Welcome to March, the longest month of the year. It's not any longer than any other 31 day month but sometimes it sure feels that way when you're seeing racing results from other parts of the country and waiting for the snow to melt and racing to start up here. My opener is actually pushed back a few weeks from the date the tracks open up so I won't be going to a race until the weekend of April 23-24. The reason for the late opening date is to accommodate my all Sprints schedule, that's the weekend of the UMSS opener at Kopellah and the Billy Anderson Memorial at Cedar Lake. There is a chance that I might bring the camera out to one of the practice nights to shake the rust out. There are usually some Sprint Cars out at Cedar Lake for their practice sessions so I might give that a shot. We'll see how the schedule shakes out and make a decision when the time comes.
I already see a lot of activity on the racing pages that cover racing all over the country but as anybody who has been visiting gotomn.com for any length of time knows, I concentrate on the local racing. Basically I approach my racing as a hands on doer and not a watcher. What I mean by that is that I'm not going to see the World of Outlaws results from California on the internet then sit here and blog about what happened. Likewise NASCAR racing, I'm not going to sit on the couch watching a race on TV and blog about it. Not that there's anything wrong with that, some people like those opinion pieces and that is how sportswriters cover professional sports, they do attend games but they can't be at every game on a given weekend so a large portion of their spectating is done the same way as ours, watching the games on TV. I'm not about to start approaching my racing that way though, I write about live events for a local racing paper so for the most part I'll always be writing about races I have actually attended.
Likewise with my new website, midwestracingtalk.com, the interview subjects are all going to be drivers I have seen race and know on a personal basis. I don't feel comfortable interviewing drivers I have never seen or met personally. Interviewers for commercial sites have to do that to maintain their quotas for advertisers but in our situation sticking to familiar territory makes the content more personal. Last year when I was doing interviews for another site I experienced the irony of the detached approach first hand. I was out at Kopellah shooting the breeze with Buzzy Adams after the races then when I got home I discovered that one of the other interviewers had done a Buzzy Adams interview. Even though he had a friendly style and could rattle off statistics better than I'll ever care to I felt that my personal association with Buzzy (one of my favorite Mod drivers) might have produced better results for the fans. That was the beginning of the end for me doing interviews for other sites, it was a great site and a wonderful opportunity for me but that experience started me thinking about doing something more personal on a local level. Once the season begins many of my interviews will be conducted on site at the tracks with a recorder. I want to do something that puts our local racing in the spotlight and you don't get that local flavor on a national site. The big sites have quotas and I felt that our local content was being overshadowed and shuffled to archive too quickly by the national content. Dan Plan from theracingconnection.com is contributing both dirt and asphalt racing interviews to midwestracingtalk.com so that will provide plenty of variety without overwhelming people with too many interviews. midwestracingtalk.com has an RSS feed and is registered in iTunes for your convenience. We'll be including an occasional video production by Vance of frypanproductions.com so that will be an interesting addition as well. I'm excited by the possibilities for the coming season.
I take the same low key approach with photo sales. I'm there with my camera shooting for the websites, papers and magazines, if I happen to make a sale to help offset expenses it's a bonus. It seems to me that many of the photographers are only out there for the sales and the racing is secondary to their personal interests. I can understand where they're coming from, especially if it's their living and I would never interfere with that by giving my work away for free. Nevertheless, I concentrate on providing media content and my personal interests come second. That is also the reason I stopped actively pursuing sponsors for gotomn.com. I know my site isn't the biggest or the best but it fills a niche and I know what my place is in the racing media pecking order. I could chase the money instead of enjoying myself if is what I wanted to do but I tried that early on and found out that it's not worth the grief.
The numbers for gotomn.com after the first five days of March are on a pace to reach 18,000 hits even though there isn't much in the way of new content this time of year. midwestracingtalk.com has only been actively posting content for a few weeks and is already on a pace to get up to 5,000 per month but that number will increase substantially once the season arrives in our part of the country.
