The months of July and
August brought some kickin’ motorsports events to many different venues around
the tri-state. There is not enough time to talk about all of them, but one
that stands out in my mind is the King of the Hollow Street legal drags at Windy Hollow
Dragway. Phillip Oakley and his crew put together this event for all the street
legal cars to come to one place and leave with some bragging rights - what an
awesome event it was. It has to be the most people I have seen at WHD in a long
time. There were some killer cars to watch and some real lookers too. Congrats
to everyone involved in this event. I hope we see more of these King of the
Hollow events in the near future for sure!
While we are on the topic of Windy
Hollow, take one look at the speedway and you’d think the place has been
rebuilt from the ground up. Scott Slayton and company have done a massive
amount of work and it really shows. New lighting, new wall in Turn 3 and Turn 4
and fresh paint everywhere. The track surface looks better than in has in many
moons. This has prompted ole EZ to bring out the big guns! That’s right, everyone
wanted specials and now we have them. At the end of August a $1,000 to win pure
stock event will take place, then September 7 the UMP Modifieds will make their
way back to the track for the first time in a couple of years with the Summer
Sizzler Modified Series. Finally on September 14, Tapp Motors brings the
UMP Pro Late Models (crate lates, if you will) in to battle it out
for 1k to win. I can't wait to see these specials, for sure.
Western KY Speedway has
been knocking down some killer races as always on Saturday nights in Nebo, KY,
and they too will host one of the brand new Summer Sizzler Modified Series
events on Aug. 30 as the second stop to the tour. The Coble
family has maintained a great crowd and car count over the summer and it looks
like things will continue to go up into October.
Soggy Bottom Raceway in Morgantown has some big
things poppin' through the month of September including being a stop on Summer
Sizzler on September 6. The Battle at
the Bottom 5k to win UMP Modified event prepares to roll the end of the month
and then the season comes to a close the first weekend of October with
a 200-lap cruiser enduro. Don is pulling out all the stops to make
this season one to remember with killer racing all season-long. While we are on
the topic of Soggy, I have to give a big shout out to some racers that run
there weekly that have been turning in some bad runs! Randle Sweeney in the
Modified division has been blistering the state of Kentucky winning 30 feature events at press
time and he led the National, State and Regional points the biggest part of the
season. Randle, Craig, Tator, Harold, Chris and the crew have been on their
game all season long and I for one hope the UMP National
Championship stays in Clifty,
KY. I also want to extend kudos
to Seth Noles. Seth has had a very steller season in his first year of big body
stock cars down there after a very "rolling" part of the season and
he holds the points lead in his division. Keep up the good work guys.
Before closing this issue out, it
would not be the same without some two-wheel action – this time, relatives to
the Hayden brothers are in the spotlight – The Gillams. Man, these boys are
really getting the job done in the Red Bull Rookies class of AMA. These two
boys are the future of motorcycle racing based out of Owensboro. Keep your feet on
the pegs and bring them home to the box finishes guys.
Don't forget to get out and support
your local race tracks and racers as often as possible. Without the fans
we have no reason to race! Visit your local tracks website and pick out some
racing dates. And for your weekly racing updates, tune into Jay Velotta and myself
on Monday nights at 93.9 WKTG live from Maloney's Roca Bar for Radio Goes Racing! I guess there is
nothing wrong with a shameless plug now and then.
Until next month... Be safe and remember... to
finish the race first... you first must finish the race!
Comments (
