Tuesday Notebook: September 29, 2015

It was really hard to know what I was missing out on in Knoxville this past weekend, but the racing action in Memphis definitely kept me entertained!

Thursday night's opener of the Lucas Oil Knoxville Late Model Nationals provided perhaps the best racing that I have seen in 2015 and it was no surprise when good friend Barry Johnson gave me the report on both Friday and Saturday that the racing action continued to be top notch in what should now be considered one of the top five events in Dirt Late Model racing. I had to get reports from Barry though because I had agreed to fill in on the microphone for Tony Paris at the Midwest Bottom Heavy Nationals at the Scotland County Speedway in Memphis, Missouri, and if you are going to miss Knoxville, it might as well be at one of the widest race tracks that you will find in the Midwest.

Friday night's action was very good with the Hobby Stocks setting the bar high as the first of five features to hit the speedway. Five drivers raced for the lead throughout the 16-lap distance with seldom more than three car-lengths spanning from first to fifth. In the end it was August Bach putting the car normally driven by Bill Bonnett in victory lane for his first win of the season. Tony Dunker would hold off Logan Anderson to win the sport Mod feature while Mike Hughes fought off David Brandies to win in the Stock Cars. Shaun Slaughter topped a field of 21 Sport Compacts and Kyle Brown led Tommy Elston to the checkers in the Modifieds.

A few from Friday's roster did not return, but there were enough extra entries on Saturday to take the car count up from 112 to 116 and the track was even racier on the second night. Bach was fast again before he pulled to the infield with mechanical issues and Mike Hughes recovered from a last lap spin the night before to put his Hobby Stock in victory lane after taking the lead away from Dane Blozovich. The Sport Mod feature was a thriller with Logan Anderson edging out Tony Dunker by inches at the checkers to reverse the finish from the night before. Brandon Lennox finished third while John Oliver Jr. edged out Tony Olson in a another photo finish for fourth. Shaun Slaughter dominated for his third Sport Compact win in four nights as he also won on Wednesday night in Oskaloosa and the Stock Cars and Modifieds closed out the night in grand fashion with a pair of thrillers.

Four different drivers held the lead in the first four laps of the Stock Car main event before David Brandies came from seventh to the lead on lap five. Brandies would hug the bottom line and lap four leader Jeff Mueller would pull even with him with three laps remaining, but he could not compete the pass as Brandies took the win. Steve Stewart looked like he had the Modified finale well in hand until Ronn Lauritzen applied the pressure just past the mid-race mark. Lauritzen would take the lead, and soon Kyle Brown would join the fray and those three would wage an entertaining battle until the checkers waved over Brown for the second night in a row. Those of you who use Facebook can watch this video of the Modified main from Kyle Brown's page.

In that video you will see a car #28 that you might not recognize and that is the car that Jim Redman from Lockridge traded for his Stock Car during the Super Nationals. Redman said that it was his first time driving a Modified in about eight years and he was impressive winning his heat and running third on Friday night and then trailing the lead trio on Saturday night. Another "new" Modified to the area is the red #45 of Tommy Elston. The veteran driver from Keokuk started his career in the old Pro Stock division at 34 Raceway before making his way into the Late Model ranks running both the open cars and the IMCA rules package over the years. With the nearest IMCA sanctioned Late Model track now over 100 miles from home he has settled into the Modified and look for him to be an immediate contender if he continues to run the Fall specials.

Tommy Elston at Osakloosa's season championship - Photo courtesy of Troy Powers 20/20 Racing Page

And that next Fall special with promoter Mike Van Genderen at the helm will be the annual Musco Fall Challenge this Friday and Saturday October 2nd and 3rd at the Southern Iowa Speedway in Oskaloosa. I am hoping that I can be there for the Friday night program.

Besides the great racing at Knoxville there were two interesting news items coming out of the Late Model Nationals. First was Thursday's announcement by Billy Moyer that he would not run a "full-time" schedule in 2016. At age fifty-eight and with over 800 career feature wins to his credit the native Iowan will stay active in the sport as a car builder and you can bet that there will be some R&D appearances from time to time. Just how many, or how few remains to be seen.

The other big announcement was the date change for next year's Knoxville Late Model Nationals being a week earlier on September 15th, 16th and 17th. According to Ritchie Lewis with the Lucas Oil Late Model series the change will grant Knoxville's wish of moving up earlier on the calendar, plus it will provide more separation from the World 100 for the annual Jackson 100 in Brownstown, Indiana, that will now follow Knoxville rather than precede it on the Lucas Oil Late Model series schedule. This of course now presents a dilemma for two of our area's big annual events as the World Championships at Marshalltown and the Yankee Dirt Classic in Farley will have to decide if they want to run up against Knoxville in 2016 or move to the weekend that the event now vacates. We all know which weekend had the better weather this year......

Of course if they do change dates then they will be on top of the Fall Jamboree at Deer Creek and the Bottom Heavy Nationals in Memphis, etc., etc., and there will always be people who will say what they should or shouldn't do. The bottom line is that we have a bunch of race tracks in our region and many of them have Fall specials. There is always going to be a "conflicting" race on the schedule and each promoter should go with the date that they feel gives them the best chance for success. And, there is nothing wrong with changing your date once you see what everybody else comes out with.

Keep an eye out on Positively Racing as we are very excited to be adding another new blogger very soon, a Super writer who will offer up his point of view as a Fan who travels to many different tracks across the country spanning nearly all twelve months of the calendar. Hopefully we will have him linked up to the home page soon!

Take a jacket and visit a special event of your choice this weekend!

No Surprise, But Not Easy For Davenport In Knoxville Opener

Hey, Jonathan Davenport won the feature on the opening night of the Lucas Oil Knoxville Late Model Nationals Thursday. And yes, he started from the front row of the 25-lap main event so no real surprise here. But what if I told you that he had to makes a pass for the lead with just over a lap remaining in the race to win it? Yes, this was a fantastic night of racing topped off by a thrilling finish where nearly every body's pick to win it all this weekend did nothing to change any body's mind.

Sixty-three Late Models signed in on opening night and that number will now dwindle into the fifties as one driver will head back into the world of Sprint Cars and at least two others have race cars that are no longer able to be driven without major repairs, but more on that later.

With the field divided into two qualifying groups it was a bit of a surprise when California's Jason Papich ran the best lap in group one. Soon after it looked like Chad Simpson would do the state of Iowa proud by not only having the best lap in group two, but also the fastest lap of the night. However, the last driver out to time and, on his second lap nonetheless, Jared Landers wowed the crowd with a lap of 17.280 to steal both of those honors away from Simpson.

