Weather wrecks race weekend

Severe storms Friday night postponed another race at Motordrome Speedway and threatening weather today also cancelled racing tonight at Pittsburgh’s Pennsylvania Motor Speedway. Officials at both tracks expect to resume racing next weekend.

High on the high banks

Eye-opening story in ESPN The Magazine about substance abuse in NASCAR and the pathetic tale of Aaron Fike, a truck series driver who raced while high on heroin. This appears to be a disturbing little secret that NASCAR wants to brush under the rug, just like the whispers eight years ago that the safety standards were subpar.

Fike, who was caught by Ohio authorities shooting up heroin with his girlfriend in the backseat of their car, admitted for the first time that he did drugs daily, including before some races. Just a week before his arrest last July, he finished fifth in a truck race at Memphis.


The initial reaction is disbelief and outrage. I am angry at Fike for being so stupid and selfish to put other drivers at risk. But it’s also incumbent upon NASCAR to do regular testing of its drivers. They're currently doing just "target testing" on drivers that are suspected of using drugs, according to the ESPN story.

Baseball reluctantly began testing for performance-enhancing drugs in recent years, but there is a stark difference between a roid-filled batter at the plate and a coked-up race driver on the track. I do not condone the use of steroids or HGH in baseball, but the person who uses is hurting only his own body. On the track, however, the consequences could be deadly.

It’s surprising to learn NASCAR has not implemented regular drug testing already. After Fike’s suspension last year and Shane Hmiel’s ban from racing in 2005, it is time for the series to act now. I don’t suggest weekly testing every time the cars hit the track, but each driver should submit to random testing several times a year. And unlike baseball and football, which slap offenders with minor suspensions, anyone caught using illegal drugs in NASCAR should be banished. Once an appeal is exhausted, they should never be allowed to set foot on a track again.

The stakes are too great for a race car driver to be high at nearly 200 mph.

PPMS Results - April 5

Lynn Geisler captured his 67th career late model victory – and his first since last June - by winning the 25-lap shootout Saturday night at Pennsylvania Motor Speedway. Geisler led the final 12 laps of the races and was followed by Brandon Burgoon, Jimmy Stephans, Dave Wade and Gregg Satterlee. The Miley boys, Jared and Ben won the two heat races.

In the crate late models race, Russ Kolesar took the lead four laps in from Josh Holtgraver and Daniel Angelicchio and won for the fifth time in his career. Angelicchio finished second and was followed by Bryant Hank, Holtgraver and Mark Moats Jr. Russ Kolesar and Mike Pegher, Jr. each one a qualifying race

Wayne Tessean, the defending E-Modified champion, won that division’s first race of the season. Tessean, of Austintown, Ohio, traded the lead with Kevin Miller over the first few laps, but took the lead and drove away on lap 5. Miller finished second, Bruck Takach finished third, Churck Kennedy came in fourth and Tom Martineck finished fifth.

Pure stocks results
1. Bill Robertson
2. Jake Simmons
3. Mitch Wattelet
4. Nick Kocuba
5. Robert Betz

Amateur stocks results
1. Tony White
2. Curt Bish
3. Darrel Ferguson
4. Brian Huchko
5. Don Duseheid

Young guns results
1. Michael Reft
2. Alec Broniszewski
3. Justin Pons
4. Todd Janus
5. Tyler Fox

Rain Friday night delayed the first race at Motordrome, so the opener has been rescheduled for April 11 at 7:30 p.m.

IndyCar jinx

The open-wheel merger and Sunday’s astonishing victory by young pup Graham Rahal in his first race are showing that the IndyCar Series has a bright future. Not even the loss of some of Indy’s most popular drivers - including defending champ Dario Franchitti - have slowed the series down this year.

While times are good for the IRL, the same can’t be said for its ex-patriots. Of the five open-wheel names to transfer to NASCAR over the past couple years (Franchitti, Juan Montoya, Sam Hornish Jr., Patrick Carpentier and A.J. Allmendinger) only two are in the top-35 in points. Those “honors” go to Montoya at 19th place and Hornish in 34th. None of the five drivers has a single a top-10 this season.

It’s unlikely Hornish would be racing right now if team owner Roger Penske didn’t hand him the No. 2 car’s points to ensure he would make the first five races. Allmendinger couldn’t qualify for a single race and has since been replaced in his No. 84 Toyota by Mike Skinner, who has proven over his career to be nothing more than a Sprint Cup scrub. Carpentier has made just four of the seven races this year and Franchitti’s owner, Chip Ganassi, voiced his displeasure this week over how his three teams are communicating.

