Some of my earliest memories of racing were sitting in the stands at Butler. Steve Kinser had an open trailer and 1/2 the racers had the last name Slade. Denny Donaldson was a good wheel man. The track was oily black and tires squeeled in the turns.
Wow they are speeding up the program if they think they can get all the racing in before Monday. Hope they have not done something silly, like fix the bathrooms
Every 10 years or so I decide to give Butler another chance. Maybe this is the year. (It's a 2 hour drive for me to either Fremont or Butler and the choice hasn't been too hard to make)
Great to see the SOD (Open Sprints) group back as the main series with 3 dates and this also allows the 360's to run and be very competitive at Butler. I grew up in Quincy near the track with many fond memories. Get back to couple races a year and yes, I believe the bathrooms had some repairs last year. I too remember the Slade gang back in the day. Eric Slade runs Slade Shock Technology out of Ohio after a stint down in NASCAR land working with some teams. You can help me out but I remember the following Slades racing at the track: Eric, Dick, Jim, Ralph, Jerry, and Mark.
The talk every winter during the oil clay years usually revolved around if they were going to get shut down by the EPA. In 1996, with track owner Denny Donaldson standing right beside him, Jeff Shepard threw a fit about the oil track surface in an interview and Donaldson done away with the oil.
It was almost like walking on a sponge. Very tacky and fast, but with the wall on the inside everyone ran the bottom and it was hard to pass. Nowadays most of the winners there do it on the top.
Good to see the sprints back every week. The best winged sprint feature I saw in 2016 was at Butler.
Good job on remebering the Slade's beaner, you got the names right.
I think Ralph and Dick are brothers. And the other ones are the sons. I think the family business was a heating and cooling company. I know Mark had a bad crash in a sprint car at 96. I think Jerry tried to start an Allstar style sprint group for a few years.
Originally Posted by chop:
I think Ralph and Dick are brothers. And the other ones are the sons. I think the family business was a heating and cooling company. I know Mark had a bad crash in a sprint car at 96. I think Jerry tried to start an Allstar style sprint group for a few years.
GLOSS (Great Lakes Outlaw Super Sprints?) was the group. I thought it was pretty successful. That was back when most tracks and series weren't hurting for cars like they are now. Anyone know the specifics of what happened to GLOSS?
Originally Posted by MIracing:
GLOSS (Great Lakes Outlaw Super Sprints?) was the group. I thought it was pretty successful. That was back when most tracks and series weren't hurting for cars like they are now. Anyone know the specifics of what happened to GLOSS?
If I remember correctly, in the late 90s/early 00s, as the series was coming to an eventual end, Jerry, who was the head guy, started having some health issues. I am sure that did not "help" the series continuing on but whether that caused the series to cease or not, I cannot say.
It was a good series, though. 410s, good car counts.... At the time, I think the All Starts paid ~$3000 to win. GLOSS was paying ~$2000 to win. Danny Smith played "True Outlaw" and came up to Michigan a few times and left with a lot of dough. Boston Reid was a heavy hitter back then in GLOSS.
