Carter, Hidlebaugh, Griffiths, Porter and Woods Are Cool At Osky

I am finding that as I get older there are certain sights, smells and sounds that will suddenly take me back in time to a moment that had been previously hidden in my memories and that is why I am going to use the word "cool" to describe Wednesday night's racing at the Southern Iowa Speedway in Oskaloosa. 

After buying my ticket and checking out the line at the concession stand, I started to climb the center steps up into the grandstand and that is where the memories hit me. It was like going back in time when I was climbing those same steps at the age of sixteen on a night when Billy Moyer was racing in the Sportsman division and Brian "Fireball" Roberts hit a light pole in turn two knocking out the lights and ending the racing early. On the drive back to Mount Pleasant lightning filled the sky ahead of us and that was when the Goodyear blimp suffered heavy wind damage while moored for the night in my little hometown.

I have climbed those steps into the grandstands at Oskaloosa probably at least once a year since 1979 and it is still so "cool" to me each time that I do it!

This was a beautiful sunny day in Southern Iowa, but the temperatures were deceptively "cool" and for the second night in a row I saw some younger people who are either woefully unprepared, or have a much higher tolerance for being cold than I do! On Tuesday night as I was pulling two coats and a blanket out my car before going into 34 Raceway, a young family of four walked by all wearing shorts and short sleeved shirts. No coats in hand, no blankets, nothing and when the sun went down I can tell you that I needed everything that I had taken in with me. For the adults, hey that's no problem, if you can ride out a fifty degree night in shorts and a t-shirt, more power to you. But what about your kids? I am guessing that the family of four did not make it through the whole show.

Here at Osky there were several people that went with the shorts, but nearly all of them also had a coat on or in hand as once again it became quite "cool" as the sun went down and we were ready for feature racing here on night two of the 2023 season at the Southern Iowa Speedway.

The Sport Compacts were up first with eight of the nine cars on hand making the start for a ten lap feature. As they usually do, the Compacts would go green to checkers with the pack of eight being pretty equally matched with Tyler Haring leading the opening lap. Third-starting Garrett Porter would snare the lead on the second lap, but he could not build much of an advantage as last week's winner Shane Barnes worked his way to the front after starting fifth.

By mid-race Barnes was up to second and as Porter appeared to start getting off the gas earlier to protect the bottom entering turns one and three, the top four including Haring and the ageless veteran Bob "Gabby" Hayes were stacking up behind him. After completing lap eight, Porter left just enough room on the bottom for Barnes to pull even and now the race was on as Porter went back to staying on the gas now on the outside of Barnes.

The two would race side-by-side under the white flag and while Barnes would have the advantage off of turn two and down the back stretch, Porter was able to battle back on the outside in the final set of turns and he would win the drag race to the checkers by a few feet to score the victory. Haring and Hayes would chase them in finishing third and fourth respectively while James Haring filled out the top five.

The Sprint Car ten lap main event would be next and with perennial favorite Jonathan Hughes loaded up and headed home with mechanical issues following his heat race, that would put the spotlight directly on last week's winner Ben Woods. Tyler Graves had other ideas though as he raced out to a solid lead through the first three laps. However, the leader would then spin on his own in turn to bring out the caution and handing the lead over to Woods. Once back to green there would be no catching Ben as he cruised to another win with Doug Sylvester several car lengths back in second. After restarting seventh, Graves would claw his way back to third followed by Nathan James and Tim Folkerts.

There were a couple of new faces in the field of nine Stock Cars and one of those would go flag-to-flag to take the win in the sixteen lap main event. Miciah Hidlebaugh drew the pole position and warded off persistent challenges from fellow front row starter Dustin Griffiths to take the win in his sharp looking #72H. Todd Reitzler prevailed in a race-long battle with Steve Byers to finish third while Austin Meinders filled out the top five.

Stock Car Winner Michiah Hidlebaugh - Carroll Hoover Photo

There is no doubt that the Southern Iowa Speedway hosts some of the fastest Sport Mods in the region and tonight's sixteen lap headliner would prove that out once again. Two-time and defending All Iowa Points Champion Logan Anderson would jet out to the early lead, but he would have another former AIP Champion hot on his heels in Brayton Carter. The lead would change hands on lap four and soon the former winner at the Bristol Motor Speedway, who was also the opening night winner here last Wednesday night, Maguire DeJong would move to second and take aim at Carter. Earlier in the night, during their heat race, DeJong was able to catch and pass Carter late in the race to take the win and as the laps ticked away here in the feature, DeJong was looking for a repeat.

As Carter worked the bottom, DeJong went to the cushion and on several occasions was able to draw nearly even with Brayton through the apex of the turns. But Brayton's drive off the bottom at the exit of turns two and four would allow him to pull a couple of car lengths on Maguire and that scenario would repeat itself over the final five laps with Carter taking the victory over DeJong. Anderson would follow them home in third, multi-time track champion Curtis Van Der Wal finished fourth while division rookie Casen Keller was impressive holding on to fifth after starting up front.

Brayton Carter on the gas - Carroll Hoover Photo

The Hobby Stocks, twenty-three cars strong would close out the evening for fourteen laps with veteran driver Brad Stephens taking the early lead. Jesse Williams was there to challenge as the race was slowed by a pair of early cautions and on the second restart Dustin Griffiths would perhaps apply some of the knowledge that he had gained while running in the Stock Cars just a few minutes before.

Working the high line while most everybody else ran low, Griffiths sailed around both Williams and Stephens to take the lead on lap four and the 2014 All Iowa Points Champion then pulled away to take the win. Williams continues to improve and is knocking on the door to victory lane finishing second on this night. Aaron Martin took third-place money, Austin Barnes finished fourth and Keaton Gorden wrapped up the top five.

The final checkered flag waved at 9:46 on this cool (in more ways than one) evening and I made it home in time to watch Keegan Murray and the Kings lose a tough one at home to the Warriors. Not cool. It was good to see Kevin Babcock and Jack Miles, but it was odd to be at Osky without the Eiseles and the Busses. Hopefully we see them again when things warm up a bit!

An annual weekend with some of my high school friends will have me away from the track until Sunday when I hope to make it to the Adams County Speedway in Quincy where the UMP Modifieds will be featured racing for $1,000-to-win. Ditch the shorts, grab your coats and get on out to the track of your choice this weekend!

Sparklers and Snakes, Macri Scores High Limit Win at 34 Raceway

My "home" race track took center stage Tuesday night as 34 Raceway west of Burlington was the place for the second race of the 2023 High Limit Sprint Car Series schedule with an amazing field of fifty-one drivers signing in to compete for a $23,023 top prize. With around three tenths of an inch of rain falling overnight, the crew at 34 had to wait for the right moment to get the 3/8th-mile banked surface into shape for the evening and they delivered a track that was darn near perfect for a night of winged sprint car racing. The cushion started the evening midway up the track and it was steadily pushed to near the top on both ends allowing drivers to run high, low, a combination of both, or just in between come feature time making for some great racing while the green light was illuminated. Unfortunately though, and perhaps due to the pressure on the drivers to even make the show in such a talented field, there was more than a fair share of thrills and spills than you would like to see causing the show to run a little later than expected on a Tuesday evening.

