If you have followed the “Back Stretch” in Hawkeye Racing News over the years you know that in my December effort I will step back from my positive attitude for a moment to air a couple of complaints in a general fashion. I will do that again this year, but I am happy to say that for the second year in a row it is more of a struggle to come up with something for this column. So one of two things must be happening, either improvements are being made in how racing programs are being presented, or I am being more selective about the tracks that I am attending. Actually, I think that it is a combination of both!
Promoters, if you are not using the “one spin and you’re in” rule during heats and last chance races all I can say is, why not?! It makes me cringe when I see a driver spin and then sit until the caution appears only to then fire it up and drive away ready to assume his position for the restart, a position that is incredibly better than if he would have kept the car running and continued racing. More on that in a bit, but even worse is the driver who spins into the infield and then drives back out to the edge of the track and stops in order to draw a caution flag. When this happens, Mr. Flagman, if you don’t immediately send that driver to the pits then he is making a chump out of you, plain and simple.
When you don’t use the “one spin and you’re in” rule you are allowing drivers to interrupt the racing action that your fans are paying to see and you are extending the length of your program, something that will eventually keep some of your fans from returning to your track. And, worst of all you are rewarding the driver for doing this! That’s right, you are rewarding a driver when you put him to the back of the pack for a restart, not penalizing him. Think about it like this, if a driver spins and keeps it running and returns to racing in a heat race without causing a caution he is now likely in last place well behind the driver in front of him and probably at least a half of a lap or more behind the leader. But if he causes a caution and you restart him at the back, he is right on the rear bumper of the car in front of him and he is only as many car lengths back from the leader as there are cars in the race. Wow, that’s some “penalty”!
Put the “one spin and you’re in rule” into effect and watch your racing program improve. I really do not see how anybody can make a legitimate argument against that rule and if you are not going to step up and do it, then at least you should consider one of the ideas that Ryan Clark had in his recent “wish list” at In Staging on www.PositivelyRacing.com. Each time that a driver causes a caution, have him pay a “fine” that would go directly into the point fund for that division. That actually may be even more effective!
The only other complaint that I can come up this off-season applies only to the national Late Model touring series and it involves what I feel is the number of interruptions and delays that these series allow their drivers to create during the feature races. This past season I was at a one hundred lapper where one driver stopped on the track four different times to pull a caution just so that he could duck into the work area to either change a tire or to make chassis adjustments. Why would anybody allow this to happen? This isn’t fair to the fans, or to the other drivers who either did their homework before the green flag dropped or who are just dealing with the setup that they went with. In the past I have seen drivers stop the race as many as three times with a flat tire only to return to the track each time for the restart to race again with another tire that is likely even softer than the one before as they are given a chance on fresh rubber to run down other drivers who decided upon tires that might actually last a full one hundred laps. How fair is that? And it drives me nuts to sit through a caution period that is lengthened by a parade of drivers who stop on the front stretch to have a series official pull out sheet metal. I realize that a traveling series needs to take care of the drivers who follow them and that is why this kind of stuff is allowed, but it makes you wonder just how much better the racing would be if some rules were implemented to keep drivers from taking advantage of the situation. How about each driver is allowed one caution for a flat tire and one “I’m just gonna stop on the track because I don’t like something” caution, but after that they count toward a “two cautions and you are done” rule. And if you need some sheet metal pulled away, then head to the pits under caution and have your crew do the work! Perhaps the best one-hundred-lap race that I have ever witnessed was the Pepsi USA Late Model Nationals at 34 Raceway this September and it was run under a pretty strict rule package. Cause two cautions and you were done, and if you needed bodywork you did it in your pit area. Cautions were at a minimum and therefore long stretches of green-flag action were at a maximum. Coincidence? I don’t think so!
We made it to fifty-nine events during 2009 at twenty-two different tracks located in five different states (Iowa, Illinois, Missouri, Kansas and Kentucky). Once again we spent the most time, twelve nights, at the Knoxville Raceway and close behind was the Southern Iowa Speedway in Oskaloosa where we spent nine evenings. The two tracks closest to my Mount Pleasant Iowa home were next in line as we made it to the Lee County Speedway in Donnellson seven times and we were at 34 Raceway just west of Burlington five times this year. We went to the Lucas Oil Speedway in Wheatland Missouri and to the West Liberty Raceway three times each this year and we spent two nights at each of the following tracks: Lake Ozark Speedway (Eldon MO), Quincy Raceway, Marshalltown Speedway and Springfield (MO) Raceway. We attended one event each at Kentucky Lake Motor Speedway, Humboldt (KS) Speedway, Benton County Speedway (Vinton IA), Iowa Speedway (Newton IA), Farley Speedway, Iowa State Fair Speedway (Des Moines IA), Independence (IA) Motor Speedway, Bloomfield Speedway, 24 Raceway (Moberly MO), US 36 Raceway (Osborn MO), Boone Speedway and the Cedar County Raceway (Tipton IA). Of those tracks above, four of them were a new site visit for us including Springfield, Humboldt, US 36 and the Iowa Speedway.
As far as series were concerned we saw the USMTS Modifieds six times, the Deery Brothers Summer Series for IMCA Late Models five times, the MLRA Late Models on four occasions, and the World of Outlaw Sprints, the Sprint Invaders, the Lucas Oil Late Models, and the USAC Midgets twice. We caught one show each of the ASCS Sprints, the POWRi Midgets, the All Star Sprints, and the USAC Sprints. This was the first time since I can remember that I did not hit a UMP Summer Nationals event as weather shot down my plans each time. Fourteen of the fifty-nine races (23.7%) that I attended this year were “weekly shows”. I started the year with a spur of the moment road trip to Kentucky Lake on March 6th as temperatures hit the mid-70’s and my season ended in frustration when Mother Nature put an early end to Shiverfest at Donnellson on October 25th. Along the way we dodged the weather pretty well and saw some great racing with solid car counts and good crowds despite the state of the economy. Here’s hoping that the 2010 season will be a good one for all of us both at, and away from the racetrack.
Have a safe and wonderful Holiday season from Jeff, Christine, Ashley, Kyle and Morgan out here on the Back Stretch!
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