The last few days of summer and we have yet to have a dip in temperatures like we normally do this time of year. In fact, with highs in the 80's and even over 90 in my hometown yesterday, it is hard to believe that the 2016 racing season is winding down quickly now and it looks like the special events coming up this weekend will be run in summer like conditions.
The weather was absolutely perfect this past Saturday night as the Shottenkirk.com Sprint Invaders closed out their season at 34 Raceway in Burlington and, after the 25-lap main event, there were two excited young drivers doing donuts on the front straightaway. Jarrod Schneiderman was strong all night and even though he had to fight a stuck throttle over the closing laps "Jed" was able to win his first career Sprint Invaders feature and close out a strong season as the runner-up in the series point standings.
The other celebrant was 19-year-old Chris Martin who had charged from sixth to second during the race and made one strong run at Schneiderman in the closing laps as he wrapped up the Sprint Invaders championship for 2016. Those two, along with the rest of the Invader regulars will celebrate a great season during the banquet on November 5th in Burlington.
Martin's run to the front was not without incident though as when he challenged Tyler Groenendyk for second on lap 18, Groenendyk was forced up and over the cushion making contact with the wall in turn four. Perhaps the fastest car on the track at the checkers was the winner's older brother as Josh Schneiderman had charged from twelfth to third and he was closing on Martin at the checkers. Needless to say it was a happy family in the Schneiderman pits afterward and father Bart was beaming with pride as we shared a conversation during the annual post-race potluck.
The great weather helped draw out a nice crowd for the track's season finale and there were more than twenty cars each in both the Mod Lites and the Four Cylinder divisions as well. The Mod Lites had a few more cautions than usual, and even a red flag causing their feature to run long as the first of four main events to be contested on the night. Mike Morrill seldom loses at 34 and when he drew the pole for the feature I thought this would be a race for second, but Delaware native Ty Short chased him down and passed Morrill for the lead mid-race. The variety of cautions kept it close and in the closing laps Morrill came back to take the lead, and the win from Short whose car seemed to go away from him.
Several of the top Four Cylinder drivers in the area were looking for the extra money that was up for grabs on this night and it was Brad Chandler who scored the win with some help from Bill Whalen Jr. When I asked him where his car was earlier in the night, Whalen told me that the engine and several of the parts on Chandler's car #3c were his and that he was just a pit man tonight. Track champion Ron Kibbe chased Chandler in for second.
Jeff Mallonee scored the win in the IMRA Midget main event, a race that Burlington's Dave "Beef" Anderson said would be the final one of his career and he took one last slow lap around his hometown track following the checkers before heading to the pits.
It was great way to close out the season at what is essentially my "home" track and promoters Jeff and Amy Laue have already released a schedule for 2017 that shows a 34 Raceway logo on every Saturday night from March 25th through October 7th, save for August 12th that will be an off night during the Knoxville Nationals. The details will be added later, but one event is set and that is the 9th Annual Slocum 50 that will be held on Saturday April 15th.
Moving on to other things......Last Thursday I joined in on a very interesting, and civil conversation on Facebook where a driver that I respect very much had asked the question what makes a Fall Special "special"? I don't know if it was his intent or not, but the comments had now focused on entry fees, tow money and purses overall for such events and of course the common theme was "I hate Entry Fees". Well of course you do! That's like asking people if they like dentists, but if you want your teeth to be taken care of you have to go see one once in awhile. So I pointed out that without the Entry Fees the overall purse would not be as high and I asked whether the drivers would prefer to have less money on top of the purse so that they would not have to pay the entry fee and, given the theme of the conversation, I was not surprised that nearly all of them said yes. The true test of course would be to actually run one of the Fall specials in that manner and see if that holds true or not, but I don't think that we will see that any time soon.
The other question that I asked was "do drivers believe that a promoter should make a profit on running an event?" Again it came as no surprise that not one single person answered that direct question, but from comments that you will see day in and day out on social media and internet forums it sure seems like most feel that they shouldn't. That is until a track somewhere closes and then the attitudes change really fast.
My first recollection of special events with Entry Fees was back when Dale Danielski and Doug Scheckler formed the United States Modified Series (USMS) where a standard event paid $2,000-to-win and $200-to-start. Since Modified drivers at the time were used to racing for $300 or $400 to win at weekly shows those big numbers definitely caught their eyes and nobody seemed to mind that the cost of the Entry Fee and a Pit Pass well exceeded the $75 that would be paid out to the non-qualifiers. Would their shows have drawn the same interest if they would have dropped the Entry Fee and paid $1,000-to-win and $75-to-start? Probably not, so the true question now is would more drivers actually support a show that paid less to win if it would cost them less to get in? Have we truly gotten to a point where drivers have evolved to where they consider how they will come out financially just to start the feature rather than what it pays to run first, second or third?
If we have, then I want someone to hire me, at least as a consultant, to implement some ideas where it would cost both drivers and fans less to go to the races and put our sport back to the affordable alternative to all of those other entertainment options that are out there that are regularly cited as pulling people away from the sport.
I guess I will see if anybody actually reads the Back Stretch or not, because that was basically me saying that I am open for hire :)
I know one thing, I will NOT be tracking state points for ten different states again in 2017! It was fun for awhile, then became a chore through the heart of the season as I somehow kept up, and now as the season winds down I am still tempted to try it again next year, but I am going to convince myself to know better. It will be back down to the base two, Iowa and Missouri next year along with the National Dirt Late Model points as long as Dirt On Dirt continues to make it so easy. Once this season ends in each state that I did track this year, look for the full final rundown here for this one time and one time only!
It was nice to again see a not so familiar face, at least when it comes to Dirt Late Model crown jewel events, in victory lane at Knoxville Saturday night as Mike Marlar held off Scott Bloomquist to score the win. I believe that one of the announcers said on Thursday night after Marlar had set quick time that the reason that his car was an unfamiliar color of yellow and white was that it had actually been prepared for Frank Heckenast Jr. to drive, but that he decided to stick with one of his other cars instead. Marlar has been fast at Knoxville before so I was not surprised to see him score the $40,000 win. The win moves him up a few spots in the Back Stretch National Dirt Late Model standings this week as a third-place run by Bobby Pierce allows him to inch ever closer to this year's big three. The top 100 or so are listed below.
My wife asked me this morning what I was doing this weekend which means that she is exploring the social possibilities for us. Depending upon what she comes up with I might be at Eldon on Friday, West Liberty on Saturday or Quincy on Sunday. Come on sweetheart, at least one race this weekend!
Hope to see you on the Back Stretch!
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