It all started on the opening lap of the first heat race when Florida's Conner Morrell and NASCAR Cup driver Alex Bowman made contact entering turn one sending both cars up and over. Morrell's ride was especially scary as he catapulted end over end off the top of the turn one banking before slamming to the ground on what was left of "all fours". The car was a mess, but after a moment or two to regain his composure Morrell climbed out under his own power to the cheers of the large crowd. Bowman also was slow to emerge, but thankfully he too was uninjured in the scary dual flip. (Wednesday afternoon update, Alex Bowman released a statement saying that he had fractured a vertebra and that he would miss the next three to four Cup races. Josh Berry will replace him for those events)

Ian Madsen would take a hard ride down the front stretch in the B-Main and there was some more wreckage to come in both the main event for the 305's, and the High Limit headliner with details to follow.

Let's start with the 305's who were on hand to support with seventeen of the eighteen drivers signed in making it to the track to compete. This included southeast Missouri's Gage Montgomery and Wisconsin's Eric Wilke who both were making what I believe to be their first appearance ever at 34 Raceway to be a part of the big show that was being viewed by Sprint Car fans worldwide on FloRacing. After running their two heat races with no issues the 305's were listed on the schedule for the night to run a "fifteen lap, or fifteen minute" main event just ahead of the grand finale. When they came to the track though it was first stated that they would go for twenty laps, then I heard it would be fifteen and then it went back to twenty, but as you will see in the long run it doesn't really matter anyway. 

Just eleven days earlier Jake Glasgow had won his first career feature during the Slocum 50 and he would draw the pole position alongside the young Montgomery who comes from a highly successful racing family with his father Tim and his uncle Joey. Jake would race out to the point, but soon after the first lap was scored McCain Richards would go for a spin in turn two. One more lap would go in the book before a four car tangle involving Devon Rouse, Blaine Jamison and Joshua Jones would take place in turn two. Jones would tip onto his side and Cole Helmerson would spin to avoid contact.

On this restart heat race winner Chase Richards would launch into a hard series of barrel rolls up and over the top of turn one and once back to racing just three more laps would be completed before Eric Wilke looped it in turn two. By now the announcers were convinced that, if they were able to stay green, this race would only be fifteen laps, but that the time limit was more possible as the eight minute horn had been sounded in the pits for the High Limit feature to go to the staging area.

On the restart as the third running Montgomery was perhaps a bit slow coming up to speed, the fourth place car of Dugan Thye tried to go to his outside, but instead climbed his wheels vaulting Thye into front stretch wall. I have to take a moment here to give a tip of the hat to the Beckman Towing team that has been a fixture at 34 Raceway for decades. They worked with quick precision as soon as they were given the go ahead to do so on every incident tonight, and with this race already under the threat of the time limit, Thye's car was on the hook and moved to the infield as quick as you will ever see. Wrecker crews are like an umpire in baseball, when they do their job well nobody really notices them, but having been around this sport long enough to have seen the other side of the coin, I definitely appreciated their efficiency.

Finally back to green, Jake Glasgow would set the pace with Cody Wehrle now up from a sixth place start to challenge. Smooth around the bottom, Glasgow would maintain the advantage as Wehrle tried to ride the cushion to get to the front and when Helmerson went for a spin in turn two on lap twelve, the checkers would wave as well with Glasgow going from a non-winner two weeks ago to now having a two race win streak under his belt. Wehrle would settle for second ahead of a long-time reader of the Back Stretch, Jeff Wilke wo finished third after starting next to Wehrle in the third row. Despite damage to his front wing from the incident with Thye, Gage Montgomery would hold on to the fourth spot with Noah Samuel coming from tenth to fifth.

With the pressure to get qualified behind them, the crowd was hoping that the twenty-seven High Limit drivers would put on a good clean thirty-five lap feature with plenty of action to warm them on this crisp, cool evening. Well let's just say that while there was plenty of action, it just wasn't that clean. At least for the first half of the race!

Pole-sitter Brent Marks would set the early pace before the first caution waved on lap four. Justin Peck, who had made a heart-stopping move earlier in the evening to squeeze between Marks and the start of the back stretch wall to win the third heat race, had spun in turn two after starting eighth. Two more laps would be scored before Cole Macedo coasted to a halt in turn four and as the field lined up prior to coming to the "choose cone", Kyle Larson had the fans abuzz as he had already advanced from tenth to fifth.

With the double file restart, quick qualifier on the evening Blake Hahn would spin near the top of turn two now facing the rest of the field that scrambled to miss him. As Bill Balog veered to the right to go up pit road, Kasey Kahne was still on the throttle and drilled Hahn head on to bring out the red flag. Both drivers were okay. 

This would then educate us on how the High Limit series handles the "choose cone" in that if at least one lap is not scored after a double-file restart, then the ensuing restart will be single-file based upon the running order of the last scored lap. So this restart would be a clean one with fellow front row starter Buddy Kofoid now going to work on Marks for the lead. On lap ten Kofoid caught the cushion perfectly and sailed around Marks at the exit of turn two while perhaps more of the crowd was paying attention to the back and forth battle for third between Chase Randall and Kyle Larson. 

Larson had prevailed before Randall slowed on lap thirteen to produce another caution and on this double-file restart Justin Peck would wind up on his side at the top of turn one to produce another red flag. The single-file restart that followed was a good one (just in case you are not catching my hints here, I will put this in parentheses for you) and the battle for the lead was again a good one with Marks regaining the point on lap nineteen when Kofoid stumbled briefly on the cushion in turn two. That pass would be negated though as Brock Zearfoss was slowing on the front stretch after tagging the wall and the caution would set up one last double file restart.

Anthony Macri would make the move to second on this one and he would now take up the chase on the leader with sparks flying from his rear brakes as he worked the low line of the speedway. Kofoid would maintain a slight advantage though until lap twenty-eight when the leader hesitated at the entry of turn one as he approached the slower car of Paulie Colagiovanni. With Kofoid's momentum scrubbed as he opted for the cushion, Macri would spark it up and head to the bottom to make the pass for the lead while still trailing Colagiovanni. 

No sparks while running the top, Anthony Macri at 34 Raceway - Brendon Bauman Photography

Larson would take advantage as well dropping Kofoid to third and he would now go to work on Macri as much of the crowd came to their feet in anticipation. The likeable dirt racer that rose to being a NASCAR Cup champion and who has now partnered with his brother-in-law Brad Sweet to bring more money to his beloved winged sprint car racing with the High Limit Series, Larson was up to the rear bumper of Macri with four laps to go and appeared to be ready to pounce. But the up and coming driver out of Pennsylvania did not flinch and when Larson hopped the cushion in turn one on the final lap, the win would go to Macri with a late charging Zeb Wise stealing second from Larson. Marks would fade to fourth, Tyler Courtney came from thirteenth to fifth, Rico Abreu finished sixth, Kofoid fell to seventh, Justin Sanders was eighth and the drivers who had started from the eleventh row, Brian Brown and Parker Price-Miller would complete the top ten.

