It was cold and it was windy, but the show went on as scheduled Saturday night at 34 Raceway. New owners Brad Stevens and Jessi Mynatt were excited to get the new era started at the southeast Iowa facility so despite wind chills dropping down to near 20 degrees they forged ahead with the season opener for the Shottenkirk.com Sprint Invaders.
Despite the chill, and the fact that there was a another 360 show paying $13,000-to-win down in Wichita, Kansas, there was a solid field of twenty-three cars signed in and that is a good sign that the Invaders will have another solid campaign in 2018. There were also eleven of the Lee County rules Late Models on hand which was actually a few more than I expected as four drivers had their IMCA legal cars there to compete with the Crates. Most importantly though was that there were more fans in the stands than I had anticipated given the conditions as I have to admit that even a die-hard like me would have had to think twice about going to a dirt track race on this night, but from the fan's point of view there were three things that made it all worth while.
1. The stiff twenty to thirty mile breeze was a crosswind blowing from turn one toward turn three so at the very least it was keeping any dust that the winged sprints stir up from pelting you.
2. Brad and Jessi vowed to run off the show in an efficient manner and even with a about a ten minute break between the final Sprint Car heat and the Dash the entire program was complete in just under two hours, and
3. On a week where the track prep was interrupted a couple of times by rain, and on a race day that would normally ruin most dirt tracks, the racing surface was fantastic allowing both divisions the opportunity to race high, low and everywhere in between.
Jake Blackhurst was the winner of the Sprint Invader headliner and while the score book will show him leading all twenty-five laps from the pole position, he definitely did not go without challenges. Jon Agan actually passed Blackhurst on a lap nine restart, but with another caution waving before the lap was fully scored that put Blackhurst back out front. On the next restart I'm not sure what happened, perhaps Agan got clipped from behind or he was trying to find some moisture off the bottom of turn four, but he went well below the cone on the front stretch and was penalized a position before another try at going back to green.
This now gave John Schulz an opportunity to take a shot at the lead and the veteran made two big runs, one off turn two and another exiting low out of turn four, but the young driver fought off both tries. Meanwhile, back in the eighth position tonight's driver of the Midland Performance car #50 Joe B. Miller was having a pretty so-so outing, that is until car owner Scott Bonar's late race setup came to life and on a restart with four laps remaining he lined up fifth. Blackhurst would again pull away from the competition while Miller quickly disposed of Chris Martin, Schulz and Cody Wehrle to get to second and perhaps with another lap or two he could have caught the leader as well, but it would be Jake Blackhurst putting the Kitchen Cooked Potato Chip car #25 in victory lane for the first time ever with the Shottenkirk.com Sprint Invaders.
Miller will likely be welcomed back to drive the 50 car at a later date as he came from twelfth to second while Schulz edged out Wehrle, who had started tenth, in the final lap to finish third. The 2016 Invaders champion Martin, who plans to run the ASCS National Series in 2018 was fifth, Josh Schneiderman was sixth and Brayden Gaylord had a nice drive up from sixteenth to seventh. The driver finishing behind him Harold Pohren had to be thrilled with his eighth place run on opening night. With his 360 power plant still not finished, Pohren had his 305 under the hood and still managed to come from the eleventh row up to eighth, a pretty good start to his points chase given the circumstances.
And for those of you who know that the Sprint Invaders usually only start twenty cars in the feature, Brad Stevens told the drivers in the pre-race meeting how much he appreciated their support on this cold and windy night and then showed it by stating that all 23 cars would start the main event.
The next action for the Shottenkirk.com Sprint Invaders will be on the Memorial Day weekend with racing at the Lee County Speedway in Donnellson on Friday May 25th and then back to 34 Raceway on Sunday night May 27th. For a story with the full results visit Bill Wright at OpenWheel101 and for more Positively Racing coverage check in with Danny Rosencrans and Brian Neal.
In the Late Model portion of the event Chuck Hanna was dominant with his IMCA car leading from flag-to-flag for the feature win. Iowa City's Tim Simpson was an impressive second place finisher, according to my records his best Late Model finish ever having not even been in the top five before. It was not unusual to see the 45's of Tommy Elston and Denny Woodworth racing each other hard, but on this night it was for third with Elston prevailing while Vance Wilson completed the top five.
With that first race now in the books Stevens and Mynatt look like they will be faced with another tough decision for this coming Saturday night, April 7th, as the Bumper to Bumper IRA Sprints and the Neal Tire MOWA Sprints are on the schedule with another chilly night currently in the forecast. As of now the high temperature is expected to be around 40, but thankfully the winds are only supposed to be at 5 to 10 miles per hour during the day so it will actually feel warmer than it was this past Saturday night. If they do go ahead and run the event I hope that you will join me, and many other fans of the 410 Sprint Cars at 34 Raceway Saturday night!
In some other news of note from around the region this past weekend, Sioux City's Cody Thompson rallied from the twelfth row to finish second to Dustin Daniels in the Sport Mod feature during Friday's opener of the Sunflower Classic at the Rolling Plains Motor Speedway in Hays, Kansas. As of this writing the Saturday night results had not yet been posted on the track's website due to computer issues, something that must have troubled a couple of other facilities that were able to race this weekend but posted no results.
