Winter Blues

On the front page, we’ve got a tribute to Donnie Ray Crawford and his smile.

Kevin Swindell topped the field with his third win at the Chili Bowl! Seems like the cream always rises to the top. Sammy was second. Amy was overheard in the pits after the race saying “well, my kid can drive a race car!” The first time I saw Kevin s drive a racecar he was 15 yrs old at Florence Motor Speedway, Timmonsville South Carolina. (Cale Yarbrough’s hometown). He was racing with Pete Walton’s USCS Sprint crew on an asphalt track. He lapped everybody twice in a forty-lap feature except the second place car – his uncle Terry Gray. In 40 laps I saw him turn his hands to the right twice. It’s the best asphalt run I’ve ever seen. And it was by a 15 year old kid.

261 Midget drivers from across the country. Tony Stewart NASCAR Champ, Levi Jones USAC Champ. So many champs you couldn’t name them all. On Tues they have a race of champions. Check out VA Dirt’s coverage and Goose’s coverage on the sprint car photo page.

Well the next big crank up is the Winter Nationals in Florida. Are you going? If not, why not? East Bay runs three or four days for each different class…five tracks running 40+ nights of racing. You can see a complete schedule on the Fla page, including track phone numbers and links to the track website. I missed two years since 1993…that’s always a great trip! East bay is a bull ring track quarter. If I had to choose one race to go to each year I could pick opening night of the Lucas Oil Late Models at East Bay.

Volucia Speedway Park it’s a long fast ½ mile track … it’s 45 miles from Daytona. The World of Outlaws struts their stuff there…along with the UMP and All star sprints. The Asphalt World Series is at New Smyrna Florida.….seven classes run in 9 nights. Florida Speedway starts it all off early with Winter Nationals …. O’Bubbas raceway, formerly Ocala Speedway, has a full slate of dates.

Our home base for the last 9 years has been the Days Inn North in Tampa…one exit away from Busch Gardens. They have a $45 two person racer rate for the winter nationals. Give Dan Samborn a call at 813-977-1550. Jan and Feb in Florida at 45 a night is a steal. There’s no excuse for you not packing it up and getting the heck outta this cold to go to the races.

We’ll have several reporters covering the tracks in Florida. If you have any ideas, or you just want to say hi, stop in and talk to them. If you’d like to see better coverage in your area of local racers, or know somebody that would like to help us, talk to the guys if you see them in Florida…or contact me at racin@luvracin.com and put team 2012 in the subject line.

LuvRacinRog

Keep on Raining

Goose is on his way to the Chili Bowl. VA Dirt is on his way to the Chili Bowl. Rog is still on crutches – It sucks! I talked to Lonnie Hastings, and he said there wasn’t going to be a banquet at RPM this year. He said the Super Bowl Banquet that, James and Becky Bryant put on, will be January the 21. It’s raining in Tx! First rain that we’ve had all day long so long as I can remember. I hope it keeps raining. Last fall there was tracks that didn’t run: Devil’s Bowl, Grayson County Speedway, Abilene, and Waco: all four of them missed shows for lack of water. Everybody prays we don’t get rained out on the weekend and we didn’t get rained out any last year. Tony Hernandez is going to fill in for Greg Cooper at Grayson County while Greg is taking a travelling job with Traxxx RC cars.

LarrE Ervin covered the first show for us this year…Legends at Charlotte Motor Speedway, NC. LarrE covered 88 racing events last year for LuvRacin.com. There’s no schedule for Winter Nationals at Speedworld but lots of other action. See the Winter Nationals schedule on our Florida racing page. Lots of good things in the works for the New Year. Mountain Creek Speedway will be running on Friday night…so that’ll give us three Friday night tracks in Dallas and one in Waco.

I did 72 events at 26 tracks in 5 states in 2011. 12 of the tracks were new tracks. I’d like to do 30 different tracks this year…18 of them new. But only about 60 events. That way I can take Sharyl out one night a week.

We need development help across the Midsouth. We need reporters to get bios. We’re creating a local racing history on LuvRacin.com. I get emails every week from somebody that says “Do you know who the photographer was back in 1982 at (insert) track”… “Do you know where I can find some pictures of my dad at Thunderbird Speedway in a’89?” There are 250,000 plus photos of local racing on luvracin.com we’d like your track to be part of that history.

