RACING'S
Washington, Jefferson, Lincoln, and Roosevelt are the faces on
If one were to build a "Mount Rushmore of American Motorsports" who would be on it?
Andretti, Foyt, and Petty are locks. Who would be the fourth? Some would say Earnhardt, maybe Steve Kinser, John Force, or Dan Gurney.
If we were to build a Mount Rushmore of Milwaukee slot car racing who would be the four faces on it?
Phil Cianciola has to be one the faces. There are two arguments some would use to try and keep him off the mountain. One is that he never tried his hand in other series, much like Dale Ernhardt never ran Indycars or dragsters. The other is that four of his titles came in the early years of the series when the competition was still learning the trade or not involved yet.
The facts remain if he hadn't built the first track in the series and had the idea to have a birthday party with a bunch of friends coming over and racing none of what has followed over the last 16 years would have happened.
He ran Champ Car for 12 seasons and was the first to get the series on TV and attract several sponsors.
His 36 wins and 5 championships are nothing to sneeze at either.
John Shea would have to be the next face on the mountain. The knock against him is that he never won the Champ Car title despite having the talent to do so. He also does not race a full Champ Car season.
Still he does have 16 champ car wins in 81 starts to give him a healthy 20% winning percentage. He has three consecutive titles in the now defunct SlotIRL, and seven ISF titles and also has an incredible 27 ARA championships!
More importantly he founded the ARA (American Racing Alliance) which was based on NASCAR but had the unique signature of using metal bodied cars. He is also the co-founder of the ISF (International Sportscar Federation).
Shea has also researched many technical and car design/distribution issues.
After Shea and Cianciola the choices are not as clear cut. Besides their racing records, it is my opinion that it is the driver’s off-track contribution to the betterment of the sport that should take equal weight with the racing record on whether or not they would get their faces immortalized in stone.
Who would be some of other contenders for the final two spots on the mountain?
A likely candidate would be Everet Kamikawa. The negatives against him are that he retired for four years from the Champ Car series and he has never won the title in the ARA top division, the Heavy Metal Challenge series.
Co-founder of the ISF with seven championships, he also has 8 ARA titles and is second all-time in Champ Car wins with 26 and two titles.
Kamikawa was also the first to build a home made lap counter and pioneered the use of reed switches. He and Shea also contributed to the design of several track layouts during their time in the various series.
His long time role as ISF commissioner can also be a positive in his favor.
Larry Rotter would also be a good candidate. The bad thing is that he never won in the ARA. He has two ISF championships and three Champ Car titles to go with his 23 wins.
He also participated in the ARA. A huge plus for Rotter is that without him over half of the tracks in all three leagues would have power problems and be wired wrong.
Rotter has also created various power switching systems and also built the photo-sensors that almost all tracks
now use for timing and scoring. A class act that I'm sure no one would object to on the mountain.
Mike Kristof would also have to be considered. His racing record is not impressive as he has never competed in the ARA or ISF (much like Cianciola) and has only 2 Champ Car wins to his credit.
It is his contributions made back to racing where Kristof shines. He was the first to take up the production of the Champ Car videos and get them on cable TV. He has also made sure the broadcasts have grown with the time and are now also seen on Google video and YouTube.
He took over Champ Car when Cianciola retired and kept the series going after it had lost almost all of the original members. He breathed new life into the series by recruiting new talent and allowing back some old names in the persons of Shea and Kamikawa.
He also did the unthinkable in obtaining actual cash and prize sponsorship from an actual sanctioning body for two years, getting named the official slot car series of the actual Champ Car.
Tom Spehert would also be a name to consider. He also has been an exclusive Champ Car racer (with the exception of two ISF starts), with a non-impressive win record.
What makes Spehert a likely candidate is his unrelenting pursuit of a perfect custom made scoring system for Champ Car. Over the years there have been various qualifying and race formats, gimmicks,
and procedure changes. Through it all he as created a program to keep track of it all and to correct any mistakes along the way. While I'm sure he'd like a break from the computer once-in-awhile, it is this pursuit that keeps him motivated when it would be easier to use an off the shelf scoring system and creating racing rules within the parameters of that system.
Ned Wicker would also need some consideration. A lousy race record, however he gave the leagues and more importantly the people in them, a level of publicity and credibility.
When running Champ Car magazine he published articles and pictures of the drivers and cars. He also introduced several of the drivers to VIP's in Champ Car, or gave them the opportunity to work in some capacity with Champ Car during a race.
His broadcasting talents, both humorous and serious, also made an impact on the broadcasts as the other announcers raised their game in terms of style and creativity.
A former wrestler, CART Ministries Chaplin, publisher, writer, I would be interested in reading what he has to say about slot car racing in his autobiography. It is a book I would buy.
Dave Austin is another person to consider. He had starts in all three series; some might say his lone Champ Car title is a disappointing result.
More importantly,
Like Cianciola's contribution of starting the league,
***Editors note: no pictures of Dave Austin found in Champ Car archives***
Jim Iverson would also be considered. Maybe not as many championships to be had here as probably should, however he is also the only one to be able to say that they have raced in three decades as he was a racer in the 1960's doing many of the same media friendly things that Champ Car has done since 1993. Iverson was also responsible for getting Shea, Kamikawa, and Sorce to be accepted back into Champ Car. Iverson's technical knowledge in setting up his ISF cars and maintaining the fleet of "club cars" used in Champ Car is also worth noting, as is his enthusiasm for the sport.
At some point in history the creators of
Until next time, it's not bad being in the pits...
Steve "The Wrench" Ratchett
