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Shannon Wins First IMCA Modified Feature
At Merced Speedway
Merced, CA...June 6...DJ Shannon scored the victory in the 25 lap IMCA Modified Main Event as Merced Speedway ran a Wednesday evening program to open up the Merced County Fair. This was the first feature victory for Shannon.
Shannon had a front row start and jumped out to the lead immediately, followed by Derek Nance. Two time reigning champion Randy Brown gained second with Ramie Stone following him into third on lap three. The lead three ran that way until lap 20. Stone encountered problems and fell back in the pack, moving Brian Pearce into third. Pearce lost third to a last lap pass by Darrell Hughes II. Shannon drove a flawless race and won by a straightaway ahead of Brown. Pearce settled for fourth, followed by Chris Crompe, Shane DeVolder, Justin Villanueva, Derek Nance, Troy Stone and Alex Stanford. Eight lap heat race wins were recorded by Nance, Stanford, Shannon and Ryan Porter.
Reigning Ocean Speedway champion Rob Gallaher picked up the win in the 20 lap Hobby Stock Main Event. As with Shannon, Gallaher led every lap of the race. Austin Van Hoff held second for just one lap before Randy Brown, who was driving the Cody Brown car, settled into the spot. The lead duo ran closely until a lap nine caution flag for reigning champion Kodie Dean. James Stockton took over second behind Gallaher on the restart, but Robbie Loquaci gained the position a lap later. Loquaci ran a good race, but he was no match for the flying Gallaher. Sid Finn finished third ahead of Bubba Nelson, point leader Shannon Nelson, Marshall Weaver, Van Hoff, Kristy Shearer, Stockton and Mike Germait. There were four eight lap heat races, and wins went to Gallaher, Austin Van Hoff, Finn and Brown.
Riley Jeppesen picked up the win in the 15 lap California Sharp Mini Late Model Main Event. He jumped out to the lead at the start ahead of previous winner Jesse Burks. The two ran closely up front. Burks brought out a lap 12 caution flag, handing second to point leader Tim Crews. Jeppesen maintained his lead on the restart and went on to victory ahead of Crews. Burks made a last lap pass on Logan Clay to finish third. Carson Guthrie finished fifth. Jeppesen also won the eight lap heat race.
On June 15th and 16th, Merced Speedway hosts the two day Western States Dwarf Car Nationals. This event brings some of the best drivers on the West Coast to town for some great racing. Saturday's show will also include the Hobby Stocks, California Sharp Mini Late Models and the Super Modifieds. For further information, go to www.racemerced.com.
Sprint Cars Return To Antioch Speedway
Antioch, CA...Round #3 of the All Star Series Winged 360 Sprint Car show takes place this Saturday night at Antioch Speedway. Joining these fast race cars on the card will be the A Modifieds, B Modifieds, Hobby Stocks and Dwarf Cars. There's going to be plenty of action on tap on the fast 3/8 mile clay oval this Saturday night.
It seems to be the drivers looking to get their first wins in the Winged 360 Sprint Car class go to Antioch Speedway for the big payday. Brad Furr has won many races through the years, and he was on hand at the most recent race getting the win. Matt DeMartini has won as well. It was his first win. If the DeMartini name sounds familiar, you may be remembering his father, past BCRA Midgets competitor Marty DeMartini. The real question is who will throw their hat in the ring to run for the championship this year.
Though two-time reigning champion Art McCarthy is not off to quite the bad start that he had last year, he's still winless so far and trails 2016 champion Billy Aton by 16 points. Aton had a second in the season opener behind DeMartini, but he's had slightly better preliminary efforts to hold a four-point advantage over the second generation leadfoot in the title chase.
Tim Burcher has made both races so far. Tim just needs some more seat time as it seems like mechanical issues have been what has kept him off the track at times. Tim sits fourth in the standings, 10 behind McCarthy and four ahead of David Dias. Another driver to watch in the group is last season's top rookie, Jacob Tuttle. Tuttle finished second in the most recent race ahead of McCarthy. It will be interesting to see who shows up and what surprise visitors there may be this week.
In the A Modified division, there have been some good competitors in the field this year. This includes such notables as Bobby Hogge IV, Nick DeCarlo, Travis Peery and Kellen Chadwick. Chadwick has won two of the last three races and has shot right into the Top 5 in the standings as a result. The last time out, there were 24 racers in the field, and nobody was touching Chadwick. DeCarlo opened the point season with back-to-back wins and then had a fourth, but his two non Top 5 finishes have left him 12 points out of the lead.
