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June 18, 2008
THE NIGHT BUZZ WAS WORRIED
It’s been thirty
years since Buzz Rose twisted the wheel of a sprinter. But when the
former Marine drill instructor gets to talkin’ racing, his voice
seems to fire up and his still massive forearms grow an inch.
Buzz started
racing in 1954 and was soon touring with IMCA’s Midwestern series
and a bunch of buddies from Southern California. It was a glorious
time on the fair circuit, and he loved it.
“What an honor
it was to run IMCA and for so long. I was aware that it was special
– that I had the opportunity to get that same feeling my hero
drivers had when I was growing up. It was rough and tumble. Some
of those guys were braver than me, but they all died. It was
different – so much more physical then. If you revved one of those
Offys in the pits, the steering wheel of the car would vibrate
three-quarters of an inch. And, when you went down the
straightaway, you could hear that beautiful roar from right inside
the car. There were no little guys then. They were all like Jud
Larson.”
Just a couple of
minutes with Buzz and you know you’re in the company of a tough
hombre. That’s why it’s surprising when he tells about the night he
was scared in a race car.
It was 1968, and
Buzz was running the California Racing Association in Pop Miller’s
car. They had heard word that Keith Hall was planning the inaugural
Western World at Manzanita, paying a whopping $10,000 to win.
Pop sent Buzz
over to Ray Wilson’s shop in Arizona with the car a couple of days
early. You see, there was a catch in the rule book. At Manzy,
unlike in CRA, you had to run with a roll cage, and Wilson glued one
on.
When Buzz saw
it, he freaked out. “I was 6’3” tall. I didn’t even know how to
get in the thing. When I did, my head was 3” over the top. Pop
said, ‘I’m gonna have to remake that cage for a 500-pounder’ – and
that’s what he did.”
“When we got to
the track, I was really worried. I had come from midgets and
sprints, not hard tops. I didn’t know what this contraption over my
head was. I was used to flipping and flopping all over the place.
We didn’t know about arm restraints back then. All night I kept
thinking I’m going to get this son of a bitch upside down and it’s
gonna chop my arms off. I was terrified.”
It doesn’t sound
as though Buzz’s concern reached his throttle foot, however. He set
fast time and outran Colby Scroggins and Jan Opperman in the 15-lap
qualifier.
Come feature
time, as the picture from the first lap shows, it was Bob Cleberg on
the pole, Buzz on the outside with his Double X-wide roll cage,
followed by Lee Kunzman and Opp aboard Bob Trostle’s “Cornbelt
Specials.”
The first lap of the Western World Championship, Manzanita Speedway,
1968
They had quite
the battle for the first 35 rounds of the 50-lapper. That was when
Jerry “Termite” McClung spun off the fourth turn into a crowd of
bystanders. It was bloody. A multiple fatal.
After a lengthy
cleanup, Buzz’s fear turned into frustration. He blew up from
over-revving. The crew had changed the rear tires during the delay,
but not the gears.
The next three
weeks for the Miller-Rose team speak dramatically to what it was
really like to campaign an open wheeler at the time. On the asphalt
at Saugus (CA) Stadium, sans roll cage, Buzz set fast time again the
next weekend. He was black flagged leading the main for soaking
second-place runner, Bob “Lover Boy” Hogle, with oil. The tank had
been overfilled.
Then it was to
the mile dirt at Sacramento for another $10,000-to-win shootout.
Again Buzz was leading – until a busted radius rod steered him to
the infield.
“I was doing
this for a living,” Buzz recalls, “and this was getting tiresome.
So we got pretty psyched up for yet another Agajanian-promoted show
at Clovis, California. We were very fast in the prelims. Right
before the race, Pop changed the tires. He promised me three times
over that they’d work better, so I just took her down into that
first turn like I did in qualifying. Right into the fence, and over
and over I went. I was banged up, concussion and all that. But I
knew right then it was time for a change. So I told Pop I was
quitting his ride.”
“Then I married
his granddaughter.”
Today Buzz
Rose lives in Glendale, AZ, writing and publishing some of the
finest books in motorsports today. Coastal 181 carries all of his
titles, including:
Tow Money -
Tow Money II -
The Rim Riders
The Kings of the Hills
-
Eastern Bull Rings 1945-1960
California Hot Shoes:
CRA Sprint Cars from 1955-1970 Volume 1
The Wingless
Warriors, California Hot Shoes Volume II – CRA Sprint Cars 1970-1994
© 2008 Lew
Boyd, Coastal 181
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