Special Events Galore; Poplar Bluff Goes Dormant Again; Pre-Season Top 25 Late Model Ballot

If you are a race fan here in the upper Midwest and you are not yet familiar with the Calendar Page at Positively Racing then now is the time to check it out. Checking the schedules for tracks in Iowa, Illinois, Wisconsin, Minnesota, South Dakota, Nebraska, Kansas and Missouri there are now more than 680 "special events" on the calendar for 2015. Amazing, isn't it? Proving once again that there is no better place to be in the United States if you a race fan who wants to take in a bunch of events each year. And that number is destined to grow well over 700 as there are still 65 tracks in the covered area that have yet to release their schedule for the coming season.

There was actually 66 tracks on that "to do" list for the schedule compiler (me) until today when I came across the following announcement on the Facebook page of the Poplar Bluff Speedway.

"Notice to Racers & Race Fans as of January 24th the Poplar Bluff Speedway has made the decision not to try and reopen for the 2015 season. We greatly appreciate the support that we have had. This saddens us to post this news as we all have a love for racing, we sometimes forget that the track is a business. Many friends was made and most likely some enemies too, but we greatly appreciate everyone that has been there for us at the Speedway. If anything changes or if someone wants to step up an give it a try we will notify you of the changes."

This is not the first time that this track has gone dormant as it actually bounced back to life a few years ago following years of inactivity. Crazy to think that Morgan and I were actually at the first race night ever held at this facility in southeast Missouri.

The track seemed to have found some life picking up cars from both the Malden Speedway and the West Plains Motor Speedway, both of which had shut down completely for 2014, but even with that prime opportunity to stand alone in the region obviously the results were not good enough to remain open. As far as I know Malden is still up for sale while West Plains announced back in December that they will be hosting four special events in 2015 (see calendar page) and perhaps that factored into the decision at Poplar Bluff.

Either way it shows that promoting races is still a struggle even in an area where there isn't four or five tracks within a 100-mile radius of each other competing for drivers and fans. Yet we still have people here in Iowa that just can't seem to understand why a facility like Tipton or Bloomfield cannot maintain a weekly show when there are multiple tracks within a short drive from each that are also racing, some even on the same night! Take a moment and be thankful that both are at least having some races this year. Bloomfield has scheduled four race nights while the Sprint Invaders will run during the fair at Tipton, plus there is the possibility that still more events may be scheduled at the Cedar County quarter-mile.

One of the racing bloggers that I check in on regularly is Ron Meyer's "The Rest Of The Dirt" and he and I have the honor of being a couple of the media members who send in a ballot each week for Dirt On Dirt's Top 25 Driver's Poll. Ron likes to share his ballot with his readers each week and while I will keep mine a little closer to the vest I will jump the gun on him this week and reveal my Preseason Top 25 list. I have provided the links to both Ron and Dirt on Dirt so make sure you check them out sometime.

Position
1	Scott Bloomquist
2	Jimmy Owens
3	Darrell Lanigan
4	Don O'Neal
5	Jonathan Davenport
6	Steve Francis
7	Chris Madden
8	Tim McCreadie
9	Rick Eckert
10	Billy Moyer
11	Josh Richards
12	Bobby Pierce
13	Dale McDowell
14	Mike Marlar
15	Shannon Babb
16	Earl Pearson Jr.
17	Gregg Satterlee
18	Jimmy Mars
19	Eddie Carrier Jr.
20	Casey Roberts
21	Donald McIntosh
22	Shane Clanton
23	Billy Moyer Jr.
24	Jason Feger
25	Rodney Sanders