In the Groove
Monday, July 10, 2006
by Stacy Ervin - A couple of things I love most about racing went down in this past week.
First of all, the Fourth of July holiday brought sprint-car racing back to my hometown of West Liberty and the place where my love of racing was born, West Liberty Raceway on the Muscatine County Fairgrounds.
It had been three summers since the winged warriors threw rooster tails all around my flat half-mile of Eastern Iowa dirt and I missed them. In my real job as editor of West Liberty's local newspaper, I devote a good amount of my weekly editorial column space to talking about my great passion in life. Most of the time, though, my faithful readers are reading about Knoxville Raceway. That gets me into a pickle every once in a while with the local race fans, who feel West Liberty Raceway deserves more of my attention since it's right in my own backyard.
Well, let me assure everyone that I love West Liberty Raceway and I have since my grandpa Rocky first took me to the place. It¹s a great track on many counts. But since I was 4 years old, I¹ve been spoiled by Knoxville. And now, with a weekly job in the pressbox at the Sprint Car Capitol of the World, that¹s where my weekends are spent.
That's what makes sprint-car racing at West Liberty Raceway so great for me. It's a chance to be at home, among my fellow hometowners, at my home track, and seeing the kinds of race cars that give me chills. Thanks to promoter Bud Kile, a local racing businessman, and the Sprint Invaders Association, I got to do that on Independence Day.
I have to say, too, it was actually nice not having a job to do at the track for a change. I actually got to sit in the grandstands with the fans and watch the races. It's ironic that I go to more races than I used to, but seldom get to really watch since I am so busy with my duties on the Knoxville Website.
The only thing wrong with the night of racing was about a 45-minute delay to regrade the race track after the heat races. Normally, it wouldn't have been a huge problem. But on this holiday, many of the non-racing fans in West Liberty were expecting a fireworks show around 9 a.m. It didn¹t come until 11:30 a.m. and that was a shame, particularly for the kids who couldn't wait any longer before falling asleep.
Aside from that, the racing was great and the fireworks were awesome. And it was a happy holiday for me to rekindle an old familiar feeling of bliss.
Then, on Saturday, July 8, Knoxville Raceway hosted one of my most favorite nights of each season with the annual twin-features show. This year's version lived up to my expectations, with fantastic racing and happy winners.
A very large crowd in the immense grandstands certainly helped make the show come alive. And while most could have predicted wins for perennial front-runners Josh Higday and Jeff Mitrisin in the 360 class and points leader Brian Brown in the 410 class, that final 410 feature proved tricky to call.
Brent Antill may be a proven multi-time winner at the speedway, but in recent years, the wins have been a little harder to come by, especially since he doesn¹t pull into the pit area as much as he used to. When he is in attendance, though, this veteran always shows he still has the talent and drive to win. And he remains a fan favorite among those of us who can remember when he started out as a youngster. By my very unscientific estimation, I would count him as among the very top of my list of nicest drivers in the pit area.
Speaking of that, Brent is about my age, so that's one reason I¹ve always been a fan. It's really hard to figure out where all those years went from the time Antill and company were the youngsters to the present, when they are looked up to by the teenagers. It was really hard to hear Joe Beaver labeled a veteran the other night since he's younger than me.
This week, fairs start to get into full swing and that¹s another thing I absolutely love about summer. It starts with Knoxville's fair race this Saturday, which means there will be cotton candy, ice cream and funnel cakes to make race time all that much sweeter.
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