Thursday, May 31, 2018

Chadwick, Clymens Win At Antioch Speedway, Plus Antioch Speedway, Merced Speedway, Orland Raceway, More

First of all...

The DCRR Racing Media Books


Just A Kid From The Grandstands:  My Time In Auto Racing
Stories of my time in auto racing from the beginning to 2003
Available on Lulu in Paperback And Hard Cover

And


Don's California Racing Recollections:  Best Of The Blog And Beyond
Racing History, Stories, Statistics And Pictures
Available via print on demand at Lulu in Hard Cover or Paperback


A cool article about Wingless Spec Sprint Co-Founder Don O'Keefe Jr's newest racing endeavor HERE

Southern Oregon Speedway Racing Discussion Can Be Heard HERE

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Late Models, Wingless Spec Sprints Head Up Five Division Program At Antioch Speedway

Antioch, CA...Antioch Speedway heads into June with an exciting five division All Star Series racing line up this Saturday night. The DIRTcar Late Models are back for their third event of the season, joined by the Wingless Spec Sprints, B Modifieds, Limited Late Models and Hobby Stocks.

Having scored a win and a second so far this season, it's no surprise to see three-time reigning champion Jeff Decker topping the list in the DIRTcar Late Model division standings. It might be a surprise to see who is second. It's Rod Oliver, who has been racing at Marysville and Placerville in recent seasons. Oliver is only 10 points out of the lead, six ahead of Dennis Souza. If the Oliver name sounds familiar, fans of the Late Model program in the early 90s may remember Danny Oliver making occasional visits to Antioch Speedway and running competitively.

Souza enjoyed his best Antioch finish to date in second at the most recent race. Dennis has been a staunch supporter of the Late Model effort since the track launched it five years ago. He also leads two time Petaluma champion Paul Gulielmoni and Rob Norris by just four points in another close race for third. These five are anticipated this week along with Mike Hynes, Kimo Oreta, David Newquist and two-time champion Richard Papenhausen.

Bob Newberry is slowly beginning to pull away from the pack in his quest for a second Antioch Speedway Wingless Spec Sprint championship. Newberry won for the second time at the most recent race, and he also has two second place feature finishes. Ageless veteran Roy Fisher is holding on to second by just seven points ahead of Shannon Newton and eight in front of Brandon Burd. Newton won the Trophy Dash at the recent Fair Race, but he ran out of time in the Main Event as he had to charge from 10th starting to third.

Both Newton and Alan Miranda are feature winners this year. Miranda is a little bit further back in the standings in sixth. 12 points ahead of Miranda, despite a very disappointing start to his season is Rick Panfili. Panfili put his car on it's lid earlier this year. He'll be hoping for better results this week, and other drivers to look for include Scott Martin, James East and rookie McKenzie Newton.

In B Modified competition, 2016 champion Trevor Clymens appears to be gathering momentum and pulling away from the pack. Clymens won for the second time in a row last week ahead of KC Keller. Keller is the reigning champion but is making visits to other tracks this season. 2016 Hobby Stock champion Guy Ahlwardt holds second, just two points ahead of rookie Ryan DeForest. A championship may not be out of the question for Ahlwardt, but what he's really looking for is his first feature win in this class. Other drivers to watch for this week include rookie and one time feature winner Brent Curran, Chuck Golden, Kevin Brown and Todd Gomez.

Four races into the Limited Late Model championship season, there are four drivers very much in contention. Mark Garner sent notice to the rest of the competition that he is looking to bring that championship trophy back to the Garner household by winning the prestigious Larry Damitz Memorial Race to kick off the season. He also has a second and third place feature finish, putting him eight points ahead of Mike Walko. If the Walko name sounds familiar, it's because Mike started racing at Antioch Speedway in the famous Car 54 Stock Car back in 1982. He has spent recent seasons as one of the top drivers at Marysville and finished second in points there last year. However, Walko wanted to race a little closer to home this season.

Walko is a one time feature winner this year with a pair of thirds and a second, putting him six points ahead of reigning champion Kimo Oreta in the close race for second. Not to be counted out in the battle is the flying pickup truck of Ryan Cherezian. Ryan also enjoyed one of his best ever finishes in second this year, and he's hungry for victory. Maybe he'll get that win this week. Other drivers to watch for include Chad Hammer, John Evans, Lori Brown and two-time champion Mike Gustafson. Word is that Chris Long will be making his return this week.

Chris Sorensen has had an amazing start to his season in a new car from the shops of Baker Motorsports. Sorenson has won three features so far with three additional Top 3 finishes, putting him 34 points ahead of Michael Cooper. Cooper is also a three-time winner, but last week broke a streak of two straight non Top 5 finishes for Cooper. In a similar occurrence to last season, Cameron Swank rattled off four second place finishes before finally getting his first win last time out. The win helped move him to within 30 points of Cooper for third in the standings.

One time winner John Wacht tops the rookies in the field and is ranked fourth in the standings. After having one of his best finishes ever in third last week, Billy Garner has closed to within just 30 points of Wacht. Several new drivers have helped make the Hobby Stocks a very entertaining show this year. Other drivers to keep an eye on this week include Tanis Rangel, Haley Gomez, Anthony Vigna and Breanna Troen. Last week, Chris Bennett enjoyed his best ever finish in second. The next time he returns to the speedway, he'll be out to put the Bob Hanson Tribute Car into the Winner's Circle.

The five division All Star Series lineup of divisions offers a little something for everybody. It's sure to be a great show from start to finish. For further information, go to www.antiochspeedway.com.



Chadwick, Clymens, Swank Win 
Antioch Speedway Features

Antioch, CA...May 26...Kellen Chadwick scored the 20 lap All Star Series A Modified Main Event win Saturday night at Antioch Speedway. The division produced a big 24 car count, and Chadwick shared the front row of the Main Event with Jeff Olschowka. Olschowka surprised Chadwick on the start, but a lap three restart gave Chadwick the opportunity to make an inside move into the lead in Turn 4. Once Chadwick got the lead, he was never really challenged in victory. On a restart with three laps to go, Olschowka had his hands full trying to hold off Jeff Decker and mid-pack starter Nick DeCarlo for second. However, Olschowka kept his cool and grabbed the runnerup finish ahead of DeCarlo, Richard Papenhausen and Decker.

Point leader Trevor Clymens captured his third B Modified Main Event victory. After the race struggled with four yellow flags in the first lap, Doff Cooksey settled into the lead ahead of Sharp Shooter winner Guy Ahlwardt and Clymens. Ahlwardt made an inside pass exiting Turn 4 of the 10th lap to take the lead. Cooksey got out of shape down the front straight away, allowing Clymens to settle into second. The lead duo battled fiercely for the lead, and a yellow flag flew with six laps to go. Clymens got a good run on the outside on the restart lap and made the pass for the lead down the backstretch. Ahlwardt was making a bid to regain the lead as they approached the white flag, only to be given a yellow as there was another crash in Turn 2. On the restart, Ahlwardt discovered that he had a flat tire but he continued. Clymens led the final lap for the victory, followed by KC Keller, Cooksey, Robby Senn and Tony Peffer.

Brad Furr picked up the win in the 20 lap Winged 360 Sprint Car Main Event. Furr is a two-time champion at Watsonville, and he raced around front row starters Art McCarthy and Matt DeMartini early on. Jacob Tuttle found his way into second, but he was no match for the flying Furr, who scored the impressive victory. McCarthy settled for third ahead of DeMartini and Billy Aton.

Reigning Hobby Stock champion Cameron Swank won the 20 lap Main Event. It was his first win of the season after four second place finishes so far this year. Rookie Tanis Rangel led a couple of laps before Swank swept past for the lead. Billy Garner finally took second from Rangel halfway through the race, but he surrendered that position to mid pack starter Chris Bennett on a lap 15 restart. There was no stopping Swank as he sped to the victory with Chris Bennett a career best second. Garner was a career best best third as the returning Bob Bennett and Michael Cooper completed the Top 5 at the checkered flag.

Kevin Miraglio won his second 20 lap Dwarf Car Main Event of the season. The 2016 champion raced into the lead early on. A restart with two laps to go proved to be interesting. Second place David Michael Rosa made an attempt to get around Miraglio, but Devan Kammermann charged past him to take the second position behind the flying Miraglio. Rosa settled for third ahead of his father, David Rosa, and fifth place finisher Miranda Chappa.

Next week, All Star Series racing continues with DIRTcar Late Models, Wingless Spec Sprints, B Modifieds, Limited Late Models and Hobby Stocks. For further information, go to www.antiochspeedway.com.

Unofficial Race Results
All Star Series
A Modifieds
Heat Winners (8 Laps)-Kellen Chadwick, Jeff Olschowka, Bobby Motts Jr, Jeff Decker. B Main (12 Laps)-Carl Berendsen II, Trent Wentworth, Duane Cleveland, John McDougall, Josh Combs. Main Event (20 Laps)-Chadwick, Olschowka, Nick DeCarlo, Richard Papenhausen, Decker, Motts, Brian Cass, Berendsen, Chris Lewis, Cleveland.

B Modifieds
Heat Winners (8 Laps)-KC Keller, Trevor Clymens. Sharp Shooter Race (12 Laps)-Guy Ahlwardt, Clymens, Tommy Fraser. Main Event (25 Laps)- Clymens, Keller, Doff Cooksey, Robby Senn, Tony Peffer, Ron Brown, Ahlwardt, Joe Salvi, Ryan DeForest, Anthony Giuliani.

360 Sprint Cars
Heat Winners (8 Laps)-Billy Aton, Brad Furr. Main Event (20 Laps)-Furr, Jacob Tuttle, Art McCarthy, Matt DeMartini, Aton, David Dias, Tim Burcher.

Hobby Stocks
Heat Winners (8 Laps)-Chris Sorensen, Cameron Swank. Main Event (20 Laps)- Swank, Chris Bennett, Billy Garner, Bob Bennett, Michael Cooper, Sorensen, Anthony Vigna, Philip Oreta, Breanna Troen, Tanis Rangel.

Dwarf Cars
Heat Winners (8 Laps)-David Michael Rosa, Josh Miller. Main Event (20 Laps)-Kevin Miraglio, Devan Kammermann, David Michael Rosa, David Rosa, Miranda Chappa, Mario Marquez, Tony Carmignani, Mike Corsaro, Paul Altorre, Charlie Correia.


