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By Greg Billing
| Saturday, August 2, 2008, 11:46 AM
A few notes from the Robbie Dean/Big Bird 94 at Kil-Kare Speedway on Friday, Aug. 1.
Donnie Renner running with the big yellow No. 94 decals on his car was a nice touch. Renner said his crew surprised him with the number change.
The trophies donated by Donnie and Kelly Renner and family were great. John Vallo, winner of the Big Bird 94, said the nearly 6-foot tall trophy was probably the tallest he’s won. Smaller versions went to modified (Chad Poole), sports stock (Mike South Jr.) and compact (Bo Hoelscher) winners.
Mike Stacy piloted Robbie Dean’s No. 77. Before the late model feature, Stacy and Renner led the parade lap side-by-side and with the pace truck and rest of the field following. Very cool.
I learned Vallo’s nickname could have easily been ‘Lights Out.’ Track photographer Earl Isaacs told me the Fairborn Flash needed three tries before completing just one lap at Kil-Kare when starting out. Two of those weeks Vallo took out a pole and the lights to the entire track. “The electrician at the time was Sonny Pencil,” Vallo said. “He was looking for some punk named John Vallo that keeps putting the lights out. I kept avoiding him.”
Cars couldn’t avoid Vallo on Friday. After the first 36 laps of the 94-lap event just four cars were on the lead lap: Vallo, Mike Stacy, Tim Allensworth and Scott Drake. Only Vallo, Allenworth and Stacy finished on the lead lap.
Vallo wasn’t sure he’d make the feature after an accident at Columbus Motor Speedway on Saturday, July 26. With two laps left in the John Nuckles Memorial, Vallo was battling Renner for the lead when Vallo lost his power steering in Turn 3 and hit the wall hard. The car bent the nose more than foot, spun around and bent the rear and tore out the suspension.
“This car was in bad shape last Saturday night. I said no way they are going to fix this car in a week. They sure did,” Vallo said. “The car with all those new parts, (the crew) was worried hoping everything would stay together. Usually the first race after a big wreck you got your fingers crossed. I’m proud of those guys with the car finishing as well as it did.”
Stacy led the first three laps. Vallo led the rest. He was consistently running 1-2 mph faster than Stacy and Allensworth, but once Allensworth got past Stacy, had a challenge from the No. 24. “I watched the board on the cautions and I saw where (Stacy) stayed in second for a long, long time,” Vallo said. “Then the last couple restarts I noticed (Allensworth) got around him. You gotta worry then because I knew he was coming. All the cards are on the table. You gotta go for it.”
The win was the ninth of the season for Vallo in 19 starts. He entered the race with a 186-point lead over Renner in the Whelen All-American Series points for Ohio.
The crowd count was pretty good, but the car count was down. All nine of Kil-Kare’s regular late model drivers ran, while Russ Bobb has his car going again. Modified driver Chad Poole jumped in a late model. I can understand with gas prices and the economy, but it would have been nice to see a few more Columbus cars in the show.
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By Greg Billing
| Thursday, July 31, 2008, 11:52 PM
Okay, the rules of my profession say I’m not supposed to root for teams or people … at least not openly. But when the Big Bird 94 takes the green flag today, Aug. 1, I’ll be pulling for Donnie Renner. And I’m thinking I won’t be alone.
Nothing against guys like John Vallo, Tim Allensworth, Justin Alsip or other drivers I’ve gotten to know covering Kil-Kare Speedway, but nothing would be more special than Renner celebrating in victory lane. The Big Bird 94 (formerly the Dayton 100) is a tribute race for Robbie Dean, Renner’s best friend.
“The Dayton 100 was always a big deal at this track,” Renner said during the Wednesday race at Kil-Kare on July 23. “Robbie even drove one of my cars over here in the early ’90s and we did very good in it. He was always good at this track. He would want me to soldier on. If I didn’t he’d kick my butt. It’s been hard the past few weeks.”
Dean, 55, passed away July 3 after a battle with cancer. Renner was with him all the way. Renner took Dean into his home after Dean was diagnosed with terminal cancer a couple days before Thanksgiving in 2007. They did doctors visits together. And, when Dean moved back to his home and then started spending more time in the hospital, Renner was there with daily visits. One of those came a month ago on June 14.
