Throwbackstretch: Christmas 2000

Merry Christmas!!

Today's throwback column is from December of 2000 and it has been a long time since I have been to the Ice Bowl and Florida's Speed Weeks. Hopefully I will get back there soon, but not this year as my budget has happily been spent on going to the Rose Bowl!

It is sad that I talk about a couple of tracks though who are now long gone.....

Here’s wishing all of you a great Christmas and Holiday season and I hope that you enjoyed the 2000 racing season as much as I did. We witnessed a lot of great racing this year and we visited a few more new tracks, but most importantly we made some new friends along the way.

Our 2000 season got off to a cold and rainy start during the Ice Bowl at Talladega Short Track in January. The year before, the Ice Bowl crew overcame severe thunderstorms that dropped nearly three inches of rain, but this year it was a persistent rainfall that eventually turned to snow that did everything but put an end to the show. Somehow the races went on with Terry English taking the win in the Late Models while Jeff Anderson wrapped up the event by taking the Stock Car checkers amidst the flurries. We’ll start the new year out with the Ice Bowl once again, more on that later.

Speedweeks 2000 was another great trip watching the Late Models and the Modifieds at one of our favorite tracks anywhere, East Bay Raceway. If you ever get the chance to make the trip to the Sunshine state in February, you must visit the west side of the state and East Bay. We are already counting the days to our return this February. After a rather mild winter we were amazed to be able to go racing in March in north central Iowa as the NKF Tour kicked off on March 26^th at the Hamilton County Speedway in Webster City. Dan Chapman and Jim Mitchell were the best of a large field of cars in both divisions and it was obvious by the crowd count that us “northerners” were more than ready to go racing.

We made first time visits to several tracks during the 2000 season. The first one was the Adrian Speedway just south of Kansas City. No, it is not a high dollar facility, but promoter Glenn Portzen takes great pride in giving the drivers and the fans the best dirt track possible for the show as he worked the surface the entire afternoon and during breaks in the program. When the checkered flag flew on the Modified main event it was Danny Scrogham in victory lane for his first time ever. His big win came only hours after he had discovered that someone had burglarized his race shop earlier that day. Two weeks later we visited Missouri’s I-35 Speedway for their regular season opener that featured a huge field of cars in front of a standing room only crowd. Dean Wray nipped Gene Claxton in a photo finish of the Modified main event.

During the first week of June we were a part of the largest crowd ever to watch a dirt late model race when the Hav-A-Tampa late models attacked the Bristol Motor Speedway. The facility was awesome and the qualifying action was intense, but come feature time the high-banked high-speed half-mile won the war when several cars had wheels break and fly off. The race turned into one of survival that Dale McDowell prevailed in. The late models are slated to return to Bristol again in 2001 and I sure hope that some wheel manufacturers have come up with a design that will withstand more than 100 laps at speed.

Our first-ever trip to the Echo Valley Speedway came in late July and we were very impressed with the quality of the facility. Track owners Lee and Sue Hansmeier were excited to welcome the National Kidney Foundation Tour to West Union, but as Lee prepared the track for the night’s events he began to feel ill. The pain gradually increased as the night went on so, the next day, he visited a doctor who informed him that he was suffering from kidney stones. A coincidence? I guess I’ll find out if Lee and Sue still blame me for the stones when we try to schedule a return date at Echo Valley for the NKF Tour in 2001.

We visited two more Iowa tracks for the first time over the next two weeks when we made it to Rapids Speedway in Rock Rapids and I-35 Speedway in Mason City. Both facilities put on great racing program in front of large enthusiastic crowds. While at Mason City I was told by several drivers and fans that they were thrilled with the job that Joe and Marian Ringsdorf had done during their first year at the facility.

Those were my “first-time” tracks, but all of the following also helped make my 2000 racing season a great one: Talladega Short Track, East Bay Raceway, Hamilton County Speedway, 34 Raceway, East Moline Speedway, Davenport Speedway, Lee County Speedway, Southern Iowa Speedway, Farley Speedway, Hawkeye Raceway, Hancock County Speedway, Nordic Speedway, Park Jefferson Speedway, Eldon Raceway, Independence Motor Speedway, Cresco Speedway, Benton County Speedway, CJ Raceway, Knoxville Raceway, Stuart Speedway, Crawford County Speedway, Buena Vista Raceway, Greenbelt Speedway, Algona Raceway, Fairmont Raceway, Nebraska State Fair Speedway, Iowa State Fair Speedway, Tipton Speedway, Spoon River Speedway, Missouri State Fair Speedway, LaCrosse Fairgrounds Speedway, Scotland County Speedway and Boone Speedway.

