The RaceScene

this time of year always reminds of the copper classic. What a great event that was! The chance to see all those cars. Loved the open wheel stuff but the tour cars were the best. Remember the V6 cars? 9-1's and high compression? You racers probably don't remember it as fondly as i do! The 4" exhaust out the door panels, the burn marks down the doors. Wow! loved it. The new bodies and paint schemes. The names, Carelli, Hornaday Jr, Mike Chase, Lauren Kelly, Roy Testa, Doug George, Brett Bell, Dirk Stephens, Dan Press, Garret Evans,and other guys from the Northwest tour, from the south and the midwest. And always some cup drivers running too. Even AJ Foyt. To me that track was so much better when Buddy Jobe owned it. Again maybe drivers would disagree, but as a spectator it was easier and cheaper to attend when NASCAR didn't own the track. Then you had to wait 2 months for Cajon's opener. Saugus, Mesa Marin, Orange Show, wow, now they are all gone. Too bad, Great memories though!

Man you are right-on about the copper classic, in fact one of our cars was powered by a buick V6. That thing had incredible power. I really miss racing there, and you are right Buddy Jobe did a did a great job. Boy I loved the days when you could run what you brung.

Quote posted by mark8:this time of year always reminds of the copper classic. What a great event that was! The chance to see all those cars. Loved the open wheel stuff but the tour cars were the best. Remember the V6 cars? 9-1's and high compression? You racers probably don't remember it as fondly as i do! The 4" exhaust out the door panels, the burn marks down the doors. Wow! loved it. The new bodies and paint schemes. The names, Carelli, Hornaday Jr, Mike Chase, Lauren Kelly, Roy Testa, Doug George, Brett Bell, Dirk Stephens, Dan Press, Garret Evans,and other guys from the Northwest tour, from the south and the midwest. And always some cup drivers running too. Even AJ Foyt. To me that track was so much better when Buddy Jobe owned it. Again maybe drivers would disagree, but as a spectator it was easier and cheaper to attend when NASCAR didn't own the track. Then you had to wait 2 months for Cajon's opener. Saugus, Mesa Marin, Orange Show, wow, now they are all gone. Too bad, Great memories though!

All great memories Mark! Just loved that time in West Coast racing....Andy D.

I use to ride snowmobiles in west yellowstone then come home load up the super mod and head to pir that was a fun race to bad the last time we were there got wrecked hard in three( brand new car) and never went back i dont like the new track i think they messed up changing it..

Spot on mark8. Those were some great racin days. Really miss them.

I'm fortunate enough to have copies of the 1991, 1992, 1993 and 1995 CWCs on video. The 1991 event was won by Junior Hanley in Rick Carelli's backup car and was the final open competition stock car race for the CWC. Beginning in 1992, the stock car portion of CWC became a NASCAR Southwest Tour event. The demise of the CWC was one of the biggest blows to west coast racing in my opinion.

I agree. That was "The Race"

The original owners of PIR did a great job with that event and would get 40,000 fans . Then NASCAR purchased the track and it kind of faded then they stop having it.

Sometimes it seems that the west coast is jinksed or people purposely try to screw things up for west coast racing.

Man, oh man, the Classic was a great event. I covered it as a reporter in the early 1990s and was there as the Media guy for the Tour in the late 1990s. A sensational gathering of racers. And I remember 'beating' the USAC guys in a specific, but friendly, competition in the Media Center one year. The Super Mods, which looked fast when PARKED, had a hard time finishing their race within the time limit, but I loved watching those cars. The midgets always made you nervous in turn 1 of lap one, didn't they?

I remember the years when Foyt raced in the stock car portion of the event. That was really something. He didn't win, but he put on a show. One year he drove for Marion Collins. Now, that is a combination.

In the days that the Classic was a Tour event, we had the season opener at Tucson in January (Winter Heat, remember?), then the Classic and then we didn't race again until Cajon's opener in April. Thus, the time between the second and third races was longer than the off season.

We had 74 Tour cars for one Classic and they came from everywhere. I mean all over the country. It was not the Tour's largest car count (I seem to remember the record was 83 or 84, somewhere in there), but I had a heck of a time getting all the bio sheets and sponsor stuff done, I can tell you that.

One time, I gave the TV people their opening. I think it was Diamond P that year. I told one of them that we had all the great names in racing: Petty, Allison and Baker. But it was Steve Petty, Rick Allison and John Baker. And that's how they opened the show that year.

Just great memories. Glad someone brought it all back.

Lee Elder

Thanks for the memories. That was the good old days.

I remember pulling our old box van up to pit road because it was raining and having Bobby and Davy Allison sit in it with us and bench racing with them. Davy later gave us a tour of his new plane at the airport.(we were parked next to him) Those were the days.

Tucson Raceway park is now DARK