It seems like the notebook has had way too many instances this year of talking about tracks that are closing and, unfortunately that will be the main theme of today's entry. The one saving grace though is that I also have the good news of one "reopening" of a facility that was closed earlier in the year.
With several tracks closing their gates due to a lack of interest and so any others struggling to stay open with shrinking car counts and little fan support, it is so much harder to see what happened on the final night of racing at the Manitowoc Speedway in Wisconsin this past Saturday night. A huge field of 179 cars jammed the pits and a capacity crowd came out to bid farewell to a track that will likely be razed for the development of a Meier grocery store. Mitch McGrath won the Late Model feature and Jim Melis topped a healthy field of 32 Sprint Cars to headline the results and my question is, where will all of these racers disperse to in 2017? Will they keep racing somewhere else or will some of them call it a career? The same question can be asked of the fans.
It is a sad situation, but hopefully it will help bolster some of the other tracks in the region next year.
I have been in Columbus, Ohio, this week on business and while watching the local news they had a report that the Columbus Speedway will hold its last ever race this coming Saturday night. A quick Google search revealed that this closing was announced way back in April after the track owners agreed to sell the property to the city of Obetz where the track is located. Car counts have been up and weekly attendance was around 2,500, something that nearly all weekly tracks would envy and from the story it sounds like the owners were a bit surprised when the city actually accepted their sell price. A check of the results from last week shows that the car counts are still solid as the speedway prepares for it's Final Lap this weekend.
The Western Tech Speedway Park, formerly known as the El Paso Speedway in Texas also held its final event this past weekend and while I cannot find the exact reason for closing it does appear that the track's finale was similar to that of Manitowoc with 180 cars and 2,000 people in the stands.
Even though these three facilities are going out on a high note, it is still three less race tracks in operation and I struggle with how I feel about that. The exuberant youth that still hides deep inside of me hates it because as a kid it seemed like there was a race track in every community and someday I wanted to visit them all! The realist in me though understands that part of our problem right now is that we likely have too many tracks in operation vying for both the drivers and fans that are available at this time. You have heard that drivers say that on a slick track you must slow down to go fast? Well for racing to get back to a position of strength, we might have to have some tracks that now run weekly step back to a specials only schedule, or even close in hope that they can come back to life when things get better.
On the plus side it was back in June when word came out that the Vermilion County Speedway in Danville, Illinois, would shut down its weekly operations. This past Sunday night the track sprung back to life with a new name, Kickapoo Motor Speedway, and new promoters, the same folks that operate the Daugherty Speedway in Boswell, Indiana. There were 91 cars in five divisions headlined by 34 UMP Modifieds with Kenny Carmichael taking the win and Kickapoo will be back in action on Sunday September 18th.
The last time that I was at a race at this facility it was Jimmy Owens taking the NKF Tour Modified feature win in 2001.
A couple of late season events have recently been added to the schedule in Iowa and Illinois. The Darkside will bring racing back to Tipton for a Thursday, Friday, Saturday tripleheader for the Fall Bash October 6th, 7th and 8th. And, billing it as an opportunity for drivers to get tuned in on a 1/5th-mile oval prior to the Gateway Fall Nationals, the Belle-Clair Speedway in Belleville, Illinois, will hold a race on Saturday December 3rd, weather cooperating of course.
Glad to see those nights added as with rain in the forecast for the next two nights it is going to be hard for me to get to my race total that I have achieved each of the last two years!
With the World 100 getting underway tonight here is the Back Stretch National Dirt Late Model Points to 100. Enjoy your racing weekend!
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