Editor’s Note: In a nod to our 90 years of history, each week SPEED SPORT will look back at the top stories from 15, 30 and 60 years ago as told in the pages of National Speed Sport News.
15 Years Ago — 2010
News: At least two midget racing sanctioning bodies are planning to implement low·cost engines that could save teams thousands of dollars and more importantly put more cars on the track.
Officials from the United States Speed Ass’n and the Northeastern Midget Ass’n told National Speed Sport News they would introduce more affordable engine solutions they hope will improve midget car counts across the board.
USSA. a sanctioning body owned by longtime midget mechanic and car owner Don Kenyon, announced Thursday an initiative to introduce electronically managed fuel injection on dual overhead cam four-valve engines based on stock blocks and cylinder heads, as well as a new Esslinger Engineering EST engine.
The engines, which will be sealed to prevent tampering with connecting rods, crankshafts or the valve train, will feature 320 to 340 horsepower, self·starters and cost a maximum of $22.000. The maximum displacement for the dual overhead cam engine will be 2.5liters and the Esslinger EST will be 2.65liters.
High-dollar midget engines range from $40,000 to $60,000.
“Midget racing is no different from the rest of the industry in that it has a lot of negative impact from the state of the economy,” said Eric Bunn, the vice president and competition director of the USSA. “There are a lot of people that have the perception and quite frankly the reality that midget racing is too expensive or more expensive than they are willing to commit to.
“It comes down to money. The biggest portion of that money comes down to the cost of the engines,” Bunn said. “We’ve priced too many people out of the market, so we decided to reduce the price.”
Mike Scrivani, president and longtime promoter of NEMA. Agrees with that assessment. He told NSSN that his series is hoping to implement a similar sealed engine program in 2011, with the maximum cost per engine being approximately $17,000. NEMA runs winged midgets, whereas USSA and most other midget sanctions in the United States race without wings.
“We’re looking at a window of about $15,OOO to $17,000,” Scrivani said. “We’re working on it right now. We’re probably going to implement this next year. The only way you’re going to keep costs down is keep people from digging into the motor.”
Unlike the USSA engine initiative, Scrivani said that he is looking to cut as much as 500 RPMs from the engines used in his series as part of the cost-cutting measures. He said that the final horsepower numbers would be on par with the program that USSA is implementing.
“What’s killing us right now is the RPMs.” Scrivani said. “When you run high RPMs. it wears out motors. We’ve got to get the RPlMs down and we’ve got to get the cost of the motor down.
“I went to three manufacturers already. I told them what I wanted. Esslinger is fine with that. It can get there. Volkswagen says it can get there. EcoTech, Chevrolet. says he’s already there,” Scrivani said.
Esslinger Engineering is the first builder to commit to the new USSA midget engine program.
“We are very excited about the new engine format,” said Dan Esslinger, president of Esslinger Engineering.
“It dramatically reduces the initial cost of the engine as well as the race to race expenses by lowering fuel usage and allowing more nuu1ing between oil changes due to less methanol pollution in the crankcase.”
Winners: The engines could barely be heard above the crowd of 23,500 when Tim Shaffer slid under Donny Schatz and grabbed the lead as the pair raced to the white flag in the 50th annual Goodyear Knoxville Nationals Saturday night at Knoxville Raceway.
Shaffer led the final two laps to score one of the biggest upsets in the history of the prestigious event, earning $150,000 in Janet Holbrook and Aaron Call’s No. 83 in the Golden Anniversary of sprint-car racing’s most important race.
“When you see the checkers at the Knoxville Nationals, I just can’t describe the feeling,” said the defending All Star Circuit of Champions title winner.
Having won a preliminary feature at the Nationals last year and 10 features this season coming into Knoxville, Shaffer was hardly a longshot, but he also wasn’t the driver everyone was talking about.
But he took care of his car and was in position when it came winning time at the end of the 50-lap grind, the longest race in Nationals history.
“When I was running third, I hoped they would get tangled together and I would go past them,” Shaffer said. “But then Sammy (Swindell) blew that tire and spun and I really had to turn the car to miss him. Then I was second and I thought, ‘This is for real now.’
“When I went past (Schatz), I thought he would turn under me and come back past, but he didn’t.”
Schatz, meanwhile, finished second after having won the race four-straight years, nursing his ailing car to the checkered flag.
30 Years Ago — 1995
News: Earthmovers with huge checkered flags fluttering in 100 degree temperatures began shaping Texas Motor Speedway last week. The work marked the start of formal construction of the nation’s second largest sports complex.
The start of construction should insure completion of the facility by mid-summer of 1996, in time to potentially host a race in the fall. Texas Motor Speedway General Manager Eddie Gossage has confirmed a 9-12-month window that will be needed to build the 1.5-mile superspeedway and the 160,000 seats that will encircle the track.
TMS officials and engineers made last-minute blueprint changes that moved the track 450 feet to the east from the original plans. The move was to accommodate a neighboring mobile home park.
“We intend on being great neighbors to those living next to the track,” Gossage told reporters. “They will be right behind the backstretch grandstand but are welcome to stay where they are.”
Several mobile home owners refused an offer from TMS prexy Bruton Smith to swap their current homesite to a new 700-acre facility 4 miles away from the TMS site. Gossage reaffirmed that the slight track move was accomplished so that no homesites would have to be condemned by local political bodies.
