By TJ Buffenbarger
(June 15, 2002) — I had not planned to do any racing this Saturday, but a late start putting an end to my Toledo trip on Friday made me itch to see open wheel racing on what was going to be a day off for me.
One by one though races fell by the wayside with Auto City and Merritt canceling early. Then Jeff Converse called later in the morning reminding me that the Butler Motor Speedway was taking the wings off the sprint cars. I must have been inspired from watching my copy of Lynn Shaffer’s Thunder in the Pa. Mountains video on Saturday afternoon as the prospect of seeing “sleek open wheel races unobstructed by wings” 45 minuets from home was intriguing, so Converse and I packed up and headed down to Quincy.
I made sure to walk about 10 feet away from Converse after arriving at Butler. Jeff’s blasting of Butler in his column about on Hosehead’s two weeks ago wondered what kind of reception the High Vista video crew would receive. The staff was friendly and actually was glad to see I was there to cover the night’s activity.
After checking out the racetrack I opted to grab Jeff’s second video camera and head to the infield platform to try to see if I could shoot video. I think during an entire night of video taping, I may have had 60-90 seconds of useable footage. However, it was fun to try for a night, as I like to challenge myself to use my creative energy with different things from time to time.
There were many nervous faces before about 27 now wingless warriors took to the Speedway for wheel packing. It turned out well that Chad Dellagrange was the only non-wing regular that came up to race against a mix of Butler and SOD regulars. Butler has only had recent wingless sprint car races in daytime conditions at the Dealers Choice, and that was the extent of most of the the field’s experience without the wing.
Joe Dorer broke the crust again this week and produced some real rock ‘n roll hot laps with some serious biking action through turns one and two. The way hot laps started it appeared to be a night for the cowboys, and the driver that wanted this race bad enough would have to put on their spurs and ride there way through the rough stuff. Dorer continued to work on his surface before race time, and the track got better as the night went on. By the end of the night the surface was nearly perfect.
Talking to the drivers throughout the night was very interesting as well. After hot laps nobody was happy. Drivers were very nervous about the rough conditions. The once the heat races completed everyone seemed to be getting a bit more comfortable, but car setup was going to be a major guessing game for the feature.
Shortly before the B-Main mother nature opened up with a brief shower. As I have seen in recent years at several different speedways, the rain actually helped the racetrack’s smoothness (kind of backwards of what I would normally expect to happen) and the B-Main featured some incredible racing action.
Feature time rolled around, and Chuck Wilson, Sean Robinson, and Mark Broughman all distanced themselves from the rest of the field. Behind them Steve Zabonic, Mark Stemen, an impressive Jeff Rankin, and Bob Dooley had a wild wheel banging, slide jobbing, line swapping battle for fourth on back.
Broughman was able to move around Robinson in turn four, survived several restarts, and hung on to put the Zach Attack machine in victory lane. Broughman is one of the true nice guys in our sport, and it was great to see him take the victory.
The best thing after the race ended was seeing the smiles in the pit area afterwords. Nobody ended up flipping, and minor spins were the order of the day for caution flags. All but a couple of the drivers had big smiles on their faces, and made sure to mention how much fun it was to drive wingless at Butler.
Looking back this was by far and away the most enjoyable night I have ever spent at Butler, and I hope Joe Dorer was listening when I said after the heat races I would like to see two or three more wingless shows next year. Maybe a USAC show???
Notes & Quotes
** Chuck Wilson was pumped up after his second place run at Butler without the wing. “That was the most fun I have had in a race car all season” Wilson said after the feature. “We put on too soft of a tire, and I just could not get by (Sean) Robinson and (Mark) Broughman. I just willed the car around Robinson, but I knew I had to go up top to get Mark. I just could not get going up there, so I went back down to see if he would make a mistake. Mark didn’t make any though”.
Wilson mentioned he was using the event with his re-assembled Eagle Chassis to tune up for the Buckeye Nationals events at Attica and Fremont. Wilson also might go to Lima if he runs well at Attica and Fremont.
** Jeff Rankin might be the most impressive not-so-new name of the 2002 season in the Michigan area. Rankin has had strong runs at Butler, and led a good portion of a GLOSS event at the Hartford Speedway Park. The amazing part of Rankin’s run at Hartford was that his team uses a steel motor with a very old injection system.
“We picked this car up from Jason Johnson (Wisconsin) at the Fremont Flea Market this year, and it is the best handling car I have ever driven. The car does all the work, I just aim it in the right direction”, said Rankin.
Many would not agree with Rankin though as his driving performances have had many people talking in the area.
** Ken Mackey now leads the point standings at Hartford Speedway Park and at the Butler Motor Speedway. Mackey was behind Jason Blonde, who was a no show for the points race without the wing up top. Mackey though got together with several cars during his heat race, and ended up bending up some wheels and other equipment. Mackey then packed up after the heat race, openly not being a big fan of wingless racing, and went to the grandstand to spectate the rest of the evening.
Mackey also learned that winning Hartford’s point championship could garner him an extra $300 at the end of the season. Even though he leads both standings, do not look for the Mackey racing team to be racing for points.
** Chad Dellegrange was a hired gun for the evening by Jim Payne to drive his competition-welding car at Hartford. Payne recently returned from the Masters Classic claiming if he had too much fun and slowed his performance down
** Former Butler and Ohio Sprint Bandit standout Eric Slade was wondering the pits on Saturday night catching up with old friends. Slade moved down south several seasons ago to work for Bill Davis Racing and now works with Dave Blaney and the Jasper Engines #77 car. Slade is Blaney’s spotter on raceday