The weather forecast is favorable for racing, yes it may be a bit breezy but "Shiverfest" will take the green tomorrow late afternoon (Saturday, October 26th) at the Lee County Speedway in Donnellson and will be the final event of the 2013 season in the state of Iowa. It is the last opportunity for drivers and fans alike to get their racing fix and of course it will be the final event for the 2013 All Iowa Points chase. The championship in one division is yet to be decided as Shannon Anderson and Devin Smith are in a dead heat at the top of the Hobby Stock standings, but I would be shocked if either driver shows up in Donnellson.
This event got its start back in 1999 when myself and then track promoters Terry and Jenni Hoenig decided to schedule the "Millennium Grand Finale" as the final racing event in the area before the Y2K bug would wipe out our society as we knew it. Late Models were on the roster at that event and the first car to show up at the pit gate that day was a red Late Model out of Missouri to be driven by Carl Edwards, the father of the current NASCAR star. It was an overcast evening with temperatures in the mid-40's and a stiff northerly breeze, but the drivers and the fans showed up and the with trick-or-treating for the kids afterwards and a few parties as well the overall event was considered a success. As we wound down and tried to get warm that evening in the pit shack Jenni commented, "well that was a real Shiverfest" and just like that an event was named!
Traditionally scheduled for one of the last two Saturdays in October the event has seen a wide range of weather from a few snow flurries floating around at feature time to a couple of shows where the sunshine was bright and the temperatures were in the seventies. It was at that warm weather show where the event record of 214 cars in five divisions was established. Mother Nature has not been kind in general though over the past several years as only one of the last five years has seen Shiverfest take the green on its originally scheduled Saturday. It will be good to break that streak tomorrow and I hope to see a lot of you there! Rides through the pits start at 3 p.m., trick-or-treating is at 3:30 and hot laps are scheduled for 4:30 with racing to follow.
Maybe you can find them in Hawkeye Racing News but I have been surprised at how difficult it has been to track down the results of a couple of late season specials. Thank goodness for Dianna Winkel and Christian Dundee otherwise I would have had no luck!! The art of placing results on a track's website seems to be lost on some.
Danny Lasoski and Sammy Swindell have been the winners on the first two nights of the Short Track Nationals at I-30 Speedway in Little Rock. We'll see if the youth movement kicks in for the rest of the weekend.
Corey LaJoie is another example of why people shouldn't use Twitter.
How do you become the most famous Teacher's Assistant in history? Of course she can be found at the world's number one party school. Go Hawks!!
Kirk Ferentz kept his promise of not returning any punts in the Ohio State game last weekend. Of course it was hard to evaluate if he was keeping that promise or not since Iowa failed to stop Ohio State even once and put them into a punt situation. Looking at the brightside, the Hawks did not get caught running backwards on a fake punt either. Let's see what happens tomorrow against Northwestern.
After a change of leadership at Quincy and the open promoter's seat in Tipton were announced in early September things have been fairly quiet around here except for the changes that will be taking place at the state fairgrounds in Des Moines over the next two seasons. A group headed up by Tony Moro will take over the promotion of weekly racing at the track in 2014 adding the IMCA Racesaver 305 Sprints to the card and then prior to the 2015 season the track itself will be shortened. Will that be all of the changes that we will see this year? Something tells me that one or two more may be on the horizon.
Check back in on the Back Stretch this week as I will have news and notes from Shiverfest, plus we'll put a wrap on the 2013 All Iowa Points chase.
See you at the track?
No comments:
Post a Comment