This week's video blog theme featuring USAC racing has been some of the best fun I've had since I've been a writer for this Web site. And I thought there wouldn't be a better way to end the week than with a fun video starring USAC Sprint Cars.
This particular vid comes from the current season of the National Sprint Car Series at the "Sokola Shootout," a 30-lap competition that took place at Perris Auto Speedway in California earlier this year. It's an entertaining 8-minute clip featuring flips, crashes, and wheels spinning in the dirt--it's never a dull moment here. At about the 8:20 mark, the Sokola Shootout declares a winner in Rickie Gaunt as he gets the checkered flag at the finish line.
As we have seen throughout this week, the United States Auto Club incorporates and sanctions a variety of racing styles, series, and events. Today's blog looks at yet another exciting division of USAC racing--the K & N National Silver Crown Championship.
The Silver Crown Championship has been the launching ground for many famous drivers including A.J. Foyt and Tony Stewart. This is a video from a race practice at Manzanita Speedway in Phoenix--a mainstay venue of the Silver Crown Series. The audience gets a center stage view of the cars as the copper meets dirt and the cars drift across the track to a rockin' soundtrack.
So far this week we've enjoyed fun and breezy racing in the form of midget and quarter midget car racing. Now it's time to get a little dirty. In fact, you can't get much dirtier than yet another division of the USAC racing spectrum, the Traxxas TORC Off Road Championship Series.
The Traxxas TORC Series is short-course racing on all natural terrain: dirt, gravel, mud, and everything in between. What sets this race apart from other forms of off-road racing is the tough 4X4 trucks these guys push around; these bad boys can fly like dirt bikes and can do the push-and-shove of motorcross and other racing styles. This sport seems to embrace a younger, hip, edgy style much like that of the X Games or UFC: this ain't your granddad's car race.
But don't take it from me. This video puts you right up front as the tires spin and the dirt flies against the body panel. In fact, this video was put together by Traxxas TORC and features interviews with drivers and crew who know firsthand what this off-road race is all about: bumpin' fenders, jumping hills, and making a mess all in the name of motorsport racing competition. And it sure looks fun, doesn't it?
Yesterday we took a look at USAC midget car racing. If you thought that was fun, get ready for Quarter Midget racing!
While the United States Auto Club is arguably the foremost promoter of Quarter Midget racing, there are many national and regional promotions who host events for these cars that are literally about a 1/4 the size of regular midget cars. Partially because of the minute size of these cars, Quarter Midget racing is typically reserved for children 5-16 years of age. The Quarter Midgets, while resembling motorized go-karts, typically reach speeds of up to 45 mph, and many of modern day racing royalty got their start racing Point 25 cars including A.J. Foyt and Sarah Fisher.
This fun little video comes from the Lucas Oil Motorsport Hour, featuring portions of two races - the LT GX 160 and the LT B Main Feature, both races won by young Dalton Hill of Madera, California. Check out the interview with this future prospect at 3:25 mark.
The weekend of my birthday, I read some unfortunate news online about the death of Chad McDaniel, a USAC midget car driver who died of neck and head injuries sustained during a race at Knoxvile Raceway in Iowa. McDaniel was just 34 years old, and was having one of the most successful years of his career. Also, McDaniel was liked and loved by his fellow competitors and of course his family. I thought of maybe doing a video blog tribute to McDaniel, but I feared that some people might view this as exploitative and in general bad taste. So instead, I have decided to make this week's theme a tribute to the organization and sport that McDaniel loved so much - United States Auto Club racing.
The USAC hosts a variety of racing competitions, with many different sponsors. And since the late Mr. McDaniel raced in midget car competitions, I've decided to show this video from a midget car race about a week before his untimely death. This event took place O'Reilly Raceway Park At Indianapolis in Clermont, Indiana, and was the 64th Night Before The 500 of the USAC National Midget Car Series. The video here features the last 20 or so laps of the race, and the buzz of these speedy little cars puts the viewer right there in the stands as the cars whizz by. Chuck Gurney Jr. gets the checkered flag in the end, followed in second place by Bryan Clauson and Bobby East taking third. But for many, Chad McDaniel will always be first place, and I'm sure that he's making rounds in that big racetrack in the sky.
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