BCRA AWARDS BANQUET HONORS THREE DIVISIONS

by Floyd Busby

John Sarale and crew celebrate their second Midget Championship in a row.	First time Midget Lite Champion Jeff Griffin poses by his championship winning machine.	The Vintage division drivers and owners show their hardware.
photos by Mark Sublett - www.MMRacingPhotos.com

John Sarale and Jeff Griffin were honored at the annual BCRA Awards Banquet at the Aahmes Event Center in Livermore on November 18 for their championships in the midget and midget lite divisions. The top-ten owners and drivers of the midget and midget lite divisions were honored and accepted their respective trophies and championship fund checks. The champion driver and car owner also receive beautiful championship rings. The both cases, as owner and driver, Sarale and Griffin accepted a pair of rings each.

Outgoing President Bob Roza opened the affair with introductions, then introduced the Master of Ceremonies Tim Joyce.

Joyce, recently retired as a driver and the 1990 midget champion, has handled the M.C. duties with great flair for a number of years.

Among the special awards were the rookie honors. In the midget division it was a two-fold award, going to two very talented and deserving young emancipated drivers. Shirley Boyd was on hand to make the presentations of the Johnny Boyd Rookie of the Year awards to Darrin Bolton and Justin Grant. Bolton drove only on dirt and Grant only on pavement, so the two never challenged one-another on-track. Both proved to be outstanding delegates. Bolton took two second-place finishes and Grant one second during the season. Grant started racing about on-third into the season and still placed 13th in the final standings. Bolton finished eighth. The Boyd award is a special plaque furnished by Shirley Boyd depicting the former BCRA champion and Indy 500 veteran in the Jack London Offy that he drove in the late 1950's.

The outstanding midget lite rookie was the very deserving Richie Hoover. Richie and his brother Joey race for their grandparents, Ken and Linda Hoover.
In the "Most Improved Driver of the Year" category David Prickett got the nod in the midget division. The greatly improved Chris Glass took the most improved Tracy Taylor award in the midget lites.

The sportsmanship awards included the Lloyd Nygren Midget Sportsmanship award, won by Rob Roza for all of his above-and-beyond work as president on behalf of BCRA. The Tom Boune Midget Lite Sportsmanship Award was garnered by hard-working Peggy Holbrook.

Peggy handles all of the registration and pit duties at the midget lite races and had gone above the call of duty this past season.

Some years ago Linda and Tom Manning (Linda is office manager/midget scorer and Tom the midget referee) developed and provided the annual "Perseverance Award". This year they have renamed the award the "John & Gladys Soares Sr. Perseverance Award" in honor of the late John Soares Sr. Soares had been a high caliber BCRA midget driver after WWII, then became a major race promoter until a couple of years ago. On the midget front the award went to Stu Donaldson and on the midget lite side Brian Corso.

The Arata family, involved in midgets and midget lites as car owners and preparation specialists, had handled the prep duties for the late Pete Baraldi. Pete was beloved by all and insisted upon his cars being among the best appearing on the circuit. In his honor several years ago Rick, Jeff and Anthony Arata established the "Pete Baraldi Best Appearing Car Award". It has been won by members of all three BCRA divisions. This year the honor went to Eddie Abrew, owner/driver of the Edmunds/Esslinger pavement midget that was always outstanding in appearance.

For the second year awards were presented in the midget division to the top-three finishers in the dirt and pavement disciplines under separate point scoring. The Midget Dirt Track Awards went to drivers Floyd Alvis, Darrin Bolton and Gary Dickenson.

Owners were Alvis, Jay Bolton and Dickenson. The Midget Pavement Awards were accepted by John Sarale, Travis Berryhill and David Prickett in both driver and owner categories.

The overall top-ten midget driver awards went to John Sarale, Travis Berryhill, Floyd Alvis, David Prickett, Gary Dickenson, Ryan Kaplan, Ralph Cortez, Darrin Bolton, Glenn Carson and Cameron Beard.

Owner-wise it was Sarale, Alvis, Berryhill, Prickett, Dickenson, Kaplan, Cortez, Jay Bolton, Doug Bock and Stu Donaldson. The top-ten midget lite driver award recipients were Jeff Griffin, Scott Kinney, Matt Sherman, Chris Glass, Sam Corso, Greg Bardonnex, Gregory Griffin, Richie Hoover, Richard Bailey and Rick Holbrook. Owners: Jeff Griffin, Lonnie Lopez, Corso, Bill Graham Sr., Frank Sherman, Lopez, Gregory Griffin, Linda Hoover, Dan Bailey and Holbrook.
Unfortunately for the BCRA midget lite division, the Griffin brothers will be leaving to continue their racing careers in the sprint car ranks.

The successful banquet was due in no small part by BCRA's efficient Office Manager Linda Manning who traditionally makes all of the arrangements and oversees the function.