It is only fitting that on "Deuces Wild" night, the prelude to tonight's Grant Junghans Memorial at the Lakeside Speedway in Kansas City, there were two first-time winners with the USMTS as the pits filled on a beautiful night for racing. Sixty-two USMTS Modifieds pulled in for Thursday's tune up and promoter Todd Staley is confident that the count will exceed one hundred for the big show that will pay $10,002 to the winner, but on this night there were two 25-lap main events with each paying $1,500-to-win.
Dereck Ramirez moved to the point as the first feature took the green and he would pace the field until lap four when Terry Phillips slowed on the back stretch. Once the caution waved Phillips darted to the pits hoping to return to action, but his issue was a broken left front and not a flat tire. On the restart Ricky Thornton Jr., who had started fifth, was now in position to challenge and he would take the lead as lap six was scored. Thornton would stretch it out a bit until Johnny Scott moved to second and lap by lap Scott would inch ever closer to the leader.
The fast groove was around the top side and with just five laps to go Scott had closed to within six car-lengths, but he was not getting any closer. However as Thornton closed in on a lone lapped car he decided to use the low line through turns three and four and Scott was thrilled with that decision. As the white flag waved Scott flew around Thornton down the front stretch and would lead him through turns one and two. Knowing that he had just given away the point, Thornton resolved himself to take it back and he drove deep into turn three, sliding up in front of Scott into turn four. Johnny turned left off the cushion and got back under Ricky, but it would be Thornton who would win the drag race to the checkers to score his first career feature win with the USMTS.
Scott would settle for second while Austin Seibert trailed in third, Stormy Scott joined his brother in the top-five finishing fourth while Travis Saurer was impressive in fifth. The Elizabeth, Minnesota, driver competes in two Modified divisions in his home state and has had more success in the limited Midwest Mods than the headline division.
The second 25-lapper got off to a rough start when the fifth-starting Trevor Latham got crossed up on the back stretch and the ensuing pile up eliminated at least four cars. After the clean up Lakeside regulars Lance Town and Aaron Marrant would bring the field back to green with Marrant racing out to the lead. Defending World of Outlaws Late Model champion Shane Clanton quickly moved to second in his Junghans Racing Shop Quik #25 and gave chase, but he was not making up any ground on Marrant who has thirteen feature wins to his credit this season, six in his Modified and seven in a ULMA Late Model.
The caution waved on lap fourteen when the lapped car of Kevin Guinn got into the turn three wall and the fourth-place car of Jake Gallardo avoided disaster when he clipped Guinn with his right rear, but was able to continue with cosmetic damage.
On the restart Jason Hughes replaced Clanton in second, but not even the former USMTS champion could keep pace with Marrant who pulled away over the closing laps to make his first series win a convincing one. Hughes finished in second, Chase Junghans slipped by his teammate for the weekend Clanton late to finish third while Lucas Schott closed out the top five.
Forty-seven USRA B-Mods and eighteen Stock Cars were also in action on the night with the B-Mods going fifteen laps for a $500 winners check. Pole-sitter Dakota Foster assumed the lead at the drop of the green and when his rear deck lid flew off on lap two that necessitated the first caution. More hood pin issues struck a contender on the restart when the hood peeled up on the third-place car of Gene Claxton and with his vision competely obscured Claxton used the next two laps to find his way down into the infield. Defending USRA B-Mod National Champion Andy Bryant was on the move after starting eighth and he quickly moved to second, but Foster would maintain his advantage until the white flag was set to wave.
Apparently Foster was not paying attention to what had happened earlier with Ricky Thornton as he too left the cushion in turns three and four and that allowed Bryant to drive by on the outside and he would drive away from Foster on the final lap to secure the win. J.C. Morton who had started fifteenth made a late charge to finish behind Foster in third while a pair of #17's, Jake Richards and Shadren Turner completed the top five.
The Stock Car feature might have been decided on lap two when Kevin Anderson spun in turn two while running third and he required a tow truck to return him to the pits. Anderson, you see, had driven from the back to the front to win his heat race and appeared to be the class of the field quickly going from sixth to third before the incident. With him now out of the mix there would be nobody who would be able to catch Trevor Hunt who went flag-to-flag for the win with Chad Walker running second.
