Editor’s Note: In this monthly photo essay feature, National Sprint Car Hall of Fame photographer John Mahoney shares his memories and images from some of the most amazing and historic sprint car and midget races.
USAC Silver Crown Series, Phoenix Raceway, Feb. 2, 1997
A giant field of 57 USAC Silver Crown cars was on hand for the 20th running of the Copper World Classic on Feb. 2, 1997, at Arizona’s Phoenix Raceway.
Sharing the bill with the USAC midgets, the Western Super Modified Racing Ass’n and the NASCAR Southwest Tour late models, the 50-mile Silver Crown race was the most spectacular event of the weekend.
In time trials, Kenny Irwin Jr. outran Chuck Gurney by .004 seconds to pace the 24 cars that were locked into the feature.
The 10-lap qualifying race saw Dave Darland, Jimmy Kite, Tyce Carlson, Kenneth Nichols, Russ Gamester and Bill Baue earn spots in the main event.
Gurney took command at the start and led Irwin for the first 19 laps. Irwin got past on lap 20, but surrendered the lead back to Gurney one lap later. The two paced the field, opening up a sizable margin, with Irwin retaking the lead on lap 26 and holding it for four laps.
Irwin’s car became a handful and he eventually dropped out of the race, finishing a disappointing 19th. Jimmy Sills, Donnie Beechler and Dave Blaney waged their own battle behind the leaders.
Behind them, Kite, who’d started 26th and was running only his second Silver Crown race, was passing car after car. He quickly joined the frontrunners.
All eyes were on Kite’s charge as he passed third-running Sills on the outside and later made the same move around the struggling Irwin for second.
A yellow flag bunched up the field behind Gurney with three laps to go. Gurney got a terrific jump on the restart, but was running out of fuel. Kite caught the leader going down the backstretch on the last lap, but Gurney still held first coming out of turn four.
The two raced side-by-side to the finish line with Kite winning by a foot.
The crowd went wild as Kite pulled off the track in turn four and sprinted down the frontstretch with USAC’s Bill Marvel in tow.
“PIR got it’s payback later that year in September when I was life-flighted out from an Indy car tire test,” Kite said recently. “Definitely hero to zero in one memorable year there.”
After leading 95 laps, a disappointed Gurney finished second, followed by Sills, Beechler, Davey Hamilton, Rocky Hodges, Gary Hieber, Eric Gordon, Bentley Warren and Robby Flock.
This story appeared in the April 19, 2023 edition of the SPEED SPORT Insider.
