POSTED October 02, 2001

HUNLEY’S  Service and Repair of Goshen, Sponsors of the SS 01, have signed on as a 2^nd sponsor of the 16^th Annual Indiana-Michigan Challenge Cup which has been moved  one week to October 27 and 28!

They join Goshen Collision Center as sponsors of the Street Stock division and we are working on a 3^rd sponsor which also happens to be from Goshen so all 3 sponsors could be from the Maple City!

We hope to have the flyer on this web site by Saturday and have flyers at the track this week-end but here are the details of the IMCC that I can give you as of Monday morning: MS-TC and MTC will run both Saturday and Sunday for regular pay-offs. All 3 divisions plus the karts will get triple points and bonus points both days plus bonus points for running both days. The Sunday winners for the 4 divisions will receive a trophy acknowledging them as champions of  their divisions for the 16^th Annual Indiana-Michigan Challenge Cup!

Since all of the sponsors are for the Street Stock division the “special “ part of the IMCC will be this division! Once we get the final word from the 3^rd sponsor we will know where we stand and have the final details worked out but as of now SS will run a regular show on Saturday and then 50 laps on Sunday for the IMCC championship with extra money! The exact amount that the race will pay to win will be know once we know about the 3^rd sponsor but with Goshen Collision Center and Hunley’s Service and Repair already on board it will be a very good pay-off for certain. SS cars running only on Sunday will have a $25 entry fee deducted from their pay. Cars running both Saturday and Sunday will not pay an entry fee!

It would have been great to have added the Mottville Stocks for extra pay but with no sponsor found for this division that became impossible. Of course, should a sponsor turn up before October 27 and 28 we would be most happy to change things!

Now as for the reason for setting back the IMCC by one week there are several! When the IMCC started it was originally the last week-end of September. At that time there were very very few 2 or 3 days shows around. Over the next 16 years more and more  tracks have added 2 or 3 day shows and as they have we have pushed the IMCC later and later to have the date we selected to ourselves and get the most cars. Also by moving to the final week-end of October it means starting in 2002 we can have the IMCC the last week of October and then come back on the first week-end of November with out season championships and end the season with 2 big week-ends in a row!

Strong car counts and exciting racing with great weather featured this past week-end at Mottville! The MTC division  continued to show great improvement with a season high 9 cars on Saturday and then 10 on Sunday! WOW! Saturday night Terry Humphrey brought a MTC 99 to the track, a station wagon, and won the heat! He was leading the feature until we turned the cars around at the half way point and he found the going much tougher that way and ended up 6^th with the car smoking badly! Nathan Aumack recorded his 21^st feature win of the season! Tom Holle was a strong 2^nd Jason Snodgrass came home 3^rd after running next to last when we went the correct way around the track!

Sunday the MTC heat resembled a demolition derby and one driver was disqualified during the heat for unsportsman like driving! At intermission Tom Pearson and myself brought 3 of the MTC drivers to the pit tower for a “heart to heart “ discussion on the rules of racing cleanly! We must have sorted out the problems because the MTC feature was very clean! I want to make clear that all 3 drivers were most co-operative during our little meeting and my concerns were safety for the drivers and not wrecking a lot of cars now that we finally were getting a good car count in the MTC division! While some people seem to delight in being critical of our track for safety rules the truth is we are very, very proud of our safety at the Mottville Speedway and our record for safety would be a model for most tracks!

Mike Aumack won his 3^rd feature of the season Sunday and was a popular and happy winner! Justin Mosher came home a strong 2^nd! Newcomer Ray Butler was 3^rd and Vern Hammond showed up in a MTC for the first time and was 4^th! Nathan Aumack had a bad tire and came home 5^th, most unusual for our season points leader! 

