Excellent weather greeted us for a long holiday weekend of racing. I hope everyone took advantage of the weather and got out to a race near them. I seen excellent crowds at all 3 events I witnessed. I hit a pavement late model show, which I won’t report on, Thursday at Angola IN, the regular show at Attica Raceway Park Friday, and the salute to the military show at Fremont on Saturday.

A beautiful sunny afternoon shined bright on the large Attica crowd. 37 410 and 29 305 sprints were pit side. The track was in great shape and looked very racy. Even tho all of the heat race winners came from the front row, there was some excellent battle for transfer positions. Tony Beaber, Lee Jacobs, Craig Mintz, and Byron Reed took heat race wins. Heat 3 seen Brock Mayes and David Harrison come from 8th and 9th to finish in transfer spots. Heat 4 seen Andy Shammo come from 9th to a transfer spot in the top 4. Todd Heller took the B Main. A 1st lap crash in the B collected Aaron Middaugh, Travis Philo, and Kirk Jeffries. Only Philo restarted. Roger Campbell spun off turn 4 and collected Bruce Robenalt. Bruce was done for the night. Jamie Miller and Caleb Griffith earned the front row in the redraw for the 30 lap A Main. Miller jumps to the lead but a collision between Paul Weaver, Heller, and Tim Hunter brought out the yellow. On the restart, Miller once again shot to the lead. Miller was looking very tough and like he just might ride off into the night and take the win. Well, until he got into lapped traffic. On lap 9, Miller was trying to make his way thorough lapped traffic when he clipped a back marker. Miller had a flat as a result of the contact. This handed Byron Reed the lead. Once Reed restarted upfront, nothing was slowing him down but a few incidents. Mark Keegan took a nasty tumble on lap 13. Brock Mayes stopped on lap 16. After that, it was all Reed. Craig Mintz had a great run a going and actually looked to be gaining ground on Reed. the wasn’t enough time and Reed took the win. Mintz, Lee Jacobs, Griffith, and Harrison rounded out the top 5.

The 305 heats were seeing on of the young guns handling their own. some good battles seen DJ Foos, Travis Hoffbauer, and Bobby Clark take heat race wins. Todd Heuerman took the B. Stuart Brubaker and Bobby Clark drew the front row for the 25 lap A Main. Clark has been on fire lately and Brubaker has been strong too. This one was all Bobby Clark. The only thing stopping Bobby on this night was a handful of incidents. A JR Felver spin, 2 DJ Foos spins, and a 360 by Cap Henry that Dustin Dinan and Nate Dussell got the worse end of. Dinan tried to show his displeasure the next few circuits under the yellow. Yes, Cap did collect them but it was really a pretty incident deal. He spun, throttled it up to try and do a 360 to keep a going, like many others have done, and collected a few guys. Was it the right thing or wrong thing to do? Not sure but, one must remember, they have made mistakes too, not all night have a perfect ending. Bobby was hooked-up and no one really had a shot at him. Duane Zablocki had a great late race run but just couldn’t reel Clark in. Clark takes the win over Zablocki, Brubaker, Coty Runion, and Heuerman, up from 16th.

Another beautiful day and a full day of events at Fremont Speedway on Saturday. An all put promotion to our country’s birthday and to all of our service personal. Plus, some racing and an extra 305 A Main from the make-up at Speedweek. Ohio Governor Ted Strickland started the night by waving the green flag for the 305 make-up A Main. Not sure what Ted thought of getting sand blasted by the dust that was a flying high as the cars sped past. The Fremont surface was smooth from the bottom up to the heavy lip of a cushion around the top. Then it was more lip, than cushion. The 25 lap make-up 305 A was a good one. Matt Ferrell took the lead at the start and was under fire soon after. 17 year old, Travis Hoffbauer has been getting better and better each week and was closing in to battle for the lead. Lap 11, Travis took the lead. A handful of spins slowed the pace as Hoffbauer stood strong. Bryan Sebetto was reeling Travis in until he his right rear wheel fell off going into turn 1 on lap 18. Sebetto took a nasty tumble. He was OK but done for the night. In the closing laps, Ferrell was was nose to tail with Hoffbauer, trying to regain the point. no go, Hoffbauer holds on for his 1St career win. Ferrell, Matt Merrill, Kevin Lee, up from 10th, and Zack Kramer, up from 15th, rounded out the top 5. A good race to start the night.

34 410 and 39 305 sprints were pit side for the regular night’s action. Scott Curren took a tumble during his time trail lap in the 410’s. the 41 heats were pretty decent. David Harrison, Brandon Martin in the 9x car, Rob Chaney, and Todd Heller took the heat wins. Heat 2 seen was wild action. On the start, Bruce White and Roger Shammo had some contact and White took a wild tumble down the front stretch. Then Brock Mayes got gathered up with Troy Vaccaro sending Mayes into a flip. Brock re-fired and gave one hell of an effort to make the show but, fell short. His top wing was all falling apart, his nose wing was gone, and a few other bent parts but he had it hammer down. Jeremy Campbell took the B. It pretty much looked like an All Star show if you couldn’t tell by now. Tim Shaffer and Harrison made-up the front row for the 40 lap $3500 to win A Main. Harrison shot out of a cannon and was looking for 2 big wins in a row at Fremont. Super Dave was super fast again as they entered lapped traffic. Lap 9, disaster stuck for Super Dave. Dave was trying to squeeze past the back of the field when he shot in between Troy Little and John Ivy. Harrison tagged Little and that sent him into Ivy. Ivy flipped off the top of turn 3 as Little continued and Harrison shot towards the infield guardrail and stuck it. this handed Craig Mintz, who looked very fast before the yellow, the lead. Mintz was running an excellent race and looked to finally be getting the bad luck monkey off his back. A spin and a stopped car was the only thing slowing him down. After a lap 18 restart, Mintz was still fast as Shaffer and Dale Blaney worked towards the leader. With 15 to go, Mintz got stuck in heavy lapped traffic that would not move. Craig just could not clear the cars of Andy Shammo and Harrison. Mintz was running the high side but would shoot low and still couldn’t get past. Lap 29, Shaffer made an excellent move in traffic on the low side and past Mintz and the 2 back markers in one shot. Mintz finally cleared traffic but way too late. Shaffer takes the win. Mintz, Blaney, Mayes, and Lee Jacobs round out the top 5.