What do these numbers mean to me? Well, I don't make any money from my websites, the 1&1 banner on the sites is simply an affiliate program. If anyone links to 1&1 through my banner and purchases a hosting account I get a discount on my bill. That kind of program is a long shot, so far the banner has been on there all winter and I haven't gotten any discounts. I figured what the hell though, I might as well put the affiliate banner on my sites, it can't hurt. The banners you see on the gotomn.com message board aren't mine, most people already know this but for those of you that don't if you look at the URL for my message board it's a hoseheadforums.com affiliate. They provide boards for racing webmasters like myself free of charge and they run the ads and get all the revenue (and rightfully so). I'm not out to make money from racing or the websites, I look at it as my way of giving something back to the sport. If I could afford it I'd sponsor a car and that would be my way of giving back but I can't do that. The only thing I have to give is my time and the web design, photography, writing and audio editing skills that I have learned over the years. I've got the same outlook about it as the racers, I'll hang in there and do this as long as it's fun and I can afford it. I have said many times that I'd do the websites even if it was only for a couple dozen family and friends.
I was looking at a 2005 magazine article about Karl Kinser that talked about him working on classic cars and not attending races after 30 years on the road. My relative Tom Wilke did the same thing as Karl, walked away from the sport after several successful decades as a car owner. They won some big races over the years and he had three Hall of Fame drivers in his cars at one time or another, Jerry Richert Sr., Scratch Daniels and Roger Rager. Granted I'm not a driver and will never reach the level of participation in the sport that those guys did but I wouldn't rule out the possibility of shutting down the websites and walking away from it at some point. I think websites, graphics, photography and all will always be my hobbies to some extent or other but there are a multitude of things I could apply those skills to besides racing. The thing that makes the racing media work affect the entire family is (this isn't a plea for sponsorship) that in order to do it justice I must commit to attending a certain number of races. As you all know, the expense of devoting oneself to anything that requires travel isn't getting any easier to cover. My wife works in a field that requires her to drop everything and go to the hospital when her customers go into labor. That makes it necessary for me to own and maintain two vehicles on our shoestring budget so that she doesn't commandeer the car before a big race. Even if I could get sponsorship the best I would hope for would be to cover some gas and hot dogs and not the expense of a second vehicle. That is one of the reasons I don't want to obligate myself to sponsors for the season, if we had car trouble or something I'd be dead in the water and all stressed out about my obligations. I don't have any specific date that I'm saying I'll be done but the possibility always exists that I'll walk away or scale back if all the pieces don't come together some year. The way I approach it as an unsponsored hobby I think it's obvious that some day I might have to do that but so far so good and everything is a go for this season. Sure I'd like to sell more photos or have some commercials on midwestracingtalk.com but the flip side of that is that racing is a hobby and the only person I have to answer to is myself. I work in a corporate environment 40 hours a week and I don't want to deal with things like sales calls, market share, statistical information and searching for sponsors as a part of my hobby. I don't have any established prices because nobody has asked but if someone were interested in getting a mention on the midwestracingtalk.com podcasts I'm sure we could work something out.
With those things in mind I'm approaching the season prepared to do it all at my own expense but just like running a race car what I'm doing requires time and money. To put it another way, car owners always run at the highest level they can afford and once they achieve that level it's hard to step backwards and do less. You don't see World of Outlaws drivers spending 15 years on the tour then going back to a local 360 deal. Likewise on a smaller scale you don't see people dropping back down to Pure Stocks or Hornets after driving Super Stocks and Modifieds. It's hard to go backwards but in a sense that is what I have set myself up to do this season. Late Models and Modifieds are the most popular classes up here and my decision to concentrate on Sprint Cars will probably translate into fewer visits to gotomn.com. I'm OK with that and I do plan on including interviews for all classes on midwestracingtalk.com so there will still be plenty of interest. Again, website statistics don't really matter to me, I don't have anyone to answer to but myself and there are always going to be people visiting the sites. My all Sprints schedule this year is kind of a deceptive billing, there will be support classes at all the races so I'll see plenty of variety and I won't cut it out entirely.