The leader so far is reigning champion Bobby Motts Jr. Motts has finished as high as second with two thirds and two fourths so far. In short, he's been very consistent. However, Bobby knows that he'll need to put his blue #u81 car into the Winner's Circle again to hold off a driver of the caliber of DeCarlo. Sean O'Gara holds down third, only two points ahead of Chadwick. What may be interesting is to see if Chadwick decides to run for points the rest of the season. As there are big-money races abroad, it's not likely, though there is a good chance of him being there this week. Other drivers to watch for include Raymond Lindemam, five-time champion Scott Busby, rookie Buddy Kniss and Trent Wentworth.
Trevor Clymens leads the B Modified race by nearly 100 points. When you win three Main Events in a row and four of six point races, the points will be going your way. Mainly, Clymens wants to support the track as he knows there is some momentum in this division and it plays a part in helping get fans excited about coming to the speedway again. He also knows that he may get some challenges from the man sitting in second, Guy Ahlwardt. Ahlwardt was a winner at Ocean Speedway last week, getting his first career win in this division. The 2016 Antioch Hobby Stock champion would dearly love to get a win in front of the home crowd.
Ahlwardt also knows that he needs to stay consistent to hold off rookie Ryan DeForest, who is only two points behind him in a close battle for second. Also within striking distance, 22 points out of second, is Tommy Fraser. Todd Gomez Is anticipated this week to improve upon his second place finish at the most recent race, and other drivers to look for include Kenny Neu, Chuck Golden, Kenny Shrader and reigning champion KC Keller.
The Hobby Stock division Is being led by experience so far this year. With four feature wins, 2010 champion Chris Sorensen Is 30 points ahead of Three-time winner Michael Cooper. Sorensen made a late pass on Cooper in the most recent race to get the victory. The new car that he has from the shop of Baker Motorsports is running strong, but Chris knows that he has to keep up the pace. It's a long season. Cooper will be out to try to get his fourth win this week.
Cameron Swank didn't have the best of nights last time out, following up on his first win of the season the race before. However, he is 19 points ahead of the division's top rookie, John Wacht, in the race for third in the standings. Wacht is also a feature winner this year. Billy Garner has been winning heat races lately, but he was eliminated in an early crash last time. It will make three generations of his family to win a Main Event at the track when he finally wins.
You definitely see the experience factor playing out in favor of Sorensen, Cooper and Swank, but as the newer racers get experience, they will get faster. Anthony Vigna enjoyed a third place finish last time out ahead of Bob Bennett. Bennett has been missing for the previous few seasons, but he was a top driver when he raced before. Speaking of Bennett, second-year competitor Chris Bennett seems poised to get his first career feature win. Other drivers to watch for this week included Tanis Rangel, Haley Gomez, Breanna Troen and Joey Ridgeway.
In Dwarf Car competition, Mike Corsaro Is the man at Antioch Speedway. It didn't happen overnight. Mike has been paying his dues each and every year and getting just a little bit better. Last year's championship was the culmination of hard work. He has three point race wins as well as the New Year's victory this year, and Mike now leads his teammate, Charlie Correia, by 50 points. Charlie, who is 80 years old, just celebrated his birthday. It's been a while since he's won at Antioch Speedway. With two third place finishes, it may be that Charlie will get a win soon.
Only two points pehind Correia is David Rosa, who has finished as high as second so far. Miranda Chappa has been as fast as anybody this year, but the breaks haven't quite gone her way. She does have three Top 5 finishes, and a win seems to be just around the corner for her. Other drivers to watch for this week include Mario Marques, David Michael Rosa, Troy Stevenson and Josh Miller.
It's going to be a great night of racing at Antioch Speedway with this Impressive five division lineup. For further information, go to www.antiochspeedway.com.
Central Valley Mini Stocks Prepare
For Double Header Weekend
Lemoore CA...The Central Valley Mini Stock Association is in its second season of racing at Lemoore Raceway, and things are looking up. They've had two exciting Sunday afternoon shows, and this weekend promises to be even better. On Saturday night, the group will be headed to Keller Auto Speedway in Hanford for their first appearance there. They return on Sunday afternoon to Lemoore Raceway.
