The Silly Season is the time of the racing season when we hear about sponsor announcements, driver changes, and touring series schedules. But for the 2009 offseason in California, the Silly Season has included management changes at as many as four race tracks.
After averaging 20 asphalt NASCAR Late Models per race in 2009, All American Speedway and the Placer County Fairgounds in Roseville, Calif. made the surprise decision in October to let go Director of Competition Jeff Macey and Director of Operations Dennis Gage. Macey, former President and General Manager of Altamont Raceway Park, had joined the program in spring of 2009. Gage, who works with Padjen Motorsports promotions, had been with the speedway since 2007. Both were veterans of motorsports who had run a pretty good show in light of the serious economic woes facing America today.
Rumors swirled that Steve Fensler from the Stockcar Racing League was going to take over for both positions. But announced yesterday on the All American Speedway website "AAS has immediate opening for a Program Manager...AAS is seeking a Director of Competition." The site also has applications posted and they are due December 7. The timing of this is obviously not ideal, with sponsorships on the table and touring series schedules yet to be finalized. Will the speedway have a representative at the promoters workshop? That is yet to be seen.
There are at least three dirt tracks with possible changes coming for 2010. After Merced Speedway announced it was closing, many have pointed to Kenny Shepherd to step in and take over the speedway. Shepherd would have a monopoly at tracks within the central valley with Merced, Chowchilla, and Madera, and that is almost a necessity because the tracks are in such close proximity.
Antioch Speedway and Kings Speedway are also rumored to be moving to new promoters.
The task of taking over a race track is a huge undertaking, but even more so in this economy and at this late of a date. Hopefully all four tracks find promoters and are running strong this spring.
December 01, 2009
November 30, 2009
Clauson continues dream season
Sacramento-native Bryan Clauson continued his season of histroic prorportions by winning the Glenn Howard Memorial at Perris Auto Speedway on Saturday night. The USAC/CRA Sprint Car win on the half-mile dirt track came just two days after the Turkey Night Grand Prix win in the USAC National Midgets on the paved half-mile Toyota Speedway in Irwindale, Calif.
Clauson's win total now stands at 19 for the season if you go by the results posted on openwheeltimes.com Clauson's official website, www.bryanclauson.com, is currently down. For a kid having the best season of his life, it's a tough deal to have the website down.
Most important for Clauson this year is that he earned the National Midget Driver of the Year championship over Midget kings Brad Kuhn and and Brad Loyet. Both of the Brads ran over 60 Midget races in 2009, whereas Clauson started 36.
Also on the list of Clauson's accomplishments for 2009 are: Indiana Midget Week champion with 2 wins, Belleville Midget Nationals champion, Hall of Fame Classic winner, winner of the MSCS $10k to win "Haubstadt Hustler", and winner of the Turkey Night Grand Prix. As Brian's facebook page says, "pondering retirement.... im not sure how to follow up a year like this, its been simply unbelievable."
At 20 years old, Clauson is well on his way to establishing his legacy as one of the great open wheel racers in history. Up next for him will be a defense of his 2008 Twas the Midgets Before Christmas win.
In other racing news over the weekend, Brad Pounds won the Victorville Raceway Turkey Classic over a field of 40 Modifieds.
Clauson's win total now stands at 19 for the season if you go by the results posted on openwheeltimes.com Clauson's official website, www.bryanclauson.com, is currently down. For a kid having the best season of his life, it's a tough deal to have the website down.
Most important for Clauson this year is that he earned the National Midget Driver of the Year championship over Midget kings Brad Kuhn and and Brad Loyet. Both of the Brads ran over 60 Midget races in 2009, whereas Clauson started 36.
Also on the list of Clauson's accomplishments for 2009 are: Indiana Midget Week champion with 2 wins, Belleville Midget Nationals champion, Hall of Fame Classic winner, winner of the MSCS $10k to win "Haubstadt Hustler", and winner of the Turkey Night Grand Prix. As Brian's facebook page says, "pondering retirement.... im not sure how to follow up a year like this, its been simply unbelievable."
At 20 years old, Clauson is well on his way to establishing his legacy as one of the great open wheel racers in history. Up next for him will be a defense of his 2008 Twas the Midgets Before Christmas win.
In other racing news over the weekend, Brad Pounds won the Victorville Raceway Turkey Classic over a field of 40 Modifieds.
November 27, 2009
Big month for west coast motorsports
Last night's Turkey Night Grand Prix saw Bryan Clauson, who grew up in Sacramento, Calif., claim the prestigious 98 lap feature win aboard his Marc Debeaumont-owned entry. Fellow Californian Brad Sweet, Grass Valley, nearly played spoiler to Brad Kuhn's USAC National Midget championship but came up a few positions short in the final rundown.
