I imagine in a somewhat understated way the Wednesday practice before the little 500 is what it Indy was like when she was in her prime (ok a stretch). Watching 50 or so teams shoot to be listed in the top 5 on the board is an awesome way to spend an afternoon.

Tracy Hines lap under the track record at Anderson is why I like qualifying.

Bobby’s run a few cars later is why I LOVE qualifying.

Chad Boats 2nd lap of qualifying proves that sometimes less is more, with motor stammering, Lil Boat picked up a half a second to secure 6th quick. Once someone explains “wheel Spin” to Chad he will be tough night in and night out.

Ok we have radio’s, How about this, When the leader gives a lapped car a tap someone key the mike and say the following “That’s the leader “ Not saying just to move over but maybe show him/her a little respect.

Pretty impressed with Hocket tonight as in the last week he has been up front in Benics’ non wing car, won a couple of winged sprint car shows and then looked really good on the pavement.

Ok how many of you were salivating at the opportunity of watching Bobby East come from the back after his car wouldn’t fire at the start of the feature? Ok I am not for waiting for anyone but if USAC would of decided to throw a red and hold an autograph session for all the kiddies in the stands I would not of minded a bit. In fact I would of stood in line for every drivers signature or at least until the Ford #5 fired off.

Brad Sweet will be a player for this Championship, we all know what he can do on the dirt but I will tell you this, in a handful of races on the tar he has figured it out quite nicely. If USAC threw in a handful of winged shows I say Brad hands down.

Speaking of Brad a few weeks ago I rolled into SMF at about 4:30am thinking I would be the first one in the “A” line for southwest only to be beaten to it by Brad as his ride had dropped him off after a Tulare Golden State go. Still covered by the evening’s work Brad woke up long enough to tell me how he did and as he always dose asked how things were with me and the fam and promptly fell back to sleep. Racer personified!

Could Kody and Tanner Swanson be the Busch brothers of USAC? Tanner looked as good as advertised.

OK Really who would of thought that the words Anderson Speedway and “The Big One would be uttered in the same breath?

Once again I thought USAC put on a great event.

TC, it's funny, I was thinking the same thing last night. While I do appreciate the fact that a leader should be able to, and has to find a way around a lapper, I also feel that drivers being lapped should give way to a leader to some degree. Last week at Slinger we saw Bradley Galedrige come upon two lappers who were racing for position. One car saw the move over flag and simply moved over, while the other took the opportunity to pass that car, and then proceeded to hold up the leader for the next three or four laps while racing no one. It was at this point that Galedrige nearly lost the race as Chad Boat challenged for the lead. (You can see this in the highlight package for "Midget MAYnia" on www.millsvideoproductions.com right now). Last night, the incident with Levi Jones and lapper Robert Ballou was unfortunate, as Ballou did try to give Levi some room, it just wasn't enough and the two collided, knocking Levi out of the lead, and taking away his points lead. (Highlights of this will be up shortly).

Hockett is THE quintessential racer's racer, as far as I'm concerned. It's taken some time for him to adapt to the pavement, sure, but with the help of Danny Drinan, he's blossoming just fine. I dig the fact that he will race anything, anywhere, anytime, and find a way to be good at it, even if it isn't "his cup of tea". I will say this, his argument with Damion in the infield last night, while the race was in progress (which was far more captivating than the race according to some fans I talked to after the event) was personally harrowing, but I was glad to see them both smiling a few minutes later during the red flag for Short.


Agreed, Tim...However, how about his teammate Brady Bacon being the USAC National Sprint Car points leader after last night? Impressive...


Touche', Tim...

