Where to begin? There were numerous behind the scenes work leading up to this super fun, super fabulous, superb weekend of activity at I-35 Speedway. Since it is a racetrack let’s start with the Finale of the Rick Beebe Heating and Air Conditioning Smokin Hot Summer Series presented by Prime Racing Products and Custom Fabrication, LLC, together with I-35 Speedway and Lakeside Speedway. To make this summer series work, let’s start with a huge THANK YOU to Blythe and Dustin Boney, it was their idea and they were behind the scenes coordinating this series from racetrack approval to tabulating the points to contacting the drivers to coordinating the race order of events for the finale. The two racetracks were also involved in sponsorships, promotion, weekly track preparation, and all the additional behind the scenes work required for opening a race track (concessions, trash, mowing, weed eating, repairs, and other challenges). The teamwork involved to make this series work – simply incredible! Much can be accomplished if no one cares who gets the credit!
Another part of this weekend was the very successful Friday events, ATV Racing and the 3rd Annual Trackside BBQ Bash. Kudos to Tommy Johnson for the idea to bring ATV Racing to I-35 Speedway. This series has been run successfully on Sundays since it started, but on a Friday Night under the lights – WOW! Fans in the stands were treated to an infield full of ATV racers in various age groups (from Peewee to Adults) and various categories. They started with head to head barrel racing, sometimes with racers competing to super close finishes and sometimes with racers straying off course but having a ton of fun! Then they graduated to a TT course, which is like road course racing, around turn one they would go to enter the road course portion, sliding sideways, hard on the throttle to throttle finesse, to make the tight turns.
The 3rd Annual Smokin’ Trackside Barbeque Bash was held on Friday and Saturday changing the aroma around the track from spent racing fuel to smoking great BBQ. Since the winds were out of the east we had visitors who lived on the west side of Interstate 35 come visit some of the BBQ teams on Friday night. They were able to enjoy some delicious BBQ wings as teams were voluntarily cooking the wings for the People’s Choice event.
Saturday the twenty-five (25) Barbeque Competitors began turning in their brisket, chicken, ribs, and pork to the palates of the judges. Congratulations to the Keep Calm and Sauce On earning the Grand Champion Award with a score of 697.7372. With twenty-five teams this meant the Grand Champion of the Smokin Trackside BBQ contest receives an automatic entry in the Jack Daniel’s World Championship and the American Royal Invitational BBQ contests.
Special credit to a special lady for coordinating the BBQ event, Kyle Johnson along with her full-time job and all the work behind the scenes with I-35 Speedway is the person working with KCBS, calling BBQ teams, setting up the event, and ensuring everyone has a remarkable experience. Several BBQ teams provided their comments to me on how much they appreciate the work Kyle has put in to the three BBQ events they have been a part of at I-35 Speedway.
To close we also had a Kids Dash for Cash at intermission. Thank you to Linda and Mary Howell for spearheading this event from the T-Shirts to Bicycles to the money! Lots of kids went home with a little jingle in their pocket. Thank you to everyone who works behind the scenes making happen all the fun we have each week at I-35 Speedway.
