September 2001 - Inside Line Column - by Floyd Busby

Following 15 consecutive weekends of racing, BCRA's midget division finally got a weekend off on August 4-5, followed by two more weekends of racing. With the conclusion of the August 18th race at the Stockton "99" Speedway, the midgets get a full five weeks with nothing to do!...time that most look forward to. The steady pace of racing took its toll, with several cars too broken to continue.

George Chandler's pavement Chevy V4/Beast driven by Jim Silva was trashed at Lakeport on July 7th. George is reforming and plans to utilize his V4 in a new chassis for the 2002 season. The Pete Baraldi Brayton-Ford/Stewart became a throwaway at Stockton on July 21. The new chassis, reworked engine and various parts did not arrive until mid-week before the August 18 Stockton event. Jeff and Anthony Arata 
and crew burnt the midnight oil to get the car on-track. Their perservierence paid off with the mount shooting out of the box for the win at Stockton by driver Chuck Gurney Jr.

The midget lite division too have had a fast-paced season thus far, although they had a couple of off weeks and a rain-out to lessen the burden of the pace. The lite's A.J. Martin, winner of his first lite feature on July 14 at Placerville, has purchased a midget and plans to be ready for the BCRA/USAC co-sanctioned race at Madera on September 22nd, the first race after the midget's five week reprieve.

The championships for both the midget and midget lite divisions are about wrapped up. The similarity between the points for the top-two in each division is astounding. Midget leader Floyd Alvis has 1254 points. Midget lite leader Greg Dennett has 1234 points, only 20 less than Alvis. The two second-place drivers are identical. Chuck Gurney Jr. has 357 in the midgets, as does Doug Hunting in the lites. So, Alvis holds a 357 point advantage over Gurney and Dennett holds a 337 point advantage over Hunting.

Leading to the midget lite car owner championship, #47 car owner Gary Dennett holds a 268 point lead over Don VanDyke's #5. The midgets are much closer due to the fact that most owners have two cars, one for dirt and one for pavement. In BCRA the car points are not melded together, but each car earns its own points. This has led to Floyd Avlis' #11x pavement car being the point leader at 866. Only 43 points off his pace is the Bill Lindsey #61 VW/Diego that Bill uses on both dirt and pavement. Alvis is thinking seriously of bringing out his #11x pavement car at the next dirt races in order to earn points to win that championship.

On August 11th BCRA made its first appearance at the Orland Speedway. Paul and Carol Turner were wonderful hosts and have been making improvements to the fairgrounds quarter-mile dirt oval. The track hadn't come in by qualifying time, so the automatic midget track record of 14.022 by Jim Christian was not indicative of what was to come. Christian, driving his Gaerte Stealth was unofficially timed at 12.701 during his heat race. Rob Russell drove the Frank Guerrini Scat V4/Stealth to his first feature win, also the first for the car owner.

The final race leading up to the "vacation" time was won by Chuck Gurney Jr. at the Stockton "99" Speedway. Floyd Alvis was the quick qualifier in his VanDyne/Stealth. Gurney won the dash and Bill Lindsey won the 3-lap Division-2 trophy dash. The Stockton outing saw two very old track records go by the wayside. Lindsey's 3-lap dash time of 44.39 broke the old time of 46.93 set on May 12, 1948 by Dick Furguson. Gurney's 25-lap mark of 6:03.03 erased the 53-year old mark by Chuck Stevenson of 6:45.87, established on June 22, 1948.

There are four races remaining on the midget schedule. The fourth and final race is at the Chowchilla Speedway. Racing Director Tom Sagmiller had planned on having all three BCRA divisions running in the two day event set for October 19-20. The date was not originally on the midget lite calendar, but is now on the schedule as a non-point race with $1,000 to win. The vintage division will be present both nights. The midgets will not appear both nights, but instead run in the Friday night format only, competing in heat races, a dash and main event for their regular purse.

With the addition of the Chowchilla race, the midget lite division has three more races on their schedule.For the complete schedule, race results, photos, etc., check out the BCRA website at <bcraracing.com>. The site includes sections for the midgets, midget lites, and vintage divisions. There are some great midget shots taken at Reno-Fernley, Marysville, and other tracks.