Forum: Northern California Sprint Car (go)
Moderators: StuDeedooo

Has there every been a NorCal sprint week for 360's or 410's?

I have a cool idea. A Bay area mini-sprint week in October, after Knoxville and the West Coast WOO shows. Probably should use 360's as the car count would be in the 50's. Here is the proposed schedule:

• Thursday, Antioch: $5,000 to win
• Friday, Ocean: $5,000 to win
• Saturday, Petaluma: $5,000 to win
• Sunday, Calistoga: $10,000 to win

I might take a few years to draw the fans & cars but I think long term it would be a huge sucess. Everywhere else has a sprint week: Indiana, Ohio, PA ........ We need to get John Padjen on board!

Coming up:

Oct 17th - Ocean Speedway: WOO
Oct 18th - Tulare Thunderbowl:  WOO
Oct 30-31st - Perris Speedway: USAC Bud Oval Nationals

We had sprint week in the 90's. It was lots of fun but alot of work for the teams and fans. Lots of expenses for one week. I do not remember what the pay out was for the winners. With todays economics I do not know if the teams and fans could afford it . They rarely even do two day shows anymore.It would be neat to see again but there are alot of other big 360 races in october,Chico, Manzy(wing& wingless) and I think the Short trackNats in Arkansas. These are at least two days which helps limit expense.

Yes, when NARC was still in existence, they had "Speedweek" across July 4th week. The tracks that participated when I went in '96 were in order: Placerville, Marysville, Chico, San Jose, Petaluma, Calistoga, and Antioch. In '97 the order was: Placerville, Marysville, Chico, Antioch, San Jose, Calistoga, Petaluma. In '98 (my last year) the Silver Legacy in Reno sponsored the event for the first time and the order was: Watsonville, Placerville, Marysville, Chico, Calistoga, Calistoga(again), and San Jose. San Jose always had the July 4th race , and had fireworks afterward. I think the last year was '99, because in 2000 things were coming apart at the seams for NARC, and then they were gone.... THOSE WERE GREAT TIMES, AND I TRULY MISS THEM. I would LOVE another speedweek....

"RED EYES, WHITE KNUCKLES, and DIRTY BRITCHES!" 

I'll second you on that one t-dubs. I was fortunate to be able to do two full speedweeks which included the innaugural one in '91 (which wasn't 7 days at 7 different tracks but it was a start) and had a great time. I wasn't on a race team of course though :-)! Those guys had to work their asses off but I do remember them partying a little bit too. I gues it was "work hard - play hard" (and little sleep) for 7 days.

LOL! That's why the slogan for speedweeks was"The fastest week of your life"! All I remember is partying until 1 or 2 in the morning, and then getting up, packing up, and heading to the next track at around 6am the next day, trying to beat all the other motorhomes to the limited camping areas!(LOL) I learned the hard way my first year(man, how come I can't find a place to park?) so then it was "Game on" from then on for the best spots to park! My brother in law and I got pretty good at getting the primo spots every night, HA! Those were some fun times....

"RED EYES, WHITE KNUCKLES, and DIRTY BRITCHES!" 

Those Speedweeks were almost harder than basic training in the military. I remember telling Florie when it was over that I was going back to work to get some rest!

:-)

I had fun...but, damn, that was a lot of hard work.

In '99, Yzman and I spent a number of months helping Cliff Blackwell build a car for NARC Speedweek. Our Mate Alan Wakeling came over from New Zealand to drive it. That was six races and although it was alot of work in the months preceeding, those six days are still a blur to me. Every track was over 100 degrees and Marysville and Chico were 112! Damn, I'm getting exhausted thinking about that week...

Anyone have the Speedweek Pin set that is in the shape of the state of California? Those were pretty cool.

I'm with you, Mike.

As a crewman, Speedweeks were a killer... but a ton of fun! A couple of years, I scheduled picnics at my place following speedweek.

Calistoga was like a break, since we spent two nights there!

As glad as I was to see Speedweek, I was also glad to see it end!

Chuck.....

Yeah Topwing I got one of those cool pin sets. I bought mine in '97, they made 300 sets that year, and I got #97 for that years Speedweek. BK autographed it as he was that years champion.(He wouldn't have been if Randy Tiner would have raced the first night at P-ville, but he and Rod had a tiff and Randy announced his "retirement" Of course he was back the following night and he went on a tear, winning three features (maybe it was four, I can't remember, to much alcohol LOL!)and barely missed winning the title

"RED EYES, WHITE KNUCKLES, and DIRTY BRITCHES!" 

I got mine in '98, number 66 of 300. Autographed by BK and Randy Hannigan, 1st & 2nd.

Maybe a year or so ago I got a couple of the "98" sets on ebay. There person was selling like 60 sets or so. After I received them in the mail I got an email from ebay saying that the auction was being pulled and I deals were null and void. I don't remember paying attention to the reason since I had already gotten mine.

Weird.

I remember the 100k to anyone who won 6 of 7 races, and steve kent stealing the race in turn four on the last lap at calistoga to keep BK from winning it. victory lane interview- "if i cant win it nobody can!!" Still the best night ever at calistoga, as tony stewart won the midget race that night the same way, in turn 4!! I also remember losing my best friend, and the man who introduced me to sprintcars during speedweek two years later on the day of the stoga race. It was a great week that was always looked foreward to, but with the BS politics and fair board jerks we'll probably never see it again in CA.....

That was during the '96 version of speedweek. It was so cool to see the USAC midgets on the historic 1/2 mile. I remember there being somewhere around 30 midgets at that race, with Tony Stewart, Billy Boat, and Kenny Irwin jr. headlining the show. That was when Billy was on fire, after smashing the record books the year before, winning 11 straight Western States midget features, and breaking the old record of 10 that had been set by A.J. Foyt. He also had won his first of three consecutive "Turkey Night Grand Prix" races ('95, '96, '97) before moving on to the IRL. That was so cool seeing a doubleheader like that at Calistoga, I wish we could experience that again....

"RED EYES, WHITE KNUCKLES, and DIRTY BRITCHES!" 

Hey Goatracing, would that be Ray Lopez?

no, sorry

Sprint week brings back fond memories for me. I made all the races in 95 and in 99. We did pretty well for years in between. I enjoyed the big final show when it was at San Jose because they usually put on a great fireworks presentation.

I do think that that race with Tony Stewart and Billy Boat was one of the most exciting midget races I've ever seen. I have heard Bobby Gerold tell the story that, Tony Stewart asked his dad if he had a copy of the video of that race, just 10 minutes prior to getting into his car to race in Indianapolis 500. I also believe that Tony is quoted as saying " it's one of my favorite races of all time".

Those certainly were the good old days. I hope everyone enjoys themselves this weekend and I look forward to getting up to California in the next couple of months to see all of you.

Have a great day!

Kerry