John Stewart Racing

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	My auto-racing career began at the 1982 Winternationals at State Fair Speedway. This car, the Cor-Vett Center Spl., was a Nance chassis with a Chevy in-line 6. I was 17 at the time and competed in the Modified division. Prior to racing the car, the only driving experience I had in it was driving it around in a field for a shake down run. So, this was literally the first time I had driven the car. All I thought you had to do was go out there mash the gas and turn left, brakes were what you used for coming into the pits. It looked easy enough sitting in the grandstands. Needless to say, it didn’t work that way.
	This is the Cor-Vett Center Nance car we raced in the Modified division. My dad, Jim Stewart, owned the car and was the Head Wrench. We started out running an in-line 6 built by Billy Chilton. We later opted for another in-line built by Jim Pratt and Glen Owens of Pauls Valley. The car looked like a Boneville racer with the side panels enclosing everything. As you can see, the first time we raced the car it had no wing installed. Without any prior driving experience, I couldn’t tell the difference anyway.
	Opening night of the ’91 season at State Fair Speedway. Again, Nance car with Carbone power. We were fast during this season and had found consistency. We got as high as third in the points. The previous season we won our first A feature on the half-mile. During this ’91 season we won several heat races and trophy dashes. We were consistent top 5 finishers in the A mains. Unfortunately, the season ended to soon. I was involved in a collision with Gary Frizzel. The crash brought everything to a halt. It destroyed the car and hospitalized me. Unfortunately, we wound up finishing out of the top 10. We came back for a few races the next season, but that was it. Later, we sold all of our racing equipment and have been idle ever since.
	This is the Katt 100, Auto Sports Center Modified car. I believe this is 1985 season. We were still running the Nance chassis only this time we had a Steve Carbone Chevy V-6 power plant. It was one of the first ones at the Speedway. We had a lot of success with his motors. We ran them for 3 seasons and only had one expire. My crew here consisted of my Dad, Ted Crookshank and hidden behind the wing is Kenny Smith. The guy in the beard is David Forsythe.

	Ouch……Paul Ott and I collide. I can’t recall the circumstances here, but it looks like we had one of those "racin’ deals". Looks like a new front end had to be installed after this collision. Those first few years we went through some spare parts (rookie mistakes), remember what I said about the brakes.
	This is my debut on the half-mile in the Cactus Jacks, Auto Sports Center Super-Modified no. 73. I had set out for a year prior to this ’89 season. Earlier in the year, I drove for Sam Kamas, owner of Cactus Jacks, in another car he owned. Later, we purchased this ’87 Nance from Steve Carbone. Again, he furnished the engines for us. It was like starting over again. I had no experience on the ½ mile and we had no experience with the set-up on the new car. Mike Taloff came on board with us and we started making progress. The highlight of this season was a Trophy Dash race we won. We dueled wheel-to-wheel with Larry Allen for the win. At the time, he was the track champion at the speedway so defeating him got our racing effort going.
	Since I stopped driving in ’92 things have changed. I have since gotten married and have two daughters. I graduated college in ’97 and have started a career in Graphic Design/Desktop Publishing. Yes, I miss driving racecars, but now my time is filled attending my daughter’s dance recitals, etc. I look forward to the 2002 season at the Fairgrounds. With all the changes it should bring excitement and hard competition back to the track.