I hate rainouts especially when it means that it has now been a full week since I have been to a race as it makes me want to write about other things that I probably shouldn't be writing about. I would much rather be telling you about how the Stock Cars went three-wide for the lead yet again last night at Osky, but instead I am tempted to give you my theory on the presidential race, discuss bathroom laws in North Carolina (seriously?), or vent about a couple of my favorite internet forum trolls.
Must.........fight........the........temptation........
Okay, just one.
So if someone sends you a private message telling you how you are shirking your duties as a "reporter" after reading this story from Dubuque and then just one week later publicly endorses this story from Vinton with "if you want to read one of the best race reports in a long time, this is it" it becomes glaringly obvious that this someone has a negative bias toward the promotional team at one of those tracks.
And one more point to make on that, I am not a "reporter", I am a race fan who likes to write about the fun I am having both at, and away from the track and encourage others to go to whatever racing events that they can. Jeremiah Davis is a reporter, a fine one at that, and while promoters also "roll out the red carpet" for him, he is also paid for his work by the Cedar Rapids Gazette. I've noticed that he does not feel the need to rip on drivers or promoters for the little things that you AWP's want to bitch about on the forum boards either, so I guess that task is in your hands, and your hands only. So.......
Okay, moving on.....
The big news this past week had to be the announcement from the Rockford Speedway that the historic quarter-mile pavement will be covered with dirt and for two nights will host the Craftsman World of Outlaws. Wednesday, June 29th will see the Sprint Cars in action then on Thursday the 30th the Late Models will take to the track and shortly afterwards crews will scrape the dirt back off and the speedway will return to its weekly asphalt show. I have been to Rockford several times over the years and have enjoyed the pavement pounders on the banked quarter-mile so I can just imagine the action that it will produce for the dirt cars. Perhaps a mid-week trip during the final week of June will have to be planned.
I have the honor of sharing the microphone with Bill Wright during each of the Shottenkirk.com Sprint Invader shows and I will tell you that I have never met anybody who has more of a passion for Open Wheel racing than he does. So it was only fitting the Bill W launched his own website last Wednesday with openwheel101.com so if you are a fan of Sprints and Midgets, or if you want to learn more about that segment of the sport and its stars, make sure that you bookmark his site and visit it often!
The next event for the Shottenkirk.com Sprint Invaders is next Wednesday, May 18th, at the Iowa State Fair Speedway in Des Moines. It will be an all open wheel night of action on the historic half-mile as the Racesaver 305's will be the only support class and I am guessing that Craig Allender will have the grilled fired up in the parking lot beforehand.
It is good to see Rob Toland back in action after taking some time off and the layoff has not slowed him down one bit. His next win, which might just come this weekend, will be his 400th career victory and he is the early leader in the All Iowa Points Late Model standings through May 8th. A three time champion in 2004, 2006 and 2007, Toland might just be the favorite to win his fourth AIP title with three-time defending champion Justin Kay racing a reduced schedule in 2016. I find it interesting that since 2004 only five Late Model drivers have won the championship with Kay's three, Toland's three, Ray Guss Jr. had four straight during that time period while Terry Neal won in 2005 and Brian Harris was the 2008 champion.
Ken Schrader made a four race tour through the Midwest this past week running Wednesday and Thursday nights in Oklahoma at Longdale Speedway and Outlaw Speedway respectively, then ran Friday at Salina Speedway and Saturday at Thunder Hill Speedway in Kansas. Kenny was my favorite driver when he was running NASCAR and he is still a personality that can add to any dirt show as evidenced by the car counts at each of these four races. His best finish in the swing was a second to Corey Lagroon at Salina.
Car counts are very important and while some tracks are still posting strong numbers there are others that might have cause for concern. I will admit that in my own mind I have reduced my "good car count" standard from twenty per division to fifteen perhaps to reduce my chances of disappointment when a class or two comes in below that. But thankfully I have yet to come across anything even close to the situation that happened at the Duck River Speedway in Tennessee this past weekend where the Super Late Models were on the card and not a single one showed up to race. Ouch! If you have a subscription to Dirt On Dirt you can read Robert Holman's thoughts on this and if you don't have Dirt On Dirt, I encourage you to look into it especially if you are a Late Model fan.
As of this writing the Webmistress has not yet posted the updated All Iowa Points through this past weekend, so I will give you the top ten in each class below along with a few notes. And, when she does post them, you will see a couple of differences as the results from Vinton were not posted on SpeedNet until Tuesday morning, after I sent out the update.
I mentioned Rob Toland earlier, only he and Jeff Aikey are the two previous champions in the top ten of these early Late Model standings. Could we get a first-time champion this year? Justin Kay was the last one in 2013, the first of his three straight titles.
