Championship Stock Car Racing
ASA
Profile
Stock car fans have long recognized ASA as one of the most competitive
series in all forms of racing. From its humble beginnings to its current form, ASA has
been consistently seen as a premier entity. Not only have some of the best drivers in
stock car racing come from ASA, but so also have some of todays top crew members and
car owners. Additionally, the series is seen as a place where stock car fans throughout
the country can see some of the most talented individuals in the sport. From its infancy,
ASA was making a mark and others were taking notice. Rules centered around competitor
safety, competitive racing and spectator enjoyment, a trend which continues 32 years
later. Due to its rules and long-range thinking, ASA quickly developed into a
trend-setting sanctioning body. Among those early regulations were two rules which remain
in place today. The first of those rules is all races end with the last five laps under
green. That rule has since been adopted or modified by other sanctioning bodies, but from
1968 to current, it has been a mainstay in ASA racing. The second rule involved pit
procedure and mandated pit lane to always be closed until the pace car picks up the field.
But the birth, development and growth of ASA wasnt always easy. It wasnt as
simple as announcing there would be a race and opening the gates to allow the flood of
fans and cars pour in. Like any business, there were struggles in the companys
infancy.
Sprint cars were big in Indiana in the late 1960s and Robbins began
promoting races for the big open wheel cars on Wednesday nights at the .25-mile, banked
oval known as Sun Valley Speedway. In that inaugural season, Robbins promoted 12 sprint
car races and two races for stock cars. The results were mixed, but Robbins tried again in
1969. The first race conducted by ASA, was a 30-lap sprint race, held May 8, 1968. The
event was won by Bobby Black, with Todd Gibson earning the pole position. The first ASA
stock car race was held July 31, 1968 and was won by Dave Sorg. ASAs second season
saw seven sprint car races and 15 stock car races, all at Sun Valley Speedway, which is
now known as Anderson Speedway. In 1970, Robbins was considering giving up on the
struggling series, but stayed with it for another year. In addition to 13 stock car and
three sprint races at Sun Valley, Robbins promoted three stock car and three sprint races
at nearby Winchester Speedway in Winchester, Indiana. The fact the sanctioning body was
visiting multiple tracks and providing exciting racing, proved pivotal for the series. The
company began to show signs of growth and strength and was developing a reputation with
racers and race fans. With the thought of a touring season, Robbins launched a successful
regional series and in 1973 took a huge leap of faith by making the stock car series a
nationally-touring entity.
The first event of ASAs National Circuit of Champions Series was
actually held in November of 1972 at Salem Speedway. A young, upstart driver named Darrell
Waltrip won the Midwest 300, which was run in three 100-lap segments. "When I first
came down to Indiana to race in ASA, I was coming because it was the only place to run
long races," seven-time ASA National Champion Mike Eddy said. "I was driving
down from Michigan to race at places like Anderson and Winchester to get experience with
the long races against really good drivers." Eddy, like so many others, found the
touring series appealing and as the ASA schedule grew over the next six seasons, he was
among the "regular" drivers competing in the series and, today, remains a
marquee name in ASA. ASA branched out of Indiana in the early 1970s, adding tracks in
Arkansas, Michigan, Minnesota, Missouri, Ohio, Wisconsin and Canada to its schedule, which
continued to include races at tracks in Kentucky and ASAs home state of Indiana. By
the late 1970s, ASA had established a strong foothold in the Midwest and was being looked
upon as a collection of the best short track drivers in the Midwest region. ASA was also
beginning to gain a reputation throughout the motorsports industry as the leader in
technology and innovation. Rex Robbins made an important discovery during the second
decade in the life of ASA. That discovery was drivers would travel to American Speed
Association races rather than staying at home to compete at their local tracks.
From 1978 through 1987, ASAs horizons began to further expand, a
trend which continues today. That expansion witnessed two things. Increasing car counts
and the development of annual events. Race fans in cities like Grand Rapids, MI,
Minneapolis, MN, and Milwaukee, WI, grew accustomed to getting to see the stars of the ASA
circuit on tracks close to home at least once every 12 months. Although ASAs
presence in its home state stayed strong, the number of races in Indiana began to drop off
during the second decade of sanctioning bodys life. Visits to Anderson Speedway,
Salem Speedway, Winchester Speedway and Indianapolis Raceway Park remained common through
the 1980s, but the fan base for the series began to extend and prosper in the upper
Midwest. Suddenly, the series was experiencing great popularity in Michigan, Minnesota and
Wisconsin. Other tracks were visited during the decade of the 1980s, including proof that
a stock car series known primarily for its great racing on short tracks could also compete
on a superspeedway. On September 20, 1981, ASA made its inaugural visit to Michigan
International Speedway in Brooklyn, MI. Bob Senneker earned the pole for the 150-mile
race, which he also won. Rusty Wallace finished second in the event and rookie driver, the
late Pat Schauer placed third. Mechanically, the ASA car became unique to racing during
the late 1970s and the 1980s. In 1978, three major changes were made to the cars. First
was the requirement of mufflers on all cars. Additionally, the series allowed the use of
Lexan windshields and coil over suspensions. One season later, fiberglass and aluminum
body panels were introduced to the series, as were the mandatory use of headlight decals
and in 1980, the vee-six (V-6) engine debuted in racing, when Darrell Waltrip drove a car
powered by a Buick V-6 motor developed by Ray Baker of Baker Engineering.
