Saturday Notebook - Things Change, Car Show Pics

There was a reason that I put that question mark in parentheses following the title of Wednesday's Back Stretch as things can change pretty fast. The Eisele's decided not to make the trip to Beatrice, I am choosing a friend's 50th birthday celebration over going to Highland, and Mike VanGenderen announced that the two-day show in Memphis for next weekend has been cancelled due to the late winter weather.

So now we can look ahead to that final weekend in March that I spoke of previously, but don't forget that the King of America Modified event runs three nights this coming week down at Humboldt, Kansas. Also during that final weekend of March, the LaSalle Speedway kicks off with two big nights of Late Model racing including the West Region debut of the American Late Model Series (ALMS).

Shannon Babb topped a field of 22 UMP Late Models and Dean Hoffman took the UMP Modified feature last night at Belleville, Illinois, and the show at Highland is still a "go" for tonight. And in the opener in Beatrice the winners were Dylan Smith in the Modifieds, Tyler Frye in the Sport Mods, Lance Borgman in the Stock Cars and Devin Smith in the Hobby Stocks.

Instead of making the four hour drive to Highland I went to the 34 Raceway car show at Westland Mall in Burlington and took some pictures of the cars on display. You will find three of them below, but if you are a Facebook user, go the Positively Racing page and "Like" us as there you will find more pictures from today as well as the many racing photos that we have in albums there.

After several good seasons in a Stock Car Jeff Mueller is making the move to the Modifieds for 2013

Donnie Steward's winged sprint car drew plenty of attention at center court of Westland Mall

14-year-old Devon Rouse earned two new fans when I introduced him to my mother Dee and my cousin Jean

Time To Go Racing In The Midwest (?)

The USMTS Modifieds were able to sneak in one night of action at the Humboldt (KS) Speedway on Friday night last weekend and the Saturday night race that was originally scheduled for Valley Speedway east of Kansas City and rescheduled for Humboldt was rained out. Still it was officially the first race of the season for the region that we focus on at Positively Racing and the action is now scheduled to continue weekly all the way through the third weekend of November.

In my memory the start of this season had some of the most aggressive early season scheduling ever with several tracks who in the past never even attempted something until mid to late April now posting special events in March Six weeks ago it looked like a pretty good possibility that most of those events would have a good chance of running. Then came the snows of late February and early March and now, as we are just a week or two out from those specials, the prospect of getting them is not as bright.

Valley's USMTS show was wiped out by snow, but rescheduled just a hundred miles or so to the southwest in Humboldt showing just how fickle Ma Nature can be. Beatrice Nebraska appears ready to go for this coming weekend despite having snow on the ground not many days ago and both Belleville and Highland look like they will open up the racing season in the St. Louis area this weekend. Closer to home though, I would have to believe that Memphis, Missouri, is going to need several dry and sunny days in order to run their two-day show March 22nd and 23rd, but if Mike VanGenderen can get some help from the weather I look forward to being there on Friday night.

VanGenderen will then try to whip the surface of the Lee County Speedway, Donnellson, into shape for a March 29th show there while Jeff Laue will have one more day to manicure the high-banks at 34 Raceway in Burlington where the Brockway Mechanical and Roofing Sprint Invaders will open the season on March 30th. Then on Sunday night the 31st, Mick Trier and Dana Benning will swing open the gates at the Benton County Speedway in Vinton for perhaps the first-ever race in March at that facility. (Ryan Clark can confirm or disprove that)

If any of these shows fall to the wayside either due to the late blast from winter or unfavorable race-day weather you will no doubt hear people say "I don't know why they schedule these races so early for anyway." You can answer that by saying, "why not, what does it hurt to schedule an early season show and then cancel if needed?" You just never know when you will catch a break from the weather and then just watch how both the pits and the grandstands fill up. Back around the turn of the century Hamilton County Speedway promoter Al Uhrhammer booked the NKF Tour for the final two Saturday nights in March and everybody said that he was crazy. As I made the trip up the first Saturday night there were still massive snow drifts in the ditches along highway 20, but the sun was out and the temperatures were in the 50's. It was a Modified, Stock Car and Hobby Stock show offering a modest, but respectable purse with no entry fees and admission prices similar to a weekly show. Over 120 cars with one from as far away as Canada showed up and put on some great racing in front of a nearly full grandstand. The weather held up and we were right back at it again with similar results the following week and Uhrhammer later told me that, from a profit standpoint, it was the best two shows that he had ever had. And I am confident that these two events vaulted the NKF Tour to the success that it went on to as well. So just who thinks it is crazy to schedule a race in March?

