When it gets to tournament/playoff time our local radio station will, at times, ask me to do play-by-play on a second game that they want to cover so I am what I self-describe myself as the "B team" since the actual broadcasting equipment goes with the station's fine young sportscaster to do the game that will air on the primary FM station. My volleyball match as it was last Monday, or the football game that I did on Friday is on the lower powered FM station as well as the AM channel, but for those who actually want to hear it outside of Mt. Pleasant, they will need to live stream the audio online.
I do the broadcast talking into my cell phone, no head set, no microphone, and I don't use my air pods because if I need to cough or clear my throat for a second I can just take the phone away from my face quickly. There is no "going back to the station" for a commercial since the board operator is busy doing that for the primary broadcast, so I do "live reads" for the sponsors when there is a break in the action and then pick right back up with the play-by-play. Last year, when I did New London's five set loss to Springville in the regional final for volleyball from West Liberty I was on the air, and holding my phone to my face, for two hours and twenty-one minutes straight! All while trying to keep stats with my other hand. Believe me, it was a lot easier back in the old days when we had a box that called in through a land line and there was a couple of extra sets of headphones and mics even for "the B-Team" to use.
Anyway....on Friday night my assignment was to do the top-ranked 8-player football team in the state Winfield-Mt. Union's playoff opener against Belle Plaine from the beautiful facility that they have in Winfield. With two of their top players out due to injury, Belle Plaine only dressed twelve kids and they valiantly took on a team that features Iowa Hawkeye recruit Cam Buffington along with three sons of the former Iowa State Cyclone basketball player Klay Edwards. On their first play from scrimmage Jake Edwards threw a touchdown pass to his older brother Abram and on WMU's third play from scrimmage Buffington showed his speed and shiftiness for a 6'3" and 230 pound senior as he ran for a long touchdown. I believe that the Hawks plan on Buffington playing linebacker when he gets to Iowa City, but who knows? Perhaps he can be another big impact player that comes out of the 8-man ranks in Iowa, just like Cooper DeJean.
I arrived at Maquoketa on Saturday night in time for hot laps, but instead I stayed in the car to watch the end of the Iowa and Minnesota game. Just in case you haven't heard, despite only mounting 127 yards of total offense, the Hawks looked like they had pulled another rabbit out of the hat when DeJean took a short punt on the hop and then eluded several would be tacklers to score a touchdown that would have put Iowa ahead by five with just a minute left to play. However, while reviewing the play to see if he had stepped out of bounds, Gophers coach P.J. Fleck also lobbied the officiating crew to take a another look at DeJean's hand movements before he fielded the ball on the bounce.
Since the punt was short and to his left, Cooper pointed in that direction with his right hand while waving his left hand back and forth at his waist level to tell his blockers to get away. Yes, I have seen other returners do this and sometimes the officials will blow the play dead when the receiver fields the punt ruling that the waving motion was an indication of a "fair catch". But I have never seen them let the play run out and then go back and review it to then call it a fair catch. Then again, I don't recall ever seeing the returner then take it to the house, especially for what would have been a game winner!
It will be interesting to see if the Big Ten makes any kind of a statement this week to clarify or justify the call. If they do stand behind their officials, then by golly it had better be always called this same way going forward!
The bottom line is this Hawkeye fans, of which I am one of. We did not deserve to win that game. When your offense has no imagination at all and you have a quarterback that is throwing lasers that are hard to catch on the off chance that they are on target, you typically don't win football games even though your defense does not allow any touchdowns. However, as ugly as our offense has been (dead last in the FBS), Iowa is 6 and 2 and if they win out they will be the Big Ten West champions and will have a date in the conference title game in Indianapolis. Hard to believe, isn't it?
The first of six heats of Sport Mods was just finishing up when I made my way into the grandstands at Maquoketa and while I chose to sit in the original bleacher section with the roof on it, I was impressed with the new stands that were now on either side of that one. It has been several years since I have been to a race here, definitely a year or two "pre-pandemic" and frankly when I left that night I was not too high on coming back any time soon. Let's just say that Saturday's show changed my mind on this place.
The racing was great with drivers using lines from the bottom to the top and with more than 200 cars in the pits the show was presented in a very efficient manner. And, despite the fact that there was a pretty stiff breeze blowing right into our faces, I never once felt a spec of dust. Of course having a roof overheard might have factored into that, but I also have to credit the track prep crew for their effort.
Last year the Iowa Dirt Nationals from Dubuque was live streamed on XR so it was no surprise to hear Jason "Big Boy" Frommelt on the microphone, but this year the streaming rights were with Done Right and IMCA.tv so he was joined by Jerry Vansickel and that combo made for some interesting entertainment throughout the night. I would have loved to have seen the look on Big Boy's face when Vansickel was loudly encouraging Stock Car drivers David Brandies and Lee Kinsella to "get out of your cars and fight!" after they played a little bumper tag after the conclusion of their heat race. I believe that Jason said "thankfully cooler heads prevailed" when the two drivers finally headed back to the pit area.
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| The Nostalgia Late Models take the track |
Josh Starr drew a front row start for the Four Stock main event and was never headed in taking the win. Despite starting eighth, Cyle Hawkins moved quickly to second and that would be where the two-time defending All Iowa Points champion would finish ahead of Josh Chambers, Dustin Forbes and Rob Harding Jr. By the way, no shortage of Four Cylinders at this event as thirty-one had signed in.
