Wednesday, January 16, 2008

GEORGIA STOCK CAR RACING Jan. 17-24

GEORGIA STOCK CAR RACING Jan. 17-24 ==================== Our website, www.georgiastockcarracing.com, has been improved, and will now display all the full results we receive from every track in Georgia, and longer stories which we’ll highlight in this weekly email newsletter. There’s also a fan forum for dirt and asphalt fans - let us know what you think. ==================== ---- Schedule ---- Jan. 19 Swainsboro 7th annual Trade Show 10:00-3:00 $5 swainsbororaceway@yahoo.com Jan. 19 Peach State’s banquet at the Emerald Point Resort at Lake Lanier Islands. www.peachstspeedway.com Jan. 19 Atlanta Motor Speedway Legends, Bandolero, and Thunder Roadster racing 12:00 noon Jan. 23-Feb. 2 Golden Isles Super Bowl of Racing: Super late models every night for $10,000 to win. Support classes: Jan. 23-26, Feb. 2 Natl. Late Model Series $3000 to win Jan. 28-30 crate LMs, open-wheel modifieds Jan. 31 open-wheel modifieds Feb. 1 Super street racers Sun., Jan. 27 Brunswick Stew BBQ (no racing) Jan. 24-26 USA Intl. Speedway (FL) Speedfest for asphalt LMs Feb. 4-9 East Bay (FL) Lucas Oil LM Series, $5000-$10,000 to win Feb. 8-9 South Georgia Speedfest, featuring crate LMs. www.racesgmp.com Feb. 10 (Sun.) South Georgia Partsarama Car Show and swap meet. Sellers $20, fans and buyers $10. www.racesgmp.com Feb. 22-24 Green Valley (AL) 11th Annual BAMA BASH $10,000 To Win Super Late Model race. Limited $5000 to win, crates $5000 to win. www.greenvalleyspeedway.com Feb 23-24 Birmingham International Raceway Early Bird 125 Qualifying Saturday - Features Sunday afternoon Super Late Models 125 Laps March 8 Peach State Speedway National Vintage Racing Association plus local classes Mar. 22 Douglas Motorsports Park Opening day (tent.) www.dmpspeedway.com ---- TV ---- Feb. 9, live on SPEED at 4 pm. ARCA 200 at Daytona ---- ---- ---- ---- Joey Senter started eighth in the season opening Ice Cold Shrine Bowl at Lanier, but survived five yellow flags in the first two laps to take the lead on lap 20 and win the 100-lap pro late model race. Ronnie Sanders was second, Devin Reno third, Rodney Benefield fourth in his first pro late model race, and Kevin Stevens fifth. GAS '07 Champion Russell Fleeman was strong early, but left after erupting in smoke. On a sunny but cool day, cold tires and a cool track produced 14 cautions, several damaged cars, and some hot tempers. 11 cars finished the race. The starting grid was set in two heats Sat., and each heat winner rolled the dice to choose the inversion for his line. One line inverted six, and one line inverted four. In the support divs.: Sportsman (6 cars): 1. Jackie Daniel Open wheel mods (6 cars): 1. Jason Bates, 2. Marlin Gunter, 3. Clay Smith Trucks (5 trucks): 1. Clinton Sherriff, 2. Brian Jones Semi-pro Legends (15 cars): 1. Zac Kittle, 2. Dylan Ames, 3. Austin Hill Pro/Masters comb. Legends (14 cars): Pro: 1. Ryan Gandee Masters: 1. Brian Weimer Bandoleros Bandits: Kyle Plott Bandoleros Young Guns: Cody Garland Southern Racers Auction & Trade Show JANUARY 17, 18, 19, 20, 2008 ALABAMA STATE FAIRGROUNDS - BIRMINGHAM 4 Gigantic Days at the Auction and Trade Show! Charlie Sentman, BJ and Gayle Parker, and Maria Vannice present another great show for your pleasure! If you have any questions, please call Charlie at 765-366-5516, BJ or Gale at 205-674-7305, or Maria at 765-366-2263. With over 3,000 lots to be auctioned, the doors will be opening earlier (9:00 a.m.) on Friday. Paul Tims and Gary McPherson received top honors Saturday night at the Cleveland (TN) Golf and Country Club, for their respective track’s 2007 Championship, from promoter Monty Morrow. McPherson, a fifteen-time champion of the North Georgia Speedway, and Tims a multi-time Cleveland Speedway champion, both thanked their friends, family and supporters including the Lord God Almighty during the ceremony that housed over 300 people. Eleven different divisions received awards and accolades for the efforts within the 2007 season. For photo's of all the awards recipients (in all divisions) visit the track websites at www.clevelandspeedway.com and www.northgeorgiaspeedway.com. The Lavonia Speedway will hold it's 2008 Season Rules meeting on Fri., Jan. 18, at 7pm. We encourage all Drivers / Race Teams / Car