Immediate Release-52nd Ted Horn Memorial 100
at DuQuoin State Fair Sunday Features Youth vs.
Experience!!!!!!!
52nd Annual Running
Ted Horn
Memorial 100
100-Mile National Championship Dirt Track Race
USAC Silver Crown Series
Sunday September 1, 2002 DuQuoin State Fairgrounds
J.J. Yeley, Bevy of Young USAC Drivers to Battle Veterans in Horn Memorial at DuQuoin!!!
Macon, IL August 27, 2002
Labor Day weekend means picnics, boating, and the last big holiday of summer. It also means championship auto racing at the 80th DuQuoin State Fair, beginning with the championship dirt cars of the United States Auto Club Weld Racing Silver Crown Series. Those drivers and cars will be part of another page of history, as they contest the 52nd running of the Ted Horn Memorial 100 on the "Magic Mile" Sunday, September 1.
Forty of the 96-inch wheelbase cars are entered for the event, the 59th scheduled championship style event on the storied DuQuoin clay. Promoter Bob Sargent and the staff at Track Enterprises have posted a purse exceeding $40,000 with the winner taking home over $9,000. The prestigious 100-mile grind is sponsored once again by the Southern Illinoisan newspaper.
The tentative entry list includes three former winners of the Ted Horn Memorial 100, three former Silver Crown champions, four Indy 500 veterans, and drivers from the Indy Racing League, NASCAR Winston Cup, Busch, and Truck series as well. Every driver in the top ten in the Weld-Silver Crown Title chase is entered at DuQuoin. With a group of hungry young drivers and experienced veterans, this could be the most diverse field in history for the Horn Memorial.
Leading the USAC troops is defending race winner and Silver Crown champ Paul White of Temple, Texas. The Texan became the first man from the Lone Star State in thirty years to take home a Horn trophy, the last was A.J. Foyt some thirty years ago. Driving the Builders Electric Beast with the large number 1 on the tail signifying his national championship, Paul has suffered through a dismal year. He has yet to post a top ten finish and currently is out of the top twenty in points. White was looking forward to the Illinois swing on the schedule, he swept both the Tony Bettenhausen 100 and the Ted Horn 100 last year pocketing over $18,000. Two weeks ago a flat tire at Springfield put him out of the event before halfway.
Other former winners of the Ted Horn Memorial 100 entered include Russ Gamester of Peru, Indiana, Tony Elliot of Kokomo, Indiana and the ageless Johnny Parsons of Speedway, Indiana. Gamester, who won the 1997 race, is currently 8th in the USAC Silver Crown point standings driving the family owned car. Gamester’s sponsor is Terre Haute First National Bank, the long time sponsor for five time DuQuoin victor Gary Bettenhausen.
Elliot, the 1999 winner has been using the same car on both dirt and pavement for long-time owner Gene Nolen. Elliot is a former USAC Sprint Car champ looking for his first Silver Crown title. Tony has moved to tenth in the 2002 point standings, however due to a very slick track he struggled to an 11th at Springfield in August.
Fifty-eight years of age and still going very strong, Johnny Parsons drives the car owned by Benton, Illinois tire dealer Ricky Nix. Parsons has put on a crowd pleasing show each of the last two years in the Hoosier Hundred at the Indiana State Fairgrounds, showing the young drivers that the fast way around in one of the heavy machines is up on the cushion as opposed to the rail. Known as "JP" and distinguished by his brightly colored "Getting’ Dirty" helmet, Parsons has seven starts in the Indy 500 with a career best of fifth. Parsons has two of the prestigious Horn trophies at home, he won the 1992 race in record time in Gene Nolen’s V-6 and the 1995 race for the Hoffman family. Johnny made the top twenty at Springfield and was running in the top ten when the motor went awry.
Unfortunately one former winner who will be missing is three-time Horn Memorial champ Jack Hewitt of Troy, Ohio. The popular veteran was seriously injured in July in a sprint car accident in Indiana, and has since been released from the hospital. He is recovering at home, walking around and in good spirits but will be unable to race for the rest of this year.
The overwhelming favorite to take the 100-miler at DuQuoin based on his dominant win at Springfield two weeks ago is J.J. Yeley of Phoenix, Arizona. Yeley is second in the Silver Crown points, just eleven behind leader Dave Steele, and is attempting to join Tony Stewart as the only driver to win all three USAC titles (midget, sprint, Silver Crown) in the same season. Yeley, a rookie in the 1998 Indianapolis 500, currently sits second in the points in all three divisions. Two weeks ago Yeley qualified the Team ASE Beast for the pole at Springfield then led every lap of the event. His win was the first ever for a stock block Ford in USAC Silver Crown competition, and broke a 26-year string of Chevy victories at Springfield. It also gave the Bob East built chassis its record 11th win in a row at Springfield.
