A few milestones, a new direction and more ideas

It's been a while since I posted on this blog. That's what happens when I go racing two nights almost every weekend all summer. I like racing, actually you could probably say that I love it to some extent, but there are other things going on in my life that are starting to cut into my racing time. That's no problem, I can still do my websites and some work for the publications on more of a part time basis.

I don't have anything to prove and the younger guys would be happy to step in and fill the void. I've got plenty of web ideas that don't require so much travel and chasing races. I'm not monetizing this thing anyways so that would work. I can do a lot from right here in my man cave. Stay tuned, I'll be doing some fun things with the graphics and audio.

Just checking in on the blog

This is the MDTR blog, in other words it began life as a part of my racing website gotomn.com aka Minnesota Dirt Track Racing hence the acronym MDTR. I'm thinking about expanding the site to include some other interests besides racing after this season. Next year I'm going to have to make further cuts in my racing schedule so I'm thinking of some options to keep the site interesting. The racing will remain on the gotomn.com site as will midwestracingtalk.com. I probably won't be going racing every weekend like I have been for the past 14 years. Stay tuned, whatever I decide to do will be good stuff. That's always been my goal, to have fun.

I have been a little bit lazy with the blog

There has been a lot going on lately. No, I haven't been to a race yet but I'm scheduled to start next weekend. Can't type long, got to finish staining the deck but I'll like to tinker with the guitar and recording software for a while. More to come later, didn't want anybody to think I forgot about blogging.

Micro Sprints Added to Elko Dirt Nationals‏

In a joint announcement, the newly formed Micro Sprint League of the Upper Midwest Sprint Car Series (UMSS) and Elko Speedway are pleased to announce the addition of the Micro Sprint League to Elko's Dirt Nationals on July 23-24. The micro sprints will join the outlaw sprint cars of the IRA and area modifieds to make this weekend an all open wheel show.

"We are grateful to Tom Ryan, the owner of Elko Speedway, for allowing us to compete during the Dirt Nationals," stated Ron Bernhagen of the UMSS. "The micro sprints are real race cars, and I know they will enhance the evening's program and surprise many people with their speed."

The Elko Dirt Nationals will be run on three consecutive weekends in July:

* July 9-10 - 360 sprint cars, late models, and area modifieds
* July 16-17 - 360 sprint cars, USMTS modifieds and area modifieds
* July 23-24 - IRA Outlaw sprint cars, micro sprints, and area modifieds


For more information on Elko, go to www.elkospeedway.com. For more information on the UMSS, go to www.umsprints.com or call Ron at 612-363-5302.

2010 Micro Sprint League Schedule Announced‏

The Micro Sprint League of the Upper Midwest Sprint Car Series (UMSS) is pleased to announce an eight-race schedule for its inaugural season. Created to bring affordable open wheel racing to the area and to provide a feeder program for the UMSS, the Micro Sprint League will race at both Kopellah Speedway and Elko Speedway in 2010. Kopellah will host six shows, mostly with the UMSS, and Elko will host a pair of shows on July 23 and 24 as part of their dirt nationals.

"Our schedule for the first year will help the Micro Sprint League bring their brand of racing to many people around the Twin Cities area," stated Ron Bernhagen from the UMSS. "Once people see these cars in action and learn how inexpensive it is to get involved, I know the Micro Sprint League will really take off."

2010 Schedule
May 7 - Kopellah - with UMSS
June 11 - Kopellah - with UMSS
July 2 - Kopellah - with UMSS
July 3 - Kopellah
July 9 - Kopellah
July 23 - Elko - with IRA
July 24 - Elko - with IRA
August 27 - Kopellah - with UMSS

The Micro Sprint League of the UMSS is a value-based micro 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.

For more information, go to www.umsprints.com or call Ron Bernhagen at 612-363-5302 or John Morris at 763-923-1031.

Micro Sprint League Rules Consistent with Miniakota's‏

The rules of the Micro Sprint League of the Upper Midwest Sprint Car Series (UMSS) will follow those of the Miniakota Micros of Northwest, Iowa, and be close to the rules run at Copper Creek Motorsports Park in Superior, Wisconsin.

The consistent rules will allow any micro sprint in the area to run with the Micro Sprint League with no or very few changes. For complete rules, go to www.miniakotamicrosprints.com/rules/

The Micro Sprint League of the UMSS is a value-based micro 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.

For more information, go to www.umsprints.com or call Ron Bernhagen at 612-363-5302 or John Morris at 763-923-1031.

What the keyboard jocks predicted vs reality and other meaningless ramblings...

Remember the controversies of a few years ago? DTRA, Goodyear, NASCAR, Rice Lake was gonna' take over Late Model racing in western Wisconsin and kick Cedar Lake's ass? What a difference a few years makes. The first thing to go at RLS was their weekly Late Model program and now they might not open for the 2010 season if they cannot find a buyer by the end of April. Now don't misunderstand me, I think RLS is a great track and I have enjoyed the few shows I attended there but my point is that the predictions of the armchair prognosticators have not come true, in fact the opposite has happened. When CLS left WISSOTA I went down on record as stating that location, location, location is more important than sanction, sanction, sanction. When people bad mouthed Goodyear I said that I've been around this sport since the days when the IMCA "Big Cars" ran Firestone knobbies on the Minnesota State Fair dirt. Quite a few called me an idiot and got pretty angry at me but I knew I'd be right in the long run.

I've been around a long time, I've seen sanctions and tires come and go and I could see the direction this whole thing was going in. Tracks out in the middle of nowhere were in my estimation going to have a harder time than tracks close to the bigger population centers regardless of affiliation. It's the law of averages, more people and more businesses concentrated in a small area, it makes sense that these tracks have a bigger pie to slice and it doesn't take a rocket scientist to figure that out. Common sense always beats loyalties and misdirected fervor.

