In the past year we have lost Cappy, former promoter Ray Grimes and his wife Naomi, car owner and mechanic Gil Sonner, car owner and chassis builder Bob Troslte, jack of all trades mechanic Lenard McCarl, announcer Tim Trier, long-time official Dave Beede, driver Bryan Clauson, and winner of the inaugural Knoxville Nationals Roy Robbins.
This week Tom Schmeh was moved to a hospice center. Tom is the Curator of the National Sprint Car Hall of Fame & Museum, and before that the Executive Director in charge of the entity as a whole from the beginnings in the early 90's. He has been ill for several months and he could use all the prayers, love, and support we can give him and his sister Ruthanne who is caring for him.
All of these people were extremely influential in the history of Knoxville Raceway. It is hard to imagine a world without all of these people, but the 2017 racing season is near and the show will go on, just as they would have wanted. It's a time to reflect and mourn, but also a time to celebrate these people's lives.
The World of Outlaws season is underway and so far it's Donny Schatz with 6 wins and the rest of the field with 4. David Gravel won for the second time this season on Wednesday at Placerville, CA. Schatz is typically not strong at the beginning of the season but if he is winning races at this rate early, look for him to dominate the rest of this season.
Schatz is making an engine change from Chevy to Ford at some point this season. With the Stewart-Haas NASCAR teams making the change to Ford in 2017, the TSR sprint car will be as well. Ron Shaver has been building engines for Schatz and TSR for a long-time and he helped develop the Ford engine for Casey Luna and Dave Blaney's teams years ago. You can bet that when they do make the switch to Ford power, they won't lose any speed or reliability.
Gravel and Brad Sweet appear to be the best challengers to Schatz early in the season, but there's 80 races to go...
I'm really excited for Austin McCarl this year to have the opportunity to drive the Troy Renfro 2KS car. In my opinion Austin is the best young talent we have in the Midwest and is going to be the guy to beat in the future, especially when guys like Lasoski and his father Terry hang up their helmets. I've been a big fan of Austin since he started racing but he proved he has the talent by making the Nationals A Main in 2011. He just hasn't had the break he needed to showcase his talent. I give him a lot of credit for sticking with his dream and working as a mechanic for his Dad and his own cars. He has been resourceful to keep his car on the track the past couple of years and paid his dues. It's his time to shine and win some races.
At our track employee meeting last week at Knoxville there were a few tidbits I learned. Hand rails will be installed this season in the grandstand to make it easy to go up and down the stairs. Verizon already has good service in Knoxville but they are going to add a boost network at the track for their customers. That will help at peak times with larger crowds. Track announcers will now be heard over a radio scanner frequency. Also there is a virtual reality product coming that will allow you to see with goggles the live view from a camera mounted inside of a car racing on the track. There will be a prototype of this being tested on practice night.
The 64th annual Knoxville Raceway Pella Motors / Kraig Ford Season Opener is April 15. Practice night is Friday the 14th with the kick-off party from 5-7pm with free pizza from Casey's, free drinks thanks to Mahaska and Budweiser. Free food, free beer, free to get in and watch cars hot lap for two hours from 7-9pm, it should be a fun night!
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