With the conclusion of the Gateway Dirt Nationals in St. Louis last weekend, it is time to put the 2023 racing season to bed and start to think about the upcoming 2024 season. The off season gets shorter every year, especially for those of us fortunate enough or crazy enough to do some chasing to different parts of the country.
This year the race to get away from the cold weather and snow is not as strong as in most years as our unbelievably mild off season continues. Except for the gloomy skies day after day, the month of December has been a great one for those of us that don't necessarily care for cold weather and lots of snow. As I type this, we have no snow at all and it will be one of those rare Christmas' when we have to snow for the holiday. Light rain has been falling from time to time and we are promised a soaker for Christmas Eve and Christmas Day, another very rare development. Still, we look forward to sunshine and even warmer temperatures in our travels soon.
The 2023 racing season was another busy one for me. With time on my hands and so far the resources to be on the go, I accidently set a new record for myself as I attended two hundred and nine race programs in 2023. The last three years have been quite spectacular for me as I have attended six hundred and eighteen nights of racing. Never thinking it possible that I could or would ever get to two hundred nights of racing, I now have done it three straight years.
Obviously the ability to travel to other parts of the country for races both before and after the Midwestern season is active boosts the totals immensely, but it is something we do for enjoyment, not to set records. If there were a contest to see who could get to the most races, I would get serious about it but the truth is I just enjoy being at the track and can think of no other place I would rather be so while I can and until I'm not able to do so for whatever reason, I think we will continue to visit tracks across the Midwest and across the country.
In 2023 we started out with racing in Arizona and New Mexico, headed back again to Arizona and when we were done there, we headed to Florida for Speed Weeks on both sides of the state. We then worked our way back North and hit the Midwest, with a side trip to Texas. Much of what we did last year is again in the plan and the weather will play a large part in just exactly where we end up, just as it does every year.
The first four months of the racing year was very productive for me and while many race fans are waiting for the snow to melt and tracks in this area to open up, I had already been to sixty five races by the first of April.
An extended dry period over the Summer made the number of rain outs smaller than normal and while the dry conditions hurt some, It was great for me. I had one period in June where I attended races on twenty seven straight nights. On the other hand, October was terrible with two of the four weekends being complete washouts, something that has never happened before. My racing season season started under the sun in Arizona in January and ended up under the roof of America's Center in St. Louis.
2023 marked the forty third consecutive racing season where I attended at least one hundred nights of racing. In 2023 I attended races at seventy tracks in sixteen states and one Canadian province. I saw races at three tracks for the first time, one in Arizona, one in Texas and one in Oklahoma. Since I have started attending races at a young age, I have now been to three hundred and thirty four tracks in twenty nine states and three Canadian provinces, by my best guess.
July was my busiest month with twenty nine races attended during that month but May through September were all over twenty per month.
I never pick out a best night of racing or a best track. All nights at the track are good ones, just some are better than others. It does no good to bury one's head in the sand and pretend that the sport doesn't have its problems and that some tracks and groups need to do better and upgrade their facilities and treat their customers better, but it also does no good to immediately blast out negative comments on various forms of social media when things go wrong, whether by accident or neglect. If we would all work together I think we would all be most successful but the same thing could be said for society as a whole.
Plans for our 2024 racing season so far are much like what we did last year. We plan to visit Arizona first and do a few nights at the Cocopah Speedway where Brad Whitfield is always very welcoming. We will then head to New Mexico for Chris Kearns' annual Wild West Shootout. This is one of our favorite races of the year as Royal Jones has one of the finest tracks in the entire country and the FLO staff of Ben Shelton and Dustin Jarrett are always great to visit with. We then head back West into Arizona to the Central Arizona Raceway where Minnesota native Don Shaw puts on a series of races with the help of regular promoter Whitfield. Shaw's rules use a formula that allows many different drivers from various parts of the country to race and their Late Model races end up being some of the most interesting of the year with many familiar faces on the track. When we are done there we will then head to Florida.
Of course, all this depends are things working out as planned with continued good health and other factors always a bit of a guessing game. We will hope for the best.
The plan is to provide converge on all these events here at Positively Racing.com if everything works out. Merry Christmas and Happy New Year to everyone reading this with the hopes that 2024 will be even better for you than the current year was.
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