Weekend #11 Recap

I suppose it should have been obvious on Thursday that the three day swing of sprint car racing in Nebraska wasn't going to go smoothly.

The Thursday night debacle at I-80 has been talked about enough so it's not worth getting into again.

Friday night the ASCS Midwest series was supposed to run at Junction Motor Speedway. Unfortunately the show never got past warm-ups, as a massive rainstorm rolled in and ended the evening. I was disappointed not only because we weren't able to watch the races, but it was also supposed to be Moses Motor Company night at JMS.

So at this point we're two nights down. One event was completely unsatisfying, the other never happened. Would Saturday be better?

On Saturday Erin and I headed out to Eagle Raceway to watch the World of Outlaws and 360 sprints. The same storm that had cancelled the show at JMS dumped an inch of water at Eagle the night before, so the grounds were completely saturated. The racing surface was as heavy as I've ever seen at Eagle.

The track was extremely fast, but very narrow. Sammy Swindell set a new track record during his qualifying run. I was at Eagle the last time Swindell set the track record, back in 1992!

After the Outlaw time trials, the 360 heats started.

The night started out bad, as Tige Jensen and Nick Clifford made contact on the backstretch. Jensen made hard contact with the outside wall and flipped violently. The crash destroyed Jensen's 360, and a sore ankle kept him out of his 410 car as well.

The Outlaw heats went off without incident. The real drama of the night began with the drop of the green flag in the 360 A feature.

Four laps in, Zach Davis bounced off the backstretch wall, planted his front wheels into the soft dirt, and was vaulted into the fence. In the process he took out a set of warning lights and some of the fencing itself. Davis' car was tangled in the fence, and hung upside down until safety crews were able to work the car free and safely remove it.

With seven laps down, Julee Jameson suffered a hard flip in turn three, bringing out another red flag.

On the re-start, Jeff Griffis hit Terry Holliman's left rear, sending Griffis into a spinning flip. While the car didn't look that bad, the safety crew was concerned that Griffis may have suffered a seizure and called for the Life Flight Helicopter.

The show was delayed while waiting for the helicopter. It was like a scene of out Apocalypse Now, watching that helicopter come in under the hazy lights of the track. Luckily Griffis regained consciousness before being loaded onto the helicopter.

With only eight laps in and three major wrecks, officials stopped the 360 race so they could get the Outlaws back on the track and complete the show. At the cut-off, Gene Ackland is the leader, followed by Adam Gullion.

After the fireworks of the 360 feature, the Outlaw feature was mostly uneventful. While the speeds were amazing, the narrow track made passing nearly impossible. Danny Lasoski led every lap on his way to the victory. In a stark contrast to the 360 feature, the Outlaw race had only one caution, when Donny Schatz blew an engine and came to a stop near the bottom of turn one.

It was an almost surreal feel to the racing at Eagle on Saturday. It was a night I won't soon forget.

Because of all the carnage and inclement weather, it was a long night. The Outlaws were the only class to complete their program. The 360's will complete their feature this Saturday at Eagle, as will the IMCA modifieds, who were never able to start their feature.

Last week's three day swing was bizarre. Really, I don't know a better way to put it. We had long nights, rain, bad crashes and even a helicopter landing. It was a memorable week, but mostly for the wrong reasons.

I'm looking forward to getting back to normal this weekend at Knoxville. At least, I hope it's normal.