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Calistoga Speedway - Saturday & Sunday August 30-31

SATURDAY

• Leroy Van Connet
• Rendy Boldrini
  
• Jimmy Sills
• Jimmy Boyd
• Bill DeSchamps

This event is sounding cooler by the day. Eat your heart out Knoxville!

Well, it does sound like a well organized event with a lot of support, from both the fans and the racers, as well as the community....But having said that, KOP, I think that we should wait until the event actually occurs before were compare or contrast it to Knoxville, or any other event or venue.

I can say that most of the races that I attended at Calistoga(over a 14 year period), while very fast, were also very boring, with little passing. Track prep there has always left a lot to be desired, with the surface usually going dry, taking rubber, and such. Now, they were all winged shows, so maybe the non-wingers will be different. But the preparation of the track is the key...and the result of the races, as well as the surrounding activities, wll determine the success of the event.

But will it be a one time only event, or will it be run for the next forty years, like the Knoxville Nationals? I hope that the show is a resounding success, if only because the venue is deserving of good sprint car show.....

Chuck.....

Ya this real is good we can BUY wine and T shirts and high Priced tickets

But what are they paying the boys to put on the show NO TALK About The PURSE

Sounds Like Everyone Going to Make Money Except the Racers

Knoxville Announced There Purse USAC In Charge Racers get Screwed

If This is Such a Big event The PURSE Should be BIG and they would talk about that

SO IT MUST BE SMALL and they want to hide that INFO

Trucken. I will be getting my tickets for Calistoga today from Steve Howard @ SoCal Performance in Downey. Supposedly Howard is holding added money for the purse as well as tow money and racing fuel for the drivers and owners. One of the fan organizers from Northern California recentlly mentioned that a couple of families up there have personally donated $2,500 for the semi-main events in both the sprints and midgets. Howard has collected lap money ($100 per lap) for the sprint car and midget mains on both dates. Also, the Vermeil family has donated $$ to the two-day race that honors their father. As for the amount of the purse, I don't know but will attempt to get a figure from Steve today.Also the event organizers in or near Calistoga are planning to add to the purse by raffling several prizes on the day of the races. I think the money will be attractive enough for the drivers and owners. I guess there is always someone that wants to bitch about two race days that promise to be historical and action packed. Sprint25 or Chuck, I too am worried about the condition of the track, but event organizers have assured that they have the top two locals for track preparation and they feel confident that it will be in top shape.

"Ralphie, Senor, muchas gracias por una mas cerveza"  -
Scott Daloisio @ the PAS

If "Dry Slick" Hawkins is one of the local guys that is going to be in on the track prep, it will be much better than what has been for races in recent years. He prepared the track in the NARC non wing days and always put a lot of TLC into his prep. But nobody will know till the races are run. But I would hope the rumor is true that "Dry Slick" will come out of retirement for this event, because that will give the best possible chance for there to be a well prepared track.

Chad is one of the locals very active in the return of the traditional sprinters to Calistoga.

Trucken it might help if you read the original post -

ALL PROCEEDS WILL BE PROVIDED DIRECTLY BACK TO THE RACE TEAMS AFTER SUNDAY NIGHT'S RACES. Monies will be disseminated based on finishing order and other designated awards.

"Ralphie, Senor, muchas gracias por una mas cerveza"  -
Scott Daloisio @ the PAS

Dry Slick is Chad"s dad and was the best track prep at Calistoga for many years and when the wings came is when he retired i believe (i could be wrong). If is he still around it would be cool if he did it for this race..

I didn't know that. Maybe Chad can respond.

"Ralphie, Senor, muchas gracias por una mas cerveza"  -
Scott Daloisio @ the PAS

A couple things to point out here...Buying wine in the Napa is nothing new. $8 is pretty much the going rate an most tasting rooms. Secondly, $25 is alot of money, but, not for a special show- This 'aint a regular Perris weekly show. Consider that the WoO race at Ocean Speedway later this year is $40-$45- Which would you rather see? WoO at Ocean for $40, or a full field of traditional sprints at 'Stoga + Wine tasting for $33?

Geez-- Gotta love a message board that is already whinning about track conditions, events, etc about a race that hasn't even happened.

(PS I bought into the Knoxville hype and went last year, the actual racing ON THE TRACK was nothing special at all, in fact I was pretty bored after 4 days of racing). The facilty, partying, track prep., food, crowd, etc, museum lived up to the hype. A week later, I went to Lakeside and saw TNT Bandits, and it confirmed me that the racing just was not exciting at Knoxville, sorry if I offend anyone. And no I am not a non wing snob. I went to Kings Royal this year, and that race was actually worth the hype on the race track!

$25 for a ticket is not excessive. I paid $20 for a Grand Slam at Santa Maria for 360. I've paid $18 at Perris when less than a stellar field of 25 cars showed up. To see Damion, Hockett, COry, Jones, Kaedings, T. Jones race at the historic Calistoga track with Midgets, I don't think I would complain about $25. Does Calistoga charge for parking like Perris does.

Is Calistoga going to be as important as Knoxville, hell no (don't make me laugh). But I can almost guarantee you for the people who read THIS message board, the race will certainly be better than what they would see in Knoxville and a hell of lot cheaper.

Am I going to Calistoga, probably not. If I lived close by I would. Generally I like small tracks. There is a VRA double header that night at Ventura, VRA regualar and Senior. Although it is not Damion and Cory in 410s, I do know the the action will be great at Ventura, weather not too hot, track will be prepped great, and it will be a hell of a lot cheaper for me considering gas, hotel, food, tickets, etc.