Brendon Bauman Photography

It was a fantastic finish to a night that had a few too many stops and starts with the final checkers waving at 10:28 p.m. Still though it should give those fans who might have been seeing 34 Raceway for the first time either in person, or on Flo, a good impression of this fine facility that has a schedule jam-packed with special events for fans of both Sprint Cars and Late Models. Just think, in the three Sprint Car races held at 34 so far this year the car counts have been 48,48 and 51, very impressive! And don't forget that the World of Outlaws will be here on July 7th, the All Stars on July 21st and the IRA returns on August 25th. Plus throw in the Sprint Invaders on May 28th and September 23rd and you have plenty of dates to mark on your calendar as a lover of "Winged Things". And, if you also enjoy the fenders, the Lucas Oil Late Model Series is at 34 on May 20th, and the World of Outlaws will be here on October 6th. Hope to see you at all of these great events!

Special thanks to Brendon Bauman for providing photos for use by the Back Stretch!

With the beautiful spring weather on this Wednesday I am hoping to make the trip up to the Southern Iowa Speedway in Oskaloosa and then this weekend I might just add a new track to my list on Sunday, weather and work permitting. Look for me on the Back Stretch!

Babb Goes Flag To Flag For His Second Slocum 50 Title

Working lapped traffic like a pro, Shannon Babb kept Brandon Sheppard from getting close enough to challenge in the closing laps to win his second Slocum 50 title on Friday night at 34 Raceway west of Burlington. The schedule was switched for the weekend due to an ominous weather forecast so the $10,555-to-win headliner was completed tonight and, if it can beat the weather. the $5,000-to-win point race for the Lucas Oil Late Models initially dubbed "The Prelude to the Slocum" will be staged on Saturday.

Another stout field of forty-one Super Late Models signed in for action with qualifying events seeing twenty-two drivers race their way into the main event while four more drivers were added as MLRA provisionals to make up the twenty-six car starting field. Pole-sitter Jake Timm would bring the field to green only to have the driver to his right, Shannon Babb get the jump off the cushion to take the early lead. A caution would wave early though when the two drivers taking emergency provisionals, Steve Stultz and Brennen Willard tangled in turn two. 

Shannon Babb (18) and Jake Timm (49) for the early lead

On the restart Timm would find the high side to his liking and the second generation wheel man out of Winona, Minnesota, would keep pace with Babb and was poised to mount a challenge when the caution waved again on lap seven for a Matt Furman spin in turn two. Once back to racing Babb must have sensed Timm's speed off the top of turns three and four as the leader moved up to that line as well and soon the advantage was nearly a half straightaway. 

By the time Brandon Sheppard was able to drop Timm to third on lap twenty-one Babb's lead was up to a full straightaway and his new chaser was not making up much ground. That is until Shannon closed in on a pack of seven cars all racing for positions of their own mid-pack on lap thirty-three. The three-eighths mile high banked oval was in tip top shape tonight so that pack of seven were scattered from low to high and points in between requiring Babb to change his line often in order to pick them off one by one. 

Brandon Sheppard (B5) takes second away from Jake Timm - Mike Ruefer Photo

At one point Sheppard got to within about four car lengths, but when Babb made another nifty move to put a lapped car between himself and Sheppard, that lead would start to grow once again. On lap thirty-eight the caution would wave for the legend, Billy Moyer who had slowed on the front stretch, but did not make the left hand turn into the infield. Moyer, who had started eighteenth, had quickly moved into the top ten during the first twenty laps although his night would come to an early end here as he drove into the pits during the caution.

One more lap would be scored before Ryan Unzicker and Bob Gardner would end up facing each other at the bottom of turn four and when the green flag flew once again, Babb now had an open track in front of him. Sheppard was searching for a line that would make him a bit faster than the leader, but he could not find one over the closing eleven circuits as Shannon Babb would repeat his triumph from 2018 in this race that honors the memory of Brent Slocum. 

Shannon Babb in victory lane

Sheppard would take the runner-up money while Ryan Gustin made a late run getting quite a bite off the bottom to finish third after starting from sixteenth. Timm would fade to the fourth position at the checkers while Chris Simpson came from eleventh to fifth. Tyler Bruening was consistent in sixth, Dustin Sorenson would drive the Jimmy Mars owned number 28 to seventh after starting from row eight, Garrett Alberson faded from fourth to eighth, Jordan Yaggy finished ninth and Dillon McCowan was the best of the MLRA Rookie-of-the-Year contenders as he rounded out the top ten.

As they always seem to do at the Slocum 50, the 305 c.i. Winged Sprint Cars and the IMCA Stock Cars put up two entertaining main events as appetizers for the main course. Young Chase Richards would lead the opening lap of the Sprint Car twenty-lapper before Jake Glasgow powered past him exiting turn four on the second circuit. The only caution of the race would come on lap five when Cole Helmerson, who looked very good in his Sprint Car debut after having raced a Modified before, went for a spin in turn four.

On the restart Cody Wehrle would take the second spot after starting sixth and he would now give chase to Glasgow for the lead. With Jake running low in three and four, Wehrle was faster up on the cushion but he was not able to pull even before Glasgow would shut the door down the front stretch. On lap twelve Wehrle had a big run off the top of turn four and he tried to squeeze between Glasgow and the wall as the duo charged down the front stretch. Contact would send the two drivers scrambling to maintain control and as Glasgow held onto the lead exiting turn two, you could tell that something had broken on Wehrle's ride as he drifted out and tagged the universal barriers that serve as the back stretch wall.

This would allow Wehrle's Grant Racing teammate Tanner Gebhardt to take over second and while he was able to get to the leader's bumper exiting turn four on the final lap there would be no catching Glasgow who would celebrate his first career feature win. Usually "Jake The Barber" is the crew chief for Colton Fisher when they are racing with the Sprint Invaders, but on this night they switched roles with Fisher spinning the wrenches for Glasgow's first victory. Gebhardt would finish second while Wehrle found that it was a broken shock stud on the left rear that was the result of the lap twelve contact, but the defending track champion was able to nurse it in for third. Chase Richards and Noah Samuel would complete the top five.

With the 2018 All Iowa Points champion John Oliver Jr. starting on the pole for the fifteen lap Stock Car feature it would have been a good bet that he would add to his impressive win total here at his home track. Yes, Oliver would go flag-to-flag, but it was not as easy as it might sound. One of two visitors from north central Iowa, Gary Pesicka would stick a nose under Oliver early and then in the closing laps Corey Strothman was entering the turns high and then driving off the bottom to get a huge run on the leader. If Oliver would have made just one mistake and had left the door open exiting turns two or four, Strothman would have come charging through, but that mistake never came and John Oliver Jr. would park the #05 in victory lane once again here at 34.

Strothman was a close second, Jason Cook was solid in third, Pesicka fought his way back up to fourth at the checkers after spinning and returning to the track without causing a caution mid-race. The final car to tow into the pits on this Friday evening was Jeremy Pundt's #52 and he would round out the top five in this one.

