Chuck Trickle eyes final go-round
Chuck Trickle expects to be around Las Vegas Motor Speedway’s Bullring for many more years, but Saturday is the last time he expects to be driving a race car at the track.
“I can still lift my leg high enough to climb in the car, but it’s getting harder to get the rest of my body through the window (opening),” he said Thursday on the eve of his 65th birthday.
Trickle, the track’s 2003 Super Late Models champion, has raced only once annually for the past few years, at the Chris Trickle Father’s Day Doubleheader, which honors his late son, Chris, who died at age 25 in 1998 from injuries sustained in an unsolved shooting the year before.
Trickle will drive Saturday night in the No. 70 car that his son made famous in the Southwest when he was headed toward a national NASCAR career while driving for owner Craig Keough.
“That No. 70 still looks good on the track,” said Trickle, who practiced at the Bullring last Friday. “I was pretty quick, but I know I was a little rusty. I’ve lost a little bit of my timing, and I don’t like that.”
Veteran crew chief Brian Kizer is helping Trickle, who will race as a teammate to Justin Johnson. Trickle has won the Father’s Day weekend feature five times over the past 11 years.
Trickle and his wife, Barbara, devote much of their time to rearing three grandchildren, including Christopher Trickle, 8, who races go-karts in Nevada and California and Bandolero mini cars at the Bullring. “There will be a Trickle racing around here for a long time,” Chuck said.
Saturday’s event will include two 35-lap Super Late Models races, a special appearance by the USAC Focus Midgets and regular competition for Legends Cars, Chargers, Bombers and Thunder Roadsters. Spectator gates open at 5 p.m. with racing to begin at 7. …
Cars from Jim Petrie’s H-Town Racing team will participate in the third annual Father’s Day Car Show from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. Saturday at Findlay Chevrolet (6800 S. Torrey Pines Dr.).
• KYLE BUSCH JOINS GANASSI — NASCAR stars Kyle Busch and Scott Speed will co-drive a second entry for Chip Ganassi Racing in the Grand-Am Rolex Sports Car Series race July 4 at Daytona International Speedway.
The NASCAR Sprint Cup drivers will make their Grand-Am debuts in a Lexus Riley Daytona Prototype as teammates of Scott Pruett and Memo Rojas, the reigning series champions.
The 21/2-hour sports car race will be a one-day event, with practice in the morning and the race in the afternoon. It will be followed at 5 p.m. (PDT) by the Coke Zero 400 Cup race at Daytona.