I suspect that many of you have joined Facebook. I'm a Facebook member but I had balked at the idea of starting a group and was even kind of critical of them at first but after giving it some more thought I ended up starting a Minnesota Dirt Track Racing Website Facebook Group. Social networking is a necessary evil. On the one hand it's a great way to announce website updates but the downside is that checking out what everyone is posting on Facebook can be time consuming. I try to balance it out just like I do with the time I spent on message boards. Speaking of message boards my opinion is that the popularity of Facebook will cut into the traditional social networking that before Facebook appeared was an exclusive function of the boards. The boards still do reach a large group of people and some people will probably never join Facebook but the overall use of the message boards appears to be declining. I will draw the line short of ever getting involved with anything like Twitter. By my way thinking Facebook is already too revealing and I don't need to be posting my every move day and night. People don't want or need to know that Stan did his morning business at 8:30am, ate brunch at 10am and watched a NASCAR race at 1pm. I don't care to know that much detail about the lives of anybody regardless of their celebrity status. I'll take my news in small doses and move onto something else, thank you.
The weather has started to mellow out with a string of 40+ degree days which is slowly melting the snow cover. Perhaps the openers will come off as planned, maybe they won't. It wasn't that many years ago that no track would have considered opening in early April with many openers not coming until mid May or later. Sometime in the distant past one track found out they could open a week earlier and draw race teams that were chomping at the bit to get started. While typical weekly shows attracted 100 cars these early openers were drawing 200+ and starting the books out on a positive note. Meanwhile the promoter at a nearby track saw what was happening and not to be outdone scheduled their opener the same weekend. The next year the competition kicked into high gear and more tracks opened even earlier so that before you knew it they're all doing it. Well, next thing you know we get a late spring and it throws the whole thing into chaos. LOL Anyways, bottom line is that all the tracks are opening a month earlier than they used to a couple decades ago. Every now and then like we saw in 2008 a late cold wet spring comes along and slaps everyone in the face so that we all have to do a reality check. My take is that at 58 years old having watched this sport since around 1961 I'm in no hurry for the opener. If it happens it happens and if it doesn't I'll just do what I've been doing all winter long for one more weekend. It isn't as if the opening weekend is delayed that we'll never see another race and there are plenty of other things in life besides racing. I like it as much as anybody but I think us old dogs get a different outlook on everything.
Speaking of being 58 and watching racing since 1961 I've been thinking more lately about the "R" word. I've got 7 1/2 years left until reach my full retirement age, on my 66th birthday. It could even come sooner, our office is being phased out by attrition (retirements) and it's not unheard of for the railroads to offer buyouts to employees who are within a few years of retirement. I don't see that happening for a couple more years but it is a very real possibility but I still need to approach it as if I'll be working until my retirement date. I guess the positive side of that is that I know it won't be anymore than 7 1/2 years. There's two sides to that coin, when I retire I could turn my full attention to my racing pursuits. The other side of the coin is whether there will be some intangible that will prevent me from doing so such as health, finances, or some other circumstance. I'll just go on the assumption that I'll be able to do that and let things shake out as they may. The thought of retirement is kind of cool right now but I might be so worn out by then that I don't even want to be chasing races, you never know. Relevance becomes another issue as we grow older when we're doing something like these websites. Are people going to be interested in what I have to say and will the structure of the internet still be conducive to a hobbyist like myself doing this? I see some of the older writers paint themselves into a corner where they're only talking about the good old days and young people don't really want to hear that. The young people today might be interested in the history to a point but to them the racing they're watching now is what they're interested in. There's a fine line between historian and dinosaur so I keep that in mind and concentrate on the racing that is taking place now.
Well, I think that's enough rambling for today. I apologize for not having any actual racing to write about and dwelling on my personal thoughts but like I said, I'm not going to write about races I didn't experience live. This blog is a use it or lose it deal so I can't let it sit inactive and I think of it more as personal observations rather than a racing news blog. gotomn.com was one of the first wave of racing websites in the short history of the internet so maybe there is some interest in my observations on the subject.
Be well and we'll see you at the races.
Sunday, February 28, 2010
Saturday, February 20, 2010
UMSS Introduces Feeder Program
With an eye toward the future, the Upper Midwest Sprint Car Series (UMSS) is excited to announce the formation of a new series that will be known as the Micro Sprint League of the UMSS, which will enable potential open wheel racers to get involved in racing at a very affordable price.
Known as "small sprint cars," micro sprint ars are based on a 60 inch wheel base, use a 600 cc motorcycle engine, and weights about 750 pounds. These open wheel cars race with or without wings and can reach speeds up to 100 mph. Micro sprints can be purchased used starting around $3,000 and up, or new for about $15,000.
