Who's The Best?

[tccaz]

Who is the best short track driver you ever had a chance to watch? I don't mean someone you saw once or twice a year at a special race I mean someone you got to see regularly. I think I was pretty lucky I saw Jimmy Crowe and Dick Crowe, Billy Taylor, Gene Johnson (boy could he drive, he made anything he got in faster) and many more I can't remember but the best I would have to say was Balough too bad he had so many other problems. I'm sure you guys can come up with many more and better ones lets see who you think.

[MW68SS]

Gary Balough, Daniel Keene on Asphalt. Just about any Nosbich on dirt along with Donnie Tanner.

[Mark Keeler]

Richie Evans (although he died when I was young)... As for someone who stayed more confined to a local area, I would say Reggie Ruggerio in New England.

[oneoff]

Butler Motor Speedway late 50's early 60's: Lee Broyton (Scott's dad), Larry Zimmerman, Sparky Young, Harold Sheild, and "The Momgo Fireball" Artie Hall.

[carolwicks]

Easy one...

Bugsy Stevens!!!!!
Oz

[Jimmy McKinley]

Just about everybody we put in cars over the years ran good and won just about everywhere we went:

At Palm Beach and Hialeah, we had Don Denny, Paul Conners, and Charlie Reagan in the car. When we started running Golden Gate and Sunshine, we had guys like Dave Scarborough, Dave Pletcher, Jimmy Cope, Billy Gill, Wayne Reutimann, Jim Childers, Bryan Wescott, Tony Watson, and Randy Warren in our cars over the years. We also had guys like John Passett, Junior Purcell, Donnie Strickland, Larry Moyer, and Daniel Keene when we ran All-Pro and Florida Pro. We ran weekly at St. Pete, Inverness, Tampa, and Bradenton; then ran in the early '90s at Punta Gorda when it first opened.

I'd say on a regular basis, it was Anderson and Balough in south Florida (remember the year Dickie won *18* in a row at Palm Beach - about half of those because no one else showed up so he won by default...LOL)...Bobby Brack was great, and in fact, according to Eddie Roche's book, actually won more features than Anderson back in the '70s and '80s...over on the west coast, Scarborough was always tough, as was Pletcher, at just about any of the four west coast tracks we ran at.

Not sure nowadays, you can claim that one driver's better than the other(s), because there's such a disparity of money spent from team to team. Russell's good on them 3/8-miles like Speed World and DeSoto; hard to beat Rogers at his home track in New Smyrna. Winchell's always tough wherever he goes (I remember watching him at Hialeah in his Thunder Car days...), but mostly at the flat tracks like Punta Gorda (and Hialeah when it was around). Not sure who runs good up north like at Lake City and Pensacola. There ain't that many more asphalt tracks left, and all of 'em run pretty good wherever they go, since no track really runs a weekly (S)LM show any more.

[jg72]

The best in my eye was L J GRIMM sat nite.

[flvideo]

JG you are pregious ( I butchered that) But you get the Gist.... Bob

[RSB]

best i ever saw

Bobby Gill and Dick Anderson for me.

[jimmy11owm]

the best ever

Bugsy Stevens

[tom77hmstd]

Bud Koehler Raceway Park Ill. 490 features won #77

[ronabneysr]

There Is Probably 10.000 That Are Great

BUT ROD PERRY IN PAN AMERICAN AIR LINES BLUE JEWEL SUPER MODIFIED WAS BEST I EVER SEEN . AND I HAVE SEEN - BALOUGHS - RAGANS - HANDSHAW- BRACK- GILL- JACK ARNOLD ANDERSON- TOBIAS- BILLY BOAT - RICHIE EVANS - CAGLE -RUTIMAN- SCARBOURGH- ALL SYRCUSE - FLEMINGTON - ROME NY -ISLIP-OSWEGA-DIXIE -ROME -SNOBALL ' I WOULD LIKE TO SEE THE BADDEST 20 DRIVERS FROM THE PAST IN THE CARS FROM THE PAST LIKE WHAT FENTON OR MCGINNIS - OR ANDERSON - BILLY GILL - JACK ARNOLD DROVE AND THOSE DRIVERS BE 30 YEARS OLD

AND TAKE 20 OF TODAYS DRIVERS BEST ONES AND PUT THEM IN SAME KIND OF CARS THAT THEY HAD IN OLD DAYS AND RUN A HUNDRED LAPS THAT WOULD BE A RACE TO SEE NO STORE BOUGHT CARS

[TINYTIMDSS]

Billy Bigley JR. on facebook as bigley racing

[BOB KRUPA]

The Best

Gotta be Jr. Hanley
He won 17 out of 18 races at the old Mt. Clemens Racetrack in Michigan.
He had to win over 50 races that year.

[flvideo]

Now that I have read a bunch of you guys favorites I'll give you mine. I have seen an awful lot of talented drivers in the last bunch of years but on a local level I think I would have to say Tim Miller in the #10 Late Model. Tims not in good health today, but in his day he was probably the winingest driver I remember. I think he won every thing I saw him drive unless he broke. On top of that Tim was one of the nicest guys you'd ever want to meet. If you've been around the Tampa Bay area for long you can remember Tim Miller. Bob...