Okay, so I could have used "All My Drivers" or "General Pit Area" as a title instead, but you have to admit that the state of Sprint Car racing here in the upper Midwest has been a bit of a soap opera over the past two years. And, with today's bombshell that the Badlands Speedway is up for sell, our story just got a lot more interesting.
Yes, for a mere $9.75 million you can take over the ownership of the track near Sioux Falls or, if you can only come up with six million in cash right now, the current ownership will be happy to finance you for another six million dollars over the next six years putting your total investment in the facility at a cool $12,000,000.
Yikes!
There just aren't that many people out there with that kind of money and a desire to risk it in dirt track racing while those that do have already invested in another facility, i.e. the Jackson Motorplex. The scary thing for race fans in the area is the statement that the track will not open next season unless new ownership is found.
Now that Lyle Howey is out of a job at BMS will he reopen the I-90 Speedway in nearby Hartford? Will a new hero step forward and pay the price to keep the sport alive in Sioux Falls? Will Chuck Brennan come back next week and say that it was all a dream? And just what is Devin doing here?
Tune in next week for another edition of "As The Sprint Car Turns"
Wednesday, November 30, 2016
Tuesday, November 29, 2016
Tuesday Notebook: November 29, 2016
It was a wise move for Jerry Hoffman and Doug Bland to postpone the Turkey Bowl for one week as it was a pretty decent day in Springfield for racing on Saturday and that drew just shy of 150 cars in four divisions for the annual event. NASCAR star Ken Schrader towed his Modified in with a pickup truck and an open trailer to later drive away from the rest of a 50-car field to take the win. Robbie Reed slipped by Steve Picou late to finish second while Terry Schultz and Bobby Pearish completed the top five. Jesse Hoeft made the long pull down from Forest City, Iowa, to finish eighth while other Iowa travelers Shane Demey and Shawn Ritter were 13th and 16th respectively. Illinois driver Lance Dehm proclaimed this to be his last race ever and he finished eleventh after starting from the front row.
Two of the best B-Mod drivers in the region, or the Midwest for that matter, went at it in the main event for that division with J.C. Morton prevailing over Kris Jackson. Morton, the 2016 USRA National Champion, was the best of a whopping sixty drivers who signed in for the event. Minnesota driver Parker Hale finished third followed by Maik Hailmann and Josh Stephens. Austen Becerra, a regular competitor at Donnellson, Burlington and Quincy started from the pole and finished in tenth.
Twenty-three Late Models were in action with Scott Crigler chasing down Dewayne Kiefer to score the win. Young Logan Martin got past Kiefer late to finish second with Jacob Magee and Dustin Mooneyham next in line. Grasyn Cox from nearby Joplin won the Legend Car main event with Kalona, Iowa's Warren Ropp in second. Watching some of the videos it looked like it a got a bit foggy, but the racing was multi-grooved and I hope that in 2017 the event can be run on the Saturday preceding Thanksgiving as it is now traditionally scheduled.
The big race coming up this weekend is the Snowball Derby at Five Flags Speedway and, even if you are not a big follower of the pavement pounders, I encourage you to check out the coverage this week at Speed51
Arkansas driver Jeff Taylor swept the two nights of IMCA Modified action during the Turkey Classic at the Cocopah Speedway in Arizona. I sure do hope that there were a lot of people watching the pay-per-view on SpeedShiftTV because on the video highlight that I saw today it looked like there were very few fans in the stands as Taylor took the checkered flag.
While listening to Track Talk with the Racin' Boys this past Saturday morning I learned that Jon Boller will be promoting a weekly show at the U.S. 36 Raceway in Cameron, Missouri in 2017. Boller, a racer and car owner himself who said that he had fifteen cars racing this past season during the interview, will present a weekly Friday night offering of Modifieds, B-Mods, Stock Cars, E-Mods and Hobby Stocks at the track that has only hosted a handful of special events the past several years. Boller said that he will work closely with the I-35 Speedway in Winston, a track that is USRA sanctioned, I did not hear him say whether or not U.S. 36 will also be sanctioned since it will be racing the same night as the Lakeside Speedway just down the road.
