Thru Noggles Goggles .::. March 4th

IZOD IndyCar Series drivers James Hinchcliffe, Josef Newgarden, Sebastian Saavedra and Ed Carpenter, along with team owner Sarah Fisher, will be part of a season kickoff celebration in Downtown Indianapolis from 11:30am to 1:30pm on Tuesday. The free event, which will feature free two-seater IndyCar rides, will take place at West Georgia Street between Capitol Avenue and Illinois Street. The IndyCar season will open March 24 with the Honda Grand Prix of St. Petersburg, FL.

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“National Speed Sport News” reports from Peoria, AZ:

R.J. Johnson put a stop to Bryan Clauson’s reign of Canyon Speedway Park domination by winning Saturday night’s sixth annual Copper on Dirt 30-lap event in the AMSOIL USAC-CRA Sprint Car ranks after Clauson had earlier completed a sweep of the weekend’s USAC Western States Midget action atop the third-mile clay oval. While Phoenix native Johnson bested the sprint car ranks and Clauson conquered the midgets, Garrett Alberson took Copper on Dirt honors in West Coast late model action with George Fronsman victorious in IMCA modified competition.

After starting from the second row inside, Johnson took the lead away from Bruce St. James on the second round and led the rest of the way for Copper on Dirt honors in the 30-lap USAC-CRA feature aboard the Martin owned Weiler Farms/Pecon Builders to deny Clauson his ninth CSP triumph in 10 feature starts. Johnson took the checkered flag ahead of front row outside starter Nic Faas, with Clauson settling for third. Damion Gardner climbed from 12th to fourth, with Ryan Bernal charging from 19th to round out the top five.

Starting from the front row outside, Clauson completed a sweep of the weekend’s USAC Western States Midget Copper on Dirt action after chasing Kody Swanson for the opening 18 rounds of the 25-lapper. Clauson took command on the 19th circuit aboard the Tucker/BCI/Curb-Agajanian No. 39 and beat Rico Abreu to the stripe, with fast qualifier Christopher Bell rebounding from an early spin to claim the show position. R.J. Johnson was fourth, with Kyle Larson showing up in time to tag the field and race from 21st to round out the top five.

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Jim Hanks, owner of the Must See Racing Sprint and Supermodified Series, sends this press release:

The TRUFUEL Must See Racing Xtreme Sprint Series opens the 2013 season at Five Flags Speedway in Pensacola, Florida on Friday March 22 and Mobile International Speedway on Saturday March 23 with a powerhouse lineup of race teams and drivers from around the country and Canada. “There is no doubt this is going to be one of, if not the best field of winged pavement sprint cars ever put on a race track“ stated MSR president Jim Hanks.”The level of competition, quality of cars and outstanding group of drivers is a direct reflection of our efforts to bring the best racing entertainment possible to the race fans” concluded Hanks.

The opener in three weeks will have no less than ten new driver/owner combinations. These new teams will debut during the second annual Royal Oak Southern Shoot Out. Nearly thirty cars have already entered the event.

Davey Hamilton Racing will return to the series full-time in 2013 with driver Mike Larrison. Rookie Davey Hamilton Jr. has replaced Brian Olson. The team will once again sport TRUFUEL sponsorship in 2013. In addition, Dick Fieler and George Rudolph have merged their teams with Davey Hamilton Racing to form a potent three-car effort. Two-time MSRXSS champion Troy DeCaire has been tabbed to drive the #40:1 car. The Florida car owner Dick Fieler explained how the merger happened. “I decided to open a shop in Brownsburg, IN” Fieler explained. “George Rudolph agreed to be the mechanic. I assigned George the responsibility of hiring the driver. George hired Troy DeCaire. They go back a long way. After talking to Davey (Hamilton) who has a shop nearby, he suggested we team up together”.

The Fieler/Rudolph branch of Davey Hamilton Racing will have three cars at their disposal this coming summer.”George and I have four cars with three in Indiana” explains Fieler.”We have two Hurricane’s and a John Godfrey built car. Troy, George, and I want to run as many races as possible. A Must See championship would be wonderful, but I’m personally in it to win races. That’s what you go racing for, to win races. I believe Must See Racing is on the upswing as far as quality of cars and tracks. I’m looking forward to the season,” concluded Fieler.

