please share a favorite racing moment you had

[18degrees]

be it on tv or in person... a race, meeting a driver, pit/garage experience, and so on.

here's mine...

so, i do love me some open wheel dirt racing.  the USAC Silver Crown cars (affectionately nicknamed "fat bottomed girls" , due to their tail tanks being over twice the fuel capacity of a standard sprint car, due to the long distances that they typically run) run in Springfield, IL every August during the state fair, the Bettenhausen 100 has been on the schedule for a very long time now.  Springfield is about an hour and 45 minutes from where i live, and the race is typically held on or around my birthday, so that would be a no-brainer right? wrong.  for those of you who have been to central Illinois you know it can be oppressively hot and humid.  i have been to 2 Bettenhausen 100s in my life, and it has always been when it gets rained out, or for 2020 the fair got cancelled due to COVID.  whenever they can't run the race in August, it gets rescheduled for October, which, while chilly, is much better to attend than August.

in 2020 i had the pleasure of seeing Kyle Larson put a beating on the field while he was suspended from NASCAR, wasn't sure if that could be topped. 

fast forward to 2022, rain out... and my mind sure was changed about the 2020 race being the best i had seen there.  thanks to Kaylee Bryson, the entire place was entertained.
 
picture it, Springfield, 10/15/2022...

she was 21 at the time, a young lady from Oklahoma who was in her maiden season (part time that year) in Silver Crown.  she started 2nd that day and led 74 of 100 laps, ultimately finishing 5th. she led laps 1-22, 24-33, and 35-74.  there was a caution thrown on lap 71 and she lost the lead and faded a bit on the restart.  not sure if her momentum was lost or she had an issue with her tires or whatever, but she made a ton of fans that day.  a Kaylee Bryson Silver Crown shirt hangs in my closet because of what she did that day.

what was so special about how she ran that day?  see below...

she is the lone car up top


yeah, all the "experienced" guys were running low in the turns and she was ripping the lip, riding that cushion and spitting up rooster tails of dirt.  not a common thing at a dirt mile.

she eventually became the first female winner in the Silver Crown series at Belleville, KS i do believe the next year.  she is still running Silver Crown while getting her feet wet in other forms of racing.  lately she has run a 360 sprint car at Knoxville a few weekends.

you hate to see them move on to pavement and such (see Corey Day) but you gotta wish the best for them.

[jh63fan]

Believe it was 1991. Busch race at Orange County Speedway, Jimmy Hensley was in an unsponsored car running second to Robert Presley. They were the only two on the lead lap, bumper to bumper, with less than 20 to go, when a caution came out. On the restart, Jeff Burton, who was not on the lead lap, jumped up between them and Robert pulled away. Jimmy finally got around him and caught up as the race ended. I seen Jimmy in the infield right afterwards, told him that I would go get a few hits on Burton before his crew would get to me. He declined my offer, but his wife heard me, invited me to their home sometime, and we've been friends ever since.

[Volzfan59]

Believe it was 1991. Busch race at Orange County Speedway, Jimmy Hensley was in an unsponsored car running second to Robert Presley. They were the only two on the lead lap, bumper to bumper, with less than 20 to go, when a caution came out. On the restart, Jeff Burton, who was not on the lead lap, jumped up between them and Robert pulled away. Jimmy finally got around him and caught up as the race ended. I seen Jimmy in the infield right afterwards, told him that I would go get a few hits on Burton before his crew would get to me. He declined my offer, but his wife heard me, invited me to their home sometime, and we've been friends ever since.

That's a great story! Always liked Jimmy Hensley, seemed like a real humble, down to earth guy.