Shannon Babb and Chris Simpson were the Late Model winners at LaSalle while Canadian Ricky Weiss made the podium both nights. IMCA Modifieds and Sport Mods ran in support and while Friday's results are still to be posted it was Hunter Marriott winning in yet another state already in 2018 on Saturday night. I know that the Missouri driver has won in Arizona, Arkansas and Illinois to go with a pair of runner-up finishes in Nebraska. Tyler Soppe was the Sport Mod winner on Saturday night followed by Woodward, Iowa's Hunter Longnecker.
The Old No. 1 Speedway in Harrisburg had a $1,000-to-win Modified special on Friday night with Robert Powers of Campbell, Missouri, taking the win, his third straight at the northeast Arkansas facility. In Late Model action St. Louis area driver Dewayne Kiefer stopped Scott Bell's win streak at two. Bell was the runner-up.
Checking in with Myron Pembleton, the track that he promotes in Kentucky was forced to cancel their racing due to weather this week but he had to let his fans know via Facebook that due to state law he would no longer be able to allow people to bring their own beer into the stands. Not surprisingly there were a couple of people who got on Facebook and racing forums to say that if they could not bring their own beer into the stands anymore then they would no longer attend the races there. Myron tells me that the nice thing about Facebook is that when this happens you know the name of the person making the statement as well as what they look like. He has informed his gate security officer to watch out for these individuals and make sure that they keep their word.
Tracks throughout the region are already making changes to events scheduled for this weekend so make sure that you check in with the track of your choice to see if they are still running. And, if they do, bundle up and let's go racing!
Monday, April 2, 2018
Thursday, March 29, 2018
Thursday Notebook: March 29, 2018
Two notebook entries in one week is a bit out of the ordinary, but in about a one hour period just before lunch today there were several changes made to the racing schedule for not only this coming weekend, but in the week ahead as well.
The first one that I saw was the cancellation of the Inaugural Memphis Shootout that had been scheduled for this Friday and Saturday at the Scotland County Speedway in Memphis, Missouri. Pictures from the facility showed standing water from overnight rains and in the original post I noticed that it ended with the words "Stay tuned."
Soon after that came the announcement that the IMCA Frostbusters that were scheduled for next Wednesday through Saturday would be pushed back a week due to a still cold and perhaps wet forecast in the next seven days. So now the Frostbusters will start on Wednesday April 11th at the Lee County Speedway in Donnellson, move to Vinton on Thursday the 12th and then close out the weekend at Marshalltown on Friday and Boone on Saturday.
Shortly after that the Scotland County Speedway followed up by announcing that the Inaugural Memphis Shootout was now rescheduled for next weekend, April 6th and 7th.
Other changes that we came across this morning:
The USAC Sprint Cars at Lawrenceburg Speedway in Indiana this Saturday have been canceled
The Kentucky Blue Grass Bash at Paducah International Raceway has been postponed with a new date yet to be determined.
The Inaugural B-Mod Bedlam at the Salina Highbanks Speedway in Oklahoma has been postponed to next weekend.
Late afternoon addition: The Battle of the Bullring for Friday at US 36 Raceway has been canceled. No word as of 4 p.m. on the Saturday event at the Eagle Raceway
Season openers at the Legit Speedway in West Plains, Missouri, and at Dodge City Raceway Park in Kansas have been canceled for this weekend.
And as announced a couple of days ago the Hawkeye Stock Car Classic at the Adams County Speedway in Corning has been canceled.
Two events in my area are still on with the Thaw Brawl at the LaSalle Speedway scheduled to run both on Friday and Saturday night. Hey, there are icicles and an abominable snowman holding a championship belt on the event flyer so they are not going to let a little cold weather derail them. And at 34 Raceway near Burlington new owner Brad Stevens and Jessi Mynatt are excited to get their first show in the books and they have moved up the start times for the Shottenkirk.com Sprint Invaders. Hot laps will now take the green at 5:15 with racing to follow on Saturday evening. The Lee County rules Late Models will join the Sprints for a two division program that they plan to run off in quick order. So bundle on up and come out for some racing!
There are a couple of other interesting news items out there as well today. For the first time in its long history the Deery Brothers Summer Series for IMCA Late Models will go away from a draw and redraw lineup format and instead use a passing points system in 2018. From the way that the brief press release was written it appears that the heat race winners will draw for the "best spots" with remainder of the top twelve for the feature lineup set by passing points. So in other words if there are four heat races those four winners are guaranteed to start the feature from either the first or second row while the next eight starting spots will be set by the passing points. Personally I think that a guy who starts his heat from eighth and races his way up to second deserves to be in that "draw" more than a pole-starting heat race winner, but somebody will always have something to gripe about with any qualifying format. Hopefully this change will be welcomed by drivers and fans alike this season and the first look at it will come on Friday April 13th at the Davenport Speedway for the Rebel 5K.
Veteran Late Model driver Jim Moon has purchased the 85 Speedway in Ennis, Texas. You may recall that Moon had a short stint as a promoter at the Montgomery County Speedway in New Florence, Missouri, where he had five events in March and April of 2014 before ownership closed the place back down. 85 Speedway remains as the only dirt track in Texas that I have ever seen a race at back in March of 1986 and at the time they ran a class of cars that were similar to the big block Modifieds of the northeast. The feature winner that night as I recall was Gary Wright.