There were two things that I didn’t like about the past season. First, the World of Outlaws need to make an adjustment to their rule that allows a driver to re-join the field if a yellow flag comes out before a lap is completed. There were two glaring instances where this rule was applied during the latter stages of the 2000 season and both of them involved Steve Kinser. Now don’t get me wrong, I like Steve Kinser, so my concern with this rule has absolutely nothing to do with who it was applied to, but rather how it can be manipulated by “somebody” with a radio. In both cases Kinser’s crew was not finished working on his car before the pace car pulled in so he was not allowed to restart. However, in both cases, the restart was given the yellow flag for “a pace that was too fast” and Kinser was then allowed to push off and re-join the field. Many have questioned whether or not the same “courtesy yellow” would have been ordered had it been a lesser-name Outlaw, or even a poor local boy, and that it is exactly the problem with the rule as it stands now. Make it be a legitimate yellow for a spin or a crash that would allow whoever it is waiting in the push off area to rejoin the field and eliminate the image of favortism.

My second gripe is actually one that has gone on for years and years. There seems to be an opinion amongst some drivers and fans that promoters are not supposed to make any money. Whenever I hear somebody complaining about a promoter making some money on an event it makes me wonder if that same person also feels sorry for that promoter when an event is busted by bad weather or other competition. Let’s face it, being a short-track race promoter is not the most glamorous job in the world, and that’s the point, it is a job and it deserves compensation. In fact, in a lot of cases, it deserves more compensation than it currently provides. If a promoter doesn’t make money, then there won’t be a racetrack to race at. That fact unfortunately played out at a few facilities this past year. During the twenty years that I have been involved in this sport I have been on both sides of the proverbial fence and I have even seen it from different angles as a fan, a pit official, a car owner, a promoter and a travelling series director. One thing that has always held true is that you will find the happiest drivers and fans at a track where the promoter makes money, because the good promoters put some of that profit back into their operation.

The 2001 season is fast approaching and we will open it up with the 10^th Annual Ice Bowl at the Talladega Short Track on January 19^th, 20^th and 21^st. Super Late Models will once again be the headliner and we are very excited that the IMCA Modified portion of the program will be the opener for the 2001 National Kidney Foundation Heartland Tour for a Cure. The Tour will return to Alabama a month later for the 2^nd Annual Bama Bash at the Green Valley Speedway near Gadsden on February 23^rd, 24^th and 25^th. The Southern All Star Late Models will be the showcase event while the IMCA Modifieds will be gunning for $1,500-to-win along with NKF Tour points. Both of these events will be great opportunities to expose the NKF Tour to the southern drivers and fans as well as being a chance for some of the northern drivers to get a head start on their competition. We hope that some of you will take a break from winter and head down to one, or both, of these events.

Well that will do it for this year. Once again we wish all of you a very Merry Christmas and a prosperous New Year. We’ll see you on the Back Stretch.

Throwbackstretch: April 23, 2007 A Future Sprint Cup Rookie-of-the-Year and The Reaper at 15

We have watched a lot of teenage drivers over the years highlighted of course by Jeff Gordon in a Sprint Car at East Bay Raceway when he was thirteen. Many you never hear from after a few more years while some go on to fulfill their potential. You will definitely recognize the names of two young drivers from this Back Stretch column from the Spring of 2007.

Three races in one week proves that we are ready to go full swing with the 2007 racing season.

The wind was chilly, but the action kept a good crowd warm at the Southern Iowa Speedway in Oskaloosa last Wednesday night. The season opener drew a solid car count in the three divisions that have raced for years around the fast half-mile and there were five cars on hand for the B-Modified class that has been added to the weekly card. Fourteen-year-old Brett Moffitt of Grimes outran northeast Iowa visitor Raymond Lundry to earn the opening night win. Moffitt also won out at I-80 Speedway in Nebraska on Sunday night so keep your eye on this young man. Andrew Schroeder, son of long-time SIS competitor Randy Schroeder took third in his first night behind the wheel of a B-Mod. Look for this division to steadily grow as the season moves along.

Zack VanderBeek was the man to beat in not one, but two divisions Wednesday night and another up and coming youngster almost accomplished that feat in the Modified main event. Fifteen-year-old hotshoe Ryan Gustin took the lead from VanderBeek with four laps remaining and began to pull away, but as he took the white flag his left rear tire went down allowing VanderBeek to catch up and make the pass down the back straightaway for the victory. Gustin was able to limp across in second thinking about what might have been an opening night victory. Steve Stewart, Steven Blattler and Alison Quick round out the top five.

In the Stock Car main VanderBeek slid past leader Bobby Greiner Jr. mid-race and then cruised to victory. It is funny to see how these two drivers have swapped roles in the eyes of the Osky fans. Not so long ago it was Greiner who was the “villain” who would hear some “boos” as he made one of his many visits to victory lane, while the crowd went wild when young Zack would beat him. Now the bulk of the crowd cheered on Bobby Wednesday night before “welcoming” VanderBeek into victory lane with a few cat-calls. Oh well, that’s what I love about weekly racing! Every track needs its heroes and its villains, but just remember that in most cases the “villain” is just the hero who wins more often.

