Latest / Top Row Racing Media Monday Night Rewind / Monday Night Rewind | Episode 12 | Tim Dibble

Transcript

Monday Night Rewind | Episode 12 | Tim Dibble · Top Row Racing Media Monday Night Rewind

5:41
And it is the Monday night rewind Lewis here with Topper
5:45
Racing Media. Shortly joining me will be Buju.
5:48
And then already in the staging area will be Tim Dibble.
5:51
So again, like share, get this out.
5:54
Don't mind the Thunder rolling in the background here Long
5:57
Lake, MI. But like I said, tonight we have
5:59
Tim Dibble. He is already in the staging
6:02
area ready to go. Leah made an appearance excited
6:05
to see her. I know they just had monster
6:07
trucks over the weekend. And then just as another
6:09
reminder for upcoming guests were booked out through the
6:11
month of May, we're going to have Rich Bold joining us next
6:15
week, first at seven O 5, followed by Joel.
6:19
Now check Kalamazoo Speedway, also does the mini wedges at
6:23
Kalamazoo. And then from Grundy County, we
6:26
have Brian who will be joining us.
6:28
He's racetracker down there, also former racer at Ileana
6:31
Motor Speedway and flagger at South Bend Motor Speedway.
6:35
And then coming up on May 25th, again, we know it's Memorial
6:38
Day, but we're going to go forward as is on a Monday.
6:41
And we have one of the best announcers that you'll find in
6:44
the country who's done it all on the biggest stage anywhere and
6:47
everywhere. Will Greenwald will be joining
6:49
us. And then don't forget it's not
6:52
Thursday night Thunder Buju, but behind that I have Thunder
6:57
rolling right here along Lake MI and Southwest Michigan.
7:00
So don't mind the Thunder, but we do have Thursday night
7:03
throttle that you can throttle up with us.
7:05
We have a lot of double headers this weekend that we'll be
7:07
talking about between Grundy and M40, obviously new Paris and
7:11
Kalamazoo, hopefully Kalamazoo, right, we, it's been a few
7:15
weeks. So again, it's just lots to do,
7:18
lots going on, lots to see Boujou.
7:20
So how are you doing tonight? Fantastic.
7:23
We've had the Thunder rolling in and out of here as well, so you
7:25
might hear an insult then as well as up in Michigan, I also
7:27
had a squirrel jump from the tree to the top of the garage
7:30
roof and I about jumped out of my skin 5 minutes before I
7:33
joined the thing here. But otherwise, pretty good.
7:35
Pretty good. What'd you think of our Star
7:38
Wars themed opening? I dug it.
7:41
I'm a big Star Wars nerd myself. I got the shirt on for the
7:44
listeners. Might not be watching it.
7:46
Yeah, I'm a Star Wars nerd, so I enjoyed May the 4th.
7:48
I kind of forgot about it to be honest, but yeah.
7:51
I've only been using the pun for several weeks now that, you
7:54
know, for some people might need a fifth tomorrow, but but no, I
7:59
thought, well, let's be a little creative, you know, So I went
8:02
with a little different graphic package tonight where, you know,
8:05
just trying things a little different.
8:06
And I thought, well, why not? Let's try something different.
8:09
And I finished that not too long before the show, by the way,
8:13
because the formatting wasn't going the way that I wanted it
8:15
to. So I had a lot of different
8:17
words to say about that. But until then I thought, wow,
8:20
it came out pretty nice. So then it's finding music that
8:23
Facebook and YouTube won't dislike and try to claim and all
8:26
that kind of deal because ain't nobody got time for that.
8:28
So I already plagiarized myself last Thursday, as I said.
8:32
So we learned, you know, I taught people then that you
8:35
can't actually self plagiarize yourself if you didn't know
8:37
that. So again, 64 hours of my life
8:40
one time talking about plagiarism, I will back to that.
8:44
But other than that, I know we have Tim coming up and then he's
8:48
our only guest tonight. So we'll be bringing him on
8:51
shortly and then we'll talk. You and I were at the same place
8:53
on Saturday at New Paris. And so I figure when when we're
8:56
done with Tim and we've talked about it, not only his racing
8:59
career, but being an owner at Hartford, what got him into that
9:02
and everything from there, then we can dissect a little bit of
9:05
the weekend over at New Paris and what we taught, what we both
9:08
saw. I know thought from a different
9:10
angle than I did, but other than that, how's your Monday going
9:15
overall? Not too bad, not too bad, too
9:17
far, a little too far away from racing for my liking, a little
9:20
bit too much of a chance in the rain or chance of rain in the
9:22
forecast on Friday for my liking.
9:24
So that's dragging the mood down a little bit.
9:26
But we got time for that to improve and we're only at 30%.
9:29
So optimism, 70% chance of not raining.
9:34
What, the third Monday in a row that we've come on and it's been
9:36
storming or something? Like that at least the third.
9:39
It feels like the 8th but I don't know, it might be more
9:41
than three. We've been pretty consistent
9:43
here. So I don't know what I think
9:44
about that. But other than that for the
9:47
comments I do want. There was a earlier I posted Ray
9:51
Roberts racing in the in the Hornets at New Paris.
9:54
And it started a question that Matt McGee had typed in there
9:59
that he races with both feet. And I've seen other people who
10:02
don't race with both feet. So for those racers who are
10:05
joining us, 1 foot or two foot, what do you think?
10:08
So you can put that in the comments as we go on.
10:11
But other than that, if you're ready, it is seven O 5.
10:13
Are you ready to bring on Tim? Do it.
10:17
All right. So again, joining us from
10:19
Hartford Speedway, we have Tim Dibble.
10:22
Welcome, Tim. Hey guys, how you doing?
10:24
Good. How are you?
10:26
Hey, we could talk about racing again.
10:28
So 2 feet 2 feet got to. Be two.
10:32
Got to be two. So what all did have you raced?
10:34
So let's just kind of like jump right in there.
10:36
So because I I know there's a picture in the concession barn
10:40
of you racing. It looks like a what would you
10:42
call it? Like a street stock at the time
10:44
or pro stock or something like. That pier stocks, they called
10:47
them back then. I mean, I always did.
10:49
I started out doing enduros and that kind of stuff and then went
10:52
through the whole demolition Derby scene and then started,
10:57
that's when the year the Jim Borden bought the track, they
11:00
started this pure stock class. And so I'm like, you know what,
11:03
I'm going to, I'm going to build a race car.
11:05
I'm tired of demolition Derby every week dragging something
11:07
home that you got to fix or junk or start over or whatever.
11:11
So, so that's where it started, you know, started racing your
11:14
stocks that first year, 1008 I believe. 2000 yeah, because that
11:20
photo I think is what, 2010 No, I I'd have to look at it.
11:24
But when I get my chicken strips and I'm putting the barbecue in,
11:28
you're right above the BBQ sauce, I'm like, everybody has
11:31
to, everybody has to look at that photo.
11:33
If you're getting, you know, ranch or BBQ when you're when
11:36
you're in that pit concession. So it's right there.
11:38
And so I have to look again because I always like looking at
11:41
that photo. You know, it's always those
11:42
throwbacks and you don't see a lot of race tracks that have
11:45
throwback photos, you know, anywhere around the facility.
11:48
So it's pretty cool that you guys at least have in spots
11:51
memorabilia that kind of shows some of the history. 2008 that
11:56
that seems like yesterday, but that's how long ago it was
12:00
started out didn't know nothing about direct tracks racing the
12:03
first dirt track I ever raced on actually, and it was the half
12:05
mile then even bigger, you know, so, but I ended up and not
12:10
bragging, but I ended up winning the championship that year,
12:12
which I knew absolutely nothing about points or anything.
12:14
I was just out there on a week to week racing deal.
12:17
And finally the guy that was helping me about 3/4 of the way
12:20
through the season says, Hey, you know, you're leading the
12:22
points and I'm like, what's that mean?
12:24
What, what you know, he's like, well, you could be the track
12:27
champion in the pure stocks and I'm like, oh, OK, whatever, you
12:31
know, I didn't know what the heck it was.
12:32
I just was racing, you know, but I ended up winning the
12:35
championship that year and then jumped up to factory stocks and
12:39
battled them for a while and then decided I wanted to own the
12:43
place. That's where, well, you know, we
12:47
have, that's why I didn't want to schedule a guest behind you
12:49
because we have so much that, you know, we could really dive
12:52
into from your racing career and highlights from your racing
12:54
career and different memories and that sort of deal to then
12:58
why'd you want to own a racetrack.
12:59
And then, you know, and obviously now this is what going
13:02
on. You're 14, I think for you guys
13:04
to 14. Yeah, 13.
13:06
So, you know, and, and it wasn't all that long ago that, you
13:10
know, we weren't sure, you know, if you'd get to 13 years just
13:13
because of, you know, life and all these kind of things.
13:15
So you know just the path that you guys have gone on.
13:18
I had a five year plan, but that.
13:22
It, it just advances, it's like, you know, coaching contracts,
13:25
they just add three years at a time and then fire that coach
13:28
anyways, but and then pay him, you know, $58,000,000 to sit at
13:31
home. But obviously you're not going
13:33
to get $58,000,000 to sit at home.
13:35
So, you know, that you just extend that.
13:37
And so, yeah, there's just so much that we can dive into.
13:41
And I know for like Boozoo, I think he's only been to Hartford
13:43
once. So this is a big, you know,
13:46
opportunity for him to get to know you, too, and what you
13:49
represent and who you are. So kind of up to you.
13:52
Where do you want to start? Ask me anything you want to
13:55
know. So let's start with you did you
13:58
said you did enduros and demolition Derby.
14:00
So what got you into that? And then if you even want to let
14:04
people know like what you used to do, you know, professionally
14:07
even before that too, with, you know, keeping you in stitches
14:10
and, you know, and doing all the.
14:12
All through high school I actually worked for an ice
14:14
company and ice ice service and delivered ice and stuff.
14:16
And then ahead of Time's potato chip row and I delivered Pepsi a
14:21
little bit and, you know, just different stuff.
14:27
Are you guys there? I lost.
14:28
You yeah, we were OK. Sometimes we cheat if I could
14:31
drink really quick of water, but YouTube sometimes will flag it
14:36
still and say we saw you drinking something and I'm like,
14:40
are you kidding me? It's water.
14:41
It even says, you know, I don't want to put it on there, but it
14:43
says Aquafina. But it's like a promotion
14:46
advertising thing. So sometimes we we cheat a
14:48
little bit and I go full screen so that, you know, we can get a
14:51
drink of something while the guest is talking.
14:53
So that's. Been a gearhead even as a kid,
14:56
I'll call it. We had dirt bikes and all that
14:58
stuff and just, you know, back then you could work on stuff,
15:02
lawn mowers, go karts, whatever, you know what I mean?
15:04
So we were always, me and my buddies were always screwing
15:06
around in the garage with something, you know, and then I
15:09
had a Camaro when I was in high school and you know, and so it
15:12
was cammed up and what, you know, just just always kind of
15:16
been a motor guy or whatever, you know, sports car guy.
15:19
And then like I said, started in the enduros.
15:22
There was a big, there was about 15 people around here where I
15:25
live in Bainbridge that were doing enduros at Kalamazoo.
15:28
You know, that's when that's when the enduros were just huge,
15:31
you know, $10,000 to win. Some of them were and I mean
15:34
cars lined 4 wide from the front to the back, you know what I
15:37
mean it all the way around the track, you know it.
15:39
That's when endurros were like humongous.
15:42
I don't know if you got to know if Lewis if you were involved in
15:44
racing then or not, but are you in either one of you?
15:46
But but yeah, I mean it was Kalamazoo was the enduro
15:50
capital, you know, I mean it was.
15:53
But then life happens and I met my wife, ex-wife now and got
16:00
married and had kids and blah, blah, blah.
16:02
And and then started when the my girls got a little older, that's
16:06
when I started doing demolition derbies just at the fairs and
16:09
all that kind of stuff. And then got divorced.
16:12
And that's the year I said I'm going to build a race car, you
16:15
know, I wanted one forever. And Hartford started that class,
16:18
which was semi economical, you know what I mean?
16:21
So so went for it. But so that's pretty much the
16:26
racing side of it, you know? And then how many championships
16:30
was that the one? Is that the one?
16:32
At just the one that first. Championship, but I mean, that's
16:34
like, do you almost retire after that, right?
16:37
You come right out of the gate, you first year, you, you're
16:39
like, hey, I got a championship. Oh yeah, I thought this dirt
16:41
track racing nothing to it. So then I'm moving up to a
16:43
factory stock and then I got AI got a little bit of a lesson,
16:46
you know, I mean, but still was competitive in that, but never,
16:51
you know, never championship or whatever, but but loved it, you
16:54
know, but. So then what was the, you know,
16:59
for you as a driver then making that move for those who may not
17:02
know, you know, 'cause classes have changed names over time,
17:06
you know, you add this or you add that, now you're going to
17:08
name it something different. So for those who may not know,
17:11
especially those who are watching, who may not know dirt
17:14
track racing, you know what would be that biggest
17:16
adjustment? Going from like a peer stock to
17:19
a factory stock 'cause now 'cause were your factory stocks
17:23
then? Like what would have been
17:25
evolutions to like your stock cars before?
17:28
Yeah, I mean, they weren't near what these guys have now.
17:30
They were faster and obviously more money, you know, and but
17:34
they weren't near the pieces of equipment that these guys got
17:37
now, you know, these stock cars are basically almost modified
17:40
with a body on them. You know, they're they're crazy,
17:44
but they were a lot faster than the pure stock, you know.
17:46
And so but that's what I think that's what killed the classes.
17:51
It just kept getting out of hand, you know, eventually, and
17:54
guys couldn't afford to do it and you know, just like racing
17:58
in general, you know, unfortunately.
18:02
Oh, I, I just saw something in the comments because I, oh, I
18:05
kind of cut everyone's face with this, but Joel typed a a thing
18:09
here, so I do want to read it. I was looking while you were
18:11
talking and and just to kind of pull in because this is
18:15
something we'll definitely talk about tonight, but I didn't want
18:17
to lose it. Buju in the common area where it
18:18
says true story Tim and Lear the reason I am so passionate about
18:22
local short track racing. They were so kind to a dumb car
18:25
park salesman 10 to 11 years ago.
18:27
So welcoming, so nice, good, dirty, clean family fun. 10
18:31
years ago, never would have dreamed I'd be this involved in
18:34
racing. Thank you.
18:35
So again, that's from Joel Aru, who you know, is our announcer
18:39
at Kalamazoo now. But it's when you know, we're
18:42
going to segue into then, you know, you go from racing to
18:45
then, you know, owning. That's one of the things that
18:49
you've had people work for you for 13 years now, going on 13
18:52
years who have been very loyal to all that.
18:55
So, you know, do you think that's something that when you
18:58
were a race car driver and you know, you got into this and you
19:01
want to race, that you saw like how people were treated and when
19:04
you took over, you wanted that? Or what kind of influence on how
19:07
you treat people where you have such a reputation, not only in
19:11
Michigan but around the area as one of the top owners and
19:14
promoters out there. Well, you know what's funny?
19:16
So as as I was racing and then Timmy was born and I quit racing
19:20
and and then I actually helped Jim Borden and his family
19:25
promote the one. I started helping him in the
19:27
winter a little bit, get things ready.
19:29
And I was always that guy around the racetrack that said, man, if
19:32
I own this, I would do this or if I owned it, I would do that.
19:34
You know, I mean, not not Downing what other what they
19:37
were doing, but you know, just I think this could make it better.
19:40
You know, I kind of had all these mental notes, you know,
19:43
and then I helped him that year. And then unfortunately, Jim got
19:49
brain cancer and passed away. And I went to Becky and Jr. and
19:53
they, we worked it out. You know, I think they ran it
19:56
one year. They're kind of three or four
19:57
races for one year just to keep it going.
19:59
And then I kept saying, I want to own that place.
20:01
I want to own that place. And I wasn't, my plan wasn't to
20:04
own it 13 years ago. My plan was maybe to own it
20:07
about at my age right now and own it for five or six years.
20:10
And because I still had my other business keeping you in stitches
20:13
and Leah was cutting hair and. And I mean, I told these and
20:16
everybody's like, you are nuts. You are, you are not why, why?
20:20
You know what I mean? And I just had it.
