New Blog Direction

I have been thinking about the direction of this Hawkeye Ovals blog for a while.  I haven’t had much to say as far as racing content the past couple of years, as you can tell.  I’m so immersed in the social media aspect today with racing and the lengthy blog doesn’t seem like the place for a weekly or monthly blog for me, especially when I can share thoughts immediately via Twitter.  The other thing is that time hasn’t been on my side with a baby and two jobs.  I also have to save some things for my bi-monthly column in FlatOut Magazine.  So I am headed into a new direction to keep this blog relevant.

For some reason I feel inspired to write about my own life right now.  For one thing, I find writing therapeutic. My English teachers in school of all levels would fall over in shock knowing this today. I hated school from second grade until my last year or so of college. But I’m ready to tell some life stories and I am hoping that I can help some people along the way.

Here’s the short bio of me. 

I was born in Albia, Iowa on February 13, 1974 to Stephen and Carol Arnold. We lived in Lovilia, Iowa which is about 20 minutes south of Knoxville on highway 5.  That is where my parents grew up. We moved to Newton in 1976 since my Dad was working at Maytag in the factory. From there we stayed in Newton for a long time, my sister Stephanie came along in 1977. I graduated from Newton in 1992 and went to community college.  My parents decided to move to Knoxville in 1994 and so I followed them there with me still being in college. In 1996 I ended up working at PPI in Pella and still do. I got married the first time in 2002 and moved back to Newton. My Dad died in May of 2010 and then I got divorced at the end of 2010. That led me to move back to Knoxville with my Mom to help her with things after Dad died, and it was good to be around her at that low point in my life. I remarried in 2013 and moved to Oskaloosa where I am today. 

I grew up loving sprint car racing and bowling. Those were the two things I really cared about in life until I had children.  I retired from bowling in 2013, and then became more involved in racing by first volunteering to work at Knoxville Raceway and now it’s a lot of responsibility on my shoulders, and I love it.

There is a lot of other stuff that’s happened to me that connects all of those dots. We will explore more of that later.

I have struggled with depression since I was 7 years-old after a tragic car wreck that killed my Grandma, two of my cousins, and nearly took my sister.  That was a major turning point in my life, but it took me several counseling sessions to learn that.  I have made one suicide attempt which thankfully did not end my life.  I have never spoken publically about it.  I feel like now is a good time to start talking about it though.  Yes it is embarrassing, but suicide is a big deal and I don't think we are doing enough about it in this world.  I've lost friends in recent years to suicide and I would like to start helping people if I can somehow.  We all have bad days.  Life can suck and seem pointless at times.  But trust me when I say that there is always some light down that dark road that is so hard to see. So I hope to help people who struggle with depression and anxiety like I do.  I’m no doctor, but I am an advocate of seeking professional counseling. I have been in and out of counseling for years and it’s been a huge help for me. If there is one thing I want for people to get out of this in the end, it is to not be ashamed of seeking help and counseling.

More to come in the future.  I need a new name for this blog. Any suggestions?

My personal email is ericarnold21374@yahoo.com if anyone feels like contacting me.

Splitting the Field

There is always a reaction after we announce the field split for the 360 or 410 Nationals.  Some good, some bad, some drivers and owners upset, but I promise there is a lot of time and thought that goes into the process of splitting the field and balancing things the best we can.  I've been splitting up the fields the past few years now with John McCoy's supervision. 

When teams send in their entry form they have a blank to fill our their preferred night to qualify, but that doesn't mean anyone is guaranteed that night.  Most teams realize that the show has to be split evenly.  And typically 70-75% of the entries pick the first night, usually the reason being that they want an extra day to make repairs if something happens.  But 90% of the teams have the same argument with not enough spare parts and such. 

The Promoter of the event has to do it's job to put on a good show for the fans and try to keep the competition levels somewhat even for each night.  But we still try to give as many teams as possible their preferred night to be good hosts if possible. 

Basic Guideline we have. 

1. Prior Nationals A Main Qualifiers.  We try to get as close to 12 and 12 each night, with an extra emphasis on the top 10 cars being split 5 and 5.

