I have been to eleven nights of racing over the past seventeen days and all but one of them were either exclusively, or featured winged Sprint Cars. It will probably feel weird to sit in the stands at Osky this Wednesday with nothing but the standard five classes of IMCA cars.
This has been a tough time for our sport with on track incidents claiming the lives of a couple of drivers while others have suffered severe injury. Our thoughts and prayers are with all involved and of course the one that hits me the most are the injuries suffered by Kevin Swindell. Having been a Sammy Swindell fan for many, many years that same feeling carried on to his son who has had an interesting career in racing. In real time and in person Kevin's crash at Knoxville did not look serious, but a look at the video shows that when the car came off of the front stretch catch fence it fell at least fifteen feet to the ground landing on all four wheels. The problem though was that the suspension parts had been damage during the flip and the contact with the fence so when over 1,200 pounds of race car and driver landed on the track there was nothing to absorb the shock other than the driver's own spinal column.
It appears that it will be a long and difficult recovery process for Kevin, but they don't call him "The Bulldog" for nothing. You can bet that there will be plenty of fight in him to pull him through and it is great to see the support that he is getting from the racing community.
We have lost some friends away from the track recently as well. While at Knoxville last Saturday I received a text message from my friend Kurt Moon letting me know that Gary Sammons had suffered a heart attack while vacationing at the Lake of the Ozarks. An all-state football player at Mt. Pleasant High School back in the glory days of the program, "Sammy" was also a regular for many years in our "crowd of eight" that would attend the Knoxville Nationals together and he was a long-time Sprint Car fan. His passing at age 62 was sudden and unexpected to all.
I was also saddened by the sudden passing last week of former Modified driver Russ Olson of Cedar Rapids. Russ was a pretty frequent competitor when we were running the NKF Tour 15 years ago and he exemplified what it meant to bring his entire family in the the "racing family". More on that at the end of this effort.
Moving on......
The Shottenkirk.com Sprint Invaders completed a successful three day "Nationals" weekend with solid car counts in Donnellson, Burlington and Quincy for the regional 360 c.i. series. Jerrod Hull was the winner on Friday and Sunday night while it was truly a family affair at 34 Raceway when uncle John Schulz and his nephews Josh and Jerrod Schneiderman swept the podium on Saturday. The series has two more events remaining on the 2015 schedule with a trip to Peoria on September 5th followed by the season championship at 34 Raceway on September 19th. After that it will be interesting to see how everything plays out in what is starting to look like a battle for control of 360 Sprint Car racing from Texas to Minnesota. Personally I think that the Invaders could avoid being in the crossfire by switching to the 305 rules that are producing solid car counts every week in Burlington, the base of the organization. But hey, I'm just the guy with the microphone, what do I know?
It was interesting to see that Brian Brown skipped the last minute scheduled National Sprint League race at Husets Sunday night to instead race with the ASCS National Series at the Missouri State Fair. Talk about a dilemma when it comes to pleasing sponsors! The title sponsor of the NSL is FVP while Casey's was a major sponsor of the return to racing at the Missouri state fair after a three year break. Both happen to be major sponsors for Brown and I am sure that there were conversations with each before Brian stayed close to home and ran second to Aaron Reutzel in Sedalia.
It is that time of year when IMCA Modified drivers start to converge on the Midwest to perhaps get a chance to run a night or two at Boone before the Super Nationals, but this year it seems like we are seeing drivers coming in earlier and racing at several different tracks. Chris Sieweke of Santa Rosa, California, and Kevin Smith of Sedro Woolley, Washington, have each been barnstorming the Hawkeye state for the past few weeks as I saw Sieweke in Tipton and Smith this past Friday night in Donnellson. And last night Tom Berry of Medford, Oregon, ran an impressive third at the Benton County Speedway in Vinton. Keep an eye out for even more travelers in the results of area tracks the next two weekends before the Super Nationals get underway in Boone on September 7th.
A lot of tracks will be holding their season championship races this weekend and most of them will line up the features straight up by points. When I went to a track every week I always thought that this was a nice tribute to the drivers, however as a fan who now picks and chooses where he goes I now avoid season championship events because of the lineup method. Instead I will play my first, and probably my last round of golf of 2015 in the Ozarks this weekend.
