February wrap up

[Boneman]

Now that was one fine stretch of racing! I ended up taking in 12 nights at 6 tracks during the whole Winternationals/World Series scene. My class was not on anyone’s schedule this year, so I didn’t get to drive a lap. But I made the best of it by being a fan or a crew member.

The best show that no one saw? NeSmith LM at BRP. Night 2 was excellent, but no more than 150 fans were on hand to see it.

Best event? Believe it or not, the Rolex 24 was the most fun I’ve ever had as a fan. That event has atmosphere by the bucket full!

I really enjoyed the World Series at NSS this year. On the 4 nights that I was there, the super LM and Pro LM were consistently good. The car counts were high, the destruction was low, but the traffic and competition made each race memorable. Well done!

I love the tour modified cars, and the fact that there were no start and parkers this year was neat. What will it take to get their car counts higher? They need more traffic.

What did everyone think of the USAC midgets? The fans didn’t seem to respond and the car count didn’t rise above “ok”. I think they sound really cool, and look hard to drive. Yes, they are fast, but they are also slower than the sprints they replaced. I am a sprint car fan, and I hope the TBARA returns to the World Series in 2014.

Prediction for the Battle at the Beach: it will be back, and may include a few tweaks. Maybe the track straights need to be in better proportion with the curves. It will be back with the TV, the prestige, and lots more out of state cars than we would have had otherwise. The key is figuring out a way to get those cars to stay and be involved in the World Series…

I don’t think there is anything wrong with the Gen 6 cars at Daytona. When the drivers decided to get out of line and race to the end, the cars could pass and run side by side. They just have to be driven like its the last 5 laps.

Regrets? I’ve had a few. But then again, too few to mention. For the first time in many years I didn’t get to Volusia at all. The Wednesday and Thursday rain-outs did it, then I had a last minute change of plans on another night. I’m sure they put on some excellent races, as usual, but now it will be dark all year…

[ancrdave]

Actually planned on attending several events this year but got bummed out early when the first Wed/Thu shows at Volusia got rained out… That meant I didn’t get my Sprint Car “fix” this year as both Ocala and East Bay are just too far away for me right now…

Went to NSS on the opening Friday and on Saturday… Very disappointed with the car counts - even though there were around 30 Super and Pro LM this event should draw well over 40-50 like before - Tour Mods were very low on count but at least there were 5-6 really good cars that ran close all week - Could not believe they could only get 15-18 regular Modifieds and the Truck field, as expected, was quite low… Despite the less than expected car counts (you do expect more for $35) the racing was very good for the most part… I went back on Thursday and saw one of the best shows as far as competition goes that I’ve seen at NSS in some time… Although the winners in 3 of the 4 races ran away with it at the end, each race was very good… Hopefully the NASCAR sanction will help improve the Mod Tour field next year… 30 of these things on the track (that used to be the norm years ago) at one time is a thing of beauty and it takes a couple of days for your hearing to return to normal…

Was planning on attending the Modified Reunion on Friday but got tied up with tours at the Archives, so missed it again this year…

Still attended three shows at Volusia - UMP LM/Mods on Tuesday and UMP/WOO LM’s and Big Block Mods on Wed/Sat… Hands down, this was a SHOW every night, easily worth the price of admission… 47 LM on Tuesday, 55 on Wednesday and 46 on Saturday… Big Blocks brought a nice group of 37… The track was incredible! Have never seen the place so racey with three and even four-wide racing during the features… The McCreadie/Lanigan/Moyer finish on Wednesday was incredible and Brett Hearn’s last-lap pass on Saturday was something to see… Only got to see the UMP Mods on Tuesday but their three feature events were great and it was cool to see my buddy Schrader get that big Gator trophy… They said 90 UMP Mods raced over a week-long period… The Saturday crowd was absolutely huge - the 50/50 paid $991!!!

Did not go to anything at Daytona even though I could get tickets if I wanted them… Just no fun in it for me anymore going over there… Despite the big crash that put a pall over things, the Nationwide race was the best of the week… The package they have is really good and makes for excellent racing… The Truck race was pretty decent and was glad to see Sauter win… The Duels and the 500 were both boring as heck… Thank goodness there were enough cautions to at least keep the field close in the 500… Really wish that last caution had not happened because I could tell that Biffle was really setting himself up to win it until they started Keselowski on the inside line and that really screwed things up… So Johnson wins - whoopee - even the paint job on his car is lame… The ARCA race was boring and the Battle of the Beach was embarrassing for NASCAR but the crowd that comes to watch the crashes had to be ecstatic…

Best National Anthems: That group that sang before the Nationwide race (can’t remember the name) and Casey Feaster at Volusia…

Why do they always get some lame actor to give the command to fire engines for the 500? You know who should have had that honor? Glen and Leonard Wood on the 50th anniversary of their 1963 win…

So now the regular season begins… plenty of questions to be answered…

Will the Gen 6 car put on better races on the “cookie cutter” tracks?

Will OSW rebound under new management? (Same for DeSoto)

Will Punta Gorda fade into history?

Will Boneman win a TBARA Sprint Car feature?

Should be an interesting year…

[Frasson118]

I had a great time during this years events. Made it to 8 shows at 4 tracks, us the Mod Reunion, and the Beach Parade with antique race cars and cycles taking a lap of the old Beach course.

Had every intention of seeing the Sprints at Volusia, as I was already there, strolled the pits, then received a phone call talking me into the ARCA race instead.

Both shows at Ocala were kinda sub-par due to track conditions. It’s normally a very racey place, but the way it was prepped made it single groove. Not all that impressed.

ARCA race at Daytona… possibly the worst ARCA race I’ve ever witnessed. Just awful.

The Battle at the Beach started out pretty good, with a bunch of passing in the heat races, but that Mod feature was just a debacle. The K&N feature wasn’t the greatest, but it wasn’t the root canal pain that the Mod race was. If the track design isn’t improved, I’m one & done with this event.

The races at New Smyrna were for the most part very good. Some of the highlights were Cody Coughlins first ever win, Brandon Johnsons win in the Pro Late 100 with an underfunded family team. Kyle Benjamin & Steven Nasse had several nice battles during the week. Chuck Hossfeld pulled several dive-bomb moves in the Richie Evans race that made things VERY exciting. On asphalt, it’s very difficult to pick up a full car length on a competitive car… Hossfeld was picking up FOUR car lengths with his hard charging dives on Woody Pitkat. The Pro Truck race I saw was just terrible. I don’t know why the track insists on including these guys every year. They stink up a show, and with all the delays, intermissions, and whatnot that NSS does, they don’t need to top off a 45 minute intermission with a snoozefest of a race. NSS really does need to tighten up their show… almost 4 hours for a 4 division show is far too much.

All in all though, I did get to see a bunch of good races, some fair ones, and a couple awful ones. For my own curiosity, I will be looking back at the results and compiling a list of all the different racers I saw this month… I’m betting it’s around the 400 mark… and THAT is a lot of fun.