BajaNomad

Baja / Nascar

Tio Rocky - 4-25-2005 at 04:00 PM

Just curious?.. are they any other Nomads out there that are NASCAR fans / addicted? like me? and if so,,, where do you get your fixes?

Tio Rocky

Bruce R Leech - 4-25-2005 at 04:21 PM

yes I am crazy about it. I git it on the satellite.

thebajarunner - 4-25-2005 at 04:31 PM

Wow, what an opening!
A brief answer to that one could take up 4 full screens.
I started out in NASCAR with a Winston West team here in Modesto in the 60's, fortunately it was a good team, I mean really good. I was team manager for Jack McCoy as he won 53 races on the West Coast, two championships and we cleaned clock everywhere we went. NOMAD's dad was involved back in those days, we have some good memories, he was a gas distributor.
Then I got the driving urge so started driving my Mercury pickup in the 1972 Baja 500 and drove through 1983, sometimes with Jack McCoy after he retired from NASCAR.
We have permanent seats at Fontana (turn 4) and Vegas, the first seats of the grandstand in turn 1, next to the dirt banking.
The sponsor of Sears Point, Bob Piccinnini of Save Mart Supermarkets, is one of my best friends so that is a required weekend, and only 100 miles from home.
We try to make at least two other tracks each year, last year we went to Rockingham and Phoenix, the year before to the night race at Bristol. (Thanks to Mr. Piccinnini's contacts we sat in the suite of owner Bruton Smith)
I built a theatre into my new home so we have a 12 foot screen with HD projection for the TV races, usually 3, 4 or as many as 8 guys come over and watch on the big screen.
We also have a season long pool, 18 of us, which makes each race a new adventure. (18 means twice around our group for the 36 Cup races, too complicated to explain here)
Finally, the owner of Interstate Batteries is a very good friend so any time I want to take the effort he gets us full 'hot' garage passes and entry to all of his hospitality stuff.
Guess that about covers it.... oh yeah, we wrote a book about NASCAR in the West, really a great book.
And, any time you are in the Stanislaus County area on race day come on over and tilt back one of the big leather chairs and watch with us.

Baja Arriba!!

Tio Rocky - 4-25-2005 at 04:41 PM

thebajarunner

WOW... thought I was alone out here...

My daughter is getting married in August and honeymooning at the Bristol Race !!! And after all I have done for her she won?t let me go with????:tumble:

Tio

NASCAR is not a sport

edevart - 4-25-2005 at 04:58 PM

[img] [/img]

Bruce R Leech - 4-25-2005 at 05:08 PM

Quote:
Originally posted by thebajarunner
Wow, what an opening!
A brief answer to that one could take up 4 full screens.
I started out in NASCAR with a Winston West team here in Modesto in the 60's, fortunately it was a good team, I mean really good. I was team manager for Jack McCoy as he won 53 races on the West Coast, two championships and we cleaned clock everywhere we went. NOMAD's dad was involved back in those days, we have some good memories, he was a gas distributor.
Then I got the driving urge so started driving my Mercury pickup in the 1972 Baja 500 and drove through 1983, sometimes with Jack McCoy after he retired from NASCAR.
We have permanent seats at Fontana (turn 4) and Vegas, the first seats of the grandstand in turn 1, next to the dirt banking.
The sponsor of Sears Point, Bob Piccinnini of Save Mart Supermarkets, is one of my best friends so that is a required weekend, and only 100 miles from home.
We try to make at least two other tracks each year, last year we went to Rockingham and Phoenix, the year before to the night race at Bristol. (Thanks to Mr. Piccinnini's contacts we sat in the suite of owner Bruton Smith)
I built a theatre into my new home so we have a 12 foot screen with HD projection for the TV races, usually 3, 4 or as many as 8 guys come over and watch on the big screen.
We also have a season long pool, 18 of us, which makes each race a new adventure. (18 means twice around our group for the 36 Cup races, too complicated to explain here)
Finally, the owner of Interstate Batteries is a very good friend so any time I want to take the effort he gets us full 'hot' garage passes and entry to all of his hospitality stuff.
Guess that about covers it.... oh yeah, we wrote a book about NASCAR in the West, really a great book.
And, any time you are in the Stanislaus County area on race day come on over and tilt back one of the big leather chairs and watch with us.