With eight cars inverted in each of the six heat races I will challenge you to show me any other event in big-time Dirt Late Model racing that provides the excitement that this one does as drivers must make their way into the top three in just twelve laps to make the transfer into A-Main. These races themselves provide more action than you will see in a feature race at most places and following were some highlights from each.

Canadian Ricky Weiss who has 22 feature wins to his credit this season, mostly in WISSOTA sanctioned events, introduced himself to the Knoxville crowd with an amazing three-wide move that vaulted him to the second spot behind winner Earl Pearson Jr. Don O' Neal finally worked his way around A.J. Diemel coming to the white flag to take the third and final transfer while Papich struggled to a seventh-place finish landing him in the C-Main.

Holy cow, what got into Joel Callahan?? The Dubuque, Iowa, driver who runs in the IMCA Late Model division with spec heads had a bullet under the hood tonight and walked away with the win in heat two by a full straightaway. North central Illinois regional racer Rich Bell and part-timer Kent Robinson held off a pair of heavyweights in Darrell Lanigan and Shannon Babb to finish second and third.

Two of the best in the business right now, Scott Bloomquist and Mike Marlar were in heat race number three, but neither of them would find their way into the top three. Wisconsin's Mitch McGrath got sideways on the cushion in turn one on the opening lap and Bloomquist had to stand on the brakes to keep from making contact setting "Black Sunshine" well behind as the field raced down the Back Stretch. Marlar had moved into fourth and was ready to challenge for third late in the race when a puff of smoke came from his #157 entering turn one. His pace slowed as he continued on for two laps before finally pulling to the infield. Jimmy Owens was bad fast though as he came all the way from seventh to take the win ahead of Morgan Bagley and Chris Simpson. Dale McDowell was running second early when he went too low at the exit of turn four and the inside berm caused the left front of his car to rise high in the air. He lost two spots right away and then later retired to the pits, perhaps with some steering issues from the incident.

Chad Simpson had the fifth heat race well in hand until the caution waved for the fourth-place car of Tim McCreadie who slowed to a stop with just two laps remaining. On the restart Texas driver Chris Brown, who has made the jump from Modifieds to Late Models nicely, charged past Simpson to take the win while Steve Francis also used the late restart to get around Tim Lance who is racing as a teammate to Jason Feger this weekend for the final transfer.

The sixth and final heat saw Josh Richards charge out to a big lead only to have the seventh starting Jonathan Davenport reel him in over the closing laps. Davenport would throw a slider at the leader in turns three and four on the final lap, but Richards did not flinch and held on to take the win while just behind them Billy Moyer Jr. used the cushion to drive around Brandon Sheppard off of turn four the final time to steal third.

Race series and promoters who run special events that draw big car counts, please note the following. Up next was the progression of the D-Main, C-Main and B-Main, there will be no "three B-Mains" here at Knoxville where you stand the risk of having unbalanced fields from either a quality standpoint, a car count (due to attrition) standpoint, or both (are you listening Deery Brothers, HDT, MVG, etc.?) but instead the drivers who finished tenth on back in the heats ran the D-Main where the top four would advance to the C. From the C-Main, where drivers who finished seventh, eighth and ninth in the heats were qualified, four more drivers would advance to the B, and from that B-Main the top six finishers, or the most deserving of the bunch, would fill out the twenty-four car starting field for the main event.

I have said it before and I am saying it again: One B-Main, period.

The D-Main saw the scariest incident of the night when Paul Glendenning slid sideways in turn one and stalled in the high groove. Iowa's Greg Cox who was running his first open motor Late Model event ever must not have seen the disabled car as he charged into turn one at full song, came up the track a bit and clipped the nose of Glendenning's car with his right rear. The contact vaulted Cox's car into the air and he went for a couple of hard rollovers before stopping upside down entering turn two. Thankfully Greg was okay and it brought back some scary memories of when we saw him sheer a Modified car in half hitting the track entrance gate on the front stretch at the Iowa State Fairgrounds several years ago.

Once back to racing you had to be impressed with Denny Eckrich who drove around the national star Dale McDowell to take the lead and the eventual win.

R.C. Whitwell who qualified well, but struggled in heat would lead the C-Main early only to drop out soon after he was passed by Mike Marlar. Jason Papich would redeem himself by finishing second to Marlar while Dave Eckrich was third and Sprint Car star Donny Schatz held on for the fourth and final transfer in his one night here as he will now join the World of Outlaws for their two-day show at Eldora Speedway.

Although the names that will be included might make you think otherwise, this next paragraph is about that one B-Main where you had to be in the top six to make the night's qualifying feature. Former World of Outlaws Late Model champion Darrell Lanigan would score the win ahead of multi-time UMP Summer Nationals king Shannon Babb. The night's fastest qualifier, Jared Landers would hold down third while Scott Bloomquist would finish fourth. The final two transfer spots would be determined after a caution was needed for Eddie Carrier Jr. who found the guardrail on the Back Stretch with five laps to go. Before that caution Iowa's Jason Rauen had fifth well in hand while Jimmy Mars and former non-wing Sprint Car driver Matt Westfall were racing for sixth.

On the restart Westfall slapped the guardrail exiting turn two allowing Mars to drive by and as Mars battled with Rauen a couple of laps later Jason would jump the cushion and spin in turn four taking contact from Justin Kay. On the restart it looked as though Mason Ziegler would hold down the final transfer spot, but having lost out on a transfer in a similar fashion during his heat race, Brandon Sheppard charged off the high side of turn four to nip Ziegler at the stripe.

With the top eight in points inverted for the feature line-up, that landed Ricky Weiss and Jonathan Davenport on the front row for the 25-lap headliner. There was no surprise that Davenport would race out to a sizable advantage and, following the only caution of the race on lap six when Mars could not get to the infield with mechanical issues, it was also no surprise when Weiss would fall victim to a Don O'Neal slide job with contact dropping him back several positions. Following the restart the sixth-starter Jimmy Owens was now able to maintain the fast pace of Davenport. As the race wore on both drivers were entering the turns in the middle and then driving up to the cushion for some extra bite at the exit of both turns two and four. And, when a lapped car running that cushion slowed up Davenport just enough in turn four, Owens stayed in the middle and drove under "Superman" to take the lead on lap nineteen.

