Race All Night. Sleep All Day.

Originally Posted on Foxsports.com on September 24, 2006

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The last checked flag fell at 6:20 ...  A.M.  Despite Mother Nature's best effort to cancel, halt, or outlast the dedicated USAC race fans, and foil Tony Stewart's 2nd running of the USAC 4-Crown races, the races finished last night.  I mean this morning.

The annual 4 Crown races are the pinnacle of the USAC series.  There are bonus available to drivers who compete in all four divisions.- midget, sprint car, Silver Crown, and modified.  Win more than one division, and the bonus is big ($25,000 each).  Three divisions, bigger.  Four divisions - massive.    Have the right motor (Mopar) and you could add $200,000.  Stewart himself captured two of the 4- Crown races one year.  The only man to win all four divisions in one night, who naturally is revered by the USAC crowd, is Jack Hewitt.  To all this, add in the races are held at the historic, fast, and dangerous Eldora Speedway, and you have a recipe for fan adoration.

The weather forecast was not good.  Large hail.  Winds.  INCHES of rain.  All scheduled to arrive at Eldora Speedway during the midget, sprint, Silver Crown and modified races.  A similar forecast and actual rain stopped the show on Friday.  USAC and Stewart prepared a contingency plan that was to run the whole two day show on one day.  Or maybe over the next two days.  Or maybe in late October (don't they know it can snow then?). 

 But Saturday started with the qualifications that had been run on Friday.  Yes, they started over from scratch.  It helped some drivers.  It hurt others.  A new track record was set in sprint cars by Jerry Coons, Jr.  At the end of the "Friday" program, the plan was to clear the stands, and then admit the people who had Saturday tickets.  That plan was scrapped and all ticketholders were allowed to remain.  (Savvy business move if you ask me).

Rain stopped things several times on Saturday.  JJ Yeley arrived with Stewart fresh from his Busch race.  Yeley prompted won his midget heat, but didn't finish well in the A Main. 

Fans took shelter from the intermittant rain under the grandstand roof.  Some napped while waiting for the rain to clear, the track to be ran in, and the cars to be brought back out on the track.  Rumor has it at one point a push truck slid into the wall, providing additional excitement for fans. 

The final race finished at 6:20 a.m.  Tracy Hines, a former Busch series regular, won the midget and sprint car races.  Mat Neely won the Silver Crown series and Jerry Bowersocks won the modified division.

 

Iowa Speedway, World Records, Formula One & Loudon

Originally Posted on Foxsports.com on September 19, 2006.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Iowa Speedway

Iowa Speedway in Newton, Iowa opened last weekend.  The $70 million facility was designed by Rusty Wallace.  Wallace was no absentee designer, as he came to Iowa on several occasions to test drive the track - first on gravel, then on each layer of pavement. 

A Hooters Pro Cup race christened the track Friday night, with Woody Howard, Denny Hamlin's "replacement", sneaking away with the win in a three-wide finish.

Nascar was well represented, with two Joe Gibbs affiliated cars running the race, as well as entries fielded by JR Motorsports (Dale Earnhardt Jr.'s company) and Tony Stewart Motorsports.  Johnny Rumley, Jr's driver, finished 6th, while Shelby Howard, Tony's driver sat on the pole.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

On Saturday, USAC took over the track, and speed records began to fall.  Bobby Santos III set a new USAC midget record, clocking a lap  at 139.553 mph.  Shortly thereafter, Darren Hagen set a new world record for a sprint car lap at 146.145.

Santos's record broke the mark set by Ryan Newman.  Think it is ironic that Ryan's nine year old record was broken at Rusty's track?

Neither Santos or Hagen could maintain those speeds during the races.  Dave Steele won the midget and Silver Crown races, while Jay Drake took the flag in the sprint car race.

Next up at Iowa Speedway:  ARCA and ASA late models in October.

Formula One

I wonder if non-Formula One fans realize the amazing career Michael Schumacher has had, and what his retirement will mean for motorsports. 

Schumacher is only 38.  And he is in the hunt for his eighth world championship.  He leads all Formula One drivers in virtually every statistic kept - poles, wins (90), & championships.

Will we ever see another driver with his success?  People said no one would match Fangio.  But they did.  They said no one could match Senna's pole record, but Schumacher did this year.  Regardless, Schumacher will go down as one of the greatest drivers of all time.  Even if he doesn't run ovals.

Loudon

Loudon turned into the crashfest that Bristol & Richmond were not.  And now a few people have big holes to dig out of.  Personally, I'd rather have the bad luck early, to have time to fix it, than have the big wreck at Homestead (ie Johnson last year).

Harvick appears to be on a roll.  In my mind, the true test will be the intermediate tracks.  While he hasn't finished lower than 15th since Daytona in July, Harvick had horrible finishes the first time around at Atlanta and Charlotte, and a 23rd place showing at Talladega. 

We'll see if the tire controversy escalates into something or not.  There were reports as early as July that teams were playing with innovations to mess with tire pressure.  However, this appears to be a "gray" area in the Nascar rule book and not a technical violation of the rules.

And I don't think we've seen the last of the Chasers having major trouble.  Remember Jr at Atlanta in 2004?  Stewart at Charlotte last year?  Martin at Talladega last year?  Kenseth overshooting pit lane at Dover in 2004?  Sometimes I think the Chase is a test of which team will choke first.

USAC Silver Crown: A New Generation?

USAC mandated a design change in its Silver Crown Series starting this year.  The car looks like a cross between a sprint car,  an Indy car, and a Pug.  {In my opinion, the car has the pug's nose.}

The idea is that the cars will be more "racy" producing competitive finishes.  The cars are designed to run on 1.5 mile pavement ovals.  {How many of these tracks does nascar have, hmmm?}. 

With the 700 to 730 horsepower engine, the silver crown cars will reach over 170 mph, according to the car specs on USAC's website.  "Racy" indeed.

The draw back is that all the prior years' cars cannot be run in the series due to the change in design.  So, manufacturers have been working feverishly to churn out enough cars for the season opener, the Copper World Classic.  Best estimates have 12 cars showing up for the race weekend, which started today.  Many don't expect more than 10 to take the green flag, and possibly even fewer to finish the race.

It remains to be seen how many of the "old" series owners literally buy into the "new" series, or how many new owners step into the series. 

What happens if the car counts do not go up?  Does the series fold after a year or two?  Or will they go back to the "old" design?

It's hard to say if it will be a "new generation" or a short lived experiment.  Only time will tell.