Justin Zoch's Upper Midwest Ramblings
Friday, January 20, 2006
Happy New Year to all of you and best wishes for another great season on the dirt tracks, and pavement, if we must, for 2006. The Chili Bowl has come and gone with a shocking winner in Tim McCreadie. A regular in the Dirt Late Model world and the son of Dirt Modified great Barefoot Bob McCreadie, the stock car pilot drove Steve Smith’s number 1 past names like Jay Drake, Cory Kruseman, Danny Lasoski and Steve Kinser to take the win. It was a great race that culminated a great week of racing. The only complaint from the Chili Bowl was fatigued-based. Too many cars, too many races. If that is the worst thing about an event, that has to be considered a success. What follows is a sampling of my notebook from the Chili Bowl, most of it gathered away from the racetrack and not pertaining to the Bowl itself. What more can one say about it? It’s fabulous.
News and Notes
Chuck Stowe is now managing Lucas Oil Speedway in Wheatland, Missouri, and he passed along that they hope to have a USAC Sprint Car date and also one of the major series racing at the speedway in 2006. No word on whether it will be the World of Outlaws or the NST. Photos of the beautiful raceway are online at www.lucasoilspeedway.com... There will be plenty of new faces in the Knoxville 360 division next season, including a couple of second generation racers. Bobby Thompson and Troy Parsons are each rumored to be fielding cars for their kids next season. It could make for an interesting season in the 360 class, which will lose several top runners from 2005. Jake Peters is planning to run the ASCS National tour, Dusty Zomer, Larry Ball Jr. have announced plans to move to the 410 division and Bronson Maeschen and Rager Phillips are reportedly joining them, as well. That’s five of the top 15 in the point standings…Blue Earth, Minnesota, teenager AJ Childs will be returning to the Double Barrel Sprint Car Class at Jackson, Minnesota. JP Karpowicz is the new promoter at Jackson Speedway and he announced that both Sprint classes, the 360s and the DBSCS, will remain part of the Saturday program. The B-modifieds will not be returning, however. The DBSCS will also be running at Murray County Speedway in Slayton, Minnesota, on July 3.
Johnny Parsons III and Brian Madsen have taken over promotion duties at the Steele County Fairgrounds in Owatonna, Minnesota, and are reported to be seeking an IRA date…Tony Bruce Jr. will start his season in Florida, running the ASCS opener and 410 Sprints at East Bay and Volusia. Bruce Jr. is undecided on whether he’ll make his non-wing debut with the Sprint Bandits at East Bay. The Liberal, Kansas, driver is also undecided on whether he’ll run the full ASCS tour or just hit-and-miss with his schedule…Preston Peebles II is still looking for a ride and is contemplating a move to Indiana to further his career. The Lubbock, Texas, driver hopes to return to Knoxville for the ASCS 360 Nationals and other selected runs…Mike Woodring is prepping his team for the 2006 season and is unsure whether Becca Anderson or Kenny Jacobs, or both of them, will drive the ride in Florida. He knows, however, who is racing the 360 at East Bay. Himself! Woodring will make a rare return to the cockpit for the Ronald Laney King of 360s event.
A new group in Arizona has formed the Mini Retro Racing Association and introduced a new form of open wheel racers at the Chili Bowl trade show. Twister Cars is building the spec racers, patterned after 1950s and 1960s open wheelers, and a preview is available at www.twistercars.com. Former racer Jimmy Schrum is the designer of the new cars, which hope to eventually grow to a national level…Eric Schrock drove a Midget for Midget veteran Al Murie but flipped in practice on Tuesday night. Schrock returned and led the first few laps of his heat race in his Midget debut. Murie will pilot the car at Knoxville this June…Trevor Green will team with Barry Lewis to run for the 2005 Knoxville track championship in the 410 division…Bill Stroud, famous for owning the 1S 410 Sprint at Knoxville, has been working with teen tyro Chris Windom for the past season. Stroud accompanied Windom to his first Chili Bowl, which saw Windom end his run in the I-main. A resident of Canton, Illinois, Windom will continue to pedal non-wing Sprints throughout Indiana next season. As for Stroud, he finds it easier not to attend Knoxville and relieve the temptation…Another Chili Bowl rookie was BCRA Midget Lite grad Jeff Griffin. However, this was also his Midget debut, as well. Griffin brought a Stealth/Esslinger combination. Look for Griffin to run USAC Western States and BCRA shows in 2006.
