• JoomlaWorks Simple Image Rotator
  • JoomlaWorks Simple Image Rotator
  • JoomlaWorks Simple Image Rotator
  • JoomlaWorks Simple Image Rotator
  • JoomlaWorks Simple Image Rotator

Latest Events

There are no upcoming events currently scheduled.
View Full Calendar
World of Outlaw traveler, Tim Kaeding looking for 1st Johnny Key win
Written by Dave Coffin   

By: Tony Karis

The Johnny Key Classic this Saturday will memorialize the man from Salinas whose one-year record of 57 wins – in all forms of racing – remains unchallenged.

Racing in what was considered the most deadly era in open-wheel competition, Key forged a reputation that lives with racers and race fans today. During the 1930s to the 1960s, drivers raced without safety belts, fire suits or roll cages.  Even their helmets were leather. 

The period was memorialized in “Damn Few Died in Bed,” Thomas F. Saal’s book depicting life on the road to the Indianapolis 500.  

A sure bet to succeed, Key had the intellect, tenacity and bravado—as well as a sixth- sense on the race track—to be a champion.

The 50th running of the Key Classic begins Saturday afternoon with spectator gates opening at 3:30 at Ocean Speedway. The Santa Cruz County Fairgrounds track is a quarter-mile clay oval similar to the one in which Key lost his life on June 30, 1954.

Key, 30, died after crashing during a midget race at the Cincinnati Race Bowl.

More than a half-century later, 22 of the region's best sprint car drivers will try to capture both his spirit and a winner's prize of $5000.

"The Key race became the most prestigious race to win," said Brent Kaeding, thirteen-time King of California winged sprint car champion and winner of two of the 49 Key Memorial races to date "My first win was the most memorable. That was a wild and crazy night; I consider it one of the top four or five wins of my career. The real enjoyment and satisfaction was competing with my dad and now racing with my sons."

As the phrase implies, Key didn't die in bed. He died following a dream and a career that took him out of the farm lands of Salinas.

Running third in the feature, the front suspension of his midget race car failed in the regular Wednesday night race in Cincinnati. It sent him crashing into the wood-posted steel guardrail, throwing Key from the car. 

Dazed and still on the race track, he was run over by his best friend and traveling companion, Elmer George, as well as Seattle's Jack Turner. George didn't continue the 50-lap AAA sanctioned race, but Turner went on to finish second.

One of five children, Key was born May 24, 1924 in Wichita Falls, Texas. The family moved to Arizona in 1925, then migrated to Salinas in 1926. Key attended Salinas High and excelled at swimming.  The drama and excitement of auto racing stirred his passion for the sport. Like a drug, once drawn in, you can be hooked for life. 

Key won his very first race at Devil’s Bowl Speedway, later named Salinas Speedway, located in the Alisal area on the east side.

He never completed high school, but instead found success driving race cars. He also won the first race ever run at the old Oakland Speedway.

"Key studied racing," wrote race promoter Bob Barkheimer in his book, Tales of the Oval. "His goal was to better himself; he was hard driving but in an intelligent way. Key was like Parnelli Jones. Along with Marshal Sargent, Elmer George, Johnny Smith, Norm Garland and Studious Paul Kamm, Key worked the lettuce farms around Salinas and saw auto racing as a way to better his life."

Key's record is remarkable. He won four San Jose Speedway track titles in five years in Barkheimer's California Stock Car Racing Association. It was later renamed NASCAR after a handshake and a gentleman's agreement between Barkheimer and Bill France Sr. That agreement transformed NASCAR into the first true national stock car racing organization.

"He won more races in the four-year history of the association than any two drivers," Barkheimer wrote. "He started racing the roaring roadsters in 1946.  I convinced him to race with our association in 1949."

With 21 race tracks under Barkheimer's supervision, there was racing every night of the week. By the time Key finished second in the CSCRA championship in 1951, he had won 42 main events. In 1952, his most memorable year, Key won the state championship and tallied 57 feature wins, including three in non-sanctioned events. His most remarkable accomplishment that year, though, was winning eight races in seven days during the month of August.

According to accounts by Bruce Richardson, who covered motor sports for the San Jose Mercury News in the 1970s, sports writers were confronted almost daily with stories of Key's exploits and liked him. For one thing, his three-letter last name was handy for headlines. Then again, everything about the always well-dressed Key was pleasant.

Key's death stunned the California racing community. Out of respect and recognition for his talent and successes, Barkheimer proposed a plan for a memorial race that would perpetuate his name.

The first race took place on August 14, 1954 and for seven years was run at the non-stop marathon distance of 200 laps around San Jose Speedway's one-third mile, high-banked, paved track.

The race was reduced to 150 laps until the early 1970s. It was shortened to 100 laps when it moved to the Santa Clara County Fairgrounds, then reduced again to 50 laps prior to the closing of the fairground's speedway in 1999.

Ocean Speedway promoter John Prentice reinstated the Key Classic in 2007, creating a place for local sprint car drivers and fans to call home. Jason Statler won that year. The next two years, Campbell’s Brent Kaeding and Fresno’s Tommy Tarlton were winners.

Kaeding has the recognition of having the longest span between wins, his first being in 1980. Tarlton is only the third driver from the Fresno Area to win. Fresno’s Al Pombo won in 1955 and Everett Edlund won in 1971.

