Showing posts with label Skyline. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Skyline. Show all posts

Monday, August 27, 2012

Five Weekend Afterthoughts 8/27/12



1.  Skyline Speedway in Stewart, OH is in some hot water with both fans and drivers for advertising their admission (or should I say "addmition") prices as $15 GA/$30 Pits for Friday's "Sarah Bond Tribute" race, only to raise those prices to $20 GA/$40 Pits when folks arrived at the gate.  Rumors of an organized boycott are running rampant, I just hope it doesn't happen at this weekend's Greg Schilling Memorial, a Modified race that pays tribute to one of the late "good guys" in the sport.  The "thanks" for this laughable photo goes out to sprint car driver Mitch Harble, who saw this sign (that, obviously, a four-year-old wrote) and opted not to give the promoter his money after the false advertisement.  For that, Mr. Harble is certainly commended.

2.  Congrats are in order for Rusty Schlenk who nabbed his 100th career victory over the weekend.  The win came, notably, at his home track, Oakshade Raceway, where Schlenk has all but wrapped up his fifth career track championship.  This weekend, Oakshade hosts double features for the Sunoco ALMS Late Models.

3.  The decision to cancel Friday's WoO Late Model show in Winchester, VA due to rain (or lack thereof) certainly hit a sour note for a few of their drivers.  Shortly after the announcement was made Kent Robinson tweeted "...'Rained out' tonight in VA. It never rained and probably won't. They just didn't want to race" and, later in the evening, Clint Smith tweeted "Still waiting on some rain in Winchester VA to justify u being called off none yet though".  Clint continued his humor Sunday morning by tweeting "We are sorry to announce but due to all the rain we have had this morning in Winchester VA the 2013 race has been canceled".  Funny stuff from the world Twitter.

4.  Ryan Missler won an eventful A-Main Saturday night at Attica to help him wrap up his fourth straight Attica Raceway Park Late Model championship.  The race wasn't without its drama as fellow title contender Mike Bores led early on before breaking under a lap 11 caution.  In addition, Missler withstood several challenges from both Ky Harper and 11th-starting Garrett Krummert (both of whom would spin while challenging for the lead) en route to the race win.  Rumor has it Attica - who led all Friday night tracks in Ohio with an average of 29.7 Late Models per race going into Friday's show - will up their purse for the UMP-sanctioned division in 2013.

5.  The announcement was made last week that West Virginia Motor Speedway is set to reopen next month.  Unfortunately, it won't be the "completely redesigned" WVMS that was originally worked on and in the blueprints.  Instead, the track simply built a new turns three and four, thus condensing the huge track down to a big 4/10 mile.  Of course, I'll reserve my final judgement until racing actually happens, I can't help but wonder what kind of racing we'll see with, essentially, shorter straights but the same long, sweeping corners.  As always, I hope for nothing but the best for all involved with this project.

BONUS #6 - Limaland's entire racing program was finished shortly after 9:30pm Friday night.  I've always said the 1/4-mile track located just west of Lima, OH is one of the most well-run shows in the country, and that show further proved my point!





Monday, May 14, 2012

Five Weekend Afterthoughts: 5/14/12


1.  Saturday night's Late Model feature at Oakshade (OH) Raceway was an instant classic.  Brian Ruhlman (low), Jon Henry (middle), and Andrew Reaume (high) were three-wide at the white flag, and Henry & Reaume were side-by-side, door-to-door at the stripe with Henry getting the win by mere inches.  It was the kind of race you won't forget anytime soon and the type of show you drive all year just to see.   The win was Henry's fourth of the year and his third in a row (Fremont ALMS 5/4, Attica 5/11, Oakshade 5/12).

2.  Don O'Neal may be the hottest driver in the country right now, with three Lucas Oil wins in the his last four races thanks to his weekend sweep at Hartford (MI) Motor Speedway and LaSalle (IL) Speedway.  We're only halfway through the month of May and he's already got seven Lucas Oil wins, plus a few other big shows like Florence (KY) Speedway's Spring 50 back in March.  

3.  Has anybody else noticed the year Chris Garnes is having?  The 24-year-old from Cross Lanes, WV has been quite impressive to start off the 2012 season rattling off three wins...two at Skyline (OH) Speedway and one at Tyler County (WV) Speedway.

4.  UMP DirtCar's decision to terminate it's relationship with Farmer City (IL) Speedway comes as somewhat of a surprise...at least to those of us who aren't there every week or aren't close to the situation.  It'll be interesting to hear what develops the next few weeks regarding this whole ordeal. 

5.  Sometimes you question why things happen to the "good guys" in racing. Saturday night at The Shade, Josh Scott got upsidedown in his heat, ending his night and, according to him, putting him out of commission for quite a while.  Likewise for Curtis Deisenroth, who lost another motor in his heat, cutting his night short.  Josh and Curtis are two of the good guys in this sport...hate to see that kind of stuff happen to them.