The Mid-West tour part of the Ron Shuman Productions 2001 Non Wing World Championship was many things the past ten days, and all of them good. The first 6 races of the 3rd annual event, designed to bring the best of the West and Mid-west non-wingers together, had plenty of excitement with great racing and what you would expect from the best non-wing drivers in the land. It was the side-by-side non-wing racing that the mid-west fans thirsted for. The SCRA brought along more than 24 quality cars, and the mighty USAC ……… only managed 2, and one of those just for one night. At each track a couple of racers would pull off their wings, but none did much to write home about except CJ Johnson in Wichita, who would have made the main if his borrowed motor hadn't gone south on him.

Pics from Wichita are up!

Pics from Granite City are here

Pics from Lakeside are here and are here!

The best of the SCRA made the long tow to put on a show, but had no co-operation from the Mid-west, and yet as expected, all 6 races were outstanding. The last part of the NWWC will be held at Manzanita and Perris late in the year. Any guess on how many USAC cars will make that trek for two $25,000 to win shows?

Obviously, the only thing missing on the tour this year was the USAC stars. Reflecting back on the just completed action, the fans didn't miss them. I did hear a few speculations on why they weren't there, but I will leave that to your imagination! Even though USAC runner Kevin Doty tried with a brand new Stealth car, which he said, wasn't ready for prime time yet, at least he was there to represent the USAC. One other top driver came to Granite City and looked sharp until rain shortened the race to 8 laps. But as usual, USAC traditionally won't come out and play with the SCRA outside of Indiana. You might try and pick a reason: # 1) SCRA is like a pesky fly because they think USAC is the only way, # 2) USAC was too busy with their important point schedule and they ignored the great possibilities of the NWWC, # 3) it's too far for the Indiana based drivers to tow, # 4) there's not enough money to run for, and # 5) WHAT could there possibly be? You pick. USAC, in their infinite wisdom, scheduled against the NWWC tour again this year, but the fans at four tracks came and were overjoyed with what they saw, some really exciting action that non-wing is known for.

Historically, it is true USAC will only play in their own back yard, and those who do chose to run with the SCRA, clearly are on their own? Some did run the NWWC last year in Indiana, but when the tour left Terre Haute, only a few brave ones followed, and later in California, some of those same brave drivers came West, but left with little to show for it afterwards. Maybe that's it, they don't run well out of Indiana without the dry tracks. Whatever, the growth of the NWWC will either unite the best drivers in the land or make the SCRA bigger and better over time. No, I won't forget that Elliott, Darland, Hines, Yeley, Drake and many more who call Indiana home, are great drivers looking to somewhere else. I just lament the fact we can't get them together for this annual showcase while they still run sprint cars. The fans win more if we do, but clearly, the fans that see the NWWC events win anyway.

Next year the NWWC tentative schedule is already out and it's a winner! It starts in early August at Lincoln's Eagle Raceway for two nights. Then a stop at Oskaloosa, Iowa before the Knoxville Nationals on Monday. On to Attica, Ohio, and then into PA for Williams Grove, Grandview, Lincoln and maybe Bridgeport, NJ for fun. On the way home there will be three nights at Lakeside. The first is a "practice" night with an Invitational Jerry Weld Memorial event, then two more nights just like this year. Planning is important, so when the dates and tracks are official, I suggest you do some.

As for the first six events on this year's tour, where do I start? Richard Griffin was dominating at Eagle Raceway where promoter, Craig Cormack, put up the bucks and watered the track to race on. Griffin had to earn it the hard way as he had SCRA point leader, Cory Kruseman, to battle with along with a host of other hot shoes from the West. The two groove action was as good as it gets both nights with the Gasman showing his expertise on the top groove and beating some of the best drivers in the land. Rip Williams almost caught him from the back row on Saturday with a wild charge. Perhaps, an "SCRA only" show is better, and this way there were no complaints from the fans!

