Thanks for posting this. The Copper World Classic was the best, went nearly every year as a kid and it was always a blast. So many cars, drivers and teams and I remember as good as the main events were the heat races were even better, some wild racing in those, would see 4 wide going into turn one. Also some big names got some of their first national exposure, Tony Stewart, Kenny Irwin, Davey Hamilton, Ron Hornaday, Dave Blaney, Mike Bliss and many more.
I used to go to this 100 mile race when the cars were called Champ Dirt Cars and they ran at the Az. State Fairgrounds. Driver line up consisted of names such as Roger Ward, AJ Foyt, Don Branson, Chuck Hulse, Johnny Rutherford, Bobby Marshman etc. Although the line up for this 1996 race contains an all-star list of drivers who went on to be the tops in their field, be it Indy Car, NASCAR, NHRA and WoO. Not too shabby!!!
Loved this race every year, was so nice to come to the first BIG race every year and see all the new cars and rides! The supers where so cool and fast, they where the fastest car time even faster than the Indy cars!
lol they say they looked at tony stewart as the bright light, little did they know he would move on to nascar, but never ever to this day 25 years later lost his dirt track and openwheel roots, sometimes even hops in a car himself and runs, would have made my day to see him at the 4 crowns this year 2021 I saw slamming sammy swindel run that friday, or was it blaney it was one that had been at it for years I remember, was excited to see the silver crowns but they were running a bit slow that day almost 17-18 seconds to the 13-14 seconds for the sprints. wish we could give em more dirt miles but there are soo few left, and they were supposed to have one more hoosier 100 as the limestone conversion had not started yet but they decided to start 2 weeks before the race, boy did that urk me I wanted to see it before it went away forever, maybe I can talk someone into trying to get a race at hoosier downs at shelbyvill just outside of indy its a mile and its dirt ;}
Thanks for posting this. The Copper World Classic was the best, went nearly every year as a kid and it was always a blast. So many cars, drivers and teams and I remember as good as the main events were the heat races were even better, some wild racing in those, would see 4 wide going into turn one. Also some big names got some of their first national exposure, Tony Stewart, Kenny Irwin, Davey Hamilton, Ron Hornaday, Dave Blaney, Mike Bliss and many more.
I used to go to this 100 mile race when the cars were called Champ Dirt Cars and they ran at the Az. State Fairgrounds. Driver line up consisted of names such as Roger Ward, AJ Foyt, Don Branson, Chuck Hulse, Johnny Rutherford, Bobby Marshman etc. Although the line up for this 1996 race contains an all-star list of drivers who went on to be the tops in their field, be it Indy Car, NASCAR, NHRA and WoO. Not too shabby!!!
Loved this race every year, was so nice to come to the first BIG race every year and see all the new cars and rides! The supers where so cool and fast, they where the fastest car time even faster than the Indy cars!
lol they say they looked at tony stewart as the bright light, little did they know he would move on to nascar, but never ever to this day 25 years later lost his dirt track and openwheel roots, sometimes even hops in a car himself and runs, would have made my day to see him at the 4 crowns this year 2021 I saw slamming sammy swindel run that friday, or was it blaney it was one that had been at it for years I remember, was excited to see the silver crowns but they were running a bit slow that day almost 17-18 seconds to the 13-14 seconds for the sprints. wish we could give em more dirt miles but there are soo few left, and they were supposed to have one more hoosier 100 as the limestone conversion had not started yet but they decided to start 2 weeks before the race, boy did that urk me I wanted to see it before it went away forever, maybe I can talk someone into trying to get a race at hoosier downs at shelbyvill just outside of indy its a mile and its dirt ;}
Very Great Race!! Thanks Richie.