My 2021 racing season finished where it started, over five hours away from home and despite taking off nearly the entire month of October for some vacation time and other sports activities I was able to make it to 62 nights of racing at 24 different tracks in four states this season. Just think, thirty years ago it was tough to find a race to go to in the Upper Midwest once the calendar turned from September to October. Now in this day and age there are multiple events to choose from each week, including some Thursday night shows and now even November offers more than a few options!
Really that is no surprise though as we have seen a noticeable shift in the climate in this region where March and April seem to be colder and wetter than they have been in the past while the Fall season stays milder and drier. Promoters appear to be taking notice as while I have yet to get started on compiling the 2022 schedules that you will find on the Calendar page at Positively Racing, the schedules that I have seen released thus far all appear to be starting later than what they have been. So far, the options for March and early April are fewer than we have seen in recent past and that is because most of those events have either been wiped out due to wet conditions, cold temperatures or both.
Speaking of compiling those schedules, one of the reasons that I wait a bit is because it seems like there is a new "race" out there to get a schedule released even though it may end up being much different by the time the actual season rolls around. For example, I just saw the release of a National Sprint Car series schedule today with the subtitle "57 Events and Counting". If you know that you still have events to add then why not wait until you have them confirmed to release the schedule? From having run a series in the past I know that there are almost always going to be additions, subtractions or changes made along the way, but I would never release a schedule knowing that I had more to add to it at that point.
It is the same with a track that wants to put out a "preliminary schedule for 2022" in October or November of 2021. If you as a promoter do that, you had better make sure that you aren't adding or subtracting race nights a few months later because a lot of drivers then set their family vacations or activities based upon the "preliminary schedule". I have heard several stories from drivers over the past few years who ended up missing a points race due to a family trip that was scheduled because the track was originally going to not be running their class that night, but later added them in. But I digress....
My 2021 season got underway on March 6th at the Springfield Raceway where I saw my first "surprise" winner as well. It would be my first of three visits to Jerry Hoffman's quick quarter-mile in the southwest corner of Missouri, the final one coming on November 20th for the annual Turkey Bowl that just keeps getting bigger each year.
For the second year in a row 34 Raceway is where I spent the most nights in 2021, but they have to share that title this time with the Knoxville Raceway as I went to each great facility seven times. How about another "surprise" winner at this year's Slocum Memorial at 34 where California native Jason Papich took the win. What looked to be the start of something big for Papich never really went anywhere from there though. And there was no surprise when the best race car driver ever, yes I said it, Kyle Larson captured the Knoxville Nationals in August.
I must admit that I have become quite enamored with the quarter-mile oval at the Davenport Speedway as promoter Ricky Kay, when allowed to do so, always provides a multi-grooved racing surface and the car counts are phenomenal. Perhaps the best on the east side of I-35 and here is my story from one of my six trips to the facility, a weekly show on July 9th.
No the car counts haven't been good, but there is room for growth, and it still frustrates me to watch five Sprint cars chase each other around the bottom, but I hear that improved at the Fall Challenge as well. Even though it is not in its prime right now, the Southern Iowa Speedway in Oskaloosa remains a Wednesday night favorite of mine as I went there five times this past year highlighted by the Caleb Hammond Memorial. Plus I know that most of my racing family will be there as well.
I enjoy making the drive up to Vinton on Sunday nights for the experience that is the Benton County Speedway. The racing is good, but what I really enjoy is the atmosphere as it is "the place to be" on Sunday nights around Vinton and the fans are loud and loyal. Here is the story from my first of four trips there this year and the precursor to a dominant season for Jeff Larson.
It is interesting that I went to four of my favorite tracks three times each in 2021. If the Stuart Speedway was just a ninety minute trip for me I would be there every race night as nobody puts on a more efficient night of racing than Mike Van Genderen. Weather is the reason why I was only at the Lee County Speedway in Donnellson three times this season as rain wiped out our May Sprint Invader show and later pushed Shiverfest onto the date of another of my traditional Fall favorites. The Dubuque Speedway is another one of those tracks that I would be at more often if it were just a bit closer to home and while the CJ Speedway is close to home, well my Friday night choices do get spread out a bit. With two appearances by the Sprint Invaders in 2021, I also made it to the East Moline Speedway three times this season.
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| A packed house at Cresco |
I have two goals each year and while I did not get my annual trip to a pavement track accomplished in 2021, I did get to one "new to me" track with my first visit ever to the Clay County Speedway in Spencer. That also put me back into the status of having been to each and every track that is currently active in the state of Iowa.
I am officially a grumpy old man now as there are several things that irritate me at the track, and when I see it consistently at some places it will keep me from coming back.
Start on time. I don't expect you to hit it right on the nose, but if you advertise racing at 7:00 I expect the first heat race to take the green by 7:10. Also, "racing at 7:00" doesn't mean that's when qualifying starts and if you advertise "hot laps at 6:30 and racing to follow" that better not include a twenty minute break between hot laps and the first heat.