"These are real race cars," exclaimed Ron Bernhagen of the UMSS. "We are going to develop this program wih the same value-based philosophy as the UMSS, which is to bring open-wheel racing back to the Twin Cities area by establishing reasonable rules for the participant, an economical purse structure for the race tracks, and an affordable race ticket and fan-friendly program for the race fan."
The Micro Sprint League of the UMSS will have a presence on the UMSS website with its own page that will have all the necessary information. Look for this addition within the next month.
The 2010 schedule will be announced soon and will include races at Elko Speedway, Kopellah Speedway and Copper Creek Motorsports Park in Superior, Wisconsin.
For more information, please contact Ron Bernhagen at 612-363-5302 or John Morris at 763-923-1031.
Known as "small sprint cars," micro sprint ars are based on a 60 inch wheel base, use a 600 cc motorcycle engine, and weights about 750 pounds. These open wheel cars race with or without wings and can reach speeds up to 100 mph. Micro sprints can be purchased used starting around $3,000 and up, or new for about $15,000.
"These are real race cars," exclaimed Ron Bernhagen of the UMSS. "We are going to develop this program wih the same value-based philosophy as the UMSS, which is to bring open-wheel racing back to the Twin Cities area by establishing reasonable rules for the participant, an economical purse structure for the race tracks, and an affordable race ticket and fan-friendly program for the race fan."
The Micro Sprint League of the UMSS will have a presence on the UMSS website with its own page that will have all the necessary information. Look for this addition within the next month.
The 2010 schedule will be announced soon and will include races at Elko Speedway, Kopellah Speedway and Copper Creek Motorsports Park in Superior, Wisconsin.
For more information, please contact Ron Bernhagen at 612-363-5302 or John Morris at 763-923-1031.
UMSS and IMCA Join Forces in 2010
Since the Upper Midwest Sprint Car Series (UMSS) was formed in September 2008, it has taken many steps toward bringing sprint car racing back to the Twin Cities area, including a very successful inaugural 2009 season.
The UMSS is pleased to announce the next step for the series is to be sanctioned by the re-created IMCA (International Motor Contest Association) sprint car program. This partnership between the UMSS and IMCA will create the opportunity to have consistent rules between the two groups and enable them to race together on numerous occasions during the 2010 season.
"I am excited for everyone involved in sprint car racing around the Twin Cities area because I believe this is yet another step in making sprint car racing stronger in our area," stated Ron Bernhagen of the UMSS.
"IMCA realized they needed to redefine their sprint car program to fit in with what is accepted and popular in today's sprint car world," announced Bob Allen, IMCA's national sprint car director and operator of Arlington Raceway in Minnesota. "Signing the UMSS to be an IMCA-sanctioned series is a great first step to bringing the IMCA sprint car program back to prominence."
A tentative schedule of combined UMSS and IMCA sprint car shows will be announced soon with races at Arlington Raceway, Elko Speedway, and possibly one or two other tracks. In the meantime, contact Ron Bernhagen at 612-363-5302 or Bob Allen at 507-327-8416.
The UMSS is a value-based sprint car organization bringing open wheel racing back to the Twin Cities area by establishing reasonable rules for the participant, an economical purse structure for the race tracks, and an affordable race ticket and fan-friendly program for the race fan.
The UMSS is pleased to announce the next step for the series is to be sanctioned by the re-created IMCA (International Motor Contest Association) sprint car program. This partnership between the UMSS and IMCA will create the opportunity to have consistent rules between the two groups and enable them to race together on numerous occasions during the 2010 season.
"I am excited for everyone involved in sprint car racing around the Twin Cities area because I believe this is yet another step in making sprint car racing stronger in our area," stated Ron Bernhagen of the UMSS.
"IMCA realized they needed to redefine their sprint car program to fit in with what is accepted and popular in today's sprint car world," announced Bob Allen, IMCA's national sprint car director and operator of Arlington Raceway in Minnesota. "Signing the UMSS to be an IMCA-sanctioned series is a great first step to bringing the IMCA sprint car program back to prominence."
