The weather forecast for this coming weekend has already claimed one victim as the 50th Anniversary Celebration at the Boone Speedway has been postponed until sometime in July.
The Thaw Brawl at the LaSalle Speedway will use a unique method to set the starting lineup for the Late Model feature on Friday and Saturday night as the heat race winners will be brought on stage and then, using a decibel meter, the driver getting the loudest cheers will be given the pole position. Second loudest will start second, and so on. Should be interesting to see how this plays out, especially if the car count requires six heat races.
I loved working with Terry Hoenig on special events at the Lee County Speedway over the years as he would always try to put an entertaining spin on the redraw. One night we brought the twelve Late Model qualifiers to the stage and as each of them drew a number they had to give it to a driver who did not yet have one. So if you drew the pole, you had to choose who you wanted to start there and the same could be said for the twelve. It was great entertainment for the crowd, much better than the current pizza method where the numbers are unknown until the end, and it gave the drivers the opportunity to essentially handicap the race themselves. But alas, the hottest driver at the time was given the twelve by one of his competitors and we were given a good butt chewing by him afterward. Unfortunately we never did that type of redraw again, but hopefully somebody else will.
There was some racing in the region this past weekend and, besides my story from Saturday's show in Memphis, here are some other items that were of interest to me at least.
Modified driver Tyler Stephens of Searcy, Arkansas, scored his second four-figure feature win already in 2017 by winning the $2,000 top prize at the Crawford County Speedway in Van Buren, Arkansas, Saturday night. Stephens was also the winner at Plumerville, Arkansas, back on February 26th.
The I-35 Speedway in Winston, Missouri, kicked off its regular season Saturday night with Jesse Sobbing winning the Modified main event. The USRA sanctioned track often pulls in travelers looking for national points both early and late in the season and this weekend's visitor was Medford, Wisconsin's Paul Niznik who finished fourth in the Modified feature.
After winning over sixty features in 2016, Harlan's Mike Nichols got off to a good start at matching that amazing number by winning both of the Stock Car features at the Mike Chapin Memorial Spring Opener at the Junction Motor Speedway in Nebraska this weekend. Two more drivers also completed the weekend sweep; Jarred Hackler in the Sport Mods and Roy Armstrong in the Hobby Stocks. For a report on Sunday's racing at Junction check out Ed Reichert's "One Fan's Travels".
Add Keokuk's Brandon Savage to the Crate Late Model roster at the Lee County Speedway and perhaps Quincy as well during the 2017 season. Savage unveiled a picture of the sharp looking #47s on Facebook today.
The story that I posted last Friday in regard to new strategies that some tracks in the region are taking when it comes to scheduling has had good readership, plus it has brought the "raceaholic" back out of the woodwork on the Iowastockcars forum, so you can either love me or hate me for that. Even though the story offers up no opinions or speculation on whether or not the strategies will work, he has now posted four long responses as to why they won't and the best part is.......nobody is disagreeing with him so he has nobody to argue with.
Yes, the weather forecast for the weekend does look like it will be a challenge, but it is still Tuesday and we have seen how things can change. I am hoping to go to Donnellson or LaSalle on Friday night and then down to Moberly on Sunday afternoon weather permitting. And, if it does not permit, the NCAA tournament is a pretty darn good back up plan.
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