I am hoping to make it to a show this Saturday with the weather still to determine if it will be in Highland or Beatrice. I know that our friends Dick and Joyce Eisele are heading out to Beatrice so make sure to check out the 4d Fan Report for all the news from Nebraska. And, with the Who?Won.com site and forum still down, make sure that you remind your friends to bookmark the Eisele's blog as they are always the first to report the full results from both Oskaloosa and Boone.....and you won't have that forum to remind you!

Nine years ago today one of my best friends, and a friend to so many in racing, Darrell Bennett lost his battle to leukemia. Life has not been the same without him, but his love of life and his spirit makes me smile everytime I think of him.....enjoy the day....every day!

See you at the track soon and thanks for visiting the Back Stretch!

Speedweeks Wrapping Up

Thank goodness that racing did not lose anyone, drivers and fans alike, in the checkered flag melee at Daytona on Saturday. The fact that the stands were not full likely saved lives as my heart sunk when I saw Kyle Larson's wheel assembly fly into the stands upon slowing down my DVR. Of course now the questions are asked by all, including the media folks who previously had no interest in what goes on in Florida each February, as to what is going to be done to keep this from happening in the future. Sadly, there is never going to be a guarantee that a fan is not going to be injured, or worse, by flying debris at Daytona, or any other racetrack for that matter unless all are completely encased by some sort of Plexiglas dome.

This accident will lead to further research that will continue to improve the safety of all, but the risk is going to always be there.

My first suggestion, and I have said it before here, is that NASCAR should do away with the green-white-checkered overtime finish at the two restrictor plate tracks. Yes, I know that this was not an "overtime" scenario as the red flag with four laps to go is what set this one up, but the bottom line is that the drivers cannot handle it. I would love to see the statistics as to how these have played out since the rule was put into place a few years back. I would guess that fewer than 20% of those actually finished under green, with more than 50% ending in multi-car crashes. They can point the finger at NASCAR all they want, but it is the drivers who try to throw an ill-advised block, or don't lift because they were trying to get to the finish line on that final lap that cause these wild wrecks.

Up until the end the racing at Daytona on Saturday was spectacular, much different than we have seen from the Cup cars in the Sprint Unlimited and the Duals. I will be traveling today during the 500, but here's hoping that the action is half is good as Saturday and that the checkered flag waves over a field of cars that can all drive back to the garage area. And with fans who can all head home in safety.

Here are the Florida Dirt Late Model points following Speedweeks.

		Florida
		Late Model
Pos.		Driver	Hometown	Points
1	.	Darrell Lanigan	Union KY	27
2	.	Josh Richards	Shinnston WV	25
3	.	Don O'Neal	Martinsville IN	23
4	.	Scott Bloomquist	Mooresburg TN	21
5	.	Tim McCreadie	Watertown NY	16
6	.	Dennis Erb Jr.	Carpentersville IL	15
7	.	Billy Moyer	Batesville AR	11
8	.	Rick Eckert	York PA	10
9	.	Steve Francis	Ashland KY	8
10	.	Earl Pearson Jr.	Jacksonville	7
11	.	Shane Clanton	Locust Grove GA	7
12	.	Eric Jacobsen	Seacliff CA	6
13	.	Eric Wells	Hazard KY	6
14	.	Jimmy Owens	Newport TN	6
15	.	Mike Marlar	Winfield KY	6
16	.	Donnie Moran	Dresden OH	5
17	.	Roger Crouse	Plant City	5
18	.	Scott James	Lawrenceburg IN	5
19	.	Bobby Pierce	Oakwood IL	4
20	.	Doug Drown	Wooster OH	4
21	.	Mark Whitener	Middleburg	4
22	.	Tyler Clem		4
23	.	Tyler Reddick	Corning CA	4
24	.	Brandon Sheppard	New Berlin IL	3
25	.	John Blankenship	Williamson WV	3
26	.	Stormy Scott	Las Cruces NM	3
27	.	Waylon Haynes		3
28	.	Dale McDowell	Rossville GA	2
29	.	David Cline		2
30	.	Dave Hess Jr.	Waterford PA	2
31	.	Ivedent Lloyd Jr.	Ocala	2
32	.	Jared Landers	Batesville AR	2
33	.	Chub Frank	Sugar Grove PA	1
34	.	Ricky Land		1
35	.	Tim Fuller	Watertown NY	1
36	.	Vic Coffey	Caledonia NY	1