Late Model fans will want to make sure that their calendars are marked because after Saturday's Follow Up to the Slocum with the MLRA, the Lucas Oil Late Model Dirt Series will be here at 34 Raceway on Saturday May 20th and the World of Outlaws Late Model Series will be here on Friday October 6th. And for those who either prefer, or who also enjoy the Winged Sprint Cars, the next event on the schedule at 34 Raceway is a big one with the High Limit Sprint Car Series coming to town on Tuesday April 25th.

Hope to see you there on the Back Stretch! 

Once again a huge "Thank You" to Mike Ruefer who has shared all of the photos here for you to enjoy!

Shannon Babb was the class of the field for his second Slocum 50 victory

Tyler Bruening (16) and Garrett Alberson (58)

A pair of drivers that combined may have more than 1,000 feature wins. Mark Burgtorf (7B) and Billy Moyer (21)

Bob Gardner (4) and MLRA Point Leader Chad Simpson (25)

Ryan Gustin takes third away from Jake Timm in the closing laps

Two MLRA Rookie-of-the-Year contenders Trevor Gundaker (14G) and Dustin Hodges (22H) both raced their way into tonight's 50-lp headliner

Dustin Sorenson (28) and Chris Simpson

Tyler Stevens (2) and Ryan Unzicker (24)

Chad Simpson Perseveres To Take MLRA Victory at Davenport

I will admit that I became hooked on the "soap opera" All My Children during my early teens and I watched it faithfully for nearly thirty years until ABC pulled it off the air in September of 2011. You will notice that I have put "soap opera" in quotes because I think that it comes with a negative connotation. I loved the constant plot twists, brothers in battle only to forge a stronger bond in the end, characters coming and going and the fact that you just could never predict how it was going to end. I prefer to call that "daily drama" and that is my best analogy for how Thursday night's forty-lap feature for the Lucas Oil MLRA Late Models played out at the Davenport Speedway. 

With absolutely gorgeous weather for April 13th, plus the lure of this being the first of three scheduled events at two facilities near the banks of the Mississippi, a tremendous field of forty-five cars and drivers signed in with preliminary action giving us twenty-two qualifiers plus four provisional starters for this evening's episode.

Chad Simpson (25) and Chad Holladay (32c) - Mike Ruefer Photo

Three-time and defending series champion Chad Simpson would start from the pole with Ryan Gustin next to him, but it would be the third starting Chad Holladay that would be Simpson's early nemesis. Using the lowest line possible in turn four, Holladay would squeeze under Simpson to take the point on lap three. Chad would come storming back two laps later to regain the advantage before the second caution of the race would wave for Trevor Gundaker's spin in turn four.

On this restart Shannon Babb would have a big run off the top of turn two to move into second and while he was able to pull even with Simpson several times over the next ten laps, Babb was never able to nose ahead at the stripe to be scored as the leader. The caution would wave again at the mid-race point and it was not clear why as I could not spot any cars stopped on the track and nobody appeared to go out to pick up any debris, but either way it turned out to be a good commercial break as the story had started to get a bit stale. The leaders had all settled into running the bottom of the wide quarter-mile and while lapped traffic may have created some interest in the laps to come, the caution took that away.

Shannon Babb - Mike Ruefer Photo

The thing about the Davenport Speedway though is this. Just when you think that it is ready to lock down and become a one lane track, somebody can usually step out of line to find a faster groove and the next thing you know they are spread back out five-wide and that is what happened with this restart. Brandon Sheppard went to the top in turns one and two making the big move up to second and he would now become the antagonist to our reigning champion, taking the lead from Simpson on lap twenty-three. With Sheppard now starting to pull away, Babb would drop Simpson to third and when the caution flag waved on lap twenty-nine that would be an important change of position.

Brandon Sheppard

With Sheppard retiring to the infield under caution with a flat tire, it would now be Babb bringing the field back to green only to complete one more lap before former MLRA champion Tony Jackson Jr. spun for his second straight caution. On this restart one of our bit characters from earlier in the episode would return to a prominent role. Recall that Ryan Gustin had started the race from the front row, but he had faded back several position over the first thirty laps. So while Chad Simpson was able to retake the lead from Babb on lap thirty-one, it was the high flying Gustin that was on the move rocketing up to the second spot and making his run at the lead.

By now the cushion was at the very top of the banking on both ends requiring skillful precision and Gustin delivered by sailing past Simpson on lap thirty-five to take the lead. However, three laps later Ryan would hit the cushion a bit too hard in turn two sending his front end to the right and over the top of the speedway. As he slowed to a halt out near the back stretch of the old half-mile, Simpson would be set to take the white flag only to have the caution replace it when Tyler Stevens and Jake Timm tangled in turn four.

Ryan Gustin (19R) around Chad Simpson (25) - Mike Ruefer Photo

That would give us one last restart with Chad now facing off against his brother Chris to see who would take home the $5,000 top prize. Now unlike All My Children, the Simpsons are not long lost twins who are played by the same actor as it would be impossible to have the same human race two different cars, but they have been known to be fierce competitors even getting into a bit of a scuffle at another track in the past. On this night though they were parked side-by-side in the busy pit area and while Chris gave it his best over the final two laps, he could not mount a challenge on Chad who would take the thrilling back-and-forth victory in a race that saw seven lead changes among five drivers with the winner leading four different segments!

The Brothers Simpson in victory lane - Mike Ruefer Photo

Chris Simpson would congratulate his brother in victory lane as the runner-up, Babb would come home third, Jake Timm finished fourth and Chad Holladay would complete the top five. Bob Gardner came from an eleventh row start to finish sixth while provisional starter Jeff Herzog finished seventh out of the nine cars that finished the race. 

Will our champion prevail again this evening? Who will be his greatest challengers on the high-banks of 34 Raceway? Will there be any new gladiators on hand looking for the $10,555 top prize in the annual Slocum 50? Tune in tonight on Flo for another episode of All My Late Models, or better yet join us in person for all of the action, excitement and intrigue!

Two of the Speedway's weekly divisions served as bookends for Thursday night's MLRA action at Davenport. In the fifteen lap A-Feature for the IMCA Sport Mods Trey Grimm would lead the first five laps before the caution waved for a Raiff Cauwels spin in turn four. On the restart Grimm had plenty of company as the leaders went four-wide through turns three and four with Ben Chapman taking the point and Grimm shuffled back to fourth. Todd Dykema would keep pace with the new leader and when Quincy, Illinois, visitor Logan Cumby spun on the back stretch with two laps remaining, Dykema would have one last opportunity to challenge.

There would be no stopping Chapman though who would get his second win of the young season followed by Dykema as they had both started from the fourth row. Jarrett Franzen came from tenth to third with Kevin Goben making a big run form eighteenth to fourth. Mitch Strayer would complete the top five at the checkers.

