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The Victory Junction Gang Camp got off to a strong start at Daytona, receiving a donation of $250,000 from NASCAR Nextel Cup driver Jason Leffler as well as a matching donation of $250,000 from Leffler's new sponsor, FedEx.
Solid Gold Copper
Rick Benjamin
Posted Wednesday, February 9, 2005
Had the great pleasure of beginning my 2005 broadcast season early this year, at the reconstituted Copper World Classic at Phoenix International Raceway.
For the first time in a couple of seasons, PIR management, along with NASCAR and USAC, unhitched their USAC Silver Crown and Midget shows from the IRL’s spring weekend and moved them back where many say they’ve always belonged…..to the end of January, in combination with NASCAR’s GN West and Autozone Southwest Series events.
It was the first time in several years I’d had the opportunity to attend the traditional January weekend at Phoenix. For a long time this race has marked the true start of a new season. Sure, some would argue that one of the New Years’ Day enduros that dot the landscape, or the Chili Bowl, or the Rolex 24 really mark the start of another racing season. But for thousands of us, it’s really the Copper World.
I’m not sure if it’s the calender, the types of cars fans see in action, or the fact that the Copper World is the first big outdoor gathering of the racing clan each year, but there’s really nothing like it. Surely by the end of January most of us, even those of us who worked events in late November or December, are ready to hear engines roar in anger, not just in engine dyno rooms. We’re more than ready to see our favorite drivers suited up, not at test days, but for actual competition. And we’re eager to see how the new driver/team/car combinations stack up and shake out.
And all those factors were in play this year at PIR. Having the midgets, Silver Crown cars, and two great NASCAR series on site at the same time is a fan’s delight. The midgets put on their trademark fantastic show on the funky-shaped mile, with the incredible JJ Yeley stealing the victory with a terrific move on the final couple of turns.
Yeley, I’m sure, is headed for real stardom in NASCAR, under the wing of his fellow USAC Triple Crown champ Tony Stewart. But here’s hoping he won’t totally forsake open-cockpit racing in the years to come. He’s simply the best USAC has seen since, well, since Stewart hauled his helmet bag South.
And Dave Steele is gunning for bigger game again as well, once more dominating the Silver Crown 100 miler in the same car Yeley won his SC title with in ’03. Steele has had a couple of cups of coffee in NASCAR, most famously with Felix Sabates in the late ‘90s. For several good reasons that didn’t work out, but let me be on record as saying Dave would be a great hire for a Truck series team, for example, that’s interested more in winning than in having a polished corporate spokesperson.
The NASCAR events were equally strong. Burney Lamar, who appears on the fast track to stardom given his new alliance with Kevin Harvick’s new GNWest team, was able to hold Ken Schrader at bay in the Southwest Series event. No mean feat when you consider Schrader is tied with the King as PIR’s winningest stock car pilot. And the GNWest 100 miler was truly entertaining, given Harvick’s appearance in his Monte Carlo, Schrader bringing his Federated Pontiac back to the mile, Sarah Fisher making her first full-time NASCAR start for Bill McAnally’s team with Richard Childress help, and Michel Jourdain’s first start for Ford and PPC Racing.
The biggest surprise of the weekend was surely Harvick getting snookered behind a lapped car by David Gilliland, along with Jourdain finishing 6th in his first stock car start. But the West series has a raft of talented youngsters in its field. It’s high time West Coast promoters recognized the strength of these two tours and booked both for a string of meaningful, well-paying events.
But for me the best part of the weekend was the chance to see and talk to an incredibly diverse cross-section of racing personalities….from Tony Stewart and Harvick to John Andretti, on hand to help Jourdain with his maiden run for PPC…to John Cooper, Don Hawk, and Mike Helton representing ISC and NASCAR…to Rollie Helmling, Steve Kinser, Ted Johnson, and many more. Whatever differences there are between various series, sanctioning bodies, and factions, at the end of the day we’re all racers, and we all want the best for the sport. At events like the Copper World, that is what’s most memorable.