But remember I've already had a big time road trip this year to Indiana Sprint week and Eldora. If I was the average hard core So Cal sprint car fan, I would definetly want to do a road trip and check out Calistoga just for fun factor to get out of my neighorhood and have some fun on the road. You never know what is going to happen on the racetrack, but it sure sounds like all the support events at Calistoga are going to make this event successful no matter what. (After going to Knoxville and seeing the racing, I couldn't understand why 30,000 or 40,000 people go every year to spend their vacation every year. It's not the racing, it's all the support stuff supporting the track, community, etc that make the event so special. Kinda like the Wagsdash, everybody loves the event, more racers come out for this, the chilli feed is great, but sometimes the actual Wags race is hit or miss. But for me, the Wagsdash is one of my favorite races of the whole year and sometimes the actual Dash is a hell of a race!

Bottom Line- Daron Clayton is worth the price of admission

looks to me we have a lot of spectators on the board

They have jacked up prices on everything

AND NOTHING GOING BACK TO THE RACERS

remember these teams can run perris 4 or 5 times for

what this one weekend will cost them and earn about the same money

A historical event will not buy a tire for next week

I would'nt call us spectators, maybe long time devoted race fans is better. My wife and I own a small business (we are the only employees) and have to support 4 sons ages 5-15. We have been directly affected by the housing market and are down about 30% from what we've done over the last 3 years, yet we have spent 100's of hours on this race and haven't asked for a single dime in return. I even planned on buying tickets to the race, but I don't think the Hunt's will let us do that. I've designed 3 out of the 4 fliers on my business computer and printed over 500 copies on my own printer, then distributed them all over the North Bay. We sold tickets at the last Calistoga 360 race. We have taken days off of work to meet with people from USAC and So Cal over in Calistoga and collected over $1700 in advertisements from Napa and Sonoma County businesses. We have also collected over 40 items to raffle off at the wine tasting and races, including 6 Mario Andretti autographed items, 6 Dick Vermeil autographed items, over 20 pieces of racing art including autographed Bubby Jones and Tony Jones prints that are matted and framed, an autographed magnum of wine from Francis Ford Coppola and thousands of dollars in other wine donations. The Hunt's have donated autographed Dale Jr merchandise and all the profit will be paid to the racers by the end of Sunday night in cash. We have no idea how much we will bring in, but there are some things I do know. You will not pay $45 for your ten year old kid to sit in the grandstands (like the past Labor Day races) and what does it cost for a program where you race? Our program is suppose to be 48 pages long (some color) and probably won't cost more that 2 gallons of gas . Every car that tows over 250 miles will get tow money and the CRA regulars will get a free barrel of fuel. WE fans on the board will not make a single red cent and probably won't get to see much of the races as we run around trying to make sure that your burger doesn't have any dust in it. The bottom line is that Perris is an awesome race track and if that's where your heart is then keep supporting your local racers, but don't give me any crap about a bunch of jacked up prices and greedy organisers. We wish we did'nt have to work this hard just to see a quality non-wing race once a year (23 years) in our neck of the woods. We want this race to be a success for the fans, the competitors, the fairgrounds and all others involved. We want this kind of racing back in Northern California for a long time to come.

RADROBINLB

George "Dry Slick" Hawkins and the rest of the old track crew ALL offered to prepare the track for free in memory of Louie. Circumstances have prevented this from happening, but I have all the confidence in the guys that are doing the track. They have assured us that they will put in every effort to build a track that will provide great racing.

ps....Dry Slick has not prepared a sprint car track since the last Vemeil Classic in 1985 out of respect for Louie Vermeil. He's prepped some great go-kart tracks though!

Thanks Chad for sharing. You did a fine job of putting somebody in his place. Trucken has just 2 posts on this forum and it is evident that he has no idea (or ever will) of what goes on behind the scenes. A keyboard kowboy. Thank you to all that have made this historic weekend a reality. Bought tickets today from Steve Howard and look forward to meeting you and your wife that weekend. We appreciate everyone's hard work. Also great post jdfast. BTW Steve mentioned that he has collected $31K in donations for the racers.

"Ralphie, Senor, muchas gracias por una mas cerveza"  -
Scott Daloisio @ the PAS

We want to thank everyone who has helped make this race happen and we really want to thank the racers that show up. So those of us who raised this money and are in charge of the raffle are getting together the night before Calistoga and discussing where in the payout we need to add more money. I know that Steve Howard has lap money and tow money. The Wolleson's and others have padded the Semi Mains, so I am voting to add to the winners purse or maybe the top three? I am only one vote and have yet to see the total payout, but I think the winner should get much more especially on Sunday night.

I say thanks to all that have worked so hard on this event. I cannot see how this cannot be good for the racers that participate and the fans that attend. But lets all keep in mind that this is also a tribute to a Prince of a Man, one Mr. Louie Vermeil. If you were a racer at Calistoga and you were in need of anything in order to be able to run, if Louie had it, it was yours, no questions asked. The man lived for sprint car racing and loved all aspects of it, especially the people involved. This is something that is very lost in todays world, and I think all of us who knew Louie, even if just in a casual way, have those fond remembrances of him. The weekend will be great for all the right reasons!

Well said rickrwp. I was pretty young when I knew Louie and Alice and I didn't really realise how special they were. After getting involved in just this one event, I can't imagine the sacrifices that those people made for the racing community. You are right about the fact that Louie would call you to see if you were coming to race and then offer parts or time to help you make it. Then Alice would stay up till the morning hours after the races to feed anybody that came through the doors of her home. They loved racing and took care of the racing families. That's why we got involved in this race and why we could'nt ask for anything in return. Louie never asked for anything unless it was for the racers. All Louie really wanted was for non-wing racing to continue in Calistoga. That's all.

JD

Nothing wrong with being a non winged snob!

Grady

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