“I didn’t want to leave the hospital on a Saturday,” said Renner, who didn’t feel much like running at Columbus Motor Speedway that night. “He held his hand out and he said, ‘Here’s a helping hand. Go win me a feature.’ Just so happened I went out and with 14 laps to go I lost my power steering. The set-ups we run anymore it’s very, very hard without power steering, even though I’m a 300-pound guy.”
Renner held on to win. When Renner returned to the hospital, Dean had a racing story to tell as well.
“(Dean) said, ‘Oh by the way, the nurse had me out walking in the hallway with a walker.’ There was a wheelchair sitting in the hallway. He slammed into it and the nurse was like, ‘What are you doing, Robbie?’ He said, ‘Renner get out of my way!’ Everybody that knows him that’s just the stuff he did. Even with the situation he was in and the odds he was against, he still had that sense of humor. He’ll be missed.”
I never met Dean. But talking to drivers at Kil-Kare that Wednesday, car owner and driver Gary Estes told me a story that I get the feeling sums up Dean. Estes was leading at Columbus a few years ago and Dean was on the outside. Dean couldn’t get a run and banged Estes’ right front tire which jerked the steering wheel out of Estes’ hands. Dean claimed that wasn’t his goal. But Estes figured Dean knew exactly what he was doing with the maneuver and confronted him in the pits “grabbing him and screaming and yelling at him.”
“(Dean) said, ‘I’ll tell you what I’m going to do.’ I thought uh oh, he’s going to hit me. He said next week if I’m leading or in front of you I’ll move over and let you go. The next week he was leading and I was second. He pulled up and I dropped in front of him.”
The only thing that prevented Estes from winning was a broken part on the car.
“Anybody that knew Robbie had a Robbie Dean story,” Renner said. “No matter what track you’re at or who you are, he was always the king of the clowns. But when it come to racing he was very, very serious.”
“He was always tough. I think one year in 80 or 85 percent of the races we ran 1-2 between the both of us. We made everybody mad,” said John Vallo, who was Dean’s biggest competition during the 1980s. “A good-hearted guy, but you didn’t want to mess with him. You weren’t going to have a winning battle.”
Renner said he expects about 20 drivers from different classes to come over from Columbus today. Among other touches today, the Kil-Kare pace truck will sport Big Bird decals. Renner also hopes to have a special trophy made. Ultimately, Renner wants to have a three-race series — perhaps the Robbie Dean Cup — at Columbus, Kil-Kare and Shady Bowl Speedway. Dean often ran that trifecta on Friday, Saturday and Sunday.
“It’ll be special. It’ll be really special,” Renner said of today’s race. “We lived it to the fullest until the last day.”
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By Greg Billing
| Monday, July 21, 2008, 08:59 PM
Some days you just want to throw in the towel … or throw it right in someone’s face.
For Indy Racing League driver Milka Duno that someone was none other than Danica Patrick. If you have not seen the video by now go to YouTube and check it out: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hXUd6n1Vti8
You’ll see Patrick arrive at fellow Indy Racing League driver Duno’s pit, Patrick emphatically putting down her water bottle and confronting Duno about blocking her and cutting her off during a practice session.
The sad thing is Patrick was in the right … up until she confronted Duno. Duno was slower than Patrick in practice at the Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course this past weekend and should have moved over. But Patrick’s ‘bad girl’ attitude ruined any chance at a constructive conversation.
Patrick’s act is getting tired. Again, I think Patrick had a legit gripe and I have no problem with her letting Duno know. But, please, do it with a little class. Only after Duno throws the towel in her face and walks away does Patrick take a softer approach, well, except for dropping a few expletives. It reminded me of someone standing up to a bully.
And Patrick again will be left wondering why people root against her.
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By John Bombatch
| Sunday, July 20, 2008, 02:28 AM
Moments before the Buckeye Winged Sprint cars took the green flag for the Friday, July 18th feature at Kil-Kare Raceway, it was announced that driver Terry Gibson of LaRue, Ohio had been killed in an accident at Toledo Speedway that same day.
Gibson was racing in a similar Sprint Car event in when he was involved in a 4-car crash. Online reports say the rear end of his racer hit the outside retaining wall at about 110 mph.
