The Torch Has Been Passed

After this year’s Knoxville Nationals on Saturday night in the press conference I asked Brian Brown if he felt that maybe a torch has been passed to a new generation of drivers with Steve, Sammy, and Danny not making the A-Main this year. Brian answered the question with a no, and that he was grateful for them helping make the sport what it is. When Schatz answered the question he said those drivers are still some of the best in the business, but the competition level is better than ever, almost eluding to the fact that they were victims of the tough format and bad breaks.

Doug Auld used this topic in his new editorial in Sprint Car & Midget Magazine this month (you're welcome for that topic of conversation). It seemed like Auld also defended that those drivers are some of the best and threw out some stats of how they’re all still winning races. I get that point. They are still some of the best drivers in the business, no doubt. The point I was eluding too is that the torch was passed "at Knoxville." I'm not looking at anything else other than previous events at Knoxville.

Maybe Steve and Sammy were victims of circumstances on their qualifying nights with narrow tracks and mechanical problems, but they are not victims of the Nationals format, and had their chances to race their way in and didn't. And with the trained eye I have in the stands, they just weren't fast enough is why.

What Auld fails to mention is that all drivers had a second chance to make it into the Saturday A-Main on Friday night. Sammy declined that opportunity and elected to start seventh in the B-main Saturday. And all drivers had a third shot on Saturday night to advance through the B-Main, but they didn’t.

On Friday night Steve Kinser qualified 10th and Lasoski timed 21st. Kinser finished third in his heat and won his B-Main while Lasoski won his heat. In the Friday A-Main Kinser started 15th and finished 9th in the A, while Lasoski started 10th and finished 15th.

On Saturday night in the B-Main Sammy started 6th and finished 5th. Kinser started 15th and finished 10th. Lasoski advanced from the C-Main, started 22nd in the B and finished 17th. Those guys just didn't get it done.

I’m going to argue that the torch has indeed been passed.

1.) Lasoski: He failed to qualify for the Nationals for the third consecutive year.

2.) Sammy: I was surprised Sammy didn’t race his way in Saturday in the B-Main. No disrespect to Brian Paulus or Jason Sides, they had great runs this year, but Sammy let them get by and missed out on the party. It was shocking considering a lot of people (including me) had Sammy pegged as the favorite to win the whole thing. Sammy should have been able to race his way in but didn’t.

3.) Kinser: He has been on a decline in recent years finishing outside the top ten the three previous years in 12th in 2009, 22nd in 2010, and 16th in 2011. The King hasn’t won a race at Knoxville since April of 2005. All signs were pointing south that his reign of dominance is over AT Knoxville and I had to force myself to put him in the top 24 of my pre-nationals power rankings.

This is all subjective to opinion as far as a torch being passed. I feel that it has been passed to Donny Schatz. Schatz won’t ever admit that, he is humble and smart enough to know he can't say that, but trust me it’s been passed.

Who will be Donny’s rival? That's the question I have. Opperman had Weld. Lasoski has McCarl. Kinser had Sammy. It was looing like it would be Jason Meyers. Will it be Saldana, Dollanksy, Madsen, Sides, Kraig, Darrah… who? Or is Schatz in a league of his own? He is after all on pace to win as many Nationals as the King as they both won their sixth Nationals at 34 years of age. Let the debate continue.

Toby Kruse content at Marshalltown Speedway

I spoke with Toby Kruse this morning on the phone. He was very gracious and professional as expected. He did not want to make a statement or comment about leaving the Knoxville Raceway. Toby resigned, he learned a lot, has no regrets, but only he knows what those reasons are.

Right now his plan is to continue growing the Marshalltown Speedway where he still has seven years left on his contract there and he intends to fulfill that contract to the best of his ability. Marshalltown is home for Toby Kruse and I look for that track and facility to grow, and over the past decade it has grown by leaps and bounds thanks to Toby and a few other racers in town that pitched in (I think Ken and David Hesmer helped tremendously to keep it open years ago.) And Marshalltown Speedway will host their last event of the season this Friday and Saturday, the 6th Annual Havoc on the Highbanks.

This conversation went as expected. Toby is always willing to communicate but he isn’t going to say anything negative or open the doors to speculate. He said he has heard a lot of rumors himself and we had a laugh about that. He has no plans of leaving for another job anywhere else, but he does help promote the IMCA Modified event at Las Vegas each year in November and this will be his twelfth year there. He is also looking to possibly add 305 sprints to the Marshalltown schedule in 2013 for just one or two shows.

I honestly think Toby is content with running Marshalltown and growing that facility and running his restaurant, Toby K’s Hideway in Boone which is his hometown. So sad to see him leave Knoxville. Looking forward I think Knoxville will be fine and now it’s time to turn the page and support the next person in those big shoes at Knoxville. And I will for sure continue to support the Marshalltown Speedway, which is the best little quarter-mile (high banked) dirt track in Iowa.

