AMSA

6/2/08, 9:14 PM

I wanted to extend a special thank you to everyone that participated in this past weekend’s grassroots racing revival. I understand that gas prices and the economy in general make the travel associated with two days of racing a strain. All of the comments I received on the weekend of racing were very positive. Despite a new set of challenges I remain confident that we are moving in the right direction and putting the building blocks in place to ensure we remain I viable organization for years to come. Following is a short list of highlights and thoughts from the weekend’s event:

A special thanks to the promoters that provided the venues for the Grassroots Racing Revival. Terry Eaglin of T.E. Promotions and his staff did a wonderful job with Friday evening’s race. Terry has already committed that the event will be back in 2009. Mason and Tanya Fleetwood have become key components of our growth providing us the opportunity to not only run at Twin Cities Raceway Park, but also at Thunder Valley. Again the Fleetwood’s and their staff are a hard working group that do an excellent job. I can assure you that the job of promoting is a most difficult one that might probably don’t yield the returns that most of us assume. I would encourage you to go out of your way to thank them for making us a part of their show.
Thanks to our visitors from other clubs. Austin Archdale and Jack Sandall pulled all the way from Illinois to run with us this weekend. Both racers again are proof that racers are the nicest folks. Austin and his family had a very rough weekend experiencing mechanical problems on Friday evening with both their race car and their tow vehicle. Austin was very fast on Saturday evening leading the majority of the race until a late race incident relegated him to a fourth place finish. We appreciate the efforts of both racers and their families to be a part of our show and hope that others will join us as schedules permit.
I really am beginning to look forward to our associations with the U.M.R.A. They are a friendly and professionally group. A special thanks to their Director of Safety for lending his assistance during both nights of racing. For those of you that had an unfortunate on-track event during the weekend, I am sure that you found him to be responsive and helpful. How cool was their quad rescue vehicle. It was exactly what is needed to extract tqs and mini sprints from the racing surface. It appears that there might be additional opportunities for the two groups to strengthen their association that could result in 4 or 5 dual shows—that might even see us taking the wings off a few times. I will be in continued talks with them in hopes of making this a reality.
One of my sincere goals as we move forward is to level the playing field through more comprehensive and consistent execution of post race technical inspections. I am quite confident that we are moving in the right direction. We have seen a good mix of both 1000cc and 1200cc powered cars in the top five each race. Although we are doing our best to streamline our technical inspection process, our technical inspections including weight, engine and fuel checks have been consistently administered at every event.
Communications remains an area where constant progress is required. While we have certainly come a long way in the past two years there is still more work to be done. We are very appreciative for Harriet’s efforts to ensure that our results are posted in a timely manner to both our web diva for the website and message boards like Indiana Open Wheel. I am pleased to announce that Mert will also be increasing her role in this area. Look for race reviews, driver stories, photos and weekend notes. A little known fact is that she once wrote news articles for a local paper.
Car counts are slightly down from last year, given the new set of challenges we face, I am comfortable with our car counts and confident that they will strengthen throughout the season. Unfortunately the cost of gasoline often makes the decision to risk the trip to the track on a cloudy day a most difficult one. We have picked up new members and have several cars that are nearing completion in the next several weeks that will be joining us. There were even a few extremely interested parties roaming the pits both nights of the Grassroots Racing Revival that liked what they saw and have hopes of purchasing cars.
Completion of the new facility at Lawrenceburg has been a challenge to say the least. I spent a considerable amount of time with Dave Rudisell last week and can tell you that he is ready to get the show on the road. Dave and his staff will be making a decision regarding June 7th early this week. If it is a go, there will likely be a practice on Tuesday evening. Our intent is to run the memorial race on June 7th for my late wife Carol Tague and racer and car builder the late Bob Nichols. Mert along with Ron Green and his wife will be preparing a special barbeque dinner for our membership at the races.
Please keep Daniel Lawson in your prayers. Daniel is the cousin of Boyd and Luke Wolff. He was involved in a very serious accident while burning brush and sustained burns to over 50% of his body. He is in the Wishard Hospital in Indianapolis.
Congratulations to first time winner Nathan Mensendiek. His perseverance and learnings of last season have paid off. He has been consistently fast this season and promises to be one of several youngsters competing with our group that is worth keeping an eye on.
It is always fun to watch the most recent graduates of the A.M.S.A. as they take the next step up the ladder towards sprints and midgets. This weekend at Twin Cities we had three recent alumni in action in the sprint car division. Brett Burdette, Logan Hupp and Jake Cook. Logan is the most recent transfer and was having a strong outing until he was collected by another competitor’s spin. Brett Burdette ran in third place for the majority of the event until a spin put him out of the race. Jake Cook turned in the strongest run of his young sprint car career earning a fourth place finish. Congratulations and best wishes to all of our A.M.S.A. alumni.
Racing is a family sport and this year we are proud to have a third generation racer making his start in the sport. Seth Wilkerson is the grandson of famed sprint car racer Butch Wilkerson. Although Wilkerson was one of the most famed sprint car racers in the 70’s, his popularity soared with back to back track championships at Lawrenceburg in 1973 & 1974. Best luck to Seth in his rookie season.
I am always pleased to see racers helping other racers—especially those that are new to the mini sprints. I would encourage you to go out of your way to make everyone feel welcome and to lend a hand as our newer members work to sort through the issues of their rookie seasons. Loading up with mechanical issues is an extremely frustrating proposition that all have faced. Many of our new competitors are arriving after successful careers in go-karts and mini sprints. Starting the learning curve over and working their way back to the front can be a difficult task. A few words of encouragement go a long way.
Congratulations to our Grassroots Racing Revival Champion, Jason Soudrette. Soudrette was the picture of consistency throughout the weekend earning two second place finishes to take the points championship. Best wishes to Jason as he readies for his debut in a full-size sprint car.

