Shot of the Week by Dave Trautmiller

"..........despite threatening weather all weekend I had two great nights of racing this weekend. After three inches of rain Thursday night into Friday morning my usual Friday night haunt at Kopellah was cancelled. I checked the internet and looked at the weather radar and decided to head for Red Cedar Speedway in Menominee. It was a very good night of racing. The track was wicked fast. They hard packed the track in anticipation of all the rain we got and it paid off with some great races. It was my first regular show there in three years.
Saturday night after attending my nephew Justin's graduation party we headed for Cedar Lake. With 5 make up features and the regular show it turned out to be a long but enjoyable night of racing. One scary moment occured when Dave Cain flipped three times in turn one. Fortunately he was able to walk away. Can't say the same for his car though.
This weeks shot comes from the final race of the night. See you at the races......................"

Finally Friday arrives...

I've been watching the weather all day and didn't drive to work so I had to ride my vanpool back to Forest Lake. If I had drove today I could have gone to Menomonie but the grandkids are here and I've got work to do around the house to get ready for the weekend. Hopefully they'll dodge the bullet and get a show in this Saturday.

I posted to a discussion on one of the local boards about the Masters vs a race up in Hibbing. I'm a Sprint Car, open motor Late Model and USMTS fan so I'll take the Masters over anything else that's going on around here. I've never been to Hibbing but I thought that place was on it's last legs a few years ago. Somewhere I heard that it was a dust bowl and the community was trying to shut it down. I've never gone up there, no desire to, it's just too damn far to drive to see a bunch of guys who used to run weekly at Cedar Lake. They're good drivers but I've been watching them darned near every Saturday night for ten years now. Nope, no way I'd skip a big motor show on a high banked 3/8 for a limited show on a dust bowl with less banking.

I think maybe what has a lot of those hard core Late Model fans upset is that they don't have a national sanction anymore and they added Sprints. Adding the Sprints brought in a whole new group of fans and I'm seeing good crowds at the Masters. As far as the WDRL and their purse/sanction fee requirements, that's the business of the track. As long as they're meeting those requirements, and I think they're paying a standard WDRL purse, that's alright with me.

The USA Nationals is a long standing traditional event and it's very difficult to replicate it's success and add another big paying race a few weeks prior to the Nationals. I think that was the idea of the previous owners but the crowds and fields dictated these changes, not promoters trying to screw the fans. There's a lot of racing fans out there I'd swear never pickup a newspaper or have a clue what these tracks are dealing with. It's easy for armchair promoters to risk somebody else's money.

Personally I wish the weather would mellow out a little so we could get to racing in earnest. That way I think a lot of this negative chatter would subside. So far this spring I think people have spent almost as much time indoors posting on message boards as they normally do during the winter.

Give the rest of the tracks time, they'll cut the purse or make a scoring blunder and incur the wrath of the discontents.

Thursday post #2, fooling around with graphics...

Something that I created to use as a windows wallpaper.

Thursday and it's wet again...

Thursday night and there's a storm system stretching from the Texas panhandle to northern Minnesota tonight. More of the same is predicted for Friday with a 40% chance from Saturday through Sunday over in western Wisconsin. This weather pattern has been brutal on racing not to mention the citizens living in the patch of some of the storms.

In my case we're dealing with some hail damage. Depending on what transpires I may have to pay a deductible to get some work done. In addition to that the dryer stopped working so I'm sure I'll be looking at a new one of those too. Despite meticulously budgeting for this season there's always unforeseen obstacles that come up. We'll have to sort it all out and see if I can still manage some of the racing trips I've got planned. Travel is fun but there are so many things to take into consideration before setting out on a trip somewhere. I'm sure I'll still be able to make it to some of those races I've got planned. We'll just have to wait and see what the outcome is.

This dryer was I think the third $150 used one that has gone out on us. I'm going to have to buy new next time. Three strikes and a change in the way I do things is in order. In the meantime the wife and I can do a load whenever enough piles up and hang it up in the basement to dry. No rush, there's a laundermat in town where we can dry stuff if we need to for a couple weeks. We'll get around to it eventually. We wouldn't have been so casual about it when our kids were still living at home. No rush, we're both jeans and T-shirt people anyways. Exotic equipment is not required to dry jeans and racing shirts. Even when I'm not wearing a racing shirt I've usually got some kind of T-shirt on.

