Early morning rain yielded to sunny and warm conditions as racers and fans rolled in to the Volunteer Speedway in Bulls Gap on Saturday as the Schaefer Oil Ironman Series presented by Dirt On Dirt headlined the 3rd Annual Frostbuster at the high banked east Tennessee oval. With rain on the radar that morning and more approaching from the west the car counts in both the Super Late Models and Modifieds were light, but the local classes came through with solid counts to bring the total in the pits to nearly one hundred.
The Crate Late Model 25-lap feature would be the first of six on the afternoon with quick qualifier Anthony White starting from the pole. Despite three cautions along the way there would be nobody that could stay with the "Dirty White Boy" as White cruised to a flag-to-flag victory. Two-time UCRA champion Rusty Ballenger started seventh and finished second with Cory Hedgecock and Trevor Sise next in line. Josh Henry started last or 19th on the field after losing a wheel during qualifying and he raced his way up to fifth at the checkers.
The Classic cars at "The Gap" are the old coupes that we see at home, but this is no exhibition racing as they go all out for the checkers. Lee Merritt would lead early before being passed by John Stevens and Merritt's day ended two laps later when his right rear tire went flat. Stevens would continue to lead with Michael Millsap chasing until Millsap popped a radiator hose with two laps remaining. On the green-white-checkered restart Tim Stevens tried to get a run off the top side looking to pass his nephew, but he came up a car length short as John Stevens took the win. Jesse Hickman finished third as only five of the eighteen starters made it to the finish.
Twelve Super Late Models would go for 35 laps with pole-sitter Ray Cook racing to the early lead. On lap seven though Cook would lose a drive shaft and coast to a stop on the back stretch to bring out the caution. Chicky Barton would assume the lead on the restart with Ryan King taking second from Casey Roberts and as Barton pulled away the race for second would entertain the large crowd. Roberts would take back the second spot on lap seventeen before the caution waved two laps later when Joey Standridge spun in turn one.
It would then take a couple of restarts to get back to racing as Billy Ogle Jr. spun in turn three on the first try and on the second attempt Chad Ogle tangled with King before sliding up the track and into the wall ending his race. On both double file restarts Cory Hedgecock had taken second from Roberts, but Casey would now catch a break as the next restart would be single file.
Once back to green King would take the Warrior house car to the infield due to the damage from his skirmish with Chad Ogle and on lap 22 Roberts would have something break on his car causing it to snap spin in turn two. This would now put Hedgecock into second for the restart and when Barton pushed up the track in turn two Cory would take the lead going down the back stretch. Now running second Barton's car started to show some smoke and three laps later the engine let go ending his afternoon and causing another caution.
Only four cars now remained on the track and all four would be able to navigate the final nine laps to the checkers as Cory Hedgecock captured the victory ahead of Jadon Frame, Billy Ogle Jr. and Craig Greer. Chicky Barton would collect fifth-place money at the pay window.
The Modified Street division would take to the track next with Wayne Rader setting the early pace. Rader's race would come to a premature ending though when his entire transmission came out from underneath the leader's car on lap seven. After a lengthy cleanup Michael Woods assumed the lead and he would survive five more restarts over the twenty-lap distance to take the win ahead of Gary Blanken and Kurt Owens.
Twenty-one Sportsman cars signed in with Zach Sise and Aaron Guinn qualifying for the front row. Guinn would take the lead off the top of turn two on the opening lap and while Sise would stay close throughout he could not complete a pass of the leader. Five cautions later it would be Guinn celebrating in victory lane as Sise finished second. Brad Seagle finished where he started in third while Jed Emert and Brandon Miller completed the top five.
Even the Ironman series official expressed his disappointment with the ten car turnout for the Modifieds, but the field was solid with defending champion Shon Flanery earning the pole position. Chase King would get the jump from the two hole though and he would cruise to a convincing flag-to-flag win with Flanery finishing a distant second. Ervin Vance would take the third spot, Wayne James nursed his smoking car in for fourth while Amos Bunch completed the top five.