Long-time North Carolina car owners Don and Suellen Wilshe will be campaigning two full-time entries with the possibility of a third. Jimmy McCune and Geoff Kaiser will represent the BIOBASED.US team this season.”We’ll be running two cars all year with Jimmy McCune and Geoff Kaiser” explains Don Wilshe.”The team is being managed for me by Jim McCune. Our plan is to run for the championship.”I think both drivers have good skills and are highly talented. I’m bringing an extra car to the opener and its possible I could end up running three cars”. Wilshe also explains that he has involvement with the Dave Steele car that he will be competing in at the season opener.”I loaned Dave one of my best Chevy engines for the first two races of the season. If he wants to race more, I’ll try to make sure he has an engine”. Tampa, FL driver Steele acknowledged that he will indeed be participating in the Must See openers but isn’t sure how many more Must See events he will commit to in 2013. “I’m competing in the first two for sure ” Steele explained.”I might hit a couple of others. We’ll see”.

Brian Olson returns to full-time MSRXSS competition in 2013 fresh off a two-win performance in 2012. Olson will be driving for himself this season.”Davey and I couldn’t work anything out so I decided to start my own team. I’ve always run my own cars up until 2011. We’re gonna run the whole Must See schedule and run for the championship”. Olson will be campaigning a black #71 DRC Chassis car with a Charlie Fisher Racing engine. He has secured sponsorship from Edwards Transmission and Engines, IndyCar Experience, and Pro-Vac. Olson will have long-time mechanic Jack French assisting his efforts at the season opener.” Jack’s gonna help us out early on and we’ll see if we can’t work something out for the rest of the year”.

Aaron Pierce and his Sam Pierce Chevrolet team will once again field a second entry at the majority of Must See events in 2013. Pierce explained that Billy Wease will wheel the Hurricane chassis in Florida and perhaps a few more times. Ohio’s Tyler Dunn is also expected to run the car at least two times. Pierce also indicated Sondi Eden could possibility wheel the car on a few occasions if things work out. Pierce himself will be gunning for the 2013 MSRXSS drivers championship after disappointing early 2012 season woes all but eliminated him from the championship chase. Pierce did find victory lane with MSRXSS in 2012 at Shangri-La II Speedway.

Jerry Powell will also field a two-car effort in 2013 with drivers Dude Teate and Scotty Orr. Teate is a multi-time Tampa Bay Area Racing Association champion while Orr is a veteran of dirt and is a past Eldora Speedway Modified champion. The Powell team will utilize Beast chassis in their quest for a MSRXSS championship.

Perhaps the most interesting driver/team combination comes from Tampa car owner Lenny Puglio. Puglio is rumored to have intentions to run a two car team at Must See events with drivers Davey Hamilton and Bobby Santos. Efforts to contact Puglio were unsuccessful. It is unknown if Puglio will run for the championship or participate in select Must See events. If these new driver/team combinations are any indication of what to expect in 2013, this will be a very exciting season for Must See Racing fans at the tracks and on the MSR television programming.

The 2013 Must See lineup:

