Once again a well deserved award for everyone at Tri-State!

Some questions for you Tri-State vets. I've only been going there since 2002, in your opinion were the races during the previous five to ten years as good as the ones have been over the last three or four? Were they any better back in the 70's or earlier than now?

If asked, I might have nominated Kevin and Tammy Gundaker , for their efforts on the 3-day Gold Crown Midget extravaganza this fall....:respect:

But congrats to the Helfrich gang, a very cool joint. :thumb

The racing right now is very good week in and out. But the weekly wing shows that they ran back in the early 90's were hard to top. Some fantastic , super fast (faster than now) and exciting racing back weekly then with the teams of like of Hayhurst, Dunn, Nash, Kinser's, Smith, Deveroux, Stepter, Briscoe, etc. Weekly shows of 30 plus cars was the norm. And it was not follow the leader like the winged shows of the present. Mucho passing back then. Those guys were nuts. Saw many cars launched right out of the ballpark, It was like an "All Star" Sprint show every Sunday night. I would say during time brief time period that the racing was better than now. Just my expert opinion.

Although i was very young during the late 80's and early 90's, i must say the racing then was fantastic. Weekly winged sprints, late models, and mods are hard to beat. On an ultra racy, multi groove track with so much action going on it was hard to keep up with everything. The current Tri State Speedway is something i look forward to going to everytime they run, but the older days when they ran weekly were fantastic!!

That is the only thing I could say is I do miss the weekly racing there was nice to see sprints and late models every sunday night and would be even better now with the non-wing heading the card.But you will have to say the racing now has been great to watch especially Clayton he is worth the price of admission along and was great to see him back in the 92 there at the last race.

That era is what hooked me, while the races are good now that time will never be duplicated. Dont forget Mccammon, Claycomb, and Carneal, and Allen Beck in the booth. Ah the memories.

I have been going there for 50 years, the last 36 regularly. There has always been great racing, with a short down period a while back when the Helfrich's leased the track out for a bit and didn't run it. You saw all the greats back in the 60's and 70's. I mean, Steve and Sammy used it as one of the places to refine their art on a weekly basis--non wing-- so how bad could it be? I loved it when they ran sprints and late models on a weekly basis and I mean before McCammon, Messenger,Claycomb, etc. I mean when every week you had Tommy, Jim Scales, Wayne Coakley, Jesse Ladd in his Mustang from Paducah, Ira Bastin, Jerry Inmon from Miss. for big shows, Fred Gerteisen and many others. They pitted in the infield back then so you always got to see some fights especially if Jim Waters got po'd. It was a different time back then but I think the racing we have today is outstanding. After going through the wing era I am really enjoying the non-wing excitement. We are very lucky to have Tri-State and all the other fine tracks in our state as our stomping grounds and I wish all the track operators a prosperous and safe season in 2009.