Each Winged Sprint entrant at Kil-Kare had a black strip of tape that ran diagonally through their car number in tribute to Gibson.
As it turns out, another Gibson: Zach, from Richwood, Ohio which is merely a hop, skip and a jump east of LaRue was racing in the Kil-Kare event.
Zach, who won his heat race and then went on to thoroughly dominate the feature, was Terry Gibson’s nephew.
After the race, with Zach still visibly shaken as he tried to get out of his bright-yellow 00 sprint car, it was announced that Terry Gibson had been Zach’s uncle.
In a fitting tribute, every member of the Kil-Kare audience gave Zach a standing ovation.
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By John Bombatch
| Sunday, July 20, 2008, 02:02 AM
I’ve found a new racing series on Friday, July 18, and I truly enjoyed it.
The Buckeye Super Sprint Car Series put on a terrific show at Kil-Kare as the headliner for the Xenia facility’s Open Wheel Friday event.
Qualifying laps over 120 mph with lap times under 12 seconds, on that tiny little paved track was simply amazing.
And when’s the last time you’ve seen 26 E-modifieds at Kil-Kare? Those guys put on quite a fun race as well.
The midget racers were fun, and the Thunder Roadsters’ first trip to Kil-Kare added plenty of excitement as well.
I do have some questions for my friends at Kil-Kare Raceway, though:
1) Was it really necessary to drive around the track for 15 minutes with a member of the Chrysler family waving to everybody from inside a Port-O-Potty strapped to a flatbed trailer?
We got the idea that there’s a trailer race coming up on Friday. The idea sunk into our heads after the first lap. Honest!
And if it was a stall tactic for whatever reason, the fans deserved an explanation for why they were waiting so long.
As one fan sitting near me so aptly put it: “I didn’t pay $15 bucks to watch some fool run around inside an outhouse…. Let’s race!”
2) Why do you bother announcing while the racing is going on?
I mean, I realize that you have loads of background and information on the drivers, their sponsors and their teams. But as quiet as the track’s sound system is, why bother? We can’t hear you.
You sound something like this:
“Joe…” -VRROOOOOM, ZOOOOOM, ZOOM - “… left foot in…” - VRAAAAAM, RAAAAARM, VROOOOM, ZOOOOM - “….plumbing…” VROOOM, ZOOOOM, SCREEEEECH, VROOAAAM - “…his baby g-” ZOOOM, VROOM, CHUGGA, ZOOOOM…..”-4 mph.”
Which leads me to my next question, and this could be directed at any local racetrack or drag strip I’ve ever been to:
3) How difficult is it to print a list of who the drivers are and where they are from? Or to even post a list for fans to print out on their own on your Web site?
Sure, there’s always the possibility that there will be a late entry who will show up on the day of the event. But the rest of them — especially for a special show like Open Wheel Night — they’ve booked their ticket to race weeks in advance.
You knew they were coming. It would make sense to print out an entry list, not only for the fans but for us media types, too.
Kil-Kare’s race program for Open Wheel Friday listed names of its Regular Program cars. No list of the Ford Focus Midget drivers, Thunder Roadsters, Buckeye Winged Sprints, Vintage Auto Racing Club or any other open-wheeled series was made available.
Yet you had all this info that I think you talked about all night long during the race (but couldn’t hear). That’s just odd.
One of the key reasons newspapers cover sporting events is to get locals and the news they make in their pages. Without hometowns listed next to the drivers, us writers have nothing to show our editors to prove why we want to come out and cover your event.
And it’s good for fans, too. What’s more fun than rallying behind a local driver that you’ve just learned hails from your hometown?
AND it helps the drivers and their teams and sponsors. If you list who they are, people will place a name with a car number and a result. And potential sponsors from that driver’s area may take notice as well.
Overall, the Open Wheel Friday event was quite a fun time, and I heard several fans say that they hoped the open-wheelers would make a return trip to Kil-kare. But a better speaker system, availability to driver information, and fewer outhouses on the track would’ve made the night even better!
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By Greg Billing
| Friday, July 18, 2008, 03:44 PM
Indy Racing League driver Ed Carpenter made a media pit stop in Dayton on Thursday, July 17, as he drove up from last week’s race at Nashville, Tenn., to this weekend’s Honda Indy 200 at the Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course.
