In my opinion when you look at the political divide that we have in this country right now you need look no further than the media and how they have polarized our society. Long gone are the days when someone like Walter Cronkite would come on the evening news, tell you what happened without interjecting any kind of personal opinion or bias, and then move on to the next news item. The birth of the twenty-four hour news channel changed everything. CNN wasn't biased in its beginning, but as it gradually inched toward the left along came Fox News setting up well to right thus causing CNN to move even further in the other direction. The battle was now on and with twenty-four hours a day to fill with "news" the talking heads were added to interpret the news for you. Other stations were added, social media came along and now almost everybody will give you the version of the "news" that matches their ideology.
Then you have someone like me. Yes, I lean a little more one way than the other, but I pride myself in trying to look at a situation from the middle and try to form my own opinion without being told what to think and frankly it has made me skeptical about both sides. So now let me give you a couple of racing analogies to try to illustrate what I mean, and just like Law & Order SVU I will make the disclaimer. "The following stories are fictional and do not depict any actual person or event"
Chong Chong
"The Hero Takes Out The Villain"
Over the years The Villain has earned his reputation due to incidents both on and off the track, (perhaps even a TMZ video that someone tucked away for several years waiting patiently to use just in case The Villain ever needed to be brought down at the last second, but I digress). On this race day though The Villain races the Hero clean to take the lead on the final lap. No door slams, no hitting The Hero in the left rear to get him loose, just good clean racing running side-by-side for several laps before The Villain takes the lead with just one lap remaining, perhaps headed for his first ever feature win. The Hero though does something that you don't normally see from him and blasts the Villain in the left rear spinning him out of the way so that The Hero takes the win much to the delight of The Hero's fans, friends and family! No harm, no foul, after all this is The Villain. He does not deserve to achieve success due to his previous transgressions and beside, there was a lot on the line with an opportunity to win the Championship going to the winner. Showing that even the format, or the political stage itself for that matter can now turn heroes into villains. Immediately after the race, and over the next twenty-four hours The Hero, his supporters and even the national media post videos to prove that The Hero did nothing wrong and that the The Villain got what he deserved. After all "rubbin' is racing." Well at least that is what will be said in this particular scenario.
Meanwhile, for those of us who don't choose up sides, for those who were there watching the races at this track for the first time and don't know which driver is which, or for someone who just doesn't really care if you are the hero or the villain, who feel that you should just race clean and win a race fair and square, it really looked like the second place car just flat took out the leader on the final lap. And in every version of the video that has been shared since then these same unbiased observers would come to that same conclusion proving that sometimes trying to put a biased spin on the story just makes that story even more annoying than it already was.
The analogy? When you post political stuff on Facebook of course you are going to get nothing but positive responses and people telling you just how right you are, even in the rare occasion when you are actually wrong. After all, those who saw it a different way will either keep it to themselves or just Unfollow you making it where you are now communicating within an even smaller bubble of "like thought". Not good for the country, and frankly not good for racing either.
Chong Chong
"We Always Get Wrecked"
They are the Good Guys, drivers who over the years have proven that they race others with respect and fans appreciate their efforts especially when their clean driving leads to multiple feature wins and even a track title along the way. With the proliferation of Facebook these drivers start to share their thoughts on each race night and over the years a trend becomes noticeable where if things don't go well, it is always another driver's fault. "Well, we got run over again in the heat race tonight. You all know who! It's so frustrating, but we will give it another try next week", or "The Villain got a little impatient again tonight and put us in the wall with three laps remaining. I wish the track would do something about him or we will start racing somewhere else."
For the fans that were not actually at the track that night, these are the Good Guys, of course their description of the events are accurate and we believe them completely. Shame on those who would not race the Good Guys in the same manner that the Good Guys would race them!
Go Good Guys!
Then one night you are actually at the track where one of the Good Guys is racing and going into the corner Good Guy gets a little loose and when the car behind him checks up, the third car in line smacks him in the back bumper causing him to hit the now nearly sideways Good Guy spinning him in front of the field and causing a big pileup that not only damages Good Guy's car, but several others as well. It's a tough luck situation that we see often in racing and while you can't really place the direct blame on Good Guy who got a bit too far sideways entering the turn causing the accordion effect, you also can't fault any of the other drivers involved who were just victims of circumstance.
Within an hour later though a Facebook post from Good Guy pops up saying "Well it happened again! We just can't race with these idiots here at XYZ Speedway without tearing up our equipment so this will be the last time you will ever see us here!"