20:22
I wanted and, you know, Leah threatened to divorce me if I
20:24
owned it, you know what I mean? But thank God she hung with me,
20:27
you know what I mean? But but I mean, overall it's
20:30
been good. But so I took those things that
20:33
I had always remembered and and, you know, and put them into
20:38
action. And it seems to have worked.
20:40
You know, we, we treat everybody fair or try to treat everybody
20:43
fair. You know, Leah's up top.
20:45
I'm on the driver's side. She treats the fans great.
20:47
And we try to treat the drivers good and just just make it an
20:51
enjoyable experience for a couple hours.
20:53
You know what I mean? You know, driving a race car,
20:55
you still have that tension and Fender banging and arguing in
20:59
the pits and maybe even a punch thrown once in a while.
21:02
But we don't tolerate a lot of that.
21:04
But but still, just try to make these guys and the fans when
21:07
they come out to have an enjoyable experience for two or
21:09
three hours. And you know, that's kind of
21:11
what we've done, you know, and don't complaints don't fall on
21:16
deaf ears with us, you know, and that's the other thing.
21:18
We're upfront, you know, I'm in the pits every night with the
21:20
guys. You got a problem, come see me,
21:22
you know, and Leah's right up there with the fans.
21:25
I mean, I think probably 3/4 of our fans know her, you know what
21:28
I mean? And it's, it's, it's, it's kind
21:30
of a relationship, you know what I mean?
21:32
They know we're there if there's a problem.
21:33
And you know, you're not talking to this guy who's the manager of
21:36
this department down on, which is nice, but also is a lot of
21:39
extra work for us. But that's kind of how we like
21:41
it, you know what I mean? I, I've always said, I don't
21:43
know how these guys can run a racetrack and not even be there
21:45
that night for racing, you know what I mean?
21:47
And count on which, no offense, there's a lot of good staff out
21:50
there, but still, I, I, I'm not that guy.
21:52
I can't, you know, I have a lot of great help and so does she,
21:55
but still it's my place and the buck stops with me and I want to
21:59
be the guy that's there if if need be, you know what I mean?
22:02
So, so that's kind of how it works for us, you know.
22:06
When you do so well with that, I mean, you know, I, I went there
22:12
for the first time long time in 20/22.
22:14
It had been before COVID before that in 2019 when World outlaws
22:18
were there. But that's something that, you
22:20
know, you guys welcomed me in on June 10th, 2022 and and, you
22:25
know, I was just nobody and I still think I'm kind of nobody,
22:28
but I'm a bigger nobody than I was then.
22:30
I mean, I truly had like nobody. And you know, that's something
22:34
that you guys gave me an opportunity.
22:36
But just from the moment that I walked in the gates that first
22:39
day, I felt like I'd been there forever.
22:41
And there was that vibe from Chris Harry, who I know watches
22:44
all the time, and just all the staff in general, anything I
22:47
asked, I mean, everyone was so helpful.
22:49
You guys were helpful and and I didn't really know anybody.
22:53
I mean, I knew tremies, you know, a little bit, but other,
22:57
you know, other than that, everyone was new.
22:59
And so that vibe is just whether you're on the fan side and I
23:03
felt they was that way as a fan to then on the media side where,
23:07
you know, it's just everyone looks happy.
23:10
And then I mean, every time I've been there, I don't even see AI
23:13
don't see fights. I don't you really see arguments
23:16
even. I mean, it's kind of like a
23:17
Springport vibe in a way where it, you know, everybody figures
23:21
out how to figure it out, right? And there's no swinging fists or
23:25
anything. Like, you know, we just, you
23:27
know, Donnie doesn't put up with that kind of stuff.
23:29
And I know you don't put up with that kind of stuff.
23:31
It's a 0 tolerance, but you know, with that, does that
23:35
sometimes, you know, wear down in a way where in a good or bad
23:40
way where it's like you put so much energy into making sure
23:43
that everyone is kind of getting what they want that sometimes
23:47
you're like, man, I don't, I don't know what Tim wants now
23:50
because I'm a little exhausted from all of.
23:52
This. Yeah, it's, it's frustrating at
23:54
times because you work so we both work so hard to try to make
23:57
it good for everybody. And then you still see people
24:00
complaining and, you know, and after 13 years, you kind of
24:03
learn to let that just roll off. But it's still hard, you know,
24:06
because, you know, these people complain on Facebook or
24:08
whatever, which we all know Facebook is the devil kind of,
24:11
you know, as far as that side of it goes.
24:13
It's a great information piece for advertising, but it also
24:16
opens up that complaint forum. But, you know, Hartford Speedway
24:21
is not this big corporation where you're complaining about,
24:24
you know, there's 10 executives sitting in an office somewhere
24:27
that are when you're complaining about, you're complaining about
24:29
us, you know what I mean? So you kind of got to learn to
24:32
let that roll off your shoulder and go, hey, OK, you know, we've
24:34
had, we had 1000 people there and we got one person
24:37
complaining. So, you know, I guess if you
24:39
consider the odds, that's OK. Because unfortunately in the
24:42
world today, it's hard to make everybody happy.
24:44
I don't, I don't care what you do, you know, I mean, but we
24:47
sure do try hard, you know what I mean?
24:48
And and if there is a problem, we try to solve it right then
24:51
and there and and go on, you know, But still you just,
24:54
sometimes you just can't. So what do you think, you know,
24:58
cuz when we had Leah on a few weeks ago, just before we
25:01
brought on Megan from like M40 and obviously at M40, they've
25:04
done a lot to bring that back from the dead, you know, and,
25:08
and for Leah, we talked a little, we talked a lot about
25:10
like operations, but then, you know, at the same time, she's
25:14
not on the track all the time, you know, taking care of like
25:16
the track like you do. I mean, you're literally
25:18
investing your, you know, yourself into that, you know,
25:22
into the surface itself and the pit area and all that.
25:25
So you as an owner, you know, we asked Leah this too.
25:28
What do you feel is like the biggest challenge when it comes
25:31
to like the dirt track side of things versus maybe in an
25:35
asphalt where everyone kind of shows up and tracks like ready
25:38
to go and ready to do. And you know, dirt's not that
25:41
way. No, definitely the track by far
25:44
is the biggest and I try so hard every week to make it perfect.
25:50
And you know, I'm, I had my heart on myself.
25:53
You know, a lot of times there'll be a bump here or a
25:54
hole there and I'll be like everybody like, oh man, it's a
25:57
good race. And I say, Oh yeah, except for
25:58
that hole in turn 1 or whatever. Oh man, that's character.
26:01
Don't that heck, that ain't nothing compared to some of the
26:03
other places we go. So I'm, I'm hard on myself, but
26:05
I want to be perfect every night.
26:07
You know, I mean, I want three and four wide racing if they
26:09
want to, and I want it smooth and fast and not dusty, which,
26:13
which is hard to do in Michigan because it's hard to get decent
26:16
clay in Michigan, you know, I mean, I'm sure it's other places
26:18
too, but still, at the end of the day, it's hard.
26:21
And so, you know, the track definitely is what kicks my butt
26:25
every week. And, and it's different every
26:27
week. It might rain three days this
26:29
week and then the next week it's 100 and no rain.
26:31
And so then you're dealing with this and dealing with, you know,
26:34
it's, it's, it's definitely different every week getting
26:37
that thing ready, you know, to try to put on a race.
26:40
So that that's the hardest for me.
26:41
The rest of it's OK. I mean, I have good staff that
26:44
helps me with stuff on nights before the race, Wednesday,
26:48
Thursday nights, helps me water and all that stuff.
26:50
So, you know, mowing lawn ain't no big deal.
26:53
That's a piece of cake. But the track?
26:55
Not so much. What would you say the range is
26:58
hour wise and how much time you spend on track prep in a week?
27:06
20 hours, probably by telling me you grade it two or three times
27:09
and water Wednesday night, water Thursday night and then all day
27:13
Friday, getting it ready, you know, keeping it ready.
27:15
And yeah, at least that, you know, depending on what the
27:18
weather is and where you're at and, you know.
27:23
Fair enough. What's this takes?
27:25
It takes probably. Two hours, 2 1/2 hours to grade
27:28
it, you know, so so. I got you.
27:33
Well, there's kind of like a science to it, right, Tim?
27:35
Like is there, you know, I, Tony Izzo, I want to say junior, when
27:39
they were doing not only the Plymouth dirt track, but
27:41
sometimes they've done that at LaSalle where they've kind of
27:44
talked about that. So here in Michigan, we have
27:47
like a sandy base in our area where, you know, you and I are,
27:49
it's very sandy because of the dunes, you know, So what kind
27:53
of, and you don't have to give all your secrets away, right?
27:56
But what kind of science goes into what an ideal dirt track
28:00
would be for what you have to work with surface wise?
28:03
Hell, I don't know. I'm, I'm trying something
28:05
different every week still. I mean literally I've, I've
28:09
bought different pieces of equipment to try to make it
28:12
better. I mean I've done everything.
28:15
Still end up getting about this same result.
28:18
I haven't had the one night yet where I went, God Dang, I
28:21
finally hit it perfect. You know what I mean?
28:22
And I'm going to do this next week now because then that what
28:25
you did the week before might not work for the next week.
28:28
So there is no secret. I mean, you just water it and
28:31
pack it in and hope that it holds.
28:33
And you know, it's hard for us Friday nights because we start
28:38
at 7:30. You know, that sun is right
28:40
there at the time we're trying to get the track ready. 43530
28:43
The sun is at its hottest point in the summertime.
28:46
So you're, I mean, as fast as you can put water to it, it's
28:48
about dry and you know, and then if the wind's blowing, that
28:51
dries even more. So I mean there it's just kind
28:54
of you just fly by the seat of your pants and keep your fingers
28:57
crossed. And I mean, you've been there
28:59
before. We're out there at supposed to
29:00
start at 7:30 and we're out there at 7:28 and I'm yelling
29:03
everybody that's got tires get out here.
29:05
We need to, you know, because I put a little too much water on
29:07
it, you know, So there's, it's, it's just get luckier, you know,
29:13
that's a problem. I can say there is no actual
29:15
science to it. Is is there one time you just
29:18
totally missed like I screwed this up?
29:20
We we're not going to have a good track tonight.
29:24
Not so much the track at that, but it's like we've had to start
29:27
20 minutes later, 25 minutes late because it just won't come
29:30
in. You know, you're running and
29:32
running and running and the humidity is high and it's
29:34
cloudy. There's no drying power.
29:35
You're just, oh man, I put too much water on and you're trying
29:38
to get it to be right and it just won't get there.
29:41
And then so I mean, I hate that we pride ourself on starting at
29:44
7:30. I mean 73730 and and when you
29:48
got it, I don't like making my fan sit there an extra 25
29:50
minutes watching these trucks go around the track.
29:52
I mean, most people that come to dirt tracks understand that, but
29:56
still I don't, I don't like that, you know, but so that's
29:59
probably the worst. You know, you just put too much
30:01
water on and then you're just stuck, you know, and there ain't
30:04
no way to get rid of it besides just keep going around in
30:06
circles on it. So, you know, even with that, do
30:11
you want to give a shout out while we're at it talking about
30:13
especially track prep, you know, a shout out to your teammates,
30:17
you know, who helped with that? Because obviously, you know,
30:20
when I was here in 2022 and I came with the idea for autograph
30:23
night that, hey, let's get autographs for, you know,
30:25
autograph cards for the team members, right?
30:29
Because they're part of the show.
30:30
I mean, they make the show in a way, right?
30:32
And so if you while we're on, if you want to, you know, on that
30:36
topic, if you want to give your crew members a, a shout out and,
30:39
and who helps you while you're getting things ready.
30:42
Yeah, I mean, obviously Chris, you know Chris, he's been there
30:46
for I don't even know how many years.
30:47
He started out as kind of a track helper guy or whatever.
30:49
Now he's actually the Pitt Stewart now.
30:51
So Bradley has been 13 years with me.
30:55
I mean, he's he's my one of my old faithfuls.
30:58
I mean, the guy just comes there every Wednesday, Thursday night,
31:02
helps Waters whatever we need. He he jumps right in and helps
31:05
and and Wayne Claus, been there 13 years with me, you know what
31:09
I mean? He's he's same thing, you know,
31:12
whatever, he's an electrician. So anything I need electrical or
31:15
whatever, he jumps right in and takes care of it.
31:18
Jack, I think you know, Jack probably he's my, he's my middle
31:21
of the week guy helps me mow lawn a little bit and drives
31:24
around and picks up trash and cigarette butts and all that.
31:27
And and you know, I so Greg Merkel shows up early on
31:31
Fridays. You know, I so I couldn't, you
31:33
know, I couldn't do it what I do without them guys.
31:36
And and I always say that, you know, everybody says, oh, Tim
31:38
and Lee, it's Tim and Lee. Well, it's not Tim and Lee.
31:40
It's it's the whole team and the whole crew.
31:43
And you know, yes, we are the leaders, but you know, it still
31:46
takes all those people to make it work.
31:49
You know, it's funny when you own a racetrack like and I'm
31:51
sure like M 40s probably finding this out right now.
31:54
You know, when you first buy it, you have a lot of people that
31:57
want to volunteer and come out and help and help us paint and
32:00
all that. Man, you got 30 people coming
32:02
out there. You know, well, as the years go
32:03
on, no offense to them people, but it kind of just dwindles,
32:07
you know what I mean? And now you hear you are with
32:09
your old faithful four or five guys, you know, and but but
32:13
still, I mean, I understand life happens for people and all that.
32:16
So I get it, you know, but but as time goes on, you kind of
32:20
lose those volunteer helpers, you know?
32:25
But so that's the main ones for me anyway.
32:27
I know Lee has got a good group up there to help her a lot you
32:30
know, but that's my main 5. Well, and you and like, you
32:37
know, we kind of open up. I mean, you've kept so many
32:39
people for 13 years and that just says a lot about, again,
32:42
you know, you guys in general, just because that's I, you know,
32:47
you could go to a few tracks that you're going to find, you
32:50
know, one or two, three people who have been there for so long.
32:53
But but then it's like such a drop off.
32:56
And so I mean, even the staff who I know fans interact with, I
33:00
mean always seem helpful, always seem ready to it's.
33:03
Going to get loud here. There's literally hail the size
33:05
of quarters falling from the sky right now.
33:10
I hear my garage with the door open.
33:12
It is hail and like the right know tomorrow.
33:14
Well, we can tell the storm was coming because you started to
33:16
lose signal a little bit. And I went, oh, you know, that's
33:19
what I'm worried about. It's like, are we going to lose?
33:21
I mean, I have with the Comcast word as they calling up, I feel
33:24
I'm good. But I could tell that you could
33:27
hear the rumble and you could see your images distorting a
33:29
little bit. I'm like, it's about the storm
33:31
there. Let me get up and shut my door
33:33
real quick. OK, I don't know.
33:36
I mean, you can hear it, you know.
33:37
I heard. I thought it was my Thunder, but
33:39
that is his Thunder. Yeah, I had.
33:42
I had a plane going overhead at the same time, so I was trying
33:44
to figure out if it was me or him, and I think it was a little
33:46
bit of both. And you know, that's well it
33:51
was, I mean, earlier here it was sunny and raining.
33:54
I'm like, where did that come from?
33:55
So, and this isn't even the main stuff, the main stuff not
33:58
supposed to come till like 11 tonight so.
34:00
I don't know if it made that made it any quieter or not.
34:04
Yeah, we could still hear you, but I could tell the storm was
34:06
coming because your image started to go.
34:07
I'm like, oh, it, it's almost there so.
34:10
It is hailing like crazy. I don't know what it's doing,
34:13
where you're at, but it is. It is coming now.
34:15
It's. Sunny now.
34:16
Sunny or sunny? Wet, but sunny now.
34:19
But anyways, I'm sorry I but it was just, I mean, you got hail.
34:23
At least it's doing it now and not on Friday, right?
34:26
Yeah. Right, right.
34:28
So then I know there's a lot of different questions.
34:31
I know Buju was writing. So Buju, I know you were writing
34:33
down some questions. So I want to make sure that I
34:35
get you get your questions in too.
34:38
We covered some of them already, but touching on something that
34:41
you kind of talked about a little bit earlier.
34:42
If there was one question as owner promoter that you could
34:46
just answer forever, you could have a tattoo on your forehead.
34:48
Never have to answer this question again, what would that
34:50
one be? Cost to get in every week.
