Oval Operations

Another race weekend, another NOS promotion. I'm becoming an old pro at setting up displays and tearing them down. Seriously though, it's a great job and something I'm very lucky to be a part of.

2007 has been an interesting season and we're only half way. The second half brings us big races and perhaps some uncertainty.

My Take...

-There was a great crowd on hand to watch the double features Saturday night. I'm sure part of it had to do with the several thousand Wells Fargo employees in attendance. Hey, they got Wells Fargo to have a company outing at the races. Brian Stickel knows what he's doing.

-Team Dover turned a few heads in the pits Saturday. Somehow, they were furnished a supply of NOS Energy Drink apparel and decals for the car. I must say the car and crew look good with a little NOS blue. The Gassman didn't have the evening I'm sure he was hoping for, finishing 13th in the first A and suffering a flat right rear, and front suspension damage in the second. It could have been a lot worse, just ask Rager Phillips. (Team photo courtesy of Lori Dover)

-Phillips had a scary looking ride on the front stretch. From the safety crew platform we had a great view of the wreck. Luckily it looked like he will return later in the season to race again.

-Knoxville's safety crew doesn't always get the credit they deserve. Not only are they all nice guys, but were there to help Phillips almost as soon as the car came to a rest. If you have to crash, Knoxville is the place to do it. That safety crew are some real badasses.

-Congratulations to Rick Ideus! The former Eagle regular won his first ever feature at Knoxville Raceway on Saturday running a 360. Matt Moro was the other 360 feature winner. In the 410s it was Brian Brown and another first time winner, Mark Dobmeier.

-The remaining half of the season should be a good points battle at Knoxville. Brian Brown is 40 points back of leader Dusty Zomer. I wonder how long it will be before we see both of them running with the Outlaws.

-Defending track champion Billy Alley sits sixth in points.

-Aurora's Ryan Roberts had a solid evening, finishing fifth in both 360 features.

-In some non-Knoxville news, Mike Botson and Toby Chapman started on the front row of the ASCS National feature at Kansas City's Lakeside Speedway on Saturday. However both had some bad luck. After leading the first seven laps, Boston cut a tire and was forced to the back, settling for 15th. Chapman had brake problems and wound up 18th. Stu Snyder had the worst luck fo the three, flipping early on during the feature and was credited with a 22nd place finish.

-Other Eagle teams running included Bobby Becker and Jay Russell. Becker was fourth in the first B main, while Russell ran 12th. Meanwhile Jason Danley ran 4th in the second B main.

-ASCS Midwest points leader Natalie Sather hit the wall and finished 21st. She still holds the points lead over Jason Danley.

-Back home at Eagle, Don Droud Jr. made it two wingless features in a row.

-It wasn't an easy win for Jr. Adam Gullion led several laps and finished second.

-The car count for the wingless show did increase from last month. There were even a few of the regulars who took the wings off.

And Finally...

I've heard some interesting ideas about what a possible feature class at Eagle might be in the years to come. I keep hearing that the idea is to run an East Coast 358 modified. Jason Orth mentions that on his site http://www.heartlandracenews.com/ under his Pace Lap column.

At this point it's hard for me to see the sense in starting up a new class of cars completely foreign to this area. While they may be similar to our version of mods, why start up an entire new class that nobody knows anything about?

Would it be to offer a different class that no other tracks run? They already have that. I know, it may be completely speculation. If there's any truth to it, there are probably factors that I'm not aware of.

Right now though it sounds like pure foolishness to me.

I do think there's a bright future to ASCS sanctioned racing here in Nebraska. I think if Eagle ever did drop the weekly sprint program, we could still get our fix of sprinters thanks to a beefed up ASCS schedule... More on that in another post.

Next Up...

Well we had thought about a trip back to Indiana to catch some of USAC's Sprintweek. However some schedule conflicts will keep us from that for this season. I would have loved to have taken a road trip like that but it'll have to wait until next year.

Championship Cup Series, Knoxville Raceway, 7/14/07