Last night, March 27, 2010, The Race Blogger's racing season officially took the green flag. I traveled to Brownstown Speedway, a 1/4 mile clay oval in Brownstown, Indiana. It was my first ever trip there. It took me a little over 4 hours to get there. Brownstown is about 50 miles north of Louisville, Kentucky. It is a track built on a county fairgrounds, Jackson County to be exact. There are quite a few dirt tracks around the country like this, built on a county fairgrounds. The weather was beautiful all day and night. It wasn't cold or damp and a hoodie with a t-shirt on underneath was sufficient. I was fortunate to have some fellow fans and friends of mine who had saved extra room, as there were quite a few people there. That is why I love the sport so much outside of the actual racing action. You meet a lot of wonderful people, whether it be fans or drivers. Some of my closest friends are ones I have met at the race track. The stands were packed. The race I went to see was called the Indiana Icebreaker. It was a Lucas Oil Late Model Dirt Series event. This event will be one of about a dozen events that will be televised at a later date on SPEED Channel. There were 61 dirt late models in attendance, which is an impressive number this early in the season. Jimmy Owens was fast overall qualifier, and showed he was going to be a force to be reckoned with. He won his heat race easily, and started on the pole of the 50 lap feature. He led the 50 lap feature at times by half a track. The O Show stole the show. There was some good racing throughout the field. One driver, Wayne Chinn, of Bradford, Ohio, came from 21st to finish 8th, an impressive run. Brad Neat, taking a series provisional and starting 25th, finished 11th. Also impressive. The track had some nasty ruts in turns 1 and 2, as well as a spot on the front stretch. Considering the rain they have had, and the rivers being flooded, not the worst conditions I have seen. Still not ideal but the racing was decent, so not going to complain about it much. Overall, a good experience, and Brownstown is a track I will go back to in the future. I can tell that when it is right, it can be quite a racy race track. It was nice to finally smell racing fuel in the air and hear the rumble and roar of dirt late model engines pounding the track. When the final checkered flag flew, I had a smile on my face and I had some clay on me. Hey, it's dirt track racing and sometimes you get a little dirty.
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