I have received a lot of compliments on Midwest Racing Talk and I appreciate that. Along with the compliments I have gotten a lot of suggestions about who I might want to interview and what subjects to cover. MWRT is not sponsored and there are limits to how many interviews I can do. At this point I'm trying to build MWRT from the ground up, get some content out there and get established so that when some of the big special events happen drivers will want to be interviewed. Facebook is going to help with that because we're getting a lot of participation in the Minnesota Dirt Track Racing Group by some of the drivers and people we want to talk to. I'm probably going to take some heat this year because at times Midwest Racing Talk is probably going to seem like it has a Sprint Car agenda at times. Without going into a lot of detail, I do the sites out of my own pocket without sponsorship so that is also a factor. I'm sure you'll all agree that if you're paying for something out of your pocket and taking your own time to do it you damn sure are going to do it your own way. I'll never run banners on the sites but I would consider doing some type of commercials in the podcasts or simply mentioning a business name for a modest fee. I work full time so I'm not in a position to go around to the businesses with a clipboard and business card promoting the sites. If somebody asks I've got a basic idea what we could do but I think as most of you racers already know, podcast sponsors aren't going to come beating on my door.

I think as far as the audio site goes our best option is to take it at a pace I can handle from an administrative standpoint and see where it goes. I'm trying to put up quality podcasts with good sound and some thought provoking content and the rest will take care of itself. As I mentioned in an earlier blog post I'm not making "cold calls" on drivers I'm not familiar with so my interviews are going to be limited to people I know. If you're looking for interviews of Grand Rapids WISSOTA drivers you're out of luck, I've never been there and they wouldn't know me from Adam at the back gate. Not to pick on Grand Rapids but you get the idea, they race on Thursday nights, it's way up north and I live in Forest Lake and work full time in the Cities. Visiting places like that is difficult because I'm not setup everywhere so I never know what kind of issues I'm going to run into.

My schedule is made up entirely of Sprint Car races this season so that's going to have some bearing on my interview subjects. I will see Late Models a total of five nights this season, at the Billy Anderson Memorial and Masters at CLS and two nights at Elko. There aren't any Sprint Cars on the Thursday of the Masters so I don't plan on going that night and the USA Nationals are not on my schedule. As far as the USMTS I'll see them two nights this year along with the IMCA/UMSS Sprints at Elko so there is an opportunity to interview a few of those drivers. I spent the last eleven seasons going to a lot of Cedar Lake weekly shows and still have my connections out there so I plan to do some phone interviews with some of the Late Model and Modified drivers as time permits. Perhaps Dan Plan will cover some of those too as he will be closer to that racing this year than I will. I'm putting all of my eggs in the Sprint Car basket and will do everything I can to promote that type of racing. I'm not out to garner huge numbers of website hits or cater to any particular group of racers or please any sponsors who might happen to think their money buys their agenda on my sites. That is the advantage of doing this on my own, if it was a business I would be obligated to follow the money and that would no doubt lead me a direction I do not want to take this in.

No, I'm not trying to be everything to everybody with the audio site or with MDTR. Especially now that I'm on Facebook it doesn't seem like there's any shortage of daily email notices from the various racing websites. Blog updates and seemingly endless press releases have made it a challenge to not block some of those posts. As a matter of fact, I'm following my own advice on this one and will never post on a daily basis. A few press releases, notices when there's a new audio file posted and I'll announce the new photo galleries. I know how I feel when I get multiple daily email notices from some of these racing sites on Facebook so I'll try to go easy on you in that regard. Think of this blog post as part information and part my personal therapy and you'll get where I'm coming from. Sometimes I just have some thoughts I want to jot down and this is my outlet for that. If you're looking for daily racing content there is plenty out there. If you want to know what kind of bullshit Stan is spreading today you can stop here and check it out.

When racing starts and I've got more to say than I can fit in a Facebook post I'll write it here and announce it on FB and the message boards. Speaking of Facebook, I'm seeing a trend of the traffic on the traditional message boards dropping off from what it was in it's heyday. I think that Facebook is taking over in that area and I must say, compared to the racing boards it's a much more efficient way of doing things. The added bonus is that some of our favorite professional race drivers are keeping us up-to-date on their Facebook pages whereas they would have never posted on the message boards. Facebook offers them a layer of protection that the boards don't and lets them get the word out without having to take any heat. Some people say they like Twitter for that reason but from what I have seen Twitter is a little too invasive into a person's private life for my taste.

Well, I'm looking forward to racing, how about you? Keep an eye on MWRT because I think we're going to get busy with a video interview pretty soon here. More on that later.

Internet radio, blogging and other random topics...

One misconception that a lot of people have about podcasting is that an MP3 player or iPod is required in order to listen to them. That is not the case, a podcast is simply another form of MP3 audio file, the same format used for music downloads. You can listen to on demand internet broadcasts like the ones on midwestracingtalk.com directly on the player incorporated in the site or download to listen at a more convenient time or location if you own on a personal listening device. Sites such as podcastalley.com offer a large selection of categorized podcasts complete with RSS and iTunes feeds that allow you to subscribe to each new episode without having to check the sites for updates. This feature is incorporated into the midwestracingtalk.com website for your convenience.

Podcasts are a relatively new thing on the internet and have become very popular during the past five years. Today podcasters as they are called can create audio broadcasts about their favorite subject with nothing more than a personal computer and microphone and broadcast their creation across the globe with a standard internet connection. I am a self professed MP3 junkie as anyone in my office will tell you. We're allowed to listen to headphones or play our radios at a low volume so I listen to podcasts instead of radio or CD's like most of my co-workers. I enjoy podcasts because they allow me to listen to a variety of subjects that cannot be found on the radio talk shows.

As part of my weekly routine I load up my MP3 player with a couple dozen of my favorite internet radio shows ranging in subject from photography techniques to discussions about the unexplained to dirt track racing and much more. Trust me, if you enjoy learning about a wide variety of topics, listening to interviews of your favorite authors or are in the mood for a comedy show you should consider listening to podcasts. They're especially handy when you're on the go. I love to listen to them by plugging the MP3 player into my radio while driving, especially when I make those racing road trips.

One thing that I find about podcasting as compared to radio broadcast over the air waves is that there can often be a wide rang of quality. Some podcasts sound very professional like something you'd hear on FM radio but others are so poorly mixed that they're a distraction to listen to. The sound quality might be excellent but the content is a complete waste of bandwidth. On the other hand, some podcasts I are plagued by loud crackling in the background or the interviewer is uncomfortably loud and the subject is so soft they cannot be heard. In some cases the sound quality might be poor but the content is interesting which can be annoying when trying to listen through a headset while constantly having to adjust the volume. What I find the most annoying is podcasts where I can turn the volume up to almost 100% on my MP3 player but it's still not loud enough to hear over normal office background noise. There's nothing wrong with my MP3 player, FM radio, the majority of podcasts and my music MP3's come in loud and clear so I know it's not the player. Another annoying thing I've heard, especially on one particular network I listen to, is poor editing. There is no excuse for things such as several minutes of empty air space or the host talking to someone thinking they're not on the air. All those things are simple to resolve with the right tools and a little bit of audio editing to cut out dead space and bloopers. Some of the hosts apparently have never belonged to Toastmasters because they can be a bit overbearing at times, especially when they won't let their guest get a word in edgewise. Nevertheless, as amateur as some of the podcasts are great content can overcome a multitude of flaws. .

