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GREETINGS FROM SYLVANIA, GEORGIA.
WE WOKE UP THIS MORNING IN AN SWAINSBORO, GEORGIA. WE WENT TO SLEEP IN SWAINSBORO, GEORGIA. THIS IS WHAT TRANSPIRED TODAY.
PEOPLE/STRATEGY/TRAVEL NEWS
The Objective
Tonight I was able to see my second straight night of big-time late model dirt racing. I don’t get to see racing of this quality that often. I was also able to trackchase with a good friend (Jim Sabo) and renew acquaintances with a leading race driver (Steve Casebolt). I don’t get to do these things often enough either.
For the second straight night, we cheated the weather. Up to this point, everything is going well as I saw my 27th track of the 2008 season.
The Trip
Today would be my second day of trackchasing with friend, Jim Sabo. It’s really difficult to imagine how I did all of my trackchasing before the advent of the computer age. Jim and I stayed at the Bradford Inn in Swainsboro for two nights. Swainsboro is an old and small Southern town. I found the hotel, which was modern and well appointed, with a simple Google search.
Following a breakfast at the local Waffle King (this is NOT the same as a Waffle House), we set about to do some shopping. The night before I had purchased two pairs of “goggles”. Yes, that’s right goggles. In high-powered dirt auto racing, a good deal of dirt and grit filters from the track to the grandstands. If you want to see the race, you’re going to need goggles.
Today’s stop was at Wal-Mart. I needed to get some soft glasses cases for my new yellow tinted goggles. They scratch easily and the soft cases will protect them for a long time. When I couldn’t find exactly what I was looking for, I questioned the clerk. She ended up giving my for free to soft pouches she had on hand that were promotional pieces. These were better than anything that was for sale. It’s small touches like this that make the trackchasing experience more enjoyable. Of course, I’m certain that in your everyday life you have similar shortcuts and extra preparation that makes everything else go more smoothly.
Technology update
I am now getting more comfortable with my new laptop. It’s a Lenovo Y710. Lenovo is the brand name for the IBM ThinkPad line of laptops. This is a Chinese company. Lenovo was created when IBM exited the laptop business. Lenovo, along with Coca-Cola and McDonalds are the primary sponsors of the 2008 summer Olympics in Beijing.
In the world of trackchasing, I need information and I need computer power. Often I am out in the boonies with no local source of electrical power. This is when the power adapters from my rental car come to save the day. When I get a new laptop often the peripherals that worked with the old computer don’t work with the new one. That was the situation with my car computer power adapter.
This prompted a visit to the Radio Shack in Sylvania, Georgia home to the Screven Motor Speedway. I find when I travel to small markets the services and products offered are not always as complete and convenient as I find when shopping in a more urban area. I first discovered this back in Sheridan, Wyoming during my college years. I wanted to buy a bowling ball and there was not one to be found in the entire town of Sheridan.
Today’s Radio Shack had two other main businesses in their small retail store other than just Radio Shack stuff. First, they had a complete UPS shipping store. This was the busiest part of the place. Their other main business was selling pool spa cleaning supplies. No, I cannot explain the synergies of any of these businesses, could you?
I ended up buying a 150-watt inverter. The inverter uses the vehicle’s standard lighter socket (more politically correct term = power adapter) to power any piece of electronics that use up to 150 watts of power. The unit even shuts down if the car’s battery power gets too low. What is so fantastic about this inverter is that it has a three-pronged female (probably not politically correct) connection. This allows me to simply plug in my normal electrical plugs into my new car inverter. No other trackchaser is known to have this new capability.
Back to the trip
Jim and I wrapped up the day with a drive around the local area. What was most notable? The lack of traffic on the state’s highways! I’ve got to believe that $3 plus gasoline prices are having an effect on the locals here and in many places in the United States.
A local police officer gave us the hop tip on local BBQ. We selected “Pop’s Kitchen” in downtown Sylvania. This was real down home cookin’ and I recommend it. You might like the buffet, we did. Dinner for two was just over 12 bucks!!
The People
I rarely get a chance to spend much time meeting and talking to race car drivers. Tonight would be different because of the more than progressive policy toward pit admission for tonight’s event.
Back in 2006, Carol and I took a two-week trip to New Zealand. During that trip, we met a young driver at the Blue Chip Speedway at Baypark in Mt. Maunganui. His name was Steve Casebolt. Steve was in New Zealand representing the United States in a special promotion of “American drivers vs. New Zealand drivers”. I’ve seen several countries including Australia with this type of competition.
To be honest, I had never heard of Steve Casebolt. I was surprised that an unknown driver, to me anyway, would be selected to represent the U.S. Steve was the nicest guy and we enjoyed spending time with him as the promoter took us all over his facility. The Blue Chip Speedway facility was the nicest oval short track complex I have seen in all of my foreign travels.
To underscore how I underestimated Steve Casebolt’s talent, just six months later Steve won “The Dream” race at Tony Stewart’s Eldora Speedway. That race was the richest race in the dirt track late model world paying $100,000 to win. Way to go, Steve!!