Deuces Wild Notes......The Modified field was stout from top to bottom and it will only get stronger tonight as the count swells with drivers who are not so much here to race for the big money, but instead to honor a friend who was lost much too soon to cancer.....A big thanks to friend and superfan Gary Lee who saved a prime seat for me and he had the new term of the night when he pointed out that Tommy Weder Jr.'s car had been "Bloomerized" in reference to the fact that Scott Bloomquist had driven it three weeks ago during the USRA Fall Nationals at the Mississippi Thunder Speedway. The car definitely had a distinct look to it and with it being gray and black in color you could almost refer to it as the Batmobile.....With the two feature races only fourteen cars closed out the night as "non-qualifiers" and one of them was the new pairing of R.C. Whitwell and Gressel Racing. Whitwell was just not fast enough this night as he faded back to tenth in the first B-Main missing the show by two positions......If the announcer happens to read this today, you do a great job! But keep in mind that the people in the grandstands cannot hear you at all when cars are on the front stretch, so forget about pleasing the online viewers so much and time your introductions and the summary of the finish so that the paying fans can actually hear you. After all, you should have a packed house tonight.....Passing points determined the qualifiers in all divisions tonight and we all now how much Shane Clanton enjoys passing points, but when he charged from sixth to win the third heat race he was comfortably locked into the field. Johnny Scott made the biggest move in the six heats though coming from eleventh to second in the second heat and he was closing fast on the winner Weder......Chad Lyle was doing double duty in the two Modified divisions, but that was topped by Stock Car winner Trevor Hunt who raced in all three classes.....It was great to catch up briefly with the Staley family, Todd, Janet, Ryne and Logan and it made me realize just how long it has been that I have been at a USMTS show. The series has been cursed by weather this year and there were two nights where I had planned to join them only to have Mother Nature intervene. On this night though the weather was close to perfect and, for tonight, it is even supposed to be a bit warmer.....It was also good to see series publicist Jeff Nun as well as Trenton Berry with RacinDirt.com who will have live pay-per-view coverage of tonight's show.
While I would love to stay for tonight, I do have an 11 a.m. kickoff in Iowa City to see on Saturday and there is a pretty darn good show closer to home as well with the opener of the Bottom Heavy Nationals at the Scotland County Speedway in Memphis, Missouri. Perhaps I'll see you there!
Friday, September 30, 2016
Wednesday, September 28, 2016
Wednesday Notebook: September 28, 2016
I always find it interesting to see the stories that you all like to read here on the Back Stretch. When I cover big races like the Knoxville Nationals or the World 100 I see plenty of page views in my stats, but nothing like what I am seeing for the post that you will find next in line here, the race story from last Friday night's show in Eldon. I guess that it shouldn't be a surprise to me, after all it was a great night of racing culminating in a photo finish on a night when no other track in Iowa was able to race and that is why it has rocketed up to fourth on the list of "most read" entries and will likely make the pass for third this week.
Photographer Carroll Hoover has a knack for catching close finishes and following is the picture that he posted to the Positively Racing Facebook page last weekend from that finish in Eldon. As you can see it was a close call, one that all three scorers had the same and, if you really enjoy a game of "Where's Waldo" you can even find me in the photo.
This time it looks like it is official, the half-mile oval at the Iowa State Fair Speedway has seen its last race as the Fair will move ahead with building a permanent stage in front of the big ampitheater. There is talk of eventually constructing a short track somewhere else on the facility, but I don't see that happening anytime soon. I hope that I am wrong. It will be ineresting to see what happens next in regard to other tracks in the area as they consider the best way to welcome in the drivers who are looking for a new place to race. Obviously Marshalltown has shown an interest in adding the Late Model division as they have run the class the past two seasons after Des Moines finished its season in late July. The track in Stuart is looking at the possibility of moving to Friday night and I have to wonder if the Southern Iowa fair board has even thought about moving Oskaloosa from its traditional Wednesday dates to Friday.
It will also be interesting to see what becomes of both the Trucks and the Racesaver Sprints as they have to be hoping that somebody nearby will pick them up in 2017.
The other big news this week, other than the debate of course, is the parting of the ways between Ryan Gustin and Gressel racing. The combo enjoyed some great success over the past several years scoring some big wins in both the Modified and the Late Model, but will be most remembered for the charge from the back to the front at the Silver Dollar Nationals a few years back. That performance, that did not end in victory, vaulted Gustin to the status of "the next big thing" in the world of dir late model racing, an expectation that perhaps was too much for the team to live up to. Don't get me wrong, they were still very successful, but the bar had been set so high.
Trenton Berry's RacinDirt.com has the story on the new driver for Team Gressel, R.C. Whitwell who will make his debut this weekend at the Grant Junghans Memorial at the Lakeside Speedway in Kansas City. And you can bet that it won't be long before Gustin is back on track and in victory lane as well.
I am hoping to be there for Whitwell's debut on Thursday night before catching the opening night of the Heavy Nationals at the Scotland County Speedway in Memphis, Missouri, on Friday. The rest of my weekend will focus on some other sporting activities that I will tell you about next week.
