Back Home Again in Belleville ‘06 - Part 2

Friday dawned with a full campground and the North Central Kansas Free Fair in full swing. One thing that seemed to be missing this year was the rumor mill. Outside of wondering how the “nine” cars were going to do with Toyota power there really wasn’t much to speculate about. NASCAR had the weekend off which raised at least the small possibility that Tony Stewart might make an appearance to watch his cars compete. Beyond that it was mainly anticipation of how preliminary events would play out with a field of around fifty quality cars and exceptionally talented drivers.

Anyone who has read the “Back Home Again in Belleville” series over the last few years has probably noticed the location of our campground get mentioned. This seemingly insignificant detail led to something that turned into another one of those “I can’t believe I’ve found this in Belleville” moments. Every time we have stayed in this spot a local Belleville man stops in to take care of various aspects of this improvement to city park. Lee Roy Elliott is the name of that man and he is a big part of how the tournament quality horseshoe pits we camp near came to be. The invitation had been extended a few times by Mr. Elliott to visit his house just West of Belleville and it always got lost in the shuffle. This year, after encouragement from Mr. Elliott’s son Keenan last year, the decision was made to go visit this intriguing man’s home.

Have you ever done something after years of thinking about it or passing the opportunity by only to finally seize the moment and wonder why you had waited so long? This turned out to be such a moment for me. It’s a guess but Mr. Elliott has to be in his mid 70’s (his son was born in 1951) and is healthier than many people I know that are in their twenties. A lifelong and very hard working farmer Mr. Elliott has an awful lot to be proud of. What has to be the most beautiful piece of property within fifty miles of Belleville was excavated, graded, manicured, and massaged into its current immaculate condition. The beautiful home of his design overlooks a twelve foot deep year-round pond and is surrounded by landscaping that would make a golf course greens keeper envious.

The casual tour of the elder Elliott’s home and grounds was just the tip of the iceberg. Behind his home sits another equally stunning home that was built by his son Keenan Elliott. One of the younger Elliott’s businesses is buying and restoring every conceivable type of classic automobile known to man. Most notable to auto racing history buffs is a round-tube champ car that was driven by Bobby Unser. Mr. Unser has seen the car and verified its history. The car is set to be restored to its original condition and the hope is that Unser will pace the field behind the wheel during the Midget Nationals before it spends some time at the HBHOFM. Unser’s private museum in New Mexico is likely to be the final destination of this restoration project. If you are looking for anything related to classic automobiles a phone call to Keenan Elliott in Belleville, KS would be a very productive call to make.

A former “must see” in Belleville unfortunately sits in limbo due to financial troubles. The Boyer Gallery, which is a Kansas treasure if not a national treasure, has been closed for months and remained closed during the Nationals this year. Watching people’s wonderment as they view Paul Boyer’s motion displays for the first time is really quite an experience. It has been suggested that the state step in with financial assistance to help keep these amazing displays in front of fascinated eyes. When you consider some of the things our tax dollars subsidize the government stepping in the help preserve Boyer’s work for generations to come isn’t very far fetched.

Something that did get some help from the state, at least to help get it off the ground, is the HBHOFM. Always in need of funds, however, the Midget Nationals is a big week of fundraising for the Hall of Fame and Museum. The auction on Saturday morning had the highest number of items ever and raised a total of just over $6,000. 2006 inductee Steve Lewis got into a bidding war on a limestone carving of one of his cars and ended up paying nearly $1,000 for the one of a kind item. The amount Lewis donated through his winning bid, in fact his first time presence at the auction, somewhat made up for his no-show at the induction ceremony. Well, not really actually. It seemed very Un-Lewis like to not at least send in someone to accept on his behalf so some of us who voted him in were perplexed to say the least.

National’s week party life regained some life this year which was likely the direct result of the Republic County lawmen maintaining a lower profile presence than that of last year. “Camp Fun” returned this year but the party of choice for most was the one that the “Nebraska Gang” hosted further north on ”M” street at the corner of 7th street. With the exception of the idiots that insisted on lighting off the equivalent of a “concussion grenade” each night right across the street from the water tower the party goers kept things fairly sane.

Even with the loss of the Boyer Gallery there was still plenty to do in Belleville and the town seemed fairly economically healthy this year. A yearning for “the simple life” that never seems to go away is something that always makes leaving town after the Midget Nationals feel like being forced back into a harsh reality. YES I do know that after the Nationals Belleville goes back to a virtual standstill but what’s so wrong with that? Isn’t it at all possible that our seemingly constant desire to overcomplicate life is at least partially responsible for the need for so many people to be medicated in some way just to be able to crack a smile? I’m already counting the days until I return to Belleville.

