6/8/2011
Eckert's Blog: Punished in Pennsylvania
By Kevin Eckert
June 6, 2011 Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania: Peeling off I-376 on Second Avenue brought me face to face with a Legends of Pittsburgh mural depicting 14 stars of baseball past. As a former Pirates fan, I recognized Roberto Clemente, Josh Gibson and my favorite slugger as a kid, Willie Stargell. As an alleged adult now, my favorite songwriter has become James McMurtry, who played a free Monday night concert at the Three Rivers Arts Festival. Exiting this Quaker State on a high musical note sure helped soothe the burn of another weak Eastern Storm.
For a fifth straight year, USAC sprint car races lured me back to the mother land. I should have known better because with the shining exception of New Egypt, these tracks are never going to create my kind of surface because they insist on squeezing and sealing with 20-ton trucks. CRA addressed this flawed philosophy in 1992 when the first two stops were packed to powder and Lealand McSpadden convinced Alan Kreitzer to leave the last one loose and wet. Four wheels in the fluff, Lealand romped on that epic evening at Susquehanna, which remains Pennsylvania’s best wingless sprint car race since Paul Pitzer passed Sheldon Kinser on the last lap of the Reading Fairgrounds in ‘79.
Yes, I should know better. But for the past two years, tweaks in the USAC Eastern Storm schedule proved irresistible. Last season, New Egypt was the wild card and did not disappoint. This year, curiosity seekers such as me were most intrigued by the idea of wingless sprints sliding around fabled old Port Royal. Unfortunately, the first traditional sprint race at The Port since Earl Halaquist won without a cage in 1967 was cancelled four hours before historic hot laps. Since my 2250-mile odyssey opened with four rain outs in two nights, perhaps I should see dusty dirt races as a gift horse.
As always, my best plan for the Indianapolis 500 is to get as far away from it as physically possible. What on earth is a Bertrand Baguette and can I get one toasted? Before fleeing of course, there were a few more local rain outs to deal at the Tony Hulman USAC Classic at Terre Haute followed by Friday jaunt to either Bloomington or Gas City. All three rained out. The Indiana State Fairgrounds has a fine grandstand but no race track. The day before the Night Before The 500 also dawned dreary. Lawrenceburg and Putnamville did race but I wished to get closer to Monday’s destination northeast of Pittsburgh.
I almost forgot about Waynesfield. The quarter-mile bowl in western Ohio has been open a few years by alternating sprint races with and without wings. Each of my prospective visits had been thwarted by foul weather. Memorial weekend brought ASCS Sprints on Dirt to battle NRA. Hoping to add a new track, I left Indianapolis to meander 160 miles under blue sky. But soon as I arrived at Waynesfield Raceway Park, so did the rain. I did not wait for a club decision and hit I-75 north since my second piece of uncharted territory was in Erie. A chunk of Ohio Turnpike took me right past Fremont All Stars. Why not stop? Well, because it too rained out, or was postponed to the next night. Wanting to wake on the lake, I got as close as Perry, Ohio.
Sunday was picture perfect on Lake Erie. I pierced Pennsylvania on West Lake Road and spotted Jimmy Light’s sprint car, so I turned around to jaw with the driver who badly wants to return to Indiana wingless action. Until then, Light will race at Lernerville, Mercer and Sunday specials like Tri-City Speedway, which he clued me in on when I visited his Horsepower headquarters. Such info would prove prudent.
I had all day to explore Erie before Sunday night’s Patriot program at Eriez Speedway. Speaking of heroes, my football idol was Fred Biletnikoff, who proved that even a slow white man can become a Hall of Fame catcher of footballs if he worked hard and coated himself with glue. Fred is from Erie, so I found the Central High School field in his name. All-American at Florida State during the height of the AFL-NFL bidding war, Biletnikoff was signed by the Oakland Raiders on the field of the 1964 Gator Bowl after his 13 catches helped defeat Oklahoma.
