Ninety-Five (95) racecars were in the pits for competition this past Saturday night. Twenty A Mods as drivers were coming to test the track in preparation for the USMTS/WAR Race scheduled for July 16, 2016. We even had a new guest class that was not on the schedule, a late Friday night telephone call led to the All Star Midget Series (ASMS) coming to compete at I-35 Speedway. This was very similar to earlier this year we had the Hobby Stock class come compete out of Iowa on very short notice.asms

What a great smooth track that held moisture all night providing two and sometimes three different lines through the turns. I bring up the track because Mike Johnson was the lone track preparer this week. Mike Knight, long time dirt track guru in the area, is battling some medical conditions and unable to help at this time. Our thoughts and prayers are with him in his recovery.

Again we want to thank Mother Nature, she did give us rain this past week, Monday night the track received over 6 inches of rain, but the rest of the week was hot and dry allowing for the dirt track preparations and weekly maintenance to occur so everyone can come have fun. What is weekly maintenance you may ask, why picking up trash including driver tear offs (thank you everyone who utilizes the trash barrels), mowing, weed eating, plumbing repair, floor repair, window cleaning, painting, ordering and purchasing product and then stocking, weed spraying, equipment maintenance, mopping, sweeping, fence repair, computer maintenance, and did I mention cleaning? Quite a bit of this work is done by the owners of the track themselves, Mike and Kyle Johnson, so tell them thank you when you see them. They take pride in their racing facility and share it with us each week for our enjoyment and fun.

We all come to the track to have fun, correct? From the racers who are on the track in competition to the fans who enjoy watching the racers to the workers who are behind the scenes assisting with some of the weekly maintenance to the children. This week in particular I want to thank Colten the young man who each time I went to the tower was there to open the gate for me. It actually came to be quite the game as Roxanne, who sits in front of the tower one row removed from the top each week, was trying to tell Colten not to be so nice to me. It was great to see a young man in Colten have a servant attitude and want to help. This fun little game earned both Colten and Roxanne an ice cream sandwich treat. Helping others can be so fun and so rewarding!

This week we have FIREWORKS! Yes we will be celebrating the United States of America’s 240th Birthday! It will again be another night of fun. Oh and it is Wear Your Royals clothes night at the Races! Theme nights is something the younger generation has come to enjoy and at I-35 Speedway we are letting it grow!

Speaking of the younger generation, it was great this past week watching some of the “older” folks take the time to teach the next generation of racer. This week in particular we want to give a shout out to John Hanson driver of the 2H Modified. I watched him teach Austin Johnson all about KSE fuel pumps. Austin listened and learned as John made him take it apart and put it back together. hanson If anyone has an example like this, please let me know. We want to publicize the passing down of racing knowledge from one generation to another, whether it be father/son or pit crew to pit crew.

Social Media comments of the week – Randy Smith E Mod second place to Matt Dorssom E Mod first place – “I should have let you win the heat and you let me win the A feature, lots of laughs”. Again two competitors having fun the way it should be!

From Debbie Epperson – First time at this track tonight. Thanks to them for having ASMS on short notice. What a beautiful track and great employees. They are very organized there which I love. The track owner came and met all of us and thanked us for being there. What a great place! I hope we spend many more race nights there in the near future!

From Mike Epperson: I had a blast racing there last night very nice facility and friendly helpful officials sure was nice having push trucks available to push us around. Hope you guys invite us back again soon.

From Craig Reynolds: Had a lot of fun last night racing the 14x finishing 4th. Track was fast! Tech and officials are consistent, awesome place to race. Thanks to the Boller Racing Family and my buddy Jimmy Masoner! It’s been about 7 years since the last time I was in a racecar. Thanks again to everybody that has helped make this happen.

Photos courtesy of Judy Staley.