If I read the two stories correctly it looks like Eric Spangler, the UMP Late Model driver from Lake City, Michigan, won the feature at the South Buxton Speedway in Merlin, Ontario, on Saturday night and then towed all the way to the Quincy Raceways on Sunday night to compete in the season championship race there where he finished fourth. Now that is what I call a commitment to chasing National points!!
The weather for most of the Midwest looks like it will be great this weekend, so get on out and enjoy a show near you!
Photographer Carroll Hoover has a knack for catching close finishes and following is the picture that he posted to the Positively Racing Facebook page last weekend from that finish in Eldon. As you can see it was a close call, one that all three scorers had the same and, if you really enjoy a game of "Where's Waldo" you can even find me in the photo.
This time it looks like it is official, the half-mile oval at the Iowa State Fair Speedway has seen its last race as the Fair will move ahead with building a permanent stage in front of the big ampitheater. There is talk of eventually constructing a short track somewhere else on the facility, but I don't see that happening anytime soon. I hope that I am wrong. It will be ineresting to see what happens next in regard to other tracks in the area as they consider the best way to welcome in the drivers who are looking for a new place to race. Obviously Marshalltown has shown an interest in adding the Late Model division as they have run the class the past two seasons after Des Moines finished its season in late July. The track in Stuart is looking at the possibility of moving to Friday night and I have to wonder if the Southern Iowa fair board has even thought about moving Oskaloosa from its traditional Wednesday dates to Friday.
It will also be interesting to see what becomes of both the Trucks and the Racesaver Sprints as they have to be hoping that somebody nearby will pick them up in 2017.
The other big news this week, other than the debate of course, is the parting of the ways between Ryan Gustin and Gressel racing. The combo enjoyed some great success over the past several years scoring some big wins in both the Modified and the Late Model, but will be most remembered for the charge from the back to the front at the Silver Dollar Nationals a few years back. That performance, that did not end in victory, vaulted Gustin to the status of "the next big thing" in the world of dir late model racing, an expectation that perhaps was too much for the team to live up to. Don't get me wrong, they were still very successful, but the bar had been set so high.
Trenton Berry's RacinDirt.com has the story on the new driver for Team Gressel, R.C. Whitwell who will make his debut this weekend at the Grant Junghans Memorial at the Lakeside Speedway in Kansas City. And you can bet that it won't be long before Gustin is back on track and in victory lane as well.
I am hoping to be there for Whitwell's debut on Thursday night before catching the opening night of the Heavy Nationals at the Scotland County Speedway in Memphis, Missouri, on Friday. The rest of my weekend will focus on some other sporting activities that I will tell you about next week.
If I read the two stories correctly it looks like Eric Spangler, the UMP Late Model driver from Lake City, Michigan, won the feature at the South Buxton Speedway in Merlin, Ontario, on Saturday night and then towed all the way to the Quincy Raceways on Sunday night to compete in the season championship race there where he finished fourth. Now that is what I call a commitment to chasing National points!!
The weather for most of the Midwest looks like it will be great this weekend, so get on out and enjoy a show near you!
Friday, September 23, 2016
Hanford By A Nose; Hughes Doubles Up at Eldon
It has been a few years since the Modified division has been on the schedule at the Eldon Raceway, but with the support of several area sponsors the class was added to Friday night's card and they definitely stole the show with a photo finish at the checkers.
With a car count bolstered by the morning cancellation at Webster City and the mid-afternoon postponement at West Liberty, eighteen drivers signed in and it was one of those drivers that had originally planned to race elsewhere this night, Bruce Hanford who started from the pole position in the 16-lap main event. The veteran driver out of Davenport would grab the early lead with pressure from Colt Mather before the only caution of the race waved when Brandon Banks slowed around the high side on lap five.
Nick Roberts had started the race in tenth and on the restart he drove around Mather and third-running Kyle Brown like they were standing still to take second and by lap seven the young Des Moines area driver was making a run at the leader. As Hanford rode the cushion, Roberts worked the low line around the "Super Half-Mile" and while Roberts would be in the lead in the middle of the turns, the momentum off the top side would vault Hanford back to the front down the straightaways.
The two contenders would race the next five laps in this fashion until Roberts pulled ahead by a car-length to officially lead the race on lap thirteen. Hanford was not about to give in though and when he found just a little more bite on the cushion Bruce was able to regain the lead on the following lap as the green flag waved indicating two to go. Roberts now moved up to the leader's favored line and tracked him to the white flag before again diving low in turn one. They would race off of turn two side-by-side before Hanford again eased ahead down the back stretch, but he now had a big decision to make as the leaders were closing fast on Terry Doud who was running up on the cushion entering turn three.
