A few thoughts while out on the road......
This past Sunday night, after dropping off our older son Kyle at the airport, I was able to convince my wife Christine to attend her second race of the season at the Quad City Speedway in East Moline. We arrived a little late and I did not have my trusty notebook with me so not much detail here. Plus, with this second race, Chris has reached her quota for the year so I was doing my best to point out some interesting items to her in hope that we can bump that quota up again later this year. We were both impressed with 18-year-old Emily Gade who finished second behind Ron Marks Jr. in the Street Stock division and she remembered meeting Gary Webb from one of the first races that she attended with me 25 years ago. It was a lot easier to get her to go to the races with me back then and I am betting that a few of you are in the same situation?
With some morning rain assisting in track prep, the surface was wide and fast with officials doing a nice job of not letting the cushion get too tall early on. I knew that it was Mid-Season championship night and someone familar with the track had indicated that the normal weekly inverts would be used, but after inverting the heats the feature races were lined up straight up by the current points. The result was what usually happens in this format, the point leaders all raced to flag-to-flag wins, at least in the five features that we stayed for. Marks Jr. won the Street Stocks, Jason Bahrs took the IMCA Modified win, Shon Sanders cruised in the Mod Lites, John Bull held off Milo Veloz in the best race of the night for the Open Mod victory and Ray Guss Jr. dominated the IMCA Late Model feature.
It was nice to get back to a track that at one time was my regular Sunday stop and I hope to return there again this season.
The Dart Show Me 100 was shown on CBS Sports this past Sunday and while it is great to get our sport on one of the major networks, I am still skeptical as to how it is presented. The qualifying races were mentioned by the announcers stating that several drivers made big runs from the back to get qualified, but not a single highlight of those events were shown. Dirt track fans know that some of the best racing happens during the heats and B-Mains, so why not show some of that action to give viewers the sense of what a challenge it is just to get into the main event? Then, when the racing is being shown, it sure seems like they jump from one camera view to the next way too often. I may be the only one who feels this way, but just as I am starting to get a feel for where I am watching, boom, they change to somebody's in-car camera, then pow, they have a shot of cars exiting turn four and that was just the first lap! I would have preferred a nice wide angle view of the first half of the pack running the entire lap before switching camera views, you know like fifteen seconds of uninterrupted race watching?
And, despite all of those different cameras, not a single one of them caught what happened to Scott Bloomquist when he apparently got into the wall and caused a caution while running second mid-race. Seriously? From the way the broadcast started I would have thought that one camera was assigned to follow Black Sunshine wherever he went on the facility. If you have been a reader of the Back Stretch over the years you will know that I have never felt that television is able to capture the speed and excitement of dirt track racing whether it is Sprint Cars, Late Models or Midgets. Several years ago we heard a lot of people claim that they were going to take dirt racing "to the next level" with that next level always assumed to be television that would introduce the general public to the sport, that would then lead to national sponsorship, that would then lead to more money for everybody! I was skeptical then and continue to be so and it has been quite some time since I heard "the next level" line. To me, Dirt Knights was the best television exposure that dirt racing has ever had and here's hoping that someday somebody does figure out a way to present it in a fashion that really will take it to "the next level". Honestly though, maybe it is good that you have to actually be there to get the real feel of the speed and excitement of dirt track racing rather than watching it on television. After all, NASCAR seems to be suffering the opposite scenario at this point in time.
My son Morgan is already getting fired up about his return to Iowa in August for the annual Knoxville Nationals and when he was telling me all about this week's Ohio Sprint Speedweek action I asked him to put it into writing so that I could share it with you. So following is Morgan's summary of this week's action out in the Buckeye state.
Attention! The Nor-Cal Ninja Kyle Larson has officially hijacked the All Stars Ohio Speedweek. After Danny Holtgraver captured his first All Star win on the opening night at Attica (with a little thanks to the flipping David Gravel causing then leader Cap Henry to spin off the top of the track), and the Okie Stevie Smith taking the win at Waynesfield, it has been pure domination by the 19 year old Larson the last two nights.
Larson piloted his Abreu Vineyards 1k to victory lane while making his debut at the University of Northwestern Ohio All Star Circuit of Champions 30th Annual Ohio Sprint Speedweek Sunday at Cannonball Speedway. It was the first time that Cannonball Speedway in St. Clairsville, Ohio had hosted a sprint car race in ten years and the young Larson proved that he is capable of arriving at any new track, in any type of car and winning.
Much like in Holtgraver’s win on the opening night, Larson benefited greatly from another driver’s bad luck. Watertown, Connecticut’s David Gravel drove around bother Larson and Tim Shaffer to take the lead on lap 17, but on the next lap he slid over the cushion, tagged the wall and got upside down, handing the lead back to Larson. Shaffer was able to nose ahead of Larson a few times in the closing laps, but was never able to make it stick and had to settle for a 2nd place finish.
Also making his Speedweek debut at Cannonball was 3rd place finisher Shane Stewart, who was at the wheel of Rich Farmer’s new #29 team. Cap Henry and Dale Blaney rounded out the top five and Stevie Smith took home the hard charger award moving from 23rd to ninth in the A-main.
By the end of an exciting night of racing, it was something that occurred in the infield that had a lot of people talking. Logan Schuchart parked his car #1s in the infield and quickly walked out as the car went up in flames. The car was aflame for long enough of a period that the rear tires blew out from the heat. Luckily, Schuchart had been able to get out of the car without any problems, but did have to sit and watch his car get a bit crispy.
If winning his debut wasn’t enough, Larson decided to make it 2 for 2 by taking home the win at Wayne County Speedway Monday night in Orrville, Ohio. To make the feat even more impressive, Larson conquered yet another track that he had never raced on until that day.
However, Larson felt right at home on the small, fast and tacky track; “Three and four was elbows up like a lot of places are in California where they have a lot of moisture and rough so that was a lot of fun.”
Dale Blaney was running second and was closing in on Larson late in the race as the heavy traffic was causing problems for the Elk Grove, California driver. However, a late caution allowed for the track to be all clear for the green-white-checkered restart and Larson was able to pull away to the checkered. Blaney held on to the runner-up spot, with Shane Stewart claiming another podium finish with Stevie Smith and Tim Shaffer rounding out the top five.
As I’m preparing to send this off to be placed online, the B-Main has just been completed on night 5 of Ohio Speedweek at Sharon Speedway, so look for another report coming soon. Coming into the night, the top five in Speedweek points are 1)Stevie Smith, 386 2) Bryan Sebetto, 376 3)Cap Henry, 373 4)Danny Holtgraver, 371 and 5)Tim Shaffer, 370.
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