With those things in mind I put a lot of time into editing the midwestracingtalk.com podcasts and trying to get all the details right. I'm not striving to post multiple episodes each week which I feel would overwhelm people with content but to keep it at no more than two per week during the season. I make it a point to listen to each and every one of my productions on an MP3 player to monitor the quality of the sound and content.

That's it for now, I'm ready for the recliner.

Signs of spring in the air, Facebook group and more dribble...

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.

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.

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.

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

Veteran Minnesota Sprint Car driver Jerry Richert Jr. to race in Australia during the month of January 2010

Veteran Minnesota Sprint Car driver Jerry Richert Jr. to race in Australia during the month of January 2010

Forest Lake, Minnesota (December 20, 2009)

Jerry Richert Jr. aka Sonny, will escape the snow and cold of Forest Lake, Minnesota, and make the longest haul of his racing career as he travels to Australia to have a crack at racing down under in January of 2010. Richert will be driving a Craft brothers Maxim powered by Walker Racing Engines with sponsorship from Craft Differentials, Locked Drive Systems and Des Hargraves Refrigerated Transport. Scheduled events will include races at Parramatta City Raceway during the rounds of World Series and The Famous " Warnabool Classic" which attracts many big USA names and is similar to our Knoxville Nationals. Sonny will join a USA contingent that includes Donny Schatz, fellow Minnesotan Craig Dollansky, and Tim Kaeding, in their effort to prove that Americans come to win. Australian fans are in for a treat as they will get the opportunity to watch a veteran second generation driver who is a great ambassador for the sport of Sprint Car racing. Jerry will be accompanied on the trip by his wife Lori.

Jerry Richert Jr's career accomplishments include ten Knoxville Feature wins, four appearances in the Knoxville Nationals A Main, and track titles at the Jackson and Husets Speedways during a career that has spanned three decades. When asked for his observations on the tracks in Australia Sonny said "from what I have seen it looks like they have mostly what we would consider short tracks down there. They're flat like Knoxville or a lot like Owatonna (Minnesota) and Spencer (Iowa) used to be but they tell me our tracks tend to get slicker whereas theirs are more tacky. I'm looking forward to trying the tracks out down there and meeting the Australian Sprint Car fans. The Aussies are tough but I am not just going to Australia to have a holiday I am going there to win!"

Sonny has shown no sign of slowing down and continues to win in Interstate Racing Association and 360 competition. Jerry competed with the Upper Midwest Sprint Car Series (UMSS) during the 2009 season and scored an unprecedented seven Feature wins with the club in it's inaugural season including the prestigious Kouba Memorial at the North Central Speedway and the UMSS season finale at Cedar Lake's Legendary 100. Jerry's brother-in-law, Brooke Tatnell, a native Australian who also comes from a famous racing family, will be looking forward to going wheel to wheel with Sonny on his home tracks. Brooke is married to Jerry's sister Amy, makes his summer home in Forest Lake, Minnesota, and competes against Jerry during the American season. The two drivers have developed a friendly family rivalry that entitles the winner to bragging rights. Australian fans will have the opportunity to follow the continuation of this battle for family supremacy on Tatnell's home turf. Tatnell sends a sound of warning to JR "better get your elbows up and sit in the saddle as I have not forgotten about you spinning me out last summer."

Jerry Richert Jr. is the son of the late Jerry Richert Sr., winner of the 1962 Knoxville Nationals, four IMCA National titles and a member of the National Sprint Car Hall of Fame in Knoxville, Iowa.

Jerry Richert Jr's website can be found at jerryrichertjr.com

Brooke Tatnell's website can be found at brooketatnell.com

Fans in the United States can keep up-to-date on Jerry Richert Jr's progress in Australia by logging onto worldseriessprintcars.com, sprintcarworld.com.au and sprintcardaily.com

Find out more about the Upper Midwest Sprintcar Series at umsprints.com

For more information about the Interstate Racing Association log onto irasprints.com and irasprints.org

Stan Meissner
gotomn.com
midwestracingtalk.com

I'm starting to get excited about the coming racing season...

The 2010 racing season looks like it's going to be awesome. This will be my first season since I have been involved in racing media and photography that I will be able to devote exclusively to Sprint Car racing. It was a bittersweet decision to have to cut back to only one type of racing due to financial and family obligations but it had to be done. I'll see Mods, Midwest Mods, Supers, Streets, Pures and Hornets as support classes as the various Sprint shows so the thing that's going to be kind of tough is not seeing the Late Models as often as I should. I'm going to have to work a few nights into my schedule so I can get some interviews for Midwest Racing Talk. I think you're going to like the direction we're going to take with MWRT.

How has the cold and snow been treating you so far? I have gotten through the entire week but not without a few mechanical problems. My snow blower experienced some mechanical difficulties during our recent snowstorm and appears to be on it's last legs. It's an old used piece that needs more work than it's worth. It runs terrible, the clutch is slipping and the chute is stuck in one position. I nursed it through the whole job but it required frequent restarts, careful planning to aim the broken chute so I wouldn't get a face full of snow. Every three feet the clutch would slip stopping the auger so I'd have to back up and go over the same area a couple of times. I'm not sure what I'm going to do about that. Even the smallest snow blowers are upwards of $350 new and there's not much good used stuff out there. I've got a two foot wide snow scoop and I might be able to nurse the old snow blower through a couple more snowfalls. If we get a really heavy snow like a foot or more I've got a neighbor who will come over and plow it.