As mentioned in an earlier Notebook, the Modifieds look like a battle of the "house cars" for the championship with Kyle Brown, Kelly Shryock and Ricky Thornton Jr. leading the way. Keep an eye out for two-time defending champion Chris Abelson though as his regular tracks have just started racing in the past two weeks and he is already in fourth.
Tyler Soppe holds the early lead in the Limited Modifieds and if Jake McBirnie continues to make the trip to Oskaloosa every Wednesday night he could be a contender. Defending champ Tony Olson sits in third.
Greg Gill and Mike Nichols are tied for the lead in the Stock Cars with Nichols already scoring seven wins at All Iowa Points paying tracks. He has at least one more outside of the state as he was the feature winner last Thursday night at the US 30 Speedway in Columbus, Nebraska. Three-time defending champion Damon Murty ranks ninth right now, but when the fields are planted, look out for the #99D!
Shannon Anderson has to be the early favorite to secure his fifth All Iowa Points Hobby Stock title as he races, and wins, often. Even after destroying a car at the Osky Frostbuster, Eric Stanton has recovered nicely to rank second.
The Four Cylinder division is going to be a fun one to watch this year as there does not appear to be that one driver that dominates at two or three weekly tracks. Cody Thompson of Sioux City is the new leader this week, just one point ahead of the former leader Nebraska's Ramsey Meyer and Jake Benischek who towed all the way from his eastern Iowa home in Durant to win the feature at Stuart on Sunday night.
The Sprint Car classes take a bit longer to take shape since a couple of their weekly tracks have yet to open, but with new race night in Jackson, the weekend doubleheaders at Badlands as well as the NSL schedules for both 410's and 360's it will definitely make things wide open in our little "state points" tabulations.
That's it for today. I was hoping to be in Dubuque on Friday night for the MLRA show, but a social commitment has come up that will keep me from making that trip. A Saturday night show might now be possible and while the CRA All Stars Late Model show at Lebanon's I-44 Speedway or the Don Bohlander Memorial at Peoria have my attention I will likely pop into one my area's several fine weekly shows. Then on Sunday night I look forward to my first trip of the season south to the Quincy Raceways for the "Scottie 42" in memory of track builder Albert Scott featuring the UMP Late Models for a $2,000 top prize.
Here's hoping that you can attend a race or two at the tracks of your choice this weekend!
| All Iowa Points | |||
| Late Model | |||
| Pos. | Driver | Hometown | Points |
| 1 | Rob Toland | Hillsdale IL | 22 |
| 2 | John Emerson | Waterloo | 17 |
| 3 | Jeff Aikey | Cedar Falls | 15 |
| 4 | Joel Callahan | Dubuque | 15 |
| 5 | Luke Goedert | Holy Cross | 15 |
| 6 | Tyler Bruening | Decorah | 15 |
| 7 | Richie Gustin | Gilman | 14 |
| 8 | Tommy Elston | Keokuk | 14 |
| 9 | Colby Springsteen | Morning Sun | 13 |
| 10 | Josh Leonard | Gibbon NE | 13 |
| 11 | Todd Cooney | Des Moines | 13 |
| All Iowa Points | |||
| Modified | |||
| Pos. | Driver | Hometown | Points |
| 1 | Kyle Brown | Kellogg | 42 |
| 2 | Kelly Shryock | Fertile | 34 |
| 3 | Ricky Thornton Jr. | Chandler AZ | 31 |
| 4 | Ronn Lauritzen | Jesup | 24 |
| 5 | Chris Abelson | Sioux City | 23 |
| 6 | Tim Ward | Gilbert AZ | 22 |
| 7 | Mark Schulte | Delhi | 20 |
| 8 | Dustin Smith | Lake City | 19 |
| 9 | Matt Gansen | Zwingle | 19 |
| 10 | Dylan Smith | Osceola NE | 18 |
| 11 | Nick Roberts | Des Moines | 18 |
| All Iowa Points | |||
