April has come and gone and left behind more rain that anybody could have imagined. Open wheel racing was limited, and the only things people could have seen half interesting were some flooded streams and swampy corn fields; not much was left unsaturated by rain. The weather has been miserable the past few weeks; leaving weekend warriors with little to do and nothing to see. This weekend worked out for the better, though, in most areas of the country. Most of the scheduled events were able to take place. Saturday proved to be the nicest day of the weekend – almost reaching 70 in some areas without any chance of precipitation. My Friday night consisted of casinos and lounges – and no race cars. I had previously made arrangements to attend a bachelor party in Erie on Friday evening, so attending the racetrack was out of the question.
Saturday night was beautiful and I finally made my way back to a racetrack – but it wasn’t for open wheel racing. I attended the Lucas Oil Late Model Dirt Series event at the Roaring Knob Speedway just outside of Uniontown, Pennsylvania with a good friend of mine and an avid late model fan. Not too often do people get the opportunity to see Scott Bloomquist, Jimmy Owens, Don O’Neal, Ray Cook, Mike Marlar,Dale McDowell, and the rest of the traveling lucas oil stars- so, I took advantage of it and had a good time. Scott Bloomquist was the victor; taking his 4th win in a row and tying Earl Pearson Jr. for the consecutive win record. The two-time and defending Lucas Oil Late Model Dirt Series champion leads the current point standings in dominating fashion.
Williams Grove Speedway packed the house with over 40 cars including the All Star Circuit of Champions regulars and Pennsylvania Posse stars on Friday evening. Steve Buckwalter was unbeatable Friday night; literally. He not only captured the $5,000 to win All Star A-main, but he also took home the ARDC midget victory. That was quite the Friday pay day.
The Fremont/Attica Sprint Title (FAST) round #3 went to Danny Smith on Friday night at the Attica Raceway Park. No stranger to sprint car victory lane, the man from Danville, Indiana and now a resident of Chillicothe, Ohio, stood back in victory lane once again at the northwest Ohio bullring. There were 35 cars signed in at Attica Raceway Park for the event. Jason Meyers made an appearance there for the FAST event as a warm up to his World of Outlaw visit in just a few weeks. He would end up 2nd. FAST competition then took place again Saturday night at Fremont Speedway in Fremont, Ohio. Bryan Sebetto picked up the win and his first FAST win of the season.
‘Hunter Percent’ Shuerenberg took home his 2nd career USAC victory Friday night at Gas City I-69 Speedway in Gas City, Indiana. The Missouri native currently sits in the top 4 of the points standings and will also be traveling east for the Ohio Storm portion of the USAC schedule coming up in just a couple of weeks. The USAC triple header plans for the rest of this past week were cancelled due to wet conditions. Both Kokomo and Lawrenceburg are working towards rescheduling the events. The USAC National Sprint Car Series will be back in action next Saturday night at Lincoln Park Speedway in Putnamville, Indiana- with a KISS (King of Indiana Sprint Series) event taking place Friday night at Bloomington Speedway in Bloomington, Indiana. My guess is most of the teams will take advantage of the possible double big pay weekend and race at both sanctioned events. The point’s standings in the USAC National Sprint Car Series is incredible at the present time; top 4 drivers are only separated by 7 points! Bryan Clauson leads the series by three points over Shuerenberg, defending and multiple times champion Levi Jones, and Damian Gardner.
The World of Outlaws raced one night this past weekend. The “Greatest Show on Dirt” invaded the Tri-State Speedway in Haubstaudt, Indiana for a Saturday night event paying $10,000 to the winner. Sammy Swindell broke the Criag Dollansky/Steve Kinser six year alternating victory win streak in his brand new Big Game Treestands Maxim. Sammy would lead Paul McMahan and Joey Saldana, the current World of Outlaws point leader, across the line. Sammy holds the 5th spot in the current World of Outlaw point standings. The World of Outlaws return to action this Friday and Saturday night at the Eldora Speedway in Rossburg, Ohio for two complete nights of competition.
The All Star Circuit of Champions continued their weekend roll through central Pennsylvania on Saturday evening at the Port Royal Speedway in Port Royal, Pennsylavania; only this time it was Greg Hodnett taking the spoils and keeping the All Stars out of victory lane. Kerry Madsen was in town for the weekend; but his night didn’t end as nice as Hod’s did. Kerry would take a wild ride down the backstretch and clear the outside guardrail, destroying the racecar and leaving all hopes of repair out the window. According to his twitter account, his knee is a little banged up but the plan is to race at Eldora this weekend with the World of Outlaws. Lance Dewease still holds the central PA point standings by 10 markers over Brian Leppo.
The King of the West Series had a Saturday night event over the weekend at the Marysville Raceway Park in golden California. Willie Croft took home the victory for his first KWS win of the season. Tim Kaeding, the current point leader with the series, crossed the line in 2nd with Andy Gregg finishing 3rd. The series will be competing at the Silver Dollar Speedway in Chico, California next Saturday night for round five.
Once again this weekend, Danny Lasoski found himself in victory lane. This time it was at the Knoxville Raceway in Knoxville, Iowa. He now owns 94 wins at that facility.
The Lucas Oil ASCS presented by K&N Filters Series and Mopar USAC National Midget Series did not compete this weekend. The ASCS National series heads to “the ditch” for their annual Rock’N’Roll 50 this Saturday night. The Riverside International Speedway in West Memphis, Arkansas will host the national 360 series for the one night event which gives away a guitar along with the prize money to the winner. The USAC midget series will take another weekend off before competing at the Angell Park Speedway in Wisconsin for a double header weekend on May 14th and 15th. One midget race that I’d like to attend someday is the Belleville Midget Nationals at the Belleville Highbanks in Belleville, Kansas. It’s claimed to be the fastest dirt half mile in the world; as so many others are. From my understanding, Volusia Speedway Park is the world’s fastest dirt half mile as of earlier this year. I believe Eldora is also claimed to be the fastest dirt half mile in the world. Even if Belleville isn’t the fastest or is the fastest, someday I’d like to visit it. I’ll add that to the list of potential future road trips.
Lernerville Speedway did not have sprint cars over the weekend at the Sarver, PA 4/10’s mile; the All Star Circuit of Champions Late Model Series was in town for their annual visit and headlined the night’s event. This forced most of the western Pennsylvania regulars to wait an extra night before racing again. Mercer Raceway Park proved to be the saving grace as it held a regular points show over the weekend. Jason Dolick picked up the 410 sprint car win over a solid feild of 30+ cars. This was the largest field of cars in westnern Pennsylvania so far this year; as far as I can remember and sprint cars are concerned. Brian Ellenberger crossed the line second with Bob Flemlee 3rd.
This weekend will probably be a local weekend as far as my plans are concerned. Lernerville Speedway in Sarver, Pennsylvania is hosting its annual Ladies Night and Breast Cancer Awareness Night in response to it being mother’s day weekend. Fully Injected has designed a pink shirt that will be sold this weekend at the racetrack with all proceeds going to the patient care fund at the Armstrong County Memorial Hospital. For more information, check out the press release at www.fullyinjected.com .
That’s all I really wanted to discuss today. Lots of racing this coming weekend so hopefully the weather stays clear and the temperatures stay warm. Thanks for reading everybody!