RACE REVIEW: Plymouth (IN) Speedway 6/14/14

When an asphalt track makes the decision to go dirt, there's almost always a long and somewhat slow transitional period.  It can often take years to fine-tune the track prep, to get fans interested, and to build a solid following of drivers.  Plymouth Speedway in Plymouth, IN seems to have mastered almost everything in the few short years they have been a full-fledged dirt track racing facility.

With my schedule at Eldora, it's often tough to get out and visit new tracks. So Saturday's trip to Plymouth was a long time coming and it didn't disappoint.  The entire establishment is well-groomed and easy to navigate around.  The track itself is a small 3/8-mile...probably closer to a semi-banked 1/3-mile with tight corners.  The pits are located back off turns one and two with general admission parking directly behind the frontstretch.  

The facilities are very nice with a wide variety of seating from a concrete terrace with benches to a pavilion in turn four to the standard bleachers.  The speakers are excellent with announcer Andrew Hayn - an outstanding and well-spoken track voice - coming across the airwaves loud and clear even when the cars are running.  The lighting is very good and the scoreboard sitting outside turn two is informative, displaying laps, times, and the top ten cars.  With Hot Laps scheduled to roll out at 6:00pm, Plymouth again did not disappoint as the first group of 600cc Midgets rolled onto the track right on time. 

That's when I got my first surprise of the night.  The 600cc's began parading around an inner, 1/6-mile oval.  I was like a kid at Christmas because I knew right then I would have a chance to seeing racing on two different, countable tracks on this night.

When Plymouth first dabbled with dirt, they had a 1/5-mile track on the inside of their asphalt oval.  However, when they covered the asphalt and went fulltime dirt racing, I assumed the inner oval was no more.  I was wrong and was able to officially count the Plymouth inner and outer ovals as Career Tracks #174 and #175.

Car counts were 14 600cc Sprints, 30 UMP Modifieds, 11 Super Streets, and 14 Thunder Stocks. Racing itself was advertised for 7:00pm and, sure enough, the invocation and national anthem were presented right on time.  The heats themselves were pretty good with the track slicking off, but offering a sizable cushion about halfway up the racing surface. 

A 35 minute intermission was taken to do a little track prep and to allows the big crowd on hand to get autographs of NASCAR drivers Justin Allgaier and David Stremme, who were racing their UMP Modifieds.

The 600cc Open division ran their A-Main first with Aaron Davis winning a decent race from 3rd.  After two so-so features for the Super Streets and Thunder Stocks, the headlining UMP Modifieds came out for their 30-lap, $1000 to win main event. Normally, I'd be upset that they waited to run the top division last but, with it only being 10:15pm and with my four year being wide awake, I didn't mind as much.

The Mods didn't disappoint as 7th-starting Jamie Lomax passed 6th-starting David Stremme with about ten to go to get the win.  The highlight of this race was 18th-starting Frank Marshall charging up to the 4th spot, missing a podium finish by inches at the checkered flag.

The entire show was finished by 10:45pm and we were out of the packed parking lot quickly and easily.  In all, this was a more than enjoyable night at the track.  Plymouth does nearly everything right (including a BARGAIN of a kid's meal consisting of a hot dog, fries, fruit snacks, and a juice drink for just $3) and they get my highest recommendation.  Although a little dusty, this was an efficiently run show with great racing, nice facilities, and an extremely friendly staff.  Job well done!