VT Midwest Challenge

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VT Midwest Challenge Week #25

4M/VT Midwest Challenge
Oct. 11, 2005
Week 25 Update

!!!JET66 TAKES INAGURAL MIDWEST CHALLENGE TITLE!!!
After this weekend, Jet66 clinched the 4M/VT Midwest Challenge title! Only 480 points are possible for the remainder of the year, so Jet doesn’t even have to log onto VT for the remaining 2 races to win the title. Cbork23 has all but sewed up the second spot as well. Fetllmn would need 2 perfect scores and hope for Cbork23 to score 10 points or less in the next 2 races to gain a tie for second. In other words, it ain’t happeninng! GRT44c has still got ay be, and many spots in the top 10 can still change with these next 2 races! Congratulations goes out to the top two and in a couple of weeks we’ll know for sure who join you two in the top 5.

Just as a couple of weeks ago with the MARS series, this past weekend closed the books on two more 4M/ VT Midwest Challenge series. TORA and WDRL both closed out their season’s with races at Lakeside Speedway in Kansas City, KS this past Thursday and Saturday nights respectfully. MLRA was also in action at the famed Kansas track over the weekend as well. The MLRA was scheduled to make an appearance at the Adrian Speedway in Adrian, MO Wednesday night but the weatherman made other plans. Next year if there is a drought in he Adrian area, the farmers better get a hold of the Chancellor’s and schedule a race there. It seems every time the MLRA is slated to come to town the rain beats them there. The MLRA was suppose to race twice at this track this year and they both were rained out.

With Wednesday nights rain out at Adrian, the weekend had to put off getting through into high gear until Thursday night at Lakeside Speedway. This was the first of three consecutive nights of racing at the Kansas City, KS track. TORA took the top billing for the Thursday nigh show as this was their final event of the 2005 season. Kyle Berck of Marquette, NE got by in the closing laps and took the checkered flag in front of fellow Nebraskan John Anderson. Jet66 continued his winning ways as he paced the field for the win with a score of 145 pts.. Four “Maniacs” followed to round out the top 5. GRT44c took home ’first loser” honors with a score of 135. Oklahoma’s Sozo finished third with 130 pts.. Home state favorite Dennis1964’s 110 points was good enough for a fourth place finish and Missouri’s Budweiser took the fifth spot collecting 105 points.

The top 5 in the final TORA points are:
Jet66-1355
Dennis1964-1120
GRT44c-1110
Cbork23-1090
Budweiser-1020
Congratulations to each of you on a great 2005 season. Each of you earned a Performance Certificate for this accomplishment. And since Jet66 was the overall TORA VT champ, the TORA Championship Certificate will have his name on it!

Friday and Saturday nights, the MLRA and WDRL co-sanctioned the festivities at Lakeside Speedway. Friday night Tiffin, IA’s Denny Eckrich took the win over MARS champion Terry Philips in front of a packed house. The weather was cool but the picking was hot as Fetllmn took the win for the MLRA part of this race. The Challenge Champion Jet66 took second with a score of 170 points. That “Krazy Kansan” Dennis1964 once again took a liking to the Lakeside track and finished in the third spot with a score of 145. The “Beerman” Budweiser was fourth collecting 120 points. GRT44c, Cbork23 and Sozo crossed the line three wide and finished tied for fifth with 115 points being deposited into their total column.

On the WDRL’s side of the ledger, Riku put together a Hall of Record set of picks and captured the win with a score of 200 points. Fetllmn tood second crossing the line with 180 points in his back pocket. After 30 laps Jet66 and Sozo couldn’t decide who should take the third place spot, so they shared it with 160 point each. Fifth went to Springfield, MO’s Cbork23, happily accepting his 155 points to add to his totals.

It was going to be hard to top the action from the night before, but Saturday night the MLRA/WDRL drivers came out in force to try. John Anderson made a charge from the rear of the field only to see the same thing happen that took place in the Thursday race. Kyle Berck passed Anderson with just a few laps remaining to get his second win of the weekend. Berck’s pass catapulted GRT44c and Opp88 to the top of the standings and had the two Missourians sharing the spotlight in victory lane. Each competitor earned 155 points for this race. Cbork23 found himself back on the podium in KC with a score of 140, good enough for third. Budweiser got yet another top 5 along with current MLRA point leader Cbrown and the previous nights winner Fetllmn, each walking away with 135 points.

The player that took the Saturdays WDRL win was the “Oklahoma Outlaw” Sozo, who performed a WHOLE lot better than his beloved Sooners, taking the winner’s share of the pot which amounted to 185 points. Cbork23 is making it a habot to finish in the top five and his 160 points was good enough to nail down the second place spot on this night. GRT44c finished third with 155 points. Dennis1964 and Budweiser tied for the fourth spot with 150 points. This is the first time this year I can remember the “Maniacs” finishing in the first 5 positions! If they could have pulled this off more often, the MARS Pitcrew title may be in their hands right now.

