Under the weather, but a good feeling

The good thing about having to stay at home because you're feeling ill is that you have the time to put up a new blog. That, coupled with getting news from a friend, turns a bad thing into a good feeling.

Yesterday a fellow writer, an actual journalist in fact (although I doubt he would agree with the label) e-mailed me requesting contact information for John Klabunde. Lee Ackerman writes for the Omaha World Herald and is wanting to do an article about John Klabunde and the upcoming Icebreaker Challenge races at Eagle Raceway.

After giving John's phone number to Lee I informed him that he would truly enjoy interviewing John. As I mentioned in my last blog, John is a really humble individual who exemplifies the racers at almost any dirt track you visit in this great country. Although they share the same roots, none of them have visions of being the next Jeff Gordon or Tony Stewart. They spend their hard-earned money, spend countless hours every week getting their mounts ready for the weekend, and risk life and limb in what they know is a money-losing proposition. They don't do it for money or fame, they do it for the love of racing; the love that we all share.

I can't thank Craig Cormack enough for hiring me to work at Eagle years ago. He gave me the opportunity to see, talk to and interact with people who I previously had known only from a spectator's viewpoint. I find it strange how a person's perspective can be altered so drastically merely by being a part of a track, rather than just a fan in the stands. Enlightening comes nowhere near describing the difference.

Speaking of money-losing propositions, an area dirt track has been saved. Yesterday it was announced that Blackbird Bend Speedway near Onawa, Iowa will be running this year. A couple of gentlemen have signed a lease for 2011 with the intention of keeping the facility operating in the future. The classes that will be there weekly have not been decided yet, but for 2011 they will be running without sanction. Hopefully they will be able to get the IMCA sanction that they are seeking for future seasons.

They are looking for workers for concessions, track preparation and maintenance. Applications for employment, pit stalls and to reserve car numbers are being taken. So, if you have any interest at all you'd better be getting ahold of them quickly. Practice Night will be April 29th with the first races being run May 6th (weather permitting).

Practice Night at Eagle is just 2 weeks away on April 14th, with the 2-night season-opening Icebreaker Challenge the following 2 days. The Rev Honey IMCA Modifieds are the featured class both evenings, and will be competing for $1000 to win on Friday and $2000 to win on Saturday. Also racing both nights will be the ASCS 360 sprinters. The winner's share of the purse will be $1500 each evening. Support classes will be the NAPA IMCA Sport Modifieds and the Good Old Time Racing Association on Friday with the Valentino's IMCA Hobby Stocks and Exhaust Pros IMCA Sport Compacts on Saturday. For more information you can visit Eagle's website at http://www.eagleraceway.com/EagleRaceway/ or call the track office at 402-238-2595.

In other news, we announced this past Monday that the track surface had been reworked over the off-season. Also, changes will be made in the weekly track preparation this season in order to improve the racing on the high banks of "America's Home Track". There were no layout changes (other than the addition of the "Little E" track inside turn 1), and NO, the infamous spring-fed problem in turn 1 hasn't been remedied to my knowledge. But I have a strong feeling that the racing at Eagle will be fantastic this year. If you've never attended a race there, you are definitely missing out!

Hope to see everyone out there this year. And if you do make the trip, stop and say hi; you know where I'll be.

The Rumble in the Bullring

Finally, I get to see the USAC non-winged 410 sprint cars!! Wingless sprinters hold a special place in my heart, because the first sprinters I saw were wingless, because that's all that they ran back then. The plywood toppers didn't come along until I was in my mid-teens, and then not around here until a couple of years later. Although USAC has run numerous times around here with their midget series (the midgets were a staple at Eagle for a lot of years), this is the first time EVER for the 410 wingless sprints to run in the state of Nebraska.

You can see the press release that I wrote here: http://www.eagleraceway.com/EagleRaceway/?p=2913.

This is going to be a really great night at Eagle Raceway. People have been complaining because another race track wasn't going to have the wingless 410's this year, and that there wasn't going to be a Late Model show at Eagle this year after last year's Late Model special lost money. 1 person in particular was VERY vocal about that in fact. Well, now he and a lot of other fans will get their wish. Wingless 410's and Late Models the same night on the high-banked 1/3 mile of "America's Home Track"?? WOW!!!!! What more could you ask??

I'm finally shaking off the mental and physical aspects of my August major surgery, thank God. I finally finished my article for Flat Out magazine on last year's Eagle Raceway 360 Sprint Car points champion, John Klabunde.

John is, as I said in my article, a truly good guy. Very unassuming, humble nearly to a fault, and just your typical weekend warrior. He races because he loves doing it. He never had visions of track championships, or being a big shot in dirt track racing. Heck, he was afraid I'd make fun of him in my article!! After he read the final version he said "Wow! You made me sound like somebody special!". My response was "That's because you are". Maybe he's been reading other people's blogs where all they do is complain about racetracks, NASCAR, drivers, certain classes, other writers and anything else that they think aren't exactly what they believe that they should be. I'll be posting the article about John in it's entireity after it is published, so stay tuned to this blog.

In regards to some people's writing, you will NEVER hear anything negative about a driver, track or the sport of dirt track racing itself from me. That's just not me. I LOVE dirt track racing; all kinds of dirt track racing; like very few other things in my life, other than my family and friends. And even if my mind should ever run in that direction, I still wouldn't. You see, I work for not only Flat Out magazine but also for Eagle Raceway. Not only would any such rants reflect badly on myself, it could possibly do so towards Eagle and the magazine. Although some writers don't mind doing it, I refuse to. Lord only knows I would love to respond, but I cannot and will not. But it does irk me. I doubt that there would be any retributions from either place, but I still won't do it. The thought of dengrating dirt track racing in any way, shape or form just irritates me more than I can possibly say.

Yes, I see things wrong with racetracks, promoters, sanctioning series, drivers, etc. but you can bank on the fact that you won't see it manifest itself in this blog or anywhere else. Racetracks and promoters are businesses and business men who's job is to make money. Series' job is to protect itself (it's profitability) first and it's drivers second. Drivers are people first (people with families)

and public figures second. They put their very lives on the line every week for our entertainment. What right does ANYONE have to question them?? The old saying goes "Walk a mile in my shoes, and then judge me". Advice that I live by, and others should too.

I hate the namby-pamby, politically correct nation that we have become; but I was taught the golden rule at a very young age and still believe in it. Plague, famine, pestilence, war, etc. all are something we need to speak out against. But there are very few other things about which we deserve to feel outrage; and none of these are dirt track racing.

Thank you for taking time out of your busy lives to read my blog. I'm going to make every effort to post something at least every week, if nothing else than my write-up and the results from the weekly racing at Eagle Raceway; so keep stopping by.