Dust of Sharon

It was a high-dollar sprint car show (on a Sunday afternoon as I recall) at Sharon Speedway in way-Western Pennsylvania in the mid-80's. All the PA Posse’s top sprint car teams were there for a wingless USAC (United States Auto Club) sponsored event with all the SAC sprint regulars in attendance including Sheldon Kinser, complete with a K&N 'throat filter' to keep the dust out of an airway created during his recent throat cancer surgery!. Doug Wolfgang showed up as part of the PA Posse with a topless blue and white small-block Weikert 'Beefmobile'. Unfortunately, there wasn't much of a crowd for the event which began mid-afternoon on the notoriously dry and gritty 1/2-mile track.

After a long and very dusty afternoon of prelims, several of the Pennsylvania cars were qualified pretty well with Wolfgang on the front row as I remember. It was the first time I'd seen modern sprints 'topless' and as a long-time Williams Grove, Port Royal and Susquehanna attendee, I was really rooting for our 'local' guys to do well against the purist and often-aloof USAC 'stars'.

It looked as if it was going to be a humdinger of an A-main and the Posse had a good chance of whipping the USAC guys at their wingless game. The Sharon track crew ran the water truck around a few times before the main was scheduled to start (just after dusk) and then we waited and waited...... .

Finally, after about an hour and a half, an announcement was made over the PA system. The show was cancelled! Supposedly, the track lights were on the fritz due to a lightening strike near the track earlier that week. Surely that should have been fixed by now! They hadn't even tried to turn the lights on!

I had a pit pass that day so I ran into the infield and harangued the maintenance guy "working on" the lights so publicly and so loudly that they HAD to try to turn them on or be lynched by the then-furious infield crowd! A track electrician made a good showing but tried to turn on all the lights at once. Of course, the excessive current surge blew the fuses with a loud bang and sparks flew. Finally, track security showed up and cleared the area around the darkened light poles. An announcement was eventually made over the PA system that the feature would be run at some future, to-be-announced date.

Everybody was really mad and since most of us were die-hard PA sprint car fans, we thought the REAL reason was somewhat more mercenary. The local promoter probably didn't want to pay a big purse to ANYONE, especially since there was such a small crowd, but the USAC brass sure didn't want some upstart from the PA Posse, racing without their usual wings, to run off with the gold! And, since most of the Posse, who were there on a rare off-day in the hectic Central Pa summer race season, wouldn't be able to return for a make-up date, this probably meant a USAC regular would win the trophy (and the bucks!). It was soon announced over the PA system that no refunds would be issued and that our ticket stubs would be honored only for the "future date" of the race. After the earlier disappointment at a dry track and to add insult to injury, no feature, I wouldn't have gone back there for a makeup race if I'd been paid!

Finally, gathering up a group 50 or so other angry fans, we marched up to the front of the promoter's office to demand a refund. I kept talking loudly, explaining the bogus problem with the lights to any and all who would listen and offering my opinion as to the REAL reasons for the promoter's behavior. The door to the office finally opened. The promoter crooked a finger at me and spoke.

"inside!”

I stepped into his office, finding a woman (I think she was his wife) who was the group’s spokesperson and 2 other rather large gentlemen inside. I told the woman I wanted my $12 back since I didn't get to see the race I came for. I said I couldn't get back for a makeup race since I was going back to Texas. I still had a Texas driver's license that summer. The woman barked back,

" You're getting too many people riled up. Here's $8. You got to see the heat races." I took the bills she handed me and turned to leave and show my 'friends' out front my success. The promoter and his two friends blocked my way.

"You're leavin' through the back door," he growled, and jerking his thumb backwards at the front door I'd just come through added,

" And THEY ain't gettin' no money".

I left.