5/9/21
Huset's Speedway
Brandon, SD
From "Murphy"...
Kinda the Reader's Digest version, as I didn't take notes... and I'm too lazy to proofread it.
Thumbs Up:
-Husets Speedway! Sunday nights! Sprint cars!
-Mud flying during my 1 mile hike in from the parking lot during time trials
-The track made the effort to get the show in, even though it rained a bunch Saturday.
-I didn't get strip-searched on the way in
-24 410 sprints, 23 IMCA sprints, 17 Late Model Street stock, 0 other classes
-My first race at Husets was in July, 1984. I'm sure around that time I was watching Leonard McCarl, Steve Ballenger and Jim Lindberg race. Last night I got to see their kids, (Dusty Ballenger) and their grandkids (Bailey Ballenger, Jesse Lindberg, Carson McCarl and Austin McCarl) race.
-Campground area being built at the north end of the parking area
-17 LMSS, and some more in the works. I'll admit that I'm a sprint car zombie. I can tolerate hobbystocks on a good night. LMSS, I like
-Some new faces in LMSS including Jim Ross, moving up from the hobby stocks
-23 IMCA sprints, including some Minnesota cars. Are those Arlington regulars?
-24 410's
-Austin McCarl's speech in victory lane in the 410's. That guy could not have been any happier. That was fun to listen to.
-no bus, no dust
-Nobody upside down, but there were some bent cars
-Some new bleachers-sort of- have been installed behind/above the back gate. They will aloow pit crews to watch their cars? They don't have seats, but have a ledge about 3' to set stuff on (?)
-The woman who sang The Star Spangled Banner was right on. She had the right cadence and the right notes to make a perfectly difficult song sound easy
-Some North Dakota guys in the 410's.
-Justin Henderson seemd to have a V-12 under the hood for the first part of the 410 feature. In about 4 laps, he was almost half a lap ahead of 2nd place
-The DeWall #16 410 was the best looking car last night. It's red, white & blue and reminds me of some old roadster from the 60's that had STP as a sponsor. Sharp looking.
-I thought Scelzi in the #3 was going to catch Austin, but after a late yellow the 1a went faster, the 3 went a little slower
Thumbs Down:
-Cold, real cold. I dressed for it, but for some reason, having all that blubber on my rear end doesn't prevent the cold from migrating from the aluminum seats. Fortunately the wind wasn't blowing.
-The parking was a thrill, with the noth end blocked off by a mountain of dirt. I followed another car along that mountain expecting a place to park at the end. Instead, I lead that car in backing out about a quarter mile to a spot wide enough to turn around and move further south to park way out by the creek. The good news is I put a lot of steps in towards my 9,000 per day goal.
-The rain on Saturday made track work difficult. The track was kinda tricky and didn't widen out. When I walked the track after, it looked like the racing surface could have been 30' wider in the corners... if Mother Nature wasn't such a crab-ass.
-Maybe they're out of practice, but accidents clean up could be speeded up. If it's obvious a car has the front end all buggered up, why not send the tow truck sooner rather than later?
-I've never seen a LMSS bicycle before. Brandon Ferguson did, in the #1 corner, big time. Once he had all wheels on the ground, he back up to speed.
-Cody Hanson #4 in the 410's had a crazy handling car. I was sure he'd hit the wall just any minute. The closest looke liked when he pulled a wheelie going into the #1 corner when he should have been turned left already.
-Zach Olivier, LMSS #71 whacked the inside berm in turn #4. From where I sit at the top of #4, I thought he was going over. He was still quite competitive with a smashed up front end and pieces of body work dragging underneath the car. For what it's worth, it looks like the inside berm is further out in turn 4 than it used to be.
- The pitside microphone kept cutting out. "%.#..&5^..@#$./*&. Back up to you Shawn"
- A couple IMCA cars got bent up.
-In an incident that I didn't see, a sprinter (Serbus?) hit the inside wall on the front stretch after some sort of altercation with another driver. He hopped out and gave the other driver some odd hand signals. He wanted the other guy to know the experience was uplifting?
-Justin Henderson was a rocket during the first part of the 410 feature. Then he seemed to misguage the speed of a lap car and spun out of the lead. Bummer
This N That:
-Everything now has a sponsor. I had to laugh when Shawn said "This yellow flag is sponsored by..." Can I sponsor the black flags?
-Chuck McGilvrey, #101 has a different, darker purple color scheme than we're used to. It looks dark purple/ almost black on the track. Up close, it's gray-ish. Is it magic, or am I losing it?
-Alex Schreiver in the 410's has a car with a funky rollcage that extends almost 2 feet further back than the norm. He put side panels on it that may not be legal in WoO races?
-I wondered if the flag man was real short. Then I saw that the trphy girl was almost as tall as Austin McCarl
-I was looking at the rollcage on CarsonMcCarl's car up close. Most all the cars seem to have added another verticle bar forward of the rear, main hoop. As I was doing that, Terry came over with a 4 wheeler to push the car out and I had to jump out of the way.--Are the cars getting louder?
-In my own way, I hope Chuck Brennen watched the race last night online and kicked himself.
I thought it was a very good night of racing and will only get better. What did you think?