An attempt to get 9 races in 9 nights resulted into 7 races, 2 rain outs, 1624 miles, around $216 in gas, bad food, good food, little sleep at times, new friends, and priceless memories.

NIGHT 1: Friday June 20, what better way is there to get ready to kick off 8 nights in a row with the All Stars? Make it 9 days of racing by starting at Limaland Motorsports Park for the Ewler Fence 360’s. 25 cars were pit side. One of the major questions of the night? Who is that guy in the red 39s. Well folks, that is Aaron Smith from Concord MI. Aaron raced 2 shows last year and is in his first full year of racing a sprint car. He races at Butler Motor Speedway and is leading the rookie of the year points. Aaron and his Ohio crew chief, Fast Jake Fiser, decided it was time for another challenge. So they traveled to Lima for the show. On to the show. Mean Gene had the track fast and heavy. A huge cushion and mud a flying. It was a pretty good show. The heats were pretty decent with Tim Allison, Luke Hall in the Hammond 6b, and Dennis Yoakum taking heat win. Kent Wolters took the B Main. The 25 lap A Main had some good battle for position but Greg Wilson started on the outside of row 1 and stunk up the battle up front. Mike Dunlap lead the 1st lap. Wilson took over on lap 2 and never looked back. A spin by Hall and a collision by Hall and Ron Blair on lap 16 was all the slowed Wilson. Greg cruised to a huge lead and took the win over Yoakum, Dunlap, Allison, and Mike Brecht.

NIGHT 2: The unofficial kick off to Ohio Speedweek was at Waynesfield Motorsports Park. Mother Nature decided she was going to play heck on Speedweek this year, keep reading for more details. A good looking sky and sunny most of the day. Well, just about time for the gates to open, a huge storm blasted the track. I got the call when I was just getting off the exit in Lima to head to Waynesfield, the show is canceled. I had my Speedweek travel partner, my daughter Shelby, back for this year, so what were we to do. Off to the Mall we go to do some birthday shopping for her. well about 3/4th of the way to the Mall, I said, maybe we should call Butler since we have to go back home tonight anyways. A quick call, “yes, we’re racing”. “Daddy, we need to go”. So I quickly turned the car around and off to the Butler MI Motor Speedway we go. Foot on the floor since its 5 pm and I know it will take about 2 1/2 hours from Lima to get there. We pull in just 2 minutes after the 1st heat is to start. Not bad, good news, they are about 15 minutes behind time. I got a brief minute to visit with Carl, the new track operator. Very nice guy. 35 cars were ready to battle it out in the NRA vs SOD showdown. What started off as a boring mad at the weather due to a rain out night, turned into a very fun night with good racing. Plus some excellent food!! My good old friends from 27K Kirkendall Racing were taking care of me again. This time, excellent rib sandwiches. Forget the McRib, these things rocked. Of course, it wasn’t chicken, they are saving that for the All Star show since they know I will be there. Plus, I did not lose my wallet and they made sure of that. Inside joke. Back to the racing. The show was real good. The track was heavy but rough. Another good racing buddy, Mr. TJ Slideways himself was in the house and behind the mic. Good job TJ from what we could hear. Dustin Daggett, Aaron Smith, JR Stewart, and
Darren Long took the heat wins. the only major incident was Mike Brecht and Ryan Grubaugh colliding on the start of heat 2. Grubaugh was unhappy with Brecht but with the tight confines of the speedway, that will happen a time of two. The heats were pretty good. Plenty of action and Tim Allison and Darren Long were crazy running the cushion. No crap, Allison’s car bounced so high of the ground once you could of drove a go-kart under it. Mark Broughman and Brett Mann took the B Mains. Ryan Ruhl took the Dash. I love the redraw that SOD uses for the A Main. The top 16 in passing points make the A, the rest to the B’s. The top 8 in points do a redraw for the 1st 4 rows of the A Main. The twist, the highest point guy 1st, draws a number, knowing what that number is, then has to give it to another driver in the top 8, for that persons starting spot. Then on the line it goes until the lowest points guy gets the last pill in the bag. The 20 lap A Main was a good one. The track got dusty but a lot less than what I have seen in the past at Butler. It was actually in good shape for the Butler I have been used to over the past 30 years. Rough yes, but it made it interesting and no one got on their lid. Downtown Davey Brown took the early lead. Daggett was quick to find a way around the ruts and took the lead on lap 4. Long was quickly working his way up from his 8th place starting spot. One too many bounces for Allison as he pulls into the infield. Long was flying high and running Daggett down. A few spins later and it was hammer-down again. Daggett worked traffic pretty good but Long was on his tail tank. Lap 14, Long makes his move and takes the top spot. Daggett tried to regroup but to no avail. Long takes the win over Daggett, Brown, Ruhl, and Aaron Shaffer.

