It used to be that the fourth of July was a time for some of the biggest racing events of the year to take place. Specials used to abound everywhere and the biggest problem was always trying to make a decision on where to go rather than trying to find a race to attend.
It would appear that 2016 is just the opposite of that though. In my area, the racing action on both July 3rd and 4th was very minimal with the majority of the programs at best being "watered down" versions of the weekly shows and no more. With the weather being so beautiful it would be a travesty to allow such a holiday to slip by without even seeing any racing.
So, with that being said, here I am once again in Iowa, seeking some racing action. Based on time, distance and few other factors, my choice for Sunday, July 3rd was the Dubuque Fairgrounds Speedway where the featured attraction was the Out Pace Racing Products IMCA Late Models participating in the Ideal Ready Mix Tri-Track Challenge which is a series of special hosted between the three Simmons Promotions Inc. tracks.
Along with the Late Models, it would be a full show in the other three classes that run on the weekly Sunday night card at Dubuque.
Attending a race in Dubuque is always a pleasure as it is almost a certainty that you will see a good show that will be run off at a crisp pace and you won't be at the track until the wee hours. It's also always fun to meet and greet again people like Jerry Mackey, Kevin Feller and Doug Haack and the rest of the SPI staff who have been friends and comrades for a long time in this journey through the racing world.
Racing in Iowa, always considered one of the hot spots for dirt track activity in this country, is starting to feel the same pinch that the rest of the country is going through. Many of the things I'm seeing at home and as I travel around to other parts of the Midwest seem to be also popping up at tracks in Iowa and throughout the Iowa racing community in general. Such things as low car counts, tracks once considered to be "sacred" now struggling and everyone fighting to put butts in the stands on a consistent basis. A person I would consider as being very "with it" in terms of knowing how things are currently playing out tells me that he has not seen things this tough for Iowa racing for perhaps many years. He's a Late Model guy and the lack of Late Models has him concerned as many weekly programs are suffering. And as always, the answers, if any, are very elusive. Far better minds than ours have not been able to hit on how to turn this whole "funk" around but wish they could. In the meantime, we muddle along and hope that things will get better.
Being a two grand to win Late Model event on a holiday weekend, I was anticipating a great field of cars and as my wife reminded me, a packed grandstand like Dubuque always used to have. However, the "new normal" is much different. Seventeen Late Models signed in to race Sunday with many of the regular point cars inexplicably absent, including for of the top ten in current track points. Enough cars in the other classes would set up three Modifieds heats, two for the Sport Mods and a lone Stock Car heat for a class that just won't catch on here in Dubuque.
As far as the crowd, I suppose that I should have taken in consideration that they just got done with the two day Aftermarket Nationals for the Modifieds just down the road in Farley that I was told was quite successful and that Dubuque hosts a huge holiday celebration down by the river that features all day activities and a ginormous fireworks display. For those reasons, track officials weren't expecting too big a crowd and they proved to be accurate in their assessment.
While the Late Model field wasn't overly big, they did have plenty of strong running cars and some drivers that don't normally frequent Dubuque like Ray Guss Jr, Andy Nezworski, Tyler Droste and Darrel DeFrance. I ran into "DD" as he was crossing the track for the driver's meeting and I congratulated him on what has been a strong season for him so far in 2016. He admitted that racing is a lot more fun when you're winning races and most importantly, being competitive.
The Late Model feature was the final event on the card with the drivers going fifty laps. Dan Shelliam, the visitor from the great state of Wisconsin(slight bias here!) was the early leader with Nezworski(a former racer in Wisconsin when Andy lived in Michigan-more bias!) trailing.
The driver on the move was Droste who experimented with both the low and high side of the track before settling for the extreme lower groove. The track had two definite lanes for racing which made it interesting and much more like the Dubuque I had remembered from previous years, rather than everyone clinging to the inside rail like had happened earlier here this year.
While Droste would eventually take over the lead and win the race, he was really the only one to make the low side work as most of the others were banging off the outside wall and knocking off their spoilers. Some spectacular slide jobs broke out as the pack battled with Nezworski and Joel Callahan exchanging some real zingers on each other. Neither driver looked happy after the checkered flag flew, by the way.
Droste has become a very accomplished Late Model racer in the last couple of years and his victory on Sunday was a smoothly driver affair. He hopes to be just as competitive next Sunday when the Deery Brothers Series comes to town. Shelliam and Jeremiah Hurst trailed him in a race that saw just three yellow flags.
All nineteen Modifieds on hand started the main event and it was rookie Austin Moyer who came from the third row for the win. Steve Johnson, in a new ride for himself, was the early leader but a yellow and ensuing restart killed him as he just didn't get off the line fast enough. Moyer, on the other hand, used the restart to secure the win. Only a couple of yellow flags and plenty of good racing marked the Modified main.
The Sport Mod feature saw the first two leaders both spin themselves out of contention before two laps could be completed. Once everyone settled down, it was Tyler Soppe, who always runs well here, who came charging up from the fifth row to take the win. Troy Bauer, who just got done winning the Aftermarket Nationals, made a late charge but he came up short.
Not much can be said about a five car Stock Car feature other than Tim Schneider won it and Jerry Mills didn't .
One of the things that SPI prides themselves on when it comes to Dubuque particularly and their Sunday shows, is running off a quick program. It should be noted that a four class program does expedite this, but I've also been to more places than I would care to relate that under the same circumstances would manage to drag things out for four hours. SPI had the heats done in forty five minutes and the whole show, including the fifty lap finale, was done by 8:45 pm.
We actually had time to visit the tower after the races and decided to get adventurous and see if we could find the fireworks ourselves. Mostly, we just followed the crowd down to the river and got there in time to see a spectacular fireworks display that lasted nearly an hour. And the crowd, huge! No wonder the track officials felt that they were being affected by the city wide celebration.
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