Seventeen IMCA sanctioned Late Models were on hand and with perennial track favorites Justin Kay and Matt Ryan both running with the MLRA on this night, the win here to close out the evening would truly be up for grabs. Nick Marolf would take the lead at the drop of the green and by this point in the night the dominant groove was definitely down on the bottom. Caution would wave on lap seven when Brandon Loos went off the top of turn four and on the restart Fred Remley would drive under Brian Harris to take up the chase of Marolf from second.

With the laps winding down and slower traffic just ahead in the preferred lower line, Marolf went to the top in turns one and two. But when the lapper pushed up off the bottom, that left the door wide open for Remley who stormed to the lead and Fred would then close out the final eight circuits to take the opening night victory. Marolf would settle for second, Andy Nezworski came from ninth to third, Harris drove the Lynn Richard owned #15R in for fourth while Jaden Fryer took fifth. Evan Miller from Sioux Falls, South Dakota, finished sixth in his sharp looking orange #88.

A big thank you to promoters Ricky and Brenda Kay for the hospitality shown to all of the Positively Racing crew on hand and with the fantastic schedule that they have posted for 2023, you can bet that I will be back in Davenport often this season!

In case you missed it, with an unfavorable forecast for Saturday, 34 Raceway has flip-flopped their schedule for the weekend with the Slocum 50 to be run tonight and, weather permitting what would now be the Postlude to the Slocum will be held on Saturday. Hope to see you there!

A big thank you to Mike Ruefer who sent me all of the photography for today's story!

Three-wide action is common at the Davenport Speedway. From bottom to top Mason Oberkramer, Matt Ryan and Garrett Alberson

Bob Gardner (4) and Rich Bell (21B)

Justin Kay (15K) and Jake Timm (49)

Dillon McCowan (8) and Steve Stultz

Rookie-of-the-Year contender Tyler Stevens (2) had moved from fourteenth to fifth at the mid-race caution only to slip a few spots and then drop out late in the race

Randall Light, Austin McCarl Accepts IRA/MOWA Victory at 34 Raceway

A "clear day rain delay" is the term I use when that last load of water applied to a dirt track came too late to allow the surface to be ready to race at the scheduled start time. Yes, it can be a bit frustrating to wait an extra hour for the track to get run in as nobody pays to watch push trucks wheel pack, but in my experience I would say that about three out of every four times that I have seen this, the clear day rain delay usually produces a pretty darn good night of racing. And one that doesn't require a lengthy intermission later in the night to rework the track prior to feature racing.

This was exactly the case at 34 Raceway Saturday night for night number two of the co-sanctioned season opening weekend for the IRA and MOWA 410 Sprint Cars. Once again a whopping field of 48 drivers had signed in, three new ones to replace the three that had not returned from Friday's action and while hot laps started a full hour after the scheduled 6:15 start time, the track crew took their time and got it right before attempting to run cars at speed.

Once they did, those speeds were high, not only in qualifying where Parker Price-Miller was quickest at 12.347 despite being in the second group, but throughout the night and by feature time drivers were running high, low and anywhere in between on the 3/8th-mile high banked surface.

With the All Stars weekend at Attica washed out well in advance, several of those drivers made the trip along with some Knoxville Raceway regulars who will open their season next weekend. A chance to get laps in before the April 25th High Limits race here at 34 also likely contributed to the huge car count that made it quite a chore for the IRA and MOWA regulars to even make the show both nights.

Once the twenty-four car field was set, thirty laps would be the distance for the main event with pole-sitter Carson McCarl getting the jump on multi-time IRA champion Bill Balog, who is now a regular with the All Stars. The caution would wave after one lap was scored when former MOWA champion Paul Nienheiser spun in turn two and on the restart Balog charged under McCarl entering turn one to take the lead.

Chase Randall would soon drop McCarl to third and the chase was on until the caution would fly again on lap five when two-time Sprint Invaders champion Chris Martin spun at the exit of turn four. The battle for the lead would then really heat up as the youngster Randall stalked the veteran with Balog fighting off each effort keeping the good-sized crowd on the edge of their seats. Everybody could sit back again though on lap eight as Friday's winner Hunter Schuerenburg spun in turn four. It had been a tough night for the All Star regular who slowed during hot laps, missed his qualifying opportunity and then started at the back of his heat race where he finished eighth. That would start him sixth in the second B-Main, a race that he would win to earn one of the two final starting spots in the main event.

Once back to green the battle for the lead really heated up with Randall looking high, then low and they would race across the stripe on lap ten wheel-to-wheel. Unfortunately those wheels would touch just past the flagstand launching Balog into a scary looking set of flips right in front of our vantage point with parts sailing through the night sky over the turn one banking. Thankfully Bill would quickly scramble out of the wreckage obviously irritated with the circumstances, but uninjured.

After the cleanup was complete and we were back to racing, Randall would drive away from Austin McCarl who was now running second and even when he started to work lapped traffic Randall's lead continued to grow until the caution waved again with ten laps remaining for the defending IRA champion Jordan Goldsberry who had spun in turn three.

This would put McCarl back in the game and using a low line exit out of turn four Austin was now able to match Randall's pace, but could he get close enough to mount a challenge over the final ten laps? Chase was not going to let that happen, but as he took the white flag the caution light came on again as Russell Borland had spun in turn two to give us one final restart.

Cory Eliason who had started the race from fourteenth was now up to third and when he threw a slider at McCarl in turns one and two on the restart, that allowed Randall to drive away to an apparent victory. McCarl was able to counter with a crossover move to regain second down the back stretch and he would hold that position to the checkers. However, when Randall would later come up light at the scales, that crossover would be the winning move of the race as Austin McCarl was awarded the victory. Eliason would be credited with second, Friday's runner-up Parker Price-Miller would end up third, Joe B. Miller came from twelfth to fourth and eleventh starting Corbin Gurley filled out the top five at the pay window. 

A 2022 shot of Austin McCarl while racing at Knoxville - Barry Johnson photo

The quality track conditions were an apparent factor for the support divisions as well with all three running their feature events in non-stop, green to checkers fashion. 

Earlier in the night Logan Cumby pulled off a last corner pass of the local favorite here in the Sport Mods, Sean Wyett, to win a heat race so when Cumby redrew the pole position for the fifteen lap feature you knew that he would be hard to beat. The Quincy driver lived up to expectations going flag-to-flag to take the victory over fellow front row starter Reed Wolfmeyer with Wyett joining the podium in third. John Oliver Jr. finished fourth with Justin Becker, in perhaps his first visit ever to 34 Raceway taking fifth.

After winning the heat race in convincing fashion earlier in the evening, Bill Roberts Jr. was a no show come feature time so the fifteen lap Modified headliner was once again a shootout between two of the best in the region, Austen Becerra and Travis Denning. On this night though it would be Denning who would snare the lead from the outside of row one and then maintain at least a few car lengths advantage over Becerra throughout the race to take the win over the defending All Iowa Points champion. Jed Freiburger is now quite familiar with the trip down from Dubuque to 34 as he finished in the third position with Quad Cities driver Charlie Mohr and northeast Missouri's Jadin Fuller rounding out the top five.

