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Monday, August 11, 2014

Just my Opinion....

What a weekend. Central PA has been blessed the past few weeks with some great weather and with that has come some great racing. Saturday night Lance Deweese showed everyone once again he still has it by picking up win number 4 on the season at Port Royal, while at Lincoln Speedway former 358 track champion Tim Wagaman picked up his first career 410 feature win in an awesome 33 lap feature which saw the lead change 4 times in the last 2 laps. Wagaman, Bill Dietrich, and soon to be crowned Lincoln Speedway Track Champion Alan Krimes put one hell of a show on for the fans. The 358 feature was won by the Central PA 358 Point Series presented by Capitol Renegade point leader Brad McClelland, but it was noty a cake walk. Jeff Rorhbaugh was about to take the lead when a caution came out saving McClelland and the win. Not sure how many people where watching the battle for the lead however as youngster Chase Dietz was once again putting on a passing clinic coming from the rear after a spin on lap two and passing everyone on the high side to finish 3rd at the finish.

Which leads me to my first thought.....

Had a person tell me a few months back that during a conversation with a well respected driver at Lincoln Speedway, that this driver thought the talent at Lincoln was the weakest he had ever seen at the track. I couldn't believe it, then I got to thinking about his remarks and I can understand why he thinks this. How many "Big dogs" run at Lincoln on a weekly basis? Danny Dietrich, Brent Marks, Brian Montieth, and Alan Krimes are the only drivers this person would agree to are the "Big Dogs" at Lincoln. Looking at it from that pointy of view I guess he has a point, but I told him look at the future and tell me Lincoln Speedway wont be stacked in a few years? You have so many young hungry drivers that have just moved into the 410 division from the 358 division that once they get comfortable they are going to dominate the area for a long time....If they stick around. Look at this list of young drivers that race at Lincoln Speedway on a normal week...

Austin Hogue
Robbie Kendall
Freddie Rahmer
Gerard McIntyre, Jr.
Kyle Moody
Tyler Ross

Shane Hoff
Brandon Rahmer
Ryan Wilson

Nathan Berwager

All these drivers are Young and just moved into the division. You know what I see? The future of 410 racing in Central PA. Need a few more names to add to that list?

Chase Dietz
Chandler Leiby
Matt Campbell
Jeff Halligan
Tyler Esh
Kody Lehman

All YOUNG and hungry 358 drivers who are showing that they are going to take sprint car racing into the next decade and make sure our are is still on of the best in the country. They might not have the name recognition of Doug Esh, Lance Deweese, Chad Layton, or Blane Heimbach, but these youngsters are our future and the more people choose to ignore them, the more surpised they are going to be when they hear their names called in Victory Lane and read about them in AARN. And I'm speaking directly to you all in the media who ignore the young and rising stars of our sport in Central PA.



Now I'm about to say something that's probably going to piss a lot of people off, but you all know me I'm used to that. Ready?

Tony Stewart please stay away from our local short tracks and stick to racing in NASCAR!!!!

There I said it, and guess what you should be as well. Saturday night once again Mr. Stewart shined the big bright spotlight of  the National media on our sport and not in a good way. I'm not getting into what happened as enough people have already covered that and know way more about it then I do or ever will. My opinion and my reasoning for asking Mr. Stewart to stay away from local short track racing is a simple one. How many times has Tony made National headlines because of something he did that was bad? A bad wreck, him being hurt, and now what happened on Saturday night. News stations like ESPN and Fox Sports 1 could care less about sprint car racing unless Tony does something bad. Well guess what? Its hurting our sport. Did any National media cover Tony racing last Saturday at Selinsgrove Speedway? Whats that? No? Of course they didnt. Wanna know why? Because he didn't make any news by doing it. But low and behold he has an incident at a track and I have to hear Ricky Craven tell millions of sports fans that sprint cars have two way radios and spotters. Really? 

See right there is my point. Because of Mr. Stewarts actions people that really have no idea about our sport are covering it and telling people who have no clue abut our sport some Bullshit and guess what? They will now believe it. Is that going to help our sport? All the unneeded attention brought to our sport by Tony is not worth it any longer. I understand why he still enjoys racing sprint cars on his off nights, and he has every right to do it, but at this point he would be better served to help promote the sport in other ways then driving a sprint car. If he still feels the need to race on dirt, build a track in your back yard and drive in circles until your heart is content. At this point your hurting our sport more then your helping it.

But then again that's just my opinion.

Like always please feel free to yell at me and tell me I have no clue about what I'm talking about. Leave a comment in the comment section of this article, just dont be a chicken and leave your real name. You can also hit me up on twitter  
@BillMcIntyreIII or shoot me an email at boogermac420@inbox.com. 

Until next time, I'm Bill McIntyre and thank you for reading.