Thank you Mother Nature. Yes we got to race last weekend and we got in two makeup features from May 16, and we had a huge field of cars (124) and a grandstand full of race fans. The race fans definitely received their money’s worth with 19 Heats, 2 B features, and 9 feature events. To ensure the fans got the most for their money all trophy presentations were moved to the end of the night, intermission was five minutes (to give the officials a short needed potty break), and the races were run back to back. Thirty races for regular admission!

The day begins with decisions. The first decision was rather to race or not. Tracks were cancelling and yet Mother Nature was working with us, but to get there we had questions, would the track and grounds dry, and then would the crowd arrive? The decision was made at noon, let’s race.

The next major decision came at 4:30. What do we do with the track? The first item of business was to get the flag up so we can determine what direction the wind is blowing and how hard. The next decision was do we add water for the crumbs or not? After a couple of times around the track the decision was made no water let the pack trucks pack it in and let’s do racing. This decision led to an awesomely smooth track which would handle the 300 plus laps of racing.

Rookies are special, we had two new rookie drivers arrive for their first ever race? When asked why they chose to race, their answer was priceless, we just want to have fun! Isn’t that why we all get into racing, why we all look forward to getting to the racetrack, why we started in this sport, because we just want to have fun! We all need to remember the reason we started in this sport.

The funny of the week was in a conversation with Donnie Burlington I asked about his babies, Jake and Ellie. He said they were doing great and developing personalities of their own. Not only are these babies known in the racing world but their mother is my parents next door neighbor. Donnie made one statement which I still have a laugh, he stated he wanted to live long enough to see his children in racing and them giving me crap!

Finally I want to mention Shadren Turner. I observed him spin and keep going, no complaining, no stopping to bring out a yellow, just simply graceful acceptance of the results and by his actions he kept the racing going. Thank you Shadren!

That is it for this week, double non wing sprint features this next week. With the help of Mother Nature we look forward to another great night of racing at I-35 Speedway.