Racing starts this Friday

Racing starts at the Cedar Lake Speedway this Friday and Saturday. I'm on for Friday but don't think I'll be able to make it Saturday. This is my first blog post since last December. I'll make an effort to post more.

Cold sweaty palms and a knot in the pit of my stomach

No, I'm not sick but got a sinking feeling when thinking what a summer without much racing would be like. Let's just say that I got dangerously close to the edge but caught myself before I took the leap. No, I'm not upping my number of combined races/street rod shows to 25, 30, 40 or more as I had done in the past. The only way I could hope to attend that many races would be to take on a part time job all winter to save up for racing. Seeing as racing is something I do for fun I can't see any sense working all winter to fund my racing. Actually there's kind of a gray area where relaxation stops and work starts as far as my racing goes. Most people go to the races to sit back, enjoy some good food and drink, hang with friends and family and enjoy the action. I keep myself pretty busy at the track running around gathering information and taking photos for the next story. Hell, even if I wasn't writing for some publication I'd probably keep on doing that anyways. My hobbies have always been a lot of work whether it was the way I approached fishing or whatever. I'm just not one to sit and relax much on summer weekends.

Recent developments have made it clear that I can probably do about a dozen instead of the half dozen I was originally planning. I probably sound like I'm a step ahead of the poor house driving old cars and not being able to make as many races but that is not the case. I make a pretty good living but keep in mind that when one is dealing with non-race-fan family it's only fair that every dollar spent racing is matched with non racing activities. In other words, yeah, I can go racing, no problem with that but I have other things to tend to. Rabid race chasers think nothing of dropping $500 on their passion but a lot of people aren't able to do that for various reasons. Let's just say that I'm at a point where my racing has become more of a juggling act and leave it at that.

This October through December is the first time in five or six years that I didn't get a flurry of photo orders. Usually I sell the most photos of the entire year in this period leading up to the Holidays. This year I sold zero, zilch, zippo, nadda, nothing...not a single order. People are always complimenting my work, the papers and magazines use my photos on a regular basis and I have lost track of the number of websites and Facebook pages that they're displayed on. As a matter of fact just the other day someone reposted one of my sample pics and commented that I do a good job. So what has changed? More photographers competing for less business and racers spending less on pictures. There are some very aggressive salesmen who have gotten into racing photography during the past few seasons. I have always taken a laid back approach and been able to make enough to supplement my expenses by sitting back and waiting for people to contact me. That approach does not work anymore when you've got three photographers going from trailer to trailer at tracks they wouldn't even have bother with a few years ago. Add to that some of them even have helpers that make sales contacts in the pits and stands while they're shooting. My approach can't compete with that and the very word "competition" doesn't jibe with weekend relaxation. I've got a very busy day job that wears me out so I don't want my hobby to turn into a job. I'm not complaining mind you but I do miss that few hundred bucks I used to make every year at this time. I've been doing the racing media gig pretty much by myself for almost fifteen years and all of a sudden there's all this competition and aggressiveness. Hey man, I'm sixty years old, they can knock themselves out and fall over each other as far as I'm concerned. Not my idea of fun.

That's kind of the reason that the Street Rods have become so attractive to me. Last summer I went to Back to the 50's at the Fairgrounds and took hundreds of photos. With admission only $12, the Fairgrounds less than $25 miles and only a couple of big shows a year you can see where the cost comes in way less than racing. I had a great time and plan on doing both big shows at the Fair next year as well as some of the community car shows around the area. A lot of those shows like the weekly deal at North St. Paul are free so the costs are minimal as compared to racing. I think that a mix of car shows and racing will work fine and money will be much less of an issue.

