Macon Speedway - TOP GUN WEEKEND - 6/28&29/2024
Before this great event gets too far away, I wanted to say how disappointed with the Fri/Sat. USAC crowd. It was $30, worth every penny to me, perhaps not your local fan, lower car count and all. Plus we did have some iffy weather conditions, which actually made for great track conditions & some real horsepower (thus the front weight controversy?). If you never been to this lil bull ring, it's a track I grew up around from age 6 but that's a long story that I won't put on here.

These 2 nights had some really great heroic & strategic Sprint Car racing just like the days of old. Kudos to All involved including Concessions/workers, Track man O'Connor, Mr. Turner & Brown & USAC for putting on a great & timely show plus having the fortitude to save the track Saturday after the post qualification sudden cloudburst. They easily could have called it but instead persevered so that we got to see 3 exciting heats & a most breathtaking 50 lap feature on a beautiful June summer night in central Illinois.

I really hope that MACON will have it again, being that there are new owners. Why am I worried? Because you people sit at home & don't come out. Really worried how owners made out money wise.

I said this before any of the television stuff really got rolling, that if the fans don't attend in person, then television doesn't have a product to sell.

I sincerely hope that FLO, USAC and new owners read this because I do have one thing that was really terrible I thought & this ones especially on Flo (however they won't care but the others should!)
Now having said that, in over 6 decades of seeing Open Wheel oval racing, I have NEVER seen the Winner's Circle podium interviews conducted in turns 1 & 2 facing the infield!!!! NOT facing the fans that paid their hard-earned money & drove X miles to come to see this event. What or who decided to move it from the front stretch Friday should be fired or severely reprimanded. I ask anyone involved with this decision WHY?
Do they interview the Indy 500 winner in the Snake Pit? Do they interview the Kentucky Derby winner in the horse barn? Do they interview the Tour de France bicycle winner under the Eiffel Tower? What the hell is wrong with you people?
I was appalled that this was allowed & frankly that none of you on IOW that attended said anything about it but maybe you were on the road already? I saw Ben, Dan & Funk to name a few. I'm not sure that the owners knew this was going to happen? Granted, people on the back stretch realize that the Winter Circle interviews are not going to happen in front of them but the people on the front stretch expect it to happen in front of them! GEEZ!

Now let me say one more thing whether or not you like Robert Ballou when he finished up he made sure he turned to the right, away from the pit entrance. He had his crew intentionally push him back in front of the front stretch to wave and greet the people that cheered (& yes, booed) for him all the way back around the back stretch the same thing on his way out but not not the other 2 podium finishers but Robert Ballou did. That's a class act!

So tell you what Flo, you need to set that Podium up like it's supposed to be at every other track. On the front stretch, where its expected, in front of the people that pay the money and come to these events in person. Track owners, Promoters should demand this.

And that...., as Mr. Harvey used to say, so many years ago “Is the rest of the story.”