As expected Mother Nature was the winner for the most part in the region last weekend and despite a couple of rainy days coming up it does look like things should clear out by Friday leaving us with a dry weekend for racing. The Tuesday forecast for last weekend was pretty darn accurate so let's hope that the same holds true for this weekend.
And a busy one it will be as evidenced by the Specials Calendar on Positively Racing. Our friends up north are still waiting for something to happen in their neck of the woods, but at least the road trip for them shortens up some with several intriguing events this weekend. Toby Kruse moves the World Nationals from its traditional date in September to this weekend and now makes it an IMCA sanctioned event by allowing the crate motors to also compete for the $10,000 winner's check in the Modifieds. Wednesday morning update: Due to weather the World Nationals have been postponed until October 12-14
When Kruse made the move last Fall it looked like it would be a weekend that he would have to himself, but that changed when The Darkside (Timmy Current and Ryan Duhme) scheduled the Spring Fling for the Cedar County Raceway in Tipton. Coming off the success of their Fall show, the Darkside will try to pick up where they left off with the Modifieds racing for $1,000-to-win on Friday night and $3,000-to-win on Saturday and you can bet on a big field of Sport Mods as they will be looking for a deuces wild $2,222 payoff on Saturday night.
The Spring Meltdown will once again kick off a busy schedule at the I-80 Speedway between Omaha and Lincoln with a doubleheader for the Lucas Oil MLRA Late Models and the Racesaver Sprint Series of Nebraska will join the card on Saturday night. Thursday morning update: The Spring Meltdown has been canceled due to wet grounds and an unfavorable forecast. I-80 and the MLRA are looking for a possible rescheduling date. Meanwhile, over in The Land of Lincoln the Illini 100 will welcome the World of Outlaws Late Model series and its list of young guns into the Farmer City Raceway for a two night show.
Craig, since you were asking, my weekend will start off with a hockey game in Des Moines that will support the National Ovarian Cancer Coalition on Friday night then, on Saturday, I am really looking forward to a first-time pairing of two long-running regional racing series as the Shottenkirk.com Sprint Invaders and the Deery Brothers Summer Series for IMCA Late Models will share the spotlight at 34 Raceway near Burlington. That's it, two premier classes only and with it being the season opener for each I am anticipating a strong car count. For the IMCA Late Models it has been a few years since they have been at 34 so it will be like a neutral court as Tyler Breuning sets out to defend his crown against veterans Jeff Aikey, Darrell DeFrance and the winner of the first-ever Summer Series race held at 34 Raceway back in 1987, Jay Johnson. Teenager Chris Martin captured the Sprint Invader title in 2016 and while I am not sure that he will try to defend it by being at every race on this year's schedule I look for him to be at the opener. Last year's runner up Jarrod Schneiderman will be looking for a good start as he seeks his first title, but did Martin open the door to a youth movement? Young drivers Tanner Gebhardt and Brayden Gaylord have purchased their memberships for the first time and both have shown great potential. It should be a great night of racing at 34 and I hope to see many of you there!
Then, on Sunday night, I am hoping to make the trip up to the Benton County Speedway in Vinton as promoter Mick Trier serves up a racing version of the "hair of the dog that bit ya" with the World Nationals Hangover. The IMCA Modifieds will headline with $1,000 to win in a night of racing that you know will be presented in a quick and fine fashion allowing you to be ready for work on Monday, the first day of the week that will see the annual Frostbusters get rolling on Wednesday night in Donnellson. But more on that later, yes it is one of my favorite times of the year, Racing Season is here!
And never too soon as I am getting weary of watching replays online. Don't get me wrong, they are nice but it is nothing like the real thing and while it may not be how many of you feel, but give me a live Hobby Stock race in person over a big-time Late Model show on my computer anytime! Long-time readers know that I am not a fan of pay-per-view events as I predicted that there would be a proliferation of them and it would soon result in fewer people actually buying tickets and sitting in the stands. I saw evidence of this over the past weekend when a Facebook friend of mine did a brief live stream from an event that he had traveled to and, by pausing the video, it was easy to count all of the people in the grandstand at this show that was also being offered live on Pay Per View. Let's just say that less than one hundred people in the stands will not sustain a race track so hopefully they had a bunch of people logging in, and that the PPV provider was actually giving a significant cut of the price to view to the track, or that had to be one lousy bottom line for that promoter. Proponents of PPV will always argue that it is the only way for somebody from a long distance to be able to see an event. Perhaps, but I say that it can also keep that "long distance" fan from buying a ticket to a track that is actually close to him or her on that night as well. Oh well, Pandora's box was opened long ago so I just hope that somewhere down the road that I will have to admit that I was wrong.