If you choose to go racing this weekend, bundle up and have fun!
The first one that I saw was the cancellation of the Inaugural Memphis Shootout that had been scheduled for this Friday and Saturday at the Scotland County Speedway in Memphis, Missouri. Pictures from the facility showed standing water from overnight rains and in the original post I noticed that it ended with the words "Stay tuned."
Soon after that came the announcement that the IMCA Frostbusters that were scheduled for next Wednesday through Saturday would be pushed back a week due to a still cold and perhaps wet forecast in the next seven days. So now the Frostbusters will start on Wednesday April 11th at the Lee County Speedway in Donnellson, move to Vinton on Thursday the 12th and then close out the weekend at Marshalltown on Friday and Boone on Saturday.
Shortly after that the Scotland County Speedway followed up by announcing that the Inaugural Memphis Shootout was now rescheduled for next weekend, April 6th and 7th.
Other changes that we came across this morning:
The USAC Sprint Cars at Lawrenceburg Speedway in Indiana this Saturday have been canceled
The Kentucky Blue Grass Bash at Paducah International Raceway has been postponed with a new date yet to be determined.
The Inaugural B-Mod Bedlam at the Salina Highbanks Speedway in Oklahoma has been postponed to next weekend.
Late afternoon addition: The Battle of the Bullring for Friday at US 36 Raceway has been canceled. No word as of 4 p.m. on the Saturday event at the Eagle Raceway
Season openers at the Legit Speedway in West Plains, Missouri, and at Dodge City Raceway Park in Kansas have been canceled for this weekend.
And as announced a couple of days ago the Hawkeye Stock Car Classic at the Adams County Speedway in Corning has been canceled.
Two events in my area are still on with the Thaw Brawl at the LaSalle Speedway scheduled to run both on Friday and Saturday night. Hey, there are icicles and an abominable snowman holding a championship belt on the event flyer so they are not going to let a little cold weather derail them. And at 34 Raceway near Burlington new owner Brad Stevens and Jessi Mynatt are excited to get their first show in the books and they have moved up the start times for the Shottenkirk.com Sprint Invaders. Hot laps will now take the green at 5:15 with racing to follow on Saturday evening. The Lee County rules Late Models will join the Sprints for a two division program that they plan to run off in quick order. So bundle on up and come out for some racing!
There are a couple of other interesting news items out there as well today. For the first time in its long history the Deery Brothers Summer Series for IMCA Late Models will go away from a draw and redraw lineup format and instead use a passing points system in 2018. From the way that the brief press release was written it appears that the heat race winners will draw for the "best spots" with remainder of the top twelve for the feature lineup set by passing points. So in other words if there are four heat races those four winners are guaranteed to start the feature from either the first or second row while the next eight starting spots will be set by the passing points. Personally I think that a guy who starts his heat from eighth and races his way up to second deserves to be in that "draw" more than a pole-starting heat race winner, but somebody will always have something to gripe about with any qualifying format. Hopefully this change will be welcomed by drivers and fans alike this season and the first look at it will come on Friday April 13th at the Davenport Speedway for the Rebel 5K.
Veteran Late Model driver Jim Moon has purchased the 85 Speedway in Ennis, Texas. You may recall that Moon had a short stint as a promoter at the Montgomery County Speedway in New Florence, Missouri, where he had five events in March and April of 2014 before ownership closed the place back down. 85 Speedway remains as the only dirt track in Texas that I have ever seen a race at back in March of 1986 and at the time they ran a class of cars that were similar to the big block Modifieds of the northeast. The feature winner that night as I recall was Gary Wright.
If you choose to go racing this weekend, bundle up and have fun!
Tuesday, March 27, 2018
Tuesday Notebook: March 27, 2018
Here we go, another week of watching a weather forecast each day and hoping that it improves so that we can go racing. For me it is the season opener for the Shottenkirk.com Sprint Invaders scheduled for this Saturday night at 34 Raceway near Burlington, but there are a few other special events in the region as well this weekend.
I had to chuckle this morning when an AWP who usually has more of the attitude of Eeyore when it comes to weather leading up to an event posted on a race forum that the forecast for the event that he is hoping to attend this weekend "looks great!" Apparently only a 40% chance of rain with a high of 49 and a twenty mile per hour wind is enough to give him hope for the first race of the year. Hopefully he will have the same attitude when he posts about other events in 2018.
The sad part is that not only will we be lucky to do some racing this weekend, but the long range forecast for the following week when the Frostbusters give us a chance to go racing on Wednesday and Thursday as well as the weekend does not look good either. Please change!
It is not unusual for us to have Spring weather like this and I can recall some years where I was only able to get in a race or two before the month of May rolled around. When this happens you will see the discussion start up as to why promoters even bother to schedule early events in the first place, which I guess is what you sit around and do when you have no races to go to. In my opinion, in this day and age it is even easier for a promoter to take the risk of scheduling an early race event and here's why. Twenty-five or more years ago if you were going to try to have a race on the final Saturday in March you would have had to invest some money in advertising in the regional racing papers like Hawkeye Racing News, Midwest Racing News, Checkered Flag Racing News, Speed Sport, etc. just to let both drivers and fans know about it and since three of those four were not weekly until April that money would have been spent in January or February. Then, if you have snow like we did last weekend and had to cancel in advance, that money was gone, a valid financial loss for trying to schedule a race too early.
