2008 News Jan. 9, 2008

Nobody asked me but…

I received some good feedback on columns like this last season so we’ll try to do them a little more frequently for the 2008 racing season.

Speaking of the 2008 racing season, I know a lot of you are counting down the days until the openers at Lincoln on February 23 and Williams Grove on February 24. Personally, I’m enjoying the time off and don’t mind a few extra weeks.

It’s nice to see Williams Grove making some improvements in the way of state of the art lighting and new aluminum grandstands for this season. The Grove should be a first class operation all the way around like Knoxville.

It was good to see ageless wonder Keith Kauffman rewarded for his 13th career Port Royal Speedway track championship last Saturday night. The team doesn’t want to sit on the unlucky number 13 and are working hard for number 14.

Fans can expect to see the Middleswarth Potato Chips sprinter sporting a slightly new look when the first green flag flies this season at the Port.

It sounds like Central Pennsylvania is losing one of its best sprint car racers to the All Star tour full time and part time Outlaws this season. Look for a press release as early as this weekend about a multi-time Grove champion hitting the road full time in 08.

While it’s good for drivers to hit the road to make some money if they can, it sure stinks for local racing. Hopefully some of the younger guns will step up and keep the wins spread out. Sure hate to get back to one driver dominating every week.

It’s too bad that the BG Motorsports team wasn’t around more than one season. Not too many first year teams win five times out of the gate.

It looks a great season shaping up on the URC tour with some new teams for this season and the competition should be at its highest.

Curt Michael should be tough in his first season with Bill Gallagher. Gallagher has fielded some top rides over the years but having Michael on board will take his team to its highest level.

It’s good to see Chris Coyle get some sponsorship help from Chad Sinon. Sinon was big on the modified scene for a few seasons.

Palladino Motorsports have enjoyed some great seasons with championship runs but how will young Davey Sammons do for the team? The money, equipment and maintenace is there and Sammons will pull off some wins this season for the team.

Adoption Night at Williams Grove is already in the planning stages and Elisa Esh is hard at work securing race sponsors for the night. The event has been moved to Friday, August 1 which gives the Adoption group more race cars for exposure for the children. The 358 Sprints are on the card with the 410 sprints that night and it should be a big night for the Adoption Night event.

It’s too bad that Big Diamond Raceway has dropped out of the Keystone Cup Series this season. Citing a school night and other issues, the track will not host the 410 sprints this season.

While we are on the subject of mid-week races, we’re glad to see Lincoln has moved its Anniversary race to a Saturday. Mid-week races need to be kept at a minimum and the two Speedweeks are plenty. For those of use that work full time, we applaud Lincoln for this move and hope it stays on a weekend.

It’s good to see the 358 sprint cars back on the 2008 schedule at Susquehanna Speedway Park. The series will race there on Sunday, June 15.

PIT STOPS
Don’t forget the big Motorsports 2008 presented by VP Racing Fuels is on tap next weekend in Atlantic City. The show kicks off at 1 p.m. on Friday and runs all weekend long. Many NASCAR stars are signed on for the weekend including Martin Truex, Jr., Ron Hornaday, Casey Mears, Kenny Schrader, Elliott Sadler and Kenny Wallace. For more information on the show, visit www.aarn.com…

The York County Racing Club held its annual banquet this past weekend as Scott Haus (Present Driver), Don Ott (Present Owner/Mechanic) and Gary Miller (Present Miscellaneous). Ricky Warner won the Ed Stauffer Memorial award and Jason Covert won the Kevin Gobrecht Memorial award. Past award winners were Paul Devilbiss (Driver), Frank Campbell (Owner) and Leonard Sammons (Miscellaneous)…