So, while we seem to notice it more when a track closes, here is another one that is coming back to life with weekly racing which by my count so far puts us at "plus two" for the region in 2017. We will see if that holds up.
Promoter Mick Trier confirmed on an Iowastockcars.com forum thread this weekend that the Benton County Speedway in Vinton will add Late Models to the weekly Sunday night shows in 2017. I would link the thread, but don't want to confuse the issue. More info on the addition coming soon!
The Elko Speedway just south of the Twin Cities announced that they will drop the Super Late Model division from their weekly shows in 2017, despite the fact that the track averaged 18 cars in 2016. It was one of only a couple of tracks that had both the Supers and the "Big 8" Late Model divisions running weekly, so look for the other division to grow in numbers.
It is now official, Joey Saldana will continue to compete with the World of Outlaws now driving a car fielded by Matt Wood and Ricky Stenhouse Jr. It was also announced today that Dale Blaney will be the new driver for the Zemco #1z team in 2017.
The ASCS National Series roster of regular drivers will grow by two in 2017 as both Harli White and Ray Allen Kulhanek have stated their intentions to run the Tour next season.
"The Godfather" Dave Moody had this well written tribute to Tony Stewart as he says "goodbye" to Cup racing and "hello" to his roots.
Randy Mooneyham has sold the MARS Late Model series to a group headed up by Clarksville Speedway promoter William Scogin who will split the series into an East and West division. The first draft of the West schedule is out and includes many of the traditional events that have graced the MARS schedule the past few years including the annual Slocum 50 at 34 Raceway on April 15th. The East division will stick pretty close to Tennessee with both divisions kicking off the 2017 season at the traditional Toilet Bowl Classic in Clarksville on March 3rd and 4th.
Dirt On Dirt announced their top five drivers of 2016 yesterday with Josh Richards getting the nod as Driver of the Year. Their top five matches up to mine except for the fact that they list Bobby Pierce as a "regional" driver since he did not following either the Lucas Tour or the Outlaws thus moving Dennis Erb Jr. up from sixth to fifth.
Two of the best B-Mod drivers in the region, or the Midwest for that matter, went at it in the main event for that division with J.C. Morton prevailing over Kris Jackson. Morton, the 2016 USRA National Champion, was the best of a whopping sixty drivers who signed in for the event. Minnesota driver Parker Hale finished third followed by Maik Hailmann and Josh Stephens. Austen Becerra, a regular competitor at Donnellson, Burlington and Quincy started from the pole and finished in tenth.
Twenty-three Late Models were in action with Scott Crigler chasing down Dewayne Kiefer to score the win. Young Logan Martin got past Kiefer late to finish second with Jacob Magee and Dustin Mooneyham next in line. Grasyn Cox from nearby Joplin won the Legend Car main event with Kalona, Iowa's Warren Ropp in second. Watching some of the videos it looked like it a got a bit foggy, but the racing was multi-grooved and I hope that in 2017 the event can be run on the Saturday preceding Thanksgiving as it is now traditionally scheduled.
The big race coming up this weekend is the Snowball Derby at Five Flags Speedway and, even if you are not a big follower of the pavement pounders, I encourage you to check out the coverage this week at Speed51
Arkansas driver Jeff Taylor swept the two nights of IMCA Modified action during the Turkey Classic at the Cocopah Speedway in Arizona. I sure do hope that there were a lot of people watching the pay-per-view on SpeedShiftTV because on the video highlight that I saw today it looked like there were very few fans in the stands as Taylor took the checkered flag.