Toby Kruse resigns at Knoxville Raceway

I’m saddened and disappointed to hear the news about the resignation of Toby Kruse at Knoxville Raceway. I thought he was the perfect choice for the job, and he was my top candidate three or four years ago before Cappy decided to retire. When I first met Toby at Marshalltown Speedway in 2008 while covering racing for the Newton Daily News, I was impressed. He has this charismatic swagger, enthusiasm, professionalism, passion, and he is a polished speaker. He would make a great football coach. You don’t see people like that very often in our sport. Toby always answered his phone, e-mail, and texts. And over the last few days he hadn’t done that and I knew the rumors were true. I tried to call him again tonight but his voice mail picked up answering, “Thanks for calling Marshalltown Speedway.”

I worked well with Toby this season, and with John McCoy. They were both willing to listen to some of my ideas, like the Friday Nationals format, more transfers on Saturday of the Nationals, and I mentioned renaming the Sunday night race to something different than the Kickoff to the Nationals to the Capitani Classic. It was nice to have people hear your suggestions and appreciate them.

It’s widely known that Toby wasn’t the first pick of the fair board last fall. Chuck Spicer, VP at Iowa Speedway was their top pick, but they were not able to come to terms on a deal. That had the fair board scrambling.

Toby took the job with the understanding it was a one year contract and he could continue to operate the Marshalltown Speedway weekly and his other ventures, as the pay at Knoxville wasn’t enough to give up everything else and make a living.

Did you know Ralph Capitani retired in 1992 as a school teacher and collected his pension all those years on top of his pay from the track? And when he was teaching and working at the track, the race track was just a summer gig for him. Being the race director at Knoxville is a low paying job for a lot of work, and having to answer to 24 board members and 3 officers isn’t easy to deal with. Some folks refer to it as operating a track with one hand tied behind your back and I tend to agree with that statement.

The best thing Toby tried to implement this year was for the fair board members and employees to be polite, smile, and interact with fans better. The reputation of a grumpy cast of employees was well known and I think the track made significant improvements this year in that area.

What really sucks is that Toby leaves two weeks before the Late Model Nationals, which is the second largest attended event on the track schedule, and is by far and away growing quicker than any other event. What a PR mess that creates for the track and fair board.

So who is on the short list for the GM position? Looking back at my notes from a couple of years ago I have John McCoy, Tommie Estes Jr., Steve Beitler, Chuck Spicer, Craig Armstrong, Terry McCarl, Steve Sinclair, and Sam Hafertepe Sr.

Now I don’t see McCoy taking the job, and after talking to him about it on a couple of occasions, he is content where he is at not having to answer to the fair board and deal with politics. McCarl is still racing and politically I don’t think he fits the mold. You either love TMac or you hate him, and that isn’t a good fit in my opinion. Beitler is at Skagit and I don’t think he will move away from home. Spicer already said no once. Armstrong will ask for too much money. Sinclair runs the IRA and does well there, not sure if he would leave that post. I think it comes down to Hafertepe and Estes who were serious contenders last year and interviewed for the job. There could be someone else out of the box I’m not thinking of, but give me a few days to think.

The best possible solution, I hope there is time to rectify the situation and get Toby back.

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UPDATE 9/13/12 @ 8:10am CDT: Toby Kruse could be a candidate to be the VP of Operations at Las Vegas Motor Speedway with Chris Blair vacating that post recently. Toby has promoted dirt track races at LVMS for several years, in particular the IMCA Modified "Duel in the Desert" show which is coming up Nov. 7-10 and is one of the premeire events for that class and it pays $7,777 to win.
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UPDATE 9/13/12 @ 8:53am CDT: Another name from last year that was up for the GM poistion is Andy Adamcik who is currently the Marketing Director at Boone Speedway. He was the short track manager at Texas Motor Speedway, LVMS, and worked for Gearheads in Indy before that. He has family in the Knoxville area and has a business in Knoxville called Design Speed Shop, which is a logo design, print design, web development, t-shirt design, vinyl graphics, signage, etc.
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UPDATE 9/13/12 @ 9:15am CDT: My contact at the Knoxville ticket office confirms that Toby has officially resigned.
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UPDATE 9/13/12 @ 12:59pm CDT: Toby texted me and he is out until Monday. Guessing he is at his vacation home for a few days, which is in Las Vegas. Also some other names for a replacement I saw in my notes were Bob Baker and Shane Carson. Not sure Bob Baker would leave the NSCHoF&M, he has a sweet job there already. Not sure Carson would be interested, he used to promote the Oklahoma State Fair races. I think someone younger who has new ideas and lots of energy is the way to go. Also hearing that Tommie Estes is a candidate for the USAC competition director opening along with Ron Shuman.
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UPDATE 9/13/12 @ 3:41PM CDT: Knoxville Journal Express reporter Steve Woodhouse was able to get these quotes.