Series organizer Dan Myrick wanted to try something different for this season, and the double header weekend was added. Myrick is always looking for ways to improve things and make the racing more exciting.
One thing that could happen in 2019 is the addition of a second Mini Stock class that would allow the racers to do more with their cars. "I've turned away too many cars for little variances in rules, " Myrick explained. "It's not helping the growth."
Such a change could lead to the division we have now and a more open set of rules for the new class. "I'll have to do some research on what some of the other tracks run for a Super 4 / Outlaw Mini Stock class, " Dan added. "My intent would be to allow any mini a class to run with us at Lemoore."
The most recent race was won by series newcomer Greg Baronian ahead of reigning champion Danny Myrick and Randy Brown Jr. Since Baronian had a second place finish in the season opener, he now leads the standings. It's his brother Rod Baronian holding down second with 135 points. Rod won the season opener. Dan Myrick 130, Randy Brown Jr. 128 and Danny Myrick 122 are in the Top 5 going into the big two race weekend.
This important weekend could shake up the standings as the 18 drivers who have recorded points so far will be looking to move up the ladder. Pacific AG Rentals is sponsoring the Sunday afternoon event. For further information, go to www.centralvalleyministocks.com.
The Editor's Viewpoint
It really amazes me. You can put all the effort you want into your racing program, and some people are never going to be happy. They're just never going to be happy. I looked at Southern Oregon Speedway like a challenge. I did some research to understand where the track was in terms of car count before coming up here, but there's a lot you can't understand clearly just by studying statistics. The place was down.
To a longtime racing fan, they look back at the early days when everything was just great. You have to understand that Medford had no racing for 7 years. People were hungry to go back to a race track again, and for 10 years this show was every bit as big as anything else happening in the state of Oregon at the time. The stands were packed and people were sitting on the hillside. The pits were packed. It was great.
There are two things that frustrate me from the critics. The people who compare now to then. It's going to take some time to get this back there again, if that's even possible these days. My goal was a more reasonable plan to make things better than they had been in recent years. I would say that compared to the last ten years, I think we're on a good course for that.
Secondly, I don't like being compared to the two or three tracks that are knocking it out of the ballpark. In the case of Oregon, you'll hear about Cottage Grove Speedway. I get it. The fans will come to that race track on a rainy day if they say they're going to have races. They can pack the pits there when they stack the deck. I'm talking over 100 cars. But you know something. Cottage Grove Speedway is the exception to the rule.
I challenge anybody who wants to dog their race track because of car count issues or whatever to take a look at the other tracks in the area and along the West Coast. I mean, sit down for a few hours and start going through their web pages. The numbers are there for people to see. You can find out the truth, and the numbers don't lie. If you can cobble together a program with 50 or 60 cars in the pits, you're doing good in 2018.
I hear about having too many divisions. I get it. I hate that too. I call it Divisionitis. There is such a thing as too many divisions. But, when you're able to shuffle divisions around, you're able to maintain acceptable car counts in most of your classes. Acceptable means something in the 10 to 15 car range. Drivers don't want to race 20 times a year anymore. Those days are over. The hardcore who do want that generally will travel to other places. So, there were divisions added to the roster up here when Mike McCann took over as promoter. It needed to happen. What was there before was three core regular divisions that on some nights had less than 20 cars between them and two traveling groups that brought the cars. You can't run a program on that, so we needed to work on something here.
The gluttony of divisions is one of the things that makes me want to put a key in the door and walk away. I remember the programs of the old days. We had two divisions. We qualified them on the clocks. We had B Mains. Trophy Dashes. The whole thing. Then, it became three divisions. Still wasn't so bad. But, gradually you saw more and more divisions added.
Somebody told me that we don't have enough IMCA Modified races on the schedule. I can only tell you what I've witnessed here in the two years I've been here and looking at the numbers in the previous two or three years before that. Drivers got to the point where they weren't even coming out when $1,000 was offered to win. They opened the 2015 season with six cars for $1,000 to win. What we've seen happen these last two years is a big car count drop after the Roger Haudenshild race. They came for the money, but the track be damned. I could go into a rant here, but I'll leave that for another day.
What I will say is we had four IMCA Modifieds after that big race in 2016. We had 10 the next year. We got lucky when we got those 10. We had a couple of racers come in from The Valley in California and three other out of the ordinary racers. Otherwise, we would have had five cars. When you're going to drop your car count down below 10, you're not going to get a bunch more races than you already have. There are some really good drivers up here with cars they seldom race these days.