Way back in the late 80's I had moved up to running a limited late model. This was before LLM's were running aftermarket bodies, stubbed chassis or offset tube chassis's. We were racing real cars. Anyway, my first season was Bobby Hamilton's last in a LLM. He was actually racing an LLM and a LM. I was not getting the hang of the wedge bolt, racing shock deal and he helped get me close. Actually got to go out on the track and follow him for a few laps to get the line. He knew that I was never going to be a threat to him and his car owners budget. Anyway, super nice guy. RIP Bobby Hamilton

Drinking free Coors Light and eating free bbq sandwiches in the pits of the Nashville Fairgrounds Speedway after qualifying night for the All American 400 with Dick Trickle at his hauler. Got pictures of that night! What a great guy! RIP Dick Trickle

[Razorback 46]

It's a vague memory but I do remember my dad taking me to the Winston at Charlotte in 1990. I wasn't quite 3 years old yet so I don't remember most of it but the two things I do are seeing Richard Petty's blue and red STP Pontiac and Rusty Wallace's black and gold 27 Miller Pontiac. I wish I could remember more like the fact that Dick Trickle won the open, which was the only thing he ever won in a Cup car, but I didn't find that out until several years later.

Around that same time my dad took me to a car show where they had one of those simulator rides (the ones that look like the GM APVs) and Bill Elliott did the intro for the video.

[jh63fan]

Really thought this topic would take off and have a ton of entries. Since not, here's number 2 on my list:
Again 1991, fall Martinsville race. Harry Gant was in control and on his way to his fourth Cup victory in a row, when Rusty Wallace turned him around and the Bandit received some pretty significant damage. My friend with me at the race was a huge Gant fan, I kinda fibbed a little when I told him Harry had enough time to get back to the front. I believe Rusty was leading when Gant got to him, he just moved over and let him go. Guess he didn't want a dose of his own medicine. Harry ended up with the grandfather clock after some amazing driving.

[Volzfan59]

Don't know if Speedracer has seen this or not. Hopefully he'll chime in with a story or two. He raced on dirt for years.

[john2]

  I have 2, dealing with Freddy Fryar, Ellis Palasini, and Bobby Allison, but I am a little busy right now.  Maybe I'll get back to this. 

We were in a wreck that wiped out our handicap van.  We are ok but have to get a new one.     

[18degrees]

piggybacking on jh63fan's idea of submitting a second entry to this, but in reverse.

went to the races at I-55 Federated Auto Parts speedway or whatever it's called now, we call just call it Pevely for the town it's located in, this past Saturday.  World of Outlaws late models combined with the UMP DirtCar Summernationals, Xtreme midgets, and UMP Summernationals modifieds.

bought tickets a few weeks ago for me, my wife and my son to go.  in hindsight, if i had known how this night was going to turn out, i would have skipped it. 

due to the extremely hot and humid weather, the start (ie. hot laps) was pushed back to 7pm.  we didn't arrive until close to 6:30/45ish and had to park in a secondary lot at the pit entrance.  longer walk than the main lot and uphill.  lots of track prep done due to rain earlier in the week, the heat and the fact that they ran the night before.  had 50ish late models, 20ish midgets and close to 30 modifieds.  one midget ran up the cushion on his cool down lap after he won a heat and flipped his car.  track was fairly rough by feature time despite efforts to work it in.  during the midget feature the leader bicycled his car and flipped into the catch fence.  he was ok and the fence didn't require immediate repair.  during the late model feature, saw a car flip.  now, if you know anything about dirt late models, they are long, wide, and flat; should, in theory, be difficult to flip.  if you care to see it, i am sure it's on Youtube, look up "Sammy Mars flip at Pevely".  it was wild, and thankfully he was ok.  put it in perspective, i have been attending dirt races since 1993 and this was only the 3rd time i have seen one on it's lid.

oh, did i mention that the late model feature didn't start until 1am?    they cut the lap count from 55 to 40 due to the time, i assume, and it ran caution free... thankfully.

and we didn't stick around for the modified feature.  we had enough by then.  the night wasn't a total loss due to the weather and track conditions, the racing was actually very good with a substantial amount of passing. got to see a first time winner in WoO competition, Drake Troutman is in his first season in the 22* this year and has been having a good season, and finally got that first win.  i may pick up a shirt of his when we go to the WoO at Highland IL in August.