Back at Knoxville, Indy Cars and Silver Crowns

First Up...

So it's almost the weekend and time for racing. However for the third week in a row I'll be watching Saturday's action in Marion County, Iowa.

This time I'm going there for work rather than just for play. I've accepted a position with NOS Energy Drinks, and I'll be helping them run promotions at Knoxville Raceway.

What's good about this is I get to work on promotions in a race setting, which is pretty much my ultimate career goal. It also feels pretty good to be paid to attend races again.

This is my second job involving racing. In the summer of 2005 I was an intern at Eagle Raceway. Looking back on it now that was one of the best summers I've had. If this job with NOS is half as much fun as working at Eagle, I'm set.

The only real downside is I won't be able to catch the local action at Eagle Raceway first hand. I'm still going to try my best to cover the action at Eagle and follow all of the teams who have so generously plastered my decal on their cars. I'm sure I'll be at a few of the weekly races, and the special events at Eagle, but for this season anyway, I'm a Knoxville regular.

Other Ramblings...

-How I'd love to make the trip to US36 Speedway and catch the Outlaws tonight. Jason Orth is headed down that way though, so I'm sure we'll have good reports and pics from the event on his site, www.heartlandracenews.com.

-There's been an interesting thread on the Eagle message board at www.dirtdrivers.com. The topic is the possibility of moving the IMCA Supernationals from Boone, Iowa to Eagle. My opinion on this is it's not going to happen. Eagle just doesn't have enough room in the pits for the teams, and parking and camping space would be in short supply as well.

-It's May and that means Indianapolis. Tomorrow is Pole Day at Indy. While some of the luster has fallen off the month of May in recent years, I'm still going to DVR every minute of qualifying. Indy is Mecca to me. In case you're interested in checking out the action, tune into ESPN2 & ABC tomorrow starting at 11 central.

-The USAC silver crowns ran Darlington last night. JJ Yeley was reported to be the class of the field, but lost the race on a brush with the wall. Aaron Pierce would go on to win the event.

And Finally...

-Speaking of silver crowns and Indy cars...A recent thread on www.indianaopenwheel.com got my attention. Posted on it are pictures and an article from the 1981 Pocono 500 Indy car race. Apparently, there were only 21 Indy style cars available to run, so USAC allowed upright silver crowns to run with them! Somehow I don't see this happening in today's world. Talk about an orgy of open wheel madness. For the complete thread visit: http://indianaopenwheel.com/vmessageboard/showthread.php?t=10782.