It's all well and good to say you need to run this division or that division more, but if the car count isn't there, you have a problem. Fans will only put up with so much for the ticket price. If they're not seeing enough cars, they aren't going to come. They themselves might be complaining about wanting IMCA Modifieds. Then, when the drivers won't come to your program, they start complaining about not having enough cars. In order to give the fans a car count in a variety of different classes, you end up running multiple divisions and rotating the classes. Fans want a show, even if it's different divisions every week.
We got the negative comments about our program last week. Fair enough. This is my opinion of the subject. We booked a heavy division program. Were six divisions needed on this? Probably not, but at the time there were some concerns about car count. You could probably have done without two of the other divisions and done just fine.
We had new clay brought in during the off-season. This has presented a challenge. The track has been good, but it's all about how much water you put on it and all of that. We're not starting the program at 7 sharp. If you know Mike, he's not thrilled by that. I'm not either. My belief is you give the fans a two and a half to three hour show and send them home at a reasonable time. We're not doing that so far this year, and it's frustrating. The track conditions have contributed to that problem when it comes to starting on time, but there are other factors too. We're working on it.
The next thing about the program going long was we ran extra laps in the Modified classes for their heat races. Hindsight being 20-20, I think I would have left that at six lap heat races like they usually get. I'm not sure how much time you will trim off of the clock by doing that from the seven total heat races we're talking about in this case. Plus, starting on time.
So, if we trim off a half an hour there, we're still running late. I had a critic talk about how the drivers were crashing and spinning, but it was somehow the race track's fault that this happened. The track wasn't bad, folks. Racers will crash sometimes. And I won't lie. The Pro Stocks and IMCA Sport Modifieds had several yellow flags early on.
Roger had a race that he really loved called the Crack The Whip Race. He had gone to a track back east and saw it and just loved it. You have 10 cars or whatever start the race. You're run as many laps as the total cars that start the race, and the last place car gets black flagged each lap until you have one car remaining. They put up $200 to win these races. Do I think they are needed? No. I've only seen one of these races in the last three years that I marginally enjoyed, won by the Pro Stock division when the winner, Steve Borror, started last.
If you trim this race off the card, you're going to save another 15 to 20 minutes minimum. We're closer to the 11 PM time, but we had a heavy schedule. If we pull off a couple of divisions, and do these things that I'm speaking of here, now we're in the ballpark. But hindsight is 20/20. We had what we had.
It's easy for the critics to find the negatives. They always will. That's what they do. I make the joke that you can't spell critic without tick, sucking the joy out of everything. We have some positives that we can take away from this event. For starters, most of the people hung in for the long haul, and it was a long haul. Why? First of all, the track itself was not delaying this program. Other than the 10 minute intermission that basically got everybody ready for the memorial lap, there was no break time. We didn't even have trophy presentations after the Trophy Dashes, because Mike knew we needed to keep this going.
The fans came out in numbers unseen at the speedway in the past several years. I don't know what the figures are, but I don't believe they even had these numbers the year prior to us being here. So, that's more indication. Numbers are actually up this year in fan attendance. We've been working real hard, and I know I've done what I can do to help get the word out more. Believe me, we are working hard here. The things that aren't going smoothly, we see them. We're working on them. The goal has always been to come in here and leave the place better than it was when we got here. There were some things that needed to change, and we've done that.
The other take away is car count. Now, I hear people talking about how big the car count was back in the old days. It was big. We had 97 cars on Saturday night. That's the biggest car count the place has had in 10 years. Is this an indication of a turnaround? The signs are encouraging, but I never get my hopes up high. We have this Monster Truck Show coming up on Saturday night and rain in the forecast. That's the kind of luck we have at this track. You can't get excited. You just get back to work.
So, you have the critics wanting to see something like they had in the old days, and they saw signs of it last week. I hear the complaint about us running late, but let's be honest. From everything that I've heard, this was the norm back in the day anytime the show got big. It got dragged on, and many times it included a lengthy intermission. It is what it is.
It's not easy to run a race track. Any promoter will tell you that. All I've been is the assistant to the promoter doing every little thing that I can to try and help. And I see the challenges. It's actually gotten more challenging as we've gone on, believe it or not. You won't believe some of the things that can go wrong. If you do it seamlessly enough, the fans just see the show and have no clue. That's the way it should be. You just do what you can to keep the show moving, and that's what we've done.
