Gardnerville racer wins two events

Jimmie Johnson's victory at the Brickyard 400 wasn't the only back-to-back win in Motorsports last weekend.

Outlaw Kart racer Tanner Thorson of Gardnerville repeated his double at Cycleland Speedway in Chico, winning the main events in both the 250cc and Open Intermediate divisions for the second straight week. Thorson went wire to wire in 250cc class, and led all but three laps of the Intermediate main.

•For fans of classic cars, hot rods, and muscle cars, you will be in heaven this week with not one, but two great events.

This weekend is the Silver Dollar Car Classic right here in Carson City with 400 cars expected for today's show in Mills Park. If you hurry, you can be there this morning in time for the pancake breakfast served up by the Dayton Kiwanis. if you miss it, breakfast will be served Sunday morning, followed by the poker run, barbecue lunch and awards ceremony.

Hot August Nights will be running all week in the Reno/Sparks area with a record 6,000 registered cars. For you NASCAR fans, Dallas Colodny and Beau Debard will be displaying the cars they race in the Late Model division at Toyota Speedway at Irwindale. They will be at Summit Racing on Glendale Avenue in Sparks on Aug.4 and Aug. 6 from 9 a.m. until 1 pm, signing autographs, promoting safety and talking to race fans. The pair are currently first and second in the rookie points race at Irwindale, and fifth and sixth in overall points, with Colodny leading Debard. Colodny finished second at Irwindale last wekend, his best placing so far this season, with Debard in third, just .165 second back.

•Jimmie Johnson's win at Indy last Saturday was not without controversy. Juan Pablo Montoya dominated the race, attempting to become the first driver to win both the Indy 500 and the Brickyard 400. A pit lane speeding violation killed that ambition, and conspiracy theorists are frothing at the mouth over another perceived "convenient" penalty called by NASCAR.

Brian France, chairman of NASCAR, called the Sirius Speedway talk show to discuss it last week. Although the teams can't see the pit lane speeds displayed, the computer in race control does show them, and France said his heart dropped when he saw Montoya's speeding violation flash up on the screen. As far as I'm concerned, I just hope those pit lane timing systems are more hacker-proof than Diebold voting machines.

•The other big story of the weekend was open-cockpit racing safety. Henry Surtees, son of motorcycle and Formula 1 champion John Surtees, died after being hit by a flying wheel in a Formula 3 race. A similar incident happened during Formula 1 qualifying in Hungary. If you didn't see it, a spring that fell off of Rubens Barrichello's Brawn struck Ferrari driver Felipe Massa's helmet, temporarily knocking him unconscious and causing him to go straight into a tire wall. Massa was airlifted from the track and subsequently had surgery for a concussion and skull fracture. He is expected to go home within the week, but is probably out for the season. Those two incidents so close together have prompted many to call for a review of open-wheel safety. Some have even suggested enclosing the cockpits of F1 cars. In my opinion that would bring on a whole new set of problems, like preventing a driver from quickly exiting a burning race car. Racing is an inherently dangerous sport, and it cannot be made 100% safe. To those of us who were around in the 60's and 70's, when fatal accidents were fairly commonplace, today's racing safety is light years better.

My concern is that Massa is able to fully recover from his injuries and race again. Sadly, I am reminded of drivers like Jerry Nadeau, Kenny Brack, Steve Park, Christiano da Matta, and others who suffered career-ending head injuries.