Wow, I went through the entire month of June without making a notebook entry. This is where I just make some observations, offer an opinion or perhaps call your attention to something going on that you might have missed. Some people read these, many don't, but I get more comments at the track from people that I see about a Notebook post than I do about any of my other writing and for that I am thankful.
The main reason that there were no Notebooks in June was because I spent the first seven days of the month on a fantastic vacation to Italy with my wife and ten of our friends and then just ten days after that we spent six nights at Burlington's annual music festival on the river, Steamboat Days. Yes, I missed some good racing during those nights, but it is sometimes good to get away from the sport for a bit of time once in awhile. Thirteen days in June is enough for me though! I have some friends who have not been at all, or have only been to one race so far this year after so many years of having it be a big part of their life. I can understand how they can totally step away like that, but I just don't see myself ever walking away from it like that. In fact I told my wife that when the time comes for me to be in long term care, she is to make sure that it is a facility that is very close to a weekly race track because when the day comes where somebody can't drag me to the track and back once a week then they might as well just dig the grave.
Speaking of my wife, today is her birthday and to celebrate several of us are going out for dinner tonight. Normally I would be on my way to Osky for the Stock Car Shootout, but since it falls on July 1st this year, well that is just not going to happen. The only way that I will go racing on July 1st is if I am being paid to announce somewhere and the deal then is that my paycheck for the night is signed directly over to my very understanding bride. :)
I will get back to racing tomorrow night when Bill Wright and I join the announcing duo at the Iowa State Fair Speedway in Des Moines for the Shottenkirk.com Sprint Invaders event. Hey Craig, are you having a cookout on the hill beforehand??
I see reports today that Scott Bloomquist is talking about suing the Eldora Speedway for not having the scales registered. I believe a driver here in the Midwest tried to make a similar case several years ago after he was disqualified for being too light at a $10,000-to-win show, so for Bloomquist the stakes are ten times as high. The outcome will likely be the same though, after all everybody else came across the scales at or above the legal minimum, so it is kind hard to put forth a solid argument.
Prior to the start of the season my theory was that there would not be enough cars to go around for tracks holding weekly races for six straight nights, Tuesday through Sunday, in northwest Iowa and southwest Minnesota. Last week one of those tracks had just forty cars in five divisions while another one had fifty cars in six divisions. Too much of a good thing....
The argument will come that "car counts are down everywhere", but that argument would be inaccurate as there are some tracks in our region of the country that are seeing a nice bump in car counts this year. One of the reasons? A couple of tracks in the area that had struggled for the past couple of years finally gave up on trying to race weekly. I do not see anyway that the same will not happen to the northwest of us for 2016.
How about the car count at the Hawkeye Dirt Tour race at Britt last night? Forty-nine strong including long distance travelers Ricky Thornton Jr. (Arizona), Jay Marks and Paul Stone (California) and race winner Kyle Strickler from North Carolina. I didn't list Tim Ward in that group as the Arizona native has based himself in the Midwest for the full racing season each of the last two years. So are all these guys going to stick around for the next few weeks hitting all of the special events leading up to the Harris Clash in Knoxville July 16th? Or was this just a tune up before they make their way to Farley for Thursday and Friday's $10,000-to-win After Market Nationals before returning back home?
After running the night before at the Deer Creek Speedway in southeast Minnesota, the Upper Midwest Sprint Series (UMSS) was scheduled to make their first-ever appearance in Iowa on Sunday night at the Cresco Speedway, however as of yet I have not been able to decipher if they raced or got rained out. The regional series for 360 c.i. Winged Sprints runs in Minnesota and Wisconsin and at the Deer Creek event they were joined by Sprint Invader regulars Russ Hall, Ryan Jamison and Jarrod Schneiderman. Series regular Jerry Richert Jr. took the win.
Regional series for the 360 Sprints such as the UMSS and the Sprint Invaders have to wonder about their future following yesterday's announcement from the fledgling National Sprint League that they will expand to include the 360 Sprints in 2016. "Plans are currently underway to include six to seven regional series throughout the Midwest from Minnesota to Texas." NSL founder Tod Quiring has proven two things so far in developing his concept. One is that he keeps his word about cooperating with other tracks and series in order to strengthen the sport of Sprint Car racing. And two, when he says that he is going to do something, it gets done. Based upon this I would have to speculate that the NSL 360 regions will likely include some, if not all of the regional series already in operation. But if not, you can bet that there is going to be one angry radio show host in Kansas City as all of this evolves. Perhaps I will learn more tomorrow night.
One of the things that I enjoy about tabulating the All Iowa Points is when I see a driver show up in the results at a track far from his or her normal stomping grounds, especially for no apparent reason. Such was the case for Hobby Stock driver Buck Schafroth from the southwest Iowa community of Orient when he finished third in the Hobby Stock feature in Fairmont, Minnesota, on June 12th. Why did he make the the four hour pull north? Beats me, but he started twelfth and finished third in the feature so you can bet he had fun.
Speaking of chasing down results, the new Frontier Sports Park in Fort Dodge is doing a fantastic job of promoting the facility on Facebook with Ticket Tuesday, Warm Up Wednesday and Thirsty Thursday, but the problem is that they are failing when it comes to one of the best promotional tools for any track. POST YOUR RESULTS! Somewhere, anywhere! You have a website, you obviously have somebody who knows how to use Facebook, for crying out loud get the results at the end of the night and put them somewhere!!!
Fort Dodge is the only track in Iowa that I have not been able to get dependable, official results from for every race night. They do have the results from May 22nd on their website, but even in those they left off the names of the Stock Car drivers. That's better than the Callaway Raceways in Fulton, Missouri, though who despite even sending e-mails directly to the contact person, I have yet to even get one night of results out of them And, the normally dependable Monett Speedway website hasn't updated their results page since May 1st. Yes, I know that it has been wet down there, but I know that they have raced at least once or twice since May 1st.
I know that it doesn't really matter to most of the drivers, but for some it does. If I cannot get the results from these tracks then you will not be credited with your All Iowa or All Missouri Points from them. Sorry about that. Perhaps you could encourage them to step up their game a bit. I see where one is now blaming it on computer issues. Guess what, I did results for a track back in 1981 using an electric typewriter and a fax machine, you don't need a computer system to type results into a Facebook post. Geesh.....
I got a shot of prednizone today to try to knock down my poison ivy that I have had for two weeks now and the doctor said that it could make me irritable. Perhaps she was right!
Have a safe and enjoyable Independence Day weekend!
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