Well here it is race fans, opening night at the Southern Iowa Speedway in Oskaloosa! This was a track that first looked like it might only have three race nights in 2018, but after a push from the 2017 All Iowa Points Stock Car champion Nathan Wood, a ten race schedule (one of those was lost to weather last week) on Wednesday nights was put together with the Fair Board in charge and with Mike Van Genderen continuing to serve as Race Director. Kudos to Wood for getting involved. I am sure that he has discovered just how difficult it is to pull all of this together and hopefully he will still get to race his Stock Car at his "home" race track.
It will be interesting to see how the drivers and fans will support the speedway, as after nearly losing it I would think that they would come out in full force. Because if they don't......well, I think we all know what happens then. As I noted here in August of 2017 the Modified division sealed its fate last year and will not be in the card this season and it would appear that some of that purse money has been spread out through the four remaining divisions; Stock Cars, Sport Mods, Hobby Stocks and Sport Compacts. The track will run unsanctioned this year and while that means that we will no longer have drivers dropping in to chase regional and national points, it does mean that any driver who just wants to come out and race on a random Wednesday night can do so knowing that they have the same chance of starting up front as the track regulars do in the draw/redraw format. I will admit that as a fan I prefer IMCA's average point invert system, but with one little twist at Osky where last week's winner will start no better than the highest number in the redraw that should keep things interesting.
In case you didn't notice the Grandstand Admission has dropped to $8 for adults, $5 for Veterans and U.S. Military and $3 for children ages six to fifteen. Yes I am excited for tonight, and for the next eight Wednesday nights because there just are not that many tracks that race weekly on a weeknight in the entire country let alone within an hour or two from home. And, as my social calendar seems to get busier each year on the weekends, it is the one night where I pretty much know that I can join my racing friends and family each week. Hope to see you in the stands tonight at Osky!
That ever growing social calendar made it where I was unable to attend the annual Slocum 50 at 34 Raceway Saturday night, the first time that I have missed the event in the ten years that it has been running. To make it even more difficult I actually had to drive past the track late in the afternoon on Saturday and again around ten o'clock that night. Believe me, I let out a sad sigh that at first wasn't well received on the way to the wedding, but even Christine knew that I was missing something that meant a lot to me to attend an event that also meant a lot to the two of us. Seeing the full pit area and the overflow of the parking lot by the large crowd in attendance is proof that the Slocum 50 is here for years to come while our friends will only have one special wedding night. I was where I needed to be.
On Sunday my 28-year-old son Morgan and I made the five and a half hour trip to Haubstadt, Indiana, for the World of Outlaws Sprint Car show. Actually it was a couple of hours longer for him as he now lives in West Des Moines, but since he had Monday off from work he convinced me that we needed to make the trip. I have only been to Tri-State Speedway twice before and have loved it both times, so he did not have to do much convincing and with the weather forecast showing a chance of rain moving in around midnight, we decided to go ahead and make the trip despite how ominous the morning radar looked.
Forty-three drivers had signed in when we arrived at 3:30 including Kyle Larson in Tony Stewart's #14 and Christopher Bell in Chase Briscoe's #5 and while the skies were overcast and the radar showed some green over top of us, we only felt a random sprinkle here and there. When the call went out for drivers to warm their motors just before five o'clock we went ahead and bought our tickets and staked out our seats in the front stretch grandstands excited for what was to come. However, just as Jacob Allen was pushed to the track to start his sprinter the sprinkles started to fall harder and the push trucks were sent back out to pack rather than to start more Sprint Cars.
The sprinkles persisted as a large crowd waited and with no breaks seen on the radar after about an hour and a half the decision was made to postpone the show to another date. Fortunately we had anticipated the decision and had already driven out of the crowded parking lot when it came down so we had a nice head start for the long drive back to Mount Pleasant. Yes, it was disappointing to go all that way and not see any racing, but the fourteen hours that I had with my son one on one was priceless. As a parent you get so used to having them around as they are growing up, but when they are off and on their own you realize just how much you miss having them there. It was a spectacular Sunday as far as I was concerned.
The make up date announced yesterday is for Mother's Day, Sunday May 13th and there is no way that we will be able to make the trip. So if anybody is looking for a couple of discounted general admission rain checks for the World of Outlaws at Haubstadt just let me know! Leave a comment here, or on the Positively Racing Facebook page and we can work out the details.
It was good to get some racing in around the area this weekend and, from what I have been able to gather, it looks like there were good crowds in attendance. The big grandstands were rocking at the Davenport Speedway on Friday night with a full field of MLRA Late Models on hand. Our drive by of the Slocum 50 at 34 Raceway showed a packed house and the Local Vizion video from the Benton County Speedway showed a big crowd at Vinton Sunday night where the Hobby Stocks closed out the evening with a thriller between Shannon Anderson and Nathan Ballard. At the Frostbuster ten days earlier Eric Stanton and David Rieks traded way more paint and afterward shook hands with each other. On Sunday night, after winning the race Anderson gave an interview that was more reminiscent of WWE, so I guess that we will have to see if he comes back to Vinton again in 2018. Did you notice that it was still daylight when the show ended? Just another reason why I love Vinton.
It was good to see 29 Late Models signed in for the Deery Brothers Summer Series opener at Tipton on Saturday night. That race seemed to be overshadowed a bit by having the two big MLRA races in the area, but it is a solid start for one of the longest running regional Late Model series in the country. Next up is a doubleheader weekend May 5th and 6th at the Maquoketa Speedway on Saturday night and the Quad City Speedway on Sunday. I am hoping to be able to make Sunday's show on the quarter-mile high banks that flagman Doug Haack refers to as the Knuckle Bowl.
Looks like a few northern drivers decided to escape their still snow covered region and venture south for some racing this past weekend. Shawano Wisconsin's Brekken Kleinschmidt had his IMCA Modified at both Davenport and Tipton. Tim Warner who made the long trip down from Malone, Wisconsin, to Donnellson last October to race at Shiverfest returned on Friday night where he finished third in the Sport Mod main event at the Lee County Speedway. I didn't see where he raced, if he raced on Saturday night but on Sunday Warner closed out his weekend with a fifth-place finish in Vinton. The longest pull though went to Curt Myers as the Cameron, Wisconsin, driver finished fourth in the Modified feature at the Thunderbird Speedway in Muskogee, Oklahoma, on Friday night. With several tracks up north having to push back their openers due to melting snow don't be surprised if you see some more traveling this coming weekend.
That busy social schedule will keep me away from the tracks on Friday and Saturday this weekend so I am looking to get my racing fix during the week with tonight's opener at Oskaloosa followed by Thursday night's event at the Marshalltown Speedway. Then hopefully a Sunday night show can be worked in as well. Get out and support the track of your choice this week and we will see you on the Back Stretch.
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