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| BELLEVILLE MIDGET NATIONALS 2011 LIVE UPDATES |
*NOTE: There is limited Internet connectivity here in Belleville.
Updates and photos will be uploaded once a day (from the library).
FRIDAY, AUGUST 5 PHOTOS
*Having trouble uploading today's photos - taking way too long and the library is
closing. Will try to update again tomorrow, along with photos from Friday's BMN
activities.
FRIDAY, AUGUST 5 UPDATES
Welcome to the 2011 Rev-Honey Belleville Midget Nationals!
27 cars pre-entered for this weekend's racing activities, with 5-10 more
expected as walk-up entries. Pretty good, considering USAC scheduled a
National Sprint Car race up the road in Lincoln, Nebraska, tonight. Many of
USAC's top stars who would normally be here this weekend also run for
USAC Sprint points, but surprisingly, some of the names like Bryan
Clauson, Dave Darland and Bobby East have chosen to contest
Belleville's famous Highbanks instead of traveling to Eagle Raceway
tonight. Good for them...and us! Should be a great show tonight! Many
wondering if some of the Sprint guys might try to race their way into
Belleville's A Main tomorrow night, as they have a night off before heading
to Knoxville on Sunday.
Weather has been good, but atypical, for Belleville, Kansas, this week. It's
actually been quite pleasant and bearable, as opposed to suffocating
because of triple-digit thermometer readings. OK, so Tuesday was a mere
97 degrees, but I guess I'm getting used to that temp as it didn't bother me.
The whole state (and surrounding states) are suffering because of the
extreme drought in the mid section of the country, so the rain storms that
have visited Belleville the past two nights were VERY welcome by the
locals. However...me - not so much.
Arrived in Belleville late, late Monday night and slept in car because it was
too late and too dark to set up my tent at the Fairgrounds. Got up Tuesday
and spent a good amount of time getting the tent up, and my sleeping
quarters arranged with bedding, etc., then took some time to relax before a
busy week of reporting and networking was to start. Had a lovely night's
sleep Tuesday night (very pleasant temperatures to sleep in). Friends
started arriving Wednesday and the fairground campgrounds started
filling up with familiar faces - a welcome site after missing a year here.
Love seeing people who have become good friends, all because of the
adoration we share for this place called Belleville!
Took some time to visit the National Midget Hall of Fame, located here in
Belleville. What a fantastic tribute to my favorite form of racing!! A
must-see for anyone who wants to educate themselves about the TRUE
heroes of the sport of auto racing - what a treasure!
Every year, here at Belleville during the Nationals, a group of legends gets
inducted into the Hall of Fame. This year's inductees include: Edd
French, Page Jones, Jim McElreath, Guy J. "Mac" McHenry, Charlene
Meents, Fred Offenhauser, Jack Petty, Dick Sutcliffe, Gary Swenson and
Fred "Fritz" Tegtmeier. Page and Parnelli Jones were on hand for the
ceremony, and will be staying throughout the weekend, as Page is also the
Grand Marshal for this event!
At that time (Wednesday), I was so happy to find out that I would have
Internet connectivity from my campsite, making my life (and reporting here)
a LOT easier. Slow service, but service, nevertheless! However, that
changed on Thursday when race fans and teams started arriving and
taking up what little bandwidth there was available in this location - so no
service on phone OR Internet this week, unless I travel to the city library,
where I can use their wi-fi connection. Would normally be nice to
disconnect from the world for a while (and Belleville is a great place to do
that), but not so good when I'm trying to work from here.
Spent the evening re-connecting from my campsite mates Chris and Brian,
then settled in for a nice sleep before a busy Thursday. Well, the only
thing that got settled that night was my tent on top of me, as a huge wind
and rain storm (and lightning and thunder) caused my carefully put-up tent
to collapse on top of me, heavy and wet, in the middle of the night as I'm
fast asleep, scaring me to death! Felt like I was being buried alive, as it was
dark and very disorienting, especially when I couldn't find the
zippered-shut door and the few possessions I kept with me. I got my
bearings and slugged my way out of the mess, grabbed as much bedding
(and bed) as possible, piled all of the soaked innards of my tent into my
car, and tried to figure out how I was ever going to get any more sleep that
night. Didn't have much success, for sure.
