Took me awhile to get to it, but here's a little recap of what happened on the trip to the St. Louis area: Mother Nature was not a race fan for the Paducah and Pevely World of Outlaw shows. I called her every name in the book that would make a drunken sailor blush on the trip home, but there was no changing the outcome of driving home a day earlier than expected and not seeing a damn race.
We (myself and tall pal Reid who handles the Craig Dollansky PR) left Thursday morning from Albert Lea as everyone migrated there to join up as Karavan (see what I did there?) to head south for our destination in Mt. Vernon, IL. It was a little east of St. Louis but also cut down on the possible driving on Friday to get to Paducah.
The trip down wasn't bad at all as I spent a good chunk of it passed out in the passenger's seat since I worked the overnight before we left at my job. But I did wake up just in time to tune into the greatest radio station in the Midwest. If you're ever in Southern Iowa or Northern Missouri, make sure you tune into 107.5 FM for all of your favorite Uncensored Hits. We only heard a few songs before the signal faded, but they didn't care to bleep out any of the swear words from the songs. It was awesome to say the least!
I had never been to St. Louis in my life and it was pretty cool driving through the city and seeing Busch Stadium directly off of the interstate as we traveled through the stadium. We got to Mt. Vernon right around 9PM, had a good meal over at the local Applebee's along with a couple of cold one's before hitting the bed. We knew to expect rain overnight Thursday into Friday, but it looked like Paducah got drilled with a good amount of rain. Knowing they were probably going to rain out, we headed back west to St. Louis to tour the Anheiser-Busch Brewery around noon, and that is a must stop for anyone that enjoys beer and is in the St. Louis area. Pretty cheap gift shop as well for a few collector mugs and glasses.
Anyways, since Paducah was called early around 10am, that gave us the rest of the day to drink and hang out and that's what we did. Ended up staying north of town in St. Charles where the casino is located. St. Charles has a very nice, and historic-feel to its downtown and we showed the locals how to drink up from the north. Lots of memories made again that night, its just too bad not all of them have come back to our minds. Oh well. St. Charles gets a solid A for drinking atmosphere from me.
Woke up Saturday morning hungover, and the only to make a hangover worse is hearing there would be no races that day and we found that out around 11am. Windy, overcast, and rather cold weather caused the postponement as did 'wet grounds' at I-55. We packed up, messed around for a bit, and started heading north again around 3pm to head back home cursing out Mother Nature.
Made it home late that night, played some PS2 sprint cars - what a classic video game by the way - had a few more beers and called it a weekend. A *horrible* weekend. Shoulda stayed home to bartend (the bar had a record weekend) and instead ended up spending money to travel the countryside and see no races. That is why I left it blank at the top, for everyone to put in their own adjective of Mother Nature because I'm pretty sure I called her every name in the book on the road home.
Next blog hopefully coming up this week or next week with the racing season finally kicking off up north!
Monday, April 25, 2011
Tuesday, March 22, 2011
Back in Black for 2011
Okay, gonna give this blog one last shot as we head into 2011 as racing continues to get closer here in the Upper Midwest. Obviously, its been awhile since I have written something, but as is the norm at the end of the year, I was burned out from racing after getting home from the 9 straight nights of action in Central Iowa.
So here goes nothing, hopefully the blog will generate a few hits as the racing season heats up and people see the link in my signature on the 'ol Hoseheads Board (which by the way continues to be full of degenerates who know absolutely nothing and post way too much, but thats another topic for down the road).
Really hoping to get to Paducah and Pevely for the WoO shows there in the middle of April with my tall buddy Reid and his hopeful connection. Otherwise, we may have to sit out the 10+ hour drive due to gas prices being outrageous right now in the $3.49 range. Plus, weather in the middle of April is always sketchy at best, but here's hoping to taking in two new short tracks to open my 2011 season!
Otherwise, my racing opener will be coming at the Jackson Speedway for more than likely my annual one visit for their 360 special that pays 5 grand to win. That race should draw some big names since it is on a Friday night, and hopefully there aren't over 50mph gusts of wind, and decent weather for this one. Not to mention a decent track (for once) for a sprint car race on that half mile.
Knoxville opens up the night after that and it'll be interesting to see who shows up for the opener and is going to run for 410 points. Go ahead and vote for who you think will win the points above this post. Looks like T-Mac, Lasoski, and Brown (if he decides to run the whole year) will be taking aim at winning another 410 championship at the Mecca of Dirt. Along with guys like Wayne Johnson and Kerry Madsen popping in from time to time and young guys like Dusty Zomer, Davey Heskin, and Josh Schneiderman continuing to strengthen as they see more laps on the Iowa mud.
Huset's isn't opening to the traditional Mother's Day on May 8th. Things could be very scary with car counts with the implement of stricter tire choices for both the 360s and 410s. There is a lot of upheaval on the local message board to this, but it does seem like the Rubins are trying to make it cheaper for racers by making them run harder compounds. The real problem I see from this coming is a guy losing a race to a tire sealing over under caution or red with such a hard compound, but all guys will be on the same compounds. I just wish they would look in the mirror and get their crap together because it is a great track that provides better racing action when there is enough cars for lapped traffic. Keep your fingers crossed that car counts are decent, but it sounds like most of the regular guys won't be running every week like in the past.
Enjoy the warmer weather as spring gets here and this hopefully leads to more blogs. I'll even guarantee a blog with photos and/or video if we get to Pevely and Paducah.
So here goes nothing, hopefully the blog will generate a few hits as the racing season heats up and people see the link in my signature on the 'ol Hoseheads Board (which by the way continues to be full of degenerates who know absolutely nothing and post way too much, but thats another topic for down the road).
Really hoping to get to Paducah and Pevely for the WoO shows there in the middle of April with my tall buddy Reid and his hopeful connection. Otherwise, we may have to sit out the 10+ hour drive due to gas prices being outrageous right now in the $3.49 range. Plus, weather in the middle of April is always sketchy at best, but here's hoping to taking in two new short tracks to open my 2011 season!
Otherwise, my racing opener will be coming at the Jackson Speedway for more than likely my annual one visit for their 360 special that pays 5 grand to win. That race should draw some big names since it is on a Friday night, and hopefully there aren't over 50mph gusts of wind, and decent weather for this one. Not to mention a decent track (for once) for a sprint car race on that half mile.
Knoxville opens up the night after that and it'll be interesting to see who shows up for the opener and is going to run for 410 points. Go ahead and vote for who you think will win the points above this post. Looks like T-Mac, Lasoski, and Brown (if he decides to run the whole year) will be taking aim at winning another 410 championship at the Mecca of Dirt. Along with guys like Wayne Johnson and Kerry Madsen popping in from time to time and young guys like Dusty Zomer, Davey Heskin, and Josh Schneiderman continuing to strengthen as they see more laps on the Iowa mud.
Huset's isn't opening to the traditional Mother's Day on May 8th. Things could be very scary with car counts with the implement of stricter tire choices for both the 360s and 410s. There is a lot of upheaval on the local message board to this, but it does seem like the Rubins are trying to make it cheaper for racers by making them run harder compounds. The real problem I see from this coming is a guy losing a race to a tire sealing over under caution or red with such a hard compound, but all guys will be on the same compounds. I just wish they would look in the mirror and get their crap together because it is a great track that provides better racing action when there is enough cars for lapped traffic. Keep your fingers crossed that car counts are decent, but it sounds like most of the regular guys won't be running every week like in the past.
Enjoy the warmer weather as spring gets here and this hopefully leads to more blogs. I'll even guarantee a blog with photos and/or video if we get to Pevely and Paducah.
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