While listening to Track Talk with the Racin' Boys this past Saturday morning I learned that Jon Boller will be promoting a weekly show at the U.S. 36 Raceway in Cameron, Missouri in 2017. Boller, a racer and car owner himself who said that he had fifteen cars racing this past season during the interview, will present a weekly Friday night offering of Modifieds, B-Mods, Stock Cars, E-Mods and Hobby Stocks at the track that has only hosted a handful of special events the past several years. Boller said that he will work closely with the I-35 Speedway in Winston, a track that is USRA sanctioned, I did not hear him say whether or not U.S. 36 will also be sanctioned since it will be racing the same night as the Lakeside Speedway just down the road.
So, while we seem to notice it more when a track closes, here is another one that is coming back to life with weekly racing which by my count so far puts us at "plus two" for the region in 2017. We will see if that holds up.
Promoter Mick Trier confirmed on an Iowastockcars.com forum thread this weekend that the Benton County Speedway in Vinton will add Late Models to the weekly Sunday night shows in 2017. I would link the thread, but don't want to confuse the issue. More info on the addition coming soon!
The Elko Speedway just south of the Twin Cities announced that they will drop the Super Late Model division from their weekly shows in 2017, despite the fact that the track averaged 18 cars in 2016. It was one of only a couple of tracks that had both the Supers and the "Big 8" Late Model divisions running weekly, so look for the other division to grow in numbers.
It is now official, Joey Saldana will continue to compete with the World of Outlaws now driving a car fielded by Matt Wood and Ricky Stenhouse Jr. It was also announced today that Dale Blaney will be the new driver for the Zemco #1z team in 2017.
The ASCS National Series roster of regular drivers will grow by two in 2017 as both Harli White and Ray Allen Kulhanek have stated their intentions to run the Tour next season.
"The Godfather" Dave Moody had this well written tribute to Tony Stewart as he says "goodbye" to Cup racing and "hello" to his roots.
Randy Mooneyham has sold the MARS Late Model series to a group headed up by Clarksville Speedway promoter William Scogin who will split the series into an East and West division. The first draft of the West schedule is out and includes many of the traditional events that have graced the MARS schedule the past few years including the annual Slocum 50 at 34 Raceway on April 15th. The East division will stick pretty close to Tennessee with both divisions kicking off the 2017 season at the traditional Toilet Bowl Classic in Clarksville on March 3rd and 4th.
Dirt On Dirt announced their top five drivers of 2016 yesterday with Josh Richards getting the nod as Driver of the Year. Their top five matches up to mine except for the fact that they list Bobby Pierce as a "regional" driver since he did not following either the Lucas Tour or the Outlaws thus moving Dennis Erb Jr. up from sixth to fifth.
Monday, November 21, 2016
Turkey Teasers and Michigan Points
Yes, I have now used the root word "tease" in the title of my two most recent blogs.
Rumors, rumors and more rumors going around right now and while I feel that I have some very good sources even one of them this morning backed off of a statement that he had made last week so while I was dumb enough to be coy on a racing forum, I will hold on to my "information" until it is actually announced. But hey, that doesn't mean that I can't tell you about some of the other things that people are saying!
One of the hottest rumors on the street right now is the potential sale of the Farley Speedway to Jason Rauen and Joel Callahan and then what their plans would be going forward. I must say that the sell of Farley seems to pop up each year and, while I am pretty confident that a transaction is being discussed, until the papers are actually signed everything is just speculation. With Farley being the base of the Simmons Promotions operation it then makes one wonder what the situation is at the two fairground tracks that are leased for weekly racing. I have been told by a reliable source that an agreement has already been signed at West Liberty, but I have no word on Dubuque.
My feelings on it all are this. Running three tracks including some big money specials each year and for as long as he has, Keith Simmons has given as much, if not more to the sport of dirt racing in this area than anybody. And despite this the man gets more negative snipping from people on the internet and social media than any other promoter. No matter how this all plays out it is my hope that he is happy and very satisfied with his accomplishments, because he should be. I will update further when I have solid information.
