Rainy Days and Mondays

It is Monday AND it is raining, so as the Carpenters song goes this would be a double whammy of getting me down.

Rain played a huge role in determining the Final Four in the NASCAR Chase for the Sprint Cup Championship as inclement weather in the desert southwest first delayed, and then prematurely ended the penultimate race on the schedule. So while one driver who deliberately caused a wreck to alter the outcome of the Chase sat out the second of his two race suspension, another driver who did essentially the same thing, just not in such an obvious manner, advanced to the final race at Homestead with an opportunity to win his second straight title. What a shame.

It would be a storybook ending for Jeff Gordon, but I will also be cheering for Kyle Busch and Martin Truex Jr. next Sunday as well.

The Dual In The Desert at Las Vegas Motor Speedway was another huge event for the IMCA crowd although it was a USRA regular Lucas Schott of Minnesota scoring the win in the Modifieds. Veteran driver Scott Drake was second followed by Late Model regular R.C. Whitwell. Ryan Ruter from Iowa was fourth and Dylan smith completed the top five. In the Sport Mods central Kansas drivers Tyler Frye and Clay Money held off the Californians Nick Spainhoward, Chris McKellar, Rick Diaz and Kevin Johnson for the big money.

One more dirt track race on my schedule for 2015 and that comes up this Saturday November 21st for Turkey Bowl IX at the Springfield Raceway. Late Models, Modifieds, B-Mods and Legend Cars will take to the "quick quarter" in an event that we have enjoyed before and part of the fun is that you just never know who might show up! Obviously I will be checking the forecast a couple of times each day as the week progresses and apparently you have to check it twice each day because this morning when I looked they were calling for clouds and 51 while this afternoon it has switched to sunny and 41. But the kicker is that there is now a possibility for 1 to 3 inches of snow the night before!! Ahh weather, you just never know until you get to the day before. The past couple of years this race has been postponed to the Saturday of Thanksgiving weekend and that is why I have been unable to attend, but if that happens again this year I might actually like that better. We'll see......

I had thought about making the trip down to West Memphis, Arkansas, this past weekend for the USCS Sprint Car and Modified show at Riverside International Speedway, or "The Ditch" as it is affectionately known, but decided to stay home and watch the Hawkeyes instead. This is a track that I have always wanted to visit, but have yet to do so and I am sure that Saturday night would have been a good show. Amazingly though, as I search the net for the results, all that I can find are the results for the Mini Sprints and that is on the USCS website. What about your other two divisions?? Okay, so now at 2:53 p.m. on Monday the story for the Modified portion of the program has been posted on the Mid South Racing Scene forum and I learn that Casey Findlay of Bryant, Arkansas, was the winner. Of interest to me (at least) is that Joe Walsh of Fenton, Missouri, was on hand as he was also at Shiverfest in Donnellson, Iowa, three weeks ago. Okay, so now if I go check TJ Slideways maybe I can find the Sprint Car results? Yep, Tim Crawley takes the win over Sammy Swindell and Joe B. Miller. Geesh, in this day and age should it really takes a visit to three different websites to get the results from one event?

The Ditch remains on my list of tracks to visit for the first time.

I will be crossing off one of the tracks on that list a couple of weeks from now when I visit the Five Flags Speedway in Pensacola, Florida, for the annual Snowball Derby. Some expiring airline miles and an opportunity to stay a couple of nights with my in-laws at a beachfront condo is what sealed the deal on finally going to a race that I have wanted to see for many years now and after taking in a couple of late season pavement shows in Wisconsin I am very excited to see my first Snowball. Did you know that this race pays $22,500 to win and $1,500 to start?? No wonder there are more than 60 drivers pre-entered including several from our region and Iowan Caleb Adrian. Of course I will be hoping that both Christopher Bell and Rico Abreu make the starting field as well so that I can have my "dirt drivers" to follow, but even Eric Huenefeld would be proud of how I have been researching the pavement racers from up this way. Dennis Prunty, John DeAngelis and young Derek Kraus will be making the trip down from Wisconsin along with 2105 ARCA Midwest Tour champion Ty Majeski who started deep in the pack before winning the Florida Governor's Cup race at New Smyrna Speedway this past weekend. Chicagoland drivers Boris Jurkovic and Paul Shafer Jr. are also on the Snowball Derby pre-entry list.

Of course who would have predicted in September when I finalized my plans and bought my tickets that, with just one more victory, the Iowa Hawkeyes would be playing in the Big Ten Championship game kicking off right about the same time the Snowflake 100 for the Limited Late Models takes the green on Saturday night? Oh well, that's what a DVR is for.

With the Turkey Bowl being the last race on our Positively Racing Calendar page for 2015 it is now time to start compiling the schedule for 2016 and I am planning on adding the special events for Indiana and Oklahoma to the calendar. Expanding our horizons so to speak as we have traditionally included Missouri, Kansas, Nebraska, South Dakota, Minnesota, Wisconsin, Illinois and of course Iowa in the past. But since Indiana is actually closer, for me at least, than South Dakota, and since I have a son who lives in Oklahoma I figured "why not?"

And just announced today, one of those dates that I can plug into that schedule is Saturday April 9th as the FVP National Sprint League will open its second season at the same track that played host to the inaugural event in 2105, 34 Raceway in Burlington, Iowa.

Speaking of Sprint Cars, I noticed that Eagle Raceway promoter Roger Hadan has purchased the Racesaver Sprints from originator French Grimes. This month's edition of Flat Out magazine had a great article on Grimes and another one on the IMCA Racesaver Sprint Car Nationals at Eagle Raceway. Just another event that is now on my "to do" list.

Okay, so all of this "looking ahead" to races to come both in the near, and not so near future, has fought off those Rainy Day Monday blues and now has me locked into Andy Grammer!

Enjoy your week!