Two notebook entries in one week is a bit out of the ordinary, but in about a one hour period just before lunch today there were several changes made to the racing schedule for not only this coming weekend, but in the week ahead as well.
The first one that I saw was the cancellation of the Inaugural Memphis Shootout that had been scheduled for this Friday and Saturday at the Scotland County Speedway in Memphis, Missouri. Pictures from the facility showed standing water from overnight rains and in the original post I noticed that it ended with the words "Stay tuned."
Soon after that came the announcement that the IMCA Frostbusters that were scheduled for next Wednesday through Saturday would be pushed back a week due to a still cold and perhaps wet forecast in the next seven days. So now the Frostbusters will start on Wednesday April 11th at the Lee County Speedway in Donnellson, move to Vinton on Thursday the 12th and then close out the weekend at Marshalltown on Friday and Boone on Saturday.
Shortly after that the Scotland County Speedway followed up by announcing that the Inaugural Memphis Shootout was now rescheduled for next weekend, April 6th and 7th.
Other changes that we came across this morning:
The USAC Sprint Cars at Lawrenceburg Speedway in Indiana this Saturday have been canceled
The Kentucky Blue Grass Bash at Paducah International Raceway has been postponed with a new date yet to be determined.
The Inaugural B-Mod Bedlam at the Salina Highbanks Speedway in Oklahoma has been postponed to next weekend.
Late afternoon addition: The Battle of the Bullring for Friday at US 36 Raceway has been canceled. No word as of 4 p.m. on the Saturday event at the Eagle Raceway
Season openers at the Legit Speedway in West Plains, Missouri, and at Dodge City Raceway Park in Kansas have been canceled for this weekend.
And as announced a couple of days ago the Hawkeye Stock Car Classic at the Adams County Speedway in Corning has been canceled.
Two events in my area are still on with the Thaw Brawl at the LaSalle Speedway scheduled to run both on Friday and Saturday night. Hey, there are icicles and an abominable snowman holding a championship belt on the event flyer so they are not going to let a little cold weather derail them. And at 34 Raceway near Burlington new owner Brad Stevens and Jessi Mynatt are excited to get their first show in the books and they have moved up the start times for the Shottenkirk.com Sprint Invaders. Hot laps will now take the green at 5:15 with racing to follow on Saturday evening. The Lee County rules Late Models will join the Sprints for a two division program that they plan to run off in quick order. So bundle on up and come out for some racing!
There are a couple of other interesting news items out there as well today. For the first time in its long history the Deery Brothers Summer Series for IMCA Late Models will go away from a draw and redraw lineup format and instead use a passing points system in 2018. From the way that the brief press release was written it appears that the heat race winners will draw for the "best spots" with remainder of the top twelve for the feature lineup set by passing points. So in other words if there are four heat races those four winners are guaranteed to start the feature from either the first or second row while the next eight starting spots will be set by the passing points. Personally I think that a guy who starts his heat from eighth and races his way up to second deserves to be in that "draw" more than a pole-starting heat race winner, but somebody will always have something to gripe about with any qualifying format. Hopefully this change will be welcomed by drivers and fans alike this season and the first look at it will come on Friday April 13th at the Davenport Speedway for the Rebel 5K.
Veteran Late Model driver Jim Moon has purchased the 85 Speedway in Ennis, Texas. You may recall that Moon had a short stint as a promoter at the Montgomery County Speedway in New Florence, Missouri, where he had five events in March and April of 2014 before ownership closed the place back down. 85 Speedway remains as the only dirt track in Texas that I have ever seen a race at back in March of 1986 and at the time they ran a class of cars that were similar to the big block Modifieds of the northeast. The feature winner that night as I recall was Gary Wright.
If you choose to go racing this weekend, bundle up and have fun!
Thursday, March 29, 2018
Tuesday, March 27, 2018
Tuesday Notebook: March 27, 2018
Here we go, another week of watching a weather forecast each day and hoping that it improves so that we can go racing. For me it is the season opener for the Shottenkirk.com Sprint Invaders scheduled for this Saturday night at 34 Raceway near Burlington, but there are a few other special events in the region as well this weekend.
I had to chuckle this morning when an AWP who usually has more of the attitude of Eeyore when it comes to weather leading up to an event posted on a race forum that the forecast for the event that he is hoping to attend this weekend "looks great!" Apparently only a 40% chance of rain with a high of 49 and a twenty mile per hour wind is enough to give him hope for the first race of the year. Hopefully he will have the same attitude when he posts about other events in 2018.
The sad part is that not only will we be lucky to do some racing this weekend, but the long range forecast for the following week when the Frostbusters give us a chance to go racing on Wednesday and Thursday as well as the weekend does not look good either. Please change!
It is not unusual for us to have Spring weather like this and I can recall some years where I was only able to get in a race or two before the month of May rolled around. When this happens you will see the discussion start up as to why promoters even bother to schedule early events in the first place, which I guess is what you sit around and do when you have no races to go to. In my opinion, in this day and age it is even easier for a promoter to take the risk of scheduling an early race event and here's why. Twenty-five or more years ago if you were going to try to have a race on the final Saturday in March you would have had to invest some money in advertising in the regional racing papers like Hawkeye Racing News, Midwest Racing News, Checkered Flag Racing News, Speed Sport, etc. just to let both drivers and fans know about it and since three of those four were not weekly until April that money would have been spent in January or February. Then, if you have snow like we did last weekend and had to cancel in advance, that money was gone, a valid financial loss for trying to schedule a race too early.
Today a promoter can put the early special on his or her website and publicize it on the track's Facebook page without any additional cost. Any track work that goes on leading up to the event is work that you would have already had to do to get ready for the season anyway so as long as the promoter pulls the plug three or four days prior to the event, before that delivery of hot dogs and hamburgers is made for the concessions, then there is no direct cost to having scheduled that early season opener and losing it. Low risk if handled properly. The potential reward on the other hand is quite high if you catch some nice weather and can go ahead with the show, I saw this first hand back on February 24th when a very nice crowd rolled into Volunteer Speedway on a warm sunny day.
So why would any fan argue the point that promoters should stop scheduling early season events? I think that it is just because they don't like being "teased" with the prospect of going racing and then having cool and rainy weather take it away from them. I on the other hand appreciate the opportunity that is given to us by those promoters who do take the risk and I hope that they continue to do so going forward even if the Spring of 2018 does not allow them to achieve the reward.
While the weather has been less than desirable here in southeast Iowa a track that is just a little over a five hour drive away from here in southeast Kansas, the Humboldt Speedway has already held eight complete nights of racing in 2018! It started out with their three-day Battle of the Bullring B-Mod special the first weekend of March. They came back two weeks later with the big USMTS King of America Modified triple header and this past weekend they showcased the Mod Lites with two nights of action. Corey Babbitt from Texas was the winner both nights for the Mod Lites that somewhat surprisingly only pulled in 23 cars as the headliner for the weekend. Quad Cities driver John Padilla finished second and Pleasant Hill's Mike Morrill was fifth on Friday night while in Saturday's finale Padilla was again the runner-up, Randy Bryan from Ames was third, Ed Griggs of Pleasant Hill was fifth and Morrill finished in sixth. The B-Mods were one of the support classes each night where Cody Jolly swept the weekend. Humboldt takes the Easter weekend off before rolling into their regular season on April 6th.
Christopher Bell swept the two-day Turnpike Challenge POWRi Midget show at the I-44 Riverside Speedway near Oklahoma City. With the weekend off from his Xfinity Series ride Bell's sweep now makes him eight for eight in the four years of this event.
