Wow, what a change n the weather! On Thursday night Christine and I enjoyed dinner on the deck of The Drake restaurant right next to the Mississippi River in Burlington and on Friday the temperature dropped nearly forty degrees. With that sharp drop accurately in the forecast both events in the region, the Fall Futurity at the Hamilton County Speedway in Webster City and the Calvin Meyer Memorial at the Scotland County Speedway in Memphis, were called off earlier in the week saving all of us diehards a night or two of freezing our butts off in the stands. Thank you Todd Staley and Mike Van Genderen!
This is actually our second bout of cold weather here in October so that should bode well for the next few weeks as the weather pattern has a tendency to swing back and forth this time of year. With this weekend wiped out that means that there are just two events remaining at All Iowa Points paying tracks with the championship in two divisions still up for grabs. In the battle of the Murty's, Dallon's feature wins at the I-80 Speedway and at the Southern Iowa Speedway over the past two weekends broke the tie with his father Damon and now Dad would have to win at both Shiverfest in Donnellson and The Turkey Dash at Columbus Junction, without having Dallon in the top five at either event, to climb back into that tie. Never before in the fifty-four year history of the All Iowa Points have we had a father and son finish one-two in the final standings and, if they should happen to tie for the championship, I can virtually guarantee you that it would never happen again before The Green New Deal brings down the curtain on short track racing. I think that Joe clarified on Friday that it wouldn't be until 2050 now, so that's good, right?
In the Four Cylinder division there are still four drivers that have a shot at earning their first All Iowa Points title, but for all four it will require a road trip or two and of course one or two top five finishes to earn it. Coming into October southwest Iowa driver Chris Vannausdle appeared to have the best shot at winning the title with two nights of racing at his home track in Corning, but that turned out to be a miserable weekend for him when he was involved in accidents on both nights. Meanwhile, up in Webster City that weekend, Jade Lange's runner-up finish on Friday night pulled him into a tie with Vannausdle with a Saturday show perhaps giving him the lead, but a DNF put a disappointing end to the Humboldt driver's weekend. Neither driver made an appearance at Oskaloosa last weekend so they remain tied at the top of the Four Cylinder standings and if they, and the other two contenders stay at home over the next two weekends, then they will share the title as we do not use tie breakers. But where would the fun be in that?
Spencer's Kaytee DeVries sits six points behind the lead duo so she would need to make two road trips to catch or overtake those two and become only the second female driver to win an All Iowa Points championship. Kimberly Abbott was the 2016 Four Cylinder Champion and Kaytee's husband Jay DeVries was the 2015 champion so of course that would be another landmark title if Kaytee could close the deal as we will likely never see another husband and wife duo win All Iowa Points championships before the end of fossil fuels. The driver who sat at the top of the standings for most of the season, Ryan Bryant from Mason City, also has a shot at the championship just eight points back meaning that he would need to finish in the top three at Shiverfest to still have a chance to steal the championship at the Turkey Dash.
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| Jade Lange's Car #43 |
Do these drivers even know about their potential All Iowa Points championship? Probably not, so if you are reading this and know one of them, send them the link to this story. No, it doesn't pay anything to win the title, it is all for pride and something to add to your resume in order to obtain more sponsorship dollars in the future. And does it really mean anything to have an All Iowa Points championship on your resume? Well it sure didn't hurt any that one of the new National Dirt Late Model Hall of Fame inductees Jeff Aikey had the 2003 All Iowa Points Late Model championship listed as one of his many accomplishments. Just the same as other NDLM Hall of Famers Verlin Eaker, Ed Sanger, Curt Hansen, Gary Webb, Tom Hearst, Ken Walton, Roger Dolan, Ray Guss Jr. and Joe Kosiski who also had their All Iowa Points championships listed in their accomplishments.
A big congratulations to Jeff Aikey for being in the Hall of Fame Class of 2021! Jeff was also the All Iowa Points Champion in 1984 in the Sportsman division.
Another cancellation announcement that came down this week should have been no surprise when the Gateway Dirt Nationals fell to the virus for 2020. Yes, we have been racing relatively safely over the past four months, but those have been at outdoor venues that are not located within the city limits of a large metro area. The standards that the city of St. Louis would have made the event live up to would have been too much and so just like many other major events in 2020, we will just have to accept a year off and hope that it can resume in 2021. I would say that this announcement does not bode well for the Chili Bowl in 2021, but hopefully they can figure out a way to still run the mid-winter event. Masks would probably be recommended anyway for six night of fumes and dust in the Tulsa Expo Center where the "Chili Bowl Flu" has a reputation of its own.
While some of you may feel that this will all come to an end on November 3rd, I think that it will be mid-summer of 2021 before things can start to head back to normal if, and only if, a safe and effective vaccine is in broad distribution.