We're learning some things, and we're making adjustments. This is the same with any race track. I'm not telling you much more than you'll hear from any other track that is going right now. They have their stories. They have their good times and their bad times. But you know what? They keep going. That's what it's all about, keeping racing going. The bottom line is we're doing our part to try to keep racing going at Southern Oregon Speedway for years to come, long after we've done what we came here to do.
Negativity is nothing new. One of the long-time racers who is a car owner now went into a rant about how messed up the show was Saturday. Go ahead. It's your Facebook page. If that's what you want representative of your feelings of the race track, so be it. I know he cares. I know he'll be back out there again next race. So it's not an issue of the person hating the track. I know he doesn't. I know he's pitched in to help anytime he can. I think he's off the mark on some of his comments, but I think he's right about others. The problem with the passionate fans who do this is they're also hurting their race track.
Well, I'm not going to tell people to shut their mouths. This is America. Speak your mind. If you've got a problem with the way things are run, go ahead and say what you've got to say. But, if you're somebody who's constantly being negative, you're part of the problem. I don't know that I would want to continue to be a part of something if all I ever had to say about it was negative. Life is too short to live in negativity and misery all the time. If you're not a part of the solution, you're part of the problem. But I would never tell anybody that they aren't free to say what they want. I would just tell them to think before they speak and ask themselves, am I sure about this?
Drake Nelson offered his Late Model racers a bounty if they could beat point leader Brody Montgomery while Montgomery was still on the track. It was a $100 offering, and you won't believe how much people got on the Coos Bay Speedway Facebook page and slammed the track. Yes, people, you're part of the problem too. Is Coos Bay crawling with cars? No. They're part of the rest of us out there in the world that are fighting to get cars any way they can. Drake is hustling to do what he can.
It has to be frustrating for him to hear people talk about the car count they have up north and all of that. Drake brought in NASCAR to help get interest going, and unfortunately, it's been met with a resounding no thank you from racers within Coos Bay themselves. It has nothing to do with whether somebody will come in from Willamette or Cottage Grove Speedway. If the guys who have cars in Coos Bay supported the Late Model effort, they'd still have 10 or 12 cars competing. I don't know what the solution is, but I know you've got a guy out there trying. It's a shame when people have to slam a promotional effort.
Coos Bay is also a unique sort place in what they do is create a family-friendly environment. They're doing things for the kids like ride-alongs and bike giveaways and the penny scramble, because they want to make it about being out there with the family. They have racing and do their best to present a good show, but they know the challenges they face in getting drivers to come race. I've heard Mike McCann say that half of their base is in the ocean. You're looking at that radius around your track as people you can draw upon, and they're on the coast.
Coos Bay has six divisions, five of which they run on a somewhat regular basis. They also have various different special events that they bring in. They can't really shuffle those classes around and give divisions nights off because nothing out there is really popping with a big car count. So, they're trying to get as many total cars as they can and giving people a taste of different divisions.
I still see the issue at Siskiyou Speedway in Yreka, where they have two divisions producing car counts. They have Mini Stocks and IMCA Sport Modifieds, so they pretty much have to run those classes every time they have a race. There's not much choice. The IMCA Modified division has faltered to a point where they can only run specials for them, and we haven't had a look at the Outlaw Open Comp class to see where it is yet. They've been giving this new Jefferson State Jalopy class a chance, but you're still going to have a challenge building that car count up. I applaud Karl Bernstein and JJ Smith for what they've done in creating these cars.
Somebody at the helm has to get creative here. New divisions need to be started, and they need to give their fans a show. The local media will get behind this race track. For instance, they have one of the best newspapers in the state when it comes to giving coverage to that track. So, you put the word out and the fans come. Problem is, if they're not seeing car count, how long will they keep coming back? I read negative remarks from people who felt they didn't get their money's worth, and it was a $5 ticket as a Fan Appreciation Night last week.
Were I sitting there at the helm as promoter, I'd take a look around and see if there was anything we could do to add some special touches to the remainder of the schedule. It might be that I reached out to Hobby Stock racers on a night when Orland was off and see if we could get some cars that way. It might be that I look at Southern Oregon Speedway and see if we could entice the Hornet division or one of the other classes to come on an off night at their home track. Purse may factor in this. Were they to try to run Late Models or Sprint Cars, they're going to need a sponsor for that to pay the purse that will get them to come.
