POSTED APRIL 8, 2025

Finally some warm weather! PTL! Night number 6 at the Mottville Speedway for 2001 featured temperatures in the upper 70’s all night long! The result was our most successful night of racing so far this season! Where do I begin? Well the car count was our highest of the season-almost 40! Our biggest crowd of the season, almost double last week’s which had been the high crowd up until then! High pit pass count for the season, tire sales were so good that we sold more tires in one night than we had in the previous 5 nights combined! Racing fuel sales were also the best of any night so far!

It was also another good night of exciting, close racing which has been the outstanding feature of the 2001 season so far! Our brand new Mini-Thunder Car division had 4 cars in just its 2^nd night and on the final lap it was possible for any of the 4 to have won! Big Thunder Cars rose to 6 cars!

We were only obligated to pay the Mottville Stocks the $75 to win pay-off based on 9 cars but due to the big crowd we paid the $100 to win pay-off for the first time this season! But I am most confident it will not be the last time!

Karts had another night of close racing and the dash, heat and feature were all extremely close finishes decided by mere inches! Of the 6 feature winners-Bill Crapo, Shawn Forsyth, Mark Shipley and Rod Roberts (MS) won their divisions for the first time this season! From a promoter’s standpoint this is great!

Time wise the program went off to near perfection! We started shortly after 7, intermission at 8, started features at 8:30 and concluded about 9:30. I was the last person to leave the track and I was on US 12 by 10:30!

Jean Behlke, the first female track champion in the history of the Mottville Speedway, had her MS running much stronger Saturday night and finished 3^rd in the feature with some tough comp all around her! David Schaefer gave Rod Roberts a real run for the money in the MS feature! Rod’s blue MS no 40 is really sharp and fast! Rookie Jason Schaefer looked the best he has looked all season with a strong 4^th place finish in the MS feature.

Defending Bomber season points champion Melissa Worthington finally raced for the first time this season but she drove a TC! She told me she plans on doing double duty soon, TC and Bomber! Terry Humphries had his “green machine” no 56 back and running strong in the Bomber division!

Dick Groves, a past track ss champion and past ss IMCC champion, purchased a set of Good Years and should be running starting this Saturday! Jeff Brunt purchased a set Thursday and said his ss will be running by the first Saturday in May. Right now our ss division is the only division lagging but it should see improved car counts soon!

One more week of Saturday night only racing and then we get serious! Double header racing, Saturday and Sunday nights until the end of November and I can hardly wait! Camping out at the track will be a regular thing for people like Randy Morley, Larry Birk and Behlkes! I am most confident our Sundays will be much improved this season with the earlier starting time(6pm) and being the only track in the area racing regularly on Sunday! Plus we have been doing this now for several years and people know we will race weather we have 8 cars or 40!

Speaking of racing no matter what, that is pretty much the case for this Saturday night! With Sunday being Easter we will not postpone to Sunday so we will do everything possible to race Saturday night, rain or snow included!

Stopped at two race tracks this week! Whenever I am traveling and have the time I love to stop at another track and talk to the promoter and exchange ideas! I had been by Bunker Hill Speedway many times but had never stopped and when I pulled in there Sunday it was open and I had a nice conversation with the promoter, a Mr. Day! Later I went to Twin Cities Raceway park at Vernon, Indiana. I had been there 5 years ago and they are really fixing it up big time! Bringing in some big dirt shows for this season!

Keep hearing rumors that Prairie River Speedway may reopen soon! For those of you who do not know Prairie River, it was outside Centerville and raced from 1951-54 and was run  by the Krontz klan! In 1991 it was a regular rumor that it would reopen but it has not happened yet! It was once a showplace for short track dirt racing in the US! Rumor has it Donald “Pappy” Krontz would be the head man and “Momma Krontz” would be running the concessions! Trouble is the rest of the klan all want to be pit stewart and they can’t agree which on gets the job! More later on this one as things develop!

Hoping for some more warm weather this Saturday! We have this Saturday, April 21 and 22 before most tracks in the area open so we may well see some great car counts ! Nice part so far has been that almost all of the cars we have been getting are actually “regulars” of ours! Very unusual for this time of year for us but most, most encouraging! See you Saturday!
Until then think warm and think racing!