“He just had different ventures he wanted to pursue,” Marion County Fair Association President Bob Riggen said. “He was a good guy to work with.” The board has not begun to discuss finding a replacement for Kruse. That will likely happen at the next board meeting. Marketing Director Brian Stickel said the resignation should have no effect on the track’s final races of the season, the Late Model Nationals scheduled for later this month. He said the Late Model event will be “the best ever.”
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UPDATE 9/13/12 @ 3:44PM CDT: The next Marion County Fair Board meeting is scheduled for Monday evening October 1.
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UPDATE 9/14/12 @ 8:57AM CDT: Another possibile candidate is Craig Agan. Craig has been a driver, owner, has been a fair board member, and his work with the NSCHoF&M is well known. He is also currently on the Marion County board of superivisors. His skills as a politician, and past experience with the fair board might be a good thing. Down side is that his son Jon races and some people might think that could show favortism. But it wouldn't be the first time a driver raced that was related to someone at the track or fair board.
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UPDATE 9/14/12 @ 1:33PM CDT: Another candidate could be Knoxville Raceway Marketing Director Brian Stickel. I've worked well with Brian the past couple of years and I have only positive things to say about him. His current position is harder than most people imagine.
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Marshalltown Speedway Season Recap

Marshalltown Speedway rarely disappoints putting on a good race. The short track and high banking produces close side by side racing that you don’t see at Oskaloosa, the State Fairgrounds, and it rivals Boone for sure. I’ll take a 1/4 mile bull ring over any 3/8 or 1/2 mile track. But it seemed this season the racing was better than usual on the six nights I was there in person. After talking to promoter Toby Kruse mid season about it he revealed that they found something while working with some tire companies and using some of their suggestions. For some reason the bottom held up later in the night than in past years staying tacky and that trick made the racing better. The one thing I can’t figure out is the attendance at Marshalltown. Most nights I don’t think you can count 500 people in the stands. For such a great show, there should be more fans. Is it location? The night of the week? There are plenty of cars to see, especially with the fairgrounds racing 60 miles away. The tickets are cheap, concessions are reasonable, I don’t understand and maybe someone can explain.
Breaking down each class….

Modified: Jimmy Gustin won his fifth track championship and grabbed five wins. He lapped up to sixth place in the season championship feature when he started on the pole and drove away. I think Jimmy has a shot at the Super Nationals. Luke Wanninger also won five races and I look for him to be toward the front this week in Boone. Jon Snyder won two features, and those winning one feature were Richie Gustin, Ronn Lauritzen, Adam Larson, and Chris Abelson. Kyle Brown did a nice job this year finishing fourth in points in his rookie campaign in this class. Modifieds put on a great show here and it’s nice to see 16-20 cars in this class each week.

SportMod: Racer Hulin won the championship thanks to three wins and a consistent top three finish a lot of weeks. Joel Rust was also very consistent all season and ended second in points, yet didn’t win a feature. Jenae Gustin won five features including three in a row at the end of the season. Gatlin Leytham and Jake Strayer both won two features, and Strayer is moving to 305 sprint cars next season it sounds like. Other drivers winning features were Brad Iverson, Clint Luellen, Sam Wieben, and Scott Davis. It seemed like SportMod car counts were down a bit this season. I think with this class quickly becoming very expensive to compete in, it’s easy to justify moving up to Modifieds where you can race for a little more money and there are typically less cars.

Stock Car: Steve Meyer won one feature on the season with only one feature win. What a good season for Meyer who was able to be up front every week. Trent Murphy won four features. Brian Irvine, Damon Murty, Jay Schmidt, and Tracy Greinger all won two features this season. Derek Reimer, Michael Murphy, and Sean Johnson won one feature. This class was very competitive and usually put on the best show every week (I said the same for Osky).

Hobby Stock: Scott Pippert dominated this class winning eight features (8 of last 9) on his way to winning the track championship. I don’t what Pippert figured out this year but he was on another level compared to everyone else. Kevin Fee and Eric Larson were the only other drivers to win multiple features with two each. Larson was second in points. Other winners were Don Nunnikhoven, Brandon Brinton, Eric Stanton, Eric Knutson, Austin Luellen. Gary Pfantz was third in points with Josh Saunders fourth.

Mod Lites: Mike Morrill and Josh May combined won 15 of the 16 features with Andy Hennigar upsetting the field with a win on season championship night. Morrill won the championship with eight wins and May was second with seven wins. I love this little cars, they put on a good show and are fast. Good car counts as well.

Sport Compact: Merv Chandler won 13 features and the championship. I won’t repeat what I said in my Osky season review on my thoughts for this class.