The top performers in the MLRA over the weekend were Fetllmn(315), Jet66(285), Dennis1964(270), GRT44c(270) and Opp88(265). The top 5 in MLRA points after this weekend look like this:
Cbrown-3120*
Jet66-2800
Cbork23-2745
Fetllmn-2745
Dennis1964-2660
* After this weekend Crown clinched the MLRA points title. With only 240 points available to be made
for the remaining race, Cbrown can’t lose the top spot. Congratulations on your accomplishment and the MLRA Championship Certificate will be in your awards package!

This weeks top performances in the WDRL were turned in by Riku and Sozo each scoring an amazing 345 points. Cbork23 and Fetllmn tied for third with 315 points a piece. 295 popular amount of points to get in WDRL action as Budweiser, Cbrown, Dennis1964 and Jet66 each collected that amount. The top 5 in the final WDRL points are:
Jet66-3315
Cbork23-3240
Fetllmn-2970
Dennis1964-2735
Sozo-2720
Again, each of these players will receive a top 5 Certificate for your accomplishment except for Jet66, who once again won the overall WDRL so he will get the Champions Certificate.

The top performers for the week as a whole were Jet66(725), Dennis1964(675), Budweiser(655), Fetllmn(655) and Cbork23(645).

UP NEXT:
No races are on tap next weekend. The Challenge will come to an end the weekend after next with the final 2 races set to be ran. Next weekend for an update I will post a questionnaire that I hope everyone takes part in. I will use this information to make “player profiles” during the off season. Print off the questionnaire and answer it sometime during the next few weeks and email the answers back to me. I will use the information you provide to make a profile to be posted over the off season. This profile will also have some of your VT stats. for the 2005 season in it as well. I’m just trying to think of something that might help pass the time during the off season and still keep us together while waiting for the VT season to kick off next year. I hope you all take part in answering these questions.

Also during the off season I will post the year in review for each of the Challenge’s series. These will go over the past season and list all the races, their winners and the Challenge player(s) that won that race. I will also give stats. on each player and how they fared in each series. I will also “rank the tracks” in each series as to how the players scored at these tracks over the year. This way you can see if your favorite track is known for producing high or low VT scores.

Great Southern Travel was founded in 1977 with the purpose to make travel as simple, convenient, and worry-free as possible for both business and leisure travelers. Today, Great Southern Travel is one of the largest travel agencies in the state of Missouri and also ranked in the top 100 in the nation, with 12 offices covering Missouri, Kansas, and Arkansas. Our offices reflect our standards of professionalism and organization. We are fully committed to superior service. Our travelers have found this quality commitment does not diminish with time. Check out this featured special!

Cruise from Galveston, TX to Cozumel, Mexico, Progresso, and then on to Belize aboard Carnival's Elation on January 29, 2006. This 7 day cruise starts at only $340.00 per person plus port charges and fees (approximately $173.50 pp). For more information on this special departure please check out our specials page. Great Southern Travel can be found on the web at http://www.greatsoutherntravel.com

If you have any need in the way of travel, give Brian Garrison and his staff a call at 800-749-7116. Once Brian gets his race schedule put together, he will get it to me and I will post information throughout next years updates on upcoming NASCAR and dirt races he has to offer.

4M/VT Midwest Challenge points as of 10/09/05

1. Jet66-12985
2. Cbork23-12210
3. Fetllmn-11740
4. GRT44c-11330
5. Dennis1964-11295
6. Opp88-11220
7. Budweiser-10885
8. Sozo-10780
9. Cbrown-10760
10. Riku-10720
11. Nvssei-9975
12. Sozo, Jr.-9820
13. RikusAngel-8315
14. Pictureman-7855
15. Chrisdirtracer65802-7430
16. 75Phillipsfan-4570
17. SuperD-4020
18. Longmiestr-3175




For a more detailed look at the Challenge standings, visit:
http://www.826race.com/4mvt.pdf

The internet home for the Challenge is:
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/4M-VT_Midwest_Challenge

The official message board for the Challenge can be found at: http://www.826race.com/forum/index.php
 
Major Announcment!

4M/VT Midwest Challenge
Oct. 13, 2005
2006 MARS Cup Update


!!!2006 MARS Cup Sponsor!!!​


The 4M/VT Midwest Challenge is very pleased to announce that during the 2006 season the “Chase for the MARS Cup” will be sponsored by Great Southern Travel out of Springfield, MO. We are excited about there involvement with next years Cup chase and look forward to working with them all year long. For the 2006 season, the MARS Cup will be called "The 2006 Great Southern Travel MARS Cup".


Great Southern Travel was founded in 1977 with the purpose to make travel as simple, convenient, and worry-free as possible for both business and leisure travelers. Today, Great Southern Travel is one of the largest travel agencies in the state of Missouri and also ranked in the top 100 in the nation, with 12 offices covering Missouri, Kansas, and Arkansas. Our offices reflect our standards of professionalism and organization. We are fully committed to superior service. Travelers have found this quality commitment does not diminish with time.

