great car counts opening night at Oshweken

[mike32]

32 Sprint cars (not including spares), 28 minis, 13 Thunder stocks and 3 of the new enduro type funs stocks. New main straight grandstand only 2/3 completed and announcers Greg Calnan and Tommy "Salami" Goudge were perched with the scorers on the top row with the new tower not yet built.
Sprint car main-Styres took it over Fred Cade and Patriot Star Jared "Juice" Zimbardi. SOD drivers Louie Carufel and Dain Naida showed up with SOD running the next night at Buxton making Oshweken a convenient stop. ESS/Patriot star Justin Barger ran into mechanical problems in the feature which had no yellows.
 New Musco lighting towers for the front straight are up but need to be hooked up which will be soon I imagine. Clinton Geoffrey did yeoman work hooking up the sound system. Program started a little late but was over at 10:10 which included a 15 minute intermission and an ambulance call when Kyle Patrick flipped in the fourth sprint heat and ended up with banged up knees and ankles. He was reportedly too sore to bring out the spare car for the B main. Abel Castelein won an exciting mini feature and Cody McPherson won the Thunder feature in his Camaro.
 Some really impressive sprint new comers-Clinton Geoffrey's brother Mike (Kruchka) has a new sprinter sponsored by the Wings UP chain (chicken wings not sprint car wings!). Former dirt street stock driver Barry Beck has an impressive looking ride. Bob Slack's favourite grandson Ryan Hunsinger has a ride (77x) out of the Styres stable, and former dirt sportsman star Dave Dykstra is incredibly fast for a sprint car rookie in his new #5. Impressive how many Niagara dirt sportsman drivers have moved up to sprinters.
 Next week I expect the count will likely be in the 20-24 range as there was likely some novelty in being the first night with sprint cars as the regular main class. Still quite the bang for the buck - $10 admission!
 Only minor complaint the first night was the slow lines at the concession stand. Could probably have sold twice as much with more staff. (ps Gas on the rez was $1.05 a litre with the native card. 1.21 without) I swear three more smoke shops have magically appeared on the section of Hwy 54 I use between regional road 8 and Chiefswood Road since last season-lol

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[racewoman]

 Matt drove his new golf cart out to the start/finish line to give his father congrats on winning the Mini Stock feature. Matt's brother AJ did not finish the race due to mechanical problems. The problem is now fixed. Hopefully AJ will have a better night tonight at Merrittiville.
It was also Matt's 18th birthday.

The races were awesome as always at the O things went off really well. I did hear a lot of comments that people do want the Dirt Sportman class back. Also that they seem to think that the Sprints may dry up the track too much for the other classes.

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[mike32]

agree Teri that with the sprinters, we might be wearing the track home a bit more often if you know what I mean. Really no complaints and what a great admission price. Now if I can only find I have some native blood so I can get a native card-LOL. My late father was born in Cayuga but that doesn't seem to count for much at the Oshweken Esso.
PS-I thought that was Matt on the golf cart but wasn't sure from where I sit. Great to see him there

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[racingwrench]

just got home from the buxton rain out only 11 sprints in the pits not too many canadian sprints there kind of suprising really.

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[Mobil1fan]

Rain?

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[racerfan44]

Buxton got 7 heat races in before the clouds opened up.Two of those races were the sprint heats which were won by Brett Mann from Indiana .Track announced a quick lap of 14.94 seconds.In the second heat Kyle Patrick of Tilbury Ontario won the second heat race and the track announced a quick lap of 14.90 seconds.These times are around a 3/8 D shaped track.The track was super fast to bad the rains came because it would have been some super quick race.

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[racerfan44]

This should be interesting to see what happens to Sprint Series cars (IE -SOS) how many of these cars will be able to run at Oshweken on a Friday night then the next night run to Brighton ,Humberstone or South Buxton.They will have to make a decision to run here or there but with $1500.00 to win every friday night at Oshweken .It is pretty hard to not race there  (Oshweken ) when money like that is offered to race.When American series drivers (Empire,Patriot) to name a few catch on what Oshweken pays they will show up also.Oshweken first night drew 32 cars would not surprise me if by the month of July they could have close to 60 if not more in the pits.Donot get me wrong what Glen Styres is doing is great technically building a Dirt track for Sprints to race every Friday night but hopefully he can work together with series operators to try and not hurt the traveling shows which started sprint car racing.Remember these single car sprint teams can not afford to run a Friday -Saturday races every weekend while the big budget teams who have 2 cars will be able to so.Hopefully this will not be the demise of travelling series in Ontario.

