The rain began to pick up, and lightning flickered in the distance. The Friday night World 100 qualifying session had been postponed to Saturday afternoon and a lingering group of stragglers slogged along, looking over their shoulder as a rumble of thunder echoed.

It was an unforeseen development for my carefully-planned project. The idea was to spend the night with a team in the Eldora Speedway infield, recording the events of the most important overnight of the year. After all, I mused, MORE

He is 91 years old now, and those eyes have seen a lot of living.

It is World 100 week, and nobody knows this more than Earl Baltes. He’s the man who, 41 years ago, changed the course of racing by creating an event that would ultimately give structure and definition to an unstructured and undefined form of motorsports. Things were never the same after that September afternoon in 1971.

He was hell on wheels back then, a cyclone of energy and purpose. No dream was too ambitious, no obstacle too MORE

Steve Francis towered over the scene, a colorful figure contrasted against the black night sky. He paced atop the team’s hauler, clutching the telephone to his ear, nodding earnestly and smiling.

He had just captured one of the crown jewel wins he had long coveted, the Topless 100 at Batesville Motor Speedway. It was another gem in a Hall of Fame career that now spans 30 years. His wife Amanda and daughter Alexis hadn’t made the trip, so he was sharing the glad tidings via phone.

It’s been a MORE