NIGHT 3: Opening night of the 26th annual Ohio Speedweek. 57 All Star sprints are pit side. A great looking field of cars. Mother Nature was looking not too bad but being nasty all around the area. Just as the cars were pushed on to the track for a warm-up session, the sky let loose. About an hour of rain to light rain. With the track already wet from the night before rain and some track maintenance, it was determined that it would take at least 3 to 4 hours to run the surface in, if no more rain hit. So the show was canceled. I know today times have changed but I remember Speedweeks of old were a 3 to 4 hour delay was nothing. I am not debating the call, heck there wasn’t anyone in the stands, there was more rain that was headed that way that was scheduled to hit in about 4 hours, and it was a Sunday night. I would of stuck it out even if the sun was peaking out of the clouds on my way home, or to work. On the other hand, I am smart enough to see the track’s dilemma. So night 1 to Mother Nature.

NIGHT 4: After working the major part of the day, with major doubt that a show was even going to happen, with or without rain, it was off to Wayne County Speedway. Nice sunny sky on the way over but, you could see storms in the East. At just the half-way point in the trip, I got the call, the show was canceled. Major rains hit the track Sunday and Monday, so too much water. I actually heard from more than one team that was at the track, there was no way the track could of been raced on that night. Now decision time, go back home, work a half day tomorrow and spend an extra $25 to $30 in gas, or spend $65 on a motel and be 3 miles from the track for Tuesday’s show. We were there for a somewhat of a vacation, so off to the motel it is. What to do in the middle of a Amish town on a Monday night? Not much. A walk around Walmart, that had stables built in the parking lot for horse parking, a swim in the motel pool, a nice visit to the hot tub, and its time to
meet some new racing friends. After a brief chat with All Star President, Guy Webb and the All Star models, we ran into Chad Goff driver of the 9. Chad has raced with the AVSS pavement sprints but went dirt racing this season. Thanks to the lady at the front desk, Chad and crew got to plug their Play Station 2 into the big TV in the lobby so we could all play some sprint car racing. Spend about 3 hours or so racing on the PS2 with someone and you get to now the entire bunch. Some very good people that want to make it big in the dirt rankings of 410 sprints. Chad knew it would be hard but it gets hard mentally as well. Chad had always been one of the top cars in AVSS, and in his dwarf car days. Going from having a shot to win every night you hit the track, to not even being to make an A main some nights, is very trying for the Chad and the team. Chad does have a win at Butler, now 2. That isn’t bad for a 1st year team and a driver that has not raced on dirt. It ended up being a fun night anyways thanks to Chad and his team. Its funny too on how Chad and his car owner got together. They once raced against each other. Then Chad starting helping out with some set-up for the guy and he asked Chad want e wanted to do. Chad said 410 dirt sprint cars. Time went by and Chad really didn’t think much of it, then bang, the phone rang and he asked Chad where he wanted his new dirt sprint car. The rest is history. Trip-g.com and the software package for Trip-G is what helps fund the team. Trip-G is a GPS software.

