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Belle-Clair Speedway - Belleville, IL

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South Dakota Trip June 17 – 20, 2010

Thursday I headed west to make a weekend of track chasing. The plan was to visit the Clay County Fairgrounds in Spencer Iowa for a Thursday night race to see the track remodeling. They have cut down the old traditional half-mile flat dirt track and set up a 3/8-mile banked dirt track in its place. This would not be a new track under track chasing rules but would be a chance for me to compare the old and new. I arrived about 4PM and saw no activity to ready the track as there were heavy storms off to the south. A check with the fair office confirmed that they were calling off the races as the severe weather was to be here in less than an hour. That put my backup plan into action as I went southwest to Columbus Nebraska for another stop at the US 30 Speedway. I arrived at 8:30PM a half hour after the starting time and the modified heats were on the track. I think I missed only two races. This is a banked 1/3-mile dirt track with Armco walls on the outside and just loose dirt and a reverse bank to mark the inside. The stands are set on a hill with paved walkways and are all concrete with 15 steps that have steel seats placed on them. They have a nice lap counter that is visible to the racers as well as the fans at the end of the straightaway. The heats were progressing rapidly with the fast lane around the top of the banking until Anthony Melcher hit the wall and rode along it in the first street stock heat. He rolled on his roof and slid down the straightaway for a red flag. There was lightning in the distance but no storms approaching so they took a brief intermission after the one semi. Car counts were decent with 15 street stocks, 23 Hobby stocks, 16 modifieds, 13 sport mods and 12 compacts. The IMCA Sport Compacts started the features with a 12-lap race that had only one yellow for a lost wheel. Darick Lamberson started 7th and quickly took command to win over Shannon Pospisil from 6th. The IMCA Northern sport mods had 3 yellows in their 15-lap feature as Jesse Sobbing came from 9th and then held off the 10th starter Kyle Prauner who is the point leader. The IMCA Hobby feature was also 15 laps and had a couple of yellows. Lonnie Greuter started 4th and grabbed the lead to win over Tiffany Bittner who started 6th. The IMCA modified feature went 25 laps with only one yellow as Dylan Smith shot from his 7th starting spot to take the lead in 5 laps. Smith pulled away to a big lead and won over James Kleinheksel and Tyler Iverson. The open streets wrapped up the night with 2 yellows in a 15-lap feature that saw Doug Adamy come from 5th to win over Eric Haase and end the night at 11:05PM. I was on my way west shortly thereafter.

Friday I drove across the state of Nebraska to the very western counties and a stop at the Hiway 92 Raceway Park in Gering Nebraska. This is a ¼-mile paved track in a long paperclip layout with some banking in the turns. Concrete walls surround the track and the inside is marked with a yellow line before the pavement drops off to the grass and sand of the infield. The spectator area has been redone recently and has 14 rows of wooden bench seats on the hillside with nice stones underneath the entire seating area. The walkways are all paved and they have good lights and fair speakers. I arrived during warm-ups at about 6:30PM and qualifying got underway at 7:20PM. Racing for the small fields of 10 karts, 8 super stocks, 5 sportsmen and 3 bumble bees started with dashes at 7:45PM and included some make up dashes from the prior week’s rainout. The track is not too wide but you can pass on the outside if you are fast and can keep up some momentum as evidenced when Joni Cowan won the super stock dash and heat from the rear. After some kids rides at intermission the features started with the karts running a non-stop race that had 5th starter Doyle Denham taking a close win over John Bibbey. The bumble bees feature was also run non-stop as last starter Adam Kampbell took the win. Stevie Thompson started on the pole of the sportsmen and won easily over Scott Long in another caution free race. The super stocks had some trouble getting laps completed as a two car tangle slowed the race and then the leader Aaron Franco lost a wheel and axle on the sixth lap. After a short delay for some grease cleanup Joni Cowan took command and held off Heather Urwin for the feature win and a clean sweep. The show was completed at 10PM and I got some rest before heading north to South Dakota.

