Big Car Racing Association & Hall of Fame, LLC BCRA ESTABLISHED 1958, COLORADO SPRINGS CO th (50 Anniversary 1958 - 2008 ) BIG CAR RACING CHRONICLES April May June 2011 Bcra Staff: Dave Tyson(Mo) Ray Cunningham(Ks), Boyd Adams(Tx), Bruce Budy(C0), Jerry Miller(Tx), Tom Davey(Co), Wayne Panter(Tx), Gary Wolfe(Ne) Welcome......The BCRA Hall of Fame selections his son Nick a few years back. The McVay family have been made and Biographies of the inductees are was represented by Jimmy McVay, who along with included in this issue of the Newsletter. For those his brother Eddie, raced in BCRA. Jimmy's attending on June 24th and 25th remember to contact the grandson Todd, would run the family midget on this Days Inn 402-477-4488,on West O street in Lincoln for night. Jimmy and Eddie were two of the finest open accommodations and just mention you are with the wheel shoes of the 1950's, 1960's and 1970's. Jonny BCRA Hall of Fame for the special rates. and Jimmy had a great time discussing racing Grain Valley. R Cunningham during that time. With the BCRA Hall Class set for 2011 it was time to After leaving the pits, (we snuck in without a pit go racing for the first time since the Chili Bowl in pass), Jon and I proceeded to the grandstand where January. The venue was Valley Speedway,in Grain we saw and talked to Hall of Famer Junior Valley, Missouri, for the POWER I Midgets. Hall Parkinson, and his son Chris. Chris Parkinson it was of Famer"Jonny Boy" Backlund was behind the learned, will drive a non wing sprinter this summer wheel, as we drove to this dirt short track at Grain Valley on a weekly basis. outside of KC on a beautiful spring evening in early The feature race was outstanding, 2008 Power I May. Valley Speedway has become the home to Champ Brett Anderson took the win over former wingless sprint car and midget racing in the area for National Midget Driver of the year Brad Kuhn, the first time in decades.From the 1930's, until the and point leader Nick Knepper. BCRA Member Joe mid 1970's, Olympic Stadium in Kansas City, MO Boyles finished third in his heat, and 9th in the was the home to weekly midget, and later super feature. We talked with Joe, and later his father Ray modified racing every Sunday nite during the before the races as well. The entire Boyle's family summer months. BCRA Hall of Famer's Backlund, has been a big part of the KC racing scene Ray Lee Goodwin, and Dick Sutcliffe, among for several decades. Also at the races were BCRA others honed their racing skills running the rough followers Dave Tyson, his mother Judy, and and tumble supers during the 1960's there, before Dennis Chaney. assaulting the ranks of the BCRA. The Valley Speedway will be running non wing When the midgets were King of Olympic Stadium, sprint car races every Friday throughout the drivers that included Lloyd Ruby, Jud Larson, Bob summer. If your in KC drop by, and see sprint cars Slater, and A.J. Foyt, were among many that race the way they did in the BCRA, without as competed at Olympic. In 1957, A.J. Foyt won his Leroy Byers coined, the "Hogsheds"on top. See you first USAC race at the Stadium in midget at the races. competition. In 2011 USAC returns to race at Grain Valley on August 14th, running a non wing sprint car race, but on this night the midgets were in town, and they ran a great program. A trip to the pits before the races found Jonny holding court with several second and third generation race teams. Backlund spoke with the Knepper's, Siner's, and McVay's. Steve Knepper, son of Junior, and nephew of Indy vet Arnie Knepper, spoke with Jon about racing in the midget ranks. Knepper won two Belleville Nationals, before turning the family midget over to “Hill on Wheels” Bill Hill began in racing as a fan at Olympic Californian Bill Robison was born in 1946 and the Stadium in Kansas City after an enlistment in the family later moved to Independence Mo and he Army and College, Hill returned to Auto racing and began racing Jalopies in 1964 at Topeka Ks. With was Publicity Director for the Rocky Mountain the help of Red Andrews, Bill entered the new Midget Racing Association and the Big Car Racing class of “Hoodoo” racing with success and then Association in Colorado. During this time he also went back to the Jalopie class and met Thad Dosher began announcing for the RMMRA and the BCRA who had an old USAC motor he sold to Bill. in several states in the Midwest. In 1960 Bill Robison went out and won