2. Split Series' Equally.  We look at points after the Kings Royal weekend from all series and try to split the World of Outlaws teams, Top 10 Knoxville teams, All-Star teams, PA teams, California Teams, Top 10 ASCS teams, etc. equally. It is in everyone's best interest to split all these cars equally.  This hopefully gives fans the same amount of cars to follow each night from each series, it helps represent each series well, and gives everyone the best chance to qualify well and not beat each other up all on one night.  We wouldn't put the top 7 or 8 Outlaw point teams on one night in the 410 Nationals because we would have fans and teams upset about the balance there for sure. 

3. Split teammates.  You will notice that the KKR 9 and 49, Shark Racing 1a and 1s, Big Game Sponsored teams, etc. will be split to different nights. The car owner gets a break for entering two cars, and it lets each team help each other on their separate nights.

4. We do tend to give former event champions their preferred night. We don't play favorites, not even with our weekly competitors.  But former champions have earned that luxury. Former champions are also guaranteed to get their car number without adding an "X" to it for example. Donny Schatz has picked Wednesday Night for a LONG time and he will always get it.  But we are also mindful that not all former champions end up on the same night.  This usually is never an issue, but for years and years Cappy wanted to make sure Steve and Sammy were on separate nights and that was obviously a good idea.

5. We have looked at power rankings and using those as well, but that is hard to back up with data because power rankings are opinions.  We like to use numbers that data can support and we can defend our reasoning better for splitting. 

When deciding who has to move from one night to the next is the agonizing part, because you know you can't make everyone happy.  But someone has to move.  Each year we get 10-12 teams call and complain, give us reasons why, and its usually the same excuses with not wanting to race back to back nights.  However you do get some teams at the last minute that need to switch to the second night because of travel issues, engine is still in the shop, etc.  And some teams prefer the  second night because they can use one less day of vacation or have an extra day to get here.

There is no perfect system, but I believe what we use is as fair as we can get. And I'll defend the system we have.  We try to be flexible to peoples needs, but at times you have to hold your ground.  I've had a lot of people ask how we do this, and I thought I might as well be transparent and explain it.  But if you are one of the complainers about it not being even, I have a crap load of data to back up what we do, and I probably spend WAY more time on this than they did. So criticism doesn't bother me. 

Have a happy and safe Nationals!

2017 Knoxville Nationals Power Rankings

Sorry I have not posted anything for a while.  Life is busy.

The Knoxville Nationals is upon us in a matter of a couple of weeks now, and the 360 Nationals are only a week away.  This summer has flown by.

My power rankings for this year are as follows.

1 Schatz
2 Gravel
3 Sweet
4 Brown
5 I.Madsen
6 Stewart
7 K.Madsen
8 J.Johnson
9 Pittman
10 Hodnett

I caught some flack on Twitter about having Kerry too low and Hodnett too high.

Kerry Madsen has been fast this year, but he hasn't shown it at Knoxville for some reason. I think it's a matter of time before that clicks and this is the right time to do it. It's too good of a car, driver, crew chief to not be good at Nationals. But I don't know who I put him in front of on my list at this point.

Greg Hodnett finished inside the top last year. He has been solid this year out in PA, but not dominating like the past few years. He has entered the 360 Nationals and I assume he will be here for the Capitani Classic and FRC as well. He will have plenty of track time in Iowa and I like his chances to get into the top ten again this year.

Drivers just missing my top ten are Rico and Tim Shaffer.  I think drivers to look out for are Logan Schuchart, Joey Saldana, Jamie Veal, Lucas Wolfe, and Dusty Zomer.

My favorite is actually David Gravel. I don't want to pick him #1 because it's hard to pick anyone ahead of Donny at this point, but I have this feeling it might be Gravel's moment.

Brian Brown was impressive this past weekend at Knoxville (July 22).  I don't know if he is back to being the 2012-2014 Brian Brown for sure, but it sure looked like it this week. My opinion, it is good for Brownie to travel more. I hear some drivers and crew chiefs say that drivers can get in bad habits running the same tracks all of the time. Seeing more tracks with tougher competition can make you sharper, you don't over think things at your "home tracks" and it's a different pace racing with the Outlaws. I love being able to watch Brown every week, but I think the more their team can travel with the WoO, the more his team will benefit from it.