Owens looked like he might pull away over the final six laps, especially when he was able to place another lapped car between himself and Davenport as Jonathan was forced to enter turn one on the cushion rather than his favored line in order to dispose of the traffic. What he found though was that the top line suited his car better and within two laps he was right back in contention. As starter Doug Clark prepared to wave the white flag for the leaders, Davenport grabbed the cushion with all that he had in turn three and then rode it around Owens before the leader could get to the top himself in turn four to regain the advantage and, one lap later, the win. Owens would take second with O'Neal a straightaway back in third, Earl Pearson Jr. would finish in the fourth spot ahead of Chris Brown in fifth. Sixth would go to Dennis Erb Jr., Scott Bloomquist would rally from 22nd to seventh, the Simpsons, Chad and Chris would run eighth and ninth respectively while Jared Landers came from deep in the field to finish tenth.

Despite the swap in the final laps it is Owens who scored the most points on Thursday ahead of Davenport, O'Neal, Brown and Chad Simpson.

If you are a Late Model fan then there is absolutely no doubt where you need the be this weekend as they will run this format once again on Friday night with drivers using their best point total from one of the two qualifying nights to set the field for the grand finale on Saturday.

While I regret not being able to be in Knoxville the next two nights, I do look forward to handling the announcing duties at the Scotland County Speedway's Bottom Heavy Nationals the next two nights filling in for Tony Paris. And you can bet that I will later be checking in with Ron Meyer's "The Rest of the Dirt" blog to get his insights on his weekend at Knoxville with his son Matt. Visiting with the two of them was the perfect way to start off a great night of racing action Thursday night!

There is a lot going on this weekend, even beyond Knoxville and Memphis, and the weather looks fantastic for the final weekend in September, so get out and enjoy a race of your choice!

Two Track Titles For Cayden Carter at Osky

The past couple of seasons when the Southern Iowa Speedway would hold its season championship races on a Wednesday night in late September there were some drivers making the long tow to Oskaloosa for one last opportunity to make a move in the IMCA National points race that concludes on the final weekend in September. On this night though there were no National points contenders in attendance although there were a few new names on the line-up sheet as four drivers were crowned track champions across the five divisions. And yes, that means that one driver claimed two crowns with both of his point chases going right down to the wire.

Some of the Sport Compact drivers who race regularly at the West Liberty Raceway are finally finding that the trip west on Highway 92 can be a fun one on Wednesday night and a field of eleven four cylinder cars is the most the I have ever seen here for a weekly show in the division. And with some extra competition on hand the racing on the fast half-mile was pretty darn good as well. Shaun Slaughter started sixth and Brad Havel lined up tenth as the 10-lap feature took the green, but those two quickly found their way to the front with Sluaghter leading Havel by a nose as lap one was scored. As those two eased away from the field the battle to watch was for third as Bobbie Lake challenged Ryan Havel for position with Matt Moore right there to make it a three-car battle. There would be no catching Slaughter though who would go on to post the win ahead of the Havel's, Brad and Ryan, with Lake and Moore completing the top five. One the sport's true nice guys, Bill Whalen Jr. would clinch the track championship in the division.

Curtis VanDerWal only had to start the feature to assure himself of being the 2015 IMCA Sport Mod track champion and it was a good thing that his seven feature wins on the season here had afforded him such a cushion. Charlie Weber would come from the inside of row two to lead the opening lap, but as he raced into turn two the leader spun sideways and down the track leaving VanDerWal no place to go. The two made contact nose-to-nose and then Curtis veered up the track also collecting Cory Van Zante, Casey Lancaster, Austin Paul and first time visitor Ed Hamilton from Atlantic. All drivers escaped injury, but it would be the end of the night for VanDerWal, Van Zante and Hamilton.

Trent Brink would lead the field back to green only to have Brayton Carter sweep around him off of turn two to take the lead. Carter would then go on to build more than a straightaway lead to take the win and finish as the runner-up in the title chase. Logan Anderson was a comfortable second, Weber came back after a stop in the work area to finish third while Brink and Colton Livezy completed the top five.

Five points separated cousins Carter VanDenBerg and Cayden Carter coming into the Modified feature with Tyler Groenendyk also just five points back from the leader. However, with only seven cars checked in for the night the chances were good that Cayden Carter would be able to retain his advantage. As we have seen before Scott Dickey started on the front row and was a rocket driving away from the rest of the entries at the drop of the green. Groenendyk slowed early and pulled to the infield meaning that Carter had now clinched at least a tie for the championship and Cayden would win it outright as he chased Dickey the entire 15-laps to finish second. Andrew Schroeder would take the third spot ahead of VanDenBerg while former Late Model driver Tommy Elston finished in the fifth spot.

Dustin Griffiths was another driver who only had to start his feature to earn a track championship and by taking the green flag the Ottumwa driver made it two Hobby Stock titles in a row at the Southern Iowa Speedway. The rest of the race did not go well for Griffiths though as he slipped high in turn three early and clipped the guardrail causing him to lose some spots and then a few laps later the champion slowed with a flat tire and pulled to the infield. Brandon Potts had secured the lead from his front row starting spot and with the favored groove right around the cushion on both ends Craig Brown tried to force a mistake from the young driver while running second. That miscue never came though and Potts went flag-to-flag for the win. Brown was second, Steve Allen finished third ahead of Danny Thrasher while Dale Porter recovered from a lap nine spin that saw Jared Stephens black flagged for rough driving to finish fifth.

The IMCA Stock Car feature was saved for last tonight as Mike Hughes and Cayden Carter entered the event in a tie for the points lead, so whomever finished better of the two would walk off with the 2015 track championship. Rookie driver Mike Brown and ageless veteran Jerry Pilcher would bring the field to green for 18 laps, but it would be the fourth starting Zach VanderBeek who would find his way to the front on the opening lap. Carter advanced quickly from his fourth row start and moved to second behind his Kelderman Racing teammate while Hughes found his way to fourth trying to get by Pilcher. Carter would be able to pull even with VanderBeek in the corners only to have the leader use the momentum off the top side to hold him off and that would be how they would finish with "Kelderman's Komets" one-two for one last time on a Wednesday night. Hughes was able to pass Pilcher coming off of turn four to the checkers, but his third-place finsh would leave him one point shy of Cayden Carter who carded two track titles in one night. Nathan Wood rounded out the top five.

With the regular season now in the books the Southern Iowa Speedway will now prepare for the annual Musco Lighting Fall Challenge here next Friday and Saturday October 2nd & 3rd.

Five Late Model drivers, Billy Moyer, Billy Moyer Jr., Ryan Gustin, Matt Furman and Paul Glendenning used the night to get some hot laps in before the three night run of the Lucas Oil Knoxville Late Model Nationals and during one of his last runs Furman hit the wall hard in turn one. His crew will have some work to do if he is to be one of more than 60 drivers who will take to the legendary Knoxville Raceway tonight and you can check back into the Back Stretch tomorrow for a report.

