Yes, the weather forecast is calling for rain in our area this weekend and with several special events and a few regular season openers on the schedule that is not good. The one difference though is that this rain is to come in the form of scattered thunderstorms with temperatures in the seventies. Rain like this moves across a region in a matter of hours and while some places get a deluge, others escape with little or no rain so it is all about timing and location. Much different than the cold, steady soaking rains that we had the past two weeks so even though the threat of rain is high for Friday and Saturday, hopefully racers and fans will hold off on making other plans until we actually see when and where that rain falls. I know that I am!
The two events that I am targeting this weekend are significant. On Friday night the Farley Speedway hosts the Deery Brothers Summer Series for IMCA Late Models and it will be the first event there for the new ownership group. I am excited to see the changes that have been made to the short track now that the half-mile has been completely removed and I am intrigued by the balance of the Summer Series field after the first two events as it literally looks like anybody can win on any given night. Yes, you have the veterans in Jeff Aikey and Darrel DeFrance, along with drivers who you know can take the checkers like Denny Eckrich and Nick Marolf have already. Matt Ryan is a proven winner and Justin Kay is always a threat when he signs in not to mention the defending series champion Tyler Bruening. Then add in the two rookie contenders from out west, Jesse Sobbing and Jake Neal, and you have quite an interesting mix!
One of my annual "can't miss" events comes up on Saturday night with the 9th Annual Slocum 50 at 34 Raceway, an event that honors the memory of one of the best people that I have had the opportunity to get to know in the sport, Brent Slocum. Event organizers Brad Stevens and Jessi Mynatt, along with their Slocum Foundation team members, continue to make each year bigger and better with their efforts and not only will this be the highest paying single day Super Late Model event in the state of Iowa for 2017 with $10,555 going to the winner, it will also be the largest purse for the 305 Sprints this year with $1,555 on the line. And, with some extra help from some generous people just this week, the Stock Car feature winner will take home $1,055! (In case you didn't know, Brent's car number was 5). All of this for just a $20 ticket where a portion of that goes to the Slocum Foundation along with the other half of the fifty/fifty raffle money so that scholarships can be awarded to area students. See what I mean when I describe this event as "significant"?!
Yes, the weather forecast is not favorable for the Slocum at this time and I am not sure what the backup plan will be should the event be rained out, but this forecast is essentially the same as it was two years ago when the rains held off and we all witnessed one of the best Late Model finishes of 2015. Hopefully we will get some help from above once again this Saturday night.
As always, when I talk about where I might be headed on a given weekend, that is simply where I have chosen and is never meant to be a slight to all of the other great events, specials or weekly shows that are on the schedule. In fact, when the weather forecast looks like this, that is when I often refer to the Specials calendar and the weekly show info at Positively Racing for backup plans and I hope that you use it often!
Last week I mentioned my concern about getting race results out of tracks here in the early season and that concern did not subside any after this past weekend. A couple of examples for you.....The Quincy Raceways have used SpeedNet for years and track publicist Jack Walbring is one of the best about having results up and posted within minutes after an event wraps up. After Sunday's opener though Jack was working with a new program and thankfully he emailed the full results to me on Tuesday night. However, if I was not fortunate enough to be friends with Jack I would still be looking for those results as a check of the track's Facebook page and website still does not have them. I will say this though, if this new program is the one that they are now using at Quincy's sister track in Jacksonville, then hallelujah! It was the first time that I have ever been able to get full results from there without having to hunt and hunt for them coming up empty more often than not.
There was a big two-day show for the five standard IMCA classes at an All Iowa Points paying track this past weekend and after promoting the bejeebers out of it on Facebook the only results I could find was on the title sponsor's Facebook page and it was nothing more than the car number and the last name of the top five finishers in individual posts for each class. Plus, in one of them, they just had a car number for the second place finisher along with a question mark because they didn't know the driver's name. Once again this is a track that has used SpeedNet for years without any issues, but whatever changes have been made due to a buyout, merger or whatever it was has left nothing but a mess! Some tracks have made a smooth transition while others seem like they have no clue that anything has changed making it a situation that in this age of high-speed information the reporting of race results is now significantly worse than it was when you had to wait until Thursday or Friday for your Hawkeye Racing News to arrive in the mailbox!
MyRacePass I blame you for not helping the tracks that use your service to make a smooth transition. Get on it!
From the results that I was able to find this past weekend here are some items that caught my eye.....
Daniel Gottschalk from Ellis, the most dominant Sport Mod driver in the state of Kansas the past couple of years has moved into the Modified division for 2017 and finished third in the main event at the Rolling Plains Motor Speedway. It is always good when a driver dominating a support class for more than a year or two makes the move.
Two of the 2016 All Missouri Points champions each picked up their third feature win of the season during the 2017 opener at the Monett Motor Speedway Sunday night, Jackie Dalton in the Modifieds and Ryan Gillmore in the B-Mods.
Not only did Canadian Thomas Kennedy sweep the 360 Sprints during I-80's Bugeater Bash this weekend, he had to come from the 16th starting spot to win on Saturday night.
Tyler Frye made the long pull from Belleville, Kansas, to Oklahoma since the Longdale Speedway was running two nights and he made the trip worthwhile by finishing third on Friday night and winning Saturday's IMCA Modified feature.
The Salina Highbanks Speedway in northeast Oklahoma has been a NASCAR sanctioned track for a few years now, but the addition of the Humboldt Speedway as a sanctioned track on Friday's this year proved to be a big boost for Salina's opener on Saturday. Twenty-two NASCAR Modifieds were on hand with R.C. Whitwell scoring the win while a whopping 46 B-Mods were in action during the weekly show.
A driver by the name Hoot Knuckles finished third in the Modified feature as the old Northeast Arkansas Speedway reopened this past weekend with a new name; Old No. 1 Speedway.
Here's hoping that we can all find a dry place to race this weekend and Happy Easter!
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