Danny Rosencrans and I toyed with the idea of making a road trip to Harrisburg, Arkansas, last Friday night where the Comp Cams Super Late Model Series returned to the Old No. 1 Speedway, but with too much going on at work I had to stay in the office past noon. Looks like it might have been a late night there as Gavin Landers had the throttle stick on his car and he ended up on top of a concrete wall and tangled in a catch fence. The incident happened during heat race action and in the picture that I saw it was already dark. Then in the feature Jon Mitchell had a rollover incident that required evaluation from the paramedics. Robert Baker edged out Billy Moyer and Timothy Culp to take the Late Model feature win. Barry Johnson and I went to a show at the Harrisburg track several years ago and it was quite racy so I am looking forward to a return trip soon.
The Batesville Motor Speedway hosted two nights of racing for their Spring Nationals featuring the IMCA Modifieds and on Friday night it was Hunter Marriott in victory lane with Iowans Jeff James and Kelly Shryock finishing fourth and sixth respectively. Local driver Jeff Taylor was the Saturday night winner with Marriott third, James fifth and Shryock again in sixth.
How about Sheldon Haudenschild? The young driver continued his hot start to 2018 taking his third World of Outlaws victory at the Bakersfield Speedway in California on Saturday night and Rookie-of-the-Year candidate Ian Madsen charged from 16th up to fifth at the checkers.
Last week I mentioned that Craig Dollansky was set to drive Scott Bonar's Midland Performance car #50 in the 410 Sprint Car show at Moberly on Sunday. That event was postponed until April 22nd due to the weather and today "The Crowd Pleaser" announced his retirement from racing on his Facebook page.
A regular reader of the Back Stretch and a true race fan that I have to meet in person soon, David Schlise is organizing a Fan Fund event for the King of the Creek IMCA Stock Car special coming up this summer at the 141 Speedway in Maribel, Wisconsin. To learn more visit the Help Grow the Sport of Racing page on Facebook and while you are there go ahead and join the group. After all, doesn't the title of it represent what we are all hoping to do? And besides, we need to add more Iowans to balance out the Cheeseheads!
With more and more Crate Late Model racing closing in on this part of the country I found this blog by Florida racer Jonathan Joiner quite interesting. Unfortunately it seems like no matter what set of rules that somebody comes up with to try to keep the cost of racing down there will always be those who go beyond the spirit of those rules to give themselves an advantage. It seems like a lifetime ago that Keith Knaack implemented a rule that allowed anybody finishing outside of the top four to Claim a motor for just $300 dollars. I wonder how many of today's drivers and fans realize that it was this crazy concept that was the foundation for the largest division of race cars in the country. Time for someone else to do something crazy......
Here we go again, it is about that time of the year when somebody comes along with another story asking whether or not negative social media has an impact on racing. This one though is a pretty good discussion of the topic between the two writers although I believe that they have already gone down this road before a time or two. To draw people to read it though they have go on to a race forum with a link which then leads to several comments from the usual cast of characters with some making their standard response that obviously shows that they only read the title and not the actual discussion.
As I have said here before, I cringe now whenever somebody tries to make this point because it is like the Russians trying to influence the election. Everybody has already made up their mind on the subject so now this only just stirs the pot once again and causes general discourse among the fan base without ever changing any minds.
For those of you who do not believe that there is a negative effect on the sport from the constant harping on Facebook and forums I suggest that you do this. Pick out a track near you that has closed recently and then do a search of it on both Facebook and the race forums that would have been relevant to it. Then read back through the comments and keep a a scorecard of how many posts were positive compared to negative. Then, for the ones that are negative, tally up the percentage of those that were just offering up "constructive criticism", you know those well intentioned comments that were just meant to help the promoter improve the show. Then, when you are all done, truly put yourself in the promoter's shoes knowing that you had worked your tail off to sell sponsorship, pay a good purse, prepare a good race track and charge a fair admission only to come up with a loss at the end of the night and then read those comments once again.
Perhaps then you will see how "You should go get some more corporate sponsorship" might just piss you off.
Here's hoping that we all get to see some racing soon!
I had to chuckle this morning when an AWP who usually has more of the attitude of Eeyore when it comes to weather leading up to an event posted on a race forum that the forecast for the event that he is hoping to attend this weekend "looks great!" Apparently only a 40% chance of rain with a high of 49 and a twenty mile per hour wind is enough to give him hope for the first race of the year. Hopefully he will have the same attitude when he posts about other events in 2018.
The sad part is that not only will we be lucky to do some racing this weekend, but the long range forecast for the following week when the Frostbusters give us a chance to go racing on Wednesday and Thursday as well as the weekend does not look good either. Please change!
It is not unusual for us to have Spring weather like this and I can recall some years where I was only able to get in a race or two before the month of May rolled around. When this happens you will see the discussion start up as to why promoters even bother to schedule early events in the first place, which I guess is what you sit around and do when you have no races to go to. In my opinion, in this day and age it is even easier for a promoter to take the risk of scheduling an early race event and here's why. Twenty-five or more years ago if you were going to try to have a race on the final Saturday in March you would have had to invest some money in advertising in the regional racing papers like Hawkeye Racing News, Midwest Racing News, Checkered Flag Racing News, Speed Sport, etc. just to let both drivers and fans know about it and since three of those four were not weekly until April that money would have been spent in January or February. Then, if you have snow like we did last weekend and had to cancel in advance, that money was gone, a valid financial loss for trying to schedule a race too early.
Today a promoter can put the early special on his or her website and publicize it on the track's Facebook page without any additional cost. Any track work that goes on leading up to the event is work that you would have already had to do to get ready for the season anyway so as long as the promoter pulls the plug three or four days prior to the event, before that delivery of hot dogs and hamburgers is made for the concessions, then there is no direct cost to having scheduled that early season opener and losing it. Low risk if handled properly. The potential reward on the other hand is quite high if you catch some nice weather and can go ahead with the show, I saw this first hand back on February 24th when a very nice crowd rolled into Volunteer Speedway on a warm sunny day.
So why would any fan argue the point that promoters should stop scheduling early season events? I think that it is just because they don't like being "teased" with the prospect of going racing and then having cool and rainy weather take it away from them. I on the other hand appreciate the opportunity that is given to us by those promoters who do take the risk and I hope that they continue to do so going forward even if the Spring of 2018 does not allow them to achieve the reward.
While the weather has been less than desirable here in southeast Iowa a track that is just a little over a five hour drive away from here in southeast Kansas, the Humboldt Speedway has already held eight complete nights of racing in 2018! It started out with their three-day Battle of the Bullring B-Mod special the first weekend of March. They came back two weeks later with the big USMTS King of America Modified triple header and this past weekend they showcased the Mod Lites with two nights of action. Corey Babbitt from Texas was the winner both nights for the Mod Lites that somewhat surprisingly only pulled in 23 cars as the headliner for the weekend. Quad Cities driver John Padilla finished second and Pleasant Hill's Mike Morrill was fifth on Friday night while in Saturday's finale Padilla was again the runner-up, Randy Bryan from Ames was third, Ed Griggs of Pleasant Hill was fifth and Morrill finished in sixth. The B-Mods were one of the support classes each night where Cody Jolly swept the weekend. Humboldt takes the Easter weekend off before rolling into their regular season on April 6th.
Christopher Bell swept the two-day Turnpike Challenge POWRi Midget show at the I-44 Riverside Speedway near Oklahoma City. With the weekend off from his Xfinity Series ride Bell's sweep now makes him eight for eight in the four years of this event.
Danny Rosencrans and I toyed with the idea of making a road trip to Harrisburg, Arkansas, last Friday night where the Comp Cams Super Late Model Series returned to the Old No. 1 Speedway, but with too much going on at work I had to stay in the office past noon. Looks like it might have been a late night there as Gavin Landers had the throttle stick on his car and he ended up on top of a concrete wall and tangled in a catch fence. The incident happened during heat race action and in the picture that I saw it was already dark. Then in the feature Jon Mitchell had a rollover incident that required evaluation from the paramedics. Robert Baker edged out Billy Moyer and Timothy Culp to take the Late Model feature win. Barry Johnson and I went to a show at the Harrisburg track several years ago and it was quite racy so I am looking forward to a return trip soon.
