October 2001 - Inside Line Column - by Floyd Busby

Two divisions - three champions! With the final point race of the season on September 15th, BCRA's midget lite division crowned two champions. Greg Dennett, a rookie last season, won the driving title while his dad, Gary, holds the 2001 car owner championship.

With three midget races remaining on the schedule at this writing, the driving championship has been sewn up by veteran Floyd Alvis. Alvis won the championship at the annual Harvest Classic at the Madera Speedway on September 22nd in grand style by winning the 30-lap feature against the best that USAC and BCRA had to offer. All he had to do to claim his fifth title was start the main event. He was asked to pull up at the finish line after the feature so that he could be recognized for his effort. Needless to say, it was a double celebration at the finish line with both the race and championship secure. The last time Alvis won a BCRA/USAC race was at Madera in 1986.

The Madera race was the best-ever outcome for the BCRA entries against the power of USAC. Of the top seven finishers, five were BCRA. This includes the second-place car owned by BCRA's Bob Rosen, although driven by USAC's Tony Hunt. Although fifth-place Rory Price is from Washington state, we consider him BCRA at the co-sanctioned events as he is a member. The Baraldi Brayton-Ford Stewart, driven by third generation driver Chuck Gurney Jr., is a member of both organizations, but the car and driver are considered primarily BCRA. BCRA's Pete Davis brought up seventh. The biggest thorn in the side of the BCRA finish were third-place Josh Wise and fourth Wally Pankratz. At one point during the race Pankratz was second to Alvis. Had the race ended in that vein, it would have been the oldest seasoned veterans from both groups taking one-two. Half of the 32-car field were BCRA.

Alvis, who turned 67-years-of-age three weeks prior to the race, outmaneuvered Gurney to take the lead on the ninth circuit and never looked back. Over the final half of the race Hunt pressured Alvis every way possible, short of knocking him out of the way. Very clean racing. Alvis ran his race, which was flawless, never giving Hunt that opening he was hoping for.

Dennett, with six feature wins, led the midget lite standings for most of the year and opened an insurmountable gap over the latter part of the season. Greg's rookie brother, Todd, finished sixth in the standings and is a prime candidate for the division's "Rookie of the Year" when the banquet comes around on November 10th. Taking second in the final points is Don VanDyke, followed by Doug Hunting, Scott Kinney and Jesse Harmon.

With the three midget races remaining, Gurney is second, Bill Lindsey third, Shain Matthews fourth and defending champ Glenn Carson fifth. Alvis will be attempting to win the car owner title. He leads the Baraldi car with his #11X pavement machine. Bill Lindsey, who runs the same car on both dirt and pavement, is third in his aged Diego with VW power. In BCRA separate points are kept for dirt and pavement cars, thus Alvis holds first with the pavement car and tenth with the dirt car.

Following the September 29th race at the Stockton "99" Speedway, the midget division runs in a co-sanctioned event with USAC at the Kings Speedway in Hanford, then finalizes the season with a solo race on Friday, October 19th at the Chowchilla Speedway.

A.J. Martin, winner of his first midget lite feature at Placerville this season, has opted to go midget racing. The lanky popular pilot ran his first midget race at Madera and missed the feature by only one transfer spot. A.J. looked good aboard his newly acquired Ford-Brayton/Stealth that he purchased out of New Mexico.

The Lindsey family is making its name known in more ways that one. First, Bill came out of retirement a couple of years ago to run the same 1970's VW Diego that he campaigned two decades ago. Then older brother Joe purchased a Diego/VW from Floyd Alvis and became a rookie. Next, Joe's son Barry purchased the Servetti Pontiac. Now, brother Rob plans to drive Barry's car at Stockton with thoughts of his own machine in 2002 to make it four Lindseys'.

The season added three new venues on the midget calendar; Reno-Fernley, Orland and Chowchilla. Hopefully, all three will be inked in for the 2002 season.

BCRA is trying something different this year for the annual general membership meeting. Traditionally held on a Friday evening, this year it will take place on a Sunday afternoon. The meeting is set for 1 p.m. on November 5th at the upstairs meeting room of the San Ramon Public Library.

The annual Awards Banquet follows six days later on November 10th at the Aahmes Event Center in Livermore. Awards, trophy and monetary, will be given to the top-ten drivers and car owners in both the midget and midget lite divisions. The vintage division participants will receive plaques. Rookie of the year and Most Improved Driver awards will be make in the midget and lite divisions. If you wish to attend and are not on the newsletter mailing list, call the office at (209) 830-9928 evenings.

Its time for BCRA to sharpen it's pencil and begin working on the 2002 season, and time to sit down with USAC to determine what, if any, races we will co-sanction next season. Racing facilities such as Stockton "99" Speedway formulate their schedule early, as do several other speedplants, so we have to be ready to negotiate. Other dates are usually filled in at the December Promoters Workshop in Reno.

Congratulations to three-time BCRA midget champion Terry Tarditi. Terry captured the wingless sprint car championship at the Antioch Speedway - now Terry, its time to pull your midgets out of mothballs and resume midget racing!