By Ken Wagner
February 23, 2008

It is always a shame to miss out on any racing weekend, but Mrs Wags (and I?) decided we should celebrate our 33 years together somewhere other than a racetrack this year. What’s up with that? Our room at the Ellis Hacienda was in good use for the Copper on Dirt event, so I hope it is available for the next trip there. We stayed home for the dual Valentines/anniversary event and just spent it together like the old days, that is before racing.

With a misty Friday and ultimately a long day of no action, it turns out we didn’t miss anything too important. I can tell you, coming from my dislike of day racing, I didn’t miss this Saturday that started racing at noon either. From what I heard our local boys didn’t have a great weekend, but the fans apparently enjoyed the show complete with many crashes and muddy action. With all the major changes Manzanita has undergone since the much needed Martin family invasion, you would have thought they would have been prepared with heated seating for this one, hah hah. I heard it was chilly …… and some fans actually spent some race time in their car with the heater going.

Some of the usual racers were missing on the opening road trip, most notably Champion Tony Jones, as 45 cars timed in for the one day show that was intended to be spread over two days, but you know, the rain handled Friday, so a 7:30 AM pit opening was something new for most on Saturday AM. About 20 CRA cars traveled to Arizona and only half made the main with Cory Kruseman the best of the CRA breed at 11th. Another less than average performance by our guys on the road, but remember they are weekend warriors after all, and not pros like some of their competitors.

I know that Danny “Showtime” Sheridan had his problems this weekend. It started with a little motor problem early in the day and ended up with a borrowed 410 motor, after checking out his mouse 360 motor first, mounted in the blue Kittle Kar. He eventually ended up 12th in the main event. This was preceded by some action in the pits, which followed some action on the track in his heat. Seems as though Danny took offense to someone banging him several times on the track and when he went to address the problem later in the offender’s pits, he was blindsided by someone who was later escorted out of there, but not before he body slammed Showtime. Question of the week, was this a repeat offender, or just a new perp, and why not let the driver handle his own biz? I wasn’t there, so maybe I heard wrong?

It looks like Jeremy Sherman and Shane Cottle must have had a good battle going on for the lead all 40 laps at Manzy as there were 4 lead changes between them. It was reported to me that Jeremy had to hustle to get a motor just to run this event. How can this happen? One of the brightest sprint car stars seems to get no luck in his 410 efforts, even though he has pretty well dominated 360 racing at Manzy for years. When will this change and, a question that most racers always have on the tip of their tongue, when and where will that big spender come from? Jeremy is one of the best drivers we have out west and he gets little respect. When will he either get a full time CRA ride or perhaps one in Indiana to showcase his talent and perhaps put him closer to where he belongs?

Wagsdash news comes in the form of our announcing the Grand Marshall for the 18th annual event. In years past, the point of having a GM was to honor them and give the fans a chance to share their day with them. This year we will be honoring two great revered past champions from Ascot racing lore who have passed on. They are Bruce Bromme Senior and his driver Dean Thompson. The legendary combination of Bruce Sr and Deano won many more than the official CRA 103 victory list they amassed. On September 6th at Ventura Raceway, Bruce Bromme Jr and Dean’s sister Barbara will be there to represent the memory of two special people in our racing world, and we remember when the little red sucker was king of the Ascot dirt track.

Bruce Sr and Deano will be added to the special list of Wagsdash Grand Marshall’s who have been honored over the years. This list includes Jimmy Oskie, Bubby Jones, Lealand McSpadden, Brad Noffsinger, Buster Venard, Walt James, Eddie Wirth, John Redican, Parnelli Jones and Glenn Howard. They were all champions and they are from the good old days that we must not forget. Troy Rutherford was scheduled to drive for Ray Stansberry at Phoenix this past week, but like usual when you expect something good to happen, up jumps life. Troy has spent the last two weeks recovering from a life threatening situation that started out as a suspected kidney stone problem. When sent home from the doctor office on a Friday two weeks ago with the expectations of passing stones, he only got worse. By Sunday he was so sick he was taken to the emergency room and only then did the realization of how close he came to not making it. A virus attacked his blood system and shut down his kidney and he barely got there in time for medical help. Many transfusions and tests followed, plus some dialysis to get his blood back to normal. He was expected to go home Friday past, but return as an outpatient as they continue to try and figure out what the virus was, and get rid of it for good. He was in great spirits when we spoke, but his wife Leslie, mom Cheryl and dad Frank, plus all his friends have been thru a trying time and are smiling more now. Updates have been posted on SCRAFAN.com to keep up with his progress, but it looks like he is on the road to recovery.

Speaking of hospital trips, Legends of Ascot founder Don Weaver has had his time in the recovery room after some internal problems set him down for a while. He is back to being his usual peppy self, but has some work to do with his doc to keep well. He and Belita Michnowicz announced that the date for the 2008 Legends of Ascot event will be October 18th at Perris Auto Speedway this season. The usual antique race cars, bench racing, an outstanding feed, bench racing and the honoring of this years inductees into the legend hall of fame will be done. Get your reserved spot by calling 310-549-3562 today.

I am happy to get to stay home this next week as The USAC/CRA lions come to Las Vegas ( AKA Sin City) area for a two day late week appearance on Feb 28/29. Thursday/Friday means taking off at least two days from work, but it works for the determined. I don’t expect a tacky track, but I don’t have to travel and were looking forward to seeing many fans on the road. Look for me and say high, I mean HI!

Note: It was a very entertaining Saturday watching college hoops as my Bruins won another weird one and the top two teams in the country put on a great show. I can’t wait for the NCAA playoffs that start in Anaheim this year and only hope the UCLA boys make that regional so I can see it up close and personal. And yes, it is an off weekend from racing, Yahoo!