Today a promoter can put the early special on his or her website and publicize it on the track's Facebook page without any additional cost. Any track work that goes on leading up to the event is work that you would have already had to do to get ready for the season anyway so as long as the promoter pulls the plug three or four days prior to the event, before that delivery of hot dogs and hamburgers is made for the concessions, then there is no direct cost to having scheduled that early season opener and losing it. Low risk if handled properly. The potential reward on the other hand is quite high if you catch some nice weather and can go ahead with the show, I saw this first hand back on February 24th when a very nice crowd rolled into Volunteer Speedway on a warm sunny day.
So why would any fan argue the point that promoters should stop scheduling early season events? I think that it is just because they don't like being "teased" with the prospect of going racing and then having cool and rainy weather take it away from them. I on the other hand appreciate the opportunity that is given to us by those promoters who do take the risk and I hope that they continue to do so going forward even if the Spring of 2018 does not allow them to achieve the reward.
While the weather has been less than desirable here in southeast Iowa a track that is just a little over a five hour drive away from here in southeast Kansas, the Humboldt Speedway has already held eight complete nights of racing in 2018! It started out with their three-day Battle of the Bullring B-Mod special the first weekend of March. They came back two weeks later with the big USMTS King of America Modified triple header and this past weekend they showcased the Mod Lites with two nights of action. Corey Babbitt from Texas was the winner both nights for the Mod Lites that somewhat surprisingly only pulled in 23 cars as the headliner for the weekend. Quad Cities driver John Padilla finished second and Pleasant Hill's Mike Morrill was fifth on Friday night while in Saturday's finale Padilla was again the runner-up, Randy Bryan from Ames was third, Ed Griggs of Pleasant Hill was fifth and Morrill finished in sixth. The B-Mods were one of the support classes each night where Cody Jolly swept the weekend. Humboldt takes the Easter weekend off before rolling into their regular season on April 6th.
Christopher Bell swept the two-day Turnpike Challenge POWRi Midget show at the I-44 Riverside Speedway near Oklahoma City. With the weekend off from his Xfinity Series ride Bell's sweep now makes him eight for eight in the four years of this event.
Danny Rosencrans and I toyed with the idea of making a road trip to Harrisburg, Arkansas, last Friday night where the Comp Cams Super Late Model Series returned to the Old No. 1 Speedway, but with too much going on at work I had to stay in the office past noon. Looks like it might have been a late night there as Gavin Landers had the throttle stick on his car and he ended up on top of a concrete wall and tangled in a catch fence. The incident happened during heat race action and in the picture that I saw it was already dark. Then in the feature Jon Mitchell had a rollover incident that required evaluation from the paramedics. Robert Baker edged out Billy Moyer and Timothy Culp to take the Late Model feature win. Barry Johnson and I went to a show at the Harrisburg track several years ago and it was quite racy so I am looking forward to a return trip soon.
The Batesville Motor Speedway hosted two nights of racing for their Spring Nationals featuring the IMCA Modifieds and on Friday night it was Hunter Marriott in victory lane with Iowans Jeff James and Kelly Shryock finishing fourth and sixth respectively. Local driver Jeff Taylor was the Saturday night winner with Marriott third, James fifth and Shryock again in sixth.
How about Sheldon Haudenschild? The young driver continued his hot start to 2018 taking his third World of Outlaws victory at the Bakersfield Speedway in California on Saturday night and Rookie-of-the-Year candidate Ian Madsen charged from 16th up to fifth at the checkers.
Last week I mentioned that Craig Dollansky was set to drive Scott Bonar's Midland Performance car #50 in the 410 Sprint Car show at Moberly on Sunday. That event was postponed until April 22nd due to the weather and today "The Crowd Pleaser" announced his retirement from racing on his Facebook page.
A regular reader of the Back Stretch and a true race fan that I have to meet in person soon, David Schlise is organizing a Fan Fund event for the King of the Creek IMCA Stock Car special coming up this summer at the 141 Speedway in Maribel, Wisconsin. To learn more visit the Help Grow the Sport of Racing page on Facebook and while you are there go ahead and join the group. After all, doesn't the title of it represent what we are all hoping to do? And besides, we need to add more Iowans to balance out the Cheeseheads!
With more and more Crate Late Model racing closing in on this part of the country I found this blog by Florida racer Jonathan Joiner quite interesting. Unfortunately it seems like no matter what set of rules that somebody comes up with to try to keep the cost of racing down there will always be those who go beyond the spirit of those rules to give themselves an advantage. It seems like a lifetime ago that Keith Knaack implemented a rule that allowed anybody finishing outside of the top four to Claim a motor for just $300 dollars. I wonder how many of today's drivers and fans realize that it was this crazy concept that was the foundation for the largest division of race cars in the country. Time for someone else to do something crazy......
Here we go again, it is about that time of the year when somebody comes along with another story asking whether or not negative social media has an impact on racing. This one though is a pretty good discussion of the topic between the two writers although I believe that they have already gone down this road before a time or two. To draw people to read it though they have go on to a race forum with a link which then leads to several comments from the usual cast of characters with some making their standard response that obviously shows that they only read the title and not the actual discussion.