Along the Presque Isle Bay, I found the Sloppy Duck for perch as the Indy 500 played above the bar. Back slaps to Dan Wheldon crewman Mark Shambarger, an ’87 All Star champion with Joe Gaerte. Erie holds a small place in All Star history by providing a leg of Bud Miller’s inaugural 1970 series and another in Bert Emick’s 1981 resurrection of the club. In that first race, Lee Osborne (Russ Ruppert 17) beat Lou Blaney and Jan Opperman while Smokey Snellbaker (Maynard Boop 1) won the second one. Memorial weekend was traditionally when Empire Super Sprints visited Stateline Speedway in Jamestown, New York and Erie, dates that are now part of the Patriot calendar. It is interesting that Patriots chose to drop ASCS as parent company in 2011.
Eriez Speedway is east of town in Hammet. It is a fairly non-descript dry 3/8th mile with very moderate bank and a concrete wall. Hot laps were as good as the surface would get and when a steamroller appeared, I knew the New York border had to be close.
George Suprick, surprise Western World competitor in Tucson last fall, broke a rocker arm winning the first Erie heat. Dave Wickham finished fourth in the 1981 Erie All Star race and returned with Patriots in 2011 still carrying National Parts Peddler sponsorship. Stateline winner on the previous evening, “The Juice” Jared Zimbardi put four wheels upstairs to win his heat over Michigan’s Dain Naida, who was in the Ohsweken Speedway 07 of Mason Hill.
It was nice to see Gary’s Motor Mart adorn a Number Five sprint car as Gary Wasson’s son Vern brought a car for Dylan Proctor and another for himself. Gary’s Motor Mart fielded the Trevis Crafts that carried Mitch Smith and Snellbaker to enormous success. The third and final Eriez heat was a crash fest that eliminated Brad Knab, married to Mike’s sister Kristen Woodring. One week earlier, Mike Woodring was part of a Patriot win at Woodhull by Chuck Hebing but this week, the roving wrench was in Knoxville with Brooke Tatnell.
Waiting out the other classes (Eriez has what I would call winged dune buggies) with the first in a long line of Yuengling beer, I glanced north to see dark clouds rolling off the Great Lake. Rain had already been reported in Fremont, which is not far from Erie as storms go. Again, as soon as it started to rain, I did not wait for any official decision. I beat feet south for Tri-City. Rain pelted me for most of the 50 miles. Detours in Titusville turned me around and by the time I hit Dempseytown, rigs were spilling out. Miraculously, they managed to complete the sprint feature before the storm. Bob Felmlee had 3000 reasons to be happy about that. Bob’s win would have marked my first Tri-City appearance since an All Star show in 1986. Eriez indeed rained out and will run the May 29 feature before a full Patriot program on July 3.
Memorial Day featured a parade that I avoided in Tarentum on my way to Lernerville Speedway. I found some hard core travelers who had driven in from Kokomo and Chris Windom’s upset victory in the postponed Little 500. Tracy Hines, Kevin Thomas Jr, Justin Grant, Dave Darland and Casey Shuman were at Lernerville on Monday after finishing Top Ten at Kokomo on Sunday night. Super fans Bob Clauson, Andrew Quinn and Aero Lehman were also light on sleep.
USAC could lay claim to an impressive 22 cars driven by Robert Ballou, Keith Bloom, Bryan Clauson, Daron Clayton, Darland, Bobby East, Blake Fitzpatrick, Damion Gardner, Grant, Coleman Gulick, Jonathan Hendrick, Hines, J.J Hughes, Levi Jones, Wes McIntyre, Kyle Robbins, Hunter Schuerenberg, Shuman, Jake Simmons, Jon Stanbrough, Thomas and Windom. They were joined by Texas veteran Travis Rilat, New Jersey’s Mark Bitner, Kevin Frey’s car steered by Steve Storrie, Berks County duo of Tracy Readinger and J.R Berry, 358 racer Kyle Moody and All Star follower Pete Miller III. Jack Sodeman Jr. and Daryl Stimeling finished Top Ten at Tri-City on Sunday before removing wings as did Gale Ruth and Jimmy Light.
Soon as the first heat began, Clauson looked for traction off the second turn rim, spun his wheels and watched Darland beat him to turn three. Dave however, carried so much speed that he drilled Hendrick in the left rear wheel and sent Jonathan flipping down the hill. Hendrick would miss Grandview while a local welder got him ready for Lincoln.
