Auto racing
Former Raceway champ Gardner returns to action after long layoff
Scott Gardner’s fond memories of Raceway Park extend well beyond being the Blue Island oval’s last street stock champion in 2000.
“I absolutely miss that place every day,” Gardner said of his hometown track. “It meant everything in the world racing two nights a week, keeping your car together. And competitive wasn’t the word for it.
“When we were going good at Raceway, there was an average of 20 cars, and on any given night 15 were good enough to win. It was fun. I can’t believe it’s been 18 years.”
Raceway Park closed its doors for good after the 2000 season. Gardner had a brief run as a regular in the street stock class at Illiana Speedway but basically became a “now and again” driver for nearly two decades.
That may change.
Gardner, 44, brought his 1988 Monte Carlo to Grundy County Speedway on Friday for the second time this season. He finished a strong second in the fast heat and ran near the front for much of the feature race. He won a heat in his other appearance.
“I like Grundy,” Gardner said. “It’s a fast track, and everybody has been cool and welcoming to me. I wanted to come out and see my friends again.”
Gardner was a veteran of nine racing seasons before winning the street stock title at Raceway in 2000. He was ready to defend his championship when the track property was officially sold in early 2001.
“I’ve talked about it with (runner-up) Al Powell many times,” Gardner said. “We were going to battle it out again.”
Instead, Gardner shifted into low racing gear to raise a family with his wife, Kathy.
“Every once in a while I tinkered a little bit,” Gardner said. “But now we have two kids through college, and one graduated high school last week. So now that the kids are pretty much older, it’s time to go racing.
“I’d like to come out (to Grundy) maybe every other weekend just to get back into it a little bit. I may consider running next year full time.”
But he did.
“Every race basically this year it seemed like whoever got in front first won it,” Baker said.
The Plainfield resident made a push and beat pole-sitter Larry Schuler into Turn 1.
“I tried really hard there,” Baker said. “The car turned and took off. I just kind of caught it right.”
He caught it right the other 93 laps as well.
Baker led wire to wire, beating Paul Shafer Jr. to the finish line by 1.534 seconds. The race was run without any yellow flags.
“It’s hard to remember the last time I ran that many laps without a yellow,” Baker said. “I’ve got to give Paul (Shafer) credit. Nobody has passed any cars this year, and he passed quite a few. I’m lucky there wasn’t a caution because he probably would have gotten me.”
Shafer, who set fast qualifying time, started in the fourth row. He passed top competitors Anthony Danta and Joe Vinachi on the high side, before taking second-place Schuler on the bottom in Turn 4 on lap 47.
Shafer drew within a handful of car lengths but never got a yellow that would have put him on Baker’s bumper. Schuler was third, followed by Billy Knippenberg, Eddie Hoffman and Danta.
Weese’s birthday has fallen on race night four times. He was a feature winner on one of them.
“That night they brought me a cake,” Weese said. “Actually, it was a cupcake cake. My wife had it for me after the race. And of course the kids demolished it in the pits.”
Alex Treptow beat Scott Ingram in the 4-cylinder feature.
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