First visit to a new track

Well, the Hobby Stock wasn't quite ready for last night's show at Hawkeye Downs so I loaded up my oldest and we went to Brooklyn Speedway.  This is a track I have never been to and had no clue what to expect.

Earlier in the day I spoke with track owner Don Wauters and was looking forward to visiting this track.  The track is a very high banked  less than a 1/4-mile figure 8.  Five classes of cars make up the show including 2-person cruisers, FWD, stock, pro stock, and open.  The open class reminds me of the pictures of mini-lates, which is basically a small wheel base chassis with a late model body.

Upon arriving at the track which is situated about a mile South of Brooklyn and nestled within cornfields on all 4 sides.  The anticipation was rising as we traveled down the gravel road heading towards the track.  Dyersville has their Field of Dreams, but as far as racing goes, this is a racers, "Field of Dreams."  Admission charges were a very reasonable $8 for adults, $3 for kids 6-12, and free for kids 5 and under.  Pit pass costs were $15.  The show starts around 7.

The small grandstands were packed with people (comparable to CJ's grandstands) and at least 90 percent of the crowd was sporting a t-shirt for their favorite local driver.  The food was awesome as a local(Newton) BBQ joint. Mississippi Queen BBQ was serving up wings, pulled pork, and brisket sandwiches.  They also had track standards such as burgers and hotdogs along with pepsi products. (I had 3 of the brisket sandwiches from the BBQ joint)

Prior to the start of the show, the track spotlighted two of their driver's as a "driver of the week".  The drivers were Michael Peterson in the Open class and Tony Roth/Scott Strong in the Cruiser class.

The first feature up was the 2-person cruisers.  The cruisers only race on the oval and not through the dreaded X.  The interesting part about the track is that they only start 10 cars for the feature.  I thought this would lead to an uneventful feature, but the drivers proved me wrong as there was action on every corner.  15 cruisers were here tonight.  I cannot do the action any justice as there was continous jockeying for positions all throughout the field.  Roth/Strong took the win with Snook/Hall and Pierce/Widmer rounding out the top 3.   There were only five cars running by the end of the feature.  Heat wins were won by Roth/Strong and Hoksbergen/Shook.  The consi was won by Roush/Hesse.  One thing to also note is that they do not have a tow truck.  The tow truck was an International tractor.

Next up was the FWD class whoich only had 7 cars show up tonight.  As was the same with the 2-person cruisers, the FWD class also just ran the oval.  Points leader Aaron Winburn took the win.  Jeff Arment and Josh Keller finished 2nd and 3rd respectively.  The heat was won by Arment.

Now is was time for the figure 8 classes to take to the track.  18 cars were on hand tonight to qualify for the 11 car starting grid.  Jerome Kline took the win with consi winners Rick Goldsberry second and Bill Gragg the top 3.  Heat races were won by Kline, Matt Smalley, and Gene Anderson.

Next was the Pro Stocks.  All 9 cars on hand started the feature event with pole sitter Keith Lester taking the win.  Brad Graham was second with Jason Peterson teh top 3.  Heat races were won by Siraj Thomason and Lester.

The final feature was Open class.  14 cars were hand.  10 cars started the feature with Cory Danner taking the win.  Nate Wanders finshed second with Rick Roush in third.

It was a great night for racing at a track I have never been to before.  If you like a lot of door handle to door handle tight close racing Brooklyn Raceway definitely fits the bill.  I had a great, fun night at the track and my son claimed as we were leaving that this was the best day ever and he can't wait until we can come back to the tight little bullring known as Brooklyn Raceway.

They do not race every week, but you can find there schedule at http://www.thebrooklynraceway.com/.  Also feel free to drop me a line anytime at my E-Mail address of  tazbries@hotmail.com.  Thanks for reading and this has been another blog "From the Driver's Seat"

Hobby Stock Update

After a few weeks of thrashing around on the Automotive Fuel Systems, Galde Racing Hobby Stock, I think it will finally make it's 2012 debut at Hawkeye Downs this Friday. June 22nd.  I will be posting my thoughts on my first night out this year and hopefully we'll be good for the season, or at least be more competitve from last year.  For those of you that read this, feel free to stop by after the races to introduce yourself.

Here is a picture, with hopefully a few more sponsors added as the season progresses.  Thanks for reading another post, From the Driver's Seat.