We had a rare driver’s meeting before the races Saturday to discuss some safety issues and to talk about ordering tires for the balance of the season. On the tire issue I can now say that we will not place the final tire order until Monday, October 8. The later we can order tires the more accurate we can be on this final order for the season! So if you have not placed your tire order do so now by calling me at 219-773-4288 or my cell phone 219-215-4288 and I will  order and hold tires for you for the balance of the season. Outside of orders placed I only intend to order maybe 4-5 tires each of 13” and 15”. As for next season we are taking bids from 2 Good Year distributors and from Hoosier Tire. My guess is we will stay with Good Year for a 7^th season but if we do go with Hoosier the Good Years will still be legal as the Hoosier tire for 15” would be the Sportsman which is very comparable to the GY we are now running. Hoosier is supposed to be developing a new 13” and 14” tire for the MS and when and if they get them we will try to get some for testing yet this season! This was supposed to happen by now but has not. The last I knew the new 13” and 14” tires would be the same compound as the Commanche which means very, very hard but long wearing! I seriously doubt we know which tires we are using for 2002 until November or even December at the earliest as to date we have no proposals in writing from anyone!

Anyway after the discussion at the driver’s meeting Saturday night on safety and tires it seemed all the drivers wanted to talk about was my proposed upcoming marriage! They seemed to offer lots of advice to both myself and Ersell Eby but I think we will both ignore it for now! 

Saturday night we had a season high 14 SS and came back Sunday with 10! We registered 7 new cars on Saturday and one on Sunday! An old racing buddy of mine from the old old days-Fred Troup-came Saturday in his SS 9! Fred had retired from racing but has now returned! Sure brought back memories! It appeared Saturday night that Donald Hunley might win his first SS feature ever but cautions absolutely killed him! He took the lead on lap 4 and led through lap 19 when Joe Reaume took over and then held off Randy Morley for his 2^nd feature win of the season! Hunley settled for 3^rd and Jeff Brunt worked his way through the field for 4^th! Rookie Brian Smith was 5^th. Matt Buzzard was awesome in winning both a dash and heat! Sunday Hunley won one of the heats and rookie Al Maurer (of Goshen Collision fame!) really looked strong as he took 2^nd in a heat and then in the feature had to restart on the tail and came back to finish 2^nd to Morley! It was Al’s highest feature finish ever! Brunt again worked his way from the back very well and came home 3^rd with Buzzard 4^th and Robert Sprague 5^th!

Saturday night the MS feature was most exciting! Newcomer Matt Rugg had won the heat in his MS 70 and was challenging David Fugate for the lead on the final lap of the feature when he spun in the back stretch and went from 2^nd to last! Terry Kline was subbing for his daughter Jamie and came home 2^nd with season points leader Merle Yoder 3^rd!

Sunday Fugate came back and picked up his 12^th feature win of the season! He purchased two tires and ordered some more and is planning on racing more regular at Mottville since he no longer has to work week-ends!

Josh Salter purchased the Matt Starkweather MS for $200 and won the heat Sunday and was a strong 2^nd in the feature! He wrecked his regular car but should have it back soon!

Saturday night Fred Collins was giving season points leader Eric Root all he could handle in the TC feature when on the final lap he threw a wheel in the backstretch and had to settle for 2^nd. Root picked up his 9^th feature win of the season and Vic Krontz, subbing for David Terry in the 3 car, was 2^nd! Bill Crapo was 3^rd. Richard Allbee won his first heat of the season!

The bad news Sunday was that Fred Collins was in the hospital with possible heart problems! He and Cindy Grinnell (his daughter who won the dash Saturday) were both gone Sunday and we certainly wish Fred a most speedy recovery and hope to see he and Cindy back at Mottville very soon!

Crapo had mechanical woes Sunday during the TC heat but managed to get the car fixed just before the TC feature and scored his 2^nd feature win of the season with a close win over Root!

In kart action Saturday the Forsyths-Shawn and Travis-returned after a long absence and it was great to have them back! Young Eric McGlothlen won his 5^th feature of the season with Shawn 2^nd!