The track has already been swamped with ticket requests, even though no dates or race series have been confirmed.
The first phase of TMS construction will include the 1.5-mile banked superspeedway, 160,000 seats and 204luxury skyboxes. Phase II will boost the seating capacity to 250,000, placing TMS behind only the Indianapolis Motor Speedway in seating capacity.
In related news, stock in Speedway Motorsports Inc., the New York Stock Exchange firm that owns TMS, Charlotte and Atlanta Motor Speedways, reached a new all-time price high last week.
The stock price has risen over 60 percent for those that purchased initial offering shares earlier this year.
And with Texas Motor Speedway speeding to completion in 1996, Speedway Motorsports Inc. stock may still be a bargain at today’s prices.
Winners: Long live the King.
The fact that Steve Kinser is perhaps the greatest driver to ever step into a sprint car is no secret among those who follow the sport.
Saturday night at Knoxville Raceway, the King proved on national television live-he is in a league all his own, whipping the finest sprint car drivers in the world.
Badly.
It was a tail-kicking, rim-riding commercial for the King of the Outlaws, and he loved every minute of it.
Everyone thought the 35th annual Amoco Knoxville Nationals, on The Nashville Network, was a wide-open show.
Mark Kinser and Danny Lasoski shared the front row as well as the mantle of favorite.
Steve Kinser started 14th, tying the farthest back ever for a Knoxville Nationals winner (Jerry Richert in 1962).
None of that made any difference.
Steve Kinser put on a display of driving that few, if any, had ever seen, and the result was his 11th Knoxville Nationals title. No one else has more than four.
Saturday night’s victory at Knoxville was his second $100,000 triumph in 8 days in the Quaker State Maxim. He captured the Historical Big One III the week previous at Eldora Speedway in Ohio.
“We’ve put 2 good weeks together,” the winner said. “I guess if there’s a good time to do it, the last 2 weeks was the perfect time. We had such a good race car tonight. It was going around the top of the track better than anybody else, and I think I was actually faster at other spots on the track but there wasn’t anybody running up there where I was so I just stayed there.”
Kinser blasted into the top 10 on the second lap and rested sixth when the yellow flag came out on lap four.
From there, it was relentless, pound-it-out-in-the-high groove racing, using every bit of the considerable skill he has amassed in a lifetime of wheeling sprint cars.
On the restart for the lap four yellow, which waved for debris, Kinser set sail on the high side and by the time he was finished, he was second behind leader Mark Kinser’s Wirtgen Maxim.
He closed in on his cousin, finally getting close enough to pass on lap 16. But Mark closed the door from the low side and Steve had to chase another lap.
Coming off turn two the next time around, Steve made the pass stick and hurried into the low groove to make Mark lift momentarily.
The rest was history.
“I’m just disappointed,” said Mark Kinser. “I really wanted to win this race. I feel let down, like I let my team down. There’s always next year.”
60 Years Ago— 1965
News: Noted stock car builder Everett (Cotton) Owens Will go after the NASCAR Grand National championship. in 1966, it was announced here last week by P. D. Hefner, president of the Carolina Dodge Dealers Ass’n, which sponsors Owens’ activity.
It means that the popular No. 6 Dodge will appear in all NASCAR Grand National races next season.
Owens said driver David Pearson will wheel a 1960 Dodge Coronet and will compete in Category ll of the 1966 NASCAR rules. This also means that he will use a hemi engine of less than 405 cubic inches displacement on superspeedways like Daytona, Darlington, Atlanta and Charlotte.
On shorter tracks, he plans to use a hemi engine with 426 cubic inches displacement.
Category II also requires cars to have a minimum wheelbase of 116 inches. The Dodge Coronet series has a 117-inch wheelbase.
The new rules, announced jointly on June 16, by NASCAR and USAC, provide an opportunity for cars of different sizes to compete against each other on an equitable basis.
Cars with 119-inch or more wheelbase fall into Category I and they can use 427-cubic-inch engines on all tracks.
“We are delighted that all of the racing organizations have gotten together and made a single set of rules ” Owens said “They’re wonderful rules-they announced them early so we could start planning now for what we think will be the best year yet,” he concluded. As for Pearson, he commented, “I’m ready, let’s go racing.”
Winners: Ernie Derr, a five-time champion, opened the International Motor Contest Association’s golden anniversary speed program at the Iowa State Fair Saturday by winning the 25-mile late-model stock car feature.
The 42-year-old veteran wheeled his 1965 Dodge to a track record in a special 5-mile match race over the half-mile dirt oval and might have had another mark but for a yellow flag which flapped for five laps in the feature.
Ramo Stott finished second in the main go, followed by Bob Jusola, Ed Negre, John Mickey, and Lenny Funk.
Derr’s triumph before the afternoon crowd or 6,000 ·brought his season’s record to 12 feature victories against nine by Stott, and was worth $700.
Ernie, on the pole as the time trial leader, never let Ramo get within challenging distance after the opening lap. Derr had a 75-yard lead Oil his rival when Bob Dishman hung his Chevrolet on the northwest wall following a spin.
This incident, one of two minor accidents on the program, allowed Stott to close the gap on Derr during the yellow nag. But once starter Gene Van Winkel waved the green, Ernie took off again and left Ramo.
The 10-lap track record was broken three times, the last by Derr who clocked the 5 miles in 4 minutes, 21.46 seconds.
