POSTED July 09, 2025

I was never prouder of our staff at the Mottville Speedway than I was this past 7-10 days! Most of us have worked together for at least 2-3 years now and we do blend in well together and get along well together.

Saturday, June 30 I came to the track about as low as it is possible for one human being to be emotionally! The worse part was I had no one to blame but myself-absolutely no one and that made it even tougher! Our staff sensed at once my low state and of course inquired as to what caused it and offered support which at that point I really needed! My low emotional estate continued Sunday and then Tuesday and Wednesday and for all 4 nights matters were made worse because in addition to race directing and announcing I had to also do the scoring! So I had my hands full!

Several staff members offered to send emails or make phone calls to help me and two drivers also made the same offer! Imagine drivers offering to help a promoter.  Expecting nothing in return but that is exactly the type of people we have at Mottville!

Well its always darkest before the dawn and Saturday, July 7 was one the happiest days of my life! The staff and many of the drivers were all smiles also and shared in my joy! So to all those who shared my grief and joy a heart felt thank-you! I think the experience will make me a better person! Some lessons are learned with a great deal of pain and this was one of them!

Had another very interesting experience on July 4. One of our drivers was unhappy with a couple of  other drivers and after the dash loaded his race car and drove to the front parking lot and came to the tower and sat beside me and we talked calmly as we had time. At intermission one of the driver’s he was unhappy with came to the tower and asked him to return to the pits and race! Where else but Mottville would this ever take place! It really made me proud to be a part of the Mottville Speedway and I truly believe “There is no place quite like it!”

Tim Baldwin brought a new Thunder Car to the track shortly after intermission Sunday and plans on running it himself this week-end! Melissa Worthington has now missed 4 nights in a row but clings to a narrow TC points lead. This division now looks very open to about one of 5 or 6 drivers for the points championship.

Meanwhile Paul Zimmerman took over the points lead in Mini Thunder Cars when Randy Morley had about 3 of his cars go bad on him and temporarily ran out of cars!

Our 4 cylinder 50 lapper paying $300 to win is this Wednesday! Holle’s Salvage in Syracuse and Connor’s Auto Salvage and Towing in Goshen are sponsoring our biggest 4 cylinder race ever and it will be most interesting to see how many cars we can get for this kind of pay-off! As far as I know Robert Teadt, Jr., David Fugate, Tim Palmer and Eric Goff will join our regulars for this show and I hear several more Galesburg cars are coming! Hard to tell you about the format for the show until we see how many cars we get but I can tell you the purse will be exactly as advertised no matter what the car count! Last Chance Races and a B feature depend totally on car count! Also the TC, MTC and Bombers will run and all 4 divisions will get triple points.

Speaking of Bombers we are now running them with SS until they have at least 6 cars. It is simply not cost effective for us to run them with less than 6. Unless things change dramatically between now and the end of the season I would guess we will not have Bombers as a class in 2002! It appears TC have eliminated the need for Bombers.

Meanwhile our SS car count has been great and when you add the Bombers to the SS we have been having about 8-11 cars per night and exciting racing! It was great to see rookie Jeff Brunt pick up his first career feature win ever Sunday night!

This Saturday night the Vintage Modifieds return to action and Sunday is Mid-Season Championship Night with picture plaques to all heat and dash winners and the top 5 in all “A” features.

That should make 37 nights of racing for 2001 out of a scheduled 75 which is very very close to halfway! The season is really zipping along fast!      

A couple weeks ago I mentioned about going for a national record 81 races in one calendar year. Well that threw a certain person into a big panic and anxiety attack and I can now tell you that we are not going for the national record! I am sure we will still be running 2-3 times more nights per season than any other track in the area but we will not go for 81! At the end of this season we will sit down and look things over and decide what worked and what did not work and come out with the 2002 schedule. I can tell you that

Sundays will stay in the schedule as they were most successful this season and Saturdays, of course. We may well cut out July 3 and Sundays in November, however. Depends on how Sundays go this November. Last year they were not good at all. Saturdays or some Saturdays in November could also be cut out of the schedule if results are not good this season.

Will close this column by giving my heart felt thanks to Lillie Pearson and Paul Scott for all their help above and beyond the call of duty this past week! I owe you both big time and will never forget it!

See you Wednesday, Saturday and Sunday at Mottville for some great racing!