We knew that with the closing of the track at the Iowa State Fairgrounds there would be some changes in central Iowa and two of them have been officially announced. Stuart Speedway will now switch to Friday night racing action after being the only Sunday track in the area for several years. And, as expected, the Late Model division will be added to the weekly program at the Marshalltown Speedway apparently replacing the Mod Lites.
Race night changes are going on as well up in north central Iowa and southern Minnesota as the Hancock County Speedway in Britt will go back to Friday night racing under new promoters in 2017. Fairmont Raceway will move to Saturday nights, perhaps a bit in deference to Britt's move, but mainly because the Jackson Motorplex will no longer run its Saturday night IMCA program going back to one night of weekly racing in 2017 on Fridays with the Sprint Cars being the main focus, while a couple of stock car classes will run in support.
It is almost like musical chairs in the region at this point, but I am assuming that Algona will continue to stick with Thursday and it remains to be seen whether or not Spencer will continue to race weekly on Friday. One thing is for sure, there are still no shortage of options in that region!
It was no surprise, to me at least, that the National Sprint League announced that they would not be running any races in 2017 and while they leave the door open to a possibility of returning someday I do not see that happening as long as there are weekly races at Knoxville, Badlands and Jackson. The NSL learned that it was next to impossible to get the 410 drivers in this region to race extra nights beyond their weekly shows, especially if those events were scheduled mid-week or on Holiday weekends. In other words, run a show at 34 Raceway in early April before the regular season opens at Knoxville and you get forty cars, but run a show on a Thursday night in July at Britt and get eighteen or on a Sunday of Memorial Day weekend at Des Moines and get fourteen. The upper Midwest already had a couple of good regional series for the 410's in the IRA and MOWA. They will continue.
Apparently 48% of the country doesn't think that the other 47% of the country is smart enough to turn on a TV, read a paper or view social media. That means that our chances are slim that we will all pull together and do better for 100% of the country.
Last Tuesday during Dirt Late Model Live on Dirt On Dirt commentator Ben Shelton listed 2016 Deery Brothers Summer Series Champion Tyler Bruening as a potential World of Outlaws Late Model Rookie-of-the-Year candidate in 2017. For the past few years Tyler has made the trip down to Florida to race with the big boys during Speedweeks at Volusia and perhaps a solid showing there in a few months could lead to a run at the full WoO schedule. Other drivers mentioned were Donald Bradsher, Donald McIntosh and G.R. Smith.
When Brandon Sheppard announced a few weeks ago that he was leaving the Best Motorsports Team to drive his own family's equipment in 2017 absolutely nobody would have predicted that World of Outlaws champion Josh Richards would be his replacement. Likely the Driver of the Year in 2016 Richards has driven the Rocket house car for his father Mark Richards for years, so now the question is who will step into that stout ride in 2017? And, which series will the Best/Richards team follow next year?
Evening update: Not more than two hours after I posted this entry it was announced that Brandon Sheppard will be the driver of the Mark Richards Racing Rocket house car in 2017. So essentially, the two teams traded drivers.
The ride jumping continues in the world of Sprint Car racing as well kicked off a week or two ago when Kerry Madsen replaced Danny Lasoski in the Muddy #2 car. That left the Matt Wood Racing #17w looking for a driver and the rumor is that Joey Saldana may be able to bring some motors and sponsorship money from the Roth Motorsports Team that is scaling back to put the Wood team on the World of Outlaws circuit. Nothing official yet on that one though. What is official though is that Austin McCarl will replace Craig Dollansky in the TKS Motorsports ride in 2017. No word on what Dollansky has planned and that means that the two drivers who finished one-two in National Sprint League points in 2016 are currently ride shopping.
Last week I was saddened to hear of the passing of Burlington's Jim Hollenbeck, a long-time competitor at 34 Raceway and a track regular when I announced there from 1982 though 1989. He was a good driver, had a fantastic personality and was always willing to help out young drivers such as Bobby Mincer and his son Ed Hollenbeck to name a couple. He will be missed by all who had the chance to get to know him both at and away from the track.
