It has been a few weeks since I have taken the time to write
here on the Back Stretch and I am actually now killing time by doing so while
on a flight to Phoenix to visit friends who have taken on the role of “snow
birds”. The original plan was to pack a car with me and four other gentlemen
who seldom if ever go to the races and go to one night of the Wild West
Shootout, but when they figured out the FK Rod Ends Arizona Speedway was on the
total opposite end of the Phoenix metro area requiring nearly a two hour drive
that plan was nixed. Oh well, at least I will get to spend a relaxing weekend
with friends with sixty-five degree warmth rather than dealing with the snow that
is coming at home. I will have another one of these “near miss” trips in
February when my wife and I make are semi-annual beach trip to Clearwater the
same week that the Lucas Oil Dirt Late Model Series will be at the East Bay
Raceway just less than an hour away. So close! But no racing for me until March
in 2019.
Plenty of interesting news over the past few weeks……
When I saw that Casey Shuman would be the new Race Director
for the World of Outlaws I thought that made sense until I noticed that it
would for the Late Models. Shuman has spent his entire life around the Sprint
Cars, most recently owning and operating the WAR non wing sprint car series
that has had solid growth over the past two years, so it will be a whole new
world for him with the Late Models. Shuman was at the opening weekend of the
Wild West shootout to familiarize himself with his new job and the question I
have now is who takes over the WAR series that has events scheduled at both
Donnellson and Burlington in 2019?
The soap opera that is the Badlands Speedway continues as
the news came out that Steve Rubin had agreed to purchase the track from
Snidely Whiplash, however a closer read
of the press release reveals that to complete the transaction Rubin must first
come up with enough investors to cover the insanely high price tag. This is equivalent
to a hostage situation where Whiplash (Brennan) will end up a winner if Rubin
is successful in raising the funds and the investors will then be faced with a
very long window of success needed before they see a return on their money. I
am sure that the race fans in the area are hoping that the deal will go
through, but if it does, the villian gets his way.
With Brian Gaylord taking over as the promoter at the Lee
County Speedway in Donnellson the 2019 schedule has even more specials than
ever before. I mentioned the WAR wingless Sprints earlier, plus the MOWA 410
Sprints and a third appearance by the Sprint Invaders have been added to a
slate that still includes both a Spring and Fall Extravaganza and of course my
favorite, Shiverfest. When the southeast Iowa track added the Crate Late Models
a few years ago who would have guessed that this would have been the precursor
to IMCA adding the Crate option for their Late Models? And now with 34 Raceway
and Lee County both running sanctioned Late Models again we can only hope to
see an increase in the car count in 2019.
I live in Mount Pleasant, Iowa, right around twenty miles
from these two tracks that have each posted a very exciting schedule for 2019.
Plus, just 35 miles up the road the CJ Speedway in Columbus Junction is going
all in with their weekly Friday night program putting up one of the best all
around purses that you will find outside of Fairbury. This race fan has no
reason to complain about my location!
My Wednesday night destination, the Southern Iowa Speedway
in Oskaloosa, is back again in 2019 with another “short” season of weekly
racing that will start in early April and end during the Southern Iowa Fair in
mid-July. I know that a few folks around Osky were a bit perturbed when former
Race Director, and now the owner of the Stuart Speedway Mike Van Genderen
announced that he would be moving the west central Iowa track to Wednesday
nights as well in 2019, but I see that move as having litte to no effect on
what we will see in Oskaloosa.
Two completely different types of tracks, Stuart being a
small quarter while Osky is a big half and any drivers who did come to Osky
from the Des Moines area on a regular basis last year are known to prefer the
bigger track.
For Van Genderen the move seems to make perfect sense. Stuart had traditionally been a Sunday night track until the state fairgrounds closed up a couple of years ago and it was thought that a move to Friday nights would capture some of those drivers and fans. A look at the results from the past two years will show that did not happen so now instead of competing with Friday IMCA tracks in Denison and Marshalltown, Stuart can now pull in those drivers as well as some Boone cars who do not want to risk racing one night prior to their shangri-la. If anybody has a reason to be concerned it would be the fans in Alta although the only driver that might make the switch would be Shannon Anderson and that would likely be welcomed by the rest of the Hobby Stock competitors at BVR who spent every Wednesday night chasing the IMCA National Champion to the checkers.
Still to be answered are questions in regard to two of my favorite tracks in Davenport and Dubuque. It sounds like Bob Wagener will promote a couple of shows at West Liberty in 2019, but whether or not he returns to Davenport where he has promoted a solid Friday night weekly pogram for many years remains. A big drop off in the Late Model car count in 2018 seemed to be the only blemish as the rest of the show was solid and perhaps the new rules for the IMCA Late Models might be the boost that is needed to get the counts back up.
In Dubuque it sounds as though the fair board will take over the promotion of the weekly racing with a Race Director to be named running the show. For me though it will be hard to pass up a trip to Vinton on a Sunday night where veteran promoter Mick Trier will reportedly be in his final season of putting on weekly racing at the Benton County Speedway. I have known Mick now for over forty years and while some of you may disagree with me, those will be some big shoes to fill in our sport as he is one of the best.
Wrapping this up now as we wait for our flight back to snowy Iowa and hopefully this delay will not stretch out any longer. It is bright and sunny here at PHX and just down the road the Wild West Shootout is getting set to wrap up its six race run. Bobby Pierce was the winner of the first three events and if not for a day race on Saturday and a flat right rear tire while leading that night he would have likely been five for five going into tonight's finale. Don't forget that you can watch live on Dirt On Dirt and for full Positively Racing coverage of the Wild West Shootout including the Modifieds and the X-Mods make sure that you check in with Ed Reichert's "One Fan's Travels".
Thanks for checking into the Back Stretch!
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