Look forward to seeing you at the next event.
Jerry & Mert

6/2/08, 9:14 PM	#1 AMSA - A few words from Jerry & Mert
AMSA Posts: n/a	I wanted to extend a special thank you to everyone that participated in this past weekend’s grassroots racing revival. I understand that gas prices and the economy in general make the travel associated with two days of racing a strain. All of the comments I received on the weekend of racing were very positive. Despite a new set of challenges I remain confident that we are moving in the right direction and putting the building blocks in place to ensure we remain I viable organization for years to come. Following is a short list of highlights and thoughts from the weekend’s event: A special thanks to the promoters that provided the venues for the Grassroots Racing Revival. Terry Eaglin of T.E. Promotions and his staff did a wonderful job with Friday evening’s race. Terry has already committed that the event will be back in 2009. Mason and Tanya Fleetwood have become key components of our growth providing us the opportunity to not only run at Twin Cities Raceway Park, but also at Thunder Valley. Again the Fleetwood’s and their staff are a hard working group that do an excellent job. I can assure you that the job of promoting is a most difficult one that might probably don’t yield the returns that most of us assume. I would encourage you to go out of your way to thank them for making us a part of their show. Thanks to our visitors from other clubs. Austin Archdale and Jack Sandall pulled all the way from Illinois to run with us this weekend. Both racers again are proof that racers are the nicest folks. Austin and his family had a very rough weekend experiencing mechanical problems on Friday evening with both their race car and their tow vehicle. Austin was very fast on Saturday evening leading the majority of the race until a late race incident relegated him to a fourth place finish. We appreciate the efforts of both racers and their families to be a part of our show and hope that others will join us as schedules permit. I really am beginning to look forward to our associations with the U.M.R.A. They are a friendly and professionally group. A special thanks to their Director of Safety for lending his assistance during both nights of racing. For those of you that had an unfortunate on-track event during the weekend, I am sure that you found him to be responsive and helpful. How cool was their quad rescue vehicle. It was exactly what is needed to extract tqs and mini sprints from the racing surface. It appears that there might be additional opportunities for the two groups to strengthen their association that could result in 4 or 5 dual shows—that might even see us taking the wings off a few times. I will be in continued talks with them in hopes of making this a reality. One of my sincere goals as we move forward is to level the playing field through more comprehensive and consistent execution of post race technical inspections. I am quite confident that we are moving in the right direction. We have seen a good mix of both 1000cc and 1200cc powered cars in the top five each race. Although we are doing our best to streamline our technical inspection process, our technical inspections including weight, engine and fuel checks have been consistently administered at every event. Communications remains an area where constant progress is required. While we have certainly come a long way in the past two years there is still more work to be done. We are very appreciative for Harriet’s efforts to ensure that our results are posted in a timely manner to both our web diva for the website and message boards like Indiana Open Wheel. I am pleased to announce that Mert will also be increasing her role in this area. Look for race reviews, driver stories, photos and weekend notes. A