Racing, oh yeah, racing. This is supposed to be a racing website, isn't it. I guess I should talk a little about racing to stay on subject. It's been brutal for me with this weather trying to get in full racing mode. For example, Cedar Lake has run two complete shows and a half show that rained out after most of the Heats were completed. I'll be writing about the absurd numbers associated with the weather related cancellations in MRC. Be sure to pickup a copy and see what I've got to say.

Did anybody watch the Prelude to the Dream on HBO PPV? I could have gone down to the Blacksmith just north of Hugo and watched it there but I had second thoughts about sitting in a bar for four hours then driving. The wife wasn't willing to come down and get me after the broadcast but the clincher was that my granddaughter would be stopping by. She hadn't been around for a while so I decided to get the PPV. Part of the proceeds go to Kyle Petty's Victory Junction Gang Camp. If I had gone to the Blacksmith my money would have gone to the bar instead of Kyle's deal so that was an added bonus of purchasing the broadcast myself. And another added bonus is that I recorded it on the DVR so I can watch it again.

Well, I'd better get going and get some computer work done. Hopefully we'll see everyone on Saturday.

Wednesday, missed a day...

Sorry, busy again. I've been answering photo inquiries and having to deal with some possible hail damage on the roof. I can't see it but two contractors claim they can. One was recommended by my insurance agent. We'll see what happens. My biggest concern in having to pay the deductible right in the middle of the racing season. On second thought, this racing season has seen such hosed up weather I don't think we can really call this the "middle" of the season.

Oh, well, could have been a lot worse. All I've got to do is go a few miles down the road to Hugo to see that.

Better get going, I'm going to get the Prelude to the Dream on HBO PPV and it's already 20 minutes into the broadcast.

Planning out the remainder of the week and it's only Monday

Another busy night setting up photo orders, sending out some emails and checking the racing boards.

The weather appears like it could capture some of the racing headlines again this coming weekend. I know it's early but the National Weather Service shows 80% tonight, 60% Tuesday, 30% Wednesday, 70% Wednesday night, 70% thursday, 60% Thursday night, thunderstorms likely on Friday (no % given yet), with a chance of storms each day through Monday. This is shaping up to be a very, very wet week. I'm thinking the grounds could be too wet at all the area tracks this Friday. Saturday programs are probably going to depend on some sunshine to dry things out and the tracks won't take much more rain. I hope this forecast changes but we're stuck in a stationary frontal system with the jet stream parked over us and that's never a good thing.

On account of the weather I've only got 8 nights of racing in so far this year. Two of those were indoor Midget races so there have only been six nights of outdoor racing. I don't go to many weekday shows if I've got to work the next day. I'm doing accounting work rating grain shipments and it's kind of a brain bender searching through those grain tariffs. I don't care to do that on a minimum of sleep. There was a time 20 years ago I'd have enough energy to go to a race, not get home until 2am and get up for work after only a couple hours sleep. Not anymore, at 56 (almost 57) I need a good night's sleep to make my 5:15am wakeup call. The vacation roster is top heavy with seniority and I have to save some vacation for the family so I restrict most of my racing to Friday and Saturdays. Actually, I mostly like to go on Saturday nights because then I don't have to get off work early.

There are three tracks where I can work eight hours and still make it before the races start. Kopellah and Princeton are the easiest because I can ride my vanpool to work, get dropped off at the Park & Ride at 5pm. Stop home and pickup the camera and make it to the track. Red Cedar is possible from downtown St. Paul if I drive to work and leave from the office at 3:30 but I only do that for specials.

Some fans on the message board are complaining about the Masters payoff and saying they might go elsewhere. The funny thing about it is that they're saying they'd rather go to a wissota Late Model race than an open motor show. The wissota drivers are good, no denying that, but go to a limited show instead of the Masters? To top it off you've got the IRA Sprints making it the two best regional series in the Midwest, WDRL and IRA. Someone mentioned that it's not worth the ticket price to go to $5,000 to win races. Let's analyze this. First of all $5,000 I believe is the standard WDRL purse. I think back when the Master started they wanted to make it a big event like the USA Nationals. Apparently at some point it became clear that this race wouldn't attain the status of the Nats and they had to make some changes from a business standpoint. Now the WDRL and IRA seem to be turning into a popular combined event that is building a bigger following each season. Both of these series commands a $20 ticket by themselves so I think it's still a good deal with the combined entertainment value of both. But hard core Late Model or Sprint fans would probably never agree with me on this and want their favorite only. On the other hand there's obviously a majority of the not so hard core that are enjoying the Masters just the way it is.

