Nobody Asked Me But...

Nobody Asked Me But...

By Brad Vores May 1, 2008

Nobody Asked me but….

Will Mother Nature please give local race tracks a break! There is enough working against race tracks like fuel prices, bad economy and more then to throw in crappy weather it seems just about every weekend.

I think Kathy Hughes will continue to the tradition of great racing every weekend at Williams Grove Speedway. Thanks for all the complements on the column last week about her taking over the track.

I was told that some fans (if that’s what you want to call yourselves) were expressing their opinion about the Williams Grove National Open being renamed the Morgan Hughes National Open and how he didn’t do anything for racing. Well let me tell you one thing, he continued to operate the Grove as a race track and could have easily sold it to a developer years ago. Isn’t that enough right there to qualify his worthiness! Not to mention all of the other improvements he’s done to give you a place to enjoy sprint car racing?

I wonder how many fans Doug Esh lost when he said internet message boards are bad for sprint car racing in a column written last week by Area Auto Racing News columnist Jeremy Elliott. While I agree with Esh on a big part of that statement, some of the good the message boards have done is stuff like the Chili Cookoff, golf tournaments and so forth. So there are definitely some positive things out there.

It wouldn’t make much sense to me for a team not running for points at Port Royal to slip the $5,000 to win Weldon Sterner Memorial at Lincoln this Saturday. Especially when all we hear is how tracks need to increase purses. So competing in a higher paying event to me would be a no-brainer.

It’s good to see Lincoln Speedway promoter Don Leiby back in action so soon after his heart by-pass surgery a few weeks ago. He looks as good as ever and continues to be a big part of why Lincoln Speedway thrives every week.

Speaking of Lincoln Speedway, what a track surface Fred Putney has prepared this season. Saturday night, Doug Dodson and Alan Krimes both broke the old 10-lap track record set last season by Cody Darrah. Dodson is the official new 10-lap track record holder after setting a blistering pace in his heat race.

Williams Grove’s surface is also about as good as it gets each week with the new clay that was added during the offseason.

Brian Leppo’s win Friday night in the Tommy Classic was much needed for the Floyd and Joyce Swope owned team. The team has struggled all season and recently added Barry Jackson as team crew chief. Joyce Swope has been suffering medical issues so it was a big boost for everyone involved with the team.

It’s good to see big fields of Super Sportsman cars still supporting the division each week. The division remains one of the most competitive out there.

Pat Cannon continues to give the Zane and Vicki Highlands owned 410 Sprinter some good rides, finishing runner-up in the Tommy Classic after turning in a top four time trial effort. He’s only races a handful of 410 races folks.

Kathy Hughes said she was donating the Grove’s portion of the 50/50 sales to charity. This past Friday night she donated it to Metro Med. They provide the excellent medical coverage each weekend at the track.

JEI Chassis had a good weekend with Leppo’s win at the Grove and Joey Saldana winning at Eldora against the All Stars. If you haven’t already done so, check out www.jeiperformance.com and check out the photos of the new shop. It’s sweet.

It’s hard to believe the World of Outlaws have only raced six times this season and they started their season in early February. The weather has affected them just about everywhere they attempt to race.

Speaking of the Outlaws, Lucas Wolfe led the local scene to do some Outlaw racing because he’s a fulltime racer and needs to make money. Not knocking Wolfe, but seems to be racing local could still be a good source of income with far less travel expenses. Hopefully Wolfe and the team can pick off some good runs when the Outlaws get back on track.

It’s going to be tough to beat Lance Dewease for the All Star title. He had a good Florida series which helped out in the point department.

It’s odd that two weeks in a row, a driver has been disqualified for illegal motor infractions on the URC Sprint tour. Last week, Justin Collett was DQ’ed for illegal heads and this week it was Mark Bitner disqualified for an illegal infraction. URC officials mean business and those cheating will likely be caught.

WHATS HAPPENING
Williams Grove switches to its normal 8pm starting spot tomorrow night with the 410 Sprints and 358 Sprints then the Saturday Night Series featuring the Super Sportsman, 358 late models, street stocks and 4-cylinders are back on Saturday night at 7pm. That event will serve as Camera and Autograph Night. The Sportsman and 4-cylinder cars will be in the infield beginning at 4:30pm and Lobar, Inc. will give out 100 t-shirts to the first 100 ages 16 and under fans for driver autographs. John Wentzel’s Auto Body will hand out disposable cameras to the first 100 families that attend the autograph session.

Trail-Way Speedway is back with 358 Sprints and stock cars Friday night and Micro sprint racing on Saturday night.

The 358 late models return to Path Valley Speedway Park Friday night joined by the micro sprints and legend cars while the late models return to Bedford Speedway on Friday night.

The 5th annual Weldon Sterner Memorial is on tap at Lincoln Speedway Saturday with $5,000 going to the winner. Time trials begin at 7 p.m. The 358 Sprints are also back on hand this weekend.

Hagerstown Speedway features a regular night of late model action Saturday night while Selinsgrove Speedway returns with a regular program headlined by 358 Sprints and late models.

Port Royal Speedway is back with a regular show of 410 Sprints as well.

PIT STOPS
I received the Spring 2008 Newsletter from the Hershey Racing team and Brianna Hershey over the weekend. Brie (as they call her) is doing well racing her micro sprint and the team plans to debut a 358 sprint car this summer. Brie has been accepted into the Lyn St. James Driver Development Program and has spent time in Phoenix, AZ and Indianapolis, IN as part of the training programs. Brie was also a recipient of a scholarship from Women’s Sports Foundation. For more information on Brie Hershey and her racing, contact the team at the97team@aol.com…

The All Star Sprint series have been added to the schedule at Central PA Speedway located in Clearfield on Wednesday night, June 11. It will be the biggest event in the history of the track…

John Moser, Jr. was stripped of his 358 late model win last Saturday at Susquehanna Speedway Park after track officials found an unapproved heads under the hood of his race car. The win was awarded to Carl Graves…

Kenny Jacobs captured his 98th career All Star sprint car win Friday night at Lernerville Speedway over Paul McMahan, Rod George, Dale Blaney and Ed Lynch, Jr. with Lance Dewease finishing sixth.

Eldora Speedway played host to the All Stars on Saturday but it looked like an Outlaw show as Joey Saldana destroyed the field for the win over fellow Outlaw drivers Daryn Pittman, Donny Schatz and Steve Kinser. McMahan finished fifth while Dewease was 22nd…