Talladega!

Superspeedway restrictor plate racing. Good clean fun.

I don't have my Talladega picks yet - Dale, Jr. didn't qualify well,so I am not tempted to add him, and I although am thinking of ditching Jason Leffler, there is no one in his price range that I like as well, so I may keep the lineup I've got, which at the moment is: Johnson, Gordon, Newman, Burton, Leffler.

Rained out during 410 Heats

Pepsi Night was a rain-out during the 410 heat races, so Ethan and I left just before last call. . . Looking ahead to May 6th, let's pray for a good night out. Weather.com calls for showers through Monday, then sunny and some clouds through Friday. Friday night looks like 65 degrees and partly cloudy/ sunny during the day. No rain until Saturday. If that holds, then we should be in for a perfect night out.

Hot Laps Rumble

Here are the 410's Lining up for HotLaps on Pepsi Night. Ethan and I had a great time, but we left during first heats because he was getting too cold and the rain started. There was no broadcast on Wolf FM tonight, so I don't know any winners yet. keep checking at Attica Raceway Park's website for results. 

Which one is the good cholesterol?

Two sausage patties smothered in kraut and mustard. Must be Friday Night at Attica Raceway Park.  

RACES ARE ON!

It's official! Attica races will run tonight! The track is ready.
The weather.com forecast calls for a balmy 46 degress, a high likelihood of intermittent showers - with full blown rain before the night is done. This could be PERFECT dirt track weather. Only the true blue will arrive and only the strong will survive. I can almost taste the sausage burgers already. . .

See ya there.

Jeff Burton finishes 3rd . . .

All my other picks finished well down the list. Jason Leffler broke my heart again by spinning out in the 13th lap and never coming back. DEI showed up in a big way. It was fun watching Mikey Waltrip chase Kurt Busch across the finish line.

Saturday Night at Phoenix (After the Jam)

Saturday night NASCAR makes you wonder what Sunday will be for. There is a Mazda race on SpeedTV in the afternoon Sunday. Here are my Saturday picks, for what they are worth: Jimmie Johnson, Jeff Gordon, Ryan Newman, Jeff Burton, and Jason Leffler. Jason is breaking my heart and I should toss him, but I think he can finish strong if he doesn't blow up. I tossed Junior, but now watch him go get his third Phoenix win. Kasey Kahne's Dodge is going to go whippity whippity through the doglegs, so I swapped in Jeff Burton.

RAINED OUT AGAIN!

We'll try again next week. That's okay, on Saturday evening you can weather the storm by joining me and some friends at
Saturday April 19 from 5:00 to 8:00 for a Traditional Irish Jam Session - Intermediate to Advanced Players are welcome to play - everybody is welcome to listen and enjoy. Every fourth Saturday we pretend that Java Rave is an Irish pub. Java Rave is located on N. Sandusky Street, Tiffin, in the same building as McCarten's Grocery and Rose's Diner.   See ya there.

The Stickers are done!

The final sticker design turned out just great. I think it will look good on most of the paint schemes. Thanks to Fran Steinmetz at Handy Grafix for all the hard work. The black background with white letters and blue drop-shadow was a color scheme that I picked up looking at some of the All-Star cars. I think this design will look great on most Sprint colors. Maybe not Stevie Smith's Purple and Yellow car. . .  

May 6th is Martin Koop and Supance & Howard Night at the Races

Its official. Check out Attica Raceway Park , scroll down, look left and there it is. May 6th is Martin Koop and Supance & Howard Night at the Races. And best of all, we will be FEATURING FOUR DIVISIONS! That's right, we get a DIRT TRUCK NIGHT! GIT R DONE! I couldn't be happier. The whole night is sure to be a lot of fun, so show up and help us to support these drivers and teams as they battle it out in Four Divisions.

This week, April 22nd will also be special as Attica hosts the Sprint Invaders, National Racing Alliance 360 Sprints, 410 Sprints & Limited Late Models.

