The 300 and More On a Wednesday

Much like King Leonidas leading his 300 Spartans into battle against Xerxes and his invading army of more than 300,000 warriors, track owner Roger Simon is taking on the uphill battle of keeping racing alive at the Farley Speedway. Okay, my mistake, it is now called the 300 Raceway that is located in Farley and I do have to admit that this announcement yesterday came as a complete surprise to me as I had not been fed a single rumor about it from my numerous sources.

There are many questions yet to be answered, but from the posts on the track's Facebook page yesterday we know that there will be a Season Opener on Friday May 10th with an interesting purse structure for the three divisions in action; Late Models, Modifieds and Sport Mods. IMCA rules will apply and there will be a $75 Entry Fee for the Late Models, while the Modifieds and Sport Mods will pay a $25 Entry Fee. The Late Model and Modified purse structures are the same from top to bottom though each paying $1,500-to-win, $160 for tenth, $100 for 19th and $75 for 24th, noteworthy that there is a pay difference for each position. The Sport Mods will pay $750-to-win and you can check out the full purse on Facebook.

The Lucas Oil Late Model Dirt Series, as previously scheduled, will be at the track on May 17th and we are also told to mark our calendars for September 20th and 21st for the 42nd Annual Yankee Dirt Classic something that I am sure will catch the attention of area tracks that have already scheduled special events for that weekend. The plan for what happens at 300 Raceway in between the two weeks in May and the return of the YDC remains to be seen, but you can bet that it will have everybody in the area talking and speculating once again.

I need to see what happened with my sources!

While we covered the Spring Extravaganza at the Lee County Speedway this past weekend our Positively Racing colleague Ed Reichert made the long trip from Spooner, Wisconsin, to Humboldt, Kansas, for the big doubleheader event at the Humboldt Speedway. Make sure that you check out Ed's coverage of The King of America for the Modifieds won by Ricky Thornton Jr., and the Battle at the Bullring for the B-Mods won by Iowan Jared Timmerman at his blog "One Fan's Travels".

Thornton winning $12,000 was not necessarily a surprise, although it was just his eighth career win with the USMTS. What did catch my eye though was the fact that Kenny Wallace finished fifth in the finale after starting from the twelfth row. Reading Ed's account of the night reveals that attrition had a lot to do with that, but I still found it to be an impressive performance in what might have been Wallace's first attempt at running with the nation's premier touring series for the Modifieds. However, from a video that Kenny posted on Facebook this week revealing all of the changes that he had to make to his UMP car in order to be legal for this event, it might also be his last.

I agree with his premise, it is a shame that there are such differences in rules for the Modified class and it is not just between USMTS and UMP. Throw in IMCA, WISSOTA, USRA weekly and others and similar to the Late Models there are actually multiple divisions across the country. Having them all get together on one set of rules sounds easy, but it isn't. And in fact I can probably go as far as to predict that it will never happen in my lifetime.

In the B-Mods it was big win for Norwalk's Jared Timmerman who had four "state champions" finish right behind him. Runner-up Jackie Dalton was the All Missouri Modified Champion of 2016 and 2017, third-place finisher Ryan Gillmore was the All Missouri Limited Modified Champion in 2016 and 2017, the defending All Iowa Points Limited Modified champ Cody Thompson took fourth and fifth went to four-time All Missouri Limited Modified champion J.C. Morton. Talk about beating the best, Jared Timmerman did just that to win the Battle at the Bullring.

The "thrilling finish" of this past weekend happened at the finale of the four race Turnpike Challenge for the Lucas Oil POWRi National Midget League. Coming to the checkered flag on Sunday night at Tulsa's Port City Raceway Jonathan Beason was digging down low while Christopher Bell was charging off the cushion of turn four. As the two crossed the finish line nearly side-by-side, contact sent Bell for a tumble as Beason scored the win. SpeedShiftTV has a highlight reel of it out there somewhere so if you come across it, make a click and check it out.

Knoxville, Iowa's, Riley Goodno was the feature winner in the Micro Sprint division at Port City. Keep an eye on that name for future success at his hometown track.

Looks like the Webmistress is a couple of updates behind on the Specials schedule and as always we encourage you to check with the track before making any trips. Weather, both lingering and expected, is already taking down events for the coming weekend as the USRA Frostbusters that were scheduled for Salina, Kansas, and Winston, Missouri, have been canceled and will not be rescheduled.

We are keeping our fingers crossed for Saturday's opener for the Sprint Invaders at 34 Raceway and I know that many Late Model fans are looking to head to LaSalle for the Thaw Brawl this weekend. I noticed this morning that the heavier rain amounts that are forecast have shifted more to the south, so hopefully both events will be run as planned.

This just in, LaSalle's Thaw Brawl has been rescheduled to a Saturday and Sunday event with both shows getting started in the afternoon.

The Frostbreaker originally scheduled for this Sunday March 31st at the Quincy Raceways has been canceled.

Looking ahead to next week, the weather over the next two days will likely tell the story on the IMCA Frostbusters as well with the possibility that the four night swing might get pushed out another week. Keep an eye out for any announcements and hopefully we will simply see a confirmation that the shows are on as planned! After the good racing that I saw this past weekend, I am itching to get back out to the track and see more of my friends on the Back Stretch.