Fight For Dirt Track
Inslide Line Banner Presented by Pobrcieto Racing

The InSlide Line: Week 20

By Tyler Porter

Hello, and welcome to the InSlide Line Presented by Bell Helmets. It's another Thursday night here at the Fight For Dirt Track compound. I'm sad to report this is the first Frankle-less column in about 5 months and as much as his re-arrangement of my kitchen irritated me at times, it's not the same without having somebody to bounce ideas off of or just generally laugh at. Frankle moved on and hit the road with the Road Race Factory school and race team, helping teach people how to get that knee to the asphalt and spin some wrenches for his brother Hayden. Enjoyed having ya here Frankle! Enough of my sorrows and troubles, let's get to racing!!

Last weekend I spent a few days down in Corinth Mississippi wearing my Memphis Shades hat, and shirt, and key chain. Lake Hill Motors was celebrating their 50th year in business and decided to make an event out of it, complete with vendors and a vintage bike show and swap meet. I had a good time getting to know the crew there as well as their Parts Unlimited rep and we moved some inventory out of stock. I talk about my weekend there to say this, you guys need to stop there if you are ever in Northern Mississippi because they have a HUGE showroom that houses an amazing collection of motorcycles including a factory honda RS600 dirttracker and a set of Bubba Shobert leathers. Owners Dwayne and Dan are dirt track fans and Dwayne at least used to do a lot of racing back in his day. It's a cool place to visit and I appreciate them welcoming me and I thank the Memphis Shades crew for picking me for the job.

Last weekend while I was slinging Lucite (Memphis Shades products are made of that brand of acrylic, and yes, it is superior to anything else on the market, let me tell you why before the Springfield Mile) District 17 racers were having a go at it in Pekin Illinois. While I couldn't make it there, dirt track fan and photographer Dave Reynolds was there and sent along these high lights. Take it away Dave!
It was the Rob Pearson show in Pekin as he led every lap ran. Justin Hittle was on the number 44 machine of Steven Sandoval and wound up 2nd. The 36P machine of Adam Camp was 3rd with Chaz Rice rounded out the top 4. It was Blake Claeys night as he swept the 250 and 450 and Open classes! In the 250 class he bested Molly Terry and Alex Felland came home third. In the 450 class Blake took the win over Steven Sandoval who made him earn the win. Alex Felland was 3rd and you could have nearly thrown a blanket over them. The Open class had an identical finishing order.
Thanks a lot for the report Dave! Don't forget, pretty much anybody who sends me a report from a race, I will post it, so let me know what's going on in your neck of the woods.

This weekend you can find me once again the dirty south, this time at Crooked Creek Speedway in Little Rock Arkansas. This is Paul Covert's baby and it's a sweet race track. This weekend the Steve Nace All-Star Series is rolling in and despite light rider attendance in the last couple of years, I have been hearing that several racers are making the trip this time. It is worth it, a HUGE rowdy crowd, good payout and excellent race track, hey, why are people missing it? Experts confirmed are Expert points leader Matt Weidman and that road racing kid JD Beach. With this race not being terribly far away from Kenny Tolbert Racing Headquarters, maybe we'll see Brad Baker attend again this year too. Brad has been spending a lot of time on his Kawasaki's and reports that he feels just as comfortable if not more comfortable on them now than he did on his Honda's last year. Things could get interesting on the 1/4 mile banks at Crooked Creek, come on out and see us! Also, for the racers out there, Crooked Creek is hosting a practice day on Sunday. Not sure of the hours or anything, but the track will be open.

Crooked Creek Is Ready!

Also racing this weekend is the Prairie City Short Track in Northern California, Jackpine Gypsies Motorcycle Club in Sturgis South Dakota is hosting a grooved short track, Oakland Valley Speedway in Cuddebackville New York is having a race as is the Square Deal Riders in Port Crane New York, which is hosting a Hole Shot Series event. In district 17 action, the dirt trackers of the Central Illinois area will be hitting the TT track in Macomb Illinois. If you have an up coming event, make sure you let me know and I'll get it posted. I also love to get race reports too! Don't forget that the Belleville Enduro Team is having an open TT practice day for Pro Singles and Expert licensed riders to help get them ready for the upcoming Springfield TT. That track is cool and the club is all about some dirt track, despite their name. Go check them out!