It was good to see Wade Francis pick up the win in the Hobby Stock feature and he could be tough to match in the point chase here this year. One of the things that I love about Osky’s Wednesday night program is that you just never know who might show up. Along with Quick and Lundry whom I mentioned before, Jesse Dennis pulled his Modified in from Prescott and Jon Snyder brought his beautiful #69 Mod down from Ames. My next scheduled visit to Osky will be on May 16^th when the Late Models will be in action along with the regular classes.

Friday night reminded me how much I love to watch the races at the Bloomfield Speedway. It has been a few years since I have made this relatively short trip west and with a fast and multi-grooved racetrack there was plenty of action on opening night featuring the USMTS Modifieds. Kelly Shryock continued his domination of this series by taking the feature win, but only after Al Hejna, who had passed Shryock for the lead with twenty laps to go, pulled to the infield with mechanical issues just five laps from the checkers. Richie Gustin finished second by getting past Jason Hughes on the final lap. Hughes had made an amazing run back to the front after being penalized to the rear of the field for contact that sent Dean Mahlstedt for a spin early in the race. Michael Long continues to impress coming from fourteenth to finish fourth while Mark Burgtorf, who started thirteenth, took fifth.

The Modified field was strong from top to bottom with thirty-eight cars on hand. Chase Allen made the long trip north from Texas, but fell short of qualifying for the A-Main and Mark Noble had his night cut short when he sensed his engine seizing up while leading his heat race.

The Stock Car feature was unbelievable as the field ran three and four wide throughout the fifteen-lap distance, and in fact on lap seven they were racing four-wide for the lead through turn two. Mike Robinson waited patiently for racing room behind that foursome and finally found it with three laps to go to take the lead and the eventual victory. Zack VanderBeek started twelfth and finished second with Michael McClure, Shane Weller and Tyler McClure completing the top five. The Hobby Stock feature saw a photo finish as Jim Sulser chased down Todd Reitzler to nip the race-long leader by inches at the finish line. Late Models and 305 Sprints can be found at Bloomfield over the next couple of weeks so check the schedule and make a visit.

Race number three for the week never got a chance to take the green as a persistent line of showers washed away the show in Quincy Sunday night. The FASTRAK Crate Late Models were scheduled to run for a $1,000-to-win and I believe that I counted seventeen of them as I walked through the pits before the rains came. St. Louis area drivers Ed Dixon, Mike Hammerle and Bert Cheatham were some of the names I recognized as well as Darin Walker. Hopefully another date can be found to bring the Crates back into Quincy later in the season.

I noticed that Ramo Stott was listed in the B-Modified results in Memphis, Missouri. I wonder if it was a one-night showing only or if the Keokuk legend is coming back to race on a regular basis? Congratulations to Curt Hook of Ackley who made the step up from Hobby Stocks to Stock Cars in style by winning the feature at Webster City Saturday night.

This week’s plans include the Sprint Invaders at 34 Raceway on Wednesday April 25^th and the WDRL Late Models at Knoxville on Friday night. Next Wednesday, May 2^nd, we plan on catching the Indee Open event and on Sunday night the 6^th the IRA Sprints are at 34 Raceway. Then on May 9^th the World of Outlaw Late Models will attack the quarter-mile in Davenport. Hope to see you on the Back Stretch.

Throwbackstretch: March 11, 2005 KLMS and the "Toilet Bowl"

In this throwback to 2005 a track that we will no longer be able to attend, the Kentucky Lake Motor Speedway, is featured. The state of the art facility featuring an ultra wide and fast racing surfaced just never seemed to live up to expectations and has now become a victim of eminent domain......

I am one of the fortunate Midwesterners who is usually able to sneak in at least one race each year before the snow is off the ground at home. Lately it has been the January Ice Bowl in Alabama and, before that I was usually able to get away for at least a couple of Speedweek shows in Florida. Neither of these trips fit into my schedule for 2005 though and so as the first weekend of March approached I frenetically watched the weather forecasts in hope that I would get to open this season with something different. One thing is for sure, especially at this time of the year, the weather experts should just keep their forecasts for more than twenty-four hours out in their pocket to avoid the embarrassment of having to dramatically change them constantly!

Despite snow on the radar in central Kentucky and one weather forecast calling for a 60% chance of thunderstorms with possible hail (something the weather guys decided to throw in at the last minute) editor Barry made the decision on Friday morning to make the trip and picked up my son Morgan and I and we headed south for the Northern All Star Late Model twinbill at Kentucky Lake and Clarksville. More than just because it would be my first race of the season, I was really looking forward to this trip due to the contrast in the two tracks that we would be visiting. Kentucky Lake is a very wide and high banked three-eighths mile that allows for throttle-to-the-floor high-speed action. This would be my fourth visit to the fairly new facility and, while I enjoyed the racing at the first three, the manner in which the program was presented left a lot to be desired. In fact the last time that I left KLMS, both Mo and I swore that we would never come back. After all the heat races had just ended at 12:30 a.m. and I later heard that, had we stayed, we would have seen the Late Model checkers after 3:00 a.m. It was no surprise to me that the track went up for auction last summer and I was pleasantly surprised that Sherri Heckenast wanted to get into the race promotion business. Being a racer herself, and growing up in a racing family that has also been very successful in business, I figured that she would be able to turn the place around. The NALMS opener at KLMS on March 4^th proved me right.

