As someone who likes Gas City a lot but doesn't count it as his favorite by any means, I've got to say that tonight's show was incredible. It was in the top three of my 2008 races, easily. The track was smooth and tacky as hell all night, the show was run quickly and the racing was out of this world. Some highlights:

Showing up and seeing 44(!) cars in the pits.

Realizing that of those 44, about 2/3 were potential winners. I mean, you walk into a racetrack for an October weekly show the night before a big, $10,000-to-win race that's over three hours away and you don't really expect to see Sweet, Bacon, Stanbrough, Gardner, Windom, Weir, Clayton, Schuerenberg, Hines, Darland, Shuman, Hagen, Whitt and several others all in attendance. But they were tonight.

Hines and Windom's heat race battle.

Whitt and Christian's heat race battle.

Seeing Chris Gurley and Mark Clark barely hold off Scotty Weir for the transfer in B1.

Gardner and Clayton rubbing and leaning on each other as much as possible, short of jumping a wheel, in B2 before Gardner pulled a Gardner and dumped it. Then lost his helmet.

Stanbrough feeding Clayton a wheel.

Weir and Clayton being added to the A lineup.

Laps 10-23 of the A. Those 14 laps were just as good as probably anything I've ever seen.

Before the A, Kirk turned to me and said, "Are we going to be here next year?" I hope so, but with the economy and whatnot it's hard to say. Gas City has closed once, so I guess there is precedent for the unthinkable. As I write this, all I can think about is that, if that was the last time at Gas City, it was a damn good way to go out.

[kylecumminsfan]

anybody have the results?? or know where hunter finished??

[openwheelKT]

That was as good a track as I've seen there in a long while. I know cooler temps helped, but whatever they did was great. The racing was tight all night long. The top 5 were all right together at the end. I've never seen so much mud thrown into the stands throughout the night. Great job of track prep. It was basically like a mini-USAC show with a lot of drivers there. Hopefully that wasn't the end of the line for the track.

[kawkaw2]

Great Track, Great Race, Great Promoter and team, Great Job. The best in the country! Don't let this be the end of Gas City.

[Motormasher]

Hey Derek, got any idea what kind of purse they paid to get all those good drivers there??? Sure would like to know.... and you could have detailed more on those races. Good reporting.... thanks

[racegal]

Originally Posted by kylecumminsfan anybody have the results?? or know where hunter finished??

You might already know by now but just in case... Hunter finished 5th. There is a thread titled, "October 3rd gas city updates" or something simillar that has the full rundown.

Originally Posted by Motormasher Hey Derek, got any idea what kind of purse they paid to get all those good drivers there??? Sure would like to know.... and you could have detailed more on those races. Good reporting.... thanks

My race recap will be done tomorrow and I will be emailing it to Eckert so he can post it, if he wishes. Openwheeltimes.com, for those who don't know.