In the Sport Compacts Noah Kayser would pace the first four laps of the twelve lap distance before Justin "Popeye" Stevenson worked his way past to take the lead and eventual victory over the seven car field. Kayser would settle for the runner-up pay followed by Seth Meinders, Dyllan Bonk and Ashton Blain.

Look for a pit area full of big haulers again next Friday and Saturday night here at 34 Raceway as track owners Brad Stevens and Jessi Mynatt host an event that is near and dear to their hearts with the annual running of the Slocum 50. The MLRA Late Models will be the featured attraction and, with a Thursday night appearance at the Davenport Speedway to start the weekend, you can expect a stellar field of cars here at 34 with the prelude on Friday night and then the $10,555-to-win headliner in memory of Brent Slocum on Saturday night. 

Hope to see you there!

Zeitner and Wyman Split SLMR Qualifiers, Martin Dominates Sprints at Harlan's Opener

With nice weather for early April and an intriguing lineup of just three divisions we decided to make the long trip west on Friday night to the Shelby County Speedway in Harlan. It has been well over twenty-five years since I last attended a race here and I knew that it wouldn't be anything like I remembered since the fairgrounds facility took the big step a year ago and shortened the big half-mile down to a high banked one-third mile surface. I had heard that the change received rave reviews after a late start to their 2022 season and I can see why as the wide short track still serves up plenty of speed while providing the short track action that you just don't get on the half miles.

This would be the first of two nights of racing here this weekend dubbed The Awakening Part II (Part 1 was washed out last weekend) and it would feature a unique format for the Malvern Bank SLMR Late Models and two full shows for both the Malvern Bank 360 Sprint Cars and the IMCA Northern Sport Mods. The lure of seeing Late Models, the chance to see the new track configuration for the first time and knowing that one of our young competitors with the Sprint Invaders was going to be in action is what sealed the deal as far as my decision to make this trip.

As a race fan there has been a lot to love abut Joe Kosiski through both his racing career and now in his promotional duties, and one of those is that he still uses inverts after qualifying. On this night the twenty-nine Late Models on hand would qualify and would then be split into two twenty-lap preliminary features each paying $1,000-to-win. The top eight in each feature would then participate in a "knockout" round of qualifying where the top ten would lock themselves in to Saturday's $4,000-to-win main event with the top four to be inverted for that race. I have seen a lot of different formats over the years, but I must admit that this was the first time that I have seen or heard about this one!

A five-time winner with the SLMR last year, Jake Neal would land on the outside of row one next to Andrew Kosiski for the first qualifier, but it would be the third starting Justin Zeitner that would charge to the lead on the opening lap. With Zeitner working the bottom, Neal was pounding the cushion and after a few laps of nearly side-by-side action Jake would sail to the lead on lap four.

Justin Zeitner works the low line early with Jake Neal up top - Barry Johnson photo

After losing some ground on the leader, Zeitner would also move to the top and as Neal started to deal with traffic mid-race Justin would close back in on the leader. Exiting turn two on lap fourteen Zeitner would get a big run and then dive to the bottom in turn three to throw a slider and when Neal had to stand on the brakes to avoid contact he would spin the car in turn four to bring out the caution.

The crowd was abuzz as Neal first went to the front of the realignment to express his thoughts to Zeitner and he was then placed in the tenth position, ahead of the cars that had been lapped for the restart. Once back to racing Bill Leighton Jr. would apply the pressure to Zeitner with Kosiski close behind, but Justin was too strong to be challenged as he picked up the victory ahead those two. Eastern Iowa driver Derrick Stewart came from seventh to finish fourth, Curt Schroeder had a nice run from tenth to fifth while Neal was able to advance two spots and make the round of knockout qualifying coming up later in the evening.

J.C. Wyman - Barry Johnson photo

J.C. Wyman and Todd Cooney would bring the field to green for the second twenty-lap qualifier and as Wyman jetted to the lead, Cooney's race would come to an early end when he would suffer a flat left rear tire on the third lap. On the restart Jesse Sobbing would go to work on Wyman as the Late Models were flying around the highbanks with sixth starting Tad Pospisil soon joining the chase as well. As the race for second heated up that allowed Wyman to open up a more comfortable advantage and once Pospisil was able to clear Sobbing for second, he could not run down Wyman before the checkers waved. Corey Zeitner would come from row five to take the fourth spot while promising rookie Dylan Sillman, a graduate from the Modified ranks filled out the top five. 

The 360 Sprint Cars would be up next for twenty laps and I will be frank with you. As a Sprint Car advocate who had three Late Model fans riding along with me on this trip, this division had an embarrassing evening. Let me be clear though that when the green light was on, the racing was spectacular. It was just interrupted way too often throughout the night. The first heat race had three cautions and a red flag with two of those cautions caused by the same driver who was still allowed to continue despite the two solo spins. The second heat also saw three cautions while the third heat went green to checkers only after several laps were spent before the green flag waved in order to correct the lineup.

It was as if some of the drivers did not have an operational Raceceiver in their ear as when the driver who was supposed to start tenth in the main event either came to the track late and was penalized, or had opted to start at the rear, it took numerous laps to get the cars into the proper alignment. Since the use of Raceceivers I can't remember a flagman ever having to come down out of the flagstand to give hand signals to drivers as to where they were supposed to lineup, but this one had to do it twice tonight. Once during the third heat and again prior to the start of the feature. The weird part about that though was that the final move that satisfied the officials saw Kade Higday moved up to the ninth starting spot despite the fact that he was scheduled to go from thirteenth.

Once the green flag waved, yellow fever would again set in. North Carolina native Lance Moss would spin in turn two with two laps scored and after one more lap was completed, Moss would again loop it at the exit of turn four. He would then head for the pits.

Dusty Ballenger would spin in turn two with five laps completed and then two laps later the third place car of Ryan Roberts would slow to a halt on the back stretch after tagging the outside barriers in turn two. Two more laps would be scored before Joe Beaver clipped an infield tire in turn four sending it out onto the track as he spun to the infield and this would lead to another Delaware double-file restart.

Now I know that more and more Sprint Car series are going to the double-wide restarts, but to do so you must have very strict rules about staying nose to tail without anybody stepping out of line until the green flag waves. And, at least I believe, that you have to give the leader the opportunity to hit the throttle somewhere in turn four to start the race rather than at a cone, otherwise drivers behind him can time the start and get a jump.

The four restarts prior to this one had all been pretty ragged with drivers mid-pack on back flaring out of line with nobody getting a noticeable jump, but that would not be the case with this one. As race long leader Jason Martin brought the field to green it was as if the whole back half of the field stepped out of line and hit the gas first with Tasker Phillips coming from mid-pack to charge all the way up to second using the cushion in turns one and two. I was looking for the caution to call the start back, but it did not appear to be coming until Phillips, perhaps unbelieving of his own good fortune, spun at the top of turns three and four to necessitate the caution that should have been waving earlier.

At the very least I am guessing that a race official gave the field a good talking to, at least to those who could hear their Raceceiver, as the next start was much cleaner and the final eleven laps would then be completed under green. 

