DIRTRACKR Daily Podcast - Episode Transcript

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Big Hunt the Front crash a season changer for some drivers | Daily 5-7-2024

A High Limit driver and crew chief split, I've got an update on the future of Belle Clair Speedway, things get delayed again at Pennsboro, and more fallout from that big Hunt the Front crash over the weekend. Let's go!

It's Tuesday, May 7th, I'm Justin Fiedler. This is DIRTRACKR Daily presented by Kubota Genuine Parts.

Yesterday on the YouTube channel and Rico's Facebook page we released the fourth episode of the Rico Rundown. We did something a little different this time and sat down with Rico's car chief Zack Middlebrooks to talk about his time with Rico Abreu Racing, working for Ricky Warner, and much more. You can see this episode and past episodes at youtube.com/dirtrackr and facebook.com/ricoabreracing.

Right off the top today, the Short Track Super Series was supposed to be at Delaware International Speedway tonight for a 50 lapper, but rain in the area has pushed action to tomorrow. So if you were hoping to see some northeast modifieds tonight, you'll have to wait just one more day. Billy Pauch Jr. is the defending race winner, and teams will be racing for $5000 to win. It's been nearly two months since we've seen the Short Track Super Series, going back to March 16th at Port Royal, where Matt Sheppard was the $50,000 winner of the Speed Showcase. Things will stay busy though going forward, with five races this month. To see more info, check out shorttracksuperseries.com.

Back on Sunday, we talked about Scott Bloomquist's tough night with the Hunt the Front series at Ultimate Motorsports Park. His car clearly had some sort of problem during the feature, and it caused a big pileup on the frontstretch that wiped out quite a few cars. It likely means the end of his full time run with the Hunt the Front series, and we probably won't see Bloomer again until the Dream at Eldora in June. The fallout from the incident though, is much larger. Besides losing Bloomquist, a few others who were full time with Hunt the Front are likely done as well. Jeff Smith hurt a car he had just gotten back from Longhorn, and he was already banged up from a previous crash. Chris Ferguson is second in the championship behind Brandon Overton at the moment, but he doesn't have a ton of equipment, and the car he wrecked on Friday night is hurt as well. He posted some photos to his Facebook page that show a very mangled dirt late model. This could likely be the end of his full time run. And on top of that, Cory Hedgecock posted some comments to his social media that point to him not returning to the series full time after several tough nights. It was a very expensive race for quite a few drivers, and the series. I know there is chatter about the decision to go racing after the rain, but I'm glad I don't have to make those decisions on those types of nights. If you run, the racers are mad about racing on a tough track and the potential for tearing up equipment. And if you cancel mid-program, you'll hear it from the fans who paid money to buy tickets and show up. It's just a tough deal for everyone involved, and really a no-win situation when there is weather. Glad to see all the drivers were okay though, and hopefully they can get their stuff back together soon. It's just the nature unfortunately of going racing.

I don't know if you guys are subscribed to him or not, but you should be. High Limit announcer Chase Raudman has been posting regularly to his YouTube channel, and yesterday he came in hot with some breaking news. After starting the season togther, Parker Price-Miller and crew chief Bernie Stuebgen have parted ways. Supposedly the split is amicable, and came after the High Limit Riverside race. PPM has run four races since then, including the AFCS show at Fremont, the Outlaw race at Jacksonville plus the two High Limit races at Lakeside. PPM was sixth at Fremont, 13th at Jacksonville, and sixth and 18th at Lakeside. He's currently eighth in the High Limit standings after 12 races, 212 points behind Brad Sweet, with two top fives and six top tens. Bernie had his 71 car out on Sunday with Kevin Thomas Jr. at Terre Haute, they finished third. Chase said PPM is serving as his own crew chief now. He also shared that Tanner Thorson has been racing with a broken rib, originally reported by Tony LaPorta. Thorson was 17th and 14th at Lakeside after that strong second place run at Riverside. High Limit back in action this weekend, and make sure to go find Chase Raudman's YouTube channel.

In Illinois, there is more news about the future of Belle Clair Speedway. This has been an ongoing situation there, since the race track stopped hosting racing after 2019. Things during covid basically put an end to the facility, and it was listed for sale back in 2022 for $2.4 million. We talked back in February about St. Clair County's plans for the track and fairgrounds, which included a $14 million construction project to refresh the 22.5 acre facility. All of the paperwork and legal hurdles had been cleared, and we were waiting on construction to begin. Back then the county board chairman had hoped there would be racing at Belle Clair in 2024, but with as much work as needed to be done, I was skeptical back then. And now it's been confirmed that everything has been delayed. In a recent article in the Belleville News-Democrat, a new timeline has officials hoping for racing to start at the track in the fall of 2025. New renderings show that they are actually planning on moving the race track from it's current location, towards the back corner of the property, that is at the moment a vacant lot surrounded by Church and 12th streets. That would create a large outdoor space in between the race track and the current indoor expo center building. Plans for the race track design are not finalized at the moment, because more funding will need to be secured to finish the build. Construction at the fairgrounds on some of the other upgrades is expected to start later this month. Hat tip to an emailer for the heads up on this story.

As for the future of Pennsboro Speedway in West Virginia, things there took another blow with the announcement yesterday that the summer schedule has been cancelled, and that organizers now hope to open the big track in October. We've talked previously about the flooding there from a wet spring, and the announcement from XR pointed to multiple construction delays on the new guardrail, fencing, and walls. They hope to be racing October 24th through 26th with the XR Super Series late models. The recent hints at trouble for Pennsboro included the ULMS rescheduling a rained out date at Tyler County for May 26th, which was originally slated for the Race of Regions event at Pennsboro. Any tickets that were purchased for those summer events will be refunded according to the announcement.

XR also made significant changes to the XR Super Series schedule yesterday, removing the May event at Ogilvie and shifting to a single day show in July. They also added summer stops at Gondik Law Speedway, Proctor Speedway, Fairmont Raceway, Clay County Fair Speedway, and Mason City Motor Speedway. I already mentioned the Pennsboro dates, and the Gobbler at Duck River in November is now and XR show. To see the full schedule for the 23 race season, head over to xrsuperseries.com. Their next scheduled event is June 10th at Kokomo.

That's it for the daily show today. If you like what we do around here, make sure you subscribe to the YouTube channel, or where you get podcasts. Besides the videos on YouTube and Facebook, you can also listen to the daily show in podcast form if you are out and about. It's on Apple, and Spotify, and all the major places.

Hope you guys have a great Tuesday out there, we'll see you back here tomorrow!