Cycle News - Archive Issues - 2000's

could do some damage on the half Sifton was more than able to make miles," Leonard says. "The skinniest up for Leonard's weight defecit. I could get, 1 was 160 pounds, but "Tom was a master," Leonard Tom hired me anyway, and the rest remembers. "He could squeeze is history." There was no question that horsepower out of a turnip. Nothing Leonard was a capable rider, and was handed to him. He really now he had Sifton in his corner. They quickly became the team to death-riding spirit by the name of Leonard that if he listened to what Maletich told him, he could be number one someday. If he was going to be number one, however, the first Leonard 1601 and his Granatelll turbine streak past a crashed Johnny Rutherford at Hanford, Califomla. Two years earlier, he had almost won the Indy 500 In the radical car, which was later effectively legislated out of existence. order of business was another equipment change. One night at Corona, Leonard clearly saw what kind of bike he needed. "I remember Larry Headrick, Charlie West and Kenny Eggers But it was on to other towns and other races, and Leonard's Triumph proved to be a handicap. Vastly superior in the corners, there was little that he could do to stop his came down and waxed my heroes," Leonard recalls. "Larry was riding Harley rivals from zooming past him out of Tom Sifton's stables, and I on the straightaways. He finally remember that those three got out realized that if he wanted to run front and ran one-two-three, and with best, he had to have a Harley, my LA guys were racing for fourth like the rest. about a straightaway behind. I knew Not having seen the sun in San right then that was the type of Francisco for days, Leonard bor- motorcycle that I needed, even though I didn't really like the rowed a demo out of Servetti's shop Harleys. I was a Triumph fan to San Jose in search of the shop because that's what Jimmy Phillips that fielded Headrick's equipment. one day and decided to ride south rode. Anyway, Maletich and I got a He wanted to make contact with Triumph ride with Frank Servetti Tom Sifton, whose immaculately out of San Francisco, but with prepared motorcycles impressed Maletich's drinking, we quickly him to no end. Upon finding the started running through my money. It got to where we were just surviv- shop, Leonard decided to make a grand entrance. ing by buying a can of beans and a "I came through the front door of loaf of bread and sharing it." After the first race of the season the shop, and Sifton's office was about halfway inside, so being full of was postponed due to rain, the piss and vinegar, I did a wheelie Northern California opener finally took place at Belmont Speedway, right through the shop," Leonard and Leonard did quite well. Though he stepped out and looked at me says. "Well, Tom was in there, and he favored cushion-style tracks, he with those piercing blue eyes and was bullet-fast on the tacky quar- said, 'Hey, I know you're a pretty ter-mile surface, and he ran a close good racer, but we don't do that kind second to Headrick on opening of stuff here in San Jose.' I thought night. The very next night, Leonard I'd blown the deal right there." won. Better yet, the Northern California promoters were drawing big attention, and strong showings at crowds and consequently paying a places such as Napa Speedway lot of overage [percentage of profits from the gate]. Leonard's take for only further increased Leonard's the two nights of racing came to But Leonard had gotten Sifton's stock. When Headrick broke his leg in a crash, Sifton gave Leonard his just under $600. "\ thought I could retire right dream shot in 1951. then," Leonard says. he proved that he had three and a beat - even on the miles, where George Maletich, who promised worked at it. In fact, the factory later stole some of his cams when quarter horsepower on theirs. In "I've always believed that if the car guys want to go and find some untapped resources, most motorcycle riders have a better feel of a car or can adapt to it quicker than anyone I know," Joe Leonard says, and he ought to know. "They just have that (eeL See, you learn quickly that you don't want to spin out on a motorcycle, because if you do, you're done." As my coUeagues around the office will certainly attest, 1 am a certifiable gearhead. Bikes, cars, boats, planes, if it has a motor and makes a lot of noise, then I dig it. I guess that's why I've always loved sprint car racing - preferably of the non-Winged variety· more than most forms of racing. Like speedway bikes, modem sprinters are about as elementary a racing machine as you're likely to find: just four wheels, a few feet of chromoly tubing and one big mutha of an engine that makes about 800 horsepower to push 1250 pounds of vehicle [including the driver] around a quarter-mile or half-mile bullring in a controlled(?) broadslide. Get 15 or 20 of these wicked rides together, banging wheels as they fight it out for supremacy, and shit happens. It was with the goal of taming something that seems so out of control that landed me on the doorstep of Cory Kruseman of Ventura, Califomia. At only 31 years old, Kruseman is already one of the most successful non-winged sprint car drivers ever to strap in to one of the wild, methanol-buming machines. Driving in his home club, the Sprint Car Racing Association (SCRA), Kruseman has amassed 42 career victories. He was also the inaugural winner of the Non-Winged World Championship series (NWWC) in 1999. Currently, Kruseman is again leading the points in both the SCRA and NWWC. Kruseman is definitely experienced, having raced karts, three-quarter Midgets, Midgets, modifieds, sprint cars and USAC Sliver Crown cars, and with his school, Cory Kruseman's Sprint Car Driving School, he passes that knOWledge along to anyone with a desire to feel the fire contained in one of these open-wheeled beasts. Kruseman offers three courses: Basic, Intermediate and Advanced. The Basic course ($350) is designed to give the sprint car fan the opportunity to get some safe "seat time" behind the wheel of a full-blown sprint car. Kruseman provides two on-track sessions, approximately 25 laps, giving the student a chance to gUide the car at reasonable speeds and learn driVing lines. The Intermediate course ($525) is more intensive, sel\ling more as a basic course for the student interested in becoming a driver. It includes three on-track sessions, a total of abut 40 laps, with more emphasis placed on instruction of corner entry, exit and apex points. Kruseman says that the successful Intermediate student should be able to handle a sprint car at competitive speeds upon completion of the school. For even more intensive training, Kruseman offers his Advanced course ($1200), an all-day session that features a maximum of two students and offers experience and instruction in driving the car with different setups (approximately 150 laps total). The Kruseman school is held on the tight fifth-mile oval at Ventura Raceway in Ventura, Califomia. A regular stop on the SCRA circuit, and Kruseman's home track, it is ideal for leaming the ropes in a sprint car. It's tight tums and short straightaways combine with the loose setup that Kruseman dials into his trainer car to practically force the driver to hang it out. By the way, "trainer" is a term that is used very loosely, as the school ride is a fire-spitting 360 cubic·inch open-wheeler making about 650 horsepower - more than enough to get you into deep trouble if you fail to respect it. Signing up for the Intermediate course, I got ample opportunity to leam respect for this racing discipline. After becoming familiar with the necessary procedure to light the car off, I was shoved forward until my ears were greeted with the high-performance bellow of the motor. With 650 horsepower at the end of two inches of throttle travel, learning to be smooth takes on a whole new meaning. Suffice to say that after three sessions, including one spinout, I was hooked. So, what's it like? Well, a bit like flat track and a lot like speedway. The brakes are used to set the car up, just like you might pitch a Harley on a half mile, but the object Is to keep the wheels spinning in a controlled slide, which is done with minute pressure on the sensitive throttle. It takes a lot of concentration and feel, for sure, and the guys who do it right deserve to be called heroes. But driving a sprint car is nowhere near the frightening experience that I thought it would be, and far more addicting than I ever imagined it could be. When it was all over, Kruseman handed me a certiflcate of completion. "You did good," Kruseman told me, "Now go and get your own." That presents a bit of a stumbling block. Even a used-up, 10-year-old 360 sprinter is likely to run upward of $10,000 (brand-new ones run about five times as much), and knowing that it could be tumed into useless garbage in a few violent, twisting seconds... Sprint car racing requires the kind of physical, emotional and financial commitment that is likely to make it prohibitive for most. But that's the beauty of the Cory Kruseman's Sprint Car Driving School. For a few hundred bucks, you can get an adrenaline fix like few others found anywhere. I'm still trying to make it back there myself. For more information on the Cory Kruseman Sprint Car Driving School, call 805/649-1243, e-mail cory@kruseman.com. or check out Kruseman's web site at www.corykruseman.com. for the miles, but they figured that I "They thought that I was too big CUD I • n • _:IS • SEPTEMBER 12. 2001 39

• Cover