I think Kurt Busch may have the right owner in Phoenix Racing. He said that he was used to working with rough people in the construction steel business and a lot of people cussed. Said the only reason he was racing was to win and if he had to cuss a little win it wouldn’t be bad. I hope Kurt does well. And I hope Kyle takes a lesson. At this time David Reagan looks like the odd man out. Kid with so much talent and suck a great personality. You can go to Lowes on Tuesday night and David will be down there racing or helping. I’ve seen him come down to Florence and run when they had the Legends down there…I hope David finds a ride.

AJ Allmendinger got to ride in the Penske car. AJ will go to the front. I think Kasey Kahne, Tony Stewart, and AJ Allmendinger are the three people to watch this year.

All three are open wheel guys.

Still.....Tony, Tony, Tony...

Tony wins the NASCAR Championship. Tony wins the Kart Race at IMIS. Tony wins the Rumble at Ft. Wayne, Indiana. I think that they’ve should put out a notice to all the drivers that “you better watch cause Tony’s back in form.” When he got outta the car at Napa he said “Well the fattest guy won.” His win at Fort Wayne was stellar, and he’ll be at the Chili Bowl again this year. Check out last year’s coverage of the Chili Bowl on our Special Events page! Goose and VA Dirt will be there this year covering the Chili Bowl for us. We will have results everyday; we’ll have photos everyday. If I had money to bed I’d bet on Tony Stewart.

Last year was the first time I went to the Chili Bowl. I saw the best Midget race that I’ve ever seen in my whole life on the feature! On Saturday they took 16 midgets before they got to the D. There was action everywhere – super racing. High and low, slide jobs, flips, last lap passes…what more could you want? Perfect track. If it’s not on your bucket list it should be on your bucket list.

64 midgets at the coin, tuning up to the child bowl and 100 plus at Ft. Wayne. 200 + Midgets at the Chili Bowl. So… it looks like winter time is Midget action!

USMTS Tour this year has over 2 million in prizes posted already. It’s about time that Modifieds start getting the same recognition as some of the other classes. I talked to Cory Dripps – Dirt Night. He said they would be filming in 2012 for Dirt Night’s return in 2013.

World Dirt Track Championship at Texas Motor Speedway on March 2 and March 3 kicks off the North Texas Racing Season.

LuvRacinRog

Last Race I’ll See this Year

 
 
Got to Florida on Wednesday and picked up Goose at the airport.  We got up Thursday morning and went to the Performance Racing Industry Show.  You can see Goose’s coverage and my coverage both on the Writers and Photographers page.  The PRI Show is the greatest show in racing.  Opening breakfast was hosted by Dave Despain who hosted Wind Tunnel on the Speed Channel.  Robin Miller and Kenny Schrader were there.  There was standing room only; 3,500 breakfasts were served!  They need an option besides pork because people from all over the world come there to show their wares and to network and make friends. 
 
Thursday started three days of catching up with people you haven’t seen, making new friends, and networking your business.  At the end of the first day, Goose and I went out for supper at the West Side Bar and Grill.  To get there, take Exit 64 and go like you’re going up toward Disney world.  I had some of the best ribs that I’ve had from anywhere around the country!  We got up bright and early on Friday morning, headed to the show, and we got there about 15 minutes after the show opened.  Already at that time, the place was absolutely packed. Every isle was full of people.  Business, business, business.   And lots of walking and achy feet.  There is no way that you can cover that show in three days it’s so big. 
 
After the show on Friday, I dropped goose off and headed 65 miles over to East Bay Race Way.  It’s been three weeks without a dirt track – it’s almost too long in my life.  I was lucky this weekend I got to go to East Bay Raceway Park for the NE Smith Chevrolet Crate Nationals World Championship. $10,000 to win!  This is their final and is held every year in conjunction to the PRI Show in Orlando.  58 cars signed in from across the country up from 46 cars last year.  Such luminaries as Tim McCreadie, former winner of the event, and Steve Francis, past World of Outlaws Champion, were among the entries. 

The qualifying races were good. I love East Bay.  I’ve seen more races at East Bay than I’ve seen at any track in the United States – more than my home track at Macon.  Al Varnadore and Todd Hutto do an absolutely great job with the track. If I had to pick one race to go to for the year I would pick opening night with the Late Models at East Bay Raceway Park for the Winter Nationals.  Mike Vaughn’s NE Smith Chevrolet Series just keeps growing.  They’ve added 6 new tracks for next year in the last five weeks.  Check in at my home-away-from-home in Florida…the Days Inn Tampa-North.  I’ve been staying there 9 years. They have a racer rate for the Winter Nationals….$45 for two people!  Don’t tell me you can’t afford to go.  I was greeted by Dan Sanborn.  It’s just off 275 so it’s easy when you’re coming in.  It’s only one exit from University of South Florida and two exits from Busch Gardens so there’s plenty of stuff to do for your family in the daytime and racing at night during the winter nationals. 

