Start It Up?

Will this be the week that I am able to get my first race in for 2019? As of now the forecast for Friday and Saturday is looking pretty good and now it all depends on just how much drying can take place over the next few days. The Lee County Speedway in Donnellson, Iowa, has their annual Spring Extravaganza on the schedule for two nights of racing this weekend and promoter Brian Gaylord told me yesterday that he is optimistic about being able to race. He is going to give the track, and the rest of the fairgrounds facility another couple of days of drying before going to work though so keep an eye on the track's Facebook page for updates.

If for whatever reason the plan changes at Lee County, the Scotland County Speedway in Memphis, Missouri, has indicated that they will step up and run their Spring Nationals event that was canceled for March 15th and 16th due to wet grounds. So either way it looks like chances are good for racing in this region this weekend, and if neither can run then you can bet that I will be looking for a road trip to perhaps Highland, Humboldt or another track that may or may not start with an "H".

At east I was able to check out some results and video from some racing that did beat the weather this past weekend. The Indiana Icebreaker lived up to its name as the thermometer struggled to get into the low 50's for a high before dropping quickly when the sun went down, but that didn't stop Brandon Sheppard from having another dominating performance as he won the Lucas Oil Dirt Late Model Series event at the Brownstown Speedway on Saturday. The driver of the Rocket House Car led all fifty laps to win his fifth race in a row after dominating at Volusia in February. Devin Moran was able to get close enough to the leader to excite announcer James Essex in the closing laps only to have Sheppard clear traffic as needed to maintain a comfortable lead to the finish. Sheppard will have a chance to add to that streak when the World of Outlaws Late Model Series gets back to action this Friday and Saturday in Tennessee at Duck River and Smoky Mountain.

Peoria's Allen Weisser made his first ever LODLMS start at Brownstown, made the show out of his heat race and then posted a solid tenth place finish in the star laden field. Weisser will be one to watch in the Late Model class as the 2019 season gets rolling soon in the state of Illinois.

The Springfield Raceway in southwest Missouri was able to run their March Madness event this past Saturday after it was postponed for a week. Oddly enough the track has posted results for every division in competition except for the Late Models where Jesse Stovall made a final lap pass of Logan Martin to win the $2,000 top prize. Courtesy of CheeseWorks video, Martin was impressive passing both Stovall and early leader Tony Jackson Jr. and appeared to be headed for victory only to have Stovall come storming back using the high line around the quarter-mile red clay oval. Mexico, Missouri's Robbie Reed topped an 18-car field of Modifieds with some big names just behind him in Terry Phillips and Ken Schrader. Kenny Wallace finished sixth and the one long distance traveler on the list was Cole Anderson from Northfield, Minnesota, who obviously did not finish the race in 18th. Anderson started his career racing pavement Late Models with success both in the upper Midwest and in Florida at New Smyrna Speedway.

Familiar names were at the top of the pay sheet for the B-Mods in Kris Jackson, J.C. Morton, Cody Jolly and Jackie Dalton while Jerry Lankton was the best of the 28 Midwest Modifieds that signed in. Springfield will be back in action on Saturday April 6th.

The Red Dirt Cup looked like it was quite a success at the Red Dirt Raceway in Meeker, Oklahoma, on Saturday as it was headlined by four different racing series. I was a bit surprised to see that Wayne Johnson had won the Oil Capital Racing Series (OCRS) Sprint Car main event, well not surprised that the veteran racer had won, but that he was even competing as part of the 31-car field. This is a Sprint Car series where the engines are steel blocks with a 368 c.i. maximum and the top wings are smaller with a sixteen square feet maximum. It was the first time that I had noticed the former Knoxville 360 Nationals champion and current ASCS National Series competitor racing with this organization and he came out on top of a spirited battle with Zach Chappell to take the win.

Kip Hughes took the Sooner Late Model Series victory and then somebody had the bright idea to line up Johnson and Hughes side-by-side for a match race. They should have given Hughes a half of a lap head start to make it interesting as Johnson immediately pulled away for an easy "win".

Robert Elliott won the Sooner Limited Modified Series main event while Mark Smith was the winner of the Western Outlaw Pure Stock Series feature. Similar to the irony of having something called a "Jumbo Shrimp", is it even possible to have an Outlaw Pure Stock? That seems to be a total contradiction of terms right there.