I think Marshalltown lost some momentum this year somehow. Car counts were a little smaller, crowds seemed smaller, Toby Kruse is promoting a good program it seems. Something just isn’t adding up for me. The racing on the track was the best I’ve seen there in the six years I have been covering races there. Shoot me an e-mail at arniebhg@yahoo.com if you want to share your thoughts.

Oskaloosa 2012 Season in Review

2012 was some of the better racing I have seen at Osky since I started covering weekly races there five years ago. With a change in promoters, Mike Van Genderen is turning things around for the fans, teams, the facility, and the fairboard. Car counts were up, racing was great, there was some fun entertainment at intermission, the races were over at 10:00 most nights, and the deal that Van Genderen had by working on a percentage of the gate, it allowed the fairboard to make a little more money than in past seasons. I just hope it was worth the blood and sweat Van Genderen put into it. Mike has signed a contract for 2013 and that is a good thing for everyone.

Breaking down the racing class by class…

Modifieds: Car counts were six or less most nights the prior years and this year they started around 10-12 and ended with 7-8 cars at the end of the season. The big half mile is hard on Modifieds under the hood, drive lines, we just won’t ever see 18-20 cars in this class on a weekly basis without some rule changes and higher purses. I’m still thankful to have the cars we did though. Cayden Carter moved up from SportMod to Modifieds this season and his four feature wins were enough to give him the rookie of the year and track championship. Jacob Murray won five features. Other winners in this class were Richie Gustin with two, Scott Dickey, Bill Davis Jr., Michael Long, Kyle Strickler, Todd Shute, Andrew Schroeder, and Dakota Hayden.

SportMods: Car counts in this class stayed in the 16-22 range all season. Jess Sobbing dominated winning 10 of 19 features and captured the point title. Curtis Van Der Wal was able to hold the point lead through mid season and stay close after Sobbing had a DNF in May, but Sobbing was just too good. He is a talented racer and has the best equipment. I hope he can win the Super Nationals to cap off a good year with over 50 wins over all across Iowa and Nebraska. But hope the guy moves up to Modifieds next year. Van Der Wal was able to get two wins on the season and seemed to get faster as the season went. Other drivers winning features were Jason McDaniel with two, Bryan Weyer won two, Bill Gibson, Bryan Lariviere won the Frostbuster. Carter VanDenBerg was third in points.

Stock Cars: This class by far stood out as the most competitive and best racing all season. Zack VanderBeek won five features but missed a few nights due to his USMTS schedule. It was good to see Zack, Colt Mather, and Brad Pinkerton compete in the Stock Car class most of the season since none of them had an IMCA Modified to race. (Maybe next year?) Matt Greiner took his two wins and consistent performance to the track championship. Nathan Wood also had two wins and finished second in points. Corey Stout was third in points. Other drivers getting wins were John Heinz, Damon Murty with four, Kyle Harwood, Brad Pinkerton, and Todd Reitzler.

Hobby Stock: Shannon Anderson dominated this class winning the track championship easily with eight wins. This class also had some good races and as long as Anderson started in the fifth or sixth or row it was a good show. Kevin Fee was second in points with one win, Donavan Nunnikhoven third with one win, Distin Griffiths was fourth with five wins. Other drivers winning features were Bobby Greene, Jamie Songer, and Mike Hughes. Hughes may have had the faster car at the end of the season but didn’t compete the first half at all as Ryan Humphrey didn’t get the car ready until mid season.

Sport Compact: This class only had 5-8 cars all season and it wasn’t really that much fun to watch for me. They might be faster than the eye gives you credit for when you look at lap times, but there just isn’t enough cars to make it interesting for me. We will see if this class grows next year. Merv Chandler won nine features and the track championship. There were a few good races with some side by side racing. The jury is still out on this class, but if it doesn’t grow in year two, I hope it’s gone and replaced with maybe a rotating schedule of 305 sprint cars, Mod Lites, Sportman Series, Compacts, Trucks… something anyway.

One of the nice tricks this year was the painting of the front stretch catch fence black. I can’t believe how much of a difference that made in how well you could see the cars. Hopefully they finish the job and paint it all the way down into turn four next year. Also on my wish list is a new sound system. That would be a huge upgrade to the facility. Tony Paris does a good job announcing, but it’s hard to hear most of the time. It’s loud enough, too loud, but not clear and sharp and I think that would be a huge upgrade so that the track can communicate better with the fans. I love how there is a points sheet available when you walk through the gate. That really helps fans be able to identify names with car numbers, and it’s cheap. I also like there is a spot right there available to the fans to donate money to a driver for pit passes. It allows the fans to give back, and it helps the driver. Great idea and I wish more tracks would do that.

It was a great season and I’m pumped for season number two of the Van Genderen era. Congratulations to all the track champions, Mike Van Genderern and his staff of officials, and the Southern Iowa Fair on a great season.