They feel their involvement with the Midwest Challenge is just another avenue to tap into a different fan base. “Dirt track racing has been a big thing around the Southwest Missouri area for quite awhile and we feel the potential is there for us to gain a few customers and help out one of the most exciting games on the internet in the process.” said GST spokesman Brian Garrison. “We are really looking at catering to the race fans with race packages ranging from major dirt track races to NASCAR Nextel Cup races” he said, “And we feel getting involved with the MARS Cup is a good investment.”

For the local dirt fans, GST put together three race packages during the 2005 season. The Modified 100 and Topless 100 both at the Batesville Speedway in Batesville, AR, and the Knoxville Latemodel Nationals in Knoxville, IA. Garrison said, “The modified race at Batesville was a big success. We had a full motor coach for this trip. The Topless trip was a little less crowded and it was our first overnight trip for the dirt fans” The Knoxville trip was just about as full as the Topless trip, give or take a few “ he continued, “But there was a lot of new faces on this trip. We think next year all of our dirt track trips will pick up in business, we have had nothing but positive response to these ventures.“

Right now GST is thinking of starting out the 2006 dirt track season with a trip to Florida in February. “We are talking about doing the Eastbay Nationals which is an NARA sanctioned event. If all goes to plan, we will fly to Florida and rent a mini van and just drive ourselves around” Garrison stated. “Nothing is set in stone yet and I’ve already changed this trip from my original plan. Once I get everything the way I want it I will get the information out and see how many will be interested in something like this.”

Along with their sponsorship of the MARS Cup, they will also be an associate sponsor of the Midwest Challenge. The Challenge’s Director of Operations, Frank Tillman said “What this means is they will be mentioned in every update next year whether the MARS series runs or not. With the prize(s) they are putting up for the Cup winner, we feel we need to get their name out as much as possible. We hope we can hold up to our end of the bargain and by making mention of this fine company every chance we get will help do that I hope.” Tillman said.

As mentioned they are planning on giving a prize package to the 2006 MARS Cup Champion. The 2006 winner will receive a trip for 2 trip to next Novembers NASCAR Nextel Cup race at the Texas Motor Speedway. This will include transportation from Springfield to the speedway and back to Springfield, accommodations and tickedts to ther race.

As mentioned they are planning ot do this. "As of now I can't buy tickets for this race until next spring and I won't know until then how much this trip is going to run. But if there is any way we can make it happen we'll do it" Garrison said. "I'll get the information out to Frank as soon as I know for sure and we can get this finalized"


“I can’t believe Brian came to me with this proposal” Mr. Tillman said. “He told me what he had in mind and I was stunned! I didn’t really know what to say except we really appreciate it.” “I am a man of few words” Tillman laughed. “I just hope our little game can help out GST and I think if our players get the word out about this company it will pay dividends to them”.

Great Southern Travel can be found on the web at http://www.greatsoutherntravel.com You can give them a call at 800-749-7116. Brian Garrison and his staff will be pleased to help you anyway they can.

For a more detailed look at the Challenge standings, visit:
http://www.826race.com/4mvt.pdf

The internet home for the Challenge is:
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/4M-VT_Midwest_Challenge

The official message board for the Challenge can be found at:
http://www.826race.com/forum/index.php
 
VT Midwest Challenge Update Week #26

4M/VT Midwest Challenge
Oct. 16, 2005
Week 26 Update


The office of the 4M/VT Midwest Challenge is still abuzz after last weeks announcement that Great Southern Travel out of Springfield, MO will climb aboard for the 2006 season and sponsor the MARS Cup. Again, we are truly grateful for what they are doing and I hope all of you help get the word out to others on what this company has to offer. If you have friends or family needing the use of a travel company, PLEASE send them Great Southern’s way!

No races were planed this week and next weekend will wrap up the Challenge. Of the 2 series that remain running, only the SMRS title is still undecided. Cbrown has wrapped up the MLRA title and only the rest of the top 5 remain to be fought for. The SMRS will hold their final race Saturday night, the 22nd at the final night of the “Spooker” at Pocola (Fort Smith), OK’s Tri State Speedway. The MLRA will also close out their season Saturday night with a race at Mid America Speedway in South Coffeyville, OK.

As mentioned last week, this week I want to post a questionnaire in this week’s update and use the info later this winter for player profiles. I hope you all take the time in the next few weeks to answer these questions and email them back to me. The email address is at the end of the questionnaire.

Midwest Challenge and MARS Cup Questionnaire

Here is a questionnaire for the winter updates in the 4M/VT Midwest Challenge. If you have some spare time please answer the questions and email them back to me. This will give everyone a chance to get to know each player a little bit better over the winter as I will do a piece on a couple of players in each update. Just trying to do something to pass the time this winter while we’re waiting for next year to come around. If you would, try to explain each answer with a little detail instead of just one word, it will give me a little more to work with. For the players NOT playing the Challenge and just for the MARS Cup, just answer the questions that apply. For the Challenge player’s, I’m going to do a little review of your past season playing the Challenge with your write up to make it a little more interesting. I’m wanting the new players for the Challenge to participate in this as well. Thanks for your cooperation.

