Justin Zoch's Upper Midwest Ramblings
Tuesday, September 20, 2005
Craig Cormack might as well sign over the lease because it’s official. Steve Kinser owns Eagle Raceway. The King went basically unchallenged at the 1/3 Mile Short Track Nationals over the weekend, sweeping both nights in September, just as he did in June. Steve’s stats are again staggering as he’s won 25 of the 72 WoO shows he’s entered, which means he batting right around the 350 mark. Oh, yeah, and he’s 51. Once Steve disposed of Joey Saldana and Donny Schatz on Friday night to take the lead, there was not much left to write about in terms of racing for the lead. Kinser led all 40 laps on Saturday night, although Saldana remained within earshot for much of it. There was, however, plenty of talk to fill the notebooks.
News and Notes
Naturally, all of the talk surrounded the pending split of the World of Outlaws for 2006. While rumors swirled throughout the weekend, Dirt Motorsports confirmed them by announcing the first five loyalists early this week. Donny Schatz, Craig Dollansky, Brooke Tatnell, Terry McCarl and Daryn Pittman have signed with the World of Outlaws for next season while the rest are either undecided or committed to the new group. The offshoot, reportedly the National Sprintcar League, is still in the formation stages but has the support of most of the teams, including perhaps the biggest pawns: Steve Kinser Racing, Tony Stewart Motorsports and Danny Lasoski and the surging Jason Meyers. The split siphons the top ten in points roughly down the middle. This will certainly usher in a new era in Sprint Car racing. The race will be on to secure race dates and tracks for 2006. The new group could have influence, with Richard Petty’s involvement with Barry Graham and their Driving Experience, to get Sprint Cars back to NASCAR venues in Dallas, Charlotte and elsewhere and one has to figure they are a lock at Eldora with Tony Stewart’s support. The PRI Trade Show might actually be fun this winter.
It was chic to race the Friday night show with a broken paw as Brooke Tatnell continued to race with a broken right hand, suffered when a rock smashed it while ripping a tearoff at Calistoga. Meanwhile, Jac Haudenschild was also sporting a broken wrist. Lil’ Jac suffered his injury in true outlaw fashion – by falling off a mechanical bull. Dennis Roth sent him home to recover after the Friday night show and hired former employee Brian Brown to drive Saturday night. Brown worked for Roth during uncle Danny Lasoski’s reign in the cockpit in the late 1990s. Rumor has it Roth sold his business to Cargill and there was no word on how this will affect the racing team(s)…Tim Kaeding is also rumored to be partnering with Kasey Kahne for 2006…A former Kasey Kahne employee, Jesse Hockett, debuted a new graphics scheme at Eagle. Hockett is hoping the slick silver design, which borrows heavily from Tyler Walker’s silver scheme, will help him in his sponsor search. He narrowly missed the A-main each night. Hockett’s father, Jack, has returned to the cockpit lately and scored two heat wins over Labor Day at Lake Ozark Speedway…Billy Alley was fighting off reports that his new team will feature big money from Canada, rumored to be coming from Eldorado Logistics, and that Tyler Swank will be his crew chief. Nothing was substantiated but an announcement could be forthcoming...Swank passed along that he and Ricky Logan each parted ways with the VanderEcken 10 team following the team’s win at Bethany, Missouri on Labor Day weekend. No word on Logan’s plans for next year or Vanderecken’s.
Dennis Moore Jr. continued to help Colin Northway, who ran well before getting upside down in the Saturday A-main. Moore returned to the cockpit at the Gold Cup and will continue to make starts in Morrie Williams’ 0 through the end of the season. That includes the Fall Nationals at Chico, the World of Outlaws at Vegas and the Trophy Cup. Moore said things are still unsettled in the Williams stable for 2006. Williams will run two cars for Moore and Jonathan Allard through the end of the season, at least…Ryan Anderson will return to the 410 ranks at Knoxville in 2006 and could be a contender to crack the top ten on a regular basis…Terry McCarl has quietly put together a strong second half of the season and could finish as high as eighth in points by season’s end. Considering McCarl’s shaky start to the season, this would be a fantastic finish and should silence the naysayers but it probably won’t. A win by season’s end would really cap the season. Perhaps at Jackson, where he finished third between Steve and Kraig last September.