Jason Martin dominated the Sprint Car A-Main - Barry Johnson photo

After being challenged early by both Cody Ledger and Ryan Roberts, Jason Martin would dominate this one to take the victory, but my eyes were on seventeen-year-old Tyler Lee who had made the trip over from Cedar Rapids. The runner-up in the 2022 Rookie-of-the-Year chase with the Sprint Invaders, Lee was the fastest Sprint Car during hot laps with a lap of 11.908 seconds, but had drawn the eighth and final starting spot in the second heat race.

In his qualifier, Tyler had worked up to fourth through the three early cautions only to slip wide in turn four with two laps to go where he then faded to seventh at the checkers. With passing points in use this would start him nineteenth for the main event and while other drivers would go drifting from low to high in turns one and two on each restart, Tyler would pin the bottom and pick up three or four positions each time. He was in the top ten by lap seven and for the final restart he lined up fifth before moving to second behind Martin.

Tyler Lee - Barry Johnson photo

With those final eleven laps going green, Cody Ledger, Joey Danley and Brendan Mullen were able to build their momentum back up while riding the ridge and in the closing laps they would drop the youngster back to fifth only to have Tyler fight back on the final lap to edge Mullen out for fourth at the checkers. Nineteenth to fourth was an impressive run for a young driver that you will want to keep your eyes on in the years to come.

Once again, while under green, the Sprint Car action was phenomenal with drivers racing four wide down the back stretch on that final restart and they were able to use the racing surface from top to bottom. Hopefully the division will be much better behaved for tonight's finale of The Awakening Part II.

With a long drive home ahead of us, we chose to skip the "knockout" qualifying for the Late Models as well as the feature event for the fourteen Sport Mods on hand (Corey Madden took the win) and head for the exits already checking the schedule for when we can return to the new and improved Shelby County Speedway in Harlan.

Sport Mod feature winner Corey Madden - Barry Johnson photo

It was fun to check MyRacePass for results of other races during the trip home and it is noteworthy that on this opening night for racing in Iowa, four of the now defending All Iowa Points champions were feature winners on Friday night. Austen Becerra topped the Modifieds at 34 Raceway while at Tipton Randy Lamar won the Hobby Stocks, Logan Anderson began his quest for a third straight AIP title with a win in the Sport Mods and three-time defending champion Dallon Murty was the Stock Car feature winner.

Finally, since I commented on women's basketball in this week's Notebook, I have to follow up on the story that I saw in Yahoo this morning involving Angel Reese. It is obvious that the media cannot seem to let this go as today's news was that while she was still "hurt" by the fact that Dr. First Lady Dr. Jill Biden (Markley, VanCamp and Robbins Show listeners will understand) had initially invited the Iowa Hawkeyes for a visit as well, Angel Reese said that she will still go to the White House since it would be the best for her team. It certainly does seem that Reese is milking this now for all it's worth, but what caught my eye on the scroll below her while she was being interviewed on ESPN was this never before seen "sports statistic":

Reached 1M followers on social media. Last year had around 70 thousand followers

I'm an old-timer, so I am not a fan of the fact that the Chicago Cubs now want to use OSP as the primary batting statistic when showing the starting lineup for today's game. What the hell is OSP anyway? Can't we just use the player's batting average like we have for the past one hundred years?

And now I have to start learning how many followers a college basketball player has on social media? What world are we living in??

I am looking forward to sticking close to home tonight with a trip to 34 Raceway for night number two of the IRA and MOWA 410 Sprint Car season opening doubleheader. The pits were jammed with an amazing field of forty-eight Winged Sprint Cars on Friday night with Hunter Schuerenberg edging out Parker Price-Miller to take the win. Perhaps I will see you there tonight!

Notebook - Thursday, April 6th

Yes, I know that this is a blog about short track racing, but I would be remiss if I didn't first offer up my opinion on what has become a nationwide controversy following the NCAA Women's National Basketball Championship game. As a Hawkeye fan, yes I was at first offended by the obvious taunting of Caitlin Clark by Angel Reese during the closing seconds of LSU's victory and I even commented on a couple of Facebook posts that tried justify it by saying that Clark had done the same thing against Louisville. The difference, I felt, was that Caitlin had not done it directly to the face of an opposing player whereby Reese had tracked her down to rub it in.

But as time went on my objectivity started to kick in and I tried to see how I would have felt about it if I was not a huge Hawkeye fan. I also questioned whether I would have had the same initial reaction if this would have been a men's game. I had already backed down from my original feelings when Caitlin sealed the deal with her comments on the incident essentially saying that it didn't bother her one bit, while congratulating Reese and her LSU teammates on winning the title.

Now that is true class and while the argument still rages on five days later it is my hope that those who are sadly making this a race issue will realize just how low they have gone. That is our society now and it again proves just what a stain that social media is on our fabric of decency. And while all of this discussion continues in regard to the taunt, I hate the fact that it quickly ended the discussion of what the true problem was with Sunday's game.

I enjoy watching the show Get Up each weekday morning on ESPN and on Monday, as the show started, host Mike Greenberg hyped the upcoming coverage of the LSU-Iowa game first stating that the officiating was atrocious. It was bad both ways and I could cite several different examples, but if you were not one of the approximate 9.9 million viewers who watched, an all-time record for a women's basketball game, then you wouldn't have the context. In our society where half of the people land on one side of an issue, and the other half take the other side, the quality of officiating seems to be the one thing that everybody could agree on and it is too bad that it came on the women's biggest stage.

Surely you have noticed that there has been more talk this week about the women's title game than the men's, and that's not just because you are in or around Iowa. Caitlyn Clark is a shooting star and this Hawkeye fan hopes that she knows that she can earn more money as a collegiate superstar over the next two years through NIL than she can by playing in the WNBA and you can bet that I will be clamoring for some more tickets to Carver Hawkeye Arena for both the men and the women when the next basketball season rolls around. Run it back!

Proud Dad moment here. My son, Kyle Wick, is the President of the DFW I-Club so while he worked his butt off arranging some events for Hawkeye fans who made the trip to Dallas and other duties, he also had some nice perks as well, including getting his picture taken with the team shortly after their arrival in Big D. 

Sandwiched between the Final Four fun we made the trip to the Lucas Oil Speedway for the second week in a row for night two of the opening weekend for the Lucas Oil MLRA Late Models. Danny has the story of what we saw in person in Racin' Down The Road as we decided to leave after Jonathan Davenport's dominating performance in the non-stop Late Model feature that ended sometime after 10:30. This decision was made easier knowing that we could watch the Stock Car and B-Mod features online during the one hour trip to our hotel in Osage Beach.

Turns out that was a smart move as even with a stop at McDonalds along the way, we were back in the hotel before the show struggled to a controversial ending. To get the full details you have to read Ed Reichert's blow by blow description in One Fan's Travels as tempers flared in both classes. Hard to believe that this crap is already happening this early in the season.