1. What is your favorite series to play? (MARS Cup players don’t answer )

2. Which do you feel is your best track to get a good score at, in other words, which track do you look forward to playing the most?

3. Which is your least favorite series? (MARS Cup players don’t answer )

4. Just like question 2, which do you feel is your worst track?

5. Which is your favorite track to go to the races at?

6. Which race is your favorite to attend?

7. How many years have you played VT?

8. How did you learn of VT?

9. What’s you outlook on the coming VT season, what‘s your goal and who do you think is going to win other than you?

10. Do you plan on playing the Challenge next year or just playing for the MARS Cup?

(EVERYBODY) Tell us a little bit about yourself, real name, VT and 4M names, age, married/single, wife’s name, children’s name’s and ages, hobbies (other than going to the races), what you do for a living and anything else you might think would interest the crowd. If you don’t feel comfortable giving out certain information, I’ll understand.

Please email the answers to me at

[email protected]

UP NEXT:
Next week I will start the “Year in Review” Updates. The first will just tell of the trials and tribulations of the Challenge in general. I want to go into a little detail on how things went and changed from the first of the year to the end. I guess you can say, next week’s update will kinda all about me! I look for this to be the least read update of the year since you have that information to work with now! The week after I will review the MARS season, followed by TORA, WDRL MLRA and SMRS. These reviews will also give stats on the players and how they did in each series and I came up with something that will rank the players on how they would have finished in average had they played all the rqces in the Challenge. Then I will review the overall Challenge and give more stats on players and what not. Once these are done I hope to start on the player profiles I mentioned earlier. I’ve gotta keep the old fingers limbered up during the off season so I’ll try to keep busy and hope you all keep reading what I peck out.


Great Southern Travel was founded in 1977 with the purpose to make travel as simple, convenient, and worry-free as possible for both business and leisure travelers. Today, Great Southern Travel is one of the largest travel agencies in the state of Missouri and also ranked in the top 100 in the nation, with 12 offices covering Missouri, Kansas, and Arkansas. Our offices reflect our standards of professionalism and organization. We are fully committed to superior service. Our travelers have found this quality commitment does not diminish with time. Check out this featured special!

Enjoy a 4 day Western Caribbean cruise aboard the Disney Wonder. This cruise leaves Port Canaveral on July 30, 2006 and visit Nassau and Cast Away Cay. Inside cabins begin at $981.63 per person, including the port charges and fees. For more information check out the flyer on our Specials page. Great Southern Travel can be found on the web at http://www.greatsoutherntravel.com

If you have any need in the way of travel, give Brian Garrison and his staff a call at 800-749-7116. Once Brian gets his race schedule put together, he will get it to me and I will post information throughout next years updates on upcoming NASCAR and dirt races he has to offer.

4M/VT Midwest Challenge points as of 10/09/05

1. Jet66-12985
2. Cbork23-12210
3. Fetllmn-11740
4. GRT44c-11330
5. Dennis1964-11295
6. Opp88-11220
7. Budweiser-10885
8. Sozo-10780
9. Cbrown-10760
10. Riku-10720
11. Nvssei-9975
12. Sozo, Jr.-9820
13. RikusAngel-8315
14. Pictureman-7855
15. Chrisdirtracer65802-7430
16. 75Phillipsfan-4570
17. SuperD-4020
18. Longmiestr-3175




For a more detailed look at the Challenge standings, visit:
http://www.826race.com/4mvt.pdf

The internet home for the Challenge is:
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/4M-VT_Midwest_Challenge

The official message board for the Challenge can be found at:
http://www.826race.com/forum/index.php
 
Questions 1 & 3

It seems that questions 1 and 3 must be worded wrong. What I want is for everybody to answer those UNLESS all you plan to play for is the MARS Cup. If you play the Challenge, please answer these questions

I've had 2 responses already and both were confused. One did answer but didn't think he was supose to. Sorry for the confussion
 
VT Midwest Challenge Final 2005 Update

4M/VT Midwest Challenge
Oct. 24, 2005
Week 27 Update

The final two series in the 4M/VT Midwest Challenge that hadn’t ended did so this past weekend, putting an end to the inaugural Challenge. The MLRA ended their season Saturday night at the Mid America Motor Speedway in South Coffeyville, OK. Going into the weekend Al Purkey of Coffeyville, KS had the MLRA title wrapped up. Cbrown had done the same thing with the VT MLRA title. The SMRS cars were in action for the final time at Pocola, OK’s Tri State Speedway also on Saturday Night. Once again the title on the track was already decided as Galena, MO’s Ken Essary had things well in hand before the green flag even fell. Nvssei went into the final race with a mathematical chance at taking the VT SMRS title from Jet66 but came up short. Jet was the overall winner in 3 of the 5 series in the Challenge this year and was the top Challenge player in the MARS series as well. Cbrown took the other Challenge series title with the MLRA title as mentioned earlier.