If you read this far expecting a race report I am about to disappoint you but will not be making any apologies for it. There are plenty of race reports and the Internet is a rich place to find information about “who finished where” etc. As long as I am able and allowed to continue writing about the Belleville Midget Nationals there will always be an emphasis on those things that are either going on because of the race or that are just special about this place situated at the “Crossroads of America.” If in some way “Back Home Again in Belleville” can get just one more person curious enough to experience the Midget Nationals and everything that goes with it that would be payment enough for the time spent in front of a computer getting this stuff out of my head.

To make up for the lack of a “race report” the following – in somewhat of a logical order – are the racing related items that I gathered during the 2006 Belleville Midget Nationals:

Fifty-seven cars were on hand for Friday’s preliminaries with forty-seven actually making qualifying attempts. Johnny Rodriguez, who finished third in the 2005 finale, qualified quickest with a 17.612 second lap which is just a tick off of Jason Leffler’s 17.504 1998 one lap mark which is the current record. All current track records were safe this year. The safest track record of all is Paul McMahan’s one lap 14.545 second lap which will turn ten years old on August 20th of this year. It seems the likelihood of winged 410 sprint cars returning to Belleville decreases with each passing year which is why I’m so happy we got to see them on August 20th 1996 when McMahon posted his record lap. Track conditions for Friday night’s preliminaries were completely different than those for Saturday night’s finale but in the opposite way they have been the last two years. For the last two years Friday was the drier of the two nights. This year Saturday night was the classic dry-slick and on the fence racing surface that so many remember from the past. Jeff Gordon’s lone 1990 Nationals Championship happened on such a surface. Matt Mitchell was the first of five flips during the two nights of the Nationals but the most spectacular and came at the most inopportune time. Mitchell was leading the third heat after taking the white flag when he smacked the fence at the apex of the back straightaway and barrel rolled to the bottom of turn three. The 2005 Nationals suffered only two red flags the entire weekend. Danny Stratton, like Mitchell, had his fortunes change on the white flag lap of the preliminary feature when Josh Wise was finally able to get by him in turn three and make the pass stick on his way to winning both nights. Stratton’s fate was the result of a combination of yellow flags that occurred with victory in sight – the first for rookie Dustin Morgan’s turn three fence tester and the other for tough luck award winner Don Droud’s blown motor in the Terry Klatt entry. Droud started twenty-second in Saturday’s finale and made it as far as third before the right-rear tire he had abused to get to the front caused him to fade back to tenth at the finish. Davey Ray chose to accept a ride with Steve Lewis’s historically potent team whose first trip to Belleville with Toyota power was this year. Ray had to be wondering “what if” because even though the motor expired on Friday in the Klatt entry that he piloted to a second place finish in 2005 eighteenth was the best he could muster in Lewis’s number ninety-one entry. Teammate Dave Darland was one position ahead of Ray in seventeenth. 2005 champ Jerry Coons Jr. suffered through engine problems on Friday but recovered fairly nicely with an eighth place finish Saturday. The lack of a Coons repeat keeps Kasey Kahne the only back to back Nationals champion who still has a pulse. The late Stan Fox is the only other competitor to score back to back Nationals victories. Both Friday and Saturday nights feature races suffered starts that were called back. The second attempt to get the Saturday night finale started produced the same result as the first with Drake lagging back on each attempt. Bud Kaeding hustled his way from the back of the feature all the way to third. Kaeding finished second in the semi and changed his right rear during a lap eight red flag for Brady Bacon’s turn four feature race flip. 1996 Nationals champion Robby Flock’s shot at a second championship ended just after the completion of the first lap of the finale when his motor detonated on the back straightaway. Flock and car owner Mike Sala are equally hungry for a trip to victory lane at Belleville which would be the first time for Sala if he keeps coming back. Bryan Clauson had a shot at being the youngest driver to gain a Midget Nationals crown and likely would have had a better one had the Kunz team for which he drove not gone one compound soft on the right rear tire. Seventeen year old Clauson and teammate Jay Drake ran one – two the entire first two thirds of the race until their thread-bare tires gave-way after a lap twenty-eight red flag. Drake’s went flat while the field lined up for the lap twenty-eight re-start while Clauson’s went down as eventual winner Wise passed him in turn three which resulted in the final re-start for the same lap. Once in front Wise, who had plenty of tire left even after forty laps, jumped out to a straightaway lead over Stratton who had a straightaway lead over Kaeding who passed both Teddy Beach and Levi Jones in the waning laps. Mopar got a significant amount of bang for their buck for their involvement in the twenty-ninth annual edition of the midget Nationals which included title sponsorship of the event as well as two of the top four finishers in the finale. Tony Stewart, who some rumor mongers suggested might fly in to watch his cars race, had to be pleased with his team’s performance in a race that managed to escape him before he moved on to NASCARland.

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