A tentative schedule of combined UMSS and IMCA sprint car shows will be announced soon with races at Arlington Raceway, Elko Speedway, and possibly one or two other tracks. In the meantime, contact Ron Bernhagen at 612-363-5302 or Bob Allen at 507-327-8416.
The UMSS is a value-based sprint car organization bringing open wheel racing back to the Twin Cities area by establishing reasonable rules for the participant, an economical purse structure for the race tracks, and an affordable race ticket and fan-friendly program for the race fan.
Thursday, February 11, 2010
First blog post since December 11, 2009
With the exception of my repost of a December 22 press release I haven't made a personal blog post since December 11 so I figured this three day weekend would be a good time to say what's on my mind. My wife and kids suggested that I join Facebook and it's a great way to network but on the other hand weeding through all the bullshit each day takes a lot of time. It's kind of addicting and I find myself posting a lot of bullshit too but I'm a natural at that. Seriously though, I was spending an hour every night after work reading about Farms, Fish and Mafia Wars so I had to start blocking all of that stuff. One thing you won't see me do is create a fan page for my websites. I see some of the photographers and people with racing websites doing that but I consider it presumptuous. Who the hell would want to be a fan of me?
When I created my first racing website in 1997 I said that I couldn't imagine sitting at a computer doing this at 60. Well, I'll be 60 in a year and half and here I am still doing this. I would like to say that I'm still going strong but I feel more like I'm in "winding down" mode. I was thinking about it last night and it's been seven years since we did the Race Show and it seems like that was only yesterday. Looking ahead seven years I'll be retired so I'm beginning to see some light at the end of the tunnel but along with it I'm getting a different perspective on this whole chasing racing thing. I sat home with my wife and watched movies last night and loved it. I've got a fire ring in my back yard that I rarely ever use, more work to do around here than I have time for and two daughters who are expecting around late July early August. I see people who are where I was with the websites 12 years ago that are full of enthusiasm but I've been there and done that.
Certainly doing this racing media (or however you want to categorize my hobby) is something I could do as long as I've got my health, can afford it and it's still fun. When I stop and think about how many races I go to each season it really does put things into perspective. There are a lot of people who are struggling to make it from day to day but here I am feeling entitled to 30+ nights of racing each summer. For most people that kind of dedication to anything outside their day to day grind is unheard of. When one considers the monetary cost and the personal sacrifice of simple things like being around the grandkids it's a high price to pay. This season I have cut my racing to only Sprint Cars with the emphasis on tracks within a couple hours of home. We'll see how that goes and make a decision after the season how long we're going to keep chasing race cars.
I like taking six months off from racing but it keeps trying to suck me in deeper and get me busy even during the winter months. If I didn't have time to regroup and save money I wouldn't be able to go racing all summer so for me the winter break is not only good but essential. Nevertheless, I'm sick of winter so I guess that it's time to start thinking about getting back out there. Let's see, 2010 - 1961 = 49 so this will be my 49th season of watching races. I've seen 'em come and seen 'em go and don't get as worked up about it as I used to. For me following racing has been a lot of work and a big commitment of time and family resources so I kind of approach it with more of a "suck it up because here we go again" attitude than "oh boy, I get to go racing!" My wife likens my racing to my "charity of choice" as if it's something I'm contributing our time and money to and not really a way of relaxing on the weekends. She can see things about me that I can't see so I think she's pretty close with her assessment of my approach to racing. I've always been like that with my hobbies, when I was into fishing I would study everything I could get my hands on about structure and I hand sewed my own portable canvass fish house. I've always been hands on with my hobbies and not one to spend much time sitting back in a hammock contemplating my navel.
Have you been paying much attention to the racing in Florida? I see that Craig Dollansky got off to a good start and Brady Smith won a Late Model race. The Daytona 500 reminded me of a Saturday night at the dirt track where the water truck broke, they had problems with the track and had to blade it for three hours. I guess the finish was kind of exciting but after waiting over seven hours to see it (I'm not a TV watcher) I got kind of tired of the whole thing. At the end they tried to draw a comparison between green white checkered and overtime in the NFL. Did you notice the repeated references to NASCAR letting the drivers take off the gloves and go at it? Yeah, that's all they need to do to hold my interest, market racing like a friggin' cage match. Driver interviews were just as politically correct as ever and with those big sponsors I don't look for Cup to change much. Yeah, if a driver has an argument with another driver I suppose they'll replay that until we're sick of it. I don't get very excited for any type of televised racing, for me it's more about getting outdoors in beautiful weather with friends and doing something fun. I'm more of a doer than a watcher.
