Business travel and a family reunion has and will keep me away from the tracks for a bit and it looks like I missed a good one in West Liberty last night. It is really cool to check a forum and have someone describe how exciting it was having a crowd rise to their feet for a last lap pass to win a feature. When you read something like that, it just makes you count the days until the next time that you can attend a race and hope for that same kind of thrill.
Then you scan down the page and somebody is bitching about having to pay $30 for a World of Outlaw Late Model show, or someone is saying that they are not going to attend a race because the track is too cheap to have fireworks afterwards. Really? Way to help out the cause, and next year those same people will probably be making a post wondering why the Outlaws don't return to Iowa or why there are no races to be found on the Fourth of July. I stayed home from a race that I wanted to attend on the 3rd of July because my wife loves fireworks and if I wanted to announce the UMP Summer Nationals event the next night, and sleep in the same bed with her when I got home, I needed to take her somewhere for fireworks on Sunday. As it turned out, with an efficiently run program at 34 Raceway on Monday, race fans still had plenty of time to get in to West Burlington for their fireworks display and I enjoyed watching the show in Mount Pleasant as I drove into town at ten o'clock.
I know that it probably does no good to bring this up here, because I doubt that the people who make such posts stop by here for a visit. But on the off chance that as a Back Stretch reader you are ever tempted to make a negative forum post, please think twice before you do. The sport that we love is in a bit of trouble right now and the fewer pot shots that it has to take, the better.
Speaking of that, if you read my Harris Clash entry below, that first paragraph might lead you to believe that I was filing a negative report. Not so! Tuesday was an EXCELLENT night of racing, just not the best Harris Clash that I have seen and I have been to quite a few over the years. The racing was fantastic and there seemed to be some sort of drama in every race. However, there were way too many cautions and way too much equipment that needed to be repaired the following day.
Back to the UMP race at Burlington, the car count of 26 has been a topic of conversation from race night on through the week. Actually that was right about what I expected based upon the counts that the Tour has drawn in past events at 34. The difference was that this year that 26 did not include drivers who in the past made the trip to Burlington as a thank you for their J&J Steel sponsorship (Moyer, Wallace, Bloomquist, etc.) and it did not include as many of the Iowa based drivers. This was actually a UMP show that featured 14 of the top 17 in Hell Tour points, plus drivers such as Scott Schmitt and Jerry Lierly who decided to pull across the river and compete at 34. If 26 is not considered to be enough, perhaps it is time to try a dual sanctioned MLRA and Corn Belt Clash event?
Do me a favor, go out to the races this weekend and next week and enjoy them! I wish I could :)
1 comment:
Absolutely agree with your comments pertaining to ignorant forum posts. I know money is tight, believe me I'm pinching pennies when I can. But if a race fan is anxious for an upcoming $20 per seat show, then what's another $10? Everything else costs the same. I don't like dropping $30 to watch a race either, but it is what it is. If the promoter can't profit then we won't have anymore of these big traveling shows to watch in our back yard!
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