Baja Arriba!!


what is the name of your book and where can I git one?

Mike Supino - 4-25-2005 at 05:09 PM

Heard over the in car race radio...
Turn left..........turn left.................turn left....................turn left:lol::lol:

Bruce R Leech - 4-25-2005 at 05:11 PM

Quote:
Originally posted by edevart
[img] [/img]


Boy cant you think of anything nice to say?If you don't like it stay quiet. don't be rude.:no:

Tio Rocky - 4-25-2005 at 05:12 PM

edevart

You don't have a clue...

Corky1 - 4-25-2005 at 05:26 PM

"Then I got the driving urge so started driving my Mercury pickup in the 1972 Baja 500 and drove through 1983, sometimes with Jack McCoy after he retired from NASCAR"

I remember that "Mercury" pick-up in the early Baja races.
I was racing DKW motorcycles.

Corky:spingrin::bounce:

bufeo - 4-25-2005 at 07:13 PM

Corky,

A DKW?????? We owned a DKW auto (for a brief time) in 1960...a rotary engine. Were the motos rotary-engined too. :lol:

thebajarunner - 4-25-2005 at 07:21 PM

Bruce (and anyone else) U2U me about getting the book, no problemo.
DK and NOMAD each have one, DK actually has quoted it on this board.

NASCAR scoffers..... and what is it that excites you??
Tennis? Golf? Mowing lawns??
Don't knock it until you understand it!

Finally, for those seriously addicted the Jayski site is the best place for accurate info...
try this

http://www.jayski.com/

Baja Arriba!!

Bruce R Leech - 4-25-2005 at 07:53 PM

edevart what do you do drink beer and watch bolling on TV.:lol:

comitan - 4-25-2005 at 07:56 PM

The jayski site has an unbelivable amount of info.--thanks

BajaNomad - 4-25-2005 at 08:02 PM

While the extent of my involvement these days is watching a number of the events on race weekends from home with the family, I have extensive background in motorsports, including considerable time around the NASCAR family.

As bajarunner alluded to, we were involved with the sale of racing gasoline for a number of years (1979-1998). My father founded TRICK Enterprises, Inc., which was the supplier of TRICK Racing Gasoline up through 1998 when the company was sold to Sunoco. From 1972-1981 he owned stock cars, and had one of the more successful "open competition" / "Grand American" stock-car teams on the West coast around 1978-1981.

Besides a local track championship in 1978 at El Cajon Speedway, the team went on to win a number of "open comp" events at tracks such as Saugus Speedway, Mesa Marin Raceway, Roseville, Irwindale (Speedway 605), Salt Lake City, Western Speedway (Victoria, BC), Evergreen Speedway (Monroe, WA) -- as well as NASCAR Grand American events at Riverside Raceway and Ontario Motor Speedway.

Drivers included: Ron Esau, Ivan Baldwin, Joe Ruttman, Jimmy Insolo, Ernie Irvan, Mark Martin, Roger Mears & Rick Mears.

This is Rick Mears, circa 1981, at Mesa Marin Raceway in Bakersfield:



Joe Ruttman at Ontario, 1981. This car holds the fastest (qualifying) time for a stock car ever at Ontario (and nearly lapped the entire field in the race):



We were very good friends with Tim Williamson and his brother/crew chief Chuck. It was a very hard time when Timmy was killed at Riverside in the esses right before turn 6. He was definitely a very bright star that was taken from us too soon.

