Short track racing has taken the green down in Florida and Georgia and it will continue daily now through the Daytona 500 on February 21st. It has been more than 15 years since I was last able to make an extended trip south so summarizing the events here on the Back Stretch is therapeutic. I hope that you will indulge me....
There were 55 cars in the pits for the opener of the Sunshine State Modified Tour at East Bay Raceway Friday where Wisconsin's Kevin Adams held off a couple of locals Mavrick Varnadore and David Reutimann to take the win. Kewanee's Ray Bollinger finished 11th while former Hawkeye Dirt Tour champion Mike Van Genderen was 14th just behind NASCAR's Kenny Wallace.
Van Genderen would be the big story on Saturday night, not only because he would take the $5,000 top prize over a stellar field of 58, but in the manner in which he did it. Racing one spot out of a qualifying spot late in a B-Main, MVG elbowed up and scored the win to place him in the tenth row for the 75-lap main event. With the majority of the field running the middle or the cushion Van Genderen used a rough but fast bottom groove to quickly move into the top four and then it was just a matter of getting to the front and hanging on. In victory lane Mike said that his sanity had been questioned for bringing his IMCA crate engine to race against the UMP field, but on this night it was the perfect combination of power, setup of his Harris chassis and of course the talent in the driver's seat that would secure the win.
Van Genderen is now the promoter or race director at more events that he competes in and it was interesting that another track promoter and part-time racer Rodney Wing finished in the second spot. LaSalle Speedway regular Mike McKinney finished in sixth while other Illinois drivers Ray Bollinger, Allen Weisser and Jeff Leka also made the feature field. Van Genderen now has a ten point lead over Kevin Adams and Steve Miller heading into Sunday night's action at East Bay.
Fifty-three Nesmith Crate Late Models signed in for the Friday night show at Bubba Raceway Park and the podium was filled with three drivers who have had plenty of success in the Super Late Models. Three-time World of Outlaws champion Josh Richards took the lead from Kyle Bronson on lap five and then cruised to the $2,500 victory. Bronson who was one of the hottest drivers in Late Model racing at the end of 2015 held on to finish second while Dennis "Rambo" Franklin took third. Tyler Bare was the top finishing non-interloper in fourth and Don O'Neal's son Hudson was the eleventh and final car still running at the finish.
Two big features were on tap at Bubba's on Saturday as the full $3,000-to-win program would precede the makeup of the $10,000-to-win event from last Fall. In the regular program it was again Josh Richards and Kyle Bronson running up front with Richards taking the lead from the rising Florida star early and then starting to pull away. Bronson faded to fourth behind Max Blair and David Whitener mid-race but a couple of late restarts put him back in the mix and when Richards bobbled in turn two on the second one Bronson split the middle between Blair and "Kid Rocket" to take the lead. Richards came storming back though and was putting heavy pressure on Bronson only to go too low in turn three clipping the inside berm and spinning with seven laps remaining. Bronson would then pull away on the restart to take the win ahead of Blair and Whitener while the track owner's young son Tyler Clem finished fourth. Richards clawed his way back up to eighth at the checkers.
Rambo Franklin chose to sit out the regular program on Saturday and concentrate on the big money makeup race and the decision paid off with a victory. Taking the lead away from Bronson early, Franklin set a torrid pace and had lapped all but Bronson and Cale Conley before a caution waved with 11 laps remaining in the 100-lap affair. Knowing that he would not give up any tack position Bronson pitted for fresh rubber and he would make a run at Franklin over the closing laps only to come up a few car lengths short at the checkers.
Donald McIntosh is staking claim to being the King of Winter racing in the southeast as he muscled by Dale McDowell early and then ran off with the Cabin Fever 40 at Boyd's Raceway in Georgia for a $3,500 payday. The track's co-owner, McDowell finished in second ahead of Ray Cook while Jason Manley brought his steel head engine in for fourth.
Meanwhile out in the desert southwest Josh Hodges held off Friday's winner Bryan Clauson to win the USAC Sprint Car feature at Canyon Speedway on Saturday while Missouri's Hunter Marriott was the IMCA Modified feature winner.
More racing from Florida plus Speedfest in southern Georgia in Monday's Back Stretch.
Sunday, January 31, 2016
Friday, January 29, 2016
My Favorites? The Last Five and The Next Five
Earlier this week when Craig Allender, aka fasttrackfan, started a poll asking for people to list their top five favorite race tracks it reminded me that I needed to update my list of tracks that I first posted on the Back Stretch back in April of 2010. My guess is that at that time there must have been a similar poll being taken since the title was Hard To Pick A Favorite Out Of This Many and what a great trip down memory lane it was for me to list a thought or two about the many tracks that I have been so fortunate to attend over the years.
In the nearly six years that have passed since then, I can now add another thirteen tracks to that list, plus one more that I later realized that I failed to mention on that first run down.
Left Off The Original List (perhaps I was trying to suppress it from memory?)
Mansfield Motorsports Park, Mansfield OH - I took a client who had always wanted to see a dirt track race to a mid-week show at this track on a hot and sunny July evening and from the first set of hot laps I knew that it was not going to be a good experience. The dust was flying from the initial green flag and with a great field of both Late Models and Sprint Cars on hand it just got worse from there. My client was a trooper though and stuck it out through the first feature race of the night was completed before she agreed with me that we needed to leave. Just like any track that I have a bad initial experience at though, I would love to go back again and see if I just caught them on a bad night.
Now on to the new ones by year.....
2010
Clarke County Speedway, Osceola IA - My friend Scott Watson asked me if I would fill in for him at this new track in south central Iowa so I can say that I was the announcer at the first ever race at this facility. The track was small with tight turns and there were no lights when it first opened, but since it was in an area that didn't have any other tracks within a fifty mile radius and knowing that the Nelson family would do a great job of promoting it I thought that it stood a pretty good chance for success. By 2014 the track had lights and the car counts had become impressive, but for some reason this past year the counts tailed off and the Nelson's announced that the track would close for good.
Mineral City Speedway, Fort Dodge IA - Now known as the Frontier Sports Park my only trip to this facility so far was for a USMTS show that was decided on the final lap when Ryan Gustin swept around Jason Krohn to take the win. Then we all scrambled to get the heck out of there before the severe weather moved in. Click this link for the story and action shots by our own Barry Johnson.
Valley Speedway, Grain Valley MO - This is one of those tracks that I love since they usually try to race until the snow flies, so when I had to catch a flight out of Kansas City early on a Sunday morning in mid-October I stopped in for a show at Valley that featured non-wing Sprint Cars. The racing was good, but a couple of caution-filled features made me hit a self-imposed curfew and I left early. Definitely a track that I want to go to again, not only for the racing action, but to thumb my nose at those in the community who tried to shut it down in 2014 due to noise complaints.
Butler Speedway, Butler MO - Made the trip down to this track for a late October day race and even though you can see it when you drive by on I-49, it would be nearly impossible to get to without detailed directions from the Speedway Directory. The racing was decent until the track locked down and I was struck by the lack of available seating at the place as the bleachers could have maybe held 400 people. It has sat idle now for at least the last two seasons.
2011
Saint Francios County Raceway, Farmington MO - Similar to my visit to Valley Speedway, I had an early Sunday morning flight out of St. Louis so after checking into my hotel near the airport I hustled down south of the city to catch the annual Queen's Royale event at this track that is one the final few that runs 410 Winged Sprint Cars on a weekly basis here in the Midwest. I saw some great racing in the heats and B-Mains, but a caution plagued Pure Stock feature that lasted over 45 minutes and even caused the starter to slam his radio headset to the floor of the flagstand caused me to enforce that self-imposed curfew again and I had to miss the grand finale. This is definitely a track that I want to get back to though as it is obvious that the promoters love racing. So much so in fact that in 2016 they are going to give the drivers of the nearby Doe Run Raceway the opportunity to race on Friday nights at SFCR until there is a decision by Doe Run as to how they will proceed after the track owner passed away unexpectedly last Fall. A very classy move on the part of the Saint Francois County Raceway.
2012
Salina Speedway, Salina KS - Morgan and I stopped at this central Kansas facility on the first night of our trip to California. The ASCS National Tour was in town and despite a smaller than expected field of Sprint Cars the show was a good one with Kevin Swindell taking the win.
Perris Auto Speedway, Perris CA - This track added the state of California to my list and I was impressed with how the track had been built so that the back stretch was actually higher than the infield. Despite the fact that there were some big haulers in the pits, you could still see all the way around the fast half-mile and the non-wing Sprint Cars put on quite a show. It was a bit of a shock though to have to pay to park on the grounds!
2013
USA Raceway, Tucson AZ - A strategically planned business trip allowed me to catch two nights of action during the Wild West Shootout and this facility shot down every preconception that I had about a dirt track in Arizona. It wasn't dry, it wasn't sandy and it wasn't one grooved around the bottom. In fact, on the first night it was almost too tacky, the perfect conditions for our friend the fasttrackfan, and Will Vaught made a nifty move on Jimmy Mars late in the race to win the main event. My first visit to Tucson was so good that I returned in 2014 for three shows and I have to say that I am a bit disappointed that this annual January event is now being moved to another track. Oh well, maybe the Arizona Speedway will be a new one for me in 2017.
Port City Raceway, Tulsa OK - On a night when I thought I would be visiting the highly touted Salina Highbanks Speedway near Pryor, scattered thunderstorms instead found Morgan and I searching for some place that was dry enough to race and we ended up at this facility that is built for the Micro Sprint crowd. I will admit that up until this night I would have never searched out a track that runs Micros, but that was because I had only ever seen them on full sized tracks before. With some rain early in the evening here as well, the track was fast, tacky and I was amazed at how great the racing was even on a smaller scale. I still need to get to the Salina Highbanks, but it will be hard to pass up a night at Port City to do so!
2014
Gas City Speedway, Gas City IN - Morgan and I had heard nothing but great things about this place so when we arrived a bit later than planned due to traffic for the Indiana Sprint Speedweek event it was no surprise to see the place packed with fans. The qualifying races were very good, but a caution-filled Modified feature then lead into a Sprint Car main event where the drivers pretty much hugged the bottom line and we left feeling that it just didn't live up to expectations. A visit with one of the drivers later at the hotel though told us that this was not a typical Gas City show so we definitely look forward to giving it another try. And next time, we will definitely get there early!
2015
Beatrice Speedway, Beatrice NE - If you clicked the link in the first paragraph you will see that it is getting kind of hard for me to add a new track within a six hour radius, but for some reason a trip to Beatrice had always eluded me. That is why I targeted the IMCA Spring Nationals as my first race for 2015 and then to have temperatures in the low 70's just made it that much better! A full field of 234 cars in four classes provided a great night of racing that necessitated not just one, but two Back Stretch entries to get it all covered. Another trip to Beatrice is definitely on my "to do" list and you never know, it might just be in another six weeks!