As I have said here before, I cringe now whenever somebody tries to make this point because it is like the Russians trying to influence the election. Everybody has already made up their mind on the subject so now this only just stirs the pot once again and causes general discourse among the fan base without ever changing any minds.
For those of you who do not believe that there is a negative effect on the sport from the constant harping on Facebook and forums I suggest that you do this. Pick out a track near you that has closed recently and then do a search of it on both Facebook and the race forums that would have been relevant to it. Then read back through the comments and keep a a scorecard of how many posts were positive compared to negative. Then, for the ones that are negative, tally up the percentage of those that were just offering up "constructive criticism", you know those well intentioned comments that were just meant to help the promoter improve the show. Then, when you are all done, truly put yourself in the promoter's shoes knowing that you had worked your tail off to sell sponsorship, pay a good purse, prepare a good race track and charge a fair admission only to come up with a loss at the end of the night and then read those comments once again.
Perhaps then you will see how "You should go get some more corporate sponsorship" might just piss you off.
Here's hoping that we all get to see some racing soon!
I had to chuckle this morning when an AWP who usually has more of the attitude of Eeyore when it comes to weather leading up to an event posted on a race forum that the forecast for the event that he is hoping to attend this weekend "looks great!" Apparently only a 40% chance of rain with a high of 49 and a twenty mile per hour wind is enough to give him hope for the first race of the year. Hopefully he will have the same attitude when he posts about other events in 2018.
The sad part is that not only will we be lucky to do some racing this weekend, but the long range forecast for the following week when the Frostbusters give us a chance to go racing on Wednesday and Thursday as well as the weekend does not look good either. Please change!
It is not unusual for us to have Spring weather like this and I can recall some years where I was only able to get in a race or two before the month of May rolled around. When this happens you will see the discussion start up as to why promoters even bother to schedule early events in the first place, which I guess is what you sit around and do when you have no races to go to. In my opinion, in this day and age it is even easier for a promoter to take the risk of scheduling an early race event and here's why. Twenty-five or more years ago if you were going to try to have a race on the final Saturday in March you would have had to invest some money in advertising in the regional racing papers like Hawkeye Racing News, Midwest Racing News, Checkered Flag Racing News, Speed Sport, etc. just to let both drivers and fans know about it and since three of those four were not weekly until April that money would have been spent in January or February. Then, if you have snow like we did last weekend and had to cancel in advance, that money was gone, a valid financial loss for trying to schedule a race too early.
Today a promoter can put the early special on his or her website and publicize it on the track's Facebook page without any additional cost. Any track work that goes on leading up to the event is work that you would have already had to do to get ready for the season anyway so as long as the promoter pulls the plug three or four days prior to the event, before that delivery of hot dogs and hamburgers is made for the concessions, then there is no direct cost to having scheduled that early season opener and losing it. Low risk if handled properly. The potential reward on the other hand is quite high if you catch some nice weather and can go ahead with the show, I saw this first hand back on February 24th when a very nice crowd rolled into Volunteer Speedway on a warm sunny day.
So why would any fan argue the point that promoters should stop scheduling early season events? I think that it is just because they don't like being "teased" with the prospect of going racing and then having cool and rainy weather take it away from them. I on the other hand appreciate the opportunity that is given to us by those promoters who do take the risk and I hope that they continue to do so going forward even if the Spring of 2018 does not allow them to achieve the reward.
While the weather has been less than desirable here in southeast Iowa a track that is just a little over a five hour drive away from here in southeast Kansas, the Humboldt Speedway has already held eight complete nights of racing in 2018! It started out with their three-day Battle of the Bullring B-Mod special the first weekend of March. They came back two weeks later with the big USMTS King of America Modified triple header and this past weekend they showcased the Mod Lites with two nights of action. Corey Babbitt from Texas was the winner both nights for the Mod Lites that somewhat surprisingly only pulled in 23 cars as the headliner for the weekend. Quad Cities driver John Padilla finished second and Pleasant Hill's Mike Morrill was fifth on Friday night while in Saturday's finale Padilla was again the runner-up, Randy Bryan from Ames was third, Ed Griggs of Pleasant Hill was fifth and Morrill finished in sixth. The B-Mods were one of the support classes each night where Cody Jolly swept the weekend. Humboldt takes the Easter weekend off before rolling into their regular season on April 6th.
Christopher Bell swept the two-day Turnpike Challenge POWRi Midget show at the I-44 Riverside Speedway near Oklahoma City. With the weekend off from his Xfinity Series ride Bell's sweep now makes him eight for eight in the four years of this event.
Danny Rosencrans and I toyed with the idea of making a road trip to Harrisburg, Arkansas, last Friday night where the Comp Cams Super Late Model Series returned to the Old No. 1 Speedway, but with too much going on at work I had to stay in the office past noon. Looks like it might have been a late night there as Gavin Landers had the throttle stick on his car and he ended up on top of a concrete wall and tangled in a catch fence. The incident happened during heat race action and in the picture that I saw it was already dark. Then in the feature Jon Mitchell had a rollover incident that required evaluation from the paramedics. Robert Baker edged out Billy Moyer and Timothy Culp to take the Late Model feature win. Barry Johnson and I went to a show at the Harrisburg track several years ago and it was quite racy so I am looking forward to a return trip soon.