The weather was pretty darn nice with temperatures in the mid-sixties, about fifteen degrees warmer than forecasted just the day before, when we pulled into the speedway. Qualifying for the Late Models was in progress making it obvious that it had started pretty close to 5:00 p.m. as scheduled, a very good sign given my past experience here. The sixty-three Late Models, and a lighter than expected field of twenty-one Modifieds, tripped the clock and qualifying was concluded shortly after six. Racing wasn’t supposed to start until seven, but with lightning flashing in the night sky both to the east and the west the first Late Model heat race rolled out about fifteen minutes early. Local driver Phil Walker snared the first checkered flag of the year with Ray Cook and Randy Korte taking heats two and three. The first incident of the night occurred in turn one on the first lap of heat four. Local driver Tim Brown charged to the inside of Steve Francis and when Francis drifted high he collected another local star Randy Sellars. Sellars’ night was through after contact with the wall and somehow Francis was able to muscle his damaged mount to a second place finish behind Scott James. Dennis Erb Jr., who started tenth due to being light at the scales during qualifying, showed signs of things to come by finishing fourth. Rodney Melvin and Dale McDowell completed the list of heat winners.

The three B-Mains transferred the winner only and the racing was exciting with Timmy Yeager, Dennis Erb Jr. and Jeremy Williams making the show. Defending NALMS champion Brian Shirley finished second to Williams and had a provisional for the feature, but he was unable to start and Steve Barnett quickly unloaded his car to take the young Illinois driver’s place. Shirley was a no-show the following night at Clarksville perhaps quickly ending any chance that he would have of repeating his title.

Ray Cook jumped to the early lead in the fifty-lap main event and looked very strong until his right rear tire exploded in turn two on the ninth circuit. Cook pulled to the pits outside of the track to change the tire and, by track rule, would not be able to restart the event. Just before the field was set to go back to action, Cook reappeared on the speedway and went from official to official to plead his case. After a lengthy delay it was announced that, by a promoter’s decision, Cook would be allowed to restart at the rear of the field. The large crowd seemed to take all of this in stride likely due to Cook’s reputation as one of the sport’s nice guys, but I can only imagine what kind of reaction this would have drawn had someone more flamboyant such as Don O’Neal or Scott Bloomquist been the point of discussion. Cook pulled to the infield four laps later.

Randy Korte assumed the lead on the restart with the “Silver Shark” Scott James hot in pursuit. Morgan had predicted a James victory early in the evening and so it seemed like I had the young Indiana driver’s biggest fan sitting next to me as he made several attempts on Korte for the point. On lap thirty-one it appeared that Korte suffered an ignition problem as he slowed momentarily allowing James to fly by down the back straightaway. Korte quickly recovered and kept pace with the leader for the next ten laps before the problem reappeared and he retired to the pits. Dale McDowell was now the challenger for the lead, but he soon had his hands full with Don O’Neal. The two nationally known drivers swapped the second spot a couple of times and you could sense that the crowd expected one of them to muscle by James late in the race for the win. It was not to be however as James, who emerged from Florida with a share of the World of Outlaws Late Model point lead, held strong for the biggest payday of his career with the $10,000 victory. Perhaps James’ biggest challenge came at the scales where he reportedly weighed in right at the 2300 pound minimum. Three of the four drivers who finished behind him, O’Neal, Brad Neat and Wendell Wallace were not as fortunate as they were disqualified for being light. The official top five would be James, McDowell, Whitney McQueary, Steve Barnett and Michael England.

KLMS Notes….O’Neal and Billy Moyer made contact coming off of turn two mid-race with Moyer ending up hard in the backstretch wall…..Two top contenders, Rodney Melvin and Terry English both pulled to the infield with flat tires on lap thirty-seven….One lap later Dennis Erb Jr., who had advanced to fifth from twentieth, had his left front tie-rod break and seconds later the sixth place car of Steve Francis coasted to a halt….A look at the radar at the motel later that night revealed that we lucked out on this night as small storms passed from north to south on either side of the track…..Central Illinois drivers Aaron Ricketts and Nick Neville finished one-two in the UMP Modified feature. Very impressive for two drivers who are more accustomed to the quarter-mile bullrings…..Tim Walker, who started outside row one, finished third despite spinning in turn one on the first lap and collecting five cars. With the “free restart” rule in effect he restarted the race from the front once again. For thoughts on the “free restart” rule, see my column in the December 2004 issue of HRN….Lucas Lee and Jared Wagster, one of the first-lap-wreck victims, completed the top five….The entire show was completed by 10:30 p.m. and we left very pleased with what we had witnessed. Never say “never”, as with the new promoter at the helm I will be back to Kentucky Lake, and often.