As I wrote here back in April, I have gone to, and still plan on going to races without fear during the COVID crisis and so far so good. As far as I know there has not been any racing event, other than perhaps the event that replaced the Nationals at Knoxville, that has been identified as a "spreader event" and it has been great for all of us to have a choice of whether or not we wanted to attend a race in person. Two weeks ago my wife and I made the trip up to La Crosse for a weekend of autumn sightseeing along with a couple of nights of Octoberfest racing on the pavement at the La Crosse Fairgrounds Speedway and with absolutely perfect weather for the second weekend of October the Friday night crowd was huge! In order to find an open area to sit we had to go all the way down to the front two rows at the exit of turn four and any of you that know me will know that even in normal times, sitting down low at the exit of turn four is not an ideal spot for me just for my own safety considerations. We enjoyed three feature races, one of them having a multi-car pileup directly in front of us at the start, before heading for the exits and when I figured that the crowd would be even bigger on Saturday night I suggested to Christine that instead of going racing we would go out for dinner downtown and do a walking tour with the Ghosts of LaCrosse. I am sure that she had thought that I had gone insane because I would have NEVER made such a switch at any other time, but this would be the third event this season where I chose to stay away from the race track knowing that the grandstands would be full.
It was my CHOICE and I just hope that as we head into 2021 that we still have the opportunity to make a choice rather than what we experienced in April and May of this past season. Renting an RV and spending the entire Octoberfest Race Weekend on the fairgrounds is still on my bucket list!!
Kyle Larson will be the 2020 All Iowa Points Champion in the 410 sprint Car division. Hard to believe that would have happened as you were looking at the upcoming season back in March and Larson made the news in two big ways this past week. First is his reinstatement to NASCAR that at this point appears to open the door for Larson to be named the driver of the Hendrick Racing #88 car for 2021. The other was his announcement that he would be folding his World of Outlaws team at the end of the season, the #2 that has been driven by Carson Macedo the past two years. Yes, Kyle Larson won a ton of short track races in 2020, but the closing of his Sprint Car team is proof that winning a bunch of dirt track races comes nowhere close to netting you as much income as what driving a Cup car does. Here's hoping that 2021 brings continued success on a much bigger stage for arguably the best and most versatile race car driver ever.
I will summarize my 2020 season another month from now, but as it stands now I will only come up about eight events less than what I have been able to attend over the past several seasons. All of those would have come during that April/May timeframe and fortunately, once we were able to go racing the rainouts have been few and far between. In my unscientific observations I would say that car counts have been up in general and at most of the races that I have attended the crowd has been larger than I had expected. I hope that this has been the case for promoters as it has been a season where they were not competing with new movies, small town festivals, kids sports activities for the most part, minor league baseball, etc. In most areas the local dirt track was really the only entertainment option available and I am hoping that the sport has hooked some new fans again for 2021 and beyond.
An event that is obviously close to my heart is coming up next Saturday, October 31st, with the annual Shiverfest at the Pepsi Lee County Speedway in Donnellson. This has always been more than just a racing event and while they won't be able to do the hayrack rides though the pits for the kids, they will be able to continue the traditional trick-or-treating with the drivers with extra safety precautions in place. And of course, if you choose to not have your kids go down to the infield to meet with the drivers, they will have some candy and treats packaged up and ready to pass out at the Junior Fan Club booth. It is great to have choices! As of right now the extended forecast looks good for next Saturday so hopefully I will see you down in Donnellson.
Then the following Saturday, November 7th, promoter Larry Richardson and everybody at the CJ Speedway will give The Turkey Dash another try. This will be the fourth time that this race has been on the schedule and while the first one was able to run off under cold and damp conditions, the other two have been weathered out completely. They are due for some good weather this time around and if the skies are clear and the temperatures are comfortable for early November I am hoping that drivers and fans alike will support this event! Mark it on your calendar as it will be the final race in state of Iowa for the 2020 season.
If the weather is good on the weekend of the 14th I will be looking for someplace to go within reason. I thought that the Old 71 Speedway in Butler, Missouri, would be my destination that weekend, but they announced this week that due to the weather getting colder, tonight's race would be the third and final one of their recent reopening.
The final race on my 2020 schedule is the annual Turkey Bowl at the Springfield Raceway and I saw this week that they are changing up the format for this year's event making it a two-day show on Friday and Saturday November 20th and 21st. Heat races for the Midwest Mods, Legend Cars and B-Mods will be run on Friday night along with an open practice session. Then, on Saturday those divisions will have their B-Mains and features while the Modifieds and Late Models will run a full program. While I would love to see the heat races for the B-Mods since that division features some of the best racers in the Midwest, that format definitely works for me and I have my fingers crossed hoping for good weather for our annual trip to Springfield.
I haven't given up on the 2020 racing season yet, and I hope that you are also planning to get out to the rack at least one more time before winter sets in. Look for me out on the Back Stretch!
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