Run an efficient show. I don't expect you go rapid fire like MVG, but I do expect you to have a "one and done" rule in the heats and B-Main (it is amazing how this reduces the number of spinouts once driver's get used to it and, when someone does spin, just watch how fast they get it back going to avoid having to go to the pits.) Nothing kills a show more than to have back markers spinning on a regular basis. Correct me if I am wrong, but every track uses the Raceceivers now so there is NO REASON to have to go an extra lap under caution for the flagman to show the field a furled greenflag to signify one more lap to go. When the lineup is set, say "we're going green", turn off the caution and let's go racing. And this applies to all classes, Sprint Cars and Late Models included. If you aren't doing this now it is either because you can't let an old tradition go by the wayside or it is because of the flagman's ego.
Track Prep. If the top of your track is dust rather than a cushion or fluff, then you have prepped it wrong and you need to fix it. Now. Put some water on it and pack it in so that your racing surface is now wider and your fans aren't getting dusted. Then figure out how to have it right for the next show.
Intermissions should never be longer than twenty minutes, unless of course you are admitting that you screwed up on track prep and it requires a total overhaul. Then you can take longer because I would rather wait out a long track prep intermission and see some good racing afterwards since I am already here. But again, figure out have to have it right for the next show.
Race format for a field of 26 to 30? Three heats, top six advance (choose how many you want to redraw), ONE B-Main, top six advance for a twenty-four card field.
Race format for a field of 31 to 40? Four heats, top five advance (choose how many you want to redraw), ONE B-Main, top four advance for a twenty-four car field.
Running two B-Mains in either of the scenarios above is admitting that you don't trust those drivers to be in a race with more than six or eight cars on the track at one time. If you really feel that way, then why are we letting them have a chance to race in an event that runs extended laps with twenty-four cars in it?? When running two B-Mains you run the risk of unbalanced fields, both in talent and from attrition, so by running just one you truly get the drivers that have earned their way into the main event. And if makes for a more efficient show (see above).
Class Order (Special events). I am in the minority with the point of view that it is okay to to have multiple support classes at a special event. After all, if the promoter feels that he or she needs to have the extra back gate and the extra people that the support classes bring into the grandstand in order to make the event successful, then by all means add them to the roster. HOWEVER, your featured division must run either the first or second main event of the night. And, if the featured division is running second make sure that your "cleanest racing" support class is running first.
Class Order (Weekly shows). I went into full details on this back in May of 2021 so I encourage you to click here to read through it. Bottom line is that if you are running the class that consistently suffers the most cautions per night anywhere but last in the order, then you are doing it wrong.
I had softened my stance some on Pay Per View over the past two years even watching some of it myself and I must say that this has confirmed my original concerns. It is too easy and too affordable to stay at home and watch a PPV event casted to my big screen than it is to go to a live event. Thankfully though I have discovered that trying to watch a PPV racing event puts me to sleep! I'm not sure what it is, the sound of the motors, the fact that I am in my easy chair or laying on the couch, the unbelievable amount of downtime that I just don't notice when I am at the track or something else, but if I last twenty minutes without dozing off I am lucky.
A few weeks ago I stupidly did some bush trimming figuring that after having some frosts and a freeze there would be no more poison ivy, oak, sumac, parsnips, or whatever it is that I am now so allergic to in my older age. Boy, was I wrong! The result was my worst reaction yet that not only required a steroid shot, but later a full week of oral steroids to try to knock it down. The pain was so bad that when I would go to bed each night I would toss and turn trying to do a little mind over matter in order to get to sleep, but after an hour or so I would just give up. My solution? I would go downstairs and pull up FloRacing, find an event where the full replay was seven hours or more (unfortunately there are several that meet that requirement) and turn it on. I would usually be asleep before hot laps were completed and while I did wake up here and there, especially if I rolled over and scraped a rash, it would not take long for me to be back in La La Land until the alarm on my phone would go off for another day.
So no, I do not see myself as being one of those people who will choose to stay home and watch a PPV race rather than actually going to one. Unfortunately, I am in the minority there as well. How do I know that? Look at all of the high paying "made for PPV" events that are on the schedule for 2022! Obviously there is big money in that business and I do have to give credit to those who are going to be sharing it with the drivers. Is it sustainable though? Only time will tell and as always I will encourage you to support your local track in person whenever possible and to watch the highlight packages from the completed PPV events on the provider(s) of your choice. That is our best bet to keep the grassroots level of our sport alive.
Finally, I want to thank each and every one of you who take the time to read the Back Stretch as well as the other writers that we have here at Positively Racing. We are a dying breed when there are now so many sources out there that tweet results, share a Facebook post with a picture and the top five, or copy and paste results off of MyRacePass and consider that to be "racing coverage". Maybe it doesn't matter to the younger generation, but are you going print that off and put it in a scrapbook to remember years down the line? I like to think that the race stories that we write can be scrapbook material, or at the very least the fact that every one of my blog posts remain online and searchable that somebody can go back and read them at a later date. A tweet or that quick Facebook post won't be worth a second look.
This blog crossed the 700,000 unique page views count recently and while that might be miniscule compared to others, it is massive to me and I appreciate each and every one of you. My goal is to reach one million and at the current pace that will take six more years, so stay with me and perhaps introduce the Back Stretch to a friend.
I wish you all a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year! And Let's Go.......
Hawkeyes! (Were you expecting something else?)
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