I talked about the contrast in the two tracks for the weekend earlier and, while KLMS is a brand new high-dollar modern facility, my first visit to Clarksville was just what I had hoped for. This north Tennessee track is a tight and racy quarter-mile that has been providing fans with great fender-rubbing action for thirty years. The facilities can be described as “rustic” yet comfortable with a good speaker system and a promoter in William Scogin who is full of personality and enthusiasm. Shortly after the pit gates opened on this cool, cloudy and breezy Saturday, he told us that he must be crazy for putting this show on. But with fifty Late Models eventually filling the pits and a large crowd bundled up and ready for action, I hope that he is crazy enough to do it again next year.

Barnett, Moyer, McDowell and east Tennessee driver Randy Weaver picked up heat race wins on a track that looked like it might lock down, but stayed multi-grooved for the remainder of the event. Tim Hamburg and Kevin Cole transferred from the first B-Main with seventeen-year-old Kyle Roderick just missing the show. Jeep VanWormer cruised to the win in the second “B”, but things heated up on the final lap for the other transfer position. Patrick Duggan, driving as a teammate to Weaver, and Tripp City, Ohio driver Wayne Chinn tried to get to the same spot in turn one at the same time with Chinn losing out and spinning to a halt. Matt Taylor passed two cars and nearly beat Duggan after the restart but came up just short.

The fifty-lap feature at Clarksville didn’t include near the drama that KY Lake did, but the racing through the field was still good and kept the fans as warm as they could be with temperatures dipping into the low forties. Weaver, who is known more for showing the way around high-speed showplaces such as Atomic Speedway, was impressive leading the field for the first seventeen laps before yielding to Moyer. Billy began to pull away, but Weaver gained ground in traffic and may have been able to mount a charge to regain the lead had he not had to deal with the challenges of Dale McDowell. There were plenty of challenges in the top five over the final laps but no position changes as Moyer cashed in on a $10,000 payday. Weaver was the runner-up ahead of McDowell, Barnett and Steve Francis who had started the race from the sixth row in the Mooring machine.

Clarksville Notes…..Scott James had another decent run going until late in the race when he ran into the back of Don O’Neal under the caution. It appeared that O’Neal had decided to exit the track on the top side of turn two and had stopped to make the hard right turn and James, who was trying to return to his running position, couldn’t avoid him and punched a hole in the radiator…..The event was dubbed the Tuckassee Toilet Bowl Classic in honor of the event sponsor Lester Ellis Plumbing. Their motto is a classic that I must share with you as painted on the side of the truck was “Our Plumbers Show Up On Time And They Smell Good”. The trophy was a toilet bowl fixture with the name of the event decaled on the lid and I’m sure that Mr. Moyer will have fun finding a place to put it in his ever-growing trophy room!…..Oskaloosa Iowa’s John VanDenBerg made the show and finished a respectable 14^th, one spot ahead of multi-time Clarksville track champion Tony Albright…..The UMP Modified feature was a thriller as former track champ David Flowers stumbled on a late restart falling from first to fourth. He quickly fought back though and as the field negotiated the final two turns he dove low and swept past leader Rob Fuqua. Not to be denied, Fuqua made a nifty move back to the inside and was able to nip Flowers by inches in the drag race to the checkers making it a weekend sweep for Modified drivers from Illinois. Flowers, who was very personable earlier in the day when Barry and I talked to him, had to settle for second followed by defending track champion Clayton Martin. Trent Young and another Illini, Todd Kirkland, completed the top five…..If not for the Pro Street drivers bringing back grudges from the previous season in a very long and very frustrating preliminary feature, this show would have been completed in a very timely fashion on the chilly evening…..With some interesting mid-week shows on the 2005 schedule, don’t be surprised if you see me reporting from Clarksville again this year. Check the place out if you get the chance!

We thought about road-tripping again the following weekend either to Mississippi or Nebraska, but by the time we returned home we were content to wait until the first weekend of April to get back to the tracks. As of this writing I’m looking at the Friday night Deery Show, along with the WDRA Late Models at I-80 Speedway in Nebraska. Then on Sunday, April 3^rd, I’m hoping to take in Kevin Gundaker’s promotional debut at the Tri-City Speedway in Pontoon Beach, Illinois. There are a lot of other great opportunities that weekend so those plans could change very easily, especially if some weatherman decides to run amok. Here’s hoping that you get your 2005 season underway at your favorite track soon!

Throwbackstretch: June 5, 2000 Hav-A-Tampa Late Models at Bristol

Over the Holidays I will dig up some of the old columns that appeared in Hawkeye Racing News and first up is this story from our trip to Bristol , Tennessee, to watch the Hav-A-Tampa Late Models race on dirt at the famous speedway.....

Judging by the atlas that was spread across Morgan’s lap, the Bristol Motor Speedway would be coming into sight at any moment. We searched in great anticipation around each and every curve until finally, as we rounded one last Tennessee foothill, there it was. What an incredible sight! I have been to, or at least driven by, some of the largest stadiums in the country, but nothing compares to Bristol and the fact that these 140,000 seats were now surrounding a .533-mile red clay dirt track just made it even better.

