DIRTRACKR Daily Podcast - Episode Transcript
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Grandview Speedway sold, but questions remain about it's future | Daily 8-31-2022
News today about the future of Pennsylvania's Grandview Speedway, the Short Track Super Series is racing tonight, and a past World of Outlaws winner will be in a midget at Skagit this weekend. Let's go!
It's Wednesday, August 31st, I'm Justin Fiedler. This is DIRTRACKR Daily.
After rumors started to trickle out over the weekend, we got some clarity yesterday on the situation with Grandview Speedway up in Pennsylvania. The 1/3 mile track is located south of Allentown and hosts the weekly Thunder on the Hill Racing Series that features northeast style modifieds. Grandview has also been a regular stop for Pennsylvania Speedweek and it's been on the USAC and All Star schedules in recent seasons. According to a release from the track, owner Theresa Rogers wasn't actively trying to sell the facility, but she was approached by auto auction company Copart. After lengthy discussions she has accepted an offer from Copart to sell them the race track and property. Copart needs the local township to rezone the property, so at this moment we are waiting on officials to make the necessary approvals. The release also says that nothing is official, and that it could be the end of the year before they know more information. So, the owners at Grandview have accepted an offer to sell, but it's not official yet as the township still has to approve the zoning changes. The rest of their 2022 schedule is going as planned which includes six more race dates through the end of September. Folks across social media seem to be pretty upset by this move, and I've seen quite a few different eulogies for the speedway in the recent days. It feels like we've seen a lot of tracks close lately, and in this instance it seems to be more about the advanced age of the track owner and less about the actual business of the track. You would hope in a case like this that she would have tried to sell the property to someone who'd want to keep it as a race track, but in the end, it's her facility to do what she wants with. It's a shame, because their weekly program is pretty healthy with modifieds. I've reached out to a few folks about this one, and there does seem to be some question about whether or not the township will approve the zoning changes, so I guess there could be a small chance the deal isn't approved. This is one we'll just have to wait and see how it plays out in the coming months.
Before we move on, a quick content note for you. If you haven't seen it yet today, I dropped a new Conversations episode this morning. You can find it in the podcast feed and on the YouTube channel. Joshua Joiner of Hunt the Front is back, and he's actually our first ever repeat guest on the show. I mentioned last week on the Daily that Hunt the Front will again promote a big super late model race this year, and Joshua joined me to talk about putting on a race for the second time, what they learned from 2021, following in the footsteps of other racers to take on promoting, and more. We also went behind the scenes on some Hunt the Front stuff including what the future could look like for their team and details on their new shop. I hadn't done a Conversations show in nearly two months, and now I've done two in less than a week, including the episode from a few days ago with Huset's announcer Shawn Neisteadt. So go check those out today while you're at work or riding around in the car.
I completely whiffed on this next one, and if Port Royal wouldn't have tweeted about him racing with them coming up, I still wouldn't know about it. Port tweeted this morning that Kasey Kahne will be in attendance with them coming up on Monday for their Labor Day Classic, and he'll be at the Speed Palace for the Tuscarora 50 the week after, September 8th through the 10th with the All Stars. Now you'll say, but wait Justin, I thought Kasey was racing with the Outlaws. And you would be correct, because I thought that too. But what I missed was Kasey not racing last weekend at River Cities and Red River Valley. Kahne last appeared with the series at Jackson Motorplex, and instead of heading west, Kasey is sticking around the east to race for the next few weeks. It's obviously not been an easy 2022 for him with the injuries and races missed, and since returning to the road in May, things have been very up and down. There have been bright spots, like leading laps and a podium finish at Huset's, but there have also been big crashes and tough days. Hopefully a couple of weeks away from the Outlaws will allow him and that team to reset.
They were supposed to race last night, but evening thunderstorms pushed racing to tonight. So the Short Track Super Series modifieds will get back to racing at Georgetown Speedway tonight after a few weeks off. The south region is coming in for 35 laps and a $6000 winner's share up for grabs. Ryan Godown has two wins and five top fives in five races, and he leads the standings over Matt Sheppard and Danny Bouc. Tonight's field will also include names like Ryan Krachun, HJ Bunting, Brandon Grosso, Mike Mahaney, Mike Gular, Billy Pauch Jr., and Stewart Friesen. Following tonight, it will be a short few days off for a lot of these competitors, because Sunday at Utica-Rome the north region and Elite Series will be in action for the $25,000 to win New Yorker. This one will be live on FloRacing if you want to tune in.
I had Spence ask me in the comments about adding the Super DIRTcar Series and or Short Track Super Series to the analytics database, and I haven't done that because that type of information does actually exist on the interwebs. If you want to see a bunch of northeast modified stats very similiar to what I have, check out Race Stat Central. The URL is nemodfacts.racestatcentral.com. If you've ever looked at the Short Track Super Series points standings online, you've actually already been on this site, because the points for that series live there. The site has results and stats for not only the big touring series, but also a lot of the weekly stuff.
If you are a dirt racer yourself, don't forget about a few upcoming big events. The IMCA Super Nationals are coming to Boone Speedway September 5th through the 10th and registration is open now and for about the next 11 days. The Super Nationals feature late models, modifieds, stock cars, northern sport mods, hobby stocks, sport compact and mod lites. You can find all the details at imca.com. Also, the World Short Track Championship at the Dirt Track at Charlotte is coming up at the end of October, and registration has opened for that event as well. The three days of racing will include two divisions of crate late models, UMP modifieds, pro mods, mini stocks, hornets, sportsman modifieds, bombers, street stocks, and pro stocks. You can find info for that event at dirtcar.com.
The Skagit Nationals start tomorrow night for the World of Outlaws Sprint Cars, and joining them on the card all three nights will be the Northwest Focus Midgets. Shane Smith is the current points leader, but he'll be up against plenty of guys that can win, including last year's champ Nick Evans, and Jared Peterson who's won a bunch at Deming Speedway. And if you want an Outlaw tie-in for this series, Travis Jacobson won the midget portion of Dirt Cup on Friday and Saturday that week, but he's also a past World of Outlaws winner. Way back on September 1st, 2012, Jacobson led all 35 laps at Skagit, topping Donny Schatz and Jason Sides. That feature included names like Craig Dollansky, Jac Haudenschild, Joey Saldana, Stever Kinser and Sammy Swindell. Focus midgets use the same chassis you'll see at Chili Bowl or during USAC competition, but they use spec two liter Ford Focus engines that make about 160hp. The series has a pretty packed schedule from April to October and they race at tracks all over the Northwest. If you're headed to the Outlaw show this weekend, or going to be tuning in on DIRTVision, check them out.
In other dirt racing podcasts this week, Passing Points has Justin Peck, Forward Bite has Earl Pearson Jr., the Dirt From Knoxville has Philip Dietz, Quicktime has Logan Schuchart, and there are new episodes of the Dirt Reporters, the Dirt Nerds and Dirt Tracks and Rib Racks. To see a full list of shows and episodes, head over to dirtrackr.com/podcasts.
There are three shows on the streaming schedule today, with all of them over on FloRacing. The Short Track Super Series is live from Georgetown Speedway, there is weekly racing from Action Track USA plus Flo 24/7. To see the full daily streaming schedule with links to watch visit dirtrackr.com/watchtonight.
That's it for the show today, have a good Wednesday. Make sure to like, subscribe, and comment.
Thanks everybody for tuning in, I'll see you tomorrow for more DIRTRACKR Daily!