RACINBOYS EXCLUSIVE By Ray Cunningham (Grain Valley, MO) --Affectionately known as the “Colonel” for his days as an auctioneer, the late John E. Helm will be honored this Saturday night at Valley Speedway when the Allstar POWRi Valley Midgets and the Valley POWRi Sprints take to the Grain Valley Oval for the fourth time together in 2018, along with the B Modifieds, and other classes. Helm, competed at tracks including KC favorites, Riverside, and Olympic Stadium, in the 1950’s and 1960’s, in his number #12, stocks, coupes, and super modifieds, before passing the family mantle on to son John, who, along with 10 total members of the Helm clan have competed across the metro area in several open wheel classes from the 1950’s to present. John Helm, who owns a sprint car with the familiar #12 first raced by his father, will be giving each competitor in every class an extra “12 dollars” to compete Saturday night for the Fathers Day weekend races.
PHOTO: Wesley Smith Pilots John Helm #12 at Valley.--CREDIT: John Lee High Fly’n Photos -- http://www.highfly-nphotos.com
Competing Saturday night in the Valley non winged Sprint class will be Chad Goff of Spring Hill, KS. who leads the season point standings, winning three straight races in May at Valley, while also finishing second two other occasions. Cody Baker, fresh of winning last weeks special 50 lapper for the sprint division over Goff, and former WAR Champ Chris Parkinson, has won two shows at the Grain Valley Speedway driving for Dave Long in 2018. Other competitors for Saturday in the sprint class include, former track champ Chad Tye, former POWRi WAR Champ Mitchell Moore, runner up in WAR points in 2017, Wyatt Burks, driving the Don Rumsey 11W, and Wesley Smith who will be piloting the Helm #12.
Returning to action for the first time since May 26th, the Allstar Midget Series in conjunction with POWRi and Valley, will be racing for the fourth time this season at Grain Valley. Veteran Chad Frewaldt won the first show this season for the Allstars, and rookie Chase Porter won the last time, his first win in the series racing out of Saint Joseph. Wesley Smith, a 14 time winner in Allstar competition since 2015, will race the family owned #44 midget. Smith won the other race for the Allstars at Valley in 2018. And will be one of the few who will take the challenge of running both classes Saturday night. Point leader Chad Winfrey driving the family owned #321 has finished second in two out of the first three races in 2018. And AJ Gilbert, racing his first full season in midget competition comes in 2nd in points this season, after finishing in the top 5 in the first three events. Others to watch for include 2017 Allstar Champ Dustin Gilbert, Morgan Frewaldt, Bill Allen, and Mike Epperson among others. Gates open at 5:00 for the grandstand, with hot laps at 6:30, and races at 7:00 pm.