The Pace Lap - August 16, 2007

Compliments:

I had high hopes for the Huskerland Wingless 410 Sprint Car Nationals. A crop of top-notch wingless drivers, ASCS Midwest, and a $1000 to win IMCA Modified show was on the bill.

I was NOT disappointed.

The track was in excellent shape, smooth, racy and held up despite 90+ degree temperatures. It was run well and got over before 11. The crop of wingless drivers was led by the likes of Tim Kaeding, Dave Darland, Casey Shuman and a lot of others who can compete anywhere they drop their trailer ramp.

There were no slouches in the 360s either. One-time Outlaws Brian Brown, Shane Stewart and Billy Alley battled alongside Jack Dover, Toby Chapman, Don Droud, Jr., Chuck Swenson, Larry Pinegar, and....

The Modifieds were stacked, too. Jet, Stephan, Homan, Grabouski, Hadan, Richards...again, guys who are up front wherever they run. I haven't seen a more competitive field of Modifieds top-to-bottom in one place this year, and that includes USMTS shows I've been to.

Three features, three down-to-the-wire finishes. Darland nipping Kaeding in the wingless, Grabouski snatching first in the Mods, and local young gun Dover holding off the challenges from the veterans to take his first ASCS win.

As one of the I-80 promoters said before the race, "I've got a good field of cars, I need a good field of fans!" They could've used more. The show delivered - hopefully there isn't "Knoxville lag of time and money" holding people back. Save the money and vacation time up for this one next year folks - it's worth it. I-80 showed they can deliver.

Other related and unrelated thoughts:

-Flat Out Magazine had "Where's Sammy" on the cover of a recent issue. Well, Sammy was in the pits at I-80 Tuesday, helping out Damion Gardner as a "hired gun" on the TNT Midwestern Swing.

-The action at the front of Tuesday's Modified A feature took away from folks noticing the great drive by Chevy Hadan. After falling out of his heat race, charging from the back of the B, he worked his way up from the back of the A feature to finish third.

-Congrats to Chris Alcorn for defending his Eagle IMCA Modified championship. Chris holds an 81-point lead over Doug Deterding with just two point shows remaining. Even if Deterding won both A features (40 points each), and Chris didn't show up at the track, Alcorn would still win by a point. The 11 wins on the season are an Eagle Raceway IMCA Modified record. The overall record for features in a season is 16 by Ed Kosiski in 1998.

The dilemma:

While I've been critical of some drivers behavior regarding on/off track actions, I hesitate to say anything about a driver's style, racing, etc.

I'm making an exception for drivers who don't choose to run competitively but instead they're "out there living the dream." Look, I have full respect for you running out there. I haven't got the nuts to even go around the track as slow as you do, but please - stay out of the middle of the pack!

An accomplished driver in the pits commented that the "lapped traffic is making this race (I-80's Tuesday ASCS A feature) interesting!" It wasn't a compliment. I'm not knocking people TRYING to get better - though maybe they're not a threat to win the A. Maybe their goal is just to make the A, maybe it's to finish in the top ten, heck maybe it's just not running last in the B. But, they are trying to get better and they're trying to improve.

But I have issues with guys who run just for the sake of being on a racetrack, and choose to run "in the groove" with faster traffic. Again, I don't care if you're racing the guy in front of you for second-to-last, that's fine. But if you're out there putting around by yourself, MOVE.

First and foremost, there's enough danger out there without drivers trying to play sprint car Frogger dodging rolling roadblocks. Second, show some respect to the guys who are putting in just as much if not more time, devotion and money into their machines and are choosing to compete.