I love this subject! I hate the subjects that are controversial and keep coming up every few months.

I keep a book on the race tracks I’ve attended and ones I’ve driven at. I had to think about this a bit as I’ve been around racing my whole life and this year will be my 33rd year of driving. So, I came up with these:

Onaway Speedway: I have stated in the past that I can count on one hand the number of legitimate chances I’ve had to win a feature and Onaway was one of them. Onaway is about as far north in Michigan as you can get without crossing the bridge. It is a flat ¼ mile track. MTS had a pavement race up there in 2018, if I remember right. I was having a great night. I set second quick time and won the heat. I started outside second row in the feature and was leading coming out of two on the initial lap. I lead 17 glorious laps until I made a mistake behind a lapped car, lost the lead, and just couldn’t get it back. As far as I know, it was the only time they had sprint cars there.

Bunker Hill Speedway (Pavement): Dad won his only feature there. I was about six or seven years old and I remember jumping up and down screaming my head off while Dad was battling for the lead. I think Dad told me he got $100 and a case of Veedol racing oil for that win.

Bunker Hill Speedway (Dirt): I think it was around 1997 that somebody leased the track and ran a few sprint car races. I ran there once, blew the motor and they stopped running before I could get back.

I set a goal a few years ago to get to one new track every year. At the start of the year, I map out my schedule and plan on which track will see a first time visit. I’m not sure about this year yet, but I can guarantee there will be one.

Tom Paterson