We know IRL drivers are fearless piloting their rides at 220 mph. But Carpenter took on a different form of brave: Driving four hours with a 9-month-old in the car. Carpenter and his wife, Heather, drove up from Lake Cumberland in Kentucky with their adorable 9-month-old daughter Makenna, did a few interviews then drove another 2 ½ hours north to Mid-Ohio. Makenna, for the record, did great.
So did Ed. Here’s what the No. 20 Menards/Vision Racing driver had to say about the IRL and a few other light topics:
Q: Much has been made about driving for Vision Racing, which is co-owned by your step-dad Tony George — who also happens to be the IRL founder and CEO at Indianapolis Motor Speedway — and your mom Laura. Patrick Dempsey is also a co-owner. So I have to ask: What is Patrick Dempsey really like?
A: “He’s busy. We don’t see him quite as much as we used to between his acting and now his own racing career. He’s a great guy, really down to earth.”
Q: The trend now is to jump to NASCAR. Are stock cars in your future?
A: “No. Ever since I started racing quarter-midgets when I was young I always raced open wheel. I never had much desire to race stock cars.”
Q: Is Makenna going to be a racer, too?
A: “She’ll have to make that decision for herself. She’ll have the opportunity to do whatever she wants to do. If she wants to race we’ll probably have a hard time telling her no.”
(For the record, Heather was quietly shaking her head no.)
Q: What is the most unusual thing you’ve been asked to autograph?
A: “Any time someone asks you to sign their arm, or skin, it’s weird. I don’t quite understand that.”
Q: What’s the best thing about being a race car driver?
A: “I think drivers are probably the luckiest people in the world, especially if you get to do it full-time. You can’t beat the speed of Indy Cars.”
Q: What’s the worst thing about being a driver?
A: “It’s definitely not an easy road. There are definitely more bad days than good days, especially when you are trying to get to the point you can make it in Indy Car.”
Q: If you could get one autograph, who would it be from?
A: “I’ve got quite a few already. I’m a big football fan so I have most of my favorite players’ autographs. One I don’t have is Johnny Unitas.”
Q: What is the fastest speeding ticket you’ve received?
A: “Ninety-eight mph is the fastest. I got one for 77 on the way to Nashville (last week).”
Q: What is the fastest you’ve driven without getting a ticket?
A: “About 130 mph is the fastest I’ve driven on the road. I do try to keep it safe.”
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By John Bombatch
| Thursday, July 17, 2008, 02:58 AM
I was lucky enough to spend a few hours with Thunder Roadster and Legends car veteran TOBY ALFREY and his friend, talented Bandolero driver TY ROSE, on Tuesday.
If you love motorsports, you should stop by and talk to the Roses and Toby. You’ll soon learn that these are people who truly eat, sleep and breathe motorsports. They love everything about racing, and it shows in their conversation and the love they show toward their cars.
What impressed me just as much was, despite crashing into unconsciousness just a few months ago, how good Toby looked. He’s back. The shoulder injury appears to be a memory.
He still can’t recall that horrifying crash, where his Legends car spun high into the air and, were it not for a solid catch fence, he may have ended up on top of some Kil-Kare fans. But he’s anxious to get back into the seat of a race car again.
More good news: You’ll see him racing his Thunder Roadster during Friday’s Open Wheel Night at Kil-Kare.
I’m trying to talk the wife into going with me and my 8-year-old son, Drew, to see the races at Kil-Kare on Friday. No work or scrambling to keep track of who’s leading what lap and what the running order is, like I usually do when I’m actually working at a race. I have a rare Friday off work, so I’m looking forward to having some fun and hanging out at a fun racing facility.
Drew and I usually pick a driver to root for during the warm-up laps. Then, we rib each other whenever our guy passes the other’s. Then, should our driver happen to bow out of the competition for whatever reason, we get a second pick.
If you happen to see me walkin’ around the grandstands, or grabbin’ a hot dog at the concession stand, feel free to say Hi. I might be a little busy for the Thunder Roadster event, though.
I’ll be cheerin’ for Toby. (Well, unless Drew picks him first!)
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