the next six Features, became a columnist for National Speed Sport News paying Dosher for the motor. Spider and Richard with “Hill on Wheels”, as he reported the racing in Walker built two Sprint cars in 1970 and Bill would the Heartland for many years. Hill went to work for drive for the next three years. He then joined the JC Agajanian in 66‟ and in 1972 began a long Gary Mussato team driving this car for two years. tenure with the United States Auto Club as He was runner-up to Edd French in the Big Car Assistant News Director and then moved to the Racing association in1973 running against drivers Terre Haute, “Action Track” with Don Smith and likeRager, Backlund, Maxwell,Woodside, Cecak, was in charge of Publicity. Bill Hill‟s next stop was Troxell and Jensen. In 74‟Bill took the helm of the the Devils Bowl in Texas and then the Tulsa Charlie Jones Trostle with great success until a Speedway. Hill‟s tireless work along the circuit horrendous crash at Lincoln in 74‟ put Bill in the yielded him a wealth of experience resulting in pits for the next season. He returned to competition prolific methods of promoting Auto Racing in the and became a force to be reckoned with on the new Midwest and Southern United States. Hill spent NSI and NSCA circuits. He began driving for Gill nearly twenty years accumulating information Sonner in 81‟ and would win his first race at Knox- for a book on Midget Racing and in 1998, “One ville followed by two more impressive victories and Tough Circuit” on the history of Midget racing in would finish 6th in points in 83‟ and 84‟. Bill Kansas City, was released to an eager public and Robison would drive for owners including Leonard was hailed as the “Best Ever” on the subject. McCarl, Marty Johnson, Fred Caine in the Soon another Stellar effort in “Decades of 4J,Marvin Metcalf, George and Buddy Marsh and Daring”on the Rocky Mountain Midget Racing hit Bob Trostle and left the Sprint ranks for the the shelves and both publications are now common Modifieds in 1986 and is still competitive to this to every racers collection across the U.S. Bill and day in a career that has spanned over four decades. life long partner and wife, Ruby are retired and live Robison‟s dynamic personality and lead foot in Arkansas where Hill is engaged in a Prison brought him recognition with the induction into the Ministry in the area. Knoxville Speedway Hall of Fame in 1993. 2 “Don Budy’s Wingman” “Prince of Darkness” Clarence Froid was born in Colorado in 1910. California‟s Don Brown became involved with Clarence was a railroad artist and became involved racing in the early fifties working for George with the Big Car Racing Association from the start Shilala and later Luigi Lesovsky and Eddie Kuzma becoming Don Budy‟s right hand man involved in on the state of the art Indy Cars. In1961 Brown built nearly all facets of BCRA operations. Froid was his own Sprinter and won “Rookie of the Year” a man of many talents and served the club as a honors with the California Racing Association timer,scorekeeper,BCRA secretary for 8 years before moving on to USAC and the International and.... as an artist. In need of an Association Logo Motor Contest Association in 1963 where he finish- Froid developed the art work of the Open wheeler, ed 13th in IMCA points. Over the next two seasons the color scheme Bonnie Ivers took the work Brown had good success on the IMCA circuit with and reproduced several copies in the form of Jacket a 7th place point standing in 1965 behind such Patches, with needle and colored thread for drivers as Gordon Woolley, Jerry Richert, officials, competitors and friends of the BCRA. Jimmy Moughan and Tom Bigelow.True to form, When the BCRA would go into a town to Brown would run the Big Car Racing Association in compete drivers and owners would seek out 66‟and ran to a 6th in points after winning the last sponsorship from local merchants in the form of Feature of the season at Hutchinson Kansas.On the advertisement on the cars. Clarence would then IMCA,Brown would win a Feature at Spencer Iowa. create an ad or recreate an existing ad, on the car or In 1966 Brown‟s fabrication expertise would on white Butcher paper which was then affixed achieve a new pinnacle with the design and to the car. It is not known if Froid was ever an auto fabrication of his “Mechanical Rabbits” that racing competitor in his younger days but he was a were,“As good on dirt as they were on pavement”.