Parker Guiding Merced Speedway To Success

Merced, CA...There's something exciting happening at Merced Speedway this season. The racing on the quarter-mile clay oval is better than it has been for a while, numbers are up and the track has a good man guiding it to success. He's local businessman Ed Parker.

Ed already keeps himself very busy with his work, but racing is in his blood. He was a part of the Mini Truck class that the speedway had in the 1990s, and son Cody Parker is racing IMCA Sport Modifieds. When the track became available prior to 2016, Ed jumped at the chance to become a promoter.

He had much to learn, but he has been up to the challenge. He studies the current trends in the sport, attends several racing meetings during the year and applies that to what he does at the speedway. He also surrounds himself with people who are respected and know a few things about the sport.  This includes past NASCAR Regional champion Doug Williams as Race Director, track prep guru and Street Stock champion Tim Ragsdale and long time racer and speedway supporter Dale Falkenberg.

Earlier this season, Parker saw over 140 computers flock to the Speedway for the Bill Egleston Remembrance. A search of speedway records shows this to be the biggest car count ever at the track, topping the 120 plus car show they had under Parker last season. The racers want to race at Merced Speedway, which has had championship seasons every year since 1950.

The track still benefits from the truck division that long time promoter Chuck Griffin added to the lineup. Though the division is long gone, the Stone family got their start in the class. Brothers Troy and Ramie and cousin Paul Stone are running at the front of the IMCA Modified pack these days. Between Ramie and Paul, there are seven track championships, and both are feature winners this season. Family is key here. The Porter family is four generations strong at the Speedway, and Ryan is the latest family member out there mixing it up with the likes of two time champion Randy Brown, Darrell Hughes II, Justin Villanueva, Shane DeVolder and Ricky Thatcher.

The Thomas brothers are both IMCA Sport Modified winners this year. Tanner and Chase are just following in the footsteps of their three time Street Stock championship winning father Darren. Numbers are up in both classes this year.

With the Hobby Stocks, the FND Motorsports team fields three and sometimes four cars at each race. 2016 champion Michael Shearer is the team owner and two time champion Bruce "Bubba" Nelson is the chief mechanic. Bubba won the recent Sport Modified race, but he still enjoys driving a Hobby Stock now and then. Their wives are out there as well. Shannon Nelson leads a close point race with reigning champion Kodie Dean, and Kristie Shearer is still very much in the hunt.

The track is seeing a big increase in the Mini Stock car count this season,  while Mini Late Models and Valley Sportsman cars are also on the roster. Things are looking up at Merced Speedway, and it starts with having a  promoter like Parker inspiring people to come out and be a part of what's happening on any give Saturday night.

The speedway roars back to life on Wednesday, June 6th as part of the Merced County Fair. IMCA Modifieds will be there along with Hobby Stocks and Mini Late Models. On June 16th and 17th, the track hosts the Western States Dwarf Car Nationals with a field of over 60 racers from all over the West Coast anticipated. For more information on the happenings at the speedway, go to www.racemerced.com.


Orland Raceway Back In Action 
Saturday Night

Orland, CA...There's plenty of excitement in the air at Orland Raceway this season. The current track has been around since the 1980s, and racing in Orland goes back even further than that. Things are changing for the better. The track has had a revolving door of different promoters during the last ten years, but third year promoter Rich Hood is giving racers and fans hope for the future

Car count is up so far as drivers want to be a part of the show. Saturday night will offer the fans more exciting wheel to wheel racing on the one-fifth mile dirt oval as Mini Trucks, Mini Stocks and Pure Stocks are back, along with the B Modifieds.

Orland has featured a Mini Truck division for over 20 years. In fact, their success with the class led to other tracks in the state starting a division of their own. Keith Ross, Dan Webster, Ross Vige, Olin Crain and William Fogle have been the strongest supporters in recent years. All but Fogle has won a championship at the track, and Fogle had his best season in third last year.

Reigning champion Ross won for the second time last race. It might have been three in a row if not for Jeff Bennett battling him for the win in the second race. Bennett has been doing a great job behind wheel of the Olin Crain truck. Other drivers who have been out there putting on a great show include Hayfork Speedway champion Andy Blackburn. Quinonez, Kevin Kvalik and Rick Wagner.

When it comes to close racing, the Pure Stock division is hard to beat. Reigning champion Jeremy Langenderfer is already a two time winner and recently got a win at Silver Dollar Speedway as well. Speaking of the other track, it was IMCA Sport Modified racer Richard Vanderploeg getting behind the wheel of the #55 car and winning a multi car battle up front for the victory at the recent Glenn County Fair Race.

One of the drivers Richard held off in his win was Jerry Bartlett. Jerry is one of the top drivers on the IMCA Sport Modified circuit, but he considers Orland a home track. He is a past Pure Stock champion at the track. He's not the only one. Two time champions Paul Stevens and Steve Martin are still a part of the roster along with past Mini Truck champion Brad Ray. Other drivers hoping to get a win include last season's point runner up Shannon Collins, Amanda McAbel, John Camper and

The Mini Stock roster is just as competitive as ever. Making things even more interesting is the fact that Barbara Crain won the first two races this season. The wife of Olin Crain debuted her car last season and gave us a glimpse of things to come with a second place finish late in the season.

Equally surprising is the fact that two time champion Tom Davis is without a win so far. Knowing him, that won't be the case for long. Having accomplished so much in Pure Stocks, Paul Stevens is racing Mini Stocks as well this season. Paul won the recent Fairtime race. With two time champion John Kirkpatrick, Sean Perry, Jason Libbee and Dustin Hills on the roster, it's anybody's guess who will win this week.

Long time track supporter Ralph Jacobo is a big reason the track ever started the Wingless Sprint Car class in the first place.  Back in 2000, he purchased a couple of cars from NCMA racer Bill Hopkins and began having son Josh Jacobo and Rob Worthington practice with them. Both have remained on the roster to this day.

Josh is a multi time champion and a feature winner this season. The decision was made to keep this class as affordable as possible and run the cars on gasoline. Numbers have been picking up as seven drivers competed at the recent race. It was Josh Tucker winning a photo finish with Tanner Thomson. David Johnson, RJ Baker and Jeff Crossman are other drivers who have raced so far.

The track has invited the B Modified drivers to come compete. At other tracks, the division is better known as Sport Modifieds.  They are sanctioned by IMCA at those tracks. Earlier this season at the first play day, about a half dozen drivers came out and put their first laps ever on the 1/5 mile dirt oval. Past Pure Stock champion Jerry Bartlett and recent Pure Stock feature winner Richard Vanderploeg are two drivers who could see some action in the class this week. Other drivers who might make an appearance include Tyler Rogers, Andrew Peckham and Jesse Skidmore.

Promoter Rich Hood is hoping to further entice the racers with a $350 to win first prize for the division this week. Bit by bit, Orland Raceway continues to introduce other attractions to the fans. Not only will the B Modifieds be back on July 28th for a second appearance, but there will be two appearances this season by the California Hardtop Association. Depending on how things go, the B Modified division could see more more time on the schedule in the future.

Racing should be exciting and entertaining from start to finish this Saturday night. For further information, go to www.orlandraceway.org or look us up on Facebook.


Stockton 99 Speedway Dirt Unofficial Race Results May 26th, 2018
Winged 360 Sprint Cars
Willie Croft
DJ Netto
Kyle Hirst
Shane Golobic
Tim Kaeding
Colby Copeland
Kaleb Henry
Grant Duinkerken
Landon Hurst
Tucker Worth
Tanner Boul
Kyle Offill
Matt Dumgney
Steven Tiner
DJ Freitas
Mitchell Faccinto
Michael Kofoid
Matt Peterson

Hunt Magneto's Wingless Spec Sprints
Michael Faccinto
Scott Hall
Cody Spencer
Troy DeGaton
Kaimi Costa
Nick Larson
Angelique Bill
Bryan Grier
Ryon Siverling
Brian Sperry
Rick Gutzke
Robert Floyd
Terry Shank Jr
Shawn Jones
Bob Davis
Roy Grier
Adam Teves
Paul Vandenberg

BCRA Midgets
Finish Unavailable.


Madera Raceway Unofficial Race Results May 26, 2018
MAVTV Race #4 Military Night By 51-Fifty
Late Models
Racin Vernon
Blaine Rocha
Austin Herzog
Ross Strmiska
Dillon Tucker
Ryan Hart
Adam Lemke
Matt Erickson
Garland Tyler
Nick Grossi
Henk Gaalswyk Jr
Jarret Gilmer
Howard Holden
Kolby Berry
Logan Zampa
Kyle Gottula
Ryan Phillpott
Jack Wood
Glen Cook
Tyler Herzog
David Lewellen
Buddy Shepherd

B-Main
Rick Thompson
Erik Woods
Shane Butler
Kevin Thompson
Loren Kutz
Ross Strmiska
Ryan Hart
Dillion Tucker
Jack Wood
Nick Grossi
David Lewellen
Del McIntosh
Christian Roche
Shelden Cooper
Will Martyn
Quintin Harris

51-Fifty Jr. Late Model
Jesse Love
Dylan Zampa
Tyler Reif
Kayla Eshleman
Austin Edwards
Kabe McClenny
Lilly Mead
Kyler Berry
Calvin Hegje
Tanner Reif
Olivia Manke

Toyota Sedans
Jillaun Holden
Tim Curtis
Greg Tyler
Kyle Labrie
Thomas Magray
Mike Marley
J.J Brandsen
Manny Gonzales Jr
Kurt Davison
Jerry Cantrell

MST's
Patrick Geiger
Ryan Reynolds
Bert Stephens
Dave Lander
John McCullum Jr
John Benedict
Shaun Reynolds
Dennis Brannon


Santa Maria Raceway Unofficial Race Results May 26-27, 2018
May 27
Late Models
#11X Steve Drake
#1 Jason Papich
#5L Cody Laney
#91T Tony Toste
#32 Clay Daly
#27 Scott Bartels
#10N Rob Sanders
#9XXX Chett Reeves
#16B Randy Brown
#29 Andy Obertello
#74 Dennis Souza
#15M Cory McDonald

