August 2004 - Inside Line Column - by Floyd Busby

He finally did it! Thomas Meseraull, who was probably getting
a bit peeved at me for calling him the perpetual bridesmaid, finally
came through with his first Midget win after six second-place
finishes. Thomas did the deed with a spirited win at the Stockton
"99" Speedway on July 17, celebrating with a 360-degree burnout in
front of the grandstands before pulling up to the finish line. At
Santa Maria on August 7 he came through with his seventh second-place
outing.

At the Twin Cities Speedway in Marysville on the 31st of July
the BCRA Midgets produced what may be a record for running a 30 lap
main event. It took somewhere in the neighborhood of 130-plus laps
before finally calling the race while the cars circled the
quarter-mile clay oval upon completing 24-laps. With eleven caution
periods along the way, that's nearly twelve yellow laps for each
green racing lap! Why the marathon? Yes, there were ruts in the
track, as can be the case with most any dirt oval. I'd have to say
that it was primarily because of extremely intensive wheel-to-wheel
racing and perhaps some brain-fade on the part of some
competitors.....I'm sure that I will hear about that statement!
During the course of the feature two drivers were sent to the rear
during yellow periods by referee Tom Manning for rough driving.
On the up side, many of the fans came to the pits following
the evening's races with mostly positive comments. Some asked when
the Midgets would return, stating that they were very impressed with
the intensity of the racing. Also, promoter Clyde Tipton spoke
afterward of possibly two Midget races at his facility next season.
The Midget Lites, a regular venue at Marysville, were also on
hand, competing in an excellent main event with only a few yellows,
showing their Midget brethren that it can be done!

Making his first appearance in a number of years was Johnny
Cofer. Cofer was a regular on the BCRA circuit until leaving to run
USAC where he produced a championship. He was severely injured
several years ago, so it was great to have him back in the fold. He
drove the old Joe Tynan Pontiac powered Tynan chassis that son Joey
Tynan used to race and win with BCRA. Unfortunately, engine problems
plagued the team throughout the evening.

Also making a rare appearance was Shain Matthews. Shain was a
BCRA Midget regular with several wins under his belt before switching
to the Sprint Cars. He drove the Jack Walker Esslinger/Stealth at
Marysville and at Santa Maria. We hope that he will become a series
regular again. Another sprinter, Doug Lippincott out of Menden,
Nevada, ran at Marysville and plans to also race at Reno-Fernley on
August 21. Hopefully he too, will join us more often.

Jumping back to Stockton, WMRA's Brad Curtis from Edmonton,
Washington joined us, qualifying second behind Meseraull.
Unfortunately he took a wild ride in the heat race at no fault of
his. The team managed to repair the car enough to start the feature,
but dropped out early. Scott Pierovich had his newly acquired
pavement car on hand. It is the former Tomassi USAC national-winning
Beast with Wirth Mopar power. Ryan Caplan also was getting the bugs
out of his new pavement mount, a Fontana powered Stealth.

At Santa Maria two visiting USAC entries made waves. Danny
Stratton shattered the old Midget track record at 13.465, breaking
the 1995 mark by J.R. Lawson of 13.667. The Santa Maria oval was
supreme and also produced a Sprint Car record. It is satisfying that
Stratton's mark is only .046-seconds slower than the gnarly injected
360 sprinters record offering. Stratton's skills were not to be
presented to the crowd because of engine problems in his heat race
that sidelined him for the remainder of the evening. The other
visitor was Tyler Brown. Brown's only other appearance with BCRA came
at Santa Maria late last season when he did a yeoman job to win the
feature. He was able to show the crowd his skills, moving from the
rear of the feature after replacing a blown tire early in the race to
charge through traffic. Just as he was about to set up Shain Matthews
for third, his engine developed problems and he coasted to a stop.
Both indicated that they will return to Santa Maria on October 16
when BCRA presents its season-ending Johnny Baldwin Memorial
50-lapper for nearly $15,000 in purse money. With no USAC race
scheduled that weekend, it is expected that a dozen or so
southlanders will enter BCRA's premier race.

The track was so good, that a complete racing program could
have been run on the smooth surface following the Midget, wingless
Midget Lite and Sprint Car program. Combined with heavy damp air, the
faster Midgets and sprinters were emitting contrails from their right
rear tires in the turns during time trials, which gave the look of
burning rubber smoke. Unfortunately, a late start put the program
behind schedule and only half of the Midget group got to run hot
laps, much to the chagrin of those who were unable to make their hot
lap setup runs. But, afterward just about everyone had smiles, even
Floyd Alvis. Alvis had an incident in his heat race. Diving from the
upper groove to the lower in an attempt to repass rookie Michael
Hubert III for the lead, he began a sliding spin. Garratt Boyden was
unable to miss the car and tagged Alvis in the left rear, sending the
Interstate Batteries mount into a roll. Immediately he was struck on
the top of the roll cage by Greg Dennett, causing another two quick
snap-rolls. During this twisting procedure Alvis' helmet lens
apparently popped up and his eye glasses were unceremoniously
ejected. They ended up lost somewhere on the track. Fortunately a
track safety crewman found them before they became trampled upon.
They were bent, but fixable and after rebuilding the front end, Alvis
was able to start at the rear of the main event. His rollover came in
the exact spot where he overturned last season!

Jimmy Christian certainly likes Santa Maria. He has won both
features there thus far this season.

The Midget rookies continue to do a bang-up job (no pun
intended!). Score two feature wins for Brian Gard and one each for
Greg Dennett and Michael Hubert III! Scott Pierovich has come close
as has Garratt Boyden, who could win the "Worst Luck For A Rookie"
award if there was one. All are in contention for the rookie honors
at season's end.

In the Midget Lite wars, Scott Clark was leading Scott Kinney
in the tug-of-war battle for the '04 championship. Chad Compton
charged to an impressive win aboard his Suzuki powered ART at Santa
Maria.

The Lites are fortunate this season to have the journalistic
skills of Michael Snelling. Michael has been covering the Lites with
result stories, seen in most all of the racing publications and
websites, much deserved by the division. Michael is a journalism
student, acquiring the needed skills with this much appreciated
venture (and could probably give this unschooled scribe some tips).
When sitting at the computer each month to write this column,
mostly from memory, I always feel that I am neglecting the Midget
Lite division, as well as BCRA's vintage division. As I attend all of
the full Midget venues, and only upon the occasion of a combined
program see the Lites and vintage, I am not cognizant of much of the
happenings in the other two divisions....perhaps I'll ask Michael to
provide a monthly synopsis of the Lites to include in future Inside
Line columns!

I am now attending the Midget venues strictly as the
communications guy - that reads pre-race press release and race
result writer. At the last meeting of the board of directors I
resigned my post as scorer, ending 51-1/2 years of dulling pencils
while macho guys drive little cars around a track (Our lady drivers
are ladylike, not macho!). Linda Manning is now the very capable
scorer. I still score the main events, partly as a backup for Linda
and to use as my "choreography" of the race to institute the result
stories. It has been a long and pleasant venture, started in 1953 at
the Oakland Speedway with hardtops at age 17, while my father was the
BCRA Midget scorer. A few years later I took his place upon his
retirement from BCRA. During this period I have officiated at 66
different race tracks, most of which no longer exist. I've had the
pleasure of working with some of the best officials anywhere in
racing...famed announcer Jack Carmody comes to mind - Speed Rielly,
Doc Oreo, Mel Fernandes, George Sowle, Tom Palmer, Hank Medeiros,
Margo Burke, Lou Vermiel, Molly Barkhimer and Ray Smith to name but a
few.