The Batesville Motor Speedway hosted two nights of racing for their Spring Nationals featuring the IMCA Modifieds and on Friday night it was Hunter Marriott in victory lane with Iowans Jeff James and Kelly Shryock finishing fourth and sixth respectively. Local driver Jeff Taylor was the Saturday night winner with Marriott third, James fifth and Shryock again in sixth.
How about Sheldon Haudenschild? The young driver continued his hot start to 2018 taking his third World of Outlaws victory at the Bakersfield Speedway in California on Saturday night and Rookie-of-the-Year candidate Ian Madsen charged from 16th up to fifth at the checkers.
Last week I mentioned that Craig Dollansky was set to drive Scott Bonar's Midland Performance car #50 in the 410 Sprint Car show at Moberly on Sunday. That event was postponed until April 22nd due to the weather and today "The Crowd Pleaser" announced his retirement from racing on his Facebook page.
A regular reader of the Back Stretch and a true race fan that I have to meet in person soon, David Schlise is organizing a Fan Fund event for the King of the Creek IMCA Stock Car special coming up this summer at the 141 Speedway in Maribel, Wisconsin. To learn more visit the Help Grow the Sport of Racing page on Facebook and while you are there go ahead and join the group. After all, doesn't the title of it represent what we are all hoping to do? And besides, we need to add more Iowans to balance out the Cheeseheads!
With more and more Crate Late Model racing closing in on this part of the country I found this blog by Florida racer Jonathan Joiner quite interesting. Unfortunately it seems like no matter what set of rules that somebody comes up with to try to keep the cost of racing down there will always be those who go beyond the spirit of those rules to give themselves an advantage. It seems like a lifetime ago that Keith Knaack implemented a rule that allowed anybody finishing outside of the top four to Claim a motor for just $300 dollars. I wonder how many of today's drivers and fans realize that it was this crazy concept that was the foundation for the largest division of race cars in the country. Time for someone else to do something crazy......
Here we go again, it is about that time of the year when somebody comes along with another story asking whether or not negative social media has an impact on racing. This one though is a pretty good discussion of the topic between the two writers although I believe that they have already gone down this road before a time or two. To draw people to read it though they have go on to a race forum with a link which then leads to several comments from the usual cast of characters with some making their standard response that obviously shows that they only read the title and not the actual discussion.
As I have said here before, I cringe now whenever somebody tries to make this point because it is like the Russians trying to influence the election. Everybody has already made up their mind on the subject so now this only just stirs the pot once again and causes general discourse among the fan base without ever changing any minds.
For those of you who do not believe that there is a negative effect on the sport from the constant harping on Facebook and forums I suggest that you do this. Pick out a track near you that has closed recently and then do a search of it on both Facebook and the race forums that would have been relevant to it. Then read back through the comments and keep a a scorecard of how many posts were positive compared to negative. Then, for the ones that are negative, tally up the percentage of those that were just offering up "constructive criticism", you know those well intentioned comments that were just meant to help the promoter improve the show. Then, when you are all done, truly put yourself in the promoter's shoes knowing that you had worked your tail off to sell sponsorship, pay a good purse, prepare a good race track and charge a fair admission only to come up with a loss at the end of the night and then read those comments once again.
Perhaps then you will see how "You should go get some more corporate sponsorship" might just piss you off.
Here's hoping that we all get to see some racing soon!
Sunday, March 25, 2018
Found Some Old Late Model Pictures.....
With all racing in the area canceled due to cold and snowy conditions I found some time to do a little house cleaning this weekend and came across these old prints in a box that also contained many of my old record albums from my youth. We had a house fire back in 1997 so I had thought that I had lost all of them, but thankfully no. And I had also thought that I had turned over all of my old prints to Barry Johnson for him to scan in so that we could place them on the Positively Racing Facebook page. Obviously these were hidden with the old music, so it was a nice find on a race less weekend!
Yes, I tried my hand at race photography back in the early 90's and while a couple of these are pretty clear, most are just a smidge out of focus. And when you have talented friends like Barry Johnson, Dennis Krieger, John Vass and others I eventually decided to leave my camera at home on race nights. But on this weekend, these sure do bring back some memories. Hope they do for you as well.
Yes, I tried my hand at race photography back in the early 90's and while a couple of these are pretty clear, most are just a smidge out of focus. And when you have talented friends like Barry Johnson, Dennis Krieger, John Vass and others I eventually decided to leave my camera at home on race nights. But on this weekend, these sure do bring back some memories. Hope they do for you as well.
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| Not sure who was in Don Morgan's #31, but that is Jeff Aikey down low |
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| Quincy's Lonnie Bailey |
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| A vintage Brian Birkhofer picture with Layne Meyer |
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| Scott Bloomquist with sponsorship from the late Johnny Johnson |
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| Arkansas driver Wayne Brooks |
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| Dave Thorston |
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| Canadian hotshoe Joel Cryderman |
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| The Flying Farmer Ken Essary |
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| Gary Lee's favorite, and one of mine too, Bill Frye |
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| The Modern Day Cowboy John Gill |
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| Bill Gray and Jay Johnson at Peoria |
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| The River City Hustler Ray Guss Jr. |
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| Eagle Raceway owner Roger Hadan |
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| Joey Izzo |
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| Billy Moyer during his stint with the GVS Team |
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| Michigan's Kris Patterson |
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| Terry Phillips |
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| Need some help on this one....I think that is Bob Pohlman in the #27 |
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| Chattanooga's Ronnie Johnson |
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| Three-wide action with Steve Kosiski up top and Doug Wiggs down low. The other 52? |
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| LaSalle Speedway promoter Tony Izzo Jr. |
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| Eight time All Iowa Points Champion and Hall of Famer Gary Webb |
Tuesday, March 20, 2018
Tuesday Notebook: March 20, 2018
Spring has sprung! Well at least as far as the calendar is concerned and the weather forecast has already claimed one event for the upcoming weekend. I had heard that the frost was still in the ground in central Iowa so it was no surprise when the World Nationals at the Marshalltown Speedway were pushed back to September 14th and 15th. Down here in the southeast corner of the state though the crew at the Lee County Speedway in Donnellson has been able to work the race track so they are going to hold out and see what happens with the weather for the weekend. After all, we saw just how radically a forecast could change last week when a call for a sunny day with temps in the 60's all of sudden went to rain and 42 for Memphis, Missouri. Maybe Mike VanGenderen who promotes both Memphis and Donnellson can get a more positive change in the forecast for this weekend.
I like how Lee County is handling this as today on Facebook they essentially said the following. This weekend's races are ON. We have watched the weather forecast go from a 100% chance for rain to now a 20% chance, at least for Friday. We know that every weather app is different and changes by the hour, especially this time of year. So we are racing until Mother Nature actually says no.
So if you want to see some racing, and if Mother Nature ends up cooperating, the Lee County Speedway in Donnellson is the place to be in Iowa and remember that the Spring Extravaganza is two separate shows, Friday and Saturday. One is not dependent upon the other so even if Saturday isn't looking good on your weather app, don't let that keep you from attending on Friday night!
Track announcer Tony Paris has asked me to fill in for him this weekend as he is in Hutchinson, Kansas, cheering on top ranked Indian Hills in the NJCAA National Basketball tournament, but as I am typing this they have just gone to overtime in their first round game. So who knows, maybe he will be back if things don't work out.
