This will most likely be the final Notebook entry for 2019, but continue to check in on the Back Stretch as we still have the Cumulative All Iowa Points for four more divisions to release over the final four days of the year.
All of this warm weather over Christmas really has me itching to go racing and when you look at the first draft of the Positively Racing Specials Calendar you can see that we are not far away from that happening......as long as you don't mind a road trip to the south! With both of my boys living in Dallas I might just have to find a way to make it down there in February to catch at least one night of the Sniper Speed Lone Star IMCA Stock Car Tour.
So remember back on Halloween when it snowed three inches causing the Turkey Dash at Columbus Junction to be canceled? How many "experts" then pontificated something to the extent of "well it is stupid to schedule a race so late in the year here in Iowa" They were probably the same people that were going around on Christmas saying "we should be racing this week," proving once again that you just never know what the weather is going to give you. But it is much easier to have a race scheduled and then cancel it than to have no race scheduled and then try to run one.
Back to that specials calendar for a moment, I want to thank Nathan Stephens who is a frequent poster on the 4m.net Dirt Late Models forum as he has started a thread that grows each time a track releases its 2020 schedule making it real easy for me to keep up at this point.
A couple of weeks ago we talked about the return of racing at the Outlaw Motor Speedway south of Muskogee, Oklahoma, and the fact that they will have free grandstand admission throughout the 2020 season. In that entry I mentioned the Thunderbird Speedway in Muskogee and how this might lead to another example of my Net Zero Theory. It was just one week later that Thunderbird announced that it would not be racing weekly in 2020. They did note that they would be building a quarter-mile inside of the big half-mile oval and that once that is completed they may run some special events, so we will see how that progresses.
At this point though it looks like Oklahoma might not be able to maintain Net Zero status as the Elk City Raceway closed near the end of 2019 and things are not looking good for the Longdale Speedway in 2020. This was a track that was built after the track in Enid closed down and after struggling for a couple of seasons Longdale closed in 2018. So then Enid came back to life to run a specials only schedule that showed enough success that Longdale tried to make a go of it again in 2019. However, yesterday Longdale posted the following on Facebook. "Hopes grow dim for a 2020 race season at the Longdale Speedway, mostly due to our primary sponsors are oil and gas dependent and with the decline of oilfield activity in the area, funds are just not available."
It was announced last week that the Baer Field Motorsports Park, a paved oval in Fort Wayne, Indiana, will not be racing in 2020 as the promoter's lease will not be renewed and the owner will put the property up for sale. If somebody buys the place and wants to run it, then it could come back to action, but for now things do not look good.
On the plus side Dean & Lynette Wilkerson have acquired the Winston Speedway in Rothbury Michigan with plans to bring weekly racing back to the facility. I believe that the track had four nights on the schedule last year.
Closer to home it was announced on December 20th that Mick Trier's retirement would be short-lived as he will be the new promoter at the Independence Motor Speedway in 2020. Justin Temeyer will serve as the Race Director with a schedule starting with a practice on April 11th running through a Season Championship on August 8th.
With Kevin Feller announced earlier as the new Promoter in Maquoketa I believe that only leaves Dubuque out there as a question mark for now in 2020 as far as eastern Iowa tracks are concerned. Out west the Clay County Fair Speedway in Spencer announced that they will cut back to six races in 2020. This of course touched off a firestorm of Comments on Facebook making me again question the intelligence of several people. You see that is the great thing about Facebook when compared to the old days the Anonymous Weasel Posters (AWP's) on race forums as now you can actually identify who is being short-sighted and selfish, and who is actually thinking about things from a "big picture" standpoint.
I am not going to go searching right now, but I do believe that I questioned here just how this would all work when Algona moved to Thursdays, Worthington started racing weekly again and Spencer wanted to give weekly racing a try. Sometimes there can be too much racing in a geographical region which is why the "positive" side of the Net Zero Theory does not often work out.
Is there a more polarizing event in racing right now than the Gateway Dirt Nationals? I went for one night each of the first three years and I stayed home this year choosing instead to watch the highlights the next day on Dirt On Dirt. I was happy with that decision as I was able to see all of the great Late Model racing in about fifteen minutes of viewing time each day. There is no question, when the green flag is out this show is a blast and if you are one of those fans that enjoys the pomp and circumstance of the flashy pre-race introductions then that just adds to the enjoyment as well. As for me, it was just too much down time and too long of a day for me to consider the whole experience enjoyable and that is why I stayed home. It is not for me, but that doesn't say that it isn't for you! In fact, I had several people ask me if I was going this year and I would tell each and every one of them, "if you haven't been there before, you absolutely must give it a try!" For Positively Racing coverage from the Dome check in with Danny at "Racin' Down The Road" and with Ed in "One Fan's Travels". I know that Brian Neal was in attendance as well, but has not filed a report in "Midwest Racing News"
While the Holiday season is joyous, it can be very sad as well especially when we lose members of our racing friends and family. Arriving early at 34 Raceway and Donnellson will never be the same with the loss of Carolyn Seibert, Archie Allen and Marvin Brockett. The three of them were fatally injured a week ago when a drunk driver ran a stop sign and hit their vehicle as they were returning home from doing some line dancing in Canton, Illinois. Carolyn's obituary reads "She was a racing fanatic! She loved all types of cars and was well known as the unofficial greeter at 34 Raceway as part of the "Turn 4 Crew". Racing was everything to her and she would plan visits around her trips to Donnellson Racetrack on Friday nights, 34 Raceway on Saturday nights and Quincy Raceway on Sunday." She was always such a joy to speak with and I never truly realized how much she did for others until now. Rest in Peace and have your pick of tracks to attend in heaven!
Also this week we lost the former voice of the Lee County Speedway in Donnellson, Bob Lamm, who gave life to the phrase "Saturday Night Thunder In The Heartland". Bob started out racing his own Street Stock back in the 1980's and after he landed upside down on the wall at Eldon my father, Larry bought him a new car and so began the "Broeg Racing" team. Lamm would drive the #105 for a couple of seasons before turning the wheel over to crew chief John Vantiger and when Lynn Richard and Mike Barton took over the promotion of the Lee County Speedway Lamm brought his enthusiastic and raspy voice to the dirt track crowd. He had previously worked as the P.A. announcer for the Iowa Wesleyan Tigers football team back in the glory days when Hal Mumme was the head coach, Mike Leach was an assistant and Dana Holgorson was a wide receiver during the birth of the Air Raid offense. It was always entertaining listening to "Pup" on the microphone and I enjoyed working with him as well on several occasions. He will be missed by all who knew him.
That's it for today's Notebook, let's go Hawkeyes and if you are drinking on New Years Eve, or anytime for that matter, please have a designated driver.
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