POSTED MARCH 18, 2025
We
had our first postponement of the season Saturday! When I got up Saturday
morning it was 24 degrees and we had about 4 inches of new snow! The forecast
was for more snow and a high of 35 while the forecast for Sunday was a high of
46 and sunny! Since postponing to Sunday would not cost us a racing date I made
a quick decision to postpone. By 9:30 am David Schaefer had it on our web site
and David and I emailed the news to several speedway regulars. Our answering
machine at the track is supposed to be able to be changed via remote but
Saturday it would not so I made a quick trip to Mottville and changed the tape
recorder with the postponement announcement and then returned to Nappanee. While
at the track I observed a great deal of snow in the parking lot! Thursday
evening Tom Pearson had dragged the pits and parking lot and had spread out the
piles of dirt left over from snow plowing for Mottville Maddness and had it
looking great! But now the pit area was a muddy mess and I was glad again I had
postponed because it would have been full of deep ruts again if we raced
Saturday night! Anyway, by 11 am we had put the announcement out for anyone who
cared to find it!
I
want to stress here that if we scheduled to race on Sunday anyway then I would
never have cancelled for Saturday night and lost a race date! We would run in
the cold and mud and that would be that! But with a nice forecast for Sunday it
was a fairly easy call! By calling it early it saved our fans and drivers and
officials from making a trip for nothing and they knew several hours in advance!
Actually
the 10 day forecast is rather good in terms of low temps and if this holds we
will probably turn the water on in front this Thursday which will be nice! Worse
case would be March 29.
I
had an interesting email from a driver to our far north this week that I wanted
to share with you. Basically he asked me if his car were legal for Mottville in
the MS division what other tracks would it be legal for? Well I can not and will
not ever answer that question because I can never say as to be legal or not at
another track and frankly except for maybe 4-5 tracks in the area I have no idea
what divisions most tracks in Michigan are running! I only have Friday night to
go to other tracks! As for being legal we often hear drivers say they wish
several tracks in the area had the same rules! Well even if they did it would
not work because in the mid to late 1980’s Mottville and South Bend had the
same rules one season and even the same tires-stamped SWSB on the side! But the
reason it never worked was because the two tracks had totally different
officials and a car might be declared legal at one track and not legal at
another despite the fact the written rules were identical! But if you build your
car for Mottville you can run 74 nights per season plus two off season races and
for most drivers that is enough! If there are enough drivers out there who need
still more nights we could always add Fridays to our schedule but I seriously
doubt that will ever happen!
Sunday
as I was driving to the track and the warm sun came through the truck window I
was happy I had postponed! In Elkhart the temperature was 51 as
we got on the toll road to head to the track! We opened at 5 and raced at
6 and had the sun with us until intermission which was terrific! As expected the
car count was down some as was the crowd but actually the final figures were
close to the averages for the first two nights of racing so not bad for a
postponement and a Sunday!
The
crash at the finish line involving Larry Birk, Jean Behlke and Merle Yoder in
the MS heat was really exciting! Birk had easily won the dash and when the white
flag flew it seemed certain he would win the heat also but coming off of 4 he
went way to high and then overcorrected and spun into the center of the track
and Jean Behlke had no where to go except into Larry! Merle Yoder did a nice
piece of driving to avoid the two and won the race by inches over Behlke and
Birk!
The
Brown-Forsyth kart racing team really had bad luck! First Jessica Brown’s
engine blew and we took a slightly longer intermission and delayed the kart
feature to give them time to put a new engine in but no avail as their starter
broke! Well folks our mothers all warned us there would be nights like this!
I
had reports of many cars almost ready to run! The Dick Groves ss, Robert Teadt
Jr. MS, Barry Harrison MS, Dave Anthony TC were just a few of them! Melissa
Worthington, defending Bomber season points champion, was on hand for the first
time this season and says her car will be out as soon as Tim Baldwin gets it
ready! Melissa also reports her father, Richard Worthington, has started kidney
dialysis and we wish Richard the best!
This
week we hope to put a load of stone in the pit driveway to get it in better
shape for the spring rains coming up. Considering the amount of
snow we had Saturday the pits and parking lot were in pretty good shape!
Now
for dedication how about concession associate Becky Moore? Had her gall bladder
removed Thursday and reported for work at the track Sunday night! Now that is
dedication for sure!
Mike
Long came to Mottville Sunday night for the first time in many years and Mike
has been driving so long that he actually drove against me and I have not driven
since 1989!
As
we head for week 4 I am hoping for warmer and dryer weather but after 3 nights
of this 51st at Mottville I have no complaints at all!