Jerry Lee
12-03-2009, 01:54 PM
I first met Mike Craig (a.k.a. Mike Bowers in the '70's) when he was working the front gate security at Englewood Speedway in the mid-70's. "Big" Mike not only worked a lot of odd jobs at the track, but raced there as well, plus had a great career in the Figure 8 division at Colorado National Speedway in the early '90's.
There was more to the "Wildest Show on Wheels" catchphrase than just racing as Mike remembers in these 1992 video clips.
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JL: "Didn't you start hanging around Darrell Smith as a kid?"
MC: "When I was 14 years old, Darrell Smith had Baltic Auto, and there was Roger Burnett, Mike Livermore, and a bunch of us used to go down there and help him out. Then the years went on and we went out to the track and met Rich, and really got into it. Then I met Lucky Bieckman and started racing. I learned a lot from him and they were good people to be with."
JL: "You were once noted for switching divisions during the season because someone wanted to buy your Claimer."
MC: "Yeah, we brought it out as a Claimer and I won the main with it. Someone tried to claim it for $300. They were cheap ol' race cars, I probably had $100 in it at that. But they claimed it and I didn't want to sell it, so I brought it out as a Figure Eighter the next week."
JL: "And of course the rule states that if you don't sell the car, you would be banished forever from the Claimer division! (laughs)"
MC: "(laughs) That's right! I can never go back!"
JL: "Now you're doing pretty good in the Eights at C.N.S."
MC: "I got with Darrell Smith when the Figure 8's started up again in '89. I was a mechanic on Dave Tansey's car and we won the championship that year. Then the next year I started driving for Darrell."
(At this point, Darrell Smith appears in the shot)
DS: "Hi. My name's Darrell Smith."
JL: "(laughs) We all know who you are."
DS: " Not everyone knows who I am. If you're a bowler you don't know who I am."
(A phone rings and Darrell dashes out of the shot yelling "Badwrench!" in the background)
JL: "Darrell doesn't even have to party to be the life of the party. You did your fair share out there according to some program stories."
MC: "(laughs) About everybody in the old days.....they liked to party. They were "party-hearties". We used to party in the backchute, party in the pits. It was nothing to stay there until the sun came up. For quite a few years there it was a lot of fun."
JL: "Besides the parties, what do you miss about working at the track?"
MC: "Oh, just being a part of Englewood with Rich Codner and the crew. All the people we knew. All the people who came and went as the years went on."
JL: "I worked for both Betty Ruth and Candy Codner in my time out there and Grandma paid us. And Rich was great, if I didn't want to work that night and just shoot pictures from the infield, they would all say "Just be careful and stay out of the way.", and I always had a job to go to the next week. Super people."
MC: "Rich Codner was a good guy. Rich had a family that he took care of and everybody appreciated and respected him, and really liked the man, and the whole Codner family, they were great."
JL: "And Englewood had some great history to it."
MC: "Yeah, when the doors closed down, it was a piece of history that can never be replaced."
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There was more to the "Wildest Show on Wheels" catchphrase than just racing as Mike remembers in these 1992 video clips.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
JL: "Didn't you start hanging around Darrell Smith as a kid?"
MC: "When I was 14 years old, Darrell Smith had Baltic Auto, and there was Roger Burnett, Mike Livermore, and a bunch of us used to go down there and help him out. Then the years went on and we went out to the track and met Rich, and really got into it. Then I met Lucky Bieckman and started racing. I learned a lot from him and they were good people to be with."
JL: "You were once noted for switching divisions during the season because someone wanted to buy your Claimer."
MC: "Yeah, we brought it out as a Claimer and I won the main with it. Someone tried to claim it for $300. They were cheap ol' race cars, I probably had $100 in it at that. But they claimed it and I didn't want to sell it, so I brought it out as a Figure Eighter the next week."
JL: "And of course the rule states that if you don't sell the car, you would be banished forever from the Claimer division! (laughs)"
MC: "(laughs) That's right! I can never go back!"
JL: "Now you're doing pretty good in the Eights at C.N.S."
MC: "I got with Darrell Smith when the Figure 8's started up again in '89. I was a mechanic on Dave Tansey's car and we won the championship that year. Then the next year I started driving for Darrell."
(At this point, Darrell Smith appears in the shot)
DS: "Hi. My name's Darrell Smith."
JL: "(laughs) We all know who you are."
DS: " Not everyone knows who I am. If you're a bowler you don't know who I am."
(A phone rings and Darrell dashes out of the shot yelling "Badwrench!" in the background)
JL: "Darrell doesn't even have to party to be the life of the party. You did your fair share out there according to some program stories."
MC: "(laughs) About everybody in the old days.....they liked to party. They were "party-hearties". We used to party in the backchute, party in the pits. It was nothing to stay there until the sun came up. For quite a few years there it was a lot of fun."
JL: "Besides the parties, what do you miss about working at the track?"
MC: "Oh, just being a part of Englewood with Rich Codner and the crew. All the people we knew. All the people who came and went as the years went on."
JL: "I worked for both Betty Ruth and Candy Codner in my time out there and Grandma paid us. And Rich was great, if I didn't want to work that night and just shoot pictures from the infield, they would all say "Just be careful and stay out of the way.", and I always had a job to go to the next week. Super people."
MC: "Rich Codner was a good guy. Rich had a family that he took care of and everybody appreciated and respected him, and really liked the man, and the whole Codner family, they were great."
JL: "And Englewood had some great history to it."
MC: "Yeah, when the doors closed down, it was a piece of history that can never be replaced."
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