The thing I hated the most about the navy was missing the racing season. I left Japan and arrived in Cornado CA in Dec. The timing wasn't right, and I missed the end of the racing season in ND and CA. The last time I got home to ND was during the middle of winter, and the last race I saw was in Sauke Centre MN. Which was Doug Wolfgang's comeback race after his fire in Kansas City. I had a book that showed all the race tracks in the US. There was a track in El Cajon CA which was a paved 1/3 mile oval. Their first race wasn't scheduled until march.
March rolls around and I'm excited. I haven't seen racing in two years. I head for El Cajon to watch some racing. There were lots of cars, but no passing. While at the races that night I picked up a racing news paper. One article read that a new 1/2 mile dirt track was opening in Perris CA. Great, maybe I can see some good racing. It's early Apr and I am off to Perris. They are racing non wing sprint cars. I find the track and have to pay to park my Dodge Dakota pickup. "WHAT, five dollars!" I have never had to pay to park at a racetrack before, but I'm desperate for racing. It took this track 4 hrs to race 28 cars. El Cajon was a lot more organized. If the racing was exciting, no problem, but all the racers did was hug the inside of the track. The only driver to evan try the high side was Ron Shuman.
It goes on like that all summer, sucky racing. I evan go to races in Imperial CA and Yuma AZ. I find in my racing paper that a 1/3 mile dirt track in Casa Grande AZ is going to start racing UMP Late Models and modifieds, starting next march. This place is between Phoenix and Tucson. I don't care if it's 10 min or 10 hours, if I want to see racing i'm going. I had already been to Yuma, might as well go a little farther.
The day arrives and I'm off. I get out of San Diego and head east on I-8. I'm 15 miles from the track, and I take my tape out and turn on the radio. The races start at 7:00 and it's 6:15 now. I hear on the radio that it's 7:15. WHAT!! Casa Grande's on mountain time. I get closer to the track and I see the county fair is on. I get into the fairgrounds and start walking toward the track. I make it to the end of the fairgrounds. WHAT!!! The track is outside the fairgrounds! The races had started already. I seriously consider jumping the fence and running toward the track, but I don't. So I sprint back thru the fair and head over. What an ordeal, but I made it. The racing was what I'm used to seeing. Cars were racing high, low, and passing. Kenny Hattfield won the modified feature race with a high side last lap pass. Jeep Berry won in the late model's with a low side pass late in the race. I saw better racing in two hours, then in one year in CA. There is another race in a couple weeks, and I plan to be there for that.
It's two weeks later and it's time for the races. I don't plan on missing anything so I leave a couple hours early. I get to the rack and I notice I'm the only one in the parking lot. Did I drive 8 hours to see no racing? I ask around and find out there is racing tonite. I also find out that arizona doesn't move their clocks forward for daylight saving time. California and arizona are the same time during the summer. OFW, at least I'm not late.
I had been to the races in Casa Grande several more times since, but they never could compare to that first night.
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