Wednesday Notebook: September 20, 2017

This will be a notebook entry where I will probably wish that I had just torn out the page rather than typing it into the Back Stretch as I will likely make at least a few people mad. Now, if you happen to be one of those, I want you to keep in mind that this is coming from a grumpy old man who, after having to be put under anesthesia twice over a three day period last week, was not only grumpier than usual but had more time to read through all the stuff out there on race forums and Facebook. Stuff that he would usually ignore because it more often than not just makes him mad, so with that in mind just remember that these are my opinions only. Are they right? At this point in time I think that they are, but unlike some others I am more than happy to listen to an intelligent counterpoint and I have been known to soften my stance and sometimes even change my mind, a trait that more people in this country need to have right now. So without further ado......

As I mentioned in my story from Friday night, I should not have traveled ninety miles each way to go to Knoxville. My head was pounding, I was dizzy at times and I vowed that I would never again leave the house for a race thinking that I would actually feel better once I got there. But even with all that going on I still enjoyed the racing because it is absolutely the best format there is if you are a fan that wants to see action from the drop of the green in heat one to the final checkered flag of the night. I won't go through the whole explanation other than this. Under a point system that is used at both the Sprint Car and Late Model Nationals drivers need to post fast qualifying times, then with an eight car invert they must pass cars in their heat to advance to the feature and then race hard for every spot in the feature to gain those valuable points as well, In other words, no pulling off if you are running 20th mid-race because those two points that you gain by getting to 19th might be the difference in making Saturday's main event.

This format is polar opposite to most big time Super Late Model races where you go out and set a quick qualifying time to start on the front of your heat race where an easy win then lands you on the pole of the feature which is why, when you read the race summary at the majority of these events, you will see that the winner went "flag to flag" like it was some kind of big accomplishment.

During Friday's B-Main a last lap skirmish for the final transfer position went to young Texan Tyler Erb after he successfully blocked Hall of Famer Billy Moyer who ended up in the fence in turn three. I don't fault Erb for making his car extra wide on that final lap and I am guessing that at some point over his brilliant career Moyer has had to do the same and that is why it was no more than a snippet in the Notes section of Friday's Back Stretch. Then I see this conversation that Shane Walters of Racing News had with Tyler Erb. It is a discussion of the Friday night incident with Moyer, but to frame it Erb puts himself in to my list of "I'm Fast Start Me Up Front" whiners by stating "We qualified good, but then the invert penalizes you for the most part. Everybody's the same speed and it's really hard to make up any points. You just get buried in the heat race."

Well of course this sent me to the results from both Thursday and Friday night to see just how this driver compared with others who were racing under the same format. On Thursday Erb qualified fourth in his group meaning that he would start seventh in his heat race where he then finished seventh. Just a reminder, the six cars lined up in front of him all posted slower qualifying times. How did some of the other drivers do in their heat races that night? Jonathan Davenport, Don O'Neal and Mike Marlar all started eighth and won! Josh Richards won his heat from sixth, Jimmy Owens came from eighth to second, Jared Landers advanced from seventh to the third and final transfer spot from his heat race and young Hudson O'Neal in his first ever race at the historic half-mile started sixth and finished second.

On Friday night Tyler Erb qualified eighth in his group putting him in the sixth starting spot in his heat race. Where did he finish? Sixth. Did everybody else pretty much finish where they had to start under that "penalizing" invert? Nope. Marlar and Richards won from eighth, Darrell Lanigan almost crashed in a three-wide scuffle early, but still won his heat from seventh. Second-place finishers Rodney Sanders, Jimmy Mars and Tim McCreadie all started sixth while Chris Simpson did them one better coming from seventh. Brandon Sheppard won his heat from fifth and that Hudson O'Neal kid came from fourth to win his heat. I have a few more examples, but I think you get the point. If you are going to complain about an invert penalizing you, maybe you should check to see if you were perhaps one of the few that couldn't race your way forward on either night. Then again this is a driver who races with a series that, with straight up starts in heat races, he is used to finishing where he started just as he did here at Knoxville on Thursday and Friday night.

Despite another successful event, Knoxville is getting all kinds of "suggestions" from the internet experts as to how to improve the show, so I am going to add one as well. With the car counts down into the fifties do away with the Group A & B qualifying with then six heat races and do it just like the Sprints where the drivers all qualify together and only one driver earns that valuable 200 points in qualifying. Then run your normal five heat races, each with an eight car invert, where the top four move on to the feature, the next four to the B-Main, etc. This way drivers like Tyler Erb who was actually ninth fastest overall on Thursday and 19th on the overall qualifying charts for Friday might actually appreciate the invert rather than consider it a penalty. Plus, when Marlar, Davenport, Richards, Landers, Simpson, Owens, McCreadie, the O'Neals and others go blowing by him maybe he will realize that he needs to step up his game a bit rather than complaining about the format to some blogger.

If you check out more of the Racing News coverage of Knoxville you will see another story where Jason Feger questions the track preparation leading me to think that Shane Walters needs to hang out with some happy drivers from time to time as well.