Hanford hedged his bets by going to the middle while Roberts surprisingly first went to the top in turn three. Since he didn't see his challenger to his inside, Hanford then went back to the cushion in turn four while Roberts drove to the inside. As they raced wheel-to-wheel toward the checkers Hanford had no choice but to cut down the track to avoid running over Doud and the three cars crossed the finish line in tight formation. From my angle, which was about ten yards ahead of the finish line, it looked like Roberts might have won by inches, but the people who count, and the people who are looking directly across the stripe had Hanford by a nose in a finish that I am told was confirmed by a photographer who was shooting the finish.
As one of my four NKF Modified Tour champions, and one of my favorite people in racing, I was thrilled for Bruce and his wife Carol as they celebrated in victory lane and I was very impressed with Nick Roberts who was the first to greet the winner with a hand shake followed by a big hug. As I talked with Bruce at least three people stopped by and told him that it was the best race that they have seen in years.
An early race contender, Colt Mather took home the third spot followed up by Kyle Brown in fourth and another impressive run for young Dugan Thye in fifth. Brown dodged a penalty earlier in the night when officials did not see his slidejob that had gone wrong stuffing North Dakota driver Justin Medler into the turn four wall on the final lap of the heat race.
Turn two was definitely calamity corner during the first lap in three of the other four feature races.
Stock Cars were first up on the night and an opening lap skirmish triggered by a spinning John Hemsted gathered up five cars and set the tone for a 16-lap race that took nearly thirty minutes to complete. Mike Hughes led the entire distance from his pole position start and survived four restarts to take a convincing win. The battle for second was definitely entertaining with drivers going three-wide late in the race before Donovan Nunnikhoven went for a spin out of that pack and collected Travis Bunnell. In the end it was Greg Gill who was the runner-up with Dan Gordon, who himself had spun earlier in the race but avoided penalty when the other car stopped as he scrambled through the infield finished in third, Tyler Picket made the tow down from Boxholm to take fourth while Brad Egbert was fifth.
Front row starters Casey Lancaster and Andrew Burk made contact on the opening lap of the 15-lap Sport Mod feature turning Lancaster sideways and when Brandon Dale tried to scoot under him, contact with Dale's right rear straightened out Lancaster, but turned Dale hard right in turn two where Burk then t-boned him. Once that was cleaned up Carter VanDenBerg now found himself on the front row and he would lead the opening lap before Curtis Van Der Wal blew by on lap two. It was all over but the shouting from there as Van Der Wal drove out to a big lead and cruised the rest of the way to the checkers. VanDenBerg would hold onto second racing through heavy traffic in the closing laps as this division went 23 cars strong tonight. Colton Livezy finished third, Jason McDaniel was fourth and Brayton Carter filled out the top five. Erik Laudenschlager, the 2016 Track Champion at the Nodak Speedway in Minot, North Dakota, finished in the seventh spot.
Doing double duty, the only race of the four that Mike Hughes did not draw the front row for tonight was the Hobby Stock feature where he started sixth and he narrowly avoided the turn two calamity when pole-sitter Christian Huffman slid sideways on the opening lap. Kelsie Spilman drilled Huffman ending the night for both drivers and on the restart the new pole-sitter Danny Thrasher grabbed the lead. P.J. Veenstra spun in two four as the opening lap was scored and on this restart Hughes cruised past Thrsaher for a lead that he would not relinquish scoring his second feature win of the night. Nick Ulin was the runner-up, Aaron Martin went third, Thrasher was fourth and Scott Shull filled out the top five.
The Sport Compacts had no trouble negotiating turn two on the opening lap of their 12-lap main event as third-starting Barry Taft raced to the lead. The event was slowed twice, first by debris on lap six and then on lap ten when Kyle Bond dumped Kirk Hopkins in, you guessed it, turn two and on both restarts Taft would drive away to eventually secure the win. Darin Smith and Trent Orwig chased him in for second and third, Brandon Housley came from the sixth row to place fourth while Chuck Fullenkamp completed the top five.
Eric Knapp, a new name to me at least, hot lapped a sharp looking "Lee County" Late Model car #57 tonight, but on his second time out the motor let go on him.
This was my third trip to Eldon this year and the hard working crew definitely made it a clean sweep in my eyes for 2016 with another very entertaining race program. Thanks to announcer Jeff Kropf for the Positively Racing mention, not only for myself, but also for Brian Neal who was also assisting in the tower tonight.
Hard to believe that on September 23rd I was sitting in the stands with shorts and a t-shirt on and something tells me that it will be the last time that I can pull that off in 2016, unless of course I am able to make it to West Liberty on Saturday for the second half of the twinbill for the Liberty 100. We'll have to see what my pretty lady has in mind......