IMCA Modifieds
Main Event
Results are not official
#44s Shane Devolder
#198 Robby Sawyer
#15B Brad Pounds
#25 Austin Burke
#111 Logan Drake
#24 Roger Holder
#16B Randy Brown
#17N Steve Noland
#222 Cody Laney
#C9 Clint Reichenbach
#32 DJ Shannon
#22D Ryan Daves
#96A Clay Daly
#77K Kenny Kirkpatrick
#21 Austin Rodarte
#9XXX Chett Reeves
#20 Aaron Rodarte
#98 Alex Stanford
#28 Trevor Fitz
#75 Brad Prows
#13 Jerry Flippo
#20x Cody Burke
#78 Jarod Fast
#96 Carla Laney

B Main #1
Results are not official
#222 Cody Laney
#96 Carla Laney
#75 Brad Prows
#78 Jarod Fast
#44 Andrew Berry
#27H Branon Hoekstra
#25J Danny Cavanagh

B Main #2
Results are not official
#21 Austin Rodarte
#9XXX Chett Reeves
#32 DJ Shannon
#20 Aaron Rodarte
#4RXX Dylan Thornton
#4RX Chad Weber
#3AC Austin Kiefer
#3ac Levi Keifer

IMCA Sport Modifieds
Main Event
Results are not official
#22C Michael Johnson
#83 Jason Nation
#5a Austin Frye
#G6 Gary Dutton
#21 Kyle Wood
#7 Patty Ryland
#132 Brent Curran
#04M Austin Manzella
#09 Brylon Holder
#30 Donny Hampl
#7-7 Aaron Farrell
#C5 Wayne Coffman
#M13 Mathew Mayo
#P51 Parker Maccianti
#48K Kollin Hibdon
#20S Kevin Johnson
#5 Mathew Hagio
#7J Fred Ryland
#28 Paul Harris
#88c Joey Claborn
#42W Austin Williams
#75B Brendon Frye
#3 Dylan Potter
#48 Mike Dean

B Main #1
Results are not official
#20S Kevin Johnson
#C5 Wayne Coffman
#132 Brent Curran
#04M Austin Manzella
#51V Vaughan Vondera
#88B Ryan Bledsaw
#128 Keith Brown Jr

B Main #2
Results are not official
#3 Dylan Potter
#7-7 Aaron Farrell
#21 Kyle Wood
#28 Paul Harris
#15F Markus Frazier

Pro Stocks
Results are not official
#54 Brady Bell
#21JT Justin Crockett
#4 Jerry Stewart
#43K Dave King
#68S Billy Simkins
#50 Chris Smith
#13M Matt Mayo
#11x Tim Randolph
#5N Frank Nyback
#85 Brian Johnson
#33 Rob Gilbertson
#49 Patrick Tone
#87 Chris Clinton
#65 Dennis Woodridge
#11 Kevin Irwin
#11m Clay Daly
#20T Toby Randolph
#21 Devon Crockett

Hobby Stocks
Main Event
Results are not official
#3 Taelor Janes
#91X Michael Scruggs
#8 Tom Grizincic
#99c Eric Cimental
#1n Nicholas Johnson
#11 Cody Johnson
#7c Kodie Dean
#44 Austin Van Hoff
#52 Perry Alderman
#87 Matt McEwan
#19 Pat Fausel
#5x Mike Lewis
#52x Jerry Flippo
#99 Don Mead
#48x Tom Manzella
#55M Mack McGeary
#9.75 Eddie Williams
#18A Aaron Bruce
#91 Scotty Preast
#56 Greg Noah
#11x Billy Nelson
#3R Ernie Malone
#74 Wayne Dotson
#20 Charles Paul


B Main #1
Results are not official
#3R Ernie Malone
#52 Perry Alderman
#20 Charles Paul
#19 Pat Fausel
#48x Tom Manzella
#56 Greg Noah
#18A Aaron Bruce
#55M Mack McGeary
#8K Kyle Eurto
#43 Sam Garvin
#7 Sheldon Bailey
#51 Mike Keebler
#14 JD Mealer

American Stocks
Results are not official
#5 Sean Martin Sr
#47 Brock Crawford
#49J Justin Jackson
#38cc James Coots
#98 Gary Rayburn Jr
#37 Jimmy Satlawa
#32 Jon Waterfiled
#29 Bronson Van Fleet
#174 Kevin Black
#15D Dakota Brown
#55K Kristina McGeary
#99 Steven Amick
#21rrr Issac Dotson
#16 Ed Wyand
#96 Matthew Crawford
#G72 Ronald Lookadoo
#46 Brian Childress
#42 Nick Verbryke
#77 Brandy Wilkerson
#88 Ryan Little
#57 Gregg Teller
#11 Jennifer Oseguera
#14 JD Mealer

May 26
Late Models
Results are not official
#5L Cody Laney
#32B Clay Daly
#1 Jason Papich
#29 Andy Obertello
#91T Tony Toste
#11X Steve Drake
#10N Rob Sanders
#16B Randy Brown
#27 Scott Bartels
#74 Dennis Souza
#9XXX Chett Reeves

IMCA Modifieds
Main Event
Results are not official
#111 Logan Drake
#198 Robby Sawyer
#96A Clay Daly
#32 DJ Shannon
#222 Cody Laney
#98 Alex Stanford
#15B Brad Pounds
#13 Jerry Flippo
#25 Austin Burke
#24 Roger Holder
#20x Cody Burke
#16B Randy Brown
#22D Ryan Daves
#C9 Clint Reichenbach
#21 Austin Rodarte
#9XXX Chett Reeves
#4RXX Dylan Thornton
#28 Trevor Fitz
#75 Brad Prows
#77K Kenny Kirkpatrick
#27H Branon Hoekstra
#44s Shane Devolder
#78 Jarod Fast
#3ac Levi Keifer

B Main #1
Results are not official
#27H Branon Hoekstra
#75 Brad Prows
#4RXX Dylan Thornton
#77K Kenny Kirkpatrick
#96 Carla Laney
#4RX Chad Weber

B Main #2
#24 Roger Holder
#16B Randy Brown
#28 Trevor Fitz
#78 Jarod Fast
#44 Andrew Berry

Pro Stocks
Results are not official
#21JT Justin Crockett
#43K Dave King
#68S Billy Simkins
#54 Brady Bell
#21 Devon Crockett
#11m Clay Daly
#11x Tim Randolph
#13M Matt Mayo
#85 Brian Johnson
#5N Frank Nyback
#20T Toby Randolph
#66 Chad Schaffer
#33 Rob Gilbertson
#49 Patrick Tone
#50 Chris Smith
#4 Jerry Stewart
#32c William Chambers
#11 Austin Keifer
#87 Chris Clinton
#77 Bill Bartels

Hobby Stocks
Main Event
#11 Cody Johnson
#8 Tom Grizincic
#87 Matt McEwan
#91 Scotty Preast
#1n Nicholas Johnson
#99c Eric Cimental
#7c kodie Dean
#48x Tom Manzella
#3 Taelor Janes
#91X Michael Scruggs
#5x Mike Lewis
#52 Perry Alderman
#13 Raymond Shoemaker
#9 Gene Ross
#3R Ernie Malone
#25B Corey Brough
#9.75 Eddie Williams
#11x Billy Nelson
#74 Wayne Dotson
#19 Pat Fausel
#5 Sean Martin Jr
#56 Greg Noah
#21RRR Roger Welch
#55M Mack McGeary

B Man
Results are not official
#91X Michael Scruggs
#56 Greg Noah
#52 Perry Alderman
#5x Mike Lewis
#44 Austin Van Hoff
#51 Mike Keebler
#20 David Bettencourt
#99 Don Mead
#43 Sam Garvin

B Main #2
Results are not official
#21RRR Roger Welch
#55M Mack McGeary
#5 Sean Martin Jr
#13 Raymond Shoemaker
#7 Sheldon Bailey
#45 Christina Garvin
#18A Aaron Bruce
#37 Kelly Nichols

American Stocks
Results are not official
#49J Justin Jackson
#5 Sean Martin Sr
#47 Brock Crawford
#15D Dakota Brown
#96 Matthew Crawford
#38cc James Coots
#11 Kris Broucaret
#38 Taylor King
#174 Kevin Black
#46 Brian Childress
#86c Clay Waters 
#55K Kristina McGeary
#57 Gregg Teller
#77 Brandy Wilkerson
#16 Ed Wyand 
#37 Jimmy Satlawa
#9 Justin Teller
#99 Steven Amick
#21rr Issac Dotson
#32 Jon Waterfiled
#98 Gary Rayburn Jr 
#88 Ryan Little
#29 Bronson Van Fleet
#42 Kevin Pritchard
#14 JD Mealer
#52 Cristy Zumwalt



The Editor's Viewpoint

It's the end of May as I write this. We're already 5 months into this year. Seems to me like time is going faster, and I don't feel it's because I'm having fun. It just seems like time is going faster. Whatever the case, the season is in full swing, and it will be over before we know it.

I saw something this last weekend that I was a bit surprised to see. John M Soares decided to book a race at Antioch Speedway on Memorial Day Weekend. He's made it a point to stay off of the holiday weekends in recent years, meaning no racing on Memorial Day, Labor Day and Fourth of July weekends. There's a concern over whether he can get the attendance.

This is a change in the sport from the way things were 25 years ago. Back then, not only did you run on those weekends, you frequently ran one of those 50 lap or 100 lap races. So, the fact that John and other promoters stay off of those weekends tells you something. Antioch isn't the only track that has stayed dark. Petaluma, Watsonville and Merced still chose not to book last week.

I have been thinking that somebody had to do it eventually. If every other one of those tracks is going to stay dark, you can possibly gain something from it. Antioch rolled the dice, for whatever reason. The gain came in the A Modified division where 24 drivers competed. Antioch had close to 70 total cars in the pits. In that sense, it was a success. Whether it paid off in the grandstands, I couldn't say.

I am a bit mystified at the elevation of the B Modified division. I watched the footage from Antioch Speedway to see the B Modifieds get more Main Event laps than the A Modifieds. You have Kellen Chadwick, Duane Cleveland, Bobby Motts Jr, Nick DeCarlo and so many quality driver's in that A Modified field. When you get that kind of a lineup, they are the show. The B Modified division in Antioch continues to be a case where drivers will go elsewhere and come back to Antioch when it's convenient to them.

So, I am a bit mystified by the elevation. Not saying that to put down the class as there are good drivers in it. But when I look at the pecking order of Antioch Speedway, the B Modified division isn't at the top of the list, or it shouldn't be. I know that Jay Banks is doing the Sharp Shooter Series, which is a nice little touch to things. In any event, Antioch Speedway had a pretty darn good show from what I could see.

