Fan Notes from Eldora Four Crown Nationals

Eldora Speedway (Tom Myers) Rossburg, Ohio 9/25/2021 – It was really great to be back at Eldora Speedway for the 2021 edition of the 4 Crown race. There was no 4 Crown race last year because of the Covid virus. It felt like things were getting back to normal and that’s what needs to happen. The 4 Crown event is such a neat race because it’s a meeting up of the different open wheel clans you could say. Where else can you see a driver compete in 4 different divisions and drive 4 different race cars on the same evening? This year’s event carried with it some heightened interest because of the very close point standings at the top of the USAC ranks. Kody Swanson and Logan Seavey are separated by 1 point in the battle for the Silver Crown title. Chris Windom and Buddy Kofoid are locked in a tight battle for the USAC midget title while Brady Bacon and Kevin Thomas Jr. are neck and neck for a USAC sprint championship. The other story line was Tyler Courtney, who has won a ton of USAC Sprint and midget races at Eldora. Tyler, the current All Star Sprint point leader, would be racing in all four classes. You could argue that the 4 cars he was driving were the fastest cars in each class and that this would be the best chance anyone has had in some time, to equal Jack Hewitt’s magical 4 win evening a long time ago. Tyler said that his goal was to win all 4 races. To show that he was serious, Tyler won the Befour the Crowns Showdown USAC midget race.

It turned out to be a beautiful day with clear skies, but it was breezy and cool. Once again, I brought Pops along, he really likes this race. He likes it because it’s Eldora for one, and also because it’s not as crowded for this race like it is for the Kings Royal. This year I also brought my wife Bonnie and my friend Chris and his wife Julie. Chris and Julie are new sprint cars fans and I told them they have to go to Eldora to see a race. Needless to say they were not disappointed.

After a really nice drive from Northeast Ohio, we arrived at the track around 4:00pm. The grandstand shielded us from the breeze and that was awesome for the ladies. After getting seated, Chris and I went down to the pits to wander around for awhile and to watch hot laps. I told him he had to watch hot laps with me and that he would be amazed at how fast these cars go.

Jack Hewitt As we walked the pits, I ran into my friend Jack Schlib and his buddy Ron. Jack said he wanted to have his name mentioned more often in my race articles. Ha ha. Chris and I then wandered about a bit more and I saw Sammy Swindell was driving the 70 Grove car this evening. I then told Chris some history…and explained that without Sammy, Steve or Doug, sprint car racing, quite possibly, would not be as popular as it is now.

As the cars were pushing off for motor heat, we sat inside turn 3 on that big thing they drag behind the tractor…that wheel thing with spikes on it….they use it to prep the track….maybe it’s called an Aerator or something? Anyway, when hot laps started, they pushed out the All Stars first and oh boy, did they fly right by us! Screaming down the back straight right at us and flashing by, engines roaring and tires spinning…they don’t lift. It’s violent and breathtaking when you are that close. I looked at Chris and he had this big smile and you could see the shock and amusement on his face. And that my friends, is what I’m talking about!

There were only 24 winged sprinters on hand, but it was a strong field. Aaron Reutzel flipped the evening before and would not make it back for competition tonight. Rico Abreu, Sammy Swindell, Aryton Gennetten, Cale Thomas, Harli White, McKenna Haase, C.J. Leary, Parker Price Miller and Lee Jacobs would join the All Star regulars tonight, minus Kyle Reinhardt. Two other races this evening contributed to the smaller car count for the wingers. There was a $20,000 to win race at Selinsgrove and a WoO race at Lernerville. All 24 cars would make the feature with the All Stars, but the USAC sprints had 43 cars on hand, a really nice field. When time trials started, Tyler Courtney showed that he was serious about winning all 4 features. He went out and was the fast timer with the All Star sprinters and also grabbed the fast time with the USAC sprint cars. He was also the fastest timer the previous evening with the Silver Crown group! And, having won the midget race the night before, Tyler was the favorite to win the midget race again tonight!