Don't forget that the Turkey Bowl is on the schedule now for this Saturday November 26th at the Springfield Raceway in Missouri!
With my daughter living in Michigan I can see myself getting to a race or two up there each year so this past weekend I pulled up the results from the dirt tracks in the state over 2016 and gave them the same 5-point scale treatment that I give the All Iowa Points and found the following. You might not think of it in that way, but Michigan has some of the best weekly UMP Late Model racing in the country with several of the tracks needing to run a B-Main at most of their shows. When it comes to Modifieds they are split between UMP and IMCA with a couple of tracks running both but calling the IMCA-style rules the "Michigan Dirt Modifieds" and, with winged Sprint Cars, one track runs the 360's weekly while the Sprints On Dirt (SOD) and the Great Lakes Super Sprints (GLSS) keeps the open wheel fans pretty pleased by having at least one race at each facility during the season.
In the Late Models Ryan VanderVeen was the top point getter with eleven feature wins along the way. David Mielke was the best of the UMP Mod drivers with 18 feature wins and his point total was four more than the best of the IMCA group, A.J. Ward who had 22 wins on the season. And with four wins, Chase Ridenour scored the most points for the Sprint Car drivers.
The full standings for all three divisions follow. Have a Happy Thanksgiving!!
Rumors, rumors and more rumors going around right now and while I feel that I have some very good sources even one of them this morning backed off of a statement that he had made last week so while I was dumb enough to be coy on a racing forum, I will hold on to my "information" until it is actually announced. But hey, that doesn't mean that I can't tell you about some of the other things that people are saying!
One of the hottest rumors on the street right now is the potential sale of the Farley Speedway to Jason Rauen and Joel Callahan and then what their plans would be going forward. I must say that the sell of Farley seems to pop up each year and, while I am pretty confident that a transaction is being discussed, until the papers are actually signed everything is just speculation. With Farley being the base of the Simmons Promotions operation it then makes one wonder what the situation is at the two fairground tracks that are leased for weekly racing. I have been told by a reliable source that an agreement has already been signed at West Liberty, but I have no word on Dubuque.
My feelings on it all are this. Running three tracks including some big money specials each year and for as long as he has, Keith Simmons has given as much, if not more to the sport of dirt racing in this area than anybody. And despite this the man gets more negative snipping from people on the internet and social media than any other promoter. No matter how this all plays out it is my hope that he is happy and very satisfied with his accomplishments, because he should be. I will update further when I have solid information.
We knew that with the closing of the track at the Iowa State Fairgrounds there would be some changes in central Iowa and two of them have been officially announced. Stuart Speedway will now switch to Friday night racing action after being the only Sunday track in the area for several years. And, as expected, the Late Model division will be added to the weekly program at the Marshalltown Speedway apparently replacing the Mod Lites.
Race night changes are going on as well up in north central Iowa and southern Minnesota as the Hancock County Speedway in Britt will go back to Friday night racing under new promoters in 2017. Fairmont Raceway will move to Saturday nights, perhaps a bit in deference to Britt's move, but mainly because the Jackson Motorplex will no longer run its Saturday night IMCA program going back to one night of weekly racing in 2017 on Fridays with the Sprint Cars being the main focus, while a couple of stock car classes will run in support.
It is almost like musical chairs in the region at this point, but I am assuming that Algona will continue to stick with Thursday and it remains to be seen whether or not Spencer will continue to race weekly on Friday. One thing is for sure, there are still no shortage of options in that region!
It was no surprise, to me at least, that the National Sprint League announced that they would not be running any races in 2017 and while they leave the door open to a possibility of returning someday I do not see that happening as long as there are weekly races at Knoxville, Badlands and Jackson. The NSL learned that it was next to impossible to get the 410 drivers in this region to race extra nights beyond their weekly shows, especially if those events were scheduled mid-week or on Holiday weekends. In other words, run a show at 34 Raceway in early April before the regular season opens at Knoxville and you get forty cars, but run a show on a Thursday night in July at Britt and get eighteen or on a Sunday of Memorial Day weekend at Des Moines and get fourteen. The upper Midwest already had a couple of good regional series for the 410's in the IRA and MOWA. They will continue.
