Friday Notebook: June 10, 2016

It's gonna be a hot one this weekend, so drink plenty of water, wear some light colored loose fitting clothing and get on out to the race track!

I usually catch the first few minutes of Good Morning America weekdays and they almost always start the show with the line "Breaking news overnight", but when it was followed this morning by "President Obama endorses Hillary Clinton for President" it struck me as amusing. That's the equivalent of "the sun will come up tomorrow" in regard to "breaking news".

During last week's Indiana Midget Week five different drivers won the five features, but all five cars were owned by Keith Kunz. The team had eight entries at each event requiring three different haulers! The Midget Week title though went to Bryan Clauson who was not in a Kunz entry and while he was consistent enough to take the overall points in the midgets, Clauson also won all five of the Sprint Car features held in conjunction with Midget week.

The first two nights of the POWRi sanctioned Illinois Midget Week are now in the books and while the Kunz streak continued with Tanner Thorson's win at the Belle-Clair Speedway on Wednesday night, Austin Brown broke the ice with a victory at the Quincy Raceways on Thursday. The midgets continue on to Jacksonville tonight, Macon on Saturday and Lincoln on Sunday.

One track closes, another reopens.

The Route 45 Speedway in Flora, Illinois, announced this week that they are ceasing operations but will continue to lease the track to drivers who would like to test. You will recall that this was the track that boldly made the move to sanction with the USRA right in the heart of UMP country and while some might point to that as the reason for the closure I would have to say that there were many more issues than that. A full 2016 schedule was never released and the one schedule that they did put out only had events listed through May, plus they were one of the handful of tracks in our area who had to be begged to share their results. More on that subject later.

Meanwhile in North Vernon, Indiana, the Twin Cities Raceway Park that closed following their season opener back in April due to safety concerns has put in some new bleachers and is now springing back to life this Saturday night with a program that will feature Super Late Models and B-Mods.

The full updated All Iowa Points through June 5th are on the Points page at Positively Racing and if you take a look you will see that we have some new faces on top of the standings in a few divisions. Fresh off of his 400th career feature win Rob Toland is the Late Model leader. The Modified leader, Ricky Thornton Jr., flashed his talents by wheeling the Haley Motorsports Late Model car #33 from 14th to 2nd behind Brandon Sheppard in Thursday's opener of The Dream at the Eldora Speedway last night. Tyler Soppe owns a 10-point lead over defending champion Tony Olson in the Limited Modifieds. Mike Nichols has a 12-point edge over three-time defending champ Damon Murty and Minnesota's Derek Green in the Stock Cars. Four-time and defending champion Shannon Anderson is in control of the Hobby Stock ranks while Brandon Setser of Davenport is a new face on top of the Four Cylinder standings. And in the Sprint Cars three drivers who have yet to win an AIP title are setting the pace with Brian Brown in the 410's, Ian Madsen in the 360's and Tyler Drueke in the 305's.

I hate to say it though, but the All Iowa Points are not 100% accurate at this point since the Nobles County Speedway in Worthington has now run two race nights without reporting results. The track promoter also runs the Redwood Speedway in Minnesota and apparently both are having "technical issues" with Speednet Direct at this point. It is not uncommon for a track's opening night results to be a bit slow in appearing on Speednet, usually because the track has not yet paid its fee for the service in the new season. Whatever the issues, hopefully they can work them out soon.

As I try to track the "state points" for not only Iowa, but several of the surrounding states I am amazed at how tough it is to get the results in this day and age of the internet with websites, Facebook, Speednet, MyRacePass, Twitter, etc. all available to promoters. In 1982 I was hired by Larry Kemp at 34 Raceway to write the race story including the full results and get it faxed to the area newspapers as soon as possible in hope of making the deadline for the next day's edition. I typed it out on a typewriter and used a fax machine within hours after a racing event was completed because Kemp knew that an important part of promoting his race track was to make sure that the results were reported. For you younger readers who might not know what those items are, click the links.

So I am absolutely amazed today when promoters fail to get their results out there in a timely manner, or even at all for that matter!

The Jacksonville Speedway website is just one of several that I have come across that has no results tab and I single this track out because I know that it has to be something that promoter Kenny Dobson is not aware of since he is very good about promoting all of his events including the Quincy Raceways and the MOWA Sprints. While usually I can find pictures of a print out of the results on Jacksonville's Facebook page I still have not been able to track down the race results from April 29th. I have asked a couple of other track's where I might find their results and here was one of the responses that I received:

"Hello Jeff, I am one of the owners of XYZ Speedway and I am doing most of this stuff myself. You may not be aware, but I am stretched as far as I can go right now. I also own 3 insurance agancies, a party bus company and a banquet hall. I don't have any spare time right now. Rest assured that I will have this running smooth in short order, but as for now, we may be a little deficient on the creature comforts......lol"

My response to him? Go hire some 18-year-old for ten bucks a night to post your results on the track's Facebook page. It will be the best ten bucks you will spend in regard to promoting your race track. Guess we will find out this weekend if he took my advice or not.

