A step back in time with Strictly Stocks & Senior Series featured on the 31st
By Mike Dutko
For 7/23/04
Racing returns to its roots on Saturday, July 31 at Mercer Raceway Park. There was a day when race cars were built in the garage out back, not in a mega shop and shipped to you completely ready to run. It was a simpler time when stock cars ruled the territory.
This is the first year for the Maurer’s Trading Post Strictly Stocks at Mercer and it has been an interesting one so far. The Bish family has dominated the racing, and we really haven’t had an opportunity to meet some of the other drivers. It was until July 10 that someone other than Bishs was able to break into victory lane. The driver that accomplished that feat is second generation racer Travis Norman of New Castle. Prior to that Curt Bish, Sr. had won nine features, while his son Curt, Sr. had been victorious on three occasions. You will get that opportunity when the strictly stocks bring their cars to the concourse for an autograph session. It’s a chance to see up close what one of these cars actually looks like, a real throw back to the day when race cars were built at home.
I wouldn’t be surprised if we get several requests for rules packages after fans get to see the cars up close. There’s really very little you can do to the car, so as racing goes it’s an affordable way to get into the sport. Take a minute to check out the guys who do this strictly for the fun of it. The cars will be definitely be different from anything we have seen up close before, but the enthusiasm and the pride they take in their racecars is no different than a $50,000 sprint car. Make sure you ask them about the way they put the cars together, and how they got involved in the game the stories are pretty unique.
One of our regular competitors has been the Dodge Mirada of Wearne Cook from Cooperstown. I might be showing my age, but growing up his Dad’s garage was located next door to my home in Cooperstown. “Francis” would always torment the heck out of regulars at the garage ambushing them at any given moment. Most automotive fans are loyal to one brand of car or another, and for the Cook family it has always been Mopars.
Wearne Cook, the old man that is, used to race an identically painted #38 at Tri-City. I can still remember back to when he built a beautiful little Barracuda into a stock car. The thing looked like it could really fly! Actually it could. Cookie flipped the thing the first time out down the backstretch. To give you an idea of a man who has the right attitude about racing, Cookie told me when I saw the car sitting in a heap in the garage, “I think it needs a wax job!”
If a lot of other race teams had the same attitude toward our sport that the Cooks have we would be in a lot better shape. It didn’t look like the Cook family would be racing at Mercer since they towed their car to Tri-City living so close on the back of their wrecker, but a week before the season started they found a trailer, and they have been in the pits every Saturday, while Pearl has had her lawn chair on the front stretch to cheer her boy on. Just once though I have to admit I would like to see the old man get in the car one more time!
Usually when a bunch of “retired” racecar drivers get together the only racing that goes on is bench racing. (That’s where you sit on a bench and reminisce about the good old days.) Well, the Pittsburgh Circle Track Club has kind of taken that message to heart and put together a means for retired drivers to once relive the glory days and compete with their rivals on the track.
The Pittsburgh Circle Track Club Senior Series visits a number of tracks in the area. They offer their members another chance to compete in competitive side by side racing. This year the club will visit seven different tracks with 11 races on their schedule. Most of the races will be run on dirt, but Jennerstown Speedway will offer the old timers a chance to run on the asphalt.
On the 31st, the PCTC Senior Series will actually run double features as they will return next week to complete a show, which was fogged out earlier this season, then will run a complete new program. When you look back over the history of the series there have been some pretty good racers who have competed. In fact, former Mercer Raceway Park sprint car champion, Bill Wheeling is a former champion with the Senior Series. Maybe we could even coax the Senior Series to bring their cars up for autographs too. Many of the guys in this series were heroes to the fans who will be in attendance.
Fear not hardcore race cars as just because of the strictly stocks and Senior Series get the play, you’ll still get a full dose of sprint cars, big-block modifieds, sportsman modifieds, and stock cars. Extra money will be on the line for the stocks in the Ken Carbone Memorial plus the highest finishing 360 sprint against the 410s will get a berth into the Bully Hill Vineyards Dash at Black Rock Speedway in Dundee, New York in September.
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