Tuesday Notebook: September 22, 2015

I had several notes jotted down to talk about, but my favorite (using that term loosely) internet troll has fired a direct shot across the bow of myself and my colleagues today so I may be a little distracted. My thoughts on that later.....

The battle for the 2015 Shottenkirk.com Sprint Invaders Championship went right down to the final night of action this past Saturday at 34 Raceway with three Knoxville-based drivers still in contention in one of the tightest point battles that the series has seen in several years. Last year's runner-up Tony Shilling entered the evening just one point ahead of defending champion Jon Agan, while Jamie Ball was still mathematically in the hunt as well as twenty-five drivers signed in. More than an inch of rain had fallen on the facility of Friday and since it came in three different waves the 3/8th-mile oval had soaked up the moisture like a sponge leading to a tacky, fast, but rough racing surface.

With points awarded in the heats and the dash Agan would start the feature with a five point edge on Shilling while Ball's title hopes were dashed when he had to win the B-Main to claim his starting spot in the feature. Joey Moughan would get the jump on the field in the 30-lap main event until his left front wheel came off as he was entering turn three and it literally flew over the tall retaining wall nearly hitting the turn four VIP suites at the speedway. Moughan's crew likely had an interesting hunt through a soybean field in the dark just to locate the missing wheel.

Colorado's Ricky Montgomery assumed the lead from there but when he stumbled on the tall cushion in turn two on lap nine local favorite Josh Schneiderman pounced on the mishap to take the lead. Agan who last year clinched the series championship here despite a DNF caused by a flat tire was being cautiously aggressive taking second away from Montgomery mid-race and when Ricky again hit that turn two cushion wrong on lap 23 it bit him hard this time as he went for a tumble.

As the red flag waved and drivers tried to stop as quickly as possible, Shilling had contact with another car breaking his front end and putting him in the infield for the restart. Agan saw this and would then pick up his challenge for the lead on the restart, but there was no stopping Schneiderman who zestfully celebrated a long awaited win in victory lane. Not far away Jon Agan celebrated as well earning a hard fought season championship where the only night that he held the point lead was on this the final one.

Earlier in the night at the driver's meeting Agan, as one of the organization's Board of Directors, announced that there will be a Sprint Invaders series again in 2016 and that there will be a meeting soon with representatives from the National Sprint League to decide if the Invaders will be one of the "regions" involved in the GOMUDDY.com 360 Series next year. Stay tuned.

Austen Becerra (Sport Mods), Tom Bowling Jr. (Stock Cars), Travis Stensland (Mod Lites) and Jeffrey DeLonjay (Four Cylinders) were also feature winners on a night where I enjoyed not only doing my Sprint Invaders announcing with partner Bill Wright, but also handled the rest of the show for outgoing track announcer Rich Adams. Perhaps one of the longest tenures of any track announcer anywhere, Rich handled the microphone as well as some administrative duties at 34 Raceway for the past eighteen years and always did a great job. I just hope that I still get a chance to see him from time to time so that he, I and our good friend Cliffy Schaeffer from Salem can swap some stories. You will be missed my friend!

I had been asked by Jerry Mackey awhile back to join him in Farley for the Saturday night finale of the Yankee Dirt Classic and due to my commitment with the Invaders I had to decline the enticing offer. As you probably know weather played havoc with the huge annual event taking two of the four days that were scheduled and making for a very busy Saturday show. With 59 IMCA Late Models in attendance along with 44 Hawkeye Dirt Tour Modifieds and 36 Sport Mods, plus stock Cars and Hobby Stocks as well it was long evening of racing. Jeff Aikey and Troy Cordes grabbed the headlines with their wins in the Late Models and the Modifieds respectively, but how about what Damon Marty accomplished in just one day of racing?

Murty finished third in the field of 15 IMCA Stock Cars during Wednesday night's qualifying race, but then chose to race the day/night doubleheader at Marshalltown on Saturday, another event that was affected by Friday's rainy weather. Murty finished second to Wisconsin's Greg Wichman during the afternoon program and then finished second to another Wisconsin driver Travis VanStraten in the evening program.  The two-time defending, and soon to be three-time All Iowa Points champion must have then checked with someone on how the evening was going at Farley before making the 130 mile tow in time to start, and win the Stock Car main event at the Yankee. Two runner-up finishes and one win at two different tracks in one day......okay, well technically not one day since it was reported that the Stock Car feature started at about 1 a.m. on Sunday, but still an amazing accomplishment and effort by "The Chelsea Charger".

This coming weekend I have been asked by my good friend Tony Paris to handle the microphone for the "Bottom Heavy Nationals" at the Scotland County Speedway as he has another commitment with a different kind of horsepower for the weekend. It will make for quite a busy race week ahead with the season championship night at the Southern Iowa Speedway in Oskaloosa on Wednesday followed by the opener of the Lucas Oil Knoxville Late Model Nationals on Thursday night preceding the doubleheader in Memphis, Missouri. I would love to make it five nights in a row with a trip to Quincy on Sunday night for the MOWA Sprint Car show, but that just might be pushing my luck a bit too far at home if you know what I mean!

You may not have noticed but in this past week we have had one track go by the wayside here in the state of Iowa while another one is springing back into action, and soon. Just five years ago I had the honor of handling the announcing duties at the first ever event held at the Clarke County Speedway in Osceola, but when I went to check on the results from their Season Championship event scheduled for this past Saturday night I saw that they were closing down the track for good. And, since it is on the property of the Nelson family this is not a case where somebody else is going to swoop in and try to keep it open. It really seemed like the track was gaining some ground in 2014 as car counts were increasing and the "every other week" schedule was unique. However this year, the car counts were back down under ten usually in every division except the Micro Sprints and that was enough to pull the plug. Young Colton Nelson did not race his Sport Mod at the family's track, but he has two feature wins to his credit up at Stuart this year and you can probably look for him to do some more Saturday night racing in the region now as well.

As Osceola closes the folks at the Blackbird Bend Speedway near Onawa have announced that they are back in business with a re-opening event to be held on Friday October 2nd. You may recall that the track built near the casino of the same name was washed away by the Missouri river flood of a few years back. It will now be interesting to see if it tries to run a weekly program again in 2016 in an area that seems to be already well saturated with weekly racing venues, two of them literally right across the street from each other.