The holiday weekend seems to be Santa Maria Speedway's time to shine. This was the case going back to when Doug Fort ran the place, and with the promoters that followed, they have managed to hold on to it. They had what the late Clair Arnold might call a bonanza. Car count was through the roof at Santa Maria for both nights. I don't know how the attendance went, and I haven't had the time to look at the footage, but they had cars like you wouldn't believe.

Otherwise, you have to head north to find a show. I was very happy to see the Civil War Series have big car counts at Marysville and Chico. I know the Sprint Car Challenge Tour is doing all the special things and has all the bells and whistles, but I am a tradition minded person. The Civil War has been around a lot longer, and though admittedly things have been on difficult times, it's still here. I'd rather see an effort made to fight for that cause. Last weekend, they shined very brightly with full fields at both tracks.

In Yreka, it rained. There had been rain forecast a week earlier, but it sort of backed off. It was calling for a 10% or 20% chance of rain, so nobody was expecting it. While we were getting things in shape at Southern Oregon Speedway for our big Open Wheel Showcase event, it rained all around us. We were ready to go. In Yreka, it rained Friday night into Saturday morning. It became evident on Saturday morning that the pits were unusable, so they canceled.

To me, the way they laid out their format didn't make a lot of sense anyway. I get why the racers might want to come on Sunday as they were putting the big money on their big Memorial races, but Saturday was just a regular show. I think that the board might want to sit down and plan these things out a little bit better. For starters, if you've got a big money Main Event for your Modified class, anybody who starts the Main Event shouldn't actually be paying more to go racing than they get to start the race. Most big race promoters will give you your entry fee back if you earn a starting spot in the Main Event. Perhaps this had an impact on why there were 13 IMCA Modifieds instead of more?

The track was rough and was doing a number on the front ends of some of those cars. I'm not going to dog the track crew for that, because they were pretty busy trying to make sure the pits could be usable after the rains. They fought hard to make sure the Sunday show could go on. What was remarkable is the Modifieds had 38 laps to run. The lap total matched the car number of the late John Arnberg, who was being remembered with this race. They didn't have a yellow flag.

I'm watching the video footage from Ryan McDaniel and McDaniel Motorsports. Seems like Ryan was starting to get slower, which is unusual for him. But as I watched what was happening to the people in front of him, it made sense to me. One driver who passed him retired late in the race. I didn't see the reason as far as whether it was a flat tire or maybe there was some suspension damage. That was Jeffrey Faulkner. Kyle Casson did have left front end damage. McDaniel was in second when leader Mark Wauge had the same damage as Casson had. Wauge was leading with only two laps remaining. Had it gone a little bit longer, like 40 laps, McDaniel was going to win that race. Maybe he slowed his pace because he figured out how to negotiate the track without doing as much damage? I don't know.

I was happy that Siskiyou Motor Speedway pulled this race off, although as I said, track conditions were less than ideal. Given the circumstances, I understand that. I look ahead to this week's schedule with a bit of concern. With Southern Oregon Speedway getting ready for the 6th Annual Roger Haudenshild Tribute, I don't think they're going to do very well in their Sport Modified class. They are giving those Jefferson Jalopies their first race, and I hope for the best.

In contrast to the California Bay Area, where the holiday weekends are a time not to race, the tracks in Oregon were very busy running big specials. Willamette Speedway honored their legendary promoter Clair Arnold with the Clair Cup, a big event for the IMCA Modifieds and Late Models. At Cottage Grove Speedway, it was the Marvin Smith race for Sprint Cars. Down at Southern Oregon Speedway, it was the Open Wheel Showcase.

I admit to being a bit skeptical about Mike adding this race to the schedule last year. I felt this was the perfect weekend for the Roger Haudenshild Tribute Race since it could piggyback with the big race in Yreka. Californians could tow to Southern Oregon Speedway and go down to Yreka, making the trip worth the effort. But, the Haudenshild family were the ones who suggested the date change.

We took heat from the Sprint Car community for running this race, but I don't understand why. I understand that Cottage Grove is a Sprint Car track, or at least has that reputation. I work with the man, Mike McCann, who made that happen when he was running the track back in the 1980s. But the thing is, the Marvin Smith race is a Winged 360 Sprint Car race. Our own Sprint Car class is running a limited rules package, similar to the Limited Sprints at Cottage Grove. What happens up there is they offer an incentive to the highest Limited Sprint Car driver as an enticement to get them to run this race.

Another thing that happened that affected things was the fact that the Interstate Sprint Car Series ran a busy two race weekend the week prior. So, you had some of those drivers with a little bit of racing fatigue. They were ready to take the week off and maybe just come spectate a race. There were only a couple of takers to go for the bonus money, and the Marvin Smith race only had 25 Sprint Cars. Why is that? Winged 360 Sprint Cars are dying in Oregon. They're on life support. The Limited Sprint Car effort is actually saving Sprint Car racing in Oregon.

I could get into reasons as to why it has happened. I have mentioned one of the culprits, in my opinion, in recent columns. So, you can't really run big Sprint Car programs in Oregon without the support of people coming down from Washington or people coming up from California. They didn't have much of either, and the Marvin Smith suffered a little bit as a result. From what I hear, the racing was still great, but car count missed the mark. People wanted to point a finger at us for running our own Sprint Car race, but if you talk to the people in the pits there, none of our racers were going up there as they didn't have a chance to be competitive with the Winged 360s. Having a race with their own set of rules at their home track is why they raced at all.

When you talk about an open-wheel division tour and who might be the best, you really should include the Northwest Focus Midgets in this discussion. What Carla and Galen Stewart are doing with this tour is nothing short of remarkable. They promote the hell out of it. They bring in good contingency sponsors, they work social media very hard, they keep their racers very well informed and they Inspire loyalty.

Here's something you don't see very often in racing. A big group of drivers saying they're going to be somewhere and actually showing up. Carla put out a list last year of how many cars were coming. It had 22 names, and 22 drivers showed up. This year, there was a list of 30 drivers, and we got 30 drivers. Only one name on that list didn't show up, but somebody not on the list did. To me, this is incredible.

Southern Oregon Speedway actually outdrew Cottage Grove Speedway in car count with the Open Wheel Showcase. Why is that? We're not trying to be a big Winged 360 Sprint Car show on that weekend. We are showcasing open wheel cars. We get to bring in some amazing Focus Midgets, our own Sprint Car class and a big group of Dwarf Cars. The pits were packed, and the fans got a nice variety. Let's not forget those beautiful old Hardtops that were there as well. 70 cars.

I can't really get into the adventure that we're having at Southern Oregon Speedway as we try to put things together. I'm trying to keep my thoughts composed and take notes for the book that I would like to finish up during the off-season. It has been an adventure, and I can tell you that Mike and myself are working very hard to ensure that things go well. I'm not even sure how Mike is getting through all of this, but he commits himself to it.

Everything was not 100% perfect behind the scenes and has not been so far this year. I'm a little bit mystified as to why some things are happening, but on race night, I don't stop and think about that. If I need to help get something done, I do it. That's what Mike is doing as well. We're making it happen, and hopefully the fans are seeing a program that they are enjoying. Every indication I have heard so far is mostly positive. That's what you want to hear. But rest assured, we know where we need to improve things.

We're not hitting our marks the way we would like. Mike is one of those who believes in getting the show done in a timely manner, and we're running just a little bit later. It's not because of dead time. There have been more cars, the track has required a little bit more packing or whatever the case. When the show starts, we keep it going. Only a brief 10-minute break happens between heat races and Main Events, and then we're racing. It's still gone a little bit later, and that's likely to be the case again this week if we're not careful.

Scorekeeping has been a bit of an issue as well. When you train new people, there's a learning curve. I have brought my own score keeping skills into service to help, though that's not really my desire. I am happier doing my writing thing and doing interviews and taking pictures and announcing anytime I can. I do love to announce, and I don't do enough of that up here, unfortunately. I have found that I'm needed in other places. My goal is always to try and keep things going as smoothly as possible.

And to that end, I see that I've almost used up the allotted time to write this column. There's more hype that needs to be done for our Roger Haudenshild Tribute Race this week. It's the sixth annual event, and we are paying $2,000 to win the IMCA Modifieds, $1,600 to win the IMCA Sport Modifieds and $1,200 to win the Pro Stocks. The Haudenshild family and Dusty's Transmissions have helped make that happen.

As a publicity person, I have to do what I have to do to get the word out. We're using different avenues, and in this case, I'm trying to get some television coverage for us. I've actually been able to do that on three different occasions. The unknown is whether the TV stations will even pay attention. There's other people vying for that brief bit of time that they can get. I'm hoping that given the tradition that this race is and who Roger was in the racing community, they'll give us a little bit of time.

Race tracks have their ups and their downs. There's a lot of regular nights in which you do your best with what you have. You're still trying to make it pop, even though you know there's nothing extra special to entice the fan who might be on the fence thinking about it. When you have your big events, you do your best to make them pop. You need to try to make them as big as you can. Any promoter will tell you that they go from week to week not sure whether it is going to be a gain or a loss. And if you get the momentum, you do the best you can to keep it.

No good week is guaranteed at any race track. I like to say you're only as good as your last race. And even if your last race did pop, you can't just assume this one will too. You need to work on it and make it happen. That's part of what my job is up here, and I take it very seriously. Though I don't know how much longer I'm going to last doing any of this, I do know that I will give it 100% while I'm at it.

Doing what I do up here at Southern Oregon Speedway and doing the media effort that I'm trying to do for several other venues has made me very busy. It's a full-time job it seems. I just wish there was more coming my way for the work put in, but that's never really been the case with what I do. I appreciate all the support that I have been shown from the people who have helped me out. It means a lot, and it's really what's kept me going at this point.

I almost let one thing slip my mind, but I will end on this. Hayfork Speedway has had some problems. Evidently, the association has some missing funds and it looked like the track was just about dead. This is the problem with having an association run track, rather than a promoter run track. It doesn't happen every time, but there are many occasions where somebody ends up leaving with the money, or even leaving with somebody's wife and the money. Siskiyou Motor Speedway had a similar situation nearly shut the track down prior to this year.

I have heard that they are regrouping and renaming the track Mountain Valley Speedway. I have forwarded my thoughts to somebody in the know who I think cares a great deal about racing at that track. There are a few names that have gone missing from the roster that I hope will return and fight for that track. Hayfork racing needs its own local base of racers to make this thing fly. They need to focus on the core divisions that they have, mainly Hobby Stocks, Mini Stocks and Enduro cars and growth at first.

