Richard: First off, we would be remiss if we did not mention the passing of legendary dirt racing figure Earl Baltes to start off this blog. The former owner of Eldora Speedway really helped bring dirt racing to the forefront with Late Model events such as the World 100, The Dream and the Eldora Million on his track in Rossburg, Ohio. He also promoted a number of other events with Sprint Cars that also aided in the rise of all dirt racing.
While there are many who may add to the legacy of a particular sport or whatever their chosen field might be, there are very few who truly shape the way of doing things in a given field. Mr. Baltes was one of those elite few.
Michael: Baltes was one of a kind. He was also ahead of his time regarding promotions. Many of today’s big late model events, and even big sprint car events, are a direct result of what Baltes did at Eldora.
The World 100 was one of the first big late model events. Others sprang up soon after his took hold. The Dream was the first late model event to pay $100,000 to the winner. The Eldora Million was a one-of-a-kind event. No one dared think of paying $1 million to a single winner.
His sprint car events were huge as well. The Kings Royal ranks right up there with the Knoxville Nationals in the sprint car world. Being crowned king is what separates those two events.
Richard: I think your wording of ‘one of a kind’ is the most appropriate way to describe Baltes and the things he did for racing.
Along the lines of race track promoting, that job has not been made easy during this early part of the season by weather. After having a couple of weekends here and all over the country completely washed out, it looked as if we might get in a full slate of activities this past weekend. That was until a steady and somewhat heavy rain fell virtually all day on Thursday.
As a result of that precipitation, Cleveland Speedway was put in a tough situation. Their track was not necessarily in terrible shape. However, the facility’s pit area was somewhat of a wasteland of mud and mess as the the track was scheduled to host a Southern Nationals Bonus race on Friday night.
On Thursday afternoon, forecasters were calling for the rain to move out and for Friday to be clear. So, track officials at Cleveland had to decide what to do. Ultimately, they opted to postpone their event.
Their call was eventually vindicated by the fact that forecasters proved to be wrong(imagine that) and the rain continued into Friday as well. Most fans and drivers were fine with the decision when it was made, but some voiced protest.
The thing everyone needs to understand is that promoters do not want to cancel races. They have, by the scheduled day of the event, invested money for promotion and labor in facility preparation for nothing.
It really is a no-win situation, isn’t it?
Michael: It really is a no-win situation when it’s not a clear-cut rain out. I know Tazewell Speedway caught some grief for postponing the Charles Trammell Memorial. But the track’s surface was too wet to even get anything on it to attempt to roll it in. The description given to me was that it was like quicksand.
Weather has been a real pain over the last couple of weeks. I was glad to see some racing get in this past weekend, but some other big events this weekend have already been rescheduled in other areas of the country.
I do have to give credit to Boyd’s Speedway for getting their race in on Saturday. The site tends to flood pretty easily. The pit area tends to stay pretty damp even a day or two after some heavy rain. But the crew there did a good job of basically rolling in the pit area where it wasn’t a muddy mess.
Richard: I’m glad you brought up the Saturday night race at Boyd’s Speedway. It was obvious that Dale McDowell, David Duplissey and the entire staff down there had done a tremendous amount of work, especially in that low lying pit area.
Another thing I commend Boyd’s for from Saturday was the fact that they did not run heat races in two classes that had fewer than 10 cars. On a night in which there was a special event, the Southern Nationals Bonus Series, there was no need for heats in the B-Hobby and Pony classes considering the low car counts in both. And I don’t say that because I am opposed to support classes. I say that because I am not a fan of the pointless, and to run heat races with less than 10 cars in any division is pointless.
And along another line from the Boyd’s race, Randy Weaver pulled off yet another win in a season that appears to be setting up as a big one for him. Further, it looks like his brand of chassis is also set for big things this year.
This past weekend, Longhorn Chassis came very close to a complete sweep of the big races around the country. Aside from Weaver’s victory, Jonathan Davenport won a Lucas Oil Late Model Dirt Series race in Ohio while Chris Ferguson won the Carolina Clash race at Carolina Speedway and Casey Roberts took the Ultimate Super Late Model Series contest at County Line Speedway. All of those drivers were in Longhorns.
The success of chassis brands seems to very much run in cycles and those cars built by former NASCAR champions Bobby and Terry Labonte are riding high right now.
Michael: First, I agree with you on the heat races for under 10 cars. I would like to see more of that. If anything, give the drivers a few extra laps in their feature to make up for time they didn’t get in a heat race. Watching a few cars heat race, then line up the way they finish for a feature race is rather redundant.
I talked to a couple of people familiar with the situation about Longhorn. Once they got some talented drivers in their new cars to show people what they could do, they have taken off. They are certainly the “hot car” of the moment. It will be interesting to see how long this lasts.
