I have heard several people ask the question, how does Donny
Schatz win 24 feature races and still not win the World of Outlaws points
championship? Simple, he did not score more points than Daryn Pittman. The
point system also rewards the qualifying efforts and, with the Outlaws current
method of setting lineups for the heats, dash and main event, being one of the
fastest qualifiers is not an advantage. Pittman’s speed and consistency
prevailed over Schatz’s win total. It will be interesting to see if the Outlaws
make any changes to their lineup procedure, point system, or both prior to
kicking off the 2014 tour.
Barring anything drastic happening at Homestead Jimmie
Johnson will score his sixth NASCAR Sprint Cup title. He isn’t flamboyant, he
just takes care of business and love him or hate him, you do need to respect
him.
IMCA had one sanctioned track in the state of Missouri until
I-35 Speedway near Winston made the decision to go to USRA next year. The move
makes sense for track owner Mike Johnson who just finished up his first year at
the helm of Lakeside Speedway as well. Running Lakeside on Friday nights USRA
and then Winston IMCA on Saturdays made no sense and now he can focus on the
synergy of having the two tracks under the same sanctioning body. And, with
USRA pretty well entrenched in Missouri, Kansas and Arkansas, Winston was out
on island as an IMCA track anyway.
It will be interesting to see just how fast the IMCA Ravesaver
305 Sprint Car division will grow at the Iowa State Fairgrounds in Des Moines.
New promoter Tony Moro has added the class to the weekly card and with his
sprint car experience and ties I expect that the car count will grow to twenty
or more by the end of 2014.
Both the Marshalltown Speedway and 34 Raceway near
Burlington have released their 2014 schedules already. 34 Raceway had one the
most aggressive schedules in regard to special events in 2013 and they have
only backed off of two events for next year. The annual Slocum 50 will no
longer be a Deery Series event and will instead be run on the MARS/ALMS/Corn
Belt Clash date that last year drew 43 Late Models. With $10,555-to-win in
2014, that event now becomes one of the premier one-day Late Model shows in the
Midwest. The USAC Sprints are not on the schedule either for 2014, but there
will be plenty of Sprint Car action on the southeast Iowa highbanks with the
Sprint Invaders making four appearances, the MOWA 410’s a couple, not to
mention one of the best weekly 305 Sprint Car counts that you will find
anywhere.
I am going to do my best to go no more than two months
without a race over this offseason with the first step being a trip to the
Springfield Raceway for the annual Turkey Classic on Saturday November 23rd.
The southwest Missouri quarter-mile oval will feature Late Models, A-Mods and
B-Mods for the show that takes the green mid-afternoon. Then in January I plan
to return to Tucson International Raceway for two nights of their mid-winter
classic featuring NDRL Late Models and USRA Modifieds. And while I didn’t catch
the exact dates, I did hear that promoter Mike VanGenderen plans to run a
couple of mid to late March events at the Scotland County Speedway in Memphis
and at the Lee County Speedway in Donnellson. If Mother Nature cooperates then
the longest I will go without attending a race will be eight weeks, not too
shabby.
For those of you who might be considering a trip to Tucson,
I would highly recommend it. I always had it in my mind that a dirt track in
southern Arizona would be dry and sandy, but that is absolutely not the case at
TIR. The track was tacky fast, wide and racy and both shows that I attended
last January were very well presented. Add in the fact that you see some
drivers that you normally just read about and you have a great mid-winter
racing experience with weather that is a bit more predictable than some of the
other options.
I am glad to hear that a promoter is taking the chance of
scheduling an early season race in our area as you just never know what is
going to happen when it comes to the weather. If you have it scheduled and the
event can be run, it is usually a big success. If it is a late winter and
things don’t work out, you just pull the plug early. No big deal. The same
could be said for October and November events in our area although one
Anonymous Weasel Poster (AWP) took exception to the fact that an October 19th
event at Farley was cancelled a day early based upon an unfavorable weather
forecast. A forecast that turned out to be accurate……of course there was no
concession to that fact by the AWP.
So far I have had only one person who disagrees with the
change that I am making to how the All Iowa Points will be awarded in the Four
Cylinder division in 2014 and he feels that I am unfairly calling attention to
the low car counts at some tracks in that division. Although his two pleas on
the Iowastockcars forum have now increased the number of views on that thread
to more than 1,200 meaning that he himself has now inadvertently called
attention to the low car count at some tracks in the division. The four
cylinder drivers that I have talked to appreciate the change and completely
understand why it is being made.
Following the changes at Quincy and Des Moines, the “silly
season” in our area has slowed quite a bit leaving me to wonder if there are
any more major announcements to come. It may not be a popular opinion but we
have had a few too many racetracks in this region for the past few years and a
specials only schedule at one or two may be just what the doctor ordered and
will lead to increased success for all.
That’s all for now, continue to check in on the Back Stretch
throughout the offseason!
