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In the Groove
By Stacy Ervin
The 55th season of weekly racing at Knoxville Raceway again provided
incredible entertainment and another stellar year of competition.
Early season rain foretold the future of a very wet summer in Iowa. Cold and
rain washed out the first two weekends of racing before the season opened up
on May 3 with the World of Outlaws. But the next week, rain hit again just
as hot laps were pushing off. After that, the weather in the Knoxville area
seemed to straighten up. I knew it would because I told everyone that I
would never allow it to rain out a race on my May
17 birthday. That became our second full night of racing, and even though it
became harder to escape from flooded Eastern Iowa in June, the weather
remained pretty compliant over the race track.
Aside from my annual pressbox birthday bash, the other big highlight of May
was the return of multi-time track champion Randy Smith and my first
Knoxville hero TJ Giddings at the Master’s Classic.
May 31 was a night never to be forgotten as so many odd occurrences combined
to leave everyone in attendance buzzing with awe. The night saw cars
wrecking in hot laps, before the green flag as races were being staged and
after the checkered flags flew. It was a night that disappointed the fans
when favorite Natalie Sather crossed the line first in her heat race but was
deemed too light at the scales and disqualified. It was a night that scared
us all as two separate accidents quickly rose to our lists of worst rides
we’ve seen at the race track. First, Nate Mosher’s flip in turn one sent the
entire front end of the car hurling over the turn one fence, scaling Highway
14 and coming down with a pounding to a car parked in the back row at the
Dingus Lounge. Then, three races later and in nearly the same spot, Joe
Beaver, Pete Crall and Ryan Roberts absolutely demolished three race cars in
one of the wildest flips ever witnessed.
June brought more oddities, like a dirt truck barrel-rolling down the
backstretch and poor Crall destroying a second car in as many weeks.
Flooding in Eastern Iowa kept me away from the race track on June 14, which
I didn’t like a whole lot, but I was encouraged to know that my buddy Jeff
Broeg was keeping my beloved chair warm for me in the pressbox. A week or so
later, when a very vivid double rainbow came across turns one and two, it
was like a sign welcoming me home. Another buddy, Barry Johnson, also spent
a night in the pressbox in Rob Gray’s usual spot and a good time was had by
all.
The Fourth of July holiday came with a very tough choice for me as the
Sprint Invaders Association chose to schedule a race at my home track, West
Liberty Raceway, on the same night as Knoxville’s Twin Features. My choice
was never really in question since I’m on Knoxville’s payroll, but it did
not make it easy knowing my friends at home were having fun with my brand of
race cars and I was not there. It’s always the highlight of my summer when
sprint cars come to my childhood playground and this year was a huge
letdown. I hope the scheduling works out a lot better next year and I am
hoping the Muscatine County Fair Board will reinstate the very popular
sprint-car show at the mid-July fair.
Speaking of Twin Features Night, it just isn’t the same without Brent Antill,
as he was always my easy pick on this night in our little pressbox pool.
This is where I should note that I am now a three-time season champion in
this pool, after having taken back my title this year with a surge from
fourth to first at the season-ending Late Model Nationals. I was riding the
Darrell Lanigan wave on the qualifying nights, which pushed me over the top.
Picking last every night by virtue of winning the night before is tough,
especially since there are so many fantastic late-model drivers at this
event. But on a whim, I picked Tim McCreadie on the final night since
Lanigan was already picked. Obviously that paid off, but I nearly had a
stroke when Tony Stewart slammed into him halfway through the race, and
again when Josh Richards raced him side-by-side for the win on the final
lap. I knew McCreadie would make me proud because he races the No. 39, the
same number my Grandpa Rocky used back in the day. Grandpa’s former driver,
Mel Morris, picked McCreadie in his own little contest for the same reasons.
Great minds think alike.
If your name was Johnson, chances are you had a great time at the 360
Knoxville Nationals and the Brodix Tournament of Champions this year.
Jason and Wayne traded off the big wins in four nights and didn’t let anyone
else have much of a chance. Wayne then went on to score a qualifying-night
win at the 410 Knoxville Nationals.
Sather was the alphabet runner at 360 Nationals. After a preliminary crash,
she won the E-Main and transferred from the D-Main to the C-Main.
She had passed a handful of cars on the original start, but that was negated
by a false start on someone else’s part. On the restart, she was caught up
in a bad wreck, ending her run in disappointing fashion.
She recovered nicely to headline my annual “Women in Sprint Car Racing”
forum at the 410 Nationals as part of the National Sprint Car Hall of Fame
and Museum’s fan programming. Natalie certainly knows how to draw a crowd
and we had a panel of other outstanding women joining her this year to make
the show very entertaining.
Nationals week had its usual share of ups and downs, with the lowest being
Jeff Shepard’s career-ending injury during Thursday’s B-Main. Both
qualifying nights featured huge carnage, as nearly the entire field was
knocked out of one heat race on Wednesday night and several cars were
involved in Shepard’s incident Thursday. Brian Brown provided the scary
moment Friday night when his machine erupted in a huge ball of flame and
proceeded to tip over onto the left side.
For me, Nationals was of course busy with the updates to the live-results
page on the track website and the official stories. My usual partner in
crime, Bob Wilson, chose Nationals week to develop a mystery illness and
then lose his mind, so I was extra busy. If it wasn’t for my good friend,
Steve Shafer, I might have lost my own mind on Thursday night. It’s so great
to have good friends.
As the season wound down, Larry Pinegar decided we hadn’t seen enough
oddball crashes, so on season-championship night, he crashed on the
frontstretch and his fuel tank came through the fence in scary fashion.
The late models also wanted in on this action, so on the opening night of
the Late Model Nationals, several of them got upside down dramatically. For
veteran racer Donnie Moran it was his first trip over in 30 years of racing.
All of the carnage on this night combined to push the show on past midnight
and ended up just about 1 a.m.
The 305 sprint cars would not be outdone on fiery crashes either, with Chad
Huston’s crazy ride during the 305 Knoxville Nationals being the biggest.
I’ve been chided in the past for never attending races anywhere but
Knoxville, so I must note that this year I also made it to Tipton and
Columbus Junction and twice to Burlington. It’s too hard anymore to go to
races and not have cars, drivers, lap times, lineups and finish orders to
enter into the computer as the night progresses. It’s been so long since I
actually sat in the grandstands that I just need to have jobs to do.
The Knoxville banquet wrapped up the year just before Thanksgiving, and it
was very nice to have the event return to the fairgrounds. There’s just
something nice about coming back to the race track at that time of year,
even if we can’t have races. And it’s always great, no matter where the
banquet is held, to reconnect with everyone again.
This year’s banquet was a little bittersweet as I finally had to come to
terms with the idea that Justin Zoch, who has become like my little brother,
will not return to his microphone next year. Justin started his announcing
gig at Knoxville the same night I started working in the pressbox and I sure
never thought I would have to see him leave our little close-knit family. He
has become one of the favorite people I have met at the race track in the
past eight years and he and Whitney deserve a lot of happiness. I’m afraid
my Bon Jovi music might fall off the playlist at the track next season,
however.
Before we know it, the 2009 racing season will be upon us and, of course,
we’ll all be happy to see it come around again. In the meantime, thanks for
reading!
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