Early Cancellations

As you all well know, the weather the last 2 weeks all across the Midwest, Ohio Valley, and all points in between, has flat out sucked unless you are a duck or fish.  Many places have seen well over 4 inches of rain in a single week, and it still falls.  Some promoters are coming under fire for their cancellation processes, and quite frankly it puzzles me.  A promoter, at the end of the day, has the job of trying to make money.  This means not only getting cars in the pits, but fans in the stands as well.  Every time they open the gates, a lot goes into even a weekly show.  They foot the power bill for EVERYTHING for the night, pay the concession and track workers, pay to have an ambulance on the grounds, and so on.  Needless to say, without a healthy car count or crowd count, a promoter is bound to take a bath.  The economy right now is tough for EVERYONE.  I for one appreciate a promoter cancelling early enough because it gives me the chance, as a fan, to find somewhere else to possibly go or to make alternate arrangements for the day/evening.  It saves a lot of money for fans and drivers alike who could drive a long ways to a track only to cancel right before starting.  Situations like that are a no win as fans and drivers alike end up pissed off and have a negative thought about the track in the back of their mind, something that could keep that driver down the road from coming back.  So promoters, please, keep up the good work.  If you know you can't get things ready or it looks highly unlikely, cancel early enough so drivers and fans can make alternate arrangements.  However, if you believe you can get the show in and think the people and drivers will be willing to make the gamble, I say look at whether you can afford to do so or not.  If you can, go for it.  I'm much more forgiving as a fan if the genuine effort is put in to get a show in even when it looks questionable at best.  Sometimes luck is on your side and the show gets ran to completion, while others it comes up short.  It's not an easy job being a promoter, and few will ever see what goes into getting things ready for a show.  It's almost a thankless job.  Keyword there is ALMOST. I say, to those who work hard to have a well prepped track, efficient show that is fair to fans and driver alike, THANK YOU!! 

Welcome back friend: Farmer City Raceway is alive and well to start 2011

As most of the Midwest and some fans, drivers, and others in the dirt track racing community knew, Farmer City Raceway was in serious jeopardy of closing the doors, possibly for good.  In under a month, JK Promotions, made up of Central Illinois Late Model Driver Kyle Logue, as well as local businessman Jeff Hammer, along with many volunteers and others, whipped the quarter mile oval quickly into shape.  As a fan, I was eagerly excited to see the changes in person, even though thanks to social media, I had seen some pictures and videos of the track and the facilities. 

Opening night was slated for Friday, April 8, 2011, and the forecast coming in was supposed to be fantastic.  The entire week leading up to the event, I went about promoting the event on various pages on Facebook, including those of local television stations, radio stations, and newspapers.  Thursday night I seen rain was coming through, and I was quite nervous, although nowhere as nervous as those involved with the track were.  When Friday rolled around, it was nice out, but not as nice as it was supposed to be.  I, along with my grandpa, left for Farmer City around 12.  After having a good meal at Imo's Cafe, we headed to the track to see how things looked.  Needless to say, it was an absolutely amazing sight.  There were many new boards on seats, the wall was painted and looked quite good, the ratty billboards were down, the concession stands had been revamped, the restrooms were as clean as I could EVER remember them being, and lots of things were painted.  The improvements were much needed, and it was definitely something that put a smile to my face.  Seeing the pits, it was a bit concerning.  It was evident they had a hefty overnight rainfall.  I knew they would bust their asses to get the pits worked in so there could be racing.  They had the track looking good already.  The banking in 1 and 2 had been built up some, but there's still more to go to get it to where it was pre Don Hammer.  

After toiling endlessly, they got the pits worked down, and cars started arriving around 3.  When it was all said and done, the 2 big classes, UMP Late Models and UMP Modifieds, had 33 and 25 cars respectively.  The other classes, all but one of which will be running weekly, had turnouts of less than 15 each, which was disappointing to see.  When late model hot laps rolled out, I had a chill run up my spine.  It was a feeling of joy and relief.  Racing was back at Farmer City Raceway.  The track was very smooth, tacky, and fast.  Early, it was nerve racking looking around and not seeing many people in the stands.  The weather there at the track was cloudy and cooler than forecasted, and outside of there, it was sunny and warmer.  I knew fans like myself and other "diehards" would be there, even if it were in the 30's.  I was hoping others who aren't as crazy as us diehards would come out.  As the night went along, the crowd kept growing.  Eventually, the stands all around had few seats open, which was absolutely awesome.  The show was ran in a timely manner, even with timing light issues.  They kept the show rolling along and were well organized, which was quite impressive.