If you aren't much into attending a race but you want to do something to support the sport, head on out to Springfield and visit Boone's Saloon. They are having quite a day on Saturday, May 19th which is going to include a poker run that starts at 11am, food, a live band, a motorcycle show and a chaps contest. All of the money raised at the events is benefiting Aid To Injured Riders. If you aren't familiar with AIR, they are a non-profit organization that helps with medical expenses incurred to Pro Singles and Expert racers during Grand National Championship competition. They have helped SO MANY racers over the years and they just keep coming up with more and better ways to keep that fund healthy! Way to go guys and thank you for the support from Boone's Saloon! Now if I could only get in that Chaps contest....

While I'm speaking about AIR, don't forget to check out their booth at Springfield. They will have shirts, wristbands and I'm sure lots of other stuff for sale and auction, that crew never disappoints. Every year they raffle off a quilt and this years is super cool, check it out!


I got a call this week from AMA Pro Racing director Dan Johnsen this week. When you see that number pop up on your phone, you have no clue what it could be, but luckily for me, I didn't have to back pedal on something I wrote or find out I was banned from racing the Springfield TT because I was an embarrassment to the sport. We covered the reason for the call and then I went to asking about the TV Packaged that was announced last week. If you didn't see it, MavTV and NBC Sports will be broadcasting several of our nationals this year. While this sounds awesome, MavTV had our series a couple of years ago, but few people had access to it. Let me break this down numbers wise: Speed Channel, which airs the Daytona Short Track, mainly because of the France family's love for dirt track, can be seen in 77 million homes around the country. NBC Sports, which was formally known as the Versus Network, can be found in 70 Million homes. MavTV on the other hand is currently only in 6 million homes, however, it is offered to 50 million homes. Here's the deal, we need to be pro-active here. We need to be pushing our fans to contact their cable and satellite providers and saying "I WANT MAVTV!!" It seriously is that simple and cable providers listen! I encourage racers to make up small hand outs to leave on your autograph tables during open pits to show to our fans. If we get MavTV in more homes, that is more exposure for us and in turn, more sponsors and oh yeah, MORE MONEY! Our sport is hurting so bad on the budget end of things right now, if we racers can work together and be pro-active in this situation, perhaps we can change things! Perhaps we can get it to where the top 20 in each class is actually making a good living racing. This isn't going to happen over night by any means, but we have to work to get to where we need to be. I will even personally help get some of these cards produced! The races will be produced by Lucas Oil's TV network, so the coverage, camera work and commentators will be top notch, we just have to put our best foot forward here and get the word out to our fans.

Next week is Springfield. AHHHHHHH Springfield! While Memorial day is the unofficial start to summer, it also serves as the point where racing gets going full swing. This year's Springfield is very special because tagging on behind the Grand National double header weekend is Amateur Grand Nationals. This year they will be hosted by Steve Nace Racing and to say it will be an improvement over last year's mess would be an understatement. The Steve Nace crew has already switched some things around to help make things easier for families to afford the trip, consolidating race days so the week is shorter and so forth. The other big news is that Joe Kopp's new school will be in session, the Secrets Of Speed school. This is a different type of racing school. This is a class room type deal and is not just for racers, but for mom's, dad's, mechanics, anybody who is a fan of racing and wants to help their rider. The class is a 5 day deal hosted at the Crowne Plaza Hotel and I can promise you that Joe will have a LOT of great information. Davey Durelle will be holding a session on Tuesday the 29th featuring set up tips. Joe is sweetening the pot with over $4,000 worth of prizes for those who attend, so don't miss out! Check out www.thesecretsofspeed.com for more information!

Springfield is next weekend and I'll be pulling triple duty, racing on Saturday, probably not making the night show, putting on my journalist wig and reporting for you guys and then Sunday morning before the racing starts on the mile I'll have the White Black and Yellow shirt on for Memphis Shades doing my best to inform you about our entire line up of windshields and fairings. We might even do a give away! Come by and see me, I'll be parked just outside of the grand stands!

That's all for this week. It sure is nice to have some legit news again and I hope you enjoy it also. Next week we will dive into Springfield predictions and I am putting the tune up on my crystal ball for that. I will put this out there, I got an interesting photo this week. Not sure what it means, but I'll let you make your own judgment. Either way, have a great weekend and I'll give you something to read next week.

Best Of's


Best Stunter: Mikey Avila


Best New Toy: Brad Baker


Best Track Grader: Mid America Speedway (IT WORKS AWESOME!)