Levi Jones, a Tri-State MSCS competitor for Jack Rogers on Sunday, was back in Tony Stewart steel at Lernerville on Monday when he won the first heat with a last lap pass of Bloom. Though the top groove was gone for the most part, heats were pretty good. I watched them with Roger McCluskey Jr, who wheeled the USAC souvenir trailer. Stanbrough showed his slick track skills by winning heat two. In taking the third heat, Gulick showed that the south rim could be used.
As it did during the previous USAC visit in 2006, Lernerville disappointed again. Enjoyment is predicated on anticipation. Since some of the greatest races in my life have been staged at Lernerville, I know what is possible here. If wingless fans could get a surface half as wet as the World of Outlaws, USAC could be staggeringly good. Shaded turn three and especially turn four did keep a top groove; one and two did not. Gulick chased it anyway. But until he began cutting down the hill, Coleman could not gain on Stanbrough, who started pole, never left the bottom of the south end, hit the middle and caught the cushion out of four. Jon led all 40. There were some decent dices deeper in the Top Five but rim riding largely looked foolish.
Scenic as a Tuesday ride across Pennsylvania’s mountains might have been, it would not have allowed ample time to Grandview, so my strategy was to get much of the 300 miles done after the Lernerville checkered. I caught the despicable turnpike in New Kensington and exited in Carlisle after 188 miles and a 14-dollar toll. Napping at one of the many truck stops at I-76 and I-81 (WoO base for The Grove), I woke at dawn to drive to Allentown to nap some more. On the short jaunt to Bechtelsville, yummy Yocco’s Doggie Shop formed my dinner menu.
Grandview is always more enjoyable for the social scene than what happens on the track. Do people ever pass on the outside here? Or do they all hug the bottom, beat people down the front and force them wide? To arrive at Grandview early is to get excited at the sucking sound. But heavy trucks circle and circle and circle until hot laps can throw no mud. Dust rolls across the groove immediately. Bob Miller should know better. I am again in the minority because everyone else seemed to enjoy Tuesday’s racing. “Well, it was pretty good for Grandview,” they said. Sorry but I don’t set the bar so low.
USAC sprints paired with ARDC midgets is truly Thunder on the Hill. But not even Steve Buckwalter’s thread-the-needle split of Tim Buckwalter and Milford, New Jersey’s Nick Wean on lap 12 of 25 could make Grandview an ARDC highlight. In the middle of a career year in winged 410 sprint cars, Steve Buckwalter is anxiously awaiting another Indiana Midget Week to see if his Ott Elite can beat USAC again.
Tutored as a teen by George Suprick, Binghampton, New York’s Gulick set a Grandview record of 13.76 wrenched by Brian Cripe, a Goodnight crewman to Darland last year. Stanbrough and Jones won USAC heats for a second straight night. Jon’s crewman Steve Fox remembered visiting Grandview with Kenny Jacobs and Scott Gerkin, the Foxco crew chief before joining the Kinsers in 1988. Fox did not remember the year so I helped him out. It was 1986 and Jacobs finished second to Don Kreitz. I was there.
Last year’s Grandview winner, Levi Jones set the pace upstairs but the rim would not prove the winning path. Making many fans here in 2009, Clayton got them excited by closing on Levi in the first five laps before Daron’s first of three A-main spins, all in turn four. Stanbrough almost spun there too and got straightened by Ballou.
Bobby East, committed to USAC Midget and Silver Crown calendars but not necessarily to the entire sprint trail, traveled to Pennsylvania, found the bottom to his liking, took the lead after lap 25 of 40, and won the Jesse Hockett Classic and $6000. Grandview marked the first dirt victory in the brief USAC sprint car career of young East. He edged Windom and Ballou, who showed rare patience down low. The smell of burning rubber hung after the checkered.
More serious fans joined the festivities on the hill. Schenectady, New York’s John Koss brought his motor home by way of two nights at Selinsgrove plus Monday in Minersville. He requested music but in the dark, some drunk (me) did damage the sub woofer. Thanks to Dale and Brenda from Maryland for slumber space.
