October 2004 - Inside Line Column - by Floyd Busby

Only two races remain in the Midget division of BCRA at the time of this writing and the Midget Lite season has come to a dramatic finish.

On October 9 at he Kings Speedway in Hanford, it will be a co-sanctioned event with USAC Western States. One week later, October 16, will mark BCRA's biggest and final race of the season, the 2nd Annual Johnny Baldwin Classic at the Santa Maria Speedway. At this time a number of non-BCRA entries are coming in, including USAC chargers Robby Flock, Jerome Rodella, Danny Stratton and Shannon McQueen, as well as 2003 champ Steve Paden. Could be the $15,000 purse with $3,000 to win, plus the Hoosier six-car $1000 to win "Dash for Cash" has attracted these top cars and drivers, plus the Santa Maria Speedway is among the best dirt tracks in the western states.

The dramatic finish to the Midget Lite season could well have been a Hollywood script! Congratulations to new driving champion Scott Kinney and to Scott Clark for his second car owner title.

Clark went into the final race at the Petaluma Speedway with an eleven point lead over Kinney. After the heats it was an eight point advantage....then the main event. Clark needed to keep Kinney within a couple of cars to win. Following a red flag, as the cars moved out to await the green flag, Clark's wing slider went south and the wing dropped backwards, the opposite of the downforce angle. Not realizing this, Clark charged into turn-one and nearly flipped. He manhandled the machine and began slipping backward within the pack and was lapped. Kinney, running well, now had the edge for the championship....but, his motor began to run poorly, and he lost at least one position. At the checkered flag Kinney won the title by one point over Clark! Doing a fine job was Tyler Franklin, who moved to within five points of winning to settle for third in the final standings.

The annual Tracy Taylor Memorial Midget Lite race was a success at the Placerville Speedway on September 4. Rookie David Maples won his second race of the season. The race is in honor of Tracy Taylor, who died several years ago of cancer. Tracy had been a big booster of the Lites and had a regular column in the BCRA newsletter and also wrote result stories. Her brother, John Taylor, has been retired from active driving, but came back for the memorial
race and competed. Unfortunately, his car developed mechanical ills in the feature and he DNF'ed.

Since the last Inside Line column the Midgets have competed at Reno-Fernley, Stockton, Madera and the Shasta Raceway Park in Anderson. Rob Russell made it two wins in a row at the Reno-Fernley Raceway, driving the Frank Guerrino Jr. Gaerte Ford powered Stealth. At Stockton the first week of September visitor Michael Lewis took the Western Speed Racing Esslinger Beast. At Madera two weeks later the domination by Lewis on pavement continued, but not before he got a scare from Thomas Meseraull. Meseraull and the Bill Ferrari Esslinger Beast was up to the task and the BCRA point leader moved up behind Lewis, even giving him several taps, only to drop out with a throttle problem. Many thought that Meseraull would have won had he not had the mechanical problem. Tony Hunt drove the Bob Rosen "Mr Espresso Coffee/Ardent Winery" Brayton Beast to second and Michael Hubert III did a yeoman job to finish third.

At Madera the track held an autograph session with all of the cars on the front straight and the fans allowed on track to meet, talk and get autographs from the drivers.

The autograph session continued the following week at the Shasta Raceway Park where it seemed that half of the large crowd were trackside for the session....two very good events that was appreciated by the fans.

The Shasta race was a humdinger!...Meseraull won from 13th, even after being set back two positions while under a caution flag for jumping a previous green. Rob Lindsey drove what was probably the best race of his career, only to spin while lapping cars while leading late in the race.

The partisan crowd was rooting for local Michael Hubert III, the 16-year-old third generation driver from Anderson. Michael began by providing his many fans with the fastest qualifying lap, an automatic one-lap record on the track that had been extended to 3/8-mile over the winter. At the conclusion of his heat race, engine problems developed. Removing the oil filter exposed metal shavings, so he was out. The crew solicited other owners to gain Michael a ride
for the feature, but to no avail. A disappointment for his fans, but they were rewarded with a really competitive and exciting 40-lap race. Pete Davis, too, ran an exceptional race, taking second ahead of Gard. In addition to Rob Lindsey, the Washington Midget Racing association's (WMRA) Brad Curtis and rookie Scott Walker made the trip from Washington to compete.