Point leader Dave Steele struggled all day at Springfield to a 17th place at the end, and saw a 58-point lead greatly diminish. A former competitor in the Indy Racing League and for Felix Sabates in the NASCAR Busch Series, Steele is noted for his ability on pavement and has improved greatly on the dirt. Steele is a two-time winner this year, taking the Copper World opener at Phoenix in February and the Pikes Peak event this summer. Should the normal DuQuoin surface appear Sunday, the driver of the Bob Gratton Northside Propane Beast should fare better than he did at the Illinois State Fairgrounds.
Third place in the 2002 title chase is 2000 USAC champ Tracy Hines of New Castle, Indiana. Piloting the Indiana Underground Construction Beast for Terry Riggs, Hines is 45 markers out of first and still looking for his first win on one of the big dirt tracks. Hines finished third at Springfield two weeks ago.
Current NASCAR Truck driver and former Winston Cup pilot Jason Leffler sits fourth in the standings, driving a limited schedule for 1971 Horn winner and 1971 Silver Crown champ George Snider. Leffler, of Long Beach, California won the Hoosier Hundred in May but struggled at Springfield before dropping out. Jason was a rookie in the 2000 Indianapolis 500 and is a former USAC Midget Car and Silver Crown title winner as well. The team is the factory Chrysler team in the Silver Crown series and sponsored by MoPar Performance Parts.
Anderson, Indiana’s Jason McCord is fifth in the standings and drives the Contos entry, sixth place John "Hot Rod" Heydenreich lost a great opportunity to move up in the points when he rolled the Sharon Duda Beast on the opening lap at the Illinois State Fairgrounds. John was not hurt, but the car suffered a lot of damage. The hottest driver in USAC competition in 2000, Californian Jay Drake (7th) is at the wheel of the Bill Biddle BWB Beast and fully recovered from last year’s horrendous midget crash at Terre Haute. Last year’s second place finisher and polesitter Jerry Coons, Jr. returns in the Drinan built Kele sponsored machine ninth in points, and the eleventh place man is second generation driver Rich Tobias from Pennsylvania. Tobias drives a car of his own design, and strong performances at the Indiana State Fairgrounds make Tobias a darkhorse to take home the victory on Sunday.
Other favorites for Sunday’s 52nd Horn Memorial are Lincoln, Indiana’s Dave Darland, a former Silver Crown champion who led until the white flag in last year’s race, rookie Sport Allen up from Florida, Jonathan Vennard from Vincennes, Indiana, USAC Sprint star Derek Davidson as a teammate to Jay Drake, and Michael Lewis, former polesitter at the Hoosier Hundred. Minnesota veteran Roger Rager returns in a Beast sponsored by Donahue Harley Davidson, Rager is best known for putting an old car with parts from a school bus engine into the 1980 Indianapolis 500!
Local flavor is provided in the form of drivers from both Missouri and Illinois. The Illinois contingent consists of rising star Aaron Fike of Galesburg, winner of last year’s Richmond event and currently driving in the Indy Infiniti Pro Series for 1996 Indy 500 winning owner Ron Hemelgarn. Jim Mills of Marshall has a car entered, and Decatur’s Terry Babb is in a car formerly owned by Murphysboro’s Bill Schemonia. Another local driver is Murphysboro’s own Randy Bateman.
Missouri drivers include Rod Holshauser of Cape Girardeau, Kyle Steffens of St. Charles, Danny Long of Bonne Terre and Carl Edwards of Columbia.
Sunday could mark the return of a top competitor to the Silver Crown series, third generation driver Bud Kaeding of California. Kaeding was injured earlier in the year in a sprint car accident at Terre Haute. Though no entry was filed for Kaeding at press time, he did indicate two weeks ago he would be at DuQuoin. An improving second-generation driver gets the nod in a famous machine, Dickie Gaines has been entered in the Mataka Brothers car. Gaines, whose father Dick was a legend in sprint cars (and a sprint car winner in 1972 at DuQuoin) has been gradually improving in the USAC Sprint Cars and looks for his first Silver Crown start. His ride is famous from the number on the car, "3n1" signifying the three features Mario Andretti won on Labor Day in the Mataka Brothers midget!
Last year's Horn Memorial provided the thrills and drama auto racing at DuQuoin is known for, a first time winner and the first ever overtime event.
Switched from Labor Day to Sunday for the first time in many seasons, forty-five machines entered the pits in 2001. A fast track awaited them, and by time trials the cushion was right up against the outer wall. Hewitt got caught in a practice crash which damaged his machine, and Jerry Coons, Junior won the pole with a lap over 116 miles an hour.
John Heydenreich won the last chance event, with three lead changes during the 15 mile affair.
At the outset of the 51st Horn Memorial, J.J. Yeley shot into the lead from the outside of the front row before a throng estimated at 10,000, one of the largest in recent years. Churning laps near 120 miles an hour, Yeley looked like a sure winner until the ignition let go on lap 77, sending Dave Darland into the lead and looking for his first Horn win. However, Paul White was lurking in second, and a caution on lap 99 for Brad Noffsinger's wreck on the backstretch tightened the field.