DM

Not a "stretch" at all IMO. Exactly the reason we used to blow off work and hike up I-74 to watch practice, especially on the Friday before pole day. Great analogy Tim. Agreed! Ageed with enthusiasm.* :thumb Maybe I just haven't been paying attention, but seems to me that USAC is displaying the move over flag more often and with more emphasis this season. That's a good thing. Levi's "tap" on Jessup, not a good thing. Didn't see the "tap" on Bobalou, but Robert was seen indicating to Levi that he, not Jones, was the real number 1. At least I think that was the message. :eek:Tim, bite your tongue (or your fingers I guess in this instance) We oldtimers have been through this exercise years ago. Drove us all to drink and take up crocheting. Indeed! I don't quite see all the gloom and doom for USAC sometimes detailed here, what with all the great young talent migrating to the greatest racing on the planet, which is, of course, USAC traditional sprint car racing. Agreed, with unbridled enthusiasm.

This was a tremendously enjoyable afternoon and evening topped off by a thrilling hundred lapper. This despite what some, who likely were not there, might say. True, position changes were at a premium, as they always are at Anderson, but every spot including the point were hotly contested right down to the final round.

Gotta admire the determination and effort of the Biro team. Kenny made the show with a 2nd in the consi, and ran strong and clean for 78 laps before spinning to avoid the mess in turn 3. Nice run. Curt advises they plan to qual early today for the Little 5, then pick up the dirt car and bust on over to THAT.

Alway good to visit with the Whited's (Brian and Brandon). Practiced on older skins and feel with newies they can get in solidly. They had a fine run in '07. I hope they do even greater things, maybe even with some breaks get the win. These are really nice folks.

Enjoyed meeting BrentTFunk and his significant other for the first time, intro'd by everyone's favorite Maine immigrant, Andrew S. Quinn who advised that he was attending his 22nd race of '08. Impressive...makes Jerry Shaw seem like a "casual fan" at best.Other IOW non-competitors encountered included itsanonwingthing, Mud Packer and probably others this deteriorating memory fails to include. Had hoped to exchange "howdies" with midgy and chad and his younguns'. Didn't happen. Hoped for later.

Don't you wish you had the five minutes of your life back that it took to peruse this rambling nonsense? Could be worse......I have lots more I could have listed. :checkered:

[QUOTE=Tim Clauson;41898] .Brad Sweet will be a player for this Championship, we all know what he can do on the dirt but I will tell you this, in a handful of races on the tar he has figured it out quite nicely. If USAC threw in a handful of winged shows I say Brad hands down.

Speaking of Brad a few weeks ago I rolled into SMF at about 4:30am thinking I would be the first one in the “A” line for southwest only to be beaten to it by Brad as his ride had dropped him off after a Tulare Golden State go. Still covered by the evening’s work Brad woke up long enough to tell me how he did and as he always dose asked how things were with me and the fam and promptly fell back to sleep. Racer personified!

Brad would appreciate that Tim:thumb
Ok so i am partial to Brad cause he is my little bro but I would like to say how proud of him I am and that I admire the fact thet even though he also was trying for his first USAC win he did not push it or pull the good ole bump and run on Tanner those last few laps cause it sure looked like he had the faster car but chose to race clean and run 2nd, some might call it lack of the killer instinct but I call it respect and the knowledge that sometimes less is more in the big picture.

Derek Sweet

I go to a lot of races. But, AQ outranks me in the "Racing Gypsy" category. With the price of gas, I wouldn't be surprised, before the end of the year to see AQ, Eckert, Chuck Loyet, etc. with their violin or crystal ball at the track, to try to defray fuel costs.:rolling

Jerry

Yep, cost me $44.02 (3.999 per gal.) at 19.8 m.p.g. for 218 mile rounder yesterday. I have no marketable talent to help defray fuel costs. Maybe get a "till my check comes in" :rolleyes: loan from Danny B.

Feature race was pretty good last night. always fun when there are fast guys at the back. Heat races were very bad, no one even tried to pass after they were single file. I do want to ask u guys a question, i'm sure several off you have been to all of these wensday night races before the 500, who has killed the car count? The first year there were over 50 cars. Last night only 26 took time. I know the economy has some to do with it, but not over half. I know first place paid $4000, last night, and the purse was over $20,000. thought that was pretty good for a wednsday night, but maybe i'm wrong.