Not much in the notebook today as the news has slowed down to a trickle as we get to the Holidays. A few more tracks and the Dirt Kings Late Model Tour in Wisconsin released their schedules this past week and, while attending the Gateway Dirt Nationals last weekend, Brad and Jessi the new owners of 34 Raceway in Burlington updated their schedule with one notable change. The Deery Brothers Summer Series race for IMCA Late Models that was originally to be on March 31st along with the Sprint Invaders has now been switched to Tuesday July 3rd. The UMP Crate Late Models will now join the Invaders on that final Saturday in March.
The significance of this is that the date change announced last week would indicate that IMCA plans to forge ahead with the Summer Series in 2018 despite the rule changes that are being made at tracks that hosted seven of the twelve events contested this past season. There is a Deery date on the Marshalltown schedule as well so they have some work to do to continue one of, if not the longest running regional series in the country.
I have been entertained by the social media assessments of the event at the Dome last week. What has been particularly interesting is how some people who are usually very critical with their comments about events through the season are diversely different with this show, especially if they actually attended the event. It is almost as if they have to validate their attendance. Not sure yet what I would attribute that to other than perhaps promoter Cody Somer's savvy use of social media himself.
I am glad that I went back this year, but I am not going to jump up and down and tell you that it is a "must see" event as it is a show that just will not appeal to some fans. It is tight quarters, bullring bump and bang racing that will not only try the patience of some fans with the high number of cautions, but it can also be a challenge to officiate as well which can also frustrate both drivers and fans. Fortunately for two years in a row now, once they made it to the features those races ran off with what would be considered a normal number of cautions and the racing has been entertaining. You just have to hang in there to get to it. Next year's event has been moved up a bit to November 29th, 30th and December 1st and with it being not so close to Christmas I just might have to head back down to St. Louis for the most unique event in short track racing.
Those new dates will be added on the next update, but if you want to get a head start in planning your 2018 racing adventures check out the Calendar page at Positively Racing. The first draft already has more than 450 special events and I have expanded our coverage to include Ohio, Kentucky, Tennessee, Mississippi and Texas. This is being done on a trial basis, so if it makes things just a bit too busy let me know in the comments section on Facebook and I can always pull those shows out of the calendar and stick with what we have been doing for the past several years. A big thank you goes to the Webmistress, Sue McDaniel who I will continue to keep busy even during the offseason with calendar updates on at least a weekly basis. Couldn't do it without you Sue!
I see that Ricky Stenhouse and Danica Patrick have split up. This makes our IT Manager here at work very happy as at least he feels he still has a shot with her.
It is nice to see that Jason Welshan is getting some national recognition now. The driver from Tennessee has been a consistent winner for several years in regional competition running all of the different Late Model divisions that tracks in his area has to offer: Supers, Steel Blocks, Sportsman, Limited, Crates, etc. He first turned heads when he was the overall fastest qualifier at the Dome on Thursday night and he then benefited from the Rusty Schlenk/David Breazeale dust up to finish third in the first qualifying feature on Friday night. This made him one of the eight drivers to get a personalized introduction video produced for Saturday night and when he emerged from the tunnel carrying a sign asking "Scott Who?" he became an instant hero. Even the Bloomquist fans had to get a chuckle out of that one and for those of you who might want a t-shirt to remember that moment click here.
I haven't mentioned the Open Trailer Nationals for a couple of weeks now, so if your favorite driver tows to the track on an open hauler have them check out the Facebook page and send in their pictures. Once we get into the 2018 season we will start pushing harder to drum up interest and see if we can get enough of a ground swell to have a promoter step forward and put on the show. Hey, if you can run a race that doesn't allow Crate motors.......
That's it for today, but check back into the Back Stretch starting on December 26th as we will be updating the Cumulative All Iowa Points division by division on a daily basis until all nine have been released. Last year, through post shares and other social media conversation, the Stock Cars racked up more than 7,500 page views in just one week to lead the way. Will they be the most interested class again this year?
Have a Merry Christmas and thank you so much for stopping by!
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