IRWINDALE, California — Scary stuff! It was Halloween Night, Trick or Treat and the Monster Mash all rolled up into a “Halloween Celebration—Night of Destruction” Saturday at Toyota Speedway @ Irwindale. About 4,700 persons assembled in regular and costumed attire and witnessed five wild and crazy events on a warm, full moon night. Uncounted spirits and imagined ghosts and ghouls inhabited the friendly confines of the San Gabriel Valley speed emporium. When on track action concluded two hours before the midnight hour, Corey Turner, from Indianapolis, won the $10,000 2009 Outlaw Figure 8 West Coast Championship presented by Hoosier Tire. The 100-lap race paid the winner $5,000. He drove Rod Proctor's Riverside, CA-based car in a 12-car field.
Youngsters 12 and under were admitted free and participated in early evening Halloween costume judging, plus candy distribution by track staff, vendors and racing teams during the usual on-track autograph session at 5:30 pm. A hay-strewn pumpkin patch, pumpkin carving, and haunted village contributed to the Halloween festivities at the track's Chalet Village near the pit entrance. No, the pre-racing band near the front entrance was not Morty and the Crypt-Kicker Five or the Smashing Pumpkins. However, recorded music over the PA system at times included the Monster Mash and other “scary” instrumentals under the full moon.
Other winners of the wild-action-filled and at times humorous events were:
> Brian Tully in a 16-car, 15-lap Skid-Plate Cars race.
> Robert Rice in a 14-car, 25 lap Trailer Race.
> A Pick Your Part team over Jan's Towing in an 11-minute Auto Soccer four cars per team match.
> Robert Rice (driver) and Keith Johns (brakeman) in a 10-lap Train Race with four hooked-together three-car “trains”. Rice, “Irwindale's king of zany motorized events”, became a three-time winner Saturday in the above four events.
FIGURE 8: Officials split the Pick Your Part Outlaw Figure 8 100-lap race into two 50-lap segments. The first 50 was the tenth and final race for the 2009 TS@I track championship. The 12 cars started straight-up based on qualifying times and included five cars from the state of Washington. Third starter/point leader Steve Stewart entered the race with a 20-point advantage over Billy Ziemann; he led the first 42 laps as the first three cars ran each lap virtually nose-to-tail. Second starter Ziemann took the lead on lap 43 and “won” the first 50. Runner-up Stewart trailed by 15-yards and earned the track championship by 22 points (484-462) over Ziemann, the 2000 F-8 champion. Stewart, the 2005, 07 and 08 F-8 track champion, is now a four-time track champion. He ranks second only to Legends six-time Irwindale track champion Tom Landreth. Rip Michels has three Irwindale titles—one in Grand American Modifieds and two in AC Delco Super Late Models.
Second F-8 50: Drivers lined-up for the second 50 laps two abreast in their position order from the first 50. Ziemann, Stewart, Greg Scott and Corey Turner all completed 50 laps and occupied the first two rows in that order. Ten of 12 cars were on line for the second 50. Turner started fourth and led laps 51-100 in dominating the second 50. He held a straightaway lead at lap 95 and slowed to avoid lapping Sean Hansen again. With P. 2 through P. 5 cars driven by Stewart, Ziemann, Scott (WA) and Nick Gunderson (WA) battling closely for position, they closed on leader Turner quickly during the final laps. “I asked where are they? On the final lap my spotter told me urgently, Go!.” Stewart only trailed by 10 to 15 yards at the end. There were no position changes among the top five during the closing laps. The top four finishers completed 100 laps and six cars were on the track for the checkered flag. The 1:05.32.752-timed race had four red flags to remove debris, huge truck tires marking the turns, or stalled cars.
Turner, an Indianapolis Speedrome three-hour Figure 8 World Championship veteran and top ten finisher, said he blew the engine of his own car while running first with a five-second lead on lap 41 of the 200-lap Orange Show Speedway, San Bernardino $25,000 F-8 race last Saturday. He had set the fastest qualifying time (a new track record) and placed tenth in a 13-car field; he then towed home to Indiana. He received a telephone call from three-time 2009 TS@I winner Rod Proctor Friday to drive Proctor's car Saturday. Turner was surprised by the generous offer and agreed. On Saturday he bought a $400 airline ticket, flew to Ontario International Airport, took a $77 taxi ride from Ontario to TS@I and raced the unfamiliar car. “I'm an Indiana guy in a California car, with a crew from Washington.” Turner thanked Proctor for letting him drive his car and also thanked Jesus Christ. Second through sixth positions paid $2,500, $1,000, $500, $400 and $300. Other drivers received $250. S. Hansen, Shane Sawin (WA), Tony Curtis, Brian Gunderson (WA), Willy Voesten, Jerry Toporek and Rick Deitz (WA) were the other competitors in that order.
Winner Turner met with the press after the seventh annual late season Irwindale West Coast F-8 Championship. He said he won the prestigious F-8 race at Irwindale in 2005, but his Indiana car was disqualified for using non-approved tires. “I was sitting at home in Indy with snow on the ground when Rod called me to drive his car. I couldn't believe it, but I said I'm coming.” He became the fourth consecutive West Coast F-8 Championship winner from out of state and the fifth winner from Indiana. Six of the seven event winners have been non-Californians. Ziemann won the inaugural race. Turner said his winning Proctor car got better as the race progressed. “This car is a rear-steer car and my Indiana car is a front-steer car. It took me a while to figure out, but I like this car now.” He said he planned to fly home to Indiana Sunday.