Mike Chadd’s engine had 30 nights on it when he headed out onto the raceway for the Friday night 360 show. Chadd blew his other engine in April at McCool Junction and finished out the season with this workhorse. Things didn’t go well as he wadded the car badly in a turn one pileup. Chadd will again travel to Florida in February, most likely with a new Maxim. Chadd’s accident was one of several, causing the A-main to be checkered after just a handful of laps due to the time limit. Doug Lovegrove prevailed for his first career Eagle win…Mike Woodruff has taken over the seat of Larry Haneborg’s Coors Light racer as Geoff Dodge moved on to the Infiniti Pro Series after winning the inaugural Fast Track to Indy program at the Knoxville Nationals. Dodge has passed his test and should be making starts in the series in 2006. He is still seeking Sprint Car opportunities and can be reached at geoff16d@hotmail.com…Toby Chapman, who won the Nebraska Cup for Gary Swenson, sat in again for the injured Chris Roseland. Things didn’t go well as Chapman tangled twice with Terry Holliman, while lining up for the heat race. I’ll refrain from assigning blame as I didn’t see the accidents but it is hard to imagine that both were from ‘incidental’ contact…Classy move by Jay Jordan to plaster his wing with the Red Cross logo and 888-Help-Now number. Jordan, who got his first career win earlier this season, finished seventh…The annual Racer’s Autograph Day will be on Saturday, April 1, in Lincoln, Nebraska. It’s a great event which helps teams and tracks promote themselves to the community right before the season starts.
Duane Olson was a surprise visitor from Superior, Wisconsin. Olsen continues to make strides in his Sprint Car career and will follow the Outlaws to Jackson and Powercom and possibly KC Raceway. Olson travels with an open trailer, sparse spares and actually raced on an honest-to-goodness McCreary tire at Eagle…Eagle Raceway promoter Craig Cormack knows that a race has to be more than event and hiring Soul Dawg to play before and after the Saturday show goes a long way towards that end.
Tidbits
Bryn Gohn, the teenage stepson of Kenny Adams, will reportedly be running the new USAC Silver Crown Series in 2006. Red Stauffer is also rumored to involved in the team. Gohn has been racing with Adams on the USCS tour this year and is fourth in points with one win, coming at Fayetteville in July. Adams currently leads the series points over Danny Martin Jr…The Knoxville Raceway banquet will be on Saturday, November 19, at Adventureland in Altoona, Iowa. Tickets are available at the ticket office, which can be reached at www.knoxvilleraceway.com…I was filled in on Russell Wiese’s progress in the 360 division at Jackson while attending Eagle. Wiese was a first year racer that jumped straight into the 360s and, despite two hard crashes, progressed nicely by year’s end. He’ll practice one more time at Jackson this season while gearing up for his sophomore season…Dave Darland had a real bridesmaid of a weekend, finishing second three straight races. He followed Jon Stanbrough at Bloomington, Kent Christian at Putnamville and Brad Sweet on Sunday…Congrats to Chad Kemenah on securing his fourth straight All Star title with his tenth place finish at Lawrenceburg on Saturday night.
“I'm goin' to Jackson/I'm gonna mess around/Yeah, I'm goin' to Jackson/Look out Jackson town.” In the words of Johnny and June from the Folsom Prison concert, that’s the agenda for this weekend. The Outlaws at Jackson on Friday, Park Jefferson’s open 360s and non-wing special on Saturday and Cheater’s Day on Sunday afternoon. No sense in planning drive time around watching the Minnesota Vikings any longer. In the meantime, keep me in the know and get your tidbits posted by e-mailing Justin@mompub.com.
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