Scanning through the early season Weekly Racing results at Dirt On Dirt gives us some drivers to add to our "All Name List". Arthur Conquest very fittingly was the winner the All-Tech Raceway in Florida Saturday night with Dusty Sparkman coming home third. Don Sniff was fifth at Hendry Motorsports Park on January 19th and Booger Brooks ran a strong second at Boyd's Speedway in Georgia Saturday night. Brian Grumbles probably should have been happier with his runner-up finish at Travelers Rest Speedway in South Carolina, but at least he had a better time of getting to the track than did Tommy Grimes this weekend. DoD reports that Grimes' Late Model rolled off the trailer, went through a ditch and a fence before ending up in a cow pasture on his way to practice on Friday night. No grumbling here though as Grimes and his crew made repairs to the car, double checked the trailer straps and arrived at the track late on Saturday before taking the win at the I-37 Speedway in Texas.

I had some feedback on last week's post in regard to the situation at the Interstate Speedway. It came from a driver in the area and essentially said that the threatened boycott was an excuse for some bad business decisions made by the prospective new promoter. His suggested solution was that he "should have listened to the drivers." Now that all sounds pretty easy, but my experience over the years from all of the different roles that I have taken in this sport tells me that it isn't. First of all, what drivers should the promoter have listened to? From a distance it sounded like the Modified drivers had the biggest complaint since they had been cut from the weekly roster. So if the Modified drivers are saying "hey, you need us to put on a show" and the promoter says "okay, but to have you means that I will have to trim $1,000 a night from the rest of the purse structure to make it work", I'm not real sure that the Stock Car, Hobby Stock and Sport Compact drivers would all agree with that. Also from my experience, the drivers who are the most successful (i.e. win the most) are often the most vocal so typically their biggest beef is about the lineup procedures which under IMCA are inverted by average points. Those most vocal drivers would likely make a case for dropping the sanction and going to a draw and redraw format so that they can have a chance to start up front for awhile. It all sounds like that is what "all the drivers" want, but not really because you see who wants to be the guy, or gal, who stands up and says "I really want to keep the invert because it gives me a chance to beat you fast guys once in awhile, plus it puts on a better show for the fans". Seriously now, when is the last time that you heard a driver say that out loud? But it's the truth.

Other areas of driver disagreement would be which class gets to run first, who packs the track, and on and on and on. I'm not saying that a promoter shouldn't listen to the drivers, but drivers need to understand this......I love you all because you spend the money and put in the hard work to put on the show for all of us fans every race night.....but y'all rarely if ever truly agree on much. And that's the truth.

All of the memes on Facebook poking fun at Kyle Busch winning his 200th NASCAR race yesterday need to stop. Is he really comparing himself to Richard Petty? I hope not because it is two completely different eras. Those who want to diminish his accomplishment need to realize that the breadth of competition that Petty raced against was nowhere as deep as it is now, and for Kyle's fans to equate 200 wins across three divisions to what Petty did is a little off-putting as well. I am glad that it was a Cup race win that got Kyle to the 200 mark though and it will be interesting to see if he cuts back on his Xfinity series and Truck racing now that he has reached this milestone. The King is still "The King" and Kyle Busch is a pretty damn good driver in his own right as well, he should be congratulated on his achievement.

The sad thing was the overhead camera shots of the stands at Fontana on Sunday where except for the center section there were twice as many empty seats as there were full ones. Other than their flagship events NASCAR has a big problem with attendance right now and I am not sure how they solve it. I have said for years that they were being over-exposed with practice and qualifying being televised live and of course they priced themselves out of the budget of the average fans. Once the horse is out the barn though it is hard to pull it back in. Short track racing needs to take heed and not go down the same path.

I attended the 34 Raceway Car Show yesterday that drew around 25 cars and was held at the Deery Brothers dealership in West Burlington. It was a good show with some nice looking cars and there was a nice sized crowd that filed through over the six hour period. When I called my colleague Danny Rosencrans on the way home to discuss our possible travel plans in the coming weeks, we also talked about how car shows just don't get the participation that they once did, and then it dawned on me. Could it be that the drawback of the shopping mall is the reason why you don't see 40 or 50 cars at a car show anymore? Twenty years ago you had to reserve your spot ahead of time just to get your car on display in Westland Mall for the 34 Raceway show and while a large crowd shuffled through to look at the beautiful new rides for the upcoming season, many of the drivers and their friends would be down at Diamond Dave's enjoying a cold one and watching NASCAR on the television nestled up in the corner.

Diamond Dave's has been shuttered for several years now, along with many of the other stores in the Mall making it just as likely to draw in a good crowd at the local car dealership with less the hassle.

Oh well, the car show is in the book, it is now time to see them on the track and I hope to see you soon somewhere on the Back Stretch!