Dells Raceway Park, Wisconsin Dells WI - The pavement racing bug bit me hard last Fall as I followed up a long overdue trip to Oktoberfest in La Crosse with a late October one day round trip adventure to this sharp facility in a beautiful setting. It was a fun trip and if the track has this late season show on the schedule again in 2016, I will make sure that we get off to an earlier start so that my wife can spend some time at The House on The Rock along the way.
Five Flags Speedway, Pensacola FL - I have heard about the Snowball Derby for many, many years and I knew that it was a big event. But I had no idea that it was this BIG until I closed out my 2015 travels with two days of action at pavement racing's version of the Super Nationals......or The World 100. The track is lightning fast and they can definitely race two and even three wide, but unless everybody in your party is 5'8" and 150 pounds I would suggest that you purchase one "extra" reserved seat ticket so that you will have room to sit.......and breathe! I want to go again, but when I do I will be requesting a ticket at the end of a row.
So with those added I am now at 206 tracks in 26 states and I will continue to try to add to that total whenever possible. Some of the more "close by" facilities that I need to finally get to include:
In Iowa....
The Clay County Speedway in Spencer and the Sioux Speedway in Sioux Center
In Illinois......
The Charleston Speedway, the Route 45 Speedway in Flora which has just switched their sanctioning from UMP to USRA, and the Fayette County Speedway in Brownstown a track that I actually drove to one day a few years back to find that they had been rained out an hour earlier.
In Missouri.....
Central Missouri Speedway in Warrensburg and the Dallas County Speedway in Urbana are the only two still in action that I have yet to visit.
In Wisconsin there are several.....
141 Speedway, Angell Park, Columbus 151, Lafayette County, Slinger, Oshkosh Speedzone, Wilmot and Plymouth to name a few.
Chateau and Jackson would be just within that magic six hour drive in Minnesota and even though it would be a little farther drive I do need to visit the newly named Badlands Speedway in South Dakota sometime. I am surprised that I have never attended a Thursday night weekly show at US 30 Speedway in Columbus, Nebraska, and now that the dirt track at Heartland Park in Topeka, Kansas, is getting back in action that track returns to my list. The Atchison County Raceway recently announced that they will be IMCA sanctioned and this "newer" track joins the historic Belleville High Banks as couple of more facilities from the Sunflower state that are on my wish list.
With my son Morgan currently residing in Oklahoma City I am envisioning some road trips that might take us to 81 Speedway in Wichita, the Longdale Speedway, Brill's Motor Speedway, Lawton Speedway, Outlaw Speedway in Muskogee and of course the Salina Highbanks.
So as you can see, after adding only 13 new tracks over the past six years, I am going to have to live well into my 80's in order to complete this list!!
Looking back at that original list from 2010 it saddens me just how many of those tracks that were still in operation at that time have either disappeared or now sit completely idle.
Before catching my flight to Pensacola in December I drove up into the housing addition that once was Hawkeye Raceway near Blue Grass and the old track is now an oval shaped pond for the residents to enjoy. Nobody has even mentioned the track in Aledo the past several years, Freeport is history and I have no idea whether or not the track near Macomb exists any longer. Missouri has been hard hit with Butler and Lake Ozark joining the old I-70 Speedway sitting there like ghosts next to major highways. The Benton Racepark, Poplar Buff Speedway and LA Raceway have all closed in the last two years and after making a brief come back recently the Montgomery County Speedway is growing weeds once again. One bright sign for the Show Me state though is that the Missouri State Fair Speedway in Sedalia that sat idle for two full seasons returned to action with one event in 2015 and for 2016 they have one race per month scheduled from April though October.
With some of my favorites close to home now scaled back to special events only it just goes to show that you should appreciate each visit you make to any given race track because you never know, it might just be your last. So with that in mind Craig, my answer to your poll question would be the last five tracks that I attended......and they will be replaced by the next five that I am going to!
_________________________________________________________________________________
You Sprint Car fans will probably tell me that I am late to the game, but I stumbled upon this great website Sprintdudes.com this week, and I hate to say it but I cringed when Richard Allen posted a link to his own blog from Inside Dirt Racing today on the 4m message board. Despite the fact that he specifically states that poorly run tracks should get some criticism it is obvious from the follow up responses that his true message isn't getting through. No Richard, no matter how well thought out your effort is, you will never convince an AWP that constantly bitching about a track or promoter on the internet will not help the situation.
The rain that has delayed the start of Speed Weeks in Florida appears to be over for now so the Nesmith Crate Late Models will kick off a big weekend in Ocala tonight while the Sunshine State Modified Tour will take the green at East Bay Raceway with Iowa's own Mike Van Genderen as one of the entries. The pavement short track crowd will be in Cordele, Georgia, for SpeedFest this weekend with big events for both the Super Late Models and the Pro Late Models.
All of this will start revving me up me up for the start of the 2016 season in our neck of the woods, but just the fact that I can still see the sun when I leave work at five o'clock has already started that process!
Enjoy your weekend!
In the nearly six years that have passed since then, I can now add another thirteen tracks to that list, plus one more that I later realized that I failed to mention on that first run down.
Left Off The Original List (perhaps I was trying to suppress it from memory?)
Mansfield Motorsports Park, Mansfield OH - I took a client who had always wanted to see a dirt track race to a mid-week show at this track on a hot and sunny July evening and from the first set of hot laps I knew that it was not going to be a good experience. The dust was flying from the initial green flag and with a great field of both Late Models and Sprint Cars on hand it just got worse from there. My client was a trooper though and stuck it out through the first feature race of the night was completed before she agreed with me that we needed to leave. Just like any track that I have a bad initial experience at though, I would love to go back again and see if I just caught them on a bad night.
Now on to the new ones by year.....
2010
Clarke County Speedway, Osceola IA - My friend Scott Watson asked me if I would fill in for him at this new track in south central Iowa so I can say that I was the announcer at the first ever race at this facility. The track was small with tight turns and there were no lights when it first opened, but since it was in an area that didn't have any other tracks within a fifty mile radius and knowing that the Nelson family would do a great job of promoting it I thought that it stood a pretty good chance for success. By 2014 the track had lights and the car counts had become impressive, but for some reason this past year the counts tailed off and the Nelson's announced that the track would close for good.
Mineral City Speedway, Fort Dodge IA - Now known as the Frontier Sports Park my only trip to this facility so far was for a USMTS show that was decided on the final lap when Ryan Gustin swept around Jason Krohn to take the win. Then we all scrambled to get the heck out of there before the severe weather moved in. Click this link for the story and action shots by our own Barry Johnson.
Valley Speedway, Grain Valley MO - This is one of those tracks that I love since they usually try to race until the snow flies, so when I had to catch a flight out of Kansas City early on a Sunday morning in mid-October I stopped in for a show at Valley that featured non-wing Sprint Cars. The racing was good, but a couple of caution-filled features made me hit a self-imposed curfew and I left early. Definitely a track that I want to go to again, not only for the racing action, but to thumb my nose at those in the community who tried to shut it down in 2014 due to noise complaints.
Butler Speedway, Butler MO - Made the trip down to this track for a late October day race and even though you can see it when you drive by on I-49, it would be nearly impossible to get to without detailed directions from the Speedway Directory. The racing was decent until the track locked down and I was struck by the lack of available seating at the place as the bleachers could have maybe held 400 people. It has sat idle now for at least the last two seasons.
2011
Saint Francios County Raceway, Farmington MO - Similar to my visit to Valley Speedway, I had an early Sunday morning flight out of St. Louis so after checking into my hotel near the airport I hustled down south of the city to catch the annual Queen's Royale event at this track that is one the final few that runs 410 Winged Sprint Cars on a weekly basis here in the Midwest. I saw some great racing in the heats and B-Mains, but a caution plagued Pure Stock feature that lasted over 45 minutes and even caused the starter to slam his radio headset to the floor of the flagstand caused me to enforce that self-imposed curfew again and I had to miss the grand finale. This is definitely a track that I want to get back to though as it is obvious that the promoters love racing. So much so in fact that in 2016 they are going to give the drivers of the nearby Doe Run Raceway the opportunity to race on Friday nights at SFCR until there is a decision by Doe Run as to how they will proceed after the track owner passed away unexpectedly last Fall. A very classy move on the part of the Saint Francois County Raceway.
2012
Salina Speedway, Salina KS - Morgan and I stopped at this central Kansas facility on the first night of our trip to California. The ASCS National Tour was in town and despite a smaller than expected field of Sprint Cars the show was a good one with Kevin Swindell taking the win.
Perris Auto Speedway, Perris CA - This track added the state of California to my list and I was impressed with how the track had been built so that the back stretch was actually higher than the infield. Despite the fact that there were some big haulers in the pits, you could still see all the way around the fast half-mile and the non-wing Sprint Cars put on quite a show. It was a bit of a shock though to have to pay to park on the grounds!
2013
USA Raceway, Tucson AZ - A strategically planned business trip allowed me to catch two nights of action during the Wild West Shootout and this facility shot down every preconception that I had about a dirt track in Arizona. It wasn't dry, it wasn't sandy and it wasn't one grooved around the bottom. In fact, on the first night it was almost too tacky, the perfect conditions for our friend the fasttrackfan, and Will Vaught made a nifty move on Jimmy Mars late in the race to win the main event. My first visit to Tucson was so good that I returned in 2014 for three shows and I have to say that I am a bit disappointed that this annual January event is now being moved to another track. Oh well, maybe the Arizona Speedway will be a new one for me in 2017.
Port City Raceway, Tulsa OK - On a night when I thought I would be visiting the highly touted Salina Highbanks Speedway near Pryor, scattered thunderstorms instead found Morgan and I searching for some place that was dry enough to race and we ended up at this facility that is built for the Micro Sprint crowd. I will admit that up until this night I would have never searched out a track that runs Micros, but that was because I had only ever seen them on full sized tracks before. With some rain early in the evening here as well, the track was fast, tacky and I was amazed at how great the racing was even on a smaller scale. I still need to get to the Salina Highbanks, but it will be hard to pass up a night at Port City to do so!
2014
Gas City Speedway, Gas City IN - Morgan and I had heard nothing but great things about this place so when we arrived a bit later than planned due to traffic for the Indiana Sprint Speedweek event it was no surprise to see the place packed with fans. The qualifying races were very good, but a caution-filled Modified feature then lead into a Sprint Car main event where the drivers pretty much hugged the bottom line and we left feeling that it just didn't live up to expectations. A visit with one of the drivers later at the hotel though told us that this was not a typical Gas City show so we definitely look forward to giving it another try. And next time, we will definitely get there early!