Innovation continued as the theme of ASA through the 1980s, as the
sanctioning body incorporated 9:1 compression ratio motors in 1981 and the first V-6
powered car won in 1981. The first V-6 victory came on September 6 when Butch Lindley
drove a Cavalier to victory at the Minnesota State Fairgrounds Speedway in the AMS/OIL
300. The next major development for racing came in 1983, when ASA mandated the use of
aluminum racing seats in all cars, in the interest of safety. Another safety requirement
for all cars in that season was the use of an 18-gauge fuel cell. Also in 1983, ASA
provided the seed money of $5,000 to develop an engine compression gauge. That gauge has
become the device named the "Whistler," because of its resonance theory
technology. Whistlers are still used to determine compression in racing engines throughout
the world. Three other developments came about in ASAs second decade. The first was
the requirement of 9:1 compression ratio V-8 motors in ASA competition for the 1984
season. The second also occurred in 1984, as ASA introduced the first all V-6 series,
known as the Gran Marque series. That series competed for four seasons and was highly
regarded by both competitors and those inside the motorsports industry. In hindsight, the
Gran Marque Series in some ways was the predecessor of the current ACDelco Challenge
Series. The final major development in ASAs second decade was the mandated perimeter
chassis in 1987. This was done in an attempt to control the appearance of the ASA cars and
to make the cars more visually appealing to the fans. Once again, this was a change which
alluded to big things on the horizon for the nationally-touring stock car series.
ASAs second decade saw the series flourish and reside on the cutting
edge of safety and technology. Additionally, the series was gaining the reputation of
being the home of best racers from around the country and particularly in the Midwest.
Motorsports exploded onto the national scene during the 1990s and one of the groups which
benefited greatly from that explosion was ASA. Much of the steep growth in motorsports
interest revolves around the sport being televised. In the early 1980s, only a handful of
races were televised. Today, the five biggest sanctioning bodies, ASA, NASCAR, Indy Racing
League, CART and NHRA, have a large number of their events televised to a national
audience. For ASA, the introduction to live television racing came in 1991, when a
national television audience joined The Nashville Network (TNN) for the Music City 250 at
Nashville Motor Raceway in Nashville, TN, on June 30. In all, there were five ASA races
carried by TNN during that season, as ASA made its initial visit to live, televised
racing. Television has played a major role in ASAs growth during the past 10 years,
as the sanctioning bodys reach continues to expand throughout the country.
Coincidentally, the introduction to television came just as ASA was entering what is
thought of as its modern era. ASAs "modern era" is thought of 1992 to the
present. The reasoning behind the thought, is in 1992, the sanctioning body introduced a
series-specific car. A newly-developed, common center section race car was introduced and
raced on April 26, 1992 in the opening race for the third season of the ACDelco Challenge
Series.
Bob Senneker earned the pole and the victory in the 250-lap race, with
Mike Eddy second, Johnny Benson Jr. third, Jay Sauter fourth and Jeff Neal fifth. Senneker
was in a Ford, Eddy and Neal were driving Pontiacs and Benson and Sauter both drove
Chevrolets. Part of what led ASA to appearing on national television was an association
with Group Five Sales out of Charlotte (NC). Group Five and its president Dan DuVall also
brought ACDelco to ASA in 1989, which led to the formation of the ACDelco Challenge Series
for the 1990 racing season. The combination of ACDelcos involvement, television
becoming a regular facet of ASA racing and the introduction of the "new" car in
1992 has led the sanctioning body to a great growth spurt through 1990s. Late in the third
decade of ASAs existence, there was the introduction of few safety and procedural
rules to continue with the sanctioning bodys continued interest in providing fans
with safe, competitive racing. In 1993, ASA introduced the "competition yellow"
rule. This procedural rule calls for 100 consecutive green flag laps on a track shorter
than one mile to be run and then officials call for the competition yellow. The reasoning
behind the rule was to eliminate the need for green flag pit stops and to allow races to
be decided on the track and not completely in the pits. Though pit strategy still plays a
crucial role in ASA racing, the competition yellow goes a long way toward eliminating
drivers losing multiple laps in the pits while making a routine pit stop.
There have been some minor modifications to the center sections since
their introduction in 1992, but all the center pieces of the chassis are still being built
by Howe Racing Enterprises and the design has not undergone any major renovation. The
minor modifications have revolved around the adding of some bars to the chassis in an
effort to continue to the effort to make the ASA cars one of the safest in racing. The car
introduced in 1992 and the introduction of one exclusive body manufacturer, have allowed
the cars competing in ASA to retain remarkably similar appearances to the their street
version brethren. Add to that the mandatory use of mufflers, the required use of headlight
and grill decals, strict appearance rules and the use of 9-to-1 compression ratio Vee-Six
(V-6) motors and the ASA cars have even more in common with the Pontiac Grand Prixs,
Chevrolet Monte Carlos and Ford Thunderbirds being driven on the streets. Popular opinion
is that street-looking appearance is part of the appeal the ASA stock cars have to the
fans. The series has seen many of its drivers go on to experience great success in the
upper echelon of stock car racing, but the series has also been viewed as a high level of
competition where a driver can make racing a career. Among the drivers who have made a
career of ASA racing are seven-time ASA National Champion Mike Eddy and all-time victory
list and money-won leader Bob Senneker. As ASA moves into its fourth decade of racing, it
continues to conduct great championship stock car racing and its growth appears to be
continuing as the "Great American Dream Series" keeps moving ahead.