Apparently 48% of the country doesn't think that the other 47% of the country is smart enough to turn on a TV, read a paper or view social media. That means that our chances are slim that we will all pull together and do better for 100% of the country.
Last Tuesday during Dirt Late Model Live on Dirt On Dirt commentator Ben Shelton listed 2016 Deery Brothers Summer Series Champion Tyler Bruening as a potential World of Outlaws Late Model Rookie-of-the-Year candidate in 2017. For the past few years Tyler has made the trip down to Florida to race with the big boys during Speedweeks at Volusia and perhaps a solid showing there in a few months could lead to a run at the full WoO schedule. Other drivers mentioned were Donald Bradsher, Donald McIntosh and G.R. Smith.
When Brandon Sheppard announced a few weeks ago that he was leaving the Best Motorsports Team to drive his own family's equipment in 2017 absolutely nobody would have predicted that World of Outlaws champion Josh Richards would be his replacement. Likely the Driver of the Year in 2016 Richards has driven the Rocket house car for his father Mark Richards for years, so now the question is who will step into that stout ride in 2017? And, which series will the Best/Richards team follow next year?
Evening update: Not more than two hours after I posted this entry it was announced that Brandon Sheppard will be the driver of the Mark Richards Racing Rocket house car in 2017. So essentially, the two teams traded drivers.
The ride jumping continues in the world of Sprint Car racing as well kicked off a week or two ago when Kerry Madsen replaced Danny Lasoski in the Muddy #2 car. That left the Matt Wood Racing #17w looking for a driver and the rumor is that Joey Saldana may be able to bring some motors and sponsorship money from the Roth Motorsports Team that is scaling back to put the Wood team on the World of Outlaws circuit. Nothing official yet on that one though. What is official though is that Austin McCarl will replace Craig Dollansky in the TKS Motorsports ride in 2017. No word on what Dollansky has planned and that means that the two drivers who finished one-two in National Sprint League points in 2016 are currently ride shopping.
Last week I was saddened to hear of the passing of Burlington's Jim Hollenbeck, a long-time competitor at 34 Raceway and a track regular when I announced there from 1982 though 1989. He was a good driver, had a fantastic personality and was always willing to help out young drivers such as Bobby Mincer and his son Ed Hollenbeck to name a couple. He will be missed by all who had the chance to get to know him both at and away from the track.
Don't forget that the Turkey Bowl is on the schedule now for this Saturday November 26th at the Springfield Raceway in Missouri!
With my daughter living in Michigan I can see myself getting to a race or two up there each year so this past weekend I pulled up the results from the dirt tracks in the state over 2016 and gave them the same 5-point scale treatment that I give the All Iowa Points and found the following. You might not think of it in that way, but Michigan has some of the best weekly UMP Late Model racing in the country with several of the tracks needing to run a B-Main at most of their shows. When it comes to Modifieds they are split between UMP and IMCA with a couple of tracks running both but calling the IMCA-style rules the "Michigan Dirt Modifieds" and, with winged Sprint Cars, one track runs the 360's weekly while the Sprints On Dirt (SOD) and the Great Lakes Super Sprints (GLSS) keeps the open wheel fans pretty pleased by having at least one race at each facility during the season.
In the Late Models Ryan VanderVeen was the top point getter with eleven feature wins along the way. David Mielke was the best of the UMP Mod drivers with 18 feature wins and his point total was four more than the best of the IMCA group, A.J. Ward who had 22 wins on the season. And with four wins, Chase Ridenour scored the most points for the Sprint Car drivers.
The full standings for all three divisions follow. Have a Happy Thanksgiving!!
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