May 2001 - Inside Line Column - by Floyd Busby

Two down and 21 to go for BCRA's midget division. The first two races of the new season were co-sanctioned with USAC, first at Stockton "99" Speedway and then at the Madera Speedway. 

The opener at Stockton was won by BCRA graduate Thomas Meseraull, who also established the  fastest qualifying lap. BCRA's 1999 champ Matt Streeter was third quick. At Madera for the Vukovich Classic a simpler format was worked out between the two sanctioning organizations. The Stockton format created complaints and confusion, so at Madera we went to a basic USAC format with the eight fastest being inverted. 

Meseraull, who placed second in BCRA points in 1999, held an unusual honor following the Stockton race. As both a BCRA and USAC member, he earned points in both organizations and became the first, in my recollection, to be the point leader in both at the same time. At Madera a last lap "coming together" with Sleepy Tripp while attempting to move from third to second sent him into a spin and a 16th place finish. He lost his point lead with USAC, but is still the BCRA point leader by five points over Chuck Gurney Jr.! It is Meseraull's intention to compete in about 17 BCRA races, which includes the seven co-sanctioned events. He will miss the Carson city race on the night before Indy, May 26, to compete at the Indianapolis Raceway park in a nationally televised race. He flew to Indy to test a midget for a local owner and was barely off the track record by day's end, making the car owner very happy. Thomas is torn between his chase for the USAC Western States title and the national exposure that he will get at IRP.

Madera was a pleasant surprise for us of the older establishment when 66-year-old Floyd Alvis topped the 33 car qualifying field, one-hundredth quicker than Sleepy Tripp and three faster than Meseraull. Alvis recently purchased the pavement car in which former BCRA champ Marc DeBeaumont won the 1999 USAC title.

Returning after several season on non-competition is Pete Davis. Davis had been known for his Pinto powered midgets. He recently purchased the Billy Sipe Esslinger/TCR USAC car out of Arizona and has added is patented double-zero number. 

Last month's Inside Line column made mention that emancipated BCRA drivers would not be allowed by USAC to compete in the seven dual sanctioned events. That surprised Ron Matthews, whose son Shain is the emancipated 15-year-old 2000 BCRA Rookie of the Year. The senior Matthews got on the phone to Indy and spoke with USAC President and CEO John Capels. After explaining the situation, Capels mandated that any legal BCRA driver could compete in the co-sanctioned events.

At a recent meeting the BCRA board voted to no longer allow emancipated pre-16 year olds, and in fact, in the future 16 and 17-year olds will have to be emancipated! Drivers who previously ran under the emancipation, such as Matthews, are "grandfathered" in and continue to run.

The "Night Before Indy" race (May 26) at the Carson Tahoe Champion Speedway is now a co-sanction BCRA/USAC race and will go over the 100-lap route. The last time that BCRA sanctioned a 100-lapper was in 1991 at Madera according to BCRA Referee Rick Eisenbeis.

BCRA's midget lite division has a new look with its first female driver. Eighteen-year-old Shannon Adams, a senior at Folsom High, ran her first race at the division season opener at Placerville on April 14. Shannon will soon be joined by Andrea DeRuyter in the driving department. Andrea is the sister of defending driving champion Chris DeRuyter. She and crew chief Sam Corso will trade off driving when Chris is running a spec sprinter. Corso drove the car at the opener. According to our statistician Jimmy Montgomery, a female driver ran two races in the division's first season of 1994, but she was not a BCRA member. Last season's "Rookie of the Year" Greg Dennett has a teammate this season - his brother Todd. Andy Gregg decided to go sprint car racing this year, but brother Jacob, a rookie, has taken Andy's place in the lites. The midget lites were rained out at Placerville on April 21.

Cliff Servetti has always been one of the truly keen advocates of BCRA. He has served on the board on a number of occasions. At the opening midget race at Stockton Cliff handed me a check for $150.00 to help purchase trophies for the new Division-2. We have since ordered and received a dozen very nice plaques with the BCRA logo, Division-2 Winner and sponsorship by Cliff's Custom Engine and Custom Car Care inscribed - a big thanks to Cliff. Also on the subject of Servetti, he has put his #83 Pontiac/Stealth up for sale and is purchasing a new pavement machine.

The midget T-shirts are now available. The midget lite shirts are still on the proverbial "drawing board", which these days means computer. The shirts depict the #26 Doug Bock car that Glenn Carson took to the driver and owner championships. 

BCRA's vintage division has been invited to be a part of a month long static display at Sacramento's Ford Towne Museum. But, don't jump in you car just yet - The display is set for February of 2002.