Pace Lap May 17, 2007

By Jason Orth

-I thought the dirtdrivers message board would blow up after the dusty conditions at Eagle last Saturday. It's been pretty quiet. There was some tension in the pit meeting after Roger expressed dismay at how long it took to run the show. There was some focus on the sprints as according to him, took the most amount of red/yellow flag time on April 28. The most notable objection came from Mike Boston who asked if it was fair for the responsibility to be put on them, when the track was according to Boston, "a piece of garbage."

That said, Roger did scold the modifieds for not lining up in single file and making restarts difficult. In addition, he pulled the Sport Compact class aside and had a separate meeting with them.

Roger said he wouldn't discuss the issue at the meeting. Some more comments were exchanged and the meeting went on. Hadan then followed with some time limit guidelines, though the final decision would be a "judgment call."

Not everyone seemed to mind, as A feature winner Jason Danley commented on Eagleraceway.com, "I don’t know why everyone’s complaining about the track lately. As far as I’m concerned, they can make it like this every single week. When the tracks like this, it isn’t a horsepower game. It’s all about setup and a patient driver"

As the always say, at least one person always will like the track! And despite some grumblings on the dirtdrivers.com message board, there were some who agreed with Danley. And, I think everyone was happy with getting done at 10:45 as opposed to 1:15AM.

The Modifieds ran their A feature wire-to-wire.

Personally, I did not like the track as a fan, and much less as a photographer, LOL! I'm not a huge fan of gumball tracks either. I've always liked a little sticky on the bottom, dry up 3/4 of the way, then a cushion at the top. To me, that's a perfect track.

I'd be curious to see what would've happened had there been a north breeze blowing dust in the fans' faces?

- One other thing about these hard, dry tracks. It makes the sport compacts faster than ever, which seems to lead to more accidents and rollovers. This is just offhand, but I have a hunch the number of sport compact flips is very near the number of sprint flips so far this year.

I had a chance to talk to Jack Prall, III prior to the B features and we talked about people trying to win on the first lap. I think that's the issue, especially with these dry tracks. Sadly, they rolled another one down the front stretch. As they say (part II), to finish first you must first finish.

- Took my first trip to US36 Raceway last Friday. It was quite the little joint. State of the art, it ain't. There's one way in and one way out. Doesn't make for easy leaving after a WoO show! The place was packed - literally standing room only. I'm guessing 4000 in the stands. That's probably generous, but it was a sellout. If you haven't been there, imagine the middle four rows of the Eagle bleachers, and a few seats off to the side. That's the place. Noticeably smaller than Eagle, but higher banked and 1/3 of the lights.

The track was DRY and dusty, a lot like Eagle, but the racing was all right. Tim Kaeding was all over Jason Meyers in the A feature. Meyers led wire-to-wire, but it was no runaway. Meyers was elated afterward.

I'm not "dissing" the place, it's actually well laid out, a fun place to watch races, and easy to get to. I'll be back!

Talk about zero to hero; Craig Dollansky looked like crap all night on Friday, then came back to pick up his first win at Lake Ozark Speedway the following night. Steve Kinser spun out in the A. Lo and behold, Kinser won at Lernerville Tuesday.

-Heartland RaceNews stickers are coming by the end of the month. No joke. One plan I have is for all those who run HRN stickers on their car will have their websites added to the links on the front page. Let me know what you think.

-The poll is coming back.

Notes from around:

-A few Lincoln sprint car drivers took on the NCRA at Dodge City inthe first Steve King Memorial race on Saturday May 12. Don Droud, Jr.won the A feature in a car owned by Ochs Racing based in Liberal, Kan. Stu Snyder won his heat race and finished fifth in the A, while Mike Chadd recovered from a spin and finished eighth.

The race was held in honor of Kansas driver Steve King, who was killed in a crash at Knoxville, Iowa during the Knoxville Nationals last August.

-Lincoln driver and former Eagle Raceway sprint car champion Billy Alley ran 19th in the World of Outlaws race at U.S. 36 Raceway in Osborn, Mo. Friday May 11. He timed in 13th quick out of 32 cars and ran 5th in his heat. On Saturday Alley ran eighth at Knoxville Racewayin the 410 division and finished eighth at Husets Speedway in Brandon, S.D. on Sunday night.

-Aurora, NE sprint car driver Ryan Roberts scored his highest finish at Knoxville with a third place finish in the 360 Sprint A feature.

-Wavelink Raceway Park is holding the WRP Micro Sprint Championshipthis Sunday May 19. The 600cc, non-wing, and restrictor classes will race 40-lap A features for a $200 prize. The junior sprint class will run a 30-lap A feature.