The Big Tease

Call it "The Big Tease" as today in Springfield, Missouri, it is sunny with a high in the upper 70's. On Saturday though it will still be sunny with a high only in the upper 40's made even chillier by a stiff breeze out of the northwest and that is why promoter Jerry Hoffman has made the tough decision to postpone the annual Turkey Bowl to next Saturday, November 26th.

I don't blame him, I have been a co-promoter of a late season event in the past and I know the negative effect on the bottom line that a day in the 40's with a stiff north wind can have. In fact those were the conditions that we ran the "Millennium Grand Finale" in back in October of 1999 and after a long evening of freezing our butts off that's when Jenni Hoenig said, "well that was a real shiver fest" and one of the most unique event names in racing was born.

Yes, you can race in conditions like this, but why take the chance? And, while it might be easy for you to take what follows as "sour grapes", please know that if I were in Hoffman's shoes I would have done the same thing.

For me at least the Turkey Bowl itself has become "The Big Tease". One of the first ones to be held was on Thanksgiving weekend ten years ago and since our holiday weekend destination that year was Tulsa, Oklahoma, for the big dinner with my sister-in-law and the family we drove right past the track on the way home as they were trying to get the show in as the snow started to fall. I believe that it was the next year that they started scheduling the race for the Saturday before Thanksgiving and I was thrilled! After all, there is absolutely no way that I can attend this race when it is held on Thanksgiving weekend until some close relative moves to Springfield and becomes the gathering point for our holiday get together, but the week before is perfect since my wife helps with an annual event for her sorority each year and does not care if I am gone racing!

So each year I mark my calendar and make hotel reservations for the Saturday before Thanksgiving and, each year, Jerry Hoffman and Doug Bland graciously put myself and Barry Johnson on the media list for the big day. Truth be told, it was the Turkey Bowl that first prompted me to start compiling the Specials Calendar on Positively Racing as I wanted to make sure that other race fans were aware that there was still some great racing to be found in our region this time of year and, if you are reading this in real time and click on the link you will see that it is still there on its original date. Also, as a side note, that December 3rd race in Belleville, Illinois, has been cancelled too as it is hard to get the Webmistress enthused about working on the racing website this time of year!

To say that the weather has not been kind to the Turkey Bowl though is an understatement. As mentioned, snow flurries pushed back that first one and while I don't have the exact statistics I would have to say that a majority of them have not been run on the originally scheduled date. I have been to only two of them with one of those actually being run in March while the last time that I can remember the show being run on the scheduled date it was in 2012 when Terry Phillips, Kyle Beard and Kris Jackson made it to victory lane. Since then either I have not been able to make the trip, or it has been postponed to the following weekend and last year the Bowl was even pushed out another week to the first Saturday in December where it ran under beautiful and relatively warm conditions as reported by Ed Reichert. I missed it though because I was enjoying my first trip ever to the Snowball Derby down in Florida.

So the Turkey Bowl has teased me once again and next Saturday while I will be completely enjoying time with my family, many of whom are traveling to Iowa from far away, I will still be a bit envious of those who will be enjoying one last dirt race (outdoors) in 2016. Unless of course Mother Nature strikes again and then I can fill back in that open date on December 3rd. Otherwise, Jerry and Doug, mark us down again for November 18, 2017, and we will see you next year!