This afternoon Jim and I spent several minutes in Steve’s hauler renewing acquaintances. Again, Steve was most gracious with his time. He opened up his laptop to count the tracks he has raced at. His current total is around 100 right now. He uses his laptop to keep track of all of his racecar shock and tire setups.
I asked Steve how racers could afford to follow the tour if they don’t run up front. By the way, Steve currently holds down third place in the Lucas Oil Late Model series. Steve gave me an example of why it works for him.
Last night at Swainsboro, Steve finished 8th in the feature event. He told us that eighth place paid $1,100 to win. Since he’s in the top 10 in points, he also got $800 “show-up” money. He felt that earning nearly $2,000 for an eighth place outing was pretty good and so did I.
Steve is a young man. He’s from Richmond, Indiana. He won’t turn 30 until July 4 of this year. He’s also married. He told us it’s difficult to share time with both his wife and his racecar while he’s at the track. Steve owns his own racing operation. If you would like to learn more about him check out his website at www.stevecasebolt.com. I would guess you’re going to hear much more about Steve in the future.
STATE RANKINGS
Georgia
This evening I saw my 25th lifetime track in the Peachtree state. This keeps me in fourth place in the state standings. Ed Esser is directly above me in third place with 29 tracks. John Moore leads in Georgia with 35 tracks.
Now you can see the entire up to date trackchaser rankings for Georgia. With so few entries, it won’t take you much time to scan the list. Just click on this link or paste it in your browser:
We arrived at the track today at about 4 p.m. There weren’t many spectators at the track this early. We wanted to be here early so we could place our stadium seats in the grandstands assuring us of a premier seat location for tonight’s big late model races. Very few short tracks offer reserved seating. Normally, finding a seat isn’t a problem at the nation’s short tracks. However, tonight’s grandstand was very small. I’m guessing it seated far less than 1,000.
The first person we met was the track owner. His name was James or “Big Red”. James was sitting on a sofa (outdoors) just a few feet from the racetrack surface. We introduced ourselves to James, a certified “good ole boy”. James was happy to see us. He offered up his sofa for our comfort and upon learning that he had just met the “World’s #1 Ranked Trackchaser” told us we had the “run of the place” and could have the sofa as our seating area for the night.
What did he mean by the “run of the place?” The $20 admission price not only gave us entry to the spectator grandstand, but also entry to the pit area and the track’s drag strip. It is common in Europe for one admission price to include entry to both the spectator grandstand and the pit area. It is extremely rare for this to occur in the U.S. at oval tracks.
If the Screven Motor Speedway can allow pit area admission as part of the normal admission price, why can’t everybody do that. Way to go James. You’re ahead of the competition with this policy.
We spent a good deal of time in the pit area while the crews worked on their cars. As noted above, we spent time with Richmond, Indiana’s Steve Casebolt. I also did a short newspaper interview with the local paper.
Following the late model heat races, we ventured over to the drag strip. They were racing tonight and our ticket was good for this track too. As you probably know, drag strips do not count in the world of trackchasing. I don’t really know why that is. A drag strip is a motorsports racetrack. What were the founders of trackchasing thinking when they made the initial rules?
Tonight’s racing on the red clay 3/8 mile oval was well above average. There were more than 50 late models that each took two laps of time trials. Four heat races and two mains were run before the big feature event of the night.
The racing was fast and furious. There was a good deal of passing and punting. I listened to the action on my race scanner. One driver put two of the favorites out of the action in two consecutive accidents. The race director came over the radio and told the driver to “calm down”, you’re “way out of control”. On the next restart this wild driver ran into the front straight wall and did a series of barrel roll flips before coming to rest on his rooftop with fuel pouring out of the car’s ruptured fuel tank. Fortunately, the spilt fuel did not catch fire.
Tonight’s racing was just as good as last night’s at Swainsboro. However, the Screven Motor Speedway missed the boat in one very important area. It almost ruined everything. What was the problem?
The track decided to run support classes tonight. Those support classes were terrible. They took much too long to run those races with constant stoppages and delays. When the weather threatens and you’ve got a crowd that has come to see a major group like the Lucas Oil Dirt Late Models, don’t ruin the program with support classes. If you MUST run them, run them AFTER the premier class is finished or enforce strict time limits on the races the support classes do run.
While one of the support classes was screwing around on the track it began to sprinkle. Over the radio, the Lucas Oil employees were instructed to begin taking down their sponsorship banners down so they wouldn’t be destroyed by the rain.
Fortunately, they got the Lucas Oil feature race in, but barely. The race was great with several lead changes and some very exciting action. I won’t see racing this good in more than 10-15% of the races I visit during the rest of the year.
As soon as the Lucas Oil “A” main was finished Jim, I, and most of the rest of the fans headed for the exits. We were not 15 miles from the track when it began to rain. We had been very fortunate.
During the 60-mile drive back to Swainsboro Jim drove while I planned my trip for tomorrow. Even though we were out in the middle of the Georgia “nowhere”, I was able to get an internet connection. By the time we had driven an hour or so, I had a complete plan that in place. This included a dry weather location in a place a good distance from Atlanta. I had to get out of Atlanta where the weather forecast called for a 100% chance of rain.