Notes from The Gap......This was my second visit to Volunteer Speedway, but it has been more than twenty years since I was last here. An old pylon scoreboard sign from the Bristol Motor Speedway still marks the entrance to the speedway that sits just north of Interstate 81 and features a red clay surface with an amazing 31 degrees of banking.....You have to respect the Volunteer Speedway promoter as the weather forecast for Saturday was ominous for the three or four days leading up to the event and it would have been easy to pull the plug early just like they did down the road at the Duck River Speedway. On Thursday a concerned fan posted on Facebook "With an 80% - 90% chance of rain for Saturday when are you going to cancel and reschedule?" Now if Myron Pembleton would have been promoting he would have replied "If and when it rains too much during the races". Seriously though, what a stupid post that does absolutely nothing to help the event. Yes, it rained a bit as predicted during the early morning hours, but by noon it was bright, sunny and warm enough that I wished that I had packed some shorts. And then a couple of hours later a nice overcast settled in making for perfect day race conditions......The flyer for the event stated that the driver's meeting would take place at 12:30 with racing to follow. However, with all but the Classics qualifying the racing didn't start until 3:15 p.m., but the large crowd didn't seem to mind. And in true southern fashion there were no heat races and the features started "straight up" from the qualifying times.......The final checkers waved at 6:30 as I was able to get in my first race of the season during the month of February and I would highly recommend a trip to Bulls Gap if you like some high speed, high backed dirt track action!
Saturday, February 24, 2018
Friday, February 23, 2018
Myron Pembleton: Hard Nosed Promoter
Myron Pembleton has taken over as the promoter at several different tracks and he has a unique way of handling people on Facebook.
Pembleton recently worked out a deal with a race track that was on the verge of sitting idle in 2018 after it struggled last year seeing its car counts drop to below 50 in five divisions. When Myron announced that this track will actually be open in 2018 with an abbreviated season he also noted that there would only be four classes racing weekly this year. Almost immediately a "fan", not a driver posted a comment saying "What????? No A-Mods???"
Myron responded, "That is correct, there will be no A-Mods this year due to the fact that their car counts in 2017 did not justify the total purse that was paid out to the class each night. Perhaps you weren't in the stands that night when only four cars signed in? Or you have no concept of math. Thank you for your comment."
At the end of 2017 Pembleton had also purchased a race track that the previous promoter had said all season would be up for sale because he could not make any money at the facility and if no one purchased it the track would sit idle until someone did. Myron checked the books, reviewed the car counts from the past few years to identify trends, and released the 2018 schedule that would run Sunday nights weekly from mid-April through mid-September. One of the first comments on Facebook said "Only two specials? Guess I won't be coming there this year"
Myron responded, "I consider all race nights to be special, some turn out to be more so than others. If your business would like to put up some extra purse money on a given night we would welcome the sponsorship and will do everything that we can so that you get your money's worth out of it. If you do not find the efforts of our weekly drivers worthy of your attendance, that is your choice"
Pembleton was also aware of a track in Michigan that was going to close for 2018 after losing money nearly every race night last year, a track that on one night only had two Modifieds sign in. But, since he grew up in the area and went to the track as a child, Myron stepped in to keep the track open. After checking the race schedules for other tracks in the area Pembleton announced a five race schedule that would feature the Late Models, Street Stocks and Pure Stocks. Facebook comments were quick with one saying "If you don't race every Friday night, nobody will come" and "Thanks for dropping the Modifieds, I won't be there anymore!"
Pembleton replied, "Thank you for being two of the one hundred or so fans that were in the stands last year. We will miss you. For those of you who still want to see racing at XYZ Speedway please mark these five dates on your calendar."
Myron will be a busy man in 2018 and his final track that he is taking on has six divisions and has recently struggled to get the races over with before 11 p.m. When he announced the plans for 2018 that would still include all six classes the first comment to pop up on Facebook was "You need to be running the Mod Lites weekly"
Myron replied, "No thanks, only four Mod Lites showed up after last year's promoter was promised twelve or more for the end of year special and besides I already have two more classes than I need. So drivers, let that be a challenge to you and your class for 2018."