2015
Beatrice Speedway, Beatrice NE - If you clicked the link in the first paragraph you will see that it is getting kind of hard for me to add a new track within a six hour radius, but for some reason a trip to Beatrice had always eluded me. That is why I targeted the IMCA Spring Nationals as my first race for 2015 and then to have temperatures in the low 70's just made it that much better! A full field of 234 cars in four classes provided a great night of racing that necessitated not just one, but two Back Stretch entries to get it all covered. Another trip to Beatrice is definitely on my "to do" list and you never know, it might just be in another six weeks!
Dells Raceway Park, Wisconsin Dells WI - The pavement racing bug bit me hard last Fall as I followed up a long overdue trip to Oktoberfest in La Crosse with a late October one day round trip adventure to this sharp facility in a beautiful setting. It was a fun trip and if the track has this late season show on the schedule again in 2016, I will make sure that we get off to an earlier start so that my wife can spend some time at The House on The Rock along the way.
Five Flags Speedway, Pensacola FL - I have heard about the Snowball Derby for many, many years and I knew that it was a big event. But I had no idea that it was this BIG until I closed out my 2015 travels with two days of action at pavement racing's version of the Super Nationals......or The World 100. The track is lightning fast and they can definitely race two and even three wide, but unless everybody in your party is 5'8" and 150 pounds I would suggest that you purchase one "extra" reserved seat ticket so that you will have room to sit.......and breathe! I want to go again, but when I do I will be requesting a ticket at the end of a row.
So with those added I am now at 206 tracks in 26 states and I will continue to try to add to that total whenever possible. Some of the more "close by" facilities that I need to finally get to include:
In Iowa....
The Clay County Speedway in Spencer and the Sioux Speedway in Sioux Center
In Illinois......
The Charleston Speedway, the Route 45 Speedway in Flora which has just switched their sanctioning from UMP to USRA, and the Fayette County Speedway in Brownstown a track that I actually drove to one day a few years back to find that they had been rained out an hour earlier.
In Missouri.....
Central Missouri Speedway in Warrensburg and the Dallas County Speedway in Urbana are the only two still in action that I have yet to visit.
In Wisconsin there are several.....
141 Speedway, Angell Park, Columbus 151, Lafayette County, Slinger, Oshkosh Speedzone, Wilmot and Plymouth to name a few.
Chateau and Jackson would be just within that magic six hour drive in Minnesota and even though it would be a little farther drive I do need to visit the newly named Badlands Speedway in South Dakota sometime. I am surprised that I have never attended a Thursday night weekly show at US 30 Speedway in Columbus, Nebraska, and now that the dirt track at Heartland Park in Topeka, Kansas, is getting back in action that track returns to my list. The Atchison County Raceway recently announced that they will be IMCA sanctioned and this "newer" track joins the historic Belleville High Banks as couple of more facilities from the Sunflower state that are on my wish list.
With my son Morgan currently residing in Oklahoma City I am envisioning some road trips that might take us to 81 Speedway in Wichita, the Longdale Speedway, Brill's Motor Speedway, Lawton Speedway, Outlaw Speedway in Muskogee and of course the Salina Highbanks.
So as you can see, after adding only 13 new tracks over the past six years, I am going to have to live well into my 80's in order to complete this list!!
Looking back at that original list from 2010 it saddens me just how many of those tracks that were still in operation at that time have either disappeared or now sit completely idle.
 |
| The former Hawkeye Raceway near Blue Grass , Iowa |
Before catching my flight to Pensacola in December I drove up into the housing addition that once was Hawkeye Raceway near Blue Grass and the old track is now an oval shaped pond for the residents to enjoy. Nobody has even mentioned the track in Aledo the past several years, Freeport is history and I have no idea whether or not the track near Macomb exists any longer. Missouri has been hard hit with Butler and Lake Ozark joining the old I-70 Speedway sitting there like ghosts next to major highways. The Benton Racepark, Poplar Buff Speedway and LA Raceway have all closed in the last two years and after making a brief come back recently the Montgomery County Speedway is growing weeds once again. One bright sign for the Show Me state though is that the Missouri State Fair Speedway in Sedalia that sat idle for two full seasons returned to action with one event in 2015 and for 2016 they have one race per month scheduled from April though October.
With some of my favorites close to home now scaled back to special events only it just goes to show that you should appreciate each visit you make to any given race track because you never know, it might just be your last. So with that in mind Craig, my answer to your poll question would be the last five tracks that I attended......and they will be replaced by the next five that I am going to!
_________________________________________________________________________________
You Sprint Car fans will probably tell me that I am late to the game, but I stumbled upon this great website Sprintdudes.com this week, and I hate to say it but I cringed when Richard Allen posted a link to his own blog from Inside Dirt Racing today on the 4m message board. Despite the fact that he specifically states that poorly run tracks should get some criticism it is obvious from the follow up responses that his true message isn't getting through. No Richard, no matter how well thought out your effort is, you will never convince an AWP that constantly bitching about a track or promoter on the internet will not help the situation.
The rain that has delayed the start of Speed Weeks in Florida appears to be over for now so the Nesmith Crate Late Models will kick off a big weekend in Ocala tonight while the Sunshine State Modified Tour will take the green at East Bay Raceway with Iowa's own Mike Van Genderen as one of the entries. The pavement short track crowd will be in Cordele, Georgia, for SpeedFest this weekend with big events for both the Super Late Models and the Pro Late Models.
All of this will start revving me up me up for the start of the 2016 season in our neck of the woods, but just the fact that I can still see the sun when I leave work at five o'clock has already started that process!
Enjoy your weekend!
Saturday, January 23, 2016
Saturday Notebook: January 23, 2016
Happy Birthday Mom!
In addition to my normal Saturday morning routine of listening to the Racin' Boys online I also have the Weather Channel on just to see how crazy things are out east with winter storm Jonas. Hard to believe that here in southeast Iowa we have had less than 10 inches of snow overall for the entire winter so far while these major population centers are getting two or three times that in just one shot. What a mess!
The storm wiped out the one scheduled racing event east of the Rockies this weekend as the Cabin Fever event for Super Late Models at Boyd's Raceway in north Georgia has been pushed back to next weekend where temperatures are expected to rebound back into the 60's. Road trip?
The most recent update of the Midwest special events schedule that you can find on the Calendar page at Positively Racing has more than 900 shows on it now and when Webmistress Sue has time to upload it you will now find the Deery Brothers Summer Series and Hawkeye Dirt Tour dates for 2016.
It is good to see Davenport back on the Deery schedule and they will open the series in grand fashion on Friday April 8th with the Rebel 5K paying $5,000 to the winner. The abnormal calendar in 2015 when Labor Day was as late as it could be piled up the Fall Specials and caused some frustration for promoter Bob Wagener with IMCA and the Rebel debuted as a non-sanctioned event last year. It is good to now see that everybody is back on the same page and that the long running series is back at one of the sanctioning body's most successful weekly tracks.
It is also good to see the Iowa State Fair Speedway back on the schedule after a on year absence. No, the July 29th date is not during the Iowa State Fair, but this will be an opportunity for drivers and fans to show the Fair just how much they would support a show in Des Moines. Another subtle change is the annual stop at the IMCA Super Nationals in Boone as instead of the traditional Labor Day Monday date, the Late Models will now run a full show on Thursday September 8th. Taking the place of the Late Models will be the Southern Sport Mods as they will now get their one night to shine at the Super Nationals on Monday.
Sandwiched around the Boone stop the Deery series will conclude in fine fashion with a pair of two-day shows during the Yankee Dirt Classic at Farley and the Liberty 100 in West Liberty. With a restructured purse and a points payout mid-season it is obvious that IMCA is listening to those who have said that the series has been "stale" the last couple of years, a claim that frankly I don't understand. The IMCA Late Model rules are such that "outsiders" cannot just pull in for an event and it makes no sense to try to make the series drivers travel outside of their general area. The Deery series is made to give weekly racers an opportunity to race for some bigger purses and do some minimal traveling and they have been doing it right for nearly thirty years now. Given the goals of the series, perhaps "stale" is a compliment.
There are nine dates on the 2016 Hawkeye Dirt Tour for IMCA Modifieds with a few interesting items to note. The Benton County Speedway in Vinton has traditionally hosted the opener and that will happen once again, but instead of a Tuesday night in mid-May it will now be on Memorial Day Monday May 30th. The West Liberty Raceway has one of the strongest weekly roster of IMCA Modifieds in the Midwest right now and they will be a tough bunch to beat when the HDT makes its first ever visit to the historic half-mile oval on Tuesday June 14th making for one heck of a doubleheader with the Deery Brothers Summer Series. The Iowa State Fair Speedway in Des Moines is another new venue for the Tour with a Tuesday July 19th showing and on the following night it moves to the Southern Iowa Speedway in Oskaloosa. Then, to make it a mid-week tripleheader, the Tour returns to the Knoxville Raceway on Thursday June 21st and while in the past this has been during the Harris Clash, in 2016 this date will be on its own merit as the Clash has been scheduled for Tuesday August 9th at the Hamilton County Speedway in Webster City. The Clash is not on the HDT schedule.
The Hawkeye Dirt Tour will join the Deery Series for another big doubleheader at the Cedar County Raceway in Tipton on Tuesday August 2nd before heading west eight days later to close out the schedule at the Buena Vista Raceway in Alta.
It is interesting though that as of right now the USMTS is showing a Southern Iowa Speedway date on Tuesday July 19th, the same night as the HDT stop in Des Moines and just one night before the HDT event at the same track in Oskaloosa.
One of the things that I love about Scott and Kirk (Racin' Boys) is that they enthusiastically support the dirt track drivers who move on to the NASCAR ranks and they have been predicting Kyle Larson's first Cup win almost weekly for two years now. With Rico Abreu stepping into a full-time Truck series ride for 2016 maybe that will take some of their focus off of Larson as today they were already asking NASCAR journalist supreme Lee Spencer whether or not Rico will get his first win in 2016.
Well, with not much else going on this weekend, maybe I will get more of Gary Lee's Pit Pictures uploaded to the Positively Racing Facebook page. Take a look if you get a chance, after all you don't have any shoveling to do!
In addition to my normal Saturday morning routine of listening to the Racin' Boys online I also have the Weather Channel on just to see how crazy things are out east with winter storm Jonas. Hard to believe that here in southeast Iowa we have had less than 10 inches of snow overall for the entire winter so far while these major population centers are getting two or three times that in just one shot. What a mess!
The storm wiped out the one scheduled racing event east of the Rockies this weekend as the Cabin Fever event for Super Late Models at Boyd's Raceway in north Georgia has been pushed back to next weekend where temperatures are expected to rebound back into the 60's. Road trip?
The most recent update of the Midwest special events schedule that you can find on the Calendar page at Positively Racing has more than 900 shows on it now and when Webmistress Sue has time to upload it you will now find the Deery Brothers Summer Series and Hawkeye Dirt Tour dates for 2016.