Owners / and Fans to attend. Several Topics and Rules will be discussed. Divisions to be included in this meeting will be the Up Front Stocks (front wheel drive) / 4Cyl's / Enduro / Hobby / Crate Latemodel / and Limited Latemodels. For the convenience of everyone, Eat Dinner with us at the Lavonia Speedway. BBQ Chicken Plates will be on sale for the early comers starting at (5:30pm). - Brad York John Wes Townley, who won the ASA South LM race at Senoia in September, will move up to the ARCA RE/MAX series in 2008 with RAB Racing. He has been racing on the short tracks in GA and the south since starting with go-karts at age nine. His father, Tony Townley, is a co-founder of Zaxby’s, a Southeast favorite for chicken fingers and Buffalo wings, and Zaxby’s will sponsor his Ford Fusion. The number will be 09, same as the Craftsman truck of Joey Clanton and also sponsored by Zaxby’s. RAB Racing with Brack Maggard is no stranger to the ARCA RE/MAX Series. After stepping onto the ARCA RE/MAX Series scene in 2005 under the reign of Co-Owner and Crew Chief Robby Benton, RAB Racing with Brack Maggard has racked up 23 top-tens, eight top-fives, and two record setting poles. In 2007, Townley signed a developmental driver contract with the Wood Brothers/JTG Racing Organization. Townley, age 18, attended the December ARCA test at Daytona with RAB Racing and posted the third fastest drafting speed at 182.615 mph. The ARCA RE/MAX Series opens its season at Daytona Int’l Speedway with the 45th running of the ARCA 200 at Daytona Sat., Feb. 9, live on SPEED at 4 pm. The First Rolling Thunder TV Show for 2008 is on the web! Join Candi & Bill for all the latest racing news from North Ga, Alabama, the Carolinas and Tennessee! This show includes a preview of the upcoming dirt track season.  http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=5567273971049027314   Thursday Night at 8 PM for the next live Rolling Thunder radio Show on FM 99.3 in Cornelia, Ga. Starting in the summer of 2008, the Masters brothers, of MasterSbilt chassis, will be opening a camp for 14-20 year olds to experience the thrills of working on and with real life race cars. “We have seen a decline in the number of youths and experienced help in the world of Dirt Late Model in the recent years. We needed an outlet to let kids learn racing and give them a chance to fall in love with it,” said Keith Masters The camp will operate in two weeks sessions, and will take eight campers at a time. They will be divided into groups of four and put in charge of running real race teams housed on the MasterSbilt property. They will be responsible for everything from washing to crewing the cars. The camp dorm rooms will resemble the inside of the trailers professional team race around the country in. “We want the kids to get the real experience of racing,” Masters commented. The camp will also feature field trips to racing businesses and guest lecturers from some of the finest in the racing industry. Southeastern Latemodel Sportsman Series Promoter Randy McCoy has announced the first half season Schedule: 1. March 22...Lavonia Speedway 2. April 5.......Toccoa Speedway 3. May 16......Lavonia Speedway 4. May 17......Screven Motor Speedway 5. May 30......Mileback Speedway 6. May 31......Travelers Rest Speedway 7. June 2.......Toccoa Speedway 8. June 13......TBA 9. June 14......TBA 10. June 28.....TBA 11. July 3........Toccoa Speedway 12. July 4........TBA 13. July 5........Tri County Racetrack www.southeasternlatemodel.info Toccoa Speedway Promoter Randy McCoy has announced that the Super Latemodels will not be a weekly division at the Speedway in ‘08. Four Super Latemodels Series (Carolina Clash / AAPTS / O'Reilly Southern All Stars / SAS-East) will have Toccoa shows. Toccoa has obtained some Sponsor help from the "Day's Inn Of Toccoa", and the Super Latemodels will be running on opening night March 15. Attendance at this Super Latemodels show may determine the future schedule. In 2003, Toccoa Speedway was averaging 18 to 20 Super Latemodels for the weekly show. Last season we only averaged 8 to 10 Supers. A clip featuring Lavonia Speedway is in the History Channel documentary "The Real Hillbillys" narrated by Billy Ray Cyrus. The documentary chronicles Appalachian culture and its influence on the American