34:57
No, I guess I don't really know they, I don't know that one.
35:02
I mean, you get fielded with so many questions that, yeah.
35:07
There's enough. There's enough.
35:08
There's enough variety, I guess. Yeah, yeah.
35:12
I mean, Leah might try to. Be real good.
35:14
I mean, I have a great tech guy, but most people, well, that's
35:17
being so hands on. They message me about questions
35:20
about stuff. So, so I get filled with
35:22
everything. I'm building a new car.
35:23
Can I do this? Can I not do that?
35:25
You know, so it, it's just, it's never ending, you know?
35:29
Yeah, that's what I was thinking of Leah, when you asked that
35:31
question that. Yeah, Leah, are the race is
35:33
still on. Yeah, yeah, Friday morning.
35:36
That's the that's the big one. So, well, and you're probably
35:42
tired of hearing about the the half mile, but if you want to
35:45
talk a little bit about a little bit about that, you know,
35:49
decision in a way, like when you guys are running the half mile
35:52
and then you converted it over like one.
35:54
How'd you figure out how you wanted to do the 3/8?
35:57
Like how you wanted to make that?
35:59
Because that that's made a wicked half mile into that
36:02
treacherous turn 3, which I, you know, and tell people walk the
36:05
track. I think it's hard to understand
36:07
why it becomes like treacherous. But you know, if you want to
36:11
talk a little bit about like, we didn't ask Leah this, but the
36:15
decision behind like, hey, you know, half mile racing isn't
36:19
working anymore. And it's not just you, it's
36:21
there's tracks in Iowa. There's tracks all over that.
36:24
They actually, there's an article, I think in the Des
36:26
Moines paper that said, well, there's a racetrack in Michigan,
36:30
Hartford Motor Speedway, who did this and you know, many and they
36:33
cited like they're trying to configure it just like yours at
36:36
the fairgrounds. So you want to talk a little bit
36:38
about that. You know what it was and and how
36:41
you figured out. This is where we turn.
36:44
I mean, I guess I don't know what the final the thing was.
36:47
Our car count kept going down and down and down.
36:50
And at that time, if I knew now what I knew that or however you
36:54
want to say that, I probably wouldn't have done it knowing
36:57
that all north of me was going to go IMCA and the UMP cars are
37:00
going to drop off. And you know, different,
37:03
different things that at that time, you know, we couldn't get
37:06
a good car count because, you know, to come to Hartford, you
37:09
had to change gear, you had to change setup and all that Will
37:11
like the guy that wanted to come on Friday and then go race at
37:14
his three H track on Saturday. It it wasn't possible for them.
37:18
I mean, especially the stock car guys and all that.
37:20
I mean, the modifieds have quick changes and the late miles had
37:23
quick changes. So that's a lot, lot easier for
37:25
them. But still, you know, and I had a
37:27
lot of drivers chiming in my, you know, the tracks hard on our
37:29
engines. You know, I don't want to come.
37:31
It's too big. And it's, you know, if you
37:33
shorten the track, we'll be there for sure.
37:35
And you know, I I heard a lot of that stuff which didn't really
37:39
hold the be true, But but the whole racing scene has changed a
37:43
lot in the 13 years, you know, so, but at the end of the day,
37:48
we laid that track out the way that that turn 3 is, is how I
37:52
wanted it. I mean, everybody said, oh,
37:54
that's treacherous turn 3 and blah, blah, blah, blah, blah.
37:56
But all I heard non-stop was this track is to these tracks
38:00
are too hard on our motors because you just stand on it and
38:03
go. Well, I wanted to make a corner
38:05
where they had to at least burp the throttle for a second to get
38:09
out of it and and let the guys behind catch up maybe even a
38:13
little bit or, you know, I wanted to, you have to drive it.
38:16
You can't just stand on your gas pedal and go around and around
38:19
and around for 20 laps, you know what I mean?
38:20
You kind of got to drive it, which we've got some guys, these
38:23
Sprint car guys and all that. They have figured it out.
38:25
They still stand on it wide open all the way around there.
38:27
It can be done, you know, but, but that's kind of the way I
38:30
wanted it. Not because I wanted Sprint cars
38:33
to hit the wall and turn 3 or any of that.
38:34
That wasn't the plan, you know what I mean?
38:36
But I just wanted something where they had to at least let
38:38
off the gas for a second, you know what I mean?
38:40
And, and I thought that would help.
38:42
And it has some years tighten up in turn 3 and then turn 4 gets
38:47
really wide to promote slide jobs coming out, especially even
38:50
because I never moved the the check the flag stand, it's still
38:53
kind of coming right out of turn 4.
38:55
So I'm I thought, man, this, this will promote some slide
38:57
jobs coming out of turn 4 for the win, You know, which has
39:00
happened some nights, you know what I mean?
39:02
So, but at the end of the whole deal, the time and the money on
39:08
fuel and the all that stuff, it's definitely worth shortening
39:13
it. You know, I know the die hard
39:14
fans still want to shoot me sometimes, but I get it, the
39:18
nostalgic fans, I call them and you know what I mean?
39:20
But but it also, it was to a point, like with the Cyberstock
39:24
class, I either had to shorten the track or I had to eliminate
39:27
that class because they were going too fast.
39:30
The cars were too light. I mean that last year it was 1/2
39:32
mile. I bet we had, I don't even know,
39:35
20-30 cars roll over. I mean, they hit a Pebble going
39:38
through the corner and they're flipping because they're just it
39:40
was too fast, you know, and so that allowed me to do make that
39:45
better. It also allowed me to do night
39:46
of destructions because couldn't do them on 1/2 mile.
39:49
I mean, these guys go fast enough on a 3/8, let alone a
39:53
trailer race on 1/2 mile track would be horrible, you know what
39:56
I mean? So so it's opened up the door
39:58
for other things. You know, I don't I don't think
40:02
I don't know if it's made the racing any better, but I think
40:05
the racing is still great. I mean, I think I've talked to a
40:07
lot of Sprint car fans and they say they can't really tell the
40:09
difference. They're flying around there just
40:11
as fast as they used to, you know what I mean?
40:13
So. Because it's so wide and, and
40:15
they like it because they go 3 wide and different stuff, you
40:17
know, so, so I think it was the right move.
40:21
Well, in World of Outlaws are, I mean, this is, is this the first
40:26
time since 2019 that they're coming?
40:28
Because I know you've had rain out.
40:30
But for a World of Outlaw organization to want to come
40:34
back to Hartford, that has to speak something, not only for
40:37
what what you guys do, but you know, for that tour to want to
40:41
come back. I know this is not the first
40:42
time that they've tried, right. I mean, other times it's just
40:45
rained. It's been weird stuff.
40:46
It's you know, and, and World Outlaws you get one time and
40:49
that's it. You know, it's rarely it's hard
40:51
to reschedule, but. We were excited.
40:54
I reached out to him last year. And then they already, you know,
40:56
they make their schedule in August, kind of.
40:59
I mean, they're already planning the next year.
41:02
And then this year they contacted me and said, Hey, you
41:04
reached out last year, we'd like to come, you know, which is, you
41:08
know, they haven't been north of Eldora or, you know, in a long,
41:13
long time. But since 2019 probably, you
41:15
know, they haven't even they haven't been north of Eldora or,
41:18
you know, Wisconsin, you know, that's about the closest you
41:20
could come to see him. So, so we're pretty excited
41:22
about that, that they're coming to Michigan, you know, and
41:24
coming to us. So so that's kind of a, that's a
41:26
cool big deal, you know? Well, I know Kalamazoo took the
41:30
Friday night off because of that where we have a demolition Derby
41:33
and old school demolition Derby on Saturday, like the
41:35
traditional that you'd see at a fairground on the next day.
41:39
But you know, I think our owner at Kalamazoo is going to have a,
41:42
you know, wants a boxer wants to be there on the right dirt
41:46
Sprint car racing, which again, just shows the power of the
41:49
World of Outlaws that it you know, it tells others like we
41:52
know this game. We're not going head to head
41:53
with that because we know where everyone will be so.
41:56
Which is great, you know, we get along good with Randy, we get
41:59
along good with the M40 bunch, you know what I mean?
42:01
We try to help each other as much as we can, you know?
42:04
So that's nice that these 3 tracks right here can kind of
42:07
try to work together, you know? So what goes into the World of
42:11
outlaw planning like, you know, are you on the hook for that
42:15
kind of purse or is that World of Outlaws or what?
42:17
What does that look like for? Family, there's a promoter that
42:19
does it. OK, so we do crack prep and all
42:22
that that's all ours and concessions.
42:24
And then there's a promoter that actually does the World of
42:27
Outlaw side of it, the purse and all that stuff.
42:29
He gets all the ticket sales, you know, and that stuff.
42:32
So, so that's how it works. You know, I mean it, it's, it's
42:35
almost too hard for a little track like us to take on that,
42:38
to swallow that, you know, it's a great show, but it's it's
42:43
expensive. Yeah.
42:46
So then what is the, you know, in the time that you've owned
42:49
it, you've had like late models, you've had stock cars, you've
42:53
now had super Troopers, but you're you're you've had the
42:56
healthiest town of super troopers to any track so far.
43:01
Is there a class out there that you wish run or a class UC of
43:06
other tracks? So you're like, man, I wish we
43:08
could run that, but you know, it would take this.
43:12
Stock cars are near and dear to my heart just because I ran them
43:15
and we had a really good stock car field for a lot of years,
43:18
you know, and you know we had late models every week at one
43:22
point in time and then they just kept dropping off.
43:25
You know, it was starting to get so expensive for them and and
43:28
they dropped off, you know, even like modified this year.
43:30
I only run I'm running mods once.
43:32
You know, my my car count last year just kept dwindling And and
43:36
I get it, you know, the price of racing and fuel.
43:38
And I mean, most guys anymore are once a week racer and
43:43
they're going to race close to home, as close to home as they
43:46
can get. You know, it's not as easy
43:47
anymore to run here and then there, you know, it's too
43:50
expensive, just the price of racing the car and all that and
43:53
not counting fuel and pit passes and everything else.
43:56
And you know, so I think that's what's hurting the economy of
44:00
racing. You know what I mean is the guys
44:02
are just once a week close to home and that's it.
44:04
So my modified started dropping, you know, and it just wasn't
44:08
feasible anymore. So we started super troopers.
44:12
I think this is the third year now.
44:14
I think I was one of the I think Plymouth random and I don't
44:19
know, it just took off, you know what I mean?
44:20
It's a it's a affordable class to race in and it guys jumped
44:24
into it and we're doing our best to tech them and keep them fair
44:28
and and it seems to be working. You know the cybers are same way
44:31
I finally opened the rules up on them to run with Andy Jack's
44:36
rules, you know what I mean? Just so that way guys could
44:38
travel, try to get all on the same set.
44:40
You know of rules. I was trying for the longest
44:42
time to keep them pinned down and all that and it just it
44:45
didn't work. So I'm like heck with it here
44:47
you go. You know, but so we're just
44:51
running three class. The two classes are two local
44:53
classes and then you know, I have a headliner come in every
44:55
week at GLSS this Friday and then the 9 wings the next week.
44:59
And then you know, Andy's running his show the next week
45:02
with Midwest Dirt and Enduro. And so so we're going to see how
45:07
it works. One late model race with with
45:09
the modified side. That's the one time I do have
45:11
them and World of Outlaws and we have the All Stars coming back
45:14
again in the fall and Night of Destructions and so.
45:19
We do have a Knicks pull that up really quick.
45:22
So June again, Friday, June 5th for World Outlaws and we did oh,
45:28
did we Buju, when we did the preview schedule?
45:31
I don't think we no, we only did like that first four.
45:33
So maybe that's something that we can do not this week, but
45:37
next week we can go back through and do like another month at
45:40
advance, now that I think about it, But sorry, but I for those
45:43
who want to know, June 5th. So again, Kalamazoo's not racing
45:47
that night. I can already tell you we took
45:49
the night off. We have a real demolition Derby
45:52
on Saturday, June 6th. So I think most people are going
45:55
to be at Hartford on June 5th. But if you want to talk a little
45:58
bit about how you recruit then travelling series to come and
46:01
balance out your program. So like I know you've had a
46:03
good, you know, great relationship with Great Lakes
46:06
Super Sprints. I mean, they can't, it was
46:08
almost like Hartford was a home base, you know, there for a
46:10
little bit like last year and you know, they travelled around
46:12
a little bit, but now they're coming back more, you know, so
46:16
then obviously with Drew Jack, you've had a good relationship.
46:19
So what's it like to get late model racing and and then even 2
46:23
like you have UMP modifieds. Have you ever thought about
46:25
switching over to IMCA? So I know that's a lot in one
46:29
thing, but if. You.
46:29
No, I mean, I'll start with modifieds.
46:31
I have thought about switching to IMCA, but the problem is
46:35
everybody South of me is UMP. Yeah, everybody north of me is
46:38
IMCA. Well, I 96 runs on Friday
46:40
nights, I can't see guys driving by I-96 to come race at
46:44
Hartford, you know, and I get it, The price of fuel and
46:46
everything. They're like I said, they're
46:47
going to stay as close to home as they can, you know, or even
46:50
coming from Crystal or, you know, that's it's a 3 or 4 hour
46:53
haul, you know, and that it's just not feasible anymore for
46:56
people to do that. And unfortunately us promoters
46:59
can't pay what needs to be paid because like everything else,
47:04
our expenses are going through the roof too, you know what I
47:06
mean? So late models, there's a couple
47:10
series is out there, the Iron Man series, the hell tour.
47:14
You know, I, I tried to get a hell tour race this year and it
47:17
didn't work out. The Iron Man series.
47:20
I I've talked to them a couple times, but I've just kind of
47:24
figured out how I'm just going to do my own thing and you know,
47:26
and I'm not going to make them run Hoosiers.
47:29
They can run IMCA tires or Hoosiers, whatever they want and
47:32
just try to get, you know, 1518 of them there and put on a good
47:35
show for the fans. You know, the fans all say they
47:37
want late models, late model, late model, but then, you know,
47:40
I'll have one show. I'll have a good crowd and a
47:43
nice turn out, you know what I mean?
47:44
But I don't think my track can't support them on a weekly basis
47:48
anymore. You know, the and I get it.
47:50
They got to get paid a lot of money.
47:51
I understand, and it costs a lot of money to to run them things.
47:54
So I understand, you know, but so it you know, it's hard for us
47:57
to little tracks to run them weekly.
47:59
I don't even know who's running weekly anymore.
48:01
I think I 96 is I believe they got them kind of weekly, but
48:05
otherwise there ain't too many anymore.
48:07
You know what else was that? Did that answer all your?
48:12
14 years and like, you know, I threw a lot at you at once, but
48:17
that's where I was thinking. Like it made me think of 'cause
48:20
I think there was a track in Michigan or maybe it was close
48:22
by that just switched over to IMCA from UMP because they
48:26
thought maybe it'll be a little bit better for them to, you
48:29
know, blend in. And but as you kind of said,
48:32
like you can switch that, but that doesn't mean they will come
48:35
now in this area. Do you feel like it's a lack of
48:37
dirt tracks in your specific area that could kind of hurt
48:41
when you lost Plymouth dirt track?
48:43
And I know there's Midairyville, not the Midairville, it's Shady
48:46
Hill, but I mean, I know there's tracks there, but like really,
48:49
you guys are like the only you know, dirt track in town.
48:54
I mean, Butler's still UMPI believe and and us we're the
48:57
only two in Michigan, I believe that are UMP now.
49:00
I think I 96 is actually UMP late miles sanctioned for their
49:05
late miles, but I know their mods are IMCA, you know, and so,
49:09
you know, I don't know that's all changed too, because back in
49:11
the day you had to be one or the other and that was it.
49:13
You know, I mean you couldn't there was no it was a love hate
49:16
relationship. They you didn't have both, you
49:19
know, so I don't know why how that's working now, but you
49:22
know, good for them that they're doing that, you know, So, yeah,
49:27
I mean, that's the problem. I'm, I'm kind of and I've said
49:30
that before, like at the MSPA meeting or whatever, you know,
49:32
I've, I'm kind of hung out in the middle, you know what I
49:35
mean? I'm the Indiana guys that used
49:37
to travel aren't really doing that anymore.
