So last week's Notebook post sort of went viral.....well at least as "viral" as any Back Stretch entry has before and I received several compliments at the track this past weekend. Kyle Ealy called it the most negative column that he had ever read, and coming from Kyle Ealy that was a compliment! This week though I just don't have that anger as I haven't had time to troll the idiots who might have been track bashing this past week, although I was told about one guy who was demanding results from an area track shortly after they had been completed on Facebook and when someone asked him why he didn't just go and pay his ten dollars his reply was that he would never go to the races there anyway. Begs the question then, so why would you need the results so bad?
The big announcement at 34 Raceway Saturday night was that the sale of the track to Brad Stevens and Jessi Mynatt is all but finalized and that the Laue, Parrish and Bowling families who have operated the facility for the past eleven years are happily retired. Brad and Jessi have been the driving force behind the annual Slocum 50 at 34 Raceway so they do have promotional experience and, as Brad mentioned after being introduced at the drivers' meeting, "you all like me now!" During her announcement Amy Laue cautioned everybody to give Brad and Jessi a few weeks to get settled in to their new roles before bombarding them with questions and suggestions, so there really is no new news to report and I will look forward to hearing their plans, but......
Just like I did when the Gobles took over the Quincy Raceways a few weeks ago, I will go ahead and throw out a few suggestions that may be right or wrong, they are simply based upon my opinion.
1. Cut back on the number of classes. At least three that were rotated in and out this year consistently drew less than ten competitors a night. Tell them now that they are not coming back in 2018 and it will give those drivers time to decide if they want to sell what they have now and race in one of the classes that will stay, or make plans to tow somewhere else next season.2. Contact Larry Kemp and ask him what he did several years ago to take the cupping out of the banking. Back in the 1980's the track had gotten to the point where the top groove was dominant just as it is now and Larry made changes during the offseason that brought the track back to life with two and three wide racing.
3. After doing #1 it should be easier to start your races later with hot laps at 7:00 and racing at 7:30. And, if you are really good at clicking off an efficient show, change that to 7:30 and 8:00 during July and August because it is just not economically feasible to move the grandstands to the back stretch so they are not facing the sun.
Otherwise I have to agree with the statement that Brad made on several occasions Saturday night, "if it ain't broke, don't fix it!"
Speaking of Quincy Raceways, Jason and Robert have weathered the early storm of social media controversy after announcing that the Late Models would not be included for at least the rest of this season, and the tide has turned positive after their first four nights of racing. Today on Facebook they posted this picture of the track's scoreboard that supposedly had been unusable this season due to assorted problems. Apparently the purchase of some new light bulbs did the trick, something that the new owners could swing now that the bottom line is looking better. Quincy races every Sunday through October 22nd!I had hoped to get up to the Davenport Speedway this past Friday night for their Iowa Governor's Cup event that paid $5,000 to Modified winner Justin Kay and $2,000 to Sport Mod winner Austen Becerra, but Christine had other plans for me. That event served as a spring board for both drivers as Kay then went to West Liberty on Saturday night and came from the back of a B-Main to win the 100-lap Deery Brothers Summer Series Late Model finale while Becerra made it a triple for the weekend by winning at 34 Raceway on Saturday and at Quincy on Sunday. In that Sport Mod feature at Davenport Friday you had Becerra, the 2014 All Iowa Points Four Cylinder Champion in first, Tyler Soppe the soon-to-be 2017 All Iowa Points Limited Modified Champion in second and Tony Olson the 2015 and 2016 All Iowa Points Limited Modified Champion in third. By the way, they are the top three in the current standings as well, plus the driver who is currently on top of the Illinois standings, Dustin Schram finished fifth.
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| Photo courtesy of D&M Photography and Design |
In an effort to stay away from the Facebook garbage last week I instead tuned into Dirt Late Model Live on Tuesday night from Dirt on Dirt and to Track Talk with The Racin' Boys on Saturday morning, two internet shows that you too should be checking out on a regular basis. This week the two tied together a bit as on Tuesday host Michael Rigsby was interviewing Late Model driver Chase Junghans about the World of Outlaws three-day swing through his home state of Kansas and asking him questions about how great that would be if he could get a win in his home state. After a bit it dawned on me that perhaps Rigsby was confused about the actual location of Saturday's show as it was to be run at the Salina Highbanks Speedway located in northeast Oklahoma and not at the Salina Speedway in Salina, Kansas. As you can guess, that is an easy mistake to make, but during an interview on the Racin' Boys Saturday morning I really got a chuckle as it became obvious that the "big time" Late Model crowd truly was making its first trip to that region in some time. WoO point leader Brandon Sheppard had won the Friday night opener of the tripleheader at the Lakeside Speedway near Kansas City and Kirk Elliott asked him if he had ever been to the Salina Higbanks before. Sheppard said that no, he had not, but that he had been watching video of the USAC Midgets there and that it looked like a really fast place. Chances are pretty good that B-Shepp was watching video from the Belleville Highbanks since the midgets don't go to Salina, but at least somebody on the crew of the Rocket House car knew where to go on Saturday since Sheppard won again at the Salina (Oklahoma) Highbanks and then swept the weekend by winning at the 81 Speedway near Wichita.
Perhaps some of my Wisconsin readers can shed more light on this, but I am seeing once again that this past Saturday's race at the Oshkosh Speedzone might have been the last ever there. I say "once again" since I recall that being said as well last year and with just a brief look at what's going on now it appears that the current promoters made a bid to lease the speedway again in 2018 that was turned down by the county. Until it is transformed into a pond with houses built on it like Hawkeye Raceway "last ever" might not be an accurate description and I do hope that there will be racing there in the future as The Zone has been on my "to do" list for several years now. I am still looking for results from that "last ever" show this past Saturday night as the Fall Classic included Asphalt Late Models on the dirt, something very unique.
When a track does close down it always seems to make everybody start lamenting about how the sport is steadily dying, but the statistics doesn't seem to support that at least when it comes to the number of race tracks in operation. Take Wisconsin for example where The Hill Raceway in Sturgeon Bay came back to life this year, The Outagamie Speedway picked up where the Seymour Speedway left off and TNT Speedway reopened in August after sitting idle for some time. Now, as the future of Oshkosh is uncertain, I see that Gravity Park USA in Chilton will have oval track racing on October 6th and 7th so if you hear some news this offseason that a track near you might not run in 2018, don't think that it is the end of the world. Just yet at least....Oh yeah, and I love this guy!
Knowing just how much I love the format, you might be surprised to learn that I am headed to Modified Mania at the Tri-City Speedway on Thursday night before returning to the Scotland County Speedway on Friday for the opening night of the Jerry Barrickman Memorial. Weather is looking good so get on out to a race in your area this weekend!
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