For open-wheel fans, November has been a buffet of excellent racing including the Perris Oval Nationals, Phoenix Midget and Silver Crown races, Western World, J.W. Mitchell Classic, and the Turkey Night Grand Prix. Thanks to the live streaming coverage on USACRacing.com, I have been able to witness a good amount of this racing from my home office in Sacramento.
The busy month will come to a close this weekend at Perris Auto Speedway with the USAC/CRA Glenn Howard Memorial. The feature will pay a possible $32,500 with the $30,000 bonus for the winner if he can win from the back of the field. Dave Darland is among the contingent of national drivers expected to compete.
The other big show for the weekend is the $15,000 Wes Hurst Memorial at USA Raceway in Tuscon, Ariz. After hosting a strong Western World for wing and non-wing Sprint Cars with over 130 entries, the promoters of the speedway have offered up another amazing race weekend. Racing begins tonight with over 100 entries expected. Headlining the excitement is - what else - the massive purse that includes $1500 to start the feature, $700 to start the B-Main, and $300 to start the C-Main. Californians Bobby Hogge and Kellen Chadwick are among the early favorites.
It is a shame that there isn't a big west coast show for the asphalt Late Models, but that would only be possible with more national rules conformity. It would be amazing to see 100 asphalt Late Models competing for a $10,000 or $15,000 purse at a place like Altamont, Roseville, or Irwindale. The 2009 Toyota All-Star Showdown at Toyota Speedway in Irwindale came close to doing this, with over 120 cars total between the SLM and LM races. This asphalt LM fan can only dream for now, and wish everyone a safe race this weekend.
For open-wheel fans, November has been a buffet of excellent racing including the Perris Oval Nationals, Phoenix Midget and Silver Crown races, Western World, J.W. Mitchell Classic, and the Turkey Night Grand Prix. Thanks to the live streaming coverage on USACRacing.com, I have been able to witness a good amount of this racing from my home office in Sacramento.
The busy month will come to a close this weekend at Perris Auto Speedway with the USAC/CRA Glenn Howard Memorial. The feature will pay a possible $32,500 with the $30,000 bonus for the winner if he can win from the back of the field. Dave Darland is among the contingent of national drivers expected to compete.
The other big show for the weekend is the $15,000 Wes Hurst Memorial at USA Raceway in Tuscon, Ariz. After hosting a strong Western World for wing and non-wing Sprint Cars with over 130 entries, the promoters of the speedway have offered up another amazing race weekend. Racing begins tonight with over 100 entries expected. Headlining the excitement is - what else - the massive purse that includes $1500 to start the feature, $700 to start the B-Main, and $300 to start the C-Main. Californians Bobby Hogge and Kellen Chadwick are among the early favorites.
It is a shame that there isn't a big west coast show for the asphalt Late Models, but that would only be possible with more national rules conformity. It would be amazing to see 100 asphalt Late Models competing for a $10,000 or $15,000 purse at a place like Altamont, Roseville, or Irwindale. The 2009 Toyota All-Star Showdown at Toyota Speedway in Irwindale came close to doing this, with over 120 cars total between the SLM and LM races. This asphalt LM fan can only dream for now, and wish everyone a safe race this weekend.
November 26, 2009
69th running of the Turkey Night Grand Prix
Tonight's 69th Turkey Night Grand Prix from the state of the art Toyota Speedway at Irwindale will feature four United States Auto Club championships being crowned in over 200 laps of racing competition. Nik Romano of Pleasanton, Calif. will seal the deal on his 2009 USAC California Pavement Ford Focus championship. He will be joined by Kingsburg's Tanner Swanson putting the wraps on a brilliant USAC Western Sprint Car season that includes an impressive run of all finishes in the top-two throughout the season.
But the Turkey Night Grand Prix is all about the Midgets with the 98 lap classic determining champions for the USAC National (Brad Kuhn) and USAC Western (Garrett Hansen) series. How many people in attendance will really be focused on the points standings in the Midget series? With 45 entries for the contest, how many of these entries would skip this race if it was a non-point event? The answer is likely zero.
From this authors point of view, the title of USAC National champion is a valuable crown. But as less and less teams campaign the full USAC National trail, the importance of the championship has diminished. Much like Dirt Late Model racing, Midgets have many huge events to follow throughout the year. Chili Bowl, Night before the 500, Midget Week, Belleville, Fireman's Nationals, Four Crown, Gold Crown, Phoenix, Turkey Night, Twas the Midgets Before Christmas, and several other races populate the Midget calendar.
