We had a record high temperature of 89 degrees in Mount Pleasant yesterday and today it has "cooled" down to the mid-70's. Definitely doesn't feel like we are at the end of the racing season! The dry weather is supposed to stick around through this weekend with more seasonal temperatures that will make me pull the cold weather gear out for Friday night at Memphis, Missouri, and perhaps on Sunday as well at the Dells Motor Speedway.
One quick note for those of you who may not have checked the Specials calendar since Sue was able to update it, the Jason Leffler Memorial race at the Wayne County Speedway in Illinois is coming up this Thursday night, October 20th with a whopping $20,000 up for grabs in the USAC and POWRi sanctioned midget race. It had originally been scheduled for Friday night, but the date was changed to allowed for the NASCAR drivers such as Kyle Larson, Rico Abreu and Ricky Stenhouse Jr. to compete.
Earlier this season we noted here that Jeff James of Stanton, Iowa, had won the IMCA Modified feature down at the Tri-State Speedway in Pocola, Oklahoma. Well he did it again this past weekend during the track's annual Spooker special topping a strong field including former IMCA Super Nationals champion Jeff Taylor who finished in second. James' teammate Todd Van Eaton posted an impressive fourth-place finish.
The weather was near perfect for three nights of racing during the USRA Nationals at the Lakeside Speedway in Kansas City where Minnesota driver Lucas Schott captured the headlining Modified main event and a $3,600 paycheck. Schott also won the Grant Junghans Memorial here two weeks earlier.
Brandon Sheppard passed Josh Richards on lap 77 and then completed the final 23 circuits to win the Dirt Track World Championship at Portsmouth Raceway Park. The win was worth a cool $100,000 for the 23-year-old driver from New Berlin, Illinois, and bumps him up the chart a bit on the Back Stretch National Dirt Late Model Hot 100 list at the end of this post. The mega-event was also the final race for the 2016 Lucas Oil Dirt Late Model Series and with his 11th place finish Scott Bloomquist wrapped up his third LODLMS title.
I have to admit that when I first received this press release last week titled "Knoxville Raceway, Badlands Motor Speedway and Jackson Motorplex Working Together in 2017" my heart jumped in hope that we would go back to where nobody would be racing against the other on any given night. Instead this just clarifies that each have agreed to not compete against each other during their "high profile" events in 2017. Oh well, I guess that's a start.
Speaking of Sprint Cars, I wondered what might become of the Des Moines area drivers who had committed to the IMCA Racesaver 305 rules package with the demise of the Iowa State Fair Speedway and now we might have an answer. The Boone Speedway held a meeting for the Racesaver drivers this past Sunday and given this discussion on the Hoseheads forum it would appear that the track will be adding the division to its weekly show in 2017. The Racesavers have been very successful after replacing the 360 class at the Eagle Raceway in 2013 and the quarter-mile high-banked layout at Boone is much the same as Eagle that is located ten miles east of Lincoln, Nebraska. The difference of course was that Des Moines raced on Friday's and would draw over a few of the Eagle Raceway regulars while Boone races on Saturday; the same night as Eagle, and as Knoxville that runs a different set of rules for their 305 division. If and when it becomes official, this would be an interesting addition to the Boone Speedway and one that I know that our own Joyce Eisele will be very excited about!
I never thought that I would see the day, but in all fairness I have to mention it here. Somebody bitching on an internet forum actually produced a positive outcome! It happened in this thread from the iowastockcars dirt racing forum where the promotion of the upcoming Memphis Fall Nationals suddenly turned into a discussion of what the Lee County Late Models were set to be paid in their "one night only" appearance on Saturday. Even though I have nothing to do with the show, other than the fact that I plan to attend it on Friday night, I tried to provide some explanation that fell upon deaf ears and when 96late, or Terry Kroemer, continued to press the issue in a well expressed manner Curt Marks from Dubuque Moving & Storage stepped up with some sponsorship money to boost the Late Model winner's pay from $500 to $1,000 on Saturday night. A pretty cool response from Marks who is a Late Model racer himself, although I hope that this doesn't lead the AWP's of the world to believe that all they have to do is bitch in order to get what they want. Oh wait, that's what they already think, isn't it? Just don't promise to have them on the track before 9 p.m. Mike!
That's all for today, make your plans now to attend a race this weekend!
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