Trickle to return for race with grandsons
Two years ago, Chuck Trickle was extra emotional after completing the Super Late Model stock car race on Father's Day weekend at the Bullring.
It always had been an emotional night for the 66-year-old veteran racer because the annual Chris Trickle Father's Day Doubleheader honors the memory of his late son, a budding NASCAR star. Chris was two months shy of his 25th birthday when he died in 1998 from injuries sustained in an unsolved shooting the year before.
The senior Trickle's tears flowed heavier in 2009 when he announced it would be his last time competing as a driver.
Trickle won't be racing in either of the 35-lap Super Late Model races Saturday night at Las Vegas Motor Speedway during the event's 13th annual running. But he has decided to race at least one more time.
Some of Trickle's fellow racers have helped him get into the cockpit of a NASCAR Charger, which is a lower division in the NASCAR All-American Series.
Trickle's motivation, he said, is to race at least once on the same night as his grandsons -- Chris, 10, and Tommy, 8.
Young Chris has won four times this year in the youth division of Bandolero Bandits in a ministock car that carries the family's No. 70. Tommy began racing in the division this year.
"When we heard Chuck might want to race, we were honored to have him join our team," said Tom Pfundstein, who owns the car usually driven by Pat Petrie.
The car will race as No. 70, the number Chris Trickle made popular before his father began carrying the banner.
The elder Trickle won the 2003 Super Late Model championship at the Bullring and the Father's Day feature five times.
Racing Saturday begins at 7 p.m.
■ DRAG RACING -- Four Southern Nevadans won divisional titles last weekend at the NHRA Lucas Oil Drag Racing Series at Top Gun Raceway in Fallon.
Justin Lamb (Competition Eliminator), Roger Kato (Super Gas), Roger Hall (Top Sportsman) and T.J. Crooker (Motorcycle) won their categories.
The victory moved Lamb to third in division points. He has won seven times in nine final rounds of major drag racing events this year. ...
Popular Top Fuel driver Rod Fuller, a part-time Las Vegas resident, returns to the NHRA Full Throttle Series this weekend in Bristol, Tenn.
Fuller, who owns seven Top Fuel titles, is expected to compete in 10 national events this year, including at Las Vegas Motor Speedway on Oct. 27 through Oct. 30. He is racing a dragster owned by Yas Marina Circuit in Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates, where the 40-year-old is the facility's chief drag racing instructor.
