Hopefully we can break this cycle of dry weekdays and wet weekends that we have experienced over the past two weeks! But of course as soon as I say that I must keep in mind that the mid-week racing schedule kicks in tonight with the season opener at “The Beaver” in Alta, and gets into full swing next week as the Hawkeye Dirt Tour opens at Independence on Tuesday and the Southern Iowa Speedway in Oskaloosa begins its weekly schedule on Wednesday. So let’s just hope that the rain starts happening overnight and in small increments so that all of the tracks in the area can get some shows in!
How bad has it been? On the weekend of April 23, 24 & 25 not a single track in the state of Missouri was able to hold a race, and in the Show Me state this past weekend only Winston, Springfield and Monett were able to get their full shows in. In fact LA Raceway in La Monte is running a show tonight (Wednesday May 5th) as a way to try to beat the weather. Hopefully one of our newest bloggers Rachel Knight will have a report for us from that show. I’ll have to poke her and make sure that she’s still interested in writing for PR.com!
The news has been a bit better for the “All Iowa Points” tracks as three facilities (Boone, Algona and Webster City) were able to squeeze a show in on that last full weekend of April and several more raced this past weekend. The forecast for this weekend looks like some rain early on Friday will then yield to cooler but dry conditions, so keep your fingers crossed.
The updated All Iowa and All Missouri Points should be up soon on the Points tab at www.PositivelyRacing.com and it is interesting to see some new names at the top of the charts here early in the season. Craig Preble has won all four of the NASCAR Late Model events at I-80 Speedway so far and that has him one-point better than defending champion Ray Guss Jr. in the All Iowa Late Model standings. With his three Deery Series wins Mark Burgtorf is another point back in third. Ol’ triple nickels Ryan Ruter has a one-point edge over Jeremy Mills and Richie Gustin in the Modifieds. Mills is the defending champion in the division while Gustin already has five feature wins in the division. Dustin Smith and Travis Shipman are tied atop the Stock Car standings with southern Minnesota driver Jeffrey Larson just two points back.
Tad Reutzel finished twelfth in the 2009 All Iowa Limited Modified points and he is the early leader in that division here in 2010. On the strength of five feature wins already Karl Brewer is only one point back in second while Jesse Sobbing is in third, the same position that he finished at last year. Keep in mind that 2009 champ Kevin Sather has moved on to Late Models this year. Devin Smith leads the Hobby Stock field early on with Dustin Larson and his four feature wins close behind in second. Chad Gentz already has eight top-five finishes this year and that has him ranked third at this time. It is no surprise that the northern Iowa drivers are dominating the Four Cylinder standings right now as they have been able to race more up that way than anywhere else so far this season. Jay DeVries, Patrick Barrett and Kelly Miller are one, two and three through May 2nd. Only two races each have been run in the 410 and 305 Sprint car divisions and in the 360’s it is Jack Dover out front ahead of defending champion Mike Boston and Gregg Bakker.
In Missouri, Jack Simmons and Justin Wells each have two wins to lead the Late Model standings while Jesse Stovall already has a seven-point advantage in the Modifieds on the strength of four feature victories. Erik Maggard and Johnny Bone Jr. follow Stovall in second and third. Four early season wins has Colt Cheevers at the top of the Limited Modified list with Steve Muilenberg in second and Roy Maynard in third. Feature wins at Sedalia and Lake Ozark puts Randy Martin out front of the Sprint car contingent with Jonathan Cornell close behind and in the Limited Late Models it I-55 Raceway Sportsman competitor Trey Harris out front. Doug Moore is in second with Joe McCain and Kyle Berry tied for third.
The updated point standings should be posted soon and if you would like to be notified when the new points are put up each week, or whenever our bloggers have added a new entry, go to our PositivelyRacing.com page on Facebook and click the “Like” button. You will also see that we are using that page to archive photos from both the present and the past..
On opening night at Sedalia they had a big screen video setup in the infield that was showing different camera angles of the racing and then, during breaks, would show commercials from the night’s sponsors Aflac and Budweiser. One of the ads definitely made Barry and I chuckle and knowing how much my buddy Herb would appreciate it, I had to include it here.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rBBcZjxd-bk
Have a great racing weekend and remember Be Positive, Support The Sport!
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