It is good to see Davenport back on the Deery schedule and they will open the series in grand fashion on Friday April 8th with the Rebel 5K paying $5,000 to the winner. The abnormal calendar in 2015 when Labor Day was as late as it could be piled up the Fall Specials and caused some frustration for promoter Bob Wagener with IMCA and the Rebel debuted as a non-sanctioned event last year. It is good to now see that everybody is back on the same page and that the long running series is back at one of the sanctioning body's most successful weekly tracks.
It is also good to see the Iowa State Fair Speedway back on the schedule after a on year absence. No, the July 29th date is not during the Iowa State Fair, but this will be an opportunity for drivers and fans to show the Fair just how much they would support a show in Des Moines. Another subtle change is the annual stop at the IMCA Super Nationals in Boone as instead of the traditional Labor Day Monday date, the Late Models will now run a full show on Thursday September 8th. Taking the place of the Late Models will be the Southern Sport Mods as they will now get their one night to shine at the Super Nationals on Monday.
Sandwiched around the Boone stop the Deery series will conclude in fine fashion with a pair of two-day shows during the Yankee Dirt Classic at Farley and the Liberty 100 in West Liberty. With a restructured purse and a points payout mid-season it is obvious that IMCA is listening to those who have said that the series has been "stale" the last couple of years, a claim that frankly I don't understand. The IMCA Late Model rules are such that "outsiders" cannot just pull in for an event and it makes no sense to try to make the series drivers travel outside of their general area. The Deery series is made to give weekly racers an opportunity to race for some bigger purses and do some minimal traveling and they have been doing it right for nearly thirty years now. Given the goals of the series, perhaps "stale" is a compliment.
There are nine dates on the 2016 Hawkeye Dirt Tour for IMCA Modifieds with a few interesting items to note. The Benton County Speedway in Vinton has traditionally hosted the opener and that will happen once again, but instead of a Tuesday night in mid-May it will now be on Memorial Day Monday May 30th. The West Liberty Raceway has one of the strongest weekly roster of IMCA Modifieds in the Midwest right now and they will be a tough bunch to beat when the HDT makes its first ever visit to the historic half-mile oval on Tuesday June 14th making for one heck of a doubleheader with the Deery Brothers Summer Series. The Iowa State Fair Speedway in Des Moines is another new venue for the Tour with a Tuesday July 19th showing and on the following night it moves to the Southern Iowa Speedway in Oskaloosa. Then, to make it a mid-week tripleheader, the Tour returns to the Knoxville Raceway on Thursday June 21st and while in the past this has been during the Harris Clash, in 2016 this date will be on its own merit as the Clash has been scheduled for Tuesday August 9th at the Hamilton County Speedway in Webster City. The Clash is not on the HDT schedule.
The Hawkeye Dirt Tour will join the Deery Series for another big doubleheader at the Cedar County Raceway in Tipton on Tuesday August 2nd before heading west eight days later to close out the schedule at the Buena Vista Raceway in Alta.
It is interesting though that as of right now the USMTS is showing a Southern Iowa Speedway date on Tuesday July 19th, the same night as the HDT stop in Des Moines and just one night before the HDT event at the same track in Oskaloosa.
One of the things that I love about Scott and Kirk (Racin' Boys) is that they enthusiastically support the dirt track drivers who move on to the NASCAR ranks and they have been predicting Kyle Larson's first Cup win almost weekly for two years now. With Rico Abreu stepping into a full-time Truck series ride for 2016 maybe that will take some of their focus off of Larson as today they were already asking NASCAR journalist supreme Lee Spencer whether or not Rico will get his first win in 2016.
Well, with not much else going on this weekend, maybe I will get more of Gary Lee's Pit Pictures uploaded to the Positively Racing Facebook page. Take a look if you get a chance, after all you don't have any shoveling to do!
Monday, January 18, 2016
Monday Notebook: January 18, 2016
Our thoughts and respect to Martin Luther King Jr. We still have a long way to go, but without his dream we would not be as far as we are right now.
So you are working away, doing you what feel is best to help improve the sport that you love so much, and some beer swilling moron is throwing insults your way for no other reason than to make himself seem important. Yes, I can completely understand the desire to address said moron one on one, but Tony not after what you have been through!
Unfortunately that is what is going to get more national media coverage out of the 2016 Chili Bowl rather than the fact that Rico Abreu made it two wins in a row over an amazing field of 335 drivers. Last year's win was Rico's vaulting point into the world of pavement racing picking up a K&N Series ride while this year, and even prior to posting the win, Abreu was announced as the driver of the Curb Records truck #98 for ThorSport Racing on the 2016 NASCAR Camping World Truck Series. No doubt that the 4'4" and 95 pound dynamo will be a fan favorite and here's hoping that he finds success in the world of NASCAR.
Back in November there was a press release put out about Rico running a Super Late Model at the Snowball Derby and I was disappointed that he was not among the field of drivers who attempted to qualify for the big race in early December. It will be interesting to see if he once again drives a pavement Late Model at New Smyrna during Speed Weeks as he prepares for the full truck season that kicks off at Daytona.
It was no surprise to see Bryan Clauson run second to Abreu at the Chili Bowl while Zach Daum continues to impress by running third. Open wheel vet Jerry Coons Jr. was fourth while Kyle was the Hard Charger of the main event coming to fifth from 22nd. Former Chili Bowl champion Tim McCreadie once again did the Late Model crowd proud by finishing in the sixth position. A stalwart on the World of Outlaws Late Model series for the past ten years it will now be interesting to see if McCreadie actually makes the switch to the Lucas Oil series as has been rumored.
Add Shane Clanton to the "I'm Fast, Start Me Up Front" crowd. The defending champion of the World of Outlaws Late Model series that uses the infamous method of qualifying in groups and then starting the fastest cars in front was racing at Wild West Shootout in Tucson on Saturday night and found himself running second to Don Shaw with one lap remaining in the heat race. Having started fifth and now running second Clanton was assured of qualifying for the main event under the event's passing points system, but he just couldn't resist throwing an extreme slidejob at the Minnesota native as they entered turn three for the final time. And why wouldn't he? The night before dirt late model racing's current super hero Jonathan Davenport did the same thing to another WISSOTA racing regular Scott Ward and, when Ward stabbed the brakes to keep from hitting the car that had just slid up in front him, his car veered right and smacked the wall while Davenport went on to yet another victory.
Unfortunately for Clanton, Don Shaw wasn't as forgiving and when he kept his foot in the throttle the contact created by Clanton's slider turned both cars into the turn four wall sending Clanton's #25 into a pair of barrel rolls. When trackside announcer for the DirtOnDirt pay per view broadcast Dustin Jarrett asked Clanton "what happened?" the reply was short and not so sweet. "F&$#ing passing points."
Yeah, that was it, the qualifying procedure made you make a move that you probably never would have even thought about throwing at a fellow World of Outlaw regular or another "national" driver like Davenport.
The Wild West Shootout has used a passing point system since its inception and that, in the opinion of many, is what continues to provide fans with some of the best Late Model racing that you will see all year. Yet for the "stars of the sport" who seldom have to "race" their way into a feature, it now becomes an excuse to not race someone clean for the sake of getting a win.
After Jarrett quickly pulled the microphone away from Clanton he then tracked down Shaw and asked the same question. I have no way of knowing whether or not Shaw had heard Clanton's poor analysis of what had actually transpired, but I almost think that he did when he simply stated, "obviously he's a piece of s#*t."
I am envious of my newest Positively Racing colleague Ed Reichert who was once again able to make the trip to Tucson and who is providing coverage in One Fan's Travels so I will join you in going there for the details. I was lucky enough to catch a couple of shows each from the desert in two trips a few years back and the quality of racing, along with the more consistent weather was enough to make the Shootout more of a priority than Florida's Speed Weeks once I have the opportunity to make such a trip again. However, I might have to wait a year to see if that still holds true as I was surprised to see the announcement that the six-race mini-series will move to the Arizona Speedway near Phoenix in 2017. "Instability at Tucson" was cited as the reason for the move and it will be interesting to see if the racing is as good at the new facility as it has been at Tucson.
With Jonathan Davenport winning three times and Clint Bowyer Racing taking the other three wins with Don O'Neal and Darrell Lanigan, you could say that the Shootout lost a bit of its charm this year by not having a "surprise" winner. Last year Tony Jackson Jr. and Rodney Sanders each picked up wins with Sanders pulling off the biggest surprise by winning the points title. In 2014, the last year that I was able to attend, hometown hero R.C. Whitwell won the opener while Ryan Gustin captured the $10,000-to-win finale and the year before that saw Don Shaw, Chris Simpson and Will Vaught visit victory lane. Now with big-time travelers taking all the wins, six figure bonuses on the line and full-time professional drivers whining about the lineup procedures, the Shootout appears to have moved on to that fabled "next level" that is often dreamt about amongst dirt racing fans. But not this one.
Iowa drivers had a pretty good run in the desert highlighted by Todd Shute winning the points title for the USRA Modifieds. Shute passed Rodney Sanders on the final lap to win the main event on Saturday night and then clinched the title with a third place run behind Jake Gallardo and Stormy Scott in Sunday's finale. An IMCA regular for much of his career I see where Todd Staley is using Facebook to encourage "Toddzilla" to hit the road again when the USMTS hits the road again in Texas come mid-February.
With the Hangover 40, the Ice Bowl and the Wild West Shootout in the books here is how the Back Stretch National Dirt Late Points look with a familiar name at the top of the list. Will Superman ever rank anywhere other than #1 in 2016?
So you are working away, doing you what feel is best to help improve the sport that you love so much, and some beer swilling moron is throwing insults your way for no other reason than to make himself seem important. Yes, I can completely understand the desire to address said moron one on one, but Tony not after what you have been through!
Unfortunately that is what is going to get more national media coverage out of the 2016 Chili Bowl rather than the fact that Rico Abreu made it two wins in a row over an amazing field of 335 drivers. Last year's win was Rico's vaulting point into the world of pavement racing picking up a K&N Series ride while this year, and even prior to posting the win, Abreu was announced as the driver of the Curb Records truck #98 for ThorSport Racing on the 2016 NASCAR Camping World Truck Series. No doubt that the 4'4" and 95 pound dynamo will be a fan favorite and here's hoping that he finds success in the world of NASCAR.
Back in November there was a press release put out about Rico running a Super Late Model at the Snowball Derby and I was disappointed that he was not among the field of drivers who attempted to qualify for the big race in early December. It will be interesting to see if he once again drives a pavement Late Model at New Smyrna during Speed Weeks as he prepares for the full truck season that kicks off at Daytona.
It was no surprise to see Bryan Clauson run second to Abreu at the Chili Bowl while Zach Daum continues to impress by running third. Open wheel vet Jerry Coons Jr. was fourth while Kyle was the Hard Charger of the main event coming to fifth from 22nd. Former Chili Bowl champion Tim McCreadie once again did the Late Model crowd proud by finishing in the sixth position. A stalwart on the World of Outlaws Late Model series for the past ten years it will now be interesting to see if McCreadie actually makes the switch to the Lucas Oil series as has been rumored.