Saturday morning I drove into South Dakota and stopped at the Mount Rushmore monument as I headed for Sturgis. The Black Hills Mini Sprint group showed the Sturgis race on their schedule but no times so I stopped by the track and found out they would race at 7PM tonight. After I had this track on my schedule I was searching the new National Speedway Directory and noticed the track at Belle Fourche was reopening. I headed up the 30 miles to look at the track and see when they were racing and saw two modifieds heading back so I knew I had made a poor decision today. It turns out the first race was today and with the lights still not in they ran at 2PM. Back to Sturgis where at 6PM there was lightning in the sky and very black clouds to the south and east. This track in Sturgis is part of the Jackpine Gypsies Motorcycle Club grounds and tonight would host racing for several classes of cycles and the mini sprints. The track is listed as a 1/8-mile flat dirt oval and has concrete walls with some hay bales in front to make the “soft wall”. The inside is marked with some tires and the lights were good. Spectators have several choices of viewing areas. They have a large 27-row grandstand that has wooden seats on the concrete steps with some grassy areas on the hillside alongside. There were picnic tables on the lower level near the concession building which was also the clubhouse and had a balcony for viewing. Some people opted to stay in their cars and watch from above the grandstand and along the entry road or from their cars in the fourth turn trackside parking. Racing got underway after 7PM with heat races in all the cycle classes and 4 heats for the 22 mini sprints that were racing tonight. My notes were not too good as I was distracted by the big gathering in our row just a couple down from the top of the grandstand. I was sitting next to the world renowned Carol Lewis and her sometimes talked about hubby. There were reporters, officials and even a driver in our row from time to time during the night. I think the sprints started with a rookie heat then John Garrigan, Jeff Mount and Anthony Farnsworth won heats in quick order. The dark clouds had bypassed the track and they took an intermission and applied a light watering to the track. The cycle features were up first and were contested by anywhere from 2 to 6 bikes in each race. The mini sprints decided to split the cars into two 15-lap features and started 10 cars in the first feature race. The race went non-stop with pole sitter Danny Benshoof taking the top spot ahead of Garrigan and Doug McIntosh. Some rain had started during the last two laps of the first feature and in spite of getting the next feature cars on the track right away the drops were just too big and the track was too slippery to continue with the racing. The now heavy rain scattered the crowd and I never had a chance to finish bench racing with the Lewis family.

Sunday I drove back across South Dakota and Nebraska to Stuart Nebraska to check out the Community Park where they have raced for 58 consecutive years. Included in my $6 admission was a nice program that had a driver roster and point standings. I arrived at 5PM, a full two hours before race time and the park was nearly empty but the pits had several cars already unloaded. The facility is the Community Park and has a ¼-mile dirt oval race track. They were heavily watering the long straightaways and slightly banked turns. The track has concrete and Armco fencing on the straights but no outside walls on the turns. The inside is marked with big tires and loose dirt. There is a long 12-row old wooden bleacher on the straightaway and trackside parking on the backstretch. The lights are only on the straights leaving the turns a little dark. The adequate speakers were off the top of the grandstand and they have a lap counter at the end of the front straight. They started track packing at 6PM and by 7:15PM when racing started the spectator areas were nearly full. They went through heats and dashes for the 14 hornets, 15 bombers, 7 street stocks, 6 B-mods and 2 sprint cars before a short intermission. They seemed to throw a quick yellow in the feature races and that slowed the program. The street stocks ran a 12-lap feature and had two yellows as Fred DeSive came from 4th to win in a side by side finish with Chad Deseive. The B-mods had only one yellow in their 10-lap feature that Dennis Engelhaupt won from the front. The bombers were divided into a “B” main for 6 cars then a feature for 8 cars. (No one advanced from the “B” to the feature.) Ryan Connell won the “B” main from last in a race slowed by 4 yellows. The bombers had 5 yellows in their 10-lap feature as Troy Sidak worked from a 6th place start to take the win. The hornets were also divided and Spence Spencer captured the “B” from the front with only one yellow. Cameron Meyer started 7th and won the 10-lap hornet feature that had only one yellow. The sprints ran a 10-lap feature with Ron Krysl getting the jump from the pole. Krysl slowed slightly on the 3rd lap and Gary Reber spun. Krysl was able to hold off Reber for the remaining 7 laps and took the final checkers of the night at 10PM.