Forum: HoseHeads Sprint Car General Forum (go)
Moderators: dirtonly  /  dmantx  /  hosehead

This isn't a bitching session but all the comments about track conditions got me to thinking about some of the funny situations I have experienced.  I look back at those experiences and laugh about them now but was admittedly riled up about it when they happened. Now they're funny stories but at the time it didn't seem so funny because of the time and expense.  Anyone who has chased this sport has experienced frustrating events.

My two contributions are the time my son and I went to Owatonna, Minnesota, for 410 race.  There were 29 cars on a beautiful clear evening.  As race time approached we looked around the stands and there couldn't have been more than 100 people.  Pretty soon we see the cars that were pitted in the infield loading up and shutting the hauler doors.  As it turns out the story is that the promoter bailed out as he could see the writing on the wall.  Money was refunded at the gate so all we wasted was a couple hours early exit from work and some drive time.

My over story is similar only this took place at Jackson Speedway before it was upgraded and rebranded as the Motorplex.  I can't recall the event but I think it was a 360 race and obviously a big show as there were something like 40'cars.  This was when they had the old wooden light poles and overhead electrical lines.  One of the last haulers to arrive has a taller than normal trailer and took out an electrical line.  Another beautiful night with a ton of cars and the show was over before it started.

There have been other crazy experiences but today the are relegated to funny stories we tell when we are bench racing.  Let's have some fun for a change and share some humorous racing experiences.

Stan Meissner

I was at those same two races!  Both times I took friends who had never seen sprints before and had them all excited to see the races.  Never did get my money back on the Owatonna race.

I was flew down to Vegas for the WoO in 2000(?) when they canceled the Friday show because the track was so rough that they could not race.  The track was not much better Saturday.  Still a little bitter on that one...

Sounds like if my son and I and you and your friends hadn't shown up at Owatonna the crowd would have been 10% fewer people.  LOL 

One of the advantage of streaming races.  If something bizzare happens and they cancel we can change channels. 

Stan Meissner

this isn't sprint car racing but we were at the coke 600 about 10 years ago when they had one of those spider cams on a cable that stretched across most of the front stretch.  fox was really proud of how long the cable was.  the cable snapped about 100 laps in.  some fans were hurt thankfully with minor stuff...but kyle busch took the worst damage which was a huge plus.  needless to say they never ran a camera like that across the race track again.  i'm waiting for one of those drones to crash into a car.

25-30 years ago my dad and I went to placerville on a saturday night....it rained, snowed and was cold.  Great racing.  Next day went to Madera and it was 100 plus.

Few years ago at Knoxville ....downpoured(first time there and I thought the night was over).  Stopped raining, they worked the track back in and it was bad fast.  Then the fog rolled in and they called the feature.  

One of the funniest things I remember from a race track..cottage grove speedway, this drunk kept going down to get beer and up to his seat and would spill beer on someone each time.  His last trip down he fell, dunno if someone had had enough and helped him or not, and he bounced and rolled down to the last step.  And there he lay.  As a kid I thought it was funny.  

I remember watching that race.  As far as NASCAR goes who can forget JPM running into the jet dryer.

Stan Meissner

One time when I was a kid in the early 60's we went to Cedar Lake and were sitting on blankets near the area where the backstretch concession and pit stands are today.  Some drunks got in an argument about who was the best driver.  The one group punched some guy and knocked him out cold.  They picked him up and laid him on the ground next to us.  My family decided to move down a ways and there were parts of the track with not much for fences.  A car lost a wheel and tire, it rolled up the hill and hit a tree that I fell asleep next to and bounced off it and back onto the track.  I woke up to everyone standing around asking if I was alright.  

Stan Meissner

I still remember the races being called after Mike Sargent's and another driver's cars burned to the ground at Baylands during an Outlaws show. Both drivers escaped without serious injury. They dumped a full water trucks worth of water and everything else they had and it wouldn't go at. It was wild.

My dad and I attended the USAC race at Pocono for several years in the mid 1970's.  I think this happened in 73 or 74 as we left my mom and future wife at home as my future wife was not a race fan.  As we were leaving early Sunday I mentioned to dad that the midgets were running at Grandview that night and we could make the midget race for a double header.  Mom and Carol made it clear as to what we should do, as in "DON"T EVEN THINK ABOUT THAT MIDGET RACE!"  Of course we we pleaded our case, but it a non-starter.  Now this was well before cell phones so once we left home, there was no contact between us and the homefront.  Dad and I liked going into the infield and sitting in the top row of the old bleachers between the big track and inside the old 3/4 mile track.  Actually these were great seats as you could all the around the track and watch the pit action.  We parked in the infield and after thr race was over waited a few minutes before we got in line to exit out the tunnel under the turn 2 corner.  All of a sudden, the line stoped moving and we sat unable to go forward, backward and getting off the blacktop to try another crossover was out of the question ans cars and trucks who tried were getting stuck.  A truck (I think it was some food service) got stuck in one of the two tunnels and we sat there until it was all but dark.  Even if we decided to go to Grandview we would have never made it for the feature.  I don't know why we did not stop and call home, but when we pulled into the garage at home my brother was standing at a window and we could read is lips as he said "You guys are in big trouble!"  Did you ever try to explain why you were late when two women KNEW we went to the midget race in spite of what we were told to do.  It took a few days until they believed what we told them what happened.  Needless to say my now wife of 46 years still does not get why I enjoy racing, but she is much more supportive.  I lost mom in 2013 and dad in 2015 and will always be grateful for what they gave my brother and me.      