With a car count bolstered by the morning cancellation at Webster City and the mid-afternoon postponement at West Liberty, eighteen drivers signed in and it was one of those drivers that had originally planned to race elsewhere this night, Bruce Hanford who started from the pole position in the 16-lap main event. The veteran driver out of Davenport would grab the early lead with pressure from Colt Mather before the only caution of the race waved when Brandon Banks slowed around the high side on lap five.
Nick Roberts had started the race in tenth and on the restart he drove around Mather and third-running Kyle Brown like they were standing still to take second and by lap seven the young Des Moines area driver was making a run at the leader. As Hanford rode the cushion, Roberts worked the low line around the "Super Half-Mile" and while Roberts would be in the lead in the middle of the turns, the momentum off the top side would vault Hanford back to the front down the straightaways.
The two contenders would race the next five laps in this fashion until Roberts pulled ahead by a car-length to officially lead the race on lap thirteen. Hanford was not about to give in though and when he found just a little more bite on the cushion Bruce was able to regain the lead on the following lap as the green flag waved indicating two to go. Roberts now moved up to the leader's favored line and tracked him to the white flag before again diving low in turn one. They would race off of turn two side-by-side before Hanford again eased ahead down the back stretch, but he now had a big decision to make as the leaders were closing fast on Terry Doud who was running up on the cushion entering turn three.
Hanford hedged his bets by going to the middle while Roberts surprisingly first went to the top in turn three. Since he didn't see his challenger to his inside, Hanford then went back to the cushion in turn four while Roberts drove to the inside. As they raced wheel-to-wheel toward the checkers Hanford had no choice but to cut down the track to avoid running over Doud and the three cars crossed the finish line in tight formation. From my angle, which was about ten yards ahead of the finish line, it looked like Roberts might have won by inches, but the people who count, and the people who are looking directly across the stripe had Hanford by a nose in a finish that I am told was confirmed by a photographer who was shooting the finish.
As one of my four NKF Modified Tour champions, and one of my favorite people in racing, I was thrilled for Bruce and his wife Carol as they celebrated in victory lane and I was very impressed with Nick Roberts who was the first to greet the winner with a hand shake followed by a big hug. As I talked with Bruce at least three people stopped by and told him that it was the best race that they have seen in years.
An early race contender, Colt Mather took home the third spot followed up by Kyle Brown in fourth and another impressive run for young Dugan Thye in fifth. Brown dodged a penalty earlier in the night when officials did not see his slidejob that had gone wrong stuffing North Dakota driver Justin Medler into the turn four wall on the final lap of the heat race.
Turn two was definitely calamity corner during the first lap in three of the other four feature races.
Stock Cars were first up on the night and an opening lap skirmish triggered by a spinning John Hemsted gathered up five cars and set the tone for a 16-lap race that took nearly thirty minutes to complete. Mike Hughes led the entire distance from his pole position start and survived four restarts to take a convincing win. The battle for second was definitely entertaining with drivers going three-wide late in the race before Donovan Nunnikhoven went for a spin out of that pack and collected Travis Bunnell. In the end it was Greg Gill who was the runner-up with Dan Gordon, who himself had spun earlier in the race but avoided penalty when the other car stopped as he scrambled through the infield finished in third, Tyler Picket made the tow down from Boxholm to take fourth while Brad Egbert was fifth.
Front row starters Casey Lancaster and Andrew Burk made contact on the opening lap of the 15-lap Sport Mod feature turning Lancaster sideways and when Brandon Dale tried to scoot under him, contact with Dale's right rear straightened out Lancaster, but turned Dale hard right in turn two where Burk then t-boned him. Once that was cleaned up Carter VanDenBerg now found himself on the front row and he would lead the opening lap before Curtis Van Der Wal blew by on lap two. It was all over but the shouting from there as Van Der Wal drove out to a big lead and cruised the rest of the way to the checkers. VanDenBerg would hold onto second racing through heavy traffic in the closing laps as this division went 23 cars strong tonight. Colton Livezy finished third, Jason McDaniel was fourth and Brayton Carter filled out the top five. Erik Laudenschlager, the 2016 Track Champion at the Nodak Speedway in Minot, North Dakota, finished in the seventh spot.
Doing double duty, the only race of the four that Mike Hughes did not draw the front row for tonight was the Hobby Stock feature where he started sixth and he narrowly avoided the turn two calamity when pole-sitter Christian Huffman slid sideways on the opening lap. Kelsie Spilman drilled Huffman ending the night for both drivers and on the restart the new pole-sitter Danny Thrasher grabbed the lead. P.J. Veenstra spun in two four as the opening lap was scored and on this restart Hughes cruised past Thrsaher for a lead that he would not relinquish scoring his second feature win of the night. Nick Ulin was the runner-up, Aaron Martin went third, Thrasher was fourth and Scott Shull filled out the top five.
