Wrap-up from Last Weekend

Finally a great weekend for racing! We visited our first American Mini Sprint Association race of the year at Lawrenceburg Speedway. A very strong field of 28 cars showed up to take the green flag. There were several new cars in attendance. The Lawrenceburg facility seems to just get better and better every year. I am so lucky to have a facility within 30 minutes of my home. The noted improvements for this year are a paved entrance to the pits and gravel throughout the pits. I have never done a good job of drawing pills and it appears that I am not off to much better of a start this year. We drew third heat, third row inside. Unfortunately we haven’t cracked the code on the Honda yet; still running in safe mode. We just escaped the heat with a fifth place finish—enough to get us a spot deep in the field for the feature. I enjoyed watching the B-Main. There are several new drivers and quite a few look like they should be competitive pretty quickly. The first two laps of the feature seemed to take forever to get under our belt. For us it was one of those nights were just hanging in there provided a respectable 6th place finish. There were a few cars that were really fast for the night, but experienced mechanical difficulties. Although I would always prefer to be more competitive than we were, all in all it was a great evening of racing for us. I really appreciate Greg Nicholas letting me get my first few starts of the year in his car.

http://www.shoxskinz.com/

Although the primary driver in Merrill Calvert’s #3 mini sprint is son-in-law Ian Beveridge, you never know who will turn up when Ian is unavailable to drive. Saturday night evening it was short track midget ace Mike Fedorcak. Fedorcak’s claim to fame is the unique munchkin midget that he built in 1989. Since that time several more have been built for the winter indoor season. Fedorcak finished 8th in his heat race, 4th in the B main and 13 in the feature.

http://www.viperpipes.com/

A.M.S.A. owner Jerry Tague had several comments for the driver’s meeting. He noted that he remains very happy with his new weight rule and is convinced that it has created a more level playing field. He also commented on the July 24th non-winged race at Logansport Indiana’s US 24 Raceway. He said they recently tested Calvert’s 2 cars on the 1/6 mile oval and found it to be very racy. Visit the A.M.S.A. website (www.americanminisprints.com) for more information.

http://www.speedpartz.com/

One of the nice things about running with the A.M.S.A. is their attempts to make the group seem more like family. After the event on Saturday evening racers, fans and crews were treated to a barbeque dinner. A special thanks to Mert Tague and Sheila Calvert for preparing and serving up such a great meal.

http://www.adrenalinets.com/

I enjoyed the opportunity to spend a few minutes chatting with Jeremy Perdue (driver of the number 21 mini sprint). Jeremy is a pretty busy person. In addition to a full-time job, he also works for the Hoffman’s race team and spends a couple days a week training two fighters for cage fighting. Jeremy is in his second season of mini sprints and is a transfer from the TQs.



Great pictures from the American Mini Sprint Association race at Lawrenceburg are available at http://www.brandonmurrayphotos.com/p904056177.



It was great to see the car count both the A.M.S.A. and the M.M.S.A. enjoyed over the weekend. It’s always a concern with both groups running so close together on the same night. The A.M.S.A. had 28 cars and the M.M.S.A. had 20 cars. A total of 48 mini sprints running on the same night less than an hour apart is a pretty good indication of where this thing is going. The M.M.S.A. actually ran two features. One of the features was a make-up from two weeks ago when a damaged catch fence cancelled the nights racing.

http://www.minisprintbook.com/

I am proud to be part of a sport that still honors some of the fundamentals that our country is built upon. In an age when teachers have to be careful about even making reference to God, I am thankful that tracks like Lawrenceburg still start the evening with a prayer. The track chaplain has even started providing a short service prior to the evening’s festivities that is directed at drivers and crew.



I was recently invited to participate in a unique event. Although I haven’t matched it up against the calendar yet, I am hoping to participate. The event is called the 24 Hours of Lemons. It is a 24 hour race at Nelson Ledges Road Course that takes place in cars that have to be purchased for no more than $500. This doesn’t include safety equipment like seats, roll cages etc. Each team is required to have at least four drivers. I have been told that in previous years they have had as many as 100 teams in attendance. The variety of cars is pretty astounding. I’ve seen everything from a VW bus to vintage Mustangs. I’ll post more information as I find it out.