In the MLRA race at South Coffeyville, Payton Taylor made the trip from Batesville, Arkansas pay off as he took the $5000 win Saturday night. Challenge Champion Jet66 kept up his torrid pace by winning yet another Challenge race. His 145 pints was 10 better than second place Sozo(135). Fetllmn took third with 130 points while Challenge runner up Cbork23 was fourth with 120. Opp88 took the final podium position with his fifth place finish worth 115 points.

Jarrod Hilton turned his pole position starting spot into his first ever SMRS win at the Saturday night finale at Tri State. Jet66 and Nvssei shared the front row for this event and crossed the line tied for first with 155 points apiece. Fetllmn and Opp88 were just behind these two looking for a way around and settled tied for third with 150 points for their efforts. Sozo again found himself in the top 5 finishing fifth with a score of 125 points.

This weeks top performers were Jet66(300), Fetllmn(280), Opp88(265), Sozo(260) and Nvssei(245). Opp88’s good weekend proved enough to get him back in the Top 5 of the Challenge and only 5 points out of fourth place. The 2 races he missed earlier this year cost him this position I’m sure. Still yet, that’s one heck of an accomplishment, to finish in the top 5 while missing a couple of races. If he would have played these two he could have made a charge for third as he was gaining on that position when he missed those two.

Just a little info to pass out. Challenge players finished in the top 10 positions in the MLRA and WDRL series this year. They also took eight of the top ten positions in the SMRS and TORA series. They placed 7 in the top 10 of the MARS series as well. All in all, of the 50 positions in the top 10, Challenge player’s held down 43 of them. This figures out be 86% of the places available. Great job by everyone who ended up in the top 10 in a series, you all done the Challenge very proud!

UP NEXT:
As soon as I get the Awards Update done I will get it out, I’ll try to get it before next weekend but I’m not promising anything. I’m sure you all would like to know what awards are coming your way and I’ll get you that info as quick as possible. I reworked the Awards so everyone would receive 2 this year. Everyone will get a Top 5, 10 or 20 Award for the Overall Challenge and everyone will also receive a “Legends Classic Challenge” mini challenge award. When I was making up the mini challenge awards this was the nicest one, so I decided to get everyone one of these in as a Top 5, 10 or 20 award as well.

Great Southern Travel was founded in 1977 with the purpose to make travel as simple, convenient, and worry-free as possible for both business and leisure travelers. Today, Great Southern Travel is one of the largest travel agencies in the state of Missouri and also ranked in the top 100 in the nation, with 12 offices covering Missouri, Kansas, and Arkansas. Our offices reflect our standards of professionalism and organization. We are fully committed to superior service. Our travelers have found this quality commitment does not diminish with time. Check out this featured special!

Enjoy a 4 day Western Caribbean cruise aboard the Disney Wonder. This cruise leaves Port Canaveral on July 30, 2006 and visit Nassau and Cast Away Cay. Inside cabins begin at $981.63 per person, including the port charges and fees. For more information check out the flyer on our Specials page. Great Southern Travel can be found on the web at http://www.greatsoutherntravel.com

If you have any need in the way of travel, give Brian Garrison and his staff a call at 800-749-7116. Once Brian gets his race schedule put together, he will get it to me and I will post information throughout next years updates on upcoming NASCAR and dirt races he has to offer. Great Southern Travel, sponsor of the “2006 Great Southern Travel MARS Cup”.


The FINAL 4M/VT Midwest Challenge points

1. Jet66-13285
2. Cbork23-12355
3. Fetllmn-12020
4. GRT44c-11490
5. Opp88-11485
6. Dennis1964-11400
7. Sozo-11040
8. Budweiser-10985
8. Cbrown-10985
10. Riku-10320
11. Nvssei-10220
12. Sozo, Jr.-9900
13. RikusAngel-8390
14. Pictureman-7855
15. Chrisdirtracer65802-7430
16. 75Phillipsfan-4570
17. SuperD-4055
18. Longmiestr-3175

For a more detailed look at the Challenge standings, visit:
http://www.826race.com/4mvt.pdf

The internet home for the Challenge is:
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/4M-VT_Midwest_Challenge

The official message board for the Challenge can be found at:
http://www.826race.com/forum/index.php
 
VT Midwest Challenge Awards Update

4M/VT Midwest Challenge
October 26,2005
Final Awards Update

The 4M/VT Midwest Challenge end of the Year Awards have been decided! I’ve been holding this back since spring! When I got the idea of these awards, I thought how cool it would be to get someone from each series to sign them. Then I got to thinking of how much trouble that would be. I thought maybe I could get one person that could be the spokesperson for ALL the series, a Series Ambassador”. Some of you might have noticed, on the awards on the group site there is a place for another name on them, this is who it’s for. This person along with the MLRA’s Clint Brown (Competition Director) will make these awards look REAL official!

Two names came to mind when I decided on the “Series Ambassador” position. One was Randy Mooneyham. Randy has worked or tried to work with every series in the Challenge. He and Ken Essary started the MLRA together and he has had MLRA, MARS, SMRS and TORA all race at one of his tracks. This past year he tried to get the WDRL to be part of the Phillips/Willard Memorial at Lebanon but they were already committed to West Liberty that weekend.

