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Tri State Outlook
by Duane Hancock
Mother Nature is just being brutal now to many
racers. It seems like every weekend, there has been at
least one, if not all nights of racing getting
postponed due to rain.
Last Saturday, the USAC Sprints heading to Eldora
Speedway for the second chance at running the Don
Branson/Jud Larson Classic. Nice sunny sky brought 32
car pit side for the annual classic.
The track built a cushion right away and it was
pretty racy and fast to start the night. Quick time
was in the low 15.3's.
Speaking of racy, USAC seems to always put on some
good races at Eldora. The heat races featured some
good battles and most of the transfer spots were not
determined until the cars shoot off turn 4 for the
checkered flag. Dustin Morgan, Jerry Coons Jr, Damion
Gardner, and Bill Rose won heat races. A heat 3 crash
collected Kasey Kahne Racing teammates and Jesse
Hockett. Hockett and Brady Bacon were battling when
Hockett spun going into 2. They gathered just off the
wall when Brad Sweet came off of 1 full-tilt with no
place to go, slamming Hockett. Sweet took a pretty
decent tumble. Hockett's car was bent, Bacon returned
to the race. Heat 4 collected Blake Fitzpatrick in his
first effort at Eldora. Blake looked strong and had a
great run a going, running 2nd in the heat, when he
took a nasty tumble in turn 1. With only 4 of the top
8 qualifiers transferring though the heats, the B Main
was pretty stacked. Neil Shepherd held off Brad Sweet
and Dean Jacobs to take the win. Hockett's night got
worse as he blew an engine in the B. Last year's
Eldora master, Robert Ballou, missed the transfer as
well due to mechanical woes.
A quick program was the call of the night as the 30
lap A Main was being pushed off around 9:30. The track
was still in racy shape. Yes, it did get dusty and
slicked-up some but we are talking about dirt track
racing. Brady Bacon and Tracy Hines were set to pace
the 23 car field to the green. 23 cars because Hockett
took a provisional. Bret Mellenberndt stopped 3 times,
each time as the 1 to go was giving, before the A got
under way. Green, Hines takes the lead. TSR teammates
Levi Jones was quickly on his tail tank. Lap 2, Jones
take the lead. The two battle as Sweet takes over 3rd.
Lap 5, Sweet's rear axle breaks coming off 4, pitching
him into a hard flip. Rob Chaney gets over as well
slowing for the crash. Both walk away OK. Sweet had to
be sore after 2 pretty decent flips in one night on
the quick Big E 1/2 mile. As the field was pushed off,
Jones was docked 2 spots for jumping the original
start. Could someone please explain this? Is that not
what the flagman is for on the original start? I have
always been under the misunderstanding, I guess, that
if the original start is bad, the yellow will wave and
it will be a complete restart. What would have been
the ruling if there wasn't a stoppage in the action
and Levi led flag to flag? Hines inherits the lead
once again. Restart, and Jones and Hines look like the
class of the field right now and the battle is on
again. lap 7, Brad Kuhn spins collecting Mellenberndt.
Coons goes pit side with a flat rear tire under the
caution. Jones and Hines are at it again as the green
waves. Inches from taking each other out a few times
the TSR stable races each other clean but hard. Lap 9,
Jone's hood flys up, blocking his vision, as he slows
to get a caution. A quick repair with 200 MPH tape and
Levi tags the tail. Meanwhile, as Jones and Hines
battled before the caution, eyes were turning to
Shepherd and Cole Whitt, who both looked just as fast
as the leaders. Hines gets a good restart but Whitt
and Shepherd look strong. Lap 10, Shepherd slides
inside of Whitt for the spot, Whitt cuts low, Shepherd
has nowhere to go but the inside wall or Whitt's car,
contact, Shepherd crashes. After a brief gesture of
what the heck where you thinking to Whitt, Shepherd is
done for the night. Once again, Hines is tough on the
restart. Bacon is working towards him, Chad Boat is
looking strong, as well as Shane Cottle who started
13th. With 10 to go, most eyes are starting to focus
on Hockett. After starting 23rd, Jesse is in the top 7
looking for more. 5 to go, traffic is getting real
heavy for Hines as Bacon and Cottle close in a little.
Its all Hines making a great return to Eldora Speedway
after missing most of 2007. Bacon, Cottle, Brady
Short, and Hockett round out the top 5. A pretty
decent race. Hines was strong and felt he could hold
off the guys. He slowed some at the end because he
stated he could not see all that well in lapped
traffic due to the dust. A good show with plenty of
passing all night and good battles all night. There
were some hard crashes, thankfully all walked away OK.
Oh yeah, Hockett run in the A, was with a 360 motor.
Jesse had a bent car and a 360 power-plant but, a lead
foot that put on a great run.
For the most part of the season so far, the
majority of the crowds have been pretty decent. Much
was made of the Eldora crowd on the recent message
boards but it was as bad as made out to be. One
forgets, Eldora is a much bigger place than many, so
unless it is really packed, it will look much smaller
than it really is. With that said, I have seen bigger
crowds there but I have seen smaller as well. It is
just going to be one of those years that you just
won't know actually crowd or car count until you get
there. With gas going up, what seems like every other
day now, to $3.90 - $3.98 in most spots, people are
going to weight many more factors into when and where
they go racing. We have seen many teams doing that
already this season. The fans will follow that mode as
well. Just for example, I will use some figuring I
recently did as a traveling fan from my home base in
Bryan. This figuring is just to get there and back,
not counting all the other expenses once you arrive.
For me, most tracks I like to attend are 65 to 103
miles away. My car gets around 30 MPG. So it will now
cost me round trip at say $4 a gallon:
$17 to Lima, 65 miles one way
$20 to Fremont 75 miles one way
$22 to Eldora 83 miles one way
$24 to Gas City 90 miles one way
$28 to Attica 104 miles one way
Will that stop me from going most of the time when I
have planned to? No, but it will have a huge factor
when the weather is looking bad. Just like last
Friday, I wanted to head to Attica but all signs
showed rain between 8 and 9. I just could not see
wasting $28 in gas to catch 2 or 3 races. Just as I
guessed, only 3 heats got in the books. So this leads
to what should the tracks do? If they cancel too early
and the rain misses the place, they catch a bunch of
crap. One the other hand, if they don;t cancel and try
to races before the rains hit, they catch a bunch of
crap as well. I don't think there is a right or wrong
answer this year. It will just be a gamble on
everyone's end. I do know for one thing, it would suck
to be in a track owners or promoters shoes this season
when the weather is iffy. No matter which way they
try, they will catch a bunch of crap thanks to high
gas prices, mother nature, and with no wrong doing of
their own.
UPCOMING:
Friday:
KISS Gas City IN
Saturday:
HOSS Salem IN
MSA Supers Lorain CO OH
This weekend will be a fender weekend for me. Attica
Friday for the WOO Late Models and 410 regular show
and Sunday to Toledo for the ARCA show.
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