Geoff Kaiser
 

Who's Geoff Kaiser? I had that question posed to me several times in the last week. He happens to be a very talented race car driver.

With all respect to Pat Sullivan and his exceptional announcing abilities at Fort Wayne and other venues, I felt that Geoff got the short end of the stick. I continually heard over the PA system that Geoff was from LaGrange, Ohio. That happens to be where I live. Geoff Kaiser is from Fort Wayne, Indiana, a hometown boy from the rich traditional of indoor racing fame. His bio, including his hometown, was published on the Rumble Series internet thread a few weeks ago.

Secondly, Geoff Kaiser holds the world's record for the fastest lap ever recorded on a quarter mile track. :checkered: This was set at Anderson Speedway, Anderson, Indiana.

Geoff Kaiser, a former midget driver, has also had an outstanding career with the HOSS winged pavement series, having accomplished many, many wins :checkered: and fast times with that organization including recently at Baer field in Fort Wayne.

I've known Geoff for several years now and have followed his racing career very closely. He's one of those guys who has quietly done very well with few people noticing his accomplishments and there have been many. He's very intense and very articulate and knows how to "dial-in" a race car.

I had a short list of potential drivers for Fort Wayne and his name kept coming to the top. Geoff had no on track indoor experience but seemed to have great potential. I stepped out of the box from my usual routine and took a chance with him and he delivered big time. We had a plan and that plan worked as he made the feature event both nights with some smooth driving and skill. Not many did that. He just got better and better. Saturday night he took the lead in the feature early and pulled away from the field until being passed by Tony Stewart on lap 17. Great job Geoff. At that point the driveshaft broke on the number 10 and Geoff was unfortunately eliminated from competition.

This racer deserves some more opportunities! Superb job, Geoff. :)

Re: Geoff Kaiser
 

He did a wail of a job for you, Don. By the way it was really good to get to meet you and chat for a while this weekend. Thanks for taking the time to chat!

I would ask one thing of folks on here. Instead of bashing Don, meet him first and chat with him. I do think many minds would be changed of him if this happens. It's too easy to bash someone for their thoughts if you have never met the man. Disagreement of ideas on here will happen. Is getting personal and insulting on here the right thing to do???

Re: Geoff Kaiser
 

With all due respect Don - I introduced him as a national 1/4 midget champion, a Jr Sprint Car Champion, 6th in HOSS series points with a win at Baer Field - I must have mentoned the HOSS pts and the win 5 times - I'm sorry if that wasn't enough.

Re: Geoff Kaiser
 

Was not at the indoor deal (working to support my son's habit) but can say there is no one better than you and your partner at Bloomington. I miss hearing you guys at Kokomo and hope to be at Bloomington more often. You do your homework when it comes to announcing and add a great deal to the show, we had some people at Kamp come up to Josh and said that after you announced the race they new Josh because of all the info you had on him as well as the other drivers there that night. Great job Pat. :respect: :checkered:

Jerry #66j
www.joshspencer.com

Re: Geoff Kaiser
 

Thanks Jerry,

There is a lot that goes into prep work and you have to do much of it in advance to be ready. Above is an example of me confusing two drivers that- I dug hard in advance to finde info on Derek Bischak who was alos outstanding and Geoff Kasier who was also good. I knew Geoff had won in HOSS and went to that website - there is a link for driver info and I don't think he is on it . So you do basic Google searches etc and you get a very mixed bag with this - in part because some drivers do not have websites. There is always an esay way to handle this from an owners or drivers standpoint - try to get the information you need to the right people. I don't know how many times over the years a driver has come to me and said -- my sponsor is here tonight - that's good work and it is my job to take extra care here. At Ft Wayne I doubt the lineup can be heard half the time because there is 0 time between races and you can't talk fast enough to get all the info in. -

Re: Geoff Kaiser
 

Come on Don, your driver got as run as the other drivers did. OK, the hometown was incorrect. That's never happened before.....come on. Pat did a great job as always. I know everything has to negative with you, but give us a break on this one.

Re: Geoff Kaiser
 

Think about an IOW without Don Moore just for a minute ...
How could the board be better without someone who is a racing "insider" , knowledgeable car owner employing some of the great midget drivers and not afraid to raise those issues of concern with some color and controversy ?

I was fortunate in meeting Don at the Rumble for the first time and enjoyed some interesting conversation !

Geoff Kaiser did a tremendous job ! Congradulations to Don , Geoff and all of the team who worked so hard to achieve a great event !

I will soon answer the questions so many are posing to me by personal message and e-mail through our web-site.
I was asked to withhold my original prepared statement concerning my confrontation at Ft. Wayne with USAC Midget Coordinator , Eric Bunn , pending further review by the Rumble Series and USAC.

Paul Gray - Driver # 16B ( the Ft. Wayne entry )

Re: Geoff Kaiser
 

Well Don I'll have to agree with you. But one thing I thought it was two drivers not one?

http://i80.photobucket.com/albums/j1...4/HPIM0496.jpg

Re: Geoff Kaiser
 

USAC generates an entry list based on entry forms --- here is what I was given

10 GEOFF kAISER,/ LaGrange, OH Moore Racing Enterprises/Music 2000 -Don Moore Music Publications/Beast/Ford

Re: Geoff Kaiser
 

Big mixup apparently somewhere down the line of communication. I think the issue has been cleared up. Always enjoy your announcing skills, Pat. I said that right from the beginning. thanks.