Battle At The Beach Turns Ugly

Daytona's inaugural Battle at the Beach turned into a free-for-all as the leader at the white flag in all three races was blatantly taken out by the driver behind him and, in two of those, the offending driver ended up celebrating in victory lane.

It started out on Monday night when rising star Kyle Larson tried to loosen up leader C.E. Falk in the final turn of the Late Model race, but when that first bump didn't produce the results that he needed Larson nailed him again sending Falk for a spin just a few yards from the checkers. The small crowd on hand booed Larson as he exited his car in victory lane, something that he said he has not experienced often. "It's kind of cool", he said and in regard to why he spun out the leader coming to the checkered flag Larson was quoted as saying "This was a pretty big race, Iwanted to win it." But by deliberately spinning a guy out?

The lack of action by NASCAR officials in the case of Larson set the stage for more poor sportsmanship on Tuesday night as both the Whelen Modified Series and the K&N Pro Series events saw the leaders taken out on the final lap. In the Modifieds it was veteran Mike Stefanik who was shoe-horned by Steve Park and while Park celebrated in victory lane, Stefanik stewed at his trailer. And then the folks at SPEED had the poor judgement of sticking a live microphone in his face. Stefanik tried to not say anything, but the director did not cut away in time as Stefanik then made it very clear how he felt using language that the FCC only allows on South Park after 9 p.m. And to make matters worse Mike Joy then stated that his comments were uncalled for. Really? What did you expect him to say? The guy just got robbed of $20,000, I'm surprised he was as kind as he was!

The K&N race would close out the night and it was Michael Self who was in the worst position possible when the white flag waved. That's right, you DON'T want to be in the lead on this 4/10th-mile paper clip when the white flag waves as there is nothing like rules or sportsmanship that is going to give you a fighting chance to take that checkered flag. This time it was 15-year-old Gray Gaulding who blasted the leader in the rear-end going into turn one spinning him completely around, but sweet justice did at least come through in this one as Gaulding then drove too hard into turn three, washed up the track in turn four and allowed Cameron Haley to pass him coming to the checkered flag for the win. Congratulations Cameron, you were the one winner of the BotB who did not deserve to be booed in victory lane. When they interviewed Gaulding he thought that he had help from behind when he drilled Self and then he thought that he ran over something slick in turn three. Check the tape kid, you will see that you were wrong on both accounts.

Can you imagine having three feature races end like this at your local dirt track on one weekend? The fights would still be going on......

Saturday Morning Notebook: Florida Speedweeks and more

It has been so long now that I can't even remember when I last made a trip down to Florida for Speedweeks. If I had to guess I would say that it was in 2002, the last February before I had to start making tuition payments for the first of three, but now that I no longer have that annual January payment to make I need to make a plan to get back down there in 2014. The media coverage from the Florida action is better than ever now with the opportunity to even watch most of the events live on the internet but, for me at least, watching on the computer or even on TV doesn't even come close to the same as being there so I do not take advantage of those opportunities. The one thing that I will say though is that the coverage you see on the internet is ten times better than what you get in an event that is recorded and then later shown on television as the live coverage doesn't do the constant jumping from camera to camera like you see on the edited re-broadcasts. As the field takes the green flag I don't want to watch from somebody's in-car camera as they race into turn one and then quickly switch to another car's roof cam facing backwards coming out of turn two and then get two seconds of the good camera view from the top of the pressbox as the leaders roar into turn three for the first time, then go to the camera that is buried in the berm of turn four. No, I would rather just watch all of the action that unfolds on the first lap of a race from a camera view that would be similar to the best seat in the house. Every time I watch a re-broadcast of a race and see how they cover that first lap I want to slap the director up side the head!