The other person is the one I picked, just because I know him better and was 99.9% sure he’d say yes! This guy worked with Randy and Ken in the original MLRA and is one of the most respected track officials not only in the Midwest, but the nation. He has worked with Hav-A-Tampa, WoO Sprint cars (I think he told me that before) and has worked at many tracks in Arkansas, Oklahoma and Missouri as a regular weekly official. You all probably know by now who I’m talking about, the MARS Stacker 2 flagman, Duane Johnson our “Series Ambassador”!

I asked Duane to do this last spring and wasn’t a bit surprised he said yes. I told him what I was thinking and he said he was checking out our VT stuff from time to time. He offered to help with some prizes but I thought to myself, I don’t even know if this will still be around when fall got here for him to sign the awards, so I told him signing the awards would be enough.

When I started printing off the awards I got a hold of him again to see if he was still game. Again he said he kept up with us through the year and it seemed we had a good time. He said something like this could be big and he thinks the promoters ought to look into something like this to help bridge the gap between them and the fans. He said heaven knows they need to put more people in the seats and something like this just might help them do it. He was willing to give this years winner a prize and I told him we needed to wait until next year so the parties involved could get more credit for what they are doing. (Sorry Jet!) Right now he’s working on something and we are going to get together and work it into our game if he can get something going! I asked him if I could share his emails with you all because I was amazed at what he had to say. He said I could and once he either gets something or is told it can’t happen I’ll share those with the rest of you. Right now I’d have to edit some of the good stuff out in case it don’t happen and I want you all to see everything he had to say!

Now for the moment we’ve all been waiting for, the Year End Awards! At the end of the list, I will list each player and tell what awards they ended up with. Here we go.

Season (Top 5)
Winner will receive Traveling Plaque, providing they agree to rules for playing for the Plaque, and Champion certificate. Winner will be notified of these rules when declared the winner.
Others receive Top 5 certificates.
1. Jet66
2. Cbork23
3. Fetllmn
4. GRT44c
5. Opp88

Season (Top 10)
Receive certificates
6. Dennis1964
7. Sozo
8. Budweiser
8. Cbrown
10. Riku

Season (Top 20)
Receive certificates
11. Nvssei
12. Sozo, Jr
13. RikusAngel
14. Pictureman
15. Chrisdirtracer65802
16. 75Phillipsfan
17. SuperD
18. Longmiestr

MARS (Top 5)
Receive certificates
Jet66
GRt44c
Riku
4. Opp88
5. Cbork23
5. Fetllmn

MLRA (Top 5)
Receive certificates
Cbrown
Jet66
Fetllmn
Cbork23
Dennis1964

SMRS (Top 5)
Receive certificates
Jet66
Nvssei
Opp88
Fetllmn
Cbork23

TORA (Top 5)
Receive certificates
Jet66
Dennis1964
GRT44c
Cbork23
Budweiser

WDRL (Top 5)
Receive certificates
Jet66
Cbork23
Fetllmn
Dennis1964
Sozo

Most Wins (Top5)
Compiled of how players “as a group” performed. This is NOT wins on Virtual Thunder.
Receive certificates
Jet66-24
Cbrown-15
2. Cbork23-15
4. GRT44c-11
5. Dennis1964-10

Winners Circle Points (Top 10)
Receive certificates
Jet66-2040
Cbork23-1565
Cbrown-1340
Fetllmn-1325
GRT44c-1315
Dennis1964-1240
Sozo-1235
Opp88-1165
Nvssei-985
Riku-880
Hard Charger-Overall Challenge
*Ties on Hard Charger Awards will go to the HIGHEST point player
Cbork23
Hard Charger-MARS
Cbork23
Hard Charger-MLRA
Cbork23
Hard Charger-SMRS
Sozo, Jr.
Hard Charger-TORA )
Dennis1964
Hard Charger-WDRL
Sozo


Hall of Records
ALL 200 point or better races receive certificates
April 24-Pictureman(205) Monett Speedway, Monett, MO(SMRS)
May 21-RikusAngel(210) Milan Speedway, Milan, TN(MARS)
May 21-GRT44c(205) Milan Speedway, Milan, TN(MARS)
June 25- Cbrown(210) Midway Speedway, Lebanon, MO(MLRA)
Sept. 2-Riku(205) Memphis Motorspotrs Park, Memphis, TN(MARS)
Sept. 4-Jet66(205) Monett Speedway, Monett, MO(MARS)
Sept. 4-Opp88(205) Monett Speedway, Monett, MO(MARS)
Oct. 7-Riku(200) Lakeside Speedway, Kansas City, KS(WDRL)




MARS Cup (Top 5)
Winner will receive MARS Cup providing they agree to rules for playing for the Cup and Championship Certificate. Winner will be notified of these rules when declared the winner. Top 5 will receive Performance Certificates.
1. Cross21
2. Lunkerman
3. Jet66
4. GRT44c
5. Riku

Mini Challenge Awards (Top 5)
Top 5 receive Performance Certificates
“Summer Sizzlin’ Challenge”
Jet66
Cbork23
Fetllmn
Dennis1964
GRT44c