49:39
You know, I have the the lake, which, you know, I can't get
49:42
cars. Nobody wants to come on 94
49:44
around the lake on Friday nights anymore because it's just a zoo,
49:47
you know, and traffic jams and that.
49:48
So there's, there's a lot of factors playing into what's
49:51
going on in Hartford, you know, And I, I don't think it's a
49:54
sanctioning body. I just think it's life, you
49:57
know? Yep.
49:59
Well, that's, I mean, that's where you know, when we think of
50:02
asphalt tracks, Buju, right? You know, you can with even
50:05
where I am, you can go to how many different asphalt tracks
50:08
within a 2 hour drive. But when it comes to a dirt
50:10
track, all of a sudden that number is severely limited,
50:15
right? So that's why, you know, I was
50:16
wondering, you know, for fans who might be wondering the same,
50:19
like, you know, what are some of the challenges that like you
50:22
might be facing at Hartford that sometimes maybe like those in
50:26
the stands don't think about, right?
50:28
Because it doesn't impact them. They, you know, they pay, you
50:31
know, $15 ticket to get in And well, I wish there were late
50:34
models or like, what do you want to see on the schedule this
50:36
year? Late model sprints.
50:38
But it's like, yes, but it takes finances to make that happen.
50:43
It takes butts and seats to make that happen.
50:45
And not just a couple butts. We, you know, not just the
50:48
diehards, we need thousands of people to make that happen and
50:53
and to at least stay afloat, right.
50:56
So I think. I mean, I would, I would say
50:58
that, you know, and, and I'm not, I mean, I took and anybody
51:01
that owns a racetrack takes this on themselves.
51:03
I mean, it's nobody's responsibility.
51:05
It's nobody's problems, but you know, people don't understand
51:08
the expenses that it takes to run one of them or to open one
51:12
in the spring or whatever. I mean, I always say this, you
51:15
know, a ticket for a racist should be $40, you know, to get
51:18
in and, and all of us promoters are trying to stay at that $1520
51:22
range, you know, and, and it's so hard to do that.
51:26
You know, everybody says, well, maybe you need to go a little
51:28
cheaper. Well, that's OK.
51:29
If I knew there was going to be 1000 more fans there, but then
51:32
you go cheaper and that same little crowd shows up.
51:34
Now you're really in hot water, you know, you can't.
51:37
So, you know, that's, that's the biggest issue I think is people
51:41
just don't understand the, you know, my insurance goes up 30%,
51:45
the ambulance goes up 20% to this, to that, you know, which
51:48
I'm not crying because everybody's household bills and
51:50
everything are going. I, you know, they, I get it, but
51:53
but the amount of money that it takes to run a racetrack is, is
51:57
phenomenal that people don't understand, you know, and then
51:59
you got your purses and all that and heck yeah, let's have the
52:02
late miles $10,000 to win. Well, $10,000, holy crap.
52:05
You know, that's, that's a lot of money, you know, especially
52:08
when you go down through the per, you know, 20 guys want to
52:11
get paid, you know, so you know, but I think that's the biggest
52:15
thing is just the money relationship with what people
52:18
you know. Now, is there a class that you
52:21
like watching yourself? When you get a chance to
52:24
actually do that, You know what? What's your favorite one to
52:26
watch? I mean, unfortunately, I really
52:29
love the mods. I like watching the mods.
52:30
You know, they put on a hell of the show and I hated to do what
52:33
I had to do this year to get them down to one race.
52:36
But man, when we used to have 20 mods there, that was a heck of a
52:38
race. You know, late miles are cool,
52:39
Sprint cars are great, you know what I mean?
52:41
But the mods was probably one of my and the stock cars back and
52:44
when we had a good count of them, you know, and it was, it
52:47
was still stock cars, you know, not the stock cars we have now.
52:51
You know, it was, you know, it was good racing, you know, and
52:55
anybody could almost win that night, you know, and it's not
52:58
wasn't about money. It was about, you know,
53:00
ingenuity and racing and you know, but probably the mods.
53:04
I mean, I'm I'm going to miss watching the mods.
53:06
I really like them. They're kind of out of control
53:09
all the time. You know it almost.
53:12
Though I booed you, that's it when you went there.
53:15
I don't think mods were racing that now.
53:17
I think they were on the card then, yeah.
53:20
The the mods they put on an awesome dirt lab dirt light
53:24
models are mine. If you if you put dirt light
53:26
model in front of me and you put an asphalt light model in front
53:29
of me from, you know, an asphalt track, I'm going to I'm going to
53:32
go to the dirt side because that's that's where I want to
53:34
watch late model racing. Although I love, you know, the
53:36
outlaws. I mean, I love that, but I love
53:38
them because they look like a dirt light model.
53:40
So you know that if they just look like a template, I don't
53:42
know how I feel about it. I probably wouldn't, you know,
53:44
wouldn't sway me anyone way. I just like the wedge nose.
53:48
I mean, that's, you know, back to my Santa Fe dates.
53:52
What about what? What's your If you got a chance
53:56
to watch dirt racing, what would you want?
53:58
I'm a lame model guy myself too, but I will say I saw when we
54:01
went to Kokomo, the street stocks down there put on a
54:03
really good race as well. So Tim, do you want to talk a
54:08
little bit about then how you've been, you know, creative because
54:12
you, like many other tracks, know like you're in the
54:15
entertainment business as much as you're in the racing
54:17
business, you're in the entertainment.
54:19
And and so you guys are one of the few dirt tracks because
54:23
others are starting to try it, right.
54:25
You're one of the few dirt tracks that does night of
54:27
destruction. So you want to talk a little bit
54:28
about not only how you keep fans invested in that and and and
54:32
coming, but then how you came up with the race of Doom?
54:38
Well, night instruction kind of came because I was from the
54:41
demolition Derby world, you know what I mean?
54:43
And, and once again, everybody said you're nuts, you can't do
54:46
this on dirt, you know what I mean?
54:47
You're going to. And I had a guy working for me
54:50
at that time and he's like, there is no way you were ever
54:52
going to do this, you know? And I'm like, yeah, we're going
54:55
to try it, you know? And I think the first one I did,
54:58
if I remember right, we had 30 cars there and the crowd was OK,
55:02
you know what I mean? And, and we just kind of kept
55:04
growing it and adding stuff to it.
55:06
Monster trucks and then every time we try to come up with
55:09
something goofy or different, you know what I mean and people
55:12
seem to love it and we try to put on a good show, whether it
55:14
be I mean the crashing and smashing in the drivers that's
55:18
second to none. But then you know we try to add
55:20
the mini bike race or the chicken race or the what you
55:23
know you never know what we got up our sleeve race a doom.
55:27
I don't even know, I mean that just kind of I ended up buying a
55:30
bus from a neighbor guy here and and we wanted to buy a bunch of
55:33
buses and do bus races like everybody else does.
55:36
But then, you know, buses have gotten really crazy on price.
55:40
And I don't know, we were just sitting around the in the under
55:45
the thing they're talking about. Let's do this and let's do that
55:47
and let's throw stuff out of it. Let's put fireworks on it.
55:50
And I mean, and it just one thing led to another and you
55:53
know, now we've just done different stuff every year with
55:55
it, with the fog or smoke or foam machine and watermelons
55:59
coming out of it and, you know, pumpkins coming out of it.
56:03
And I don't know, just whatever kind of crazy stuff we can come
56:06
up with, you know, to, to make it cool.
56:08
And now it's a haunted bus at times too, you know, that that
56:12
you know, and that came something that when Lee and I
56:14
were talking, not last year, but the year before, when I think
56:18
the first Halloween 1 was and it had been rained out, I said,
56:20
well, what if you did something like that, you know, had like a
56:23
haunted bus tour? And I think that's what I don't.
56:26
I wanted to say it was my idea because I'm sure it was already
56:28
being talked about. But you know, it's like, Hey,
56:31
you could do this and this and then you know it.
56:33
I mean, it turned out really cool.
56:34
And fans seem to really enjoy that.
56:36
They enjoy that little, you know, trick or it's not trick, I
56:39
guess you can't call it anymore, but trunk or treating, you know,
56:42
they could do there. And so, I mean, that's turned
56:44
out to be aside from New Paris, that's turned out to be my
56:48
favorite night of destruction night is that October one at
56:51
Hartford, just because it's like a festival in a way.
56:54
And we try to, we always try to do stuff for the kids.
56:57
You know, I mean, the, we have the foam party, the one and we
56:59
do the free monster truck rides for one.
57:01
And you know, we try to always come up with stuff.
57:03
We do bounce houses at times for the kids.
57:05
And you know, we always try to make it a fun outing for the
57:08
kids, you know, plus the demolition side of it.
57:11
But you know, I mean, other stuff too that they can enjoy.
57:13
I mean, we always do the monster truck rides, but the one week we
57:15
do them free and one, one time we do fireworks after, you know,
57:20
I mean, nice fireworks show. So, you know, it's, I don't
57:23
know, we just try to make it exciting and fun for the
57:26
families to come out for 20 bucks, you know what I mean?
57:28
You can't hardly do anything for that anymore, you know?
57:31
So well, and I definitely, if we have a quick pause really quick,
57:36
I see a lot of comments coming in, but definitely if you guys
57:40
have questions for Tim, I know I want to respect your time and
57:42
we've had you for almost an hour or so.
57:44
I know Tim and and not Tim, Timmy and Lee are holding down
57:48
the track with Brad and everything.
57:49
So you never know what's going on over there.
57:51
But you know, she sent me a text saying just so you know, and so
57:56
I definitely I want to respect your time, but that's where I
57:59
appreciate you taking it. So if anyone has questions for
58:01
Tim that you want us asked or that we haven't asked yet, you
58:04
know, you know, throw them in there.
58:07
They see a lot of people are just commenting, you know, on
58:09
how well the show is, how much they appreciate the best
58:12
fireworks around which your fireworks, man, those are they
58:16
get better every year. And so when I was making that
58:18
hype video, when you called with that project, I'm when I make
58:22
transitions, I was like using fireworks.
58:24
It's kind of like my thing. And I'm like, oh, there's a big
58:26
boom there and there's a big boom there and there's a big
58:28
fireball there. And that's something that while
58:31
I'm scrolling, if you want to talk about at your night
58:33
destruction, you have a truck chasing you down.
58:35
You know, I think it was last or no two years ago now that you
58:39
were in the infield and you know, your truck coming.
58:42
So if you want to tell people a little bit about that and what
58:44
was going through your head is all of a sudden there's a truck.
58:48
I can't think. I think it was the backwards
58:49
race. It was, yeah.
58:52
And I was standing where I always stand, we have four
58:55
people around the track with red flags and green flags or
58:57
whatever. And I, this girl hit the wall.
58:59
I seen her hit the wall. She backed right into it wide
59:01
open and she hit the wall and bounced off of it and was coming
59:05
straight at me wide open. And I'm like, there ain't no way
59:09
this wall is stopping her. So I just took off running and
59:11
sure enough, she hit the wall. Up and over she went.
59:14
And it was funny because I ran away.
59:16
You know, at the time, you don't think nothing about it.
59:17
You're like, oh, we got out of the way of that one, you know,
59:19
but and I walked over to her and she's like, I don't know what
59:23
happened. I wasn't pushing any pedals or
59:25
anything. It was just gold.
59:26
And I'm like, yeah, I need the throttle.
59:28
So when she hit the wall the first time, the throttle must
59:31
have stuck and she just come right across the track wide open
59:33
and hit that, which luckily she you've seen it.
59:36
And she ended up in between the light pole and the wall because
59:40
she was probably heading for the pond.
59:41
If that wouldn't have happened wide open, you know, she
59:43
probably almost made it down there, you know, but but no,
59:46
that's that was it. It was you got to kind of, if
59:48
you're in the infield, keep your eyes open on night of
59:51
destruction because you never know what's coming, you know,
59:54
trailers flying at you or whatever.
59:56
I should post that again. It's been a while since I was
59:58
posted, but I mean Boozoo, I don't know if you saw it, but
1:00:00
she like literally parallel parts, like perfect.
1:00:04
You know, you if you were downtown and you know, with old
1:00:06
school downtown parallel. I mean, she's like perfect in
1:00:09
this box and and the truck fit just between the wall and the
1:00:13
and the light and and I didn't see it.
1:00:16
But the crowd was reacting to it because I was somewhere else,
1:00:18
because there's a lot of stuff that happens, you know, in these
1:00:22
kind of instructions that I'm like, I can't catch it all.
1:00:24
There's no way. But then someone said what
1:00:26
happened? I just so happened to have a
1:00:28
GoPro down on the floor facing, you know, when they come out
1:00:32
because of a stunt that Kevin Mann was doing or, or excuse me,
1:00:36
Superman was doing that. It just so happened to catch Tim
1:00:41
on the run. I have to zoom it in but I'm
1:00:44
like damn because I did not see what happened and that that was
1:00:50
crazy that it would. I mean, right where I was
1:00:52
standing, she would, I mean, thank God I was paying attention
1:00:55
or she would have hit me. I mean, or flew over me.
1:00:57
That's high as she went there. You know what I mean?
1:00:59
So. So I was being watched over that
1:01:02
night. Have you had a car end up in the
1:01:06
pond at all in the time that you guys have had the pond?
1:01:08
In Nope one once again backwards race kind of jumped the wall
1:01:13
right in the middle of three and four and went down the hill a
1:01:15
little bit but stopped right. They didn't make it, you know
1:01:17
now and it's really shallow around the edges, so it's not
1:01:20
like it's a 20 foot drop off, you know what I mean?
1:01:23
So even if they did hit it, they'd stop, you know, but.
1:01:27
Yeah, that that that I've always wondered that too, because the
1:01:30
pond was there before my time and I'm like, I wonder, you
1:01:33
know, you just think like when when crazy happens, but I kind
1:01:36
of think about, you know, fans and stands and then the
1:01:39
excitement and the way you guys run the program and 73730 right,
1:01:43
highlighting some things you've talked about tonight.
1:01:45
Joel, again, he's been he's been I don't know he might he's just
1:01:49
typing away over there, but which I appreciate like keep
1:01:52
going but and Rick, Nick is in there, you know, huge shout out
1:01:55
to Rick Nick. I know he accent roofing does so
1:01:57
much for so many people, drivers and tracks and all that.
1:02:00
But obviously you were at the promoters meeting and they
1:02:03
talked a little bit with PRI. They talked about the right to
1:02:06
race bill. So he's asking and he says, of
1:02:09
course you could be PC in this way, but you know, how are your
1:02:13
neighbors? So like lots of tracks have had
1:02:15
issues with their neighbors. You know, Kalamazoo has had
1:02:18
battles in the past and, and, and that kind of deal.
1:02:21
But you know, for Hartford, because you're literally in the
1:02:23
neighborhood, you know, and there's a train track there too.
1:02:26
So there's already some that goes on that.
1:02:28
But you know, how has it been with having, I mean literally
1:02:31
houses right behind the track? You know, it's the knock on
1:02:35
wood. We've had very little problems.
1:02:39
I mean, we try if the neighbors want to get in, of course, we,
1:02:42
we honor that. You know, I try to start at
1:02:47
7:30. I try to be done by 10:30, you
1:02:50
know, and Saturday mornings, Jack, my guy there, I mean, we
1:02:54
goes around and picks up all the little trash.
1:02:56
If there's anything in their yards.
1:02:58
We try to, you know, we try to accommodate the neighbors the
1:03:00
best we can. It's funny you should say that
1:03:02
because somebody at there, we have a Facebook page called
1:03:05
Hartford Happenings and somebody just posted on there.
1:03:07
There's for some reason, there's a big kick about getting
1:03:09
chickens in the city. And somebody, their comp, their
1:03:13
post in big letters was, good Lord, we live by a race track.
1:03:17
How come we can't have chickens in the city?
1:03:19
You know, oh, just leave the race track.
1:03:22
Keep us out of it. But I mean, the track's been
1:03:28
there. This is 75 years of race, so
1:03:31
unless you're 80 plus years old or more, you chose to live by a
1:03:36
racetrack, You know, I mean, it didn't just evolve, you know,
1:03:39
so, so luckily we have no problem, not too many problems,
1:03:42
you know, I mean, I try to follow the rules.
1:03:44
We, we help people in the city with different things.
1:03:47
And you know, we're, we're trying to be a good sponsor and
1:03:49
good neighbor and, and get along.
1:03:51
So so so far so good. Chicken races.