In my estimation, there are things that you can do to market yourself. They need to keep working social media, build a strong website and be in touch with any media outlets that can help them in the area. And, I don't think it would hurt them to entertain working a series with Orland Raceway, since there seems to be drivers going back and forth between the tracks. At some point, you even entertain the possibility of bringing in a tour of some kind for one visit, a special night of racing for the fans.

But the first thing that needs to happen at the newly renamed Mountain Valley Speedway in Hayfork, California is they need to get the books in order, make sure the basics are covered and just go racing again.

Anyway, I've used up my allotted time for this column. There's other stuff that needs to be done before I can even come back and edit this. Until next time...

Thursday, May 24, 2018

So You Want To Be A Promoter, Antioch Speedway Preview, More


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The Editor's Viewpoint
So, You Want To Be A Promoter

What does it take to be the promoter of a race track? There are a lot of people who are armchair promoters. You walk through the gates and you just see everything there. The racers bring their cars to the pits, and everything is just there. The reality is there were many hours put into preparation during the week to get everything ready so the people could enjoy the show.

I know the one misconception people have. It's In the heat of the moment when things are not going your way. You get mad, and maybe you see the promoter somewhere that night. Obviously, that promoter has something against you or your driver, so you give them a piece of your mind. Problem is, you're seeing your one little situation, which doesn't mean it's not important to you. The promoter is trying to keep an eye on everything.

I remember John P Soares at Petaluma. He was everywhere on race night. You might see him going around the track in the pace car. You might see him get up on the grader or the water truck as needed. You'd see him in the pits. He'd make it a point to stop in and say hi to different drivers, and it wasn't always the same drivers. You'd see him on the grandstand side checking on the concession stands. You'd see him in the souvenir booth. You might even see him talking to a spectator.

It's an interesting thing. The best promoters are the ones who are engaged in the whole process. They're not necessarily out their lobbying for love from the people, but they know what's going on at the race track. Pops may not have been a promoter people heralded as one of the best. I certainly did, but there were a lot of people who would say negative things. But, he didn't care. He knew he was doing the right thing. When people say "effin" Soares, it was originally aimed at him.

Actually, he was part of the Barkhimer family of race tracks. Bob Barkhimer, or Barky as people called him, dreamed big. Yes, he built a network of race tracks under his California Stock Car Racing Association back in the 1950s, but he had a master plan. And, he had people at these race tracks who knew his way of doing it. He trusted these people.

It's hard to imagine people having a negative view of Barky, but they did. He too was one of those "greedy" promoters. He was skimming money off the top or whatever other accusations unhappy racers might come up with. This led to the Western Auto Racing group or WAR as they were called. It was a club run deal, and they had several tracks at one time. But, Barky won that battle in the end.

The community run track. This is the association getting together and electing their president and whatnot. Several tracks go by that model. We have a few in Oregon who do it that way. If you have no choice, you will have a club run that race track. It's either that or no track at all. Personally, I'd take a club in that scenario, but I'd rather have a promoter who is a benevolent dictator. That is to say, they do take into consideration what people are saying, but they stick to the plan.

The problem with an association run track is you get too many hands in the cookie jar. And frequently, you hear the horror stories of somebody leaving town with the money. Or, you have somebody taking somebody's wife and leaving town with the money. Not a good deal. Yreka was sort of forced to have the Siskiyou County Motorsports Association because they had a string of promoters come and go. Some managed to go for a few years, while others lasted a year. Because the people wanted to race, they needed to put the club together and make it happen.

What does it take to take to make it happen? Money. If you have an association, you probably have a few people who have money they're willing to put into the deal. When Chowchilla Speedway opened, there were investors who backed Tom Sagmiller as the promoter. It was really a combination of the right things happening at the right time in that scenario. We just lost San Jose Speedway, so people were looking for something to rally behind. Not to mention, there were a lot of people unhappy with the way Merced Speedway was being run at the time. You know the promoter will say, "If you don't like it, go down the road." Well, they did, just 16 miles down the road in fact.

The promoter who walks into the track and has the most success is usually somebody with money who has a passion for the sport. They've already had their ups and downs as a race car driver. And during those downs, when they could have walked away, they stayed. They're going to see those downs magnified as a promoter, I guarantee you. If you can't roll with the punches, you're done. You won't last but a couple of years.

What happens is there is a bit of a honeymoon period. When a track has had down times immediately preceding the new promoter, people want it to work. They rally behind you. Sometimes they'll get out and defend you when people bash you. But the honeymoon period only lasts so long. Give it a couple of years and the negativity starts to seep through. This is when the promoter is tested. Do they have what it takes?

I'm going to tell you something. We're all human. Money makes this world go round. I've learned this the hard way. Our world is ruled by money. Love, while nice, does not pay the bills. Money pays the bills. You jump into this game thinking you can pay the bills and make a few bucks. And if you are successful in those goals, sometimes you're not going to be happy anyways. Why? If people are negative and loud about it, it's going to get to you. You can't really help it. We're all human. When people tell you that you suck enough times when you're out there putting your heart into it, how would you feel?

You need to get a whole list of equipment. It depends on your situation. Even if you walk into a race track that already has some stuff, chances are you are replacing stuff. Either the old promoter will take stuff with them, or stuff is junk that needs to be replaced anyway. Plus, you need to be prepared to start replacing things you didn't think needed to be replaced. And if at all hits you at once, it can threaten your ability to run the track.

You look at the facility and think all you need is a good racing surface, plenty of space for the racers to pit and a decent grandstands. Well, that's the basics. You need to have the basics or there's no show, but you need much more than that. And keeping that track nice requires your water truck and grader. Even if they're in working order when you get there, they're going to break down and need to be repaired. And sometimes, those repairs are going to be very costly. You can be resourceful and patch things up, but sometimes you're only delaying the big expense a little longer.

These are things the fans have no idea about when they see a track that might be a little bit rough or drier than usual. They don't know that the promoter had a broken water truck or a broken grader during the week and was struggling to the last minute to get it ready. They maybe only had half a day to work on the track, and they did their best. It wasn't quite good enough to give them the smooth race track they're used to. But the promoter needs to make the show go on. Racers wanted to race, and bills need to be paid.

There's also the accommodations in the pits. Are you using porta potties or do you have a bathroom in the pits? The cost may vary. There's the fees to maintain the porta potties, because they can get disgusting very quickly. If you invest in a bathroom or happen to have a building with a bathroom, you still have to maintain it. There's also concessions. Do you bring a trailer for concessions?

Some promoters might think they'll let somebody cater with a food truck, but I guarantee you they will rethink that very quickly. You may get a little percentage from the caterer, but it's still not going to be what you would get if you run the concessions yourself. Do you invest in your own food trailer or do you build a concession booth yourself? The cost will vary. Or, there's a building there. In any event, chances are you're investing in equipment. That stuff doesn't come cheap, and it will break down. Sometimes it breaks down at the worst possible time.

Now, you need to get competitors to come race. If you don't have them, you're not going to sell tickets to the fans. A promoter has to give this careful consideration. What divisions do you run? What divisions can you afford to run? The divisions that go fast usually cost more money. So, what kind of an attendance can you get? If you're running too many fast divisions with an attendance that isn't so big, it's a recipe for going out of business unless you have very deep pockets while you try to build up that crowd.

These days, promoters sometimes have to pay every division that they have. The old formula was that you had your headline class and you had a secondary class. The secondary class sometimes brought the most cars and got no pay. You used the money you got from the back gate from them for whatever was needed. Paying the top class, paying bills. Those racers were then encouraged to learn the ropes in the lower division and eventually move up to the division that got paid. We don't do things that way anymore, although the premise of drivers moving up in the ranks is still the way it is. It's just that now they're getting paid something even in the lower divisions at most tracks.

No matter what you're paying the faster division, it's not enough. That is if you listen to the racers. If there are tracks within driving distance for the racers, you have to deal with what the other track is paying. If they're paying $200 more to the winner in that division, what do you do? You've done your books and you know what you have to work with for the purse. You have to be sensible. Some promoters have deep pockets and some don't.

Another idea employed by promoters who just do the basics is a guaranteed purse rather than a pay scale. You get yourself in trouble when you put it all on the driver's to give you so many cars to get a purse. Your loyal supporters, those who would like to get a little bit more money, are forced to play a role as an assistant promoter to get more money. "Please, come out and race so we can get a bigger purse. If we get 10 cars, we'll get whatever the guarantee is." What happens sometimes is drivers realize they're not going to get the bigger money and give up on the class. This is something a promoter has to think about.

When a smart promoter pencils out what he can pay his divisions, he can come up with a guaranteed purse formula. And it might be an attractive purse. Let's say, he decides he's going to pay his Street Stock division $250 to win and $40 to start regardless of car count. He may only be getting six or eight cars, which I assure you the promoter is not gaining on, but the drivers look at it and say they're not getting a bad deal. The promoter takes this risk knowing that he can still keep a guaranteed purse if the drivers start supporting. This means that at 20 cars, the purse is still the same. At 25, still the same. The purse won't fluctuate for the entire season.

Now, if you start out the season with 6 or 8 cars at that purse and seven races in, you're getting double the car count, drivers might complain about wanting more money. The promoter can honestly say, "Look, I've been losing my rear end paying you guys the guaranteed purse. We'll talk about a purse adjustment next year, " and an honest promoter will look at the numbers and decide what is warranted next year. What you show the racers is you are consistent. "I will pay you this much per race regardless of car count." You may not be getting more money with more cars, but you're not getting less money with less cars either.

Consistency is the key. The smart promoter might get the racers used to a certain style of track. They know what it's going to be. Maybe it's a dry slick race track that is smooth or a more hooked up race track, but they get it consistently unless there's problems with the equipment. They get the purse that they're guaranteed and the show is run and usually ended at a certain time unless something unforeseen happens. The racers are paid within 30 minutes of the final checkered flag. You've done these consistent things. If a track was sort of erratic in this area, it will be something the racers eventually notice. Consistency matters.

Another thing a promoter has to worry about is employees. You have to hire reliable people. With all of the other things that you've got going on, if you're constantly having to restaff positions during the year, it can get very stressful. Sometimes, the concession area can be a challenge. You might be having to constantly hire new people. So, if a promoter finds a good concessionaire to run that for them, frequently they let them run it the way it needs to be run. That person may be paid well, but it's worth it.

