Friday, December 3, 2010

Beatrice Speedway 2011 schedule?? Cooperation between racers

It’s December 3rd, and still no word out of Beatrice Speedway about what will be happening in 2011. I sure hope something comes out soon. I’m not the only one - there was a question posed this afternoon on the Beatrice Speedway message board on DirtDrivers.com about when the schedule would come out. The Beatrice Speedway website still hasn’t had an update - the last time that happened was August 24th.

I have heard from what I consider a reliable source that the Fair Board will make a decision on the Beatrice Speedway website in the next week. I hope this comes to fruit and changes are made SOON!!

Judging by the classifieds section on DirtDrivers.com, a lot of people are either updating equipment, selling out, or changing classes. I’ve been asked why I don’t change classes - maybe go to a Sport Mod. There are many reasons for me not to change classes.

According to a poster on the message board who calls himself Salty Dog “ ernie would run last if they gave him an unlimited budget! “ I know who “Salty Dog” is, and I wonder how he came to that conclusion. He constantly posts complaints about how long race programs last. He must turn into a pumpkin at 10 PM. I know that Salty Dog has been around racing a long time, but for the life of me I can’t remember ever seeing him drive a race car.

Even though I’ve been around stock car racing since 1973, I did not get behind the wheel until 2002, when I was 50 years old. For the most part, I have to fix anything that gets bent or broken. If I’d started driving these things when I was 18, like a lot of the people out there, maybe I’d have gone faster or would go faster. No matter where I finish at on the track, I do the best I can. If I see that the leaders are coming up on me, I try to stay out of their way. If I can run with somebody, I will do it, but I am also careful to not run into them in order to make a pass on them. Change to a faster class - nope!! I am going fast enough right now, and there are times I go fast enough that I scare myself!!

Ever since we started racing, we’ve been careful about how we spend money. I have always had a very hard time asking anybody for money for anything, and racing is not a money making venture. Expenses and costs go up, but purses don’t. For somebody just starting out, it will take 3 or 4 seasons before an operation such as ours starts to have spare parts. The first two seasons we raced, we did not have a spare engine.

We’ve had a lot of help along the way. We’ve been given used wheels and tires that other racers were throwing away. When we first started racing, we didn’t have a garage or a trailer to haul the car with. Tom & Lori Wolf let us use their garage in Blue Springs. Flip Bitting let us use his trailer. The garage wasn’t insulated and Guy Brollini gave us a small wood burning stove to heat the garage.

Ron’s Automotive in Beatrice allowed me to use their parts washer when I needed it. We didn’t have a welder for the first couple of years, and Jeff Shew let us use his shop and welder. Pat Wells at NAPA in Beatrice did a lot of machine work on our engines over the years and on some of it I am sure he did not charge full price.

Over the years, Blue Knights Nebraska I have given us sponsorship money. Early on, we also got a little sponsorship money from Huston Motors and Penner Insurance in Beatrice. Most recently, Fashionette Salon and Nancy Gerdes, C.P.A./ P.C.  in Beatrice have been my main supporters.

While racing is a sport driven by money, it is also a lesson in cooperation between competitors. I have borrowed tools and parts from other racers, and have also loaned tools and parts. I’ve had racers want to pay me for the parts, and I simply told them to bring me the same part the next time we saw each other. I can’t think of a time when they didn’t do that, be it a fan belt or a control arm. I’ve even loaned out an engine for a few weekends after we got to the point where we had a spare available.

New tires now cost $94 each and some of the more well-funded teams have new tires every 3 or 4 weeks. I’ve been able to buy the used tires for a fraction of what new ones cost. I’ve also been given tires that were in a lot better shape than the ones I have been using. I had a guy who owns a Sport Mod team give me 11 tires, 4 of which had only one race on them. He also gave me 4 wheels that he could not use. When I asked what I owed him, he told me “Nothing. If somebody else needs some of those tires, let them have them.”

I usually go to the track by myself or with just one pit crew member. However, once our pit stall is set up, our numbers fluctuate. I’ve always had plenty of help from the teams pitted near me. I’ve pulled in with a flat, thinking I was done for the night, and just like that, a half dozen guys are changing the tire for me so I can get back out.

I’ve had pictures posted showing the work I’ve been doing on my car during the off season. Believe me, I don’t have the tools, know-how and expertise to make a firewall and floor pan for my race car. However, there are other racers who do. Rod Latta told me to get the materials and he would cut & form everything for me. All I will have to do is take it home and weld it together.

Speaking of which, I found that the sheet metal is supposed to be available in Beatrice. I called a week ago and was told that I could pick up what I needed on Wednesday. I called Rod and made arrangements to have him cut & bend everything on Thursday evening. I stopped Wednesday afternoon to get the sheet metal - they were STILL out! It MIGHT be here today…… We’ll see if it is or not. So much for “buying local?”

As you can see, racing year in and year out on the local scene really comes down to cooperation between all of the racers in all of the classes helping each other out. Without that cooperation, a lot of us could not afford to be involved in the sport we all love.
Al Humphrey - Midwest Speedway, Lincoln, NE 1976

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