THOUSANDS TURN OUT FOR ANNUAL CAR GATHERING.

Byline: Greg Botonis Staff Writer

ROSAMOND - Dozens of small but powerful sprint cars and midget racers lined up at Willow Springs International Raceway on Saturday to participate in the 10th annual Walt James vintage race car gathering.

Thousands of spectators lined the stands to watch the more than 100 vintage cars zip around the clay, oval race track, piloted by some of sprint car racing's oldest professional drivers.

``All of the senile, blind guys are out here, still trying to drive race cars,'' said the event's namesake, Walt James, who began his racing career in 1940 on the streets of North Hollywood. ``People go down into the pits and meet all the old-timers and see their cars. It's just a lot of fun.''

The event officially began at 9 a.m. Saturday but motor homes started filling the parking lot early Friday afternoon, and by race time Saturday vintage race cars were still being towed in.

James initially expected 85 but watched that number come and go before race day even started.

``This is the largest turnout we have ever seen here,'' said James' wife, Dottie.

``This is the largest turnout the track has ever seen,'' James added.

First started by a Palmdale firefighter in 1992, the gathering was passed on to James in 1995 when the firefighter was transferred to another Los Angeles County station.

Track officials wanted to continue the event and asked James to take over the organizing while they promoted the event.

James first started racing as a teenager in 1940 when he, his brother and several friends would drag through the streets of North Hollywood late at night.

When police finally started cracking down on street racing, James and that same group of friends moved their races to the dry lakebeds in the northern part of the Antelope Valley.

When World War II broke out, James enlisted in the Army Air Corps and by age 19 was promoted to second lieutenant. During his military service, James earned the Air Medal of Honor and the Distinguished Flying Cross with seven oak leaf clusters during his more than 20 years in the Air Force, which included 26 bombing missions in a B-17.

After retiring from the service, James continued his dream of racing and he and the same group of friends that used to race in North Hollywood started the California Hot Rod Association, which soon evolved into the California Racing Association, one of the world's largest racing organizations.

``It was just the same bunch of hot rod guys that wanted to start a club,'' Dottie James said.

James continued racing his sprint car and served 21 years as president of the CRA, but eventually retired to Acton.

Before retiring, James wanted to continue promoting racing in all forms and built the now legendary Indian Dunes Motorcycle Park in Valencia.

``It gets in your blood,'' he said. ``I'm 80 years old, and when my friends and I aren't going to funerals we're out here racing.''

The event, aside from the races, included visits to the pits to meet some of sprint car racing's premier drivers and displays of running and non-running sprint cars. Cars that participated in the race included pre-1980 non-caged midgets, midgets, sprint cars and track roadsters.

The high-banked, clay oval track the cars raced on Saturday was named after James following his 1993 induction into the Sprint Car Hall of Fame.

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3 photos

Photo:

(1 -- color) John Lee of Newhall adjusts the idle on his 1920 Model T Ford at the Walt James vintage race car gathering in Rosamond.

(2 -- color -- ran in AV edition only) Jimmie Oskie leads Donnie Anderson around a turn during one of the heats at the Walt James vintage race car gathering.

(3 -- color -- ran in AV edition only) L.L. Harrison races his 1947 Kurtis Draft Offenhouse around the track during Saturday's Walt James vintage race car gathering. Thousands of spectators lined the stands to watch more than 100 vintage cars zip around the clay, oval race track.

Jeff Goldwater/Staff Photographer