Pit Passes: $25, Adults:$15, Seniors:$12, Ages 11-15:$10, Age 10 & Under:FREE!

Ticket price includes at least one adrenaline rush per person. See you at the races.

BIFFLE!

Greg Biffle dominated Texas Motor Speedway to a very deserving victory. Leffler crashed early and headed into the garage. Later, Kahne lost an oil pump and crashed, and so my fantasy line-up went down in flames. Junior got into the top ten, but I thought he'd do even better - kept waiting for him to make a move, but it never came. Jimmie Johnson continues to be my one and only dependable pick week after week.

Texas Change

I just watched Dale's practice laps and he looked so smooth, and he qualified just one position behind Tony, so I put him in. So the new lineup is Jimmie, Jr., Newman, Kahne, Leffler.

Fantasy Lineup for Texas Motor Speedway

Jimmie Johnson, Tony Stewart, Ryan Newman, Kasey Kahne, Jason Leffler. I like Jason Leffler, so I keep taking chances with him, and I like Kasey Kahne after watching his moves in the Busch car yesterday. I came real close to picking Junior for Tony, because this could be Junior's week - he needs to get a strong finish to be in the Chase. We'll see.

Family Night at the All Stars

I packed up the family for part of the race tonight in Attica. We caught the end of hotlaps, then the heat races and some of the alphabet races, but we couldn't stay for the features because it was way past bedtime. Beth and Ethan had a ball and now they have a taste of the fun I had last week. Ethan thought the #8 car was Junior. I didn't tell him any different.

The black Curb Records Kasey Kahne car. 

Ricky Ferkel's 410 in the pits.  

Byron Reed's 410 after he stuck the landing on the back straightaway during heats. I'm not sure what happened - when I looked up he was tumbling through the air. Luckily, he walked away intact, but I bet he will be sore in the morning.  

Beth and Ethan enjoying a peaceful moment before Byron Reed went airborn on the back straightaway.  

Hands Across the Water - Tsunami Relief CD

Well, this blog is for guitar pickin' and lawyerin' as well as racin', so I want to promote another project that I am proud to be helping with:

Hands Across the Water will raise money for children whose lives were devastated by the South East Asia Tsunami. My dear friends Andrea Zonn, fiddle player and singer, and John Cutliffe, Irish musician and producer who operates JigTime, have recruited other musicians from England, Scotland, Ireland, Wales and America to make a CD of collaborations between Celtic musicians and American traditional and country musicians. They are getting ready to launch shortly.

The artists so far: Altan - Vince Gill - Lúnasa - Tim O'Brien - Darrell Scott - Máirtín O Connor -Andrea Zonn - Flook - Alison Brown - Beth Nielsen Chapman - Sharon Shannon - John Cowan - Manus McGuire - Paul Brock - Michael McGoldrick - Ciaran TourishJerry Douglas - Bill Shanley - Jon Randall - Paul Brady - John Prine - Fiona Prine - Dermot Byrne - Solas - Jim Lauderdale - Maura O'Connell - Karen Matheson - Donal Shaw - Cerys Matthews.

Proceeds from sales will go directly to Save the Children organization.

First Draft Sticker

Fran Steinmetz called with the first sticker run, and here they are. He and Jim noticed that the shadows are off track, and so he will fix that on the next run - but this gives a good idea of the concept.  

Attica Fantasy Pick 5

Check it out. www.shorttrackin.com has a Pick 5 fantasy game starting for Attica Raceway Park.
It's free and fun, so hit it and get the Attica hit numbers up to show that Ohio dirt track fans are loyal. I made my picks.

Mr. Peabody set the Wayback Machine for 1978. . .

My wife's uncle Bud (Will Cronkrite) built this 1976 Ford Torino. Willy T. Ribbs, an African American road racer from out west, was slated to drive it in Charlotte in 1978, but Willy got into a scrape with the law in Raleigh. Humpy Wheeler suggested that Will replace Ribbs with another young driver, Dale Earnhart, thus providing Dale with one of his first Winston Cup rides. The W with the circle C on the hood stands for White Crown Engineering and also for Will Cronkrite. This may be the only Earnhardt car that hasn't been produced as a diecast.

