Winchester Speedway, April 23 2006 2006 May 1
On Sunday, April 23 I went to the historic Winchester Speedway in Winchester Indiana. This was my first time at the track. It is a high banked 1/2 mile asphalt track and is one of the oldest automobile race tracks in the world. Winchester has been on my hit list ever since I started to travel to race tracks but for some reason it has eluded me — until now.
On the schedule was the Rich Volger classic – a 30 lap race for the USAC sprinters, a 100 lap CRA Super Series race (late models) and a 40 lap CRA Street Stock race. I pulled into the track about 11:00 AM and found out they were already practicing. USAC qualifying started just about on time (12 noon) and was followed by qualifying by the late models and street stocks. Racing was to start at 2:00 PM and it started just about on time as well. There was heat races for the sprint cars and street stocks, followed by the USAC sprint race, the CRA Super Series race, and finally the street stocks. Overall the racing was very good – esp the sprint car race. 16-year-old Bryan Clauson won the USAC race to became the youngest winner ever in a USAC sprint car race. He was already the youngest winner ever in a USAC midget race. He was followed by Darren Hagen and a hard charging Dave Steele. If the race was 40 laps, I’m pretty sure Dave Steele would have won. I really don’t know how someone with Dave’s success on asphalt doesn’t at least have a NASCAR truck series ride as he is an excellent driver on the pavement and always a pleasure to watch race through the field.
Veteran racer Jeff Lane won the CRA Super Series race from the pole, but there was pretty good action behind him and the 100 lap race was enjoyable on a beautiful Sunday afternoon. I didn’t stay for the street stock race as I still had to drive home to New Jersey. I really enjoyed my visit to Winchester and hope to get there again for a USAC midget race or maybe a winged sprint car race. I really liked that Winchester started on time and ran the street stocks last so I could get out of there in time to make it most of the way home following the race. If you have never made it to
Winchester, I highly recommend it.
My 2006 season race viewing stats after Winchester (IN) Speedway:
Races: 10
Tracks: 7 (5 new)
States: 6 (1 new)