September 2002 - Inside Line Column - by Floyd Busby

Within the ranks of the Bay Cities Racing Association one could think that the season was over. At this writing we are just completing the third idol weekend in the midget division and second idol week in the midget lite division.

The midgets will return to the ovals on August 24 at Santa Maria and the lites the same Saturday night at Petaluma.  Every year when the schedule is formulated, it is hoped to have a weekend off here-and-there to let the owners and drivers get their wind, but hopefully we won't have such a long drought in future seasons.

Floyd Alvis could almost stay home from the final four midget races of the season with his nearly insurmountable point lead for his sixth championship. In the midget lite racks, Greg Dennett is going for number-two and holds exactly a 100-point advantage over his brother Todd. The race for third is wide open between Terry Bergstrom, Doug Hunting and Don VanDyke with only three races remaining in the 2002 season.

The most recent midget outing was at the Stockton "99" Speedway on July 27. That race was won by Tony Hunt in the Bob Rosen "Mr. Espresso" machine.

Rosen, a longtime member of BCRA, only brings out his Brayton/Beast on the occasions when Hunt is not racing sprint cars. At the Lakeport Speedway over the Fourth of July weekend Hunt pulled in during the feature with a very ill handling car. But that was not the case at Stockton where he took control after many laps of challenging the leader to take the win.

Rosen began his car ownership career with BCRA in 1962, placing 35th out of 77 registered cars in his freshman season. The "Guarantee Fork Lift" cars quickly became among those to beat. He placed fourth in 1963. In the '64 season the great Johnny Baldwin won five of his nine main event victories in the Rosen Offy and Rosen won the indoor championship while placing second in the overall season tally. Dee Hileman drove the car to a feature win in 1965. In '66 Tommy Copp gave Rosen a win in the Oakland Exposition Building and Dave Strickland won on the outdoor circuit at the San Jose Speedway. The following year Strickland gave him two indoor wins and Rosen won the overall BCRA championship while Strickland placed second. Rosen ran selected races in 1968 because of business demands with his very successful Guarantee Fork Lift company in Oakland and placed 23rd. With the demands of business, Rosen continued the selective process, but came back stronger in 1970 with two feature wins, one by Rick Davidson at West Capital Speedway and one by Karl Raggio at Roseville and placed fifth in the standings.

In 1973 Rosen put Ken Nichols in the car and scored seven victories, the abruptly retires.

It was not until 1987 that Rosen returned to the racing wars, taking fourth in the standings, then second in '88 with Nichols back in the cockpit. In '89 he took a win at Madera with Jimmy Screeton driving. Screeton gave him five win the following season, including a string of three-in-a-row and a fourth in the standings. Screeton continued in '91 with two wins as Rosen again began another venue of selected races.

During this time Bob's interests were in several directions, including reconstructing vintage midgets and passenger cars. Several years later he showed up at the annual BCRA picnic, held at that time at the fairgrounds in Antioch, towing his restored Offy with a restored 1941 Ford station wagon. As I recall, the Ford had Arden heads.

From that point on it was purely race selection. In 1995 he came out to run in Carson City where Davey Hamilton gave him the win,
and has run sporadically ever since, with a win by Chad Nichols at Ukiah in '97, Each season since, except 2000 when he didn't run at
all, he as finished in mid-pack point-wise.

His victory at Stockton was a fine way to celebrate his 40 years of racing and indicates that he still has what it takes - which includes a competent pit crew.

Also at Stockton, the Motor Sports Press Association, an organization of motor sport writers, broadcasters and photographers that has been around since 1963, held a "Night at the Races" barbecue for the membership. The Stockton management of Ken Clapp, Bob and
Chris Hunefeld and Ken Gross were very supportive and opened the doors for the MSPA. This was the first such venture of holding an
informal meeting at a track during a race, and it worked out very well. Among the MSPA members were those who operate in other factions of motor sports, such as road racing or drag racing, so it was good to let them see how the round-'d-round bunch works. Drivers Johnny Rodriguez and Ken Molica stopped by the meeting area for interviews in between their racing chores. Rodriguez came off as a very well rounded and knowledgeable young racer. The prime interest in Molica by the press was his almost unbelievable three heart transplants. (I always have to explain this - not three bypasses, but three individual hearts by three individual donors - Counting his original, Ken is on his fourth heart).

Again, at Stockton, Molica and his wife Janet held a surprise birthday celebration after the races for BCRA veteran former car owner and longtime statistician Jimmy Montgomery. Under the guise of another reason, Jimmy was prompted into the large Molcia trailer where he and many of his racing friends celebrated with cake. Jimmy's companion was a life-size cutout of Elvira, the Witch of Darkness!