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I can't speak to the years before (pre 1964) I was born but I know we did not field a car in 1986. I spent part of that year working for A.J. Watson on Indy cars. My father and I went to most of the races at Lawrenceburg that season as fans sitting in the stands. My grandfather, father and I all wanted to get to get back into racing as competitors so my father made me a deal. If I would paint the Chevy Dually while he was on vacation, he would buy a sprint car and we would run the Burg on a wekly basis.
In February 1987 we ordered a Gambler kit since that was what Steve Kinser was running. We called Gaerte and Shaver for a engine. Gaerte was 6 weeks and Shaver was 6 months so we bought a Gaerte. We had no spare parts since we were only going to run weekly at the Burg. My father told me that if something broke we would load the car and drink beer in the stands the rest of the night! He was determined not to become the serious racer again. :wink
The first night we set quick time with Kerry Norris, won our heat and were leading the feature when the rear brake pads spit out of the caliper. I called Tommy Sanders at Gambler and he said "Oh, didn't I tell you that you need to put a bolt through the brake pads. I'll send you one." I installed the bolt and had the exact same results: Fast Time, Heat Win, brake pads broke the bolt and came out of the caliper. So I built a plate that covered the pads so they could not possibly come out of the caliper and we swept the show the third week.
Kerry Norris said to us in Victory Lane, "Did you want to run Millstream tomorrow (Sunday)?" Of course high from a win we all said yes and made the trip north to Findlay the next night where we won again. That progressed into Friday nights at Bloomington as well. So now our little Saturday night hobby quickly progressed into 3 nights each week by mid summer.:rolling
Long answer to your question Dean, I am sure there were other years that we did not field a car besides 1986. We also did not keep records of all the races in which we have competed. There were some years we did not field a sprint car but did compete with a midget. And yes there were not "sprint cars" in 1929 but my grandfather had a "roaring roadster" which for all intents and purposes was the forerunner to our sprint cars.
Hope that covers it!!
Rob Hoffman
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