Here some cool stats for the Knoxville Nationals I have run across lately.

No one has had a perfect score of 500 on their qualifying night since 1992. It was done nine times from 1979-1992, four times by Steve Kinser.

The oldest winner is Steve Kinser in 2002 at age 48.
Donny Schatz turns 40 on August 10 this year.

In the 2016 A Main we saw the most lead changes in a 50 lap race with 6. The record was 5 in 2011. The 30 lap record is 4 in 1993 when Stevie Smith nearly pulled off the upset.

The longest consecutive A Main starting streak is 34 by Steve Kinser.  Lasoski has the second longest streak of 20.  The longest active streaks are Donny Schatz with 19 and Shane Stewart at 16.

Steve Kinser has led the most A Main laps with 301, but Schatz is sitting at 292 and could break that record. Sure the past 6 races have been 50 laps instead of 30, but it's still impressive. I mean, Schatz has 15 top five finishes and the King has the most at 17.

The closest finish is known for 1974 before the days of technology where Dick Gaines past Jan Opperman in a drag race to the finish line and winning by half a car length. 2012 is the closest on record with a time at 0.117 seconds while 2016 was the next closest finish 0.168 seconds.

There is some buzz about Kyle Larson racing the 410 Nationals.  It is sounding like he will enter on Wednesday and then if he can get locked into a top 16 spot hope to convince Ganassi to let him race on Saturday. With NASCAR being in Michigan and about a 2 hour plane ride away, it's feasible.  It will be interesting to see how this plays out.

The Knoxville Raceway Mobile App 3.0 update is out. Download it on your phone and tablets and let us know how you like it with a review in your app store.  Thanks to the team at Host Iowa for all they do for the track. I'm looking forward to the advancements coming a year from now that are in the works. Fans won't be disappointed.

Great Loss and Great Opportunity

It's been a tough winter.  It's been a tough year or so honestly.  A couple of weeks ago we lost Ralph Capitani, the most beloved person associated with Knoxville Raceway. He was our leader for so long and there aren't enough words to describe how grateful we should all be that he chose to take that leadership role in 1978. He not only helped Knoxville, but other dirt tracks and racing organizations benefited indirectly in my opinion.

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.

Southern Iowa Speedway 2016 Recap & Stats

At the conclusion of the race season I always like to go back and look at stats from my still somewhat new hometown track of the Southern Iowa Speedway.  I know most of you might read this column for sprint car news but I have become a fan of our local IMCA dirt track racing as well over the past 8-10 years. I do not typically write much about Osky because #1 I don’t have the time with my real job and part-time job at Knoxville Raceway, #2 we typically have two or three other reporters at Osky for Positively Racing there so one more guy like me is a bit overkill. #3 with my kids in baseball and softball I miss a handful of nights at the track.  That is why I contribute at Osky with a twitter account for them and post results there as I get them or when I am there I am quicker.

The 2016 season at Osky can be summed up with a few names. Cayden Carter, Curtis VanDerWal, Dustin Griffiths, and Mother Nature.  These three drivers dominated this season at the historic half-mile. Ma Nature stuck it to us with no events run during the month of July and washing out the Fair week racing.

The Race Against the Clock

As one of Knoxville Raceway’s Track Historians and keeper of records, one of the most important statistics we keep track of is the clock on race nights. Time management has been something Knoxville Raceway has strived to improve, so that events are completed at a decent time. Race Director, John McCoy, continuously reviews the track’s performance and how we can ensure that fans of all ages have an enjoyable experience at Knoxville. 

In 2015 our average time of the final checkered flag for weekly events was 11:07 p.m. Our goal in 2016 was to improve that number to 10:30 p.m. 

We made a huge stride in 2016 with the average finish of our weekly events being 10:16 p.m -- an improvement of 51 minutes this season for the final checkered flag. 

Brian Brown Wins!

We are through four weeks of racing so far this season at Knoxville Raceway. Only one rain out at this point which is great. We had a nice crowd this past Saturday despite the cool temperatures. Thank You to all of you who came out! The forecast so far for this coming Saturday looks much better.