I picked up Sunshine Cher on Saturday morning and she headed to the show with us.  Saturday was a busy day.  Around 1pm on Sat most of the people cleared out, and we had time to talk to some of the peeps in booths.  We asked them how the show was.  Everyone was excited about the show!  We talked to people it was there 1st time talked to people it was their 21st time and all are coming back next year. If I had one show to go to it’d be the PRI show.  Cher and I headed back to east bay after the show was over and covered a fine evening of racing.  They had antique Mods, and I thought they were just gonna put on a little display race but those guys were serious. Serious enough that they wrecked three of them!  I didn’t get the right angle; I should have left with a video for you, but I sure got some pictures. Then they raced old time Sprint Cars and Midgets.  Two didn’t have cages on them!  There are some silly people! 100-lap featured lined up with local favorites Mark Whitener and Devin Dixon on the front row.  Jonathan Davenport, the eventual winner, started inside of the fourth row so there was a lot of passing.  100-lap feature was over at 10:20pm so it gave me time to catch a good night’s sleep before I got up and drove 1,028 miles back to Dallas. 

Make your plans now to go to the Winter Nationals.  Call Dan at the Days Inn. 813-977-1550

LuvRacinRog

A Week Without the Races

Well a week without racing. I bet I’m not the only one that’s starting to think about withdrawl!

Big L, Lonnie Hastings, texted me and I texted him back and asked if he’d got plenty of turkey and football. He said the turkey was interesting but he had not interest in the football. He also texted me that the turkey day race at Boot Hill Speedway in Louisiana got rained out.

This weekend we had 15 people at the house. They were interested in shopping at Michaels, beer, and football games. LarrE traveled to family in Ohio so he didn’t get any racing in either. Lee Hardie drove 4 hours to a race he thought was going to be on Friday -- turned out it was going to be on Saturday. He already had other arrangements for Saturday. I once drove 242 miles to a sp car race with my brother Dan. We had a flyer in the car for the sprint car race. We got there and nobody was there except the guy mowing the grass. We asked about the race, and he said it had been called off two days before. What’s the farthest you’ve gone to see a race that wasn’t?

My Miss Sharyl flew 1248 miles to go the races with me and we got rained out for three days. But it was a pretty nice three days…and that was before we got married. Anybody got any good rain out stories? I had 9 rain checks in my billfold at one time. I think I caught all the races except 2. This writing stuff’s kinda hard when you don’t have races to write on… perhaps I’ll drudge up some kind of story. A real racer wouldn’t have to drudge up a story he could make up one.

Thought you might be interested in this correspondence. We requested credentials to the IMIS show in Indianapolis. We received the following response from Joe Crowly and Ron Green:

Thank you for your interest in the 2011 International Motorsports Industry Show. Your request for med credentials has been denied. Media credentials are assigned to working news media providing coverage of the show and its participants. If you have received this email either you are not a working member of the news media or IMIS did not feel your outlet met its requirements of a news media outlet.

We responded:

Dear Joe or Ron,

We have over 50,000 pages of racing info and reporters that cover from all 50 states this year. Could you please let me know why we did not qualify as media. Thank you in advance.

Roger Bathe, Editor
www.luvracin.com

Their most recent response:

Thank you for your interest in the IMIS Show. To uphold the integrity of the IMIS Show, we must be very stringent in the access provided. Only media truly on assignment are granted permission to have access to the show. We thank you for your understanding.

Ron Green True Speed Communications.
We’ve been covering the PRI show in Orlando Florida since the inception of the site, and this will be our 11th year. They’ve treated us the same when we had 100 people on our site as they do now that we have a million. Tomorrow I’m leaving for the PRI Show with three reporters covering it for YOU! Check out our coverage next week.

Mountain Creek Speedway Opening!

Mountain Creek Speedway in Grand Prairie Texas.

I wonder if I can count this as a new race track. I think I will just for my own ego! Grand Prairie opened this weekend under the guidance of Charlie Upchurch and J.C. Howell. Lots of people loved that old place, and it’s had trouble getting consistency in the last couple of years. But if this weekend was any indication - they’ve got the right people in there. They ran 18 races including the SST Sprints. The Sprint feature was over at a quarter ‘til 10pm. Smiley always puts on a great show. Ryan Beechler took the win. They flipped a car less than 6 minutes ‘til the restart. Now that’s a real well run open wheel place any where you go.