I didn't get a chance to agonize for long over the snow blower because my car started giving me some trouble and diverted my attention. The car started running real rough for about five minutes when I first start it up. I had to have my wife give me a ride up to where I get picked up by my vanpool in the morning so I could get to work. There's an auto parts store where I get dropped off so I picked up a can of Heet for both cars. It started running like that Thursday night after work when I started it cold and had to keep my foot lightly on the gas so it wouldn't kill for about five minutes. Tomorrow I'm going to get it warmed up, add the Heet and fill it and take a long drive so it gets up to highway speed. If that doesn't take care of the problem I'll bring it into the shop and get it looked at. It's nice when the problem isn't so bad that I can still drive it in to the shop instead of having to pay for a tow. Probably somebody like me who drives around in a 1989 model should think about getting AAA or something. One of these days I'll have to upgrade but I really like this old boat. Probably when the Merc gives out I'll get a mini van so I can throw a sleeping bag in the back for impromptu camping. Challenges can be a hassle to deal with when they're happening but sometimes in the long run one ends up in a better situation when it's all said and done.

I have already penciled in the World of Outlaws Sprint Cars at North Central, Cedar Lake and Deer Creek. It's great to see these guys coming back up into our area and all three should be great shows. North Central is on July 3rd, Cedar Lake July 11th and Deer Creek on September 18th.

In addition to the Outlaws I'll have a bunch of other great Sprint Car races on my schedule in 2010 that I'll be talking about as we get closer to next season. I've already got some potential interviews lined up so it should be a fun year.

That's all for now. Later!

Do we really need Monster Truck/Pro Wrestling hype to sell our sport?

Thoughts while sorting through an endless stream of press releases, Facebook announcements and other various and sundry rip rap.

Yawn!!!

If I get another facebook message urging me to visit another racing blog that updates daily (daily updates this time of year are over the top IMHO), another press release about some "rebranded" domain that sat idle for a year and a half or another press release about a "new" event telling me I gotta' "be there, be there, be there" (insert echo and engine noise in the background like something out of a Monster Truck radio spot) I think I'm gonna puke.

A press release for the Belleville 100 Modified race in celebration of the 100th anniversary of the Belleville (Kansas) Speedway says it all for me. This sport ladies and gentlemen has been around for 100 years. My dad, grandpa and uncle sat in the stands and watched cars turn left on dirt ovals before WWII. I grew up listening to my dad tell stories about the old Rex Speedway in Cottage Grove. There was a Midget track in the Minneapolis suburb of Crystal, the State Fair offered ten straight days of racing when I was a kid growing up on St. Paul's Hamline Avenue and by that time had a history of racing dating back to the early part of the century. In other words, what could possibly happen in this sport that is so new and exciting as to trump it's 100 years of history? Do we really need to be using Pro Wrestling, Monster Truck type of hype to generate interest in dirt track racing? Is it really that hard to get the attention of the younger generation that we have to present the sport like that to get them off their ass and out of the house? I hope not but if current marketing trends are any indication I must be a dinosaur in my thinking when it comes to marketing dirt track racing to the masses.

What about the proliferation of racing websites with the flashing graphics that border on seizure producing? One of the first things I learned with graphics programs was how to create animated gifs that are so flashy they'll blind you and induce vomiting. However, after the thrill of "hey, look at this cool graphic I made" wore off and I realized how annoying they were I stopped using them. Case in point, lets look at two of the biggest most visited websites on the internet. Google, the popular search engine has one simple logo, two buttons and a few text links on a plain white background. Ladies and gentlemen, proof positive that it ain't the chrome that makes 'em go. And the second exhibit in my case for simple websites, Craigslist, another of the most popular sites on the internet, no logo, plain white background, all text links. So there you go, if you build a functional, simple website with an easy to remember name, information and resources that your viewers find value in they will come back.

The fact is, if you want to reach millions of people on the internet you'll make it about a subject other than dirt track auto racing. We're a niche no matter how you cut it. Even the biggest of touring series when all is said and done is nothing more than 10-20 colorful 18 wheelers loaded with racing equipment touring the country putting on a show. It kind of reminds me of the circus or the old State Fair Carnies of my youth, come into town, set up, put on a show, tear it all down and move onto the next stop. That has probably been going on since the days of the Roman Chariot races and maybe longer for that matter.

At this point you're probably thinking "you're not much of a racing fan" and in a sense you're right. I think of racing in a different light than a typical fan. As far as being star struck by the drivers that just doesn't happen for me. I appreciate their skills but as Tiger Woods recently showed us "superstars" or "big shots" as my grandma called them put on their pants one leg at a time. Maybe their pants are more expensive than my $15 Walmart Wranglers but if you're wondering why I don't sit on the edge of my seat wishing for an autograph from some celebrity I think Tiger illustrates my point. In my personal life I'd steer clear of hanging with anyone who had a beautiful wife and adorable children but messed with four other women on the side. If I peeked out my window and saw one of my neighbors burn out of his driveway in his SUV and run into a tree while his wife beat his ass with a golf club I wouldn't emulate that kind of lifestyle. My son has a philosophy about race car drivers that I find amusing. When I first started doing media work I offered to take him down in the pits and introduce him to some drivers. He said "no thanks dad, to me drivers are like strippers, I like watching them do their thing but I don't want to get to know them." In other words what he was saying is that he'd rather hold them in esteem for their skills on the track. I drivers personally and most of them are great people but they one thing we all have in common is that we're all people.

So I don't get star struck by dirt track drivers. I have rode in the elevator and made small talk with our company president, we're over 40,000 employees strong so I guess you could say that in my world he's a celebrity. No big deal, I wasn't star struck. I interviewed two NASCAR drivers for television, Kenseth and Blaney, as well as Schatz, Kinser, Bloomquist and other high profile drivers. I've done interviews as recently as last summer with high profile dirt track drivers and participated in a press conference with Dale Earnhardt Jr. I've shook the hand of Jeff Gordon and had an impromptu conversation with Tony Steward over an on track incident at Cedar Lake. I'm not trying to name drop but I'm simply illustrating that they all put their pants on one leg at a time and I'm not in awe of them. Sure I respect them and do my best not to screw up the interviews. When you're talking to those guys you know that you're going to be heard by a lot of listeners and that's an incentive to do a good job.

