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!
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