It is great to see how much discussion my post from Tuesday generated as it shows that there is still a passion for the Four Cylinder division and that most are aware that the class seems to be at a turning point. Through the many shares of the link on Facebook I have read with interest all of the conversations and I am happy that several feel that the ideas that I put out there would be worth a try. More importantly to me though are the support that this concept is getting from some of the drivers who have been having great success in the division for several years now. They know that racing against a field of ten cars is not sustainable and they are apparently willing to take home less purse money on average in hope of rebuilding that car count.
There was also another idea or two floated in these discussions and one of them I would like to strike down while we're here. Running a "Junior" division of the Four Cylinders has already been tried and failed at some of the tracks in our region. In fact, it was at a couple of the tracks that ranked near the bottom of the list in regard to average car counts this year, so not only did the experiment not work, it also may have had a longer term negative effect on the "regular" Four Cylinder division. Besides, the last thing that weekly tracks need is another division added to the program and that is what you would be doing by splitting the class by the drivers' age.
For the most part though these discussions evolved into exactly what many promoters are tired of and that is the apparent drama of the rules and the tech inspection process. The point was also made by a good friend of mine, Cory Benge who said, "no matter the class, no matter the pay, people are going to do and spend what it takes to win."
Truer words have never been spoken, however in nearly every class that we have in racing, one of the rewards of winning is a bigger paycheck than what you would get if you don't win and that is why I believe my concept is worth the experiment. If you take away that one extra piece of motivation, will it make any reduction in what a driver is willing to invest in this division that is meant to be a budget class?
And, even if it doesn't, won't the fact that the driver who has been running at the back of the field through the first couple of nights and only getting paid $25, but under my example is now getting $65 have a better chance of coming back next week? That is what this is all about, building and maintaining a bigger car count!
The offer still stands, Positively Racing will put up $200 to the point fund for the first All Iowa Points paying track that implements this system for 2024. It's worth a try, because if you stick with the status quo your car counts will likely continue to fade away.
_______________________________________________________________________________
My colleague Danny Rosencrans and I made the trip up to Tipton on Wednesday night to take in the rescheduled Gary Reinhart Memorial event at the Cedar County Raceway. Postponed from its original date due to overly hot and humid conditions, the Darkside Promotions team of Timmy Current and Ryan Duhme made a great call by scheduling this race as an appetizer to this weekend's annual Fall Bash at the speedway. That three-day event has grown into one of those race weekends that many drivers and fans look forward to attending, not only for the great racing action, but for the camping, camaraderie, food, fun, music and parties as well.
The Darkside crew does a phenomenal job of checking in over 150 drivers and still starting on their scheduled time, despite it being a weeknight and the qualifying heat races and four B-Mains ran off in lightning fast fashion ending at 8:52 p.m. After a short break and a little bit of track work by the "Dirt Doctor" Al Dlouhy, the Outlaw Stock Car feature took the green at 9:04 and after five laps were scored, things went south from there.
After surviving six cautions and the ensuing restarts race-long leader Jeff Struck Jr. said in victory lane, "I don't know what was going on behind me, they shouldn't be spinning out on this track." And he was right. The track was smooth, wide, and tacky and while this can sometimes lead to drivers running into each other because that are going faster than usual at this stage of the night, most of the cautions in this race, and the two features that followed were for drivers that were at or near the back of the field who had just spun and sat until the yellow came out. Frustrating for not only the drivers who are racing hard up front, but for the fans as well who were getting pretty vocal about it at times.
Struck's win from the pole went unchallenged until the final two restarts when Joel Rust was able to drive his IMCA legal Stock Car under the leader in turns one and two. He could not make it stick though as Struck scored the win while Rust came from tenth to finish second. Joe Bonney made a late charge as well finishing third after starting eighth. North central Illinois driver Zach Zuberbier was fourth and Jake Lund filled out the top five.
There was no shortage of 4 Stocks on this night as twenty-seven of them would line up for twelve laps with third-starting Trent Labarge out-shifting the front row to get to the lead just past the opening green flag. The first caution of this race would come when the two-time defending All Iowa Points Champion Cyle Hawkins would lose a wheel exiting turn four on lap three and, for those of you who have seen Cyle's sharp looking #28 in action before, you will know that if it had been his left rear wheel he probably would have been able to continue to be competitive.
On the restart Labarge was swarmed under by those starting behind him as he had dropped to fifth exiting turn two and it would now be Josh Starr at the point. To the credit of the drivers here, the remaining two cautions were not for spins, but instead for debris that was being strewn across the front stretch. On the first of those two restarts, the race for the lead would go four wide exiting turn two with Jake Benischek, Joe Zrostlik and Travis Hawkins joining Starr, only to have Josh maintain the lead until that second debris caution.
After this restart it would be Benischek making his run for the lead racing up, and even over the cushion in turns one and two to take the lead and Jake would then ward off the rally from Josh to secure the victory. Travis Hawkins would take third ahead of the two-time All Iowa Points Champion (2005-06) Joe Zrostlik with Labarge coming home fifth.
The Late Models would be up next and with it being around 9:45 I was still optimistic about being able to see the whole show and still making it home around midnight. Well, let's just say that goal got wiped out pretty quickly as the first caution waved with two laps in the book and there were four more stoppages before we could get to lap six. The race then seemed to get into some rhythm with Ron Klein leading the way until two more caution flags flew on lap twelve and lap thirteen. It was hard to keep track on the scoreboard that was counting down since laps were starting to be taken away after the fifth caution
By now Justin Kay had worked his way up from tenth to second and thankfully, for however many laps were remaining, we were treated to a great battle for the lead with Klein trying to get everything that he could out of the cushion while Kay worked the throttle to get the best bite off of the bottom. Finally, with just two laps remaining, Justin would ease ahead and he would put a car length or two between him and Klein in that final half-mile to take the victory. It was still an impressive runner-up finish for the veteran driver from Sherrill, while Joel Callahan charged from twelfth to third. Matt Ryan had started next to Callahan in the sixth row and he would finish fourth while early contender Evan Miller slipped back to fifth.
It was now 10:24 so these first three features had taken an hour and twenty minutes to complete, at no fault to the track officials I want to stress, but with an hour and a half drive to get home we made the tough decision to hit the road. I know that the first caution of the Sport Mod feature came at lap five, because I could see the scoreboard as we got into the car and these final two races must have went better since Danny was reading the results to me off of MyRacePass shortly after 11 p.m.
Danny will be making the long trip back up to Tipton tonight for the first of three nights for the Darkside Fall Bash featuring a 28-lap tribute race to the late Brad Coin for the Late Models and the rest of the weekend looks spectacular from a weather standpoint so make sure that you check it out if you are in the area.
A big thanks as always to announcer Jerry Mackey for the welcome and the kind words about what we do here at Positively Racing!
I will be playing golf for just the second time this year with a trip to the Ozarks that includes the plan of catching tonight's opener of a three day event at the Lake Ozark Speedway and then I will be at the Chad McCoy Memorial at Quincy on the way home Sunday. Don't forget about the big two day show at the Scotland County Speedway in Memphis, Missouri, this weekend as well!
It is the final weekend in September so get out and support an event near you and we hope to see you again soon here on the Back Stretch.
No comments:
Post a Comment