I came from a family that was involved in the sport as car owners and got to hang around the garage and meet some drivers. Sometimes I'd see guys like Scratch Daniels or the late Jerry Richert Sr., both became members of the Sprint Car Hall of Fame, so the drivers of my youth were as good as anybody today. The general consensus about drivers around the relatives garage was like my friend and current car owner Ron Wuiff so eloquently puts it, "don't bend my shit!" In other words, I appreciate the skills of the drivers but when it comes right down to it I'm probably as big of a fan of the machines as I am of the men (and women) that drive them. I've seen a lot of drivers in my day, guys like Richert and Daniels, Kettering, Lepinski, Laursen (Russ father of current Late Model driver Steve) and many more right up to the present. I didn't think of those drivers of my youth as superstars nor do I think that way about today's drivers, they're just people who happened to drive race cars.

On the subject of being a fan of the machines I think my outlook on that was influenced by my time on the flight deck of an aircraft carrier. I spent some time hooking the planes to the catapult and running the port cat deckedge controls. When planes are hooked up to the cat tension is taken on the cat and they go into afterburner prior to the launch so you're standing a few feet from a plane that's turned at full power with flames coming out of the exhaust. The vibration and power are indescribable. Imagine the adrenaline rush of 410 Sprint Cars (or Late Models if that's your thing) coming out of the fourth turn at Knoxville with Doug Clark eyeballing the field ready to drop the green. Now increase the adrenaline, the danger factor, the vibration, noise and anticipation by tenfold and you can begin to understand what it's like working on the flight deck. The pilots went through a rigorous training program and we weren't "fans" of any particular pilot, they were all skilled professionals. We didn't get their autograph or wear "cartoon like" t-shirts with their names emblazoned across the front and back. A few of our pilots had come out of Top Gun, the Navy Fighter Weapons School. A couple had been with the Blue Angels and almost all of them had flown combat missions over Vietnam. I knew a few pilots personally and they had a swagger in their step and that same eagle eyed concentration that you only see in certain types of dangerous pursuits. Imagine by way of example that legendary glare of Steve Kinser the photographers like to capture while he's lined up for the A Main of the Knoxville Nationals and you can understand what fighter pilots are like. They're doing a very special and dangerous job that only a small segment of the population will ever understand and they're a cut above the average person. So I guess I look at race drivers more in that light, someone who's got a special talent and is doing a job, than something akin to a tabloid star where I want to follow their every move on Twitter and stand in line for their autograph.



Back to the subject of racing marketing hype. I think you can understand based on my experiences where I'm coming from. Yeah, dirt track racing excites me, yes, I respect the skills of the drivers and yes, I still get excited about certain races and seeing certain drivers. Nevertheless, I have dealt one on one with arguably some of the top drivers in this sport and when all was said and done I still had to roll the trash barrels out to the street and get up for work on Monday morning. The work I have done for the sport has been without compensation except for media passes but if you average what I do out to an hourly rate it would come in below minimum wage. I do it to promote the sport that I have loved since I was a kid and not for any kind of financial gain or fame. In part that's why I decided to back off on my schedule and concentrate more on Sprint Car racing starting next season. For over ten years I have covered all types of racing and at times trying to do it all bordered on a financial burden resulting in sucking a lot of the fun out of what I was doing. Fans of weekly racing and the entry classes will probably say "what's he bitching about? He gets into the races free and can go as much as he wants" whereas I'd be looking at it like a part time job. There are other factors involved too but I finally got to the point where I realized that I can't do it all anymore.

I get frustrated in some ways with the current generation of our local racing fans. They think an exciting race is some entry level Stock Car class chugging around four wide door to door at 65 mph. These kids have never sat with fighter pilots and listened to them tell how they shot down a MIG in a dogfight over the jungle or narrowly avoided being taken out by a surface to air missile. They've never had the hairs on the back of their neck signed by a puddle of jet fuel ignited by an afterburner or had a sidewinder missile fall off the wing of a plane right in front of them during a night launch. I'm not trying to say that Stan is this brave macho kind of guy, just that my life experience, the things that get my blood pumping, more closely replicated by Sprint Car racing. Young people today claim to like extreme sports and video games that depict all kinds of dangerous action and excitement. How can these same young people who enjoy those extreme things prefer four wide Stock Cars chugging around in what looks to me like slow motion over Sprint Car racing? I have a theory.

Three generations of fans have been force fed on back gate promoting.

My theory why racing is what it is up here now goes all the way back to when I was a kid in the late 1950's. Back then open wheel racing, the "Big Cars" as they were called then or Sprint Cars as we know them today ruled the area. Stock Cars were an afterthought, Sprints, Supermodifieds and similar cars appeared at just about every track in the area and drew huge crowds. Imagine 20,000+ people packing the State Fair grandstand for an afternoon Sprint Car race and you can picture the world I grew up in. Sprint Car races were front page news in the St. Paul paper where writers like Don Riley covered them right alongside professional sports. To grow up in that era was to grow up in a time when one thought it would never change. Unfortunately, it did change.

Today Sprint Cars don't even appear at most of the dirt tracks around our area. Established venues haven't seen a Sprint show in years and hopefully the UMSS can help correct that situation in the future. Sprint Car racing was going strong up to the mid 70's when I think several factors came into play. We lost two very popular drivers, Russ Laursen and Barry Kettering both at Fairmont in the mid 70's. Next the Twin Cities home of Sprint Car racing, North Starr Speedway, sat on premium real estate and the land became too valuable to continue as a dirt track. A few years later, in the early 80's, some of the promoters banded together in an association that catered more to the interests of promoters. One of those interests of promoters, something that became a sign of the times, was that they realized if they featured five or six classes of cars that payed $100, $300, $500 or whatever to win that they'd draw a ton of cars and four or five pit members and drivers for each car as well as more friends and relatives in the stands because they were classes the average working man could participate in. Sprint Cars traveled from longer distances and didn't draw as many locals, required trucks to push them off, more organized officiating due to their volatile nature and a well trained rescue crew. The promoter's found out that their new formula put more money in their pockets and you really can't blame them for that because without them there would be no racing.

This new formula or business model if you will has helped these tracks operate in the black and for that I am thankful. The Late Model and Modified divisions around here are second to none so from the standpoint of weekly racing we have some of the best in the country. I'm not really against this business model, it's kind of necessary in this day and age, but Sprint Cars are are more expensive and it takes more on the part of the tracks to run a good Sprint show. Unfortunately, some of the very tracks in our region that used to be stalwarts of Supermodified racing haven't hosted an open wheel show in years. The fan base has drifted so far from that type of racing that was such a large part of the history of these tracks that some of the more vocal fans dislike Sprints to the point where they get angry if their local track even hosts a Sprint Car special.

