MWRAD2007 and Beyond

The big day has come on gone. It seems almost surreal when you work for so long on something and now it's over. I have to admit that in our last meeting on Thursday before the event, I was a little nervous about what the weather would do to not only our attendance but to the number of teams that would show up. To my delight we had a strong contingency of both, considering the cold conditions.

In 2006 we had probably the best weather I can remember for an Autograph Day and I think we paid for that this year. With a stiff wind blowing almost the entire day Lincoln's race fans and teams still came out to show their support. In fact most of the teams that had pre-registered showed up. Once again, the open wheel class was well represented with eleven 360s and 305s and a number of mini sprints.

In addition to my duties with the event, I was there to do a little promoting for this site. I contacted the teams that had agreed to put an Oval Operations decal on the car. It's sort of a trip to see something you had a hand in creating end up on someone's car. It may be minor but it's a start.

Doug Lovegrove and the distinctive "Cow Car" have the distinction of being the first team to display my decal. Thanks to my buddy Aaron Allgood who is on Doug's crew, the 44 car showed up with the decal in place. The Cow did attract some attention throughout the day as everyone was glad to see Doug running again after that July wreck at I-80. Previously to that wreck, the 44 team had put together a great first half of the season and were sitting in top five Eagle points and primed for a great finish. Lovegrove has been a staple on the local scene for many years and it's nice to see him fully recovered and ready to go. Lovegrove will once again run Eagle weekly and ASCS Midwest events.

The next decal went Mark Pace in his new XXX green machine. Mark was a rookie to sprint cars last season and performed exceptionally well, coming very close to his first A main victory and running consistently in the top ten. This season Pace will be making the trip East to run Knoxville's weekly 360 Championship Cup series as well as ASCS Midwest shows.

After Pace's car was decaled, I visited Steve Grossenbacher and his son Trevor. Trevor will run his first full season in a 360 in 2007, after many successful years in the mini sprint ranks. It was a real pleasure to meet those guys and it'll be a lot of fun watching a Grossenbacher behind the wheel of a sprint car again. When Steve isn't helping out with Trevor's car, it's a safe bet he'll be building and repairing wings for his own business, GMS Wings.

Team Dover was the next outfit to receive the OO decal. I had been corresponding via e-mail with Lori Dover who has been a big supporter of my site from day one. She's great about sending me updates about what her kids Jack and Trish are planning for 2007, and was one of the first to volunteer to take one of my decals. Team Dover will look to improve on a very success filled 2006 season. Trish kicked things off in January at the Chili Bowl Midget Nationals in Tulsa, Oklahoma. Locally, Trish will defend her 305 title at I-80 Speedway as well as venturing over to Knoxville to run in their 305 events. Trish should be strong this year, using one of Terry McCarl's cars from last year, and a new Eckley 305.

Her brother Jack had a great rookie season at Eagle and finished top three in points there, as well as a second place ASCS Midwest finish. Jack will once again run for ASCS points in the 360. In 2007 Jack will look to compete in the ultra competitive 410 class at Knoxville. Perhaps he'll give fellow Nebraska driver and defending 410 champ Billy Alley a run for his money.

After talking with Lori I ran into Nick Bryan. The Bryans have been running Eagle for as long as I can remember. First with Bernie, and then Nick. They had some tough luck last season, losing an engine that ended their year all too early. Nick will be back though in his bright orange 6 car. I also talked with Nick's mom, Rhonda. As many of you know, Rhonda has helped out with the kids events for Autograph Day since its beginning. However she was sidelined this year and not able to help out as much. I could tell she missed being involved but I'm sure she'll be back and ready for Eagle Kid's Night on August 19th. Rhonda eagerly volunteered their car to run my decal and I'm very thankful to her for that.

It will be a lot of fun following the progress of these teams on this site throughout 2007, as well as the teams that are set to run my decal that couldn't attend. There will be bigger features about each team throughout the season and I'm humbled at all of willingness to help out my site.

Saturday was also a great time to talk with some guys that I hadn't seen face to face in a while. Brad Brown got away from Husker spring football long enough to check out some of the cars and take some photos for his site www.ibracn.com. Along with Brown was Jason Orth of www.heartlandracenews.com. Orth, currently has some great pics of Eagle's new catwalk on his site. I also talked with Randy "Racetracker" Lawrence from www.racetrackerphotos.com. Randy was there taking pics and handing out some great looking hats for Toby Chapman's 84 car. I'm definitely going to get one of those before the season is over.

All in all it was just a great day. I can't thank Gary Dominguez enough for allowing me to help out with the Autograph Day preparations. I wish people knew all the hard work that Gary along with everyone else on the committee put in for this event. I think they did a great job and I'm looking forward to next year already.

Autograph Day always marks the start of the local race season, but it doesn’t feel like it yet. With these cold temps, and bleak forecast for this weekend, it doesn’t look like I-80 will be able to run their ASCS event this weekend. I hope that’s not the case, because I want to see some great 305 & 360 racing and hand out some more of my decals!

In spite of the bad weather start to the year, I think 2007 will be a lot of fun to cover on this site and a challenge to keep up with all of the teams. I’m more than ready for it!