I like Grand Prairie because the dirt’s black. This is the closest thing to Illinois and Indiana dirt in Texas. I know 25 or 30 people that ran at Grand Prairie that didn’t run anywhere else after Grand Prairie closed…and their cars are still in their garage.

The place looked really good: it had new paint, cleaned up, and the restrooms were clean and nice. Food was reasonable! Got a hot link, bag of chips, and a coke for $3.50! Usually at the race track if the food’s good the race will be good too. They sold outta everything so people liked the food. I think they’re gonna be a Fri. night track…Dallas Bcould use another Friday night track. It’s half way between Boyd and Rpm. I had some people that had called and asked if it was safe to go there because they heard it was in a rough part of town. It’s less than ¾ mile from the Interstate. When’s the last time you’ve heard of anyone getting mugged at the races??? (Unless you were driving a car!) Track lighting was great and so was the pit lighting. Check out the photos because they had a good crowd, too.

Lonnie Hastings got a new camera. Everybody knows Lonnie as “Big L”. He and Sherry catch as many races as I do. It’ll be interesting to see how Lonnie’s new camera works. Mike Scattaglia, outta New York, sent me a little email. It said: “The final night of racing action at Paradise Speedway 11/12/11. Now for the next few months as the snow will fly this photographer will settle in for a long winter of boredom...can't wait for spring...” Man I feel sorry for you guys in the North!!!! Mike’s about as far North as you can get in New York.

Goose went to Phoenix to cover the Carl and Tony Show. Saw some idiot somewhere said they outta change the point system because Tony had won four races but Carl’s run three places in front of Tony. I like the point system…don’t change the point system! It’s real easy to know what Tony’s gotta do… he’s gotta get three more points than Carl gets.
Carl thinks he’s gonna win the race! And Rog and Miss Sharyl are flying down there Friday to be at the final.

LuvRacinRog

Sweet in the Suite!

11-7-11

They misspelled it when they spelled it “suite”…they should have spelled it "sweet". 

Pampered!! 

But for the sponsors it was an absolutely great opportunity to interact with potential customers.  Everybody had a scanner.  They had three different TVs.  They had the cowboy game on so you didn’t miss out. 

Carl came up for about 15 minutes and talked to everybody.  I asked Carl if he was going to do anymore dirt track racing because that’s where he came from.  He said if he wins the championship he’ll definitely be back at the dirt track.  He said he got hurt in Omaha in the Modifieds – he dislocated his thumb.  He said he’s got 250 people who depend on him plus the sponsors.  “I wanna win a championship like you wouldn’t imagine.  I should devout every ounce of my strength I’ve got to win a championship.  If I went out and got a concussion or something ….it just wouldn’t be the right move for everybody. But that said, if I win this champ, ill be at the dirt track next year. The only think I’ve been doing is Tony Stewart’s deal in the Late Model at Eldora.    

On Saturday when I went to the Nationwide Race.  As we started pulling up my heart was beating - I though just like when I was a little kid.  God, do I love the races: the interaction, the fair atmosphere, the people, everybody flying their colors, flags, jackets, and a great crowd to see the Nationwide Race.  Anybody that thinks Nascar is not healthy isn’t at the races.  Twenty year old Trevor Bayne showed them all the way home.  This deal’s not rocket science, you can either do it or you can’t.  The fact that a 20-year-old can win at Daytona and win at Texas proves that. 

Tony and Carl, two dirt track guys, battling for the championship.  Tony won the race, lead the most laps, and he only gained 5 points on Carl.  Carl’s still 3 points ahead…he ran second.  There was opportunity for both to do dumb stuff on restarts and instead, both of them raced.  I think they like racing each other. 
Last week Tony said: “Carl’s not going to get much sleep in the next three weeks.”  I should have asked Carl about the sleep.  But it’s closer now than it was. 

Two to go: Pheonix and homestead.  LuvRacin has the Goose on the way to Pheonix and Rog and Miss Sharyl are heading for Homestead for the Final!  Gonna miss Corky’s Parts Peddler show in Syracuse, NY.  But James Brown, J Fish, and Mike Scattaglia will be there. 

Next week it’s back to the dirt tracks!  And reopening of the old Grand Prairie speedway, now called mountain creek speedway.  That’ll probably be the last race before NE Smith world Crate Championships and Florida at the PRI show.  If you see us at the shows, or see LuvRacin shirt anywhere, and you have any ideas on how we can make the site better for you, stop us and tell us. 

LuvRacin.com is YOUR racing network.