POSTED MARCH 2 , 2003

JON FITZPATRICK  won his first Mini Stock feature of the season a very cold Sunday evening at the Mottville Speedway! Fitzpatrick won the 25 lapper and $100 for the night over Derk Sargent and Saturday’s feature winner Dennis Zimmerman. IN the heat it was Fitzpatrick over Zimmerman and Sargent.

Eric Root attempted to run in MS division but was unable to get his car started in several attempts!

Fitzpatrick moved within 3 points of Zimmerman in the season point standings and Sargent, receiving MTC points, took over the MTC season points lead!

PS Paul Scott was present but had not cars to run and added to his season points lead.

It was cold! Actual race time temperature of 15 but with the wind it was a wind chill of -1!

The bad news Sunday started early when John Fitzpatrick found out after working on his MS all day that he had two cracked pistons!

But despite the extreme cold we ran with our lowest car ever and still paid no one less than $30 for the night! Scott received $50 for not running!

So our first week-end of racing is now over and hopefully Sunday was the coldest it will be all season and car count wise the worse it will get all season!

Early predications are for a temp in the 40’s Thursday-Friday and Saturday coming up which would be terrific news! We should pick up several cars next week as we have registered 18 already!

Over my 13 years in running Mottville I have learned that you can really start the season whenever you want but it takes about a month to get the car count built up. Even if you wait until April to start it will be May before you get the car count built up! Reason being many drivers do not start working on their cars in earnest until the season open! But, of course, this year was worse than normal due to the harsh winter which prevented many from working on their cars and this week-end was bad news weather wise no matter how you look at it and far below normal on the weather front! But those who made the effort and ran were rewarded with very good pay-offs both nights!

There was a suggestion the bulletin board about starting earlier on Sundays. In fact for 2004 I think in March we probably should start about 4 pm instead of 6 pm when we might get more sun. But beyond March the earlier you run the less cars you get. Especially in summer when it gets hot!

I will be on the chat room this Monday and Wednesday from 8:30 to 9 Pm and longer if needed to discuss this past week-end and next week-end, rules etc. So come on in and lets chat! Wednesday I am planning on going to a Lenten service so I may be pushing 8:30 but Monday should be fine.

2 nights down and 83 point nights to go in 2003! Lots of racing left but as of now Paul Scott, Dennis Zimmerman and Derk Sargent are the points leaders! Derk told me after the races Sunday that his goal is the win the season points championship! Zimmerman will not be running  regularly with us so someone else will eventually take over the MS points lead. We are still waiting for our first street stock and kart! But based on registrations and what I hear at the track we should have very good fields of  cars this season in MS, MTC and SS!

Read an interesting article today on weather predictions. The National Weather Service predicted a mild winter and was way, way off base! Now they are predicting a mild March and April. So far wrong but it is very, very early in March so maybe they are right this time! I sure hope so!

One final item. There has been much discussion on Raymond Beers for the Mottville Speedway Hall of Fame. All well and good but the timing is way off! We induct into the Hall of Fame at the Annual Awards Banquet! It was 2 weeks ago! Slightly under a year before the next one. For the next one Raymond will be considered as will the late Richard Groves. If you have additional nominees you are free to submit them all year long but those indicted will be inducted at the banquet. Generally I feel it is wise to wait at least a full year after a death to consider nominees who had died so there is time to let the emotion wear off and do it on their merits. By next banquet time both Raymond and Richard will have passed away over one year. I know both are truly missed at Mottville!

Well thanks to all those drivers who did come to Mottville this week-end and thanks to all our most dedicated track officials for their work above and beyond the call of duty! Next week-end we do it again and I am sure the weather will be much better! Have a great week and hope to see in the chat room this Monday and Wednesday and at the track next Saturday and Sunday!