Tonight's season opener at the Southern Iowa Speedway in Oskaloosa has been postponed to next Wednesday night due to the morning rains and the threat of more to come this afternoon and evening.
I was the co-promoter of the Shiverfest event held in late October at the Lee County Speedway in Donnellson for twelve years and I was reminded this weekend why I am thankful that I am no longer involved in promoting. Sure, when the weather was nice it was a lot of fun and I made a few dollars along the way, but when the weather threatened there was a lot of stress involved and if the show was still able to be run I would usually lose those few dollars that I had made before. To make matters worse though was all of the second guessing that you would get, no matter what decisions were made, by people who, granted, individually did have something at stake. Were they going to burn up a tank of gas or not to make the trip? Might they not be able to make it for a Sunday rain date? Would the pits be muddy or the track be rough causing them issues? I understood that the decisions we were making might keep somebody from being able to attend, or to compete, and it might cost somebody an extra twenty, fifty, maybe even a hundred bucks for an event that we all knew would have been better had if it had been able to be run under sunny skies and warm conditions.
The frustrating factor for me though was how those people never seemed to be able to take a step back and consider whether or not the decisions that were being made were actually for the good of "most" rather than just considering themselves.
Promoters are often accused of being greedy, but you will never hear that from me. On at least three occasions we made the decision to run the event under less than ideal conditions KNOWING that we would lose money, because as an annual event that also raised money for the local dialysis units we knew that if we didn't have it this year that it would be more difficult to maintain the momentum that we had with the sponsors, drivers and fans who were also willing to make the commitment to participating each year.
Let me tell you this, nothing is more disheartening than to go to all of the work involved in promoting and presenting an event where you lose money only to then have the Monday morning quarterbacks of the world then suggest on the internet all of the things that you should have done differently. I decided that I didn't need it anymore so I walked away, and as I mentioned earlier that decision was reaffirmed this past weekend when I watched the entire situation with the Slocum 50 unfold all the way from the Monday before the event, when the weather forecast gave little hope to it even happening, to still today where some people continue to stoke the flames. The funny thing to me though is that those who I see that are still commenting today weren't even at the event!
More than two thousand people were in attendance Saturday night and most of them went home thoroughly entertained. Yes, they would have liked to have seen more cars, but the race itself was entertaining and had all the star power that anyone should expect for an open late model race at a facility in Iowa other than Knoxville. And hopefully the fact that there were two thousand or more happy people leaving 34 Raceway and the Slocum 50 Saturday night, it will be enough motivation for those who poured their hearts into the promotion of this event to do it again next year and not, like me, walk away.
So making the relatively safe assumption that there will be a 10th Annual Slocum 50 in 2018, where does the Slocum Foundation go from here? When I step back from the situation I completely understand what the MARS series did this past weekend. They were looking out for their drivers all of which had to make at least a five hour pull up to Iowa and they made the call that was best for them. After all they need the support of those drivers for the rest of the season. I do question though if they considered that this was a $10,555-to-win show and the circumstances that surround it. I would think that this is the sort of signature event that a regional tour would want to keep their hands on. You can bet that a true commitment to the event will be part of the conversation when Brad Stevens talks with other series about 2018.
My choice would be to have it as part of the MLRA schedule. I know that the series was disappointed to lose a $10,000-to-win show from their 2017 schedule when the new owner at the Mid-America Speedway reversed course and closed up shop in January so they would likely welcome a high paying event, plus they get up this direction a couple of times already so a driver who commits to running the series already knows the trip. Since the series is sponsored by Lucas Oil, it would be my guess that the Lucas Oil Speedway would work with the Slocum 50 so that its two-day show would not be on the same weekend which was one of the contributing factors to the lower car count this year in the first place. As I was thinking about this on Sunday the only draw back that I could think of would be that the big name drivers would not like the MLRA's race format where they draw for heats and then use passing points for the feature. However, after reading Ed Reichert's report from Friday's MLRA show, I see that this is, sadly, no longer a concern.