With no racing close to home this past weekend I made the trip down to West Burlington for the 34 Raceway car show on Sunday afternoon. The event was held at the Deery Brothers car dealership this year and had the day started out as nice as it turned by noon, it would have been held in the parking lot rather than in the expansive service area. There was a nice turnout of both cars and fans and I have a few pictures posted here.
Ray Raker's Stock Car sported some snazzy lettering by Craig Jacoba who has been making race cars look great in this area for more than thirty-five years now.
Nick Guernsey was sporting white wall tires on his Sprint Car for the occasion.
Always great to talk with Scott Bonar of Midland Performance who fields the #50 Sprinter with a host of talented guest drivers. In case you didn't know it there is a 410 show scheduled for this coming Sunday afternoon at the Randolph County Raceway in Moberly, Missouri, and if he gets his motor back in time Bonar will have none other than Craig Dollansky behind the wheel of the #50. Then, when the Shottenkirk.com Sprint Invaders kick off the season at 34 Raceway on March 31st it will be interesting to see who has the ride on that night.
Speaking of the Sprint Invaders, with both Chris Martin and Jamie Ball now following the ASCS National Tour it will be interesting to see who steps up to challenge for the 2018 Invaders championship. Defending champion Jon Agan would have to be the odds on favorite if he runs the whole schedule again this year, but on Sunday there were three drivers who had their cars on display that you should keep an eye on. Tanner Gebhardt edged out Brayden Gaylord by just four points for the Rookie-of-the-Year honors last year and both could be title contenders in 2018. Also look for continued improvement from Burlington's Daniel Bergquist who has two cars at his disposal, the 305 that he will race weekly and the 360 with the Sprint Invaders as this young driver was making some noise at the end of last season.
As mentioned before the Shottenkirk.com Sprint Invaders will open their season on Saturday night March 31st at 34 Raceway near Burlington. Also racing that night will be the Lee County Late Models and remember Late Model drivers, the Lee County rules packages not only allows for the Crate engine cars to compete, but there is also a setup that allows the IMCA-rules cars to race as well. So if you are looking for that first night to get your car out on the track, that will be it if Donnellson is not able to race this coming Saturday.
Even with the crummy weather up here this past weekend, the Humboldt Speedway in southeast Kansas was once again able to get in all three nights of action to complete their second mega event of the season already with the King of America Modifieds. Minnesota's Lucas Schott was the best of an 82 car field to earn the crown and the $10,000 that went along with it. Ricky Thornton Jr. finished second with the Scott brothers, Johnny and Stormy next in line. For the race story and full results click here and for some interesting news and notes from all three nights make sure to visit our Positively Racing colleague Ed Reichert's blog at One Fan's Travels.
There is a thread on 4m.net that expresses a concern about the Late Model car counts that we have been seeing and with a couple of nice paying races this last weekend drawing just 14 and 17 cars respectively it is a valid concern. Since Speed Weeks there have been 22 Late Model specials run in the United States with a "special" being defined here as being a race that is featured on the Dirt On Dirt schedule. The average winner's check at these events is $3,670 with an average car count thus far of just 19.3. One of the theories offered up on the thread is that we have way too many different "divisions" of Late Models now and in some cases a track will run two or three of them on the same night. I experienced that first hand last month when I went to Volunteer Speedway in Tennessee and only twelve Super Late Models signed in for the Iron Man series event. But there were 19 Crates and 21 Sportsman on had as well and from the grandstands you would not be able to tell the difference between the three classes as they all look like Late Models. Will the new rules package that is being implemented in eastern Iowa this year help solve this problem? I hope so, but you will have a similar scenario when the 9:1 Limited Late Models race on the same night at the Dubuque Speedway.
I mentioned before that Chris Martin and Jamie Ball were now chasing the Lucas Oil ASCS National Series and I am sure that both were hoping for a better start to the season when Martin finished 12th and Ball 18th down at the Devils Bowl speedway in Texas Friday night. Another driver who chasing the Tour for the first time this year, Roger Crockett from Oregon was the winner over defending champ Sam Hafertepe Jr.
And how about the last two winners with the World of Outlaws being Aaron Reutzel and Cory Eliason? Yes, Donny Schatz is still the point leader but he has two-time winner Sheldon Haudenschild nipping at his heels in second. Ian Madsen got off to a slow start in his Rookie-of-the-Year efforts, but hopefully a second place finish to Eliason last weekend in California will give him the jump start that he needed.
It was a bit of a surprise to the Sprint Car world when the Buffalo Wild Wings team announced on Monday that the entire operation was up for sale.
There is plenty of other racing in the region besides Donnellson this weekend and as always you can make your plans by checking out the Schedule page at Positively Racing. Hopefully Mother Nature will cooperate and allow us all to get to the race of our choice this weekend!
I like how Lee County is handling this as today on Facebook they essentially said the following. This weekend's races are ON. We have watched the weather forecast go from a 100% chance for rain to now a 20% chance, at least for Friday. We know that every weather app is different and changes by the hour, especially this time of year. So we are racing until Mother Nature actually says no.
So if you want to see some racing, and if Mother Nature ends up cooperating, the Lee County Speedway in Donnellson is the place to be in Iowa and remember that the Spring Extravaganza is two separate shows, Friday and Saturday. One is not dependent upon the other so even if Saturday isn't looking good on your weather app, don't let that keep you from attending on Friday night!
Track announcer Tony Paris has asked me to fill in for him this weekend as he is in Hutchinson, Kansas, cheering on top ranked Indian Hills in the NJCAA National Basketball tournament, but as I am typing this they have just gone to overtime in their first round game. So who knows, maybe he will be back if things don't work out.
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| Ray Raker's IMCA Stock Car |
Ray Raker's Stock Car sported some snazzy lettering by Craig Jacoba who has been making race cars look great in this area for more than thirty-five years now.
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| Nick Guernsey |
Always great to talk with Scott Bonar of Midland Performance who fields the #50 Sprinter with a host of talented guest drivers. In case you didn't know it there is a 410 show scheduled for this coming Sunday afternoon at the Randolph County Raceway in Moberly, Missouri, and if he gets his motor back in time Bonar will have none other than Craig Dollansky behind the wheel of the #50. Then, when the Shottenkirk.com Sprint Invaders kick off the season at 34 Raceway on March 31st it will be interesting to see who has the ride on that night.
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| The Midland Performance #50 |
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| Brayden Gaylord |
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| Tanner Gebhardt |
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| Daniel Bergquist |
There is a thread on 4m.net that expresses a concern about the Late Model car counts that we have been seeing and with a couple of nice paying races this last weekend drawing just 14 and 17 cars respectively it is a valid concern. Since Speed Weeks there have been 22 Late Model specials run in the United States with a "special" being defined here as being a race that is featured on the Dirt On Dirt schedule. The average winner's check at these events is $3,670 with an average car count thus far of just 19.3. One of the theories offered up on the thread is that we have way too many different "divisions" of Late Models now and in some cases a track will run two or three of them on the same night. I experienced that first hand last month when I went to Volunteer Speedway in Tennessee and only twelve Super Late Models signed in for the Iron Man series event. But there were 19 Crates and 21 Sportsman on had as well and from the grandstands you would not be able to tell the difference between the three classes as they all look like Late Models. Will the new rules package that is being implemented in eastern Iowa this year help solve this problem? I hope so, but you will have a similar scenario when the 9:1 Limited Late Models race on the same night at the Dubuque Speedway.
I mentioned before that Chris Martin and Jamie Ball were now chasing the Lucas Oil ASCS National Series and I am sure that both were hoping for a better start to the season when Martin finished 12th and Ball 18th down at the Devils Bowl speedway in Texas Friday night. Another driver who chasing the Tour for the first time this year, Roger Crockett from Oregon was the winner over defending champ Sam Hafertepe Jr.
