Frustration

I am frustrated and to make it even worse I feel stupid for being frustrated......so in essence my frustration is enhanced by that fact. Ah, poor me.

With all of the rainouts and cancellations that have been endured by racing not only locally but throughout the nation I for the most part have been pretty lucky when it comes to the events that I had planned to attend. That is until this past week.

My good luck was still in effect for the Sprint Invader show at Oskaloosa last Wednesday, but when the predicted rain rolled in on Thursday and prompted the complete cancellation of the three-day MLRA Late Model swing the frustration began. Yes, I was able drive out of the rain to go racing in Farley on Friday night and then on Saturday the Knoxville Raceway was finally able to open the season (more on that in a minute), but then on Sunday a long line of thunderstorms wiped out plans that were part of a business road trip for that evening.

On Tuesday the Hawkeye Dirt Tour opener was postponed due to cold and wind, plus the rain that had fallen in the past two days, and now on Wednesday when I would normally be joining my friends in the stands at the Southern Iowa Speedway I am instead otherwise engaged in a situation that I thought would get me some racing at a track that I rarely frequent on Thursday. But guess what, the forecast is pretty dead certain that it is going to rain!! My next two chances to return to the track will be on Friday and Sunday where once again the forecast calls for rain. Grrrr.....

When I get frustrated like this I often do something stupid like get involved in an internet forum discussion about how to boost the car counts in the four cylinder division. No matter how one notorious poster likes to twist it, I enjoy the division and I would love to see it succeed. But a low car count in this division is completely different than a low car count in a division like the Modifieds, Stock Cars and Late Models. The general fan will still buy a ticket to watch a short field in these three divisions. Anyway, if you want to join the fun.....

The pits were packed at Knoxville Saturday night with 38 410's, 32 360's, 28 305's and 12 Dirt Trucks and that made for a long night. Looking back I can't really pinpoint any specific delays, other than the scary crash that injured twelve time All Iowa Points Champion Terry McCarl, that resulted in the final checkered flag waving at 12:30 a.m. Can't blame the trucks as they put on a pretty clean and entertaining show that probably didn't add more than twenty minutes  and there were no other red flags on the night. Getting home at 2:30 a.m. and then helping prepare for a Mother's Day soiree before then leaving on Sunday afternoon for business is why you didn't see a Back Stretch story on the evening. And you can bet that the crew at Knoxville will review the opening night to see where they can tighten things up going forward.

Here is the recap of the 410 feature and it is on lap two where my heart skipped a beat actually hearing the impact when Brad Loyet t-boned Terry McCarl. Thank goodness that Terry and Brad were both able to escape serious injuring and here's hoping that T-Mac will be in action again soon.

After compiling this weeks national dirt late model points I have a couple of new "favorite race names". Clate Copeman scored two wins this past weekend in Pennsylvania and Buck Roadcap was the feature winner at Virginia Motor Speedway.

Need to wrap this up so that I can grab dinner and a beer to hopefully wash away some of this frustration. Hope they are having fun in Oskaloosa and I hope to see you somewhere dry soon!