"Florida is the place to be..."
Once again this year, some local racers escaped the snow, sleet, and cold temperatures of Ontario in February and headed south to be part of it all, four Southern Ontario Sprints teams from 2004 among them. First on the menu for Glenn Styres, Cody Geldart, Kyle Patrick, Jack Pillon, and three time All Star Champ Chad Kemenah from Ohio in a second Styres-owned Ohsweken Speedway/Esso car, were four straight nights of 360 sprint car competition at Tampa's East Bay Raceway Park. All five cars made at least one of the four A-mains, and Kemenah put the Styres-owned car in victory lane on the Saturday night, taking the "Ronald Laney Memorial King of 360's" crown and $10,000 prize in the process.
Next on the menu were four more nights of sprint car competition at East Bay, the 410 variety this time. Three of the Ontario drivers, Styres, Pillon, and Geldart, stayed to compete in these events, both Styres and Pillon making their debuts in the ultra-high horsepower 410 sprint car division in the process. Kemenah returned to his regular mount, the familiar UUI-sponsored #15k which he has dominated All Star competition with over the past few years, and raced to a 2nd place finish in the 2004 Knoxville Nationals, and Geldart began his first full-time 410 season with his eyes on the All Star Circuit of Champions rookie of the year title. Again, all three SOS drivers made it into at least one A-Main, including Geldart who made three of the four. The phenomenal Kemenah, reinforcing the reason why he's one of my favourites, and also one of the most under-rated drivers in sprint car racing today, never finished worse than 8th, and recorded five top-5's during the 8 nights at East Bay.
Next up for the snowbird racers were six nights of 410 sprint car competition with the All Stars and World of Outlaws at the high speed Volusia Speedway Park, not far away from Daytona Beach. At this time, the Ontario contingent dropped to two as only the young Pillon, and even younger Geldart, stayed in Florida to compete. Geldart seemed to take a liking to the fast half mile as, on the first night, he timed in eighth and started on the pole of the first feature, going on to race in three of the six A-Mains, alongside such sprint car mega-stars as Steve Kinser, Sammy Swindell, Danny Lasoski, and Fred Rahmer. Pillon did not fare quite as well, but did show lots of speed and is improving every time he is on the track. The amazing Kemenah was again in fine form, recording four more top 5's, and finishing worse than 10th only once, when a crash took him out of the race.
Feature Winners during these 14 nights of dirt sprint car racing in Florida included World of Outlaw standouts Steve and Kraig Kinser from Indiana, and Danny Lasoski from Missouri, "Pennsylvania Posse" drivers Josh Wells, Fred Rahmer, and Jeff Shepard (who is actually from Maryland), All Star drivers Chad Kemenah from Ohio and Kelly Kinser from Indiana, Texas-based ASCS driver Gary Wright, Washington State driver Jason Solwold who races weekly at the famed Knoxville Raceway in Iowa, and Florida drivers Greg Leonard and Danny Martin Jr. who defended home turf during the first two nights of 360 competition at East Bay. In the four TBARA-sanctioned pavement sprint car races, Tampa driver Dave Steele took home three wins, one each at New Smyrna Speedway, Citrus County Speedway, and Desoto Super Speedway, while transplanted former New Yorker Doug Heveron took another at New Smyrna. If there was any doubt in your mind as to where to be next February, it should be gone now...
The 2005 Auto Value/Bumper to Bumper Super Sprints schedule was released on February 7th, confirming the rumours that the tour will race at three Ontario tracks this coming season. Along with the May 20th date at Delaware Speedway near London, the pavement-only winged 410 sprint car tour will also come to Ontario in August, with dates scheduled for Friday night, August 26th at Kawartha Speedway near Peterborough, and Saturday night, August 27th at the historic Flamboro Speedway just outside of Hamilton. The Flamboro event will also feature the Lucas Oil Can-Am Midgets, creating a great night of racing for the area open wheel fans. It will be interesting to see how much further the Flamboro track record can be lowered from the 13.89 second mark, which Rick Baker set the first and only time that the AVSS raced at Flamboro in 2002.