My tenstative schedule is looking something like this so far:
Fri Apr 23 UMSS Kopellah
Sat Apr 24 UMSS CLS BA Memorial
Fri Apr 30 UMSS Kopellah
Fri May 7 UMSS Kopellah
Fri May 21 Jax spring sprint Natl's
Fri May 28 UMSS Kopellah
Sat May 29 UMSS Arlington
Sat Jun 5 UMSS NCS (Kouba Mem)
Fri Jun 11 UMSS Kopellah
Fri Jun 18 CLS Masters w/IRA
Sat Jun 19 CLS Masters w/IRA
Fri Jun 25 UMSS Kopellah
Fri Jul 2 UMSS Kopellah
Sat Jul 3 NCS WoO
Fri Jul 9 UMSS/IMCA Elko w/Late Models
Sat Jul 10 UMSS/IMCA Elko w/Late Models
Sun Jul 11 CLS WoO
Fri Jul 16 UMSS/IMCA Elko with USMTS
Sat Jul 17 UMSS/IMCA Elko with USMTS
Fri Jul 23 IRA Elko
Sat Jul 24 IRA Elko
Fri Jul 30 UMSS Kopellah
Sat Jul 31 UMSS Arlington (tentative)
Fri Aug 13 UMSS Kopellah
Fri Aug 27 UMSS Koepellah
Sat Sept 11 CLS JR Mem w/UMSS
Sat Sept 18 Deer Creek WoO
Possible additions:
Sat May 22 IRA Rice Lake (tentative)
Sat Jun 12 IRA Deer Creek
Sun Jul 18 IRA Eagle Valley (vac week)
Fri Aug 20 Jackson Nationals Fri all sprint night
Sat Aug 28 IRA Rice Lake
That makes 27 races with an additional five that I'll go to go to if things work out. All of my races this year will include Sprint Cars in the lineup and in most cases they'll be the headliner. I'm looking forward to doing it my way and should have made this switch ten years ago but the time wasn't right to draw that line in the sand until we had more Sprint shows nearby. Another change is to not spend the entire night in the infield taking photos of all the classes. I'll go down there when the Sprints are on the track or in some cases like the Masters I'll probably get some shots of the Late Models. I'm not going to knock myself out trying to be everything to everybody anymore. My charitable contributions (or whatever you want to call them) to racing are all out of pocket expenses so the tail won't be wagging the dog and I'll decide exactly what I will and won't do.
As you probably have noticed, I'm leaving more Saturday nights open throughout the summer this year than I did in the past. Last season I was considered a track photographer but I don't think I sold more than $50 worth of pictures at that particular track all season. That same thing happened a few years ago down at Owatonna, I agreed to be the official track photographer, took time off work for all their weekday shows and didn't make anything for my trouble. I think you can see where this is going, I'm not a very good picture salesman and it's pretty obvious that the track photographer gig doesn't work for me so it's not worth it to try to hang onto that title. I've deferred that status to others this season and I'm going to do my best within the Sprint Car niche I've carved out for myself. Without even recouping so much as a little gas money from sales it's not worth the time away from family or expense to attend a dozen extra shows just so I can tell people that I'm a "track photographer" somewhere. One thing I've learned with this sport is that a person can do all the free volunteer work they can handle and the only reward is usually that you'll be asked do do even more free volunteer work. No thanks, if that's the way it's going to be I'll reserve my volunteer work for Sprint Cars from now on. I made some friends and had some good times following all types of dirt track racing but now it's time for me to draw that line in the dirt and put my time and money into supporting Sprint Car racing.
I guess that I've just about written a book and really haven't said much about racing. That's not what I use this blog for, it's more along the line of personal thoughts and comments. If you want press releases and rah rah racing talk there's plenty of it out there. Once racing starts and I've actually got something racing related to write about I'll get more on topic here on the blog.