Why is it that the Northwest Missouri State Fair in Bethany neither promotes its auto races outside of its own Facebook page, or even worse, does not put out any kind of results of those races? From what I heard they pay good money and draw a nice crowd to the facility that only races once a year, on Labor Day weekend. But despite the internet, Facebook and Blogs it still is a secret event!

Speaking of Facebook and Blogs, did you know that myself and my colleagues are killing other racing sites? That is the opinion of one Mr. Johnny Oberthein, a.k.a. raceaholic in this thread on iowastockcars.com. The one thing that this evil blogger has learned over the years is that you don't engage directly with Mr. Oberthein on a topic that he presents his views on because no matter how nicely you present your opposing view he will tuck his tail between his legs and start whining about how you are not allowing him to express his opinions. This is what he does with everybody, but especially with me he will never stay on topic and will NEVER answer a question directed at him. So, as you will see if you click on the thread I only offered up my analogy to his claim that "Hawkeye Racing News died because of race blogs" and then did exactly what he hates, gave people a link to one of my relevant blog posts :)

I have plenty of other things to say about his assertion, but frankly I have something more important to do right now as I need to mow the lawn. Check in tomorrow to see if I have the time or energy to respond and, if I don't, come back here on Thursday for a completely paid for and biased review of the Season Championships at the Southern Iowa Speedway in Oskaloosa.

As it should be clear to see by the name of the website and my bio on the home page, I'm not here to be a critic, I am here to promote the sport and I am proud to do so no matter what some self important old flagman/promoter/Godfather of four cylinder racing thinks.

See you on the Back Stretch!

An addendum to the Notebook, rather than devoting a specific blog post to raceaholic's nonsense.

Whenever Johnny makes a post like this you can bet that it was prompted by a specific incident and it looks to me like that was Dick and Joyce Eisele's reporting of the World Nationals at the Marshalltown Speedway. The day race was reported as being dusty but apparently Johnny would have liked to have had the Eisele's opinion on how that dust could have been avoided. After all, as he so often points out about himself, he has been to and put on daytime events where the dust was not a problem. Of course he then states that he wasn't there, but apparently he did not read "with the wind blowing into the stands" and it is likely that most people who would read the report would be able to understand the situation. Sure, Dick and Joyce could have made several suggestions on how to control the dust such as moving the grandstands to the back stretch for the day where they would be upwind, or a quick paving of the track for the day race and then removal of the asphalt prior to the night program, but you see Dick and Joyce don't write their blogs to tell Toby Kruse how to do his job better. They instead want to tell you about the races, who won, how they did it and give some other interesting tidbits of information along the way and they have a TREMENDOUS following of readers who appreciate their approach to how they write their blog.

Oberthein goes on to say that if he started his own blog that he would have significantly more hits because he would stir the pot and give his honest opinions. Then we would be treated to such hard hitting reports as:

Vinton, never a disappointment

Fair & Balanced Report Marshalltown

Unbiased race report Vinton

Yep, that is some hard hitting journalism right there, certain to draw in millions of page views from race fans who want the truth! And who don't really care about who was racing and who actually won.....

It would be easy for Johnny to establish his own blog, anybody can do it and it is FREE at www.blogspot.com. But you see the problem is that raceaholic doesn't really want to be a blogger because he derives his pleasure from arguing and manipulating the conversation to advance his own agenda and eventually pat himself on the back under the premise of trying to improve the sport.

So what really is "killing" racing sites and the forums that he so desperately needs to do that? Actually he may have hit the nail on the head in regard to Facebook as more and more I am seeing information and even good old fashioned arguments taking place there now rather than on the racing forums. And, the one plus to that evolution, is that people are now putting their names to their opinions rather than hiding behind a screen name on a forum. It is much harder to be an AWP on Facebook.

In my opinion though it is a thread like this one that stretches on for eight grueling pages primarily because the hero who is going to set the blogosphere straight said, "Heck yes I took pics and hope to put some up on here during my Christmas break" and then never delivered.

As I noted earlier, I make it very clear how this blog will be written, but if you think that you are not going to see anything "negative" on the Back Stretch then you must not be reading very closely. If an intermission runs too long you will see something along the lines of "after a lengthy intermission, the Sport Mod feature hit the track", or I will simply state that there was a 30 minute intermission. If the race was caution filled then you might see the term "yellow fever" used or I will simply state that there were seven cautions and the feature lasted forty minutes. I just don't see the need to blame someone or suggest alternatives, although you know that if you read this blog during the offseason I often discuss changes in the sport that I would like to see in general rather than calling out one specific track or driver. In fact, I have written before about "The Stupidest Rule in Racing" and I referred to it again in a race story from just a week ago. So when somebody makes the accusation that the Back Stretch is just sugar coated goo because a promoter rolled out the red carpet for me, it just tells me that the accuser is apparently not very good with his or her reading comprehension.

Or, maybe the accuser just loves controversy, and if that is what raceaholic thrives on then there are other bloggers and writers out there who have called promoters crooks and drivers stupid before. The thing that I have noticed about those folks though is that they don't seem to last for very long, so with thirty-seven years of writing about, and promoting the sport that I love under my belt now, I think that I will just keep on doing it the Positively Racing way.

But hey Johnny, thanks for sending some more readers our way!

A Little Wet Around The Edges

Bright blue skies and much cooler temperatures are greeting all of us here in the area on this Saturday morning and the question now is, just how wet are the race tracks that are scheduled to run tonight?

The rains of Thursday and Friday were persistent and quite heavy in many locations and even though today looks like a perfect day for drying, it just might not be enough for some facilities. I am playing the waiting game for my scheduled stop tonight as the Shottenkirk.com Sprint Invaders Season Championship is scheduled to run at 34 Raceway in Burlington. A 9 a.m. check of the track's Facebook page show no new posts wince Wednesday so I am sure that the Laues and the Parrishes are out assessing the grounds right now to see whether or not they will be able to run after taking one last thunderstorm at ten o'clock Friday night.

Marshalltown will run a double show today for their World Nationals with the "day show" starting at 1 p.m. and the finale starting about an hour and a half following the conclusion of the day show.

The four day Yankee Dirt Classic at Farley will be condensed to just two days as they did get Wednesday's opener in, but following rain on Thursday and Friday it will be one BIG show tonight with action getting underway late this afternoon.

After getting Thursday night's preview in the books, the Friday portion of the ASCS Fall Brawl at the I-80 Speedway in southeast Nebraska was washed out and the Kosiski family will run double features for the 360 Sprints tonight to see if one driver can sweep for a $20,000 bonus.

