POSTED October 9, 2001

Cold weather, good car counts and exciting racing featured action at the Mottville Speedway this past week-end! The car count was particularly amazing since a track to our north was running some sort of show race! But Saturday we had 28 stock cars and 4 karts and came back Sunday with 29 stock cars and 3 karts! I am sure the kart count was held down by the cold weather!

The MTC division had another strong week-end with 10 cars on Saturday and 9 on Sunday! Street Stocks were also strong, especially when you consider the shoe race, with 9 on Saturday and 7 on Sunday! Sunday’s field was very balanced with 7 TC and 6 MS rounding out the field!

For those who did go to the shoe race it would be interesting to see what they spent vs. what they took in and compare that to what they would have spent and taken in at Mottville for the same two days! I am betting in the vast majority of the cases they would have come out ahead at Mottville!

Saturday night Ray Butler won his first feature ever as he held off Fred Garrett for the win in the MTC division! Garrett returned after a long absence and had not missed a beat! Rookie and I mean pure rookie Travis Barrett showed up in a Dodge truck and won his first heat ever and was a strong 3^rd in the feature! The Aumack boys had big troubles Saturday night with Nathan’s car missing and Mike’s suffering from tire troubles!

In SS Randy Morley recorded his 33^rd feature win of the season but leading rookie Jeff Brunt was a very close 2^nd as Morley got by him in heavy traffic to go on for the win! Matt Buzzard continues to get better  each and every week and was 3^rd!  Donald Hunley ( of Hunley’s Service and Repair fame) was 4^th.  Dennis Zimmerman came home 5^th.

Our Schoolcraft high school cheerleader, Jessica Brown, won her 7^th kart of the season as she just nipped Nick Landon for the win!

David Fugate won his 13^th MS feature of the season with points leader Merle Yoder 2^nd and Larry Birk 3^rd. Defending MS season champion David T. Schaefer won the dash but blew his engine in the heat! David Fugate has offered him an engine so we hope David is back soon!

In TC Melissa Worthington returned to Mottville after a long stretch away and won a close feature over Bill Crapo! It was her 6^th feature win of the season! Fred Collins returned after heart troubles and was walking slowly but expects to resume racing this Saturday which is terrific news!

Sunday we experienced some “growing pains” in the MTC division! Two trucks had 60’s series tires and had to change them before they could run! We will not allow MTC and TC to get out of hand! We will stick to the rules and keep these two classes very economical! If you want to spend more money on your car then we offer SS and MS!

Also we had a driver complain that “everyone was out to get him!” Actually they were not! What we have is a bunch of rookie drivers with less than 50 laps of track time under their belt and they are making mistakes but they will learn which is another purpose of this division!

Garrett won his 9^th MTC feature of the season in an exciting one! Barrett was 2^nd and Mike Aumack came home 3^rd! Justin Mosher crashed his radiator in the dash when he hit Garrett and he got Mike Aumack’s back up car and came back to win the heat!  Butler, after winning the feature Saturday night, adjusted his air pressure in his tires (big mistake) and finished 4^th!

Merle Yoder was awesome in MS! He took an early lead in the feature and never looked back and recorded his 8^th feature win of the season to pad his points lead! Jason Schaefer returned and was 2^nd with Jean Behlke back and 3^rd! Behlke won an exciting heat over Jason Schaefer! Wesley Schaefer debuted his new car and had some troubles, finishing 5^th. Still has bugs to work out!

Ray Beers took the wheel of the David Terry TC 3 for the feature and won his first feature of the season in a close one over Crapo! Don Slone, subbing for Collins in the 03 car, was an amazing 3^rd!  Cindy Grinnell won the heat and Terry won the dash!  Phil Blue, from Union City, a veteran who has raced Mottville for many years, came back in a Camaro TC but crashed in the heat and was done! Hope he returns soon!

Morley made it 34 feature wins Sunday night and George Roulette, the last announcer at the old Raceway Park in Chicago, paid him a $20 bonus! George and his wife had been at the shoe race Saturday and liked Mottville much better! Paul Scott returned and was a close 2^nd! We are working on Paul and Connor’s to Co-sponsor the season championship November 18! Buzzard was again 3^rd and Hunley 4^th!

Andrew Behlke won his 11^th kart feature of the season and padded his points lead  in that division!

Well another week-end in and they are all going much, much too fast for me! Only 13 nights left!

This coming week, as far as I know, we are the only race around! Expecting a real good car count both nights! Everything is now finalized for the 16^th Annual Indiana-Michigan Challenge Cup with Goshen Collision Center and Hunley’s Repair and Service providing the sponsorship and details elsewhere on this web site! We are now working on two sponsors for the season championships!