Again waking around dawn (old guys with bad backs and full bladders get up early), I headed west on 562 through Reading and south on 897 mysteriously drawn to the Shady Maple smorgasbord for a sumptuous Amish breakfast. Did you know Mennonite girls are allowed to paint their toes? I also saw a buggy with battery-powered turn signals. Wednesday was my first brush with corned beef hash.
One lesson learned during a lifetime of traversing the backwoods is that there are damn few bridges. You can wander all you want but if there’s a big river, you need to plan accordingly. I used a library in Lititz, looped around Lancaster and needed 30 to cross the Susquehanna at Hallam, home to The Free Bird, Bobby Weaver. Rain was hard but brief. It had struck Lincoln Speedway earlier. Rush hour in York was murder.
I like Lincoln. As with Lernerville, Lincoln has shown me excellence. That was true when the World of Outlaws blew through in 1984 and it was true during Keystone Cup 2010. But for the second straight year, dirt doctor Fred Putney provided USAC a lifeless surface that tore tires. Instead of being ashamed of last year’s track, Lincoln laid down an even worse surface for this year’s USAC event.
Drivers were so intent to get as low as possible that at least three times, second or third-place climbed first or second-place in the first turn. Lapped at Lernerville, Travis Rilat led polesitter Keith Bloom and Damion Gardner through the first two laps before Damion got too low in one and set off a nine-car mess. Windom was mad about it and would tell Gardner so. In his heat, Demon’s right rear launched track champ Brian Montieth, who unfortunately returned to flip pretty hard. Jeff Walker’s new driver Kevin Thomas Jr. got into Stanbrough and spun. Kevin was mad enough to get in Jon’s face. Winning his third heat in as many nights, Stanbrough then got into Rilat and popped the leader’s left rear tire. Low groove parades produce such anger. Inheriting the lead was Levi, who lowered his own record to 15.65 and defended the bottom for his second straight Lincoln USAC success. Clayton again spun the twitchy Dynamics device, again in turn four.
Bryan Clauson, who got to live the dream of driving around the Indianapolis Motor Speedway by day and Indiana dirt tracks by night (when he wasn’t rained out), made a middle groove pass of Hines for second in turn three with ten to go. Coming to the white flag, Bryan tried the same move on Levi. It almost worked. But he hung with no trace of traction and Jones defeated his Silver Crown stable mate. Schuerenberg (row eight), Hines (row seven) and Bitner (row nine) filled the Top Five followed by Brent Marks (row eleven), Stanbrough from last, Ballou (row ten), East and Kyle Moody from dead last.
Second in the Big Diamond ARDC midget meet on Monday, Tim Buckwalter boarded a winged 600cc micro sprint to finish second behind Wednesday’s winner at Lincoln, Ryan Greth.
Diddy of Manchester gave me a Lincoln bed in his tag along trailer. Thursday took me back across the Susquehanna River down 896 to 372 east to West Chester, where I crossed the Delaware into New Jersey on the Commodore Barry Bridge, evoking fond memories of many such trips to Bridgeport with father. I peeled off of I-295 on 70 at Cherry Hill to 539 through Fort Dix to New Egypt Speedway. NHRA in Englishtown brought Nazareth native Joe Barlam to visit Frank Cozze.
Last year, New Egypt’s nice cushion saved USAC Eastern Storm from being a complete dust bust. This year, sun and stiff wind robbed the Garden State dirt of much moisture. Unlike the PA promoters however, New Egypt’s Danny Serrano does care. He had his half-mile ripped and watered after qualifying and again before the A-main. However, the laps that USAC spent running it back in would cause several to run dry of fuel before 40 laps. Buying an extra ten laps is another silly eastern idea.
Fewer cars made for one less heat but demanded full eight-car inversion. On the opening lap of the opening heat races, 17.28 fast qualifier Hunter Schuerenberg and second quick Blake Fitzpatrick each circled five cars right away. Three heats and meaningless B-main went with no yellows.