Speaking of the Masters I'm trying to find out what Brooke Tatnell's schedule is going to be the week of the Masters. After I sent them an email I saw where someone posted that the WoO is going to be at Husets that Friday. Man, that's a tough call when you're running your own deal. On the one hand I can understand where they'd want to run with the Outlaws but there's something to be said about racing two nights within 40 minutes of home. Sleep in your own bed, work in your own shop and 120 miles of travel compared to over 600 miles. But if there's an Outlaw race that's probably where they'll be.

That's going to do it for tonight. Later.

Navy Davy's shot of the week sent by Dave Trautmiller

".....Old Ma Nature struck once again this weekend. Most tracks were rained out Friday night including my usual haunt, Kopellah. I was thinking of heading over to Princeton Friday, they did get their show in. With gas prices at nearly 4.00 a gallon I just stayed home.
Saturday was a very nice day until racetime rolled around. We headed for Cedar Lake knowing what was coming. They got all the heats in except the final two Late Model heats and then the sirens went off and that was it for the night. It's been a very tough start to the 08 season thus far.
This weeks shot is of the front stretch during the final modified heat. They got one Late Model heat in and the rest is history. See you at the races............I hope"

Yard work, 40% this afternoon and 30% tonight, Friday night tracks cancel

Saturday morning, 8:34am, checking my email and the message boards, getting ready to do some yard work. Yard work...not my favorite thing, I have been doing it most of my life so you'd think I'd be better at it. At 14 years old I was spending my summers working at a truck farm (1966/1967). After two years of that I spent another two years at the North Oaks Country Club (1968 and 1969) until I left for the Navy. My first job in transportation was working in the traffic department of the Northrup King (seed) Company. With all that gardening and horticulture experience you'd think that today my yard would be the nicest on the block. Wrong!!!

My yard doesn't look very nice for two reasons. Number one is that it takes a tremendous time commitment to have a nice yard. You have to be out there working on it every night. I don't care to do that. Reason number two, it's also a financial commitment. One needs to (a) spend a lot of money on weed killer, fertilizer and landscaping or (b) get a company like Chemlawn to come in and spray your yard. I'd rather put my money in my gas tank than dump it in my yard just so I can keep up with the neighbors.

Nevertheless, I'm going to get busy by 9am trimming, cutting and organizing. I've got a couple bags of leafs for the compost, the usual stuff. It doesn't look bad when it's freshly cut but a close examination would reveal that it could still use a lot of work. I'd rather go racing. Maybe when I retire I'll spend more time in the yard and get it looking better. Then I'll have time to make bird feeders out of coffee cans and have the little propellers in my garden. All that usual stuff that old people do in their yards.

The plan is for Cedar Lake's weekly show tonight. I see the "R" chance is still around, 40% this afternoon and 30% tonight. I better make sure that I bring a trash bag to cover my camera if I get caught in the rain. That's pretty much routine all summer. Rain hits, cover the camera quick, scoop up the lawn chair and camera bag and run for cover. I hope that doesn't happen tonight. I want to get some right side shots using available light and that isn't possible when there's too much cloud cover. Also tonight I've got to try and get some more "head shots" for the track so they can use them in their advertising. I'm trying to get all the Late Model and Modified drivers and I'm about half done. Some drivers have made it a bit of a challenge but I won't get sucked into the local racing politics. All I'm trying to do here is help the track out a little. If anybody doesn't want to cooperate I'll have to use my 300mm zoom lens from a distance and catch them when they're not looking. LOL There's more than one way to get a picture.

I wasn't planning on going to the races last night and was surprised when Dan Plan called and said all the Friday tracks were canceling. It hadn't rained a drop all day and even though it was showing up on the radar the tracks usually try to get the show in anyways. I think if it had been a big traveling series some of them would have raced but tracks will probably be quick to cancel with the high fuel prices. Even if the cars show up they still need a certain number of people in the stands and with these high prices people aren't going to spend their money to attend an obvious rainout. I think the days of hustling to get a weekly show in before the rain hits are pretty much going to be a thing of the past. The margin isn't that good for these tracks on weekly shows anymore, break even or even lose money. It costs money to prepare the track, employees have to be paid, concessions have to be stocked. That's why they're pulling the plug earlier than they used to.

