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 26th
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 10th
Annual Ice Bowl at the Talladega Short Track on January 19th, 20th
and 21st. 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 2nd Annual Bama
Bash at the Green Valley Speedway near Gadsden on February 23rd, 24th
and 25th. 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.
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