The Batesville Motor Speedway hosted two nights of racing for their Spring Nationals featuring the IMCA Modifieds and on Friday night it was Hunter Marriott in victory lane with Iowans Jeff James and Kelly Shryock finishing fourth and sixth respectively. Local driver Jeff Taylor was the Saturday night winner with Marriott third, James fifth and Shryock again in sixth.
How about Sheldon Haudenschild? The young driver continued his hot start to 2018 taking his third World of Outlaws victory at the Bakersfield Speedway in California on Saturday night and Rookie-of-the-Year candidate Ian Madsen charged from 16th up to fifth at the checkers.
Last week I mentioned that Craig Dollansky was set to drive Scott Bonar's Midland Performance car #50 in the 410 Sprint Car show at Moberly on Sunday. That event was postponed until April 22nd due to the weather and today "The Crowd Pleaser" announced his retirement from racing on his Facebook page.
A regular reader of the Back Stretch and a true race fan that I have to meet in person soon, David Schlise is organizing a Fan Fund event for the King of the Creek IMCA Stock Car special coming up this summer at the 141 Speedway in Maribel, Wisconsin. To learn more visit the Help Grow the Sport of Racing page on Facebook and while you are there go ahead and join the group. After all, doesn't the title of it represent what we are all hoping to do? And besides, we need to add more Iowans to balance out the Cheeseheads!
With more and more Crate Late Model racing closing in on this part of the country I found this blog by Florida racer Jonathan Joiner quite interesting. Unfortunately it seems like no matter what set of rules that somebody comes up with to try to keep the cost of racing down there will always be those who go beyond the spirit of those rules to give themselves an advantage. It seems like a lifetime ago that Keith Knaack implemented a rule that allowed anybody finishing outside of the top four to Claim a motor for just $300 dollars. I wonder how many of today's drivers and fans realize that it was this crazy concept that was the foundation for the largest division of race cars in the country. Time for someone else to do something crazy......
Here we go again, it is about that time of the year when somebody comes along with another story asking whether or not negative social media has an impact on racing. This one though is a pretty good discussion of the topic between the two writers although I believe that they have already gone down this road before a time or two. To draw people to read it though they have go on to a race forum with a link which then leads to several comments from the usual cast of characters with some making their standard response that obviously shows that they only read the title and not the actual discussion.
As I have said here before, I cringe now whenever somebody tries to make this point because it is like the Russians trying to influence the election. Everybody has already made up their mind on the subject so now this only just stirs the pot once again and causes general discourse among the fan base without ever changing any minds.
For those of you who do not believe that there is a negative effect on the sport from the constant harping on Facebook and forums I suggest that you do this. Pick out a track near you that has closed recently and then do a search of it on both Facebook and the race forums that would have been relevant to it. Then read back through the comments and keep a a scorecard of how many posts were positive compared to negative. Then, for the ones that are negative, tally up the percentage of those that were just offering up "constructive criticism", you know those well intentioned comments that were just meant to help the promoter improve the show. Then, when you are all done, truly put yourself in the promoter's shoes knowing that you had worked your tail off to sell sponsorship, pay a good purse, prepare a good race track and charge a fair admission only to come up with a loss at the end of the night and then read those comments once again.
Perhaps then you will see how "You should go get some more corporate sponsorship" might just piss you off.
Here's hoping that we all get to see some racing soon!
Sunday, March 25, 2018
Found Some Old Late Model Pictures.....
With all racing in the area canceled due to cold and snowy conditions I found some time to do a little house cleaning this weekend and came across these old prints in a box that also contained many of my old record albums from my youth. We had a house fire back in 1997 so I had thought that I had lost all of them, but thankfully no. And I had also thought that I had turned over all of my old prints to Barry Johnson for him to scan in so that we could place them on the Positively Racing Facebook page. Obviously these were hidden with the old music, so it was a nice find on a race less weekend!
Yes, I tried my hand at race photography back in the early 90's and while a couple of these are pretty clear, most are just a smidge out of focus. And when you have talented friends like Barry Johnson, Dennis Krieger, John Vass and others I eventually decided to leave my camera at home on race nights. But on this weekend, these sure do bring back some memories. Hope they do for you as well.
Yes, I tried my hand at race photography back in the early 90's and while a couple of these are pretty clear, most are just a smidge out of focus. And when you have talented friends like Barry Johnson, Dennis Krieger, John Vass and others I eventually decided to leave my camera at home on race nights. But on this weekend, these sure do bring back some memories. Hope they do for you as well.
