POSTED September 17, 2001

Yogi Berra is quoted as saying “its not over till it’s over!” That saying was certainly true at the Mottville Speedway Sunday night as Joe Reaume took the white flag on the 25 lap Street Stock feature with Tom Myers right on his rear bumper! As the cars went into turn 2 Reaume went to the outside and exited the track and went straight to his trailer in the pits giving Myers a most unexpected second feature victory in 2 nights of racing at Mottville!

Reaume later reported that he felt a vibration in the car and did not see the white flag fly! Myers raced at Mottville for the first time in several years Saturday night and scored an easy victory over Randy Morley! Morley came home a shocked 2^nd again Sunday night!

But the surprise of the week-end in the Street Stock division had to be Matt Buzzard!  Saturday night he won the dash , was 2^nd in the heat and 3^rd in the feature and then came back Sunday night and won the dash again and was again 3^rd in the feature! He put on 2 new Good Year’s Saturday night and also reported that he found a problem in the suspension of the car which made it now handle much better! You could certainly see the difference! Wow!

Saturday before opening we put “GOD BLESS AMERICA” on both sides of the billboard on US 12 and before the National Anthem had a prayer and moment of silence for the victims and their loved ones of the Tuesday horror that struck our nation ! The prayer was also for guidance for our nation’s leaders in dealing with the crisis we now find ourselves in. Many people wore American flags and many of the cars had them on also plus we had a flag on the center tower and in the pits!

Morley recorded his 8^th TC feature win Saturday night with a very close victory over points leader Eric Root! David Terry is starting to find the feel of his new TC and recorded a 2^nd in the dash, 2^nd heat and 3^rd in the feature! Charlie Adams came all the way from Marne (Berlin Speedway) to race at Mottville and won the heat and was 5^th in the feature!

Jason Schaefer won his 6^th MS feature of the season with Merle Yoder a close 2^nd! John Yoder was 3^rd and told me Sunday night he plans on getting serious about passing Jean Behlke and David Schaefer in the points race and will even buy two new Good Years soon!

Once again the karts put on a terrific show! Eric McGlothlen won his 3^rd feature of the season by a hair over Greg Brown! Bill Stump raced for the first time at Mottville and was 3^rd!  In the dash and heat it was Greg Brown just nipping McGlothlen! Jessica Brown had to scratch for the night with mechanical woes which was a major bummer!

Scott Baker returned to Mottville Sunday after a long absence and purchased 4 new Good Year’s and was 2^nd in the dash and 4^th in the feature! It has been too quiet at Mottville while Scott was gone and he changed that very quickly!

Tim Baldwin raced his truck in the SS division for the first time this season and promises to be a regular from now on!

Sunday Root recorded his 7^th TC feature win! Fred Collins had a rough night, tangling with Terry coming out turn 2 in the dash and then scraping the backstretch wall in the feature big time but still came home 4^th despite it all! He is a gamer!

Bill Crapo came out in his new TC both nights but had a tire blow each night! Speaking of Bill he had really done a terrific job of mowing at the track and this past week graded the pits, parking lot and side drive and had them all looking picture perfect! Thanks Bill for a great job!

Pit Stewart Tom Pearson also went above and beyond the call of duty Sunday and took out a great deal of brush from the fence between the ticket booth area and parking lot and had it also looking great! Fine job Tom and many thanks!

With 19 nights of racing to go this season the two divisions to keep your eye on as far as season points champions go are the MTC and karts! Whenever the division leader is gone it is automatically big bonus points for those who do race and Andrew Behlke has gone to very part time racing in karts and the Aumack boys are also missing a lot lately! As a result George Davis has moved to 3^rd in the MTC and Adam Steglich 4^th in karts! Right now I would say both divisions are wide open to any racer who wants to dedicate himself to racing 19 nights yet this season!

Eric Root would certainly appear to have the TC points title wrapped up with Morley 2^nd. After that its wide open! IN MS Merle Yoder has a big lead and is there every night! Jason Schaefer should have 2^nd and Rookie of the Year! In SS Morley should have his 3^rd season points championship well in hand if and this is a very big, big if-he can keep his famous temper under control for 19 more nights! If Jeff Brunt gets his new engine back in soon he should have 2^nd! 3^rd could go to any number of drivers including Buzzard and Donald Hunley.

Sunday’s car count was a really happy surprise! WE had more cars on Sunday than Saturday! I expect even larger fields of cars this week-end with most tracks now closed for the season and most of the big two day shows over. Now all we need is more of the almost perfect weather we enjoyed this past week-end!

We should have details soon and a page on this web site concerning the 16^th Annual Indiana-Michigan Challenge Cup which is October 20 and 21! GOSHEN COLLISION SERVICE has signed on a major sponsor for the event and we are looking for a 2^nd sponsor! Right now the plan is run the SS Sunday for 50 laps and $250 to win and the MS 40 laps for $250 to win. Cars running both Saturday and Sunday will not pay an entry fee but those running only Sunday will pay a $25 entry fee. Saturday will be a trophy night with all heat and dash and feature winners getting trophies. SS and MS will run “mini features” of 15 laps for $50 to win. TC and MTC and karts will run regular programs both nights but all 5 divisions will feature triple points and super bonus points both nights!

Ersell Eby and I are hosting a pizza party this Friday night for all of our hard working track officials to thank them in a small way for all they do for us each and every race night and even in between race nights! They are a small but highly dedicated group and we all work well together! I would not trade our staff for any track’s staff and I really mean that!