Motorsports Column for August 24, 2003

Carson City Outlaw Kart racer Hunter Colodny recently received the QRC Perpetual Trophy for the Pro Stock class at Cycleland Speedway in Chico, Calif.

He also holds the Pro Stock track record, which he set at the Golden State Championship race earlier this year. He's won one main event at Cycleland this season, run second several times, and has had a number of top qualifying times. The QRC trophy is six feet tall, a couple of feet higher than Hunter himself!

Heavy crashes and rule infractions punctuated last Saturday night's racing at Reno-Fernley Raceway. Carson City Hobby Stock Driver Blake Ramthun was briefly knocked unconscious in an altercation with the wall, and another car attempted to climb a pole. Many-time-winning IMCA Modified driver Robert Miller was suspended from next week's race after refusing to heed first a black, then a red, flag. Maybe Reno-Fernley race officials will need to borrow some spike strips from the Nevada Highway Patrol if this becomes a trend! And you thought Jimmy Spencer provided all the excitement in racing.

Speaking of which, you didn't see "Mr. Excitement" in last night's Winston Cup race at Bristol, nor was he in his scheduled rides for the Busch or Craftsman Truck series races this weekend. NASCAR penalized Spencer for attacking Roush Racing driver Kurt Busch after last weekend's Michigan race, inflicting contusions and a broken tooth on Busch, who should have kept his helmet on. Spencer was also fined $25,000 and put on probation until the end of the year. Busch also received a fine and probation, prompting the question, "Why penalize the victim?" I wonder why the Nevada Appeal never runs a phone poll on stuff like this instead of Jethro's Casino?

A few months back we mentioned that NASCAR Winston West driver Austin Cameron was out of the series due to being diagnosed with cancer. Well, Cameron was back in the car last weekend at Stockton 99 Speedway and won the race with a dominant performance. Local racer Steve Portenga finished second and extended his lead in the championship points. The 26-year-old Cameron was overcome by emotion after the race. "I don't even know what to say. I wanted to cry almost. Just to come back after everything my family has gone through and what I've been through, it's pretty emotional."

This is the kind of story that we need more of, rather than the one in the preceding paragraph.

The CART Champ Cars are running in Montreal today, the third Canadian race of the season. Canadian native (and current Las Vegas resident) Paul Tracy has won the first two Canadian rounds and is looking for a sweep. Tracy was second in the first qualifying session on Friday, but as this goes to press the Saturday session is still in the future. CART will go to single-car qualifying for the Denver and Miami races to avoid the sort of problems that occurred at Vancouver, with Tracy losing his fast Friday time for impeding another competitor.

Street circuits are so tight and it is so difficult to pass that single-car qualifying makes a lot of sense. Personally, I've always thought that the European style qualifying with many cars on course at once was more exciting, and I used to find single-car qualifying as fascinating as watching paint dry. But technology has made it interesting, with the TV showing sector time comparisons and whether a driver is ahead of or behind pole time. I find myself quite enjoying it now, whether it be NASCAR or Formula 1.

Reliable sources report that Sam Hornish Jr. will sign a contract soon with Roger Penske, and will run a mix of IRL Indycar races, NASCAR Busch, and ARCA events with an eye toward moving him into Rusty Wallace's Winston Cup car in 2005. The Penske IRL team will, according to reports, increase to three cars for at least a portion of the 2004 season. Hornish wouldn't comment on the rumors, which noted that his contract would be for three years, the last two in the Winston Cup car after Wallace's retirement following the 2004 season. I wonder if Rusty has heard about that?

Roger Diez is the Nevada Appeal Motorsports Columnist.