There are many teams that could follow this schedule and campaign perhaps a weekly 410 Sprint Car program on the side to make a good living. With the national Midget points series eliminated, there could potentially be more of these races added throughout the country and more outlaw teams following this schedule. When you have a national series with only eight or nine full-time teams, but these events getting anywhere from 30-60 racers, its clear that the USAC points trail is not bringing in the car count numbers that the sanctioning fee demands.
The added benefit of a national Midget series is a standardization of rules of procedures. The DLM scene has used the leadership of the WoO and Lucas Oil tours to shape the rules structure for their many special events. It is clear, especially with the shift to "outlaw" schedules for major teams like Tony Stewart Racing and Kasey Kahne Motorsports, that Midget racing will continue to have less emphasis on points racing and more emphasis on its major events.
Tonight's Turkey Night Grand Prix should be a fantastic show no matter whether you are there to see a USAC champion or a Turkey Night champion crowned.
But the Turkey Night Grand Prix is all about the Midgets with the 98 lap classic determining champions for the USAC National (Brad Kuhn) and USAC Western (Garrett Hansen) series. How many people in attendance will really be focused on the points standings in the Midget series? With 45 entries for the contest, how many of these entries would skip this race if it was a non-point event? The answer is likely zero.
From this authors point of view, the title of USAC National champion is a valuable crown. But as less and less teams campaign the full USAC National trail, the importance of the championship has diminished. Much like Dirt Late Model racing, Midgets have many huge events to follow throughout the year. Chili Bowl, Night before the 500, Midget Week, Belleville, Fireman's Nationals, Four Crown, Gold Crown, Phoenix, Turkey Night, Twas the Midgets Before Christmas, and several other races populate the Midget calendar.
There are many teams that could follow this schedule and campaign perhaps a weekly 410 Sprint Car program on the side to make a good living. With the national Midget points series eliminated, there could potentially be more of these races added throughout the country and more outlaw teams following this schedule. When you have a national series with only eight or nine full-time teams, but these events getting anywhere from 30-60 racers, its clear that the USAC points trail is not bringing in the car count numbers that the sanctioning fee demands.
The added benefit of a national Midget series is a standardization of rules of procedures. The DLM scene has used the leadership of the WoO and Lucas Oil tours to shape the rules structure for their many special events. It is clear, especially with the shift to "outlaw" schedules for major teams like Tony Stewart Racing and Kasey Kahne Motorsports, that Midget racing will continue to have less emphasis on points racing and more emphasis on its major events.
Tonight's Turkey Night Grand Prix should be a fantastic show no matter whether you are there to see a USAC champion or a Turkey Night champion crowned.
November 25, 2009
NASCAR Camping World Series West offseason musings
The NASCAR Camping World Series West is a series that many would consider the top series in the western United States. Hearing NASCAR announce at the regional awards banquet that the tour has only six confirmed races for 2010 sent a shockwave throughout the racing world.
I have had conversations with many people who have said "Did you hear the west series only has six races?" or "Why bother with the west series; it only has six races."
The confirmed dates for the NASCAR Camping World Series West are Phoenix in April, Iowa in May, Infineon in June, Irwindale in July, Portland in July, and Phoenix in November.
There is no way that anyone can actually think that this is the full 2010 schedule, yet by announcing this partial schedule it made many in the west series very worried.
What NASCAR needed to say was that flying to the west coast multiple times to make a west schedule is a big expense. There is no longer a person like a Ken Clapp managing the west coast operations. The important meetings with Roseville, Roseberg, Colorado National, Stockton, Madera, and others will take place in Reno next week during the promoters workshops.
I predict a 10-12 race schedule and I think that's what we will get once its all announced.
On the drivers front, news already announced is that Lakeside, Calif.'s Auggie Vidovich will run full-time for Cass Racing in the #50 car. Unconfirmed but strongly rumored is that Luis Martinez, Jr. is taking over the #6 Bruncati entry from 2009 champ Jason Bowles. Bill McAnally Racing has not made any driver announcements but it would not surprise me to see 2009 NASCAR Whelen Rookie of the Year Jacob Gomes bring funding to the table for a seat. Perhaps even Johnathan Hale could end up in a BMR seat? The status of Moses Smith and 2008 champ Eric Holmes is unknown at this time.
Stay tuned for a full 2010 NASCAR Camping World Series West schedule, coming soon.
I have had conversations with many people who have said "Did you hear the west series only has six races?" or "Why bother with the west series; it only has six races."
The confirmed dates for the NASCAR Camping World Series West are Phoenix in April, Iowa in May, Infineon in June, Irwindale in July, Portland in July, and Phoenix in November.
There is no way that anyone can actually think that this is the full 2010 schedule, yet by announcing this partial schedule it made many in the west series very worried.