I don't think that we'll ever see Sprint Cars attain the status they had 50 years ago but I think they can develop a bigger following and get more shows if they work together. The UMSS, IMCA and JSTS as well as the MSA over in eastern Wisconsin and the 305's down in Iowa and Missouri are a few of the groups that seem to be taking the right path to generate more interest.

So as far as marketing the sport the pro wrestling, Monster Truck hype is a big turnoff for me. I'm involved in the dirt track media but I prefer to do it in a low key kind of way and let the excitement of the sport speak for itself rather than spewing out a bunch of marketing hype packaged in flashiness.

What do you think?

New interview site and schedule changes for 2010

New interview site:

The gotomn.com website has been online since 1999 and typically gets 20,000+ unique visitors per month and 30,000+ hits per month during the height of the summer racing season. I am pleased to announce that the Minnesota Dirt Track Racing Website located at gotomn.com has been joined by a new affiliate, midwestracingtalk.com.

Many of you are familiar with the interviews I did for dirtcast.com and racemn.com during the 2009 racing season. Barry Braun, owner and founder of the XR Network, recently announced that the racemn.com website will now serve as the new online home of the Racemn Modified Series. My racemn.com interviews were subsequently migrated to the dirtcast.com website and merged with a variety of racing content from around the country. I am grateful to Barry for giving me the opportunity and encouragement to refine my podcasting and interviewing skills.

Nevertheless, I made the decision after the conclusion of the 2009 season that I wanted to put our local tracks and drivers back in the spotlight. In my column for the Midwest Racing Connection I cover racing in the upper Midwest with the emphasis on racing that takes place near the Twin Cities Metro area. I felt that a racing interview site could be of greater value to the local racing community if it were to focus on tracks near the Twin Cities area of Minnesota and western Wisconsin.

Dan Plan, publisher of The Midwest Racing Connection, will be contributing interviews and video clips which will expand our coverage to asphalt racing making the site even more appealing to local racing fans. I will be doing some video projects with Vance of Fry Pan Productions as well. The lineup will include racing discussion, video clips, pit reports and telephone interviews. Again, the new site is located at midwestracingtalk.com. Midwest Racing Talk is owned and operated by Stan Meissner. The midwestracingtalk.com website will be adding new content to debut during the annual GRP Racing Trivia Contest scheduled to take place on gotomn.com in January of 2010.

If you would like to find out how you can support midwestracingtalk.com contact Stan Meissner at: mndirt@hotmail.com

Photography and the 2010 season:

During the 2009 racing season I increased my attendance substantially by adding a new series as well as assuming a share of track photographer responsibilities at one of the local tracks. Now that the 2009 season has come to a conclusion it is obvious that the downturn in the economy has resulted in a correspondingly significant downturn in photo sales. Going forward I have decided to limit my photography and race attendance in order to lower my expenses and devote more time to midwestracingtalk.com. Starting with the 2010 season all events that I attend will include Sprint Cars as part of the lineup along with the included support classes. This change will enable me to reduce my expenses without having to sacrifice my favorite type of racing.

Even though I will be concentrating on Sprint Car racing next season the Midwest Racing Talk website will cover all of the classes that appear at our local oval tracks. I may decide to attend some other events besides Sprint Cars when the opportunity presents itself but my exact schedule is uncertain at this time.

I am looking forward to the 2010 season and seeing you at the races!

These people are insane and I'll tell you why I think that!!!

Saturday: Snow likely, mainly before 1pm. Cloudy, with a high near 38. West wind between 10 and 15 mph, with gusts as high as 20 mph. Chance of precipitation is 70%.

The above forecast is for Proctor, Minnesota, this Saturday. The following forecast is for Fountain City, Wisconsin: Saturday: A chance of rain and snow before 1pm, then a chance of snow. Mostly cloudy, with a high near 38. South wind 6 to 13 mph becoming west. Chance of precipitation is 50%.

The reason I posted these two forecasts is that both towns have something in common, they're hosting races this weekend. Proctor will feature Late Models, Modifieds, Super Stocks, Midwest Mods and Pure Stocks. Fountain City is playing host to Mini Mods, Street Stocks, B Mods, 600 Mods, Super Stocks, Modifieds, Hornets and the Northern Vintage Cars. Have fun guys...I'm staying home.

I'm not knocking the racing, I love racing, so this is only my opinion but when is enough enough? If one of these tracks was hosting a big extravaganza the likes of the Knoxville Sprint Car Nationals or the World 100 Late Model race that close to home, yeah I'd tough it out because that would be SPECIAL!!! As a photographer, writer, and appreciator (is that a word?) of dirt track racing I would be there for something SPECIAL. The same old, same old shows that we see week in and week out (forgive me my friends who participate in the weekly classes) are not IMHO special enough for me to freeze my ass off.

This observation does not apply to anything prior to the weekend of October 9-10 or the Fall Classic which in my opinion is a SPECIAL show that fell victim to bad weather. The rest of these shows (not sure about Proctoberfest because I have never paid attention to that one) are imitators that popped up after they saw the successs of the first Fall Classic shows at Alex. Unfortunately what was once a weekend reserved exclusively for the Fall Classic and Princeton National has become glutted with lesser shows that are having the effect of watering down the original late fall races. There ought to be a law but that's promoting, if the guy 150 miles away makes a buck by damn I'm either gonna' make a buck too or water his show down in the process. Personally I think greed will water down and ruin a good thing to the point where none of them will make a buck but that's just my opinion.

I have done a lot of thinking about the late fall post season shows that take place after the 100's and came to the conclusion that these new shows that have piggy backed on the success of the original Fall Classic are not so much about the fans as they are about the participants. Sure there will be some fans, maybe more of them than a cold baby like me can fathom, but no way in a gazillion years will the stands fill up on a weekend like this. When I read posts about these races on the local message boards and see the enthusiasm it gets lost on me and I can't wrap my mind around it. To some extent I can understand this zeal for the sport but in my mind there comes a point where we have to hang it up for the year. I reached that point earlier than some and later than others. A lot of people only attend racing in the summer when the weather is nice, I know because I did that for a lot of years myself. A good rule of thumb to follow might be that when there is a chance you might be driving your hauler through ice and snow it just might be a sign that the racing season has come to an end. That's my take on this whole deal.

