In anticipation of the up-coming races at Las Vegas, I have posted highlights of the 1997 USAC Silver Crown and Western Midget races from Las Vegas October 8 1997. I forgot what an exciting race it was in both divisions. If your a Tony Stewart fan (or not) your going to like it (or hate it). Unfortunately there was a career ending crash at the start of the midget feature as Johnny Coffer flipped hard along with a couple of others. Spectacular Silver Crown race action on the fast rutted 1/2 mile.

www.racewayvideo.com

Thanks for checking them out

Jeff K

[Bobv]

Thanks Jeff for the great and not so great memories!
:applaud:

[ColoradoFan]

We were there that night and for sure Tony didn't have many friends in the stands or the pits. He told a good story in the interview with Pat Sullivan but the video sure looks like a big time slam dance in both cases. The best part of the whole weekend was that we met Dave and Brenda Darland for the first time.
The previous week the SCRA sprint cars ran at the track. That was the first season we had ever seen JJ Yeley and he had the same result both times we saw him. We were at Manzy early in the year and then Vegas and both times JJ got upside with a huge lead in the main. In his defense Vegas was the worst dirt track I have ever seen in my 50 yrs. The holes (canyons) were huge and you just had to be lucky to miss them. If you remember the WOO refused to run the feature one night because the track was so rough. I hope it is better on the 25th for the USAC guys.

Vern Plotts

bump

There were a wide range of notable things about this race. The track was prepared by Gene Romero, known as Burrito from his motorycyle days. He explained that the track was composed of some junk that was a byproduct of making drywall and he was trying to get it has hard as concrete. Donnie Beechler was really in the hunt for the championship- he had just finished 3rd at Sacramento (a place where he had won) and was very ill when he did so. Darland won the crown but it was not easy. I remember thinking that one of Tony's moves really was a racing deal - the second move was too ambitious. What doesn't show up on the clip is that I turned the mike off and told Tony to shut up (we were friends then and now, and I thought he was getting himself into trouble). In the race Brian Tyler dislocated a shoulder and just reeled in pain - and I could only imagine how bad this hurt because I always considered him as tough as anyone I knew. Two other memories - I had announced at the LVMS and and worked with the local guy Curtis Pilgreen (Sp) who at one point suggested to me that I explain the cars to the (very slim) crowd. I said "Curtis, Brad and I know almost all of these people by name - trust me they know what they are seeing. It is also the first time that I met motorsport media Dave Renninger who spotted Dario Franchitti's win in the 500 - and I also got stiffed by the promoter for a hotel room so lost money on the deal but that seems irrelevant now.

Thanks Pat for refreshing my memory a bit on this race. I forgot that Tyler was hurt. Robbie Flock was also taken to the crash house after a flip in the feature, but I missed it.

Although it doesn’t look so bad from the camera angle, the crowd was horrendous, very sad. "explain the cars to the (very slim) crowd. I said "Curtis, Brad and I know almost all of these people by name - trust me they know what they are seeing LOL classic!!

As you can tell from the clip, unfortunately it is not Pat announcing the race on video as it was impossible to pipe into the sound system at that time. The announcer’s booth was not even completed yet.

Jeff,

On the part where you said LOL - I literally told Curtis --"See those people there? They are the Cripes they are from Kokomo - see that tall guy, that's Chris Jockish , he has a florist business in South Indy "- and it went on and on