Time to dust off the ol' notebook as I anticipate a great weekend of racing here close to home. When cold and rainy weather last week forced promoters Brian and Marcie Gaylord to push both the Halloween Race-tacular at the Scotland County Speedway in Memphis and the annual Shiverfest at the Lee County Speedway in Donnellson to this coming weekend one of the comments on Facebook was "It could be snowing next weekend". I hope that wasn't this person's way of saying that they should have tried to race last weekend because that would have been an epic failure. I wanted to immediately reply that it could in the 60's as well and, if I had, my uninformed weather prognostication skills would have proved to be much better than his.
It looks like we will have great weather to go racing tonight in Memphis and tomorrow at Donnellson and while there is a very slight chance of precipitation at some point during the proceedings, it sounds like it will be no more than a couple of sprinkles. Hopefully I will see many of you at one or both tracks this weekend!
These will be the final two races for the All Iowa Points in 2023 and there is still one championship to be determined. That is the Late Model division where Tommy Elston, on the strength of his clean sweep at Lee County's Harvest Hustle on the first weekend of October, moved ahead of season long leader Andy Nezworski. The difference is just two points so with the 5-point scale of a win being worth 5, second getting 4, third earning 3 points and so on, this could go right down to the final night if both drivers choose to attend. Elston is likely to be there since both tracks are about a half hour tow from his Keokuk home, but whether or not Nezworski will be there is the question. His last outing was back in WISSOTA country when he ran the annual Red Clay Classic at the ABC Raceway in Ashland, Wisconsin, and that might have been his way of closing out his 2023 campaign. Recall that Andy was a competitor in the WISSOTA Super Stock division before he relocated to Buffalo, Iowa, and switched to the IMCA Late Model class.
The All Iowa Points are for bragging rights only and, if used properly, drivers can use it to better promote themselves when it comes to sponsorships. I am very proud that the legendary drivers who have made it into the National Dirt Late Model Hall of Fame including Gary Webb, Ed Sanger, Curt Hansen, Verlin Eaker, Joe Kosiski, Ray Guss Jr., Ken Walton, Red Droste, Tom Hearst, Roger Dolan, Jeff Aikey and Steve Boley all had their All Iowa Points championship, or championships, listed on their resume as they went through the voting process. After this weekend either Tommy Elston or Andy Nezworski will add their name to the list of these and others who have earned an All Iowa Points Late Model Championship, not a bad group to be included in!
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| Tommy Elston charges to the inside of Tyler Bruening in April of 2014 at the West Liberty Raceway- Barry Johnson photo |
Like many of you, I'm sure, I have a love/hate relationship with Facebook when it comes to racing. By following all of the tracks in the region I am able to stay updated on what is going on at each and it is interesting to see how promoters use this social media venue to highlight sponsors as well. What do I hate about it? Well of course, the comments! It is amazing to me how vindictive and, or narcissistic people can be when they make comments on a Facebook post that, for example, let's people know that a race has been postponed a week due to weather. Calling the decision into question because you can't make it the following week has to be some of the dumbest things that I have ever seen. Plus, the relentless requests to add classes to a roster that already has five divisions on the card annoys me as well. "If you add the Bombers, I'll bring three cars with me from over three hours away". First of all, prove it, and second, if that now makes my Bomber car count a total of nine, people in the stands are wondering why the hell the Bombers were added to what is already a busy night of racing.
There are a lot of people who insist that promoters need to take all comments seriously as a form of constructive criticism. I vehemently disagree! There is just too much stupidity to weed through to find anything constructive and all of that takes a toll on a promoter who works his or her ass off all week only to find that the vocal minority are the ones taking shots at them. We have already seen a couple of promoters walk away with this being one of the reasons. My advice to promoters is to make your post and don't come back to review the comments, you don't need the agony and I would like to think that the true race fans know enough to disregard most comments in the first place.
One trend though that I am starting to see from tracks is that when they make a post they are adding #followers which then sends a Messenger notification to my phone alerting me to the new post. I'm sure that's all well and good for those people who are only following their local track, but for someone like me that follows all dirt tracks across a fourteen state area, I don't like getting those pop up notifications all the time. If you do it once in awhile, that's fine, but I had a track make four posts in three days last week using this method and I made the decision to no longer follow that track. Don't over use this new toy, promoters!
I am also amused by the new trend of making "Save The Date" posts for special events, particularly for events that just completed this Fall. It feels like I'm being invited to a wedding or a graduation party again! I get it, as a promoter you want to get that date out there not only for your fans to put it on their schedule for 2024, but perhaps more importantly to let other promoters know that "this is my weekend, don't you dare schedule on top of me!" I have said it before, and I will say it again. We live in the absolute best area to be a dirt track racing fan due to all of the tracks and the drivers there are to compete at them. Unless you schedule something for the first two weeks of March, or the month of November you are always going to have more than just one event going on in the region and, in my eyes, that is a good thing. There is nothing wrong with a little competition, plus if the events are a couple of hours or more away from each other, inclement weather might hamper one while missing the other giving drivers and fans a choice.
It is also that time of year where some tracks feel the need to get their 2024 schedule out there despite the fact that they have several dates listed as TBA or "To Be Announced". One track that decided not to race beyond the end of August this year, put out a 2024 schedule last week that listed three different "2 Day Specials" in September and October. No details, so to me that is just another "Save The Date" ploy just like the lonely cat lady that posted a "Save The Date" for her wedding in 2025 despite the fact that she has no boyfriend at this moment.
