Micros and Midgets and Sprints, Oh My!

(Val) All I can say about this weekend's racing is, if you missed, I feel sorry for you. (And that goes double for my pal Spring!)

What a great night of race action at Tri-City last night! After last year's down and dusty event, I was a little worried about how this one might go. Running those big 410 Winged Sprinters on the quarter mile can be truly destructive to even the most well-prepared surfaces. The worry was unfounded because even though the track got a little dusty by the 410 feature, it stayed darned good all night long.

We had a van load of folks with us for the races last night, two of which had never seen Sprints and Midgets before. They definitely got their money's worth! With 36 Sprints and 38 Midgets, along with oodles of Micros, the pits were filled to capacity. Arriving at the track with little time to spare before hot laps, I quickly made my way around to the drivers I needed to see. The driver's meeting was in full swing, so I hung around there for a little bit, then chatted with Jerry Coons, Jr. who was in need of a ride. He later piloted the number 11D that had been driven by Doug DeWitt at Belle Clair the night before, but only for part of one race, and then DeWitt was back behind the wheel. Not sure what happened there.

As I made my way around, an unfamiliar voice called out to me, and since I didn't know they were actually speaking to me at the time, I looked behind me to see who they were talking to, and then found out they really were talking to me after all! The man behind the voice was Tim Siner, who is the driver of the number 15 Midget and he wanted to talk to me about the Girls Gone Racin' site, plus introduce me to his wife, Melissa, and his Dad, Jim Sr. This all turned out pretty nicely, since I had actually been looking for them so I could drop of a couple of prints of two of my favorite photos. They had already seen the pictures on Girls Gone Racin' and the Fox 2 site, so I was pretty excited.

The Siners are really nice folks, and I loved getting to meet them. Later, in the infield, I met Jim Jr., who works for the POWERi Series and we had a nice chat too. Seems like they are really liking this October racing and I can't blame them! The car counts have been amazing, and the crowds weren't too shabby either.

Despite the fact that I was on my own in regard to photography for the evening, I had one of the best nights of the year because everyone made me feel so at home. There have been many times where I wonder what the heck I think I’m doing out there, and so often I just freeze up when I want to talk to someone. It has nothing to do with being star-struck or intimidated, and everything to do with just being a naturally shy person. Lucky for me, I get over that pretty quickly once I get to know someone.

Being at Tri-City is always like going home to me anyway because it’s been a part of my life since I was born, and going back is such a great opportunity to visit with old friends. Of course, part of the fun is meeting new folks too, and I got to do a lot of that over the weekend.

The pictures I took on Sunday night were not as good as the shots I got on Saturday. I think it had a lot to do with the lighting and just not having as many choices as to where I could stand. There were quite a few photographers in there, and I had to try and find a place where no one was in my way, and I wasn’t in theirs. There are some keepers, but over all, the ones I got on Saturday just turned out better. This photography thing is a learning experience, and I figure out something new every time I do it.

One of the highlights of Sunday night was finding out that Dale Blaney was there in a 410 Sprint. I hadn’t seen him at Tri-City in years, probably not since the last time the All Stars were there. We got to talk for a few minutes, mostly about the track his family owns, Sharon Speedway in Ohio. It was a challenging year for them, but I think that’s been the story at a lot of tracks around the country. Dale is a really nice guy, and didn’t seem to mind a bit when I asked for a photo. It made my night to see him take the feature win just a short time later.

Overall, this was a great way to end the racing season, but I wish Spring had been there to share it because I know she would have enjoyed it a lot. The bad part would have been the one big five-car pile-up in the Midget feature, but knowing everyone walked away would have made things ok.

Here in St. Louis, I know that the Cards putting away the Padres was the big sports news this weekend, (Yay Cards!) but for us diehard race fans, the real action was just across the river. Although only a fraction of people saw the racing compared to those who watched the ballgame, but I think if you asked any of them, they would agree that we were the real winners this weekend.