Get Your Motor Runnin'

(Val)If you call yourself a race fan and live anywhere within 200 miles of the St. Louis metropolitan area, yet failed to attend last night's POWERi Midget races at Belle Clair Speedway, you committed a class A felony. Fortunately, there's still a chance to redeem yourself tonight, but just remember, it's the only chance you're going to get.

Our original plan was that Spring, my Dad, my son and I would attend the night's races together, but that fell apart when my son got a "better" offer (he's 13 and not a huge race fan) and Spring came down with some nasty bug. So then there were two.

Dad and I have been to many races together over the years, traveling all over the midwest and we have a great time with just us two, so it didn't break my heart to get some one-on-one time with him. I did, however, feel bad that Spring felt so lousy and had to miss out on catching up with folks and missing the action. Hopefully, the pictures I took will help ease that just a little.

We got to the track in Belleville, Illinois, which is part of the old Fairgrounds, during the ninth inning of the Cardinals game, which was tough to abandon because we thought they might stage a comeback. Turns out we didn't miss anything and the final score was just where we left it.

It was an absolutely gorgeous day, and promised to be a cool evening, so we were ready for it with jackets and warm clothes. We wouldn't need any of that until much later in the evening. Trucks towing haulers were already in the pits and unloaded, and more kept coming while we walked around. Even more arrived as we talked to POWERi promoter Kenny Brown about the Series, which started about five years ago. He's very pleased with the growth of the organization and really has a heart for every facet of the sport. Kenny was a busy man last night, and a big part of that was just trying to find space in the pits for all the cars! All-in-all, there were over 100 open wheel cars in the pits. They were everywhere we turned, and I commented to my Dad that it was like going on an Easter egg hunt trying to find them all.

At 6:00 the cars took the field for hot laps, and we headed to the infield to take advantage of the last rays of sunlight. Although I like this speedway a lot, as do the drivers we talked to, it’s not an easy one to shoot at when the sun is going down. Finding the few areas that didn’t have shadows was tough, but with the last batch of hotlaps (figures!) my Dad pointed out what turned out to be the sweetest spot there.

I managed to get some really decent shots with just my Pentax K100D set to “sport” mode and the zoom lens that came with it. Taking pictures of race cars in motion is an acquired knowledge, and as I’ve said many times, I’m just an amateur so that’s not the only thing I have to learn. I did manage to get a lot more good shots on this night than I have all season, so I think something must finally be sinking in.

Once Midget hotlaps were done, we dashed on out of there, and since the sun was fully behind the grandstands, there wasn’t much more I could do anyway. We wandered the pits a little more, then went on in and found a place to sit and enjoy the action.

Because of a rain out back in June, the first races of the night were a make up semi-feature and feature, followed by the regular night of racing. It was definitely an action-packed evening and there were no dull moments to be found. The track was in good shape and didn’t get dusty until late in the program.

Dad and I made an interesting observation last night too. Between races, it was really comfortable out, and there was no wind, but when those cars got going it cooled off in a hurry, and the flags were standing straight out. It was almost as if the races generated their own cold front.

There were a couple of tangles during the night, and want pretty nasty crash that actually happened because of a yellow. One car checked up in a hurry, and the car behind it, driven by Randy Bateman, caught a tire and did several barrel rolls through turn one. We checked on Randy, and he was ok, but still had a bit of fuzzy vision in one eye. The car didn’t really look all that bad to the casual observer, but in the pits, we found that the frame was bent, and a front axle was being replaced in order to be able to get it in the hauler. Bateman was supposed to be bringing his 410 Sprint to Tri-City tonight, but it seemed pretty doubtful after that.

The evening was a lot of fun and we found ourselves ready for more. Fortunately, tonight’s menu ought to help in that area. I just talked to Tammy Gundaker at Tri-City, and at 11:30 this morning there were already some thirty haulers lined up to get into the pits. I warned her to park them in tight because if they get the cars from Belleville, plus the guys who raced at Terre Haute and Farmington last night, they will be packed like sardines in Tri-City’s pits.

Like I said in the beginning of this post, if you missed it last night, you still have one shot left. There’s a lot of competition for sports viewing on TV today, but days like this will be few and far between so take advantage of this great weather and get out to the track. If you’re really afraid of missing something, bring along a radio and listen to the football, baseball game or NASCAR race, but get out and enjoy this while you can.