POSTED MARCH 31, 2025

It was a very busy week at the Mottville Speedway! Thursday we finally turned on the water on the front side of the track and it was the latest we had ever turned it on in the last 11 years! Shows it was a very cold March indeed!

We had a busy practice Thursday evening, our busiest of the season to date! Bob Aumack had his MS no 2 there and looked good in hot laps and purchased a set of those wonderful Good Year tires! Tom Pierson drugged the pits and parking lot and had them looking great!

Friday afternoon we had an electrician at the track with a bucket truck and before he left we had installed two sets of two lights each floodlights on the side drive, the first time in several years we have lights on the side drive! He also put in a new bulb on the parking lot light next to the ticket booth, replaced 6 bulbs in the pits and 7 on the track and installed 2 new fixtures on the track! Wow! About half the pit lights were out! He ran out of time before he could replace burned out bulbs in the center tower! But things should be much brighter at Mottville now! Electrical type items are most expensive and we have now spent about $1500 already on electrical and this is basically just routine type stuff!

George Rowlette sent me an a newspaper article on the death of Raceway park in Blue Island Illinois, near Chicago. George announced there from 1989 through the final race which was September 30 and he had been at the track since 1956! George, for those you familiar with Mottville know, is the famous guy who comes to Mottville 2-3 times per season, usually early and late in the season , and spends $2 bills for everything and sometimes donates a certain amount of $2 bills to different finishing positions in the features! According to the article Raceway park flourish in the 1950’s, 1960’s and into the 70’s. often having crowds of 10,000! The track was built in 1938 and often ran 4 nights per week in its heyday! My type of place for certain! Anyway it is always a very sad thing to see a race track die! Basically the current owner was spending more than he was taking in and that will eventually lead to closure! He tried to sell the track to someone for the last 15 years with no success and now it is being demolished and a food store and strip mall will take it's place! The owner now lives in Florida and says it would be too sad for him to come and watch it demolished and I can certainly understand that! George is quoted as saying it is like losing a faithful old friend! Its sad but I do appreciate George taking the time to send me the article! My main goal is that Mottville Speedway will always be a speedway on my watch! I have seen other tracks die and never want to live to see Mottville Speedway die!

Saturday early afternoon it was sunny and warm but on the way to the track later in the afternoon we had misty rain and just before I arrived at the track light rain! On the way I am figuring it would be a poor night but we had our high car count for the season and our largest crowd of the season! It appears word is spreading that Mottville does not cancel for light rain! During hot laps the track was wet but by the time the features started it was fairly dry until a light mist started during the Mottville Stock feature! After pay-off was completed it started raining harder!

The night was certainly a heart breaker for Jessica Brown! She appeared to have won a tremendous duel with her brother Greg for the kart 15 lap feature when coming out of turn 4 for the apparent win her kart lost power and her brother went by her! The kart racing was really exciting with feature, dash and heat all very close! We also had a season high 8 karts on hand!

Tim Palmer came to Mottville for the first time in 2001 and he has always had a very fast car in the Mottville Stock division but in the heat he seemed to have some trouble with the wet track and then spun and Bob Aumack hit him in the feature! Aumack, by the way, was looking good in his first night until the crash!

The new lights really helped! Much better in the pits and on the track! Now when we get this new pit light tower up it should really be fantastic!

A reminder to my fellow Hoosiers that starting this Saturday we open at 5 Indiana time and race at 6! Makes it nice for going home!

March is now completed and we managed to get all 5 nights which is 5 more nights than any other track in the area got in! I always look at March racing and say “well were we ahead to race or would we have been ahead not to race?” The answer for 2001 is that we were ahead to race despite the very very cold weather! So in 2002 count on us opening again the first week of March!

But now its April! PTL! Warmer weather and higher car counts will make for even more exciting racing!
Hope to see you at Mottville soon!