NIGHT 5: A big bright thing was in the sky and no rain was in the forecast. What, can it be? A Speedweek show might get in the books in the new renamed Rain Week 08. Hilltop Speedway is now night 1 of the 26th annual Ohio Speedweek. 48 cars are ready for action. With being pinned-up for 3 nights with not much to do, the drivers were itching to get on the track. The track started off fairly decent but was almost 3/4th of a second slower than the last All Star show. You could tell the boys were antsy to get a racing. The 1st heat was a nightmare to get started. There were 4 different incidents before a lap got completed. Finally, everyone calmed down and things started rolling. Tim Shaffer, Brandon Martin, Rob Chaney, and Craig Mintz won the heats. Aaron Midale won the C. Lee Jacobs took the B. Lance DeWease took the dash. The action was pretty good as the track started getting very dry. They watered it a few times but it quickly turned to dust and more dust. A quick watering before the 40 lap A Main and its ready to roll. Mark Keegan too the early lead as the dust rolled very badly. Brad Haudenschild, in a real 410 for the 1st time, did an excellent job earning an A main spot. That run didn’t last for long. Brad stuffed it into the turn 1 rail and flipped on lap 1 of the A. Brad said is was so dusty he could barely see his front nose wing and just went in too hot and caught the guard rail. After that the raced roiled on and a great battle was happening up front. Keegan was strong as Randy Hannagan and Byron Reed were chasing. Keegan was on a rail and finding the right holes to pick through the dust storm. Just about when it looked like Mark was going to check out on the pack, Chris Andrews and Rob Chaney got crossed-up and Keegan slide to miss them, once he seen them. All cars still was rolling but, Keegan choked it down so much his car stalled as he coasted to a stop. It was just 2 laps from half-way. This handed Hannagan the lead. One more caution and the race was one. Hannagan was leading but Reed was closing quick. Hannagan stated it was so dusty he could not see the flag stand when he was coming off turn 4. Randy maintained his lead but Reed was quicker. 5 to go and the battle is on in heavy traffic. Reed shoots around Hannagan off 4, makes it stick, yellow for Duffy Smith finding the turn 1 guard rail. Duffy must of though he got helped as he tossed his helmet at the 59 of Kenny Jacobs during the yellow. This gave Hannagan a clear and the lead with 3 to go. A great restart and that was all he needed to cruise to victory lane. Reed, Dale Blaney, DeWease, and Shaffer, from 18th, rounded out the top 5. It was actually a great A main even if it was very hard to see. I personally think it was almost too dangerous to actually race that way. There was no possible way the flagman could see the cars in turn 4. One time, Mike Dussel actually entered the turn in like 6th and came out 8th or 9th and no one was real close to him. It looked like he got crossed up and saved it but there was no real way to tell. I would of hated to see what would of happened if he stalled in the spot. The race was good and a great battle for the lead. I have liked the 3 shows I have seen there but something has to be done with the dust so no one gets hurt.