“Racefest 2005”
Cbork23
Sozo, Jr.
Fetllmn
Dennis1964
Jet66

“Legends Classic Challenge”
Everyone wins an award for this challenge, either a top 5,10 or 20 award.
Top 5
Jet66
GRT44c
Cbrown
Cbork23
Fetllmn
Top 10
6. Sozo
7. Budweiser
8. Riku
9. Sozo, Jr.
10. Dennis1964
Top 20
11. Nvssei
12. RikusAngel
13. Pictureman
14. Chrisdirtracer65802
15. Opp88
16. SuperD
17. 75Phillipsfan
18. Longmiestr
19. Bgarrison

Awards of Appreciation.
These awards are given to individuals and company’s that go beyond the norm to help the Challenge and/or race fans in general.
Clint Brown-Series Director of Competition & MLRA Official
Duane Johnson-2005 Series Ambassador & MARS Stacker 2 Official
Gene Morton-Southwest Missouri Track Official
(I cannot think of LM60Fans‘s name, I know she‘s told me before. Sorry) -Speedway Programs
Ron Mitchell- Ron Mitchell Racing Photography
Brian Garrison & Great Southern Travel-For what they’ve done for the dirt fans in the area this year. GREAT IDEA!


Here’s a list of each player and what awards they got for the year. I was hoping everyone would get at least 2 and I had to rework my plan to see that everyone (in the Challenge) did! I want to thank EVERYBODY mentioned in this update for making our first year such a success! The Number in parenthesis is how many Awards the player received.

Cbork23(14)
Challenge Top 5, MARS Top 5, MLRA Top 5, SMRS Top 5, TORA Top 5, WDRL Top 5, Wins Top 5, Winners Circle Top 10, Challenge Hard Charger, MARS Hard Charger, MLRA Hard Charger, Racefest Top 5, Summer Sizzler Top 5, Legends Classic Top 5

Jet66(13)
Challenge Champion, SMRS Champion, TORA Champion, WDRL Champion, MARS Top 5, MLRA Top5, Wins Top 5, Winners Circle Top 10, MARS Cup Top 5,Hall of Records Award, Racefest Top 5, Summer Sizzler Top 5, Legends Classic Top 5

Dennis1964(10)
Challenge Top 10, MLRA Top 5, TORA Top 5, WDRL Top 5, Wins Top 5, Winners Circle Top 10, TORA Hard Charger, Summer Sizzler Top 5, Racefest Top 5, Legends Classic Top10

Fetllmn(9)
Challenge Top 5, MARS Top 5, MLRA Top 5, SMRS Top 5, WDRL Top 5, Winners Circle Top 10, Racefest Top 5, Summer Sizzler Top 5, Legends Classic Top 5

GRT44c(9)
Challenge Top 5, MARS Top 5, TORA Top 5, Wins Top 5, Winners Circle Top 10, Hall of Records, MARS Cup Top 5, Summer Sizzler Top 5, Legends Classic Top 5

Cbrown(7)
Challenge Top 10, MLRA Champion, Wins Top 5, Winners Circle Top 10, Hall of Records, Legends Classic Top 5, Award of Appreciation

Opp88(6)
Challenge Top 5, MARS Top 5, SMRS Top 5, Winners Circle Top 10, Hall of Records, Legends Classic Top 20

Riku(6)
Challenge Top 10, MARS Top 5, Winners Circle Top 10, Hall of Records, MARS Cup, Legends Classic Top 10

Sozo(5)
Challenge Top 10, WDRL Top 5, Winners Circle Top 10, WDRL Hard Charger, Legends Classic Top 10

Budweiser(4)
Challenge Top 10, TORA Top 5, Legends Classic Top 10 Appreciation Award

Nvssei(4)
Challenge Top 20, SMRS Top 5, Winners Circle Top 10, Legends Classic Top 20

Sozo, Jr(4).
Challenge Top 20, SMRS Hard Charger, Racefest Top 5, Legends Classic Top 10

Pictureman(4)
Challenge Top 20, Hall of Records, Legends Classic Top 20, Award of Appreciation


RikusAngel(3)
Challenge Top 20, Hall of Records, Legends Classic Top 20

SuperD(3)
Challenge Top 20, Legends Classic Top 20, Award of Appreciation

Chrisdirtracer65802(2)
Challenge Top 20, Legends Classic Top 20

75Phillipsfan(2)
Challenge Top 20, Legends Classic Top 20

Longmiestr(2)
Challenge Top 20, Legends Classic Top 20


The internet home for the 4M/VT Midwest Challenge is:

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/4M-VT_Midwest_Challenge


For a more detailed look at the Challenge standings visit:

http://www.826race.com/4mvt.pdf
 
My Challenges Update!

4M/VT Midwest Challenge
October 30,2005
My Challenges!

Before I go into detail on the year in review for the Challenge next week, I would like to take this weeks update space to reflect on the past year I encountered with what I came up with on the Challenge and the pitfalls that suddenly jumped into my path along the way

What a Year!

