Sprint Drivers Dominate Recent Turkey Night Races

Although the Grand Prix Turkey Night race at Ascot Park is contested with midget cars, there is a good possibility that the 100-lap race on the half-mile track will be won by a driver who is not a regular in the small cars.

For the past 10 years, with the exception of 1983 when Kevin Olson of Rockford, Ill., won, a midget regular hasn’t won the race which concludes the United States Auto Club national championship series.

The other nine times, the race has been won by a driver who primarly races sprint cars during the season. Since Bubby Jones started the string in 1976, the other winners have been Gary Patterson (1977), Rick Goudy (1978), Ron Shuman (1979-80-81-82 and 1984) and Brent Kaeding last year.

Olson, whose victory came after Shuman had led for 87 laps only to have his bid for a fifth straight win ended by a broken drive line, has entered the 46th running of this event which began back in 1934 at old Gilmore Stadium. So have Shuman and Kaeding.

Shuman again will be at the wheel of a car entered by Larry Howard, the man who supplied his mounts for four of his five victories. Howard also will field a car for Brad Noffsinger, this year’s sprint car champion of the California Racing Assn. Noffsinger also has competed in most of the local midget races and has three wins at Ascot in Howard’d No. 71.

Several of the entries compete regularly in several types of cars. They included Rich Vogler (midgets, sprints and Indy cars); Wally Pankratz (midgets, sprints and supermodifieds) and Johnny Parsons Jr. (midget, dirt championship and Indy cars).

Heading the midget regulars is Mel Kenyon of Lebanon, Ind., a seven-time USAC champion who is the all-time winner in the group’s history. Kenyon, 53, won this race in 1963 and in 1975.

Heading the local midget contingent are Robby Flock, Rusty Rasmussen, Tommy White and Sleepy Tripp.

Flock and Rasmussen are currently locked in a close battle for this year’s USAC Western Regional championship. Tripp a former two-time USAC national champion, was the 1985 Western regional champion while White took the honors the year before that.

Another former winner among the 80-odd entries is Danny McKnight. The Alta Loma veteran won the race in 1974, but hasn’t race much this season at Ascot.

The Thanksgiving Night race was held from 1934 to 1950 at Gilmore Stadium. It resumed at Gardena Stadium in 1955 and went until 1959. It has been at Ascot ever since, with the exception of 1975 when it was held at Speedway 605 in Irwindale, the only race in the series that was held on a paved track.

It’s past winners include: Bob Swanson, Ronny Householder, Mel Hansen, Roy Russing, Perry Grimm, Billy Vukovich, Johnnie Parsons, Tony Bettenhausen, A.J. Foyt, Parnelli Jones, and Gary Bettenhausen.

The Bettenhausens are the only father-son winners of the event, but two drivers have a chance to join the ranks. Johnny Parsons, the son of the 1955 winner, and 17-year-old midget rookie P.J. Jones, the son of two-time winner Parnelli.