I was all set to gather together my cold weather gear and pack the car for my trip to Winston, Missouri, on Sunday morning when I received a text from the USMTS saying that due to snow on the ground and forecasted cold temperatures the race at I-35 Speedway had been cancelled. Yes, I let a couple of f-bombs fly and stomped around for a bit before deciding to go on a walk not only for exercise, but to calm myself down. My route started off to the south before turning west where I was protected by several houses, but as soon as I turned into that north wind I was convinced. Good call, race officials, good call!
I know that I shouldn't be like a little kid when the races are cancelled, but hey I guess it still shows the passion that I have for the sport, especially when I am trying to get to that first race of the season for me here in the Midwest. When the day comes that I am not disappointed you can bet that I am dead and gone. Even with that disappointment I know that the race promoter has to always do what is best for them because as I have noted before, without a successful race promoter we have no races and in this case I was happy that they waited until the morning of the event to call it based upon the actual weather rather than going off of a forecast. Why am I saying that? Well, primarily because weather forecasts two or three days in advance are more likely to change rather than stay the same, and also to encourage all promoters who have races scheduled for this coming weekend to be patient and not pull the plug too early since there is, as of Monday, a potential snowstorm being discussed for Wednesday night into Thursday in the upper Midwest. This will be my last chance to go racing until April 6th so let's just wait to see what actually happens first as cancelling a Friday show on Thursday is still more than enough lead time. I'm a selfish little kid, aren't I?
What made yesterday's cancellation even worse was that it allowed me to watch the Iowa game and then later the Northern Iowa meltdown. Ugggh......read this story on the Hawkeyes by the Cedar Rapids Gazette's Mike Hlas and don't you wish that we can all be like the 12-year-old reporter for Sports Illustrated for Kids and see the broader picture rather than the current disappointment? Thank you to the Hawkeyes and the Panthers for giving us a season full of thrills and to all those seniors on both teams thank you for your stellar careers!
Now let's go Cyclones!
What a great tournament so far! The Notre Dame tip in was a great play by a seldom used player, but I was disappointed to have Stephen F. Austin lose and have Thomas Walkup and his beard go to the sidelines. And I wished that I had switched the channel to see Bronson Koenig's game winner for Wisconsin rather than UNI's final 44 seconds of regulation.
I will gladly give up watching all of it this Friday and Saturday though to go racing! Mother Nature, do you hear me?
There were a few tracks in the area did get their shows in this weekend. The Cecil Harlan Memorial Kegger at the Tri-State Speedway in Pocola, Oklahoma, ran on Saturday and Sunday with Iowans Jeff James of Stanton scoring the win in the IMCA Modifieds while his teammate Todd Van Eaton finished fifth.
The USMTS raced on Saturday night in Humboldt, Kansas, with Jason Hughes taking the win over Ryan Gustin and Zack VanderBeek. Hunter Marriott finished in the fourth spot and there was an (R) after his name in the results, so does that mean that this rising star in the IMCA ranks will now be running more USMTS events? Iowa's Daniel Hilsabeck was fifth and Todd Shute was sixth. In the companion USRA Iron Man Series openers Decorah's Kyle Falck scored the Stock Car win ahead of Polk City's Steve Jackson while Wheatland, Missouri's Mike Striegel was the B-Mod winner as four-time defending All Missouri points champion J.C. Morton finished fifth.
Daugherty Speedway in northwest Indiana opened its season on a cool Saturday with Steven Brooks topping a solid field of 24 UMP Modifieds while Gerald Gault was the Pro (Crate) Late Model winner. They will run again this coming Saturday and may be one of my options should either Donnellson or LaSalle fall by the wayside due to the weather.
The Spring Extravaganza at the Lee County Speedway was already an attractive show with the five IMCA divisions, but when you add in the Crate Late Models for $1,000-to-win each night it is just too good of a show, and too close to home to pass up. The dirt Late Model world though will be focused on the Thaw Brawl at the LaSalle Speedway where not only is there a bunch of money up for grabs for what should be a stellar field of drivers, but it will be the return of Brian Birkhofer driving one of Justin Kay's Gheer'd Up rides. My suggestion to you would be to arrive early because the place is likely to be filled to the brim with excited Late Model fans. All of my other options for the weekend are pretty far away and since Easter dinner is at my mother's house at noon on Sunday, they are probably all beyond reason, so come on weatherman, let's straighten up!
The Gateway Dirt Nationals made some news last week when it was mentioned that 80 Late Models and 150 Modifieds had already pre-registered. The announcement then came down that they would cap the entries at 250 Modifieds and 150 Late Models with Thursday now being used as a qualifying day, rather than the previously announced practice that will whittle each class down to 100 cars for Friday and Saturday racing. I am seeing people saying that they have already bought their tickets and while it would appear from this seating chart that they might only be using the colored sections for the event, if there is no room for me to buy a Friday night ticket at the door in a dome that has seats for more than 60,000 people then I will go with the next best option and purchase the PPV from Dirt On Dirt. Would love to see that list of drivers that have already paid their non-refundable, non-transferable entry fees for this December event.
On the pavement this past weekend Wisconsin's Ty Majeski scored the win in the Rattler 250 at the South Alabama Speedway. Open wheel ace and current NASCAR Truck Series RoY candidate Christopher Bell finished second.
Jonathan Davenport added to his lead in the Back Stretch National Dirt Late Model points with his Lucas Oil Dirt Late Model Series victory at Atomic Speedway in Ohio Friday night.
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