LOS ANGELES, California - The two-day 5th annual Toyota All-Star Showdown at Irwindale Speedway was televised by SPEED both nights live in scheduled three-hour broadcasts. Friday, Oct. 19 was 5:00-8:00 p.m PDT and Saturday, Oct. 20 was 7:00-10:00 PDT. Both telecasts ran over scheduled time-slots-38-minutes Friday and 33-minutes Saturday. Only the first year Showdown in 2003 concluded on time in the three-hour show format according to NASCAR GN West rep Kevin Green. This year Kevin was in the completely populated race control suite along with working NASCAR officials and two NASCAR Canadian Series officials observing race control procedures. Jason Christley, a former newspaperman from New London, CT now residing in Daytona Beach, was in the press box as NASCAR's Weekly Racing Series rep. He kept all 16 reporters in the press box informed. Jason replaced Jeremy Davidson, who moved to his new employer, AAA, after the 2006 season. The total two-day Toyota All-Star Showdown purse was $467,980. The $50,000 Super Late Model purse, with $10,000 to the feature winner, were track records at Irwindale.
Joey Logano, 17-year old Busch East Series 2007 champion and rookie of the year, is a racing phenomenon. He could be compared as a teen to Jeff Gordon. As a Joe Gibbs Racing development driver you know he has outstanding equipment and a solid team behind him. Still he has to deliver on the track and he has done so. Joey won the seventh Grand National race of his rookie season October 20 at Irwindale on his first visit to California. Remarkably, Joey has won six times this year on his first visit to a track. He started the year with a victory at the Phoenix Int'l Raceway mile on April 19 in a GN West race. In a 39-car field he started in P 2 and finished P 1. Joey also led another GN West race June 23 at the Sonoma, CA road course before an engine problem ended his race after 54 of 64 laps. He started second and led lap 1-2 and 30, proving his versatility on a road course. His other victories came at Busch East season opener April 28 at Greenville-Pickens Speedway half-mile in Greenville, S.C; May 20 at Iowa Speedway, a 7/8-mile in Newton, IA, where he out-raced Nextel Cup driver Kevin Harvick; June 29 at 1.058-mile Loudon, N.H; July 28 at half-mile Adirondack, Int'l, in Beaver Falls, N.Y, and again at Loudon, N.H on Sept. 14. Joey won five of the 13 Busch East 2007 races, one GN West race and the IS Showdown season finale. He had two poles and 10 top five finishes in 13 Busch East races. Joey won the Busch East title over four-time race winner Sean Caisse by 166-points; he also won the rookie of the year honor over DEI development driver Jeffrey Earnhardt, son of Kerry Earnhardt, Dale, Sr's older son.
Years ago Nextel Cup star Mark Martin was asked to name a young driver he would select in starting a racing team with an upcoming driver. Mark named Joey Logano without hesitation. Logano's winning Chevy at Irwindale was the same car he won six of his seven GN races this year. That car is a keeper. He won the Adirondack, N.Y event in a different Gibbs car according to team members. After he turns 18 on May 24, 2008, Logano will race full-time in the current NASCAR Busch Series (soon to be called Nationwide Series). His ride will be either No. 18 or 20. He probably will be the fourth Gibbs Racing Cup driver by 2009 if his success in the second-tier NASCAR series is as meteoric as his rookie campaign in the tough GN Division. As a fourth Gibbs Cup driver, he would join Tony Stewart, Denny Hamlin and Kyle Busch in Toyota Camrys. When I asked Joey before the race how he liked Irwindale Speedway he replied, "We'll see after the race." Irwindale did not remind him of any other track. Joey does not attend high school because of his hectic racing schedule. He is home-schooled by a tutor. His parents accompanied him to Irwindale and witnessed his greatest racing triumph. He also won the use of a Toyota Tundra for a year. Logano was very good with fans and kids during the formal IS half-hour autograph session on the front straight. He knelt and posed for photos with kids and others and signed autographs along with his Gibbs teammate Marc Davis until they ran out of photo cards. Then they signed whatever fans offered, including arms and apparel.