Sticker Design Nearly Done.

At the end of the day, Fran Steinmetz called from Handy Grafix to say that he had my sticker design ready. Wow, that was fast. I thought I wanted red, white & blue, but after several revisions we chose blue and black and white - very cool. It will look sharp on most paint schemes. He made some quick changes on the fly and will probably have it in final form tomorrow- to be printed before Friday's race. He is also working on a Victory Lane sign for me, which will be done for the following week. Thanks Fran.

Stuart Brubaker's 305 got banged up.  

PITGATE

Check out Pitgate for all your Ohio Dirt Track Racing News. Jake Schaaf said some kind things about this blog when he linked to it - thanks Jake.

Click here to read his comment:
http://www.pitgate.com/mambo/component/option,com_weblinks/catid,93/Itemid,4/

Pitgate crams a ton of information into a tight, well organized, friendly website. Don't miss the live chats - upcoming guests include Mike Linder, Chad Kemenah, Byron Reed and Cody Geldart.

My fantasy lineup for Martinsville: Jimmie Johnson, Tony Stewart, Ryan Newman, Dale Jarrett and Jason Leffler. Who would have guessed that Jason Leffler would score more points than Tony Stewart on that short track? I was only able to watch the last 100 laps or so, but I did see the bit where Jeff Gordon pried Kurt Busch loose in the corner. I'm still not sure how he did that.

Some folks have asked me why they can't post comments here yet. That's because I haven't fugured out all of the features for allowing comments. Also since lawyers have to follow ethical guidelines when we publish something like this, I would probably be held responsible for the content of the site, including the comments. So until I figure this out, you can send comments straight to me at martinkoop@martinkoop.com.

Jamie Miller and me in Victory Lane.

Jody Keegan's 305 in the pits.

Jamie Miller wins the 305 feature!

Opening Night at Attica was a total hoot. Congratulations to Byron Reed who won the 410 Feature and Mike Marteney who won the Limited Lates.

Most of all, congratulations to Jamie Miller who won the 305s and received the Area Business Challenge bonus. As a Business Challenge Sponsor, Duane Hancock was kind enough to let me personally hand Jamie his $150 cash from Jeff Hoyda Dentistry, Burns Electric, and me, with a gift certificate for Holiday Inn.

I am a pretty new fan, but even I could tell that Jamie ran strong the whole race and shook off all challenges. In victory lane, he told the radio announcer he was nearly speechless. I told him it was a helluva fun race to watch. He smiled real big and said it was a helluva fun race to drive.

I really want to say thanks to Duane Hancock, who is working tirelessly to promote the track and to see that the sponsors get mentioned often. In the middle of his many Opening Night duties, he took time to be a great host, made me feel very welcome, and introduced me to some of the drivers in the pit area, including Dustin Keegan, Craig Mintz, and others whose names escape me at the moment.

Everybody was very friendly. I had one disappointment - my camera batteries died before Duane could snap a picture with me and Jamie Miller in the winner's circle. There were about five photographers there, so if anyone comes across a photo of me with Jamie, let me know! I'd like to get one. Next time I will bring backup batteries.

Sprint Car Season Kickoff

This Friday Night - April 8th - kicks off the Attica Raceway Park 2005 season of Sprint Car Racing.

You can check out the details at www.atticaracewaypark.com.

Duane Hancock and I sealed the deal today for me to be an Area Business Challenge Sponsor at the track, and I'm working on a cool logo sticker to put on the cars. Ethan and I are primed for the season - although I may be in Dayton with the band this week to see Altan, I expect to make it to nearly all of the remaining races. I don't want to miss any chance to meet and support these great drivers and their crews. I was online at www.pitgate.com last night during the live chat with driver Craig Mintz and he impressed me as a spirited and well mannered young driver with a promising career ahead of him.

See you at the races.