I'm sure that a lot of you probably still don't get where I'm coming from so I'll put it another way. Each year after the holidays have passed I have to come up with a racing schedule and a workable budget before I can commit for the season to the publications. I appreciate how important it is for them to get a firm commitment so that they know how much space they're going to need and can set it up with the tracks. What happens a lot of times is that people think it would be cool to write for a racing publication. They imagine they'll get some recognition, maybe some perks like passes and that sort of thing so they agree to do it. One of the publishers has told me that it's very difficult to find people who hang in there for every issue and last the season. I know what's involved because I did it for thirteen years through neck surgery, weddings, the birth of six grandkids, car troubles, loss of loved ones and just about anything else you could imagine. Readers look at our mug shot in the paper and think that our life revolves around racing but nothing could be further from the truth.

So anyways, another simple principle is that I like for my word yes to mean yes. When I look at my budget in January I have to know that I can put in a full schedule and do them justice. Anyways, a little more on the competition that I alluded to. Take the Racing Connection for example. I first came in contact with MRC at the MOA back in 1999 when I picked up a copy at a Motorsports store. There was no dirt and no Sprint Car coverage so I contacted the publisher, we arranged a meeting and it was like an interview where I pretty much sold him on adding more dirt and Sprint Car coverage. Back in 1999 ATD was the only act in town and you couldn't have paid most people to write for MRC or "that asphalt paper" as they used to call it. I plugged along for years as the only exclusive dirt writer and I'd like to think that my contributions were instrumental in gaining acceptance among the dirt racers. I used to be self employed so whenever I do anything I "own it" or in other words approach is like it's my own. Anyways, things have changed, now MRC gets a lot of offers and that competition factor where others are coveting my gig. It's uncertain at this point what involvement I'll have going forward, maybe a more reduced role or maybe I won't be asked back in that capacity. Whatever happens I can be proud that of what I accomplished while I was with the paper and would like to continue to contribute on a more limited basis. It's got to fit their needs though. I still plan on doing a little for the magazine.

I have been giving it some thought and if nothing else works out I may start doing some event recaps with photos right here on this blog. Kind of an online column similar to what I was doing for MRC with photos, a story and some video clips. Who knows, maybe even some kind of podcast and tie it all in with gotomn. As I have explained my enjoyment comes from using the technology to communicate. I've got a lot of experience and it would be a shame not to share it in some small way. Nevertheless, there's a balancing act involved here. Doing all that work to promote the interests of tracks, series and sanctions would not come without a thank you in the form of hospitality. I'm adamant about that, some don't agree but hey, you're all free to do this. Go out and spend a few grand on camera and video equipment, a few hundred on web hosting, learn graphics, photo editing, writing, etc., put down your beer, crawl down out of the stands and show me now it's done. What's that? I must be crazy? Yeah, I thought that's what you'd say. LOL

Plans shaping up for 2012

I have had a few people ask me how I'm doing and wanting to know what's up lately so I thought I'd make a blog post.

In 2007 I went to 29 races, in 2008 I attended 38 races and in 2009 I set a personal record with 44. In 2010 I was down to 25 and in 2011 I came in at just 18, the lowest total since 2001 when I was hobbled due to a neck injury that required surgery at the end of the season.

There will be even fewer races in 2012 but more on that later. Doing racing media work is for all intents and purposes volunteer work, a lot like a non-paying second job that requires travel and weekly expense. Anybody who has volunteered for anything knows that a person needs to have a passion for it in order to devote their time, resources and energy to it. My enthusiasm level has waned during the past couple of years, no fault of the racing but due to personal circumstances. Going into 2012 I decided that it would make more sense to fit my racing schedule more closely to my circumstances than to take my frustration out on everyone and everything. In other words I had to make my mind up that I was going to let it go. Once I did that I started to get enthused about other things besides racing and it became easier to accept the fact that my circumstances wouldn't allow me to chase races for the first time in 15 years.

I was looking for something that didn't require so my travel and expense so I added some more guitars and 24 track recording software for my computer. It was a bit of an expense up front but doesn't come anywhere near the $50 to $100 per week I was spending chasing races for all those years in the long run. I'm not a great guitar player and I can't sing a note, in fact it could be debated whether I'm even a good guitar player but I enjoy it. My only goal playing and recording music is for the songs to be listenable and to improve a little with each new tune. If I think of it in those terms I will be a success. I have no desire to ever make money or play in a band and oddly enough that's what makes it so much fun. Money as they say is the root of all evil, add money to the equation and it can screw up a lot of formerly fun things. One needs to look no further than some of the miserable racers to realize that. Not that money is bad but I've got a day job that wears me out so I don't want my weekend relaxation to become an endless pursuit of financial gain.