Like I said, these late fall specials are more about being an orgy of back gate promoting than an actual show for paying fans in the stands. I'll cherish the memory of the last race I attended, the Jackson Fall Classic, where I wore a T-Shirt until the sun went down then donned a sweatshirt for the remainder of the evening. Sorels and snowmobile suits be damned, that ain't my idea of racing. Not to come off like a total cold baby because I do own a pair of Sorels, a snowmobile suit and a pair-a-choppers, I just don't associate those things with dirt track racing. I used to wear that garb ice fishing but now it stays in the closet and only comes out for special occasions like when I'm running the snow blower.

I'm sure not everyone will agree with what I'm writing and some will probably feel anger and could get downright hostile about it. One's opinion about such things are more often than not shaped by (a) age and (b) their outlook about racing. Age comes into play in the sense that with each passing year the cold bothers a body more and more. You can't go by some of these old geezer racing writers that tracks roll out the red carpet for and put up in a heated booth. Those guys are more out of touch with the average Joe than a Washington politician and probably forgot what it's like to set their ass in the stands years ago. No, you've got to check in with the old dogs who are still down in the wind, dust, rain, snow and sleet carrying a camera and running around all night. No pampering for these guys, we're right down there with the track officials, tow truck driver and in some cases where they pit in the infield the mechanics and drivers. So age is a relative thing and can be influenced by what one does during the five or six hours racing is taking place. If they're some pampered type sitting in a heated booth then they're probably going to be out of touch. If they're kickin' and a gougin' out in the weather then they're in touch and know the score. The older ones that know what's going on aren't going to lie, they'll tell it like it is and mean it when they say cold weather sucks.

Part b pertains to your outlook on racing. I turned 58 a few weeks ago and more than ever I'm getting to be a "specials only snob." What I mean by that is if I go for example to see the IRA and Midwest Mods or Supers are running with them fine, I'll take photos and give them my full attention. I know a lot of the drivers and people involved in all types of racing, they're great people and they love what they're doing. They're the backbone of the sport and dirt track racing needs them in order to survive. Nevertheless, I have come to a crossroads in my racing interests and starting with the 2010 season I no longer plan on chasing weekly racing. I have become a specials only snob and I'm not talking Pure Stock or Hornet specials, I'm talking IRA, WDRL, WoO, USMTS, the Fireman's Nationals, Elko Dirt Week, anything that offers a minimum of entry classes and one or more of the top notch touring groups. My thinking on this matter is shaped by two things, time and money. I don't make a cent for covering racing in my column and I sell so few photos that chasing a bunch of weekly shows is no longer a wise investment of my time and resources.

This is not an appeal for weekly racers to buy my photos so I'll cover their racing in exchange for their business. I'm simply saying that there isn't enough money or beautiful days in the summer for me to spend them watching certain types of racing. If I were a paying fan I'd be going to World of Outlaws Sprint Car races, IRA races, Badger Midgets, Jackson, and Knoxville, maybe a few Late Model and USMTS specials and that's about it. The fewer classes to sit through before the objects of my affection take to the track the better. The only times I would see other types of racing would be as a support class to the Sprint Cars. After carefully thinking things over at the end of the 2009 season I came to the realization "what the #@&# am I doing wasting my time on something I don't particularly care for? Again, it's not that I don't appreciate all types of dirt track racing, it's that I can't follow it all without going broke in the process so I will follow my favorites and leave the rest to someone else. There's too much racing for me to do it all.

Anyways, as you can see I don't really understand all these late fall specials that have popped up in recent years. I'm not crazy about attending racing in 38 degree temps with 50-70% snow in the forecast. That's how I feel about it. What about you?

My season comes to an abrupt end...

I had planned on attending the Badger State Nationals at Cedar Lake on Friday October 2nd and Saturday October 3rd but the rain has nixed my plans. There are other specials coming up during the next week or maybe even two weeks but I'm not sure. It seems like every time I check the message boards some track has made another last minute addition and is running one more invitational. I can't go by the schedules, I had to say enough is enough and hang up my camera bag for the season. I know for a fact that there are races yet to be run in Alexandria, Proctor and Ogilvie but I'm worn out and need to give it a break.

My last race of the season was a Sprint Car race on the big half mile down at Jackson. What better way to close out the season than to attend one final Sprint Car race? That's going to be a tough act to follow and I don't want to muck it up by filling my head with a lap and spin Midwest Modified that takes a half hour to get the first lap in. I want to keep that final Sprint Car race fresh in my mind.

A lot happened this season so there is a lot to sort through to figure out what went right and what I can change for next year. This season I went to way too many races for my budget to handle and I have to make some adjustments on that prior to next season. As it turns out I attended 44 races this season, it would have been 46 if this weekend had not rained out and over 50 if several other rain outs and a dry pond had not interfered. 45-50 is too many, 25 would be a more comfortable total. The problem is that I have taken on so many tasks these past few seasons that the number of races has gotten out of hand. This season I was listed as a track photographer which obligated me to a bunch more weekly shows and a series photographer which filled up almost every Friday night. I can't do that anymore, something has to give.

Seeing as I have to cut my total number of races down the question was "what am I going to cut?" After giving it some thought the solution was simple. Next year I'm going to put the emphasis on Sprint Car racing. Being a track and series photographer is in name only and only comes with more obligations including rushing home after each race to send photos to the publications. I'm hardly selling anything and I'm not being paid for the extra work so there's no reason for me to continue doing all that extra work up and above what the other photographers are doing.

I'll attend Sprint Car races in 2010 and will also give some PR to whatever other classes are running with the Sprints. I'll still see plenty of racing that way and I don't think those Stock Car guys will miss me. The Sprint Car people seem to appreciate the coverage I give them and thank me, the Stock Car guys apparently take it for granted because they get a lot of coverage here in the upper Midwest. I have friends in all the classes of racing and I'll miss seeing them on a regular basis but I just got to a point where I can't do it all anymore. I have run the idea past Dan Plan of the Racing Connection and he understands and agrees to me covering Sprints. It has to be fun and if I'm out there feeling like I'd rather be somewhere else but I feel obligated by some track or series that's not fun.

