May 2002 - Inside Line Column - by Floyd Busby

The 2002 season got off to a great start for all three of the BCRA midget divisions.
        The full midgets began with two co-sanctioned events with USAC at Madera and Stockton, then went the dirt route at Placerville
and Orland. The lites began their season with two-in-a-row at Placerville, then Antioch. The vintage division joined the midgets
and lites at Placerville and the midgets at Orland.
        The car counts over the opening weekend was good with 33 cars at Madera, 17 of which were BCRA, and 29 cars at Stockton, 15 BCRA. At Placerville BCRA had 24 cars and  Orland 17. The lites are running in the mid-twenties and the vintage have had 13 at Placerville and seven at Orland.
        Our most northern members were at Madera and Stockton with Washington's Rory Price taking the win at Stockton after taking a
sixth the night before at Madera. The Washington team of driver Glen Guiles and owner Steve Barnett took an 11th at Madera. We hope to see both at Eureka and Anderson.
        A number of new cars were ready the first weekend, including Desi Bray in the rebuilt former Arata Pontiac/Stewart, Rob Russell
in the new pavement Frank Guerrini Jr. Gaerte/Stealth, and Antioch Speedway spec sprint car champ Travis Berryhill in the Jeff Trout
Gaerte/Beast. Bray had trouble getting the seat low enough for his helmet not to extend above the roll cage, but he got the job done.
The Guerrini machine had problems at Madera and didn't make Stockton, and the Trout machine had engine problems over the entire weekend.
        When John Starks travels south to run with us, we might as well start racing for second. The Northern-Central California area
has been great fodder for Starks for several years. He wins most of his races here and did so at Madera. On Sunday he and Marc DeBeaumont got into a turn-4 scrap and both ended up damaged, Starts basically totaled.
        The format for the co-sanctioned races is a compromise between the USAC and BCRA formats. The top-ten qualifiers
automatically make the main event and start inverted. Two qualifying heats are run with the top-five from each joining the top-ten at the
back, straight up with heat one on the inside and heat two on the outside. The top two in the semi start at the rear for a 22-car
feature. It worked out quite well and very little in the way of complaints were heard.
        Onto the dirt at Placerville with all three BCRA divisions. The lites had opened their season the previous Saturday there with
Greg Bragg taking the win over Jeff Kyle and Doug Hunting. With the three divisions, Alan Padjen's program did not include any of the
stock car classes or the sprint cars. This allowed a superior track for the midgets and lites, so good, that a couple more main events
could probably have been run on the excellently prepared surface.
        Among the 24 midgets were several visitors. Perhaps most notable was the Duke McMillen midget - a McMillen midget? - For as
long as time itself Duke has been a top sprint car owner. He opted to purchase a midget to run in the Chili Bowl, then dropped by with
driver Jonathan Allard. Also on had was sprint car ace Ronnie Day in the Mike Sala car. USAC's Brian Stanfill was present with his own car and he proceeded to eliminate the old track record, becoming the first midget driver to get down into the 11-second bracket with an 11.908. A surprising entry was the Ford Focus/Stealth with Vacaville's Garrett Andrews. Garrett runs the new USAC Focus series and opted to give it a try against the regular midgets. He got an 11th in the feature.
        Glenn Carson won the feature, his first midget win in ten seasons, although he missed several seasons during that time driving
sprint cars with CSRA. Glenn is the 1992, 93 and 2000 BCRA champion. He drove Doug Bock's Esslinger/TCR - I need to emphasize that the dirt car chassis is a TCR - I accidently stated in the race result story that it was a Stewart (which the pavement car is). Bock heard from TCR's Larry Brown immediately - Sorry Larry - it was and is a TCR!
        Don VaDyke won the midget lite feature over defending champion Greg Dennett and brother Todd. While fighting for second,
the brothers touched hard, but both regained control and continued to the finish.
        The Placerville race was a precursor of what was to come. Steven Williams, a graduate from the midget lite division, placed
fourth in the Cliff Blackwell car. Last season he got a ride for one race in the Dave Thurston V4 at Petaluma and was outstanding. At
Placerville he again was outstanding - so, the following week at Orland, Williams won the main event. He is aggressive, but very
smooth, not touching a soul as he moved from sixth to the lead. I think that we can look forward to some great races by this talented
eighteen-year-old. His credentials include the go kart championship at Hanford in 1995. In 1998 he was the Delta Speedway 600 modified midget champion and BCRA midget lite rookie of the year in '99. In 2000 he placed second in the lites, winning the car owner
championship for Jim Black. He also won the Northern Stars mini sprint championship and was the Chowchilla Speedway dirt modified
rookie of the year. Last season he was the Chowchilla 360 sprint car champ as well as rookie of the year, and, the Northern Stars champion again. He has 42 career main event wins. Steven works part time while attending the University of California Stanislaus, majoring in business. The Cliff Blackwell car that he now drives with BCRA is the former Floyd Alvis Pontiac/Stealth that was purchased and campaigned by Anne Coppel.
        At the Orland Raceway Danny Olmstead obliterated the one-year-old qualifying mark of 14.022 with a blistering 12.763.
Williams won his first BCRA midget feature over Floyd Alvis and last year's Orland winner Rob Russell.
        Jeff Trout, who had so much engine problems at the two pavement races, also had problems with the dirt car at Placerville,
but at the Orland show the car finally began to run properly and driver Travis Berryhill placed sixth in the feature. Also looking
really good was former lite ace Cameron Beard. Cameron was running eighth when he dropped out with mechanical ills. Rick Faeth qualified for the trophy dash for the first time in his career, placing third.
        After qualifying, the Orland oval became very dry-slick. This became an equalizer for the underpowered VW of veteran Bill Lindsey. Starting on the pole, Bill led for the first six laps and ran in the top-four until the 15th circuit, finishing a very creditable seventh.
As he did last year, Bill leads in the car owner point standings. This is due primarily because BCRA awards separate points to dirt and
pavement cars and Bill is one of the few who uses the same car for both surfaces. Gary Dickenson, also a single car owner who runs both, is second in the standings.
        If you didn't know any better and you were looking for the winner of the April 27 midget lite feature at Placerville, you would
probably pass right by Brad Sweet. The 16-year-old rookie won his first main event, passing from sixth to take the lead and the win.
Brad doesn't look 16 - try 12 or so. If you can connect to the web, see his photo on the BCRA website at <BCRAracing.com>, and you'll know that I am not exaggerating! It is almost certain that this is another of BCRA up-and-coming youngster. According to BCRA
statistician Jimmy Montgomery, Brad was an excellent kart driver before stepping up to the midget lites. Actually, this season is not
Brad's first in a lite. Last season he drove one of Harley VanDyke's cars for part of the night until it was realized that he was underage.
        Our thanks goes to photographer Tom Parker. Tom made one of his somewhat rare appearances at a midget show at Placerville. He emailed some photos taken with a digital camera to the racing publications and the national motor sport weekly ran two color shots
along with the BCRA midget result story.
        The midget schedule shows four consecutive pavement races before returning to the dirt. They are Redwood Acres in Eureka,
Madera, Stockton and Shasta Speedway in Anderson. Although the next race at the Reno-Fernley oval is a dirt program, the 3/8-mile hard and smooth sand oval could almost be considered pavement. Last season at the first-ever midget show on the oval, every main event car destroyed the right rear tire, along with doing much harm to the left rear and right front. One wonders how a slick would hold up?