So here's the plan for 2012. Keep the gotomn.com website up and running. I am paid up through next May and plan to stay online as long as possible. It costs me around $120 a year for the domain and hosting and that is all out of pocket. The site still gets a good number of visitors because of it's longevity (online since 1999) even though I'm not doing a lot with it right now. I am contemplating splitting it up into several interests where a person would enter a start page at gotomn.com and could go into the racing section, the street rod section and a couple other areas as well. Again, the site is unsponsored and there's no obligations to anybody so I can do anything I want to with it. I just turned 60 in September and have just under six years left to work. I find as I get older that my energy level for pushing stuff onto a website in my free time isn't as intense as it was at 45 when I first got into it. It's kind of interesting that I didn't even start this until I was 45 years old when you think about it. That's a long time in internet years.

Other plans for 2012 are to maybe do some limited work for the Midwest Racing Connection. I'm not sure how that's going to shake out for me or their needs though. I'm only planning on going to about six of my favorite races in 2012 and the incentive for doing racing media work and the only compensation is a media pass. Is it worth working on a column all summer just to get into a handful of races? I don't know, we'll see if we can work anything out and go from there. I just finished an article for Flat Out magazine and would like to continue to do some work for them as well. In addition to any racing I do I'd like to attend the two big Street Rod shows at the Fairgrounds, Back to the 50's and Car Craft Summer Nationals. Aside from those things I'll be doing some home projects and spending time with family. The idea is that I'd like to pick up the pace of the racing back up in a couple years after I get some things sorted out. We'll see if the sport allows me to lay low for a year or two due to personal circumstances or if I end up getting kicked to the curb and spit out never to return. I'd say that I've been pretty loyal and gave it everything I had but I'm afraid it could be one of those "what have you done for us lately" situations. I can't go back to sitting in the stands because I'd lose interest and get bored with it. Like a lot of people involved in racing I'm not a very good fan.

Well, I guess that kind of sums it up for me. I'm not going to announce this blog post on Facebook or the message boards. I'd feel presumptuous doing that. I'm just putting it out here and the good karma will lead those who are interested to this place.

Later, Stan

Thinking about getting back into the blog thangy!!!

Wow, my last post was about Daytona and it's rapidly closing in on the middle of November. Lately I have been typing a lot at work and playing a lot of guitar so there isn't a lot of motivation to post on the blog. The racing schedule is looking like it's going to be a lot smaller next season. It remains to be seen how that will affect my status with the tracks. I plan on doing some work for the magazines and I'd like to cover some of the online racing options as well. We'll see if that works out or I just might end up doing my own thing for a while. I'd like to be all things to all people but it costs money and takes a lot of time to chase the sport along with a lot of work doing the writing and photos. I'll be out there when I can and plan on doing more of the Street Rod stuff as well. If it wasn't such a daunting task to redesign the website I'd do something with that but it's going to have to wait.

Traditional websites like mine that just have photos, lines and a message board don't get much attention anymore. 15 years ago a person had to endure 14.4 phone modems, x486 computers and learn html in order to put up a website. Now in 2011 anybody can easily make a huge impact on the web using Facebook, Youtube and one of the photo hosting sites. I don't regret the time I spent working on computers and learning all that stuff back then but it's not of much value anymore aside from knowing a little more than the average person about building PC's, hosting, servers, and a bunch of that stuff. It's getting to the point where the only reason I'm keeping the site running is to host the trivia contest. We'll see if I can get motivated to do some blogging.

