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
