Random News Items From TJ’s Notebook

By T.J. Buffenbarger

03/20/2000: Someone dropped me a line Saturday about the new owners of the Millstream Speedway. Mr & Mrs Greg Roe join the list of recent green track owners as they have purchased the 3/8-Mile clay oval located in Findlay, Ohio. The plan for this season is to only have a few shows late in the season, as apparently they are trying to fix up the facility. We wish the Roe’s all the luck in the world trying to overcome the track’s very bad reputation due to some shady dealings in the past. It’s too bad the perception has to be applied to each new promoter there, so I will try to make sure that the site does it’s best to judge them fairly on their own merit. I do hope Millstream can survive, because when everything is run well it is one of the neatest places for winged sprint racing in the country.

Kasey Kahne might be the hottest driver in the “all around” category in short track open wheel racing. After winning the opener at Williams Grove and following it up with a Western States Midget win at Bakersfield, Kasey will take the wing off the family owned 23K sprinter for the Eldora USAC Stoops/Freightliner Sprint Car Series opener at Eldora Speedway. Kasey will also be at his full time gig this year in the Lewis #9 Midget for the Anderson Speedway USAC Double Dip the next night. I suggest that fans should probably go out to see Kasey run a some point over the season, because I foresee him going on to bigger and better things after this season or next.

I reported on the site a few weeks ago that Eric Slade was going down to work for Bill Davis Racing’s #22 Caterpillar Racing Team on the Winston Cup Series to build shocks. Slade was also a die-hard believer in Penske Shocks during the later part of his racing career, and was always experimenting. I figured he was pretty good, but not good enough to help the team hit victory lane in his first event with the team! It’s nice seeing a local boy doing well down south, and keep up the great job Eric!

Spoke with Tom Slager, Jr. this week, and the scoreboard has been finally fixed! The scoreboard will now show the times for the cars as well as the scoring for the races. To make a long history lesson short, the scoreboard in the infield at 96 is Lake Odessa’s central lightning rod. We’ve had the timing system working, but we couldn’t get it to display on the scoreboard (As the former operator, I got to see the third digit before anyone else as well). After some elbow grease, that has been fixed. Few other cosmetic changes are underway as well, but otherwise all is go in what is shaping up to be a great season for the Slager’s. This is the strongest schedule they have had for the New 96 Speedway since purchasing it in 1998. I will also be there most Saturday nights bringing the action live to the web again with the “fastest fingers in the east”, typing out all the action on the live scoreboard.

Another former sprint car standout is heading to the Indianapolis Motor Speedway this year to attempt to qualify for the Indianapolis 500. The Indiana version Andy Hillenburg is teaming up with Bill Simpson to run the Memorial Day classic. Many of the newer fans to sprint car racing would know “Indy Andy” as the driving instructor at one of the NASCAR schools down in Charlotte, and occasional ARCA and NASCAR driver.

I was talking to Kendra Jacobs the other night to see what was going on with the World of Outlaws Support Series, but all we could find time to talk about was the debut of her brother Lee at Wayne County on April 8th. With Kenny away racing, Ed Haudenschild will be helping turn the wrenches for a while until Ed starts driving again himself at Wayne County later in the year.

Tons of speculation on what Tony Elliott will be doing this year. Many stories have had him linked to the World of Outlaws Support Series, but Elliott e-mailed us with the info he’s not quite sure where himself and the Walker Team will be racing this season. I’m sure we’ll hear more information as the first USAC event of the season draws closer.