Friday, July 1, 2011

A Tribute To Grandpa and A Night at Donnellson

This has been a tough week for me after my grandfather Paul Swanson passed away on Sunday afternoon. He was 95 years old and up until his last four days he was able to get around enough on his own to be a part of an Assisted Living community here in my hometown. So while our family was brought together this week in a time of mourning, we also looked at it as a celebration of a life well lived.

Grandpa Swanson played a pivotal role in getting me hooked on two things early in life. One is my love of going to the gym and watching basketball. He himself is responsible for this one because it was Grandpa who would always make sure that our Thanksgiving Day dinner was wrapped up just in time for us to drive across Burlington for game one of the annual Blackhawk Turkey Tournament. Now known as the Southeastern Community College or SCC Blackhawks, the school has more Junior College basketball wins than any other school in the country and each year, beginning on Thanksgiving afternoon, seven other teams would roll into town for a three-day tournament that would feature two games during an afternoon session and two games at night. And even though the Blackhawks first round game was always scheduled for 8 p.m. on Thanksgiving, Grandpa would want to make sure that we were in the bleachers in time for the tip-off of game one even though the two schools playing were likely from far away. Going to those games with Grandpa when I was five, six, seven, eight years old and so on taught me how to watch the game and enjoy it even if I didn’t have a specific team that I was cheering for. But much more than that, it gave me all of that time with my Grandpa! To this day I enjoy going to watch the game of basketball whether it is a pair of area high school teams, Iowa Wesleyan College, the Iowa Hawkeyes or even the SCC Blackhawks and at each game I still get that same special feeling inside, that memory that comes to life every time I step into a gymnasium of the times that I spent with my Grandpa at the annual Turkey Tourneys in Burlington.

The other thing that he hooked me on was dirt track racing. In this though he had a willing accomplice in my Grandma Velma as the two of them would work things out with my parents so that on every summer Saturday night they would take me to the Mississippi Valley Speedway Club events at West Liberty and Columbus Junction. When I was a kid I couldn’t wait for Saturdays! We would get to the track early and eat a beefburger while watching the cars tow in to the pits. I even loved watching the mud clods fly high as they were packing the track and Grandma and Grandpa confirmed that seldom if ever would I fall asleep before the final checkers fell even though some nights went quite late. Mel Morris was my hero as he raced against Pokey West, Johnny Moss, Del Abney, Ron Perdock, Ed Mellecker, Ron Prymek, Ralphie Ericson and so many more. I wrote about this in greater detail when my grandmother passed away nine years ago and if I can find it on my hard drive, I will link it here. But everybody in my family knows who were to blame for turning me into the racing fan that I am today and I am forever grateful to Paul and Velma Swanson for that and for so much more. I love you Grandpa, rest in peace.

After spending Wednesday night with family and then laying Grandpa to rest Thursday morning I could think of nothing that he would like better for me to do than to announce a race that evening so I was glad that Bucky Doren and Terry Hoenig had invited me to work the microphone at the Hawkeye Dirt Tour event at the Lee County Speedway in Donnellson. A solid field of thirty-one IMCA Modifieds assembled for the $1,000-to-win event and the heat races showed that the track would offer up three grooves tonight. This proved out at feature time as leader Ronn Lauritzen saw Tyler Cale challenging him on the inside while Michael Long made a run at him on the outside with Long taking over the lead around lap ten of the 30-lap event. Cale tried to keep pace with Long, even pulling up alongside him in turns one and two, but Michael pulled away and cruised to a straightaway edge before taking the victory. Wyatt Lantz had a miserable start to the 2011 season but his performances here over the past two weeks prove that he has turned things around as he finished third tonight while Josh Foster put on quite a show to take fourth. Early in the race Foster spun sideways coming off turn four and ran over a large mine tire marking the inside of the track. The car almost tipped over, but Josh gathered it up and headed to the pits under caution to make sure that all was well. He restarted 24th and then charged all the way back to fourth at the finish. Muscatine driver Todd Hansen took fifth.

Twenty-six Stock Cars provided plenty of action including an incident in the feature that saw two cars leave “all fours”. Blaine Dopler was already executing a rollover in turn three when he collected Derek St. Clair whose #101 ended up resting on its side. Both drivers escaped injury and in fact St. Clair strapped back into his car and finished the race in 17th position. Shane Weller and Damon Murty swapped the lead back and forth over the final five circuits with Weller coming back to pass Murty with two to go for the win. Abe Huls, Matt Geiner and Justin Temeyer were next in line while brothers Jason and Ryan Cook followed. Wisconsin drivers Devin Snellenberger and Larry Karcz finished 11th and 13th respectively.

Grandpa Jimmy’s boys continue to impress in the Sport Mod division as Cayden Carter slipped by New Franken, Wisconsin’s Brad Lautenbach late to take the feature win with his cousin Carter VanDenBerg coming in for third. Lautenbach was looking to make it two in a row after winning the night before in Independence. Lucas Lundry finished fourth, Rodger Dresden was the best of the track’s regulars on this night in fifth and Ray Lundry was two spots back from his son in sixth.

The Lee County Speedway is back in action again tonight featuring IMCA Late Models, 305 Sprints, IMCA Modifieds, Hobby Stocks and Wild Things.

My next action will come on Monday night July 4th when the UMP Summer Nationals rolls into 34 Raceway near Burlington. Hope to see you there!

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