My 2018 racing season is now complete and I am more than ready to turn the calendar to 2019. However, before I do that, it is time to take one more look back at the ending season, to confirm if nothing else what my gut tells me should be my response if anyone asks me what I thought about 2018.
It definitely was not a very good season in many ways. In fact, large parts of the season just plain sucked! I can not remember a season in recent memory at least where it seemed like every single trip to a race turned out to be a battle to outlast the elements and dodge the rain. The weather would certainly be the number one topic when talking about the soon to be complete year. It certainly affected my race schedule dramatically throughout the Summer and made the planning of many of my race outings more of a chore than a pleasurable experience.
There certainly were some highlight events and some great individual races but there were also a considerable number of nights that were marked by low car counts matched by half full grandstands.
It is tough enough to be a race promoter in these uncertain times but with all the battles with the weather in 2018, it had to have been a real "gut check" for a lot of race promoters and their employees. So many things for 2019 remain uncertain at this point and a large part of that unquestionably is a carry over from some difficult seasons endured by tracks in 2018.
My personal race statistics from 2018 reflect what a tepid year 2018 was. In fact, I'm somewhat embarrassed to even publish the stats on what was one of my worst personal years in quite some time.
In 2018 I attended one hundred and fifty two nights of racing which was a full thirty nights less than 2017. In fact, it was my worst year since 2008 in terms of races attended. Part of that was due to the fact that after having been able to get to Florida the last two years, there was no Florida trip in the budget for 2018. The other big loss was simply the high number of races that were rained out in 2018. It's not that I gave up on racing, but rather that there were so many shows that just weren't held or were cut back in the number of days they were held.
On the positive side, 2018 did mark the thirty eighth consecutive year that I attended over one hundred races during the season but most of the other stats are grim indeed.
In 2018 I attended races at fifty four different tracks but that is the lowest number of different tracks for me since 2005. I also attended races in twelve states but again that is low, with 2012 being the last year I traveled to that few of states for racing.
And perhaps most stunning to myself, I failed to get to any new tracks in 2018, the first time that has happened since 2003. I failed to keep a close eye on that mark, since if I would have realized it, I would have scheduled a trip to someplace new, no matter how far or irrelevant, just to keep the streak alive.
So, with no new tracks to report, I continue to sit at three hundred and eight tracks attended in twenty nine states and three Canadian Provinces.
Perhaps a bit surprising, the highest number of tracks visited in 2018 was in Iowa where I got to thirteen different tracks with Wisconsin and Minnesota close behind with a dozen each. Other states were considerably farther behind and I also failed to make it across the border into Canada in 2018. Perhaps that was in part because I was a bit afraid that they wouldn't let me back in! (Just kiddin').
Anyway, it was a sub par year for me and I am more than anxious to celebrate the New Year later today and move on with the hopes that 2019 will be a much better year, both for racing and for the country and world in general.
Plans are already starting to take shape in this area with some tracks having announced their schedules already while others wait a while longer with the hopes that they can craft a schedule that avoids the inevitable conflicts which split a rather limited fan base even more.
Our first races of 2019 will be at the FK Rod Ends Arizona Speedway for the Wild West Shootout upcoming in just over a weeks time. A number of drivers from this area have already loaded up their cars and headed West and I hope to report on the goings on in the Valley of the Sun shortly. The weather forecast to this point is not particularly favorable but I'm hoping that it changes soon. It's time to race and once again, it's dejavoo all over again.
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