Unpaid CRA bounties
 

How many non-California Racing Association drivers never received their full bounties for beating California drivers in the 80's or late 70's. I don't care if you're from PA, IN, OH, MI, IL, KY, WI, or the moon. PM me if you don't want your answers posted and I will confidentially confirm. Thanks, IOW! :)

Making my list and checking it twice ;) I know who's been naughty, but who all's been nice? ;)

Re: Unpaid CRA bounties
 

CRA doesn't exist anymore,what's the angle?
:deadhorse:

Re: Unpaid CRA bounties
 

Someone still has an axe to grind with Frank Lewis, I guess......

Re: Unpaid CRA bounties
 

WOW!!!! Talk about having an axe to grind. Bringing something up that happened over 30 years ago.

Take your medicine and go back to bed. No one wants to hear your rant. :2:

Wow.

This one ranks right up there for strange, obscure moments in history. I guess it's possible, even probable, but why now?

I mean, is this some kind of witch hunt? How many guys are left in the sport from those days? Two, or three? And they've slept since then.

I really hope this post can be explained further, as I believe it has piqued the interest of others as well. I remember that 'bonus' to be a grand or less, which is still significant but many of us have written off bad debts for more over the years.

Please keep us updated on your findings!

Or maybe Jonr said it better in the previous reply...
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Re: Unpaid CRA bounties
 

Bonus money was paid out in 1992, $10,000 to win. Joe Roush had trouble getting his money. It was insurance policy if I remember correctly.

Re: Unpaid CRA bounties
 

The year I remember, it was a bonus of $10,000. They paid it out twice that year for any driver winning one of their races on their swing through the midwest. The midwest had went to Winged racing almost everywhere at that time.

Steve Kinser collected their money at Eldora. I remember the announcer, Terry Baltes, really playing up the fact that Steve had not been in a non-wing car for some time. He said something to the effect that he had talked to Karl and he said he rembered how to set the car up, but he wasn't sure Steve remembered how to drive without a wing. Really playing up the crowd prior to hot laps. Then Steve went out and really put a whooping on them. Only one car even kept him in sight. Might have been Opperman, but that doesn't sound quite right, so maybe not him.

Then at Brownstown on a black one lane track, Joe Roush managed to be the first one to the bottom on the opening lap. After that, it was one line around the bottom. Only driver I remember stepping out of line to try anything was Kevin Briscoe in the Strandridge car.

I do remember hearing it took weeks for him to be paid his $10,000 bounty. Seems like the CRA was saying his name was not on the pit sign in sheet or something to that effect.

Re: Unpaid CRA bounties
 

Bubby Jones lead most of that feature at Eldora that night. He came out of retirement for that tour.

Re: Unpaid CRA bounties
 

Roush won that feature with a left rear on the right and afterwards credited his Speedrome experience for the win. Hewitt tried the top, was kind of ugly....lol

Re: Unpaid CRA bounties
 

If memory serves me right I think Bob Hampshire with Rusty McClure driving finally got one of those $10k bonuses. Didn't Steve Kinser trail Bubby Jones most of the race and got around Bubby with about 6 or 7 laps to go? Was it Bubby Jones? I remember talking to this driver the next day and he told me he "just got tuckered out"...I think this was his first time back in a car after a couple of years layoff.

Tim Wolffrum aka Cowboy

Re: Unpaid CRA bounties
 

It was May of 1990 when Kinser won CRA bonus at Eldora. A lot of WoO guys there that night, including Haud, Dave Blaney, Terry Shepard, plus CRA standouts like McSpadden, Bubby & Shuman. Tony Elliott was in the 17 car if I remember correctly. Anyway, a super stout field.

I had seen several non wing races before that night, but it was this race that cemented my love of tradional sprintcars and my disdain for winged super sprints.

The track that night was awesome, back when Eldora was still great. Thank GOD I was luck enough to witness Eldora back then.

On another note, how many of you remember when Richard Griffin won the CRA race at Eldora in Pepper Fites Ford running the wall? Actually he was slamming the wall the whole way around, lap after lap. I kept waiting for him to bite it, but he never did. They had a brief rain shower move through that night and they worked hard to get the track ready. Biggest cushion I ever saw at Eldora. I think that was 1991. Really great memories.

Re: Unpaid CRA bounties
 

WOW! Why would anyone bring this up after all of these years? Must be some real resentment built up over the years to still have issues with this.:15: CRA and Frank Lewis haven't been on the racing map for quite some time. I say get over it and move on. Life is way too short.:deadhorse:

Re: Unpaid CRA bounties
 

Steve was running 3rd behind Bubby and Lealand. Bub got tired around lap 15 or 16 and the Tempe Tornado was hit by a rock about the same time. Bubby faded to 3rd and McSpadden was dazed after getting hit by the rock and finished 2nd. Steve won fair and square but Jones drove a heck of a race that night. Do remember Jerry Meyer tearing the fence on the front straight?