Considered one of the oldest races of its kind, the Johnny Key Classic has produced 33 winners in 49 events. Among retired racers, San Francisco's Nick Rescino won six times, his last in 1986. Campbell's Howard Kaeding, the patriarch of the Kaeding dynasty, has four wins, his last achieved in 1987. Clyde Palmer won three Key races, including back-to-back victories in 1961-62’. Joining him as drivers scoring double wins are Burt Foland, 1965-66’, Rescino in 1974-75’ and Chuck Miller 1993-94’.

"For racers in Northern and Central California, the Johnny Key race was our Daytona 500," said Howard Kaeding. "It started as a 200-lap endurance race, requiring both speed and endurance.  Today, using sprint cars, it's a speed race and being lucky. I really appreciate John Prentice's efforts to continue the tradition of the Key race. In its heyday, I remember standing-room-only crowds two hours before the start. "

Current drivers with Key Classic wins include: "Cowboy" Craig Smith, 1997, Bud Kaeding, 1996 and Brent Kaeding 1980 and 2008, Salinas' Ronnie Day, 1998, and Statler.

With the format changed from previous years, only six drivers are holding guaranteed starting spots. They include last year’s Key winner Tarlton, Elk Grove’s Kyle Larson, 18, Salinas’ Day, Clovis’ Peter Murphy, and Brent Kaeding. All six drivers will compete in a sprint dash to determine the starting line up for the first three rows. The remaining field will be filled through qualifying and B, C, and D main events.

Micro 600 mini sprints and traditional non-wing sprint cars are the supporting cast for Saturday night’s memorial race.

Last Updated ( Saturday, 28 August 2010 )
 
news
Written by Dave Coffin   



Last Updated ( Saturday, 28 August 2010 )
 
DAN GURNEY@MAZDA RACEWAY LAGUNA SECA
Written by Dave Coffin   

Rolex Monterey Motorsports Reunion: Gurney's cars, historic races fill weekend

By DAVID COFFIN
Herald Correspondent
It would be a tough (perhaps impossible) task to name a more impactful American driver/manufacturer/innovator than Southern California's Dan Gurney.

At this weekend's inaugural Rolex Monterey Motorsports Reunion, Gurney, who was one of the first inductees into Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca's "Laguna Legends," will be celebrated with a gathering of cars he drove, designed and built, all in pristine condition.

People have been collecting Gurney cars for decades and many are still being driven in vintage competitions by racing enthusiasts.

While the "Gurney" gathering is certainly a highlight worth the price of admission all on its own, there will be a field of more than 600 vintage vehicles strutting their stuff for proud owners in 19 races.

On track action has been extended to four days, beginning with practice for all 19 groups starting this morning at 8:30 a.m. The day will also include a qualifying session for the huge Bugatti Grand Prix group (at last count, 38 strong) at 3:35 p.m. and qualifying for 1961-1966 GT cars under 2500cc and finishing with the practice for 1966-1972 Trans-Am under 2-Liter cars.

Friday is a full day of qualifying for all groups, again beginning at 8:30 a.m. Saturday and Sunday action begins at 8 a.m. each day with more qualifying in the morning and racing in the afternoon. The weekend concludes with the traditional Awards Ceremony at the Rolex Drivers' Club.

Just the logistics of trucking in and unloading more than 600 vehicles seemed like a daunting task that could wind up being a nightmare.

"For the number of cars we have had to move in, it has gone relatively smoothly," public relations pro Barry Toepke said. "The competitors are anxious to get on track."

They are going to have plenty of track time, which should also be a thrill to what is annually the second largest event at the world-renowned, 2.238-mile, 11-turn permanent road course nestled in the hills of the former Fort Ord military installation.

"The weather is cooperating," Toepke said under cloudless blue sky Wednesday afternoon.

When it was announced Gurney would be the celebrity extraordinaire, he remarked, "I am both humbled and blown away by what the Motorsports Reunion management is putting together. To see so many of the cars we have built over the last four decades assembled in one place is an occasion for celebration."

By the way, Gurney's son Alex is keeping the family name in the winner's circle, having won multiple races and championships in the Grand American Rolex Sports Car Series with teammate Jon Fogarty, also a native Californian.

"It was extremely difficult for our committee to make a selection and keep the number to 24," said Gill Campbell (Mazda Raceway CEO and general manager) in a release. "Just about every owner of a car that Dan was involved with wanted to bring it to this year's event."

While Campbell had said they could only fit 24 into the allotted space, Toepke said Gurney shot that down, saying we've got to have such-and-such car involved and it grew to 28. That appears to be it, however.

Toepke noted that one of the cars will be the 1967 Le Mans winning GT-40 with the "bubble" top created to accommodate Dan Gurney's height. The car is on loan from the Ford museum.

Friday at 11:45 a.m., Ford will debut a new vehicle in the Yamaha Marketplace (across the bridge from the paddock) that has been kept under wraps and will be a total surprise, Toepke said.

Toepke also praised the Monterey County Parks Department for its total support "of what we are doing here to grow and put a new face on the event."

Ticket information is available by logging onto www.mazdaraceway.com or calling 1-800-327-7322 begin_of_the_skype_highlighting              1-800-327-7322      end_of_the_skype_highlighting.

 

Dave Coffin can be reached at 375-4509 or This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it .

 


Last Updated ( Monday, 16 August 2010 )
 
<< Start < Prev 1 2 Next > End >>

Results 1 - 4 of 7