culture, including bootleggers, NASCAR, country music, and snake handlers. The History Channel cameras were at the track for a Southern All Stars show late in 2006, and neither the History Channel nor the SAS was responsible for that night’s terrible dusty show lasting past 1:30 a.m. At the speedway, as the camera panned the pits, Chris Madden’s and Jack Pennington's cars were shown. It re-airs Sunday 1/20/08 @ 1pm EST on the History Channel. The Carolina Clash, a Super Late Model dirt series, has eight (of 23) races in Georgia and at nearby tracks in 2008, starting Mar. 29 at Gordon Park. Ricky Weeks won seven Clash races in 2007, and was the series champion. Mar. 29 Carolina Clash Gordon Park Speedway $4,000 to Win April 26 Carolina Clash Travelers Rest Speedway $4,000 to Win May 10 Carolina Clash Screven Motor Speedway $5,000 to Win May 31 Carolina Clash Hartwell Speedway $4,000 to Win June 13 Carolina Clash Lavonia Motor Speedway $4,000 to Win June 14 Carolina Clash Tri-County Speedway $4,000 to Win June 28 Carolina Clash Travelers Rest Speedway $4,000 to Win July 12 Carolina Clash Toccoa Motor Speedway $4,000 to Win There have been some posts on 4m.net that the Carolina Clash would add a crate motor division, but there’s nothing on the website yet. www.carolinaclash.com Winder-Barrow Speedway drivers meeting will be Sunday. January 20th, 2:00 at the track. Swainsboro Raceway, located Just minutes off I-16, will be holding their 7th Annual Racers Swap-Meet and Trade-Show Sat. (Jan. 19) at 10:AM. The show, which has became a racers and fan favorite, continues to grow each and every year. "The event gets better each year, my staff and myself look forward to hosting it" said Owner/Promoter Paul Purvis. 478.252.1300 Pretty good combined dirt LM touring series schedule: http://latemodelracer.com/2008schedules/ The Second Annual Legends Helping Legends Fundraiser is Sat. (Jan. 19), 10 a. m.- 4 p.m. at Memory Lane Motorsports & Automotive Historical Museum in Mooresville, NC. This year’s event will benefit the medical fund established for Sam Ard, the 1983-84 NASCAR Busch Series Champion. Ard won hundreds of races during his storied career, including 22 races NASCAR Busch Series events in only 92 starts. Ard’s 10 wins in 1983 is a single season Busch Series record that still stands today. His career was tragically ended by life-threatening injuries suffered in a 1984 crash at Rockingham. In recent years, Ard has been battlingAlzheimer’s Disease. Physicians have said it is likely Sam’s crash 23 years ago speeded the onset of the debilitating disease. More than 50 racing celebrities were on hand to greet fans and sign autographs at last year’s gathering with more expected for the upcoming event. The $8 admission will include a tour of the museum—which houses well over 150 vintage NASCAR racers, sprint cars, drag cars, antique autos and special interest vehicles—as well as a chance to visit with the dozens of drivers, crew chiefs and mechanics from racing’s past and present who will be participating in this landmark gathering. Events such as a 50/50 raffle, auction, drawing for door prizes, a vintage race car show (weather permitting) with one of Ard’s actual race cars, and much more will take place throughout the day. A year ago a retired California guy, Randy Lewis, stumbled upon my newsletter, and contacted me, and I’ve come to admire his efforts and weekly reports on his hobby - trackchasing. Here’s part of his end-of-the year report: “This season provided my fourth consecutive worldwide trackchasing championship.  This is my eighth consecutive year of finishing in the top three in the world rankings. “The highlights of my 2007 trackchasing season are: < Total new tracks seen:  160 < Total U.S. states visited 34 + 4 Canadian provinces < Total countries visited 5 (U.S., Canada, Mexico, New Zealand, Barbados) < Track breakout Dirt ovals – 75 Figure 8 tracks – 24 Road Course tracks - 24 Asphalt ovals – 15 Kart tracks – 12 Ice tracks - 6 Indoor tracks - 4 “I missed my goal of playing golf the same numbers of days that I trackchase in ‘07.  I trackchased 119 days and only hit the golf links 92 times.  That’s better than in 2005 when I went trackchasing about 125 times and only played golf about 55 times. “This season I made it to 160 new tracks, my second best total ever.  