Who can I piss off next? How about my friends at the Lee County Speedway in Donnellson who this past weekend held a meeting to discuss the possibilities of having an Outlaw Hobby Stock class next year. Why? Because reportedly they have had several drivers show an interest, some of them who still apparently have cars sitting around from when the class was dropped due to low car counts a few years back. Okay, so this is not a knock on the class itself, but simply the concept of adding yet another racing division period. First of all there is already a Hobby Stock class of cars in the area, so adding another rules version will just spread things out even further because we don't have just Late Models, Modifieds, Sport Modifieds, Stock Cars and Four Cylinders right now in the region. We have six divisions of Late Models (Open/UMP, IMCA, Crate, Darlington Limited, USRA Limited and WISSOTA), we have IMCA, USRA, WISSOTA and UMP Modifieds, we have B-Modifieds, Sport Mods, E-Mods and Midwest Mods, we have Sport Compacts and "Outlaw" Four Cylinders not to mention Trucks, Mod Lites, Mini Mods and the assortment of Sprint Car and midget classes. At least the differences in the USRA and IMCA Stock Cars are minimal enough that drivers can run both, but do you see where I am going with this? If you don't, a friend of mine on Facebook David Schlise made a comment this weekend that sums it up pretty well. "we need another class like we need a hole in the head" and that was in regard to whomever is out there pushing this thing right now.

I haven't heard how the meeting went but the first question that I would have would be can you define "several"? When the track had their meeting a couple of years ago to discuss the new Crate Late Model class there were 18 to 20 drivers who showed an interest with some having old cars still in their possession. We are still waiting for about ten of those to make their first appearance so if you have thirty-five or forty drivers who are saying that they want to have the Outlaw Hobby Stocks back then by all means move forward. But if that number is in the ten to twenty range, as history shows that is not "several" enough to add another division unless the plan is to drop one of the five classes that you already have. Oh yeah, and if you want the Crate Late Model class to grow, try using a lineup format similar to your other classes rather than the draw/redraw.

Remember, just the opinions of an over anesthetized grumpy old man! I think that Tyler Erb is one the most exciting young drivers to watch on the national Late Model scene and that the Lee County Speedway is one of the five best tracks that I have ever been to anywhere and that I am lucky to have it within twenty-five miles from home. Perhaps that is why I am holding both to a higher standard.

Next up?

Promoters, if you are shutting down your season early, or getting out of the business completely, don't go on social media and point the blame at the drama on social media as being the reason for your decision! Why? Because it only creates more drama on social media!

We get it, you work your ass off to put on a show, you have officials who make decisions that in every case are going to have someone that is going to feel like they were jobbed, Mother Nature throws a monkey wrench into things, you have lost money and all you see are people snipping at this or that so you decide that you are done. Just walk away from it, there is no need to write a missive about how social media is killing racing, its been done and all that you are going to get are a bunch of people who apparently feel that you just can't take some "constructive criticism". Because you see, that is all there really is out there, just some well informed people with nothing but good intentions who want to point out to you how you can improve your track and your racing program so that not only themselves, but the many others who should value their thoughts can benefit by attending your track after you make the changes that they suggest. And that Mr. Promoter is why they provide their feedback on a forum board, through Twitter or on Facebook rather than speaking to you personally about these issues.

Some recent valuable feedback recently found on Facebook.....

Maybe its time to be done promoting the speedway. This right here shows that you are not in it for the racers or the fans - Posted after the promoters of the Quad City Speedway announced that after the final scheduled race of the season had been completed that they would not be having any September races that they had been considering.

You need to run the Super Late Models through September. I still have three punches on my card - Posted by a driver after the new owners at Quincy announced that they were dropping the division due to a car count that had dwindled to five at the last show. That driver was not one of the five by the way.

and what happened to 24 car guarantee for each feature not one race had 24 cars in it friday - Posted as the Shelby County Speedway announced that Saturday's portion of the Tiny Lund Memorial had been rained out. The only thing that I can think of is that a flyer for the event must have been put out there at some point showing the payout for the feature race in each class and that somehow this individual took that as the track guaranteeing that they would have at least 24 cars in every class.

And these were just three that stood out the most to me of all of the smart, intelligent feedback provided as "constructive criticism" to the promoters of their choice. Please....

Please, please, please as a reader of the Back Stretch, please do not be one of these people. I'd like to think that I attract a better class of crowd.

So now let's get to some good stuff!

Jason and Robert Goble have definitely spiffed up the Quincy Raceways in the few short weeks that they have had ownership and that was obvious as soon as I pulled into the facility for Sunday night's race for the Shottenkirk.com Sprint Invaders. Not only have they removed some old buildings, they have painted the ones that remain, but what made the biggest impression on me was the track preparation. Dash winner John Schulz was quick to point out that he had been to Quincy several times in the past, but on this night the track was in the best shape that he had ever seen it and the comment prompted a big round of applause from the crowd. Drivers in all divisions were able to race from the bottom to the top from the heat races all the way through the features and amazingly even with the winged sprints on hand there was little if any dust.

Jon Agan came from the sixth starting spot to take the win setting up a battle with Jamie Ball for the Sprint Invader championship this coming Saturday night at 34 Raceway near Burlington. And don't forget that the Quincy Raceways will be racing every Sunday night through October 22nd so make sure that you get down there at least once to see what's going on with the new owners.

Now back to feeling near 100% I am hoping to take advantage of this hot early Fall weather and get to at least two races this weekend. One of course will be on Saturday night with the Sprint Invaders as 34 Raceway closes out its 2017 campaign then, on Sunday evening, the Bill Waite Jr. Memorial at the LaSalle Speedway has my attention with the unique combination of Open Late Model, IRA Sprints and Badger Midgets. In addition I have convinced my wife that she needs to host one last pool party for her friends on Friday afternoon since it is supposed to be 90 degrees with my hope being that she will then release me to go racing that night as well where I will need to choose from several solid options.

Take advantage of this warm weather and attend a race of your choice this weekend and, if you have an idea that you think might make a future race there even better, introduce yourself to the promoter, shake his or her hand and let them know in person because that is really the only way that you have a chance for them to make that change.

See you on the Back Stretch!