1:03:55
That's what I heard. Chicken races coming to Hartford
1:03:57
Speedway. Yeah, there you go, chicken
1:04:00
race. Chicken tenders that Leah buys.
1:04:03
They might as well be a damn chicken.
1:04:04
You know, 'cause I mean, Buju had.
1:04:07
Have you had their chicken tenders?
1:04:08
So this was my next question. This is the one question we
1:04:10
hadn't covered yet. If you had to recommend one
1:04:12
concession item at the Hartford Speedway, what would it be?
1:04:15
Everybody likes the chicken tenders.
1:04:18
Maybe it sounds like they need chickens in town then too.
1:04:24
You know, I, I'm, we get slammed, you know, and that's
1:04:27
what people don't understand. You know, sometimes we feed more
1:04:30
people in a three hour deal than a lot of restaurants feeding a
1:04:32
week, you know what I mean? And I'm always like, because
1:04:35
that's Leah's side of the fence. That's not my side of the fence.
1:04:38
But I'm always like, you know, why don't we try this or, you
1:04:40
know, walking Taco or whatever. And you know, she always says,
1:04:43
man, people just love the chicken and they love the French
1:04:46
fries and they love the cheeseburgers and the hot dogs
1:04:48
And nobody's asking for anything different.
1:04:50
But I'm always like, well, maybe we should try something just to
1:04:53
give them a different option, you know what I mean?
1:04:55
But so far, what we do is good and it it keeps it to where we
1:04:59
can almost keep up, you know, I mean, you start getting too many
1:05:02
options in there and then you got people standing in line for
1:05:04
an hour and that causes grief. So so, but yeah, chicken tenders
1:05:08
definitely is the the home run. Yeah, yeah, I agree.
1:05:13
That's I'm like if that if I had to be paid in anything, just I I
1:05:16
drove them past. Just pay me in chicken.
1:05:18
Yeah, that's because I mean, Buja, they're like this big.
1:05:22
I mean, they are. I I think I did have them when I
1:05:24
was there but details are fuzzy. I do love the self-serve
1:05:26
concession though. I'm a big fan of those at race
1:05:28
tracks. I love the self.
1:05:29
Concession. That works out really good.
1:05:31
It does, yeah. So then, oh I was.
1:05:35
So now I got sidetracked on chicken sugar.
1:05:37
We're talking about food. I was going to ask to, you know,
1:05:42
you've talked about the schedule, you've talked about
1:05:43
what's coming up for this year. When you look at the schedule,
1:05:46
what's it? I mean, other than World of
1:05:48
Outlaws, you know, what's an event that you look forward,
1:05:51
that you're looking forward to maybe most out of all of them?
1:05:56
I mean, I like 4th of July is nice because I like the
1:05:59
fireworks and I like when people come to see the fireworks and
1:06:01
all that. That's a good one.
1:06:02
I mean I like the All Stars. They they put on a good rate.
1:06:05
I like all of them. Sprint car GLSS puts on a hell
1:06:07
of a show. I mean, them guys are great for
1:06:09
360's. They are great, phenomenal.
1:06:11
You know, it's always a good race.
1:06:13
You know, we got a couple more non wing races this year, so
1:06:16
that that's kind of cool. You know, Hartford is a it's not
1:06:20
a Kokomo as far as non wing racing goes, but they still can
1:06:23
put on a pretty good show around there.
1:06:24
So we went back and tried them some, you know, and there's a
1:06:27
new group coming. Actually, I think it's called
1:06:29
the American Sprint car series, non wing, non wing group.
1:06:33
So so I mean I I mean, I don't know that I like all of them.
1:06:38
They're you know, unfortunately, when you do this forever, you
1:06:42
kind of just, I don't know, you know, like night of
1:06:45
destructions. I remember when we used to go to
1:06:46
South Bend and watch them and you man, you had a good time and
1:06:48
every it was a blast and all that.
1:06:50
And and then you start hosting you putting them on so much and
1:06:53
all that. It's kind of like, I'm not going
1:06:54
to say you get sour to it, but you're just it's a whole
1:06:57
different thing, You know what I mean?
1:06:58
You're you know, so I like all the racing, racing's racing and
1:07:02
it's good. And if I I like to see a good
1:07:04
night of racing, you know what I mean?
1:07:05
That's I don't think anyone's my favorite, but man, when you got
1:07:08
Sprint cars flying around there three wide and they're passing
1:07:11
each other and all that, I mean, that's cool, you know, I mean,
1:07:13
so so I guess that would be my answer for that.
1:07:16
You know, I love it when the kids are there and there's
1:07:20
nothing better than like united destruction or at the end of the
1:07:24
fireworks when you're down on the infield and the whole place
1:07:27
Cheers, you know what I mean? And it kind of like, man, all
1:07:30
the bad stuff that happened this week or the last couple weeks,
1:07:33
you know, right there, That's that that that made it worth it.
1:07:36
You know, I've made all these people happy and, you know, and
1:07:39
so, so you know that that kind of is the driving force, you
1:07:42
know. Well, that's where I was going
1:07:45
to then leave with that is what's your favorite memory that
1:07:48
you've had, whether that be from your time racing or from, you
1:07:54
know, being an owner like a moment that just stands out to
1:07:57
you or like This is why we do it or This is why, you know, I
1:08:01
wanted to buy a racetrack or something that stands out to
1:08:03
you. And I know there's been a lot, I
1:08:05
mean, and 12. 30 There's been a lot of memory.
1:08:09
I mean, from she's I can't even begin where to start.
1:08:14
You know, we did that project there where that guy came and
1:08:16
Leah did that and that was a huge hit.
1:08:18
And I mean the stuff she does is probably more I mean, kids ride
1:08:22
in the pace car and you know, we we do a lot of stuff for special
1:08:26
needs kids and you know, we'll try to get them in the pace car
1:08:28
and all that kind of stuff is is good.
1:08:30
You know, we've kind of made the racetrack is a racetrack, but we
1:08:33
kind of she especially has kind of made it tool to make people's
1:08:39
life better. You know, I mean, whatever she
1:08:41
can do to, you know, be a sit in the sky box for a night and
1:08:44
watch racing or, you know, different stuff like that.
1:08:47
The race inside of it. I mean, there's a couple that
1:08:49
probably stand out. I can remember back in the day,
1:08:52
Dustin Daggett and Ryan Rule Racing and it was they were
1:08:55
going for Dustin's 100th win at the track and Mr. Mott was still
1:09:00
alive. And I mean they were racing side
1:09:02
by side and I mean it was just crazy slide jabbing each other.
1:09:05
I mean, and Dustin did end up winning that night.
1:09:08
He got his 100th win at Hartford.
1:09:10
I mean, that was that was like a cool memory that I have, you
1:09:14
know, and then you got Ryan Rule the next year one and and
1:09:17
proposed to his wife on the winner's circle, you know, I
1:09:20
mean, just just stuff like that. There's so many things that have
1:09:22
happened there. That's cool.
1:09:23
You know that you can't. I don't know.
1:09:25
I can't pick one, you know, But it's never ending.
1:09:30
Which is a good thing, right? Like, you know that there are
1:09:33
like Andy Barr, you know, when he won for the first time in
1:09:37
2022, that stock car race when he came and you know that I
1:09:41
think that's your opening night. I want to say that was June 10th
1:09:43
that he won that night. I know just so many people were
1:09:46
happy for him and and doing that.
1:09:48
And so, you know, that's where like that's one of mine that
1:09:52
kind of stands out. And my time at Hartford is like
1:09:55
just seeing that. It's like, man, this is what
1:09:57
this sport is supposed to be about, right?
1:09:59
Is these kind of moments, these kind of memories.
1:10:01
And I'm lucky I get to capture a lot of those at different tracks
1:10:04
and different things. But that bar 1 still stands out
1:10:07
to me even to this day. And then looks like Leah is
1:10:12
saying World of Outlaws. I think she oh, there's OK,
1:10:16
they're seeing she's seeing king of Michigan run rule and wasn't
1:10:20
wasn't Leah in the Victoria in the Victory Lane after someone
1:10:23
won when they're they scream or Facetimed her to wish her happy
1:10:29
birthday or something like that? And wasn't Ryan on the other
1:10:31
side of the phone? I'm trying to remember for
1:10:33
there's a picture. I I have Woody's I.
1:10:36
Can't remember how that happened.
1:10:37
I don't know if it was COVID and she wasn't there and they did
1:10:41
something and they had little Ryan Rule faces and whatever.
1:10:44
I can't remember. That's her favorite drivers.
1:10:46
Ryan Rule. I mean, I'm not going to.
1:10:49
I won't be the Bush. That's her favorite Sprint car
1:10:52
driver. So she has a little polling
1:10:55
interest when the sprints come around, right?
1:10:57
But, but I came across because I for national compacts, I'm
1:11:02
uploading a lot of Woody's photos.
1:11:05
Drew is having me move a lot of Woody's photos from National
1:11:08
Compacts and Midwest over to my website.
1:11:10
And the one came up where Leah's in Victory Lane and they have
1:11:14
the phone. I'm like, I remember that night
1:11:16
and I want to say that was like 2023 or 2023, but so that was
1:11:21
pretty cool to have that kind of moment where I know she wasn't
1:11:23
expecting it, but but it's like just to see her face light up.
1:11:27
That was a cool moment too. So again, it's just you guys
1:11:30
have created a lot of memories for so many different people.
1:11:32
So with that booze, you, are there any other questions that
1:11:36
you have? Because I, like I said, I I feel
1:11:38
like I've stolen some of yours. You did.
1:11:40
You stole a couple of months, so we covered all my questions.
1:11:45
So someone did ask, oh, where what?
1:11:49
Well, I won't. So what kind of car for like
1:11:53
compacts, like you said, you opened up the rules so that you
1:11:56
kind of align with Midwest compacts and all that, you know,
1:11:58
So what kind of cyber stock, let's say that what kind of
1:12:01
cyber stock model it works out there?
1:12:05
Like what's a car that if someone brings that out, you
1:12:08
know, whether it's a Ford or a Chevy or whatever that you're
1:12:10
like, that just seems to do the best on your track.
1:12:14
I still think the Honda's are probably the, you know, these
1:12:17
guys are messing with them Honda motors, you know, they're
1:12:19
they're built to be messed with. You know, I think that's
1:12:22
probably the that's the the best you're going to get is a Honda.
1:12:26
And I know some guys are messing with what the heck is it?
1:12:30
I don't know. But the Honda stands out as far
1:12:33
as you know the go to motor go to car for to be fast.
1:12:40
Yeah, because someone, it was Joel.
1:12:42
Like I said, Joel has been, you know, he's he's typed probably
1:12:47
20 comments easily and I'm up with all of them.
1:12:49
And and so Kia. Oh you.
1:12:55
Wanted to bring out the Kia Soul.
1:12:58
He might bounce around in that though.
1:13:00
He might, yeah, he might do more than bounce.
1:13:04
The Kia is, I remember we actually got one for a night of
1:13:07
destruction and that thing would run pretty.
1:13:09
I mean, there are a couple Kia's.
1:13:10
Nobody's really racing them too much, you know, Cavalier.
1:13:14
That's another thing that a lot of guys are in Cavaliers and.
1:13:16
I know Ryan Crocker did well with the.
1:13:18
Cavalier out there yes, yes, that is correct, but I mean
1:13:23
anything works. It's just how far you want to go
1:13:26
with it. You know, if you want to run as
1:13:27
a normal Friday night, everything works, but if you
1:13:29
want to run the Midwest, then you you know, then you got to
1:13:32
start getting some money at it. You know, probably allow V sixes
1:13:37
at Hartford. So that's a lot of guys have the
1:13:39
V sixes, you know, 38 hundreds and all that, and they run
1:13:42
pretty good with them, you know. Well, that's what was going to
1:13:47
make me think when, you know, Bougie was doing the money
1:13:49
thing. And that's what made me think
1:13:50
when you start doing that. My question was, you know, now
1:13:52
that we're closer to this season.
1:13:54
So when we had Leah on, we were still in winter.
1:13:57
But now that we're closer, you know who who's joined on the
1:13:59
sponsors this year for the racetrack that you also want to
1:14:02
give like a shout out to? Because we know in this era, I
1:14:05
just know the difficulties that other tracks have had in getting
1:14:07
sponsors and seeking sponsorship and and doing that.
1:14:10
So who's helping to support Hartford this year?
1:14:15
I mean, I agree it's getting tough anymore.
1:14:16
Obviously, of course, lane and All Star is is number 1.
1:14:19
You know, they're they help us all tracks.
1:14:22
I mean they're they're my neighbor.
1:14:24
Obviously I'm lucky with that. They're right around the corner
1:14:26
from me, but you know it, it's never ending the things they do
1:14:31
to help race tracks and us, you know, so Lane in that you know,
1:14:36
we have 3 sponsors Boss Concrete, CNR out on a limb,
1:14:39
he's a tree guy and can't think who the last one is that
1:14:43
sponsors our night of destruction.
1:14:44
So Four Winds Casino, you know, we finally, we partnered with
1:14:48
Four Winds, you know, and they help us quite a bit so that's a
1:14:51
that's a good deal. Our local honor credit union
1:14:54
helps us. They help with the fireworks and
1:14:56
stuff. So you know, I that's the big
1:14:59
ones and I mean, I can't think who how many billboards we got
1:15:02
down there, but if I'm missing one, I'm sorry.
1:15:04
But you know, we have, we probably have 20 good, you know,
1:15:07
good ones that come back every year and help so.
1:15:10
And Leah was trapping a few of them in here too.
1:15:13
Jeremiah Borden BOS concrete CNR Orwinds.
1:15:19
Is accent referring apt? I see Rick Nick keeps saying
1:15:22
accent roofing. See part of that at Hartford.
1:15:26
I don't know. I keep seeing I kept seeing that
1:15:29
I'm like, I don't want to leave Rick now Rick Nick out because,
1:15:32
like I said, I know he does so much for not only drivers, but
1:15:36
Drew Jack. He does a huge force.
1:15:37
So I was just seeing that. So I'm like, I didn't if he was
1:15:39
on there, I didn't want to make miss that.
1:15:41
But then two this this was the other one.
1:15:44
I was thinking of Buju because I I got distracted by the chicken
1:15:46
strips. I'm going to be honest.
1:15:47
But anyways, I know a picture was posted the other day before
1:15:52
the monster trucks and I know you did this last fall into the
1:15:55
winter where you got fresh clay. Did you do the whole track or
1:15:59
did you just do just three and four?
1:16:02
Just three and. Four, it's kind of a test.
1:16:03
This is people are going to freak out.
1:16:06
It's actually like black clay. I mean, it's very different.
1:16:09
Yeah. And so I can't kind of want to
1:16:12
just do a a small area first before I went and covered the
1:16:16
whole track to see how it's going to work.
1:16:18
I mean, right now, I hate to say it, but it's fighting me because
1:16:21
all this rain we've had and you know, when you put new clay down
1:16:25
in the fall even and then it don't have a chance to settle.
1:16:27
And now we've had 10 inches of rain in April and it's raining
1:16:30
tonight. And I mean, so I'm struggling to
1:16:33
get it set to race this Friday. But we'll, it should be all
1:16:37
right as long as Mother Nature quits race, you know, raining
1:16:39
here, hopefully for the next the rest of the week.
1:16:41
But but it's kind of a tester to see because it's, it seems like
1:16:45
really nice clay, but it's different than what I'm used to
1:16:47
as far as brown, you know, it's it's darker like a black color.
1:16:51
And so we're going to try it in three and four and see what
1:16:54
happens. And then potentially I have
1:16:57
sores probably to I can get enough to do the whole track.
1:16:59
But, you know, that's pretty risky when you're not familiar
1:17:03
with what you're putting on. You don't want to stick it on
1:17:05
the whole track and it don't work.
1:17:06
And then you're like, now what am I going to do, you know?
1:17:09
Yeah. Can't just take that all off
1:17:11
again, right? Yeah, no, I don't think I want
1:17:13
to do that. It's a lot more work.