Theoretically, in my mind, a lap around 13.50 could be possible depending on weather conditions, which would be lightning fast around the tight, paper clip-shaped 1/3 mile. It will also be interesting to compare the lap times of the ISMA Supermodifieds to those of the AVSS sprint cars at Kawartha. The Supers do not time trial and therefore don't get to do any "banzai" qualifying runs, and also run a harder tire to accommodate longer distance races, and therefore are not as fast as the sprint cars early in the night at most tracks where both have run, however the lap times of the sprint cars usually fall off midway through their features, while the Supers are generally faster over the course of an evening.
This of course leads back to my idea of running a race comprised of half sprint cars and half Supermodifieds, which I will probably go into in more detail come June when the AVSS and ISMA cars run the annual "World's Fastest Short Track Show" doubleheader at Toledo Speedway. I think it would be neat to take the top 12 from each feature and start them heads up against each other in another 40 lap feature - 40 laps because it's halfway between the 50 lap distance which the ISMA cars run at Toledo, and the 30 lap distance that the sprinters run. It would almost be sort of a "throwback" race because, in "the good old days" before Supers got really radical in the 1970's, sprint cars and Supers ran side by side in the same events virtually everywhere. In fact, before roll cages became a standard item on sprint cars, the determining factor between the two was whether the car had a roll cage or not, and many sprint car teams used bolt-on cages in order to use their car in Supermodified events.
In other AVSS news of note to Canadian fans, Mount Brydges, Ontario driver Mike Ling will be back on the tour this season, this time in the Mike Katz-owned #20, which Tommy Fedewa raced to the 2003 AVSS Championship. Ling and the Katz team will be a threat to win each night out, and are sure to be very strong contenders for the season championship. As mentioned last month, Tommy Fedewa, cousin of NASCAR Busch Series driver Tim, will be back in the AVSS this season after a one year hiatus, taking over the famous #42 from his father Gary, who retired last fall after a long and distinguished career.
Two AVSS regulars, "Hurryin" Hank Lower and Troy Underwood, raced with the TBARA 360 pavement sprinters during Florida Speedweeks. Shane Butler, the Bushnell, Florida driver who came north to race with AVSS last season and took home rookie of the year honours, was also in attendance, along with his brother Keith, their legendary father Stan, who is a member of the Little 500 Hall of Fame, as well as such well known open wheel racers as the Reutimanns, both Wayne Sr. and Jr., Doug Heveron, a 2 time Oswego Speedway Supermodified track champion and 2-time Oswego Classic winner, and Dave Steele, who has won nearly everything there is to win in USAC competition, including the 2004 Silver Crown championship.
At times, I have - Egad! - been known to take interest in local fendered racing, and, on rare occasions, even editorialize on the topic. Even a diehard open-wheel guy like me has to take an interest in, and be a little bit excited about, what is going on with pavement late model racing here in Ontario. For the first time in recent memory, if ever, area asphalt tracks are working together instead of against each other, and late model rules are being standardized across the board. The motivating factor for this radical, and long overdue, change in mentality around here is the "Lucas Oil Weekend Warrior Series", which will offer two conferences of competition across the province, with a $51,000 cash point fund rewarding the top twenty drivers in each conference, in addition to the individual home track point funds. Seven tracks will take part in the inaugural year of the series, and more could and probably will be added in 2006. Kawartha Speedway, Flamboro Speedway, and Delaware Speedway will make up one conference, running a Late Model Sportsman class, while Sunset Speedway, Barrie Speedway, Peterborough Speedway, and Mosport Speedway will make up the other, running a Limited Late Model class. Excitement over this is evident, as no fewer than 28 Late Models are already registered for 2005 competition at Flamboro.
The cars and rules to be used are similar to those of the ALSTAR group which calls Sauble Speedway its home, and can also serve as starting points for advancement to the ACT divisions which have become very popular in Quebec over the past few years, while the CASCAR Sportsman type cars which have run at Delaware in the past will be phased out over the next year or so.
