Thursday, June 23, 2011

I Really Need To Get To A Race!

It has now been twelve days since I have been to a race. Yes, it is mostly my fault as I decided long ago that I would take in all six nights of Burlington Steamboat Days last week and of course all six nights enjoyed perfect weather for listening to music and drinking beer down on the riverfront. There is no way if I tried to go to six straight nights of races that the weather would cooperate as well. Maybe Barry and I need to change the name of this site to Positively Music and see if that changes our luck.

I'm not sure why I made the decision to commit to every night of Steamboat Days since there wasn't anybody that I would have considered to be a "can't miss" act there this year. Trace Adkins and Ronnie Dunn were solid as I expected while Seether and Theory of a Deadman would have been better if I could have heard the lyrics even a bit over the thundering music. The two shows that were the best though were Three Days Grace whose lead singer knew how to work a crowd as good as any rocker that I have seen and up and coming country rocker Eric Church. This Church video was shot at the quarter-mile Clarksville Speedway home of The Tuckasee Toilet Bowl Classic and if you don't blink you'll catch a glimpse of Kasey Kahne.

So with the music festival behind me I was really pumped up for the UMP Summer Nationals stop at the Spoon River Speedway near Canton, Illinois, on Tuesday night. I kept a close eye on the radar all day and it looked like everything was going to build up just east of the track, but just before I left work at five I noticed one thin line had popped up just to the southwest of the Spoon. Since there was a chance of rain five of the six nights of Steamboat Days (I can't tell you what my buddy Herb still calls it) I figured I'd push my luck again and started driving east on 34. Two miles out of town though, and without warning the left lens of my glasses popped out of the frames and then dropped down between my seat and the center console. Well this isn't good!

I pulled over to the shoulder and started searching around for the lens and when I couldn't find it right away I felt that my search could be more focused if I didn't have a steady flow of traffic blowing by me at seventy miles per hour. So I climbed in, started the car, closed one eye and made my way across the road into the Boles Auto Sales lot where I thought that I could search for the lens and then hopefully put it back in so that I could continue my trip. As I climbed out of the car, owner Paul Boles walked out and asked how I was doing so I explained my dilemma and he said "I can fix that!" I've known Paul for years, he's the type of guy who will do anything for you and he has done just that over the years supporting several drivers and the two area race tracks, so it was no surprise that Paul would offer up his help for this unique repair. He pulled out a precision screwdriver and after a couple of attempts at getting the lens positioned correctly, we finally had it where it needed to be and I was back in business. There were two race ready Modifieds sitting in the shop, cars that his son Scott will race once the Little League season wraps up as grandpa Paul loves his baseball too. So if you are ever looking for a good deal on a used car, or a great rebuild, or if you need to have your glasses repaired, stop in and visit with Paul at Boles Auto Sales on the east side of Mount Pleasant. Thank you so much for your help Paul!

Turns out that those two Modifieds would be the only race cars that I would see that night as I learned just before I reached Monmouth that the thin line of thunderstorms had blossomed and washed out the show at Spoon River. The race has been rescheduled for July 13th. The following night I gave it another try making the drive up to Oskaloosa despite the fact that I knew that the chances of getting a full night of racing in were slim due to the bands of drizzle and light rain that were pinwheeling through southern Iowa. There weren't many cars and there weren't many people as obviously others made the right decision based upon the weather and stayed home. After a set of hot laps for each division that only saw about one-third of the cars on hand take part, promoter Todd Staley polled the drivers as to whether or not they wanted to race given the conditions and only one, Mike VanGenderen, said that he wanted to go ahead and run. To be fair, one young driver that I didn't recognize then shouted out "I'll race ya VanGenderen" which drew a nice laugh before everybody dispersed, loaded up and headed for home.

Cresco was a little too far for me on a Thursday night so of course the weather cooperated and the Hawkeye Dirt Tour event is being run as I type this up. The forecast looks great for Friday night and I have my sights set on the Lee County Speedway in Donnellson. If the weather changes and takes out this one, then I'll know that I am a jinx!

A couple of interesting stories out of Missouri this past week. First was the bizarre sequence of events that unfolded when a veteran central Missouri promoter showed up at The Racin' Boys studio last week and announced that he would be closing down his track due to the fact that his property taxes would be going up. The figure that was first thrown out was $22,000 and the next thing you knew there was a forum post with the e-mail address of the county assessor and the tirade against government was on. During the internet portion of Track Talk (I try to listen every Saturday morning) the Boys spent forty-five minutes discussing the subject including a couple of call ins from long-time employees of the track and the show wrapped up with everybody saying that we should all get behind this promoter and show our support. As I was listening I was thinking that the property taxes on my home went up by about $200 this past year because my assessed value had jumped by about ten grand, so I started trying to imagine what the value of this race track must be in order to have its property taxes go up by $22,000 dollars. Geesh, did it go up by another million? Wow, I have to go check this place out as it is one of a few tracks in Missouri that I have yet to visit. The forum thread grew rapidly, there was an e-mail sent to the governor, an intern at a Kansas City news station vowed that he would dig deeper, and one fellow who must have a Caps Lock button that sticks even suggested a Friends of the the Track Fund where people could help cover the increased taxes by joining for $100 each. And then it happened, a voice of reason stepped in and said "One question, after watching the tape of last night I heard Earl say something about a new building & new fence. If so could that be the $22,000 added tax value he was talking about? If so wouldn't that just raise his taxes by $200 or $300 more a year? I just can't believe they would jump up $22,000 more a year for what he has done. Now I am just asking a question here. If so $200 to $300 more a year isn't bad." Way to go 22all theway. (Note: I did correct some spelling errors and added some punctuation in that quote as when you are the voice of reason you don't always have time to use spell check)

Ruh, roh! That was soon followed up by a post who claimed that he got it straight from the source that it was the valuation that had been raised by $22,000 and that the taxes would increase by $460 annually because of it. Well then all hell broke loose and the tide turned from overwhelming support for the veteran promoter to, well you can probably guess. The Racin' Boys even took a few hits since the forty-five minutes of air time over this and the show ending plea of support alone had to be well worth the extra four hundred and sixty bucks, the only problem is that it isn't going to Kirk and Scott! I'm hoping that this was all just a misunderstanding in a climate where we are all utlra-sensitive about taxes, the price of gas, the slow economy, etc., etc. But one thing is for sure, come Saturday morning at 8 a.m. I'll be tuning in for what should be a very interesting session of Track Talk with the Racin' Boys!

I was so caught up with this entertainment that I didn't catch the other controversy out of Missouri until my friend Gary Lee sent me the link on Racin' Boys from the MLRA event at Lake Ozark Speedway. The feature race was rained out and from the extra research done by the Boys it appears that it is a pretty good bet that this promoter and the MLRA won't be working together again anytime soon. To quote Morris Day, "such nastiness!"

Okay, when I'm writing about forum boards and controversy, plus using obscure pop culture references you know that it has been way too long since I have been to the races. Please Lee County, don't get rained out tomorrow night!!!

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