1:17:14
So then for people who may not understand that because again,
1:17:17
like you go to an asphalt track that's all tracks there 24/7, it
1:17:21
doesn't change really. I mean, you know, you might
1:17:23
rain, you know, you might brush off the rubber from the week
1:17:26
before the OR whatever. So where does a dirt track get
1:17:30
their clay? Where does a dirt track like
1:17:32
Hartford? Where do you source your, you
1:17:35
know, to put it back on? Any place you can find it as
1:17:39
close as possible. I mean, the most people want to
1:17:43
give you the clay anymore. They just want to get rid of dig
1:17:45
a pond or whatever and they want to get rid of it.
1:17:47
But you know, the trucking unfortunately is the the hard
1:17:50
part, you know, getting it there and then the bulldozer to get it
1:17:53
leveled out. And you know, you try to make it
1:17:55
a as quick as possible project, you know, but you know, and it's
1:17:59
hard to find good clay. This is this black stuff.
1:18:01
Like I said, is a guy dug a pond and this is what he had.
1:18:04
And he's like, try this because I'm going to dig this other pond
1:18:06
over here. And if this works, I'm going to
1:18:08
have enough to probably do your whole track.
1:18:10
And I'm like, OK, well, let me try it and see.
1:18:12
But luckily he's 3 miles from from the racetrack, so it's a
1:18:15
close haul, you know, So, so we'll see how it works.
1:18:19
It's either going to be really good or it's going to be really
1:18:21
bad and I might be out there scraping it off before it's
1:18:24
over, but I hope not. Well, and, and I know that I
1:18:28
mean that 3/4, I mean, generally speaking, that's where all the
1:18:32
actions going to take place. So it's probably, you know, it's
1:18:35
probably a good spot to test it first because that's where,
1:18:38
yeah, I mean, if you go to race there, that's that's where it's
1:18:42
going to happen. I mean, one and two sometimes
1:18:44
gets exciting, but 3 and 4 is where you know if things are
1:18:47
going to hit the fan, that's where it's going to hit the fan.
1:18:49
I trickled a couple dump truck loads in last year just in a
1:18:52
couple spots to see how it would hold up and it seemed to do
1:18:54
pretty good. So now I'm I tried the whole
1:18:56
3:00 and 4:00 and we'll see what happens and I think it's going
1:18:59
to be fine. It's just got to, it's just got
1:19:01
to get there, you know, I mean, it's got to quit raining and we
1:19:03
get some warm days. If I had a whole week like
1:19:05
today, no problem by Friday, but I don't think I'm going to get
1:19:08
that. So but that's a bad part about a
1:19:11
dirt tracking. You know, every year or two
1:19:14
you're adding clay. I mean, Mother Nature takes it
1:19:16
away, washes it away, drivers take it away.
1:19:19
I mean, it's a, it's a never ending, you know, like I said,
1:19:22
I've, I think I put some on last year too and 1:00 and 2:00 and
1:19:25
then this year three and four. And I mean it's a it's a never
1:19:28
ending project. Fancy.
1:19:33
Yeah, it's mine and clay and with no rocks in it, and you
1:19:35
know, it's, you know, but part of a dirt track.
1:19:41
Yeah, some of those rocks that I found the one time after you had
1:19:44
just dug everything up when I was walking there the one day
1:19:47
and went, holy cow, there's like a freaking boulder in here.
1:19:51
And but you could just tell it was at it.
1:19:53
Like it, it was down towards the bottom where if someone was
1:19:57
racing that far down, they were they had a lot more problems
1:20:00
than that rock, but. You know, that's the crazy thing
1:20:03
about clay. You can go through that thing
1:20:05
and get about every rock out of it.
1:20:06
You can look at it and go, man, this thing is beautiful.
1:20:08
And it rains one night and you go out there the next day and
1:20:12
Mother Nature rain pushes the rocks to the top for some
1:20:15
reason. And then there they are again.
1:20:16
It's like, Jesus, I don't think I did anything, you know, but
1:20:20
it's, it's never ending battle with rocks.
1:20:22
And, you know, unfortunately, that's Michigan Clay, you know
1:20:24
what I mean? Well, and it's being right by
1:20:28
Lake MI, right? Like you're just right there
1:20:30
too. And you get, you know, you got
1:20:32
the sand dune stuff, you know, you go so far down and it's
1:20:34
sandy and then you just get all that.
1:20:37
So, yeah, it's it's a a good and bad problem, right?
1:20:40
You're you, you don't look like every other dirt track.
1:20:43
You know, there's some spots and you just it looks all the same,
1:20:46
right. So it's like go to Hartford.
1:20:48
You don't look like any other dirt track.
1:20:49
You, you know, you definitely this year it's.
1:20:51
Going to be a little different. Yeah, I'm excited.
1:20:53
I told Leah I said that, you know, I usually come out, you
1:20:56
know, the day before your guys's opening.
1:20:58
That's been my tradition in the last couple years is drive on up
1:21:01
and, you know, walk around, do a preview, do different things.
1:21:05
And so I Thursday is what I have on my schedule so far is to come
1:21:08
up there and kind of do that 'cause I know the tracks
1:21:11
probably looking pretty good by that point.
1:21:13
And, and it gets people hyped up and then, you know, I throw in
1:21:17
fun facts. And so I definitely, like I said
1:21:20
at the beginning, I just appreciate, you know, you and
1:21:24
Leah and and then your staff. I mean, I've never had, you
1:21:27
know, bad interaction with any of your staff ever at any point.
1:21:30
The drivers for they're all wonderful.
1:21:31
So again, it's just a huge kudos to what you guys do and and I
1:21:35
know I'm excited for your season to finally start this Friday.
1:21:38
Yep, and likewise, we appreciate what you guys do.
1:21:40
I mean, you guys every Monday take your time to help all of us
1:21:43
tracks, you know, and you know, just don't think that it doesn't
1:21:47
help because I don't know how many people are watching
1:21:49
tonight. But I mean, viewers are viewers
1:21:51
and they're, we're getting the word out and, you know, it takes
1:21:53
takes all of us anymore to to make this happen, you know?
1:21:58
Oh yeah. Well, usually within about a 24
1:22:00
hour period, we get close. We've been averaging about 2100,
1:22:04
you know, viewers, but it grows each week.
1:22:06
I would just talk about that. And I don't chase metrics.
1:22:08
I mean, we're not going to do anything that's going to, you
1:22:10
know, trick people into watching.
1:22:12
You know, we are who we are. We've been what we've been.
1:22:14
And I think in the feedback that I get from a lot of people,
1:22:17
that's what they appreciate. We probably have about 5 with me
1:22:20
watching. Leah, Leah and Megan, they set
1:22:25
the record, our record and, and we're 12 episodes, but they had
1:22:29
5000 something. It was between the two of them.
1:22:31
I'm like, man, you know, we just need them every week.
1:22:34
But but I mean, no, overall, like I said it, it's just we've
1:22:38
been really purposeful about, you know, let's branch out to
1:22:41
everybody. You know, cuz there's some
1:22:43
podcast you're not going to get, you know, a night of destruction
1:22:45
racer on there. You're not going to get a, you
1:22:47
know, a front wheel drive racer on there.
1:22:49
You're certainly not going to get someone who, you know, is
1:22:51
mid pack racing. I mean, it's just winners,
1:22:54
winners, winners and more winners.
1:22:55
And and that's OK, that works for some people that, you know,
1:22:59
that's never been my philosophy. It's like, let's branch out,
1:23:01
Let's impact as many people as we can get on as many people as
1:23:04
we can. And we've had a pretty diverse,
1:23:07
you know, offering so far. So again, I just that's where I
1:23:11
appreciate like you coming on doing that.
1:23:13
And obviously when Leah, she's come on twice now, you know, she
1:23:16
was on last Thursday, but it's like, how can we help Hartford
1:23:19
promote that out there? Get that out there because it's
1:23:21
a gem. You know, if if someone hasn't
1:23:24
been there yet and even if dirt track racing's not your thing,
1:23:27
give it, you know, give it a shot, you know, because again,
1:23:30
13 years too, just to own a track that's, you know, there's
1:23:34
not a lot of people around anymore who are getting that
1:23:38
high. So with in in terms of ownership
1:23:41
years. So again, just huge kudos to
1:23:43
what you guys do. Based on the comments section,
1:23:46
you have a lot of people who appreciate what you do.
1:23:48
So, Buju, is there anything else that you're thinking of?
1:23:52
Sure. I think we covered everything.
1:23:54
All right, well, again, Tim, I know we kept you longer, but but
1:23:58
I that way you got work to do, right?
1:24:01
So again, it's this Friday, gates open at 55.
1:24:07
Yep. And do you still have the Fan
1:24:09
Pip zone this year like you have in the past?
1:24:11
We probably will not. Well, I don't know.
1:24:14
I'll have to talk to the boss and see what she says, but we
1:24:17
haven't done that for a couple years.
1:24:18
OK. It was, it was exciting at
1:24:20
first, but then, I don't know, it just kind of lost its luster,
1:24:24
you know what I mean? OK.
1:24:26
Well, maybe get people hanging out when they're not supposed
1:24:28
together and that insurance then calls.
1:24:31
So it's like, hey, but you know, so gates open at 5:00, racing
1:24:36
starts at 7:30. It's, you know, cars go out for
1:24:39
a hot lap session. I know Great Lakes will have an
1:24:41
engine heat. You know, they'll do their
1:24:42
engine heats and they'll go out for their single car.
1:24:45
Qualifying is usually what they do.
1:24:46
Your other classes do group qualifying, but again, it's a
1:24:51
pretty quick show and and I know when I'm driving up to
1:24:53
Kalamazoo, I will see all the Great Lakes, you know, hollers.
1:24:56
I know in Great Lakes at Hartford because I see them on
1:24:58
the other side of the highway and go in the opposite direction
1:25:01
and it's like a convoy. I always tell Barry it's like a,
1:25:04
you know. You're right.
1:25:05
This. Way they're going this way.
1:25:07
Yep, Yep. And so I'm like, I, I know when
1:25:10
Great Lakes are at Hartford because I see all the trailers
1:25:12
and so and I and they definitely don't look like you could put a
1:25:15
lawn mower in them. So you know, they definitely
1:25:17
those Sprint cars stand out. But and that's this Friday and
1:25:21
it's, is it an $18.00? I should know this.
1:25:24
It's $2020.00 ticket for Sprint cars and then Super Troopers
1:25:30
will be there. And I know Hart Russell's just
1:25:33
announced today, Johnny Russell did a video where you guys have
1:25:36
your Super Trooper showdown thing.
1:25:39
Yep, May 14th and then. Next weekend?
1:25:41
Yep. Yep.
1:25:42
So May 14th is the Super Trooper showdown at Hartford and then in
1:25:47
conjunction with M40, everyone's going over to M40 on the 15th
1:25:52
that Saturday for another showdown for the Super Troopers.
1:25:55
So do you want to talk a little bit about that before we let you
1:25:58
go? We're trying to hire out the
1:25:59
details. I mean, I know we kind of want
1:26:01
to do a, a challenge between the Hartford drivers and the M40
1:26:05
drivers and kind of have a traveling trophy or something
1:26:08
like that and kind of figure out exactly how much we want to
1:26:10
throw a little extra money at it that, you know, maybe the the
1:26:13
top five or something between both nights, you know, get a
1:26:16
gets a bonus or something. So I know M 40s really came up
1:26:20
with a lot of cool stuff and we'll probably copy some of that
1:26:22
thanks to Megan and them. But I mean, they're doing like
1:26:25
the Farber fries and they're they're really going off on all
1:26:28
the Super trooper stuff, you know what I mean?
1:26:30
From that movie, you know, so we're going to try to make it a
1:26:33
fun weekend and I hope some of the asphalt guys come and try
1:26:35
Hartford And, and I, I've talked to some of my guys.
1:26:37
They say they're going to try to go over there, you know, and try
1:26:40
asphalt, you know, so just trying to give them a little
1:26:43
something special. You know, their their car
1:26:44
counted. M40 is really getting good.
1:26:46
I mean I I think they had 17 or 18 the last time they raced or
1:26:49
something. So so that's good to see you
1:26:51
know that it's it's growing so but it's once again, I wish
1:26:56
these guys would come both ways. You know, all you got to do is
1:26:58
you really don't have to change tires, but you know, if you want
1:27:01
to just change tires and come racing on dirt, you know and go,
1:27:04
you know likewise. But I think once again it goes
1:27:07
back to the once a week racing. You know what I mean guys?
1:27:09
It's tough to do 2 nights, you know anymore so.
1:27:13
Well, I know Rowdy, who Bougie's really great friends with and
1:27:16
all that. Ronnie Holloway.
1:27:18
He came up to Hartford last year for the Nightmare and he raced
1:27:21
that. That's his first time in dirt
1:27:23
and he had a blast. If I remember right, I think he
1:27:25
said he used coming more as he can.
1:27:27
So, but I know we've kind of talked about that.
1:27:30
When June and I were doing, you know, when we were preparing and
1:27:34
I did that big sponsorship for the show on April 11th, I said,
1:27:38
you know, where can you find Crown Vics Hartford?
1:27:42
You know, they have the most right now, but you know, M40 out
1:27:44
of the gate, they've had 17 and then they had 22 the last time
1:27:48
and that was the most. And so they beat my record and
1:27:52
you know, but that was exciting to see because again, yes,
1:27:56
there's a lot of Crown Vics, but there's not a lot.
1:27:58
You just go where they are and between you and and Jones is
1:28:02
where they are. So, you know, there's just
1:28:05
they're they're right. There's probably close to 30
1:28:08
because you have on average about 24. 20 to 24, yeah,
1:28:13
depending on yeah. And I know Zalmers are huge into
1:28:16
that. I know Rachel has been on here.
1:28:18
And you know, again, huge shout out to Zalmers.
1:28:20
I know they do a lot for Hartford.
1:28:22
And then obviously, you know, they're, you know, Lakeshore
1:28:24
auto body shops not too far around for me around the corner.
1:28:27
So I get to see the Crown VIX any time I go into Stevensville.
1:28:30
I don't make the drive as much anymore.
1:28:31
And now that I don't work at the school, but but that's where
1:28:34
it's like you see all the all the Zalmers Crown VIX.
1:28:37
So I'm sure with race season coming up, they're probably
1:28:39
getting ready to park along. They're right behind Al Stockman
1:28:42
Stadium. But again, I know Zalmer sues a
1:28:44
lot. Yeah, I mean, I'll give a shout
1:28:46
out to all our drivers. We just have a good group of
1:28:48
guys, Cyber stocks, super troopers.
1:28:51
I mean, our guy, you know, these these super trooper guys have
1:28:54
been poking fun at each other all winter, you know, I don't
1:28:56
know, digging each other and whatever I said, oh boy, the
1:28:58
first race is going to be interesting.
1:29:00
But being in the cyber guys too, you know, we, we just have a
1:29:03
good group of guys at Hartford. I mean, if your car breaks, the
1:29:06
guy next to you is going to help you, even if he's racing against
1:29:08
you. You know, I mean, we just have,
1:29:10
we got a good group out there and it has been that way for 13
1:29:13
years. You know, I mean the mod guys in
1:29:15
the late mod, I mean we've just had we've been blessed with good
1:29:18
racers and and guys that have the right idea about racing, you
1:29:21
know, I mean, so that's that's really nice.
1:29:23
You know, that's that's helped complete the package of Hartford
1:29:27
Speedway, you know, with our staff and whatever so.
1:29:31
The vibes, it's just all the vibes and, and, and you feel it.
1:29:35
Like I said, when I was an outsider in 2022 coming for the
1:29:38
first time, I mean, I knew I knew of you because of mom,
1:29:42
right? You know, you and mom had a, you
1:29:43
know, you worked together a lot when she was doing embroidery
1:29:46
and screen printing and all that.
1:29:47
And so you know, I knew of you and, and all that kind of deal.
1:29:51
So I had that background, but you know, just from that day
1:29:54
one, you know, it was that. And when I came back the
1:29:57
following week, Chris Harry was the first one to come and talk
1:29:59
with me again and, and say, man, what you did last week was just
1:30:02
so awesome and having the videos of Hartford and all that.
1:30:05
And so, you know, but everybody, it's, it's, it's so great to be
1:30:09
back at Hartford anytime I get there, because it's just you get
1:30:12
that vibe and it's like you can't, you don't find that vibe.
1:30:15
And a lot of, I mean, every track has their own vibe, don't
1:30:17
get me wrong, But you know, it's just Leah said it best a few
1:30:21
weeks ago there. You, you guys are like the
1:30:23
Disneyland of, you know, race tracks.
