POSTED January 20, 2002

Connor's Auto Salvage and Towing of Goshen has joined our list of Awards Banquet plague sponsors by agreeing to sponsor 6 plaques for the February 9 banquet! A reminder that the last possible date you can pay for a ticket and be assured of getting a plaque is Thursday, January 31,2001! The next day I simply must get the plaques ordered in order to pick them up in time for the banquet! By going to January 31 I am going as far as I can possibly go! I can still accept ticket orders after January 31 but no plaque! After that date any plaques ordered would have to come out of the points fund and I have to get the checks cut for the drivers who have points money coming! 

The Good Year track champion jackets for Merle Yoder, Randy Morley and Bill Crapo came in and they really look terrific and warm! Gold, blue and white! 

Talked to Paul Scott, Al Maurer and John Yoder this week! Paul will have his pro-stock ready for March 2 and he finished the season really strong and appears all ready for a terrific 2002! Paul went to another track's banquet recently and told me that track announced they were going to a harder tire for 2002 for their sportsman division and going to new 6" hard tire for their mini-stocks. This jibes with what a Hoosier Tire rep told me earlier in the week. MY guess is that the tire is very similar to the 15" tire we had for the first half of the 1995 season. We had a lot of complaints that the cars did not handle as well as they did with the softer tire and so we switched at mi-season to a slightly softer tire which we still run today! The Hoosier Tire rep also told me another track near us will run a hard 8" tire for the first time on their mini-stock division. While all this is most interesting I will still take our Good Year 13" and 15" by 8" tires over any other I have seen or heard about! They are hard enough to wear extremely well, but soft enough to handle well, and reasonably priced at $85 plus tax and the price will stay the same for the next 3 years! Al Maurer will have a late model for another track and a pro-stock for Mottville! We will primarily see Al at Mottville during the season on Sunday nights but should see his smiling face at Mottville on Saturdays early and late in the season as well! John Yoder purchased 2 banquet tickets and said he is bringing a female friend with him! That sounds exciting! John and Merle and Enos Yoder have been doing a great deal of ice fishing and having good results! John looked at the Good Year track champion jacket his nephew Merle is getting and liked it!

Jeff Brunt called for a registration form and filled it out and had it back to me by Saturday and now has the PS number one for 2002! Will be great to have Jeff back for 2002!
Al Maurer told me about a rumor he heard involving one of our 2001 regulars going to another track for 2002 and Al guessed that this driver will find things much, much different away from Mottville and not for the better! Knowing this other driver I certainly agree but time will tell! Al said he saw Randy Morley at the Kalamazoo swap meet and Randy was looking forward to
our banquet! Considering he has 3 plaques coming and a nice check I imagine he is! 

We are working on our concession stand menu and prices for 2002! We try to keep things as simple as possible and not have too many items, just those which sell well. For 2002 we are dropping the long time stable polish sausage. Sales have really gone down in the polish since we introduced sloppy joes and bbq! We will keep those 2 plus the long established and popular hot dog, cheese dog, chili dog and chili-cheese dog! So 3 basic sandwiches. Plus hot pretzels have long been popular at Mottville, with or without cheese. Hot dogs will sell for $1.25, 25 cents extra for cheese or chili or 50 cents extra for both. Sloppy joes and bbq will be $2.50 each. Hot pretzels $1.25 and $1.50 with cheese. Popcorn will remain $1 and so will candy bars. Bottled water sales have really been good and will stay at $1. Nachos and cheese seems to always be popular and will cost $2.50 and if you have chili added to it $3. Or you can have sloppy joe added to the nachos and cheese for a total price of $3. Coffee will not be one size only-probably 12 or 16 ounce cup for $1. For soft drinks we are going with Pepsi, Diet Pepsi, Mt Dew and Sprite and selling a 20 oz cup for $1.50 and a 32 oz cup for $2. We are dropping gum as sales were slow and the profit margin next to nothing! 

Recently I have been to several movies and a Ft Wayne Komets hockey game. Sure wish I could get their concession prices at Mottville! Most items at these events are from 50% higher to 3 times as high as Mottville! When I compare our concession prices with those of area tracks I find Mottville is usually about the lowest over all and our quality and freshness are tops! 

Each week brings us closer to the awards banquet-now only 3 weeks away and the start of the racing season-now only 6 weeks away! I am getting asked about Mottville more every week! One thing I would love to live long enough to do eventually would be "winterize" our concession-rest room building by adding insulation and a furnace! If we had that racing once per month  during the 3 "off season" months would be more inviting! It could well happen someday! We all need our dreams for the future and that is mine! But for now I will settle for the 9 months of racing and 76 nights of racing that we lined up for 2002! I can assure you it will be an exciting season!