This was the last weekly show of the season before we go to National Sprint League events for the next three weeks before the Outlaws come to town.

410 Report
25 cars signed in. Time Trials top eight was Bronson Maeschen 14.885, Brian Brown, Ian Madsen, Austin McCarl, Scott Bogucki, Danny Lasoski, Matt Juhl, and Brooke Tatnell. Good to see Bronson go out 21st in the order and lay down a good time. In hot laps Brian Brown had a lap of 14.507, exactly 0.100 off the ten year old track record of 14.407. With the weather conditions it made for some fast time in hot laps, but the track fell off in time trials a bit and the track widened out. Heat Race winners were; Mark Dobmeier, Brian Brown, and AJ Moeller. 

Clasuon Steals the Show at Knoxville Opener!

The Knoxville Raceway 63rd Season Opener was Saturday and we were blessed with great weather! Sunny, 77 degrees, a little breeze, and low humidity at 28%.

31 cars signed in. Time Trials top eight was Kerry Madsen 15.786, Brian Brown, Danny Lasoski, Justin Henderson, Davey Heskin, Bryan Clauson, Wayne Johnson, and Sammy Swindell.  Henderson was fast on lap one, but the engine let go on lap two and they had to scratch the 410 car for the night.

 Drivers going double duty on this night in the 410 and 360 class were Justin Henderson and Bryan Clauson. We also had outlaws Sammy Swindell and Kerry Madsen in attendance. We had several ASCS 360 teams entered with Wayne Johnson and Johnny Herrera dropping in a 410 on this night.

Remembering Brett Golik

This column originally appeared in the Newton Daily News after the death of Brett Golik. Today marks the five year anniversary of his death and looking back, Brett is still missed and I thought this serves as a good reminder of what to be thankful for today.
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

The community of Newton and the Knoxville Raceway sprint car family lost a courageous competitor this past week with the passing of 40 year old Brett Golik. Brett battled brain cancer for two and half years and in that time frame, Brett made an effort to try to right the wrongs in his life. He became an inspiration trying to make people aware of supporting cancer research and his faith.
I didn’t know Brett personally, but as an avid race fan I followed Brett’s career at Knoxville. I respected Brett for chasing his dream. He worked at Maytag in the factory for ten years and found a way to put a yellow numbered 5G sprint car on the famed half mile oval for 18 seasons. It took Brett a few years to become competitive but he was able to pick up three wins in the 360 division. One of those wins was a classic battle with Knoxville legend David Hesmer from Marshalltown who is a four time track champion and is the all time wins leader in the 360 class. Hesmer remembered the night Golik had the better car and beat him to the finish line.

Henderson Wins Two, Knoxville & Jackson Notes

Knoxville Raceway Season Championship night always sneaks up on us too fast at the end of the season doesn't it?  I’m still catching up on racing stuff post-Nationals so I apologize for the lateness of my blog here. I haven't been able to come up with my Nationals story yet. The next few weeks we still have some sprint car racing happening in the Midwest with WoO, ASCS, NSL, Sprint Invaders, so get out there and catch them while you can. The 410 and 360 championships were locked up coming into the night, but the 305 was still up for grabs.

410 Report
26 cars enterted. Top 10 Qualifying:  Justin Henderson set quick time for the fourth time this season with a lap of 14.922. He also set quick time four times in 2014. The rest of the top ten were Dusty Zomer, Brian Brown, Bronson Maeschen, Ian Madsen, Bryan Clauson, Mark Dobmeier, Austin McCarl, Danny Lasoski, and AJ Moeller.

Knoxvlle Nationals 101

The Knoxville Nationals qualifying scoring system is something I get questions about frequently.  The Knoxville Nationals Point System was created by promoter Ray Grimes and his wife Naomi.

A perfect score is 500 points. 200 for time trials, 100 for a heat race win, and 200 for a feature win.

Time Trials: 1st 200 points, 2nd 198, 3rd 196, and drops 2 points per position.

Heat Races: 1st 100, 2nd 97, 3rd 94, and drops 3 points per position.

