Young guns. It's all we seem to have heard about this season. Especially near the beginning of this year's NASCAR season. Those young, up and coming drivers that represent the future of the sport at all levels. Stepping up and winning at a much younger age than those that came before them.
 
The current crop of young guns includes names like Harvick, Newman, Johnson, Busch and Sadler. Even at the local level in our area, the youth movement has gotten our attention. Brian Woodhall, Travis Geisler, Jimmy Weller, Alex Feree and others have proven that they are definitely here to compete.
 
There are a group of drivers here in the Southwestern Pennsylvania area however, who are at the other end of their racing careers. The competitors that race in the Pittsburgh Circle Track Club's Zoresco Equipment Senior Series are one of the more entertaining groups of racers you will see in the area.
 
The Senior Series is made up of drivers who are at least 40 years old, and no longer compete on a regular basis at any of the local racetracks. While 40 is the minimum age, the average age of competitors is 55, according to Donna Rottman, co-promoter of the series. "Our oldest driver who drove with us for one race was 73 years old. He raced in Franklin at Tri-City (Speedway)," explained Rottman.
 
But don't let the age fool you. These are some of the most competitive races you will see when they visit one of the local speedways. "It's certainly competitive among the fellows that run all the time," explains Bill Wheeling, driver of the number 005 car on the Senior Series. "The interesting part, I think is going to the different tracks and having some of the retired drivers there using borrowed cars and joining us. Of course that puts a mystery to the whole thing because you don't know who you running with or how they're going to act or what kind of a car their running."
 
The Senior Series had a ten race schedule this year, competing at many of the local tracks. They include Mercer Raceway Park, Pittsburgh's Pennsylvania Motor Speedway, Lernerville Speedway, Tri-City Speedway and Latrobe Speedway. And while these drivers race on just a few different tracks now, the list of tracks where many of them competed in the past reads like a roster of places that aren't there anymore. Clinton, Shippenville, Heidleburg, North Hills, Monduke and South Park are just some of the many tracks that the current Senior Series drivers raced at in their heyday. Add to that, the tracks that these guys raced at that are still there, like Lernerville, Mercer, Tri-City and Sharon, along with Motordrome and Jennerstown when they were still dirt tracks, the current drivers in the series bring a very extensive background to each race.
 
The very first official P.C.T.C. Senior Series race was held in 1987 at Motordrome 70 Speedway when it was still a dirt track. A few of the current drivers on the series have been there since the beginning, and continue to participate for a number of different reasons. Bob McWilliams, of Greentree, has been with the Senior Series for ten years. The driver of the number 72 car puts it this way: "It gives us a chance to get back into racing. The main thing, it got me around to many tracks that I didn't race at before."
 
"Winning". That's what Pittsburgh's Tom Knight Sr. describes as the best part of racing with the series. Knight, who has been involved on and off with the seniors in his number 76 car since 1991, ended a somewhat long dry spell racing with the series. "I went 32 years and never won a race until the year before last"
 
Don Gamble of Delmont, who drives the number 1 car in the series and has raced with the seniors since the beginning, says it gives the drivers a chance to do something they love to do, but on a limited basis. "We only have ten races, and a lot of people have said, 'Why don't we make the series longer?' Well that defeats the purpose. If you want to run longer than that, you just stay in the regular racing."
 
The opportunity to race on a limited basis that the series provides is in most cases enough to satisfy the desire to compete. A few however, have returned to regular racing after spending some time with the seniors. Tom Knight for instance, who builds cars for his two sons who compete at Motordrome, jumped back into an asphalt modified himself last season. Larry Walters, a past champion of the Senior Series, also returned to regular competition a few years back. He now competes in a small block modified at Sharon Speedway.
 
For the most part though, this kind of racing is just what these guys like at this stage of their lives. This kind of racing is just what the doctor ordered for 67 year old Don Luffy, literally. After having some serious health issues that kept him out of a car for a year or so, he's back in the number 19 Chevelle and enjoying it again. For Luffy, of Hooker Pennsylvania, racing ten races per year is quite a step down from what he was used to in his earlier years. "We used to do it five nights a week and twice on Sundays."
 
With the Senior Series nearing the end of its sixteenth season, many of the participants have some fond memories of the time they have spent racing with the other "retired" drivers. For McWilliams, racing against some this areas legendary drivers stands out as very special to him. "Racing with Glade Neil, Don Dahle and Don Luffy. I mean I watched them race, then I got a chance to race with them and against them." Racing with some of the legends also rates as a special memory for Gamble. "It was an asphalt race at Motordrome. I was racing with Blackie Watt, Jimmy Bickerstaff and Pee Wee Flick, three of my heroes, and I beat them. It was unbelievable. It was a good race and I think about that a lot."