All-Star Showdown on-track activity started Thursday, Oct. 18with 5:00-9:00 p.m Super Late Model only practice sessions. Two drivers-Stephen Peace (No. 77) and Mike Lee (No. 60)-hit the crash-wall and sidelined their cars from the event. Racing teams 18-wheelers began arriving at IS Wednesday, Oct. 17. All rigs were allowed into their pit stalls Thursday morning. GN teams had the first row closest to turns 1 and 2, while the 55 SLM teams had the back row closest to the truck terminal on Live Oak Avenue. IS crews repainted the white and yellow lines on the track pavement Friday at 6:00 am so they would look sharp on TV. The first of two SLM hour-long Friday practice sessions began at 10:00 a.m. David Mayhew (No. 22) led the first group of seven cars onto the track. More cars came onto the track one or two at a time. At 10:21 Chris Johnson, in the No. 20 Speed Wong Racing Chevy (already rebuilt once this year), spun into the first turn with cars at speed. David Beat arrived quickly and found his intended hole blocked. His Chevy slammed into the No. 20 with a loud impact. Then Dusty Fielden, a 23-year old Tucson resident, arrived in his No. 28 and hit Beat's stopped No. 6 and blocked turn one. All three drivers were uninjured, but all three cars were eliminated from the national TV race that evening. Beat told me his car needed new front and rear clips at least and it might be a write-off. He estimated the crash cost him between $10-15,000 at least plus the lack of TV exposure for his sponsor, Pick Your Part. Beat, a double feature winner in 2007 at IS, finished fourth in final 2007 IS points, so he was a definite threat to win the 150-lap SLM feature Friday night.
At 10:58 am the 51 GN drivers started their first practice session and GN West driver Jim Inglebright led the pack onto the track. Cars entered the track at will under green or yellow flags/lights. At 1:10 the No. 12 car (Antonio Perez) scraped the wall and pitted. At 11:31 Ryan Black (No. 04) spun solo up to the turn one outer wall flush on the left side. As emergency workers arrived, Ryan restarted and drove to the pits with heavy left side damage and a LF toe-out problem. During that session a pair of Busch East cars collided. The RR of Stephen Berry (No. 3) hit the left side and LR of Mike Johnson's No. 96 as it entered the track near turn three. Both drivers drove to the pits where the two cars were pitted in adjacent stalls. "I don't know what he was thinking. He came over and apologized," Johnson said. Johnson, the 2004 All-Star Showdown GN winner, missed nearly all of practice and only got about eight laps as his team made repairs. Both 3 and 96 cars raced. The first GN practice ended at 11:56. The sunny, hot 100% clear blue sky was chamber of commerce weather. Sean Caisse had the fastest lap in the first session at 18.738; Marc Davis was the fastest at 18.651 in the final practice session.
Busch East driver Johnson said he had a sub-standard year and three of his four No. 96 cars, including the 2004 Showdown winning car, were damaged and left at home in Massachusetts. "My dad drew my qualifying number and I qualified early (7th) in the heat and qualified slow, so I had to run in the 50-lap open race. But when I won here in 2004 I started at the back too," he added. Johnson's No. 96 Ford was moving up from 35th grid position when he dropped out with rear end trouble on lap 212 while 25th. He placed 29th and earned $8,630. That wasn't the only problem for the Johnson Lumber team. En-route to California, Johnson's 18-wheeler had a mechanical problem and suddenly veered off the interstate into the median space. On board were Johnson's 96 and John Salemi's No. 63 race cars. The teams split the travel costs and the crews flew west. Fortunately, the rig did not overturn.
