May 2006 - Inside Line Column - by Floyd Busby

As with most every other racing organization, the beginning of the 2006 racing season was devastating to BCRA with the loss of the season-opening races for all divisions due to the weather. The midget lost three races; Shasta Raceway Park, Madera Speedway and Placerville Speedway. The midget lites lost Antioch and two at Placerville, then, because of a scheduling mix-up, their assumed opening at the end of April at Twin Cities Speedway. The vintage division lost a Madera race.

Finally, the ball began rolling with the Gerhardt Classic midget race at the Stockton "99" Speedway, a co-sanctioned event with BCRA and USAC. The 29 entries were basically even between the two organizations. Billy Wease, a driver from Noblesville, Indiana, won aboard one of the Rick Gerhardt Western Speed Racing Esslinger powered Gerhardt midgets. Wease's teammates were fellow Noblesville pilot Michael Lewis and 19-year old Alex Pruett of Arizona. Lewis, twice a winner in the Gerhardt Classic, recently announced the he was terminating his association with Western Speed Racing.

Shannon McQueen was running a very strong second after working her way through traffic, but a spin relegated her to the back to finally finish a very credible sixth. The very talented Certified Public Accountant has been chosen as one of the 50 nominees in the U.S. for the "Racin' for a Livin" TV show with a chance at seven fully sponsored races in the NASCAR Busch Series in 2007.

It was great to have seven-time BCRA driving and five-time car owner champion Floyd Alvis back on-track following his retirement for most of last season.

The lites finally got to open their season on May 6 at the Twin Cities Speedway in Marysville. Chris DeRuyter, the 2000 BCRA midget lite champion, returned to his roots after several years of sprint car campaigning to sit in for his relative Sam Corso. DeRuyter drove Corso's Honda Blackbird powered Stealth to the feature win in what probably will be his only lite drive this season - unless he can talk Sam into staying home!

The lite division has been seeking an additional official. As of now, all of the work falls on the capable shoulders of Peggy Holbrook. Her husband, owner/driver Rick Holbrook sets up the scales early and then weighs the cars before practice and the top-five finishers after the feature. At Marysville, Billy Graham Jr., another board member, was without his #3 lite, so stepped in to help. While other organizations might find the use of two competitors in that capacity to be a conflict, the BCRA group knows that their two hardworking board representatives are above-board.

The vintage division was on hand at Marysville with six cars.

Former BCRA midget driver and feature winner Scott Nail accepted the invitation of Stu Donaldson to drive his vintage Benson/Chevy II.

Nail adheres to the "Norm Rapp Vintage Driving Philosophy" .....stand on it! He really put the old machine through its paces, piercing through the ruts with powerful ease, reminiscent of the days when the 'ol Chevy II's were top-of-the-line in midget racing. Not far behind was Stu's son Mike, driving the family British Damlier Hemi powered Benson...although Mike had to work a lot harder than Scott! Scott will have the opportunity to show his stuff in the regular Donaldson midget at Ocean Speedway in Watsonville and possibly beyond.

The vintage division appeared in force at the March Good Guys Rod and Custom Car Show at the fairgrounds in Pleasanton. Sixteen vintage midgets were staged in the Exhibition Hall will a lot of interested rodders stopping by to see these gleaming examples of yesteryear. Vintage Oval Racing Magazine's Dave Stewart was on hand much of the time.

The midget schedule has an additional race, set for the Madera Speedway on July 22 and co-sanctioned with USAC.

The midget dirt track advocates are very happy to be returning to Watsonville after a one-year hiatus. Now under different management, the quarter-mile dirt oval is called Ocean Speedway.

Initially I took it for granted that the name represented the fact that Watsonville is near the ocean, but in actuality, its named after the local Chevrolet dealership that is also the new promoter. I doubt that you'll see any Ford or Mopar trophy cars at Watsonville! The dates are May 12 and August 4, both Fridays.

One of BCRA's top midget drivers, Michael Hubert III, will be leaving the west coast for North Carolina. There he will work and attend college. He plans to work on a Busch or Cup team as does his uncle Tom, who is a tire changer on the #22 AutoZone Ford driven by Kenny Wallace.

Leaving California for the midwest are champion Thomas Meseraull and , according to Ken Kaplan, his son Ryan will be campaigning in the midwest also. As fate would have it, with one race in the books, Kaplan and Hubert are one-two in the driver point standings. McQueen is third over Garratt "Surfer Dude" Boyden and Travis Berryhill.

Berryhill has acquired the backing of his home town and will be campaigning his dirt and pavement midgets under the "Spirit of American Canyon" banner. He also has backing for midget owner Bob Rosen of Oakland who runs his Mr. Espresso/Ardent Winery Beast/Fontana Ford with Tony Hunt in the cockpit at selected BCRA and USAC pavement events. Rosen won the 1967 owner championship with Dave Srickland at the wheel....gads!!!....he's been around almost as long as I have!

BCRA was formed in 1939 by a handful of racing advocates who transformed the Bay Cities Roadster Racing Association into the midget origination that we know today. On May 9th, the last remaining member of that organizing group passed away. Howard Segur Sr. of Daly City succumbed after a brief illness at age 93. Howard was a car owner in the early days of BCRA and had such drivers as Norm Rapp, Bert Moreland and Tommy Morrow. In 1986 he was inducted into the BCRA Hall of Fame. In his later years he was a member of the vintage racing group WRA where he campaigned his vintage sprint car. One of his lifetime thrills was in 1994 when actor Paul Newman hot-lapped his old sprint car at the Willow Springs Speedway in Southern California. Howard's family has been a part of BCRA for many years.

His son, Howard Jr., has owned midgets for many years and son-in-law John Canavan drove for several years. He is also survived by his wife of 55 years, Lucille M. Segur.

We were saddened to learn of the passing of two former BCRA standouts. BCRA Hall of Famers Bob Veith and Dickie Deis. Veith raced the BCRA midgets from 1949 through 1957. He scored 15 main event wins and became a regular in the Indy 500, placing 7th in his rookie year of 1957. He passed away on March 29. Deis ran with BCRA from 1955 to 1972, scoring nine mains and was the 1968 indoor champion (Oakland Exposition Building). He died on April 2. WMRA regular Rory Price met an untimely death in Washington while testing a sprint car for a friend at the Monroe Speedway on March 31. Price competed with us in co-sanctioned events as well as several other occasions with BCRA only, winning a feature at Stockton.