Since I still have two events on my schedule for 2018 I don't consider it to be the "offseason" yet, but there sure is a lot going on this week!
First let's talk about what is coming up this Saturday, November 17th at the Springfield Raceway in Springfield, Missouri. Turkey Bowl XII is on the table with hot laps scheduled for 2:20 and racing at 3 p.m. on the orange clay quarter-mile featuring the Late Models and Modifieds each racing for $2,000-to-win, the B-Mods pay $1,000-to-win while the Midwest Mods and the Legends will also be in action with $400 going to the winners. Since the first time it was scheduled this event has always been placed on my calendar and it has not disappointed when I have actually been able to make the trip. I love late season events where you just never know who might pull in, and from how far, and the Turkey Bowl fits that to a "T".
The problem is that for many of the eleven previously scheduled events the weather has not cooperated and the date would be changed to a time that I could not attend. In fact two years ago I called it The Big Tease and last year the show got bumped from Saturday to Sunday, still drawing 166 cars in the five classes. I was a bit worried about this weekend as I watched the extended forecast, but now it has settled in to being a dry day with a high in the mid-50's. Thank goodness that Springfield was just far enough west of this current storm that has dumped over five inches on St. Louis and points to the east and, as of right now, everything looks good for racing this Saturday afternoon in Springfield.
We have another car full lined up and plan to settle in for a full show this time around with plans to spend the night near the track. Here's hoping that we might see you there!
A couple of weeks ago I noted that both Raceway Park just outside of Sioux City and the Redwood Speedway in Minnesota were looking for new promoters and you can add a few more to that list now. First would be the Dubuque Speedway which should come as no surprise after the dismal luck that the Farley Speedway Promotions team had in 2018. Word right now is that the fair board is looking for a promoter to lease the track and, if that situation does not come about, they could possibly join several other fairground facilities in running the show at their own risk and hiring a Race Director.
Next up would be the Upper Iowa Speedway in Decorah. There were hints late in the 2018 season that this track might be in limbo and yesterday promoters Chuck and Todd Ihde posted that they are "selling turn-key race track business, all equipment needed for operation of races" and they offered to help out the new owner for a year if needed. At the end of the short message they stated that if a new owner is not found soon that they themselves would make a decision on whether or not they will return by January 1st.
Then today, a post popped up on my Facebook feed showing a For Sale sign at the Stuart Speedway with a message saying "Time to retire". As one of Iowa's few remaining privately owned tracks, I would be surprised if this one is not snatched up well before the first green flag of 2019.
I will not be surprised to see the conversation once again go to "we are losing so many tracks" even though statistically that probably is not the case. While we all seem to wring our hands in concern when we have announcements like these, we seldom remember when tracks like the Chateau Raceway, the Dallas County Raceway and others come back to life after a relatively short time of sitting idle. And, as if almost on cue, my friend Gary Lee sent me a link today noting that the Poplar Bluff Speedway in southeast Missouri is planning on reopening in 2019 with a six to eight race schedule.
When your local track closes down it obviously has a big impact on you, but in this current state of racing where many tracks are struggling to draw car counts and fans perhaps for the sport as a whole ending up at "net zero" is not what we really need right now.
I listened to a conversation this week where two providers of Pay Per View events were, of course, discussing how great PPV is for the sport. But the problem now is that because there are so many options out there for people who would like to sit at home and watch dirt track races online it is now becoming too expensive for them to do so a couple nights a week......week after week. So to remedy that they are now going to offer a monthly subscription that will allow the viewer to watch any of the events shown during that month at a lower cost, thus making it cheaper for the viewer to watch online than what an actual ticket to attend all of those events would cost. Not to mention the travel costs, concessions, souvenirs, etc.
You are reading this now and we are well beyond 144 or 288 characters, whatever the maximum is on Twitter these days, so I am going to assume that you are an "old school" race fan who can take a step back and consider that previous paragraph with an open mind and realize that this can't be good for the sport. If you need a point of reference with an actual example of why, read "One" in this link.
My wife tells me that as I age and become unable to drive to the track anymore, she will sit me in front of the computer screen and pull up race videos for me to watch while occasionally throwing dirt in my face to make me think that I am actually at the track. I told her that I am fine with that as long as she doesn't pay for the video.
The 2014 All Iowa Points Limited Modified champion Clint Luellen announced last week that he will be hanging up his helmet following another solid 2018 season in a Modified. Luellen moved to the Modified class in 2017 where he had a remarkable rookie season finishing second to Kelly Shryock in the All Iowa Points and he ranked 19th this year with four feature wins, three of them coming later in the season. "The timing is right to put family first and spend time with my lovely wife and daughter." Hard to argue with that.
Clint's brother Austin finished third in the Limited Modified All Iowa Points in 2018 so you will still likely hear the name Luellen at several tracks in 2019.
Each year it seems like more and more tracks release their schedules during the Fall, some nearly six full months before the actual season opener and that is definitely the case this year with a few more coming out this week. Jason Goble dropped the Quincy Raceways schedule online in a video format this week featuring two dates for the MLRA Late Models, May 5th and September 1st, while moving the Sprint Invaders date from its traditional September time frame to Sunday April 21st. There are also a series of question marks on July 7th which would likely be the UMP Summer Nationals date that is not yet finalized.
Promoter Mick Trier has the Benton County Speedway schedule out early this year starting with the Frostbuster on Thursday April 4th. The Memorial Day weekend doubleheader for the Modifieds is back on May 26th and 27th with the annual Hogan Memorial on July 3rd. The Deery Brothers Summer Series will also return to Vinton on Thursday June 27th during the Benton County Fair. Looks like I will have to make a few more trips to Vinton in 2019.
The Eldon Raceway posted a nine event schedule for 2019 this week and the Southern Iowa Speedway in Oskaloosa will be back with weekly racing beginning on April 3rd and ending during the fair on July 16th. The Fall Challenge that was weathered out this year grabs a September date in 2019 on the 20th and 21st.
The Scotland County Speedway in Memphis has also put out a schedule for 2019 with four "two day show" weekends, the first coming on March 15th and 16th, plus four solo nights making for twelve race nights at the northeast Missouri facility that boasts one of the widest race tracks you will find. See? You don't have race "weekly" to still have a busy schedule.
34 Raceway in Burlington is hyping a 6 p.m. release of their schedule tonight, so you can go check that one out to see what surprises they might have.
With all of these schedules coming out I will have to start working on the info that you can find on the Positively Racing Calendar page for 2019, but frankly I think that I will wait to start that project after the 2018 season is officially complete. Back to the Dome Danny?
Congratulations to the New London Tigers, the 8-man football Iowa high school State Champions!
See you on the Back Stretch
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