POSTED September 24, 2001
When I purchased the Mottville
Speedway (then known as Southwest Michigan Speedway) on October 30,2025 I was
told time and time again “Do not even try to run during the St. Joseph County
Fair because no one will show up!” The previous owner had shut down fair week
and then ran the Indiana-Michigan Challenge Cup the following week. Prior to him
the track closed down Labor Day week-end. Never one to be afraid of trying
something new I have run fair week all 11 years now (but was rained out in
1992-93, 94.) The results have been roughly the same as a regular week, while we
lose locals we gain people from other tracks and it has been worthwhile to race!
This
past week-end Saturday started out with beautiful weather and a rather
disappointing stock car count of 23 with 8 karts. However, the crowd in front
was quite good and the pit count very good also! Sunday it looked like it would
rain all morning and into the afternoon! About 4:30 at the track it rained! Much
to my amazement we actually had 28 stock cars! 8 SS, 7 MS, 7 MTC, 6 TC and 3
karts! Of course the crowd in front was very small and the pit count small
because of the rain but the racing was very, very good!
Saturday
night the karts put on another tremendous show! Eric McGlothlen won his 4th
feature of the season after a great battle with Nick Landon and Justin Stump! In
the heat Eric just nipped Landon at the line for the win! The improvement of
Eric this season has just been unreal! We also had exciting dash with Stump just
getting by our cheerleader-Jessica Brown for the win!
Bill
Crapo won his first Thunder Car feature of the season! With about 8 laps to go
it was Crapo and David Terry battling it out for the lead and both had tires
sparking! The question became would one or both blow tires before the checkered
flag came? On lap 13 Terry’s tire blew and he went to the pits! Crapo just
managed to hold out for the win with rapidly improving Cindy Grinnell 2nd
and newcomer Richard Allbee 3rd!
In
TC points leader Eric Root, who is always exciting, to say the least, hit the
front stretch wall in the heat and broke an "a" arm and was out for
the feature! Big John Wilson’s parts truck was on hand for the first time and
he had an a arm but Eric could not get it installed in time for the feature!
Randy Morley had the transmission go out of his TC and he was done for the night
also!
Jason
Schaefer scored his 7th MS feature win of the season but had a big
challenge from season points leader Merle Yoder, who won the heat.
Morley
collected two more SS feature wins over the week-end to pad his season points
lead! 2nd place in the points, Jeff Brunt, had his new engine
installed and looked fast Thursday in practice but had some mechanical woes and
could not run Saturday or Sunday! Major bummer!
Saturday
night Tom Myers, who had won 2 in a row, chased Morley hard but could not catch
him this time! Tom is running some very old Comanche tires and I think that was
the difference! Matt Buzzard, another driver showing great improvement, came
home 3rd! Nick Hutcherson came to Mottville for the first time this
season and was 6th! Another newcomer for the season, Andy Jean, was 4th.
Tom Crook’s who has been around Mottville on and off for many years, owns
Jean’s car and it was great to have Tom back and we hope to see him again this
season!
We
had to disqualify Tim Baldwin from the feature. His 124 truck stalled and he had
a crew member work on it on the track despite repeated warnings not to do so!
Sunday
night we ran all 15 lap features in the stock car divisions and I believe that
is a good idea for Sunday nights! For one thing we were over just before 8:30 pm
which is great for Sunday night when people have to go to work on Monday and for
another thing it means the “hot
shots” have only 15 laps to go from last to first and not 25! Morley got
feature win 31 over a determined Matt Elsey! Hunley was 3rd in the
feature, 3rd in the dash and 3rd in the heat! Yet another
driver showing terrific improvement!
Rookie
Al Maurer raced at Mottville for the first time ever! He had raced New Paris 7
times this season and he owns Goshen Collision Center, one of our sponsors for
the 16th Annual Indiana-Michigan Challenge Cup! Al has also sponsored
many points plaques over the years for our banquet! Sunday night Al recorded his
first heat win ever as he won the most exciting race of the night! He started 3rd
and got the lead and just held off Morley at the line for the win and the
trophy! He came back for 5th in the feature! We hope to have Al back
many times in the future!
Root
got his car fixed and won his 8th TC feature of the season! Again
Grinnell was 2nd and Fred Collins returned from an unsuccessful
fishing trip and was 3rd! Terry took the early lead and got way too
big a lead and went to the tail for it and finished 4th. Crapo then
took over the lead but also went to far in front and was sent to the tail and
ended up 5th! Grinnell won her first race ever when she took the
dash!
I
really look for David Terry to win a feature before long! He is improving every
week!
Albert
Hershberger was back with his push truck Sunday and says he will be at Mottville
every race the rest of the season!
At
intermission Wesley Schaefer, Jr, raced his wheel chair for one lap and received
a trophy and his first win ever! Fred Collins sponsored the trophy and Wesley
was cheered by each and every fan and driver and was really excited! It was a
special time for all!
Nathan
Aumack recorded MTC feature wins 19 and 20 over the week-end!
Sunday Tom Holle led most of the race but Nathan got by in time for the
win with Holle 2nd. 7
MTC was the most since July and Holle, Travis Juillerat and Ray Butler should be
returning next week!
Jean
Behlke returned Sunday with her number 80 MS and looked awesome in the feature
as she led the race until losing a wheel on the backstretch and spinning wildly
but amazingly no other car hit her! Ersell Eby’s screams could be heard over
the pa! Merle Yoder told me during car inspection that he was sure Jean would
have won the feature had she not lost the wheel! Her son did record his 13th
kart feature of the season so it was not a total loss for the family!
We
are working this week to finalize things for the 16th Annual
Indiana-Michigan Challenge Cup and are working on getting a 2nd
sponsor! SS will be the featured division and will run 50 laps and if we can get
the 2nd sponsor we are talking some major bucks here! We had no
success in getting a sponsor for the MS division so we are looking at 35-40 laps
and $200 to win which is still very good!
Right
now I can tell you Saturday night of the IMCC MS and SS will run 15 lap mini
features for $50 to win and trophies to the top 3 plus trophies to the dash and
heat winners. TC, MTC and karts will run a regular program each night but all 5
divisions will have triple points and big bonus points each night! Cars running
MS and SS both nights will not pay an entry fee but those running only Saturday
or only Sunday will have a $25 entry fee deducted from their pay. There will be
one pay-off on Sunday night for both nights. Should be a most exciting week-end!
Monday,
October 1 I will probably be placing the final tire order for the season with
Good Year! I will give drivers an opportunity this coming week-end to commit to
how many tires they will buy the rest of the season and then I will place the
order. Our plan is to run out of tires by November 1 so if you
want tires sign up this coming week-end or call me at 219-773-4288(cell phone
219-215-4288) because now is the time to order!
17
more nights left in his 2001 season and I am looking forward to each and every
one of them! Ersell Eby and I was talking Sunday night after the races and she
said she is looking forward to the end of the season and a busy off season. I
understand that but as for me the final race of the season is always a very very
sad time! When you eat , sleep and breath racing like I do the final night is
tough to take but I understand fully and agree with Ersell that we need an
“off season” to get ready for the new season and the season opener (March
3,2002 next season) is always most exciting!\