The Sport Compacts had no trouble negotiating turn two on the opening lap of their 12-lap main event as third-starting Barry Taft raced to the lead. The event was slowed twice, first by debris on lap six and then on lap ten when Kyle Bond dumped Kirk Hopkins in, you guessed it, turn two and on both restarts Taft would drive away to eventually secure the win. Darin Smith and Trent Orwig chased him in for second and third, Brandon Housley came from the sixth row to place fourth while Chuck Fullenkamp completed the top five.
Eric Knapp, a new name to me at least, hot lapped a sharp looking "Lee County" Late Model car #57 tonight, but on his second time out the motor let go on him.
This was my third trip to Eldon this year and the hard working crew definitely made it a clean sweep in my eyes for 2016 with another very entertaining race program. Thanks to announcer Jeff Kropf for the Positively Racing mention, not only for myself, but also for Brian Neal who was also assisting in the tower tonight.
Hard to believe that on September 23rd I was sitting in the stands with shorts and a t-shirt on and something tells me that it will be the last time that I can pull that off in 2016, unless of course I am able to make it to West Liberty on Saturday for the second half of the twinbill for the Liberty 100. We'll have to see what my pretty lady has in mind......
Tuesday, September 20, 2016
Tuesday Notebook: September 20, 2016
The last few days of summer and we have yet to have a dip in temperatures like we normally do this time of year. In fact, with highs in the 80's and even over 90 in my hometown yesterday, it is hard to believe that the 2016 racing season is winding down quickly now and it looks like the special events coming up this weekend will be run in summer like conditions.
The weather was absolutely perfect this past Saturday night as the Shottenkirk.com Sprint Invaders closed out their season at 34 Raceway in Burlington and, after the 25-lap main event, there were two excited young drivers doing donuts on the front straightaway. Jarrod Schneiderman was strong all night and even though he had to fight a stuck throttle over the closing laps "Jed" was able to win his first career Sprint Invaders feature and close out a strong season as the runner-up in the series point standings.
The other celebrant was 19-year-old Chris Martin who had charged from sixth to second during the race and made one strong run at Schneiderman in the closing laps as he wrapped up the Sprint Invaders championship for 2016. Those two, along with the rest of the Invader regulars will celebrate a great season during the banquet on November 5th in Burlington.
Martin's run to the front was not without incident though as when he challenged Tyler Groenendyk for second on lap 18, Groenendyk was forced up and over the cushion making contact with the wall in turn four. Perhaps the fastest car on the track at the checkers was the winner's older brother as Josh Schneiderman had charged from twelfth to third and he was closing on Martin at the checkers. Needless to say it was a happy family in the Schneiderman pits afterward and father Bart was beaming with pride as we shared a conversation during the annual post-race potluck.
The great weather helped draw out a nice crowd for the track's season finale and there were more than twenty cars each in both the Mod Lites and the Four Cylinder divisions as well. The Mod Lites had a few more cautions than usual, and even a red flag causing their feature to run long as the first of four main events to be contested on the night. Mike Morrill seldom loses at 34 and when he drew the pole for the feature I thought this would be a race for second, but Delaware native Ty Short chased him down and passed Morrill for the lead mid-race. The variety of cautions kept it close and in the closing laps Morrill came back to take the lead, and the win from Short whose car seemed to go away from him.
Several of the top Four Cylinder drivers in the area were looking for the extra money that was up for grabs on this night and it was Brad Chandler who scored the win with some help from Bill Whalen Jr. When I asked him where his car was earlier in the night, Whalen told me that the engine and several of the parts on Chandler's car #3c were his and that he was just a pit man tonight. Track champion Ron Kibbe chased Chandler in for second.
Jeff Mallonee scored the win in the IMRA Midget main event, a race that Burlington's Dave "Beef" Anderson said would be the final one of his career and he took one last slow lap around his hometown track following the checkers before heading to the pits.
It was great way to close out the season at what is essentially my "home" track and promoters Jeff and Amy Laue have already released a schedule for 2017 that shows a 34 Raceway logo on every Saturday night from March 25th through October 7th, save for August 12th that will be an off night during the Knoxville Nationals. The details will be added later, but one event is set and that is the 9th Annual Slocum 50 that will be held on Saturday April 15th.
Moving on to other things......Last Thursday I joined in on a very interesting, and civil conversation on Facebook where a driver that I respect very much had asked the question what makes a Fall Special "special"? I don't know if it was his intent or not, but the comments had now focused on entry fees, tow money and purses overall for such events and of course the common theme was "I hate Entry Fees". Well of course you do! That's like asking people if they like dentists, but if you want your teeth to be taken care of you have to go see one once in awhile. So I pointed out that without the Entry Fees the overall purse would not be as high and I asked whether the drivers would prefer to have less money on top of the purse so that they would not have to pay the entry fee and, given the theme of the conversation, I was not surprised that nearly all of them said yes. The true test of course would be to actually run one of the Fall specials in that manner and see if that holds true or not, but I don't think that we will see that any time soon.