To follow-up this story I checked the driver of Johnson's 18-wheeler Saturday as they were loading up for the cross-country trip back to Massachusetts. Kenny, the 70-year old veteran 18-wheel long-haul driver, said the incident happened on I-40 just west of Flagstaff, AZ about six hours from IS. He said the left front spring broke and caused the cab of the 1999 International truck to fall off to the left onto the pitman arm and it affected steering. He said that failure had never happened to him in 45-years of long-haul truck driving. He told his co-driver Glen (in the sleeper) to hold on when it happened suddenly at highway speed. Kenny stopped the truck, got out and checked for the cause. Once he discovered the problem he was able to drive the rig slower on I-40 to Barstow, CA, and south on I-15 and 210 to the track. He left the trailer at IS and drove the truck to Fontana to a truck spring shop and they repaired it. With two drivers Kenny said they made the 2,900+-mile trip west in two and a half days. Each driver drove the maximum ten hours. The Matt Kobyluck No. 40 rig had one driver and took four days to drive to Irwindale. The teams traveled home on I-40 to Knoxville, TN and then north on I-81to New England. Kenny said he used to drive the NASCAR Cup team hauler for Bill Davis Racing and other teams. Kenny said he has hauled the Johnson 96 Ford car to Irwindale all five years of the Showdown. With the five-year Toyota contract with NASCAR for the event now completed he believes the 2007 Showdown will be the last one. There were free buffet dinners for all Showdown teams for the first three years and goody bags for competitors through 2006, but there were no dinners or goody bags for racers this year. He might be correct.
The high temp reached 92 degrees Friday and it was still 78 degrees after racing concluded that night. The heat kept qualifying times well above the track record times for both SLM and GN Divisions. The SLM fast time Oct. 19 was 18.177 (99.026 mph) by IS three-time champion Rip Michels. The one-lap TR is 17.712 (101.626 mph) on 3-12-05 by Andrew Phipps. The GN fastest time was 18.271 (98.517 mph) by Busch East driver Sean Caisse. The TR is 17.781 (101.232 mph) on 6-21-99 by retired GN West driver Butch Gilliland, father of current Nextel Cup driver David Gilliland (No. 38 M & M Ford). GN DRIVERS: The 51 GN drivers included 24 GN rookies and five minors. There were 33 GN West, 16 Busch East, one weekly series, and one NASCAR Canada driver in the field. Drivers came from 14 states and 2 foreign countries as follows: CA-23, CT-5, NH-3, 2 each from AZ, ID, Mass, and VA, 1 each from MD, NC, NM, NV, OH, OK and WA. There were 3 drivers from Canada and 2 from Mexico. GN CAR DATA: The 51 GN cars broke down as follows: 35 Chevrolets, 12 Fords, 3 Dodges and 1 Toyota (No. 50 Eric Richardson). There were 13 current and 38 spec engines, 40 steel bodies and 11composite bodies, 46 105" and five 110" wheel-base cars. The winning GN car (No. 20 Logano) used a spec engine, steel body and was 110" wheel-base. There were eight duplicate car numbers on West and East GN cars. The higher car in point standings kept its season-long number and the lower car in season point rankings had to change its car number. Six GN West cars and two Busch East cars used different car numbers for the Showdown. The 55 SLM drivers at the Showdown came from 3 states-CA-44, NV-6, and AZ-5. The 55 SLM cars represented four brands: Chevy-39, Ford-8, Dodge-5 and Pontiac-3.
SLM: On Friday 49 of the 55 entered SLM cars qualified from 2:39 to 3:36 during the heat of the day. All 51 GN cars qualified live on SPEED TV between 5:10-6:19 p.m PDT. Early qualifiers had the entire track in the sun, while late qualifiers had parts of the track in shade. In TT Mike Olsen broke the rear end on his second timed lap. GN West 2007 champion Mike David was 21st to qualify and set fifth best time to that point and then spun nose first into the outer wall just past start/finish. It broke the radiator and nose-piece so his team had to buy replacements from a vendor at the track. Both Olsen and David had to start at the back of the 250-lap race because they had to make repairs after TT and all cars were impounded. The 55 SLM car home tracks were 38 Irwindale, 5 each from Tucson and Las Vegas, 2 Orange Show Speedway (San Bernardino) 1 NorCal and 4 miscellaneous tracks such as El Cajon. The reason why Brian Fitzgibbons, of El Cajon, (SLM No. 33) did not compete even though he completed both of his qualifying laps was the fact that the car somehow lost its electronic transponder. It did not record a lap time. Only the 40-fastest qualifiers of the 49 cars that attempted to qualify made the 150-lap race. The weekend following the Showdown had a smoky haze over LA County from many wildfires in So Cal. Saturday, Oct. 27 was the IS championship awards banquet at the speedway and it had a few sprinkles about 6:00 p.m. IS track announcer Bruce Flanders over the PA system gave a heart-felt tribute and dedicated a minute of silence in tribute to Shav Glick on Saturday, Oct. 20 before the first race. Shav lost his battle with melanoma earlier that day. A motor-racing hall of fame LA Times motor sports writer from 1969 until his retirement in 2006, Shav was a frequent visitor to IS. He was 87 and will be missed.