Don Moore

Re: Geoff Kaiser
 

Yes you clearly started with a positive -- There were a few other problems as well - Tyler Knuckle's hometown was wrong and the list had Matt Estep in MI not Mass (and a few years ago it had him in MI not in Ill)
I kmow Matt so I saw that error right away - I don't know Jeff and so I had no idea it was wrong . For every driver and owner on the board - when there are errors like that, other tidbits of info etc announcers love to get this because we all want to get it right - don't hestitate to tell them or grab someone who can get the info to them. --- You always make errors - you just want them to me held to a minimum.

Re: Geoff Kaiser
 

I'm huge Pat Sullivan fan. I'll tell you why. A few years ago my son (Brad) was racing up at Bloomington for the first time. As he was warming up for hot laps the announcer started talking about "Brad's father" who drove a sprint car back in the early 80's with the Johnny Lightning paint scheme. I almost fell out of my seat. I had never heard of Pat before and to this day have no idea how he knew the information about me that he gave out over the P.A. that night. Anyone who can remember my very "uneventful" racing career is a great man in my book!! :rolling: My peacock feathers were definitely on display that night. Thanks Pat!! :)

Re: Geoff Kaiser
 

Don't sweat it Pat; we all make mistakes! Awesome job announcing(as usual) the PA didn't seem to be as clear to me as years past, but thats certainly not your fault.

Don, your car and driver looked to be the one to beat in the early going Saturday night. Good job to you, driver and the crew.

Like throttlehead said, know the man before you bash on him. He has a wealth of knowledge to share with everyone here.

Re: Geoff Kaiser
 

Pat, no problem from here. We all think you do a heck of a job. It just got us a little wound up with the hometown mix up because I had so many friends and family there.
Thanks for what you did for us.

Geoff Kaiser

Re: Geoff Kaiser
 

Geoff,

Thanks - and you were great all weekend. Please never hesitate to come up to me personally or have a family member tell me when there is a mistake like this - you saw what was on the entry list - how or why I just don't know. I generally try to hang out a lot more to gather info and just hang out - but the Ft Wayne pits are chaos and I deal with asthma a bit and I tried to get out of atmosphere as much as I can. Don was right that it was correct on the Rumble Series message board - but I had USAC send me an entry list in advance for prep and then a new one was generated at the event - I saw the error on Matt Estep a few days before the race and I wrote Dick Jordan at USAC and told him there was a mistake so that one was corrected. I hope to get a chance to see you race more often in 2008.

Re: Geoff Kaiser
 

Geoff, congrats again on a great run both nights. Bummer Saturday had to end that way. Good luck this year with the sprint car. How about a Hoss championship for that new chassis!!

Re: Geoff Kaiser
 

I say we level the playing field alittle bite and have Tony Stewart Run a dirt car like Geoff and many other guys.....:)
Man it seems like the driver that ran a clean race both nights and lead plenty of laps saturday night before failure should get some press.:doh:

Anyways here is a picture of what broke on the # 10 car leading the race saturday night when Kaiser had to pull in.... Too bad, I can only think of what would have happened if Geoff's car hadn't broke.

http://i218.photobucket.com/albums/c...neparts125.jpg

Re: Geoff Kaiser
 

Don Moore always fields a well prepared competitive car and the drivers he is able to get are always top notch. As a fan I'm darn thankful for guys like him---I sure couldn't afford my habit without subsidies by devoted owners like him.

Re: Geoff Kaiser
 

I thank Badgerfan on Don's behalf during his absence ! I too appreciate the contributions that many great team owners give to the sport !



Please see my statement at - http://www.midgetmadness.com/forums/...howtopic=14736



:Steer

Re: Geoff Kaiser
 

Hi Don,

Enjoyed meeting you this past weekend, Was this not a similar piece of bad luck you had last year with the #10 with Tracy Hines as your driver?

Eric C

Re: Geoff Kaiser
 

Amen to that. Don is a great owner and voice for the sport of midget racing. I for one would love to see him be able to race full time in a series. Not a jab at him at all but for the resources he has at his disposal compared to other owners, Don does pretty darn good for himself.

Re: Geoff Kaiser
 

Thanks for the comps, guys!!

Badgerfan, we'll see you in Tulsa! Should be fun as usual!

Re: Geoff Kaiser
 

#1-I fail to see anywhere in this thread that pertains to you or your team. The only one bringing it up is you.

#2-I couldn't be happier what happened to you after the story I heard about how Bill Benefiel royally, and I mean royally screwed over that kid on Midget Madness then you tried to smooth things over as if it was ok. What comes around goes around.

Sorry everyone to be negative but sometimes you gotta call it like you see it.:thumbsdown:

Re: Geoff Kaiser
 

I must say I was impressed with Geoff in the Don Moore car. One thing I did find so awful wrong I could barely keep my mouth shut during.

I don't know Don from a hole in the ground so I don't know it was him, but I have to imagine it was someone from the crew was talking with one of the pushtruck drivers about the way they were pushing him off in the middle of the corner, and literally for half the race stood there and argued. All fine and dandy until the passenger in the push truck looked back at this guy and said "See, I told you he can't drive!!!" after he had gotten into it with another driver. I have never rooted for a car and driver so much after that.

And Don, this probably means absolutely nothing to you, but from one broke racer who doesnt' have money to buy his own car, or even a ride for the night, thank you for "taking a chance" on someone with limited experience. I gained an awful lot of respect for you that weekend.

Re: Geoff Kaiser
 

That WASN'T me arguing with the push truck guy!!!

Geoff Kaiser did a fabulous job all weekend. This kid HAS it, believe me and he's an expert at setting up race cars also.

Re: Geoff Kaiser
 

I didn't figure it was. Thanks though for clarifying.