Welcome!

Revised Sept 2014

As you can see by my April 2 2014 post, this site is on hiatus indefinitely. Emails sent to my @heartlandracenews.com address are no longer being answered and the mailbox will be closed soon.

Thanks again for the readership, and there may be plans to renew the site in the future. I'm still making it out to a few races a year and plan on increasing that count next season. Take care.

(Revised Feb. 2009)


Welcome to Heartland Race News.com!

My name is Jason Orth, and I’m the editor, staff, and head bottle washer of this new site. The goal of Heartland Race News is to provide a “one-stop” outlet for Southeastern Nebraska /Eastern Iowa tracks, race teams, and sanctioning bodies to get information to fans. Along with that, I’ll include race reports, photos and commentary.

After three years and talking to readers, the main goal of this site is being fulfilled: getting people to leave just their own track's sites/message boards and generate interest in what's going on in the rest of the area.

This site's intended purpose is as an informational outlet and I don't claim to be a journalist, but out of professionalism, I strive to adhere to traditional journalistic standards: reporting/relaying factual information, clearly distinguishing news from editorial, providing balanced content and operating in a professional manner. If it's good, I'll say so, if it's bad I'll say so, so long as it is an accurate depiction of events. Remember, I want racing at ALL TRACKS to succeed, if there's no racing, there's no site.

The goal is not to compete with some of the other websites on the net, but to complement them. The focus is not on any one class, but all classes of racing at those tracks: Sprints, Mods, Stocks, Karts, 4-Cylinders, whatever.

It’s free to send information, and I’m looking for any type of info you find interesting to race fans. Is there an upcoming race? Perhaps you want to congratulate a driver or a crew member? Maybe it’s a new sponsor for your track or car? We may even have a few interviews here and there. I’m looking for content that promotes racing, keeps people interested and the people and businesses that support it.

Heartland Race News wants to keep things thoughtful, positive, and promote racing in a time when our sport really needs it.

What’s my goal?

Well, if you thought it was making money, you’re kidding yourself. This site is not my "day job." There isn’t a lot of money to be made here. But, what I want to do is get out and enjoy racing and do what I liked best, writing and taking photos. By doing this site, I wanted to stay informed of what’s going on and for the first time in 20 years, don’t have to work at a track or on a car on a summer Saturday!

And who are you?

I’ve been around racetracks for nearly all of my 39 years on this Earth. I remember being a fan of late models at Mid-Continent (now Mid-Nebraska) Speedway when I was a little kid, then moving to Lincoln and watching the birth of the 360 Sprint class at Midwest Speedway and Eagle Raceway. From there my father, Dean Orth owned several sprint cars I had the privilege to work on: the #98 of Dennis Diekmann, to the Mike Cacak-piloted #30d, the “caution sign” Cliffs Notes #4A driven by Joe Wade and Ed Bowes, and various “BK” cars, the #4BK of Lonnie Jensen up to the #1BK driven by Don Droud, Jr. on the NCRA Outlaw Sprint tour in 1996.

In 1997 I went to the “third” side of the fence when my father and Craig Cormack took over Eagle Raceway. I started at the pit gate and moved on to scoring & lineups and writing press releases and race recaps. In 1998 I worked for the track on a part time basis. My dad left Eagle after the 1999 season, but I stayed on.

In 2002 I became a full time employee at Eagle Raceway as the Assistant General Manager and PR Director. In 2004, in addition to Eagle duties I wrote releases and compiled points for the World of Outlaws Sprint series, while Craig was the Outlaws' VP of Race Operations. For three years, Eagle Raceway was my full-time, put-bread-on-the-table job.

Craig Cormack closed Eagle Entertainment, LLC in 2005 and leased the track. From there, I decided that for once I would enjoy the races and get my Saturday nights back. So now I do the part I enjoyed the most, but didn’t always have time for.

The Format?

I’m going to work with a “blog” format. If you’ve been to hoseheads.com, you’ll see what I mean. A blog is a list of articles, sometimes the full text, or sometimes just summaries with links to the article. This format is a good way to keep current content on top and it’s easy for a one-man show to operate. If this grows enough, I may start an email list, and perhaps one day a print or PDF version. But for now we’ll keep it web-site based.

How often will you update?

I plan on updating as much as possible. As this is not my full time job, updates will be as my schedule dictates. For the three years I've done this I've had 1300+ posts, averaging about a post per day. Obviously that's balanced more toward racing season than the off season.

How do I get material posted?

Send me an email (the address and link is on the top right-hand corner of the page). I’ll take a look at it before posting.

That said, not everything that gets emailed will automatically be posted. I don’t want to post unsubstantiated rumors, slams, or things not race-related. Giving a shoutout to your crew chief for making a great setup call is one thing, but telling us his dog had puppies is something else. Sending me information about the point leader getting DQ’ed is OK, but an anonymous email telling me that a dirty SOB is a cheater is not.

The obligatory disclaimer:

Neither I nor Heartland RaceNews.com accepts liability for errors or delays provided by original or third-party sources, or mistakes made on site. All material is copyright Heartland RaceNews.com unless otherwise noted. Material not copyrighted by Heartland RaceNews.com is used under the fair use guidelines of the U.S. Copyright Code and does not endorse, sponsor, or verify the content provided by third parties and leaves all liability to the originating presenter of the information.

Bottom line: it's up to you to check the dates, times, location, etc. I post what is presented for consumption. Mistakes, delays or problems may arise. It happens.

How can I place an ad?

I’m not going to post free classifieds, but if you want to buy ad space, send me an email and we’ll talk.

As always, if you have any comments or suggestions, please email me!

Jason