I love Myron, he is a good friend of mine and he shoots from the hip and doesn't worry about being politically correct when he responds to stupid single-minded comments on Facebook. Most promoters, especially new ones, fall into a trap where they actually try to reason with the idiots on social media, but they soon learn that this is a total waste of their time.
For Myron, and the other new promoters out there, I would recommend that they add the following disclaimer at the end of each one of their Facebook posts:
We use Facebook to let you know about what is going on at the track, not to have a conversation with you. After making this post the promoter will NOT check back to answer any questions in the comments and for those of you who are friends and supporters of XYZ Speedway we ask that you do not engage with anybody who is obviously attempting to spread rumors or negative information about the track. All questions or concerns may be expressed via phone or in a direct conversation at the track. Thank you!
And then stick to it.......
I have asked Myron if he might consider hosting the Open Trailer Nationals at one of his tracks and he replied, "Show me the money funny guy"
Hoping to dodge the rain and get my first show for 2018 in the books tomorrow. Thanks for visiting the Back Stretch and don't be an idiot on Facebook!
Pembleton recently worked out a deal with a race track that was on the verge of sitting idle in 2018 after it struggled last year seeing its car counts drop to below 50 in five divisions. When Myron announced that this track will actually be open in 2018 with an abbreviated season he also noted that there would only be four classes racing weekly this year. Almost immediately a "fan", not a driver posted a comment saying "What????? No A-Mods???"
Myron responded, "That is correct, there will be no A-Mods this year due to the fact that their car counts in 2017 did not justify the total purse that was paid out to the class each night. Perhaps you weren't in the stands that night when only four cars signed in? Or you have no concept of math. Thank you for your comment."
At the end of 2017 Pembleton had also purchased a race track that the previous promoter had said all season would be up for sale because he could not make any money at the facility and if no one purchased it the track would sit idle until someone did. Myron checked the books, reviewed the car counts from the past few years to identify trends, and released the 2018 schedule that would run Sunday nights weekly from mid-April through mid-September. One of the first comments on Facebook said "Only two specials? Guess I won't be coming there this year"
Myron responded, "I consider all race nights to be special, some turn out to be more so than others. If your business would like to put up some extra purse money on a given night we would welcome the sponsorship and will do everything that we can so that you get your money's worth out of it. If you do not find the efforts of our weekly drivers worthy of your attendance, that is your choice"
Pembleton was also aware of a track in Michigan that was going to close for 2018 after losing money nearly every race night last year, a track that on one night only had two Modifieds sign in. But, since he grew up in the area and went to the track as a child, Myron stepped in to keep the track open. After checking the race schedules for other tracks in the area Pembleton announced a five race schedule that would feature the Late Models, Street Stocks and Pure Stocks. Facebook comments were quick with one saying "If you don't race every Friday night, nobody will come" and "Thanks for dropping the Modifieds, I won't be there anymore!"
Pembleton replied, "Thank you for being two of the one hundred or so fans that were in the stands last year. We will miss you. For those of you who still want to see racing at XYZ Speedway please mark these five dates on your calendar."
Myron will be a busy man in 2018 and his final track that he is taking on has six divisions and has recently struggled to get the races over with before 11 p.m. When he announced the plans for 2018 that would still include all six classes the first comment to pop up on Facebook was "You need to be running the Mod Lites weekly"
Myron replied, "No thanks, only four Mod Lites showed up after last year's promoter was promised twelve or more for the end of year special and besides I already have two more classes than I need. So drivers, let that be a challenge to you and your class for 2018."
I love Myron, he is a good friend of mine and he shoots from the hip and doesn't worry about being politically correct when he responds to stupid single-minded comments on Facebook. Most promoters, especially new ones, fall into a trap where they actually try to reason with the idiots on social media, but they soon learn that this is a total waste of their time.