SPEED television coverage again had announcer Mike Joy, analyst Dr. Dick Berggren, and pit reporters Ralph Sheheen and Jim Tretow. GN cars with on-board TV cameras were those of Brian Ickler and Moses Smith. Showdown Grand Marshall Darrell Waltrip gave the unusual start command for the GN 250. He said, "Gentlemen and Michelle start your engines." Michelle Theriault, from Bristol, CT, started 32nd as a provisional starter based upon her season-long Busch East points earned. Her No. 37 Chevy has Glock, a gun manufacturer, as its sponsor. She was the only driver to take an ambulance ride Oct. 20 after a multi-car hard crash into the third turn wall. She returned track-side before the race concluded. Michelle was one of two female drivers in the GN field. Candace Muzny, a late model driver at IS for the past three years, made her second GN outing in a black & pink No. 01.Candace, originally from Oklahoma, finished the 50-lap qualifying race Friday eighth, two positions shy of making Saturday's 250-lap race. There were three African-American drivers among the 51 GN drivers. They were GN West veteran Tim Woods III, plus Busch East drivers Chris Bristol (in his mid-20s) and Marc Davis, a 17-year old Joe Gibbs Racing development driver. Marc was the fourth fastest qualifier on his first visit to Irwindale. He qualified two positions behind his Gibbs teammate Logano. Personable Davis told me he will become 18 on June 23 and will race full-time for the 2008 Busch East championship.
SPEED TV coverage Saturday showed the 12-year old starter in the grandstand behind the elevated official starter's stand. He is Blake Mayfield, from Bakersfield, CA. He started flagging auto races three years ago at Bakersfield Speedway, a third-mile dirt track in his hometown. The then 9-year old youngster duplicated exactly what the starter did. Fans enjoyed his work and encouraged him. Blake had his own set of flags made by his mom Kathy and dad Todd. Two years ago he received a professional set of race flags. His older brother Andrew, 18, raced a mini stock car at Bakersfield Speedway and broke his leg in a crash this year. Andrew will be racing a Legend Car at Irwindale next year as a rookie. Blake, who wants to be a race starter, began using his own flags to flag green, white, checkers as the real starter did at IS. Blake and his family attend races at IS twice a month from their home 120-miles north on I-5. IS management recognized Blake's enthusiasm and skill a few months back and allowed him to flag some actual IS races one night from the elevated starters' stand. Additionally, last month IS officials made a special presentation to Blake at 7:00 p.m below the starters' stand just before the first race. The gift was a white Toyota All-Star Showdown official shirt with all the appropriate patches sewn onto the correct size shirt. Blake wore it for his TV debut October 20 as he flagged from the IS grandstand. NASCAR has its diversity program and racing teams have their driver development programs. IS has its racing starter development program.
"Spectator Racing, When Watching Just Isn't Enough" is the name of a company that had a No. 12 Grand American Modified-type racing car on display at the IS chalet area during the Showdown weekend. They have a 15-car fleet for racing car rentals at Roseville Speedway, north of Sacramento. The company has plans to provide their fleet of cars for use by the public for hot lap rentals and organized race meets, with time trials, heat races and main events at Irwindale Speedway periodically. Race night rentals, private parties, corporate events, bachelor parties and fund-raisers are possible. Packages start at $49.95 and a racing night of qualifying, heat race and main event with up to 15 similar cars are possible. If interested call (866)-751-4330.