A-Main: (same as time trials) 24th place = 154 points.

Quick time in time trials earns the same amount of points as winning the A-Main (200).

McCarl Wins 4th 360 Nationals

Studio 92 Photo

Terry McCarl won his fourth career 360 Nationals Saturday night at the Knoxville Raceway. The Saturday A-Main T-Mac drove away and the longer the race went the better his car seemed to be compared to his competition. He pulled away and was out to a four second lead in traffic, which is encouraging for Terry going into next week. Congrats to his team. I know those guys work hard. I’m really happy for crew chief Doug Rankin who has so much passion for the sport, Austin and Carson pitch in as well, a Jayme Moyle engine under the hood, it was a good combination. They had everything go their way with drawing number one in the qualifying order and made it through their heat race. Hopefully next week goes as well for them.

Big thanks to Arnold Motor Supply and Great Southern Bank for their help in putting this show on this year! 

Henderson & Landis Win!

Calvin Landis (Studio 92 Photo)

Candi’s Flowers Night this past Saturday saw one of the best races I’ve ever seen in the 360 class. I applaud the drivers for putting on a good show and for making all 18 laps without a caution. The weather on this night warm and humid with the dew point above 70 once again making for an excellent racing surface.

Visitors on this night were numerous, especially in the 360 class with the ASCS teams racing the two previous nights at I-80 in Nebraska and an off night on Saturday. Jeff Swindell, Aaron Reutzel, Scottie McDonald, Matt Covington, Tony Bruce Jr., Josh Baughman, Johnny Herrera, Wayne Johnson, Bill Balg, Justyn Cox, Jordan Weaver, Lee Grosz, Blake Hahn, and Kris Miller.

Lasoski Wins #106, Zomer Blazin' Hot

Saturday wasn’t a full moon but a lot of crazy things happened on this night. The track received 1.5” of rain around 7:00am and there was a power outage around town, including for two hours at the track. The track crews did their part to get the track and pit area ready and kudos to them. We had several crashes, some of them lengthy delays in clean up, and another power outage that took out several light poles during the 360 heat races. Some weird wild stuff I tell ya.

Drivers going double duty on this night in the 410 and 360 class were Justin Henderson, Terry McCarl, Dusty Zomer, Logan Forler, Danny Lasoski, and Jamie Ball entered in both the 360 and 305 class.

Brown & Zomer Win on Twin Features Night!

Twin Features night is always a pivotal night in the points for the Knoxville Raceway track championship. This year Danny Lasoski is looking for his tenth championship and had a 249 point lead before the night started. A good night for the Dude and his tenth championship is nearly assured with only four weekly nights left on the schedule after this week. With Twin Feature night scheduled on the same weekend as the Kings Royal in Ohio the car count was lower than in some recent weeks, or years past when teams liked to show up for the extra laps in preparation for the Nationals in August. This is good news for the Knoxville Regulars in that there were fewer cars enabling them to have the opportunity to get more points on a night where points mean more than ever. Brad Loyet was the only “visitor” on this night in the 410 class and Billy Alley made his second Knoxville appearance of the season in the 360 class.

McCarl Wins #55

Independence Day at Knoxville Raceway had plenty of fireworks on the race track this past Saturday night! We welcomed back the National Sprint League and it was 360 Twin Features night while the 305 class had the night off. Driver competing in both classes on this night were Justin Henderson, Ian Madsen, Bryan Clauson, Chris Martin, and Dusty Zomer. Henderson does this every week but the other teams were taking advantage of the two features and extra laps to prepare for the 360 Nationals coming up next month. Jake Bubak returned for his second appearance in the 360 class while Ohio’s Paige Polyak entered on this night in the 410 class as she tries to get more laps to improve on her 410 Nationals D-Main finish last year. Polyak is the only woman to win a sprint car race at Eldora Speedway.

The Lasoski Reign Continues

Mother Nature tried to spoil our night with a rain shower just past the 5:00pm hour. After a good 15 minute rain and assessing the situation it was decided to try to get the races in with a pushed back start time to 9:00pm, and cars hit the track around 9:15pm. Thankfully the car count was the lowest of the year and we finished at 12:44am with no B Main’s needed. The track was fast, tacky, and narrow, but we got the race in.

