by TJ Slideways
If you read the front page of the website today, you have already seen that I had a lot of fun driving down to Eldora and back on Saturday. Because of the rain I might be at the All Star show this weekend. However, if the weather forecast is for more doom and gloom I will just wait until the World of Outlaw weekend to hit the Big E.
I-96 Speedway is alive and well. The track is now owned by Grand Rapids own Tom Slager. I’ve spoken with Tom, and he seems to be a really nice guy. One of the major goals this season is to make “the new 96 Speedway”, more fan friendly, and yours truly will be head of race day PR. Look for 410 Super Sprints, IMCA Mods, and Street Stocks every Saturday night. Look for the All Stars, Auto Value Super Sprints, and other groups to return during the season. Unfortunately, Ted Johnson took the WoO show from the track.
Wouldn’t it be great to see a $10,000 to win All Star race moved to the canceled WoO date? :-)
Reports in from Attica seem to be all positive. Gene Frankert made some small cosmetic changes to the 1/3 mile oval over the winter. Somehow, this made the already great racing even better! Gene takes a lot of pride in preparing the track and having a well run program. Attica still gets my vote for the best overall race track in the country. Look for a photo feature here on the Slideways page showing off the great facility the week after Coors Nationals.
For those who are coming out for the All Star show this Saturday at Eldora, make the drive up to Attica. IRA drivers Kim Mock, Mike Frost, Alan Schmidt, Scott Neitzel, Jon Trudeau, and John Ajeni will be taking on the Attica regulars. Seeing Mock blasting around the high side at Attica will be worth the price of admission. It’s been tossed around in the Open Wheel Chat Room that many of the All Star regulars will be back on Friday to really fill out a nice program.
I also had a chance to take in the Auto Value Super Sprint meeting on Sunday afternoon. The meeting was mainly just to announce the schedule changes, and do a little bench racing. One of the best things that came out of the meeting was a lap sponsorship program for the race at IRP. Super Sprints is going to donate lap money to the People’s Burn Foundation of Indiana’s First Annual Burn Camp for Children. Laps cost minimum of $100. A portion of the money will go to this great cause. If you want to be involved contact myself or Stephanie Valentine at (317) 542-1195 for more information.
I know everyone has been wondering what the Bob, Rod, Todd crew is up to this season. All of your questions will be answered Saturday morning when the new Bob, Rod, Todd section is activated. The 1998 World Tour, TJ’s Digital Scrapbook, and many other fan oriented features will be in this section. Chances are we’ll be coming to a track near you! Lots of news has come in over the past couple of days, so make sure to check out all of the news sections here. Hopefully I’ll have more race insight next week from Eldora. Everyone avoid doing rain dance, and I hope to see a lot of Slideways fans at Eldora.