Wednesday, November 26, 2014

Back Stretch 2014 Season Recap

Much like last year, the postponement of the annual Turkey Bowl from the Saturday before Thanksgiving to the Saturday after Thanksgiving at the Springfield Raceway in southwest Missouri has brought an end to my race travels for the year. And, with the weather currently forecast to see sunny skies and temps in the mid-60's, I do hope that those of you who can slip away this Saturday and head for Springfield will do so!

I had a great 2014 season making it out to 66 events at 20 different tracks in five states (Arizona, Iowa, Illinois, Indiana and Missouri) and overall the racing that I witnessed was well above average. The 66 events continues an upward trend after hitting a "low" of 47 in 2011 followed up by 55 in 2012 and 63 last year and while I would love to continue that trend I am guessing that this number will come down a bit in 2015 for a couple of reasons. One, I already know that I will not be attending any races over a sixteen day period next summer when I will be enjoying some other forms of entertainment and, two, I intend to be a little more selective in regard to some of the events I go to in 2015. I hate to admit it, but there were a few nights this season that I left the track wishing that I had spent my time doing something else that evening due to dusty track conditions, an inefficiently run show, or both. Perhaps that was just a by-product of going to so many races though as one can get spoiled by those tracks who really have things under control.

For the second year in a row I started my season out in Arizona at the Tucson International Raceway with a three day weekend of NDRL Late Model racing in January and my final event of 2014 ended up being the Darkside Fall Bash at the Jackson County Speedway in Maquoketa on October 19th. As usual the track that I attended most often was the Knoxville Raceway where I took in twelve events, followed by the Southern Iowa Speedway in Oskaloosa where I spent ten race nights. Obviously I know my way around Fairfield and Ottumwa on highway 34 and then 163!

The track that I still consider to be my "home track", 34 Raceway near Burlington is where I spent seven race nights in 2014 followed closely by the track that I grew up at the West Liberty Raceway with six and my second home the Lee County Speedway in Donnellson with five nights. Quincy Raceways was next in line with four nights followed by three nights each at the Farley Speedway, the Bloomfield Speedway and Tucson International. I made it to two events each at Maquoketa, Vinton and Memphis, Missouri, while one stop was made at each of the following: Davenport, East Moline, Independence, Des Moines, Tipton and Terre Haute, Indiana. The one and only new track that I visited for the first time ever this season was the Gas City I-69 Speedway during the USAC Indiana Sprint Week in July and just a few weeks later it closed its doors early and the track's future is in doubt.

I do like to get to tracks that I have never been to before and some that would be on my list of potentials for 2015 would be the Central Missouri Speedway in Warrensburg, Raceway Park in Jefferson, South Dakota, the Clay County Fairgrounds in Spencer, the Clay County Speedway in Flora, Illinois and any place south that might be racing the last weekend in February or the first weekend in March!

Back to this past year, I had the pleasure of working nine Sprint Invader events and I also took in the following series:

Hawkeye Dirt Tour - 5 events
Deery Brothers Summer Series - 4 events
World of Outlaws Sprint Cars - 4 events
MLRA Late Models - 3 events
UMP Summer Nationals - 3 events
ASCS National Sprint Cars - 3 events
NDRL Late Models - 3 event ("Now Defunct Racing League")
MARS Late Models - 2 events
USAC Sprint Cars - 2 events
MOWA Sprint Cars - 2 events
USMTS Modifieds - 1 event
POWRi Midgets - 1 event
Lucas Oil Late Model Series - 1 event

There have been times where when someone has said to me "well you're just a Sprint Car fan", or "you only like Late Models", but I always say that I like 'em all and this year's stats prove that. The "featured class" at the shows that I attended this year were:

Late Models - 24
Modifieds - 22
Sprint Cars - 19
Midgets - 1

Make sure that you continue to check in here during the offseason for bits of information that we pick up along the way and stay in touch with everybody at Positively Racing over the winter as well. I have already sent the first edition of the 2015 Specials schedule to the Webmistress  and as soon as she has a few moments she will get it posted to the Calendar page. And, following this Saturday's running of Turkey Bowl VII I will release the final All Missouri Points for the season, then in a couple of weeks I will have the final National Dirt Late Model standings up as well, so don't be a stranger!

Have a Happy Thanksgiving and we will see you again soon on the Back Stretch!




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