Call it "The Big Tease" as today in Springfield, Missouri, it is sunny with a high in the upper 70's. On Saturday though it will still be sunny with a high only in the upper 40's made even chillier by a stiff breeze out of the northwest and that is why promoter Jerry Hoffman has made the tough decision to postpone the annual Turkey Bowl to next Saturday, November 26th.
I don't blame him, I have been a co-promoter of a late season event in the past and I know the negative effect on the bottom line that a day in the 40's with a stiff north wind can have. In fact those were the conditions that we ran the "Millennium Grand Finale" in back in October of 1999 and after a long evening of freezing our butts off that's when Jenni Hoenig said, "well that was a real shiver fest" and one of the most unique event names in racing was born.
Yes, you can race in conditions like this, but why take the chance? And, while it might be easy for you to take what follows as "sour grapes", please know that if I were in Hoffman's shoes I would have done the same thing.
For me at least the Turkey Bowl itself has become "The Big Tease". One of the first ones to be held was on Thanksgiving weekend ten years ago and since our holiday weekend destination that year was Tulsa, Oklahoma, for the big dinner with my sister-in-law and the family we drove right past the track on the way home as they were trying to get the show in as the snow started to fall. I believe that it was the next year that they started scheduling the race for the Saturday before Thanksgiving and I was thrilled! After all, there is absolutely no way that I can attend this race when it is held on Thanksgiving weekend until some close relative moves to Springfield and becomes the gathering point for our holiday get together, but the week before is perfect since my wife helps with an annual event for her sorority each year and does not care if I am gone racing!
So each year I mark my calendar and make hotel reservations for the Saturday before Thanksgiving and, each year, Jerry Hoffman and Doug Bland graciously put myself and Barry Johnson on the media list for the big day. Truth be told, it was the Turkey Bowl that first prompted me to start compiling the Specials Calendar on Positively Racing as I wanted to make sure that other race fans were aware that there was still some great racing to be found in our region this time of year and, if you are reading this in real time and click on the link you will see that it is still there on its original date. Also, as a side note, that December 3rd race in Belleville, Illinois, has been cancelled too as it is hard to get the Webmistress enthused about working on the racing website this time of year!
To say that the weather has not been kind to the Turkey Bowl though is an understatement. As mentioned, snow flurries pushed back that first one and while I don't have the exact statistics I would have to say that a majority of them have not been run on the originally scheduled date. I have been to only two of them with one of those actually being run in March while the last time that I can remember the show being run on the scheduled date it was in 2012 when Terry Phillips, Kyle Beard and Kris Jackson made it to victory lane. Since then either I have not been able to make the trip, or it has been postponed to the following weekend and last year the Bowl was even pushed out another week to the first Saturday in December where it ran under beautiful and relatively warm conditions as reported by Ed Reichert. I missed it though because I was enjoying my first trip ever to the Snowball Derby down in Florida.
So the Turkey Bowl has teased me once again and next Saturday while I will be completely enjoying time with my family, many of whom are traveling to Iowa from far away, I will still be a bit envious of those who will be enjoying one last dirt race (outdoors) in 2016. Unless of course Mother Nature strikes again and then I can fill back in that open date on December 3rd. Otherwise, Jerry and Doug, mark us down again for November 18, 2017, and we will see you next year!
Thursday, November 17, 2016
Friday, November 11, 2016
Pierce, Harrison, Parga, Eilers and Price-Miller Lead Lists for Illinois
With the cancellation of the December 3rd "Prelude to the Dome" event at the Bell-Clair Speedway the 2016 racing season in Illinois is now officially closed. During the season I did my best to tabulate the results from tracks in Illinois using the same 5-point scale that is used with the All Iowa Points and what follows is the best that I could do given the fact that reporting the results from the races that they have is a second thought when it comes to some of the tracks in this state.
I was unable to get full (top five) results from at least six events at Jacksonville, three events at Charleston, three events at Danville (one from the original promoter and then two when it was re-opened as Kickapoo), two at Kankakee, two at Fayette County, two at Route 45 before it closed and one at Sycamore. By far this was the most "missed" events of any of the other nine states that I followed in 2016 and in fact it was more than the other nine combined! Step it up in 2017 Illinois tracks!
Even though he does not compete weekly anywhere, Bobby Pierce enjoyed enough success at the many special events in the state to accumulate the most points in the Late Model division with fifteen feature wins as part of 23 top-five finishes. The UMP Modified National Championship came down to the final race of the season to have Mike Harrison edge out Michael Long and that is how they finished in Illinois as well with Harrison the champion. Harrison had 21 feature wins while Long had 23 wins on Illinois tracks, but with Harrison racing weekly in the state on Saturdays he rolled up more points than Long who raced at Pevely's I-55 in Missouri on Saturdays.
Jose Parga enjoyed another successful season in the Crate Late Model ranks with 13 feature wins and he has announced that he will move up to the Super Late Model ranks in 2017. The Limited Modified point chase was decided by just one marker as Robbie Eilers edged out Tim Hancock. Eilers had sixteen wins on the season and 26 top-fives, two more than did Hancock who won all sixteen feature races this year at the Macon Speedway. He added four more wins at other tracks to make it a twenty win season for the veteran driver from Mount Olive.
Parker Price-Miller captured his first ever MOWA Sprint Car title in 2016 and his four wins in nine top-fives placed him at the top of this list as well.
One more state remains for 2016, but there are still three nights of feature racing left to run on tracks in Missouri with the annual Turkey Bowl at Springfield on November 19th and of course The Gateway Nationals at the Edward Jones Dome in St. Louis on December 15th, 16th and 17th.
I was unable to get full (top five) results from at least six events at Jacksonville, three events at Charleston, three events at Danville (one from the original promoter and then two when it was re-opened as Kickapoo), two at Kankakee, two at Fayette County, two at Route 45 before it closed and one at Sycamore. By far this was the most "missed" events of any of the other nine states that I followed in 2016 and in fact it was more than the other nine combined! Step it up in 2017 Illinois tracks!
Even though he does not compete weekly anywhere, Bobby Pierce enjoyed enough success at the many special events in the state to accumulate the most points in the Late Model division with fifteen feature wins as part of 23 top-five finishes. The UMP Modified National Championship came down to the final race of the season to have Mike Harrison edge out Michael Long and that is how they finished in Illinois as well with Harrison the champion. Harrison had 21 feature wins while Long had 23 wins on Illinois tracks, but with Harrison racing weekly in the state on Saturdays he rolled up more points than Long who raced at Pevely's I-55 in Missouri on Saturdays.
Jose Parga enjoyed another successful season in the Crate Late Model ranks with 13 feature wins and he has announced that he will move up to the Super Late Model ranks in 2017. The Limited Modified point chase was decided by just one marker as Robbie Eilers edged out Tim Hancock. Eilers had sixteen wins on the season and 26 top-fives, two more than did Hancock who won all sixteen feature races this year at the Macon Speedway. He added four more wins at other tracks to make it a twenty win season for the veteran driver from Mount Olive.
Parker Price-Miller captured his first ever MOWA Sprint Car title in 2016 and his four wins in nine top-fives placed him at the top of this list as well.
One more state remains for 2016, but there are still three nights of feature racing left to run on tracks in Missouri with the annual Turkey Bowl at Springfield on November 19th and of course The Gateway Nationals at the Edward Jones Dome in St. Louis on December 15th, 16th and 17th.
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