The Peoria Speedway's first ever Fall Classic lost its Friday night opener as well and they will follow up tonight with a full show featuring the UMP Modifieds racing for $10,050-to-win and the UMP Late Models gunning for a $2,000 top prize.

Along with these events and assuming that the tracks can dry out enough for tonight you can catch the Shryock Memorial at Britt, Cheaters Night at Davenport, the first of two nights at Park Jefferson, the World of Outlaws at Deer Creek, the season championship at Clarke County Speedway among several more in the region tonight. We really do live in the best area to be a race fan!!

Hard to believe that we are already seeing some major announcements for the 2016 season!

Al Hejna along with Todd & Janet Staley will takeover the promotional duties at the I-35 Speedway in Mason City obviously changing from the traditional IMCA sanction to USRA. Assuming that the track will continue to run on Sunday nights it does setup a three track swing in the region for the A-Mods with Chateau on Friday and Deer Creek on Saturday as Mason City will dangle a $1,000 top prize for the class. The track will also draw USRA support class drivers from Decorah and Rock Rapids as well as the two previously mentioned tracks so it will be a completely different look at Mason City in 2016.

The GOMUDDY.com National Sprint League's $500,000+ "Cash Bowl" was announced this week and it is a very interesting and innovative concept. I will now look forward to see just how they are going to be able to schedule more than 150 races for next season by December 10th so that drivers can then meet the membership deadline of December 15th.

Positively Racing may have a big announcement soon as well, but I am going to bite my tongue until we have everything set up and linked in on the home page.

I just checked the 34 Raceway page again at 9:40 and still nothing definite, but here's hoping that I see you there tonight! And, if you aren't there, make sure that you attend the track of your choice.

Pierce and Harrison Log Farmer City Wins On a Thursday Night

It has been at least ten years since I last attended a race at the Farmer City Raceway and when an event that had been rained out on September 4th was rescheduled for a Thursday night in mid-September it was the perfect evening to return to the eastern Illinois oval. The track's five weekly divisions would be in action highlighted by a $5,000-to-win Late Model feature, a $3,000 top prize in the Modifieds and even a $1,000 winner's check in the Crate Late Models.

The Crates were the first feature to  take to the track come feature time and on the opening lap twelfth starting Chris Reynolds went too high into turn one and then just slowed to a stop to take advantage of one of the worst rules in racing as Reynolds would be given his starting spot back for the "original" restart. Shawn Diggs would race to the early lead with point leader Dakota Ewing in hot pursuit and as the lead duo pulled away I found my attention on the three-car battle for third. With four laps remaining Ewing made a run at Diggs off of turn four, but contact would send the leader spinning down the front stretch where he then collected the lapped car of Reynolds as well as Ewing's challenger for the track championship Russ Adams.

Diggs, who experienced some damage on the right front of his car, would be placed back at the front of the field for the restart while both Ewing and Adams would start from the rear. Ewing for his spin of the leader and Adams for having to go to the pits to change a flat tire.

Once back to action Diggs would lead a lap before yielding to Nick Bauman and it would be Bauman who would celebrate the $1,000 win. Diggs would hold on for second ahead of the Taylor brothers, Matt and Guy, while Jose Parga filled out the top five. Ewing would finish ahead of Adams and would claim the track championship in his first year of racing.

The Summit American Modified Series main event would be up next with 22 of the 33 car field that signed in ready to go green for 35-laps. Devin Gilpin would lead the first two laps, but when he slowed in turn four it would be Allen Weisser who would be scored as the leader of lap three before the caution waved for Gilpin. Kevin Weaver would put Bobby Allen's #292 out front on the restart and on the following lap Weisser, Ray Bollinger and Weaver would go three-wide for the lead in turn four. The battle would have to be put on pause though when North Carolina's Nick Hoffman and local driver Zach Oedewaldt tangled in turn three on lap six.

The field would then have trouble getting restarted as Kentucky's Josh Harris spun in turn one collecting four other cars on the first try and then on the second attempt at a restart Steven Brooks would spin in turn one. Once back to green the race would stay that way the rest of the way as Bollinger applied the pressure to Weaver for the lead. The national UMP Modified point leader Mike Harrison joined the battle with ten laps to go and when Weaver dropped the right rear tire over the top of the front stretch on lap 26 Bollinger would take the lead. It was short-lived though as Harrison would take it away on lap twenty-eight and Harrison would pull away over the final seven laps to secure the win. Weaver would prevail in a thrilling three-wide battle for second while Paris, Tennessee driver Lucas Lee nipped Bollinger at the line for third. Brian Lynn finish in the fifth position.

It was now 10:38 and rain started to fall as Harrison was interviewed in victory lane, but the sprinkles subsided long enough to get the 22-car Late Model field to the speedway for their 35-lap finale. Bobby Pierce had earned the pole position, but the outside row would have the advantage all night on the starts and this one was no different as Brian Shirley raced to the early lead. The caution waved for local driver Curtis Hobbs on lap two and on the restart Shannon Babb shuffled Pierce back to third.

Lapped traffic, especially three much slower cars that created some tense moments as the leaders had to dodge them kept the fans on the edge of their seats as the top three held their positions and when the caution waved again with fifteen laps remaining it put the leaders back in clear space. Pierce would take second away from Babb on the restart and would then go to work on Shirley for the lead. On lap 26 Pierce threw a slider at Shirley in turn three only to have "The Squirrel" come back with one of his own in the next pair of turns. Pierce would come right back on the following lap though and take the lead away from Shirley. That would prove to be the winning pass as Bobby would pull away over the closing laps to take the win. Shirley would have to settle for the runner-up prize on this night while Babb, Jason Feger and Ryan Unzicker would come off of turn four three-wide to the checkers crossing the line in that same order.

With the Street Stocks and Hornets still in staging at 11:05 I headed for my car as the announcer interviewed Pierce and the rain started to fall again as I pulled out of the parking lot. Despite being three hours from home I still ran into several friends and acquaintances as we waited for the show to start first talking with Larry Bontz and Mike Sunken before spotting Kevin Babcock, Jack Miles and Gary Lee up in the stands. I think that the four of us were very happy to be staying the night within thirty miles of the track as qualifying got underway more than a half hour after the scheduled starting time.

The racing was good though and how could you not love being at the track on a Thursday night in mid-September!

Here's hoping that the Yankee Dirt Classic in Farley can avoid the rain the next two nights. Last year I had the honor of joining Jerry Mackey on the microphone at the Yankee and the offer was there again this year, however I will be with the Shottenkirk.com Sprint Invaders as they run their Season Championship Saturday night at 34 Raceway in Burlington. Tony Shilling holds a one point advantage over Jon Agan going into the finale so it will be an exciting night of Sprint Car action at the three-eighths mile high banks!