Promoters, if you post your schedule for 2024 I will include the actual dates that you have listed in Positively Racing's Special Events Calendar, however when you move any of those, or if you actually add the details for your TBA dates, I cannot guarantee that they will be updated or included in that calendar if I don't catch that update. And, if you overuse #followers in your posts, I will miss the update because I will no longer be following your track on Facebook. :)
Speaking of changes, I see that the XR Super Series has made another change to their season finale in Florida. The race that was originally scheduled for the final weekend of October at the All Tech Raceway was then moved to the first weekend in December, and this week it was announced that the purse would be cut from a $100,000-to-win finale to two separate shows paying $10,000 on Friday and $20,000 on Saturday. Don't get me wrong, that is still some nice money out there at a time when there is little on the schedule, but it continues the trend that we have seen with the XR events throughout 2023. The schedule has been "fluid" to say the least and hopefully that will settle down a bit next season when one of our favorites, the Yankee Dirt Classic at Farley is run under the XR banner for the first time.
Plenty of rumors flying around our area right now, some that have been confirmed and others that may be found to be true or false in the days and weeks to come. I will do my best to summarize without getting into too much detail.
Jeff Struck Jr. will be the new promoter of weekly racing at the Davenport Speedway in 2024. As one of the top drivers in the "Outlaw" Street Stock class in the Quad Cities for the past several years, it will be interesting to see what he has for a division roster next year. Ricky and Brenda Kay added the IMCA Stock Cars this past season in what some viewed as an attempt to build up that class while phasing out the Outlaws, but with the IMCA counts not exceeding the Outlaws over the closing weeks of the season it would seem that Struck would be justified in dropping the sanctioned division. As a first time promoter running a track that runs under a curfew, the last thing that you need is too many classes to get completed.
Neal Kohlmorgan confirmed on a Facebook post this week that he and Patrick Profeta will be the new promoters at the Lee County Speedway in Donnellson for 2024. Neal has been a part-time competitor in the Stock Car class for a few years with his last event seeing him take a wild ride over the top of the guardrail in turn three at Donnellson in mid-September, while Profeta is a former Modified racer who has turned the wheel over to his son Nicholas for the past couple of seasons with the young driver showing big improvement here in 2023. While this is big news in itself, I have heard that the new promoters may have an even more impactful announcement to make this weekend, so we will find out soon if there will be a change in the race nights at Donnellson as well.
Mike Van Genderen has been putting on the races for the fair board at the Scotland County Speedway in Memphis for the past several years, but he will be absent tonight as he had a commitment to Peyton Taylor to do the track work at the Natural State Nationals at the Central Arkansas Speedway this weekend. With the Independence Motor Speedway putting out their "Mark Your Calendar" post for the 2024 Fall Madness being September 24-26, this is a track that Mike co-promotes and those dates would be against the traditional September event at Memphis, so it seems that the northeast Missouri facility may be going in a different direction in 2024. I have heard that the Fuller family would like to have more shows than the four or five nights that the track has been having each season, so it will be interesting to see how that pans out as well. I know that I am biased with it only being a 62 mile trip for me, but I think that the track in Memphis is one of those "rustic gems" that every dirt track fan needs to check out even just once. And remember, you can do that tonight with the Halloween Race-tacular!
Prominent Dirt Late Model supporter Jeff Hoker revealed that the World of Outlaws Late Model event that he has sponsored as The Hoker 150 at the Davenport Speedway the past couple of years will now be moved to the Maquoketa Speedway in August of 2024. And yes, he confirmed that the track prep will be handled by Rick Kay and the "Dirt Doctor" Al Dlouhy. When everything went down with the Kays leaving Davenport, Hoker stated that he would not support those who did not support them and he is keeping his word with this move. Unfortunately for me the projected dates are for the weekend after the Knoxville Sprint Car Nationals which usually means that we will have a couple of events scheduled for the Sprint Invaders at the same time, but hey, that's the beauty of where we are located. There will always be plenty of choices, especially at that time of the season.
I have heard the rumor that Hoker Trucking may not be back as the title sponsor for the SLMR East Series in 2024, but that remains to be seen. And, if they do not return, it will be a good opportunity for somebody else to step up and get some good exposure with the series directed by Joe Kosiski.
I'm going to make a statement here that may offend some while others might agree, but after a few seasons of stepping on each other I feel that it is time for these regional Late Model series to determine who has the "rights" to eastern Iowa. While the MLRA has been strong in early season races primarily at Davenport and Burlington, by the time they come back to eastern Iowa they have been down to just four or five drivers that are still chasing points and the overall car count lags. With the change of promoters at Davenport, the one time that the MARS series dipped their toes into the state of Iowa may no longer be on the schedule anyway so that would appear to put the SLMR in the position to BE the regional Super Late Model series in Eastern Iowa. Let's see how the 2024 schedules shake out.
Sprint Car fans are on the edge of their seats right now waiting to see what comes of the purchase of the All Stars by the High Limit Series. Will they try to build more of a full-time "national" brand making it Floracing vs. DirtVision as well, or will they stick to the script of keeping the All Stars primarily east of the Missouri River while maintaining the mid-week High Limits events as well? We should know more of the plans by the PRI show in early December.
Congratulations to Mike Marlar on scoring a victory at the World Finals in Charlotte on Thursday night. It was the first night for Marlar with Skyline Motorsports as a teammate to Iowa's Tyler Bruening marking the official beginning of "silly season" when it comes to who will be driving for whom in 2024.
That's it, the notebook now goes back out to the car as it is about time to pack up and make the drive to Memphis, Missouri. Hope to see you there tonight and at the Lee County Speedway in Donnellson on Saturday!
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