My 11 year old son and I came in from Dallas for the first Saturday of 2011 Indiana Sprint week. We were able to hit the Saturday, Sunday, and Thursday shows. Here is what we observed and experienced from our trip.
The Good:
Wow, non wing sprint racing! Doesn’t get any better than that.
Fan support was incredible. Arriving at Kokomo and seeing all the campers, flags and fans mulling about clued us in right away that this was going to be special.
Kokomo track – Best of the races we saw. Fun little track that reminds me of our hometown track (Cowtown Speedway) only it has a little less banking than ours.
Lawrenceburg Speedway - Amazing facility. Would be a blast to race on with that banking. Well run program.
Weather was awesome coming from our heat. Monday was hot and led us to not attend the North Vernon show (non Sprint week show) but outside of that day all the days were great.
Special thanks to the Indiana State Trooper who stopped me on Hwy 31 between Kokomo and Indy for going 70 in a 55 and only giving me a warning. Very cool.
Indy museum with my son on Sunday. I had been there a couple of times but it was special with my boy. His comments on the changes in cars from year to year and identifying the advances in technology made me proud. He even pointed out things I missed, lol.
Support classes. Count me as one who likes to see a few support classes. I really liked the mods at Lawrenceburg but I’m biased to them as well. I couldn’t believe the winner of the feature continued on with a missing air cleaner as dusty as it was. I’m sure those engines are at least $12k or more and I doubt they were racing for more than $1000 to win. The mini sprints at Brownstown were flying. Their lap times were not too far off the sprints.
Fans. All the fans we spoke directly to were nice and respectful. Had a few questions about where we were from and they seemed interested in our having a good time.
Brownstown. Neat facility. How long has it been there? Reminded me of days gone by. Even though it was dry, the track still seemed racey.
The Bad:
Checked in at the Hampton Inn in Kokomo at 3:00. Left my sunglasses on the counter as I put my bags in the room. Came down and the front desk acknowledged I left them there but couldn’t locate them. They said someone must have stolen them. Not a good start to lose your sunglasses only a few hours in town but my fault for leaving them on the counter.
Dust. I don’t mind dust as much as some, but most of the sprint guys I know like it a little tacky and racey. We thought the shows were still good, but could understand they could have been much better with a little more water.
Had to attend a meeting early Thursday in Columbus so we missed THAT. Wish it was closer as we would have liked to have seen the legendary half mile.
The Ugly:
Got to Kokomo Speedway at about 3:45 and went to the stands to see them full of blankets. We found a spot for two on the second row from the top (got lucky but we stayed parked there for hours). The row above us had plastic down and then a blanket taped over it. Let’s just say it got reeeaaaallly ugly. Two sets of folks claiming the same spot. A couple of the guys with the blanket said they worked for the track and had “rights to that section” even though their blanket was taped on top of the plastic (the plastic was claimed to be put down by the other party at 3PM). If these guys were employed by the track, they were not a very good representation and in my opinion were very abusive with lots of foul language and threats. I lost more respect for them when the cheered a flip by the Hoffman car. Not cool in my book.
The departure from Brownstown parking lot. I guess it really isn’t a parking lot but the way people wanted to get out of there just blew me away. It seems nobody was gracious enough to let anyone else in. I saw car after car right on the bumper of the car in front of them refusing to let any of the cars in the aisles in. I know it was a Thursday night and some had to work the next morning but this was over the top. It seems to me if you let one car in and just took turns everyone would be able to exit faster. Maybe it’s just a southern thing but that’s how it’s done at tracks back home.
I have to end this with a special category of “The Awesome”.
Thanks to the fan from Indy who sat beside us at Kokomo. He went down during the races for one of the support classes and when he returned he had purchased a 2011 Indiana Sprint Week shirt for my son. That was top notch Indiana hospitality. He said he wanted my son to become a non wing fan. I assure you, my son is definitely a non wing fan! I know he reads this board so thanks again!
Also thanks for the PMs from IOW members inviting us down pit side. We didn’t arrive early enough to go down and I didn’t want to bother you anyway with amount of shows on the schedule as I know there is a lot to get done between events. Another great example of the racing community.
All in all, we had a blast and hope to do it again some year.