No racing for me tonight as we have a social commitment and then tomorrow Christine and I will join several of our friends in Des Moines to participate in the National Ovarian Cancer Coalition's 9th Annual Run/Walk as part of the Kelsey's Krusaders team. I'm sure that they would welcome in a late registrant if you would like to join us. I had entertained the possibility of getting Christine to agree to stop at the Knoxville Raceway for the World of Outlaws on the way home, but with the forecast heat and humidity I would say that my chances of pulling that off are significantly reduced. So it looks like my next race will be on Tuesday for the "3rd Annual Ladies Night Out at the Races", at least for my carload, with both my mother Dee (70's something) and my cousin Jean (80's something) coming with me to the West Liberty Raceway's Deery Brothers Summer Series/Hawkeye Dirt Tour doubleheader. Mike Van Genderen sat with us at this race two years ago and let's just say that he will have two more fans in the stands on Tuesday night.

Updated points for Nebraska and Minnesota follow.....

		Nebraska Points
		Late Model
Pos.		Driver	Hometown	Points
1	.	Cory Dumpert	York	49
2	.	Josh Leonard	Gibbon	38
3	.	Jim Johnson	Plainview	37
4	.	Chad Jensen	Norfolk	20
5	.	Chase Osborne		19
6	.	Robert Osborne	Norfolk	16
7	.	Bill Koons Jr.	Omaha	14
8	.	Brian Kosiski	Omaha	13
9	.	Tad Pospisil	Norfolk	12
10	.	Zach Zentner		12
11	.	Chris Johnson		11
12	.	Jake Bridge	Columbus	11
13	.	Doug Tomka	Stanton	9
14	.	Mark Lueken		9
15	.	Scott Eaton	York	9
16	.	Bill Leighton Jr.	Omaha	8
17	.	Greg Krohn	Albion	8
18	.	Andrew Kosiski	Omaha	7
19	.	Jacob Brown	Omaha	7
20	.	Rece Vaught	Aurora	6

		Nebraska Points
		Modified
Pos.		Driver	Hometown	Points
1	.	Jordan Grabouski	Beatrice	42
2	.	Dylan Smith	Osceola	27
3	.	Colton Osborn		24
4	.	Shane Hiatt	Rising City	22
5	.	Justin Gregg	Hastings	21
6	.	Justin Zeitner	Papillion	21
7	.	Bob Zoubek	Dorchester	20
8	.	Jared Hoefelman	Columbus	19
9	.	Anthony Roth	Columbus	18
10	.	Andy Eickhoff	Albion	14
11	.	Chad Anderson	Omaha	14
12	.	Chris Abelson	Sioux City IA	14
13	.	Jesse Dennis	Prescott IA	14
14	.	Mike Densberger	Lincoln	14
15	.	Andy Wilkinson	York	11
16	.	Dustin Anderson	Omaha	9
17	.	Hunter Marriott	Brookfield MO	9
18	.	Cole Hodges		8
19	.	Kelly Shryock	Fertile IA	8
20	.	Terry Phillips	Springfield MO	8

		Nebraska Points
		Limited Modifieds
Pos.		Driver	Hometown	Points
1	.	Kyle Prauner	Norfolk	56
2	.	Lance Borgman	Beatrice	50
3	.	Mark Leiting	Lincoln	38
4	.	Shawn Harker	Nebraska City	35
5	.	Nelson Vollbrecht	Stanton	29
6	.	James Roebuck		28
7	.	Ryan Jenkins	Omaha	28
8	.	Justin Addison	Norfolk	26
9	.	David Johnson	Monroe	22
10	.	Colby Langenberg	Norfolk	20
11	.	Trent Roth	Columbus	20
12	.	Adam Armstrong	Beatrice	19
13	.	Austin Svoboda	David City	19
14	.	Gary Saathoff	Beatrice	19
15	.	Jamey Kennicutt		15
16	.	Greg Metz	Washington KS	14
17	.	Dillon Schultz		13
18	.	Dylan Pospisil	Norfolk	12
19	.	Scott Bivens	Ceresco	12
20	.	Jarred Hackler		11

		Nebraska Points
		Winged Sprints (All)
Pos.		Driver	Hometown	Points
1	.	Tyler Drueke	Eagle	23
2	.	Jason Martin	Lincoln	15
3	.	Trevor Grossenbacher	Hickman	15
4	.	Adam Gullion	Lincoln	10
5	.	John Otte	Ravinia SD	8
6	.	Toby Chapman	Panama	8
7	.	Brian Brown	Grain Valley MO	7
8	.	Stu Snyder	Lincoln	7
9	.	Keith Deseive	Atkinson	6
10	.	Don Droud Jr.	Lincoln	5
11	.	Dusty Zomer	Sioux Falls SD	5
12	.	Joey Danley	Lincoln	5
13	.	Lee Bowes	Lincoln	5
14	.	Mike Boston	Lincoln	5
15	.	Robby Wolfgang	Sioux Falls SD	5
16	.	Terry McCarl	Altoona IA	5
17	.	Tim Cahoy	O'Neill	5
18	.	Bob Dvorak	Stuart	4
19	.	Ian Madsen	Sans Souci NSW	4
20	.	Jason Danley	Lincoln	4
21	.	Ron Love		4
22	.	Seth Brahmer	Wisner	4