NIGHT 6: Another beautiful day out. What maybe we can get 2 in a row in the books? Remember when you open your mouth and tell someone something, they might remember it. Chad Goff and his team had some real bad luck the night before after getting caught-up in an incident. They decided it would be a lot easier to finish putting their back-up car together than fix the main car. See, since the shows early in the week got canceled, they were bored and put their back-up car pretty much together in the motel parking lot, just for something to do. It had a nice bug bomb paint job that no one would of known about, if they didn’t say that’s how it got painted. Anyways, Monday night I told then that I have worked my way around a sprint car a time or two. So they were pushing the limit to finish the car and make the 2 1/2 to 3 hour tow. Before check out time, out I went and they put me to work. I really didn’t help much but did lend an extra hand on changing the engine, putting the drive-line in, and bolting up a few parts. See they don’t have the fancy quick disconnects like most teams do, so it was changed the old fashion way. i got a shower just in time to get ready for a nice back road 2 1/2 hour drive over to Skyline Speedway. This would be my first visit to the place. Some very nice scenery if you take the back 2 lane highways. Just don’t have a weak stomach. well, Shelby does and got a little, OK a lot car sick on the way. Of course, I would always take the hills and corners the speed limit, wink wink. Oh, make sure you hit all of your turns too. You could end up going like 20 miles or so out of your way and see some real back roads in the hills. It was fun. When I entered the track the grandstands reminded me of the old Bryan Motor Speedway stands. The track looked very racy. 52 cars showed-up for the action. I loved the tower about turn 4. This is were I would be trying to do the color broadcast for the radio and dirt vision broadcast. Bash and I not in the same booth so it would take some smoke and mirrors to pull this one off. I really did like the spot I was in. It was just off the turn 4 fence and in perfect location for an excellent view of the place. I am more of an outside feel the dirt and hear the noise type person anyways. Forget those air conditioned booth, I am not at the spa, I am at the track. A very very racy joint! WOW! 3, 4 and 5, yes 5, wide racing. Some very excellent heat races were won by Greg Wilson, Tim Shaffer, Brandon Martin, and Jimmy Stinson. I know a handful of guys that started 8 thru 12th that raced into a transfer spot. That don’t happen much at all and at least one guy did it per heat race. Lee Jacobs took the C. My new buddy Chad’s bad luck continued. Chad not only broke down on the way, brakes locked up on the hauler, he missed hot laps and barely made qualifying. Then he spun the the C, collecting Scott Curren,
who flipped. Danny Smith took the B Main. Just part way through the B, here came the rain again. Can you believe it? Thankfully, it was just a 2 minute shower and the show was only delayed for about 20 minutes. Ian Louden took the Dash. Once again plenty of 3 to 5 wide racing. When was the last time you seen a Dash feature 3 wide racing? Randy Hannagan had luck on his side again in the Pick 6 draw. For the 2nd night in a row his helper drew the pole. An excellent 40 lap A Main. Hannagan got the jump to lead lap 1. Jim Nier took over on lap 2 and the battle was on. Many lead changes and close quarters racing for the lead. Hannagan took over on lap 5 but Nier never fell too far back for the next handful of laps. A few spins early slowed the action but the last 2/3rds was all out racing. Blaney was getting faster and faster as the laps went on. Lap 16, Blaney took the lead. Blaney checked-out by an excellent battle for 2nd to 6th. At times, 7 cars were fighting side by side for those spots. The running order changed several times from 3rd to 8th. Blaney cruised to a comfortable victory. Hannagan took 2nd. When the smoke cleared, Mintz took 3rd, up from 12th, Brian Smith, and Greg Wilson, up from 17th, rounded out the top 5. Excellent racing all night long.

NIGHT 7: After storms pounded the area from just East of Columbus up to Fremont, the sky cleared off by late morning. Its off to Fremont Speedway for night number 3 of Speedweek. 50 cars were ready for action. As the day progress, the sky looked worse and worse. Everyone said look as the radar we are going to get hit and no way will they race. The storms kept getting close but never hit, maybe Mother Nature will finally be good to us. Not so, a nagging misty to heavy sprinkle laid over the track for almost 2 hours. Putting mucho water on the track. An excellent effort was made by the entire Fremont Speedway staff on not giving up and getting the track ready. A+++ to those guys for sure!! By 9 PM race cars were on the track and ready to roll. A super fast Fremont with no dust and really no ruts. Mike Dussel, Brian Ellenberger, Craig Mintz, and Dustin Daggett took the heat wins. Andy Shammo took a nasty ride off turn 1 in the 3rd heat. Andy was OK but not
so lucky for the Burkin 48 car. Bruce Robenalt took the C Main. Tim Shaffer took the B. Danny Smith took the Dash. A few sprinkles appeared again and the Fremont staff once again made some quick adjustments to the schedule to accommodate the Speedweek crowd. The 305 B was flagged and the 2nd one was put on hold to push off the 410 40 lap A. The sprinkles stopped just as the cars hit the track. The track was still super fast and in excellent racing shape. Two heavy track throttle mashers, Dean Jacobs and David Harrison made-up the front row. David Harrison jumped to the early lead and was on a rail. Super Dave was super fast and was looking to bring home his first All Star win. Lap 10, Phil Gressman took a tumble into turn 1. Phil was OK but later had a few problems. Phil was took to the ER late that night or early the next morning and found out he had a mild concussion. Super Dave was still super fast on the restart. Hannagan was working towards David
for a shot to keep his hopes for the $50,000 bonus alive. The only thing slowing Harrison was a Blake Feese spin on lap 19. It was all Super Dave bringing home a popular hometown win for his 1st ever All Star A Main. Hannagan, Reed, Brock Mayes, and Dean Jacobs rounded out the top 5. Pretty decent racing. With some radio work afterward and other chatting, it was going to be a late night getting home. The show was over just about 12:45 as the 305 A main was called until next week. Sorry no love for the 305s this week. Radio duties kept me busy and I could not see the 305 races. I know there was a few flips but I didn’t even caught who they were. A side note, my new buddy Chad’s bad luck continued. The trailer blew a tire on the way to the track. What a week for your first one traveling Speedweek.

