One hundred and eleven (111) racecars were in attendance to compete this past Saturday night at I-35 Speedway. If you were in attendance you saw 20 heat races, 1 B feature, and 9 A main feature races, or put another way 124 laps of green flag heat races and 128 laps of green flag feature racing. Two hundred and fifty-two(252) laps of racing plus a superb fireworks show to end the night. Wow, what a racing bargain!

Compare the amount of racing you received on this night to the 167 laps of racing of a Sprint Cup race at Kansas Speedway where the price for a seat ranges from $29 to $139 depending on where you sit. At I-35 Speedway you choose your desired seat.

Thank you to everyone who donated to help Mike Knight, long time local track prep guru. I first met up with Mike at I-70 Speedway in 1994 and we have worked together ever since at I-70 Speedway, Lakeside Speedway, Linn County Speedway (Pleasanton), and here at I-35 Speedway. Mike loves being on a tractor whether it was sweeping the asphalt in the asphalt days or working the dirt, he loved being a behind the scenes person. He always took pride in his work and hopefully with your help we will see him back at the racetrack. Again thank you!

Time to take stock of where we are in the feature winners category now that we are more than half way through the 2016 race season. The most competitive class continues to be the B Mod class as in 13 nights of racing we have had 10 different winners, that folks is competition. In the A Mods there have been 6 different winners, the Charger class has seen 4 different winners, the E Mod class has had 4 different winners (Matt Dorssom is having an outstanding season with 10 wins), Pure Stock has had 5 different winners, and the Stock Car class has had 3 different winners.

Those who have taken home a trophy in our regular weekly classes this year include Randy Ainsworth, Steve Clancy, Tim Eaton, Nic Hanes, Trevor Hunt, Doug Keller, Dustin Miller, Ed Noll, Steve Starmer, Shadren Turner, Dennis Elliott, Derrick Hicks, Aaron Marrant, Zach Sanders, Darren Shaw, Cory Wray, Jeff Dixon, Houston Johnson, Buz Kaster, Travis Walker, Casey Burnett, Matt Dorssom, Robert Fisk, Daniel Harris, Jay Barnes, Tobin Bartlett, Carson Masoner, Connor Masoner, Austin McKinzie, Jason Estes, and Dean Wray.

I again want to give a huge shout out to the E Mod class. These drivers loving competing against each other and at the end of the night they laugh and congratulate each other. After their heat races each week the top 8 in passing points have a redraw and meet at the pit concession during the Charger heat race. Along with Matt Dorssom having an outstanding season he is also very good at drawing a great starting spot, on the other hand Randy Smith is the unluckiest when it comes to the draw. Watching the camaraderie with these guys behind the scenes is priceless!

We again want to thank Mother Nature. There have been a couple of pictures circulated on social media showing the thunderstorms to the south while Mother Nature allowed us to complete the night of racing. Her sharing of moisture this past week sure made the grass grow as owner Mike Johnson completed all the mowing while yours truly was doing all the weed eating and I hate weed eating! Mr. Johnson also did a terrific job on the track again this week, sheep’s footing, packing, grading, and watering the track, and guess what, he hates watering like I hate weed eating, but from the comments we have received we must be good at what we dislike.

This week let’s give a shout out to the great team of workers who make every race night a great night of fun at I-35 Speedway. From showing up early to staying well past the last checkered flag of the night we have an outstanding team of workers who work to make I-35 Speedway the great fun outstanding racetrack everyone wants to be at on Saturday night.