week I put a load in, pulled the chain, and haven't seen them since.
The weather isn't too bad here., it only rained twice
last week, The first time it rained for three days and the second time for four
days. The coat you wanted me to send you, your Uncle Steve said it would be a
little too heavy to send in the mail with the buttons on, so we cut them off
and put them in the pockets. We got another bill from the funeral home.
They said if
we don't make the last payment on Grandma's grave, up she comes. John locked
his keys in the car yesterday. We were worried because it took him two hours to
get me and Shelby out.
Your sister had a baby this morning but I haven't found out what it is yet, so
I don't know if you're an aunt or an uncle. If the baby is a girl, your sister
is going to name it after me, she's going to call it
Mom.
Uncle Pete fell in a whiskey vat last week. Some man tried to pull him out but
he fought them off and drowned. We had him cremated and he burned for three
days.
Three of your friends went off a bridge in a pick-up truck. Ralph was
driving. He rolled down the window and swam to safety. Your two friends were in
the back. They drowned because they couldn't get the tailgate down.
There isn't much more news at this time. Nothing much has happened.
PS, I was going to send you some money but the envelope was already sealed.
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