Midwest Racing Talk. I almost forgot to mention that. It's not going to be everything to everybody year round but we'll get something on there when things start happening up here in the upper Midwest. MWRT is another one of my out of pocket volunteer work charitable contributions if you will. No worries, no hurries, we'll get busy with it soon. Matter of fact if I hadn't been treating my back/neck with the heating pad and dealing with a cold and cough this weekend I would have made some calls and got some interviews posted. Hey, what the hell do you expect, this is my 49th year of racing so I'm a little older and slower than the Website guys and gals who are knocking themselves out to be the biggest and best. I'm like an ol' hound dog layin' under the porch, I only move when I have to...
Later,
Stan
When I created my first racing website in 1997 I said that I couldn't imagine sitting at a computer doing this at 60. Well, I'll be 60 in a year and half and here I am still doing this. I would like to say that I'm still going strong but I feel more like I'm in "winding down" mode. I was thinking about it last night and it's been seven years since we did the Race Show and it seems like that was only yesterday. Looking ahead seven years I'll be retired so I'm beginning to see some light at the end of the tunnel but along with it I'm getting a different perspective on this whole chasing racing thing. I sat home with my wife and watched movies last night and loved it. I've got a fire ring in my back yard that I rarely ever use, more work to do around here than I have time for and two daughters who are expecting around late July early August. I see people who are where I was with the websites 12 years ago that are full of enthusiasm but I've been there and done that.
Certainly doing this racing media (or however you want to categorize my hobby) is something I could do as long as I've got my health, can afford it and it's still fun. When I stop and think about how many races I go to each season it really does put things into perspective. There are a lot of people who are struggling to make it from day to day but here I am feeling entitled to 30+ nights of racing each summer. For most people that kind of dedication to anything outside their day to day grind is unheard of. When one considers the monetary cost and the personal sacrifice of simple things like being around the grandkids it's a high price to pay. This season I have cut my racing to only Sprint Cars with the emphasis on tracks within a couple hours of home. We'll see how that goes and make a decision after the season how long we're going to keep chasing race cars.
I like taking six months off from racing but it keeps trying to suck me in deeper and get me busy even during the winter months. If I didn't have time to regroup and save money I wouldn't be able to go racing all summer so for me the winter break is not only good but essential. Nevertheless, I'm sick of winter so I guess that it's time to start thinking about getting back out there. Let's see, 2010 - 1961 = 49 so this will be my 49th season of watching races. I've seen 'em come and seen 'em go and don't get as worked up about it as I used to. For me following racing has been a lot of work and a big commitment of time and family resources so I kind of approach it with more of a "suck it up because here we go again" attitude than "oh boy, I get to go racing!" My wife likens my racing to my "charity of choice" as if it's something I'm contributing our time and money to and not really a way of relaxing on the weekends. She can see things about me that I can't see so I think she's pretty close with her assessment of my approach to racing. I've always been like that with my hobbies, when I was into fishing I would study everything I could get my hands on about structure and I hand sewed my own portable canvass fish house. I've always been hands on with my hobbies and not one to spend much time sitting back in a hammock contemplating my navel.
Have you been paying much attention to the racing in Florida? I see that Craig Dollansky got off to a good start and Brady Smith won a Late Model race. The Daytona 500 reminded me of a Saturday night at the dirt track where the water truck broke, they had problems with the track and had to blade it for three hours. I guess the finish was kind of exciting but after waiting over seven hours to see it (I'm not a TV watcher) I got kind of tired of the whole thing. At the end they tried to draw a comparison between green white checkered and overtime in the NFL. Did you notice the repeated references to NASCAR letting the drivers take off the gloves and go at it? Yeah, that's all they need to do to hold my interest, market racing like a friggin' cage match. Driver interviews were just as politically correct as ever and with those big sponsors I don't look for Cup to change much. Yeah, if a driver has an argument with another driver I suppose they'll replay that until we're sick of it. I don't get very excited for any type of televised racing, for me it's more about getting outdoors in beautiful weather with friends and doing something fun. I'm more of a doer than a watcher.