If you've got somebody with a passion for concessions running that area, it will show. They know the key is getting people served their food in a timely manner so they can get back to watching the races. They know quality matters. They know how to find people who enjoy doing their job. A happy and well-fed fan becomes a loyal fan. That means more dollars coming through the gates. Concessions are important.

Then, there is the officiating side of it. A lot of times, you have people who will go into it for the long haul, but what are their motives? If you're somebody that gets to stand out on the track, it can be easy to just enjoy the races and not pay attention as required. Some promoters keep the staff in that area to a minimum. Some promoters don't believe you have to have a dozen people as officials. What realy is needed?

For starters, you need a Race Director. Sometimes, a promoter will want to step in and do that job themselves, but this is not advised. As much as you want to be hands-on, you are needed in other areas too. You can lay out the plan that you want and not give your Race Director free reign. "This is the way I want my show run, and I need you to do this, this and this." Some promoters are looking to throw the book at the racers, and other promoters have the philosophy of, "Let's have fun. Don't make me make calls to put you guys back in line, because that's not what I want to do. I will do it if I need to."

In addition to the Race Director, you have the flag man. There are promoters who will let the flag man run the show from the flag stand. I've seen tracks where the flag man is just the monkey that throws the flags as they're told to do, and that can lead to a mess. I've seen some good flag men who can handle things from the perch very effectively. But, ego can also come into play. These two positions are a must.

Obviously, you want somebody teching the race cars. Again, there are some promoters who don't like throwing the books at people. I tend to agree with that philosophy. Generally speaking, rules become a bit of an issue when you've got somebody dominating the show. If they're dominating the show legally, so be it. But, if somebody's winning a lot, it's understandable if you have your tech man looking over that car. The frustrating thing to me is the way I frequently see tech throwing the book at somebody who just got their best career finish in third. And the reason for the disqualification sometimes is ridiculous. Plus, some tracks love to throw the book at the lower divisions and never really even check the top divisions. Why? The top divisions are the ones taking more of your purse money. Something really doesn't make sense here.

You want a tech person who knows cars. They know engines. They know what to look for and can interpret the rules properly. You also want a level-headed tech man. This goes with any official, but if you don't get the right people in these key positions it can cause troubles. I've seen tech men who had vendettas against certain racers. Hey, we're all human. Give some people a little bit of authority, and they'll become little Hitlers. So promoters need to be able to roam from spot to spot during the course of the night to keep an eye on things

These three positions are important. You need at least one competent scorekeeper in the booth, and preferably somebody working underneath that person. Reason being, mistakes get made. As much as people love computerized scoring and it's a part of the sport, I'm against relying completely on it. I think you need somebody who knows how to line score, because these computers make mistakes and they do so all the time. Sometimes, a track will have the head scorekeeper handling the payout as well, so this person is very important. You're looking into a person's character and trustworthiness when you put them in that position.

You need somebody running the pit board to make sure the cars are sent to the staging area in a timely manner. You also need somebody in staging waving the cars on and off the track. These positions are important. You are going to have a hard time running a show without them. Where can you add other people into the equation, such as people working the track and keeping an eye on things or another person roaming the pits, is up to you.

It's become increasingly important to have experienced safety people involved. People who know how to put out fires and tend to crashes, a medical person on location with an ambulance. Different states and counties have different regulations in this area. You also want at least one if not two push vehicles. People will line up for such a thing. The same goes for tow trucks, although it's advisable to have a working tow truck that is at the track in case towing companies let you down. Things do come up, and you don't want to be left without a tow truck. I've been to such a race. Actually, there was a tow truck parked in the pits, but the racer refused to help the track and it's time of need.

I still maintain that a promoter needs to give some serious thought to the presentation of the program. If they treat their show like it's just some place to be rather than an event you don't want to miss, how are the fans supposed to take it seriously? Some promoters invest in a Winner's Circle in the infield where the drivers pull up to be interviewed. They do interviews with the winners. They have announcers who know what they're talking about. Whether it's the same guy in the booth who walks down for interviews or an announcer in the booth and an announcer in the infield.

Having a competent announcer is important. That person is the one selling the drivers to the fans. They're the ones getting the fans engaged in caring about the racers. Aside from watching what the racers do on the race track, the announcer tells the fans a little bit more about the racers. And by the way, good announcers plug the sponsors for the cars and track. Now more than ever, sponsorship is very important to keeping drivers on the track and the track opened. It's amazing to still see some tracks have some joker up in the booth who doesn't pay attention. And that's the person communicating things to the fans. Unbelievable.

A media person is very important as well. Back in Barky's days, he might just grease the palms of the local newspapers and get the track coverage. In those days, they were looking for stories. It was easier to get big spreads in the papers and everybody was reading the papers. It's 2018. Papers are still here and should be used as part of the plan, but you have to explore other avenues. You engage in social media, an attractive website and whatever means you can come up with. Having a competent Publicity Director can make the promoter money. Sometimes that Publicity Director and announcer are the same person, but not always.

This is still just part of what the promoter has to deal with. Another. tedious thing a promoter has to do is engage in constant phone calls during the week. There are any number of things that arise, or you need to check on things. Something's going on in one of your divisions and you need to engage the drivers in that class. You're bringing in a big sponsor and need to make sure your sponsor's needs are taken care of. Something broke at the track and you're bringing somebody in to fix it. You'd be amazed. Plus, you might have certain ideas brewing that aren't ready yet, and you're communicating on the phone with somebody to make it happen.

A promoter is PT Barnum in a way. "Step right up and come out to my race track." You're doing all the things it takes to make it happen. You're bringing in people you can trust to delegate certain duties, and a good leader inspires those people. It becomes a well-oiled machine. I've seen a few of those. One that comes to mind is Bakersfield Speedway. Scott would be the first person to tell you that he's got a good staff helping make it all possible. If you have a promoter who is not confident or trusting of their employees, you're bound to have problems with your program.

Of course, there are promoters out there that still work regular jobs, and your race track is going to demand several hours of your time. Some promoters might be able to get away with only showing up at their race track one time a week if conditions are right for it. Other promoters need to be there two or three times a week. And most promoters are opening up their wallets for whatever costs arise during the course of the week. If the money isn't coming in through the gates, it's coming out of your pockets.

It basically comes down to this. The smart promoter has a number written down on a piece of paper. This is the number it's going to cost them to run that show. They have to pay the rent. They have to pay the ambulance. They have to pay the utilities. They have to pay the employees. They have to pay whatever the guaranteed purses are. They have to have that much money ready to be spent at the race track that week. So, they have to have the money in the bank to cover those costs.

I've known promoters who flew by the seat of their pants. They just assumed the money was going to come through the gates and bills would get paid. If it didn't, they got creative with the paperwork in the hopes that by the time the season ended, the bills got paid. Everybody got what was coming to them. Not exactly the best way to do things, but they got by with that method for a while before somebody exploited that weakness to take the track from them. Best way to avoid that is to dot all the i's and cross all the t's beforehand. Have the money handy.

Now, it's silly to think that a promoter is just going to have to open up that envelope and give all of that money away as if no money is coming in. Money is coming in. The smart promoter, who also has the concession and beer business, knows that the money is probably going to be coming in. They've crunched the numbers, and unless something really bad happens, they'll either hit their mark or come close. However, tough times come.

This means that you might lose $1,000 this week, $500 the next week, $2,000 a week after that, another $750, and finally you have a $4,000 gain on a big special night. When you're losing money, you have to be able to cover it. If somebody's calling in the money now, you can't keep them waiting. If you build up a reputation of being too late paying your beer distributor, food services, rent or whatever, you will not last. You have to have the money to back up your business. Love of the sport and an ability to actually run things on race night is not good enough.

It's not an easy thing to be a promoter. It's 2018, and there's so many things threatening the sport. The automobile industry itself is changing. The previous president, not to get political, pushed for all the old cars to be taken off the road and junked. These were the cars that were turned into Street Stocks and Hobby Stocks. You'll be seeing the disappearance of those old Camaros and Firebirds, replaced by what? You've got the Modifieds and you've got the Sprint Cars. Creative rules have made different variations of both classes, but it's still the same basic premise. There has been no next big thing since the Modifieds were introduced on the West Coast in 1987. The closest thing was the recycling of the Sprint Cars with the Wingless Spec Sprint class.

Tracks started taking advantage of the front wheel drive 4 cylinder cars to create Four Bangers, but even if the division can be fun to watch, how many fans are beating down the gates to watch Four Bangers? And that's another thing, car count. We're not getting 60 cars among two divisions anymore. Some tracks do pretty well, like the aforementioned Bakersfield Speedway. Bakersfield just had a night in which their IMCA Modifieds, IMCA Sport Modifieds and Hobby Stocks had 70 cars among them, not even counting the other classes that were there that night.

At some tracks, 60 cars come from five or six divisions. This forces a promoter to create a roster with eight or nine divisions and rotate them. A smart promoter knows they can't run one division 20 times during the year and expect car count not to suffer. Therefore, they are rotating divisions and giving divisions 14 to 16 races for the most part. Sometimes a little bit less. This enables them to hit the magic pit number, which is generally in the 60 car range.

This can be painful for somebody who has watched the sport for years and knows what good car counts are. Now picture yourself being a promoter promoting shows with five divisions and 50 or 60 cars. You're telling yourself that at eight cars you can get two heats, a dash and a main, and you know that this is sad and a bit pathetic. But, you got four races out of that division on the list. Or maybe you don't run dashes in any of your five classes. You get 10 heat races and five Main Events. 15 races. I still recommend running Trophy Dashes.

Back in the good old days, time trials on the clock was a regular occurrence, followed by Trophy Dashes. I like the idea of starting your first races off as Trophy Dashes. You have something with some stakes to it. The winner gets a trophy. In Medford, Mike McCann opens the show with Trophy Dashes for all classes. How do we get it that way? Top 4 Main Event finishers from the previous race automatically qualify for the Trophy Dash. It shakes things up. While you generally might get the same top two drivers in the heat races making the dash all the time the way tracks do it now, somebody might get lucky and get that third or fourth place feature finish and have a shot at a Trophy Dash win. Makes sense, and we start the night off with something with some stakes to it.