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| Not sure who was in Don Morgan's #31, but that is Jeff Aikey down low |
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| Quincy's Lonnie Bailey |
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| A vintage Brian Birkhofer picture with Layne Meyer |
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| Scott Bloomquist with sponsorship from the late Johnny Johnson |
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| Arkansas driver Wayne Brooks |
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| Dave Thorston |
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| Canadian hotshoe Joel Cryderman |
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| The Flying Farmer Ken Essary |
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| Gary Lee's favorite, and one of mine too, Bill Frye |
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| The Modern Day Cowboy John Gill |
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| Bill Gray and Jay Johnson at Peoria |
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| The River City Hustler Ray Guss Jr. |
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| Eagle Raceway owner Roger Hadan |
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| Joey Izzo |
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| Billy Moyer during his stint with the GVS Team |
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| Michigan's Kris Patterson |
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| Terry Phillips |
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| Need some help on this one....I think that is Bob Pohlman in the #27 |
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| Chattanooga's Ronnie Johnson |
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| Three-wide action with Steve Kosiski up top and Doug Wiggs down low. The other 52? |
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| LaSalle Speedway promoter Tony Izzo Jr. |
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| Eight time All Iowa Points Champion and Hall of Famer Gary Webb |
Tuesday, March 20, 2018
Tuesday Notebook: March 20, 2018
Spring has sprung! Well at least as far as the calendar is concerned and the weather forecast has already claimed one event for the upcoming weekend. I had heard that the frost was still in the ground in central Iowa so it was no surprise when the World Nationals at the Marshalltown Speedway were pushed back to September 14th and 15th. Down here in the southeast corner of the state though the crew at the Lee County Speedway in Donnellson has been able to work the race track so they are going to hold out and see what happens with the weather for the weekend. After all, we saw just how radically a forecast could change last week when a call for a sunny day with temps in the 60's all of sudden went to rain and 42 for Memphis, Missouri. Maybe Mike VanGenderen who promotes both Memphis and Donnellson can get a more positive change in the forecast for this weekend.
I like how Lee County is handling this as today on Facebook they essentially said the following. This weekend's races are ON. We have watched the weather forecast go from a 100% chance for rain to now a 20% chance, at least for Friday. We know that every weather app is different and changes by the hour, especially this time of year. So we are racing until Mother Nature actually says no.
So if you want to see some racing, and if Mother Nature ends up cooperating, the Lee County Speedway in Donnellson is the place to be in Iowa and remember that the Spring Extravaganza is two separate shows, Friday and Saturday. One is not dependent upon the other so even if Saturday isn't looking good on your weather app, don't let that keep you from attending on Friday night!
Track announcer Tony Paris has asked me to fill in for him this weekend as he is in Hutchinson, Kansas, cheering on top ranked Indian Hills in the NJCAA National Basketball tournament, but as I am typing this they have just gone to overtime in their first round game. So who knows, maybe he will be back if things don't work out.
With no racing close to home this past weekend I made the trip down to West Burlington for the 34 Raceway car show on Sunday afternoon. The event was held at the Deery Brothers car dealership this year and had the day started out as nice as it turned by noon, it would have been held in the parking lot rather than in the expansive service area. There was a nice turnout of both cars and fans and I have a few pictures posted here.
Ray Raker's Stock Car sported some snazzy lettering by Craig Jacoba who has been making race cars look great in this area for more than thirty-five years now.
Nick Guernsey was sporting white wall tires on his Sprint Car for the occasion.
Always great to talk with Scott Bonar of Midland Performance who fields the #50 Sprinter with a host of talented guest drivers. In case you didn't know it there is a 410 show scheduled for this coming Sunday afternoon at the Randolph County Raceway in Moberly, Missouri, and if he gets his motor back in time Bonar will have none other than Craig Dollansky behind the wheel of the #50. Then, when the Shottenkirk.com Sprint Invaders kick off the season at 34 Raceway on March 31st it will be interesting to see who has the ride on that night.
Speaking of the Sprint Invaders, with both Chris Martin and Jamie Ball now following the ASCS National Tour it will be interesting to see who steps up to challenge for the 2018 Invaders championship. Defending champion Jon Agan would have to be the odds on favorite if he runs the whole schedule again this year, but on Sunday there were three drivers who had their cars on display that you should keep an eye on. Tanner Gebhardt edged out Brayden Gaylord by just four points for the Rookie-of-the-Year honors last year and both could be title contenders in 2018. Also look for continued improvement from Burlington's Daniel Bergquist who has two cars at his disposal, the 305 that he will race weekly and the 360 with the Sprint Invaders as this young driver was making some noise at the end of last season.
As mentioned before the Shottenkirk.com Sprint Invaders will open their season on Saturday night March 31st at 34 Raceway near Burlington. Also racing that night will be the Lee County Late Models and remember Late Model drivers, the Lee County rules packages not only allows for the Crate engine cars to compete, but there is also a setup that allows the IMCA-rules cars to race as well. So if you are looking for that first night to get your car out on the track, that will be it if Donnellson is not able to race this coming Saturday.
Even with the crummy weather up here this past weekend, the Humboldt Speedway in southeast Kansas was once again able to get in all three nights of action to complete their second mega event of the season already with the King of America Modifieds. Minnesota's Lucas Schott was the best of an 82 car field to earn the crown and the $10,000 that went along with it. Ricky Thornton Jr. finished second with the Scott brothers, Johnny and Stormy next in line. For the race story and full results click here and for some interesting news and notes from all three nights make sure to visit our Positively Racing colleague Ed Reichert's blog at One Fan's Travels.
There is a thread on 4m.net that expresses a concern about the Late Model car counts that we have been seeing and with a couple of nice paying races this last weekend drawing just 14 and 17 cars respectively it is a valid concern. Since Speed Weeks there have been 22 Late Model specials run in the United States with a "special" being defined here as being a race that is featured on the Dirt On Dirt schedule. The average winner's check at these events is $3,670 with an average car count thus far of just 19.3. One of the theories offered up on the thread is that we have way too many different "divisions" of Late Models now and in some cases a track will run two or three of them on the same night. I experienced that first hand last month when I went to Volunteer Speedway in Tennessee and only twelve Super Late Models signed in for the Iron Man series event. But there were 19 Crates and 21 Sportsman on had as well and from the grandstands you would not be able to tell the difference between the three classes as they all look like Late Models. Will the new rules package that is being implemented in eastern Iowa this year help solve this problem? I hope so, but you will have a similar scenario when the 9:1 Limited Late Models race on the same night at the Dubuque Speedway.