The other question that I asked was "do drivers believe that a promoter should make a profit on running an event?" Again it came as no surprise that not one single person answered that direct question, but from comments that you will see day in and day out on social media and internet forums it sure seems like most feel that they shouldn't. That is until a track somewhere closes and then the attitudes change really fast.
My first recollection of special events with Entry Fees was back when Dale Danielski and Doug Scheckler formed the United States Modified Series (USMS) where a standard event paid $2,000-to-win and $200-to-start. Since Modified drivers at the time were used to racing for $300 or $400 to win at weekly shows those big numbers definitely caught their eyes and nobody seemed to mind that the cost of the Entry Fee and a Pit Pass well exceeded the $75 that would be paid out to the non-qualifiers. Would their shows have drawn the same interest if they would have dropped the Entry Fee and paid $1,000-to-win and $75-to-start? Probably not, so the true question now is would more drivers actually support a show that paid less to win if it would cost them less to get in? Have we truly gotten to a point where drivers have evolved to where they consider how they will come out financially just to start the feature rather than what it pays to run first, second or third?
If we have, then I want someone to hire me, at least as a consultant, to implement some ideas where it would cost both drivers and fans less to go to the races and put our sport back to the affordable alternative to all of those other entertainment options that are out there that are regularly cited as pulling people away from the sport.
I guess I will see if anybody actually reads the Back Stretch or not, because that was basically me saying that I am open for hire :)
I know one thing, I will NOT be tracking state points for ten different states again in 2017! It was fun for awhile, then became a chore through the heart of the season as I somehow kept up, and now as the season winds down I am still tempted to try it again next year, but I am going to convince myself to know better. It will be back down to the base two, Iowa and Missouri next year along with the National Dirt Late Model points as long as Dirt On Dirt continues to make it so easy. Once this season ends in each state that I did track this year, look for the full final rundown here for this one time and one time only!
It was nice to again see a not so familiar face, at least when it comes to Dirt Late Model crown jewel events, in victory lane at Knoxville Saturday night as Mike Marlar held off Scott Bloomquist to score the win. I believe that one of the announcers said on Thursday night after Marlar had set quick time that the reason that his car was an unfamiliar color of yellow and white was that it had actually been prepared for Frank Heckenast Jr. to drive, but that he decided to stick with one of his other cars instead. Marlar has been fast at Knoxville before so I was not surprised to see him score the $40,000 win. The win moves him up a few spots in the Back Stretch National Dirt Late Model standings this week as a third-place run by Bobby Pierce allows him to inch ever closer to this year's big three. The top 100 or so are listed below.
My wife asked me this morning what I was doing this weekend which means that she is exploring the social possibilities for us. Depending upon what she comes up with I might be at Eldon on Friday, West Liberty on Saturday or Quincy on Sunday. Come on sweetheart, at least one race this weekend!
Hope to see you on the Back Stretch!
The weather was absolutely perfect this past Saturday night as the Shottenkirk.com Sprint Invaders closed out their season at 34 Raceway in Burlington and, after the 25-lap main event, there were two excited young drivers doing donuts on the front straightaway. Jarrod Schneiderman was strong all night and even though he had to fight a stuck throttle over the closing laps "Jed" was able to win his first career Sprint Invaders feature and close out a strong season as the runner-up in the series point standings.
The other celebrant was 19-year-old Chris Martin who had charged from sixth to second during the race and made one strong run at Schneiderman in the closing laps as he wrapped up the Sprint Invaders championship for 2016. Those two, along with the rest of the Invader regulars will celebrate a great season during the banquet on November 5th in Burlington.
Martin's run to the front was not without incident though as when he challenged Tyler Groenendyk for second on lap 18, Groenendyk was forced up and over the cushion making contact with the wall in turn four. Perhaps the fastest car on the track at the checkers was the winner's older brother as Josh Schneiderman had charged from twelfth to third and he was closing on Martin at the checkers. Needless to say it was a happy family in the Schneiderman pits afterward and father Bart was beaming with pride as we shared a conversation during the annual post-race potluck.
The great weather helped draw out a nice crowd for the track's season finale and there were more than twenty cars each in both the Mod Lites and the Four Cylinder divisions as well. The Mod Lites had a few more cautions than usual, and even a red flag causing their feature to run long as the first of four main events to be contested on the night. Mike Morrill seldom loses at 34 and when he drew the pole for the feature I thought this would be a race for second, but Delaware native Ty Short chased him down and passed Morrill for the lead mid-race. The variety of cautions kept it close and in the closing laps Morrill came back to take the lead, and the win from Short whose car seemed to go away from him.