What NASCAR needed to say was that flying to the west coast multiple times to make a west schedule is a big expense. There is no longer a person like a Ken Clapp managing the west coast operations. The important meetings with Roseville, Roseberg, Colorado National, Stockton, Madera, and others will take place in Reno next week during the promoters workshops.
I predict a 10-12 race schedule and I think that's what we will get once its all announced.
On the drivers front, news already announced is that Lakeside, Calif.'s Auggie Vidovich will run full-time for Cass Racing in the #50 car. Unconfirmed but strongly rumored is that Luis Martinez, Jr. is taking over the #6 Bruncati entry from 2009 champ Jason Bowles. Bill McAnally Racing has not made any driver announcements but it would not surprise me to see 2009 NASCAR Whelen Rookie of the Year Jacob Gomes bring funding to the table for a seat. Perhaps even Johnathan Hale could end up in a BMR seat? The status of Moses Smith and 2008 champ Eric Holmes is unknown at this time.
Stay tuned for a full 2010 NASCAR Camping World Series West schedule, coming soon.
November 24, 2009
Hildebrand and Rossi lead California back into Formula 1
It was announced today that 21 year-old J.R. Hildebrand, of Sausalito, California, the 2009 Firestone Indy Lights Series champion, will be testing for Force India at Jerez Circuit on December 1-3.
“I'm ecstatic to get my first taste of F1,” the Californian enthused. “I've heard so much about the performance of the cars, and I know this is going to be quicker and more responsive than anything I've ever sat in before. I know it's a big challenge, but I feel ready to tackle it. The aim is to learn the track and the car and then hopefully show my potential.
Another Californian hoping to show his potential is 18 year old Alexander Rossi of Nevada City. Rossi, who was the top rookie in the 2009 Formula Master series in Europe, will also be testing at Jerez Circuit. Rossi secured a test with BMW/Sauber F1. Although the team is still scrambling for funding to make the grid for 2010, Rossi will get the opportunity to show his stuff for the other F1 teams in attendance.
Rossi also competes in the GP2 Asia series. Hildebrand is being courted by several different Indycar teams for the 2010 Izod Indycar Series championship, but a strong performance at Jerez could lead him to a Formula 1 ride.
The last time a pair of Californians were both in the running for Formula 1 seats was when Red Bull campaigned European junior formula programs for San Diego's Colin Fleming and Manteca's Scott Speed. Speed ended up earning a F1 seat in 2006 with Red Bull Racing before moving into the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series in 2008.
California is well-known as a hotbed of development for both NASCAR and USAC racers, but perhaps more attention should be paid to the development of Californians for Formula 1 racing. I hope Peter Winsdor and the USF1 squad will be watching how these young men develop.
“I'm ecstatic to get my first taste of F1,” the Californian enthused. “I've heard so much about the performance of the cars, and I know this is going to be quicker and more responsive than anything I've ever sat in before. I know it's a big challenge, but I feel ready to tackle it. The aim is to learn the track and the car and then hopefully show my potential.
Another Californian hoping to show his potential is 18 year old Alexander Rossi of Nevada City. Rossi, who was the top rookie in the 2009 Formula Master series in Europe, will also be testing at Jerez Circuit. Rossi secured a test with BMW/Sauber F1. Although the team is still scrambling for funding to make the grid for 2010, Rossi will get the opportunity to show his stuff for the other F1 teams in attendance.
Rossi also competes in the GP2 Asia series. Hildebrand is being courted by several different Indycar teams for the 2010 Izod Indycar Series championship, but a strong performance at Jerez could lead him to a Formula 1 ride.
The last time a pair of Californians were both in the running for Formula 1 seats was when Red Bull campaigned European junior formula programs for San Diego's Colin Fleming and Manteca's Scott Speed. Speed ended up earning a F1 seat in 2006 with Red Bull Racing before moving into the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series in 2008.
California is well-known as a hotbed of development for both NASCAR and USAC racers, but perhaps more attention should be paid to the development of Californians for Formula 1 racing. I hope Peter Winsdor and the USF1 squad will be watching how these young men develop.
Blakesley Motorsports blog is launched
Welcome to the motorsports blog Blakesley Motorsports. I am Steven Blakesley, founder of Blakesley Sports Media and this blog. I live and work in Sacramento, Calif. More about me and my business at www.norcalmedia.com
My blog will have news and commentary mainly centered around California motorsports. By the way, ANYONE can comment on the blog, even if they do not have a google account. Just select the "name/URL" option when commenting.
My blog will have news and commentary mainly centered around California motorsports. By the way, ANYONE can comment on the blog, even if they do not have a google account. Just select the "name/URL" option when commenting.
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