As we turn the calendar over to 2018 and a new racing season, I thought that perhaps there might be someone out there interested in a quick summary of my 2017 racing season. Occasionally I run into someone that asks just how many races I saw in the preceding year and what were the highlights so I thought a brief compilation of last year might be in order.
2016 was a record shattering year for me in terms of number of races seen and I didn't think that 2017 would come anywhere near what the preceding year provided. Not that it ever is a competition anyway, because I do what I do simply because I enjoy it but as the year of 2017 progressed, It always felt like I was fighting the weather and kind of spinning my wheels. Much to my surprise, when I sat down this week to sum up 2017, if not for some really disagreeable weather in September and October, I might have actually exceeded my 2016 totals. As it turned out, I attended one hundred and eighty two races in 2017 and if not for a considerable number of cancellations in the Fall months, I would have likely exceeded my 2016 total. Surprise, surprise.
I saw at least one race during each of the twelve months of 2017 and it was my second best year ever, being exceeded only by the previous year. It was also my seventh time that I have been over one hundred and sixty races for a calendar year. 2017 also marked the thirty seventh consecutive year that I saw over one hundred races during a calendar year.
In 2017 I attended races at seventy three different tracks in sixteen states and one Canadian province. Visiting that many different tracks seems insane to me too and I was shocked and very much surprised in that numbesome of the high number of tracks visited could be accounted for by being forced to scramble around to find venues not affected by weather. I attended eight tracks for the first time in 2017 and my all time totals(as best as I can produce them) have me as having seen races at three hundred and eight tracks in twenty nine states and three Canadian provinces and there are still many tracks on my "bucket list" that I have not been to yet. All tracks that I attended were accessed by car except our Arizona trip in which we flew into Phoenix.
Not surprisingly, Wisconsin led the way with visits to seventeen tracks in the Badger state(On Wisconsin!!!) but Iowa and Minnesota were also close behind at fourteen and thirteen respectively. The Rice Lake Speedway, where I saw my first race when I was just a few months old, and has been my Saturday night home forever, led the way with seventeen nights of racing. No other track had double digit totals as I like to move around to different tracks, see a wide variety of different drivers, catch special events for lots of different classes, all the while "playing" the weather as best I can.
While most of the tracks close by me run under WISSOTA sanctioning,I see a considerable portion of my racing under that sanctioning body. However, I don't discriminate against other sanctioning bodies and over the course of a Summer I see racing under just about every sanctioning body that is around. My opinion is that the letters that form the titles of the sanctioning bodies have very little to do with the quality of the racing with so many other factors more important.
While there were far too many great races and individual moments to mention, a few of the highlights include the top notch early Spring races that the Humboldt Speedway in Kansas always puts on. The Whitworth family also makes at least one significant improvement to their track every year. I got the chance to see the first ever Late Model race at the historic Angell Park Speedway in Sun Prairie Wisconsin with a driver in Cole Spacek that I had seen race since he started while still in Middle School, take the win. Toby Kruse always puts on some special and interesting events at 141 Speedway. The last WISSOTA 100 held at the Dakota State Fair Speedway in Huron South Dakota was a special event too. The John Seitz Memorial race at the River Cities Speedway in Grand Forks North Dakota is always a great event and in 2017 it took on special significance when the brother-in-law of the late John Seitz, Don Shaw, won the race. The World Finals in Charlotte is always a spectacular race as is the Dome race in St. Louis. I still don't understand why that race is such a "lightning rod" for criticism when where else could you see two hundred top quality race cars race in December while sitting in shirt sleeves in St. Louis? The "Little Dream" race for Street Stocks at Rice Lake is also one of my favorite races. Support class drivers racing for over fifteen thousand dollars to win, as they did in 2017, is always memorable.
The most disappointing point of the year was the double rain outs at Arizona Speedway in January. Who goes to the desert to watch it rain, or even imagines that it would do so? I also had to battle some of the wet stuff in Florida although that is more expected.
As with every year, there were certainly some "clunker" nights at the various tracks. However, there is really no point in pointing them out specifically as the drivers and spectators affected by such races will let the management know of their disappointment by not being on hand for following events and those will be the facilities that fall by the way side.
On a sunny Thursday night in July, I had an unusual experience that caused me to miss a night of racing. Due to some poor customer service with a business I dealt with, I ventured off to a night of racing unknowingly with loose lug nuts on my recently rotated wheels. Driving down the freeway, I suddenly had a terrible vibration and just as I pulled over to the side of the freeway, I lost the left front wheel off my car! That was interesting to say the least but i was back in action the following night. I now make sure to re torque my wheels after fifty miles.
Sometimes it helps to be flexible and there were several times during the year that I was able to catch an additional race due to a last minute rescheduled race due to weather issues. A postponement at Humboldt in March allowed me to venture down to Ada Oklahoma for a USMTS race and then catch Humboldt the following day. I hustled over to Farmer City Raceway for a WoO Late Model race on a Sunday after having been at 34 Raceway the night before. Ditto for a Sunday afternoon rescheduled race at the State Park Speedway, one of three tar races I attended in 2017. Twice I caught Jerry Hoffman's Springfield Raceway on the rebound on Sunday races while coming back from Muskogee and Plumerville Arkansas respectively. On a rainy Saturday we grabbed our past ports and drove up to Ontario for races.
The new tracks for 2017 included Arizona Speedway, Atchison County Raceway, North Florida Speedway, The Dirt Oval at Route 66 Raceway, Plymouth Dirt Track, Raceway Park in South Dakota, Lake Cumberland Speedway and Plumerville Super Speedway.
It is a real loss that Oshkosh Speedzone Raceway will be closed and never to open again as it was truly one of Wisconsin's nicest tracks. Atchison County "The Cage" sounds like it's done too so I was lucky to get there last year and Osky will be missed if they don't race in 2017, especially with the history surrounding that track.
Now it is time to move on to 2018 with certainly good and some disappointing things to await us all. The bags are packed and it is nearly time to jump on the plane and head to Arizona. With our recent surge of bitterly cold weather, the warm temperatures of the Southwest are eagerly looked forward to. I plan to provide reports from all six days of racing that will feature Late Models, Modifieds and X Mods.
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