Give credit to all of these drivers for making the difficult leap from open-wheel to NASCAR, but it’s becoming increasingly clear that the transition usually fails. Tony Stewart, arguably the best driver on the circuit, made it look too easy when he left the IRL for Cup in 1999. Like Stewart, many of the former Indy drivers said they wanted a new challenge and more prestige (i.e. money). Now it’s becoming an embarrassment.

In an effort to find the next best thing, NASCAR owners are striking out with these foreign drivers. It may attract sponsors and interest during the off-season, but the open-wheel experiment isn’t leading to success on the track. Nor should it. This season is proving it’s difficult to drive the heavier and bulky stock car, although, open-wheel fans have been known to rip NASCAR drivers for having less skill and never turning right.

Still, I wouldn’t mind seeing Kurt Busch shimmy into a Penske Dallara and take a few laps at Indy this year.

Juan Montoya - 7 starts - 19th
Sam Hornish Jr. - 7 starts - 34th
Dario Franchitti -6 starts - 38th
Patrick Carpentier - 4 starts - 43rd
A.J. Allmendinger - 0 starts - N/A

PPMS welcomes new series

Pittsburgh’s Pennsylvania Motor Speedway begins competition tonight with an added twist this season to its usual 23-race schedule.

The change adds the Unified Force Race Championship - a traveling series that is designed to attract more drivers from the region with bigger prize money. The 12 UFO races will be split between five area tracks within 120 miles of Monroeville, Pa. PPMS will play host to four of those races on May 18, July 13 and Aug. 17. The Pittsburgher 100 on the weekend of Sept. 18 will award the UFO winner more than $20,000.

PPMS will continue its weekly “action events” with its six normal divisions racing each Saturday, including tonight. The “action event” races begin at 7 p.m. each Saturday this summer.

Last year‘s champions:
Super late models - Jared Miley
Crate late models - Kyle Lukon
E-modified - Wayne Tessean
Pure stocks - Joe Anthony
Amateur stocks - Davy Lee
Young guns - Dusty Curry and Michael Reft

Look for continuing coverage of the PPMS and Motordrome seasons on ‘Jonesin’ for Speed’

Motordrome opens tonight

Racing at Motordrome Speedway in Smithton begins tonight as the five divisions kick off their 22-race season. The track holds races each Friday night at 7:30 p.m. and the gates open at 5:30 p.m.

A major change this year is that the Miley family that operates Motordrome is now leasing the track to Stan Lasky. His family owned Jennerstown Raceway in Somerset County for more than 30 years and he helped promote races there for 14 years.

Lasky said some changes at Motordrome include $5 ticket events on the first Fridays in May, June and July. General Admission tickets for people 13 and older are typically $10. A fireworks show will follow those three promotional races.

Besides the 22 NASCAR Whelen All-American Series races through the summer, the track also will host two 100-lap events for the late model cars on June 20 and Aug. 8. Track promoters hope those two races will attract more drivers from the tri-state region.

Last season, Bobby Henry won the late model championship and teammate Garry Wiltrout finished second in the points. dam Kostelnik won the championships in both the modified and street stock divisions, Mike Lemley took the charger division title and Andrew Giles won in American flyer.

Motordrome’s sister track, Pittsburgh’s Pennsylvania Motor Speedway in Imperia, opens its season Saturday night.

The No. 43 becomes a field filler

News that Richard Petty will lose the sponsor on his famed No. 43 at the end of the year is sad, but not surprising.

The Associated Press is reporting General Mills will leave after the season to sponsor Richard Childress Racing’s fourth car. Like the Pittsburgh Steelers and their head football coaches, Petty will search for a new sponsorship for just the third time in more than 35 years.

It was strange to see the STP’s red and Petty blue colors leave the No. 43 halfway through the 2000 season. But at that point, Petty Enterprises was still somewhat competitive with a few wins during the late 1990s. But it’s been a while since that car or Kyle Petty have enjoyed any success. How will they possibly attract a new sponsor that could supply enough money to return them to prominence?

ESPN.com also says Kyle Petty will not race this weekend at Texas and hand the keys to Chad McCumbee, who is better known for playing Dale Earnhardt Jr. in the “3” movie. Unfortunately, the team continues to be merely a “field filler” and nothing more.

Finding sponsorship has been a struggle for many teams in recent years, as illustrated by the white No. 28. The car that Davey Allison, Ernie Irvan and Ricky Rudd drove is now bare. But, I hope Petty is able to secure a sponsorship in time for next season. The No. 43 deserves better.