Maybe it helped that I was on my way to an officials meeting for the Sprint Invaders on Monday night, less than three weeks away from the scheduled opener at 34 Raceway on March 30th. If the extended forecast holds up we might just be able to get that one in, especially after track owners Brad Stevens and Jessi Mynatt proved that they would put in the extra effort needed to put on a show during their freshman season at the 3/8th-mile oval west of Burlington. I am also excited about the 2019 season as a whole for the Sprint Invaders as the schedule is again strong with multiple visits to 34 Raceway and the Lee County Speedway in Donnellson, a Spring time stop at Quincy instead of the normal September date, another fun night at the Dubuque County Fair and races at three tracks that we have not been to for at least a year or two in Davenport, Eldon and Vinton. Add to that the hiring of Jerry Glasgow as the Director of Competition and I am confident that 2019 will be a stellar season for the Invaders!
I was also encouraged by the fact that our Positively Racing colleague Ed Reichert was able to get in three full nights of racing last weekend at one of the tracks within our wide coverage area. To get Ed's thoughts on each night of the IMCA Southern Stampede at the Southern Oklahoma Speedway in Ardmore check out his page One Fan's Travels. Checking the results I see that three Iowa Stock Car drivers made the trip down with Decorah's Kyle Falck having the best results finishing fourth, fourth and third. Blake Adams posted two top ten finishes with a ninth on Thursday night and a sixth place finish in the finale while the 2018 All Iowa Points Champion John Oliver Jr. struggled with a tenth place finish being his best on Friday night.
The IMCA Modified field nearly hit the fifty mark and while it was a deep and talented field it was the same two drivers finishing first and second on all three nights. Oklahoma's Jason Hughes was the winner on both Thursday and Friday while Arizona native Ricky Thornton Jr. was the winner on Saturday.
Is is just me or does it seem like the "professional" Modified drivers seem to be winning more and more of the races now? Hughes, Thornton, Strickler, Marriott, etc., and in particular at IMCA sanctioned events where the playing field at least seemed to be more even where a local or regional star could still jump up and win here and there? That thought, along with this old time ad that has been making the rounds on Facebook recently makes me wonder how Keith Knaack would feel about the trend. I doubt that it would be something that he would take pride in.
The evolution of the Modified has even reached a point where it can make or break a race track. A few weeks ago we featured a unique "offer" from the new promoters at the Interstate Speedway (most recently known as Raceway Park) in Jefferson, South Dakota, where for just $1,950 you could be the Track Owner For a Night. This was announced along with their plans for the high-banked short track that sits within sight of the other track that AtoZ Promotions operates the Park Jefferson Speedway. And in what I considered to be another unique and innovative move, the 2019 schedule at Park Jeff would be front loaded starting in early April and ending in late July while the Interstate schedule would fill in the rest of the summer starting in late June and ending in August.
From a distance it seemed like a great plan with the two tracks only overlapping for a five week period and giving the race fans of the Sioux City area five full months of action. Apparently though the new promoters did not feel that the budget at Interstate would fit with the Modifieds running on a weekly basis, so they were only scheduled for two nights with one of them being a Dirt Knights Tour event. The combination of a shortened schedule and no Modifieds on a weekly basis did not go over well in the area causing some drivers and fans to actually threaten a boycott of both tracks and the result is that AtoZ announced on Saturday that they are vacating their lease at Interstate and will not run any races there this year. They did note however that the man that they had hired to be the Track Manager this year, Denny Moore, has put together a strong list of sponsors and that anybody interested in running the facility should consider keeping him on board.
So as for now, no racing at the short track in 2019. For those that threatened to boycott, how is that working out for you?
What a circus it has been up in that area with this along with Darth Vader and the Badlands saga. I can't decide if Darth has more money than sense, or if he is just a vindictive man who again has more money than he needs to be concerned about. The value of any piece of property or business is the price that somebody will actually pay for it and I must say that I am proud of the potential buyers of Husets that they have not fallen hostage to this man and made a purchase that they could never get ahead on financially. At the auction that they tried to hold a few months ago the minimum bid was $3 million, a bid that nobody made, so afterward Darth put the For Sale sign back up with a price tag of $6 million and a threat that if nobody came forward by a certain date that he would vaporize the place.
Do you realize that at $3 million with a 10% down payment and just 3% interest on a 15 year loan your monthly payment would be $18,645? And that is every month, all twelve of them! Not just when you are able to put on races, so now let's assume that you were able to get in a twenty race season that means that just to service the debt on the facility you would have to make $11,187 per race night. It should be easy to understand now why nobody has "stepped up" to pay Vader's ransom as it would take somebody who would never intend on making any money on the operation for the next two decades because despite what some people think, it is next to impossible to make $11,000 or more a night putting on weekly dirt track races........anywhere!
At least the I-90 Speedway in nearby Hartford will be back in action this year and I bet that place will be packed early in the season. That would be the best revenge that the fans of that area could have.
No racing for me this coming weekend even though a track in Missouri, Springfield will start the season on Saturday night. My sights are now set on the weekend of the 22nd and 23rd where an interesting scenario has been setup. The Scotland County Speedway in Memphis MO was supposed to go racing this coming weekend, but has postponed to the 22nd and 23rd if, and only if the Lee County Speedway in Donnellson IA is unable to run their Spring Extravaganza as originally scheduled. Hopefully it will dry out enough at one of those facilities so that I can stay close to home for race night number one of the season, otherwise I have the annual Lucky 40 at the Highland Speedway as my backup plan.
And, just to keep my optimism growing, I plan on attending the 34 Raceway car show this Sunday March 17th at Deery Brothers in West Burlington.
Hope to see you again soon on the Back Stretch!
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