And how about the last two winners with the World of Outlaws being Aaron Reutzel and Cory Eliason? Yes, Donny Schatz is still the point leader but he has two-time winner Sheldon Haudenschild nipping at his heels in second. Ian Madsen got off to a slow start in his Rookie-of-the-Year efforts, but hopefully a second place finish to Eliason last weekend in California will give him the jump start that he needed.
It was a bit of a surprise to the Sprint Car world when the Buffalo Wild Wings team announced on Monday that the entire operation was up for sale.
There is plenty of other racing in the region besides Donnellson this weekend and as always you can make your plans by checking out the Schedule page at Positively Racing. Hopefully Mother Nature will cooperate and allow us all to get to the race of our choice this weekend!
Wednesday, March 14, 2018
Wednesday Notebook: March 14, 2018
In my race report from Beatrice last Saturday I mentioned how much the weather forecast had changed from Thursday until race day. In that case it was for the better as while the temperatures stayed about the same, the chance of rain was eliminated from the forecast. This week however I think that I just witnessed one of the most dramatic changes in a weather forecast ever as in a manner of a few hours the outlook for this coming Friday in Memphis, Missouri, went from being sunny and warm with a high of 62, to cloudy, windy and rainy with a high of 41. And that is only three days out folks!
With the change, the Scotland County Speedway has canceled their races for the weekend, but they will be back to try it again with another special event that was already on the schedule for March 30th and 31st. That now means that I will be watching March Madness on Friday night before enjoying some family time on Saturday as I was only planning to spend night number one in northeast Missouri anyway. Others though, including our own Ed Reichert, will be making their way down to the Humboldt Speedway in southeast Kansas where they will host their second big event of the season already with the King of America Modified special. There are other events in the region as well that for now are going to take on Mother Nature and hope to come out ahead so if you don't just want to settle for basketball, hit the road!
That is what several Iowa Modified drivers did last weekend as the Southern Oklahoma Speedway in Ardmore hosted a two-day special for IMCA sanctioned cars. In Friday's action Mike VanGenderen finished ninth , Denny Pittman was twelfth while Randy Havlik and Nick Roberts were 18th and 19th. On Saturday night Roberts was the runner-up to winner Jeff Taylor, VanGenderen repeated his ninth place run and Havlik finished 13th. Russ Dickerson and Tony Hofbauer also made the long pull south.
It was sad to hear that the Chateau Raceway in Lansing, Minnesota, will not open this year and is up for sale. I first learned of this from a post on Facebook by Todd Narveson who has announced there and at several other tracks in the region. Todd was basically saying farewell for now and asking that fans be mindful of their social media use should someone new come along and try to open it once again. A couple of well meaning people made comments stating what needs to be done to make the track successful and for whatever reason it just irritated me a bit. The two comments that did essentially said that whoever opens it needs to go out and get corporate sponsorship to make the place successful. Really? Have we come to the point where we believe that this will be a "new" idea for someone who makes the investment in a race track? For that moment I guess that I put myself in the place of a promoter and just wondered how I would feel about anybody implying that I was not bright enough to realize that I needed to go out and try to get corporate sponsorship to make my track successful. Especially after I had tried and tried to bring in such sponsorship only to come up a bit short of what I would have wanted. Perhaps because that prospective sponsor chose not to be involved due to things that he had "heard" about the place on.......well you know?
As I typed out my own comment I realized that something that I had always dreamt of doing, owning my own race track, was no longer a dream of mine. I couldn't take the constant drumbeat from people who had no real stake in my operation telling me what I should, or shouldn't do in order to make it better. Perhaps that's why the alter ego Myron Pembleton appeared a few weeks ago. I am sick of the stupidity that I see from some on Facebook when it comes to racing.
Myron had some nice feedback from several people that I respect very much in the sport, so I got a little cocky with him making some flippant comments myself referencing WWMPS....that would be What Would Myron Pembleton Say.....and I did it one too many times on Sunday. Somehow I became the person who did not want kids to become involved in racing, proof of how off the tracks a Facebook/Racing conversation can quickly become, and let's just say that I learned my lesson. By the way I have written some of my thoughts on how we handle kids at the races now compared to the past in earlier editions of the Back Stretch so if you want to go hunting, be my guest, they are not popular opinions with some.
In summary I take great pride in being a cheerleader for the sport here, something that certain others have even criticized me for in the past. I will do my best to continue to do that once I get out of this funk, a state of mind that I must still be in because I really wasn't that disappointed when I found out today that I would be watching basketball instead on Friday night.
Hope to see you at the Lee County Speedway in Donnellson on Friday March 23rd!
With the change, the Scotland County Speedway has canceled their races for the weekend, but they will be back to try it again with another special event that was already on the schedule for March 30th and 31st. That now means that I will be watching March Madness on Friday night before enjoying some family time on Saturday as I was only planning to spend night number one in northeast Missouri anyway. Others though, including our own Ed Reichert, will be making their way down to the Humboldt Speedway in southeast Kansas where they will host their second big event of the season already with the King of America Modified special. There are other events in the region as well that for now are going to take on Mother Nature and hope to come out ahead so if you don't just want to settle for basketball, hit the road!
That is what several Iowa Modified drivers did last weekend as the Southern Oklahoma Speedway in Ardmore hosted a two-day special for IMCA sanctioned cars. In Friday's action Mike VanGenderen finished ninth , Denny Pittman was twelfth while Randy Havlik and Nick Roberts were 18th and 19th. On Saturday night Roberts was the runner-up to winner Jeff Taylor, VanGenderen repeated his ninth place run and Havlik finished 13th. Russ Dickerson and Tony Hofbauer also made the long pull south.
It was sad to hear that the Chateau Raceway in Lansing, Minnesota, will not open this year and is up for sale. I first learned of this from a post on Facebook by Todd Narveson who has announced there and at several other tracks in the region. Todd was basically saying farewell for now and asking that fans be mindful of their social media use should someone new come along and try to open it once again. A couple of well meaning people made comments stating what needs to be done to make the track successful and for whatever reason it just irritated me a bit. The two comments that did essentially said that whoever opens it needs to go out and get corporate sponsorship to make the place successful. Really? Have we come to the point where we believe that this will be a "new" idea for someone who makes the investment in a race track? For that moment I guess that I put myself in the place of a promoter and just wondered how I would feel about anybody implying that I was not bright enough to realize that I needed to go out and try to get corporate sponsorship to make my track successful. Especially after I had tried and tried to bring in such sponsorship only to come up a bit short of what I would have wanted. Perhaps because that prospective sponsor chose not to be involved due to things that he had "heard" about the place on.......well you know?
As I typed out my own comment I realized that something that I had always dreamt of doing, owning my own race track, was no longer a dream of mine. I couldn't take the constant drumbeat from people who had no real stake in my operation telling me what I should, or shouldn't do in order to make it better. Perhaps that's why the alter ego Myron Pembleton appeared a few weeks ago. I am sick of the stupidity that I see from some on Facebook when it comes to racing.
Myron had some nice feedback from several people that I respect very much in the sport, so I got a little cocky with him making some flippant comments myself referencing WWMPS....that would be What Would Myron Pembleton Say.....and I did it one too many times on Sunday. Somehow I became the person who did not want kids to become involved in racing, proof of how off the tracks a Facebook/Racing conversation can quickly become, and let's just say that I learned my lesson. By the way I have written some of my thoughts on how we handle kids at the races now compared to the past in earlier editions of the Back Stretch so if you want to go hunting, be my guest, they are not popular opinions with some.
In summary I take great pride in being a cheerleader for the sport here, something that certain others have even criticized me for in the past. I will do my best to continue to do that once I get out of this funk, a state of mind that I must still be in because I really wasn't that disappointed when I found out today that I would be watching basketball instead on Friday night.
