POSTED MAY 29, 2025  

Our first triple header week-end of the 2001 is now history and to say the least it was interesting and exciting!

Rain started about 2:30 Saturday afternoon and after checking weather maps and the Chicago weather (which usually comes our way!) I figured then it would be 8 pm before we could run on Saturday and it was!

It rained until about 7:15 pm Saturday but we had 16 stock cars and 3 karts and I was determined to race! First of all one of the main reasons we do not run late models of any kind is because I want to be able to race with bad weather and when you are faced with paying late models and no crowd you cancel! So most of the drivers tried hot lapping in the rain and David Schaefer must have hot lapped for 45 minutes! He found out where to race on the track and came out and won the dash, heat and feature!

As far I know we were the only track around that raced! I told our drivers in a meeting Monday that our policy for weather is not to cancel! If we have 12 cars I want to find a way to race!

The old myth that a wet track is a dangerous track was certainly proved false Saturday night! We only used the wrecker once and that was during hot laps when Randy Morley spun into the wet infield and got stuck! Speed kills and injures but when the track is wet you can not speed! In fact there were far more wrecks and spin outs Monday on a dry track than Saturday on a wet track!

Sunday we had dark skies and cool weather most of the day and some light rain off and on but after we opened no rain at all! Again the cool and threatening weather hurt the car count some but we had 31 stock cars and 8 karts. Included in the 31 stock cars were 6 vintage mods. Another good show and Jamie Kline found that driving a thunder car the wrong way around the track was a lot of fun and she won her first feature ever! The Aumack brothers-Nathan and Mike raced MTC for the first time and looked very good and both told me they had a great time! Paul Scott finally got his SS ready and gave the crowd a thrill during lot laps at intermission when he went into the woods off turns 3 and 4 and knocked down a pretty good sized tree! He then painted “tree killer” on the hood of his car!

Monday the weather was great! Sunny and around 70! We had our largest crowd of the season and our high stock car count for the season with 42 plus 3 karts! Due to registering cars and Tom Pearson changing tires and late arrivals we started 30 minutes late and then had a lot of cautions and as a result the program lasted late but I never heard one complaint! Merle Yoder pulled off a major upset in winning the MS feature over Rod Roberts and Robert Teadt, Jr. Merle had one car during hot laps and was not satisfied with it and took it home and got back just in time for the dash in a 2nd car! By the final 2 laps of the 25 lap feature Roberts was closing the gap on Yoder but ran out of laps! The victory was worth a nice $100 to Yoder!

We had a season high 13 MS Monday and a season high 10 SS! The SS feature was equally exciting as Joe Reaume appeared to have it won but before spinning coming out of turn 4 and having to restart on the tail! Randy Morley really had to work for his 14^th feature win of the season! At one point Richard Eastman was moving up fast and got to 3^rd but he, too, spun and went back to the tail and settled for 4^th!Terry Kline was having steering problems but drove a steady race and finished 2^nd! Morley took home $125 for his win and Kline $90 for 2^nd! Scott Baker was very impressive and came home 3^rd for $75!

The Thunder Cars also were most exciting! First when Eric Root's rollover over on the front stretch! I really want to thank Eric for that, doing it when we had our largest crowd of the season and right on the front stretch and on the very start of the race so everyone could see it! Anyway Eric has a rollover trophy coming at the banquet! There was a great deal of rubbing and banging in the TC feature and when the cars were turned around once again it was Jamie Kline winning! She had never won a feature before and now has two in two nights! She managed to get into first early on the restart and Melissa Worthington and Tom Dowling had big problems getting around Brave Dave Anthony and by the time they did Jamie had too big a lead on them!

Speaking of running the wrong way around the track Paul Zimmerman really can do it also! He won the MTC for his 3^rd feature win of the season and is giving Morley a great battle for the points lead!

The pork bbq and sloppy joe sandwiches were a tremendous success! Heard nothing but good things about them and we sold a big bunch of them! I want to thank Ersell Eby for giving me the idea on them!

For more of what took place after and before the racing see the comments from David Schaefer and Rita Courtney on the bulletin board!

When I finally got to bed at 2:30 am Tuesday morning I was still excited about the triple header week-end! WE had more campers in the front and back then I have ever seen in 11 years at Mottville!

By the way Mottville Speedway had a new look for the week-end as we finally got the old bleachers out that we have not used in years! Now we have space for new bleachers and I think we have figured out how to get a concrete truck in to pour a slab for a lawn chair area! Also down the road I am seriously considering building a pavilion like Plymouth has for picnics and group outings, probably at the end of the front stretch near turn 4.

Also I am most seriously considering building a roof over the pit bleachers for when it rains or snows!

Anyway we have now completed 27%of our schedule for the year! Time really goes fast when you are having fun!

While the month of May was again a challenge it was far better this year than in past years! June has also been a most challenging (and sometimes discouraging ) month but I am confident it will also be better this season than in past seasons! SS have actually been doing better than I had planned and MS not as well (until Monday) . But what I hope to see very soon are far more TC and MTC! If you really want a low budget car and a great deal of fun they are way to go!

So remember rain or snow  or cold or sun we are racing at Mottville again this Saturday and Sunday and I hope to see you there!