You saw what actually happened. If anybody was at fault for the accident it was Good Guy and to now see this post now makes you question all of the other posts that have been made in the past. Were they all like this? Has Good Guy's constant reporting of the events when things didn't go his way been completely biased all along? Even though I love him and support him, how can I believe anything that Good Guy ever says again?
ABC, Fox News, CNN, Rush Limbaugh, take your pick, they should all find a lesson in this analogy in that once you have been exposed as someone who always takes a particular side, no matter what the circumstances, your credibility is at risk for those that don't just blindly follow you.
Alas they won't though because this is just an unimportant little racing blog that none of them will ever see. Hopefully though some of my racing friends might get the point that I am trying to make.
Chong Chong
The Lucas Oil Late Model Dirt Series released its first version of its schedule for 2019 this week and two dates jumped out at me right away. Thursday May 16th the National Tour will make its first ever appearance at 34 Raceway just down the road from me in Burlington for a fifty lap feature paying $10,000 to the winner. My first thought was that this would also serve as the annual Slocum 50 for 2019, but after a quick message to the track Jessi Mynatt stated that no, the Slocum will still be held as it traditionally is in April. That means two big time Late Model shows right here in southeast Iowa during the Spring of next season!
The other one was the following night, Friday May 17th when the Series will move up the road to the Farley Speedway. This one was significant to me in the fact that it will hopefully put to rest the rumors that the track will be torn down to make way for houses over this winter. Of course the early comments are already predicting a rain out for this one, but hopefully the Farley Speedway Promotions crew can get some good weather and finally be able to do what they always wanted to do: present some big time racing at their home facility.
Deer Creek Speedway on Saturday makes it a solid tripleheader on the week before the Lucas Oil regulars head down to Wheatland, Missouri, for the annual Show Me 100.
Plenty of movement when it comes to rides on the World of Outlaws Sprint Car series just ahead of the 2018 finale this weekend on the Dirt Track in Charlotte. David Gravel is out of the CJB Motorsports #5 car, to be replaced by Shane Stewart who parted ways with Kyle Larson racing. It was announced yesterday that Gravel will now drive the Jason Johnson Racing #41 with the Outlaws in 2019. And that moves Carson Macedo, the young Californian who thrilled the fans at Knoxville with his efforts in the JJR #41 during the Knoxville Nationals into the Larson ride for next season. Interesting, but for now they are all still chasing the #15.
The Fairmont Raceway found a new promoter quickly in Jon McCorkell who has previous experience running the show just down the road in Jackson. The track will move back to Saturday night racing in 2019 with Modifieds, Sport Mods, Stock Cars, Hobby Stocks and Sport Compacts running under the IMCA banner.
Two other tracks in that general region are now looking for promoters. Greg Golden will no longer be the promoter at Raceway Park just across the state line from Sioux City. In announcing his resignation of duties Golden stated the following.
"The last few years have been nothing but a juggling act trying to keep up with the bills. I have borrowed and put every dime I could scrape up into the track trying to keep it alive. I guess my passion for auto racing in Siouxland got in the way of good business."
Keep that in mind the next time you want to accuse a promoter of only wanting to make a huge profit.
Not that far up the road to the north Justin Holzapfel is stepping away from promoting at the Redwood Speedway in Redwood Falls, Minnesota, due to a career change. He is inviting any interested parties to get in touch with him in regard to purchasing the assets need to run a dirt track racing program while also noting that the lease of the facility must be worked out directly with the fair board.
I am sure that the drivers and fans of both tracks are hoping that someone will step forward in a timely manner that will allow for racing to continue for the 2019 season, but if it doesn't please don't give up hope that something might come along at a later time. I have seen a couple of examples recently where a little time off shows people what they were missing only to have the track reopen to better success. The most recent example would be the Chateau Speedway in Lansing, Minnesota.
Don't forget that there is still one more race on the schedule for 2018 here in Iowa and it is this coming Saturday November 3rd at the CJ Speedway in Columbus Junction. The 2nd Annual Turkey Dash will feature the Modifieds, Stock Cars, Sport Mods, Hobby Stocks and Sport Compacts. Last year's event was a fun one even though the temperatures were in the forties and there was an off and on mist falling from the cloud covered skies. The forecast for this Saturday is actually better than it was last year with temps to be in the 50's and a chance of rain moving in as the day goes on. Hot laps are currently scheduled for 4 p.m. with racing to following, but keep an eye on the CJ Speedway Facebook page to see if any adjustments are made to the schedule.
Hopefully we will see you there on Saturday and it will remain dry until the final checkers fly. But if not, just remember that when rain interrupts a racing program, nobody is happy.
See you on the Back Stretch
Chong Chong
Dick Wolf
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