For Myron, and the other new promoters out there, I would recommend that they add the following disclaimer at the end of each one of their Facebook posts:
We use Facebook to let you know about what is going on at the track, not to have a conversation with you. After making this post the promoter will NOT check back to answer any questions in the comments and for those of you who are friends and supporters of XYZ Speedway we ask that you do not engage with anybody who is obviously attempting to spread rumors or negative information about the track. All questions or concerns may be expressed via phone or in a direct conversation at the track. Thank you!
And then stick to it.......
I have asked Myron if he might consider hosting the Open Trailer Nationals at one of his tracks and he replied, "Show me the money funny guy"
Hoping to dodge the rain and get my first show for 2018 in the books tomorrow. Thanks for visiting the Back Stretch and don't be an idiot on Facebook!
Sunday, February 18, 2018
Sunday Notebook: Pre-Daytona 500
It's a rare Sunday notebook here on the Back Stretch but after going dark for the past seventeen days I am jumping back in while I have a bit of time. We haven't been home much the past two weeks having attended a wedding in Denver and then spending a glorious three-day weekend in sunny Florida where the temperatures were setting record highs. That is unusual for us as it seems like whenever Christine and I do try to escape winter for a few days in February it usually follows us with below normal temperatures. That trend was broken last weekend though and even though I was less than an hour away from the Lucas Oil Dirt Late Model series racing at East Bay Raceway I was more than happy to just soak up the rays and then watch the beautiful sunsets over the gulf for three nights. I turn 55 in a few weeks and the realization that I am now within my ten year plan for retirement gives me a sense of peace knowing that I will once again be able to fully enjoy all of the Speedweeks action in just a few years.
Race fans who did make the trek down to Florida this year also enjoyed those warmer than normal temperatures and from what I have seen and read the racing has been exceptional across the board. Just taking a look at some of the stats from the Super Late Model action proves that as the average car count over the fourteen nights of racing was 45.9, the average starting position of the feature winner was 7.6 and only two of the fourteen feature races had a driver go flag-to-flag for the win. Of course the average car count was bolstered when the World of Outlaws officials were forced to scrap their opening weekend at the Screven Motor Speedway in southern Georgia due to week long rains and that allowed anywhere from twelve to fifteen drivers to stay at East Bay for the Lucas series action. The average starting position of the winner was padded by some amazing runs by Josh Richards who came from 24th to win at Golden Isles, Brandon Sheppard's charge from 21st to win at East Bay and Dale McDowell's drive from 15th to win at Volusia. You also have to be impressed with hometown driver Kyle Bronson's win at East Bay's finale as he started in the tenth position. The only driver to post a flag-to-flag feature win during Speedweeks was Jonathan Davenport who did it at Tuesday's East Bay show and the Monday opener at Volusia. "Superman" also won from sixth on Friday night at East Bay and his three wins topped the charts.
The Wild West Shootout held in Arizona back in January was hailed as a grand success and to compare the stats the Shootout averaged 47 drivers per night, the average starting spot of the winner was 3.5 and three of the six races saw the winner go flag-to-flag. Yes, for Late Model fans it was a fantastic Georgia/Florida Speedweeks!
I am writing this before the Daytona 500 gets underway and if it is anything like yesterday's Xfinity race it is going to be something to see. I just hope that the Cup drivers can keep from turning the final five laps into a demolition derby though. Well wait a minute, those were the Cup drivers out front that were running into each other yesterday so I am guessing that we will be in for a repeat.
The most welcome news that I received this week came from the Southern Iowa Speedway in Oskaloosa where it was announced that they will go ahead and present about ten Wednesday night races in 2018. After hearing that the prospects for racing were slim for this season, Stock Car driver Nathan Wood stepped up and worked with the fair board to get a plan in place to keep the track open. Mike Van Genderen who does a magnificent job of presenting the mid-week program will be back once again to run the show and you can bet that Wood will be ready to take on the challenges of the other Stock Car drivers as he looks to defend his 2017 All Iowa Points Championship.
