Looking forward to what has now become an IMCA Tripleheader tonight at the Cedar County Raceway in Tipton featuring the Deery Brothers IMCA Late Model Summer Series and the XSAN Hawkeye Dirt Tour for IMCA Modifieds. Just recently added to that combo is the sanctioned IMCA Stock Cars racing for $400-to-win. The track has been running a mixed division of Stock Cars and the Outlaw Super Bombers or Street Stocks that are pretty much confined to the Quad Cities area nowadays and this will give the Stock Car drivers from the area the opportunity to give the quick quarter-mile a try racing against their "own kind". The weather is looking great and it is one of the final mid-week specials of the season, so get on out and support the Ohrts, Rodney and Debbie, as they near the end of their freshman season of promoting races!
Pondering the state of weekly dirt track racing seems to be a consistent topic these days on radio shows, podcasts, blogs, Facebook, etc. and it is usually about how attendance is slipping and tracks are in trouble. Sadly we know this to be true with a specific example that was close to home this past week when the Shelby County Speedway in Harlan announced that they would shorten their regular season and drop the annual Tiny Lund Memorial in September. What we all need to realize though is that there are some tracks that are still going strong and one of those is the Benton County Speedway in Vinton. Yes, the car counts have been a bit lower than usual in a couple of classes this year, but in the two times that I have been there, and in videos that I have seen from the track this year, the crowds remain large and when you have racing action like this it is no surprise that the races are the Sunday night place to be in Vinton. So what is the secret? How can other tracks capture this magic in a bottle? I have my ideas as to what makes a weekly show successful and I have tried to express them both subtly and no so subtly over the years here on the Back Stretch. What do you think is important to the success of a weekly show? Hit the Comment button and let me know.....
One track that I have never attended before, but that I have seen from across the street is Raceway Park in Jefferson, South Dakota, just across the state line from Sioux City. This little track seemed to struggle for years with small car counts, but still it soldiered on and in the past two seasons the counts have really grown even requiring a B-Main once in awhile. Of course when I say that I saw it from across the street I was referring to the Park Jefferson Speedway that started out as a parimutuel dog racing facility and was later converted to auto racing. Those years of struggling for Raceway Park came when they ran on Sunday nights in the shadow of Park Jeff's weekly shows the night before. Park Jeff has been dormant the last couple of seasons and it is no coincidence this is when Raceway Park's program experienced its growth. Now Park Jefferson Speedway is back in action running a limited schedule in 2014 and here's hoping that the dirt track market is strong enough to once again support two race tracks within a short walk of each other.
The Quad Cities area has a new contender in the Sport Mod division. Formerly based in Bloomfield, Jared Miller now calls Moline, Illinois, home and he introduced himself nicely at three tracks this past weekend. On Friday night Miller ran second to the division point leader at the Davenport Speedway, Bryce Garnhart, and then on Saturday night in Maquoketa Jared ran fifth out of a field of sixteen starters with the Darkside at the Jackson County Speedway. It should be mentioned that once again, Garnhart was the winner. Then on Sunday night the Sport Mod division made its first appearance ever at the Quad City Speedway in East Moline and there was Miller in the top five once again this time finishing third behind Joey Schaefer and Jayson Wiggins. Pretty impressive for a transplanted driver to run in the top five at three tracks that he has seldom, if ever raced at before.
Speaking of the Sport Mod division I couldn't help but notice that the name of Austin Moyer has not popped up in the results at his normal haunts the past couple of weeks. Coming into August the Dubuque driver had established himself as the leader in the All Iowa Points standings for the division and since he was on a hot streak it looked as though he had a good chance of racing right on to that first state championship. While I don't have the official info, I have been told that Austin has decided to take a break from racing for a bit to regroup and to focus on some other parts of his life, but that a return for the "specials" season in September is still not out of the question. As of right now Moyer still ranks second, only four points behind Clint Luellen, so when he returns if he runs anywhere near as strong as he was before taking a break, Austin might still win the All Iowa Points even after taking a vacation from racing. We wish him the best no matter what he decides to do.
One event that we don't have on our Specials calendar, mainly because usually I can never find any information about it before, or even after, is the two nights of racing at the Northwest Missouri State Fair in Bethany. We are going to be staying with friends just a few miles down the road that weekend, so perhaps a visit to the Sunday night portion of the program is a possibility.
That is all for today, hope to see you at the Cedar County Raceway tonight and be advised that my report from Tipton will come out later in the day on Wednesday due to a morning business meeting. Catch you on the Back Stretch!
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