Have
you ever sat in the stands at a racetrack and just knew that the racing action
was going to be cut short by rain? That was the situation Saturday night as we
took our seats during hot laps at 34 Raceway near Burlington. The grandstands
there face the southwest so on this night, not only did you have a prime view
of the 3/8-mile oval, but you were also able to watch the ominous dark clouds
moving ever closer to the speedway.
My
sprint car guru, Kurt Moon, drove us down despite the fact that there was a 70%
chance of thunderstorms and as we watched hot laps we both felt that we would
be lucky to get the Ideal Ready Mix Sprint Invader heat races in before the
rains came. The twenty-eight-car field was split into four qualifying races and
as Matt Rogerson, Jeff Mitrisin, Matt Sutton and Nick Eastin earned victories,
the clouds closed in and lightning began to strike to the west. It sprinkled a
couple of times during the IMCA Modified heats, but stopped while Bobby Hawks
won the sprint shake-up dash. It started to look like the storm would pass to
the south of us and strokes of lightning now flashed beyond turns three and
four, but as the Sprint Invader B-Main took the track it started to rain a
little harder.
With
the track already dried out from the strong easterly winds, and with ten sprint
cars racing around it, the rain was actually worked into the track and appeared
to widen the racing grooves as Randy Plath picked up the victory and a transfer
into the night’s A-Main.
That
was it, with still more lightning off to the west and a steady rain falling we
figured that the night would soon come to a disappointing end. The Hobby Stock
heats were next on the track and they kept the moisture worked in until finally
it stopped falling from the sky just in time for the twenty-five-lap Sprint
Invader main event. Matt Rogerson, who was subbing tonight for Bobby Mincer who
had another commitment, started on the pole alongside Manny Rockhold and
Rogerson moved to the early lead. Hawks, who had been fast all night, used the
cushion in three and four to slip past Rogerson for the lead on lap three, but
Matt came right back on the bottom of turn two to regain the advantage down the
back straightaway. To the complete enjoyment of the crowd this routine played
out again and again over the next ten laps as Hawks was scored the leader on
lap six and seven only to have Rogerson take it back until lap twelve.
At
the mid-point of the race Hawks was able to take the lead once again from
Rogerson on the high side of three and four and this time he was able to get to
the bottom and shut the door on Matt in turn one. With five laps remaining the
Jacksonville, Illinois, driver had what appeared to be a comfortable advantage
with some slower traffic just ahead. That was all Rogerson needed in order to
close the gap and with just three laps to go the leader went back up to the top
side to try to pass a slower car and Rogerson shot by on the bottom and cruised
in for the popular victory. When Hawks again went high in turn two Jeff Mitrisin,
Matt Sutton and Korey Weyant were able to move past as well relegating Hawks to
a disappointing fifth place finish. Certainly not the result that he was
looking for, but it is my bet that Bobby Hawks will be among the contenders for
the 2006 Sprint Invader championship.
As
the lightning increased in intensity and continued to move closer, the Modified
feature was next on the track and, after three straight cautions on the opening
lap, they finally settled into racing with Adam Davis out front. The leaders
had taken the white flag and were on the backstretch for the final time when
one of the backmarkers spun in turn four. Track rules call for a
green-white-checker finish and on the restart the second and third place cars
of Josh Foster and Bill Roberts tangled in turn two for another caution and by
now the wind was howling at about thirty miles an hour and the lightning seemed
closer than ever. We decided that we had pressed our luck long enough and
headed for the car assuming that Davis would hold on for the victory. I still
have no idea how this show got in, but after seeing a twenty-five-lap sprint
car race that had seven lead changes in it, we were thankful that it did.
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| Here's one of Bobby that I picked off of his Facebook page. Still looks a lot like this even 34 years later |
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| Matt Rogerson in his own car in 2009 |
Invader
Notes…..If you’re Bobby Mincer and you know that you have to miss a scheduled
show at 34 Raceway, who better to ask to sub for you than Matt Rogerson?
Rogerson won three out of four Sprint Invader shows that were held here last
season and with tonight’s win made it four of the last five. Don’t be surprised
if he finds a ride for the next Invader show scheduled here on July 3rd……Mitrisin,
driving Steve Wares’ #10, Rager Phillips and Stevie Walsh were the only
Knoxville area based drivers who made the trip for Saturday’s show, possibly
due to the dire weather forecast…..Three rookies were in the field including
Dan Avery, Seth Wilke and Matt Krieger. Wilke is a sixteen-year-old who is
making the move up from go-karts and he looked competitive before his motor
went sour in the B-Main. Krieger has run in several of Burlington’s stock car
divisions over the past few years and actually found his sprint car on eBay and
had to go to Ohio to pick it up. It was painted solid blue with no lettering or
numbers, but he stayed smooth and worked his way into the top four in his heat
race to qualify for the main event where he finished twentieth after retiring
early…..The Sprint Invaders will be at Donnellson this Friday night, April 21st
and then will run the Spoon River Speedway in Canton for the DQ Classic on
Sunday the 23rd……Thanks to Terry and Jenni Hoenig and their entire
crew for running an efficient show with the threat of rain from the time they
opened the gate!
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