It is a little chilly and breezy out, but I am looking forward to making the trip north to Vinton tonight for the Hawkeye Dirt Tour opener at the Benton County Speedway. This is the show that was postponed from last Tuesday when conditions a little chilly and breezy. Pack an extra jacket and I hope to see you there!
The weather is playing havoc with several tracks and series, and not just here in the Midwest, with events being cancelled by too much rain in the days before, rain the day of and now even due to the threat of rain by weather forecasts that we all know are not completely accurate. We act like this is a phenomenon that rarely exists and I have even seen some people try to make the point that we shouldn't even schedule races until June to somehow "avoid" the disappointment caused by early season event cancellations. I ask you this, when was the last season where there wasn't a stretch of time that weather didn't have an effect on the schedule?
Rainouts happen. They happened in the "good ol' days", they happened five years ago, they happen now and they will continue to happen going forward. Let's not all act so shocked and disappointed when they do.
The two races that I went to this past weekend, Farley and Quincy, were faced with similar scenarios. Both had saturated grounds on the morning of the event and both had a weather forecast for that evening that included a significant chance of rain. It would have been very easy and justifiable for both promoters to pull the plug right there that morning, but with each of them having a $2,000-to-win Late Model special on the card they instead went to work and were able to get their respective facilities into race condition. On Friday night the rain dissipated as it moved toward the north and on Sunday the rain was completely taken out of the updated forecast during the afternoon. Yes, it would have been much easier for Keith Simmons and Kenny Dobson to pull the plug, but I am glad they didn't!
Kurt Burmeister is another promoter who was faced with that tough decision this past Friday when his CJ Raceway in Columbus Junction was wet from the day before and the forecast was calling for rain that evening. He too made the decision to give it a go and he and his crew worked their butts off to make the place ready for a Friday night of action. Unfortunately the rain that was forecasted hit the track around five o'clock and there was no choice, but to cancel the night's events. That evening, during a break in the action as I was checking Facebook, I noticed that somebody was saying that Kurt should have cancelled earlier because by calling the show so late in the afternoon it did not allow her to make other plans.
I can only hope that the two of them are close friends and that she was being sarcastic, otherwise it might have been the most ridiculous racing related post that I have ever seen.
Or how about this passive aggressive doozy after Independence cancelled Saturday afternoon? "A 10 minute rain shower cancelled it I guess." Can't call this guy an AWP since he includes his name and phone number in his posts, so the "A" does not apply.
For the first time ever a woman has won a feature race at the Knoxville Raceway. It happened Saturday night when McKenna Haase passed Chase Wanner mid-race and then went the rest of the distance to score the win! And what a special weekend it was for the young lady as the very next day she was on the podium again to deliver the valedictorian speech during the commencement ceremonies at Carlisle High School. Check out this Des Moines Register story that also includes video of the win.
McKenna had a runner-up finish during her rookie year at Knoxville in 2014 and prior to that probably the closest that any female has come to winning a feature was when Trish Dover had a comfortable lead late in a race before a flat tire took her out of contention. Perhaps the most impressive accomplishment by a female driver at Knoxville though has been achieved by Erin Crocker who has qualified for the A-Main at the Knoxville Nationals twice, in 2003 and 2010.
It has been long overdue, but Curt Hansen will be inducted into the Dirt Late Model Hall of Fame in Kentucky this summer. Here is a nice story from the Waterloo Cedar Falls Courier on Mr. Hansen who took over as my favorite driver as Mel Morris' career wound down. Always a class act, Hansen was a consistent winner here in the Midwest for many years and some of his battles with his peer Ed Sanger were classic.
I love the fact that the All Iowa Points are mentioned in the story and I have always been proud to know just how much they meant to drivers like Hansen, Sanger and Gary Webb to know that they were the best of the best whenever they ended up at the top of the standings. The All Iowa Points pay just as much now as they did then; nothing. And hopefully, if they don't take pride in them now, perhaps the champions of today will someday get the same pleasure of accomplishment that these Hall of Famers do.
A couple of instances of drivers getting out of their cars to confront others this weekend. First from Stuart, Iowa, where our good friend Craig Allender (aka fasttrackfan) provides the footage and the other is from Highland Speedway across the river from St. Louis where I am thinking that Mike Schulte (#27) may be taking a long vacation from racing.
Here's hoping that everybody stays in their cars and we see some good racing tonight at Vinton!
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