well I made the trip north out of the hills of the queen city into the fertle and flat farm lands of ohio and then east into the hills of south central and a lovely day and trip it was, glad I did too, saw some lovely countryside and some excellent racing in all 3 divisions. I was quite proud of my f b friend Robert ballou (who I've watched since he dedicated his summers to Indiana from cali) for picking up a hard fought win in his new ride (the 33M, a car he had worked on in his shop for the past 2 weeks to transform it into a rocket ) in the n w sprints, also proud of dale blaney (who I've watched since his first season in a sprint car at sharon speedway) for his dominating win in the winged sprints. ballou has worked his tail off with a very meager budget and has had a great season with quite a few big wins and many podiums, while blaney has ran some 60 races having won more than 20 of them this season (how many drivers do you know who have won 1/3 of the races they've entered?) I think the new promoters are quick learners too, they announced that next years 'open wheel chamionships' will be cut back from this years 3 day marathon into a 2 day affair to be run july 31st and aug. 1st. with the n w sprints and mods running complete shows on the 31st for $5 g's to win / and the winged guys running a complete show on the 1st for a whopping 20 g's!. congratulations to them for what seems to have been a great 1st season at the high bank 3/8th's mile track. I guess my only complaint about tonites show was the excessive amount of dust. the track was smooth and fast, but was very dusty (no one likes being sand blasted) and hopefully they'll get a handle on that issue next year too, it takes a lot of work and a lot of water, but the ted Johnson dry slicks that ohio has become known for are not conducive to what the race fans want/ and I do remember ohio tracks in the pre-ted johnson days when they were tacky all nite long and were dust free and racey as hell (sure would like to see them that way again!) I was happy to see some friends who made a trek all the way from central pa. for the 3 nite show, who were also quite pleased with the action, but who also did not approve of the 'ohio dry slick' track conditions, stating that such conditions are not found in central pa! but once again, besides eating some dust, i highly recommend ya'll putting atomic speedway (just south of chillocothe, oh.) on your bucket list for 2015 as I saw some great racing and enjoyed myself, and i'll most certainly be there come 7-31-15 for more (god willing), if not sooner (the more n w sprint car racing they have, the more likely they are to see my butt in their stands, hint hint!)
