BF’s B.S.  June 19, 2005 – Mountian View, CA.

 

Hello and Happy Father's Day to all of you Father's, I hope everyone had a safe and fun day. I have been blessed with having a great Father, one who always put his son's and family ahead of himself. When I was growing up I had no idea there was anything else in life besides Auto Racing and Baseball. I played baseball during the week and Saturday mornings, and then went to the races on Saturday and Sunday. I was a creature of habit, McKelvey Park to play Baseball, San Jose Speedway, Clovis and then Baylands Raceway Park in my teenage years. The first time I ever went into the Pits was at Baylands with my Dad. I don't remember being quite 16 yet, but I did always look older than I was and it was the World Of Outlaws and I wasn't going to miss that. That was many years ago and Steve Kinser won that night and he is still winning to this date. Now a proud father, Steve has the luxury of watching his son follow in his footsteps and winning WoO races. I have yet to follow in my Dad's footsteps, in case you don't know, my dad, Burt Foland was a many time Main Event winner in Super Modifieds and Midget during his Hall Of Fame career. He was inducted into the San Jose Speedway Hall of Fame as a Super Modified and Midget driver before being inducted into the BCRA Midget Hall of Fame and the Legends of Kearney Bowl Hall of Fame as well. To say that I am proud to be my Father's son is an understatement.

When I was old enough to go to the races, my dad was winning races at San Jose Speedway,
Clovis and just about any other track he ventured to. He was an accomplished mechanic as well and worked on Indy cars for years on the O'Connell and Gearhardt teams with drivers like Gary Bettenhausen and Billy Vukovich Jr. But he yearned to be a driver and made the tough decision not to move to Indianapolis when it was time to make a decision between uprooting his family, or staying in California when it was time for me to start my schooling. Things may have be different in our lives had he chose to move to Indy, but I have always respected my dad for the decision that he made and I don't regret anything that I have done since then either. My Dad always backed me when I was playing baseball growing up and never pushed me in any direction and let me make my own decisions in my life. After my Baseball playing days were over, my brother was racing Midgets with my dad and I made the decision to follow the Sprint Cars all over California. That is when I started hanging around with Bob Miller and Brent Kaeding and the rest in history. I have been lucky enough to have made Auto Racing my livelihood and I wouldn't change my course for anything.

After my brother stopped racing with my dad, I was lucky enough to step into the family Sprint Car and after some hard lessons I was able to improve with every race. My dad never told me how to drive a racecar, but if I asked him the right questions, he was always there for some great advice. I haven't made it easy on my dad or my mom for that matter when it has come to driving as I have taken my share of hard knocks on the racetrack. I will always respect my dad and every other dad that has had to watch his son or son's on the racetrack, not an easy thing to do. So when I see Steve Kinser and his son or Brent Kaeding and his son's racing at the same time on the same track, it has to be that much more difficult. I don't know what it is like to be a Father, but I don know what it is like to be a proud son and that is what I am for my
Dad. I have always loved and respected everything that you have done for me during my life and for that I say thanks and Happy Father's Day…..Billy

BF's Notes: Steve Kinser keeps on spanking the WoO boys, sweeping the Eagle Nationals and extending his point lead, looking to be on his way to a 20th title…Fred Rahmer is well on his way to another career year with 14 wins through June…Brent Kaeding got hot on the Golden State circuit winning 4 of the last 6 races…Congrats to Jonathan Allard and the entire Williams Motorsports team with Ashley Smith on their huge $25,000 win at the Super Dirt Cup at Skagit…
Brian Leppo has stepped into the Apple Motorsports seat vacated by Jeff Shepard and won in his first race at Williams Grove…Can anyone stop Chad Kemenah on the All-Star circuit?…Joey Magaruh has been fast at Placerville this year…Ricci Faria took home his first ever Non-Wing win at Hanford in a USAC/CRA race a couple weeks ago and backed that up with a win at Tulare in 360 SCRA action with Mark Flachman…On a weekend when Father's rule, Mother Nature won at Calistoga, beating the Civil War Series…Robert Ballou picked up his first Civil War race a couple of weeks ago at Marysville…Sammy Swindell continues to win on the WoO circuit as well as his son Kevin in the USCS series…Jason Meyers has been very consistent in the WoO this year, winning 3 races and running a solid 3rd in points…Kody Swanson made his dad proud last weekend winning in Eureka in the USAC Western States pavement Sprint Car Series…Roger Crockett has a great ASCS Speedweek running at or near the top in all but one of the races…Darren Stewart took home the ASCS Speedweek title by 2 points over Gary WrightLance Dewease has started putting it together winning a couple of races, one after Don Kreitz Jr. came up light at the scales…Greg Hodnett has switched to Maxim Chassis and has strung together a few wins and some impressive top 5's…Jason Statler picked up his first ever win at the Tulare Thunderbowl after many frustrating race there.

 

BF

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