I hope all racing banquets this offseason are as upbeat as what we experienced on Saturday night at the Lee County Speedway banquet in Fort Madison. Promoters Terry and Jenni Hoenig do a great job with their awards presentations and I must say that the speeches delivered by the five track champions were as entertaining as I have ever heard at a racing banquet. IMCA Modified track champion Josh Foster set the bar high delivering about a ten minute routine that would rival any mini-set by a professional standup comedian, but Jason Cook, Jim Gillenwater, Dean Kratzer and Rob Hammel did just fine for themselves as well.
For me at least Gillenwater delivered the most interesting “news item” of the night when he stated that he would step up from the Sport Mods and pair up with Michael Long for the 2009 season. The new team will make their debut in just a couple of weeks in Florida and it will be interesting to see how Long does in the IMCA Modified ranks at Donnellson. He has been virtually unstoppable the last couple of years at Quincy.
My wife Christine and I would like to thank the Hoenig’s for including us at their party and we really enjoyed our tablemates Dennis & Leslye Krieger and Dewain Hulett. Christine enjoys going to the races when she knows some of the people competing and after Saturday night I have a feeling that she will now be a Josh Foster fan! Keep in mind that Foster purchased Tony Fraise’s modified at the end of 2008.
While at the banquet Saturday night we had the DVR set for the NASCAR All Star Showdown live on SPEED from Irwindale California. The finish of the 250-lap event was dramatic to say the least as eighteen-year-old soon to be Sprint Cup rookie competitor Joey Logano drove Peyton Sellers into the turn four wall on the final lap. Logano appeared to be happy with his methods as he pumped his fist in jubilation after crossing the line first, but NASCAR penalized his rough driving by placing him last in the forty-car rundown. Sellers showed amazing restraint as he marched to Logano’s car and had a non-physical conversation with the youngster. Then, only a few minutes later, Sellers delivered a very classy interview after being crashed out of a certain victory and the $34,500 check that went with it. Instead he finished 13th and made $9,500. Needless to say, I am now a Peyton Sellers fan!
The newly formed Late Model team of Steve Rushin and Eric Turner made another January trip down south when they traveled to Ringgold Georgia for the Mid-Nite Oil Racing Fuels 50 at Boyd’s Speedway. Turner, who was the runner up in the 2008 All Missouri Modified points, impressed the locals by running fourth in the main event behind Ray Cook (who also won the Ice Bowl three weeks earlier), Ronnie Johnson and Anthony White. Mike Collins of Council Bluffs IA finished 17th in the 32-car Super Late Model field.
With the number of entries being capped at sixty for the Deery Brother Summer Series event at the Knoxville Raceway it is my hope that the folks at IMCA will consider the possibility that a regular point contender may get shut out of the event. It is not new for the Knoxville Raceway to limit entries as they have done it the last two years for the Lucas Oil Late Model Nationals, so it was not a surprise when they announced that only the first 120 IMCA Modified entries, the first 60 IMCA SportMod entries and the first 60 IMCA Late Model entries would be accepted for the expanded 2009 edition of the Harris Clash. But here is the potential problem. Only one of the events mentioned above is part of a points-paying traveling series and it is very possible that one or more of the drivers who are chasing points could be forced to watch from the grandstands simply because they didn’t get their entry postmarked early enough. Granted this scenario is a long shot as there are much fewer IMCA late models out there, but the lure of racing at Knoxville on Wednesday July 8th will likely bring them out of the woodwork. In my opinion IMCA should state right now that any driver who has perfect attendance up to that point on the 2009 Deery Series will be guaranteed the opportunity to compete that night at Knoxville regardless of when their entry was received.
I have mixed emotions regarding the announcement today that Lebanon’s I-44 Speedway will return to an asphalt surface in 2009. As a dirt track I have included the facility as one of my five favorites since the surface switch in 2003, but I must admit that before that I considered it to be one of the raciest asphalt short tracks that I have ever been to. With two new beautiful dirt track facilities (Lake Ozark Speedway and Lucas Oil Speedway) within sixty miles of Lebanon I-44 it now makes sense for it to return to an asphalt surface and we wish them the best in 2009 and beyond.
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