By T.J. Buffenbarger
I’ve written this before, but I cannot stress enough how much I recommend for fans looking to make a first trip to Eldora Speedway to take in one of the fall races. The 4-Crown Nationals and this weekend’s UNOH Sprintacular in my mind are the two best weekends to make a first time visit to Eldora.
The Sprintacular in particular is nice because it is a single day investment of time and you get to see winged 410 and 360 sprint cars along with non-wing sprint cars, so you get a good sample of open wheel racing during the night. The crowd is still sizeable, but not the massive throng that visits for the Kings Royal or the World 100. While the main grandstand will be mostly full fans can wonder the grounds a bit and try all of the unique vantage points out around the facility.
Throw in Friday’s Sprintacular at Waynesfield Raceway Park and/or venturing over to Winchester Speedway for the Winchester 400 on Sunday and this weekend makes for a perfect time to make a first trip down to Eldora.
Other notes…
- Yesterday was one of the crazier days of the year news wise thanks to Craig Dollansky announcing his partnership with Destiny Motorpsorts for 2014, Tod Quering’s announcement that his new Midwest based 410 sprint car series would have four races at Knoxville (which was more exciting than all of the announcements of spec and RaceSaver sprint car series combined), and the ASCS National Tour returning to East Bay for the Winter Nationals. Silly season is in high gear earily this year and I look for this to be one of the busiest ever with new series, new series leadership, combined with team and driver swaps.
- Look for a few surprises at the World of Outlaws STP Sprint Car Series program at Rolling Wheels Raceway on Saturday. Wayne Johnson will return to Miles Hill’s #77 car and Steve Poirier taking another shot at 410 racing with the Outlaws on Saturday.
- Steve Buckwalter joins Richie Tobias and Stewart Friesen as Silver Crown Series visitors this week. Buckwalter will run a Silver Crown car along with competing with the World of Outlaws at Rolling Wheels Raceway.
- Ohsweken Speedway will add a major race to their 2015 calendar on June 30th featuring the Super DirtCar Series, Go Nuclear Late Model Series, and 360 sprint cars. Look for a major incentive for winning the sprint car portion of the program.
- If you enjoyed the Solar Eclipse this week. There will be two more in 2015 on April 4th and 25th, both falling on on Saturdays. Likely to be racing that before the same day it happens or maybe enjoying some post race activity long enough to see it before going to bed.