little known fact is that she once wrote news articles for a local paper. Car counts are slightly down from last year, given the new set of challenges we face, I am comfortable with our car counts and confident that they will strengthen throughout the season. Unfortunately the cost of gasoline often makes the decision to risk the trip to the track on a cloudy day a most difficult one. We have picked up new members and have several cars that are nearing completion in the next several weeks that will be joining us. There were even a few extremely interested parties roaming the pits both nights of the Grassroots Racing Revival that liked what they saw and have hopes of purchasing cars. Completion of the new facility at Lawrenceburg has been a challenge to say the least. I spent a considerable amount of time with Dave Rudisell last week and can tell you that he is ready to get the show on the road. Dave and his staff will be making a decision regarding June 7th early this week. If it is a go, there will likely be a practice on Tuesday evening. Our intent is to run the memorial race on June 7th for my late wife Carol Tague and racer and car builder the late Bob Nichols. Mert along with Ron Green and his wife will be preparing a special barbeque dinner for our membership at the races. Please keep Daniel Lawson in your prayers. Daniel is the cousin of Boyd and Luke Wolff. He was involved in a very serious accident while burning brush and sustained burns to over 50% of his body. He is in the Wishard Hospital in Indianapolis. Congratulations to first time winner Nathan Mensendiek. His perseverance and learnings of last season have paid off. He has been consistently fast this season and promises to be one of several youngsters competing with our group that is worth keeping an eye on. It is always fun to watch the most recent graduates of the A.M.S.A. as they take the next step up the ladder towards sprints and midgets. This weekend at Twin Cities we had three recent alumni in action in the sprint car division. Brett Burdette, Logan Hupp and Jake Cook. Logan is the most recent transfer and was having a strong outing until he was collected by another competitor’s spin. Brett Burdette ran in third place for the majority of the event until a spin put him out of the race. Jake Cook turned in the strongest run of his young sprint car career earning a fourth place finish. Congratulations and best wishes to all of our A.M.S.A. alumni. Racing is a family sport and this year we are proud to have a third generation racer making his start in the sport. Seth Wilkerson is the grandson of famed sprint car racer Butch Wilkerson. Although Wilkerson was one of the most famed sprint car racers in the 70’s, his popularity soared with back to back track championships at Lawrenceburg in 1973 & 1974. Best luck to Seth in his rookie season. I am always pleased to see racers helping other racers—especially those that are new to the mini sprints. I would encourage you to go out of your way to make everyone feel welcome and to lend a hand as our newer members work to sort through the issues of their rookie seasons. Loading up with mechanical issues is an extremely frustrating proposition that all have faced. Many of our new competitors are arriving after successful careers in go-karts and mini sprints. Starting the learning curve over and working their way back to the front can be a difficult task. A few words of encouragement go a long way. Congratulations to our Grassroots Racing Revival Champion, Jason Soudrette. Soudrette was the picture of consistency throughout the weekend earning two second place finishes to take the points championship. Best wishes to Jason as he readies for his debut in a full-size sprint car. Look forward to seeing you at the next event. Jerry & Mert

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