Re: Unpaid CRA bounties
 

Yep, I remember at the time reading somewhere that Bubby said his head fell over with 10 laps or so to go at Eldora and Kinser got around him.

Re: Unpaid CRA bounties
 

I am pretty sure Joe Roush got the Indiana Attorney General involved,and that was how he finally got paid!

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Frankie Kerr beat them twice on them tours.If I remember right in 89 they only went as far east as Eldora.Then 91 and 92 came into Pa.

Re: Unpaid CRA bounties
 

I want to hug your smiley face. He's gotta have bruising by now.

Re: Unpaid CRA bounties
 

Randy Kinser won at Lawrenceburg

Re: Unpaid CRA bounties
 

Still.. what's the point of this line of discussion? Just to rekindle all the facts.. or is there a deeper purpose?

Re: Unpaid CRA bounties
 

Good Memory there Vukie,on a side note,what really hindered Lealand was that whatever it was that hit the car had caved in the arm guard and had his right arm pinned between it and the seat. After the race he told me that he pretty much drove the rest of the race with one arm!
Man that guy was a Badass!:9::9:

Re: Unpaid CRA bounties
 

Terry, Did Frank have to pay the purse for one of tour races in that era? The promoter didn't pay off anybody after the races. I remember one of the races in 1990 had a problem in more ways than one.

Re: Unpaid CRA bounties
 

Check your PM

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I don't think I ever seen a smoother driver than Leland maybe Wolfgang that I can remember. He made that sprint car look so easy to drive when the CRA would hit the local tracks on their eastern swing.

REH

Re: Unpaid CRA bounties
 

what i remember is shuman took off at the start of feature like a bat out hell, had a huge lead and somthing broke. i dont think kinser,jones, or leland had anything for him. ronny was on a rail looking for the checkers.

Re: Unpaid CRA bounties
 

I'm enjoying some of these stories....brings back some good memories of some great races and GREAT drivers.

Tim Wolffrum aka Cowboy

Re: Unpaid CRA bounties
 

:5:

---------- Post added at 01:47 PM ---------- Previous post was at 01:42 PM ----------

Greg Stephens has the CRA Tour dvds and the CRA race at Eldora 1990 for sale. http://www.motorsportvideo.com/content/openwheel.html

Re: Unpaid CRA bounties
 

when jerry meyer tore down the fence he took a light pole with him. scary dump but he walk away. good thing people wasnt sitting that low they might of got hit.

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Yea I have the 91 and 92 tours on vhs,think that the one from 90 is floating around here somewhere. ROFLMAO at your PM:10:

---------- Post added at 12:08 PM ---------- Previous post was at 12:00 PM ----------

It's funny that Jerry's crash was brought up in this as me and Bruce Bromme Jr. was talking about that wreck just a few weeks ago.
Bruce and his Father owned the car that Jerry was driving that night,and yes that was a bad crash that luckily no one was injured.

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My dad won at Lawrenceburg in 93. Was wondering if anyone had a video of that one.

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I sure miss those CRA tours and those beautiful California cars with the full size tail tanks. I loved the Frank Lewis #91 driven by Sweeney and McSpadden. I attended the tour dates at Granite City and Knoxville in 1989 and would love to get videos of those races. I would pay good bucks. It's still a shame they tore down Ascot. That really hurt out there.

Re: Unpaid CRA bounties
 

LOL! No axes to grind. The old rivalries were fun! I'm curious about facts, though and you guys are awesome with that (mostly,lol)! Tradition and history (legends, myths, facts, superstitions, rivalries) make this sport greater as the years go by. What made me so interested recently was that I read a post on another forum about the bounty Bernard has announced for the Vegas Indycar race. The person posting made a comment that Bernard was turning racing into a circus, as if he was doing something that had never been done, diminishing the sport and that 'pure racing' could only be found in sprint or midgets. I was disappointed that the seemingly knowledgeable poster had either forgotten, hadn't experienced, or never heard about this truly awesome piece of American Sprint Car Racing history...... the bounties won! I'm not gonna be the one to enlighten her though. If she thinks it's pure...... well maybe ignorance is bliss and I'll let her keep thinking that. We never cheat, sheer talent alone gets you to the big tracks, and everybody holds hands and sings kuumbayah. :5:

:31:

