Flatland Flash-25 Years Later

He runs the B12.  He is from Gibson City and in my opinion is probably one of the top 5 drivers, maybe top 3 drivers to come from the state of IL.  He wound up with the name of the, "Flatland Flash", but he's also been called more.  I'ver heard everything from, Mr. Excitement to a no good SOB who can drive.  However or whatever he's been called through the years, he certainly earned his rank and certainly shows no signs of slowing down.

I say that only cause of what I seen this past summer. Here I see Kevin Weaver pretty much about out of his run of being a top driver to someone who is slowly passing his time, finally tame the dirt tracks here in IL last summer.  He'd gone through two different cars and never really did see anything that was going to get him back up to being competitive with the area's young guns.  Then in a moment of what would appear to be a racers desperation, he decided to change.

Kevin dug out the Bill West Chassis he had in his shop that he was certain was not the answer to start his season.  With nothing to lose and a season pretty much on the ropes, he decided, what could it hurt.  He decided to dig it out, build it again and see what it had in store. Turned out it may of been a career endind decision.  His season instantly changed. 

He strapped in that Bill West chassis and there was instant change.  The car had forward bite and Kevin was moving forward.  He started almost dead last in Kankakee on a Wednesday night to finished 3rd.  He went on to finish in the top five for the three weeks and picked up a much needed confidence builder when he tood the fair race at Fairbury.  Kevin again was someone who had a car who could compete.  He was back and a smile was on his face.

Kevin starts his 25th season of dirt late model racing again this year.  Although his season came with a blown motor leading his heat race at the Prairie Dirt, he still knows he has a car that can compete.  I've said for years, he can still drive and much like most that has been around the track a few times knows that when he has a car to compete, anything is possible.

Good luck in year 25.

Drivers Off Seasons

Here it is in December and the season is officially over.  Christmas is around the cornor and there is not a driver that I am aware of looking at a list of up coming races.  So I thought about what usually takes places in the off season.  For a lot of the full timers, it is a chance to get some much needed time at home while they reflect on the past season and think about the upcoming one.

Some driver are not heavily involved with prepping of new cars.  No, some drivers are usually meeting with their PR people, lawyers and bankers to discuss the upcoming season.  By the way, earliest racing in 2012 starts in February in Florida, in sequence with the Nextel Cup drivers getting ready for the Daytona 500.  Many dirt late model drivers and renegotiating with sponsors.  Some might be looking to take out a loan or two for the upcoming season if the previous didn't turn out as well as planned.  Some are also taking time to do stuff for fans like small meet and greets or doing interview for magazines.

In regards to the machines, the driver and crew meet to discuss their strategy for the 2012 speedweeks and what they need to get ready with.  What kind of cars should they prep.  Where the chassis competitive that they ran the year before.  Are their motor programs solid.  Are they happy with the horsepower they were getting during the season.  Some drivers will opt to keep running the cars they had from the year before so some offeseaons work may be less for other drivers.

In summary, it is a time of rest, but with a short offseason a lot of decicisons need to be made.  Come Jan 1, expect to hear the air compressors running more and the the sounds of dynos running more.

Newspaper Publications

Over the years, getting news about the dirt tracks came pretty easy.  If you attended a track, a lot of times you could pick up the latest copy of Mid American Auto Racing News.  It was chaulk full of results of the dirt tracks from Michigan, Kentucky and even way down into Georgia.  It was always full of complete write ups from the writer of the tracks and even had all teh qualifying times and results of the heats.  Other publications were more specific to asphalt racing. One of those was the natioanl stock car racing sporting news...or better known as Speed Sport.  Speed Sport has all kinds of opinionated jouran entries form all their editors.  The top editor at that time is the nations tell all in auto racing, Chris Economaki.

What is common with those two publications? Well they are both defunct, or are darn near.I did some invetigating and found that Speed Sport know longer runs a printed version of their newspaper. Chris Economaki no longer does his column for each week of racing...and more or less is retired.  Mid American Auto Racing completely went out of business about 4 years ago.  Both papers cited the same reasoning for having to call it quits.  Lack of subscriptions.

It shouldn't come as any surprise that these newpapers have falled so hard.  The internet is our one stop shopping mall to find out everything we want to know...and now.  No longer do we have to wait for the print up, we can get instant twitter feeds or postings to message boards not any longer than 2-3 minutes after a feature is finished.  What is missing?  Just the mental image of how the race started, progressed and ended.  Now we are stuck with one sided fans who see the race for how their favorite driver drove it, not how the race actually went on. 

So the point?  Not really one I guess, just a note that with the internet in place, may more physical papers will fall by the wayside.  Dirt Late Model Magazine is holding on with a nice monthly print out.  For the likes of us who like to read while relaxing in a chair, couch, or hot bath....we pray it doesn't become the next victim

Best Paint Schemes

Drivers are recognized by their number and sometimes their sponsors.  It is their identitiy within the sport and really is a selling point in their popularity.  However what really makes a driver recognizable is the paint/color scheme on the car.  Over the years, drivers have stuck to their favorite paint scheme and if they had to change, it was likely due to sponsor affiliate.  Lets take a look at some of the more popular

Basic  blue and white.  Not real fancy, but was certainly the popular color of 1st ballot inductee Jeff Purvis.  It also was the popular color for the never too fancy, just get it done Jack Boggs.  Dennis Erb runs a light blue and white car.  From a local perspective, Joe Williams had a blue and white color scheme as well as local legend, Roger Long.