I'm not sure how the tracks will receive this news. Some have grown accustomed to me covering all classes and have depended on me to send them victory lane photos and be there on a regular basis. There are some that have come up with attendance requirements and I won't be able to meet those anymore. We'll see how that goes. I'd be everything to everybody if I could afford it but it ought to tip people off when I'm hauling around $3000 of camera equipment in a $1000 car that I'm doing my best to hang on. If I was retired and had unlimited funds I could go around doing volunteer work but I'm to the point where I need to limit the photography.

In other news I'm pretty close to starting my own interview site similar what I was doing with dirtcast.com. If you haven't noticed, I'm no longer doing interviews on dirtcast.com or racemn.com. I learned a lot working with XR and I wish them all the success in the world but working on those sites was no longer a good fit for my personal circumstances. Anyone who knows me knows that I'm low key and like to take things at my own pace. Those sites are a business and anyone contributing to them has to meet a quota of a certain amount of interviews. I like putting the racing on the back burner from October through December then I pick it up again when the trivia contest gets underway. When I can walk away from racing for a few months I feel refreshed and ready to get into it again. Thanks to Barry and his staff from XR for all the encouragement and training they gave me. The experience helped me to get the confidence I needed to do the interviews.

My plan is to start an interview site that will concentrate on tracks around the Twin Cities and surrounding area with the emphasis on local racing. The site will include sections for both dirt and asphalt interviews as well as a weekly racing talk show with me as host and Dan Plan as the co-host. I'm not doing this to compete with other racing interview sites but I'm doing it because I think there is a niche for something like this that focuses on our local racing. That was one of the things about dirtcast, I felt like my local coverage was overshadowed by the national emphasis of that site. Also, I would go to Kopellah and shoot the breeze with Buzzy Adams for example then a couple days later hear him in a dirtcast interview conducted by someone 1,000 miles from Wisconsin who had never seen Buzzy race. I felt like there was a disconnect and that I could have given the interview a more personal touch. This way with Dan and I doing a local interview site the communication will be much better and there won't be the potential for that type of crossover.

I'm not going to be concerned about competing with any other site or about market share nor will I feel the need to sling around corporate buzzwords. No team building exercises, or group hugs for the staff, just some no bullshit local racing interviews done to the best of our ability. All the interviews I have done to date were my personal choices and lined up via my contacts so there shouldn't be much difference in the type of content. We're not sure at this point about sponsors or backing for this endeavor. We'll see if we generate any interest and how well we can keep up the pace. Even though my personal race attendance will have an emphasis on Sprint Car racing I still plan to interview drivers from the other classes of racing in our area. I've got the contacts and phone numbers, quiet a few of the drivers know of me, so we'll do alright on a limited local basis. That's not to say for example that if the World of Outlaws are coming through the area we won't interview one of the Outlaw drivers. We'll be open to that but for the most part on a week in week out basis we'll be putting all the emphasis on our local racing. I think the interview site and a reduced role as far as actually attending as many races will be a good fit for me next season.

There will be more to come as I work out the details.

The Weenie Wagon rises from the abyss!!!

The infamous "Weenie Wagon" has been taken out of storage and will make an encore appearance on September 12 at the Jerry Richert Memorial. I'm not certain at this time if the owner, my brother-in-law Mark, will be joining us but I want to thank him for this generous MDTR sponsorship. I guess sponsorship is what you call it when somebody takes their motorhome out of the barn, power washes the dust off of it, checks that the tabs are still good for another month and throws a spare battery in it to get it going. Tajmahal it ain't but I think it will get me through the night and that's what counts. A bunch of family is coming out including the annual racing appearance of the non-race-fan wife. It should be a good time for all.

I got into a bit of a funk after the USA Nationals and my sour mood lasted for about three weeks before a banzai trip to Grand Forks reminded me why I love racing. The trip had it's challenges but I was introduced to an awesome track and Craig Dollansky scored his second win of the season. In retrospect my meltdown can be attributed to the realization that we all come to at a certain point each season when racing is approaching it's conclusion here in the upper Midwest. Do you guys get that "now what am I going to do" feeling too? I can't afford to travel to exotic places like Florida (funny I once lived in Jacksonville but now it's an exotic destination) in the winter. I'm not complaining because I've got it pretty good. I don't get upset when I miss a race or two, Lord knows I've seen plenty of them in my lifetime.

The Grand Forks race reminded me what being a dirt track fan is all about and an aborted run to Rice Lake concluding at the CLS season championship drove the point home. Imagine if you will sitting in the Rice Lake concession area talking to Steve Sinclair and Sam Hafertape Jr. after visiting with Brooke Tatnell, Travis Whitney, Jerry Richert Jr. and Bill Balog in the pit area as drizzle forced me to seek shelter the nearest hauler. Turn the clock ahead a couple hours and I'm standing in victory lane at Cedar Lake taking a photo of Greg Nippoldt winner of the Cedar Lake Pro Stock track championship. Race winner Tim Borgeson appeared to be a shoe in for these honors at the start of the season but his highs were too high and his lows were too low which allowed Nippoldt to snatch the crown. Now that, my friends, is an oxymoron of an evening if I've ever seen one.

Racing has been a lot of fun this season but I spent the first half of the year getting accustomed to a more rigorous schedule than I'm used to. I lost the Ranger back in June to terminal rust but she carried me to a lot of races during the six seasons that I owned her. Even though she was old, underpowered, sagging in a few places and looking like she was ready to fall apart I still loved her. I stroked her along as far as I could take her but the tired ol' gal gave out and reached a premature climax.

I got way behind posting to the blog and now that the season is nearing it's end I'll see if I can't pick up where I left off and get something on here more often.

There are a few racing weekends left, it's Thursday night and I'm getting ready to go. See you at the Navy Davy Memorial race.

20,000+ unique visits, 31,000+ hits in July

Thank you all for visiting the gotomn.com website during the month of July. I don't have any click banners or advertising so I don't make anything from the increased traffic but I prefer to keep the site banner free.

Over 20,000 people visited gotomn.com at least one time during the month of July. What promoter or advertiser wouldn't want to reach 20,000 people?

Of that 20,000+ over 11,000 people came back for a second visit. What promoter wouldn't want a crowd of 20,000 and for 11,000 of them to come back again?

My website gets more visits than a lot of sites with advertising. I would consider a sponsor deal if it was a good fit. I'm not talking about a dozen $50 per year banners like I used to do. I had more of a one exclusive sponsor deal in mind. It's probably never going to happen but I can wish can't I?