To get those tracks I traveled just over 187,000 miles in rental cars, airplanes, and a ferryboat.  During the past four years, my travels have covered right around 721,000 miles! “My Garmin GPS unit is possibly the best aid to efficient trackchasing I have ever had.  I no longer take paper maps with me on any trip.  In 2006, I averaged an even 300 miles driving for each track I visited.  You would think that the more tracks I visit, the further apart the remaining tracks would be.  However, after getting my GPS unit, I averaged even less miles driven for each track I saw.  In 2007, I averaged just 263 miles of driving for each of the 160 new tracks I visited.  A 37-mile savings might not seem like much, but then consider I went trackchasing 124 days including rainouts.  That savings amounts to about 4,500 miles.  The cost of gasoline for that much driving would be about $500.  That cash savings would buy two GPS units.   “I’m just beginning to enjoy the benefits of Priceline.com.  I’m getting hotels that are dramatically better than the Super 8s and Motel 6s that I used to stay in for about the same price.  I’m renting full-sized cars for less than $15 per day.  Priceline, when used properly, rocks!   “I ... headed to South Carolina with friend Dale Terry.  For the first time in my life, I showed up, but no countable cars did!  They were racing at the Cross Anchor Raceway in Enoree, SC, but only with flat karts, a non-countable trackchasing class.  This weekend pretty much postponed getting to 1,300 tracks until the 2008 season. “Possibly the biggest “missed opportunity” was when I locked my computer laptop via a steel security cable, to the steering wheel of my rental car.  I then proceeded to lose the key to the lock. “Of course, buying a counterfeit ticket in Atlanta to the NCAA Final Four for $400 would have to qualify as a missed opportunity ... if I had not already made $430 scalping tickets earlier in the day, it REALLY would have been a missed opportunity.  “The year 2007 was another safe year of traveling.  I haven’t gotten a speeding ticket since 2003, although I was pulled over in Garden City, Kansas this summer.  That’s more than 150,000 miles of driving at speeds of 5-10 M.P.H. over the limit with no tickets. < Worst racing Lincoln County Fairgrounds (F8), Troy, Missouri Iowa Speedway (road course), Newton, Iowa Coopersville Festival Grounds, Coopersville, Michigan Noise Park Raceway, Idaho Falls, Idaho < Hottest Weather Iowa Speedway (road course), Newton, Iowa < Best newspaper coverage of my trackchasing visits Hawkeye Racing News, Vinton, Iowa Bay of Plenty Times, Tauranga, New Zealand The Drumheller Mail, Drumheller, Alberta, Canada Hawke’s Bay Today, Napier, New Zealand Peoria Journal Star, Peoria, Illinois < Tracks I was happy to finally visit Stadium St. Guillaume, St. Guillaume, Quebec Tazewell Speedway, Tazewell, Tennessee Hollywood Hills Speedway, San Felipe Pueblo, New Mexico Double X Speedway, California, Missouri Warren County Prime Beef Festival, Monmouth, Illinois < Best live music Vinton Speedway, Vinton, Ohio < Trackchaser firsts - Meremere Raceway, Meremere, New Zealand (rode in sprint car during a race) - Honeoye Lake, Honeoye, New York (rode shotgun in an ice race) - Teton County Fairgrounds, Jackson, Wyoming (Lemans style figure 8 start) - Thunderhill Speedway, Mayetta, Kansas (unknowingly went to this track after already seeing it in 2005) - Modoc Speedway, Modoc, South Carolina (drivers buy their own trophies) - Possum Kingdom Speedway, Belton, SC (I was the race grand marshal) - Madison International Speedway, Oregon, Wisconsin (faster pastor race) Vinton Speedway, Vinton, Ohio Boyd’s Speedway, Ringgold, Georgia Toccoa Speedway, Toccoa, Georgia “Finally, my plan is simply to see as many new tracks in 2008 as I want too.  If I don’t go trackchasing, it won’t be because of some form of restraint on my part.  It will be because I found something more fun and interesting to do or I couldn’t find a place to go trackchasing.” www.trackchaser.net. www.ranlayracing.com ---- ---- ---- ---- Get GEORGIA STOCK CAR RACING NEWS via email weekly: email -- subscribe -- to ddrrtt@earthlink.net email -- unsubscribe -- for the opposite ---- ---- ---- ----

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