Red and yellow.  Billy Moyer can lay claim to that scheme and forever will be recgnzied in those famed colors.  Over the years, i've seen some of those same color schemes.  Some were from Shannon Babb (who drove for Billy a few years), Kris Patterson, Don O'Neil. However when you think red and yellow, you immediately are looking for that fames 21.

In recent years though, the color scheme of black, green and white have steadily rised. It is the famed colors of Scott Bloomquist and pretty much the pioneers.  Charlie Swartz ran a white and green car, but when scott took the colors, he made the green more like the highlighted colors.  Since then, drivers like Jason Feger and Jimmy Owens have similar paint schemes.  Owens did drive for Bloomquist at one time.  I have to admit, this color scheme is pretty cool, but I like brightness, so i'd have to pass.

So as long as a driver has unique paint scheme and is very good and consistant, it is the most recognizable aspect of a driver.  In some cases, more than the driver's number.

Driver Web Site

Had the opportunity to explore some driver's websites tonight.  Web sites are a must anymore for a driver to gain fans.  Their sites are the lifeline to tell a fan where he/she is racing as well as indicates to a track that he or she is coming.  Much like other websites, some are very sophisticated with neat graphics and loads of advertising.  Others are plain jane HTML coded sites with just regular driver information and maybe a picture or two

One of the longest running websites that has retained its original website is that of the 25 year veteran race driver Kevin Weaver.  Kevin has plenty of tech support to keep his site up to do date.  Theses days the design and update have been handed over to other personel and they have noted the information at the bottom of the page.

Another site I found interesting to visit is that of pro driver Billy Moyer.  What makes his site very neat is the photos he has that you can look at.  Billy's operation is one of big money and you get a change to see the operation in pictures.  You see 3 cars that Billy has in his shop that appear to be race ready and just ready to roll out.  You get a chance to see his top of the line tour bus that he spends most of his summer in.  However the neatest of all pictures to view on his site is that of the trophy room. I've never seen so many plaques and trophys in one room.  It is really a very neat thing to see

In summary,  a driver's web site is a neat way to get to know more about your favorite drivers.  I recommend looking at pictures and the bio's of the driver.  Lot of neat facts you'd never think you know about your favorite driver.

Racing Through the Eyes 5 Year Old

So I guess growing up with a late model in my dad's shop, it wasn't too hard to get into racing.  I remember when we were little kids, we'd race year round with our hot wheels and matchbox cars.  We had drivers names for every single car that we had, and we had plenty.  Our race track was in the dining room.  Nice swade carpet that looked like grooves.  We race on our knees while the commentary was done like it was on Friday nights and Farmer City and Saturday nights in Fairbury.  As we got older, we took our racing to the outdoors and into the dirt...where it was meant.  We created our own Eldora, Pensboro, Clarksville and just to make sure it was like the real thing, we hung a flashlight out at night to get the actual feel.

Funny how things come full circle. My nephew and son are not the sons of actual drivers.  However what rubbed off on us back in those days seems to have done the same on them.  My son has a every growing population of matchbox and hotwheels cars now.  Sometimes on occasions, while at grandmas, he'll run across a car and ask if we played with it.  Some I still recognize, others not so much.  Yet that one car he asked about, was Ray Godsey...and I didn't have to thing back real hard.

The love of the track starts at that point.  Getting to see your first race and then getting those little cars that make your imagination run wild.  From that point on, you never forget where it was you started and what you did to pass the time before the real thing woud begin.  My father always said we actually put rubber into the carpet from all those cars we ran.  Now it is just putting rubber on the road to get there.

Tire Rules

So many divisions, so many rules.  What is the most common amongst them? Good ol tires. 

UMP racing is the one league that set the standard for you race what you bring.  Only thing that had to be made sure of is that you didn't come in light at the scales and you weren't running with what was known as a bottle.  For those wondering what I mean, that means a turbo booster that would allow a driver that extra shot to make up some time, or leave the pack.  But in regards to tires, you ran what could win on.

Along came other divisions who felt that the tire rule in UMP was too loose.  Some series felt that if we can limit the amount of tires a team can use, or they can regulate the type of tire they have to run, the field would be more equal.  Well a divisioin called the Northern All Stars decided to run that type of series.  They mandated that drivers that wanted to compete had to run by their rules.  You had to run a 30 compound and  it had to pass northern all stars officials.  If a driver came on the the track with the compound grinded off or covered, you were sent back to pits to change the rubber.  The N.A.S series is still in effect. I do not know if the they still run the all 30 rule or not

I've heard it said the best series that has yet to come of age would be one that would say, ok, you run only 2 compounds and the driver makes the choice.  A 20 compound tire or a 40 compound.  Most of which are designed to last 30-40 laps.  However, the harder the compound, the longer it takes to come in and if you play the cards right, you may have enough tire left for that late run.  The opposite can be said for 20's.  Very little cautions and the driver builds up a lead, it is his/hers to win.