Like at Lernerville, Stanbrough started front row and seemed destined to lead every lap. Clauson was solidly second until he ran out of fuel. Bloom sat third until he too ran dry. Taking the white flag, Stanbrough was on the second corner cushion when he starved for juice and pulled the nose into the fence. Jon kept going, scuffed the barrier again and spun to a stop. Ballou again dragged the bottom to nearly steal the win from Schuerenberg, wrenched by Hank Byram and local New Egypt product Anthony Knighton.
Friday featured no racing plans. There were the 410 and 360 show at Williams Grove or double 358 features at Trail-Way, neither of which sounded as appealing as Chinese food with Oma and Opa. I rolled north from New Egypt to Princeton and back to the Delaware River at Milford, my first home. I drive down Hillcrest and Fairview once per year to remind of my roots. Good thing that I did not go to The Grove’s tire-eating joke or I might have had a handful of pink hair.
Saturday set out from Allentown to Port Royal by way of 309 to 209 past the Yuengling factory in Pottsville through Tower City, home to Zemco Speed Equipment and the much larger Zemco Tool & Die. As per my river rule, I hoped to hop a ferry across the Susquehanna at Millersburg but it was awaiting inspection, so I had to punt. It was about this time that Aero called to say The Port pulled the plug around three o’clock. Port Royal never wanted this date but USAC did, so the club shared in the promotion. But along with the prospect of profit (Bob Miller made money again at New Egypt) is the risk of loss. USAC cut their losses with an early jump home to Indiana.
When word came of Port Royal’s ruination, my first instinct was to leave Pennsylvania immediately for Kokomo to cleanse myself. It was the same feeling as Eastern Storm 2009 when I stuck around for Mercer and got kicked in the nuts by another horrendous surface. This time, I stayed to see All Stars at Clinton County Speedway, a track I had not seen for eight years.
Saturday’s sun was shining in Port Royal as I dined behind turn one at McBarney’s, where the walls are adorned with vintage race photos. There’s nothing like a shot of Jay Myers sitting on a winning Firestone beneath a black top hat to bring a smile. I could have bolted for Selinsgrove or Lincoln but the former would lose their feature while the latter had to weather three rain delays before Brian Montieth could win the Weldon Sterner Memorial. I took a look at Keith Kauffman’s Mifflintown and camped in Lewistown for data processing. There is never more work than a holiday weekend when I am traveling, which is why I missed a column last week.
Vern Wasson was understandably nervous about biting off a big All Star purse for his tiny Clinton County Speedway. But the haughty Pennsylvania fans filled Mackeyville for the track’s greatest collection of talent ever: Dewease, Rahmer, Blaney, Pittman, Hodnett, Layton, Hafertepe, Tim Shaffer, Tyler Walker, Stevie Smith and Mark Smith among the 32 cars. The hope was for Saturday rain to improve moisture on Sunday but despite a few rough veins, hot laps raised blinding dust. Since official timing had never occurred here, 14.19 by Greg Hodnett was an automatic track record.
Dick Rauser and Keith Barto saved me a seat in the packed bleachers for All Star heat races, which none of us could see. In the first one, Tyler Walker was involved in two spins and one flip (his own self-inflicted calamity) before a single lap. Alan Cole and Bonnie Elam’s brother Bob Howard won heats for the home team.
Doubling as announcer, Wasson assured angry fans that his track would be regroomed after heat races. I doubted he could bring it back, tried to think of a reason to stay, and failed. After five rainouts and four tepid programs, I could take no more. I’m too old to tolerate this bullshit. Jessica Zemken and Tyler Swank followed me out the door. From the front row, Dewease and Justin Henderson would finish first and second.
I drove to State College, washed Clinton County down the shower drain, cracked a cold Yuengling and performed more clerical duties while Miami defeated Dallas in Game Three of the NBA finals. Monday morning carried me away from Nittany Lions on 26 to 45 to Altoona and west on 22 to Pittsburgh for the music to make me happy.
But don’t cry for the last angry man because Indiana Midget Week (scene of the best racing of 2010) starts tonight at Gas City. As soon as I post this, that is where I will be. Text me at (317) 607.7841 or e-mail Kevin@sprintcarstats.com.
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Article Credit: Kevin Eckert