		Minnesota Points
		Late Model
Pos.		Driver	Hometown	Points
1	.	Jeff Massengill	Keewatin	26
2	.	Don Shaw	Ham Lake	21
3	.	Harry Hanson	Eleveth	21
4	.	Darrell Nelson	Hermanton	13
5	.	Corey Nelson	Canby	12
6	.	Jeff Wildung	Nassau	11
7	.	Scott Ward	Watertown SD	10
8	.	Shawn Meyer	Wahpeton ND	10
9	.	Kyle Peterlin	Hibbing	9
10	.	Cole Schill	West Fargo ND	8
11	.	Mike Balcaen	Winnipeg MB	7
12	.	Terry Lillo	Duluth	6
13	.	Brad Seng	Grand Forks ND	5
14	.	Casey Meyer	Wahpeton ND	5
15	.	Jeremy Keller	Mandan ND	5
16	.	Dusty Peterson	Fargo ND	4
17	.	Jay Kintner	Hibbing	4
18	.	Kevin Roberston	Enderlin ND	4
19	.	Rick Schroeder	Montevideo	4
20	.	Zach Wohlers	Pengilly	4

		Minnesota Points
		Modified
Pos.		Driver	Hometown	Points
1	.	Brandon Davis	Medford	33
2	.	Tim Johnson	Brainerd	32
3	.	Bob Broking	Grand Rapids	31
4	.	Don Eischens	Richmond	30
5	.	Shane Sabraski	Rice	30
6	.	Rob VanMil	Barnesville	24
7	.	Josh Beaulieu	Bemidji	21
8	.	Austin Arneson	Fargo ND	20
9	.	Denis Czech	Rice	20
10	.	Josh Angst	Winona	20
11	.	Jason Cummins	New Richland	19
12	.	Seth Brede	Willmar	19
13	.	Mark Noble	Blooming Prairie	18
14	.	Brady Gerdes	Villard	16
15	.	Clint Hatlestad	Glencoe	16
16	.	Michael Greseth	Harwood ND	16
17	.	Brandon Beckendorf	Danube	15
18	.	Jeremy Nelson	Rogers	15
19	.	Dave Cain	Corcoran	14
20	.	Kevin Eder	Ashland WI	14

		Minnesota Points
		Limited Modifieds
Pos.		Driver	Hometown	Points
1	.	Ashley Mehrwerth	St. Stephen	33
2	.	Jeremy Nelson	Zimmerman	32
3	.	Jesse Skalicky	Fargo ND	31
4	.	Skeeter Estey	Kelly Lake	29
5	.	Brandon Mehrwerth	St. Stephen	28
6	.	Matthew Looft	Swea City IA	27
7	.	Travis Saurer	Elizabeth	27
8	.	Jason Vejtruba	Atwater	26
9	.	Jared Boumeester	Waseca	25
10	.	Dan Wheeler	Savage	23
11	.	Dave Siercks	Princeton	22
12	.	Kylie Kath	Owatonna	22
13	.	Eric Lamm	Zimmerman	21
14	.	Tyler Kintner	Hibbing	21
15	.	Justin Froemming	Garfield	19
16	.	Kelly Jacobson	Fargo ND	19
17	.	Tim Kanten	Milan	17
18	.	Randy Laage	Brooten	16
19	.	Ron Saurer	Dalton	16
20	.	Mack Estey	Hibbing	14
21	.	Mike Nichols	Watertown SD	14

		Minnesota Points
		Winged Sprints (360 & 305)
Pos.		Driver	Hometown	Points
1	.	Ian Madsen	St. Marys NSW	15
2	.	Michael Stien	Ceylon	11
3	.	Dusty Ballenger	Harrisburg SD	10
4	.	Skylar Prochaska	Lakefield	9
5	.	Tim Kaeding	San Jose CA	8
6	.	Casey Friedrichsen	Arthur IA	7
7	.	Colin Smith	Sheldon IA	7
8	.	Kaley Gharst	Decatur IL	7
9	.	Lee Grosz	Harwood ND	7
10	.	Tony Norem	Dassel	5
11	.	Trevor Serbus	Olivia	5
12	.	Jesse Lindberg	Sioux Falls SD	4
13	.	Kaleb Johnson		4
14	.	Ryan Bowers	Ham Lake	4
15	.	Bruce Anderson	Trimont	3
16	.	Cody Hahn		3
17	.	Cody Ledger	Lincoln NE	3
18	.	Dalyn Cody	Prior Lake	3
19	.	Nate Eakin	Arnolds Park IA	3
20	.	Trevor Mell	Harwood ND	3