Thoughts about Daytona and other stuff

The Daytona 500 was fun to watch this year. Dave Blaney had a good run and would have probably had a top 10 had it not been for having to take evasive action to avoid a wreck. Dave was forced to cut through the infield resulting in the flying sod doing some damage to the car that resulted in leaking coolant and oil. They had to park it.

The Wood Bros 21 won the race with a driver by the name of Trevor Bayne taking the win in only his second Cup start. Immediately after the race my dirt track friends were congratulating Trevor and saying how great it was that the Wood Bros won. Quite frankly I have never paid that much attention to NASCAR racing to offer much of an opinion.

I've watched my share of Cup races for sure but I don't keep close track of the sport. Usually I'll watch their races up until our season starts and then only catch select events until our season concludes at which time I split my attention between football and the remaining Cup schedule. Not that it's bad racing, I'm just not much of a television fan of anything, racing or otherwise. Racing is something I do on a warm summer night, not something I watch on television.

Speaking of racing on television, what do you think of the Dirt Knights series? My wife was watching over my shoulder and she was pretty critical of it. I'm with her on that one, I never noticed how small of a niche sport dirt track racing is until I saw them hauling to tracks in the middle of nowhere and racing in front of half empty stands. The USMTS is decent racing but I think the biggest thing they've got going for them is the hype and media coverage. I think in that respect they really know how to do it right. On the other hand, a big old heavy dirt Modified will never get me as excited as a volatile high speed on the edge Sprint Car. Basically a Modified looks like a Late Model that they forgot to put the nose piece on. Heavy, wide, slower and not as exciting as Sprints. Good racing at times but certainly not worth all the hype and attention they seem to generate.

I'm off today for the Presidents Day holiday and already spent a couple hours moving snow. When it stops (another 1'-3" by 6pm) I'll have to go out there and clean it off again.

Not much else happening around here these days. I'm just trying to hang in there and save a little gas and hot dog money for the racing season. That might be a little more of a challenge this year with the predicted gas prices and more family obligations. I'll get to enough races to keep a column going and do some magazine work but it probably won't be a record year. Actually, I think my record years are going to be a thing of the past. I'll still be out there as much as possible but I've got a couple retirement parties and even a possible wedding in the family so there are things tugging at my time and resources.

I look around at the racing writers and photographers and I wonder how they all manage to check out on their non-racing family and friends all summer. One particular scribe I know of logged in 160 shows last season. You don't go to 160 nights of racing without skipping out on more than a few graduations, weddings and other functions. Some might conclude that I'm jealous for bringing this up. To the contrary, I have always felt that 25 races per season is plenty. I've got 22 penciled in that are more or less a sure thing and another half dozen that require travel and motels that are a question mark. We'll see if the money is there and make a decision as those races get closer. I've got a mighty nice fire ring in my back yard and a great family so I can take it or leave it as far as getting to every last race. I guess as a writer and photographer I shouldn't admit that but I'm just being honest. I get worn down by the frantically busy seasons, the late night drives, the long hours of writing and photo editing each week and everything else that I do during the racing season.

One cool thing about 2011 is that I found myself with an open spot in my schedule during the "Back to the 50's" car show at the State Fairgrounds. Cedar Lake replaced the IRA Sprints with the USMTS at this year's Masters. Seeing as I'm now considered a Sprint Car writer and photographer that left me without a reason to attend the event. Some have asked why I don't go out and watch some of these events as a fan. My answer is that I have obligations to fill on the Sprint Car side and I have to conserve my funds to cover those events. The pie doesn't have quite enough pieces to venture much outside my main gig.

I believe that I may have lost my enthusiasm for blogging

I guess the lack of posts during the past six months underscores that point. I've got a few too many things going here and I think I'm going to have to transition from blogging to podcasting in the coming months. The podcast will be on midwestracingtalk.com and I like that better than blogging for the simple reason that I don't have to type. I approach the websites as a seasonal deal and don't feel an overwhelming need to work on them during the winter so we'll get busy on them pretty soon.

Maybe I'll retain the blog and use it for announcements and that sort of thing.

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!