Mears called it a great event with tremendous atmosphere.
“In desert racing, it was the exact opposite,” Mears said. “You get through a corner and get the absolute most out of it being on the limit and you are proud of yourself, but nobody saw it.
“It brought off-road racing to the fan, much like street racing in IndyCar brings the show to the fan instead of the fan to the races.”
Mears recalled driving up the stairs through the peristyle and back town the stadium as racing blind.
“It was exciting,” he said. “It was a lot of fun.”
The Busch Lite Clash is designed to be more of a show than a race and that is important to creating new fans.
“You have to take stuff for what it is and think about the big picture,” Mears said. “To me, it was a great show. I’ve always liked short-track racing. You have to work for two inches one lap and two more inches, and you will run side by side for 15 laps to get by somebody. That takes car control, tires and finesse.
“All in all, for what they were trying to accomplish, it brought the racing to the fans.
“Good for them. You have to go with the times, think outside of the box and create some new things to generate interest. That kind of thing is good for the sport.”
Blattler believes the history of racing at the L.A. Memorial Coliseum has always been more to put on a show than to present great racing.
“NASCAR at the L.A. Coliseum was interesting, but NASCAR has been out here racing at Riverside and Fontana, and it brought out many people that never came to a race before,” Blattler said. “It’s cool in a way. It’s like the National Hockey League’s Midwinter Classic, by playing hockey games at famous outdoor stadiums in North America.
“It was a show-biz deal, but now they are bringing it back. They are trying to reach out to the average Joe to watch racing in the city that may not come out to a race.”
Clapp made a point to work the midway area around the Coliseum during last year’s Busch Lite Clash. He said the fans were all very polite and cordial and he asked fans what they thought of NASCAR racing at the L.A. Coliseum.
“Everybody was positive, but they were not die-hard racing fans for the most part,” Clapp recalled. “Several of them had never been to a race before. I spoke to 30 different people, many with small children.
“It was a novelty. It was more of a happening than it was a race.”
It was also an important introduction for many of these fans to NASCAR and big-time auto racing.
“I think that is significant, but it was heavily overshadowed by the fact this was a big NASCAR race that turned into a big NASCAR happening,” Clapp said. “That’s what it was. It wasn’t a great, great race, but the people that were there didn’t care if it wasn’t a great, great race. It was noisy. The cars were colorful and the average fan that was there got their money’s worth. They liked what they saw.
“It was fun.”
Clapp believes racing at the L.A. Memorial Coliseum was an important move by NASCAR’s Ben Kennedy, to show his leadership in continuing the family business into the future. Kennedy is Bill France Jr.’s grandson and his mother is Lesa France Kennedy, France’s daughter, and NASCAR founder Bill France’s granddaughter.
“Internally, Ben Kennedy is going to fill a void in the next five to seven years that a lot of people were worried about,” Clapp said. “His grandfather and great-grandfather rocketed the sport to the very top. Ben was the author of the L.A. Coliseum. It was his idea from the very beginning.
“Internally, it put a stamp of approval on who would run this organization down the road. It delivered a big, big message to the industry that Ben had vision, ability and execution.
“He did it. He made it happen. That is the most significant thing about the L.A. Coliseum race to me, speaking for the whole industry.”
