I attended I75 Speedway in Niota Tenn. as a fan in the stands. This was my first race in TN. and both my wife enjoyed a nice relaxing atmosphere. $15 general admission, however I had won tickets from them last week and it rained out so it cost me $10 for the both of us. Normal admission is $10.

They had a visiting touring group, American Allstar Pro Latemodel Series, so it was $5 extra. They had a 40 lap race for the visitors, 25 laps for their own 602 crate latmodels, and 15 lap races for the B-mods, 4cyl, and front wheel drive cars. The tour and 602 crates had 24-25 cars per class. The b-mods and 4cyl had small fields but the fwd cars had about 28-30 cars.

They started on time(7 pm)  and were done about 11 pm. No down time and only watered the track quickly before the features. Very few cautions because the drivers seem to respect one another, however there was alot of very close racing.

Concessions are a little pricey, but thats to be expected in this day. They recognized frist responders, nurses and doctors, law enforcement and military before the invocation and National Anthem.

All in all it was a good night. They have a young boy on the front stretch flagging like Warren Alston use to do and the put him in the flag stand to throw the grren for the tour cars. 

Going back again? Wife says we are going next week because the Southern Allstar Super Latemodels are there!

My wife and I attended New Egypt as fans Sat. Likes: $23 adm for seniors. Fan Fest for modifieds before the show started. A large box of really good crinkle cut fries for $4, cant beat that. 25 lap features for all divisions.

Track was smooth and fast resulting in fantastic heat and feature event racing. 2 and 3 car battles throughout the fields for every position in all divisions. Laubach was checked out in the Mods until a very bizarre 2 lap to go incident.

Only 2 minor dislikes resulting in an A rather than an A+. There was a 30 min delay for the back up ambulance resulting in a 7:30 start time. It was a beautiful night so that really did not matter. Also a some dust in turn 4 due to the change in wind direction after sunset, but we are coming off of a 10 day heat wave.

Will definitely go back within the next month.

Friday night to Accord Speedway for the King of the Catskills 50 lap event.  In general... a good experience.  One glaring fault I quickly picked up was the speaker system was very low volume and made for hard hearing of the announcer.  The track is a little bit out in the middle of the sticks, but a nice little facility.  Small bullring for sure and that is the type of track that I prefer.  Regular admission price ($15), even though it was a special 50 lap, high paying ($7,000 to win) event.  I had heard that the place was famous for being dusty.  Truthfully, the dust levels were acceptable through all qualifying, but the modified feature, with the full field on the track...was a bit worse, but not really terrible.  

  Saturday was off to Lebanon Valley.  Lebanon Valley is the complete opposite of Accord.  Huge.  I have been there before and I never mind getting to a track that I rarely get to, but after this visit...I think it might be a long while before returning.  The problem?  The track is just to long in the straights, making it purely a huge engine track.  Basically, the guy with the biggest, strongest motor is going to almost always win the event.  $12 admission and if you come from New Jersey...that is a bargain 7 days a week!  And I have to say, Howie Commander is a great promoter and knows the business, but even at Lebanon Valley, with Howie making the calls, not one of the four or five divisions there on a weekly basis had full fields of cars.  The modifieds had only 19 cars on hand.  The track has a massive amount of seats for fans!  The food is great, though I had very little.  In my opinion, the Lebanon Valley Speedway modified division is lacking in true superstar drivers!  After you subtract Andy Bachetti and Kenny Tremont, and Tremont's career is on the wain these days...and maybe include Eddie Marshall...but again Eddys halcion days of modified racing are long gone also.....absent those few guys...the field is wide open with young guys who are starting to make a name for themselves...but pretty much only at Lebanon Valley.  

   Sunday was Auto Racing Research Associates day at the annual Accord Speedway Racers Reunion and Hall of Fame inductions.  Good friend Frank Bush has extended an annual invite for us to come and set up our display and its always a nice day meeting folks that I normally don't see.  I made some great contacts with some people...possibly another historian that I might like to add to our ARRA roster of members...and a few others that came up to chat for a while.  Got to meet Accord promoter Gary Palmer.  Kudos to Frank Bush for another well put together Sunday event!

Went to multiple tracks during our Knoxville Nationals trip. Some observations from each night.

LAKESIDE SPEEDWAY, Kansas City, KS: (Weld Memorial): 3 division shoe (USAC) midwest sprints, 4cyl. mini mods & sreet stocks. Only division to have a full field were the spriints. Facility 4/10th mile banked track.  Racing in the 4cyl and street stocks were boring with minimal car counts. The sprints racing wasn't bad, but a nasty flip sent that took out catch fence above the wall. Dissapointed while called the Weld Memorial there was no memorabilia related to the Welds.

I55 Speedway, Pevely, MO: WoO & Xtreme midgets. Full car counts in both divisions. races were entertaing with WoO going the Brad Sweet. The midget feature was excellent with Micheal Pickens winning with a last lap pass. Another nasty sprint car flip sent 2 cars into the catch fence just beyond the pit entrance to the pit area. The opening didn't have a gate leaving a blunt wall. Thank God the crash was just beyond that opening. for the 2nd night in a row the catch fence required a patch job.

Southern Iowa Speedway, Oakaloosa, IA: Front Row Challenge,  410 & 305 sprint cars. Good car count in both divisions. Fairgrounds facility with covered grandstand brought me back to Flemington memories with Spsome of the folks I meet in the parking lot. Racing was good in both classes. Kyle Larson won the 410 race for the 2nd year in a row. Nice facility and entertaining racing. Race is promoted by sprint car driver Terry McCarl.

English Creek Speedway, Knoxville IA. 1/6mi. high banked clay. Track hosts various cart classes similar to Millbridge on North Carolina. Cool little track. I'd like to see the midgets run there , but need a lot of improvements for that to happen.

Knoxville Raceway: Knoxville, IA: Speaks for it's self. 2nd time to attend the Knoxville Nationals. Son and I enjoyed all 4 nights. Just the atmosphere and meeting different folks who attend.  The event seemed to be alot more since 1989. The HOF was really cool with alot to take in. The 8D was on display that Doug Wolfgang drove to the 1989 win. Got to see Jack Kromer's plaque, Congrats Jack. Downside some POS stole over 5k from Logan Wagner's Tee Shirt trailer and the Rudzik 49 had it's trailer tires slashed.

What about Marshalltown Jim Bob??

Sorry, was rushing for an appointment yesterday.

Marshalltown Speedway: 1/4 mi.high banked dirt track. Another track associated with a fairgrounds. Too many divisions. Some are like each other (Example: IMCA Modifieds & IMCA Sport Mods). No full field in any division. Track wasn't far from Knoxville and went too merely up the count.