♣ Here are some quick thoughts on my racing weekend, that found me at Attica Raceway and Oakshade Raceway, 200 miles from my house, but I felt right at home..

♣ I am glad we didn’t stop and eat on the way to Attica, I got a call at 8:07pm that all Late Model heats were done. While I was kinda upset that I was not there to see them, I was already impressed with the place before I ever laid eyes on it.

♣ The parking lot at Attica Raceway is flat and paved in a lot of spots. Getting there late, we was lucky enough to grab the third spot closest to the gate.

♣ My first thoughts on the stands were “this looks scary” but I was pleasantly surprised when I got to the top of turn one and stood up and did the bounce test on the boards. Despite the fact they look small and petrified, they are actually quite sturdy. After seeing someone break through a board and almost tumble to their death earlier in the year, weak boards have become a huge concern of mine.

♣ The racing surface and configuration of Attica Raceway is a race fans dream come true. The ground seems to hold moisture well, on the high side of the track a large cushion formed, which I am told is there weekly. Watching Rusty Schlenk and Dusty Moore bounce off this cushion is a thing of beauty. By the end of the night the track had slicked off from top to bottom, with some rubber laid on the extreme top groove, and a line of rubber on the very bottom of the track. This provided two great grooves, and a suicide groove if you had the ¡conjones! to run against it.

♣ I pulled in at 8:30 and the last truck race of the night was on the track, and the Late Model B-Main was lined up in the chute. Like us, Rusty Schlenk found out the hard way that Attica don’t play around, and will run things off quickly. Schlenk pulled in sometime after the first heat, and was forced to start the B’ from the tail. “The Jackson Assasin” wasted no time at all, picking off eight cars in the first two laps! He easily cruised to victory, passing twelve cars and pulling away to a straight away advantage.

♣ First feature race of the evening was the Truck class. Again, Attica was not wasting anytime getting things done. After some hats and shirts were tossed to the crowd, the feature rolled out a few minutes after 9pm. I really liked this class, they seemed to be pretty evenly matched, and they look unique. Talking to some locals I find they get forty of these some nights, and they basically cost a little less than a Bomber. It’s a neat idea and something more tracks could look at since junkyards are full of trucks, and are running out of old Monte Carlo’s and other Pure Stock/Bomber division favorites. The feature was a good one, five wide for 3rd at one point, several battles for the lead, and a photo finish to close things out.

♣ After the truck race, they pulled the winner onto the horse track that surrounds the track, and interviewed him in front of the crowd. This took all of five minutes, but in that time I learned this was the young man who wons first ever victory. It was also discovered he didn’t think he won the race, and the guy who finished second helped him and is a friend. Every track should make it a point to get a good wireless mic system and give their drivers a opportunity to showcase their personality and thank those that helped them. It enhances a show so so much to know who the guy your cheering for is.

♣ The Late Model feature was a dandy. Micheal Stiltner lead early, only to get ran down and passed by Curtis Deisenroth. Behind the leads a storm was brewing as 16th starting Rusty Schlenk and 12th starting Dusty Moore were on a tear, passing cars every way imaginable. Quietly lurking behind the leaders was Jon Henry, who was making only his second start even behind the wheel of a dirt late model. Deisenroth slipped one time, and that’s all it took, as Henry shot to the inside and made the feature winning move. On the final laps Deisenroth threw a great move on Henry, but came up just short at the line. Awesome feature! Schlenk ended up finishing fourth, and by virtue of his last place start gets the unofficial DRC Hardcharger Award for passing twenty-four cars for position over the course of the night. For Henry this was his eleventh feature win of the season, and his first of many in a Late Model sedan. He showed patience and maturity that some drivers do not have after ten years behind the wheel, and proved he deserves to be in the big leagues.

♣ The final race of the night was the 305 Sprint Cars. I don’t know many of the drivers, don’t really like winged sprint cars, and got mixed up on who the leader was once they got into traffic. However, for a Sprint Car race, it was pretty thrilling. The winner came from the seventeenth starting spot, and was working the high side to perfection. Really, it was about as enjoyable as a Sprint car race can be to me.

♣ Although there was a red flag for a flip in the Late Models, several crashes, interview and celebration time, Attica Raceway completed all features a little after 10:30pm. I was downright impressed with the place, and would love to go back sometime in the future. I recommend this track to all my friends, and even my foes! I left very happy and it was on to Oakshade for us.

The only thing that could have made Attica better was Tory Lane serving as the trophy girl.

♣ I got on 4m.net as we cruised 90MPH down the Ohio Turnpike, avoiding the idiots from Michigan passing us at 120, and read that the legendary Freddy Smith had won the Lucas Oil Show. Had we not been going twenty miles over the speed limit, I would have suggested to Biscuit we pull over and get a beer out of the trunk to celebrate. Congrats Freddy, I wish I could have seen this moment in history.