My tenstative schedule is looking something like this so far:
Fri Apr 23 UMSS Kopellah
Sat Apr 24 UMSS CLS BA Memorial
Fri Apr 30 UMSS Kopellah
Fri May 7 UMSS Kopellah
Fri May 21 Jax spring sprint Natl's
Fri May 28 UMSS Kopellah
Sat May 29 UMSS Arlington
Sat Jun 5 UMSS NCS (Kouba Mem)
Fri Jun 11 UMSS Kopellah
Fri Jun 18 CLS Masters w/IRA
Sat Jun 19 CLS Masters w/IRA
Fri Jun 25 UMSS Kopellah
Fri Jul 2 UMSS Kopellah
Sat Jul 3 NCS WoO
Fri Jul 9 UMSS/IMCA Elko w/Late Models
Sat Jul 10 UMSS/IMCA Elko w/Late Models
Sun Jul 11 CLS WoO
Fri Jul 16 UMSS/IMCA Elko with USMTS
Sat Jul 17 UMSS/IMCA Elko with USMTS
Fri Jul 23 IRA Elko
Sat Jul 24 IRA Elko
Fri Jul 30 UMSS Kopellah
Sat Jul 31 UMSS Arlington (tentative)
Fri Aug 13 UMSS Kopellah
Fri Aug 27 UMSS Koepellah
Sat Sept 11 CLS JR Mem w/UMSS
Sat Sept 18 Deer Creek WoO
Possible additions:
Sat May 22 IRA Rice Lake (tentative)
Sat Jun 12 IRA Deer Creek
Sun Jul 18 IRA Eagle Valley (vac week)
Fri Aug 20 Jackson Nationals Fri all sprint night
Sat Aug 28 IRA Rice Lake
That makes 27 races with an additional five that I'll go to go to if things work out. All of my races this year will include Sprint Cars in the lineup and in most cases they'll be the headliner. I'm looking forward to doing it my way and should have made this switch ten years ago but the time wasn't right to draw that line in the sand until we had more Sprint shows nearby. Another change is to not spend the entire night in the infield taking photos of all the classes. I'll go down there when the Sprints are on the track or in some cases like the Masters I'll probably get some shots of the Late Models. I'm not going to knock myself out trying to be everything to everybody anymore. My charitable contributions (or whatever you want to call them) to racing are all out of pocket expenses so the tail won't be wagging the dog and I'll decide exactly what I will and won't do.
As you probably have noticed, I'm leaving more Saturday nights open throughout the summer this year than I did in the past. Last season I was considered a track photographer but I don't think I sold more than $50 worth of pictures at that particular track all season. That same thing happened a few years ago down at Owatonna, I agreed to be the official track photographer, took time off work for all their weekday shows and didn't make anything for my trouble. I think you can see where this is going, I'm not a very good picture salesman and it's pretty obvious that the track photographer gig doesn't work for me so it's not worth it to try to hang onto that title. I've deferred that status to others this season and I'm going to do my best within the Sprint Car niche I've carved out for myself. Without even recouping so much as a little gas money from sales it's not worth the time away from family or expense to attend a dozen extra shows just so I can tell people that I'm a "track photographer" somewhere. One thing I've learned with this sport is that a person can do all the free volunteer work they can handle and the only reward is usually that you'll be asked do do even more free volunteer work. No thanks, if that's the way it's going to be I'll reserve my volunteer work for Sprint Cars from now on. I made some friends and had some good times following all types of dirt track racing but now it's time for me to draw that line in the dirt and put my time and money into supporting Sprint Car racing.
I guess that I've just about written a book and really haven't said much about racing. That's not what I use this blog for, it's more along the line of personal thoughts and comments. If you want press releases and rah rah racing talk there's plenty of it out there. Once racing starts and I've actually got something racing related to write about I'll get more on topic here on the blog.
Midwest Racing Talk. I almost forgot to mention that. It's not going to be everything to everybody year round but we'll get something on there when things start happening up here in the upper Midwest. MWRT is another one of my out of pocket volunteer work charitable contributions if you will. No worries, no hurries, we'll get busy with it soon. Matter of fact if I hadn't been treating my back/neck with the heating pad and dealing with a cold and cough this weekend I would have made some calls and got some interviews posted. Hey, what the hell do you expect, this is my 49th year of racing so I'm a little older and slower than the Website guys and gals who are knocking themselves out to be the biggest and best. I'm like an ol' hound dog layin' under the porch, I only move when I have to...
Later,
Stan
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