Weather Beaten

London, Ontario (August 16, 2008) -

So we got rained out again at Ohsweken last night. I guess we all need to pool our pennies together to build a roof over the racetrack or something. It's not your imagination, according to the Weather Network, it really is raining a lot this year: http://www.theweathernetwork.com/news/raining

With 25 sprints in the pits last night, it was looking to be a fun night. Something to keep an eye on would have been the first ever sprint car start for Jim Huppunen, younger brother of 1999 Canadian Sprint Car Championship winner Tom. Jim was going to be in Fred Cade's #12c for the evening, but that debut will have to wait for another day.

Dain Naida once again made the tow from the Detroit suburb of Belleville up to Ohsweken only to get rained out. Dain will try again tonight with the ASCS Sprints on Dirt series up at the Merritt Speedway, 326 miles from Ohsweken. A few years ago, father and I visited Merritt after the wet stuff interfered with an AVSS race at Auto City. Merritt is a neat place I recommend visiting if you're looking around for things to do in Northern Michigan, but it sure was a long drive home that night. We'll look forward to a return to Ohsweken by the Naida team next Friday before the SoD series competes at Owendale, Michigan next Saturday. As one of very few tracks within about 150 miles of my house that I have yet to visit, I may join them up there in "the thumb".

Making a 326 mile tow from Ohsweken to Merritt look like a walk in the park, the World of Outlaws Sprint Car series teams are in the middle of a gruelling schedule of 7 races in 12 days out West. The "mini tour" began in Fargo, North Dakota at the Red River Valley Speedway on Tuesday night before heading 580 miles West to Gillette, Wyoming, where the feature was rained out on Thursday night. From there, the teams and tour staff are travelling 388 miles back East to the Dacotah Speedway just outside of Bismark, North Dakota to race tonight. Tomorrow, they'll make a "leisurely" 114 mile haul up to the Nodak Speedway in Minot, home track of a certain Mr. Schatz, to race tomorrow night.

After packing up Sunday, another 450 mile tow awaits as the tour heads to Billings, Montana on Tuesday night, and then another 702 miles from Billings to Edmonton, where the tour will race next Friday and Saturday in the 2nd annual Oil City Cup presented by Boston Pizza at Castrol Raceway. Hopefully the folks in Edmonton will have better luck with the weather than we did at Ohsweken.

By the time they're done in Edmonton, the WoO travelling road show will have covered over 2,200 miles and raced at 6 different tracks in 3 states and 1 province. One wonders if Daryl Turford looked at this part of the schedule before departing Ontario to work on the Sam Hafertepe, Jr. crew last month. Hope you're having fun out there buddy! At least you have 5 off days to cover the 736 miles from Edmonton to Skagit Speedway in Washington State!

With more consistent finishes lately including a 4th place at Anderson Speedway on Wednesday night, Mississauga driver Alison McLeod is up to 2nd in USAC Regional Midget series points. With 2 races left to go, it's unlikely she can catch Travis Young for the title, but 2nd place is not the first loser in this case. I look forward to finally seeing Alison in action at the Berlin Raceway in Michigan on September 27th. The week before that on the 20th, I hope to have a chance to head to Fremont Speedway in Ohio for their season championship event. Paying $15,000 to win, it is sure to be a barn-burner, and at one of my favourite tracks to boot!

Lots of great points races are going on in Ontario open wheel divisions this season. In Southern Ontario Sprints points, Glenn Styres leads Warren Mahoney by just 8 makers, while at Ohsweken, the Corr/Pak standings are even closer with Keith Dempster in front by 5 points over Ryan Hunsinger, and Kevin Job just 6 behind "The Gunslinger". The Can-Am Midgets also feature a tight championship chase as Daniel Bois is just 9 markers ahead of James Gray. The Midgets will run a non-points open invitational at Flamboro on Sunday, August 24th (to make up for an August 9 rainout) with some interesting rules...to paraphrase the Can-Am website, "We will allow you to try anything...just no V-8's!!"

After considering various options including Oswego Speedway's championship night, twin features for the Can-Am Midgets at Barrie, and Lancaster Speedway...I mean Dunn Tire Raceway Park modified racing, I've decided to give my car and wallet a rest tonight. See you at Ohsweken next Friday night. Until then, you can reach me via e-mail at TommyGoudge@hotmail.com