The steady part of the team from '76-81 was the crew chief, Marc Reno, and we stopped racing when Marc had an opportunity with a Cup series team (Mark Martin's Apache Stove car) back east.

Marc is presently the team manager for Phoenix Racing in the Busch and Cup series'... their main entry is the Team Yellow Racing Busch series car:





Marc let me tag along and act as gopher and pit sign holder in the hot pits in 1999 when the car was driven by Randy Lajoie in the Bob Evans Restaurants car. I helped out at Vegas, Fontana, Colorado Springs, Milwaukee, and Phoenix:





Some of our early experiences, along with later ones for Marc, were noted in Ernie Irvan's book "No Fear":



Marc's current bio at Phoenix Racing is here:
http://www.teamyellowracing.com/team/reno.htm

Because of TRICK Racing Gasoline, I became exposed to many other forms of motorsports, including motorcycle road racing (AMA), offshore powerboat racing (APBA/POPBRA), jet skis (IJSBA), and off-road racing (SCORE/AMA). TRICK was involved with off-road early on, and I became involved later on at the '88 Baja 1000. I had had earlier experiences in Mexico (mainland), but the '88 trip to Ensenada lit my fire again to travel in Mexico... and the rest, as they say, is history....

--
Doug Means




[Edited on 4-26-2005 by BajaNomad]

BajaNomad - 4-25-2005 at 08:10 PM

btw... if you're a NASCAR fan, and I mean REALLY, a NASCAR nut, you owe it to yourself to attend the Daytona 500 at least once in your lifetime.

And don't go for a day, or the weekend.... go for the whole week... part of speedweeks...

There's racing at Daytona during the day, and New Smyrna (asphalt) and Volusia (dirt) raceways at night. It's stock-car heaven.

http://www.circletrack.com/eventcoverage/ctrp_0503w_speedwee...

Hard to believe it was that long ago, but I was back there in 1980 and 1981.

It's always good to have an "in" to get into the pit area of course.

;)

--
Doug

Corky1 - 4-25-2005 at 08:49 PM

Great stuff Doug.
And here all the time, I thought you were just a computer nerd that loved Baja.
Just goes to show, you have to read the book not just look at the cover.

Corky :yes: :lol:

Tio Rocky - 4-26-2005 at 07:18 AM

Doug,,, glad to know I am not alone? been here in Ensenada for 5 years and coming forever and I see zero interest here..

Background not 100th of yours but here is the skinny? Originally from Nebraska.. short track in just about every little town.. Saturday night dirt tracking was a ritual. Out west Saturday nights were spent at Saugus Speedway and in the early 60?s my father hooked up with Ron Honaday Sr. as his engine builder. My uncle, Dick Schnieber raced all the So cal tracks before heading to Denver to live and Race.

Tracks visited:
Fontana
Los Vegas
Phoenix
Richmond
Bristol (night race)
Wilkesboro
Darlington

No Daytona

IMHO?. Nascar needs to stop turning every date into a mile and a half track and get back to short tracking it? Ever been to Fontana?.. the cars look like their doing 60 mph down the front stretch?

Tio Rocky

NASCAR

mulege marv - 4-26-2005 at 07:22 AM

long time fan, been to many races, here is the wife, cathy in bristol. I can be found every sunday in front of the tube

[Edited on 4-26-2005 by mulege marv]

[Edited on 4-26-2005 by mulege marv]

[Edited on 4-26-2005 by mulege marv]

bajagrouper - 4-26-2005 at 01:28 PM

Hey Doug,Does this thread have anything to do with Baja?:?:

BajaNomad - 4-26-2005 at 02:27 PM

Quote:
Originally posted by bajagrouper
Hey Doug,Does this thread have anything to do with Baja?:?:
Ahhhh.... that's why I finished with how NASCAR involvement brought me to be a Baja traveler.

;)

(..and Tio was asking where to find broadcasts along the peninsula... which I sure didn't answer).