So I hope things go well tonight. Better get busy out in that yard.

Just checking in on Thursday...

Hey, just checking in to see how everyone is going this fine Thursday. It looks like it's going to get wet tonight but from what I hear the rain chance tapers off tomorrow through the weekend. Maybe we'll get a full weekend of racing in.

I've got some cook graphics ideas going so I'm going to sign off now so I can jot them down before I forget. I'll have more to say tomorrow through the weekend as well as some new racing photos.

Later,

Stan

Photo & Graphics projects, CLS to July, slow start so far...

I've been kind of busy with graphics projects the past couple of weeks. Here's a sneak peek at a low resolution sample:



This one should look nice in a frame at 11"x14" and I am confident that Mike will be happy with the results. The place where I have them processed does a beautiful job but it's more expensive than a lot of places so that cuts the profit margin. Fortunately I have picked up my speed to the point where I can kick out a design pretty quickly. Most of all I enjoy the artistic aspect of taking the photos and coming up with the designs then figuring out how to make my rough sketch a reality. It's more fun than sitting around watching television at night.

I was looking at my racing schedule and realized that I'm going to be at the Cedar Lake Speedway for every show through the World of Outlaws Sprints in July. The Saturday following the WoO I'm planning on heading up to Brainerd for the Kouba Memorial. I understand that the Princeton National has been changed to a one day event and that the WoO will be in Brainerd that Friday. I already took that day of vacation and will have to figure out how I'm going to handle this. At these gas prices it might make sense to stay somewhere up that way on Friday night. We'll figure that out as the time gets closer.

This season has gotten off to a slow start with all the rainouts. Even some of the nights we've been able to go racing the weather has been a factor before, during or after the show. Last Saturday at Cedar Lake I tore my camera down on the tailgate of my pickup, packed it away and by the time I got to County Road CC and H it was pouring rain. If the rains had come five minutes earlier I'd have been caught with my camera and lenses laying on my tailgate. That was a close call.

Well, time to get going and do some relaxing before bedtime.

Stan Meissner

Tired and sore, taking it easy...posting photos

Man, am I ever tired and sore tonight from bailing out the sump hole the other day. I guess it must have caught up with me after using muscles I haven't used for a while. My back is bad under normal circumstances so being on my knees bent over in an awkward position for four hours with few breaks took it's toll. When I'd try to stand up it would take five minutes to fully straighten my back. After two nights on my feet at the races I'd have probably been sore anyways so bailing the water just added to it. It's not much fun getting old but I guess it's not so bad in some ways. I think a person gets a different perspective on a lot of things and ain't in such a big hurry to do things as they used to be.

One of those things is being in a rush to be the first to upload my event photos and announce it on the boards. I have been doing this website thing since before the internet was very popular and caught on with the masses. I've been at it since late 1996 but it really didn't start to catch on as a racing site until 1997 and 1998. In fact, by 1999 it started getting so many hits that it outgrew my personal homepage bandwidth allotment and I had to get a domain and hosting account. The other day I found one of my first ever action photos, a shot from around 1969 taken at CLS. There were no fences, no crash walls, no grandstand and tiered parking all the way around the track. I just walked from the pits up to the track in the area off turn two where the cars enter with an old point and shoot. This is the result:



I was hanging around the Wilke pit area on this night and felt like taking some photos. Now I wish that I had taken more but at that time I hadn't started to take my photography seriously.

My dad took and developed his own photos as a hobby so I guess you could say I've been around it all my life. Here's a photo of me checking out a camera, I'd guess it was taken sometime in 1952:



My dad wasn't really what you'd call a racing photographer but he would take a few photos from the stands and some pit shots after the races. Here's one my dad took at the old Rex Speedway. Evidently this car went through the fence so he ran down from the stands and snapped a photo.



Here's one of his photos of Jerry Lepinski on the front stretch at Twin City Speedway in 1964 waiting to be pushed off:



Unfortunately, my dad passed away in 1965, the year after this photo was taken. I never had the opportunity to discuss photography and racing or share a beer with him as two adults. That's a bummer, it leaves an empty spot in your life. I'm a little envious of my racing buddies who get to go out to the tracks with their fathers. On the other hand I have gone to a lot of races with my son so that's cool. Even one of my granddaughters, Les' girl Lucy, got to go to her first race this past weekend. I'm going to drag them all out there for the annual Firecracker so hopefully the weather will cooperate and it will be a memorable occasion. That night I'll probably be taking more pictures in the stands than down on the track.