Friday night started off with a pair of qualifying heats for the UMP Modifieds that had qualified from a pair of events held earlier at Bulls Gap and Atomic. Randy Zimmerman held off Kelly Shryock to win the first one while Randy Boggs ran away from the field in the second heat. We noticed Mark Noble’s car in the infield but as expected it did not run as we figured that Mark would be competing at Denison on Friday night. As it turned out Mark traded another Denison victory for a back row start in the Bristol event.

After a bit of track maintenance, one hundred eighty-nine Hav-A-Tampa late models moved into the infield for two laps of qualifying with only the top 144 moving on to Saturday night activities. For you trivia buffs the #111 car of Bo Shirley from Gadsden, Alabama, was the first car on the clock and his first lap was a 17.759 second run. This was well off the quick time set later on by Wendell Wallace at 16.200. Out of all 189 cars who qualified only one, Scott Bloomquist, missed all three exits off of the track and in to the infield, eventually tripping the timing device for the next car out. You have to give the HAT officials credit as they penalized Bloomquist for this by starting him at the tail of the first qualifying heat on Saturday. The final event of Friday night saw some action after the checkers as well. It was the non-qualifiers race that we thought was won by Alabama driver Don Farmer, but we were told the following night that he was light at the scales. The race ended with the first hard crash of the weekend as Milwaukee’s Frank Smith hit the wall protecting pit road.

A heavy afternoon thunderstorm delayed the program by about an hour on Saturday night leaving the track in perfect shape for a long night of action. Before I go on, I must say that the people who designed and constructed this “temporary” track did an absolutely fantastic job. We saw it put to the test in hot dry conditions on Friday night, while on Saturday night it was cool and moist and on both nights the track held up perfectly. The six late model qualifying heats provided the best racing action of the weekend with plenty of high-speed jousting and late race moves for qualifying spots. Some of the highlights included: Scott Bloomquist came from twenty-first to tenth in the first twelve lap event that saw Scott Sexton get by Ronnie Johnson late to pick up the final transfer spot. Billy Moyer came from ninth to finish second in the third heat. Jason Smith made a gutsy move on the outside to knock Earl Pearson Jr. out of the final transfer position in the fourth heat. Donnie Moran made the biggest move of the night storming from the ninth starting spot to win the fifth heat, while in the sixth heat it was Davey Johnson by just inches over Mike Duvall for the final qualifying spot.

Next up was the Pizza Plus Invitational for the UMP Modifieds and with twenty-eight of the best drivers in the country set to take the green, I sure did not expect to witness what followed. Spins and crashes in the middle and the back of the pack brought out the caution on each of the first three attempts at a start and, after that, the field only seemed to be able to complete one lap at a time. After seven yellow flags in the first seven laps, many of the fans around us were using some pretty colorful language to describe the Modifieds. Thank goodness that the drivers pulled themselves together and put on a pretty good race after the lap seven caution. On that restart the leader, Randy Zimmerman, was caught sleeping and was passed by Kelly Shryock right after the cone. Late in the race Shryock was able to hold off challenges from both Wayne Brooks and Jimmy Owens, but a red flag for a rollover by Randle Sweeney with two laps to go changed that. On the restart Brooks got a nice run as they picked up the white flag and flew by Shryock on the outside in turn two to take the win. Shryock held back Owens for second with Zimmerman and Kerry Norris completing the top five.

Three Last Chance races for the late models were up next. In the first one, Steve Shaver found the inside groove to his liking late in the race, just in time to nip Ronnie Johnson for the final transfer. Earl Pearson Jr. and Terry Phillips easily qualified out of the second one, while the third race had a little different type of drama. John Mason was running near the front when he spun going into turn one and backed up against the wall. Almost everybody was able to miss him except for Thomas Ware. Ware barely clipped the front of Mason’s car vaulting the young Kentucky driver up and over between turns one and two. “The Undertaker” as he is called, climbed out of his car and jubilantly waved his helmet to the crowd telling one of the officials that this was the first time that he had gotten upside-down and that he was proud to do it at Bristol Motor Speedway.

“Track Prep” was next on the schedule, but it was so perfect that all that was needed was a sprinkling of the topside to keep the crumbs from drying out. At this point it looked as if many of the drivers who had stayed away from this event due to concerns about the toll that it would take mechanically may have been wrong, but up until now, the most laps that had been run at once was twelve. The true test was about to come in the Living Air 100. Mike Balzano was the class of the field early coming from the second row to walk away with the lead. Shannon Babb came from sixth to pick up the chase in second while Steve Shaver moved from twenty-fourth to twelfth in just eight laps. On lap twenty-four the trouble began.

The incredible speeds began to tear the center section out of wheels and shredding tires turning the event into a race of mechanical survival from there on. The casualty list looked like this:

Lap 24: Shannon Babb loses a right rear wheel while running second.