Port Royal Tuscarora 50....I wanna say 1995 or 96? I was just a kid. They red flagged the feature for no apparent reason. Then a police officer got on the mic and said that a bomb threat had been made against the fair/speedway. The race continued afterwards. Most people left but we didn't. It was a weird night.

Watched about 100 people get into a huuuge fight in the Lincoln infield a few years back. From the stands it looked like a giant swarm of bees moving around down there. They threw a red in the feature for the cops to cross the track and start arresting people. I wanna say it was around 2007. Hard to remember  because I was like 18 and not drunk because the legal drinking age in PA is 21. 

I was at both of those race Stan mentioned. Randy Nygaard pulled the wires down at Jackson,that was 97'. I think the Owatonna race was 98'? Mike Peters was in the 29 car I believe and they were the first to load up as I believe the promoter offered to pay half the purse to get the show in and the drivers told him to F off. 

My worst race was an IMCA sprint car "special" in Kasson MN. Three cars showed up and one crashed in hotlaps. 

I have had some experiences driving to and from races as well.  My first car was a '58 Chevy with rust over the headlights like they used to do.  My headlights were lose so I stuffed rags around them until I could find some fenders that weren't rusty.  I got caught in a downpour on the way home from the races and hit a bump in the road.  One headlight fell out and was hanging by the wire, the other was pointed at the top of the trees.  I got out of the car and got drenched while I pulled the rags out, wrung them and jammed them back in there.  
 

Soon after that I went to one of those "pull and pay" junk yards and got some fenders off a different colored '58.  When I got home and took a shower I found seventeen wood Ticks crawling around looking for a place to dig in.  A cousin who owned Sprint Cars took what was left of my Chevy after I left for boot camp with the idea he would use the 6cyl for some kind of tractor he was going to build.  When they dug into it they found out the motor was shot but they found half a case of beer in the trunk.  It was the summer of 1969 and I turned 18 in the Navy so the beer was from when I was 17 partying before I left for boot camp.  Racing related experience but it didn't take place at the races.

Stan Meissner

About 15 years ago (give or take) the IRA Sprints were scheduled for Freeport Raceway Park.  (Now a cornfield----for good reason)  We received about 2 inches of rain 24 hours before, the temps were cool, and the track was very tacky and fast.  The IRA showed up that night, took one look at the track and the terrible condition of the fence, and said there is no way they can run the 1/2 mile track-----they'll be in the road.  They compromised, and agreed to run the smaller, 1/4-mile track.  First heat, 2nd or 3rd lap, a car rips down the cheap, terrible fencing, and the event, and all of the support racing, is cancelled.  So, what becomes of our $25 admission?  If we stand in line, they will refund us..........................$10!   Any questions on why this track is now closed?

Post race campground stories would take things to another level but I'd cause more trouble than I care to if I told them all. 

The reason I started this thread was to hear some funny stories and to illustrate that the things that people complain about today will be funny bench racing stories in a few years. 

Stan Meissner

     Sometime in the 80's I was at a weekly show at Husets, when the red flag was thrown for no apparent reason. As the cars pulled into the pits, the back gate opened and trailers came rolling in. Denny Oviat announced that there was a big rain storm about 5 minutes away and told everybody to run for their cars. I managed to get to my car sooner than most, but I was soaked by then.

      I got up on the highway in a monsoon rain and came upon a mom and two small children on bikes. I pulled in ahead of them and we threw 3 bikes in and the 4 of us packed into my little Toyota pickup. We hadn't said a word until then, so I just turned and asked "Where to?"

Happened several years ago at a track in El Paso during the fourth of July weekend.   The track was outside of city limits and so were two dozen firework stands.   It was like a war zone manuvering around the firework stands, but we made it to the race track.   From the stands we could watch the races and all of the fireworks going off.   Pretty soon, there is a small fire in the fileld behind the track.   Then a large fire in the field behind the track.   Next the races were red flagged and the fire trucks left to put out the fire.  

Winged Strawser strikes again???

I think the other driver was Milan Garrett... Sargent's car was later called the crispy critter. Miss Baylands! Although it was an ugly incident, thanks for reminding me about that place 

OK, great race but "less than ideal situation".... Montpelier Speedway, a few years ago, Indiana Midget Week. The "less than ideal" part was baseball sized dirt clods flying off Turn 4. My buddy BrentTFunk (See IOW) insisted on sitting right on the bottom row, turn 4. I sat up higher, but it wasn't much higher , maybe 12 rows, looked like old HS bleachers. The guy sitting next to me was using his seat cushion like a shield to ward off the dirt bombs, when I realized that if I stood up (back row, of course) the clods would hit me in the legs instead of the face. At this point I could not stop laughing.... full moon, perfect weather, one of the most fun races I ever attended.

Oh yea, the race.... Larson & Chris Bell were going at it like mad dogs, I fergit who won but I think it was Larson...