Racers young and old plying their wares at Motorama SpeedwayMotorama

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Racers young and old plying their wares at Motorama SpeedwayMotorama

BEAUMONT - The quarter-mile dirt oval at Motorama Speedway supports more than the 20-plus vehicles per race every Friday night.

It also supports generations of family racers.

The competitors in the events at the speedway are mainly local people, who enjoy racing on the weekends. And when the American Sprint Car Series comes to town, as it did two weeks ago, the speed and the competition sharply increase.

One of those ASCS drivers is Gary Watson, who lives in Beaumont, works for ExxonMobil and has been racing for 29 years. Watson helped current Motorama Speedway owner Butch Doyle purchase the track in 2002. They were co-owners until Hurricane Rita hit Beaumont. Following the storm, Doyle bought out Watson's share of the track.

Now Watson travels with the sprint car series and has been very successful, although he isn't racing for the money.

"I do it for the competition. Eighty-five percent of the people here aren't doing this for a living," Watson said.

He says the sprint car itself costs about $80,000, and another $200,000 might be spent on trailers, extra parts and anything else that could be necessary. It makes for an expensive hobby, but he's a sponsored driver.

Watson, who is the defending ASCS Gulf South champion, finished in fifth place in the feature race two weeks ago.

Another interesting competitor in that ASCS race was 16-year-old Kathryne Minter of Bedford.

Minter has been racing for four years and got started when her cousin gave her a four-cylinder mini stock car. Her parents, Mike and Tracy Minter, support her racing endeavors now.

Minter has big dreams. She hopes to move up to the World of Outlaw series next year, which is a bigger sprint car division.

"My eventual dream is to move on to NASCAR," said Minter.

Minter needed to finish in the top three of the "B" main race to make the feature race. She finished second and ended up finishing 14th in the feature.

It's not only the ASCS that has all the competitive, ambitious drivers. Jonathan Johnson, competitor in the modified car division, has seen quite a bit of the racing world in his young life. He was born in Beaumont and started racing at the age of 8 thanks to the influence of his father, Glen Johnson. The elder Johnson raced on dirt tracks as early as 1970 and started his own company, Johnson Motorsports, which still exists.

In 2002, Jonathan Johnson moved up to the super stock division, where he won his first national race. That year he was ranked 13th in the world in super stock.

After three successful seasons, he started racing alcohol funny cars under Brad McWilliams in Tulsa, Okla., and had a semifinal finish in his first event with the team.

Due to his success, Johnson was invited to race under the Etterman Racing team in 2006 and finished fourth in his division and 18th nationally.

Despite all the racing activity that's been going on in Johnson's life, he still has to make time for other things. When the Etterman's chose retirement at the end of 2006, Johnson chose to concentrate on his upcoming graduation from Texas A&M with a degree in architecture. Johnson has now gone back to his Beaumont roots and races on the dirt track at Motorama, as well as other tracks around Texas.

As much as he would like to make a living racing, Johnson says he can't make that happen right now.

"I don't do it for a living, but I certainly live and breathe it," Johnson said.

Johnson now works as an architect for the SLI group in Houston.

Another example of the generations of racing evident at the speedway is Johnny Arthur Jr.

His father, Johnny Arthur Sr., was a driver and got the younger Arthur in to it. Now the daughter of Arthur Jr., Samantha Arthur, wants to move up into the same division her dad races in, the UMP Modified. Samantha has won numerous national go-kart races, according to Arthur Jr.

Arthur Jr. is a mechanic at Mike Smith Dodge and lives in Beaumont. He is a regular competitor every Friday, unlike the ASCS drivers, who travel to different tracks each week.

He said it takes about $20,000 to get a UMP Modified car ready to race.

"I just enjoy coming here and hanging out with friends," Arthur, Jr., said.