Add Shane Clanton to the "I'm Fast, Start Me Up Front" crowd. The defending champion of the World of Outlaws Late Model series that uses the infamous method of qualifying in groups and then starting the fastest cars in front was racing at Wild West Shootout in Tucson on Saturday night and found himself running second to Don Shaw with one lap remaining in the heat race. Having started fifth and now running second Clanton was assured of qualifying for the main event under the event's passing points system, but he just couldn't resist throwing an extreme slidejob at the Minnesota native as they entered turn three for the final time. And why wouldn't he? The night before dirt late model racing's current super hero Jonathan Davenport did the same thing to another WISSOTA racing regular Scott Ward and, when Ward stabbed the brakes to keep from hitting the car that had just slid up in front him, his car veered right and smacked the wall while Davenport went on to yet another victory.
Unfortunately for Clanton, Don Shaw wasn't as forgiving and when he kept his foot in the throttle the contact created by Clanton's slider turned both cars into the turn four wall sending Clanton's #25 into a pair of barrel rolls. When trackside announcer for the DirtOnDirt pay per view broadcast Dustin Jarrett asked Clanton "what happened?" the reply was short and not so sweet. "F&$#ing passing points."
Yeah, that was it, the qualifying procedure made you make a move that you probably never would have even thought about throwing at a fellow World of Outlaw regular or another "national" driver like Davenport.
The Wild West Shootout has used a passing point system since its inception and that, in the opinion of many, is what continues to provide fans with some of the best Late Model racing that you will see all year. Yet for the "stars of the sport" who seldom have to "race" their way into a feature, it now becomes an excuse to not race someone clean for the sake of getting a win.
After Jarrett quickly pulled the microphone away from Clanton he then tracked down Shaw and asked the same question. I have no way of knowing whether or not Shaw had heard Clanton's poor analysis of what had actually transpired, but I almost think that he did when he simply stated, "obviously he's a piece of s#*t."
I am envious of my newest Positively Racing colleague Ed Reichert who was once again able to make the trip to Tucson and who is providing coverage in One Fan's Travels so I will join you in going there for the details. I was lucky enough to catch a couple of shows each from the desert in two trips a few years back and the quality of racing, along with the more consistent weather was enough to make the Shootout more of a priority than Florida's Speed Weeks once I have the opportunity to make such a trip again. However, I might have to wait a year to see if that still holds true as I was surprised to see the announcement that the six-race mini-series will move to the Arizona Speedway near Phoenix in 2017. "Instability at Tucson" was cited as the reason for the move and it will be interesting to see if the racing is as good at the new facility as it has been at Tucson.
With Jonathan Davenport winning three times and Clint Bowyer Racing taking the other three wins with Don O'Neal and Darrell Lanigan, you could say that the Shootout lost a bit of its charm this year by not having a "surprise" winner. Last year Tony Jackson Jr. and Rodney Sanders each picked up wins with Sanders pulling off the biggest surprise by winning the points title. In 2014, the last year that I was able to attend, hometown hero R.C. Whitwell won the opener while Ryan Gustin captured the $10,000-to-win finale and the year before that saw Don Shaw, Chris Simpson and Will Vaught visit victory lane. Now with big-time travelers taking all the wins, six figure bonuses on the line and full-time professional drivers whining about the lineup procedures, the Shootout appears to have moved on to that fabled "next level" that is often dreamt about amongst dirt racing fans. But not this one.
Iowa drivers had a pretty good run in the desert highlighted by Todd Shute winning the points title for the USRA Modifieds. Shute passed Rodney Sanders on the final lap to win the main event on Saturday night and then clinched the title with a third place run behind Jake Gallardo and Stormy Scott in Sunday's finale. An IMCA regular for much of his career I see where Todd Staley is using Facebook to encourage "Toddzilla" to hit the road again when the USMTS hits the road again in Texas come mid-February.
With the Hangover 40, the Ice Bowl and the Wild West Shootout in the books here is how the Back Stretch National Dirt Late Points look with a familiar name at the top of the list. Will Superman ever rank anywhere other than #1 in 2016?
| The "Back Stretch" | ||||
| Dirt Late Model Points | Total | |||
| Pos. | Driver | Hometown | Points | |
| 1 | . | Jonathan Davenport | Blairsville GA | 19 |
| 2 | . | Darrell Lanigan | Union KY | 9 |
| 3 | . | Don O'Neal | Martinsville IN | 8 |
| 4 | . | Donald McIntosh | Dawsonville GA | 6 |
| 5 | . | Steve Francis | Ashland KY | 6 |
| 6 | . | Jason Papich | Santa Maria CA | 5 |
| 7 | . | Ricky Thornton Jr. | Chandler AZ | 5 |
| 8 | . | David Brannon | Elora TN | 4 |
| 9 | . | Jason Hiett | Lincoln AL | 4 |
| 10 | . | Ryan Gustin | Marshalltown IA | 4 |
| 11 | . | Jimmy Mars | Elk Mound WI | 3 |
| 12 | . | Ronny Lee Hollingsworth | Northport AL | 3 |
| 13 | . | Brandon Sheppard | New Berlin IL | 2 |
| 14 | . | Chris Simpson | Marion IA | 2 |
| 15 | . | Shane Clanton | Locust Grove GA | 2 |
| 16 | . | Billy Moyer | Batesville AR | 1 |
| 17 | . | Donny Schatz | Fargo ND | 1 |
| 18 | . | Garrett Alberson | Las Cruces NM | 1 |
| 19 | . | Ray Cook | Brasstown NC | 1 |
| 20 | . | Tim Busha | Boaz AL | 1 |
Wednesday, January 13, 2016
Wednesday Notebook: January 13, 2016
So what does it say about our society when, on the morning after President Obama's final State of the Union Address, the featured guest during the first fifteen minutes of ABC's Good Morning America is Khloe Kardashian? Yep, we all need to know what is going on with her and Lamar first, then we can discuss all of that other stuff.
I have been writing the Back Stretch since 1979 and when I was young and dumb I had a tendency to spout off about some stupid stuff. After a few years I'd like to think that not only did maturity set in, but also an appreciation for the opportunity that I was being given by Keith Knaack to promote the sport and to encourage readers to be race fans and attend more events, so my approach changed and evolved to the same way that I write about racing today in a predominantly positive manner. Never in my wildest dreams did I imagine that I would be under public criticism for "not saying enough bad stuff" about the race events that I cover, but as I mentioned in the previous entry of the Back Stretch, that has happened following the re-posting of another writer's blog on the Iowastockcars forum.
In his blog titled "Social media is a scapegoat for unsuccessful racing endeavors" T.J. Buffenbarger (aka TJ Slideways) takes issue with the fact that Cherry Raceway promoter Roger Steig posted this on Facebook:
"I have no reason to do this post there is nothing to gain or lose for me personally. Short track racing across the country is dying at a rapid pace. Having experienced it as a promoter, racer and fan of the sport I have come to the conclusion that we are our own worst enemy and face book that i am using right now to reach out to you does far more damage to the sport than good. It allows people that will not discuss any hate or discontent they might have to hide behind the scenes and rant. These face book warriors are the reason that i have chosen to sell Cherry Raceway so for the record you are the reason short track racing is dying and there is no more Cherry Raceway. I am only talking about a small percent of people that call them selves race fans. For the most part we have made many friends and most of our trouble makers only showed up at the track once and a great while or maybe not at all but yet bashed on me and my family and Cherry Raceway. I watched them do it to the prior owner and thought we could come in and make a difference. No chance so in the end a small percent ruins it for all.
To my friends and supporters of mine and Cherry Raceway I want to set the record straight. Threw the sale of Cherry Raceway I never spoke to Mr Batzer only his attorney. This was the deal I was paid to stay on as a consultant for one year. I was paid to not compete or own a race track for five years with in 100 miles of Cherry Raceway. He was insistent on buying all of the inventory and equipment. He bought all the property and bought the business. Mr Batzers was made aware by his attorney that I would not sell if his intent was to close because we bought the track 6 years ago to keep it from closing. After the sale was complete and done now Mr Batzer says its closed. Now you all know the whole story, good luck in your future racing. All I can say to my friends and race fans is sorry it turned out this way. As for you face book warriors go ahead and take your last shots at me, my family and Cherry Raceway you win track is closed you can move on to your next track and destroy it I know you will."
Since he is based in that area I would guess that TJ had some idea of what had transpired on Facebook, at least I hope he did before writing his piece, but I have to think that it was Buffenbarger's line of "recently I have seen a movement of people that feel that nothing critical should ever been said about a race track, and that fans and teams (customers) should just be happy they exist" that looped me into the conversation in Iowastockcars.
First it was Johnny Oberthein (raceaholic) continuing his tired mantra stating that "blogs are usually where you go to hear that everything was just fine at a race event" that is aimed at myself and the other writers at Positively Racing and then it was Andrew Bieber (slidersideways) who brought me specifically into the conversation with the interesting conclusion that guys like me "are what ruin the sport."
First of all I have to take a moment to thank those who came to my defense in the thread as it was greatly appreciated especially after my emotions were worn thin after personally witnessing Christian McCaffrey and his Stanford teammates thrash my Hawkeyes at the Rose Bowl, not to mention how the Stanford band made fun of us! Seriously though, I had no idea what they were doing until the Iowa fans started booing, but I digress.
It was both frustrating and amusing to read and my first thought was to just let it pass, but since we are in the dead of the offseason I thought that I would go ahead and once again point out some common misconceptions about not only the Back Stretch, but Positively Racing as well. Plus, as those who actually read these words know, I'll make a few comments below that just might not be so "positive".
Let's be clear, I have never, ever, ever, never, not even remotely suggested that nothing critical should ever be said about a race track. Yes, my efforts are based upon the premise that if you don't have something nice to say, then don't say it, but that is for me and what I do here. Not once have I ever preached or dictated to someone that they should not say negative things about a race track, a promoter, a driver, a fan, a series, etc., etc. I would never dream of telling somebody that they cannot say something!
If you go back to January of 2009 and read Another New Racing Website....Why? you will see the reasons why Positively Racing was created and why it sill exists today. "The bottom line is this, we feel that the AWP's are detrimental to the sport and we hope that we can provide an alternative going forward"
"Alternative" is the key word there and in 2009 there was little to nothing out there to offset the crap that was being spewed by Anonymous Weasel Posters, or AWP's on the internet. Obviously our alternative has been quite successful, not only judged by the number of page hits that our writers are seeing on their individual blogs, but also by the statistics for the website and the number of followers that we have on our Facebook page where you will get notifications of new content as well as where you can find our library of photos.