While none of this has any direct impact on the open wheel community, healthier more viable short tracks are in everyone's best interests, including those of the open wheel community. More healthy tracks mean more places for us to race too, as evidenced by Flamboro and Delaware reappearing on the AVSS schedule for the first time in three years, and Kawartha's addition as a tour stop for the first time ever. The last two years have been very lean years in terms of pavement open wheel racing in Ontario - the ISMA Supermodifieds raced only once in Ontario in each of the last two seasons, while the AVSS has not raced in Ontario since 2002. 2002, incidentally, featured four ISMA races and two AVSS races in Ontario. To go from six major pavement open wheel races in one year to one in each of the next two years was quite a shock, however it appears that things are back on the rise again this year, with three AVSS races scheduled, along with at least one, and a good possibility of two, ISMA races on the schedule as well.
The level of competition and quality of equipment in the Southern Ontario Sprints club continues to improve over the off season: Tim Phillips is really ramping up his efforts for a run at the SOS Championship and has a brand new J&J chassis, and Les McMillan ordered a brand new Eagle chassis back in the fall, while Dick Mahoney, Paul Ballantyne, "Little" Gary Evans, Stephanie Christiano, and Daryl Turford will all be running newer chassis next season. Mahoney's is a Maxim kit purchased from former URC Champion Dave Ely, Ballantyne's new frame comes from USAC and All Star standout Bill Rose, Evans' is a newer Maxim frame, Christiano has a 2003 J&J, and Turford's new mount is an ex-Fred Rahmer J&J. Turford also has a newer engine and plans to run some races in the US with the other local 360 clubs when time allows. Former champ Glenn Styres also has a lot of new equipment, and long-time SOS driver Jim Porter will be returning to the club with a former Styres engine, after running only briefly last season. Dick Mahoney and Tim Phillips also have great new websites. Mahoney's is www.DickMahoney.com and Phillips' is www.tpr.teamhyper.net.
Once again this year, there will be a large crop of rookies in the SOS, including former Hurricane Midget racer James Whitaker in the #8 - Phil Armishaw's old ride - as well as Chatham area driver Jeff Daniels, who has a 2001 J&J, Brian Lee who has purchased the former Al Gaukel #99, John Watson, who competed briefly last year before engine woes sidelined him, and Chad Geldart, younger brother of 2004 SOS champ Cody, is rumoured to be beginning his sprint car racing career sometime mid-season.
"Odds n' Ends"
....For the past two columns I have neglected to mention that "Togo's Corner" is now featured on Ty Linton's www.BigRightRear.com. Ty does a great job on the site and has news, results, columns, and photos from all over the place, even the Australia/New Zealand Sprint Car scene, and he's also the webmaster, and an excellent one at that, for a certain Ryan Litt, whose name seems to pop up in this column quite often....
....Speaking of Mr. Litt, his second race at the Southern Illinois Centre - the new DuQuoin, Illinois indoor dirt racing facility - this past weekend did not go as planned unfortunately, as the Lyons, Ontario racer was involved in an incident in his heat race which resulted in a broken part in the steering box on the Eddie Griffith owned #41 USAC Ford Focus Midget. There were no replacements available in short order, so the car was done for the day. Even with the disappointment at the end, the winter indoor season has still been a good one for Ryan, as Sunday's DNF was the only event in which the Canadian teenager finished out of the top six. In fact, if you ignore the rather questionable 2-lap penalty which USAC imposed on him at Fort Wayne back in December, Ryan finished 3rd, 2nd, and 4th in the three features he was able to compete in this winter....
...Another sprint car race was recently added to the Ohsweken Speedway schedule. On May 6, the Patriot Sprint Group invades "the medium-sized O"....Sorry Glenn, Clinton, and Adam, but in my mind, there is only one "Big O", and that is The Steel Palace - Oswego Speedway...
Well, that is finally all for now. I really should do this more often so I can keep these a little bit shorter, eh? Until next time, I can be reached via the e-mail link on my website (www.TheRaceChasers.com), or on the brand new "Togo's Corner" message board at www.InsideCanadianRacing.com, where any comments, questions, suggestions, or discussion of topics discussed in these columns are more than welcome! To leave everybody with a pleasant thought, although it is hard to believe as I sit here watching the snow fall again for the 6th day out of the last 8 or so, there are only 22 days until the first official day of Spring! Racing season is just around the corner!