Hello race fans. I'm sure you've been wondering where I've been and what I've been up to over the past couple of months as nothing has been written on this blog. Well, I can honestly answer "not a dang thing." You see, I typically spend the winter months (if you can call it that this year) saving up my money, looking at race schedules, and deciding which races I want to attend. This offseason has been a little different for me, and thus a few changes will be in store for 2012.
Back in January I attended a couple indoor go kart events. One was held at the North Iowa Fairgrounds in Mason City while the other was the Battle at the Barn held at the Iowa State Fairgrounds in Des Moines. Both events drew a lot of participants as well as spectactors, and kind of got the blood pumping again after a month or so of not racing activity for me.
I also took the chance to take in the Karsyn's Krusaders Wacky Bowling tournament back in January. I didn't know what to expect, especially since I have no bowling skills whatsoever. By the time I arrived the place was packed and the "introductions" were soon to be announced. If memory serves me correctly, the amount raised that night was over $8,000!! I tried to bid on a few silent auction items, but my luck wasn't the best and I came home empty-handed.
As the calendar flipped to February, I found myself once again attending a go kart race up in Mason City for their second and final event. Karsyn's Krusaders made the trip up there and raised money with tshirt sales and auctioning off a few items. I was able to talk to several racing friends and a few drivers to find out their plans for the upcoming season, making it a lot of fun that night.
The dirt track season has already seen several events on the calendar at this point. The Talladega Short Track held its annual Ice Bowl, the Chili Bowl was run in Oklahoma, Arizona had a couple Wild West Shootouts, and the annual Canyon Winter Series took place in Arizona.
Now of course SpeedWeeks is taking place with all kinds of action down in Florida. The Lucas Oil Late Model Series, the World of Outlaws late models, and the World of Outlaws sprint cars got their season off to a strong start. Sounds like UMP modifieds are popular as well down there this year. Racing action coming up will be the opening weekend for USMTS as they take on the Royal Purple Raceway in Baytown, Texas. They were scheduled to race this past weekend, but heavy rains forced the cancellation and pushed it back a week. Also this weekend the annual Ice Breaker held down in Abilene, Texas will see IMCA racers get their season started.
As March gets closer, perhaps my anticpation will be enhanced as the racing action closer to home will get kicked off. While typically my race season gets underway around March 10th or so in the past several years, I'm going to wait until March 24 before I see my first official race. That event will be the USMTS race held at the I-35 Speedway near Winston, Missouri. While other events will occur before that, I have decided to bypass them due to travel distance and overnight stays (I know, hard to believe I just said that isn't it). March 31 I may find myself traveling to Farley for the opening night of the IMCA Deery Brothers Summer Series for late models.
Perhaps the biggest anticipation for everybody in Iowa is for the annual Frostbusters. This year the normal three-race swing has added a few stops in the schedule, as Oskaloosa and Des Moines will preceed Marshalltown, Boone, and Vinton. Lots of cars are expected to show up for this "mini series" week.
Yesterday (Feb 18), I made a road trip south and attended the McDaniel Racing Enterprises open house. Bert and Sue McDaniel are friends of mine that I haven't seen in a couple years, so I thought I'd surprise them. Sue was definitely surprised to see me and made the comment "it must be a road trip day!" I also met up with fellow PositivelyRacing headmasters Jeff Broeg and Barry Johnson. We were able to get in plenty of bench racing! Jeff also introduced me to Chris Eggers, the driver-turned-promoter of the Bloomfield Speedway. He was on hand to give out information for the upcoming season and take driver registrations.
That pretty much concludes what I've been up to the past several months. As I have told a few people, the 2012 season is going to be very different for me. I don't plan to attend as many shows as I have in the past. I plan to hit a couple races I normally wouldn't, and hope to get to a few more tracks I've never been to. So while my anticipation level for racing is not as high as it has been over the years, I am excited to see how many of those goals I just mentioned I will attain.
Thanks for reading!!
Kevin Trittien