Hope to see you at the Lee County Speedway in Donnellson on Friday March 23rd!
Saturday, March 10, 2018
Grabouski, Thornton and Appel Headline Final Night of Spring Nationals
Saturday was night two of the 25th Annual IMCA Spring Nationals at the Beatrice Speedway and 238 cars in five divisions made their way to the southeast corner of Nebraska on a day that turned out to be a bit warmer than originally expected and at the end of the night it was a hometown favorite standing in victory lane.
If you had to name the hottest driver in IMCA Modified racing right now you would have to be challenged if you didn't go with Hunter Marriott and the Brookfield, Missouri, driver drew the outside front row starting spot for tonight's 30-lap main event. Pole-sitter Jeff James held his own on the opening lap until Marriott nosed ahead at the flagstand and once out front Marriott's advantage grew quickly. The racing was solid behind him though and when the caution waved for a lap ten spin by Ryan Jenkins, Marriott was brought back to the field for the restart. Jared Hoefelman hit the pause button again on lap eleven when he stopped with a flat tire and on the next restart Jordan Grabouski went to work on the leader.
Racing on his hometown track the former IMCA Modified National Champion went to the top shelf and this became a battle of the two grooves as Marriott picked his way around the bottom. As the crossed flags indicating the mid-race point were shown Grabouski nosed ahead to take the lead as Marriott picked up the pace to stay close. Lap by lap Grabouski's lead would grow ever so slightly and after clearing three lapped cars racing for position in the final laps the winner Grabouski had ten car lengths on the runner-up Marriott at the checkers. Cayden Carter was closing late in third after he started tenth with Jeremy Payne driving the Jet Racing house car in for fourth. Kelly Shryock drove from sixteenth up to fifth followed by Josh Vogt and Jeff James. Ricky Thornton Jr. came from row eleven to take eighth after winning on Friday night as Benjie LaCrosse and Eddie Belec completed the top ten.
While he had to fight from behind all night in the Modified, Thornton had a much better night in his Tanner Racing Stock Car. Jay Schmidt would pace the opening laps of the 20-lap feature race until Dan Nelson took over on lap three. As usual in this division the battle was intense as Damon Murty snared the lead just before the caution waved for an Eric Bartels spin on lap six. On the restart Ricky Thornton Jr. pounced on Murty to take the lead and he would pace the field until four laps remained when Zack Ankrum spun in turn four.
The racing was wild on the restart as five cars had a chance for the lead coming off turn two and as Thornton once again established himself as the leader the others raced four-wide off turn four for second. Friday's winner Kyle Vanover had lined up fifth for that restart and as the white flag waved he was now second, but he could not run down Thornton who with the Stock Car victory would become the first driver to ever win in two different divisions on the same Spring Nationals weekend. Vanover was impressive coming from fifteenth to second, Derek Green started tenth and finished third, Elijah Zevenbergen came from sixteenth to fourth while Murty completed the top five.
The IMCA Sport Mods were the first of the five features on the night with front row starters Lee Horky and Cody Thompson putting on quite a show swapping the lead back and forth through the first five laps before the red flag waved when Dave Kennedy rolled over in turn one after tangling with Dakota Sproul. On the restart the fourth place car of Rick Rohr spun as he entered turn one sending the field scrambling, but when Rohr was not one of the two cars that stopped on the track he was given his spot back for the next try at a green flag.
Thompson would be the leader once back to racing and on lap seven as Rohr, Jonathan Logue and Lance Borgman raced three-wide out of turn four contact between the three would send Rohr into the front stretch wall while Logue spun toward the inside wall. On this restart Josh Appel would drive past Thompson for the lead and after missing the show by one spot on Friday night it was obvious that the Mason City, Iowa, driver was on a mission driving away from the pack. A caution on lap twelve for North Dakota's Kyle Krogh and another on lap sixteen for Curtis Dreasher slowed the field, but Appel was untouchable as he closed out the final four laps for the win. Colby Langenberg made a late charge to finish second ahead of Jake McBirnie and Brayton Carter while Jarrad Hackler edged out Horky for fifth.
Local driver Jeff Watts would pace the Hobby Stock feature for the first nine laps before Kent Husted slowed in turn two. On the restart Taylor Huss went to work on the leader and with Watts guarding the bottom Huss had to get a little rough as he squeezed under Watts for the lead on lap twelve. There would be no catching Huss from there as after finishing second to Chanse Hollatz on Friday night the Beatrice Speedway regular from nearby Reynolds would cruise to the win. Minnesota visitor Austin Jahnz would finish second, Brady Bencken was third, Roy Armstrong took fourth and Jeff Ware rallied from fifteenth to fifth.
A field of forty-two Sport Compacts made their only appearance of the weekend and in the fifteen lap feature it was the battle of the Bohlmeyers early on. Zach Bohlmeyer would lead the first three laps with Drake Bohlmeyer in hot pursuit. Dustin Thompson was chasing them in third when contact from a hard charging Ramsey Meyer sent him for a spin causing a caution. On the restart Drake would take the point, but neither Bohlmeyer could fight off Meyer who would take the lead on lap seven and the drive away for the win. The Bohlmeyers would swap the runner up spot over the final laps with Drake prevailing to finish in second..
Spring Nationals Notes......This race night was proof that you should not make a decision based upon a 48-hour weather forecast as on Thursday the outlook included a 60% chance of rain here for Saturday. By Friday night the rain had essentially been removed from the forecast and with temperatures in the mid-50's it was very seasonal. A stiff wind put a chill through all those who weren't strategically sitting in front of the press box in the grandstand and when the checkers waved at 11:24 p.m. the temperature was at 42 degrees and there were sprinkles on my windshield as I drove out of the parking lot. Much better than the sub freezing temps that I sat through here last year!......Yes, it was a six hour show, but there is nothing that can be done about that when you have so many cars in the pits. The crew did a fantastic job of having the next race rolling to the track as the one before it pulled off and the intermission that was supposed to be ten minutes long was just that, ten minutes.......Three nasty accidents added to the length of the show, the first coming on the opening lap of the sixth Hobby Stock heat when Chris Bates missed the turn at the end of the straightaway and when his car jumped the universal barrier it completely destroyed the stop and go lights entering turn one. Amazingly though Bates never even stopped as he continued to drive down the road that leads to the outside pits where he went straight to his trailer......In the second Modified heat Justin Zeitner climbed the barriers at the end of the back stretch and when his car came to a stop the crowd could only see the back bumper of his Modified sitting atop the wall in turn three.......The worst crash of the night though came at the start of the first Sport Mod B-Main when Nate Whitehurst was turned into the front stretch wall and when he bounced off of it he clipped Cole Bents who then went into a series of four or five barrel rolls right in front of the grandstand. Thankfully Bents climbed out of his mangled car unhurt and I am assuming that it was his father who rushed onto the track to give him a big hug.......The announcers for the Pay-Per-View internet broadcast were also being piped over the P.A. system so that meant that whenever there was down time the ticket buying crowd was "treated" to numerous shout outs to those who were watching online. Two of those were actually residents of Beatrice who chose to save the $40 at the ticket gate and instead pay the lower cost of the viewing pass to watch it online. So the next time that somebody tries to tell me that only people who would not have come to the race anyway are the ones watching PPV I can confidently say "Bull____!"......Well actually I have always been confident when I say that, but now I have proof.......The Beatrice Spring Nationals has become a favorite event of mine that I will continue to make a point to attend. Other than the Super Nationals you will not find a field that is so diverse as there were drivers here tonight from Nebraska, Iowa, Kansas, Missouri, Texas, Colorado, South Dakota, North Dakota, Minnesota, Wisconsin, Florida, Alaska and Saskatchewan. Toby Kruse and his crew prepare a great racing surface and present an efficient show making for a great way to kick off your racing season......For more Positively Racing coverage of the Spring Nationals make sure to visit Ed Reichert's One Fan's Travels after the reigning Super Fan returns to his Wisconsin home.
