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Monday, September 14, 2015

My Thoughts On A Racing Weekend Gone By...

Hello and welcome to another edition of my thoughts on a racing weekend gone by. First thing, I need to say is thank you to everyone who checked out last weeks article and took the time to respond to me via Facebook, Twitter, or by text because I received a lot of good strong feedback from not only race fans, but drivers, crew members, and family who loved the article, so thank you very much for the kind words.

Please don't forget the week after the National Open we will be starting the voting for the 410 and 358 drivers of the year as well as the best track in Central PA. Those three award winners will be receiving plaques from Central PA Racing Scene but; we will also be having the fans vote on the 360 and 305 drivers of the year, as well as the 358 rookie of the year and many other categories, so make sure you keep checking the site so you don't miss your chance to cast your vote and have your voice be heard.


This weekend we had four tracks in Central PA scheduled to have racing; but only two of them actually saw any racing action. Friday night, Trail Way Speedway and Port Royal Speedway got their races in; but rain hit the area on Saturday in a big way which forced the cancellation of the final 360 race at Selinsgrove Speedway as well as the last points race for the 358 division at Lincoln Speedway. With the cancellation Doug Hammaker is your 2015 Lincoln Speedway 358 Track Champion giving him three titles so far and can wrap up his fourth on September 25th at Williams Grove Speedway just be taking hot laps. Doug has a 119 point lead over Brad McClelland in the Central PA 358 Point Series presented by Capitol Renegade. If Brad doesn't race that night (and we will explain why he might not in a few minutes) then Doug will be crowned the series champion for 2015 just by taking hot laps. He then will make his bid for title #5 in the feature event as Doug is 20 points out of the lead heading into that race at Williams Grove Speedway. Chase Dietz is looking to play spoiler and keep Doug from making history as the 1st driver to win 5 titles in 1 season in the 358 division.


Down at Trail Way Speedway, Brad McClelland would take the lead from Rick Horn on lap three and would go on to wire the field for his 7th win at the bullring and 8th overall in 358 competition. Upon exiting his 6r machine, Brad told the fans in attendance that he was pretty sure that was his last race in the Rucker 6r machine. A machine that saw him win 24 races in three years with the team. Brad a former 410 National Rookie of the Year sits 2nd all time in the 358 division and has well over 100 win at Trail Way in both 358 and 270 micro action to go along with his 410 wins at Lincoln Speedway. So from all of us here at Central PA Racing Scene, Thank you Brad for entertaining us all these years at our local race tracks, now go enjoy your retirement and get that 35 410 sprinter to the front.


Isaac Sneeringer would finish 2nd to McClelland on Friday night and would be crowned the 2015 Trail Way Speedway Track Champion. Sneeringer would win the back to back features to start the year off, and would go wire to wire in his bid for his first track championship.


All eyes were on Port Royal Speedway this weekend for the running of the 2015 Tuscarora 50 and the weekend would be dominated by one driver. Brent Marks would win back to back to back at the big half mile cashing in for a weeks total of $12,625. Not bad for a driver who has been a steady top 5 car all year until crashing victory lane last Monday for the 1st time in 2015. Brent would best the All Star's and 47 cars Friday night (which by the way is the largest car count of any race in Central PA in 2015). The teams headed back to Port on Saturday night even with rain covering most of Central PA, but just as the race teams where ready to push off and get started, the rain would start and force the postponement of the race to Sunday evening.


Not that it would matter much as Brent would take home his first Tuscarora 50 by taking the lead from Sheldon Haudenschild after the red flag to refuel on lap 25 and would walk away with the win. Brent started 13th on the grid and would work his way through the field with a little help along the way. Brent would essentially dub himself the King of the Speed Palace/ Fair Week with the three big wins on the week. The top Central PA winner Greg Hodnett would spin on the start of the feature collecting Ryan Smith and Curt Stroup. Then  Doug Esh and Danny Dietrich would get together racing for the lead, causing both of them to suffer damage and head to the pits. Dietrich would show the Port fans what the fans at Lincoln Speedway see every Saturday night, a passing monster, as he would work his way back to a 5th place finish.


Now I want to go back to Saturday night for a minute if you all don't mind. Anyone who has a smart phone and knows how to work them could check the radar and see rain was forecast for all of Saturday. I wasn't real happy with the forecast because I was hopping to see the final points race at Lincoln Speedway for the 358 division, but I was ready for the inevitable rain that hit early Saturday morning. Now this didn't stop some race fans from running their mouths on social media once again complaining about how Port Royal should have cancelled the race earlier and not made everyone drive up there only to get rained out. Well guess what you dolts? If you had half a brain you could have seen it was going to rain and it was going to be tough to get the race in on Saturday at any race track, let alone Port Royal Speedway. It is Port Royal's biggest race of the season and they did what they could to get the race in as scheduled, only to fall to mother nature. So why do "Fans" go running to social media once again just to piss and moan because the track didn't race? Because they have nothing better to do? I mean come on, they did their best to get it in. If they would have cancelled early and then the rain stopped and it got nice out, then you would have cried that they should have gotten the race in if they tried earlier.


Sad part is just like last week where I saw a 358 driver calling out another driver on social media, this week it was a member of the "Gang" who took to social media to complain about Port Royal. Now how much sense or even better how much help did it do to go and run down a race track that is part of the sport you supposedly do so much for? Why put down a race track just because you don't agree with what they tried to do Saturday? It would make more sense that someone who claims to be a "Promoter" of the sport to get on Facebook and tell the track how much we the race fans appreciate the track trying, instead of you and your fans putting down the track for trying. But hey that's just my opinion, who am I?


Keep checking the site this week as I will be posting an additional article taking a look at some of the things going on locally here in Central PA. Hope to have it posted sometime Wed or Thursday.


Well that's it for this week. The coming weekend will see Williams Grove back in action Friday night with the 410's and ARDC midgets in action. Saturday night Lincoln Speedway will host the Sportsman 100 for the super sportsman and Selinsgrove Speedway will host the 410 sprinters in the Jim Nace Memorial 410 National Open. Hope everyone has a great time this weekend, as I will be down in Baltimore catching the Shindig Festival with Anthrax, Clutch, STP and the mighty Godsmack. Sorry folks but somethings are just better then racing and live music is 1 of them.


But like always I hope your work week goes fast, the weather stays warm, your beverage of choice stays nice and cold, and your racing, no matter where you decide to go, stays red hot. Until next time, have a great week.


© William McIntyre & Central PA Racing Scene 2015

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