♣ We pulled into Wauseon and headed to Wal-Mart to get a tent and some other things. This was a huge ass Wal-Mart and it seemed to have everything except tents and employee’s. After standing in line twenty minutes to get two items (keep in mind it was after 1am) we headed on out. Why do these places insist on only having one register open past midnight. I know folks who work at Wal-Mart and they are all crossed trained. At one point there was tweleve people in line just standing looking annoyed. While this was going on, two Wal-Mart employee’s stood and watched while they stocked toothpaste. The store manager walked by at one point and did nothing to help the situation. Screw you Wal-Mart in Wauseon! I wanted to go get my drink on and see my friends, not stand in line for two hours while you have your employee’s off doing other stuff. The customer comes first I thought? Screw you Wal-Mart, because of you I missed at least two rounds of double bubble’s.

♣ We pulled in around 2am, and was shocked to find out they was still taking money at the gate. This kinda rubbed me wrong, cause they grilled us and asked us why we was there, and who we came to see. It’ was kinda odd thinking back on it now. After telling them we came from Attica and was there to see Links, they took our money and away we went.

♣ Spent the next several hours watching the drunken insanity that is the T3G. After many double bubble’s and beer’s we decided to call it a night at Sundown. Unfortunately for Biscuit and me we did not make it to bed before the sun came up and was unable to go to sleep with the light and sun beating down on our tents. Thankfully a hour rain shower provided some relief and let us take a nap for a small period of time. By the time noon rolled around I felt half dead, and anyone who seen me can attest to this, cause I looked like I was near death. I drank lots of liquids (go figure) and toughed it out, it was unbearably hot and muggy after the rains.

♣ Like the night before, you could not ask for a better surface at Oakshade. I walked up and looked at the track early in the morning, like 6am? And the infield was flooded, water was standing on the track, and everything was a muddy mess. They did a great job getting moisture down into the ground. The rain around 10am had to help some too, as when the hot laps started the track was still nice and tacky, and very smooth. After every single race of the night the water truck would come out and make a few quick laps around the track, misting the surface. Excellent! Kudo’s to Oakshade Raceway for going the extra mile and giving us a surface worth writing home about.

♣ I don’t even need to speak on the admission prices. $12 general - $20 pits for a $10,000 to win Summernationals race. “Nuff Said.”

♣ The first feature race of the night was the new Hornet division, which is designed for drivers under the age of eighteen to get some seat time before moving up to another class. This was a wild little eight lap race, with cars spinning everywhere and lots of beating and banging. These kids must really dislike each other!

♣ The race itself was as predicted, amazing. There was three and four groves and racing everywhere you looked. At one point I stood in awe and didn’t know what to tape, there was action everywhere. I will put the first thirty laps of this race against anything I have ever seen with the exception of the North/South 100 Dan Schlieper won. Wes Steidinger lead early and it looked like he was gone, but Jeep caught him, Wes breaks, Jeep leads, Matt Miller comes out of nowhere and blows by Jeep and takes flight. Behind him Doug Drown who started waaaaay back was on the move and Ky Harper was also making forward progress. Insane action and too much going on to keep up with. After the race Matt Miller told everyone in attendance how great the track and the fans are at Oakshade, and I agree with him 100%.

♣ After the Late Models we were treated to three Bomber features. Oakshade Raceway divides all the cars after the heat races, and puts them into a feature, as opposed to running a traditional progessive format. Personally, I think it’s great, and is one of the reasons they have such a car count in the division. Everyone gets track time! This is a amatur division, so there is really no need to run consi’s and treat it like the other classes. I am not sure if they do, but once a year I would have a big show at the end of the year using the traditional transfer spot/consi styled format. Big props to the Oakshade Bombers, as their was over fifty on hand, and all of them put on a great show. The “slow” feature had to be of been the race of the night, with the leaders throwing slide jobs back and forth, and doing crossovers on each other reminiscent of Jeep Van Wormer and Shannon Babb at the 2006 World 100.

♣ The hero of the weekend award has to go to Dan Rice for all his charitable work he has done at Oakshade. After a long night of partying, I watched him sit in the sun all day collecting money for the Childrens Miracle Network. A die cast car he auction off fetched $500 alone. And he did this all for the kids. Every track needs someone like this to get things going, generosity and heart are two seems that seem to be contagious. Thank you Links Zone for all you do in promoting the sport, and giving back to the future leaders of our sport, and world.

♣ After walking the parking lot, and taking in some of the parties on Saturday night, I called it a night, and woke up very depressed, knowing a excellent racing weekend had ended. I cannot wait to make it back to both of these venues. The racing is suburb at both places, but the atmosphere and sense of tradition at Oakshade is astounding. I have never seen a group of fans so proud of their drivers, respectful of the outsiders, and downright fun loving as the legions of shade fans, I have said it many times, this is the most hardcore group going in racing today, and they continue to grow, and come up with new things to one up themselves. I absolutely cannot wait to return!