I would vote for keeping the Corn Belt Clash involved as well since they already co-sanction some events with the MLRA and do have a few drivers who follow the entire CBC schedule, all of whom were on hand Saturday night. Or, perhaps the show can go it alone as a UMP sanctioned event and they could use any fees that would usually go to a series to bump the start pay up to $1,000. After all, as you could tell from Saturday's roster, the names that you would expect to see for a $10,000+ top prize were there, but with that comes the double-edged sword where drivers who feel that they will have a tough time cracking the top ten against such a stout field will not attend. The four figure guarantee just to start will help to alleviate that.
For me, and for many others though it doesn't matter what they do, I will be there to support it again.
As I usually do at this point of the week I will now tell you the events that I have on my upcoming schedule and, as I mentioned last week, that doesn't mean that I wouldn't want to be at any other number of races going on in the week ahead. I share this info with you to encourage you to attend these events and, if not the same ones that I am going to, I always hope that you go to the tracks of your choice. That is why I just never understand why some people on race forums, Twitter, Facebook or other forms of social media seem to take such great pride in telling people where they will not, or did not go and why. Seems rather narcissistic to me.
Thursday night I hope to get my first "new track" in for the season with a visit to "The Cage" at the Atchison County Raceway in northeast Kansas for the United States Modified Touring Series show. USMTS president Todd Staley described it like this today on his Facebook page. (Sorry about the format change below, that is what I get for copying and pasting from Facebook and being too computer illiterate to fix it!)
"This track is the smallest track on the USMTS schedule and provides the most excitement and really is a grueling track to race on. You are plum wore out after a fifty lap race on this track as there is so much action happening all the time. For people that say it is to small to race on Daniel Hilsabeck came from 21st last year and got 3rd so there is plenty of room for racing action. One thing we hear all the time in the series is I can't race with these guys and their million dollar budgets well here is a perfect race that has nothing to do with money and more about talent of driving on a small racy track. In 2016 we had a ten lap race that took one minute and 30 seconds to run. You cannot even walk to the bathroom and use the facility and be back in time to catch one lap lol. Last year 25 mods checked in for the racing action and all cars started the main event so this year we hope to see more in attendance and really give this place a shot. Joe Duvall told me he would rather race 3 nights here than go to those big old half miles. So make your plans now to come be part of the cage match this Thursday night at Atchison County Raceway in Atchison, KS you will not be disappointed."
Friday night, if the schedule works out, I will be filling in for Tony Paris on the microphone for week number two of the regular season at the Lee County Speedway in Donnellson and then, after sitting Saturday night out for another commitment, I have a choice to make for Sunday. Do I try to pull off a "double" by heading up to Rockford for the annual Spring Classic during the afternoon before making the trip to the Dubuque Fairgrounds Speedway for the Deery Brothers Summer Series that night? The amount of alcohol consumed at Saturday's "commitment" may be the deciding factor!
A few years ago as Pay Per View was coming onto the scene one of their selling points to promoters was that the online exposure would result in more people actually attending their events in the future. I would be interested in seeing statistics on how that is working out.
Defending UMP Modified National Champion Mike Harrison is well on his way to adding another crown to his collection as he won his sixth feature race of the young season at the Tri-City Speedway on Friday night and then made it seven for seven on Saturday at the Fayette County Speedway in Brownstown, Illinois.
As Harrsion's streak continued another one came to an end on Saturday as Tim Hancock Sr. was a DNF in the UMP B-Modified main event at the Macon Speedway. In 2016 Hancock won each and every feature race in the division at the quarter-mile bullring. Cody Stilwell was the new face in victory lane.
After chasing Mike Harrison on Friday night, Josh Harris of Utica, Kentucky, traveled north to the Peoria Speedway where he collected the $2,064 top prize at the Gary Cook Jr. Memorial.
I know that I have some Back Stretch followers who also enjoy the sport of basketball. The top high school recruit for 2017 is Michael Porter Jr. who has signed with the University of Missouri. Porter's mother is Lisa Becker Porter who is originally from Atkins, Iowa, and is the daughter of long-time racer and promoter Arlo Becker. The 6'10" Porter is already being projected as the number one pick in the 2018 NBA Draft.
The current leader in the All Time All Iowa Points for Limited Modifieds Tony Dunker has announced that he will hang up his helmet at the end of the 2017 season. Steve Eighinger of the Quincy Herald Whig has this fine story on "The Black Hat".
Offset the narcissists and take a friend to the races this weekend. Maybe even introduce them to the Back Stretch!
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