Get out and enjoy a special event of your choice this weekend!

Chad Simpson Headlines Governors Cup Opener at Davenport

While the big events in Boone and Eldora will take most of the headlines this weekend, promoter Bob Wagener and the Davenport Speedway will grab a few including this one with the two-night Iowa Governor's Cup. The unique format featured competition on the quarter-mile on Friday while tonight (Saturday) all five divisions will take to the historic half-mile oval at the Mississippi Valley Fairgrounds.

The Corn Belt Clash Late Models are the featured division and they turned out twenty-one cars for the opener as series point leader Chad Simpson and Davenport's weekly IMCA Late Model track champion Matt Ryan earning the front row for the thirty-lap main event. Ryan was called for a jump on the first try at a start obviously knowing that he needed to do whatever he could to get an advantage on Simpson and when the green flag waved again Chad began his march to a comfortable lead.

As Simpson put up a half lap lead Brian Harris moved to second while my attention was drawn to the moves being made by both Jason Rauen and Justin Kay. Rauen is always a treat to watch whenever there is any kind of a top groove and Kay was working the top line as well with both steadily making their way to the front after starting tenth and eleventh respectively. With five laps remaining Rauen and Kay had closed in on Harris and the battle for second was now a three-car tussle just before the only caution of the race waved on lap twenty-six as Jay Chenoweth and Dave Eckrich tangled in turn four.

As the field was realigned it would be Harris and Kay placed in the first row behind the leader Simpson much to the dismay of Rauen who appeared to be pointing to the scoreboard that still showed him in the third position ahead of Kay.

Remember though, the scoreboard is unofficial.

On the restart Harris, now driving the Roehlk Construction #21H, drove hard to the high side into turn three and pulled even with Simpson, but Chad would find the grip in his favored middle groove to maintain the lead and he would then stretch it out a bit over the final three circuits to take the $2,000 win. Kay was able to slip by Harris in the closing laps to take the second spot, Wisconsin's Paul Parker took advantage of the late restart to finish fourth while Rauen had to fend off Jason Utter to finish in the fifth position.

Even though there are more than 200 IMCA Modifieds in competition three hours west of here, there was still a stellar field of 34 here in Davenport Friday night. After drawing the back of his heat race and racing his way up to fourth to make the re-draw, Bruce Hanford's luck was much better as he pulled the pole position for the twenty-lap finale with veteran driver Rich Smith starting to his right. Hanford would hold the lead in the opening laps as third-starting Brad Dierks applied the pressure and as the leaders came off of turn four to score lap number four Dierks used the high line to take the lead by inches at the stripe.

Those inches were important though later in the lap as Dusty Kraklio and Milo Veloz Jr. collided in turn two to bring out the caution and it would be Dierks at the point for the restart. There would be no stopping the driver from Clarence from there as Dierks cruised to the win comfortably ahead of Hanford. Jeff Morris returned to the driver's seat and drove Todd Reed's #19R to an impressive third-place run, Matt Werner started twelfth and had moved up to fourth before being passed late by Dakota Hayden leaving Werner to fill out the top five.

After winning twenty-one Sport Mod features through mid-August in 2014, Austin Moyer took a step back from the Sport and has only made a handful of starts this year and the success has continued with four wins. So when Moyer drew the front row of the 15-lap Sport Mod feature it looked like this would be a race for second, but obviously the rest of the 21-car field had other ideas. Ross Neal would keep pace with Moyer early and when Austin made a rare mistake by going over the top of turn three on the fourth lap Neal was more than happy to takeover the lead..

The caution waved on lap nine when Keith Silvers spun into the infield in turn four and that would put two perennial winners, Moyer and Timmy Current right on the back bumper of Neal for the restart. Ross was up to the challenge though and maintained his lead, helped out a bit when Current also made a rare mistake driving off the top side of turn two with three laps remaining. Neal would close out the victory in fine fashion forcing Moyer to accept the runner-up money while Jacob Ellithorpe came from the tenth starting spot to finish third. Jacob Waterman, who started beside Ellithorpe on the fifth row, would finish in the fourth spot while Current recovered from his mishap to finish in fifth.

The Street Stocks were the first division to hit the track come feature time and when Keith Blum planted himself on the bottom groove with the lead following the drop of the green you knew it was going to be a tough task to get by him. Nick Clausson gave it a valiant effort though as he was one of the few drivers giving the high line a chance and after starting twelfth he just ran out of laps before he could make a run at the leader. Blum would score the win while Clausson was the show in second, Rob Nylin took third, track champion Perry Gellerstedt was fourth and Joe Bonney filled out the top five.

After starting ninth and winning the heat race it was no surprise that Brandon Setser would lead from flag-to-flag after drawing the front row for the 4 stock feature. Andy Loy would chase Setser all the way to finish second, Sean Fersch took third, Tristan Clark was fourth and Brad Rhoads was fifth.

With the two big events mentioned in the opening paragraph, plus with this being a football Friday night throughout the area I was pleasantly surprised at how large the crowd was on an evening that had a little chill in the air. And as always it was a fun evening sitting with many of my friends who I find at many of the tracks around the area although we were missing Dick and Joyce Eisele who were celebrating their 50th wedding anniversary while taking in the action over in Boone.

A big thank you to Carrie Rouse and Bob Wagener for the hospitality and with another beautiful night on tap here's hoping that the Davenport Speedway is packed tonight for the finale of the Iowa Governor's Cup on the big half-mile.

Other commitments will keep me away from the track for the remainder of the weekend so I am looking for you to get out there and fill my seat at the racing event of your choice!

Fall Specials Will Determine At Least Two All Iowa Points Champions

I am always amazed at how often one driver can dominate a division in the All Iowa Points system and 2015 is one of those years where nearly every class can already pencil in a champion. However, in at least two of the nine divisions, the September and October special events will determine who will be this year's state champion.

 Chalk it up for the third year in a row, Justin Kay will be the All Iowa Points Late Model champion as the Wheatland drivers holds a virtually insurmountable 48 point lead over Matt Ryan. This would mean that Ryan would need to win nine features and finish second in one more to surpass Kay, and that would assume that Justin just packs it in for the rest of the season. I'm not even sure if Ryan could find ten more races on the 2015 schedule that he can attend because remember, he can't be two places at once. Kay's trifecta follows up four straight AIP championships by Dirt Late Model Hall of Famer Ray Guss Jr.

