Forum: SCRAFAN.COM Forum (go)
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I wrote a story ahead of the Sokola Shootout that's in today's Riverside Press-Enterprise. They wanted something a little more "meaty" than the typical race preview, so I was able to talk to David Cardey and Mark Alexander about the economics of the sport and the tough choices some drivers and teams are having to make. I appreciate both of them being so open and honest about their current situations.

Here's a link to the story. I always love to hear feedback, and hopefully this can be a springboard to start talking about solutions to bring more money into the sports (and back to the drivers and teams).

National Sprint Car & Midget Examiner
http://tinyurl.com/r4opgk

Glad to see story today, i posted on here last year about lack of coverage and advertising in the Press Enterprise, I really liked it when they had weekly coverage , hopefully you can do it every week.

Have we been here once before? I wasn't, of course; I'm only 63. But my uncles and grandfather were. In a pretty big way.

The market may have gone in '29, but the economy fell, and fell, and fell. Legion Ascot was a pretty simple to-do compared to Perris. All-wood stands seating maybe 15,000. Lights no modern driver would even dream of driving under. Paved parking? Forget it.

But as simple as it was, it cost money to run it for two nights of racing and a night of practice every week. By '34, most of the big cars were old Miller 8's, and re-roofed Fords. The new Offy had arrived, but it cost a fortune.

Earl Gilmore saw the handwriting and carved out a little football field and quarter-mile race track out his oil field in "Baja Hollywood" where CBS TV City is now. Oil men have money regardless. Ultimately, he had about 10,000 seats around that little jewel.

It was a lot better suited to the little cars that cost so much less to build and race. No one's admitted torching the stands at Legion Ascot in '36 for the insurance money, but...

The midgets ruled pretty much everywhere by the end of the awful '30s. They started with outboard motors and motorcycle engines. By the end of the war and the return of racing, midgets had grown quite a bit. Frank Kurtis was knocking them out two or three a week in a real shop instead of his back yard. The war changed everything. (Is that what it's gonna take this time, too?)

Lujie Lesovsky, Eddie Kuzma and others were making the little cars, as well. Mostly in small shops in places like Vernon, Bell and South Gate. Gilmore Speedway was the "big deal" for midgets in LA, but there were other tracks, as well. Little Culver, Huntington Beach, Warner Ranch.

By '50, or so, the big cars were affordable, and running at tracks like Carrell, a mile or so north of the Ascot we remember in Gardena. Guys like Jack McGrath, Eddie Haddad, Rodger Ward, Allen Heath, Bill Cantrell and Billy Garrett were spending everything they made in their auto shops to do their thing with owners like Art Meyer and Billy's father, John.

I don't know if history always repeats itself, but that is the history that was. And maybe it's worth taking a look at in light losing sprint car racing altogether because the cars have become too expensive for the times we live in.

Good piece! I wish we had writers of your caliber here in Phoenix,but since the closure of Manzanita,what little coverage of local racing that we had,has disappeared completely.

"Auto Racing,Bullfighting and Mountain Climbing are 
the only real sports...the rest are games."Ernest 
Hemingway