But back to the thought. You're somebody who knows better what car count could be. Why promote race tracks with the five divisions and a 60 car turn out? You do it in the hopes that it will get bigger again in the next couple of years. You do it because you're keeping the sport alive. You're doing it to give the next generation a glimpse at the sport that you have loved for so many years.

Still want to be in the sport as a promoter? Do you think you've got what it takes? Can you round up the resources to make a run at a race track? Are you able to build a race track somewhere that doesn't have one? Some counties might be easier to deal with than others. Have you looked at fairgrounds that aren't currently using the main grandstand for racing? Rumor has it, Grass Valley could come back into play again. It might just take the right person to approach the fairgrounds with an offer and see what is doable. The thing is, fairgrounds have lost some of their budget money thanks to the governor, so if somebody can bring a race track there and give them $30,000 or so for the year, they're more willing to listen now.

Handing the money is very important to the fairgrounds, so here's something you need to understand if you are going to take out a proposal at any track that is having a competitive bid. The person with the track now is probably paying their bills. That's all that really matters. Unless there are safety concerns or health concerns at that race track, the fairgrounds isn't really interested in the program itself. They don't care if so and so it being favored or that promoter is a jerk. They care about the money they're being paid. So if you're going after a fairgrounds track that is held by somebody in the next bidding cycle, you'll get nowhere fast by attacking the person who is there now.

There's only one question you should be asking yourself when you put out a proposal for any fairgrounds track. What is it that you can offer that facility that isn't being offered there now? What sort of money are you willing to invest? What are you going to be able to do to generate more revenue than they are currently receiving? Money is the thing that's going to talk. The idea that you will be a great promoter and be fair to your racers or whenever your pitch might be in that regards is not going to be the main point that they're listening too. How is this going to translate into dollar signs for them?

If a person opens their wallet wide enough and gets the race track, there's one thing that they have that the previous promoter the year before didn't have. Unless you're a complete idiot and not talking the racer's language, you're likely to get a boost in car count when you replace the current team. Why is that?

There are several reasons. In some racing towns, you'll find racers who have parked their cars, only race a couple of times a year or do their racing out of town. For whatever reason, they don't want to support the current team running that race track. And, they may have left and come back a couple of times before. They've made up their minds. They are done with that track. Call me when that person is gone.

From a racing program standpoint, this means that if you just do some basic things, these people are coming back. They're going to give you a chance, and as long as they see that you really care and you are trying, they're going to overlook the first few speed bumps in their way. This is the honeymoon period. But be warned, the honeymoon period won't last. Sooner or later, they're all going to start complaining about certain things that may not seem significant, but they are important to them. And if they are important enough, those people will start parking again.

What we have in society are people who demand more and more satisfaction. They want that 100% satisfaction level, and they're not going to get it at almost any race track. Utopia Speedway doesn't exist on this planet as far as I know. So, a racer who might see 80% of what they like at the race track will still park if the 20% they don't like is pissing them off badly enough. Racers are a fickle bunch.

I had a promoter tell me that if you give the racers the opportunity, they'll do the wrong thing every time. While that's an extremely pessimistic view, I somewhat understand it. Races have done the wrong thing on numerous occasions. In the Golden Age of racing, when the fans packed the stands, racers would go on strike because they felt they weren't getting fair treatment. Just that little bit of absence might have hurt the attendance enough that when they came back it's wasn't the same anymore. You can blame the promoter for screwing up, sure. But the racers aren't always innocent either

If you want to sit down and call the promoter greedy and whatnot, not that some don't deserve to have criticisms lobbied against them, you should call the racers on some of the ignorant stuff that they do too. We talked about how expensive it is for the sport. It is expensive. You want to know how it gets that way? The people at the top push the rules. The promoter doesn't say no. Sometimes the promoter is getting a kick back from the parts sales person, but whatever the reason, the promoter should be saying no.

The faster racer, sometimes driving for that parts salesperson, keeps wanting more and more. They start dominating the program. Suddenly, some of the lower end drivers start parking. They don't have a chance and it's not fun for them anymore. The greed of the people who had the resources hurt the class, but you want to know something? The racer that caused that won't look in the mirror and see the blame. Oh no. It's the cheap promoter for not paying a big enough purse. I've seen this scenario play out multiple times in the sport.

It's an interesting story. You have to have a passion to be involved in this sport. Even to be a racer, you have to have a passion. You may not be spending promoter type money, but the thousands you do spend on these race cars ads up. You can be spending that money on other things that are needed around the house. You can be spending that money on doing something with your family. Instead, that race car is eating your money. Are you getting a return on that investment? Is it fun? Are you winning? I've seen drivers quit in a short amount of time simply for that reason. It's not fun.

We are lauding this generation of young racers in the sport. Get out of the way old man, the 14 year old is coming. Fine. We need new racers. But, does this kid really love the sport? Will they be there 10 years from now when they're 24, or will they be sold out by then when they realize they're not making it to NASCAR? They're part of the instant gratification society. There might be a few that last, but how many of them? Time will tell.

This is why I have a respect for the promoters. They take the risk. They spend the money. They cover the losses that all too frequently occur. They get the rewards, but they get all the negativity associated with the job. Given all that, do you still want to be a promoter?


Sprint Cars, Modified Classes Highlight Memorial Day Weekend Show At Antioch Speedway

Antioch, CA...April 14...It's been a while since Antioch Speedway has had a Memorial Day Weekend race. Running big shows on the holiday weekends used to be a given, but trends have changed in racing so much that it presents a problem when it comes to trying to do anything special at a race track. Several tracks in California choose to go dark, and Antioch Speedway was one of them.

However, that has changed this Saturday night. Taking advantage of the fact that neighboring Petaluma Speedway is dark this week, the All Star Series Winged 360 Sprint Car division will be headlining this Saturday's show. The A Modifieds and B Modifieds will be there as well as the Hobby Stocks and Dwarf Cars.

Promoter John M Soares was careful when he booked his Winged Sprint Car schedule this year. He made an effort to not book any shows for this division when Petaluma Speedway was running and succeeded for the most part. This means that Petaluma racers who enjoy making visits to Antioch Speedway can do so without losing points at their home track. It also means the speedway should see a pretty good turnout in the popular division.

When last we left the Winged 360 Sprint Car division at the season opener, it was 2016 champion Billy Aton collecting the victory. Aton now finds himself leading the tied Matt DeMartini, Burt Foland Jr and David Lind II. Lindt, who was a feature winner at Antioch last season, calls Petaluma Speedway his home track. It was also his first career win. Antioch has been known for being the venue for several of the young up-and-coming racers to get their first wins in this division in recent years.

Division mainstay Art McCarthy is the two-time reigning champion, but his season opener ended in the pits. Art will be out to try and turn things around, and other drivers to watch for include Roy Fisher, last season's top rookie Jacob Tuttle, Tim Burcher, David Dias and probably a few racers who normally would be seen at Petaluma Speedway.

The A Modified division has seen some top-notch drivers in action this year, including past Antioch champions Kellen Chadwick and Carl Berendsen II. Both drivers are feature winners this year. In fact, two-time Petaluma Speedway and reigning Watsonville champion Nick DeCarlo opened the season with back-to-back wins. With all of that happening, people may not have noticed Bobby Motts Jr. Through consistency, Motts is 14 points ahead of DeCarlo in his bid to repeat as track champion.

Still without a win is Scott Busby. He is in pursuit of a milestone achievement. At 72 wins, one more win will give the five-time Modified champion sole possession of the all-time win record at the speedway. Two races ago, Busby won a good battle with Buddy Kniss to finish a season-high second. Busby isn't the only driver hoping for a victory. Others to watch for this week include Sean O'Gara, Raymond Lindeman, Trent Wentworth and Shawn DeForest.

The B Modifieds have another big night planned. This is the fourth Sharp Shooter Tournament Race, and there are a few drivers with their eyes on that prize as well as Main Event glory. Sitting at the top of the point list at the moment is the most recent feature winner, Trevor Clymens. Clymens is the 2016 champion and is usually in the hunt for victory if he's not winning. Behind Trevor, Brent Curran holds a six-point lead over Ryan DeForest for second. Both drivers are also in contention for top rookie honors. Curran impressed earlier this year with a Main Event win and lost a close battle with Clymens last time out.

Antioch Speedway has some fast competitors in the field, not the least of which is 2016 Hobby Stock champion Guy Ahlwardt. Guy is only eight points out of second. More importantly, he's hoping to grab his first win in this division. Other drivers to keep an eye on include Tommy Fraser, Aaron Crowell, Todd Gomez and recent Placerville winner KC Keller.

It seems as if 2010 Hobby Stock champion Chris Sorensen and Michael Cooper were playing a game of divide and conquer in the Hobby Stock division. Both drivers have won three Main Events. However, Cooper has been in a bit of a slump during the past two weeks, allowing Sorensen to build a 30 point advantage.

The Hobby Stock division has seen an increase in new competitors this season, and the question of who would be the first to win was answered last week. Top rookie John Wacht outran reigning champion Cameron Swank and Sorensen to pick up his first career victory. Wacht is now 12 points ahead of reigning champion Swank and 32 behind Cooper. Another rookie, Haley Gomez, had her best finish in fourth last time out.

As these drivers get more confident, you'll likely see some other new winners as the season goes on. Other drivers to look for this week include fifth ranked Billy Garner, Tanis Rangel, Brianna Troen, Anthony Vigna and Erik Pitschner.

Mike Corsaro is on a good pace to repeat as the Dwarf Car champion. He has won three point season Main Events as well as the Winter Classic back in January. His closest rival is teammate Charlie Correia, 42 points back. Correia, who ran Super Modifieds for years and is one of the longest running Dwarf Car drivers on the West Coast, has had back-to-back third place finishes to move into second. But really, it's about going out and having fun with his friends on Saturday night for the 80 year old competitor.

In the record books, you'll find that nobody has won more Street Stock Main Events in Antioch Speedway history than David Rosa. He's also a two-time champion. Rosa is only 16 points behind Correia and four ahead of Mario Marques in a close battle. Young gun Miranda Chappa is also in this battle, 16 points behind Rosa. The competition is getting close behind Corsaro, and he can expect a challenge from these drivers as well as others, such as Troy Stevenson, David Michael Rosa, Josh Miller, Roberto Monroy and Chris Becker.

For fans who are jonesing for their racing fix during the holiday break, Antioch Speedway is giving them what they want this Saturday night. It's a great lineup of divisions from top to bottom, and the racing should be action-packed. For further information, go to www.antiochspeedway.com.