Well the first of what I hope is many years of the 4M/VT Midwest Challenge has come to an end. The first Champion has been crowned in Jet66, and the MARS Cup has found a new home for a year, going to Repulbic, MO and staying with Cross21. What started out as small talk during the Early Thaw has turned into some of the best (and MOST) time I’ve ever spent on the computer.

I spent a lot of last spring trying to come up with a way of keeping the points that would be easier than just going into Virtual Thunder and adding everyone’s up. I thought I had it well under control, until the second week. Vega (Cbrown) could tell right off the bat that I was in trouble and came to the rescue. He developed a program on short notice and got me started in using it to keep up with the other categories I was keeping track of, that was a real timesaver. He would keep the points and wins while I would keep up with the other awards to be passed out. I would also keep up with the points just in case something happened and Clint couldn’t do it anymore (mainly for practice) and would sometimes find an error in his, but mostly his would find errors in mine. At the end of the season we were getting pretty good and neither one of us messed up, or if we did it must have been we messed up just alike because they pretty much matched up at the end.

Once I got the points sheet done (the one that DIDN’T work) I had what I thought was a brilliant idea, a Yahoo Group site! I never messed with these before but thought, what the heck, I’ll give it a shot. I got it started up and was starting to put racing links into it and realized I didn’t have much to offer. I knew Sozo had a lot of links on his computer so I got a hold of him and told him what I was doing. He checked it out and liked it so I told him I needed links and ANYTHING else he could help me out with.

While he was working on the links I started messing around with the calendar and got it all filled out with the races in the Challenge. I was hoping to keep everyone’s score posted for each race and started that way, but things came to a halt, details later. I set up some databases to keep track of other things and was trying to keep them updated as much a s possible but I could tell once again I was in way over my head with this project too.

Me and Rob got all we could do done and decided to let everyone else know about it. Almost everyone joined the group and a lot of the players added links, photos, set up polls and other things. It didn’t take long and this thing was looking pretty good! I was keeping the points up to date on the front page (for a while) and trying to keep the weekly updates in the files section.

Then the disaster hit! On a warm summers day in June, the computer went cubluie! I had NOTHING backed up! The points were gone, the updates were gone, everything I was keeping up with on the awards……GONE. The newest points sheet I had of Clint’s was 4 weeks old, so when I got the new computer, the first thing I did when I got the internet set up was emaill him to get me an updated points sheet! To tell the truth, if Clint hadn’t been keeping the points, the Challenge would have ended right then and there and I wouldn’t have added up the points until the end of the year and declared a winner. Clint is to thank for the success of this thing! I was using the other points sheet I made to keep track of the weekly points, so I had to make a new one of those. Then I decided to do everything on paper as well as the computer just in case something like this were to happen again, that and BACKING UP THE STUFF!!!

I had to start from the first of the year and get everything into a notebook on how players did at each race. While this was going on, the group site wasn’t getting any attention from me, but everyone else was still keeping it going with links and photos. Thanks to you all for taking an interest in this. I finally got the Winner’s Circle Points updated at the end of August, but the other things I was keeping up with never got took care of. I hope I can keep it updated better next year but I’m not promising anything. I think I bit off more than I can chew with this endeavor and I would like to do more research on the races next year than I did this year. I’m just glad that some of the players would post who they heard was coming to a race because I didn’t have time to check for myself.

Then as I promised earlier in the year it was time for the year end awards. Just when I thought I had everything figured out on how to make them, another idea jumped into my head. Right when it was time to start printing off these awards I redid the whole concept. While I was coming up with different designs, I was making the awards for the people that earned them. I was getting better the longer I went and next year I hope the awards are better than this years. I was in a hurry to get them done this year but they turned out a whole lot better than my original plan I had earlier in the year, trust me! I’ve got all of next year to fine tune the awards and next year they will be even better, I hope.

It was a lot of hard work, but I enjoyed every minute of it, except for the crashing computer. Next week I will start reviewing each series in this years Challenge starting with MARS. I’ll list each race and tell which drive won that race and which player or players scored the best on that race. I’m going to figure everyone’s average score by how many races they played in each series and other stats. After that I will do an update on the Challenge as a whole. Then later I’m going to do Player Profiles in the updates so I hope you all take part in answering the questionnaire I posted on the message boards a couple of weeks ago. I’m just hoping this will give us a reason to keep in touch until racing season starts again.

Once again I would like to thank all the “sponsors” of this years Challenge. The ladies with Speedway Programs(especially LM60Fan)along with Gene Morton (Budweiser) who really push VT at the track each and every week. Ron Mithcell’s Racing Photography and Collectibles for the use of his space to display the Cup, Plaque and Awards at some of the races during the year. And Brian Garrison with Great Southern Travel in Springfield for what he’s doing for us race fans by putting together affordable racing packages throughout the year and really going to bat for us with what he has planned next year!!!!
 
I finally got the awards in the mail today for the players. I still need to get the gals at Speedway Programs made up and sent to them, but everyone else I got and address for, yours on on the way!
 
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