As I reviewed my writing from 2009 it does strike me that there has been one big change in regard to the use of the internet since then and that is the fact that the "A" in AWP is no longer applicable in most cases. Back in 2009 most of the negativity came from people with anonymous screen names on forum boards several of which, interestingly enough, no longer exist. The fact that many people now use Facebook or Twitter is actually a good thing because when somebody expresses their thoughts on those platforms, good or bad, it is no longer anonymous. The commenter is now known and, as I describe in more detail in that 2009 blog entry, I can better decide whether to believe them or not.
Even on the forum boards more and more people either have identified themselves (Andrew Bieber puts his name and phone number in his signature) or it is just known who they are (everybody knows that raceaholic is Johnny Oberthein) and that is a good thing. Others though continue to find comfort in remaining anonymous such as plunks7 who says that I don't "tell people what they want to here", or hear for that matter, and that he would like to sit with me at a race "and trade what we saw and then post it or write it."
I'm going to look forward to that social experiment primarily so that I can at least take away the "A" from AWP with him going forward!
It was plunks himself who posted Buffenbarger's blog on Iowastockcars stating "This Writer Nails It" immediately crowning T.J. the new dark lord of the crowd that feels like they can make a positive change to something by bitching about it on social media. I doubt that it is a leadership role that he will embrace and his new followers will be disappointed to find that 99% of the stuff that he writes is positive and promotional. Just like somebody else that you might know.....
As I read the original piece I too agreed that a promoter should not use negative social media as a scapegoat for failure. But as I continued to read I could see that he was making the same assumptions that so many do when it comes to social media. It is a proven fact that a consumer is MUCH more likely to post a comment or a review when he or she has a negative experience than when they have a positive one. That fact alone means that even the best racing programs are more likely to receive complaints rather than compliments and in racing those complaints are often based on one specific incident that for one reason or another effected the complainer.
It is not a zero sum game when it comes to social media, so quit making that assumption!
T.J.'s blog was also shared on the 4m.net forums and after some discussion similar to what was on ISC, a gentleman whom I respect the opinion of very much, Kelly Carlton shared his thoughts.
"I think that there are some right and some wrong answers on this topic. This is one of my major discussion topics with promoters during my seminars.
First promoters SHOULD absolutely use social media to promote their events and their facility. Every time. Every event. Social media provides instant AND interactive information in today's world of instant gratification.
One of the points I promote is you have to have someone who is dedicated to do it and has the correct temperament to do it. Social media can be a double edged sword for sure. However if you use it properly for the most part you can avoid that. But it starts with you. You have to be willing to TRY to do all you can to make your facility and events great. You must be able to accept some criticism when it is warranted or you make a mistake. And you must be willing to admit it when you do make a mistake. I also think you should answer questions on your social media. You can also answer to unwarranted negative comments.
Let's face it. Some people want to complain because it is fun for them. Many times these people don't attend the facility they are slamming. They are just looking to create an argument for the sake of an argument. And to that end as race fans we do have a responsibility when we make a complaint. We should make sure that the complaint is valid first and foremost. Then we should make an attempt to address it respectfully. My phone number and email address is posted everywhere. If someone calls or emails me about an issue I respond. If it is something that needs to be corrected, I make every attempt to correct it. When an issue continually falls on deaf ears then it may need to be addressed in a public way.
Understand though that race promoters have a TON on their plate on a regular basis. Things that the average fan or driver may have no understanding of. Making any profit at all in race promoting can be a tough row to hoe, so things that cost money to rectify may come much slower. Items of safety, of course, should always take priority. But because you had a cold hamburger ONE night does NOT mean you should go and bash a track and its food. Sometimes it happens but as long as it doesn't happen consistently maybe you should cut those people a break.
Social media is a responsibility. It is a responsibility for both promoters as well as fans and teams that use it. There is power in words. Use your words wisely and intelligently. Be responsible. FANS: When something you complain about is better - let people know. If there is something consistently good about the place you go - let others know. PROMOTERS: If you get a complaint - address it / answer / fix it if you can. If you make a mistake - own it. Apologize or make it right if you can. Be transparent. Do nothing in the dark.
Yes bad promoting and management can lead to facilities failing. But misguided negativity can certainly contribute as well. Everyone just do your part."
Well said Kelly.
After letting it sit for a week, I had a nice conversation with Andrew Bieber via the Private Messages option on ISC and we found that we had attended the same event five times this year. We agreed that all five were pretty darn good nights of racing, not only as how I wrote them up but also how he had commented on them himself with his live updates on the forum. Andrew still says that I exaggerated some things in my stories, even though he would not point out any specific examples after being given the links, and he still maintains that my "positive" way of covering events sets the expectations too high in that when somebody goes to that track in the future and things don't go just right, that they will be disappointed and that is how I am ruining the sport. Well, if that line of thinking holds true, I have a lot of writers to track down who said that the Rose Bowl was going to be a good game!
Andrew likes to stir the pot, I get it, that's his thing, but I wrapped up our conversation reminding him that the best way to turn his young son, whom is so proud of, into a true "race fan" will be to point out the good things to him on a race night, not the the bad things. I am confident that Andrew will raise a true race fan!
When it comes to Johnny O I don't know how to say it any better than I already did here back in September and other than making it known that he didn't like to have me write about him "off forum" where he couldn't control and manipulate the conversation, he still makes the same argument that he provides "unbiased reporting of racing" while I, and other bloggers do not.
In 2015 I attended 66 race events and wrote 130 blogs. In the event stories, if you read carefully, you might find that a show started late, had too long of an intermission, had a rough track, a dusty track, a one grooved track or the show got over later than I might have thought it should. You also will find general blogs about how I hate having two B-Mains, qualifying formats that only prima donna drivers like, as well as other general suggestions that in my opinion would help the sport. Apparently Johnny, and anybody else who accuses me of never saying anything "negative" just don't actually read the Back Stretch?
I couldn't find a raceaholic event report from 2015 so you will have to look at those links from the September blog for his definition of unbiased reporting as a comparison. And as I have said before, thank you Johnny for all that you have done for the sport as an official, a promoter, a car owner, a sponsor and now a mentor to all of those who feel that making your complaints known on the internet will somehow make the sport better. But most of all Thank You for sending more readers to the Back Stretch!
And the sad conclusion to this story, whether it had anything to do with negative social media or not, is that a race track that was loved by many is gone forever.
Now to some actual racing news......
Compiling race schedules for our Calendar page at Positively Racing keeps me in the racing spirit this time of year and I noticed that on this week's Badger Midget schedule that the Friday night of the Yankee Dirt Classic, September 2nd is on the list. Midgets at Farley during the Yankee would be pretty cool, but I am surprised that this is the only place that I have seen it mentioned so far.
The 2016 edition of the Ice Bowl was run this past weekend at the Talladega Short Track despite the fact that a devastating fire took out the scoring tower, the announcer's stand and the VIP room just a week prior. The Ice Bowl has suffered from some "one groove" track conditions over the past few years, but video from this year's event showed that both a low and high line were in use throughout both the Super Late Model and the Crate Late Model main events. David Brannon of Elora, Tennessee, emerged from an early battle with track regular Tim Roszell and then held off Donald McIntosh to score the $6,000 Super Late Model win while William Thomas took the $3,000 win in the Nesmith Winter Series portion of the event. For many years as people suggested that the Ice Bowl should pay more in order to attract "bigger name" drivers I have maintained that promoter Lynn Phillips should stick with the theory of "if it's not broke, don't fix it", so this suggestion breaks away from that. Yes, the racing was good this year, but would it be even better if instead of qualifying and starting the fastest cars up front, the 2017 Ice Bowl used the passing points method of qualifying like they are using out in Tucson? Think of it, no prima donnas in attendance anyway so nobody to complain about it, but what a radical change that would be for a track in that region. If they did it, I would go!
Speaking of Tucson, the video that I have seen from Dirt On Dirt is showing that once again the racing action in the Late Model division has been fabulous. Issues with the scales after his qualifying heat bumped Jonathan Davenport into a B-Main during Saturday's opener and he raced his way all the way up to fifth in the feature that was won by Don O'Neal. Then on Sunday evening Davenport muscled his way past Jimmy Mars late to take the win. Will Superman win the remaining four events and take home a $100,000 bonus from Keyser Manufacturing? Racing continues tonight and you can watch it live on Pay Per View at Dirt On Dirt.
In the companion Modified action from Tucson Louisiana's Cade Dillard is two for two thus far while Iowa's Brad Dierks finished fourth in Sunday's main event.
The Chili Bowl kicked off its five night run in Tulsa on Tuesday and it was perhaps a bit of a surprise to find Pennsylvania's Alex Bright in victory lane. Bright made the finale at the Chili Bowl in 2014 and was one of three drivers to lock themselves in to Saturday's 55-lap main event from the first night of qualifying. Sprint Car star Joey Saldana surprised himself by running second and stating "I don't know how in the hell to drive these race cars" as he locked himself into the show for the first time. POWRi midget stalwart Zach Daum from Illinois finished third. Action continues the rest of the week and you can watch it live on Pay Per View at The Racin' Boys Broadcasting Network.
I have been writing the Back Stretch since 1979 and when I was young and dumb I had a tendency to spout off about some stupid stuff. After a few years I'd like to think that not only did maturity set in, but also an appreciation for the opportunity that I was being given by Keith Knaack to promote the sport and to encourage readers to be race fans and attend more events, so my approach changed and evolved to the same way that I write about racing today in a predominantly positive manner. Never in my wildest dreams did I imagine that I would be under public criticism for "not saying enough bad stuff" about the race events that I cover, but as I mentioned in the previous entry of the Back Stretch, that has happened following the re-posting of another writer's blog on the Iowastockcars forum.
In his blog titled "Social media is a scapegoat for unsuccessful racing endeavors" T.J. Buffenbarger (aka TJ Slideways) takes issue with the fact that Cherry Raceway promoter Roger Steig posted this on Facebook:
"I have no reason to do this post there is nothing to gain or lose for me personally. Short track racing across the country is dying at a rapid pace. Having experienced it as a promoter, racer and fan of the sport I have come to the conclusion that we are our own worst enemy and face book that i am using right now to reach out to you does far more damage to the sport than good. It allows people that will not discuss any hate or discontent they might have to hide behind the scenes and rant. These face book warriors are the reason that i have chosen to sell Cherry Raceway so for the record you are the reason short track racing is dying and there is no more Cherry Raceway. I am only talking about a small percent of people that call them selves race fans. For the most part we have made many friends and most of our trouble makers only showed up at the track once and a great while or maybe not at all but yet bashed on me and my family and Cherry Raceway. I watched them do it to the prior owner and thought we could come in and make a difference. No chance so in the end a small percent ruins it for all.