When I read this story announcing the plans for racing at Osky I couldn't help but to laugh at the statement "There was some mis-communications that we were not going to be racing in 2018 and we want to put that to rest". Really? That is a completely different story than what was published here the week of January 8th complete with quotes from fair board members. You will note that their names do not appear in the more recent story.
Either way the news is good and there will be a meeting tomorrow night to finalize the plans including a sanctioning body, if any, as well as the schedule that I believe will start on April 18 and will run through June. And while some may question such an early "end" to the race season I am seeing more and more tracks scheduling their final race night for earlier in the year. Benton County Speedway promoter Mick Trier told me that it is a struggle to turn a profit in August and that is why Vinton's Season Championship is scheduled for July 29th. Other tracks, such as Lebanon Midway Speedway in Missouri and the Red Dirt Raceway in Oklahoma are running split schedules where they shut down for the dog days of summer and then come back with "second half" schedules that run well into October and even November. Anything they can do to make a buck or two and keep the track open!
The World of Outlaws Craftsman Sprint Car Series announced that each and every one of their race nights in 2018 will be available on a Pay Per View basis on their own brand DirtVision. That is spectacular news if you are a fan of the World of Outlaws Sprint Cars, but not so great news if you are a track promoter who loses even one fan that decides to stay at home on your regular race night to spend his money on a PPV rather than the ticket that he used to purchase at your local track.
It is ironic that the same people who pissed, moaned and whined about how much it was going to hurt short track racing when NASCAR started running races on Saturday night not that many years ago are now the same people who just can't grasp the negative effect that the proliferation of Pay Per View broadcasts throughout the entire race season are having on the sport. No, the PPV broadcast does NOT hurt the attendance of the actual event being shown, but it does take away from the weekly show that is already struggling to make ends meet. A more specific example of this is illustrated here in #1 of the Three Things and isn't it ironic that the track mentioned at this point has no racing planned for 2018?
After the Super Bowl I saw a bunch of memes stating that now that Football is over that just means that it is two more weeks until Daytona. Well, today is Daytona and according the the Calendar page at Positively Racing it is only two more weeks before you can start finding some racing here in the Midwest. (One note as I see that the Webmistress has not uploaded the latest update yet is that the Winter Heat race at Plumerville AR was postponed to March 3rd and 4th) This schedule is by no means complete as there are still several tracks who have not yet announced their dates, but it should allow you to get an early start on mapping out your 2018 season!
Hope to see you out there on the Back Stretch!
Race fans who did make the trek down to Florida this year also enjoyed those warmer than normal temperatures and from what I have seen and read the racing has been exceptional across the board. Just taking a look at some of the stats from the Super Late Model action proves that as the average car count over the fourteen nights of racing was 45.9, the average starting position of the feature winner was 7.6 and only two of the fourteen feature races had a driver go flag-to-flag for the win. Of course the average car count was bolstered when the World of Outlaws officials were forced to scrap their opening weekend at the Screven Motor Speedway in southern Georgia due to week long rains and that allowed anywhere from twelve to fifteen drivers to stay at East Bay for the Lucas series action. The average starting position of the winner was padded by some amazing runs by Josh Richards who came from 24th to win at Golden Isles, Brandon Sheppard's charge from 21st to win at East Bay and Dale McDowell's drive from 15th to win at Volusia. You also have to be impressed with hometown driver Kyle Bronson's win at East Bay's finale as he started in the tenth position. The only driver to post a flag-to-flag feature win during Speedweeks was Jonathan Davenport who did it at Tuesday's East Bay show and the Monday opener at Volusia. "Superman" also won from sixth on Friday night at East Bay and his three wins topped the charts.
The Wild West Shootout held in Arizona back in January was hailed as a grand success and to compare the stats the Shootout averaged 47 drivers per night, the average starting spot of the winner was 3.5 and three of the six races saw the winner go flag-to-flag. Yes, for Late Model fans it was a fantastic Georgia/Florida Speedweeks!