JOJO HELBERG –ROHNERT PARK, CALIFORNIA

JACOB WILSON – CRAWFORDVILLE, INDIANA

JASON COX -PARK CITY, ILLINOIS

JIMMY McCUNE – TOLEDO, OHIO

BRIAN OLSON -AVON, INDIANA

BRIAN GERSTER – FISHERS, INDIANA

AARON PIERCE -DALEVILLE, INDIANA

JERRY CARYER -NEY, OHIO

JIM SHEETS -ANDERSON, INDIANA

DAVE STEELE – TAMPA, FLORIDA

BOBBY SANTOS - FRANKLIN, MASSACHUSETTS

TROY DeCAIRE – TAMPA, FLORIDA

DAVEY HAMILTON – INDIANAPOLIS, INDIANA

DAVEY HAMILTON, JR – INDIANAPOLIS, INDIANA

JEFF BLOOM – BANGOR, MICHIGAN

GEOFF KAISER -FORT WAYNE, INDIANA

BILLY WEASE -NOBLESVILLE, INDIANA

MIKE LARRISON -COATESVILLE, INDIANA

CODY GALLOGLY -PATOSKALA, OHIO

JIMMY KITE -SPEEDWAY, INDIANA

DUDE TEATE -LEESBURG, FLORIDA

TODD FAYARD -SAUCIER, MISSISSIPPI

TIM COX -PARK CITY, ILLINOIS

RYAN LITT -LONDON, ONTARIO

RYAN MYERS -LEWISBURG,OHIO

KEVIN BLUE -FRANKLIN, INDIANA

NICK RICHARDS -ANDERSON, INDIANA

TANNER SWANSON -KINGSBURG, CALIFORNIA

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Regular TNG reader Brad Hughes writes:

“Being an old open wheel person and yeah, I said old., I read Jessica Bean’s blog on her new web site. I have been following her on the long journey to Indy car racing. She is doing fantastic in the Mel Kenyon series. In her blog she was talking about how she has to learn to turn right to get there. My stomach turned over. I remember when they ( USAC ) told Bob Wente to go back and get more experience!!!!! This was a 7-time midget champ they told that. Now that being said, I feel the series was so successful was everyone I mean everyone had to come up through the ranks. Yes they just turn left but you’d best be good at it. We are loosing so much talent to Nascar. Indy racing is asking a driver to be in limbo. Do you want to run ovals? Do you want to run roadcourses? You don’t see F-1 drivers run a schedule of half roadcouses and half ovals. Why you ask? It doesn’t work. You are an expert at roadcourses or you are an expert at ovals. You mix the two you get a half butted series with drivers that are not good at either. The IndyCar Series is forcing the owners to hire two drivers for one car. If it wasn’t for the indy 500 there would be no series. Ask a driver you want to win Indy once or the GP of Flordia? Wow its Indy and it’s an oval. IndyCar and CART could not exist. It was two half butted series. Why do the powers think you can mix the two and make it work? F-1 fans hate ovals. Oval fans hate F-1. No wonder you have a series not working. F-1 can’t generate enough fans to hold a race here in the US. They were given the greatest facility to race at and no one came. If you could get 33 past USAC champions together and run one year of open wheel including the 500, you would see the best drivers in the world turning left, filling the stands, and profit. ALL WITH A SIMPLE LEFT TURN. Yes ask Rubens [Barichello]. Turning left is the hardest thing in the world. In closing, keep the OVAL and lose the right turn, and race. Keep our young drivers from going to Nascrash ( which turns left a lot) and keep the drivers in an oval environment of which they want . You want to turn right go to F-1. GOOD LUCK TO JESSICA.”

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Long-time USAC lensman John Mahoney writes:

“The tour of Don Smith’s collection [in Terre Haute, IN] was unbelievable! [Fellow photographer] Dave Heithaus and I truly enjoyed our two hours…and, indeed, we could spend weeks there and not see everything. It was great to be greeted by Don Smith at the door. Thanks to Dennis Unger and his group for the invite. So glad I finally got to see this magnificent collection and Dave and I enjoyed the company of a lot of other cronies on Saturday!”

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The Salem [IN] Speedway has announced their 2013 racing schedule and, of the eleven scheduled events, only one is open wheel. The annual Joe James/Pat O’Connor sprint car race will take place on Saturday, August 10th at 7pm. Also joining this Must See Racing Xtreme Sprint Series winged sprint car date will be the Midwest Oldtimers Vintage Race Car Club and the Lucas Oil Great American Stocks. Billed as the “Open Wheel Event of the Season” for Salem, it is also advertised as being “the fastest night of the season at Salem Speedway”.

Another interesting race meet to be held there in 2013 will take place on the reconfigured Salem track on June 2nd. The first annual “Salem Roval Grand Prix”, a one-hour road course, includes the infield oval and a portion of the half-mile high banks, featuring both left and right hand turns. A map of the “new” road course seems to resemble an hourglass figure.

Counting the figure-8, the facility now has four tracks in, what’s beginning to be, a racing complex.