Lap 25: Terry English loses a left rear wheel

Lap 30: The right rear wheel tears off of the Jimmy Mars car

Lap 33: The leader, Mike Blazano, watches his race come to an end as his right rear wheel passes him unattached.

Lap 59: Billy Moyer shreds a right rear tire while in third

Lap 73: The second place car of Chub Frank loses his right rear wheel and, at the same time, the sixth place car of Scott Bloomquist shreds a right rear tire

Lap 84: Steve Francis has his right rear tire go flat.

This list would have definitely been longer had officials not decided to begin counting yellow flag laps after the halfway mark. Defending HAT champion Dale McDowell, who assumed the lead when Balzano dropped out, held on for the victory ahead of Wendell Wallace, Steve Shaver, Skip Arp and Booper Bare. It was a huge victory for McDowell who is still in search of a major sponsor as he tries to defend his Hav-A-Tampa title.

Even with all of the attrition in the feature race, this event was a huge success with a large car count, a perfect racetrack and an enormous crowd. As of this writing I have not yet heard any attendance figures, but it had to be at least 50,000. If this is to be held again in 2001, the wheel manufacturers will need to get busy right now as that is the only thing that will be needed to make it any better.

Random Notes from Bristol….Rain delayed the event for an hour on Saturday and during wheel-packing, the three track-packers entertained the crowd with some rubbing and bumping of their own. In fact, the packer with number 24 on it suffered a flat tire on two different occasions after contact with the number 3 and the number 8, requiring service from the infield tire center….There were three rollovers during the weekend. Randle Sweeney in a Modified, Thomas Ware in a late model and one of the Hav-A-Tampa officials took a tumble on his four-wheeler when he attempted to push one of the errant wheel and tires down the back stretch. He was a little red-faced, but not injured….The week before, while watching the World of Outlaws at Lowe’s on TNN, I noticed that the crowd would all stand up as soon as the green flag waved. Must be a Winston Cup thing as they did it at Bristol too. At most dirt tracks, the crowds know that when everybody sits, everybody sees, and at Knoxville the announcers even remind you to remain seated during the racing. I’m 6’3” so standing doesn’t bother me, but I think I’ll save this for an entirely different column….With several cautions and HAT’s rule of giving a driver three caution laps to change a tire the feature ended at 2:15 a.m. eastern time and that was only with a one hour delay. It was a long show, but it was worth it this time.

On our way home Sunday we were able to catch four heats and two dashes for the World of Outlaws at Terre Haute before an annoying light rain set in and washed out the feature races. Joey Saldana will try to make it a clean sweep on July 17^th.

This week will be a busy one for us as we’ll be at Park Jefferson Speedway on Friday night as the NKF Modifieds run in support of the NCRA Sprint Car event there. We plan to stop in Knoxville on the way home Saturday for another night of NCRA Sprints. On Tuesday the NKF Mods will be at the Open Late Model Shootout at the Dubuque Speedway and then on Thursday night we’ll be at the Eldon Raceway as the NKF Modifieds and Hobby Stocks entertain the crowd at the Wapello County Fair. Stop by and say “Hi”.

Back Stretch 2015 Season Recap

I consider myself to be a very lucky race fan as for the second year in a row I was able to attend 66 events on the season and still somehow stay married to the prettiest lady I have ever seen! Last year as I recapped the 2014 season I predicted that my count would drop some due to a ten day trip to Italy and a week full of Steamboat Days concerts in June, plus the fact that I was just going to be more selective about where and when I would go to the races in 2015. However, with some very favorable early Spring weather along with one of the driest Octobers on record, I was able to go to more events both early and late in the season than I ever would have imagined resulting in the exact same number of races as last year!

My 2015 season started out with a "new to me" race track as I made the trip out to Beatrice, Nebraska, on March 13th and was greeted with temperatures in the 70's at an event that is more accustomed to seeing snow flurries. And there was so much racing in one night that I ended up writing two blogs to get it all covered. As we all know the weather around here in late March and all the way through April can be pretty fickle and I am always amazed that whenever we have one of those Springs where cold and rainy weather wipes out many of the early season events there are people on the forum boards who will say that we just shouldn't schedule any races around here until May. Really?? I saw some of my favorite events of the season between March 13th and April 11th as I tallied nine events during that four week period. And in fact, if you allow me to throw in the second half of March with April, I saw 14 races during that period, one more than I attended in both July and August where I went to 13 nights each. Of course my busiest stretch still comes during the two weeks of the Knoxville Sprint Car Nationals as this year I went to ten races in the twelve nights from August 4th through August 15th.