Someone started a thread on 4m.net last week asking for opinions on whether live streaming a race on Facebook, Persicope, or whatever other new app is out there helps or hurts a race track. Again I have a hard time buying into how it can help because I just don't believe that somebody sees something like that and says, "ya know, I need to start going there on a weekly basis". It hurts because it is just one more excuse for somebody to not buy a ticket and attend and no, I don't think that it will keep hundreds of people from coming, but even losing just one fan a night takes $12 to $15 off of the bottom line. I do know this, I am seeing more and more people standing up and holding their phones in the air to do this live streaming and while that is fine if you have positioned yourself in the top row, it is not if you are in the middle of the grandstand. Before the state of Iowa passed the law that stopped people from being able to smoke in the grandstands at the races my son Morgan felt that if he had to put up with the person next to him or in front of him blowing smoke in his face all evening, that he should then have the right to deliver one solid kick to the crotch of that person at the end of the night. I am all for instituting that same quid pro quo for somebody who is standing and blocking the views of the fans who actually paid for a ticket so that they can live stream the event to those who didn't. Call it the rule of the Back Stretch if you'd like, heck I might even reference it Saturday night.....
Back to being weary about watching replays online, yesterday's Hlog by Mike Hlas was a good one and I can think of several sayings that have either been overused lately by race announcers or that perhaps should have never been used at all. "Are you kidding me?" No, nobody is kidding you, it is a dirt track race, passes for the lead are supposed to happen from time to time unless of course you are announcing for one of those series that qualifies and then starts their races straight up. In that scenario a series of the proclamation "good God almighty" might be screamed when the second place car closes to within a few car lengths of the leader. "In the famous words of M.C. Hammer" is not a required prelude to the exclamation of "it's hammer time" when a race is starting. We already know who made the line famous. I have heard three different announcers in the past week blurt out out "Dirt On Dirt's Race of the Year" and again it was when there was a pretty good race for the lead near the end, but nothing even close to being worthy of such a suggestion. When I hear that my first thought is that these guys should come and announce at an IMCA sanctioned weekly track sometime where three or four lead changes during a twenty-lap race are common with the track's point leader often stalking at the finish. Now watch out, I will likely have some stupid sayings of my own when I am on the mic this Saturday night.
And finally, there is one more turn of phrase that you drivers out there need to quit saying. "I can't thank (fill in blank here) enough" has become the "go to" line in victory lane interviews for drivers from the short tracks all the way up to the Monster Energy Cup so not only has it become overused, but all too often the driver has such a long list of people that he can't thank enough that he leaves off the word "enough". So as it ends up he is actually saying that he can't thank any of these people......his family, his crew, the guy who prepped the track, Joe's barbecue, Acme Roadrunner Removal, his girlfriend and his wife! Let's see who will be the driver to once again establish the line as it should be by just saying either "I would like to thank" or "I need to thank". My bet is on Curtis Van Der Wal, after all he usually has plenty of opportunities in a season.
Here are a few notes that caught my eye from this past weekend's results and news. Native Australian Lynton Jeffrey who now calls Prairie City, Iowa, his home was the Sprint Car feature winner at the Port Royal Speedway. I would have been surprised to have seen that he had even pulled out to Pennsylvania, let alone winning over Dale Blaney and Greg Hodnett.
Stanton, Iowa's Jeff James finished fourth in the Modified feature at the Diamond Park Speedway near Nashville, Arkansas. My guess is that Jeff had already towed down to eastern Oklahoma for the 38th Annual Cecil Harlan Memorial Keggar at the Tri-State Speedway in Pocola and when it was postponed by one week due to rain he did what any old fashioned dirt track racer would do, he found the next closest race.
Steven Bowers Jr. swept the Modified division at the Rolling Plains Motor Speedway during the Sunflower Classic. Dustin Daniels did the same in the Sport Mods and after winning on Friday night who would not have bet on Mike Nichols on doubling up in the Stock Cars? Casey Woken, that's who, as he made the defending IMCA National Champion settle for being the runner-up on Saturday.
Yes it is always sad when another dirt track closes, and the forum jockeys are always to quick to express their sadness as if there are never any of them re-opening. I see that the Enid Speedway in Oklahoma will spring back to life in 2017 running a schedule of six special events, four featuring Late Models and two with Sprint Cars, with Mark Brill and Kip Hughes leading the promotion. Brill has experience as just this winter he sold his own Brill's Motor Speedway in Meeker, a track that will now be known as Red Dirt Raceway. Add Enid to the Flint Creek Speedway and the Lake Ozark Speedway as tracks down that way to get back into action this season. Don't worry AWP's, there are still plenty of dirt tracks for you to critique, and thankfully for us fans to attend!
Plenty of great races on the schedule in the weeks ahead, get out and enjoy some racing and bring a friend with you!
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