Despite the fact that his Sunday night track has been shut down for the rest of the season due to an electrical fire, Chris Ableson will win his second straight All Iowa Points Modified championship. Abelson leads former road warrior Kelly Shryock by 95 points heading into September with three new names gracing the top five in J.D. Auringer, Nick Roberts and Jesse Dennis.

Damon Murty jumped out to a big early lead in the Spring before the western Iowa drivers reeled him back in, but Murty has again flexed his superiority by winning on the road in August and appears to be headed for his third straight AIP Stock Car title. Two-time champion Brian Blessington (2006 & 2007) is keeping him honest though only 36 points back and then you have three of the Smith brothers not far back with David in third, Donavon in fourth and Devin trailing Mike Nichols in sixth. Interesting that twelve Stock Car drivers have already surpassed the 100 point mark.

The Limited Modifed division is one of the two where the title is still up for grabs with at least three drivers still in the hunt for the championship. In late July Nick Meyer had charged to the top of this list, however with two straight weeks of rain at Britt and the early closing of Mason City Meyer has now dropped to fourth in the current standings. Tony Olson, who actually won the first race of the season at Donnellson in late March, has surged to the front and now holds an eight point edge over defending champion Clint Luellen. Doug Smith of Lake City is not far back in third, but may have to hit the road in October in order to add another AIP title to the Smith family name as the late season specials are not on tracks that he visits. Meyer who won in March at Beatrice (not an AIP track) still has a shot, but he too will have to hit the road if he wants to catch the drivers ahead of him.

It is not in the bag yet, but Shannon Anderson is a solid bet to earn his fourth All Iowa Points Hobby Stock championship as he holds a 47 point lead headed into September. Anderson previously won titles in 2008 and 2009 before sharing a championship with Devin Smith in 2013. Early leader Austin Luellen is tied for second with Nathan Ballard who has proven equally hard to beat on both dirt and asphalt while Cody Nielsen is only two points behind them in fourth.

Jay DeVries holds a 32 point lead over Cody Thompson in the Four Cylinder standings as both are looking for their first-ever All Iowa Points championship. It's a long shot, but you can't yet count out Kimberly Abbott even though she trails DeVries by 45 points. Many of the Fall specials are held on tracks that Abbott competes at on a regular basis, plus her home track in Quincy still has at least four more nights racing on tap so she could close the gap quickly over the month of September.

In the Sprint Car ranks, Danny Lasoski will set a new mark for the most amount of time between All Iowa Points championships as the 1992 & '93 champ has the 410 title wrapped up. The question now will be whether or not he can eclipse Terry McCarl's record point total of 120 in the 5-point system as Lasoski now sits with 102. The 360 Sprints are the second division where the champion is still in doubt and don't be surprised if Gregg Bakker repeats his title in the same fashion as last year. Bakker is currently four points behind Justin Henderson, but since Henderson really on competes at Knoxville where the sprint car season has ended, Bakker has at least three or four opportunities to overtake the leader. And in the 305's defending champion Clint Benson only has a nine point edge over Matt Moro, but unless Moro ventures out of Des Moines the only threat to Benson's repeat is Trevor Grossenbacher who is 16 back but with only a few events remaining.

2,257 drivers across the nine divisions have earned points this season, yet in at least six of those divisions and perhaps eight out of nine of them we will see a name at the top that has been there before. I find that to be amazing!

For a full rundown of the All Iowa Points visit the Points page at Positively Racing.

Fire and Flight

With its location just across the state line from Sioux City, Raceway Park in Jefferson, South Dakota, is one of our tracks where drivers earn All Iowa Points and is the Sunday night home of defending, and soon to be two-time All Iowa Points Modified champion Chris Abelson. Abelson now has more than a hundred point advantage over his nearest rival, so he could literally sit out the rest of the season and still be the champion, however he is also the current IMCA Modified National points leader and he just lost that Sunday night "home" for the rest of the season.

Following is a post from Greg Golden, promoter at Raceway Park in regard to an electrical fire that occurred during Sunday night's racing action.

"It’s Official.

Raceway Park is closed for the remaining of the 2015 season.

Sunday evening Raceway Park experienced an electrical fire that took out the track lights along with the electric in the concession stands, walk-in cooler and the well. Just two weeks ago we had an electrical problem and had an electrician come out and fix it. Now we’ve had a different panel go up in flames that caused major damage.

After talking with the fire marshal and electricians this will be a timely matter to get things fixed correctly, we will not be able to have things fixed by this weekend so after talking with IMCA we will be ending this season.

Unfortunately this happened at a bad time in the season with the Super Nationals just around the corner and the Iron Cup coming up at Park Jefferson Speedway. There are just too many conflicting dates. We had even considered moving the season over to Park Jefferson to finish out and were denied from IMCA.

After talking with IMCA the four divisions that did not get to race will all receive last place points in their division, leaving the driver positions in points the same. We will take the qualified cars and add the purse up for that division and divide by how many cars qualified so everyone gets equal pay.

We are very disappointed to end the season this way and would like to apologize, we are working on getting the electric fixed correctly to not have these problems in the future and keep everyone safe. The good thing is no one got hurt last night, it was a scary moment.

We would like to thank everyone who supported Raceway Park in 2015 and look forward to bigger and better things in 2016."

It is likely that this will not derail Abelson's quest for the National title either, but it may definitely have him looking for places to run such as Oskaloosa and Vinton when those two tracks run their season championship events later in September.

A couple of nasty Sprint Car wrecks to share with you today with the first one being the amazing flight taken by Ryan Bowers during the UMSS event at St. Croix Valley Speedway. I have seen Bowers race in person just once and that was last September when he showed up for the Thursday night Sprint Invaders show during the Yankee Dirt Classic in Farley and won. And, despite this wild ride, the young driver continues to lead the UMSS point standings.

The young lady who has already won two features in the 305 division at Knoxville this season, McKenna Haase took a wild ride on Saturday night at the 2:47 mark of this clip. Don't speed ahead though or you will miss a wild ride taken by Jim Simbro at the start. Haase plans to move up to the 360 division in 2016 where perhaps there will not be as many moving speed bumps as there are in her current class.

With another opportunity to spend a weekend at a Lake with good friends I am taking a second week in a row away from racing. Well, actually there is a track that you can hear the cars from their house on a Saturday night, so I might be successful in organizing a "feature race" run over to the races, you just never know. And while many others will target the Super Nationals next week, I have my eye on the Corn Belt Clash Late Models on the quarter-mile in Davenport on Friday night and the Tom Knowles Memorial at the Spoon River Speedway on Saturday night.

Specials season is upon us, get out and find a race in your area soon!