This year's 66 races were viewed at 23 different tracks in six states; Iowa, Nebraska, Missouri, Illinois, Wisconsin and Florida. Once again it was the Knoxville Raceway topping the list with eleven nights while the Southern Iowa Speedway in Oskaloosa was close behind with eight. My closest Friday (Lee County Speedway), Saturday (34 Raceway) and Sunday (Quincy Raceways) options were next in line with five nights each while I made my way to both the Benton County Speedway in Vinton and the Scotland County Speedway in Memphis, Missouri, four times. I visited my "home track" from my younger years, the West Liberty Raceway, three times and two trips were made to each of the following: Davenport Speedway, Farley Speedway, Iowa State Fair Speedway, Cedar County Raceway and the Dubuque Speedway. Also sprinkled in along the way were single visits to East Moline, Boone, Independence, Bloomfield, Britt, Farmer City and the La Crosse Fairgrounds Speedway. Besides Beatrice, the other two tracks that I made it to for the first time this year were the Dells Raceway Park in Wisconsin Dells and Five Flags Speedway in Pensacola for two days of Snowball Derby racing. Interestingly enough my new tracks were my first event of the year and the last three of the season. Of course I was again disappointed that the Turkey Bowl in Springfield was postponed not once, but twice on dates where I could have attended before finally being run on a beautiful Saturday in December while I was at the Derby.

I have often said how nice it is to be a race fan here in the upper Midwest as we can usually find a race to go to on a night other than Saturday, the race night that most fans in the rest of the country are limited to. This past season my race nights were distributed as follows:

Monday - 1
Tuesday - 6
Wednesday - 10
Thursday - 8
Friday - 14
Saturday - 15
Sunday -12

Frankly, I was a bit surprised that Saturday had the highest total as I thought that Wednesday would lead the list.

I also had the pleasure to be either the lead or co-announcer at fifteen of these events in 2015 and hopefully there will continue to be opportunities to do that again next season!

Those of you who have followed the Back Stretch over the years, even in the Hawkeye Racing News days, know that this is where I will throw out some things that I might not have liked in general during the past season and thankfully this year's list is short and pretty minor.

My biggest gripe, likely because it is the most recent, seldom applies to short track racing anyway since there are very few events that have both reserved seating and near capacity crowds. Tracks like Five Flags and Knoxville, as well most stadiums that don't have individual seats but instead have bleachers with numbers on them need to do either one of two things going forward. They either need reduce the number of "seats" within a row by placing more space between the numbers, or they need to eliminate the stadium seats that either people pay a premium for when they buy their ticket (Kinnick), or that they bring in with them to the races. The last three times now that I have had a reserved seat for a race I have been miserable due to the complete lack of space remaining for me to sit in. First of all these spaces are apparently measured out for people who are at their doctor's recommended weight for their height and, guess what, a significant segment of the clientele who go to the races (including me!) do not meet this criteria. Then, to make matters worse, people are now bringing these seats in with them that take up the full allotted seating space, and then some, whether the person who has the seat needs it or not!

Case in point, two weeks ago at Five Flags, the lady of the couple sitting next to me in seats five and six was tiny and without her stadium seat probably would have still been rather comfortable sitting next to the guy next her who said it himself as he passed by us to get to his seat, "big boy coming through", was a bit heavier than most. Sadly for him the two guys sitting in eight and nine were even bigger and when the first caution waved he made his way back out of our row with his belongings in hand and never returned.

Even with him no longer there the row was still tight, for me at least, because people on each side of me had those damn seats! So promoters please, if you are going to have reserved seats, either space them appropriately for your clientele, forbid the use of stadium seats, or both! I'll believe it when I see it though......

My other one is minor as well and has been something that I have written about in the past and I am sure that it is a matter of opinion as one of my good friends who is an excellent scorer obviously has the exact opposite opinion based upon the race format that he uses. And I am fine with that.

Other than an event like Boone where there are hundreds of cars, there should never be more than one B-Main in order to allow the best of your cars to advance to the feature. When you run two B-Mains you have the risk of an inbalance of talent between the two, the possibility of more scratches in one rather than the other, or both. So if you have 25 to 40 cars in your class, run one B-Main and let the best drivers advance. If you have more than 40 cars then have a C-Main to determine your B-Main lineup.

I went to a touring Modified event this past season who, with a field of 29 cars, drew for the starting positions in four heats and only transferred three out of each heat. Then they split the remaining 17 cars into two B-Mains with nine (the drivers who did not transfer from heats one and two) in one and eight (the drivers who didn't transfer from heats three and four) in the other. All nine cars came to the track in B-Main #1 where six would transfer while in B-Main #2 only six cars started and all cars transferred. Sound fair to you?

Wouldn't it have made more sense to run three heats with the top six to the A and the top four to redraw, then run one B-Main (11 cars, I wonder if they can handle it??) and the top four transferring? Yes, it would have and the "best" 22 cars on that night would have raced their way into the feature rather than having a couple make it by default.

Oh well, if that is all that I have to bitch about then it must have been a pretty good season highlighted by this three-wide finish and I am already looking ahead to 2016. Perhaps a weekend road trip in February to kick things off? I already know that I am going to miss the IMCA Frostbusters due to a wedding that we are travelling to, and will my new infatuation with pavement Late Model racing continue to grow?

Here's wishing all of you a very Merry Christmas and thank you so much for reading the Back Stretch. Go Hawks beat Stanford!