USAC mandates a green flag finish, and scoring stopped at lap 98 while the cars made several laps under caution, bringing the lap total well over 100. However, Darland's machine was running low on fuel, so when the green came back out on lap 99, the car began to sputter. Going into turn one on the last circuit, the car cut out and may have been tapped in the rear by White's machine. Darland smacked the first turn wall, while White went onto victory. Darland emerged unhurt, while White claimed his second Illinois payday and virtually clinched the Silver Crown title.
The late Bill Hayes had a vision when he began the DuQuoin State Fair in 1923, a vision of providing entertainment to the citizens of Southern Illinois who could not make the long distance trip to the Illinois State Fair in Springfield. Hayes, a local Coca Cola bottler and horse racing aficionado, purchased several acres of a reclaimed strip mine on the south side of DuQuoin, and the first fair was held in 1923.
After World War II, Hayes decided to replace the half-mile track and small grandstand with a one-mile track and seating for 18,000. While his first love was harness racing, Hayes knew that auto racing was a great draw and moneymaker for the fair in Springfield. A dual-purpose facility was designed and built on additional land that Hayes purchased, with a lake in the infield of the track. The new track was completed in 1947 and Jimmy Wilburn and his sprint car won the first race on the "Magic Mile". Hayes immediately began lobbying the American Automobile Association for a championship car race, and after AAA viewed the beautiful facility, he got two! Lee Wallard one the first event and the second gave the championship dirt car race a name that has lasted fifty-four years.
Ted Horn was one of the best and most popular racers of the 1930’s and ‘40’s. Horn is the only man in championship auto racing history to win three consecutive national championships, taking the AAA crown in 1946, 1947 and in 1948. While Horn never won the Indianapolis 500, his record there is virtually unmatched. In his rookie year of 1935, he carried an ill-fated factory Ford farther than any entry on the Ford team. In 1936, he began a string of consecutive finishes in the top 5 that lasted through 1948.
Ted Horn was known as a great driver, master car designer and builder. He had a sprint car of his own design known by fans as "Baby", and a championship car of his design called "Beauty". It was "Beauty" that Horn towed to DuQuoin in October of 1948 for the second national championship race on the "Magic Mile".
Horn was newly married and very superstitious. He did not care for the color green, and did not shave race morning. He always carried coins in each shoe when he drove, and he was meticulous in the preparation of his racecars.
By the time he came to DuQuoin for that October race, he had already been crowned the 1948 National Champion. But Ted Horn lived to race, so it was natural that he would come to Southern Illinois seeking his first win on the "Magic Mile". That morning, Horn’s new bride wore a green dress. He shaved before the race, and upon checking his car, felt the worn spindles on the front end would last one more race. It was a decision with dire consequences.
On lap two of the 100-mile race, the crowd began to gasp as the car carrying the number one on the tail began to flip in turn four, strike a car driven by Johnny Mantz, and throw it’s driver Ted Horn to the ground. The cause of the accident was a broken right spindle, and the injuries were fatal. When Horn’s shoes were removed later at Marshall Browning Hospital, the two pennies normally carried in his shoes were missing.
Sunday’s race marks the 52nd running of the memorial event to one of America’s racing legends. A list of men that would join Horn in many Halls of Fame proudly took home Horn Memorial trophies. When DuQuoin was part of the National Championship Series, drivers such as Jimmy Bryan, Rodger Ward, Mario Andretti, Al Unser, and Don Branson stepped into victory circle. When DuQuoin and the other dirt tracks became part of the Silver Crown Series in 1971, George Snider, Gary Bettenhausen and Chuck Gurney added one of the coveted trophies to their mantles. Bubby Jones and Bill Vukovich each won Horn Memorials before national television audiences.
But DuQuoin’s grand champion is six time winner and seven time national champion A.J. Foyt. DuQuoin holds a special place in Foyt’s heart, he won his first national championship event here in 1960, on the way to four consecutive Horn Memorial wins. A.J. still holds the record for most laps led in the Horn Memorial, and is one of two men to win both the Horn and the Southern Illinois 100 stock car event.
A remodeled "Magic Mile" awaits the USAC Silver Crown stars and their fans Sunday, over two million dollars was poured into the facility in the last four years. New bleachers were constructed, a concrete crashwall put in place and the entire facility ringed with a MUSCO lighting system.
Practice for the 52nd Horn Memorial begins at around 9 a.m. Sunday September 1st, with drivers shooting for Dave Darland’s 1997 track record of 30.308 (118.781 mph) in qualifying around mid morning. The 100-mile Ted Horn Memorial begins at around 1:30 p.m., with drivers striving to break Johnny Parsons’ 1992 world record for the fastest 100 miles on dirt of 56:03.00 (107.047 mph).
The UMP Modifieds will also be on hand Sunday, qualifying events for Monday’s 20-mile Oldani Memorial will be held in conjunction with the Silver Crown race.
Tickets can be obtained by calling promoter Track Enterprises at 217-764-3200, Ticketmaster, or at the DuQuoin State Fair box office. More information regarding the modifieds and Silver Crown cars can be found on the World Wide Web at www.trackenterprises.com or at www.usacracing.com
