Rain has wiped out what might have been my only two opportunities this season to catch up with Todd Staley's United States Modified Touring Series (USMTS) after wash outs at Des Moines on Monday and Oskaloosa on Tuesday. I love going to Staley's shows as they are always well presented and feature some great racing amongst the drivers who travel with him regularly and you just never know when one of the locals might jump up and take a win. Oh well, guess I will have to search the schedule now and see what other possibilities there might be.
If you believe the rumors Monday might have also been my last opportunity to see racing on the historic half-mile oval at the Iowa State Fair Speedway since I cannot make either this week's Season Championship or next week's Deery Series race. Now I was told that a permanent stage will be built in front of the main grandstand with a new short track being built over in the area where turns three and four now sit. But then again, it was Anthony Crispino who told me, so ya never know.
Tonight's Hawkeye Dirt Tour race at the Southern Iowa Speedway was cancelled last night so it really must have poured in Oskaloosa as usually the county fairs will pull out all stops to get a show in, especially if it is going to be sunny and hot on race day. That now turns my attention to the Maquoketa Speedway for tonight's Deery Brothers Summer Series show, but the track must first survive some showers this morning. We are in a "ring of fire" pattern right now where thunderstorms fire up around the oustide of a hot dome of high pressure and then rotate in a clockwise pattern. That is what nailed Des Moines and Osky on Tuesday and as of this morning both Maquoketa and Mason City, where the North Iowa Fair Shootout is also scheduled for tonight, are right on the edge of that ring. Hopefully both shows can go on as scheduled tonight, but just know that if they do you should be prepared for a hot and humid evening "inside the ring".
Here are some items that caught my attention over the weekend......
Sprint Car driver Russ Hall rallied from twelfth to second driving Kevin Hollingsworth's IMCA Modified at the Iowa State Fair Speedway in Des Moines on Friday night. Hall was set to run the car in all three Hawkeye Dirt Tour events this week, but now (hopefully) it will be just one on Thursday night at a track that he will actually be more familiar with than his competitors, the Knoxville Raceway.
There were also a couple of first-time winners, at least for this season, in Des Moines on Friday with Randy Havlik taking the IMCA Late Model victory and Robert Moore topping the Northern Sport Mods.
Teenager Tanner Gebhardt has been close to winning a feature race on a couple of occasions here in his rookie season behind the wheel of a 305 c.i Winged Sprint, but on Saturday night he sealed the deal by taking the checkers at 34 Raceway near Burlington. Another local youngster, Devon Rouse won the Mod Lite main event.
Seth Janssen of Ogden was a first-time winner in the Hobby Stock division on Saturday night at the Hamilton County Speedway in Webster City, a track that will host its annual "Thursday Night Thunder" tomorrow night.
Cody Thompson of Sioux City was one of the early contenders for the lead in the Four Cylinder All Iowa Points chase in 2016, but when his name disappeared from the weekly results I wondered what was going on with him. Well now I know. Cody has apparently made the move to the Sport Mod class as on Saturday night he finished third at the Shelby County Speedway in Harlan. While I understand that, for some drivers, the Four Cylinder or Sport Compact division is what fits their budget and I would rather have them racing there long term instead of not racing at all, but it sure is nice to see drivers get some track time in the class and then move on to another division. As I look at this class that, by all common sense, should have the highest car counts at any track, I am not seeing the number of "new names" popping up in the results that one would expect for a low budget "beginners" class and I think that it has to do with some of the career winners that continue to stay in the division.
I have long been an advocate of the old Sunset Speedway rule where the top drivers in the Sportsman class were required to move on to the Late Models the next season which not only kept the Late Model count healthy, but the Sportsman class flourished as well with newcomers each year. If tracks or even sanctioning bodies would now do the same with the Four Cylinders I believe that you would see the car counts going up rather than going down. And, for those drivers who don't have the budget to move up, then perhaps they would need to be a little more strategic as to just how many races that they win each year, if you know what I mean. One driver won 48 features in the division last year alone and he is still racing in it. Is there any wonder why the car counts in that class where he competes are consistently under ten? Congratulations Cody, best of luck in the Sport Mod!
IMCA does not allow drivers to compete in both the Modified and Sport Mod divisions at the same time, but that is not the case in WISSOTA land, or actually NASCAR as it would be for the Cedar Lake Speedway where Jason Vandekamp of Scandia, Minnesota, won both the Modified and the Midwest Modified feature on Saturday night.
Kelly Shryock made the trip north to win the IMCA Modified main event in Arlington, Minnesota, this past weekend.
Ricky Logan's name has been absent from the Sprint Car results from for the past six years, but the Little Rock, Arkansas, native is back in action winning the 305 Main event at the Knoxville Raceway on Saturday night and then running fifth in the 360 feature at the Double X Speedway in California, Missouri on Sunday night.
As we get closer to the Knoxville Nationals on the schedule it is always fun to see who transplant themselves in the Midwest in preparation for the big event and one of those drivers last year was Willie Croft. Now the quarter-mile Lincoln Speedway in central Illinois is a far cry from the big and fast Knoxville Raceway, but it must have felt just like home for the Roseville, California, driver as he won Friday night's Midwest Open Wheel Associaction (MOWA) main event in Lincoln.
I am tracking results from ten different states this year and out of all those tracks at only one of them, the Tomahawk Speedway in Wisconsin, is it completely impossible to even get the winners let alone the top five from each division. You'll recall that this is the facility that when I politely asked for results on the track's Facebook page back in the Spring the promoter told me that he was just too busy and that results would just have to be one of the "creature comforts" that we would have to do without for now. He has time to post some very darkly lit videos from some of the feature races, but no time to type out a few names. Monett Speedway and the Jacksonville Speedway make it very tough to get results as well which, in this day and age, there is no reason for.
The state of Kansas has lost another dirt track, at least for the remainder of this season with the closing of the Wakeeney Speedway. "Due to circumstances beyond our control John regrets to inform all the racers, families and fans that Wakeeney has to close. He wants everyone to know that he has done EVERYTHING humanly possible to keep the track open but it is just not possible." No blame, no pointing fingers, just a promoter who was likely putting forth a ton of effort, but still losing money and said that enough was enough. I know that drivers want to be paid more and that fans want to pay less, but if the promoter is not making a fair profit for all of the time involved and the risk, there will not be a race track, it is as simple as that.
Remember Steve Arpin? According the Dirt On Dirt it has been ten years since he last drove a dirt Late Model, but the talent remains as on his first race back in the division he was the winner in the WISSOTA sanctioned event at Montana's Electric City Speedway. Go double zero, eh!
The Slinger Super Speedway north of Milwaukee was outside of the ring of fire on Tuesday and it was Matt Kenseth and Erik Jones finishing first and second in the Super Late Model division during the annual Slinger Nationals. I can guarantee you that Kenseth's win on Tuesday night came in front of far fewer empty seats than did his win on Sunday in New Hampshire. If you were watching the NBC Sports Network you would understand.
Jeff Gordon will be the substitute driver for Dale Earnhardt Jr. at both Indianapolis and Pocono. With this being his second self-imposed timeout for concussion related symptoms one has to wonder just how much longer Junior will even race. A sudden retirement would be devastating for NASCAR.
Our colleague Brian Neal is no longer the promoter at the CJ Speedway in Columbus Junction. I don't know the circumstances, but I do selfishly hope that he will get back into the full swing of reporting the Midwest Racing News real soon!
Still holding out hope for Maquoketa tonight and Knoxville on Thursday, hope to see you on the Back Stretch!
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