To my friends and supporters of mine and Cherry Raceway I want to set the record straight. Threw the sale of Cherry Raceway I never spoke to Mr Batzer only his attorney. This was the deal I was paid to stay on as a consultant for one year. I was paid to not compete or own a race track for five years with in 100 miles of Cherry Raceway. He was insistent on buying all of the inventory and equipment. He bought all the property and bought the business. Mr Batzers was made aware by his attorney that I would not sell if his intent was to close because we bought the track 6 years ago to keep it from closing. After the sale was complete and done now Mr Batzer says its closed. Now you all know the whole story, good luck in your future racing. All I can say to my friends and race fans is sorry it turned out this way. As for you face book warriors go ahead and take your last shots at me, my family and Cherry Raceway you win track is closed you can move on to your next track and destroy it I know you will."
Since he is based in that area I would guess that TJ had some idea of what had transpired on Facebook, at least I hope he did before writing his piece, but I have to think that it was Buffenbarger's line of "recently I have seen a movement of people that feel that nothing critical should ever been said about a race track, and that fans and teams (customers) should just be happy they exist" that looped me into the conversation in Iowastockcars.
First it was Johnny Oberthein (raceaholic) continuing his tired mantra stating that "blogs are usually where you go to hear that everything was just fine at a race event" that is aimed at myself and the other writers at Positively Racing and then it was Andrew Bieber (slidersideways) who brought me specifically into the conversation with the interesting conclusion that guys like me "are what ruin the sport."
First of all I have to take a moment to thank those who came to my defense in the thread as it was greatly appreciated especially after my emotions were worn thin after personally witnessing Christian McCaffrey and his Stanford teammates thrash my Hawkeyes at the Rose Bowl, not to mention how the Stanford band made fun of us! Seriously though, I had no idea what they were doing until the Iowa fans started booing, but I digress.
It was both frustrating and amusing to read and my first thought was to just let it pass, but since we are in the dead of the offseason I thought that I would go ahead and once again point out some common misconceptions about not only the Back Stretch, but Positively Racing as well. Plus, as those who actually read these words know, I'll make a few comments below that just might not be so "positive".
Let's be clear, I have never, ever, ever, never, not even remotely suggested that nothing critical should ever be said about a race track. Yes, my efforts are based upon the premise that if you don't have something nice to say, then don't say it, but that is for me and what I do here. Not once have I ever preached or dictated to someone that they should not say negative things about a race track, a promoter, a driver, a fan, a series, etc., etc. I would never dream of telling somebody that they cannot say something!
If you go back to January of 2009 and read Another New Racing Website....Why? you will see the reasons why Positively Racing was created and why it sill exists today. "The bottom line is this, we feel that the AWP's are detrimental to the sport and we hope that we can provide an alternative going forward"
"Alternative" is the key word there and in 2009 there was little to nothing out there to offset the crap that was being spewed by Anonymous Weasel Posters, or AWP's on the internet. Obviously our alternative has been quite successful, not only judged by the number of page hits that our writers are seeing on their individual blogs, but also by the statistics for the website and the number of followers that we have on our Facebook page where you will get notifications of new content as well as where you can find our library of photos.
As I reviewed my writing from 2009 it does strike me that there has been one big change in regard to the use of the internet since then and that is the fact that the "A" in AWP is no longer applicable in most cases. Back in 2009 most of the negativity came from people with anonymous screen names on forum boards several of which, interestingly enough, no longer exist. The fact that many people now use Facebook or Twitter is actually a good thing because when somebody expresses their thoughts on those platforms, good or bad, it is no longer anonymous. The commenter is now known and, as I describe in more detail in that 2009 blog entry, I can better decide whether to believe them or not.
Even on the forum boards more and more people either have identified themselves (Andrew Bieber puts his name and phone number in his signature) or it is just known who they are (everybody knows that raceaholic is Johnny Oberthein) and that is a good thing. Others though continue to find comfort in remaining anonymous such as plunks7 who says that I don't "tell people what they want to here", or hear for that matter, and that he would like to sit with me at a race "and trade what we saw and then post it or write it."
I'm going to look forward to that social experiment primarily so that I can at least take away the "A" from AWP with him going forward!
It was plunks himself who posted Buffenbarger's blog on Iowastockcars stating "This Writer Nails It" immediately crowning T.J. the new dark lord of the crowd that feels like they can make a positive change to something by bitching about it on social media. I doubt that it is a leadership role that he will embrace and his new followers will be disappointed to find that 99% of the stuff that he writes is positive and promotional. Just like somebody else that you might know.....
As I read the original piece I too agreed that a promoter should not use negative social media as a scapegoat for failure. But as I continued to read I could see that he was making the same assumptions that so many do when it comes to social media. It is a proven fact that a consumer is MUCH more likely to post a comment or a review when he or she has a negative experience than when they have a positive one. That fact alone means that even the best racing programs are more likely to receive complaints rather than compliments and in racing those complaints are often based on one specific incident that for one reason or another effected the complainer.
It is not a zero sum game when it comes to social media, so quit making that assumption!
T.J.'s blog was also shared on the 4m.net forums and after some discussion similar to what was on ISC, a gentleman whom I respect the opinion of very much, Kelly Carlton shared his thoughts.
"I think that there are some right and some wrong answers on this topic. This is one of my major discussion topics with promoters during my seminars.
First promoters SHOULD absolutely use social media to promote their events and their facility. Every time. Every event. Social media provides instant AND interactive information in today's world of instant gratification.
One of the points I promote is you have to have someone who is dedicated to do it and has the correct temperament to do it. Social media can be a double edged sword for sure. However if you use it properly for the most part you can avoid that. But it starts with you. You have to be willing to TRY to do all you can to make your facility and events great. You must be able to accept some criticism when it is warranted or you make a mistake. And you must be willing to admit it when you do make a mistake. I also think you should answer questions on your social media. You can also answer to unwarranted negative comments.
Let's face it. Some people want to complain because it is fun for them. Many times these people don't attend the facility they are slamming. They are just looking to create an argument for the sake of an argument. And to that end as race fans we do have a responsibility when we make a complaint. We should make sure that the complaint is valid first and foremost. Then we should make an attempt to address it respectfully. My phone number and email address is posted everywhere. If someone calls or emails me about an issue I respond. If it is something that needs to be corrected, I make every attempt to correct it. When an issue continually falls on deaf ears then it may need to be addressed in a public way.
Understand though that race promoters have a TON on their plate on a regular basis. Things that the average fan or driver may have no understanding of. Making any profit at all in race promoting can be a tough row to hoe, so things that cost money to rectify may come much slower. Items of safety, of course, should always take priority. But because you had a cold hamburger ONE night does NOT mean you should go and bash a track and its food. Sometimes it happens but as long as it doesn't happen consistently maybe you should cut those people a break.
Social media is a responsibility. It is a responsibility for both promoters as well as fans and teams that use it. There is power in words. Use your words wisely and intelligently. Be responsible. FANS: When something you complain about is better - let people know. If there is something consistently good about the place you go - let others know. PROMOTERS: If you get a complaint - address it / answer / fix it if you can. If you make a mistake - own it. Apologize or make it right if you can. Be transparent. Do nothing in the dark.
Yes bad promoting and management can lead to facilities failing. But misguided negativity can certainly contribute as well. Everyone just do your part."
Well said Kelly.
After letting it sit for a week, I had a nice conversation with Andrew Bieber via the Private Messages option on ISC and we found that we had attended the same event five times this year. We agreed that all five were pretty darn good nights of racing, not only as how I wrote them up but also how he had commented on them himself with his live updates on the forum. Andrew still says that I exaggerated some things in my stories, even though he would not point out any specific examples after being given the links, and he still maintains that my "positive" way of covering events sets the expectations too high in that when somebody goes to that track in the future and things don't go just right, that they will be disappointed and that is how I am ruining the sport. Well, if that line of thinking holds true, I have a lot of writers to track down who said that the Rose Bowl was going to be a good game!
Andrew likes to stir the pot, I get it, that's his thing, but I wrapped up our conversation reminding him that the best way to turn his young son, whom is so proud of, into a true "race fan" will be to point out the good things to him on a race night, not the the bad things. I am confident that Andrew will raise a true race fan!
When it comes to Johnny O I don't know how to say it any better than I already did here back in September and other than making it known that he didn't like to have me write about him "off forum" where he couldn't control and manipulate the conversation, he still makes the same argument that he provides "unbiased reporting of racing" while I, and other bloggers do not.
In 2015 I attended 66 race events and wrote 130 blogs. In the event stories, if you read carefully, you might find that a show started late, had too long of an intermission, had a rough track, a dusty track, a one grooved track or the show got over later than I might have thought it should. You also will find general blogs about how I hate having two B-Mains, qualifying formats that only prima donna drivers like, as well as other general suggestions that in my opinion would help the sport. Apparently Johnny, and anybody else who accuses me of never saying anything "negative" just don't actually read the Back Stretch?
I couldn't find a raceaholic event report from 2015 so you will have to look at those links from the September blog for his definition of unbiased reporting as a comparison. And as I have said before, thank you Johnny for all that you have done for the sport as an official, a promoter, a car owner, a sponsor and now a mentor to all of those who feel that making your complaints known on the internet will somehow make the sport better. But most of all Thank You for sending more readers to the Back Stretch!
And the sad conclusion to this story, whether it had anything to do with negative social media or not, is that a race track that was loved by many is gone forever.
Now to some actual racing news......
Compiling race schedules for our Calendar page at Positively Racing keeps me in the racing spirit this time of year and I noticed that on this week's Badger Midget schedule that the Friday night of the Yankee Dirt Classic, September 2nd is on the list. Midgets at Farley during the Yankee would be pretty cool, but I am surprised that this is the only place that I have seen it mentioned so far.
The 2016 edition of the Ice Bowl was run this past weekend at the Talladega Short Track despite the fact that a devastating fire took out the scoring tower, the announcer's stand and the VIP room just a week prior. The Ice Bowl has suffered from some "one groove" track conditions over the past few years, but video from this year's event showed that both a low and high line were in use throughout both the Super Late Model and the Crate Late Model main events. David Brannon of Elora, Tennessee, emerged from an early battle with track regular Tim Roszell and then held off Donald McIntosh to score the $6,000 Super Late Model win while William Thomas took the $3,000 win in the Nesmith Winter Series portion of the event. For many years as people suggested that the Ice Bowl should pay more in order to attract "bigger name" drivers I have maintained that promoter Lynn Phillips should stick with the theory of "if it's not broke, don't fix it", so this suggestion breaks away from that. Yes, the racing was good this year, but would it be even better if instead of qualifying and starting the fastest cars up front, the 2017 Ice Bowl used the passing points method of qualifying like they are using out in Tucson? Think of it, no prima donnas in attendance anyway so nobody to complain about it, but what a radical change that would be for a track in that region. If they did it, I would go!