The 305 heats were pretty decent as well. Stuart Brubaker, Duane Zablocki, Brad Haudenschild, and Kevin Lee took the heat wins. 15 year old, Jimmy Colvin took a wild tumble off turn 3 in the 2nd heat. He was OK and actually got his car ready for later in the night. Chris Lang and Josh Mintz took the B Mains. The 305 A was pretty good. Zablocki took the early lead. Lap 2, Dustin Dinan and Cap Henry collided battling for 3rd, collecting Bobby Clark as well. Henry and Clark were done as Dinan keep a running. Well at least that what he thought. It was determined that he was DQ’ed for rough driving. Speculation was it was a carry over from Friday’s nights action. There was rumors about some early threats and so it was determined Dinan was DQ’ed. Then some after the cars went pit side, the cops and all got involved due to some spill over of emotions. I am not sure what to think of the incident on the track. It really did not look like at that point the accident was done on purpose. Cap entered 4 high, Dinan the middle. Cap slide down some, Dustin up some. Dinan’s right front and right rear climbed over Cap’s left rear. Dinan actually got airborne and almost rolled but kept it on all 4’s. Cap’s car broke and slide into Clark as he rounded the turn. It really looked like a racing deal. If that was on purpose, he better try another way next time because he about destroyed his car as well. I don’t agree on the revenge deal and the threats and all that crap, if that was what it was and if they were actually made. It is not the first time Dinan has had a run in with someone either. Maybe a DQ was the answer, not sure, enough said. I don’t think this is the last chapter of this battle either. Anyways, back to racing, what we all went there for. Zablocki was looking off as Brad Haudenschild was looking fast in 2nd. Lap 10, Haudenschild spun off the top off turn 4. This was the break Zablocki was needing. Duane ran an excellent smooth race as the laps were winding down. Brubaker made a late race charge but to no avail. Zablocki took a popular win. Brubaker, Zack Kramer, Chad Wilson, up from 10th, and Lee rounded out the top 5. Great to see some of the young guns up front. A pretty good night of racing. Long with fireworks, 6 flips, and some breaks to knock the ledge off the top of the track.

After some major week and weekends of racing lately, some big ones are still ahead starting this week. This is kind of my mid-season report. If you count the major part of the season April, May, and June. Then July, August, and September with a few before April and a few after September, this is as close to my mid-season as possible I think. Just for kicks and giggles, here is my so called mid-season report. I am actually hitting more races than planned and more that I have in the past few years. Some of that could have something to do with breaking off my engagement at the beginning of April. I got some more time now, not that I didn’t have time before, and it just seems like the only thing I have been finding to do with that time it hit more races. Not really a bad thing. I tried the club thing and that just hasn’t been as good as I remember it to be, so off to the track I go. Of course, I am willing to try that again some night if the proper person or people want to go out and have a good time. Anyways back to my report. So far in 08 I have seen 37 races and planned another 12 that got rained out, that I couldn’t do a banzai move to another track either. The 37 shows have been in 5 states. 23 in OH, 4 in OK, 1 in MI, 2 VA, and 7 in IN at 16 different tracks. Eldora and Attica are leading the way with 8 and 5 races. I have seen 2 new tracks, Martinsville VA and Skyline OH. I think there has been some very good races so far. A few snooze-rs but pretty good for the most part. I have seen old friends and made some new ones. It is always a pleasure to stop and talk to as many people as I can. I am actually not working at the track so much, have only done the Speedweek and 1 other radio show and that is it. Just taking notes to write this deal, taking some more pics, getting items for the hoserville ohio auction, and having fun talking, eating, drinking, and relaxing more. Thanks to all who read my crap and stop by and say hi. Never be afraid to say hey or drop me an email, good or bad about what I write. Plus, I have just been added to The Dirt Track Connection website.

UPCOMING: HUGE WEEK

Tuesday:
Ollies 360 Challenge Eldora

Wednesday:
WOO Limaland Motorsports Park, Doty Classic
USAC Lawrenceburg IN

Thursday:
USAC Lawrenceburg IN

Friday:
WOO & NRA Eldora
USAC Gas City IN

Saturday:
WOO Eldora, KING’s ROYAL
USAC Gas City IN
SOD Owendale MI
AVSS Kalamazoo MI
MTS Butler MI
HOSS New Paris IN

Sunday:
USAC Kokomo IN

Have a safe one we see all over this week!!!!!