When Roger Penske took ownership of the Indianapolis Motor Speedway, the purchase left midget racers and fans questioning the future of The Dirt Track at IMS, and the BC39.
When Roger Penske took ownership of the Indianapolis Motor Speedway, the purchase left midget racers and fans questioning the future of The Dirt Track at IMS, and the BC39.
After this year‘s running, with Penske in attendance, the future looks positive. Penske seemed to thoroughly enjoy himself at the Driven2SaveLives BC39 powered by NOS Energy Drink, recalling his background as a midget fan in numerous interviews.
Back in the good ol‘ days, there was a symbiotic relationship between the big tracks and the short tracks. Legends of the famed Speedway would often have midgets parked alongside their Big Cars in the Gasoline Alley garages, and regularly ran dirt ovals.
However, over time, the Indy car and NASCAR communities embraced wine and cheese partners, scoffing at the heroes of the dirt tracks. Some of history‘s greatest racers, like Steve Kinser, Sammy Swindell, Dave Darland, and pavement ace Dave Steele, were never offered serious rides in what have been touted as the “premiere series.” Indy car drivers were primarily from foreign countries, and sightings of an American race fan wearing Indy car driver apparel became almost as mythical as sightings of Bigfoot.
Tony George talked a good game, presenting his new IRL as a path for American racers to drive on the larger ovals for more pay. But there was never an actual plan to make that happen. We in the media were eventually told that — although we had witnessed the press conferences where George promised an oval track series with American drivers — he had, in fact, never made those statements. As one of the few editors that had supported George‘s new series and promises within Open Wheel magazine, it was offensive to hear the denials of the stated intent of the series after failing to deliver.
While George and stepson Ed Carpenter did some midget racing at the 16th Street Speedway that George helped construct in the former Bush Stadium, the connection to short track open-wheel racing ended there. The only midget driver that was offered an IndyCar career was George‘s stepson.
After replacing George as CEO of IndyCar in 2010, Randy Bernard, the former CEO of Professional Bull Riders, also talked a good game about bridging short track racing fans and drivers and Indy, but also lacked an actual plan to bring about results.
In June of 2013, J. Douglas Boles was named president of the Indianapolis Motor Speedway. Doug Boles had become VP of Communications for Hulman & Co. in 2011, and had served as COO starting in January of ‘13. Perhaps more importantly, Boles was a founding partner of the Panther Racing IndyCar team, and had served as COO from 1997 to 2006. In short, he was a racer.
Unlike previous top brass, who offered lip service about desiring grassroots crossover while actually courting drivers from F1, Boles was regularly spotted in attendance at sprint car and midget races.
Then, in 2016, Boles carved out a 3/16-mile dirt oval inside turn three of the Speedway to commemorate Tony Stewart‘s final year racing in the NASCAR Cup Series. As readers of this publication are aware, Tony took on a NASCAR career to earn the big checks, but never left his real passion: sprint cars and midgets. And, Tony was (and is) unabashedly proud to promote short track racing, at any cost and on any stage, to the management, drivers, and fans of NASCAR or IndyCar.
On July 3 of that year, Stewart turned laps in a midget on the bare dirt oval (with no real fencing or grandstands) as a media event. Boles promised that development of the track would continue and it could host some “specialty” sprint car or midget events, including a possible event to coincide with the Brickyard 400 weekend.
While NASCAR drivers like Stewart, Kasey Kahne, Ricky Stenhouse Jr., and Ryan Newman had been working overtime to bridge the gap between fans of short tracks and the big tracks, with Stewart even purchasing Earl Baltes‘ Eldora Speedway in 2004, NASCAR management appeared to be their biggest obstacle.
USAC standout Bryan Clauson had landed a ride with Sarah Fisher Hartman Racing for the 2012 Indy 500. It was a huge opportunity, and Bryan was more than doing his part…but, nope. Little was done to promote a popular American short track racer in the field. Bryan made the Indy field again in 2015 and 2016, this time driving for Jonathan Byrd Racing, and arranged bus rides for race fans to attend Indy and then be shuttled to Kokomo for the night‘s sprint car race — a race he won in 2016.
Clauson had caught the eye of Doug Boles. But, on August 7 of that year, Bryan lost his life following an accident during the Belleville Midget Nationals.
In 2018, construction of a permanent dirt track commenced, and the first running of the BC39 took place, with Boles not only working the event but beginning an annual tradition of personally walking the track and thanking each driver for attending prior to pushing off for the feature.
Today, as drivers Kyle Larson and Christopher Bell are among those who are bridging the gap between the short tracks and the large tracks, they know they have an ally in Doug Boles. With Roger Penske stating a desire to make the BC39 even bigger going forward, Penske appears to be an ally as well.