Several of the top Four Cylinder drivers in the area were looking for the extra money that was up for grabs on this night and it was Brad Chandler who scored the win with some help from Bill Whalen Jr. When I asked him where his car was earlier in the night, Whalen told me that the engine and several of the parts on Chandler's car #3c were his and that he was just a pit man tonight. Track champion Ron Kibbe chased Chandler in for second.
Jeff Mallonee scored the win in the IMRA Midget main event, a race that Burlington's Dave "Beef" Anderson said would be the final one of his career and he took one last slow lap around his hometown track following the checkers before heading to the pits.
It was great way to close out the season at what is essentially my "home" track and promoters Jeff and Amy Laue have already released a schedule for 2017 that shows a 34 Raceway logo on every Saturday night from March 25th through October 7th, save for August 12th that will be an off night during the Knoxville Nationals. The details will be added later, but one event is set and that is the 9th Annual Slocum 50 that will be held on Saturday April 15th.
Moving on to other things......Last Thursday I joined in on a very interesting, and civil conversation on Facebook where a driver that I respect very much had asked the question what makes a Fall Special "special"? I don't know if it was his intent or not, but the comments had now focused on entry fees, tow money and purses overall for such events and of course the common theme was "I hate Entry Fees". Well of course you do! That's like asking people if they like dentists, but if you want your teeth to be taken care of you have to go see one once in awhile. So I pointed out that without the Entry Fees the overall purse would not be as high and I asked whether the drivers would prefer to have less money on top of the purse so that they would not have to pay the entry fee and, given the theme of the conversation, I was not surprised that nearly all of them said yes. The true test of course would be to actually run one of the Fall specials in that manner and see if that holds true or not, but I don't think that we will see that any time soon.
The other question that I asked was "do drivers believe that a promoter should make a profit on running an event?" Again it came as no surprise that not one single person answered that direct question, but from comments that you will see day in and day out on social media and internet forums it sure seems like most feel that they shouldn't. That is until a track somewhere closes and then the attitudes change really fast.
My first recollection of special events with Entry Fees was back when Dale Danielski and Doug Scheckler formed the United States Modified Series (USMS) where a standard event paid $2,000-to-win and $200-to-start. Since Modified drivers at the time were used to racing for $300 or $400 to win at weekly shows those big numbers definitely caught their eyes and nobody seemed to mind that the cost of the Entry Fee and a Pit Pass well exceeded the $75 that would be paid out to the non-qualifiers. Would their shows have drawn the same interest if they would have dropped the Entry Fee and paid $1,000-to-win and $75-to-start? Probably not, so the true question now is would more drivers actually support a show that paid less to win if it would cost them less to get in? Have we truly gotten to a point where drivers have evolved to where they consider how they will come out financially just to start the feature rather than what it pays to run first, second or third?
If we have, then I want someone to hire me, at least as a consultant, to implement some ideas where it would cost both drivers and fans less to go to the races and put our sport back to the affordable alternative to all of those other entertainment options that are out there that are regularly cited as pulling people away from the sport.
I guess I will see if anybody actually reads the Back Stretch or not, because that was basically me saying that I am open for hire :)
I know one thing, I will NOT be tracking state points for ten different states again in 2017! It was fun for awhile, then became a chore through the heart of the season as I somehow kept up, and now as the season winds down I am still tempted to try it again next year, but I am going to convince myself to know better. It will be back down to the base two, Iowa and Missouri next year along with the National Dirt Late Model points as long as Dirt On Dirt continues to make it so easy. Once this season ends in each state that I did track this year, look for the full final rundown here for this one time and one time only!
It was nice to again see a not so familiar face, at least when it comes to Dirt Late Model crown jewel events, in victory lane at Knoxville Saturday night as Mike Marlar held off Scott Bloomquist to score the win. I believe that one of the announcers said on Thursday night after Marlar had set quick time that the reason that his car was an unfamiliar color of yellow and white was that it had actually been prepared for Frank Heckenast Jr. to drive, but that he decided to stick with one of his other cars instead. Marlar has been fast at Knoxville before so I was not surprised to see him score the $40,000 win. The win moves him up a few spots in the Back Stretch National Dirt Late Model standings this week as a third-place run by Bobby Pierce allows him to inch ever closer to this year's big three. The top 100 or so are listed below.
My wife asked me this morning what I was doing this weekend which means that she is exploring the social possibilities for us. Depending upon what she comes up with I might be at Eldon on Friday, West Liberty on Saturday or Quincy on Sunday. Come on sweetheart, at least one race this weekend!
Hope to see you on the Back Stretch!
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