Speaking of Tucson, the video that I have seen from Dirt On Dirt is showing that once again the racing action in the Late Model division has been fabulous. Issues with the scales after his qualifying heat bumped Jonathan Davenport into a B-Main during Saturday's opener and he raced his way all the way up to fifth in the feature that was won by Don O'Neal. Then on Sunday evening Davenport muscled his way past Jimmy Mars late to take the win. Will Superman win the remaining four events and take home a $100,000 bonus from Keyser Manufacturing? Racing continues tonight and you can watch it live on Pay Per View at Dirt On Dirt.
In the companion Modified action from Tucson Louisiana's Cade Dillard is two for two thus far while Iowa's Brad Dierks finished fourth in Sunday's main event.
The Chili Bowl kicked off its five night run in Tulsa on Tuesday and it was perhaps a bit of a surprise to find Pennsylvania's Alex Bright in victory lane. Bright made the finale at the Chili Bowl in 2014 and was one of three drivers to lock themselves in to Saturday's 55-lap main event from the first night of qualifying. Sprint Car star Joey Saldana surprised himself by running second and stating "I don't know how in the hell to drive these race cars" as he locked himself into the show for the first time. POWRi midget stalwart Zach Daum from Illinois finished third. Action continues the rest of the week and you can watch it live on Pay Per View at The Racin' Boys Broadcasting Network.
Monday, January 4, 2016
Racing Kicks Off First Weekend of 2016
Okay, enough with the "throw backs", let's get back to the present! My sons, Kyle, Morgan and I had a great trip to Pasadena that was interrupted by one terrible half of football, but we stayed in the beautiful Rose Bowl stadium to the very end and cheered for every positive thing that happened for the Hawks as did about 40,000 other fans who were dressed in black and gold. Sure we were disappointed with the outcome, but why let it ruin a great experience that only comes along every 25 years!
Believe it or not the first races of 2016 have already taken the checkered flag headlined by the Winter Heat Sprint Car Showdown at Cocopah Speedway in Arizona. This is the second year for the mid-winter event and the car count, and talent level, is once again strong in the desert. Pole-sitter Dale Blaney picked up the $12,000 win on January 1st with fellow front row starter Justin Henderson running second. Iowans Terry McCarl and Tasker Phillips also made the feature race from the 45 entries and finished 10th and 19th respectively. I also noted that Steve Kinser again made the trip southwest where he was the winner on one of the nights last January as "The King" finished 15th. Kyle Larson had a great night on Saturday as not only did the young NASCAR driver return to his roots in grand fashion by taking the win in round two, but the team that he is one of the owners of finished second with Shane Stewart behind the wheel. Defending Winter Heat champion Danny Lasoski finished in third while Blaney backed up his opening night win with a fourth-place run. McCarl was 9th and Kinser finished 14th. Winter Heat continues this Tuesday night, January 5th.
Last year Morgan and I caught the Saturday daytime action at the Tulsa Shootout and I was amazed at just how huge of an event this is for the Micro and Mini Sprint drivers. This year's Shootout wrapped up a four-day run on Saturday that saw 305 races being run for the 1,247 entries. Believe it or not, the IMCA Super Nationals is not dirt racing's biggest event! I'm sure that if I took the time to read through all of the results I could find a ton of interesting tidbits, but just looking through the A-Main finishes in each division I came up with these.
USAC star Brady Bacon was the winner of the headline Winged Outlaw division, his third win in the Shootout showing that you will definitely find future stars at this event. Ayrton Gennetten, the son of Steve and the grandson of the late Gene Gennetten, both fine Sprint Car drivers of the past finished in the third spot and he also qualified for the feature race in two other divisions. Joe B. Miller who is also driving the full sized winged Sprints now finished fourth. Tulsa's Chris Andrews who finished second to Bacon in the Winged Outlaws was the winner of the Non-Wing Outlaw division, also his third career win at the Shootout. Jason Friesen is listed in the 12th spot, perhaps the former Late Model star from Nebraska? In that feature USAC Sprint Car driver Tyler Courtney was disqualified "for endangering track officials and re-entering the track when told to stop." It didn't matter if the wing was on or off of the 1200 cc Mini Sprints as Chase Briscoe and Andy Baugh finished one-two in both divisions. And, judging by some of the names in the results, the ECOtec Midgets are the same that we see in action now at area tracks like 34 Raceway, East Moline and others with ASCS Sprint Car regular Blake Hahn taking the win. Click that link above and pick through the names, I'm sure that you will find someone you might know.
The Dirt Late Model season kicked off once again on New Year's Day with the 6th Annual running of the Hangover 40 at 411 Motor Speedway in Seymour, Tennessee, and while the large crowd on hand was missing the butt kicking that the Iowa Hawkeyes were taking from Christian McCaffrey and the rest of the Stanford Cardinal they were instead watching a butt-kicking by Dawsonville Goergia's Donald McIntosh. In repeating his victory from one year ago McIntosh lapped all the way up to the fifth-place finisher in the 40-lap event that drew a solid field of 41 Super Late Models. Jason Hiett, Ray Cook and Riley Hickman finished second, third and fourth respectively while Tommy Bailey rallied from 21st to fifth at the checkers in a race that was slowed by just one caution.
Many of these same drivers will pull to the Talladega Short Track this coming weekend for the annual Ice Bowl while many of Dirt Late Model racing's biggest names are headed to Tucson where the Wild West Shootout will take the green for the first of six races on Saturday night.
Short track pavement racing also has a traditional New Year's weekend event in the Red Eye 100 for Super Late Models at Florida's New Smyrna Speedway and this year's winner was young Cole Anderson of Northfield, Minnesota. A regular competitor at Elko Speedway and on the 2015 Big 8 Late Model Series, Anderson held off Georgia short track star Bubba Pollard and New England youngster Kaz Grala to take the win. In the companion Pro Late Model race it was former NASCAR Camping World Truck Series champion Mike Skinner taking the win with Anderson running second. USAC Sprint Car star Kevin Thomas Jr., who has a full-time ARCA ride in 2016, began his transition to pavement stock cars with a 15th place finish.
Finally for today, there have been a couple of blogs released over the past few days that take opposite views on the use of social media in racing and it makes me wonder if this one by T.J. Slideways, aka T.J. Buffenbarger led to this entry on the TheOrangeConeBlog. I am quite flattered actually that the Back Stretch was looped into this discussion on one of my favorite internet forums and even better that our efforts were defended by people who I greatly respect after they were ripped on by three whom I do not.
Enjoy your first full week of the New Year!
Believe it or not the first races of 2016 have already taken the checkered flag headlined by the Winter Heat Sprint Car Showdown at Cocopah Speedway in Arizona. This is the second year for the mid-winter event and the car count, and talent level, is once again strong in the desert. Pole-sitter Dale Blaney picked up the $12,000 win on January 1st with fellow front row starter Justin Henderson running second. Iowans Terry McCarl and Tasker Phillips also made the feature race from the 45 entries and finished 10th and 19th respectively. I also noted that Steve Kinser again made the trip southwest where he was the winner on one of the nights last January as "The King" finished 15th. Kyle Larson had a great night on Saturday as not only did the young NASCAR driver return to his roots in grand fashion by taking the win in round two, but the team that he is one of the owners of finished second with Shane Stewart behind the wheel. Defending Winter Heat champion Danny Lasoski finished in third while Blaney backed up his opening night win with a fourth-place run. McCarl was 9th and Kinser finished 14th. Winter Heat continues this Tuesday night, January 5th.
Last year Morgan and I caught the Saturday daytime action at the Tulsa Shootout and I was amazed at just how huge of an event this is for the Micro and Mini Sprint drivers. This year's Shootout wrapped up a four-day run on Saturday that saw 305 races being run for the 1,247 entries. Believe it or not, the IMCA Super Nationals is not dirt racing's biggest event! I'm sure that if I took the time to read through all of the results I could find a ton of interesting tidbits, but just looking through the A-Main finishes in each division I came up with these.
USAC star Brady Bacon was the winner of the headline Winged Outlaw division, his third win in the Shootout showing that you will definitely find future stars at this event. Ayrton Gennetten, the son of Steve and the grandson of the late Gene Gennetten, both fine Sprint Car drivers of the past finished in the third spot and he also qualified for the feature race in two other divisions. Joe B. Miller who is also driving the full sized winged Sprints now finished fourth. Tulsa's Chris Andrews who finished second to Bacon in the Winged Outlaws was the winner of the Non-Wing Outlaw division, also his third career win at the Shootout. Jason Friesen is listed in the 12th spot, perhaps the former Late Model star from Nebraska? In that feature USAC Sprint Car driver Tyler Courtney was disqualified "for endangering track officials and re-entering the track when told to stop." It didn't matter if the wing was on or off of the 1200 cc Mini Sprints as Chase Briscoe and Andy Baugh finished one-two in both divisions. And, judging by some of the names in the results, the ECOtec Midgets are the same that we see in action now at area tracks like 34 Raceway, East Moline and others with ASCS Sprint Car regular Blake Hahn taking the win. Click that link above and pick through the names, I'm sure that you will find someone you might know.
The Dirt Late Model season kicked off once again on New Year's Day with the 6th Annual running of the Hangover 40 at 411 Motor Speedway in Seymour, Tennessee, and while the large crowd on hand was missing the butt kicking that the Iowa Hawkeyes were taking from Christian McCaffrey and the rest of the Stanford Cardinal they were instead watching a butt-kicking by Dawsonville Goergia's Donald McIntosh. In repeating his victory from one year ago McIntosh lapped all the way up to the fifth-place finisher in the 40-lap event that drew a solid field of 41 Super Late Models. Jason Hiett, Ray Cook and Riley Hickman finished second, third and fourth respectively while Tommy Bailey rallied from 21st to fifth at the checkers in a race that was slowed by just one caution.
Many of these same drivers will pull to the Talladega Short Track this coming weekend for the annual Ice Bowl while many of Dirt Late Model racing's biggest names are headed to Tucson where the Wild West Shootout will take the green for the first of six races on Saturday night.
Short track pavement racing also has a traditional New Year's weekend event in the Red Eye 100 for Super Late Models at Florida's New Smyrna Speedway and this year's winner was young Cole Anderson of Northfield, Minnesota. A regular competitor at Elko Speedway and on the 2015 Big 8 Late Model Series, Anderson held off Georgia short track star Bubba Pollard and New England youngster Kaz Grala to take the win. In the companion Pro Late Model race it was former NASCAR Camping World Truck Series champion Mike Skinner taking the win with Anderson running second. USAC Sprint Car star Kevin Thomas Jr., who has a full-time ARCA ride in 2016, began his transition to pavement stock cars with a 15th place finish.
Finally for today, there have been a couple of blogs released over the past few days that take opposite views on the use of social media in racing and it makes me wonder if this one by T.J. Slideways, aka T.J. Buffenbarger led to this entry on the TheOrangeConeBlog. I am quite flattered actually that the Back Stretch was looped into this discussion on one of my favorite internet forums and even better that our efforts were defended by people who I greatly respect after they were ripped on by three whom I do not.
Enjoy your first full week of the New Year!
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