CHICAGO WHISPERS
by Stan Kalwasinski

July 21, 2008

Chicago, Ill.—Enough “whining” already.  NASCAR has left the area so track owners/promoters, competitors and race fans can now get back to the business at hand—promote and support the local short tracks.  Like John McKarns, the former leader of the old ARTGO late model series, says, “Support your local short track, before it’s too late.”

            Congratulations to Dennis Erb, Jr. of Carpentersville on his winning his second consecutive United Midwestern Promoters (UMP) DIRTcar Summer Nationals points championship.  After a full month of racing at various Midwestern dirt speed plants, the 35-year-old second-generation speedster bested Brian Shirley by 37 points and took home the $25,000 first-place point fund money. 

Erb, who had fourth, third and fifth place finishes before grabbing his first Summer Nationals title last year, turned in some consistent performances throughout this year’s Summer Nationals tour, grabbing two wins, 15 top-five and 19 top-10 finishes in 20 events.  His only “hiccup” was a 12^th place finish on July 5 at the Fairbury American Legion raceway—the result of a broken oil cooler on the final lap of feature, breaking up his “perfect” top-10 finishes

            Erb’s victories came on June 15 at the Tri-State Speedway in Haubstadt, Ind. and on June 27^th at Indiana’s Lawrenceburg Speedway.  During this year’s Summer Nationals chase, Erb drove his self-owned Rayburn Chassis dirt late models, which were powered by Joe Rhyne engines and carrying the sponsorship of Thomason Express, Petroff Towing and J&J Steel.

            Brett Sontag won last Friday night’s 50-lap late model Mid Season Championship at the Grundy County Speedway in Morris.  Sontag and his Rod Baker Ford-sponsored Fusion have now won three feature races this season at the one-third of a mile paved fairgrounds oval.  A former two-time late model titlist at the speedway, Sontag bested defending late model champion Tom Smith and Eddie Hoffman.

            The venerable Frank Welch, who has directed the racing action at the Grundy oval for more years than he would like to attempt, commented Friday that 11 weekly nights this season (out of a total of 13) have been affected by the weather with the entire racing program being rained out or with threatening weather in and around the area, keeping the crowds down. 

            Simply put, Welch commented, “It’s the worse year ever.”

            Racer Tom Smith, who also promotes the Plymouth (Ind.) Speedway, was real pleased with the outcome of the recent Champion Racing Association (CRA) Super Car Series event held at his paved speedway.  Smith was a little worried about running back-to-back nights (Saturday and Sunday) and having the big CRA purse to pay.  Everything turned out OK with a big crowd on hand, a good field of CRA cars and some good racing.  Joliet’s Boris Jurkovic won the 200 lap CRA contest at Plymouth.

            Morning rains and the threat of more to come caused officials to cancel last Saturday’s race program at Illiana Motor Speedway in Schererville, Ind.  Woops!  Super late models will have two consecutive weekends off at Illiana.  Crash Fest #1, featuring figure eight school bus and trailer races will take place on June 26 and the track’s annual Race Fest is scheduled for August 2.  The winged sprint cars of the Hoosier Outlaw Sprint Series (HOSS) will be part of the Race Fest program.  The super lates return to action on August 9.

            The United Midget Auto Racing Association (UMARA) lost its Saturday night racing program at Grundy to the weatherman.  The UMARA open wheelers return to Grundy on August 2.

            Longtime auto racing photographer both on the local and national scene, Wayne Bryant, 89, passed away on July 16.  Bryant, who hailed from South Bend, Ind. while he was chasing race cars, photographed racing action , beginning in the early 1950’s and into the early 1980’s—pretty much a 30-year span.  Bryant “clicked the shutter” at a number of local tracks, including Illiana and at the old Rensselaer (Ind.) Fairgrounds dirt oval.

            A member of the old Illinois Sport Photographers Assn. (ISPA), Bryant also did a lot of “shooting” of national racing action, including the old United States Auto Club (UASC) stock car circuit. Bryant was also a staff photographer during the early years of Stock Car Racing Magazine and a regularly contributor to the old Illustrated Speedway News (ISN) racing newspaper.  He even wrote a column “Hoosier Happenings” for ISN for many years.  A number of years ago, Ted Knorr, former promoter of the Rensselaer track, was fortunate to obtain Bryant’s extensive negative collection and his work, through Knorr’s efforts, will live on, promoting racing history.

            Former Raceway Park late model driver Charles “Butch” Koenig, 65, recently passed away.  Koenig, the younger brother of successful stock car owner and mechanical “whiz” Bill Koenig, drove on and off from the mid-1960’s into the 1970’s.  A couple of his cars were familiar Koenig red and white specials, carrying a No. 11.

            Also, Len Koprowski Sr., father of Illiana limited late model driver Len Koprowski, passed away due to cancer.  Young Koprowski had turned in a number of top performances at Illiana this season in limited late model action

            Due to several commitments, there will not be a new column posted next week.

            The address for news and comments is 9618 Cypress Ave., Munster, Ind. 46321-3418 or e-mail to skalwasinski@yahoo.com.

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