SKID PLATE CARS: The second-ever Skid Plate Car race started a record Irwindale field of 16 in a 15-lap race on the third-mile. The inaugural race on August 22 had six cars on track for the exhibition 6-lap event. All cars had the two back tires removed and a metal skid plate installed under the car to make spark-producing contact with the track. The race produced wild action in the difficult to keep straight cars prepared by Robert Rice. First-time drivers in these cars included 2009 Classic Stocks track champion Ken Michaelian, plus classic stock car driver Tommy Mason. Starting two abreast, the field entered the backstretch and promptly had a seven-car accident. Cars continued and Adam Ditto led lap 1. Dave Johnson paced lap 2 and 5-7. Tommy Mason led laps 3-4 and 8-9. Winner Brian Tully, a Skid Plate rookie, started third, took command on lap 10 and led the final laps. The race had one caution flag on lap 7 to clear disabled cars. The 16-minute race had nine of 16 starters racing at the finish. Jonathon DeStefano (from 5th), T. Mason (from 11th), Ruben Barrios (from 13th) and K. Michaelian (from 10th) finished second through fifth. April Shaw-Johns, A. Ditto, Keith Johns, seventh starter R. Rice and Ed Scoggins, brother of 2009 TS@I mini stock champion Daryl Scoggins, completed the top ten. Winner Tully, a former Ascot Park stock car racer and a mini stock driver in the early years at TS@I, told the crowd he is 66 and skid plate racing enticed him back to racing. Rice put this class together and won the first TS@I Skid Plate race two months ago. He was not a factor this time and dropped out four laps from the conclusion.
TRAIN RACE: A four-train race, with three cars per train hooked together, ran a 10-lap race on the F-8 course. Front-row starter Robert Rice led all ten laps with his brakeman Keith Johns in the third car. They won by three-quarters of a straightaway over the Don Pachella/Louise Johnson team. Driver Seth Funder and brakeman Bill Wade finished third. The Rick Walker/Steve Koch entry only ran one lap before they jack-knifed and two of their three car train overturned in the first turn. The race took 19 minutes including one red flag to remove the disabled Walker/Koch train via an on-duty Jan's Towing truck. A jet-powered, flame-throwing truck made several demonstration runs on the front straight following the train race.
AUTO SOCCER: Four Pick Your Part orange cars and four Jan's Towing white cars comprised the two auto soccer teams and an all black car was the referee car. A skip loader put the Halloween-colored orange and black-spotted round 400-pound empty propane tank soccer “ball” into play at mid-field of the third-mile infield. Large truck tires marked the goals at the east and west ends of the “playing field”. The 11-minute contest resulted in five disabled cars (three for Jan's and two for PYP). In the final play of the match, one Jan's Towing car defended against two PYP cars. Robert Rice drove on a breakaway dash to the west end goal and used his front fender to hit the “ball” into the goal as the lone Jan's car banged the side of his car. Final score was PYP 1 – Jan's 0. It was the second PYP victory in three matches this year. Last year PYP won all three auto soccer matches. PYP now holds a 5-1 advantage in victories over Jan's Towing. PYP has outscored Jan's 6 to 3 in six 2008-09 matches.
TRAILER RACE: The final event of the wild and scary night was the wildest. The third trailer race of 2009 had a season-high 14 cars, each towing a trailer containing prescribed minimum weight cargo. Seven trailers carried boats, one had a casket, another a camping rig; a truck bed bore a large truck tire, another entrant towed a small house trailer, one towed an old VW bug, and another towed a small orange car used in an earlier event. The cars traveled counter-clockwise this time instead of the former clockwise direction on the third-mile track. They ran about 25 laps during the 12-minute event. Cars lost boats, trailers and other cargo that became “smash into litter” for other drivers. With the field reduced to four cars still circulating the track with required trailer and cargo intact, officials displayed the checkered flag at 10:12 pm. Rice led the first three laps from second starting position. Then fifth-starter Randy Bylsma led laps 4-5 before Rice took command for good. Official results showed the versatile Rice won over Jonathon DeStefano (dragging an overturned rowboat), Ruben Barrios and Tim Lewis. Two women—Rebeca Velasco (P. 5) and Louise Johnson (P. 13)--competed. Rice also won the first two trailer races this year driving his sturdy Chevy El Camino and towing an orange boat. Rice now has won five of the six TS@I trailer races run since the first such race last year.
In the first early afternoon F-8 practice session Rick Deitz ran the fastest lap and only18-second lap at 18.655. In the official F-8 time trial runs at 4:30 pm Turner ran the only sub-19 second lap at 18.968 (71.552 mph) to earn fastest qualifying time honors. The 2009 TS@I schedule shows the speedway next will host another D-1 drifting event on Saturday, November 21. The 69th running of the annual USAC Thanksgiving Night Midget Grand Prix will be held on Thanksgiving evening, Thursday, November 26. The Turkey Night GP will have USAC 360 cu. in. Sprint Cars and Ford Focus Midgets on the card as well. An open practice session for USAC competitors will be held Wednesday evening, November 25.