I mentioned the passing of Russ Olson earlier. Following is a Facebook post from my good friend Ryan Clark who I know will not have a problem with me sharing it here.
“Tonight, that’s why.”
That would be my answer.
If I could have bottled up Sunday night’s race program at Benton County Speedway, I would have done it. Then, the next time one of my non-racing friends asked me why I spend my summer nights at the races, I’d have had the perfect answer to provide them.
We’ve had an emotional year in Vinton. We’ve lost a lot of friends and family members, taking for granted they will be there each and every Sunday night at the race track. We’ve learned the hard way that life just doesn’t work out that way. But we go on. We come back. We do it all over again. It’s what we know and what we do. And we wouldn’t have it any other way.
Dale Miller. We lost Dale in April. A friend to many, a colleague to some, a fellow race fan to everyone, Dale passed away at just 41 years of age. I’m still in disbelief that he’s gone and refuse to remove his number and snapchat from my phone thinking maybe, just maybe, this summer has been a bad dream.
The Urbana Five. Those five kids affected more than just the racing community, but as a racing community we came together because those kids had passion for our sport. They lived racing and brought our racing family together even closer than we already were. They are the reason the Iowa Donor Network Night at the Races became a reality.
Stacy Swanson. Barely into her 30s, Stacy died unexpectedly just a few weeks ago. A member of a racing family, Stacy’s grandfather, father, brother and cousin all raced or still race today. That family has been a part of racing longer than most of us have been on this earth. Racing is what they know.
We paid tribute to another fallen member of our racing family Sunday night. Russ Olson, a veteran Modified driver who was very successful in his days behind the wheel, passed away unexpectedly last weekend.
Although Russ hadn’t competed much in recent years, the race track was still where he and his family spent every spring, summer and fall weekend. His son Kyle races, as does his nephew Tony, along with numerous family friends. The entire Olson family was in attendance Sunday night as we paid tribute to his honor.
Why? Because it’s what we do.
After an emotional tribute to Russ, we did what he would have wanted us to do. We did what we said we’d do every Sunday night this season following every one of our many – far too many – tributes to those we’ve lost. We went racing.
It was hard to start the story for Sunday night’s races. In fact, I still haven’t written it. Sunday night’s race program just keeps coming back to me. The thoughts that fill my mind, though, are more than just about cars going in circles. I think the race fans in Vinton Sunday night experienced as broad a range of emotions as was possible.
After we shed our tears for Russ, we watched Zach Swanson win for the first time since his cousin’s passing. As emotional in victory lane Sunday night as he was following his first career win a few weeks ago, Swanson dedicated the win to Stacy.
We watched Tony Olson appear to be on his way to victory in honor of his uncle’s memory, only to see mechanical problems bring an early end to his night. We then watched Kyle challenge for the lead. Could he win his first time racing in Vinton since losing his father? Then, Kyle, too, experienced mechanical problems and was forced to the sidelines early.
After Tony and Kyle exited the event, perhaps their biggest rival raced to victory. It was in victory lane where Danny Dvorak dedicated his win to the Olson family.
Later in the evening, we watched a 12-year-old earn his first career win when Dallon Murty had the crowd on its feet at the conclusion of the Micro Mod feature.
From tears of sorrow to those anxious moments when we didn’t know how things would play out, to tears of joy, to being on the edges of our seats with excitement, fans at Benton County Speedway experienced an incredible range of emotions Sunday night.
The more I try to grasp the magnitude of it, however, the more trouble I have doing it. Sunday was emotional, sure. But it’s race night and all race nights are emotional. It’s what we do and what we experience every weekend and why we go back.
Perhaps IMCA Modified feature winner Mike Burbridge summed it up best in victory lane. As a driver, he said, “We don’t always get along every week, but we still like and respect each other and we keep coming back because we love what we do.”
As I walked to my car after the program ended, it hit me. Many friends of Dale Miller were on-hand Sunday night, just like usual. Family and friends of the Urbana Five were also in attendance as they are every Sunday night, just like members of the Swanson family.
We truly celebrate together and we truly grieve together. We experience the highs and lows together just like any other family. We remain dedicated to each other just as we were Sunday night when it came time to pay our respects to one of our own.
“Yes, tonight. Tonight is definitely why.”
No comments:
Post a Comment