The people have voted and the results are in. The most powerful person was listed on over 80% of the “ballots”.
There were many individuals that received multiple votes including Bruton Smith, Track promoters as a whole, Wayne Spears, Joe Nava, Mickey Beadle, Lucas Oil, Owen Kearns Jr., Bill Sedgwick, RJR, Rick Gerhardt, Racers as a whole, NASCAR officials, Toyota (TRD), NASCAR (Daytona), Davey Hamilton, John Cardinale, Jeff Wolfe, Bob DeFazio, Roger Bracken, Dan Gurney and God.
One individual was prophetic when voting for the top-three most powerful picks when he/she put: People with sponsorship money for racing, people that have lots of money to spend in racing, race track owners who have money to run races.
Another individual credited the Southern California fires that ended the NASCAR Winston West season as being most powerful. This too, was prophetic, for it was because of the fire that the most ridiculous moment of 2003 came to be.
But the Racing in the West 2003 Most Powerful People in reverse order are:
20) Steve Fensler
19) Chris Boals
18) Gib Repass
17) Jim Lynch (Lynch Oil)/Lynch Mob
16) Kevin Harvick
15) Jim Williams
14) Jim Naylor
13) Mike Verlatti
12) Fred Brownfield
11) Carroll Shelby (Carroll Shelby Enterprises)
10) Gene Monaco
9) NAPA
8) Joe Scotnicky
7) Ken Clapp
6) Marion/Larry Collins
5) Garrett Evans
4) Dennis Huth
3) Danny Grill
2) Michael/ Brendan Gaughan /Orleans Racing
1) Bill McAnally (BMR)
1) The people voted the Best Moment in 2003 as Austin Cameron winning the Toyota All-Star Show Down.
2) Coming in close behind was the Toyota All-Star Showdown.
3) The third best moment was Austin’s return to racing (also tagged The Comeback).
4) Pacific Raceways Northwest Series Roadcourse Event at Kent Washington came in fourth Best Moment in 2003
5) Rounding out the top-five was Lee Hatch winning the Speed Truck Challenge Title (which he did in memory of his son, Thomas).
Other mentions (all of which received multiple votes) in no particular order:
- Chuck Trickle’s First Championship at age 59
- Auggie Vidovich winning the Southwest Tour Championship
- Scott Lynch winning Winston West championship
- Jeff Jefferson winning Northwest Tour Championship
- Rip Michels Winning the Sunbelt Region
- Eddie Secords Championship at Orange Show
- The Phoenix Races
- Mesa Marin October Southwest Series Race
- The overall racing in the Showdown (One person added four-deep and nobody bobbled)
- Kevin Harvick dominating the SW Infineon race.
- Mike Duncan's first win
- Jason Jefferson winning the Winston West race at Tri-Cities
- Brendan Gaughan leading points in CTS
- West Coast Racers at the shoot out
- Steve Portenga Passing Ken Schrader at California Speedway Winston West Race
The complete list of the “Best Moments of 2003” will be summed up at a later date, but there were a few one votes that deserve mention; Ashley Utts Racing debut at Ventura, Mark Reed campaigning for Colby Beltran and Peter-John standing.
1) The No. 1 Most Ridiculous Moment in 2003 was: No final Winston West Race. It would have been the last Winston West race, ever. The lack of a final farewell to RJR also gathered a large number of votes and was included here.
2) The next most ridiculous moment of 2003 was the out of character performance by Tim Woods during a Super Late Model race at the Irwindale Speedway when he sat on the Start/Finish line in protest. This was referred to as the “Sit In”.
3) Coming in third was the late release of the schedule or lack of a schedule for the NASCAR SW/NW and West Series for 2004.
4) The format of the Toyota All-Star Show Down, including the inverts, came in fourth most ridiculous.
5) The fifth most ridiculous was the NASCAR handling of the Northwest and Southwest Tour and West Series. This was referred to as mismanagement, bad handling, stupidity and broken promises.
Some of the more entertaining votes (some of which only received one vote) for the Most Ridiculous category include:
- The showing of the NW tour at Irwindale
- The final Lap of Mesa Marin October SWS Race
- Taking the win away from Kevin Hamlin
- Taking away Auggie Vidovich's win at Mesa
- Scott Lynch being dissed as a champion directly related to NASCAR not rescheding the final race
- Irwindale not being able to secure a CTS race
- Kevin Hamlin Tirade
- The driving of the #8 car
- Reading the Red Trailer
- Kevin Hamlin at Raceway Park Kalispell Mont.
- The west showing at the Shootout
- Ron Eaton leaving the NASCAR NWT
- Auggie Vidovich taking out Kevin Vernon
- Last lap of SWT race at October Classic
- Childish behavior at Orange Show Speedway Pony Stocks
- Auggie Vidovich whining up a storm after the Mesa Race
- Parking only the NAPA car at the Bullring
- Northwest Tour race in twin falls last lap
- Auggie Vidovich winning a championship with no win
- Paul Alderman closing Tri City Raceway
- Brendan Gaughan getting wrecked at Homestead
- NASCAR losing sanctioned race tracks.