I am writing this before the Daytona 500 gets underway and if it is anything like yesterday's Xfinity race it is going to be something to see. I just hope that the Cup drivers can keep from turning the final five laps into a demolition derby though. Well wait a minute, those were the Cup drivers out front that were running into each other yesterday so I am guessing that we will be in for a repeat.
The most welcome news that I received this week came from the Southern Iowa Speedway in Oskaloosa where it was announced that they will go ahead and present about ten Wednesday night races in 2018. After hearing that the prospects for racing were slim for this season, Stock Car driver Nathan Wood stepped up and worked with the fair board to get a plan in place to keep the track open. Mike Van Genderen who does a magnificent job of presenting the mid-week program will be back once again to run the show and you can bet that Wood will be ready to take on the challenges of the other Stock Car drivers as he looks to defend his 2017 All Iowa Points Championship.
When I read this story announcing the plans for racing at Osky I couldn't help but to laugh at the statement "There was some mis-communications that we were not going to be racing in 2018 and we want to put that to rest". Really? That is a completely different story than what was published here the week of January 8th complete with quotes from fair board members. You will note that their names do not appear in the more recent story.
Either way the news is good and there will be a meeting tomorrow night to finalize the plans including a sanctioning body, if any, as well as the schedule that I believe will start on April 18 and will run through June. And while some may question such an early "end" to the race season I am seeing more and more tracks scheduling their final race night for earlier in the year. Benton County Speedway promoter Mick Trier told me that it is a struggle to turn a profit in August and that is why Vinton's Season Championship is scheduled for July 29th. Other tracks, such as Lebanon Midway Speedway in Missouri and the Red Dirt Raceway in Oklahoma are running split schedules where they shut down for the dog days of summer and then come back with "second half" schedules that run well into October and even November. Anything they can do to make a buck or two and keep the track open!
The World of Outlaws Craftsman Sprint Car Series announced that each and every one of their race nights in 2018 will be available on a Pay Per View basis on their own brand DirtVision. That is spectacular news if you are a fan of the World of Outlaws Sprint Cars, but not so great news if you are a track promoter who loses even one fan that decides to stay at home on your regular race night to spend his money on a PPV rather than the ticket that he used to purchase at your local track.
It is ironic that the same people who pissed, moaned and whined about how much it was going to hurt short track racing when NASCAR started running races on Saturday night not that many years ago are now the same people who just can't grasp the negative effect that the proliferation of Pay Per View broadcasts throughout the entire race season are having on the sport. No, the PPV broadcast does NOT hurt the attendance of the actual event being shown, but it does take away from the weekly show that is already struggling to make ends meet. A more specific example of this is illustrated here in #1 of the Three Things and isn't it ironic that the track mentioned at this point has no racing planned for 2018?
After the Super Bowl I saw a bunch of memes stating that now that Football is over that just means that it is two more weeks until Daytona. Well, today is Daytona and according the the Calendar page at Positively Racing it is only two more weeks before you can start finding some racing here in the Midwest. (One note as I see that the Webmistress has not uploaded the latest update yet is that the Winter Heat race at Plumerville AR was postponed to March 3rd and 4th) This schedule is by no means complete as there are still several tracks who have not yet announced their dates, but it should allow you to get an early start on mapping out your 2018 season!
Hope to see you out there on the Back Stretch!
Thursday, February 1, 2018
Thursday Notebook: February 1, 2018
Just a short notebook this week as not really too much went on over the past seven days. Well, in short track racing at least.
The Deery schedule was released right on cue last Friday and, outside of the race at LaSalle now being part of the schedule, the rest was pretty much as expected, although at least one of those shows was in doubt right up until the last day. Now we wait for the Hawkeye Dirt Tour schedule from IMCA and clarification as to just how The Dirt Knights will be involved in 2018. Two tracks, Vinton and Park Jefferson currently show "Dirt Knights" events on their schedules as if they are in conjunction with the HDT.