Tyler Courtney Justin Grant flipped his car hard in time trials, but he came back in a backup car later on and started the feature. It was interesting to watch the cars being weighed. Eldora has a weigh scale that the crowd can see. Many of the USAC sprint cars were weighing 1460 lbs, 1495 lbs, in that range but fast timer Courtney’s car weighed 1405 lbs! We also learned that the 4 cylinder midget engines produce 400 horsepower and that the midget cars weigh 1,000 lbs with the driver.

The USAC sprint heats started the racing action and the track dried out quickly. The fast way was around the top by the wall and the thin cushion was rapidly disappearing. The USAC sprint series has some really good drivers, and that group is underrated in my opinion. They have12-14 strong drivers, guys who can really haul the mail. Guys named Bacon, Thomas Jr., Grant, Leary, Thorson, Windom, Swanson, Ballou, Stocken, Seavey, Cummins, Cottle, Meseraull and Nienhiser and there are more.

The All Star heats would be 8 laps. The winner and fastest qualifier in the top 6 will go to the dash. In the first All Star heat Parker Price Miller, driving the McGee 11, checked out, followed by Courtney, Madsen, Schurenburg, Jacobs, and Dancer. Wise had to pull off on lap 2. In heat 2, Rico wins it followed by Chris Windom, Gennetton, Peck, Thomas and Price. In heat 3 and on lap 3, Eliason hits the turn 3 wall and flips. He was okay, but when he hit, I heard a heavy thud. It was unlike the sound of folding aluminum wings. I thought Eliason would be injured but thankfully he was okay and would return for the feature. Swindell won the heat and that got everyone’s attention. He was followed by Leary, who was driving the beautiful Ally bank sponsored purple 55 sprinter, Balog, Philo, Henry, and Wilson rounded out the top 6.

As it got later and later in the evening, the air grew cooler. And it was then that I noticed the heat on my cheeks, every time the flame throwers located at the victory podium would ignite and hiss out flames. I got up and walked over to the turn 1 area of the grandstands where all the food and souvenir vendors were. I watched the midget feature as I munched on some fries. The race went green all the way. Courtney just couldn’t move up from his 6th starting spot and he finished 5th.

Rico Abreu won the All Star portion of the 4 Crown Windom won it and Bayston put on a show shadowing Windom the last 15 laps until he ran into the wall with 3 laps remaining. The green flag stayed out as Bayston continued but he lost a spot at the end and finished 3rd. Kofoid finished 4th to keep the points tight. The track was getting dry and the groove was up by the wall or way down low. In the USAC sprint feature, it went green all the way as Courtney came up from 6th to win it, using his high line and bouncing his right rear off the wall. It took him a while, but he eventually worked into the lead and then raced away.

By now, the track was really dry and there wasn’t much of a cushion left. The All Star starting lineup for the first 4 rows was Peck on the pole with Abreu alongside, Schurenburg and Gennetton, Courtney and PPM, Swindell and Leary. When the green flag dropped on the 30 lap feature, Peck fell back as Abreu took the lead ripping the top. Some tried the middle and the bottom as Rico raced away. On lap 17 there was a caution that bunched up the cars and took away Rico’s straightaway lead. On the restart, Peck stayed close with Rico for a few circuits by using the middle of the track but Rico was able to pull away. On lap 25, another yellow came out for Courtney, who had a flat right rear. On the restart, Rico raced away again but PPM came up from 4th and streaked past Peck and Gennetton at the turn 2 exit and ran up right behind Abreu. Over the last 5 laps PPM used the middle to stick his nose under Rico a couple of times but then Abreu raced out to a comfortable margin to take the win. Peck cut down a tire on the last lap in turn 4 while running in the top 5. His bad luck continued as he was scored in 13th.

After the All Star feature we had had enough. It was getting late and so we ended up leaving before the start of the Silver Crown race. The ladies were cold and tired and Pops was too. But what an awesome evening! My buddy couldn’t stop talking about how fast the cars sped around the track and how much of a good time it was.

Thank you Eldora Speedway, and thank you All Star Sprints and thank you USAC for putting on such a great show each year. See you next year!