Next up for me will be the Friday night opener of the Memphis Spring Nationals on one of the widest short tracks that you will find anywhere. Hope to see you there!
If you had to name the hottest driver in IMCA Modified racing right now you would have to be challenged if you didn't go with Hunter Marriott and the Brookfield, Missouri, driver drew the outside front row starting spot for tonight's 30-lap main event. Pole-sitter Jeff James held his own on the opening lap until Marriott nosed ahead at the flagstand and once out front Marriott's advantage grew quickly. The racing was solid behind him though and when the caution waved for a lap ten spin by Ryan Jenkins, Marriott was brought back to the field for the restart. Jared Hoefelman hit the pause button again on lap eleven when he stopped with a flat tire and on the next restart Jordan Grabouski went to work on the leader.
Racing on his hometown track the former IMCA Modified National Champion went to the top shelf and this became a battle of the two grooves as Marriott picked his way around the bottom. As the crossed flags indicating the mid-race point were shown Grabouski nosed ahead to take the lead as Marriott picked up the pace to stay close. Lap by lap Grabouski's lead would grow ever so slightly and after clearing three lapped cars racing for position in the final laps the winner Grabouski had ten car lengths on the runner-up Marriott at the checkers. Cayden Carter was closing late in third after he started tenth with Jeremy Payne driving the Jet Racing house car in for fourth. Kelly Shryock drove from sixteenth up to fifth followed by Josh Vogt and Jeff James. Ricky Thornton Jr. came from row eleven to take eighth after winning on Friday night as Benjie LaCrosse and Eddie Belec completed the top ten.
While he had to fight from behind all night in the Modified, Thornton had a much better night in his Tanner Racing Stock Car. Jay Schmidt would pace the opening laps of the 20-lap feature race until Dan Nelson took over on lap three. As usual in this division the battle was intense as Damon Murty snared the lead just before the caution waved for an Eric Bartels spin on lap six. On the restart Ricky Thornton Jr. pounced on Murty to take the lead and he would pace the field until four laps remained when Zack Ankrum spun in turn four.
The racing was wild on the restart as five cars had a chance for the lead coming off turn two and as Thornton once again established himself as the leader the others raced four-wide off turn four for second. Friday's winner Kyle Vanover had lined up fifth for that restart and as the white flag waved he was now second, but he could not run down Thornton who with the Stock Car victory would become the first driver to ever win in two different divisions on the same Spring Nationals weekend. Vanover was impressive coming from fifteenth to second, Derek Green started tenth and finished third, Elijah Zevenbergen came from sixteenth to fourth while Murty completed the top five.
The IMCA Sport Mods were the first of the five features on the night with front row starters Lee Horky and Cody Thompson putting on quite a show swapping the lead back and forth through the first five laps before the red flag waved when Dave Kennedy rolled over in turn one after tangling with Dakota Sproul. On the restart the fourth place car of Rick Rohr spun as he entered turn one sending the field scrambling, but when Rohr was not one of the two cars that stopped on the track he was given his spot back for the next try at a green flag.
Thompson would be the leader once back to racing and on lap seven as Rohr, Jonathan Logue and Lance Borgman raced three-wide out of turn four contact between the three would send Rohr into the front stretch wall while Logue spun toward the inside wall. On this restart Josh Appel would drive past Thompson for the lead and after missing the show by one spot on Friday night it was obvious that the Mason City, Iowa, driver was on a mission driving away from the pack. A caution on lap twelve for North Dakota's Kyle Krogh and another on lap sixteen for Curtis Dreasher slowed the field, but Appel was untouchable as he closed out the final four laps for the win. Colby Langenberg made a late charge to finish second ahead of Jake McBirnie and Brayton Carter while Jarrad Hackler edged out Horky for fifth.
Local driver Jeff Watts would pace the Hobby Stock feature for the first nine laps before Kent Husted slowed in turn two. On the restart Taylor Huss went to work on the leader and with Watts guarding the bottom Huss had to get a little rough as he squeezed under Watts for the lead on lap twelve. There would be no catching Huss from there as after finishing second to Chanse Hollatz on Friday night the Beatrice Speedway regular from nearby Reynolds would cruise to the win. Minnesota visitor Austin Jahnz would finish second, Brady Bencken was third, Roy Armstrong took fourth and Jeff Ware rallied from fifteenth to fifth.
A field of forty-two Sport Compacts made their only appearance of the weekend and in the fifteen lap feature it was the battle of the Bohlmeyers early on. Zach Bohlmeyer would lead the first three laps with Drake Bohlmeyer in hot pursuit. Dustin Thompson was chasing them in third when contact from a hard charging Ramsey Meyer sent him for a spin causing a caution. On the restart Drake would take the point, but neither Bohlmeyer could fight off Meyer who would take the lead on lap seven and the drive away for the win. The Bohlmeyers would swap the runner up spot over the final laps with Drake prevailing to finish in second..
Spring Nationals Notes......This race night was proof that you should not make a decision based upon a 48-hour weather forecast as on Thursday the outlook included a 60% chance of rain here for Saturday. By Friday night the rain had essentially been removed from the forecast and with temperatures in the mid-50's it was very seasonal. A stiff wind put a chill through all those who weren't strategically sitting in front of the press box in the grandstand and when the checkers waved at 11:24 p.m. the temperature was at 42 degrees and there were sprinkles on my windshield as I drove out of the parking lot. Much better than the sub freezing temps that I sat through here last year!......Yes, it was a six hour show, but there is nothing that can be done about that when you have so many cars in the pits. The crew did a fantastic job of having the next race rolling to the track as the one before it pulled off and the intermission that was supposed to be ten minutes long was just that, ten minutes.......Three nasty accidents added to the length of the show, the first coming on the opening lap of the sixth Hobby Stock heat when Chris Bates missed the turn at the end of the straightaway and when his car jumped the universal barrier it completely destroyed the stop and go lights entering turn one. Amazingly though Bates never even stopped as he continued to drive down the road that leads to the outside pits where he went straight to his trailer......In the second Modified heat Justin Zeitner climbed the barriers at the end of the back stretch and when his car came to a stop the crowd could only see the back bumper of his Modified sitting atop the wall in turn three.......The worst crash of the night though came at the start of the first Sport Mod B-Main when Nate Whitehurst was turned into the front stretch wall and when he bounced off of it he clipped Cole Bents who then went into a series of four or five barrel rolls right in front of the grandstand. Thankfully Bents climbed out of his mangled car unhurt and I am assuming that it was his father who rushed onto the track to give him a big hug.......The announcers for the Pay-Per-View internet broadcast were also being piped over the P.A. system so that meant that whenever there was down time the ticket buying crowd was "treated" to numerous shout outs to those who were watching online. Two of those were actually residents of Beatrice who chose to save the $40 at the ticket gate and instead pay the lower cost of the viewing pass to watch it online. So the next time that somebody tries to tell me that only people who would not have come to the race anyway are the ones watching PPV I can confidently say "Bull____!"......Well actually I have always been confident when I say that, but now I have proof.......The Beatrice Spring Nationals has become a favorite event of mine that I will continue to make a point to attend. Other than the Super Nationals you will not find a field that is so diverse as there were drivers here tonight from Nebraska, Iowa, Kansas, Missouri, Texas, Colorado, South Dakota, North Dakota, Minnesota, Wisconsin, Florida, Alaska and Saskatchewan. Toby Kruse and his crew prepare a great racing surface and present an efficient show making for a great way to kick off your racing season......For more Positively Racing coverage of the Spring Nationals make sure to visit Ed Reichert's One Fan's Travels after the reigning Super Fan returns to his Wisconsin home.