I really enjoy watching the current version of Dirt Knights that chronicles a group of six drivers as they compete on last year's IMCA Dakota Modified Tour. Part of that tour included a trip into Canada for a race that Corey Dripps missed because he had to take care of motor issues, but in this week's episode Corey slyly admitted that wasn't the real reason that he did not make the border crossing. "Let's just say that I had a fun childhood," said Dripps who is one of the show's producers. I had the pleasure of getting to know Corey as he earned the first ever NKF Tour Modified Championship in 1998 and let's just say that he was still a lot of fun to be around as a young adult! You can catch the Dirt Knights on MavTV.
An appearance by the USMTS during the fair and Terry McCarl's two nights of Sprint Car action with the Front Row Challenge is all that is on the schedule as of now at Oskaloosa and down in Bloomfield it looks like the Shottenkirk.com Sprint Invader show during the David County Fair might be the only race night on the 3/8th-mile oval. In east central Iowa there is no news out of West Liberty at this point, but just up the road in Tipton there are now eight nights of racing on the schedule.
Did you take a look at the results from the opening weekend of the 2018 Winter Nationals at East Bay where the Modifieds took center stage? The Florida drivers stood up and defended their home turf in the finale after Wisconsin's Kevin Adams and North Carolina's Kyle Strickler won preliminary features. With the big money up for grabs on Saturday it was Mark Whitener in victory lane, one of five Floridians in the top ten. Now granted, Whitener, Bryan Bernhardt, Mavrick Varnadore, and Kyle Bronson all likely race more in the Late Model division these days, but still it caught my eye to see that many "FLs" in the results. In all there were fifteen Sunshine State drivers in Saturday's main event.
Florida/Georgia Speedweeks swings into full gear tonight with racing action in one form or another all the way from now until the Daytona 500 on the 18th. And I just reminded myself on my way home from work that in just ten more years I will be there for all of it!!
Stay warm!
The Deery schedule was released right on cue last Friday and, outside of the race at LaSalle now being part of the schedule, the rest was pretty much as expected, although at least one of those shows was in doubt right up until the last day. Now we wait for the Hawkeye Dirt Tour schedule from IMCA and clarification as to just how The Dirt Knights will be involved in 2018. Two tracks, Vinton and Park Jefferson currently show "Dirt Knights" events on their schedules as if they are in conjunction with the HDT.
I really enjoy watching the current version of Dirt Knights that chronicles a group of six drivers as they compete on last year's IMCA Dakota Modified Tour. Part of that tour included a trip into Canada for a race that Corey Dripps missed because he had to take care of motor issues, but in this week's episode Corey slyly admitted that wasn't the real reason that he did not make the border crossing. "Let's just say that I had a fun childhood," said Dripps who is one of the show's producers. I had the pleasure of getting to know Corey as he earned the first ever NKF Tour Modified Championship in 1998 and let's just say that he was still a lot of fun to be around as a young adult! You can catch the Dirt Knights on MavTV.
An appearance by the USMTS during the fair and Terry McCarl's two nights of Sprint Car action with the Front Row Challenge is all that is on the schedule as of now at Oskaloosa and down in Bloomfield it looks like the Shottenkirk.com Sprint Invader show during the David County Fair might be the only race night on the 3/8th-mile oval. In east central Iowa there is no news out of West Liberty at this point, but just up the road in Tipton there are now eight nights of racing on the schedule.
Did you take a look at the results from the opening weekend of the 2018 Winter Nationals at East Bay where the Modifieds took center stage? The Florida drivers stood up and defended their home turf in the finale after Wisconsin's Kevin Adams and North Carolina's Kyle Strickler won preliminary features. With the big money up for grabs on Saturday it was Mark Whitener in victory lane, one of five Floridians in the top ten. Now granted, Whitener, Bryan Bernhardt, Mavrick Varnadore, and Kyle Bronson all likely race more in the Late Model division these days, but still it caught my eye to see that many "FLs" in the results. In all there were fifteen Sunshine State drivers in Saturday's main event.
Florida/Georgia Speedweeks swings into full gear tonight with racing action in one form or another all the way from now until the Daytona 500 on the 18th. And I just reminded myself on my way home from work that in just ten more years I will be there for all of it!!
Stay warm!
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