Time to dust off the ol' Notebook and get some content out there before you all find somewhere else to get your racing news!
For example, Pella's Bob Eschliman launched the Iowa Racing News site back in January and he is poised to be a very busy man given the pace that he has been going in sharing Iowa related racing news thus far. I think it is cool that he is also including the Figure 8 tracks in the state, although the information that he will provide will only be as good as what he can get from from them! It's a very nice website, give it a look and place a bookmark.
Speaking of trying to get information out of a race track, I have politely been asking the Poplar Bluff Motorsports Park in the bootheel of Missouri to share their results after the track was reopened two years ago. Not only do I want the results to include in my Missouri state point standings, but I have a connection to the place since Morgan and I attended the first event ever held there back in the 1990's (or early 2000's, somewhere in there) so it is just nice to see how it is doing in its re-birth. The people running the place do a great job on Facebook of promoting each event, but they seem to forget the back end part of sharing the results so once again I asked them if they could at the very least take a picture of their pay sheets and post them. It took a few days, but late results are better than no results, and on Wednesday night they posted a picture of the pay sheets from last Saturday's show that featured the 410 Winged Sprint Cars. Kyle Bellm took the win in a car #50K and I am going to assume that this would be the Midland Performance ride owned by Scott Bonar out of Burlington since Kyle has been one of his "guest drivers" in the past.
It has been interesting to see what people have had to say about The Bristol Dirt Nationals and I can tell you that it has made up my mind on something, more on that in a minute. The six day mega event was hampered by rain, something that should not have been a surprise in the mountains of east Tennessee during mid-March, but the promotional team did their best to make decisions on the fly and I was impressed with just how much they were still able to complete. It was truly a herculean effort and I am glad that I spent the $39.95 to watch on XR. Friends of mine who made the trip out were pleased with what they saw, for the most part, and Positively Racing's Danny Rosencrans gave a nice write up of his experience.
Unfortunately two issues will likely standout in the memories of those who watched longer than all of the good racing that was had when the weather cooperated. I was stunned by the different videos that I have seen of the Modified crash on the back stretch. On his YouTube video Michigan driver Gavin Hunyady said that the incident started when a couple of drivers were still jockeying for position coming to the restart, became tangled together and stopped on the back stretch. Somehow this was not communicated to race control as the green flag waved and the field came thundering out of turn two at speed with the two cars still sitting on the back stretch. The leaders were able to miss them, but with less visibility for the drivers behind them several cars slammed into the mix. Two drivers were taken to the hospital, but thank God that their injuries were not life threatening in this incredible mishap. In the video Hunyady was able to make a quick move to the left to avoid full contact with a stopped car, but at the speed he was going it still sheared off the right front of his Modified.
The other down moment came with the disqualification of Hunter Anthony, the apparent winner of the $2,000 top prize in the Hornet feature. Apparently several track officials reported that Anthony was not wearing gloves, a safety rule requirement that was clearly stated. It is my hope though that all of these officials reported that during the final green flag segment of the race, because if they saw him racing without gloves and a caution waved, they should have pulled him off the track at that moment. What good is enforcing a safety rule after the race, and the event is over? It was though a nice windfall for Iowa's Jake Benischek who came from the ninth row to take home the top prize.
As I said before though, the event overall had to be considered a success despite all of the challenges, but as usual all of the "subject matter experts" on social media were quick to offer their alternative decisions that would have better suited them or were just outright nasty in their comments. Being friends with several of the people who were involved with putting this show on, all of the negativity irritated me to the point where I have made the decision that I will never promote a race again in my life. Nobody who is working their tails off to put on the best show possible should have to endure this and I know that I don't have the personality to handle it since we are now at a point where a race night has to have 70 degree weather, no wind, perfect track conditions, start on time, end quick and have every race decided at the wire in order to keep some putz from complaining about something.
My inner Myron Pembleton would come out and frankly more promoters need to start handling some of these idiots in that manner. I know that if I had a person that was constantly bashing my track on Facebook, I would take care of it by banning that individual from attending. They might argue that I was infringing upon their Freedom of Speech, but running a race track is a business and every business has the right to deny service to somebody who is detrimental to the operation of that business. And besides, if you are so unhappy with a certain race track, there are plenty of others that you can attend instead in our region!
So now that I will no longer promote them myself, there are two concepts that I would be happy to share with any promoters who might be interested in listening to the ramblings of an ever older guy who has been around this sport for awhile. One is a No Risk Autumn Sunday Series and the other is the Open Trailer Nationals.
Warren, we can talk about both concepts the next time that we see each other at the track which I hope will be soon!
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| A little too much moisture in Memphis |
As you can see there are still several events in the region that will try to run this weekend with the LaSalle Speedway now being my target for Friday night. Saturday night I will be a good uncle and go watch my niece perform with the show choir at their annual Dessert Theater, but some of the options that I had considered were The King of America event at Humboldt, the World of Outlaws at Lake Ozark, March Madness at Springfield, the weekly opener at I-35 Winston and the return of racing to the big half-mile Thunderbird Speedway in Muskogee. One note on that race in Muskogee, the local Tourism Board is stepping up to pay the pit pass for all drivers on both Friday and Saturday night. Now isn't that cool?
My Dessert Theater decision is backed up by a busy week ahead with Frostbuster dates at Stuart on Tuesday, Vinton on Wednesday and Independence on Thursday. Then it will be the USMTS vs. UMP Modified challenge at 34 Raceway in Burlington on Friday and Saturday.
The 2021 racing season is ready to roll here in the upper Midwest and I hope to see you again soon on the Back Stretch!
Thursday afternoon update: While watching the first press conference that I have ever seen where only "friendly" reporters were called upon and where answers/talking points were being read from a briefing book, the LaSalle Speedway announced that this weekend Thaw Brawl has been postponed until May 7th and 8th. That makes Tuesday's Frostbuster at Stuart my next target!
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