2008 O'Reilly Sprint Bandits TNT Midwest Swing:

August 5 – Southern Iowa Speedway (Oskaloosa, IA) - $30,000 to win
August 11 – Lucas Oil Speedway (Wheatland, MO)
August 12 – I-80 Speedway @ Nebraska Raceway Park (Greenwood, NE)
August 13 – State Fair Speedway (Oklahoma City, OK)
August 14 – Creek County Speedway (Sapulpa, OK)
August 15 – Lakeside Speedway (Kansas City, KS)
August 16 – Lakeside Speedway (Kansas City, KS) - $10,000 to win

http://www.sprintbandits.com/


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Who runs this? Is it mostly the IN guys? Or, ASCS guys who remove the roof? Or, ???

HERE ARE THE TOP 25 FROM LAST YEAR

Final O'Reilly Sprint Bandits TNT Midwest Swing 2007 Points (Top 25):

1. 81 - Robert Ballou (Rocklin, CA) 726

(tie) 10k - Tim Kaeding (Campbell, CA) 726

3. 75 - Jesse Hockett (Warsaw, MO) 686

4. 29w - Cole Whitt (Alpine, CA) 664

5. 2b - Brady Short (Bedford, IN) 662

6. 21k - Cory Kruseman (Ventura, CA) 632

7. 4 - Casey Shuman (Tempe, AZ) 626

8. 4n - Neil Shepherd (Warsaw, IN) 616

9. 71 - Damion Gardner (Concord, CA) 602

10. 17n - Mat Neely (Robinson, IL) 590

11. 21s - Charles Davis, Jr. (Buckeye, AZ) 575

12. 10T - Hunter Schuerenberg (Sikeston, MO) 560

13. 21 - Michael Trimble (San Jose, CA) 555

14. 10

I know where I'll be headed after Indiana Midget week.

PS Dick,this is what I was talking about the other night when we were discussing going to the Speedway Motors museum on the phone.

How many guys would race 100 miles in Springfield in the SC cars and jump on a plane to KC that night. I could see several going together. Wish I could go to both.

So, the field is not much different than a SprintWeek field?

The comment about the flight reminds me of the time, while at Knoxville, Rich Vogler asked me if I wanted to join him and a couple of other drivers on a quick hop down to Springfield for the dirt car race on Saturday. I thought about it, but a) quick "must-get-there" small plane flights do not have a good safety record and b) it was not his own plane; they were chartering a plane and wanted another person to share the fare.

Looking back now, I wish I'd gone.

Dick,

Be carefull what you wish for.....

When Rich drove for us in 1989, he and I made a trip to Atlanta in Rich's Beech Baron (twin engine airplane) to talk with the builder of the Buick V-6 engine we would be using. I was a student pilot at the time and occupied the right seat (co-pilot) for the flight. We traversed the busy Atlanta airspace and were at the small field before we knew it.

Rich set up for final approach and I could tell we were high and fast but he touched down halfway down the runway, reversed the props and stood on the brakes. We stopped less than 3 feet from the end of the runway. As we backtaxied to the FBO Rich looked over at what must have been my white face, grinned and said, "I thought we were coming in a little hot but I was pretty sure we would make it." :rolling:

How I miss that man!!!


Rob Hoffman

Rob, as you know, Mark Alderson and Rich were good friends. After Mark got his single-engine Cessna, he frequently offered to take me for a flight. I recall one of those times when he offered, and I gave my customary, "Thanks, but no thanks". He then offered to get Rich to fly it with me as the passenger. I again declined, remarking, "Hell, Mark, he is braver than you and your bravery scares the poop out of me".
Yes, I know I'm not "right" -- I did eventually take a flight with Mark, during which we "turned three laps" at Putnamville. That evening, at IRP for a race, I mentioned this flight to another driver. He quickly told me that I had to be just plain $%#*@ nuts to have flown with Mark :rolling:

I don't want to burst anyone's bubble, but did any of you look at the logistics of the TNT Tour schedule? Not including the Iowa race, the travel distance between Lucas Oil track on Monday till the end at Lakeside on Saturday is close to 1200 miles! Mapblast.com says it’s more than 18 hours of drive time & that doesn't include stops for gas, food & restroom breaks. Makes me wonder how many cars & fans will make the whole tour? I know when I attended the TNT deal two years ago, I didn't do all of them. I picked the dates that made travel sense to me, which was Lucas Oil & two nights at Lakeside, then I flew back to Kokomo on Sunday night to see Brady Bacon win his first USAC midget feature, then it was back to Central PA on Monday morning.

Truthfully, I think my August trip this year will be USAC Midget week, not TNT, as it’s hard to beat a sprint/midget double header on the bullrings of Indiana. That, and the fact that Greenwood, NE & the OK tracks looked like dry slickies from last years video. I will however miss Lakeside though as that place ROCKS!

So many races, so little (vacation) time, what’s a race fan to do?

I never have figured out how they pick their dates. I live in Missouri and its a pain in the ___ to try to make all the dates. Im just glad to see Lucas back on the schedule. Hopefully they dont have another bad track prep night like the last time TNT was there. If anyone is coming this way for these races, the set up at Lucas Oil is worth seeing. Air conditioned bar, concession, and gift shop. 1st class facility. But also dont miss Lakeside. Saturday before the races they have an old timers get together and b-b-q thats really neat.