Just a short notebook this week as not really too much went on over the past seven days. Well, in short track racing at least.
The Deery schedule was released right on cue last Friday and, outside of the race at LaSalle now being part of the schedule, the rest was pretty much as expected, although at least one of those shows was in doubt right up until the last day. Now we wait for the Hawkeye Dirt Tour schedule from IMCA and clarification as to just how The Dirt Knights will be involved in 2018. Two tracks, Vinton and Park Jefferson currently show "Dirt Knights" events on their schedules as if they are in conjunction with the HDT.
I really enjoy watching the current version of Dirt Knights that chronicles a group of six drivers as they compete on last year's IMCA Dakota Modified Tour. Part of that tour included a trip into Canada for a race that Corey Dripps missed because he had to take care of motor issues, but in this week's episode Corey slyly admitted that wasn't the real reason that he did not make the border crossing. "Let's just say that I had a fun childhood," said Dripps who is one of the show's producers. I had the pleasure of getting to know Corey as he earned the first ever NKF Tour Modified Championship in 1998 and let's just say that he was still a lot of fun to be around as a young adult! You can catch the Dirt Knights on MavTV.
An appearance by the USMTS during the fair and Terry McCarl's two nights of Sprint Car action with the Front Row Challenge is all that is on the schedule as of now at Oskaloosa and down in Bloomfield it looks like the Shottenkirk.com Sprint Invader show during the David County Fair might be the only race night on the 3/8th-mile oval. In east central Iowa there is no news out of West Liberty at this point, but just up the road in Tipton there are now eight nights of racing on the schedule.
Did you take a look at the results from the opening weekend of the 2018 Winter Nationals at East Bay where the Modifieds took center stage? The Florida drivers stood up and defended their home turf in the finale after Wisconsin's Kevin Adams and North Carolina's Kyle Strickler won preliminary features. With the big money up for grabs on Saturday it was Mark Whitener in victory lane, one of five Floridians in the top ten. Now granted, Whitener, Bryan Bernhardt, Mavrick Varnadore, and Kyle Bronson all likely race more in the Late Model division these days, but still it caught my eye to see that many "FLs" in the results. In all there were fifteen Sunshine State drivers in Saturday's main event.
Florida/Georgia Speedweeks swings into full gear tonight with racing action in one form or another all the way from now until the Daytona 500 on the 18th. And I just reminded myself on my way home from work that in just ten more years I will be there for all of it!!
Stay warm!
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