The racing itself, was old school Farmer City.  The cars were fast in their heats, and the track widened out as the night went along.  One race that was absolutely amazing, and in my eyes the race of the night, was the 2nd Late Model semi.  Jason Feger and Brandon Thirlby ran well over half the race side by side with almost no room whatsoever between them and never touched.  The crowd was cheering loudly, some for or against the drivers.  I was just cheering because the track was delivering the kind of racing that has made it a popular track among fans, and why it's one of the best in Illinois.  The Street Stocks set the bar early with a great feature featuring side by side racing between Lance Johnson and Brian Cassell, with Johnson prevailing.  The UMP Modifieds were next, and they were married to the top side.  There was some passing deeper in the field, but overall not as much as I would have hoped for.  Justin McCoy took a horrible ride as he hit a disabled McKay Wenger who wasn't able to get off the track.  Thankfully, both drivers were okay.  In the end, Jay Ledford scored the UMP Modified feature win.

The Late Model feature was a good one, and it was somewhat a blast from the past.  The names and faces may have changed some, but the racing was similar.  Every groove was being utilized on the track, and drivers in the field kept moving around to see what worked for them.  After a near disaster, Brian Shirley held on over a fast charging Frank Heckenast Jr. to win the $1,500 feature.

The Sportsman were next, and it was a 3 car race between Dave Crawley Jr., Nick Macklin, and Allen Crowder.  After 15 laps of intense racing, Crawley Jr. prevailed.  The minisprint feature was a runaway, with Ryan Guyett scoring the dominating win.  The final feature, the Hornet feature, featured the finish of the night.  Fast Joe Reed led all of the feature, but the K-2 of Casey Gernantz reeled Joe in and passed him off of Turn 4 on the final lap, and won by little over a nose.  It was a thrilling finish to a great evening of racing.  After going around and talking with many friends (drivers, fans, etc.), it was time to head home. It was a much more successful opening night than I could have ever envisioned for the track.  It is great to say that Farmer City Raceway is BACK in 2011!! 

Macon Speedway Opening Night #66

Well, the first Saturday has come and gone.  The first Saturday means one thing to me, Macon Speedway opening night.  However, 2 of the last 3 years it has been the same night as opening night of the Illini 100 at Farmer City.  When LaSalle ended up getting called off, many fans were still stir crazy and looking for a place to take in some racing action.  It hit me right away that Macon's opening night was the same weekend.  I knew of a group of at least 8 who were looking for a place to go.  They call themselves the United Midwest Drinkers, or UMD for short.  I also ran into some others who came long in far that I knew all to see some racing action at the 1/5 mile high banks of Macon, 1 of which brought his simulator (as he was heading to LaSalle for the Illini as well).  It also was his first trip, and I had a nice long discussion with him about the track and his dad and racing in general. 

 I realized how powerful a tool Facebook was, and created an event and spread the word around to ALL of my fellow racing friends and other places where fans could find out.  I knew that there weren't many tracks racing that weekend, so I would give people the information about one of the venues that would be running.

For the large group of a dozen or so UMD members, many were there for the very first time, which was exciting to me as Macon was the place where it all got started for me.  I knew if the racing was like I know it could be, they would instantly fall in love with the track. 

There was a good field of cars, including 20 Late Models, and a total of 140 cars. The track was a bit slimy to start, but was wet and heavy, and gave us some great heats in all classes.  I made it over to see what they thought of the place after the heats.  They were absolutely hooked, and were in love with the place.  You couldn't have given a much better first impression about a track than that.

The feature of the night for me was the Late Model feature, not taking away from the others.  They just were able to get into lapped traffic longer and slice and dice.  Ryan Unzicker put on a show working through lapped traffic, keeping Cory Daugherty at bay to win his 2nd straight feature at Macon, winning the Lite Beer Twin 50 makeup feature at the end of last year to close out the season.  Other winners were Jeremy Nichols in the Modifieds, holding off stiff competition from Dave Crawley Jr. and former NASCAR Winston Racing Series and UMP Modified National Champion Jeff Leka.  Nick Macklin won in the Sportsman class, while Larry Russell Jr. took home the Street Stock feature, Adam Webb the Pro Hornet feature, and Kyle Maxwell won the Amateur Hornet feature.

After the show I seen a couple of them walking back out to their campers.  I asked them if they enjoyed it and if they would be back.  They said they loved it and would definitely be back this year, which was great to hear.   It wasn't how we all planned to start our season, but we all had a great time watching some great racing, and in the end that's all that matters.