On Tuesday the track and the USRA sanctioning body issued this announcement of fines and sanctions against two of the drivers involved prompting me to go back and watch the replay on Flo to see how this all transpired. From the comments made by the Stock Car winner David Hendrix during his victory lane interview, there is apparently some history of rough driving from the other driver involved. But even though he won the race, it was Hendrix that initiated the post race activities so I was surprised that he was not sanctioned as well.

B-Mod winner Kris Jackson, who was involved in a three car incident while racing for the lead late in the race, had a victory lane interview that was more reminiscent of one that would take place after a WWE match. It seemed like most of his "suspension worthy" comments came off microphone as he was being heckled by fans prior to the actual interview where he then made it clear that he had just vanquished one of his long time rivals in J.C. Morton.

Entertaining or disappointing? I guess that it is all how you look at it, but I was thankful that we had missed all the fun.

With the early cancellation of the World of Outlaws weekend at Farmer City, the car count at Lucas Oil was at 48 on a cold and windy Friday before swelling to 50 on Saturday night making the first two MLRA point races more of a "national" show rather than regional. That was a huge plus for the hearty few who were there on Friday and for the nice-sized crowd that showed up on Saturday, but I have to wonder if it was good for the health of the MLRA.

This series has struggled over the last few years to maintain a good roster of regulars who are following the entire schedule. Last year it looked to me like they tried to reign in their travel some by no longer scheduling events at some more far off venues than where they had been in previous years, but that still resulted in just four drivers completing the entire schedule. Champion Chad Simpson and three Rookie-of-the-Year contenders Kolby Vandenbergh, Daniel Hilsabeck and Steve Stultz.

With National Tour regulars like Davenport, Alberson, Pierce, Martin, Hughes, Scott, Gundaker, English, Pearson, Shirley, Thornton, Gustin and Sheppard there to gobble up purse money and, more importantly MLRA points in the first two events, that does not bode well for some of the drivers who had it in their plans to run for the MLRA title in 2023. And, with this weekend's doubleheader at the Tri-City Speedway already canceled for wet conditions, this will be exacerbated next week when the series runs a tripleheader that will likely attract another star-studded field with a Thursday April 13th stop at the Davenport Speedway followed by the big Slocum 50 weekend at 34 Raceway on Friday and Saturday April 14th and 15th.

Pick through the current point standings after two events and find the drivers who are likely to be MLRA regulars for 2023. Defending champion Chad Simpson held his own in the stellar field at Wheatland and currently ranks third, in effect being the actual series leader and he already holds a stout seventy point advantage over Rookie-of-the-Year contender Dillon McCowan. It will be fun to see the young southwest Missouri driver make his first ever appearances at Davenport and Burlington next weekend along with Arkansas driver Tyler Stevens who is effectively third in series points despite being fourteenth in the current rundown. Hilsabeck is 20th, Vandenbergh is 23rd with other RoY contenders Trevor Gundaker, Dustin Hodges, Jonathan Huston and Kayden Clatt further down the list and all of them will be hard pressed to race their way into the feature fields next weekend. And, with two point races now in the books, provisional starters will be determined by these current point standings since everybody ahead of them has perfect attendance thus far on the 2023 season.

If you go through the first five races of the year, perhaps watching four or five of the features from your hauler and see yourself mired deep in the point standings, it is not hard to come to the conclusion that perhaps a full schedule is not in your best interest. I love the MLRA and the quality of racing that it brings to tracks near me, especially early in the season. I just hope that it is able to maintain a solid roster for the remainder of the season when those national stars are off running their own schedules.

One series that is not expected to have a roster problem is the United States Modified Touring Series, or the USMTS. Todd Staley's series that features the best of the best when it comes to the Modified division has gone with a unique style of scheduling for 2023 where nearly all of the events will be weekend tripleheaders at the same track. They started the season at Rocket Raceway Park in Texas where weather was the winner on opening night before fields of 87 and 77 were in competition with Rookie-of-the-Year contender Tom Berry Jr. and Jake Timm taking wins. Weather also picked off one night of the King of America event at the Humboldt Speedway where Terry Phillips and Dan Ebert were winners over a car count that topped sixty each night and this past weekend all three nights were able to go at the Ark-La-Tex Speedway in Vivian, Louisiana, where Cade Dillard topped a field of 59 on Thursday night, Iowa's own Cayden Carter who was the 2022 USMTS Rookie-of-the-Year was the best of 56 competitors on Friday night while Tyler Wolff added his name to the list of winners on Saturday with 51 cars in action.

A whopping thirty-five drivers have been in competition at all seven USMTS events thus far and while there is no chance that this pace will be maintained, don't be surprised if Todd still has twelve or more with perfect attendance at the end of 2023. I know that I am going to make a point of traveling to at least one night of USMTS action this season, perhaps to also get a look at the all new short track in Mason City.

Another series that usually has a strong roster of regulars is the Bumper-to-Bumper IRA 410 Sprint Cars that races primarily in Wisconsin throughout the season. It has been tradition though over the past several seasons for the IRA to schedule their opening weekend at 34 Raceway west of Burlington, Iowa, but with the crappy spring weather that we have had over the last few years, you have to go back to April 6, 2019, for the last time that the series was able to actually race at 34 with Indiana visitor Carson Short taking the win. 

I love it when the IRA comes to town as there will be at least twenty 410 c.i. Sprint Car drivers that will be on hand that I will not see for the rest of 2023 plus there will be a mix of MOWA drivers and Knoxville regulars that should give us a field that swells well over thirty for the Friday-Saturday doubleheader that WILL be able to run this weekend under sunny and then starry skies. One driver who has announced his intentions to run for the Rookie-of-the-Year title with the IRA is West Burlington's own Josh Schneiderman so you know that he is hoping to get off to a great start with two shows at his hometown track.

If you know me, you know that I am not a big fan of seeing the same cars for two consecutive nights, so while I know that I could see a great show close to home at 34 on both nights this weekend, I am going to catch the 410 Sprints there on Saturday after seeing the Malvern Bank 360 Sprint Cars and the Malvern Bank SLMR Late Models on Friday night at the Shelby County Speedway. It has been a long, long time since I have made the trip over to Harlan and I am excited to see how the new shorter track configuration races in what will be the opening night of its second season. Word is that at least one of our Sprint Invaders regulars is making the trip out west as well so that also factored into my destination decision.

With the closing of I-80 Speedway, I was watching to see if any tracks in that region would make any changes to try to pick up the slack and, outside of the IMCA Late Models being added to the roster at the Crawford County Speedway in Denison, only Harlan made significant changes in their schedule for 2023. Check out how aggressive this calendar is with several special events for Late Models, Sprint Cars and Stock Cars. I have noted though that the September 8th and 9th event that will feature three divisions of Sprint Cars was originally titled the "Push Truck Nationals" as you will see in the current Special Events Calendar at Positively Racing. I think that I will wait a few days before I change it there as well to the "Cyclone Classic".

The Darkside Springfling at Tipton, IMCA Frostbusters at Marshalltown and Boone, several events on that calendar, as well as weekly racing in Missouri for you to make your way to this weekend, It is finally time to go racing in 2023, thanks for visiting the Back Stretch!