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[racingwrench]

Part of the issue is that brighton is a pretty good hike for most of the car owners and other travelling series have historically paid better than sos. When I was working on a dirt car it was closer for us to cross the border and run sod races for more money.  Brighton only had 17 cars with a pretty open night schedule wise.  Historically buxton would bet enough cars to run three heats I hope it was just the weather this time.  I guess if it was my money  I'd go with the fantastic facility closer to home for more money than dirve to brighton or cornwall or wherever.  Afew of the cars at ohsweken were sod cars thanks to the ohsweken payout and future sod date.

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[TommySalami]

As far as Ohsweken car counts go, we are not going to see 60 sprint cars at a regular show...that is just not realistic. 

By my count, about 20-22 of the 32 sprints in attendance on Friday are probably going to be there every week, with about 5-6 more on a semi-regular basis, and perhaps a couple more regulars popping up as the season moves along.  Garry Evans was supposedly putting two cars together over the winter, but only one was there Friday night...Jamie Collard's car owner is signed up for a track membership as well...

The ones I know for sure won't be there every week are Barger (although it's worth noting that there is a big Ohsweken logo on the front of his firesuit , Zimbardi (although it is only about 150 miles to Ohsweken from his home), and Naida (who was looking for a ride to run Ohsweken every week during the offseason, but nothing came up). 

The yellow 71 of Chris Hettinger out of Michigan says he will be there every week except 2-3 as he is committed to running in the Wolverine Outlaw Midget Series as well, and that series has a couple of Friday shows.  Some older fans might remember Chris' father Jim from some supermodified races at Delaware in the 70's. 

Louie Carufel is apparently going to be running every week, and John Riegling apparently signed up to run for points as well.  Kyle Patrick will be around whenever SOD isn't running on a Friday night (he was in the 42 Rheaume car at Buxton last night and won his heat before it rained), and there will likely be a handful of SOS visitors on various nights as well...

As far as the Sportsmen/Sprints debate, I don't feel it is my place to get involved in that, but I will say one thing - compare the crowd on opening night to the crowds for a regular show last season at Ohsweken (no sprints).  We are not where we would like to be for attendance yet (that will probably take most of the season to build that up, I think), but it was a pretty good crowd on Friday night.

I'm not sure what the deal was with the low count at Buxton last night...part of it was probably the weather...hopefully.  The track might have announced fast laps of 14.9, but I had them on my stopwatch in the 14.6's consistently in the heats.  It was still pretty soupy even then...they probably would have gotten a tick faster by feature time...

I think it is way too early to declare the demise of traveling sprint car series in Ontario...This season was going to be rough on car counts no matter what, due to rising fuel costs and such (AVSS had 15 cars at their opener in Michigan - they ALWAYS had 20-25 in years past)...I don't feel that Ohsweken's sprint car class is going to have a really negative impact on the travelling groups...there may be a few guys who choose to run only at Ohsweken, but there are more who want to race more than once a week (hence the formation of the 360 class at Humberstone last year).  The tow from the Ohsweken area to Brighton is less than 3 hours...it is not the other side of the world.  Any negative impact Ohsweken might have on preventing teams to travel is likely mitigated by the fact that Ohsweken's new sprint car class has brought a lot of new drivers to the division...so there is a larger pool of drivers to draw from.


As far as my first night working at Ohsweken on Friday, it was crazy to say the least...Greg and I did our best under less than ideal working conditions...I hope the fans will bear with us for a little while.  We have to thank Clinton big time for making sure the sound system was in working order.  The scorers and other track staff deserve some recognition as well...they were sitting outside in the stands with us as well and it was pretty breezy up there!  The delay in the construction at the track has nothing to do with the track staff and everything to do with getting the supplies delivered, which is taking some time, apparently...the rest of the new lights are all ready to go, but there is no transformer for them at the moment...and once we have a tower up, I can start doing my real job of pit/on track reporting...Hopefully in another few weeks things will be ship-shape and we can build upon what was already a good show opening night.

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[racingwrench]

true what's past toronto isn't the other side of the world but three hours puts me at several tracks on the sod or the avss schedule.  The weekly stuff at ohsweken is one of the best things to happen in this province in the past few years and the pelkies are the right people for the job.  I agree 60 cars is pie in the sky but I wouldn't be suprised constant high 20's ,  there was a few names I didn't see on the ohsweken or the sos results so I am guessing that they will appear at some point in the year balancing out with the other part timers.  can't wait to get there when my previous commitments allow.  I guess I should have known you would be there seem to be at the same races alot.