Anyways, where was I going with this? Oh yeah, I remember now. I was going to say that I'm not in a big rush to post my photos and am not going to go on the various boards and blow my own horn. You know, "I posted 3,578 photos from last night on my website." People know where my site is and they know I take pictures so when they see me at the track they'll check out my site. If I sell a couple by word of mouth that's cool but not necessary. If I do then I'll have a little extra gas, beer and hot dog money. But if I don't sell anything, well, it's no big deal.

So anyways, I'm not going to go blowing my horn on the message boards that I posted pictures whenever I go to a race. Like I mentioned, I started doing this site back in 1996 so I've been at it for a dozen years now. I was 44 when I started gotomn in 1996 so I was already what a lot of today's racing fans would consider old. Today I'm 56, going on 57 this fall and have pretty much taken the website, media work and photography further than a hobby should be allowed to go. I've pretty much exceeded my wildest expectations with this sport without really even trying. So now I'm winding down a little and trying to taking it easy. Oh, I'm not about to quit anytime soon but what I meant is that I'm just not pushing to increase my work load or take on new opportunities anymore. Maybe when I retire and have more time I'll work a little harder at this but not now while I'm still working. I like things just the way they are right now. Keep a low profile, have fun and enjoy myself.

I wanted to take it easy tonight but this post turned into a little more work than I anticipated. Looks like I had a little more ambition than I thought I did. So now I'm going to take it easy.

Sunday takes an unexpected turn...

My plan for Sunday May 25 was to go to Kasson for the USMTS. The weather forecast had suggested possible thunderstorms so I kept an eye on the weather throughout the day. The forecast for Kasson showed a 70% chance of storms including possible severe weather. At 2pm I decided to order a pizza and spend the evening watching NASCAR on television. Our pizza delivery coincided with tornado sirens and a storm that produced high winds and marble sized hail. The power went out around the time the green flag flew at Charlotte and we ended up eating pizza in the basement. When the storm subsided I went out to see if any of the neighbors knew how long the power would be out. That's when I found out about the Hugo tornado that occurred just north of my son's house. My son and his family were spending the weekend with my daughter-in-law's family in Deer Park, Wisconsin, so we knew they weren't in any physical danger. A few cell phone calls revealed that his house in Hugo did not sustain any significant damage. A few people I know live in the area that was hardest hit and I'm still waiting to find out how they fared. My thoughts and prayers go out to everyone who was affected by this tragedy.

As it turns out the Kasson USMTS race was not rained out but I'm not second guessing my decision to stay home. The power outage lasted from 4pm Sunday until approximately 3am Monday. Anybody who has a sump pump knows what happens when you get a downpour and the power gets knocked out. Let me put it this way, my Navy bucket brigade training came in real handy. If I had gone to the races my wife wouldn't have been able to handle it by herself and I'd be ripping up basement carpet today. Instead of watching the Coca Cola 600 I sat in the dark and listed to “The Dark Side of the Moon” on my MP3 player.

Two out of three ain't bad...

Two nights of racing out of three ain't bad. I opted not to go down to Kasson today for two reasons. Number one is that there are supposed to be storms starting around 4pm and they upped the probability to 70%. Second, I went on the Kasson website to find out what the start time is and stumbled across their media policy. They have restrictions on photographers and I don't know if my publisher made it clear that I would be taking photos. I'd sure hate to spend the gas money to drive down there only to be denied access to the infield when I get there. Their website says media members are required to present two examples of their contributions to publications. I have a couple bundles of MRC I was going to bring down there but that's only one publication, not two. If it was Late Models or Sprints I could provide samples of my contributions to Dirt Late Model and Flat Out but I don't contribute Mod photos to any other publication besides MRC. There's a chance some of my Kopellah photos might be published in the next issue of All The Dirt but I just sent them yesterday so that won't do any good.

Kind of ironic that my website is called "Minnesota Dirt Track Racing" but only Wisconsin tracks let me do my photo thing. Too bad it worked out this way because I really like USMTS and was looking forward to seeing them. I have a hunch weather will be a factor tonight anyways.

Last night I had a great time at Cedar Lake. Speaking of Mods, Dave Cain drove a great Feature race last night. Congratulations to Dave.