Next up for me will be the Friday night opener of the Memphis Spring Nationals on one of the widest short tracks that you will find anywhere. Hope to see you there!
Monday, March 5, 2018
Monday Notebook: March 5, 2018
Racing season got underway with a couple of events in the southern portion of our region this past weekend and weather permitting there are some more scheduled for the coming weekend.
The Humboldt Speedway in southeast Kansas was blessed with some great weather for the first weekend in March and they were able to get in all three nights of their annual Battle of the Bullring B-Mod Nationals. There were 128 B-Mods on hand for Thursday's opener where two rounds of heat races were run where drivers accumulated points and then the same format was used on Friday night. In Saturday's finale it was Minnesota's Skeeter Estey going from the front row to collect the $8,500 top prize while Wisconsin's Michael Truscott had to come out of the B-Main and start 14th before finishing the feature race in second. Oklahoma's Kale Westover was third while Dustin Daniels was the best of the track's regulars in fourth after starting from the pole and North Dakota's Ryan Schroeder was fifth. Andrew Schroeder was the only Iowa driver to make the show and he finished 21st.
A-Mods were also in action with a full program all three nights. Wichita's Tanner Mullens had the best weekend with a win, a runner-up finish and a third-place run. Minnesota driver Dan Ebert had a second and third place finish while Mitch Keeter (2nd and 5th), Zack Vanderbeek (two 4ths) and Terry Schultz (a win and a 5th) also cracked the top-five twice. Darron Fuqua was the other winner.
For a full story on each of the three nights make sure to check in with my Positively Racing colleague Ed Reichert and One Fan's Travels.
The Plumerville Speedway in Arkansas was able to get in the Saturday portion of their Winter Heat event before losing Sunday's finale to rain. A makeup date that will see the features for the Modifieds Factory Stocks and other divisions will be announced later today. A full program for the All Star Late Model Series was completed during Saturday's show with Memphis area driver Justin Glover taking the $2,000 victory over Cody Gentry and Josh Ray. There were fourteen Late Models signed in for the event.
Over in central Oklahoma the Red Dirt Speedway was forced to cancel the Red Dirt Revival special early due to heavy rains during the week, but the track in Meeker will come right back this weekend with a two-day Spring Nationals show on Saturday and Sunday.
In Late Model racing outside of the region there was a lot of follow the leader action going on as David Seibers went flag-to-flag to win Friday night at Clarksville and then Dennis Erb Jr. did the same there on Saturday night. Modified ace Cade Dillard won the series debut for the Louisiana Late Models at Chatham on Saturday night leading from green to checkers and Chris "Smokey" Madden captured the big money prize of the weekend winning $12,000 at the Cherokee Speedway in South Carolina on Sunday where he too went the distance out front. Michael Page seemed to be the only driver who had to pass someone to win this weekend although he did start from second in his Ultimate Southeast series win at the North Georgia Speedway.
Coming up this weekend in our region you have the Southern Outlaw Late Models and the All Star Modifieds at the Crawford County Speedway in northwest Arkansas. The Southern Oklahoma Speedway in Ardmore has two nights of IMCA racing on Friday and Saturday. The USAC National Midgets runs indoors at DuQuoin and the 42nd Annual Spring 50 is set for the Florece Speedway in Kentucky on Saturday.
I plan on catching the Iowa boys state basketball championship games on Friday night and then choosing between two racing events on Saturday. The IMCA Spring Nationals in Beatrice, Nebraska, has become a favorite of mine even after sitting out in 32 degree weather last year. As of now the forecast looks pretty good for southeast Nebraska for Thursday's practice along with full shows on Friday and Saturday. And if not, my backup plan is the Springfield Raceway in southwest Missouri where the Comp Cams Late Model Series will headline the March Madness event at Jerry Hoffman's quarter-mile oval.
There are also several car shows that are going on around the region this weekend so hopefully in one way or another you can whet your appetite with some early season racing activities! Thanks for checking out the Back Stretch.
The Humboldt Speedway in southeast Kansas was blessed with some great weather for the first weekend in March and they were able to get in all three nights of their annual Battle of the Bullring B-Mod Nationals. There were 128 B-Mods on hand for Thursday's opener where two rounds of heat races were run where drivers accumulated points and then the same format was used on Friday night. In Saturday's finale it was Minnesota's Skeeter Estey going from the front row to collect the $8,500 top prize while Wisconsin's Michael Truscott had to come out of the B-Main and start 14th before finishing the feature race in second. Oklahoma's Kale Westover was third while Dustin Daniels was the best of the track's regulars in fourth after starting from the pole and North Dakota's Ryan Schroeder was fifth. Andrew Schroeder was the only Iowa driver to make the show and he finished 21st.
A-Mods were also in action with a full program all three nights. Wichita's Tanner Mullens had the best weekend with a win, a runner-up finish and a third-place run. Minnesota driver Dan Ebert had a second and third place finish while Mitch Keeter (2nd and 5th), Zack Vanderbeek (two 4ths) and Terry Schultz (a win and a 5th) also cracked the top-five twice. Darron Fuqua was the other winner.
For a full story on each of the three nights make sure to check in with my Positively Racing colleague Ed Reichert and One Fan's Travels.
The Plumerville Speedway in Arkansas was able to get in the Saturday portion of their Winter Heat event before losing Sunday's finale to rain. A makeup date that will see the features for the Modifieds Factory Stocks and other divisions will be announced later today. A full program for the All Star Late Model Series was completed during Saturday's show with Memphis area driver Justin Glover taking the $2,000 victory over Cody Gentry and Josh Ray. There were fourteen Late Models signed in for the event.
Over in central Oklahoma the Red Dirt Speedway was forced to cancel the Red Dirt Revival special early due to heavy rains during the week, but the track in Meeker will come right back this weekend with a two-day Spring Nationals show on Saturday and Sunday.
In Late Model racing outside of the region there was a lot of follow the leader action going on as David Seibers went flag-to-flag to win Friday night at Clarksville and then Dennis Erb Jr. did the same there on Saturday night. Modified ace Cade Dillard won the series debut for the Louisiana Late Models at Chatham on Saturday night leading from green to checkers and Chris "Smokey" Madden captured the big money prize of the weekend winning $12,000 at the Cherokee Speedway in South Carolina on Sunday where he too went the distance out front. Michael Page seemed to be the only driver who had to pass someone to win this weekend although he did start from second in his Ultimate Southeast series win at the North Georgia Speedway.
Coming up this weekend in our region you have the Southern Outlaw Late Models and the All Star Modifieds at the Crawford County Speedway in northwest Arkansas. The Southern Oklahoma Speedway in Ardmore has two nights of IMCA racing on Friday and Saturday. The USAC National Midgets runs indoors at DuQuoin and the 42nd Annual Spring 50 is set for the Florece Speedway in Kentucky on Saturday.
I plan on catching the Iowa boys state basketball championship games on Friday night and then choosing between two racing events on Saturday. The IMCA Spring Nationals in Beatrice, Nebraska, has become a favorite of mine even after sitting out in 32 degree weather last year. As of now the forecast looks pretty good for southeast Nebraska for Thursday's practice along with full shows on Friday and Saturday. And if not, my backup plan is the Springfield Raceway in southwest Missouri where the Comp Cams Late Model Series will headline the March Madness event at Jerry Hoffman's quarter-mile oval.
There are also several car shows that are going on around the region this weekend so hopefully in one way or another you can whet your appetite with some early season racing activities! Thanks for checking out the Back Stretch.
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