| Limited Modified | |||
| Pos. | Driver | Hometown | Points |
| 1 | Tyler Soppe | Sherrill | 39 |
| 2 | Jake McBirnie | Boone | 34 |
| 3 | Tony Olson | Cedar Rapids | 33 |
| 4 | Carter Vandenberg | Oskaloosa | 30 |
| 5 | Ryan Jenkins | Omaha NE | 25 |
| 6 | Clint Luellen | Minburn | 23 |
| 7 | Mark Leiting | Lincoln NE | 23 |
| 8 | Randy Roberts | Boone | 23 |
| 9 | Shawn Harker | Nebraska City NE | 22 |
| 10 | Jared VanDeest | Grundy Center | 21 |
| All Iowa Points | |||
| Stock Car | |||
| Pos. | Driver | Hometown | Points |
| 1 | Greg Gill | Muscatine | 35 |
| 2 | Mike Nichols | Harlan | 35 |
| 3 | Derek Green | Granada MN | 30 |
| 4 | Devin Smith | Lake City | 27 |
| 5 | Donavon Smith | Lake City | 25 |
| 6 | Steve Meyer | Grundy Center | 24 |
| 7 | Norman Chesmore | Quasqueton | 23 |
| 8 | Jerry Miles | Dubuque | 22 |
| 9 | Damon Murty | Chelsea | 20 |
| 10 | Jeff Mueller | New London | 20 |
| All Iowa Points | |||
| Hobby Stock | |||
| Pos. | Driver | Hometown | Points |
| 1 | Shannon Anderson | Atlantic | 37 |
| 2 | Eric Stanton | Hartford | 31 |
| 3 | John Watson | Des Moines | 27 |
| 4 | Benji Irvine | Oelwein | 23 |
| 5 | Jason Kohl | Missouri Valley | 23 |
| 6 | Nathan Ballard | Marengo | 22 |
| 7 | August Bach | Newton | 19 |
| 8 | Cody Nielsen | Spencer | 18 |
| 9 | Dustin Griffiths | Ottumwa | 18 |
| 10 | Nick Ulin | Agency | 16 |
| All Iowa Points | |||
| Four Cylinder | |||
| Pos. | Driver | Hometown | Points |
| 1 | Cody Thompson | Sioux City | 27 |
| 2 | Jake Benischek | Durant | 26 |
| 3 | Ramsey Meyer | Pierce NE | 26 |
| 4 | Brandon Setser | Davenport | 23 |
| 5 | Steven Struck | Atalissa | 20 |
| 6 | Brandon Lambert | Carthage IL | 19 |
| 7 | Kimberly Abbott | Camp Point IL | 19 |
| 8 | Cody Van Dusen | Atalissa | 18 |
| 9 | Denny Berghahn Jr. | Plattsmouth NE | 18 |
| 10 | Josh Barnes | Keokuk | 18 |
| All Iowa Points | |||
| 410 Sprint | |||
| Pos. | Driver | Hometown | Points |
| 1 | Brian Brown | Grain Valley MO | 15 |
| 2 | Danny Lasoski | Dover MO | 13 |
| 3 | Terry McCarl | Altoona | 8 |
| 4 | Bryan Clauson | Noblesville IN | 6 |
| 5 | Ian Madsen | St. Marys AUS | 6 |
| 6 | Craig Dollansky | Elk River MN | 3 |
| 7 | Tim Kaeding | San Jose CA | 3 |
| 8 | Davey Heskin | St. Michael MN | 2 |
| 9 | Justin Henderson | Sioux Falls SD | 2 |
| 10 | Dale Blaney | Hartford OH | 1 |
| 11 | Kerry Madsen | Sans Souci AUS | 1 |
| All Iowa Points | |||
| 360 Sprint | |||
| Pos. | Driver | Hometown | Points |
| 1 | Clint Garner | Sioux Falls SD | 13 |
| 2 | Dusty Zomer | Sioux Falls SD | 10 |
| 3 | Jamie Ball | Knoxville | 10 |
| 4 | Lee Grosz | Harwood ND | 9 |
| 5 | Chris Martin | Ankeny | 8 |
| 6 | Ryan Bickett | Ramona SD | 8 |
| 7 | Ian Madsen | Granger | 7 |
| 8 | Justin Henderson | Sioux Falls SD | 6 |
| 9 | Bryan Clauson | Noblesville IN | 5 |
| 10 | Terry McCarl | Altoona | 5 |
| All Iowa Points | |||
| 305 Sprint | |||
| Pos. | Driver | Hometown | Points |
| 1 | Tyler Drueke | Eagle NE | 14 |
| 2 | Austin Johnson | Pleasant Hill | 11 |
| 3 | Ben Wagoner | Emden IL | 10 |
| 4 | Clint Benson | Papillion NE | 10 |
| 5 | Jason Martin | Lincoln NE | 9 |
| 6 | Christian Bowman | Altoona | 7 |
| 7 | Matt Moro | Polk City | 7 |
| 8 | Trevor Grossenbacher | Hickman NE | 7 |
| 9 | Chris Walraven | Knoxville | 6 |
| 10 | Ben Woods | Newton | 5 |
| 11 | Dave Getchell | Sperry | 5 |
| 12 | Devin Kline | Knoxville | 5 |
| 13 | Dustin Clark | Eldon | 5 |
| 14 | Lee Bowes | Lincoln NE | 5 |
| 15 | Robby Wolfgang | Sioux Falls SD | 5 |
| 16 | Shane Quam | Gladstone IL | 5 |
| 17 | Tyler Glass | Cedar Rapids | 5 |
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