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Sunday, March 20, 2016

My Thoughts on a Racing Weekend gone by.....

Hello and welcome back to another edition of My Thoughts on a racing weekend gone by. This weekend saw Williams Grove Speedway kick off its 2016 racing season with a surprise winner in victory lane, Lincoln Speedway fall to rain for the 1st time in 2016, and Port Royal get week two in the books with an old but young face back in victory lane for the 4th time in 7 races going back to 2015.

Friday night saw the start of the 77th racing season, and Rick Lafferty scoring the big and popular win. The win worth $3,800 was his first win in 3 years at the historic half mile. Greg Hodnett, the hottest driver in Central PA so far this season took the lead on lap 20 only to break on lap 21 handing the victory to Rick. Second was Freddie Rahmer, with Danny Dietrich, Aaron Ott, and Steve Buckwalter rounding out the top 5.

With Lincoln falling to rain, Port Royal found itself the only ball game in town Saturday night and Brent Marks would make good on his 3rd starting spot passing race long leader Dylan Cisney to pick up hist first win of the season and incredibly his 4th win at Port Royal in the last 7 races going back to the end of the 2016 season. That is incredible!!! No wonder Brent made the switch and made Port Royal his Saturday night home most weeks in Central PA. Great run for Cisney coming home 2nd after finishing 4th last week. The youngster looks to be a strong contender to the top dogs Hodnett and Wolfe in 2016. Speaking of Hodnett he would finish third, Doug Esh would finish 4th and TJ Stutts would back up his strong 2nd place finish last Saturday finishing 5th.

Going to be doing something new this season here in My Thoughts articles, and that's passing out some report card style grades to  drivers. This week I will be covering the first month of the season, then starting next week, I will be grading just that weeks racing. This will help keep my articles a little shorter (and yeah I can hear you all now....THANK GOD !!!!) but will also give you a little more to think about as I start posting the power rankings here on the site. Just a little bit more to think about after a weekend of racing in Central PA. Now remember the power rankings will be based off of each teams stats. No bias from track to track, if you win or finish top 5 you will have a strong showing, If not? Good luck making the rankings.

So lets kick start the 2016 season off with style...

A+
Greg Hodnett - 2 wins so far, might have been 3 Friday night

A
Brian Montieth - 1 win and 2 top 5's

B
Brent Marks - Win number 1 last night at Port Royal gets this youngster going early. Watch out folks.
Rick Lefferty - Win number 1 for the 2014 Port Royal Champion.
Bill Dietrich - Picked up his 1st win in 2 years last week at Lincoln Speedway. A much needed win I might add.

B-
Danny Dietrich - Still looking for win number 1, but this guys deserves credit for not being afraid to race anywhere. 2 top 5's and 2 top 10's.
Adam Wilt - The driver from York is having himself a nice start to the 2016 season at Lincoln Speedway.
Freddie Rahmer - Watch out folks, this kid will be in victory lane a lot in 2016.
TJ Stutts - 2 top 5's to begin 2016 at Port. Would love to see someone give this guy another shot in a 410.
Dylan Cisney - 2 top 5's to kick of the season at Port. Could this be the big breakout season for the hometown kid?

That folks is what you will have to look forward to every week here on the site. When the other divisions get started in the next few weeks we will be adding more names to the list. Hope you all enjoy it.

1 Final thing.....

You know I had a come to Jesus moment this weekend while doing some shopping with the family on Saturday. I wrote am article about Real Race Fans and how they think they are better then normal race fans, and it finally hit me after hearing it again this week. They are right. I am not a real race fan. To be honest I might not be a race fan at all anymore. Calm down folks, I'm not done going to the races every week, and I damn sure still love the thrill of watching these cars go around in circles on clay at speeds I will never know, and pushing boundaries I will never see. But here is the kicker, i don't think I am a "Race" fan any more. I am a fan of hanging out with my friends and family, AT THE TRACK I might add, watching the sport I still love. Does that make sense? I think for me, it's more about getting together with my friends on Friday and Saturday nights, sharing the joys of a cold beverage whatever you may be drinking, and busting each others balls about stupid stuff, complaining about how crappy work was that week, or if you saw the newest and coolest thing to watch on YouTube of Face Book. Sitting there while our little ones play with their race cars in front of us taking up way to much room, and just enjoying being together. You know the same thing millions of people do every weekend all summer long. Some like to get the fire pit started and just listen to the radio and drink beer while the kids roast marshmallows and their dad drinks 1 to many and almost falls in the fire every week. We all, and yes I'm including all of you that read this site, are just people that enjoy doing it at a race track instead.

You know it is OK to skip a race to take your kids to a movie, or a baseball game, or hell miss an Outlaw race because your daughter is playing in her 1st Halloween parade (and yes I did have someone give me shit for that last year). It's cool to just want to be with your family at home just as much as it is wanting to be at the track. Guess what I have found out folks? You still wake up the next day, just some of us with a slight worse headache from the beer, just like the awesome fans who made it to the track. Only difference is? We have to go find them as soon as we get the the next race and ask them why everyone was talking about this drivers not so clean slide job, or the incredible race for 10th that almost nobody saw because they where watching the leader the entire race.

That's all for this week folks. Next week we have even more racing to get into and for myself, the most exciting weekend yet. Friday night the 410 sprint cars ( or Williams Grove Sprint cars as Bruce calls them)are back at Williams Grove with the Super Late Models. Saturday at Lincoln the 410's have their Spring Championship along with the 2016 season opener for the Central PA 358 Point Series and the 358 division. Up at Port Royal the 410's are with the UFO Late Models. Susquehanna Speedway will kickoff it's most anticipated season ever when the Super Sportsman kick off at their new home. For those that might want an extra bit of racing to watch Trail Way Speedway will try again to get their 2016 season opener in the books with heats for the micro's going off at 1 Pm.

I will see everyone Saturday night at Lincoln Speedway, but until then I hope your work week goes extra fast, your beverage of choice stays Ice Cold, and your racing action at whatever race track you show up stays red hot.

©Bill McIntyre & Central PA Racing Scene.com 2016

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