This means that they really need to entertain a third and fourth division and get something that they can put on the track as soon as possible. If the Jefferson State Jalopy Association can give them four cars, take them. Run your heat, dash and main with them. At least that's three more races the fans can see. Start a Hornet division. Somebody has to be able to get some cars or put cages in them and get a half a dozen cars in relatively short fashion. Look again at the Street Stock or Hobby Stock classes. Look again at the Modified division. You need to be able to rotate divisions.
I am thankful that this track exists. I hate belaboring this point. I know people are sitting there and may be saying, "We get it. Siskiyou Speedway needs more divisions. They need this Divisionitis that you talked about." Believe me, I would much rather see them have big car counts in the two classes they have. But I want them to put cars on the track that get the fans to come out there and watch too. When things are working at Siskiyou Speedway, it's a heck of an entertaining show. In fact, they just had one a couple weeks ago and will have one again when the Pro Stocks return on the 16th and when Speedweek comes to town a week later.
As I take a look at the All Star Series lineup at Antioch Speedway, I have to wonder about the Winged 360 Sprint Car division. I totally understand why the division was added to the roster when it was. John was keen on having more Sprint Car races when he expanded the track back in 2009. He's offering a good purse for the class, and they get stragglers coming in for a run at the big pay day.
The problem is, you would hope that it would stick and some of these drivers would stay and help build up the roster. You have maybe 4 to 6 drivers who will show up for every race. When one of those drivers decides to leave, somebody else steps up to take their place. What you're not seeing is car count increase. Sure, there are nights when there might be 12 or 14 cars, but there are also nights when there's just seven or eight.
I have spoken with John in the past about his concerns about money when he was talking about certain divisions. I'll keep all of that between us. The only reason I bring this up is because I know when you make an investment in a nice payout, you want to see some sort of positive return for the track. What I don't really know is how attendance figures factor in on nights on which this division is there.
I'm only basing this observation on the fact that you're not seeing the same drivers come back for the money. Would the money be better off spent some place else? That's my question. If and when John walks away, the next promoter will have to take a look at the roster and decide what should be there and what shouldn't be there. The higher-end divisions are all going to be under the microscope, and this includes the Late Model division. I do enjoy Late Model racing, but it wouldn't surprise me to see a future promoter pull the pin on that class too.
Core classes at the track are obviously the two Modified divisions and the Hobby Stocks. The Dwarf Cars continue to have a revolving door roster, but numbers remain up. You'll have to look at the other divisions and decide on them. Of course, I do believe that in this day and age, you need to have divisions to rotate. Were you just to go with these four divisions, your car counts are going to suffer by the end of the season.
I might also take a look at the Four Banger division once again. It's funny that I went a total 180 on this class as I was not in favor of it being added when it was back in 2003. Then again, the Mini Truck division was doing good numbers at the time. I eventually got on board. Decisions to drop the class and add the class a couple of times affected car count. In the end, they were getting 6 or 8 cars. Thing is, if you're not paying a purse and you're only giving plaques, there's no reason why you couldn't add the division again.
I still feel that new drivers are going to need to be attracted to the Speedway in the future, and this division is one way you get them there. We have been seeing new drivers getting in the Hobby Stocks, which is very encouraging. But there's another reason I look at these divisions and ask what works and what doesn't.
It is a very high price tag to maintain Antioch Speedway. The bills have to be paid. So, a promoter has to ask themselves what they're able to afford in paying purses versus what they're getting through the gates. John has his way of doing things, and I greatly appreciate that he's willing to take these risks. Having a track that does offer Late Model and Sprint Car racing is pretty darn cool to me. The next promoter might see things differently as they look at their bottom line.
The most important thing to me is that racing continues at Antioch Speedway for years to come. I haven't heard of any threats to the place, but you just don't know what might happen. Now is the time to start getting things in order and strengthening the product.
This was something I really wanted to help make happen, and I'm never saying never as far as the future is concerned. Regardless, I want what's best for the track. I wish John all the best in keeping this going and the next promoter as well, whomever that may be.
Anyway, that's the way I see things at the moment. Others may see them differently. The one thing I always come back to is the thought that as long as the gates continue to open there's a chance for good things to happen at the race track. That's all for now. Until next time...