Meseraull's win, of course, enhanced his point lead. Hubert had been 40-points behind Greg Dennett in third with Brian Gard 64-points behind Hubert in fourth. Positions didn't change, but Hubert lost ground to Dennett and Gard moved up to within 17-points of Hubert. All three, Dennett, Hubert and Gard, are vying for the '04 Rookie of the Year honors.

The WMRA has suggested unofficially that four co-sanctioned races be run next season. Their suggestion is Roseburg, Oregon and Meridian, Idaho in WMRA territory and Anderson and Eureka in BCRA territory. For the past several years we have co-sanctioned with WMRA, the great Roseburg facility this season and at Anderson's Shasta facility last year. The two groups work well together.

Rob Lindsey is a member of both BCRA and WMRA. Originally from Danville, CA, Lindsey resides in Arlington, Washington, where he manages two golf courses. Back in Danville, his dad, Joe, runs a second Lindsey Motorsports Midget and is a member of the BCRA board, serving as treasurer.

Recently, I, along with Ken Clapp, visited with 1945 BCRA driving champion Bob Barkhimer at his home in Los Gatos and presented him with the BCRA Hall of Fame plaque commemorating his former wife Molly's induction. "Barky", for those unaware, was one of the west coast's premier promoters for many years. At one point he operated over 20 race tracks along the west coast. He operated the famed quarter-mile paved San Jose Speedway and brought the AMA Camel Pro motorcycle series to the Santa Clara County Fairgrounds. Barky's exploits and promotions would fill many lengthy columns, so suffice it to say that Barky was the premier promoter and track operator in his day.

Barky and Margo Burke sold Bob Barkhimer & Associates to Clapp many years ago. Clapp, the promoter at the Stockton "99" Speedway, is now retired as a Vice President of NASCAR, although he is possibly even busier as a consultant to the stock car organization these days.

While visiting Barky, we both learned a bit of interesting history of NASCAR on the west coast. When NASCAR was in need to become a national organization, Bill France Sr. contacted Barky who was running his California Stock Car Racing Association with great success in the west. France flew west and met with Barky to discuss NASCAR sanctions at Barky's many tracks. As Barky put it, they discussed the idea, but nothing was consummated. Several weeks later
Barky received a shipment from France. Inside were a number of football sized stones from Daytona Beach, France's way of consummating the deal to move NASCAR into the west coast. Barky became a Vice President and there never was a signed contract - just the handshake between two individuals.

As you approach Barky's home, on each side of the entrance to the driveway are stone columns. Mostly made of native Santa Cruz mountain aggregate - but at the top are stones of a different category - a compaction of tiny seashells fused over thousands of years - these are the historical stones that consummated the entry of NASCAR to the west!

While Barky is in generally poor health, his wit is as sharp as ever and he is very active, even though he has had several heart attacks and has very poor eyesight. He refuses to be docile in his old age, instead leading a rather robust life of activity and humor. God bless you Barky!

The annual BCRA Awards Banquet is not far off. The November 20 celebration will be held at the Radisson Hotel in Dublin this year. The general membership meeting will be held prior to the banquet, on October 30.

In December representatives from BCRA will attend the annual Promoter's Workshop in Reno. Much of the scheduling for the next season is hammered out there.

We were saddened to hear of the passing of Mike McCreary from cancer. A real veteran of sprint car racing, Mike had built a number of midgets over the years at his Placerville fabrication shop. He spearheaded the establishment of the California Asphalt Sprint Car Association (CASA). One of his goals was to encourage a number of races that would include both CASA and BCRA, such as this season's Shasta event. He was at the BCRA picnic and Hall of Fame in
Placerville this past July promoting the idea.