Wednesday, July 13, 2016

Wednesday Notebook: July 13, 2016

The Southern Iowa Speedway in Oskaloosa picked a good week to sit idle as they would have been rained out anyway. The half-mile oval will be back with two big nights of action next week during the Southern Iowa Fair with the United States Modified Touring Series (USMTS) headlining on Tuesday night before Wednesday's Hawkeye Dirt Tour for IMCA Modifieds plus the conclusion of the Budweiser and Musco Lighting Stock Car Shootout.

Speaking of county fairs, they are in full swing now and there will be plenty of opportunities for race fans to get in some extra action along with some good ol' fair food over the next couple of weeks. Check the schedule at Positively Racing for all of the fair races coming up! My next event will be tomorrow night at the Cedar County Fair in Tipton with the Shottenkirk.com Sprint Invaders. Joining the winged sprints will be the Sport Mods racing for a $1,000 top prize as well as the American Iron Racing Series. The weather looks good and I am looking forward to returning to the quick little quarter in Tipton.

Every weather forecast that I saw for this past Sunday had no mention of rain in it, at least when I last checked on Saturday, so I was really disappointed when a line of storms pressed southeast and washed out the Deery Brothers Summer Series race at the Dubuque Fairgrounds Speedway. I see today though that this race has now been rescheduled for Tuesday, August 16th, so that will be added to the specials calendar soon and it will definitely be on my "to do" list.

As those storms passed through Mount Pleasant they dumped seven tenths of an inch of rain in just a few minutes causing some street flooding so I then kept an eye on the radar to see if a trip to Quincy for the UMP Summer Nationals event might still be a possibility. It was as if the storms slowed and then parked just to the northwest of Quincy and despite the fact that my friend and colleague Danny Rosencrans was texting me to tell me that the rain was going to miss the track, knowing that the same radar image had soaked my hometown earlier plus an irritating case of poison ivy made me decide to sit this one out. Bad decision! From the video that I saw the next morning on Dirt On Dirt it looked like the newly reworked surface was very racey and relatively dust free as Bobby Pierce racked up another victory on the Hell Tour. It was also great to see how full the grandstands were at Quincy even with the threatening weather. I am glad that I was one of the few who chickened out!

The past couple of weeks have been really good here on the Back Stretch as the story on Oskaloosa's most recent weekly show pushed the page views to the most ever for one calendar month topping October of 2012 and the page view count also surpassed the one quarter of a million mark. Then last Thursday's story on the Lee County Fair race had several shares on Facebook making it the second most read single entry ever behind the longtime leader, this August of 2013 story on the USMTS show at Tipton. I want to thank each and every one of you for taking a moment and stopping by for a look at the Back Stretch and I hope that you will continue to do so for a long time to come!

I love the "one and done" or the "lone ranger" rule where a driver is sent to the pits if involved in just one caution during a heat race or a B-Main, but recently I saw a glaring example of one interpretation that I don't like about it. Two drivers were racing for the final transfer position in a heat race and the driver that was in fifth went into the corner too deep and spun the driver that was running fourth. With the rest of the field closing on the spun car fast, the caution waved despite the fact that the spun car was trying to get back into motion. Both cars were sent to the pits meaning that an official had determined that the "takeout" was intentional, so my question would be why not give the driver in fourth, an innocent victim, his spot back? Oh well, as I said, overall I love the rule because not only does it keep the show moving, but it trains drivers to not spin and sit waiting for a caution, even at feature time.

Congratulations to Shark Racing driver Logan Schuchart who scored his first career World of Outlaws Craftsman Sprint Car win on Friday night at the Cedar Lake Speedway.

Johnny Fennewald is now two of three with feature wins since joining the ULMA Late Model field at the Lucas Oil Speedway in Missouri. The news for Fennewald is much worse when it comes to his Modified though as both he and Eric Turner have been disqualified from their finishes on June 30th due to tire infractions. Tire doping has been a big story recently on the national Late Model scene and it is good to see that they are checking the Modifieds as well.

Andrew Burg from Carlisle, Iowa, was the IMCA Hobby Stock feature winner at the Rolling Plains Motor (RPM) Speedway in Hays, Kansas, this weekend. Not sure why he made the long pull, but at least it paid off.

It was a big weekend for the father and son team of David and Tyler McDonald from Huron, South Dakota. On Friday night David won the WISSOTA Late Model feature and Tyler captured the WISSOTA Modified feature at the Brown County Speedway in Aberdeen, then on Saturday night they repeated their wins at their hometown Dakota State Fair Speedway. Tyler kept the streak going with the Modified win at the Miller Central Speedway on Sunday night, but dad could not close out the perfect weekend as he finished fourth in the Late Model main event that was won by Brian Diede.

Thirteen-year-old Garrett Schwartz became the youngest race winner ever at the Grundy County Speedway in Morris, Illinois, on Friday night when captured the opening heat race for the Super Late Models. You can check out the story with a picture here and take notice of the great crowd on hand for the weekly show on pavement. Feature time did not go well for the young driver though as he was credited with 20th after completing just five laps.

Mike Peters of Whitehall, Wisconsin, won the Mini-Vans feature at the LaCrosse Fairgrounds Speedway on Saturday night. There were four grocery getters in action, but no soccer moms behind the wheel.

We will close out today's notebook with the top 100 in the current Back Stretch National Dirt Late Model points and I hope to see you at the track soon!


