DIRTRACKR Daily Podcast - Episode Transcript

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$2.4 million gets you a 1/5 mile dirt track in Illinois. Who's in? | Daily 10-19-2022

An Illinois bullring is for sale, and if you've got the cash, it would be a good one to buy. Plus Hunt the Front found out this week they won a race from July... Of 2021. I've got that story and more, let's go!

It's Wednesday, October 19th, I'm Justin Fiedler. This is DIRTRACKR Daily.

If you've ever wanted to own a dirt track and have $2.4 million dollars lying around, you are in luck today. A new listing has appeared at barbermurphy.com, which is a real estate company in Illinois, for 200 South Belt East, in Belleville, Illinois. The serious dirt racing fans out there will recognize the property as what used to be Belle-Clair Speedway, also known as Little Belleville and Belle-Vegas. The 1/5 mile dirt track hasn't hosted racing since 2019, and appears to have been a victim of the covid pandemic. Their last website and Facebook post about the track was from April of 2020 when they announced they were closing the track until further notice for the safety of everyone around the track. Now, more than two years later, the 22.5 acre facility is listed for sale. In the past, Belle-Clair held a bunch of POWRi racing, including midgets and micros, plus it was a regular stop for the Summer Nationals, MARS, the MLRA, and various other late model series. The last big event held there was in October of 2019. Logan Seavey was a POWRi midget winner that night, while Joe B. Miller won the micro feature. Honestly though, if I had the cash and was looking to buy a track, this would be a facility I'd seriously consider. Besides the race track, the property also has the big expo center building, plus structures to host a flea market, and plenty of open space for parking or other uses. If you're going to operate a track, you need to fill the down time and off days with whatever else you can to help generate revenue, and there is a lot here to work with. Not to mention the fact that the track is located not far from St. Louis, and there are something like three million people in the area. On top of the purchase price, the track and buildings would need some upgrading, which would take more cash, but this place has the potential to be a kick ass facility again. Unfortunately though, some developer will probably buy it and build apartments or a shopping center or something else depressing. Another race track gone.

On my show yesterday, a YouTube commenter asked why I didn't talk about the DQ of Michael Page from more than a year ago in an Ultimate late model show at Senoia. Apparently Page was DQ'd after the win for a failed tire test, and that handed the victory to Hunt the Front's Joseph Joiner. I wasn't aware of this situation until I saw the comment, and went looking around for details. Hunt the Front posted about it on their Facebook page and and have also since made a video addressing the situation which you can find on their YouTube channel. Way back in July of 2021, Page won the Ultimate race at Senoia for $4000, topping Joiner and Austin Horton. According to Hunt the Front's Facebook post, Page failed the tire sample a week later, but nobody ever said anything. No announcement was made that I can find, and everyone went about their lives. Over this past weekend, Hunt the Front received a check in the mail for the difference between their second place payout and what was the winner's share, which amounted to $2000. Apparently the Ultimate Series had previously sent the Joiners a check, but they never deposited it, so they cancelled it and sent another. Strange to say the least that they found out Joseph won a super late model race from more than a year ago because of a delayed check, with no public aknowledgement of what happened. Without their Facebook post and video, we still wouldn't have known about this. But I guess at least the Ultimate series made it right with the payout, even if we never did get an announcement. When I looked at HTF's original post, the first highlighted comment is from late model racer Chris Ferguson, and his post says quote "Not surprising" unquote. If you might remember, Fergy was DQ'd from his win in the USA 100 back in August because he used a tire compound that was later declared to not be legal. In the aftermath, Fergie vowed to not race in any events that the Ultimate late model series director Kelley Carlton was involved with, which includes the FloRacing Night in America Series, the Gateway Dirt Nationals, and the Wild West Shootout. Just when you think you've been around long enough to see it all, something pops up that surprises you yet again.

Looking around dirtrackr.com/analytics this morning, I've got a few numbers for you to ponder on this Wednesday. Jonathan Davenport closed out his Lucas schedule for the year at the Dirt Track World Championship last Saturday night with a sixth place finish. It was his 15th straight top ten with the series, and 27th top ten in 29 appearances this year. His two worst finishes were a 16th at Wheatland on May 28th, and a 19th at Lernerville on June 25th. His nine wins in 2022, meant he won 31% of the Lucas races he appeared in. The USAC Silver Crown Series comes to a close Saturday on the pavement at IRP. Right now Logan Seavey has a three point advantage over Kody Swanson for the championship. I'd give the edge here to Swanson, as all three of his wins this season have come on paved tracks. Swanson was second and led laps at IRP back in May. Over the previous three seasons, there have been 24 Silver Crown races, and Swanson has led laps in exactly half of them. Over that span, he's led 627 circuits, with the next closest on the list being CJ Leary with 314. The World of Outlaws Sprint Cars are headed back to Williams Grove this weekend to complete the postponed National Open. Going back to 2017, there have been 30 Outlaw features at the Grove, and the two drivers with the best average finish over that stretch are Donny Schatz and David Gravel. Schatz's average finish is 5.53, Gravel's is 5.87. What's crazy, is that in that stretch of 30 races, Schatz and Gravel have only each finished outside the top ten three times. And only once in those 30 races did both drivers finish outside the top ten in the same race. That happened at the National Open in 2018. Lance Dewease topped Daryn Pittman, while Schatz was 14th and Gravel was 16th.

If you want to check out some dirt racing podcasts this week, Winged Nation has James McFadden and Rico Abreu. LoudPedal has Keith Kunz, SuaveTalk has Todd Turner, Passing Points has Bobby Craft, Forward Bite is back and has Garrett Smith and Cody Mallory fresh off that Dirt Track World Championship win, QuickTime has Brad Sweet, and there are new episodes of The Dirt Reporters and Dirt Tracks and Rib Racks. If you want to check out the full list of shows and episodes, head over to dirtrackr.com/podcasts.

There are again two shows on today's streaming schedule. DIRTVision has weekly micro sprint racing from Millbridge Speedway, and there is FloRacing 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. Please hit that like button, and subscribe to the show if you don't already.

Thanks everybody for tuning in, I'll see you tomorrow for more DIRTRACKR Daily!