Cha Cha Cha Changes

Just over a week ago I wrote about my race plans for the next two weeks and let's just say that the weather made everyone of those plans go by the wayside. So it is time to make some Changes!

First of all a correction from last week's Notebook. The #50K that Kyle Bellm drove to victory at Poplar Bluff was not the Midland Performance car owned by Burlington's Scott Bonar, but it was a car that did have some ties to Midland. I ran into Matt Rogerson at The Som in Burlington on Wednesday night, a great place to eat and drink if you are in town for one of the many specials this season at 34 Raceway, and he told me that the car is owned by someone out of Sikeston, Missouri, who had purchased some items from Midland and that the tail tank was from the Midland 50 team. So once again proving that Midland Performance in Burlington keeps open wheel racing alive throughout our region!

After both Memphis and LaSalle were forced to cancel last weekend, my sights were set on the first three Frostbusters and the USMTS vs. UMP challenge at 34 Raceway to make it a five race swing! Word came on Sunday though that the track at 34 Raceway would not yet be ready for racing on April 2nd and 3rd so that event was then moved to the Hamilton County Speedway in Webster City leaving me with nothing within a three hour drive to go to on Saturday......at least at that time.

Tuesday's weather looked brutal at Stuart so I chose to stay home and watch it from the comfort of my own home since my first month of XR was still active from my purchase of Bristol. As always the action at Stuart was fantastic highlighted by Cayden Carter executing a perfect slider on Clay Money in turns three and four of the final lap to take the Modified feature win.

Wednesday's Frostbuster at Vinton was moved to Sunday April 4th, and the cold temperatures were just too much for the Independence Motor Speedway to hold their race on Thursday so that event was canceled. As all of this played out mid-week I checked the special events Calendar at Positively Racing and after seeing the weather forecast for the weekend in Omaha I hatched my plan to lure my wife into going to Saturday night's race at the I-80 Speedway featuring the Malvern Bank SLMR Late Models and the Malvern Bank 360 Sprint Cars by telling her that we will spend the day at the zoo before going to the track.

My wife will agree to almost anything if a trip to the zoo is included.

Since I will have the IMCA Frostbuster at Marshalltown to watch later with my Floracing subscription we will instead make the trip to Omaha this evening with a stop at my favorite pizza place, Zipp's Pizzaria in Adair for dinner before staying in Omaha to get an early start at the zoo. 

Zipp says that we need to try the Crab Rangoon (pictured) and the Reuben pizza

Just as they did last November when the weather forecast was favorable, the Darkside boys Timmy Current and Ryan Duhme have quickly put together a night of racing at the Davenport Speedway for this Saturday April 3rd. Had I not already hatched the Zoo and I-80 plan I would have been headed for Davenport, but as it turns out this race will also be streamed live on XR so I will still be able to watch the rebroadcast of it at a later time!

Gotta love all of these subscription service Pay Per Views, you can go eat pizza or visit another track that isn't on your subscription and still not miss a thing!

My ultimate goal is to be able to get to the Benton County Speedway on Sunday night for their rescheduled Frostbuster, but someone has already made it clear that I will first have to return some precious cargo to Mt. Pleasant before being able to do that as there is no zoo in or around Vinton.

The weather looks great for this weekend so get out to a track of your choice and let's get the 2021 season underway in earnest! I have big plans for next week as well, but for now I am going to keep them to myself so that I don't have to explain any cha cha cha changes here on the Back Stretch.