Sean McClelland hung around long-time sponsor Cloud Nine Gentlemen’s Club Booth for much of the show and talked at length about heading out onto the road with the ASCS National Tour. The Sooner Region champ is concerned about finding enough crew help to hit the road but is excited about his first trip to Florida next week…There was lots of talk in Midget circles about Knoxville’s announcement that USAC will sanction the Midget Classic on Hall of Fame weekend. To no one’s surprise, Badger and POWRi, formerly Gateway, have a co-sanctioned show at Powercom Park in Beaver Dam, Wisconsin…As for POWRi, pronounced Power-Eye, president Jim Siner regretted the name change from Gateway but complications arose with Gateway International Raceway. A new website, and schedule, is at www.powri.com...Knoxville Announcer and Speed Channel pit guy Tony Bokhoven debuted new t-shirts and a website promoting his signature call “That’s a Jim Dandy.” Check it out at www.jimdandyracing.com...Sun Prairie, Wisconsin, Midget and Sprint racer Joe Wipperfurth has returned from a tour of duty with Brian Paulus’ travelin’ team to drive Butch Dahlke’s Midget on Sunday nights at Angell Park.
Justin Parrish hopes to make a run at Knoxville 360 Rookie of the Year honors in 2006 but the deal is contingent on a sponsor agreement. He hopes to announce it shortly. Last year, the Indianola, Iowa, resident had a great season with the Invaders and qualified for a few A-mains at Knoxville…Jesse Hockett had hoped to parlay his Chili Bowl effort with Scott Benic’s team into full-time employment on the USAC trail. That ride was offered to Bud Kaeding. Hockett, meanwhile, will take the family car to Florida for 360 action next week at East Bay…Tony Stewart’s Chili Bowl foils have been well-documented by this point but it should pointed out that it was really strange to see Danny Lasoski and he in separate pit areas. For years, they had the most public of relationships and it really appeared that their friendship superseded on-track performance or off-track issues. The entire building held their collective breath as Stewart climbed from his racer on Friday night. From reports from track workers, Stewart was lacking several key pieces of safety equipment, including a neck brace and arm restraints. One would think that someone with so much to lose would at least have the standard equipment, if not extra protection. It will be interesting to see if his wild rides and injuries, albeit minor, effect his participation in other short track races. Most likely not, but we’ll see…Speaking of safety violations, Kevin Olson ran the Chili Bowl with an AJ Foyt style open faced helmet, goggles and bandana flapping in the breeze. Very clever, very funny but not very smart. KO drove Jerry Hardy’s hilariously named Jerryatric 4KO.
Robbie Ray has moved back to Iowa to seek employment in the open wheel ranks. The USAC Ford Focus champion will lose his ride in Tracy Trotter’s Midget when the All American Driver Challenge is completed in the coming months. More information on the program, which will continue next season, is available at www.allamericandriver.com. Congratulations are due to Ray on his engagement on New Year’s Eve…In other Ford Focus news from the Carolina division, National Speed Sport News employee and Midget racer Lindsey Trausch reports that she’ll return to the division next year but also passed on that the series will only be racing pavement in 2006. Several teams, like Trausch, now have the unenviable tasks of replacing their dirt/pavement combo cars with asphalt only cars, which originally were banned in the Focus division…It appears that Billy Alley will return to Knoxville’s 410 division next season in the family number 22. Alley got his first Knoxville 410 on the final night of the season…Mike Deavers will be able to stay close to home next year as he’ll run Jacksonville on Fridays and Lincoln Speedway on Saturday nights. Lincoln Speedway is reportedly going to run winged 410s on Saturdays, in lieu of the Sunday night non-wing program they ran last season. He also passed along that his friend Manny Rockhold will return to the seat of the Boles 4B in Sprint Invader action.
Harley Slotten took a wild ride in the family Midget. The up-and-coming Badger runner plans to run every USAC dirt show in 2006 as well as all the non-conflicting Badger shows…Don Rehm, president of the TBARA, was on hand for a few days before returning to Florida to toast TBARA champ Dave Steele at the banquet Saturday night. Rehm passed along that he will guide USAC’s expansion of the Focus Series in the Sunshine State this season…Ron Bernhagen of Cedar Lake Speedway was present for the Chili Bowl and passed along that the IRA will again visit for the Masters and the Jerry Richert Memorial. No National Sprint Tour date has been scheduled as yet but it appears if one of the sanctioning bodies does visit, that will be their choice….Dustin Morgan had a rough Chili Bowl, crashing the experimental Stealth car on practice night and then flipping wild leading his qualifier on Friday. Morgan is certainly on talented Oklahoman, however, and could be a star in year’s to come.
Toby Brown will not be racing much this season as he’ll head out on the road to crew for his Father-in-Law-to-be Gary Wright. Brown’s father Terry passed along that they will maintain some equipment for special shows. Congrats to Toby and Lauren…There were rumors floating of a possible Midget show in Indianola, Iowa, in late August…Tim St. Arnold and the Williams Racing Team are hoping to do some traveling before Knoxville kicks off and could head to Vegas in the early season. The team has reportedly purchased a Wolfweld Chassis for this season…Korey Rawstern was browsing the Chili Bowl and is talking about a possible return to competition this season. It has been nearly four years since Rawstern last spun wheels at Lake County or Huset’s.
That clears that notebook just in time to hit some rock shows this weekend before loading the van for a three-week trip to Florida and Speedweeks. In the meantime, keep me posted on any news that should be in this column and corrected on anything that should not have been in this column at Justin@mompub.com.
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