1:30:25
And again, you know, I've everyone just seems to have a
1:30:28
blast when they're there and and when they leave.
1:30:31
And, and I think from that point, you know, when you have a
1:30:34
lot of loyal fans, a lot of loyal people, again, it just
1:30:36
speaks, you know, you can't, as you said, you can't please
1:30:39
everybody. But the fact that in 13 years
1:30:42
you've pleased the majority of people that again, that says a
1:30:45
lot because that doesn't, you know, that doesn't happen
1:30:48
everywhere. But any last words that you have
1:30:53
for anybody because like I said, I know we've kept you way longer
1:30:55
than than. I just want to tell you guys
1:30:57
thank you again and offer all you guys doing and all these
1:31:00
guys that are doing this kind of stuff.
1:31:01
You know, anymore with the limited amount of advertising
1:31:05
options that we have, I mean, it takes all this anymore, you
1:31:08
know, you guys and the drivers and the track and the, and the
1:31:11
sponsors and, you know, it takes all this to to make these race
1:31:15
tracks run anymore. And, you know, and so, and I
1:31:17
don't think a lot of people understand that, but I do, you
1:31:20
know what I mean? And, you know, it takes drivers
1:31:22
to help get their Co workers to come out and watch and whatever,
1:31:26
you know, it used to be a kind of an easy deal.
1:31:27
You know, you just fans just came and, and the drivers were
1:31:30
there and, and anymore, like I said, you're limited to about
1:31:34
Facebook for advertising. There's hardly a newspaper
1:31:37
around here anymore and the radio station, you know, and
1:31:40
then hardly anybody listens to the radio.
1:31:42
They're all streaming stuff. And what I mean, So we're so
1:31:44
limited on what we can do anymore that that every time,
1:31:47
every Monday night when you guys are on talking about tracks or
1:31:49
whatever, at least it's helping all of us, you know, not just me
1:31:52
or whoever, but you know, it's keeping it going, you know, so,
1:31:56
so I appreciate that and I realize that what you guys are
1:31:58
doing and I think it's great. So thank you very much.
1:32:01
And they'll definitely thank you.
1:32:02
And that's why, you know, when Buju and I came up with the
1:32:05
Thursday idea too, it's like, what's one more thing we can do?
1:32:09
You know, just to just to help And because I know Buju like
1:32:13
myself and like a lot of race fans, right?
1:32:15
He's super passionate about this too.
1:32:17
And and with his chronic Bullring chronicles, he's
1:32:20
highlighted track set of gone, you know, in the years past and,
1:32:24
you know, and some tracks that are, you know, coming back from
1:32:27
life and those that are succeeding and, you know, but he
1:32:30
could probably create a whole season on tracks that are lost,
1:32:33
right? So, you know, that's the
1:32:35
unfortunate part. It's like we got to all do our
1:32:36
part. You know, it's so easy to go to
1:32:38
Facebook and complain about something or be upset.
1:32:40
But at the end of the day, you know, there's a there's a change
1:32:44
in the finish at New Paris over the weekend that, you know, I
1:32:47
could have posted a clip that I guarantee would have had
1:32:50
hundreds of reactions. It would have had hundreds of
1:32:53
comments and probably as many shares.
1:32:56
But you know, I always tell people I, you know, I always
1:32:59
think, you know, at the end of the day, that cost analysis,
1:33:03
right? Like, Oh yeah, sure, maybe I can
1:33:05
make like some money, my favorite nickname, like some
1:33:08
money on this. And I'd get all the likes and,
1:33:10
you know, and make some money on social media, but at what cost
1:33:14
to do that? I it wouldn't be fair to either
1:33:16
of the drivers because, you know, they're just hard racing,
1:33:18
right? That's not fair to them.
1:33:19
And I know Boozoo and I would talk about this more after, but
1:33:22
you know, that you got to be smart about that because, you
1:33:25
know, some people say, well, at least we're talking about you.
1:33:27
Yeah. Not in that way though.
1:33:29
You know, we don't want that. So that's again, that's where we
1:33:31
want to do our part of. How can we help get people
1:33:33
there, you know, make it an experience.
1:33:35
That's why I did that hype video at the beginning.
1:33:38
I said go back and watch the music video.
1:33:41
It highlights a lot of different things you can experience at
1:33:43
Hartford just this season so. I always say negativity breeds
1:33:48
negativity. And as soon as that door is
1:33:49
opened, then it's all then, then here we go.
1:33:52
You know what I mean? So so I always, I always try not
1:33:56
to even open that door. So again, I just like, I
1:34:00
appreciate you and Leah and, and everyone at Hartford.
1:34:03
So like I said, I know we we've kept you and, and Leah held the
1:34:08
Fort down at least. So I and Timmy made this debut
1:34:10
last week, you know. I know we'll see you this
1:34:12
summer, but Buju, come see us sometime.
1:34:14
Yes, Sir. I'll, I'll be up there.
1:34:15
I'll be up there. Yeah, you need.
1:34:17
I'll try that trick Strips. You're this big, so again, Tim
1:34:24
will let you go, but other than that, thank you so much.
1:34:27
And you ever wanted if maybe we should try to get you back on
1:34:31
for before World of Outlaws just to do one more plug for World of
1:34:34
Outlaws. Maybe booze.
1:34:35
You remind me that the Thursday before June 5th that way we.
1:34:40
Can we no rain this week? That's all I can ask Elia.
1:34:42
Yes. Yeah, we'll try, you know, Well,
1:34:45
I do our rain dance. Everybody do a rain dance.
1:34:48
But other than that, time again, you know, I know you got a lot
1:34:50
of track prep ahead of this week.
1:34:52
So good luck with everything and have a great pro on Friday.
1:34:54
Yep. Thanks.
1:34:55
Thank you. Thank you.
1:34:57
Thank you, Ted. Well, again, that way, you know,
1:35:01
I, I appreciate like our full episodes where we have, you
1:35:04
know, 2-3 guests, but then I always like episodes like this,
1:35:07
like what we've had with Ron where we can let her breathe a
1:35:09
little bit. We can cover a lot of different
1:35:11
topics. And so, so that's where, you
1:35:14
know, I definitely appreciate Tim coming out because we've got
1:35:16
to talk a little bit about his racing career and how he got
1:35:18
started. And then we got to talk a lot
1:35:20
about, you know, what it's like to own a track and the different
1:35:22
challenges, you know, that they have.
1:35:24
And So what do you think? I mean, for me, being someone
1:35:28
who just last year kind of really, really got into the dirt
1:35:32
side of this stuff, it's interesting to learn of the
1:35:34
challenges that a dirt owner has versus an asshole owner with the
1:35:38
track prep and sanctioning bodies, with IMCA and UMP and
1:35:42
all that. See, I learned a lot tonight.
1:35:43
I thought that was really interesting interview.
1:35:44
I'm glad Tim came on. Oh, and that's where, you know,
1:35:48
we've now had Russell's on, we've had Leah and and Tim.
1:35:54
We had Eric, you know, with MCR dwarf.
1:35:57
Then we had drew with the Midwest Truck Series.
1:36:01
You know, we we've really been able to balance it out.
1:36:03
Obviously Drew Jack with national compact, dirt compact.
1:36:06
So Iris Saunders, you know, at the beginning.
1:36:10
So, you know, we've really balanced it out where we've
1:36:12
gotten, you know, a lot of people on here, New Paris, Chris
1:36:15
and Tracy. So, you know, we've hit most of
1:36:18
the tracks in the area so far. So, you know, that's something
1:36:20
that again, I just, I appreciate, you know, Tim being
1:36:23
able to come on because, you know, this is race week for
1:36:25
them. So, you know, it's fun to hear.
1:36:27
And there's, I mean, you heard 20 hours of track prep and with
1:36:30
the rain, it might be even a little bit more than that this
1:36:32
week, depending on how much rain they get.
1:36:34
But but yeah, that's that's something.
1:36:37
I mean, just just think about that as, I mean, squeeze in an
1:36:41
extra 20 hours in your life just to get the track prepared every
1:36:44
week. And that's not even counting
1:36:45
race day and clean up. That's just the track prep.
1:36:48
So yeah, that that yeah, that threw me for a loop.
1:36:52
Oh, and I, and we didn't ask how many gallons of water, which I,
1:36:56
you know, now that we're talking about it, like for, you know, we
1:36:58
could have asked that. But I know Chris, Harry was on
1:37:00
here and he still might be on here.
1:37:03
So Chris could tell us if he's still on here.
1:37:05
I know he's a pretty loyal listener.
1:37:09
How many on on average? I mean, it's, but it's like
1:37:11
thousands and thousands and thousands of water that they put
1:37:15
on. I think the one week it was
1:37:16
like, and I could be way wrong on this, but I, I wanna say it
1:37:19
was like 50,000 gallons of water that they put on the track.
1:37:22
And I wanna say that's it was a really dry spell for us.
1:37:25
And I'm like 50,000. I mean, it's not like a data
1:37:28
center, but you know, like. Plus the fuel to, plus the fuel
1:37:32
to go in those vehicles, to go around the track, you know, 150
1:37:35
times to get it prepped. So yeah, so other than that, I
1:37:39
know it's kind of it's going to be a short show.
1:37:40
People might be a little surprised, but you know, we're
1:37:42
going to end not too long from now.
1:37:44
So next week we have a packed episode where we'll probably be
1:37:48
going again close to 9 because with Brian Kuseva, you know,
1:37:51
he's Illinois time. So coming on at 8:00 is 7 his
1:37:55
time. So definitely I hope a lot of
1:37:57
the Grundy people will join next week as a 40,000 gallons is what
1:38:01
he said on a bad week. So he's not he's not too far off
1:38:03
50,000 but but we'll have Brian Kuseba, so he'll be in the 8:00
1:38:08
hour. So let's talk a little bit about
1:38:10
New Paris because you and I were both at New Paris and I want to
1:38:16
give a huge shout out and you know, I'll let you do your
1:38:18
things too, but I I want to give a huge shout out to Chris and
1:38:20
Tracy for gambling it. I promise you it was not a
1:38:24
financial success for them. They knew that, you know, they
1:38:27
even, you know, trimmed $5 off the ticket, you know, to help.
1:38:31
And and I'll say the crowd filled in nice, you know, after
1:38:34
five. It did, you know, it did come in
1:38:36
and I was worried during qualifying and with the camera,
1:38:39
I was doing super tight shots because that's the last thing I
1:38:42
wanted is to lick. Look in the comments section.
1:38:45
I was kind of in the mood on Saturday, by the way.
1:38:47
So, you know, I don't know, I just nothing that I had planned
1:38:51
went the way that is expected. So I'm already in a mood and
1:38:55
frustrated with just a lot. And so I'm like, OK, someone,
1:39:01
some smart ass is going to get on here and say where's the
1:39:03
fans? And nobody has done that, no.
1:39:06
I haven't had it either, so yeah.
1:39:09
Now car count. Someone did do that because they
1:39:11
think they're smart when they do that too.
1:39:12
It's like, OK, where's your car then?
1:39:13
But anyways, I know that's the easy response, but so I was
1:39:18
doing tight shots on the front stretch because that's like,
1:39:20
this is the last damn thing I want right now.
1:39:22
Someone get on here and say, where's the fans?
1:39:24
Because I'm already in the mood and I'll just block them.
1:39:26
You know, I don't care at that point because it's like, you
1:39:28
know, just we could have shut down.
1:39:30
We could have been done today and like everyone else.
1:39:32
And So what did you the one class that we were surprised at
1:39:37
was the street stop car count. You know, everyone was kind of
1:39:40
talk about that. I, I had predicted.
1:39:42
So I was correct on I was one off on the modifieds.
1:39:46
I was cracked on the late models.
1:39:47
I was one too high on the modifieds, but I know someone
1:39:52
who was coming who ended up engine issue.
1:39:54
So I would have been cracked if they had come and they would
1:39:57
have brought extra that extra car.
1:39:58
So I'd have been one off, but underneath my prediction, like
1:40:02
they would have been over it. But St. sex.
1:40:04
I thought we were going to be close to 27 and when we had 17
1:40:07
I'm like, it's still good 17. There's a lot of great racing,
1:40:10
but I'm like, man, like, oh. Oh, it's just where are you all?
1:40:16
But and I get it cost right Cost.
1:40:20
Cost early see, I mean Evan Verdine said on the show a few
1:40:23
weeks ago, local guys not always the fastest to get ready.
1:40:25
It's still May. It was May 2nd so early in the
1:40:28
season, cold temperatures. I mean, I said on the show
1:40:31
Thursday, I was I'd be surprised we didn't have AV feature and we
1:40:34
did not. So I guess, I guess I'm
1:40:36
surprised, but. Yeah.
1:40:37
I mean, I knew we would probably, if there was any
1:40:40
classes that we're going to have AB, it would have been the
1:40:43
modifieds because you just never know.
1:40:44
There's a lot of them that are homeless, but I think that's
1:40:47
impacted some of them getting ready because they don't they
1:40:50
don't have an Ohio show to get ready for yet.
1:40:52
And, and, and then I thought that group and then obviously I
1:40:56
thought St. Socks, you know, the limited
1:40:58
latest, even if you go to M40 and you go to Kalamazoo, it's
1:41:01
not often you're going to get a BT, but you just kind of know
1:41:05
the number you're going to get. But but St.
1:41:07
Socks I was when I pulled in, I got there about 12:40 and I
1:41:11
went, oh, oh, I went. And I was deployed to expect
1:41:16
that. There's a lot of the new Paris
1:41:17
regulars that are missing too, right?
1:41:19
You had no Schlay boss, No Todd Hall.
1:41:21
Yeah, the Hannahs weren't there. So, Todd.
1:41:24
Was there not he? He was.
1:41:25
Not right yet. Yeah.
1:41:27
Yeah, I gotcha, right. Yeah, but Todd was there, he was
1:41:29
cranking on the wheels and all that, but gotcha.
1:41:32
Yeah, 'cause he, he just sold it.
1:41:35
I was it sold a car or bought a car, I can't remember which way
1:41:37
when. I think he sold a car and, or
1:41:41
maybe just bought a car. I, I, whatever it was a car and,
1:41:45
and it was exchanged to somebody's hands, but I think it
1:41:48
was him selling it. And, but yeah, he was there with
1:41:51
Logan Maynard. So yeah, he didn't have the four
1:41:53
out there, but he was there. Yeah, yeah.
1:41:56
And before we get too far off track, I also want to shout out
1:41:58
Chris and Tracy for putting on the show because from the bottom
1:42:01
of Lake Erie to at least Kokomo IN, the only show running was
1:42:04
the new pair of speedways. So big shout out to them for
1:42:07
rolling the dice and putting on a show for the fans.
1:42:10
And we were in and out with less than two hours, I think it was
1:42:12
before the sun dropping, the temperatures went down.
1:42:14
I thought it was great. I've only seen one person
1:42:16
complain, and that person rightfully got their lashings,
1:42:20
so I'm not going to pile on. But yeah, I thought for that.
1:42:25
No, it did not. So yeah, my hat's off to Chris
1:42:27
and Tracy. We were very appreciate.
1:42:29
We were legitimately talking in the car on the way home like
1:42:31
that was awesome. But the no heat races was great
1:42:33
in and out. We we didn't get cold.
1:42:35
And I also want to shout out, I I talked about the deep, deep
1:42:39
fried uncrustable at M40 last week.
1:42:41
The fried Oreos at New Paris might be right up there.
1:42:43
They're on par, brother. Well, they have Twix now.
1:42:47
I want to say they have fried Twix, fried Snickers, or maybe
1:42:51
they just changed them out. But Tracy, they always bring me
1:42:54
food to the roof, even though they make fun of me because they
1:42:56
know I'm not going to eat it at the track anyways.
1:42:58
I just, I don't eat at a track. Once I get going, I just don't
1:43:01
eat. Yeah, we're opposite on that
1:43:02
one, my brother. Like if you, if you ask me
1:43:06
what's going to Kalamazoo, I, I couldn't tell you the last time
1:43:09
I ate at Kalamazoo was 2022. I don't need that Kalamazoo.
1:43:13
I, well, I don't bring money to eat at Kalamazoo either, but I,
1:43:15
I don't need that Kalamazoo. I just, I don't have time.
1:43:19
I, I, I run such a tight schedule with 19 cameras and
1:43:22
making this and making that, that I, I just don't have time
1:43:26
to stop and pause for 20 minutes to eat or 15 or 10.
