NWWT cars and drivers greet people at Portland Roadster Show
Andrew Kunas
This past weekend in Portland, the new NorthWest Wingless Tour put itself on display at the 53rd Annual Portland Roadster Show in the Oregon Convention Center. With a pair of midgets and four non-wing 360 sprint cars sitting inside, the sport of open wheel dirt race received a lot of exposure over the course of three days.
All weekend at one of the country’s top car shows they came, race fans, families with small children and the curious alike. A lot of people had never seen a sprint car or midget before. Lots of questions asked, and all of them answered. Hundreds, if not thousands, of NWWT schedules were handed out, and even some tickets to future races at Cottage Grove Speedway were given to those who had never been to a sprint car or midget event before.
Many people, mostly kids, even climbed into some of the cars. Many kids, after sitting the cars and seeing the video of sprint car racing playing on the television set at the display, declared to their parents they wanted one of these things when they grew up. Quarter midgets are probably being looked for now.
Even pageant royalty came by to take pictures. Miss Oregon, complete with her crown, and one of her predecessors also climbed into sprint cars.
The NWWT midget division was represented by the Tom & Judy Maples No. 51 midget of Dallas Melby and the Mike Morris No. 11x midget, right now expected to be driven by 17-year-old Allison Journey. The sprint cars on hand were Keary Morris’ own No. 11x, the Bob Farwell No. 30 of Gary Davis, Mark Nichols own No. 64, and Mark Herz’s own No. 28.
Journey, a friendly girl who just turned 17 years of age on Tuesday, spent most of Friday and Saturday at the show, signing autographs and taking pictures. She was perhaps the most popular driver there.
“I love talking to people,” Journey, a former feature winner in Ford Focus midgets, said on Saturday evening. “It’s huge (having cars at the show). A lot of people out there don’t know about this. If we get one more person in the stands, and they bring more people, it’s more exposure for the sport.”
Mike Morris, Keary’s son, owns the midget Journey is currently scheduled to race, while he’ll be piloting the Ron Brown No. 14 sprint car. Morris also spent a lot of time at the show talking with people.
“This is a great way to kick start what everyone feels will be a great season. A great experience,” Morris said. “It’s awesome meeting people. You see their eyes widen when they see the cars and they ask questions. It gets sprint cars and midgets more exposed.”
Mitch Hoffses, who will be piloting the family No. 5 midget in the NWWT, wanted to put his car in the show also but was unable to get it ready in time. Hoffses, however, still took the time to come to the show and talk with curious people and show them the cars. Another teenager by the name of Nick Tomlinson, who will drive the family No. 16 sprint car this year, was also at the show on Saturday meeting people.
Nichols was perhaps the most active NWWT at the show. Over the weekend, he let dozens of people actually climb into his No. 64 sprint car and pose for pictures. He made the biggest surprise on Saturday evening, when he disappeared for a moment and came back with Miss Oregon, Danijela Krstic, in tow.
Invited to get in, Krstic looked at Nichols’ car and wondered aloud how she could get into such a small space. She was told that one of her predecessors, Donilee McGinnis, got into a dwarf car at last year’s show. It is not known if Krstic knew what a dwarf car was, but that fact got her thinking.
“Donilee’s taller than me! If she can get into that, then I can get into this car,” she proclaimed.
So climb into that sprint car she did. After taking photos with Nichols, Krstic also got to meet with more people from the NorthWest Wingless Tour.
McGinnis, who became Miss Oregon in 2006, wasn’t afraid to climb into a race car at last year’s show. She continued that this year as she climbed into Herz’s sprint car at the show’s close on Sunday. She was delayed when handing out trophies at the awards ceremony that ran long, but she kept her promise to come down to check out the cars and take pictures.
While most of the cars were at one spot in the Oregon Convention Center, Keary Morris’ sprint car, once belonging to NASCAR star Tony Stewart, was sitting with a pair of other full-bodied race cars at the Miles Around Radio and Television display out on the convention floor. Morris has been a guest on the Miles Around television program before.
Dennis Pittsenbarger, the host of Miles Around, which mainly serves the Portland, Ore. area, was also at the Portland Roadster Show and he made Nichols’ car popular again also when he shot a segment for the TV show from inside Nichols’ car. Miles Around will be providing exclusive radio and television coverage of the NorthWest Wingless Tour this season. In the Portland area, Miles Around can be heard on the radio Saturday from 9:00 a.m. to Noon on AM 970 - The Talker. On TV, you can see Miles Around on Sunday mornings at 9:00 a.m. on Comcast SportsNet.
The NorthWest Wingless Tour’s inaugural season schedule consists of races at three different dirt tracks in Oregon and Washington. The 2009 season kicks off on Saturday, April 25 at the annual Grove Classic race at Cottage Grove Speedway, a short drive south of Eugene. The tour will also race at Willamette Speedway in Lebanon, Ore. and Grays Harbor Raceway in Elma, Wash.
A website is in the works at
http://www.nwwingless.com and the NorthWest Wingless Tour is also on MySpace at
http://www.myspace.com/nwwt.
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Also Online:
Portland Roadster Show -
http://www.portlandroadstershow.comOregon Convention Center -
http://www.oregoncc.orgMiles Around Radio & TV - milesaround.blogspot.com
Heart of Sailing Foundation (Donilee McGinnis volunteers for) -
http://www.heartofsailing.orgNorthWest Wingless Tour on MySpace -
http://www.myspace.com/nwwt- - -
NWWT - The NorthWest Wingless Tour
http://www.nwwingless.com