I am looking forward to watching today's ARCA race at Daytona to see how a couple of young open wheel drivers do as Kyle Larson and Chad Boat will take the green with a bunch of other drivers that I otherwise know little or nothing about.

The World Series of Asphalt Racing was scheduled to start last night at New Smyrna Speedway, but I have not seen any results as of yet. Looking at the pre-entry list the age range for the Super Late Model entries started at 14 with Quincy's own Jake Griffin and went all the way up to 71 with Canadian Bruce Gowland. I think that is pretty cool that the driver's age is included on the list.

The World of Outlaws Late Model show in Ocala drew 39 cars last night while the Lucas Oil event in East Bay had 37 cars. In the past, without the head-to-head competition, the car count in East Bay was closer to 76 and while some fans may not like the split and the fact that they now have to choose where to go, others realize how good this is for the drivers. Fifty-one drivers received feature purse money last night and that is twenty-five more than what would have done so in the past. It will be interesting to see how many Lucas Oil drivers run up to Ocala for Sunday's finale that pays $20,000-to-win and, for those craving big car counts, Volusia will again be the place to be next week with more than sixty cars likely each night.

Darrell Lanigan scored the UMP sanctioned win at North Florida Speedway last Sunday night and then raced to the WoO win last night at Bubba Raceway Park in Ocala and will be tough to beat as the defending champion of the Outlaws. As I scan the results some other drivers who have caught my eye this week include young Bobby Pierce who has scored a third and a fifth at East Bay, Dennis Erb Jr. who for some reason never gets mentioned when people list off the elite Late Model drivers has two wins, a fourth and a fifth place finish in four nights at East Bay, while Don O'Neal has posted a first, second and third so far. Doug Drown was impressive running second to O'Neal last night and I have enjoyed seeing Florida driver Mark Whitener making some good runs as he competes at the Super Late Model level for the first time.

The UMP Modified car count is huge once again at Volusia as 82 cars were in competition Friday night. Nick Hoffman of Mooresville, North Carolina, took the win over a roster that was littered with names from NASCAR including Ty Dillon, Brendan Gaughan, Austin Dillon, Justin Allgaier, Matt Crafton, Kenny Wallace, David Stremme, Ken Schrader and David Reutimann. Allgaier had the best finish of that bunch running fourth just ahead of Kelly Shryock. Quincy Raceway regular David Wietholder finished ninth. Rodney Sanders topped a field of 77 on Tuesday night for his fifth win already in 2013.

The Mods ran in support of the opener for the World of Outlaws STP Sprint Car Series Friday night where Daryn Pittman put Kasey Kahne's #9 into victory lane. The driver that Pittman replaced in that ride, Joey Saldana scored a 12th place run in the return of the Motter Motorsports #71m. Danny Lasoski did not make the show running sixth in the B-Main and former Outlaw champ and current NASCAR driver Dave Blaney was also a non-qualifier.

The short track action in Florida continues all the way through next Saturday and believe it or not the first action scheduled for the upper Midwest is only three weeks away. Make sure you check out our ever growing Specials Calendar at Positively Racing to plan your early season events.

Yes, I know that I started out this entry saying how I have a hard time watching racing on the computer or TV, but knowing that many of you do enjoy it make sure that you check out the Racin' Boys pay-per-view coverage of the season opener for the Lucas Oil ASCS National series coming up next Friday and Saturday night from Tucson International Raceway. It is a great track and you can bet the coverage will be top notch.