My son Les and daughter-in-law Tina brought my oldest granddaughter Lucy to her first race last night. That was cool to see them out there. They'll be back for the Firecracker.



Well, I guess it's time to get back to watching the Indy 500. I don't sit and watch televised racing from start to finish. I like to pause the DVR and do other things and stop by the recliner once in a while to catch up with the action. I buzz the commercials and long stretches of green flag runs. I'm not much of a TV watcher.

I've got writing and photo deadlines but I'll probably post a blog entry again on Monday.

Later and happy Memorial weekend to everyone.

Stan Meissner

Navy Davy's shot of the week sent by Dave Trautmiller

".......a great night of racing at Cedar Lake once again. It was a new format, they had qualyfying features the the main events. Made for some wild side by side and three widw action throughout the night. Congrats to Shawn Kammerud who got his first CLS win in the streeters. This weeks shot is from the Modified qualyfying feature. It was like this most of the night in all classes, See you at the races..............."

One down, two to go

One race in the books for this weekend, two to go. Last night I had the opportunity to go to Kopellah and watch some racing. The night started out a little on the dusty side, I think the sun took us all by surprise, but a quick watering brought things around real nice. I love watching racing there but find that it's a little tricky shooting photos because of the way the shadows affect the lighting. You setup the camera for one spot and it's overexposed, pan a couple car lengths to your right and you're underexposed. Not to mention that setting the white balance always gives me fits in those conditions. Definitely a challenge but there are some good photo ops there. I always enjoy going to Kopellah. I know, I'm a bit of a hypocrite saying I wasn't going to a lot of weekly racing and now I'm going to concentrate on it until the middle of July. Things change, I'm flexible.

Tonight will be the first CLS double Features night. Rains are supposed to hold off until after 1am and with this format the show should go pretty quick. I'm looking forward to it.

Tomorrow will be USMTS at Kasson weather permitting. There's a 50% chance of storms, some could be severe, etc, etc, etc. I was looking forward to that trip but don't know if I want to risk the gas money. We'll keep an eye on the radar and internet boards and make a decision tomorrow afternoon.

Not much more to say right now. Scrambling to get ready after uploading Kopellah pics and working in the yard for a few hours.

More later.

O'Doul's Tour ends abruptly, is anybody reading this blog?, open up comments field...

My O'Doul's Racing Tour 2008 came to an abrupt end the other day. No, I don't mean that I'm not going racing this year but the "official sponsor" is back to Miller Lite. Yeah, I know, my wife laughed at how briefly that lasted too. That's the good thing about not making it official, it was a personal conviction that worked out pretty good for a few months. I probably shouldn't have even said anything because I knew it wasn't going to last indefinitely. I've got a lot of driving to do late at night now that the racing season is here and that keeps me honest. I only enjoy beverages when I'm staying overnight.

Does anybody read this blog? I'm seeing about ten visits per day so probably not many but I like jotting my thoughts down. It's not a big deal how many hits it does or doesn't get. This is just a journal about what's on my mind and a place to post some thoughts during the season. Sometimes it will be more personal, other times it will be all about the racing.

I'm thinking about opening up the comments field so people can reply to these posts. I did that for a while in the past but got a lot of spam so I shut that function down. I'm ready to open it back up again.

Thinking about doing a monthly video blog entry so we'll see how that goes. Sometimes I have good ideas like the podcast I was doing but either don't feel like I've got the content it needs or can't find the time. As far as creating the actual podcast or videos that part of it has never been a problem.

We'll see how it goes. This has been a busy year so far.

Vanpool mess, babysitting, gas price increase, Kopellah, CLS, Kasson

My day got off to a rocky start. We were all sitting at the park & ride waiting for our vanpool and we found out the van tires had been slashed. No van today so I had to drive at the last minute. Fortunately I had enough gas and the correct change for parking. I only drive two miles a day to the park & ride so a lot of times I'll have less than a quarter tank until the weekend comes. There are a lot of days when I've only got a couple bucks in my pocket. I park at a $1.50 per day lot that has a kiosk where you drop your money so I need correct change. The alternative is the $6 per day ramp where I can pay on the way out so I save $4.50 by having the correct change.

