DIRTRACKR Daily Podcast - Episode Transcript
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Sydney's failed dirt track, Bloomquist's weird Ricky Thornton Jr. rant | Daily 9-21-2023
Today on the show, a $100 million dollar dirt track failure, Bloomquist strangely targets Ricky Thornton Jr., Millstream Speedway could be back, and more. Let's go!
It's Thursday, September 21st, I'm Justin Fiedler. This is DIRTRACKR Daily.
If you are an open wheel fan, I'd assume you'll be paying attention to Eldora Speedway this weekend, as 4-Crown is here. Both the World of Outlaws and All Stars, plus all three USAC National divisions will be in action Friday and Saturday. And if you'll be at Eldora, make sure to stop in and see our friends at the Whistle Stop Bar and Grill. The Whistle Stop is located south of Eldora Speedway, six miles down highway 118, in Ansonia. When you leave Eldora and head south, it's a straight shot there, as the Whistle Stop sits on 118, which is Main Street in Ansonia. The Whistle Stop have been big supporters of dirt racing with partnerships with Sheldon and Jac Haudenschild, Rico Abreu, Chris Windom, Cap Henry, the Dirt Nerds, Eldora Speedway and DIRTRACKR! They offer indoor and outdoor dining for breakfast, lunch and dinner or you can order online at whistlebarandgrill.com and take it back to the track with you. Grab some new friends in the campground or grandstands and make the trip right down the road to The Whistle Stop, Ohio's favorite train depot. If you stop in, make sure to tell them DIRTRACKR sent you.
We've got a bunch of stuff to get into today, but I want to start first with an insane situation that's happening down under. I finally had a chance this morning to watch Toby's newest video over on Sprint Car Hub about the Eastern Creek Speedway situation, and holy crap what a debacle that is. If you aren't aware, quick background. The local government around Sydney, Australia took over the exisiting Valvoline Raceway a while back to turn it into facilities for a local train line. Big sad face, as Valvoline was a fantastic facility. But to make up for it, local officials promised to build a new dirt track at a different location. Now, fast forward a few years, the new race track was built, it's called Eastern Creek Speedway, they've sunk something like $100 million into this thing, and as of just a few days ago, the entire 2023/2024 season at Eastern Creek is cancelled. This place is a nine figure disaster. When you look at the track from afar, it looks amazing. New fencing and seating, a paved pit area, solar panels on the covered garage stalls. But up close, this place is epically terrible. The biggest issue is the facility has really poor drainage. When it rains, the water from the spectator area just flows down to the track surface, and it turns into a swamp. At one race night recently, they had to cancel on a perfectly sunny day because the more they worked the track, the worse it got. There are plenty of other problems though too, including not enough parking, one road in and out, the spectator seating is so close to the track that nobody wants to sit in it because you get pelted with dirt clods. There are also lighting issues, not enough bathrooms, the announcer can't see the whole track from the booth, and they didn't put in a flag stand. The facility operators literally had to cut a hole in the fencing. Work has gone on to try and address the problems, but about a week ago, the season was abruptly cancelled with no explanation and no details on the future. It's about as bad as it could get. I'm going to link below to Toby's video, definitely check it out today. I'd say I hope they get things worked out, but at this point, that doesn't seem likely any time soon.
The other thing I watched this morning was some of the clips from the Scott Bloomquist Social Hour that XR had a few days ago. I'm not sure why Ricky Thornton Jr. got targeted by Bloomer in the conversation, but I guess we shouldn't be surprised at this point by anything Bloomquist does or says. He admitted to not knowing anything about RTJ, but did make a point to say that he'd beaten him when they raced together a few times in a modified. He also said RTJ has a lot to learn and that he makes a lot of mistakes. Bloomer too went on a bit of a ramble about how fast the 20RT is, and sort of sounded like he accused him of cheating, but then tried to hedge it with comments about other guys being accused of it, including him. I don't really know what Bloomquist was trying to accomplish, except that it all turned out to be a little strange. We are obviously coming off of a weekend where RTJ swept Knoxville, and has set the record for the most Lucas wins in a season, topping of course, Bloomer. If you want to see some of those clips, they are on Facebook, and you can watch the whole thing over on XR Plus with a subscription.
In Ohio, there is hope for the future of the previously closed Millstream Speedway. We found out yesterday the track has been sold, and that new owners Matt and Beth Cogley are planning to bring racing back to the 3/8s. The facility hasn't hosted a dirt race since 2016, and has had an on-again off-again existence since really 1999. There is a ton of work to do to bring it up to useable condition, and the new owners in a Facebook post would not commit to a future season or schedule. Matt Cogley has been a lighting sprint and 360 driver in recent seasons, and their son Alex was a racer, who has also been a crew member for Hills and driver Sam Hafertepe. Some work has already taken place at the facility, so we'll see how quickly they are able to make racing happen. Talking to some folks in the area, there are questions about where Millstream would fit into the existing Ohio scene. They used to run weekly on Sundays after Attica Friday, and Fremont Saturday. But that could be a tough slot going forward. We'll keep you posted on future updates.
Before we talk some racing coming up this weekend, I just wanted to say a quick thanks for 23,000 subscribers. I talked about it on yesterday's show, and you guys delivered, with more than 200 new subscribers in the past 24 hours. The support is much appreciated.
Looking ahead to the weekend, 4-Crown at Eldora will feature several tight championship battles. With the All Stars, Zeb Wise has already clinched the drivers championship, but the owner title will come down to Saturday's feature event. The Rudeen 26 leads the Clauson Marshall 7BC by just four points. If Zeb finishes in front, it's over, and Sunshine will need to top the 26 by a few positions to earn the $80,000. It should be pretty wild. On the USAC side, Logan Seavey leads Kody Swanson by a single point right now in the Silver Crown chase, and Justin Grant has nine on Brady Bacon on the sprint car side. Friday at Eldora will feature the World of Outlaws and USAC midgets, with Silver Crown qualifying. Saturday is a full program for the midgets, sprint cars, All Stars, and the rest of the Silver Crown show. Even before Eldora though, the USAC sprint cars are headed to Gas City. You can watch most of the weekend live on FloRacing, while the Outlaw portion will be on DIRTVision. Yes, Friday will be one of those weird flip back and forth nights.
Following Friday night, the Outlaws will then shift over to Sharon for their final stop in Ohio this season. Brad Sweet's championship lead is 90 on David Gravel and 98 on Carson Macedo. The chance for these other guys to stop Sweet's fifth straight just gets smaller and smaller.
At Brownstown, it's Jackson 100 week for the Lucas Oil Late Model Dirt Series. Friday is the CJ Rayburn Memorial with $10,000 going to the winner, and Saturday's big show pays $30,000 to win. With just four race nights left until the Dirt Track World Championship, Brandon Overton's hold on that final chase spot looks pretty solid over Tim McCreadie.
The MARS series closes out it's late model season this weekend at Tri City with a pair of races. All Jason Feger has to do is start both features and he'll be crowned the champion over Ryan Unzicker. So far this year, Feger has eight wins in 18 features.
That's it for the show this week. Make sure to check out the streaming schedule over at dirtrackr.com for what to watch this weekend.
Hope you guys have a great end to your week, we'll see you back here on Sunday.