The four race leaders of the GN 250 were Sean Caisse (L 1-74), Mike Duncan (L 75-154), Brian Ickler (L 155-163) and Logano (L 164-250). Two race-leaders are GN West and two are Busch East regulars. The 13 highest-placed GN West drivers amassed 1,554 points in the Showdown 250-lap race and beat the 13 highest Busch East drivers' 1,380 points. The winning GN West team split $30,000 evenly; the 13 losing east team members split $15,000 evenly. NASCAR technical inspectors examined six cars in the official post-race inspection. They checked springs, shocks, rear ends, transmissions, etc. of the top three finishers (Logano, Peyton Sellers and Duncan) and three cars selected randomly - (P 5 Eddie MacDonald, P 13 Rogelio Lopez) and P 14 Mike David). Media members estimated IS grandstand attendance at 3,000 Friday and 4,000 Saturday despite both race nights being televised live on SPEED in Southern California. Five drivers raced in both SLM and GN Divisions at the 2007 Showdown. They were Greg Pursley, David Mayhew, Johnny Borneman III, Alex Haase and David Ross. IS used a Toyota truck-pulled jet dryer to clear-off oil-dry following accidents to speed the show along for TV. USAC open-wheel champion Tony Hunt, from Lincoln, CA, was among the Showdown spectators Saturday. He has raced GN stock cars in the past and would welcome the chance to do so again. He will return to IS to race his USAC Western 360 sprint car and a Midget at the annual Turkey Night Grand Prix on November 22.
Changes: Mike Duncan confirmed his long-time sponsor-Lucas Oil-is leaving his team following the 2007 season. Reportedly, Sean Caisse will be leaving Andy Santerre's No. 44 Busch East team after two successful years. Santerre has DEI backing and in 2008 will field two cars. Caisse will be making his NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series debut at Homestead, FL. Friday, Nov. 16 for the Germaine Motor-sports Toyota team as a teammate to Todd Bodine. Brian Ickler reportedly is in his last year of his deal with Bill McAnally's NAPA team, which has Richard Childress Racing driver development backing. The 5th annual Showdown at IS had a special 22-page printed color program that was given free to spectators as they entered the track. It contained Friday and Saturday schedule of events, welcoming letters from Toyota and IS management, stories of interest, SLM and GN Division driver entry rosters, a Showdown statistics page and ads.
Toyota maximized its corporate backing of the All-Star Showdown and short track racing at IS by having prominent displays of its products at the front gate and at the chalet village area west of the main grandstand. There was an interactive display with a simulator of Dave Blaney's No. 22 Toyota Camry Cup car for fans "to drive". Five Toyota Racing Development racing show cars were on display in the chalet village. They included a No. 84 Red Bull Camry Cup car (A. J. Allmendinger); a Formula One Toyota (Panasonic/Denso) car with a life-size, helmeted driver figure in the cockpit and driver names Jarno Trulli and Ralf Schumacher on the side; a No.9 Steve Lewis-owned Beast USAC Midget with a Toyota engine, and two Toyota Tundra trucks-the No. 30 Todd Bodine and No. 5 Mike Skinner rides. Skinner won the Martinsville, NASCAR truck race earlier in the day in his No. 5 Tundra. All five years of the five-year Toyota/NASCAR contract for the Showdown were raced at Irwindale, which is about 45-miles NE from the Toyota USA headquarters in Torrance. Toyota is now heavily involved in all three of NASCAR's top national series--Cup, Busch and Trucks-so its corporate impetus for getting involved in the Showdown event might not be as strong now. Will the Showdown continue with new corporate sponsorship? Stay tuned. One rumor has both the 2008 GNW and Busch East Series under one sponsor. An announcement about that subject and the 2008 racing schedules should be made shortly.
The 2007 GN West championship banquet took place Sunday, Oct. 21 in the San Gabriel Valley at a hotel not far from Irwindale. Champion Mike David's No. 2 Randy Lynch-owned Bennett Lane Winery Chevy (Mario Isola crew chief) from the Napa Valley town of Calistoga was on display in the hotel lobby. Emcee was Mike Joy, the SPEED TV announcer at the Showdown a night earlier. GN West No. 5 Altadena Dairy Chevy driver Eric Hardin, of Anaheim, received the Spencer Clark Memorial Award named for the young Las Vegas GN West driver who lost his life in a highway crash early last year. Goodyear Tire brought 1,200 Goodyear Eagle tires to the Showdown for the GN Division (600 left side D2263 - 86.5 inch circumference, and 600 right side D2265 - 87.5 inch circumference). Both GN West and Busch East Series used this combination several times during the 2007 season according to the Goodyear release.