1:43:29
Like I just don't have that time.
1:43:30
And at, new at Springport, I always kind of had some of that
1:43:34
time that I could do that with. But, you know, 'cause of the way
1:43:37
they stretched everything out that, that, that helped but a, a
1:43:41
new pair. So they'll bring me, you know,
1:43:43
food to the roof and then they'll go, well, we know you
1:43:45
won't eat it. You'll have it at the end of the
1:43:46
night anyways. And, and they, you know, so like
1:43:50
their, their burgers are really good.
1:43:51
If you've not tried their burgers, you know they're.
1:43:54
The one the one thing in my life that I may consider myself an
1:43:57
expert on is racetrack concession food.
1:44:00
We could do a podcast on maybe just.
1:44:01
Oh, that that should be a series.
1:44:03
But you know, I mean it, some people get a lot of money doing
1:44:06
that. So, you know, some people not
1:44:09
play for the Savannah bananas who are experts in MLB food.
1:44:11
So, you know, you could go do that and who knows, you might
1:44:14
end up on ESPN just like that. What a dream.
1:44:16
I'll go back to £300 if I can. I'll put I'll put all the weight
1:44:20
back on we. Put a lot of work for that but
1:44:24
but other than that I mean between the concession food and
1:44:27
shout out to Chris and Tracy the.
1:44:29
The modified race. So if I'm being honest, but
1:44:32
going into the weekend, the race I was would have least been
1:44:35
excited for would have been the modified race.
1:44:37
And that was the race of the weekend.
1:44:38
I mean, no, no dig on the other two.
1:44:39
Those are great races too. But the modified race was
1:44:42
incredible. Some controversy at the end.
1:44:44
You can watch the video and decide for yourself, but it was
1:44:46
a great race nonetheless. Awesome race.
1:44:49
Well, like I said, I have a lot of people asking me.
1:44:51
I got a lot of messages, like personal message saying why
1:44:53
didn't you post that? Why didn't you post that?
1:44:55
Why don't you post that? And, and I had permission from
1:44:58
the race director because I was in the tower getting the poker
1:45:02
chips to take him down between and then bring them back.
1:45:05
So I was between the one race and and they asked me what I saw
1:45:08
from the roof and and you know, and, and I got the explanation.
1:45:12
And the way that it was explained to me is I thought A,
1:45:16
and why they called it that way. And it wasn't even a, but I, I
1:45:20
wasn't wrong. It's just, it was, it was the
1:45:22
continuation of. So it's almost like if you think
1:45:25
of the NFL and they talk about a catch and they say the
1:45:28
continuation, it's kind of one of those that is the
1:45:30
continuation of. And then how the, you know, you
1:45:33
have like ABCDE and that whole scenario from the back stretch
1:45:37
to turn 4X. And so you know, they said if
1:45:41
you post a post explanation and I turn and I and I, I can't say
1:45:45
the word on air right now, but I said, do you want MF?
1:45:48
Because I already knew. I, I posted that it would be a
1:45:54
nightmare and, and is on here. And crasher had that at M40.
1:45:58
He had something that he posted in a Crown Victoria race and it
1:46:01
went all over the place. I guarantee it would have went
1:46:04
over, but who's that fair to? It's not fair to the to the
1:46:09
Pressler crew whatsoever. They already have people who
1:46:12
hate them. They don't need help.
1:46:13
In fact, my board, I go to their, I go to their pit stop or
1:46:18
pit slab area every race that I see them and I go, you suck.
1:46:22
And I say that's a free spot and and they know I'm doing it
1:46:25
jokingly because then we'll have a 10 minute conversation after
1:46:28
that. So, but I go, I'm just going to
1:46:30
get it off the bingo board today.
1:46:32
So I count that the free space. So that's that's kind of like my
1:46:35
hello to them is just so you know, you suck and you know,
1:46:39
then, like I said, we have a conversation after that and and
1:46:41
shoot the breeze. And so, and I enjoy that and I
1:46:44
do that with a lot of drivers, right?
1:46:45
Not saying you suck, but you know, you have different things
1:46:48
you do with different drivers. And so then, you know, and that
1:46:52
wouldn't be fair to the Gatin crew either.
1:46:54
They don't need to see that. They don't, you know, because I
1:46:56
know if I post it on Facebook, I.
1:46:59
Yeah, and it doesn't need to be between Facebook.
1:47:01
I mean, it's between the 32 and the 89.
1:47:03
They can figure it out. If they need to figure it out,
1:47:05
they don't need. They don't need our input at
1:47:07
all. And I knew what would happen,
1:47:10
right? So I'm like, I'm not doing that.
1:47:11
And I've had a numerous people asked and I said it will be in
1:47:13
the full program and, and it will be in Gatton's on board
1:47:17
camera. So you can see from 2 spots.
1:47:19
Because obviously with the white flag getting ready to come out,
1:47:21
I was on them, you know, because they were battling the whole
1:47:23
time. And that's why I was reminding
1:47:24
people too, if there's a battle up front, I'm not going to move
1:47:27
around the track as much because, you know, I like, I
1:47:29
tried to get every driver in at least.
1:47:31
And it was a great race up front.
1:47:33
Too. Yeah.
1:47:33
And it's like, well, if they're battling up front, I'm not going
1:47:35
to move from that, right? And so so I feel bad when I
1:47:39
don't get other drivers in there because like Carter Trudgeon,
1:47:42
you know, I recruited him all the way from Corrigan Oil area
1:47:45
and he made the long trip down and had the different things not
1:47:48
go his way, but not on the track and did well.
1:47:52
So anyway, so that's why I didn't post that.
1:47:54
And and but it like I said, it's in the full program and it's in
1:47:57
Gettins video. And then earlier, you know, I've
1:48:00
been doing my advertising where I post like a a clip of the
1:48:03
onboards to help promote the drivers.
1:48:04
And of course, now that I have all of our sponsors, Federated
1:48:07
auto parts, LH detailing, Sabrina BB photography for the
1:48:11
onboards, you know, I want to promote them.
1:48:12
That's part of the package is you sponsor camera, you get
1:48:15
promotion, you know, and so that's something that then, you
1:48:20
know, someone said, where's the rest of it?
1:48:21
You can watch it in the video. You know, I'm not posting it.
1:48:24
And This is why because again, it wouldn't.
1:48:26
It's like, yeah, I might make a lot of money that way.
1:48:28
But as Matt Frazier said a few weeks ago when we were talking
1:48:32
about something, you know, outlaw super late model driver,
1:48:35
he was saying, he said, but that's not what you do and
1:48:36
that's not how you are. I'm like, I'm so glad that
1:48:38
people see that, you know, there's there, you know, and
1:48:41
there are times that I post things that I kind of think back
1:48:44
and go, I was 5149 on that. I probably should have been 5050
1:48:48
and decided not to. But it's one of those, you know,
1:48:53
also, you know, Bill Russell, who I haven't seen on tonight.
1:48:56
That's actually surprising usually, but you know, Bill
1:49:00
Russell when I got to talk and he even point out, he said,
1:49:02
well, you haven't been posting as much this year anyways.
1:49:05
And I said, well, I just really try, You know, I, I'm trying to
1:49:08
be more mindful of, you know, I take a percentage of the night,
1:49:11
I count the laps per the night and I don't generally post heat
1:49:14
race highlights anyways because it's just, it's heat racing,
1:49:19
right? And unless there's something
1:49:20
really cool, you know, like a first win and it's big or
1:49:23
whatever. But otherwise I just focus on
1:49:25
the futures and, and I so I count the lapse and I go, OK,
1:49:29
this is the percentage. And I really try to keep it a
1:49:31
low percentage for the night anyways, because I don't ever
1:49:35
want a track to come to me saying you're posting too much.
1:49:38
But I also know Facebook wants certain, you know, a certain
1:49:42
length too. So I really know victory lapse
1:49:46
will always be about a minute and a half to two minutes,
1:49:48
depending on how long it takes them to get out for Victory
1:49:50
Lane. That's that's the long part.
1:49:52
Otherwise, you know, I try to stay under a minute or less, you
1:49:56
know, for a lot of things. But yeah, that's why I didn't
1:49:58
post that. But I thought that I still
1:50:00
thought the race I, I wanted, I was hoping that people wouldn't
1:50:03
let that determine whether they like the race or not because
1:50:07
that was fun. Modified Race.
1:50:09
And it shouldn't. I mean, that's racing.
1:50:10
They were racing hard for the lead.
1:50:11
Somebody got turned. I mean, caught yellow candidate.
1:50:14
It sucks. We'd rather see them come to the
1:50:16
checkered and battle it out all the way.
1:50:17
But that's part of the game, you know what I mean?
1:50:19
Yep, and it and it and I'm sure you know, if people think about
1:50:24
it, I'm sure one party has benefited from calls in the past
1:50:27
and other party hasn't. Other than that, this party,
1:50:29
right. So at the end of the day, like
1:50:31
everyone understands that it's racing and things happen and it
1:50:35
is what it is. I don't think we need to go
1:50:36
further than that other than I hope that people watch the race
1:50:39
and appreciate what those two did.
1:50:42
You know, they put on 1/2 of a race the modifiers in general.
1:50:47
I mean they went green until that moment straight stocks.
1:50:50
You know, they it was kind of a similar to the week before.
1:50:53
You know they had AI know it's it's storming here.
1:50:55
Storms never arrived in Saltland.
1:50:58
Oh yeah, there's lightning nonstop here.
1:50:59
That's why we won't be on much longer.
1:51:01
But I knew we want to talk about this, but I thought the straight
1:51:04
stock race, that one was also, you know, they they had a bumpy
1:51:08
start kind of like the week before.
1:51:09
It's like a bumpy start. But then once they got going,
1:51:12
you know there's a lot of battles all over.
1:51:14
Yeah, and obviously definitely the shout out to Jeff Gannis.
1:51:16
I mean back to free stock and Limited's then back-to-back
1:51:19
weeks, the two different tracks, very impressive.
1:51:21
But yeah, I think I I counted that during pace laps of the
1:51:24
street socket race and there was at least 21 championships on the
1:51:27
track in a 17 car field. So it might not have been the
1:51:31
biggest field in the world, but as you mentioned early, very
1:51:33
quality. Well, if you start adding a
1:51:35
future wins, I mean, you had Alex Sexton there who's not been
1:51:38
a champion in the street stocks yet, but he you know, he has two
1:51:41
future wins and you start doing all that kind of stuff.
1:51:43
And again, it as I was telling Taylor Sexton, her and I were
1:51:47
talking because Alex was coming down and, you know, and I was
1:51:50
giving my words of motivation and like, you know, he races at
1:51:53
Kalamazoo every Friday. That I mean, there's not a lot
1:51:58
of places that you can get the quality of talent that we have
1:52:00
at Kalamazoo where even our slower drivers, if you call them
1:52:03
that, are, you know, they go to other tracks and they have a
1:52:06
shot at winning, right? Like it's, you know, it's just,
1:52:08
it's the, the competition level at Kalamazoo week in and week
1:52:12
out because of where Kalamazoo is located between the border
1:52:15
and where it is in Michigan, right, that you could pull cars
1:52:18
from everywhere. And I know the oh, that's a good
1:52:20
one. Good Thunder boom.
1:52:22
And I know the late model class this week account is building
1:52:25
up. So I think, right, we're going
1:52:27
to have a lot of cars from a lot of places.
1:52:29
And so that's shoe stock race. I mean, yeah, you didn't get 27
1:52:33
or whatever what we thought possible, but that those
1:52:36
seventeen were no slouches whatsoever.
1:52:38
And I was really surprised when the bozos pulled and I I'm like,
1:52:42
man, this is going to be a good day.
1:52:43
Yeah. That's that's another sign of
1:52:45
early season is how many mechanical issues go throughout.
1:52:48
There's a lot of pull in all three classes.
1:52:50
Yes, well, in the cold, right. Like yeah, definitely people
1:52:54
talk about that too. And but no, I thought that and
1:52:58
then, you know, I thought the late model race, you know, was
1:53:00
fun too. And watching Bryce had his super
1:53:04
shoe car from 2022 down there. It's not his weekly car, but you
1:53:08
know, he was hanging up there too.
1:53:10
And he and he didn't race new pairs too often.
1:53:12
In fact, I that might have been his like first official time or
1:53:15
if not second time. So I think was he, I think he
1:53:18
raced and revealed the hammer in the Hallow Super last year, but
1:53:21
I don't he's at least in my time of covering.
1:53:24
He's not been in the limited there.
1:53:25
So, you know, he got to race with that group.
1:53:28
And that's a race for Ganis just got through the field so quick
1:53:31
that I mean, if Bryce or Bug got out front first, that race would
1:53:34
have been different. But I mean, Ganis just lightning
1:53:36
quick through the field. That's that's experience.
1:53:39
Yep, so again, just it's kudos to new Paris for giving it a
1:53:43
shot because again, they didn't they didn't have to.
1:53:46
They could have pulled the plug. And yes, that's, that's just
1:53:49
what I, I hope fans remember is that when a track gives it a
1:53:53
shot, I mean, I can, I maybe I'm wrong.
1:53:56
And and I'm just taking a guess though that knowing what about
1:54:00
what the payout was if you do the math right and you know
1:54:04
across the number of cars and that most teams probably brought
1:54:06
about two to three people maybe that.
1:54:09
And the pits would have been less.
1:54:11
I mean the people bringing less than the pits just because of
1:54:13
the cold too. And just like staying.
1:54:15
Yep. So it's like you add that up,
1:54:17
it's probably not a financial win, but you know, they they
1:54:20
still did it so and lowered costs at the same time for
1:54:25
general emission because of no heat.
1:54:26
So, but that's where you know, this Friday or this Saturday
1:54:30
back to normal. You got all four class.
1:54:32
Oh, that's a good lightning strike, but you have all good
1:54:34
for all four classes will be back.
1:54:36
I'm excited to see that 4 cylinder again, but that's on
1:54:39
that's for Thursday's conversation.
1:54:42
But we have a lot of doubleheader.
1:54:44
There's if you like night at instructions.
1:54:47
M40 this Sunday has their day of reckoning and they have a
1:54:50
they're doing a new twist on the night rider.
1:54:52
So the Johnny Russell made a video about that.
1:54:56
So if you haven't seen that, go check out.
1:54:58
That must be severe thunderstorm warning.
1:55:02
Yep, severe thunderstorm warning.
1:55:03
So yeah, that's why I figure we'll probably end.
1:55:05
So if power goes out often, we don't end, but we'll talk all
1:55:09
about it on Thursday. But we have a lot, I mean, more
1:55:11
tracks are coming online now. So I think pretty much everyone
1:55:14
in our area is racing as of this weekend.
1:55:16
So it'll give us a lot to talk about on Thursday.
1:55:19
But other than that, anything else good for the group before
1:55:22
we beat the storm? Sure, stay safe in the storms I
1:55:24
guess. I mean, you see the lightning
1:55:27
behind me, right? Yeah, it's loud out here too.
1:55:29
Cause Lake MI's just down that way so that means it's already
1:55:32
coming. But anyway.
1:55:34
I'm in my flip flops out here. I'm gonna get to the house.
1:55:38
Again, thank you, Buju for another great night.
1:55:40
Obviously, this will be on Spotify.
1:55:43
And then from Spotify, it disperses out to Apple Podcast,
1:55:48
disperses out to Amazon Music iHeartRadio.
1:55:53
We'll do one more quick Rich next Monday at seven O 5 around
1:55:57
735 Joel. And then around 8:00, a little
1:56:01
after 8:00 will be Brian. So we have Indiana, Michigan and
1:56:06
Illinois all represented next week on the Monday night
1:56:10
rewinds. Don't forget to come see us this
1:56:13
Thursday at 7:00. And I was going to talk about
1:56:17
that tonight, so I'm going to leave that up there for a
1:56:19
second, but don't forget I did post this earlier for the
1:56:22
marketing special with ELH. Other than that, booze, you
1:56:25
anything else? No, Sir.
1:56:28
So we'll talk more about the ELH again on Thursday.
1:56:30
I feel like I'm shorting them, but I also, I don't want us to
1:56:32
get cut off. So it's time.
1:56:34
It's almost time again to turn left and go fast because.
1:56:37
We will see you at the races. See you all at the races.