We didn’t have Dusty Zomer or Tim Kaeding on this night, they opted to race with the World of Outlaws in Huron, SD instead of driving to Knoxville with a high chance of rain. We did gain some visitors however with car owner Keith Kunz making his sprint car debut at Knoxville with Christopher Bell. That team might be back this coming week as they try to get some laps in before the Knoxville Nationals. We also welcomed two-time Little 500 champion Jacob Wilson, who competed earlier in the day in the USAC Silver Crown event in Newton. Jordyn Brazier made his Knoxville and United States debut on Saturday, he is the son of Garry who will also be competing at Knoxville later this summer.

Schatz wins Fog Shortened Race

I’ve seen it all now. What a crazy and wacky night of events with Mother Nature throwing more wrenches at us than AJ Foyt climbing out of his car in a rage at Indy. Morning showers, overcast all day, water seeping up from sheepsfoot holes delaying hot laps, the sun pops out during hot laps and time trials and dries out the track quickly, then we have nice wide racing surface after the heats, only to have a pesky shower pop up out of nowhere on the radar and cause a rain delay. The shower popped up about 15 miles southwest of the track, turned west, then back east.  When the rain cleared out a thick attack of moths encountered the raceway. Then we get back to racing after 1:00am and just as the 410 feature pushes off a thick fog rolls in and stops a race just past halfway. In a matter of ten minutes the visibility went from perfect to 1/8 of a mile.   

Donny Schatz won, not surprising. I give credit to our announcers Johnny Gibson and Tony Bokhoven for calling that race, their eyes were better than mine. The track prep crew and push truck drivers put in a long day. We have so many great people at Knoxville, but these people are the best in the business.

Lasoski, Alley, Haase Win on Slideways Night!

Bing Bang Media photo

After last week’s no chance of rain, but pesky drizzle and cancellation, Mother Nature cleared up for a great night of racing this week.  It was another full field with 92 sprint cars entered.  The World of Outlaws event at Lakeside Speedway was rained out early in the morning allowing several teams to drive three hours north to Knoxville to tune up for next week’s Mediacom Shootout. Shane Stewart, Kerry Madsen, Paul McMahan, Jason Sides, Kraig Kinser, David Gravel, Logan Schuchart, and Jacob Allen all made the tow. For $15 fans were able to see eight of the thirteen full-time Outlaws. And for $30 you can see all of them this coming Saturday!

Weather conditions at 7:00pm Saturday were 75° and overcast with 65% humidity, winds out of the SE at 11 mph, and a dew point of 62°.  The track widened out quickly and the lap times were slow in time trials but the track was awesome all night long and plenty of room to race.

Henderson Wins Two!

Three weeks in a row with racing at Knoxville, we are on a roll!  Mother Nature gave us a scare with a storm approaching from the southwest so we were in rain mode from the get go, expecting rain to hit us around 11:00pm. Fortunately the storm system dissipated as it approached Knoxville and the rains held off until 3am. Watching the radar all night on my laptop for the second week in a row wasn’t much fun, but necessary to help race officials.

Great to see another full field of cars with 91 sprint cars entered.  The big surprise of the night was Kerry Madsen’s Keneric team rolling into the pit area with a pickup and open trailer.  With no World of Outlaws race on this night they had a night off. The team flew back from Charlotte and put together a car that afternoon and pulled it into the track. Crew chief Tyler Swank had packed shocks in a suitcase, otherwise their tools were somewhat limited,  but pitting next to brother Ian Madsen I’m sure helped. 

Weather conditions at 7:00pm were 71° and over cast with 50% humidity, winds out of the SE at 10 mph, and a dew point of 52°.  The track widened out nicely.

410 Report
33 cars signed in.  Top 8 Qualifying:  Brian Brown set quick time for the second week in a row with a lap of 15.272 (118 mph), followed by Justin Henderson, Terry McCarl, Danny Lasoski, Kerry Madsen, Tim Kaeding, Brooke Tatnell, and Austin McCarl.