Thoughts on the 2023 IMCA Racesaver Sprint Car Nationals

 

This year’s IMCA Racesaver Sprint Car Nationals was a great 4-day weekend! Mother Nature didn’t rain on our parade, so that was different from a lot of the past Nationals. She did, however, give us an abundance of sun and heat; making a lot of work for the track prep crew. There weren’t a lot of serious accidents, and although numerous cars were damaged over the weekend, some very badly, none of the drivers were severely injured.

After Thursday’s practice night, we got 3 days of fantastic racing action, culminating in the $3000 to win Big Dance on Sunday evening.

Now, for my take on the weekend. It’s widely known that I love dirt track racing, no matter the class. When you were practically raised at a dirt track, attending your first race at 1 month old at the long gone Lincoln Speedway at Capitol Beach, that love goes awfully deep. I wish I were able to attend more races at more tracks around the country. Sadly, finances won’t allow for that right now. Luckily, I have my latest home track, Eagle Raceway just a few miles from my house. Also, I am allowed to do my small part for the track, drivers and fans by writing up the story of each night’s events.

I also write articles/interviews for Dirt Empire Magazine. Over the past 70 years I have had the good fortune to meet so many people that are now part of my racing family. So many great people, all of them interesting in their own right. I could spend the rest of my life writing about all of them, and I wish that was possible. I choose to dedicate myself to letting the lesser known racers and crew members’ stories be told; something I’m happy and proud to do. I just sent in an article about a local racer in fact. Now, I need to get back to working on one that I started just prior to my wife Linda’s passing nearly 2 years ago. That really took away almost all of my ambitions for anything, but I’m back in the saddle again. I have another one after that that I also started a couple of years ago and following that, I plan to do one on a visiting racer that I became friendly with at the Nationals. My plate is full, but what else is there to do? Especially now that the season is nearly at an end.

As for the Nationals, what a fantabulous event!!! Each and every year, throngs of race teams invade America’s Home Track to test their mettle against the best of the best Racesaver drivers in the world. Some of them won’t even make the Sunday A Main, but still they are awarded with the experience of trying for the championship belt and the top prize. As the saying goes, ‘In the battle, the glory’. The fans get to witness their favorite drivers battle it out on the high banks; hoping that one of them can come out on top.

Personally, I love every single, solitary moment of the 4 day extravaganza. I really enjoy the racing during the regular season, but the Nationals are just over the top!! I was thrilled at times, and at other times shocked and angry. I’ve grown to know the local racers, and am fond of them all; but seeing Tyler Drueke’s race go out the window due to no fault of his own truly got to me. I’ve become very proud of Tyler, and I admire his perseverance and overall demeanor. I stopped by his pit after the race and he was his usual calm, even keeled self. You could tell that it hurt, but only if you knew him well. I told him what great runs he had, both before and after the wreck. His reply? ‘The stats will only show that I went from fourth back to sixth’. He is currently leading both National and State points contest and has already won the track title at Eagle Raceway, so those first 2 contests were surely on his mind. All I can say is ‘This young man is what a racer should be’. What a battle it would have been between he and Huish! Sadly, that competition will have to wait for another day, another time. Our local racers ably defended their home turf. 7 of the top 10 in the Big Dance were locals with Stu Snyder second, Jason Danley fourth, Mike Boston fifth, Tyler Drueke 6^th, Jay Russell 7^th and Trevor Grossenbacher 10^th. Way to go guys!!!

Congratulations to all 87 teams and drivers who came from all over the country to participate. Hopefully, you can and will all return next year. Will we have a repeat winner, or will a first timer put their name in the record books? Only time will tell, so in the mean time get out there and support your local dirt track. Enjoy yourself and be sure to mark your calendars and make your plans to be at Eagle Raceway during Labor Day 2024.

50th season opener at Eagle is in the books

I apologize for not getting this up last Sunday when I wrote it. I SWORE that I hit publish, but evidently not.

Well, the wife and I are back working at Eagle Raceway. We worked a practice night Thursday and then the first actual racing Saturday night.

I was really pleased and surprised at the size of the crowd; it was REALLY good, considering that the temps got down to the mid-40's by the time the racing ended a little after 11. Yes, I know that's late, but when you have 164 cars in the pits, it's going to take some time to get all of the races run. I guess that's the price that Roger pays for being a good promoter.

I'll be honest here and say that it was TOUGH getting back into the swing of things, even after having a bit of a free trial Thursday. Thank God Michelle had someone come up to handle the IMCA licenses and a lot of the minor registrations!! I was really worried about being able to keep track of the racing, get it down in a manageable format to allow me to write the story for the website, but it looks like I made it through with only minor hitches along the way. The story is up on the website and e-mailed to those who requested it and the media outlets as well.

As for the evening's events, I'd say that it was a great night. The track started out a little dusty, but the moisture ended up coming up and the track went dry-slick. I personally prefer a dry-slick track, because as the sprint winner Jeff Edgerington said "you have to drive on a dry-slick track". You can't just stomp and steer. Yes, there were ruts in the track, but that comes from the wet weather we've had lately. Most of the drivers I interviewed agreed; the ones who actually knew about such things did anyway.

Of course, one of the big stories of the night was the new sprint car class having it's first races at Eagle. We only got 16 cars, which is about the same as we were getting in the 360's last year, but I thought the racing was pretty damned good! In the feature defending 360 sprint car champion Mike Boston got in a car for someone else because his motor wasn't ready yet. He won his heat and got DQéd for being too light at the scales, so he started at the back of the feature. He ran up to second before losing the nose wing from his car and being sent to the back. Well, as you would expect from Mike, he ran that thing back to second and actually took the lead for a short time right at the end. His banzai move put him out front, but he slid up and Jeff took the lead back and held on for the win.

I'd say that the 305 Racesaver class has a real future at Eagle; at least I sure hope so. Rumor has it that we lost 1 of the new drivers who decided to give the class a shot because he can't handle the sprint (he hit the wall both Thursday and Saturday). I surely hope not, because we need all of the cars we can get to be sure this class goes over. Then there's the case of the young ladies in the class. They both did VERY well!!! Given that neither of them has ever raced a sprint car before (at least not a full-sized one), I'd say that they did very well. Shayle Bade ran 5th and Lacey Tuttle grabbed 6th in their inaugural feature.

All in all, a good night. A long night, and a tiring night, but a good one.

Here is the link to my write-up of the events and the full results: http://www.eagleraceway.com/EagleRaceway/?p=4383