I mentioned before that Chris Martin and Jamie Ball were now chasing the Lucas Oil ASCS National Series and I am sure that both were hoping for a better start to the season when Martin finished 12th and Ball 18th down at the Devils Bowl speedway in Texas Friday night. Another driver who chasing the Tour for the first time this year, Roger Crockett from Oregon was the winner over defending champ Sam Hafertepe Jr.
And how about the last two winners with the World of Outlaws being Aaron Reutzel and Cory Eliason? Yes, Donny Schatz is still the point leader but he has two-time winner Sheldon Haudenschild nipping at his heels in second. Ian Madsen got off to a slow start in his Rookie-of-the-Year efforts, but hopefully a second place finish to Eliason last weekend in California will give him the jump start that he needed.
It was a bit of a surprise to the Sprint Car world when the Buffalo Wild Wings team announced on Monday that the entire operation was up for sale.
There is plenty of other racing in the region besides Donnellson this weekend and as always you can make your plans by checking out the Schedule page at Positively Racing. Hopefully Mother Nature will cooperate and allow us all to get to the race of our choice this weekend!
I like how Lee County is handling this as today on Facebook they essentially said the following. This weekend's races are ON. We have watched the weather forecast go from a 100% chance for rain to now a 20% chance, at least for Friday. We know that every weather app is different and changes by the hour, especially this time of year. So we are racing until Mother Nature actually says no.
So if you want to see some racing, and if Mother Nature ends up cooperating, the Lee County Speedway in Donnellson is the place to be in Iowa and remember that the Spring Extravaganza is two separate shows, Friday and Saturday. One is not dependent upon the other so even if Saturday isn't looking good on your weather app, don't let that keep you from attending on Friday night!
Track announcer Tony Paris has asked me to fill in for him this weekend as he is in Hutchinson, Kansas, cheering on top ranked Indian Hills in the NJCAA National Basketball tournament, but as I am typing this they have just gone to overtime in their first round game. So who knows, maybe he will be back if things don't work out.
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| Ray Raker's IMCA Stock Car |
Ray Raker's Stock Car sported some snazzy lettering by Craig Jacoba who has been making race cars look great in this area for more than thirty-five years now.
 |
| Nick Guernsey |
Always great to talk with Scott Bonar of Midland Performance who fields the #50 Sprinter with a host of talented guest drivers. In case you didn't know it there is a 410 show scheduled for this coming Sunday afternoon at the Randolph County Raceway in Moberly, Missouri, and if he gets his motor back in time Bonar will have none other than Craig Dollansky behind the wheel of the #50. Then, when the Shottenkirk.com Sprint Invaders kick off the season at 34 Raceway on March 31st it will be interesting to see who has the ride on that night.
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| The Midland Performance #50 |
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| Brayden Gaylord |
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| Tanner Gebhardt |
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| Daniel Bergquist |
There is a thread on 4m.net that expresses a concern about the Late Model car counts that we have been seeing and with a couple of nice paying races this last weekend drawing just 14 and 17 cars respectively it is a valid concern. Since Speed Weeks there have been 22 Late Model specials run in the United States with a "special" being defined here as being a race that is featured on the Dirt On Dirt schedule. The average winner's check at these events is $3,670 with an average car count thus far of just 19.3. One of the theories offered up on the thread is that we have way too many different "divisions" of Late Models now and in some cases a track will run two or three of them on the same night. I experienced that first hand last month when I went to Volunteer Speedway in Tennessee and only twelve Super Late Models signed in for the Iron Man series event. But there were 19 Crates and 21 Sportsman on had as well and from the grandstands you would not be able to tell the difference between the three classes as they all look like Late Models. Will the new rules package that is being implemented in eastern Iowa this year help solve this problem? I hope so, but you will have a similar scenario when the 9:1 Limited Late Models race on the same night at the Dubuque Speedway.
I mentioned before that Chris Martin and Jamie Ball were now chasing the Lucas Oil ASCS National Series and I am sure that both were hoping for a better start to the season when Martin finished 12th and Ball 18th down at the Devils Bowl speedway in Texas Friday night. Another driver who chasing the Tour for the first time this year, Roger Crockett from Oregon was the winner over defending champ Sam Hafertepe Jr.
And how about the last two winners with the World of Outlaws being Aaron Reutzel and Cory Eliason? Yes, Donny Schatz is still the point leader but he has two-time winner Sheldon Haudenschild nipping at his heels in second. Ian Madsen got off to a slow start in his Rookie-of-the-Year efforts, but hopefully a second place finish to Eliason last weekend in California will give him the jump start that he needed.
It was a bit of a surprise to the Sprint Car world when the Buffalo Wild Wings team announced on Monday that the entire operation was up for sale.
There is plenty of other racing in the region besides Donnellson this weekend and as always you can make your plans by checking out the Schedule page at Positively Racing. Hopefully Mother Nature will cooperate and allow us all to get to the race of our choice this weekend!
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