I stopped at the credit union and picked up some cash because I might have to drive again this week. I needed some money for the three race weekend I've got planned this Friday through Sunday night anyways. I don't carry a cash card, the wife usually has the checkbook and I'm very conservative about how I use my credit card. Hey, I was raised by depression era grandparents and it left a lasting impression on me. Some would say cheap but I prefer the word wise. Anybody who grew up in an era when credit was harder to come by saw this meltdown coming. I'm feeling the pinch like everyone else but the racing season is my priority and when that's over we'll see where we're at.

Gas jumped to $3.859 today and oil shot up to $133 per barrel. I read where a lot of Wall Street people who were involved in other types of markets have gravitated to commodity speculating. I'll be the first to defend our free enterprise economic system but traditionally governments have had to step in and regulate. The reason for regulation is to prevent exactly the kind of greed we see permeating the market today. Energy is going to be an issue from now on and it's going to have an effect on grass roots racing.

I decided on Kopellah, Cedar Lake and Kasson for this weekend. Kopellah is always a fun place to go. They don't get the most cars, huge crowds or thousands of fans but it's a fun track. Everyone is friendly and it's a more relaxed atmosphere than the bigger tracks/events. Matter of fact, that's what I like about Kopellah. It's the kind of place where you say you're going to the dirt track, not the "facility or venue." You go to the races at Kopellah, not to an "event." It's a down to earth, laid back grit in your teeth dirt track racing the way it should be.

Cedar Lake has their first double Features night of the season. After reading the releases it appears more like a qualifying Heat race like they have at the Masters and USA Nationals than an actual Feature. From what I read I think the word "Feature" isn't really an accurate description of the first races of the evening. It's more like a big event format and the first race amounts to more of a long Heat than an actual Feature. I think it might be a good way to move the show along and make a night at the races more attractive to families. There were a lot of contrary posts about it on the internet boards but they haven't even given it a chance to see how it works. A lot of these racers have the idea that everything has to be done the same way at all the tracks. How dare a track try something different must be their thinking on this. It sounds better to me every time I look over the format so we'll see how it goes.

Sunday night I'll be going to the USMTS at Kasson. I haven't been down there since a 360 Sprint Car special some years back. I'm thinking it was maybe the first or second year I wrote for MRC so that would make it 1999 or 2000, somewhere in there. I remember it being a neat little track and the USMTS is always good so I'm looking forward to it.

That's all for tonight. I have to baby sit a 2 year old and a puppy for a couple hours.

Tuesday, weekend plans coming together

It's looking like I'll be going to Kopellah on Friday, Cedar Lake on Saturday and Kasson for the USMTS on Sunday. Not much time to post again tonight but I'll get on here and do that asap.

Monday and in a rush...

Not much time to type tonight. It was a busy weekend and I have to run somewhere tonight. I've got a lot of thoughts but no time to jot them down tonight. Maybe when I get home from my errands I'll have time to edit this post and add more to it.

Camera gear problem. Sensor scope kit I ordered last winter off eBay. Vac worked for a minute than failed. Sent it back to seller, got a replacement and set the kit away for three months. Went to use it today, same thing, worked for a minute and now the blower motor is dead. No recourse, already past return policy warranty. Still can use the magnifier and swabs but the vac would come in handy. Sent a nasty email to manufacturer about their vac motors.

Got to run.

Navy Davy's shot of the week sent by Dave Trautmiller

".........Old Ma Nature finally gave us a weekend where we could go racing. She let us know she was around though. At Kopellah Friday night we had about an hour or so rain delay before it cleared off and at Cedar Lake Saturday night we had a few pop up showers but they didn't hurt anything. Racing was great both nights. The Midwest Mod feature at Kopellah Friday night was one of the best I've seen so far this young season. I couldn't count how many times the lead changed. Frank Soucek got his first ever feature win. He's been so close so many times, I was happy to see him get one.
Cedar Lake Saturday night was a very fun night that featured some outstanding racing. Joey Jensen and Dave Cain battling for the Modified feature was excellent. Jensen got the win. The Late Model feature was spectacular. Brent Larson and Rick Egersdorf fought for this one all race long. It was that way all through the field. Side by side, three wide at points. Being my first Late Model race of the year I couldn't ask for more. Brent Larson got the win. Add in the School Bus races and that made for a great night at Cedar. There was carnage all over the track after the bus race was over. At least four bus's ended up on their side. Add in a car with a camper trailing behind and another bus dragging a boat it looked like a tornado passed through by the time it was over. New Richmond finally dethroned Osceola,Osceola had won the past three years.
This weeks shot is a three wide shot during the heats. See you at the races........"