It was a talented feature field of twenty-four Sport Mod drivers that emerged from the 47 cars that had signed in to compete and with Andrew Schroeder and Logan Veloz drawing the front row, the chase was on. Schroeder kept it close, but there would be no stopping Veloz from taking the win. Matt Avila continues to impress running third, Friday's winner Shane Paris moved from eighth to fourth and Quincy regular Reed Wolfmeyer finished fifth after starting tenth.
The Hobby Stocks were seven laps into their main event when the second caution waved and I headed for my car knowing that I had just over a two hour drive home ahead of me with plans to make another three hour trip the following evening. Southwest Wisconsin racer Michael Swenson was leading from his pole position start and I was happy to see when I got home that he had been able to hold off the stout field to score his first career feature win! Great job Michael, and what a night to get your first one!
Johnny Spaw would win the Stock Car feature from the pole position and Dylan Thornton would score the Modified feature from the front row. Behind him though runner-up Jeff Larson would come from thirteenth to clinch his second All Iowa Points championship, Ethan Braaksma took third in the Rage house car after starting eleventh, that same car had won the night before with Drew Janssen at the controls, and Jeremiah Hurst came from the thirteenth row to finish fourth!
I think that it is safe to say that the Iowa Dirt Nationals has found an October home in Maquoketa and I do not intend on it being a matter of years before I return again to this fine fairgrounds facility.
That three hour trip on Sunday would be to Webster City to catch some Sunday late afternoon/early evening action at the newly reconfigured Hamilton County Speedway. Rain the week before had wiped out the two-day show at Mason City, so promoter Todd Staley altered this weekend's schedule to run on Friday night in Mason City and then Saturday and Sunday at Webster City rather than the originally scheduled Friday and Saturday program for the Fall Futurity. 
My last visit here was in October as well when the USRA Fall Nationals were here before they moved to the Lucas Oil Speedway in Missouri, but my main reason for making the trip was to check out how the place would race after the track had been shortened and widened by pulling in the corners on both ends. It still looks like a half-mile to me, but apparently it is now a three-eighths mile around the inside and after some additional water was applied during intermission, it was definitely a two-grooved race track.
Tad Pospisil went flag-to-flag to win the Late Model feature while Brian Harris took advantage of a caution for debris with four laps remaining to get to second after starting eighth, coming up one spot shy of scoring the three-day weekend sweep. Former All Iowa Points champion Dustin Gulbrandson held off this year's runner-up Chris Hovden to win a Hobby Stock main event that was slowed five times by back markers spinning out. The Modified feature was well worth the trip alone as I thought that Brandon Davis would get an easy win after drawing the front row. Kyle Brown had other ideas though and he would make several runs at Davis, the first being a slide job in turns three and four that Davis was able to crossover. Then things got really interesting in the closing laps when the leaders had to weave their way through three cars that were racing for position at the back of the field and in the end it would be the Minnesota hot shoe Davis who would take the victory.
Harley Dais would lead the first seven laps before local favorite Ty Griffith would takeover in the B-Mod feature. This race would go non-stop to the checkers with Griffith taking the win over Missouri's Shadren Turner who had started eighth and the current USRA National points leader Joe Chisholm would take third. The Stock Cars would close out the evening and after Austin Meiners and Nate Whitehurst swapped the lead a couple of times in the first nine laps, it looked like Meiners was on his way to a win until the caution waved with just three laps remaining. Bill Crimmins had made his way to the front after starting from the fourth row and he would make a run at the lead in the closing laps only to have Meiners fight him off for the victory. Whitehurst finished third and promoter Todd Staley charged from thirteenth up to fourth at the checkers.
I always know that when I go to one of Todd's shows that I can count on it being run in an efficient manner and tonight was proof of that as the final checkers waved at 7:25 p.m., less than three hours after the scheduled start time. I know that there are promoters who are out there right now trying to figure why their attendance dropped off from early in the season to later in the year and while hot weather and a tight economy could be to blame, perhaps looking at how long your weekly show takes to run from start to finish might be something to consider as well.
Here's hoping that the shorter track and a continued presentation of a professionally run racing program leads to bigger and better times for the Hamilton County Speedway in the years ahead!
Coming up this weekend is a great doubleheader scheduled for Friday and Saturday at two tracks in my area that are just about thirty-five minutes apart from each other. On Friday night the action will be at the Scotland County Speedway in Memphis, Missouri, and then on Saturday it will be the annual "Shiverfest" event at the Lee County Speedway in Donnellson, Iowa. Late Models, Modifieds, Sport Mods and Stock Cars will be featured at both events with Hobby Stocks running at Memphis and the Sport Compacts, Mini Haulers and the American Iron Racing Series joining the card at Donnellson.
Now here's the fly in the ointment at this point. As early as last week the weather folks started talking about this stream of moisture that would be funneled up from an old hurricane in the Pacific and of course they called for five straight days of rain with the potential of three to four inches in the region. As usual, as we get closer to the actual timing, they have been gradually backing off of the rain chances and amounts, plus they have warmed up the temperatures behind the system so who knows at this point. So I guess we will see how things shake out as to whether or not they can go this week, or if these events get canceled or postponed to a later date. Stay tuned!
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