81 Speedway in Wichita was a great show, too! Even the dry slick track didn't keep the slide jobs from coming as Mike Kirby was "the man" going from 11th to the front and holding off the Gasman for his 2nd win of the year. No rain this year so the steak feed put on by C Ray Hall and the whole crew was fun after the race.

Granite City is the narrowest ½ mile I have ever seen, yet the action was fast and fun to watch. The paper clip style corners made for some great action in the heats, but "Mr biggest gusty wind of all time", brought rain and ended the race after 8 laps with the Gasman in front. As Richard always says when "things" happen, we'll never know what might have been, but for now he was the winner, and that's all people will remember. The purse was prorated down by contract, because less than half the laps were completed, so the advertised $4,000 to win wasn't there when he got in the rainy winners circle, and some of the excitement was lost.

Lakeside turned out to be another jewel on the tour. The first night Mark Olson's track was super tacky and smooth. It was so good that when the 30 lap main was over with, and an excited Steve Ostling was jumping up and down in the winner's circle, the track was still ready to race on. The second night they toned it down and the racing improved. All that yak by me about wanting tacky tracks didn't wash when you analyze this Saturday night event. I guess if there are two grooves to race on, it's all we need. The track was great, it wasn't wet and never went dry slick, but was racier than ever. In between a ton of crashes, there was some real racing and the winner, Troy Rutherford, was impressive for 40 laps. He went low early to get the lead, then after a red flag stop, went up high to pull away for the $10,000 winner's share. It was just the right strategy and he was up to the task. In between, Charles Davis Jr and then Cory Kruseman's charge from last to 2nd made it real hard on him.

Cory earlier had crashed his Harlan Willis # 45 on the opening lap, when he and Rickie Gaunt clanged going for the lead, sending him into and through one billboard, landing outside the track. It looked like Cory was making a pass for the lead when "it" happened. Promoter Mark said losing that billboard didn't matter, the advertiser hadn't paid him yet! Cory returned in Jimmy May's car to start at the back. Then, after coming back to about 10th, he spun to avoid a crashing car, and came from the back again to grab 2nd before it was over. Sound exciting? Well, let me tell you, the crowd ate it up. Afterwards, they came into the pits practically drooling, they were so excited. Nobody went home until they talked with their favorite driver. I am not making this up!

It was a great tour for most with some of the worst problems happening the last night at Lakeside. Before that many teams still experienced some bad luck. At Eagle Ronnie Clark took a wild ride when a car in front of him lost the mag, then Michael Hinrichsen had a brake rotor explode sending him into the wall. Later Charles Davis Jr took a wild one when he went over a wheel. Lance Gremett hit one of those big tires designed to keep you off the infield at 81 Speedway to end a strong charge by him. Brian Venard probably had the worst luck when he climbed the wall at Granite City and wiped out the motor and rear-end and much more. Troy Cline was among the quick out victims there when he got on his side. At Lakeside, Hinrichsen and Davis had similar crashes that kept them out of the money on Friday. The winner's motor blew as he took the checkered flag, so Ostling's crew replaced their rented bullet overnight. On Saturday, Kruseman's crash was his first, but Cline and Ostling had their problems with crashes. Gremett hit the wall right where Cline did on a restart a few minutes later, and he was running 5th at the time. Motor problem's hurt Hank Winter twice, once when his mount went sour and then the borrowed Glenn Crossno backup car suffered the same fate. Danny Sheridan crashed hard the last night, so some chassis work will be the order of the day when they all get home.

The next race for the SCRA is the 4th of July race at Perris. Richard Griffin was planning to stay back there and run Eldora this coming weekend. Troy Cline had plans to take that in as well, but for the most part the racers returned towards their homes on Sunday. I will be visiting Ventura this week and will add some more tour news in my next column on the tour. The drive from Lakeside to home, right after the feature, was long and non-stop. We are resting up now!