NIGHT 8: Its off to Limaland Motorsports Park for the Ohio Speedweek and NRA 360 Challenge. A very soggy Lima area already and a not so good of a forecast. After working 7 hours it was off to Lima. Just like the other days, the times the storms having been hitting is what really sucks. They can’t hit at noon or 10 am, it always 4 or 5 o’clock. A huge storm hit the Lima area about 4:30 and washed the program out. Of course, I was just 2 miles from the joint. What to do? Stay and Lima and have a nice relaxing night and eat dinner before heading home, or find another race? Swamp I think said it best, the rain is making Duane insane. A few phone calls to Gas City Indiana and we find out they are still racing. I already know Shelby’s answer, lets go dad. Off we go on the extra how many ever miles trip to Gas City. Since it was around 5 before we heading that way, another push the limits to get there trip. We arrived about 40 minutes before the 1st race. The sky looked great on the way over but were looking worse the closer we got. 29 non-wing sprints were ready for action. Jiggs and the entire Gas City crew were once again on top of their game. With rain in the distance, the show was pushed right along. Early Friday morning rains made for a super fast track. Josh Spencer, Kyle Robbins, Cole Whitt, and Jonathan Hendrick took the heats wins. As always, the heats were some great racing at Gas City. Jason Holt took a nasty tumble at the beginning of heat 1. Jason was OK. Brett Burdette put heat race troubles behind him and took the B Main. All the heavy hitters were scheduled to start upfront in this one. After 3 starts due to spins and a huge pile-up, the line-up was scrabbled-up pretty good. Dave Darland, Casey Shuman, Robbins, and others were now at the back of the pack. Cole Whitt was still on the front row and used his heavy right foot to his advantage. Whitt jumped to the lead and opened up a huge advantage. Hunter Scherenberg was chasing Cole early but couldn’t get close enough to make a move. A non-stop race and Whitt was catching traffic soon. Darland, Shuman, Billy Puterbaugh, Burdette, and Scherenberg was working traffic and closing on Whitt after the half-way point. Whitt was just too strong and took home the win. Puterbaugh, up from 9th, Burdette, up from 17th Shuman, after restarting on the tail, and Scherenberg rounded out the top 5. A decent race. Whitt had a handle of the field but things might of been different if the original line-up would of stayed in tack. Whitt drove a great race and there was plenty of passing and battles through out the pack. Another great job of pushing a show as well. Just after the last checkered flag fell, around 9:30, the rains let loose.