I would also like to see if anyone has a video of this race? I would gladly pay for a copy of it.
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Re: Unpaid CRA bounties
 

as i recall i don't think a cra, or usac regular won any of em i'm thinkin the bonus revolved around a lloyds of london policy, n i'm certain the underwriters had no idea what they were gettin into and were not too amused

Re: Unpaid CRA bounties
 

Chase thats what I was thinking but was unsure of the year :8:

Randy Kinser took the bonus money in the early nineties. I think he was in the 1x car. Don't know if he ever got the bonus money for sure though?
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Re: Unpaid CRA bounties
 

I missed the first tour but hit about three races in the following two. I FLAT OUT LOVED IT. About 12-15 West coasters came in and tried to rule IN-OH although they raced their way here and back starting in Kansas

Rusty McClure one year drove a yellow car with some sort of bolt on downtube about halfway up the cage.

Lenard Lee, Rip, Billy Boat, Leland, Remember Hewitts monster slide on McSpadden at Eldora? Seen one at Union County that Frankie Kerr ran, Who ran shows NW that didn't conflict with All stars.

Haudenschild Flipping down the backstraight while leading at Eldora. in the Kodiak Car.

To me it was a NW Sprint Car hell month like UMP has. Some guys ran out of equiptment

The best ran against the best, Something Sprint week has only touched on with sometimes four or five SCRA attending.

Re: Unpaid CRA bounties
 

Don't forget about the cra tour of '85. I have a VHS of the ESPN broadcast from Terre Haute co-sanctioned by USAC. Pretty sure cra also ran Putnamville that year among other places. They deserve a lot of credit for reviving non-wing sprint car racing in the very early 90's in the midwest including Indiana. Non-wing sprints were almost dead at this time when most Indiana tracks went to wings and even USAC had to book winged races to fill out their schedule. Also, T.H.A.T was closed from '88-mid'90. Those first few tours in '89, '90, '91 brought close to 30 cars out from California each year and they showed the midwest boys how its really done. Those tours directly led to more non-wing racing here and thank god for that!

Re: Unpaid CRA bounties
 

Chuck, I remember the Hewitt slider all to well,got the front tubes from that car hanging from the rafters in the garage.That year the tour wasn't very kind to us, before the Eldora wreck we had already hurt 3 motors and the one we was using was a combination of two that had been hurt.(ironically it was Bob Hampshire who resurfaced the heads for us before Eldora). We built a new car after Eldora,which we finished in the pits at Findley after recieveing the chassis the night before,something broke in the driveline while running 6th so then the race you mentioned at Liberty was a bright spot for a while,Lealand was leading the feature and as it got later in the race we actually thought we were finally going to finish a race and maybe win it to boot when it happened,Lealand and Frankie Kerr got together coming out of four the contact folded Lealands front end and sent him into the wall which in turn bent that 2 race old car pretty bad.
With two races remaining in the tour we were done,Lealand was frustrated and we all were sick and tired of rebuilding things everyday in the hotel parking lots and we were pretty much out of parts, so the trip from hell ended.Yes those tours were tough as we would race 9 to 10 nights in a two week time period with some all night drives mixed in just in case you were bored!
I will say this though,there must be something wrong with me as I would definitely do that whole trip over again, since any day racing is a good day!

Haud didn't flip down the backstretch in the Kodiak car he was in the Forbrook 5 car. He put a sluder on Lealand & smacked the wall outta 2 & sucked the front end in & away he went.
Randy kinser was paid before Roush it had something to do with the sign in sheets that the insurance co wanted & the Brownstown promoter wouldnt come off them for some reason.
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Re: Unpaid CRA bounties
 

Thanx Terry and Rex for the clarity. I remember bits and pieces from that time. Have the 91 tour on tape but the case of the tape is broken.

I do remember. GOOD TIMES!

And yes, I remember Frankie and Leland getting together at Union County. Man did Frankie every get a booing. It was his first wingless win. Also at that race, I thought Billy boat (Bromme #6?) was going to be pinched between another car and the wall on the backstretch. One of the neatest moves I ever seen as he pitched the car sideways, Dove under that car and passed him going into three. (Had to see it to believe it)


Chuck, one who is glad this thread was hijacked. Like I said, Sprintweek is great. CRA tours were fantastic! I kinda liken it to when USAC goes out to Perris and the west in Nov. But thats just three or four races. Not ten.

PS. Weren't one of these races held at Attica? I remember going there for one where I talked to MClure about the car they were racing (Mid cage downtube)

Also I wasn't there but on my tape. Sammy came out to try I think at Grand Forks???? Flipped it in qualifying. It was in the Annett car. Not sure if it was the independant suspension car. But he flipped down the straight after the car started bobbling.