Orland Raceway Off To A Good Start

Orland, CA...There's lots to be excited about at Orland Raceway this season. Car count is doing well in the primary classes after three races and more people are coming out to watch the show. Last Friday night's Glenn County Fair race offered non stop action to the fans.

The Wingless Gas Sprint division continues to grow. The recent show had seven entries and a thrilling ending. Josh Tucker won a photo finish with Tanner Thomson to the checkered flag. Josh Jacobo won the season opener, but he had a bit of bad luck this time. Jeff Crossman, David Johnson and RJ Baker were also in the mix in an entertaining race.

Silver Dollar Speedway competitor Richard Vanderploeg came to town in a Pure Stock and ended a two race winning streak for reigning champion Jeremy Langebderfer. The car count of over dozen featured past Orland champions Paul Stevens, Steve Martin, Jerry Bartlett and Brad Ray battling for position.

Keith Ross was back in the winner's circle in the Mini Truck Main Event. The competition level has increased in this division as 11 drivers lined up to do battle.  2016 champion Dan Webster is looking fast in his new truck, and 2013 champion Ross Vige was making his first start of the season. William Fogle was battling with division newcomers Tony Quinonez, Kalvin Kvalik and Justin Vance.

Paul Stevens has been racing in two divisions, and he snapped a two race winning streak for Barbara Crain. Reigning champion Tom Davis was pretty dominant last season, but he's finding it a bit more challenging to get a win so far this season as Sean Perry, Dustin Hills, Jason Libbee and two time champion John Kirkpatrick are running strong.

Racing returns to the fast one-fifth mile dirt oval on June 2nd. For further information go to www.orlandraceway.org.


The Editor's Viewpoint

It's been a very long weekend and I was exhausted by the end. In fact, it took me a couple of days to get caught up and I'm still not there yet. It's early Wednesday morning and I've done a lot of the usual media effort, but blog posts haven't been put up. No audio show has been recorded yet either. I did get into the media effort of sending some stuff to try and help various tracks.

Up here in Medford, it's been a constant struggle. I've been told it gets easier as you go on. Like, next year will be easier than this year. It's gone in reverse up here. Seems like it's been more of a struggle. I've learned one thing and that is to expect anything to happen. That's not always a good thing. And when something does happen, if you can go in there and take care of it, you get it done. I'm getting a crash course in things that I never had to deal with before.

We're making progress, but I can tell you that it's been hard work. At some point, some of these stories will come out in the book that I will be releasing during the off-season. I have logged things away in my mind or jotted a few notes here and there and moved on to what needs to be done now. When we have success, I might smile for a minute and say how it was good, but I'm already looking ahead to next week. I've had it pounded into my head from early on that things can go back down hill in an instant.

What I've learned about this place was it was already on a pretty good decline by the time I got here with Mike. We inherited a situation that wasn't pleasant, and a lot of people aren't happy with the place. There are a lot of people that are willing to give us a chance, but there are others who want to punish us for something previous management did. You can't win with them.

I have one mantra here. Did I do my best? Did I do what I could to help the cause? My time involved in the sport is limited. I really don't see me continuing for too much longer before I walk away. It takes a lot out of me that I really don't feel I have left to give sometimes. It leaves me drained, very frustrated and wondering what's going on with my own life. And what's worse is I just throw myself into it that much harder.

There's things to do, and we're coming up on a crucial part of the schedule now. The success that we earn in the next few weeks will determine what sort of chance we have for the year overall. Do we have a good schedule? I think so. My own personal opinion is that there's only one thing lacking on the schedule that we don't have enough of. I like the idea of giving the fans as much car count as you can. Knowing that one particular division will deliver a car count, and it's only on the schedule two times frustrates me. It's not my call to make. It's my job to present what's there to the people.

We had Street Stocks last week. I am a Street Stock fan. It's always been one of my top three divisions. I appreciate Oregon and the way it has kept Street Stocks true to what they have been. This division resembles the Street Stock class that I remember in California 20 years I go. For various reasons that I don't want to get into here, California completely screwed the whole thing up. I can cite two race tracks that were at the forefront of that, Antioch Speedway and Watsonville Speedway. In California, you don't have anything called Street Stock anymore that resembles this. You have Hobby Stocks that resemble Street Stocks.

You might wonder why somebody would create a tour for a Street Stock division. I like the idea. I think it was necessitated because of decisions made by management at a certain track prior to 2017. Whatever the case, it happened and we have a great series. Taking eight race tracks and running eight races with $1,000 or more to win purses is a great idea, but I know it's time-consuming. I know what we do with this race track, and even if a series isn't as big as a race track, there's still a lot to be done. Chris Sine and James Whitehouse are to be commended.

Bear in mind that Southern Oregon Speedway has no Street Stock division of it's own. Therefore, to deliver 21 Street Stocks to this track was pretty impressive. It leaves me wishing that we had this division, but I know it's just wishful thinking. We're in a time right now where we don't have the luxury of waiting for a class to come along after two or three years. We need it now. That also leaves me wondering why a certain division is only on our schedule twice, but I digress. At the least, hopefully we'll be seeing this series again next year.

I watched everything play out during the off-season with our Sprint Car class. David Hibbard was thinking big picture when he wanted to bring the interstate Sprint Car Series back to life. He had the money to sponsor the whole thing, and he wanted to make a big statement in Oregon. He saw that our numbers came along better from 2016 to 2017, but I don't think he was looking at things realistically.

I understand how a person can start looking at race track unity and doing things like that. Believe me, I have made certain efforts through the years myself. But, I'm looking at a race track that's been on hard times for a few years and needs things that get people excited about coming back again. The reason Mike put Sprint Cars back on the schedule so prominently in 2016 is because he believes that they are a key part in getting fans interested in coming to the races. The fact that we had better numbers in 2017 was encouraging, but it didn't call for any kind of a series to be created among the race tracks, in my opinion.

David had other ideas, and he was dealing with a man that I personally don't feel can be trusted. I believe that Crockett Motorsports has perhaps done some good things for Sprint Car racing in this state, but they've also done a lot of damage. The fall of the Winged 360 Sprint Car division can be at least partially attributed to Crockett himself. That's just my opinion. Others may see it differently. So, putting the idea in the man's head that there's something to be built on with the Limited Sprints wasn't a very smart move by Hibbard. He eventually realized that and withdrew his financial support. Problem was, Crockett went ahead with the series even when Southern Oregon Speedway withdrew from it.

But I'll give credit where it's due. They had a very solid opening weekend for the series. Cottage Grove is a given. The numbers are coming along in this class. They have now had two B Mains due to big car counts. Coos Bay Speedway was the question. Who would come? You pretty much know you've got six or eight cars waiting at the gates for the visitors. Well, Crockett managed to get a good portion of Cottage Grove regulars to come, and Southern Oregon drivers supported as well, despite their home track not being a part of the series.

Opening weekend for the Interstate Sprint Car Series was a success, bottom line. The one thing Crockett wisely did was make sure his dates will remain off of Southern Oregon Speedway dates. Because of that, he'll probably get some drivers from there to support the other races. Coos Bay Speedway isn't likely to send much support if any to any other track outside of Coos Bay. This has to do with the fact that Chuck Prather owns most of the cars and is keen on having a show at his track. Therefore, Coos Bay is useful to the series because it's a track to run and there are at least a few racers waiting there when the visitors come.

When you go to places other than Coos Bay, you're relying on Cottage Grove and Southern Oregon cars to prop the show up. My guess is they'll manage to have a decent season this year. I've heard Crockett is trying to sell the Interstate Sprint Car Series, which really didn't even exist for a couple of years prior to being brought back as the title brand for the Limited Sprint Tour.

Getting back to Southern Oregon Speedway, I think the key is to do what's right for that race track. Focusing on building classes that are working, such as the Sprint Cars and the Hornets and the Sport Modifieds and figuring out what to do about classes that either aren't growing or seem to be in decline. It's a never-ending struggle to build up a racing program. People don't understand, and maybe they don't need to. It does get frustrating when you hear critics who don't really understand the big picture and all you can do is sit there and listen to them tell you how you're doing everything wrong.

I'm tired of the whole process at this point. Sometimes I don't know how I get through a week of this. It's not the labor of love it once was. It's something maybe I do pretty well, but there are other things in life too. Maybe one day I'll be able to experience some of that. In the meantime, when those feelings start to arise, I just throw myself back into the sport. There's plenty to worry about when it comes to this track and what we're going to do next week. How did we do last week? What can we learn from it? What can we apply towards making next week better? And on and on.

Maybe I made a coherent point. I don't know. I'm curious to see how this Open Wheel Showcase Event goes in light of the fact that Southern Oregon Speedway fans are more of a Modified crowd. When we did the Roger Haudeshild Tribute race in 2016 on this weekend, we benefited from the fact that Yreka had a big money race on Sunday. Therefore, Californians could come up and hit our big money race on Saturday and go back for Yreka's money the next night. Now, our big race is a week later, and there's not as much incentive for any California racers to come to that.

Therefore, this week is more about building up a brand and getting people interested in a style of racing that they may not be familiar with. To be honest with you, the Northwest Focus Midget group has some great racing. The cars are fast, and there are quite a few of them. But, if the fans don't know who these people are, are they willing to pay the ticket price to come watch? If they're not, you're (well, Mike) taking the financial risk to bring them in. And we're adding a Sprint Car program to the mix, so it's not a cheap endeavor. The racing will be good, but we need to get the fans to watch. We need to get them to understand that there are more than just IMCA Modifieds in the racing world. So my goal is to see what I can do to help get people interested. It's why I was brought up here.

And the funny thing is, even if we pull it off, there's no time to celebrate and pat ourselves on the back. We've got another race to worry about next week. That's the process. I'll just leave it at the thought that I had in mind when I came up here. I want to leave things better than they were when I got here. I see myself as a link in the chain, but I don't intend to stick around indefinitely. So, at least knowing that I made some kind of a difference would be a good thing.

I see my future as leading elsewhere. I've enjoyed the challenges and feel like I've done my best. I've enjoyed my interactions with many of the good people here. I'm honored that I've had the responsibilities put up on me to help make things happen. And with those responsibilities, you're getting the trust that you're going to do what's right. It can't be about you. It's got to be about the track. Hopefully, people will look back and have a favorable view of what I've done here. There's more to be done, but right now, I'm done talking about it.

Until next time...