Sometimes The Contents Surprises Me Too

TROTD was recently offered the opportunity to sponsor a lap at the Fall Sprawl, Foul Ball, Fowl Ball, whatever that end of the season sprint car race at I-80 Speedway is called.  For only $100 announcer Stan Cisar will “promote your blog.”  Supposedly a “great way to expand your viewership.” I may be wrong, but I thought all the sprint car fans who could read already view my blog.

This opportunity did remind me of two ill-fated attempts at a Silver Dollar Nationals Fans Fund ala the Cedar Lake Speedway USA Nationals Fans Fund.  While both SDN Fans Funds did raise a goodly amount of cash, they were not the success I hoped for-I wanted to raise as much as the Cheeseheads.  Part of this was simply I could not devote the time needed to do it right, but it did seem like getting fans to donate was like pulling teeth.

Perhaps instead of a Fans Fund, the way to go would be to get people to sponsor one lap of the SDN feature. Instead of $100 per lap do $80 for each of the 80 laps. That would be a cool $6,400 added to the purse.  Of course I would make it complicated and split the money amongst the first three drivers on each lap, but I am thinking that would be potentially 7,680 different combinations, so just give the $80 to each lap leader. If a driver led every lap that would be a very nice bonus.

NO, I would not want to give all that money to Scott Bloomquist.  If he loses 25 pounds I figure the driver of the 0 car to be the odds on favorite at the Silver Dollar Nationals.  I just want to see the race made even more special, moving it even closer to crown jewel status, and if Bloomquist collects all or most of the money, oh well.

While the $6,400 would be a sizable amount, the Cedar Lake Fans Fund will pay 8-10 drivers a minimum of $1,500 or approximately $15,000.  No, I am not chairing anything, as Lynyrd Skynyrd says “been there, done that, ain’t never going back.” I wish someone would take this on though.  TROTD will donate the first $80 if someone does this.  Hint: Lee Ackerman.

UMP late model drivers spent their second night in “Hell” at Kankakee County Speedway in Illinois. When I went to computer school in Kansas City I had a roommate from Kankakee.  His name was Tom, damned if I can remember his last name-hey, it was 47 years ago.  I do remember we got into trouble with the manager of the Alcazar Hotel in Kansas City on three different occasions-once for beer, once for water balloons, and once for shaving cream; that the place was not air conditioned and the beds were Murphy Beds; that the room had no TV, so my entertainment was a transistor radio and newspapers, and that I ate lunch and supper at Big Joe’s, a greasy hamburger joint across the street. No, it was not owned by Joe Kosiski.

It was fairly run down back in 1968, but now it is a really nice apartment building-see the link below.

http://www.liveatalcazar.com/

No, I don’t know what all of that had to do with racing in Kankakee. Anyway, Scott McBride favorite Frank Heckenast Jr. took last night’s feature, followed by Mike Spatola.

Tonight and tomorrow night the Summernationals visits Cedar Lake Speedway in Wisconsin for the Masters.  Sharing the bill with the late models will be the USMTS modifieds. The USMTS was at Viking Speedway in Alexandria, Minnesota last night.  It seems like when this series ventures into the Great North, locals have a lot of success.  Last night Minnesotan Brady Gerdes led all 35 laps of the feature, picking up $4,000 in the process. Series regular Rodney Sanders finished second, and Jesse Sobbing finished 3^rd despite blowing his engine on the last lap.

The MLRA kicked off its triple-header weekend with a stop at Southern Iowa Speedway in Oskaloosa last night. SIS is a big fairground half-mile track. Actually, I typed that yesterday before I learned that the Oskaloosa show was rained out. Weather permitting the MLRA drivers will be racing at Lee County Speedway in Donnelson, Iowa tonight and at Randolph County Speedway in Moberly, Missouri tomorrow.

Pizza Hut is coming out with a hot dog pizza.  It comes with ketchup, mustard, relish, onions, and chili.  Wait, I got it all wrong.  Hot dogs aren’t the topping, there are 28 mini-hot dogs wrapped in the crust-sort of really small pigs in a blanket-and it does come with a side of mustard. OK, that is just one more way they can wreck a pepperoni pizza. Sorry, no, not today, not tomorrow, not ever will I partake.  Perhaps if Pizza Hut would strive to make their core product a little better the chain would not have to keep coming up with “ridiculous flavor of the month” pizzas. You can get pizza from at least 8 different pizza places in Fremont, and I would rank Pizza Hut no better than #7.

McKenna Haase is becoming a Knoxville Speedway Victory Lane regular.  Earlier in the season Haase became the first female to win a race at the famed open wheel venue, and last Saturday she won a 305 sprint car feature for the second time.

More open wheel news, though I have not received my check from Randy Palmer yet.  Bryan Clauson won night two of the Indiana Midget Week mini-series.  Christopher Bell finished second at the Lincoln Park Speedway.  In a real surprise, I have heard of both of these drivers. I have also heard of Tracy Hines, Rico Abreu, and Jerry Coons Jr. who finished 3^rd-5^th.  Amazing.

The 24 Hours of LeMans will be shown on Fox Sports starting at 7:30 a.m. tomorrow.  I always liked the old way they started the race with drivers sprinting across the track, climbing in their car and racing away. Were any of those drivers really buckled in?  I guess that wasn’t as bad as the old Indy cars where the drivers head was well out of the cockpit and where many were not buckled in.

Thanks for stopping by.