NIGHT 9: We reached it. Night 9 of my 9 nights in a row assault that was to be in Ohio only. Now it went from Ohio, to Michigan, back to Ohio, to Indiana, and back to Ohio. Early morning showers and storms didn’t stop the Eldora Speedway crew from putting on the finale for Ohio Speedweek 08. One key, it was early morning showers. Another, a track that was going to give it its all to get the show in the books. Another good part of the day, Shelby’s 13th birthday. Its always during Speeweek and more times than not, has gotten rained out. Not this time. A little pre-race cake on the top of turn 4 brought family, friends, All Star President Guy Webb, and the All Star models together to share in the celebration. 36 cars and stars were ready for the final night of the 26th annual Ohio Speedweek. With a $10,000 to win paycheck, the guys were ready. The track was in excellent racing shape. One of the most racy tracks at Eldora in the last year. the crew did an excellent job to provide a track that was going to produce an good old fashion Eldora slug fest. There were more slide jobs in the heats that I have seen in any main there this year. Lance DeWease, Greg Wilson, Dale Blaney, and Butch Schroeder took the heat wins. NOT 1 of the winners came off of the front row of the heat. 2 guys that started on the front row actually didn’t even earn a transfer to the A through the heat. A very racy surface. Blaney took the Dash. Brian Ellenberger took the B Main. The B seen Jeremy Campbell and Mike Dussel transfer from the 8th and 10th starting spots. After a bad start, the 30 lap A Main went wire to wire. When Eldora is in excellent shape and it goes wire to wire, you know some slide jobs are on the way. The cushion was just off the wall and there was at least one other groove, if not two to race on. Ed Lynch Jr was trying to make it 2 Speedweek finales in a row and jumped to the early lead. Brock Mayes was looking very good and was running inches off the wall. He took the lead on lap 7 as Lynch was falling backwards. Mayes was running a great race in and out of traffic but was getting hung up at times. Blaney used his many years of Eldora experience and worked his way to Brock’s tail tank. Blaney couldn’t make a move yet but was just sitting back waiting for a bobble from Mayes. Lap 24, Mayes tries to lap a back marker too soon and get hung-up and Blaney shoots past on the high side. Mayes still hangs tough and trys to set-up another slider for Blaney. Blaney was too strong in traffic and takes home the $10,000 paycheck. Mayes, Wilson, Dean Jacobs, and Hannagan round out the top 5. A great race. Hannagan’s 5th place finish earns him the Ohio Speedweek title by 4 points over Blaney.

All in all a great week plus of racing. Rain outs sucks but I am glad we got crazy and only allowed the rain to keep us from racing 2 nights, instead of the 4 it tried to make it be. Yes, a few extra miles, but it was worth it. Plus, I got a Michigan race in finally this year. great fun, great people, and new friends always seems to make Ohio Speedweek such a joy. This year, there was also great racing. The majority of the tracks were very racy. One major dust out but it was still a good race, from what could be seen of it.

Are you ready for all the silly season to date. Phil Gressman is out of the Call 83 car. Tim Shaffer has been placed in car for at least this weekend. Shaffer found a ride in the Grove 45 for Speedweek after being let go in the Parson’s 6 car. Dean Jacobs actually got Tim the Grove deal. Dean was in the Jenkins 55 for the week but now it has a hurt power-plant. Dean might get a stint in the 9x machine this weekend. Jesse Hockett took that car for a spin during some Speedweek shows. Who’s in the 6? Paul McMahan. Paul left the Ferkel 0 car open. Todd Kane took that ride for Hilltop and Skyline before Jeremy Campbell took over at Fremont. JC should be in the 0 for the rest of the season. Blake Feese has found a home in the Jessup 7k. Odd man out, Gressman. You could find Phil in the Seeling 97 car somewhere this weekend. Who knows what will happen next week the way things are going this week.

More huge weekends of racing ahead. 4th of July weekend this weekend, and then straight into King’s Royal week and Indiana Sprint Week. Plenty of racing for all. Bring your friends or your neighbors because if it is anything like Ohio Speedweek, it will be an excellent few weeks.

COMING UP:

Thursday the 3rd
All Stars KC
MSCS Union County IN

Friday
All Stars Terre Haute IN
AVSS Dixie MI

Saturday
MASS Paragon IN
HOSS Plymouth IN
MSA and WOMS Angola IN

Sunday
WOO Haubstadt IN

Tuesday the 8th
360 Ollie’s Challenge Eldora

Time to rest up and get ready for a 4th of July weekend tour and an all out assault for King’s Royal week.