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[ELP441]

Yes it was a pretty good night overall, albeit a little bit chilly in the infield I must say & my son had to contend with someone standing on the seat row just below him & to his left videotaping the Sprints, his favorite races, effectively blocking his view of most of the backstretch & turns 1 & 2 - I told him that he should have said something to him but he wouldn't lol. Got some fairly decent pics from turns 1 & 2 for the hot laps & heats & went to turn 3 for the feature & now have them on my photobucket page for those interested.
I think that 60 cars for a weekly show is a little bit much myself, seeing as 1 of their biggest shows of the year draws just over 70 Sprints & expect that on a regular basis they will have in the low to mid-range 20's with the realistic number being like Tommy says, low 20's but that's still a pretty good draw for a weekly Sprint show I think. When I was out west a number of years back, the track in Edmonton would have on the average 16-19 cars for their weekly show, but they still put on a pretty decent run most nights - still got some videotape from there lol. Not knocking your wishful thinking wrench & while it would be great to see that many Sprints on a regular basis, I could just imagine how long the night would be with 60 cars battling it out for a 20 or 22 car field, as they only started 20 cars - is that going to be the standard number for a feature Tommy? When I was at Williams Grove last year, they had 36 410 Sprints & 36-38 LM (Outlaw type) & with just those 2 divisions it turned out to be a very long & cold night - yes they did hold off an extra 1/2 hour from starting to wait for some LM's to haul in from a rained out Hagerstown but still started at around 7:30 & I didn't get out of there until almost 11:30 if memory serves me correct, if not close to 12. They also had very few stoppages in the heats & features with no red flags & there they keep the show moving as I am pretty sure they were pushing off the next Sprint heat as the previous 1 finished - same for the LM's, they were heading onto the track when the checker flew for the heat previous to theirs.
Anyways, was a fairly good night overall & enjoyed it & will be back, just not every week & the same with my son - much better than the show they put on at Flamboro I think, pricewise especially & that is what will keep me from that track this year & quite possibly for many years to come I think lol.


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[racingwrench]

they were pretty darn close to that on sprint nights in the past few years.  It will be an adjustment year for many as you will have to make show every week and some might get discouraged fi they don't make show but this much growth and interest isn't going to just stop.  There aren't very many divisions in ontario that have to run a b main just to get down to the required number of cars (a few ministock classes as well i think). 

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[TommySalami]

The highest car count for sprints that Ohsweken has ever had for a "regular" sprint car event (i.e. not the Nationals) was 43 at an SOS race on June 9, 2006.  Chuck Hebing was the winner.  http://www.southernontariosprints.com/history/2006/060906.htm  I remember it really well because I live about 14 miles from Delaware (where they had AVSS running) but decided to go to Ohsweken that night instead...As it turned out, Ryan Litt won the feature and made all kinds of fun of me for not being there...lol

A couple of the SOD races have challenged that total, but never surpassed it...I think this year we might have 50+ for the big co-sanctioned ASCS SOD/Patriot show on July 4/5.

20 car features are going to be the standard...it's been in the rulebook since the rules for the class were announced.  I know in PA that's not how it is, but SOD, AVSS, Attica, and Fremont all have 20 car features (except when SOD came to Ohsweken Glenn paid for the extra 4 spots)...whether that's right or wrong is not for me to decide.  I do think it will be fun to see heat races that mean something every week - drivers will want to finish in the top 4.

racingwrench - yes we do both seem to end up at a lot of the same races...I always went to SOD and AVSS and other things instead of Brighton as well (from London, Brighton is closer to 4 hours...many things are closer)...until I became the SOS media officer this year.   Come say hello next time you are at Ohsweken...Greg Calnan (SOS announcer) and I are the new Ohsweken announcers.

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[ELP441]

I didn't think that they got that far up there in car counts, with the exception of the Sept race, but did see some fairly large counts up in the mid to high 30 count range a couple of times I think.
I think that a 20 car starting field is actually better, as there will be 4 cars less than on the nights when the traveling show is in town, so I would think that there would be a little more room to move around & less chance of something happening to bring out the yellow or red flags, as we saw on Fri night with their feature going from start to finish caution-free. I believe that they had the same number to start their features in Edm., when they did get 20+ cars in the pits & they did on occasion get several more during the summer months as some would come up from Lethbridge when they could & when they had their 2 big races in July & Aug & the Americans were hauling up from Montana, Wash. & Oregon they had on occasion around 45 cars show up, yet only started 22 for the A Main & not 24 like most places would. Yes, they started 24 in PA, but they are a larger track & they run under the Outlaw rules there I think, as several were semi-regulars with the Outlaws when they would come east & they had the time to travel with them.
Anyways, with it only being a 20 car starting field I agree that the teams will have to actually race to qualify for the feature - especially when the car counts being up in the high 20 to low 30 count - & not just get in them on the sole reasoning that all cars qualify based on that is all the cars that are there in the pits, like at Flamboro & places like that. Makes for much better racing in the heats & features in my opinion.

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