The "Back Stretch"
Dirt Late Model Points
Pos. Driver Hometown Points
1 . Josh Richards Shinnston WV 158
2 . Scott Bloomquist Mooresburg TN 151
3 . Jonathan Davenport Blairsville GA 137
4 . Bobby Pierce Oakwood IL 95
5 . Shane Clanton Locust Grove GA 81
6 . Brandon Sheppard New Berlin IL 73
7 . Jared Landers Batesville AR 63
8 . Dale McDowell Chickamauga GA 62
9 . Brian Shirley Chatham IL 61
10 . Chris Madden Gray Court SC 57
11 . Billy Moyer Batesville AR 56
12 . Dennis Erb Jr. Carpentersville IL 56
13 . Mike Marlar Winfield TN 52
14 . Tim McCreadie Watertown NY 48
15 . Darrell Lanigan Union KY 44
16 . Don O'Neal Martinsville IN 44
17 . Jimmy Owens Newport TN 43
18 . Casey Roberts Toccoa GA 40
19 . Gregg Satterlee Rochester Mills PA 38
20 . Donald McIntosh Dawsonville GA 36
21 . Rick Eckert York PA 36
22 . Ryan Unzicker El Paso IL 34
23 . Earl Pearson Jr. Jacksonville FL 33
24 . Brandon Overton Appling GA 32
25 . Jason Feger Bloomington IL 32
26 . Frank Heckenast Jr. Orland Park IL 30
27 . Steve Francis Ashland KY 29
28 . Billy Moyer Jr. Batesville AR 28
29 . Chris Simpson Marion IA 28
30 . Jesse Stovall Galena MO 28
31 . Willie Milliken Leland NC 27
32 . Eddie Carrier Jr. Salt Rock WV 26
33 . Jason Covert York Haven PA 26
34 . Chris Ferguson Mount Holly NC 25
35 . Devin Moran Dresden OH 24
36 . Tony Jackson Jr. Lebanon MO 24
37 . Jimmy Mars Elk Mound WI 23
38 . Kyle Bronson Brandon FL 23
39 . Tim Dohm Cross Lanes WV 23
40 . Dale Hollidge Mechanicsville MD 22
41 . Mark Whitener Middleburg FL 22
42 . Max Blair Centerville PA 22
43 . Jackie Boggs Grayson KY 21
44 . Riley Hickman Ooletwah TN 20
45 . Ross Bailes Clover SC 20
46 . Tyler Carpenter Parkersburg WV 20
47 . Cory Hedgecock Louden TN 19
48 . Greg Johnson Bedford IN 19
49 . Terry Phillips Springfield MO 19
50 . Dona Marcoullier Houghton Lake MI 18
51 . Devin Gilpin Columbus IN 17
52 . Kevin Weaver Gibson City IL 17
53 . Jason Hiett Lincoln AL 16
54 . Rusty Schlenk Jackson MI 16
55 . Jason Krohn Slayton MN 15
56 . Justin Kay Wheatland IA 15
57 . Mason Zeigler Chalk Hill PA 15
58 . Jared Miley South Park PA 14
59 . Johnny Pursley Clover SC 14
60 . Kyle Beard Trumann AR 14
61 . Ricky Thornton Jr. Chandler AZ 14
62 . Corey Conley Wellsburg WV 13
63 . Doug Drown Wooster OH 13
64 . Freddie Carpenter Parkersburg WV 13
65 . Ronny Lee Hollingsworth Northport AL 13
66 . Russell Erwin Beaverdam VA 13
67 . Zack Dohm Cross Lanes WV 13
68 . Chad Simpson Marion IA 12
69 . David Watts Buckhannon 12
70 . Jeff Rine Danville PA 12
71 . Randy Weaver Crossville TN 12
72 . Rodney Sanders Happy TX 12
73 . Tanner English Benton KY 12
74 . Daulton Wilson Fayetteville NC 11
75 . Devin Dixon Apollo Beach FL 11
76 . Don Shaw Ham Lake MN 11
77 . Donald Bradsher Burlington NC 11
78 . Eric Spangler Lake City MI 11
79 . Josh Putnam Killen AL 11
80 . McKay Wenger Fairbury IL 11
81 . Michael Kloos Trenton IL 11
82 . Rhett Carter Blackshear GA 11
83 . Rich Bell Sheffield IL 11
84 . Steve Casebolt Richmond IN 11
85 . Tim Manville Highland IL 11
86 . Tyler Crowder Tallahassee FL 11
87 . A.J. Diemel Navarino WI 10
88 . B.J. Robinson Blanchard LA 10
89 . Caleb Ashby Cunningham TN 10
90 . Chad Zobrist Highland IL 10
91 . Chub Frank Sugar Grove PA 10
92 . Hunter Rasdon Jonesboro AR 10
93 . Jason Papich Santa Maria CA 10
94 . Jeff Provinzino Hibbing MN 10
95 . Jonathan Edwards Lake Wylie SC 10
96 . Ricky Weiss Winnipeg MAN 10
97 . Ryan VanderVeen Six Lakes MI 10
98 . Tyler Erb Magnolia TX 10
99 . Dan Tipton 9
100 . Dean Bowen Whiteville NC 9
101 . Dennis Franklin Gaffney SC 9
102 . Duane Chamberlain Richmond IN 9
103 . Jack Sullivan Greenbriar AR 9
104 . Jason Fitzgerald Jacksonville FL 9
105 . Joel Callahan Dubuque IA 9
106 . Matt Cosner Ridgely WV 9
107 . Ryan Gustin Marshalltown IA 9
108 . Scott Ward Watertown SD 9
109 . Timothy Culp Sheridan AR 9

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