Spent Thursday morning disassembling the still-wet tent, flipping it
inside-out to drain several inches of water from the inside, and trying to
spread it out to dry out. Frustrating!!! After staring at the mess of my tent
for awhile, hoping it would put itself together (nope, not this time), I
decided to get on with putting it back up sooner rather than later. Went up
pretty easily, and after an afternoon of hot weather, most of my bedding
had dried out so I could get the inside settled once again. I guess no harm,
no foul - there are a lot of worse things that could have happened, but still
very frustrating anyway!
Slept great Thursday night, too!! Well, after I figured out a way to block out
the noise from a neighboring campsite (about 20 feet away) as dozens of
people partied through the night (strange that I wasn't one of them, but
was too tired after the previous night's escapades). Endured another
sizable storm Thursday night, but the tent - and I - survived without a drop
getting inside! Happy for the locals, who desperately needed this rain for
their crops.
Went to the United Rebel Sprint Series race on Thursday night (305
winged Sprint Car series). They put on a great show! Track held up well
after the torrential downpour the night before. Show dragged on a little
longer than it should have (gotta sell those hot dogs!), but that was OK.
Beautiful panoramic view of the farmland from the top of the grandstands
reminds me of why I love this place so much - such beautiful country
surrounding one of the most wicked race tracks in the world!
Spent some time talking to Nate Brown, who is the Founder, Owner and
CEO of Rev-Honey Energy (www.revhoney.com), a local company who
has stepped up their program and is the title sponsor of the Rev-Honey
Belleville Midget Nationals. The product is a honey-based energy drink
(healthier than rivals Monster and Red Bull). Nate is VERY excited about
the opportunity to support racing, as he gave up his own racing career to
concentrate on developing this drink (he had his winged midget on display
under the grandstands). As a former racer, he is using racing as his
primary marketing tool - a smart move considering that every Fortune 500
company has a motorsports marketing program. Aside from many, many
cash and product sponsorships Nate has instituted with various teams,
drivers and sanctions, he's expanded his reach and now has major-league
affiliations outside of racing (a few just solidified on Thursday). What a
refreshing conversation with a guy who really realizes the value of
aggressive marketing through sports properties, in particular
motorsports. I'll be following this company closely as they develop into a
powerhouse in the highly competitive energy drink market!
Love everything about this race week here in Belleville, but very much
miss the extracurricular activities that were so much a part of this event in
the past. Everyone used to make the trek to Eagle Raceway in Lincoln,
Nebraska, the Tuesday before the Nationals for a USAC National Midget
Car Series event, and were welcomed by a packed house, even though it
was a mid-week event. Fantastic track - one of my favorites! Teams would
then stay locally and kick off the week with a friendly party in a local
establishment, with everyone excited about the week ahead. Wednesday
would see the teams travel to Belleville and set up camp and their pit areas
at the Fairgrounds, all within walking distance to the track. Later
Wednesday, teams and officials would contest a friendly game of softball
(most of them really needed to stick to racing and officiating, although
there was usually a surprise ringer from the driver category that was fun to
watch). Then we'd all head over to a kick-off party put on by the Fair
Board, with lots good beverages, and a driver autograph session. In years
past, there were so many cars pre-entered that Thursday and Friday
hosted separate shows, with a designated number of drivers locked into
Saturday's A Main. Car counts are down in recent years, so Thursday's
show has been a Sprint car filler. When Midgets held three complete
nights of racing, the day of the first show started off with a gathering on
the Belleville Court House lawn where drivers and teams would draw for
their night of racing - it was made into a big deal and was fun to be a part
of, as the entire city of Belleville seemed to come out to welcome the
teams. Food and beverages were served in a picnic-like setting - very fun
way to start the week of racing. This weekend was usually the time when
USAC's Silver Crown division would also have a race at Indianapolis
Raceway Park (still refuse to call it anything else), which was televised - a
big deal. So teams and drivers and media would gather at someone's
house or somewhere at the Fairgrounds to watch the race, in which
inevitably the announcer would give a "shout out" to the teams in
Belleville, which was always met with a lot of cheers (yes, we waited for
that acknowledgement, and loved it)! Of course, the racing is ALWAYS
great here, but I miss these other activities as they lent a very distinct
"flavor" to this week, and are now completely missing.
Will post more from Friday on Saturday when I can get back to the library.
For now, have to get ready to head to the track for Night One of this
fantastic event! Hope and pray for a safe, fast and fun night for everyone!
Updates and photos will be uploaded once a day (from the library).
FRIDAY, AUGUST 5 PHOTOS
*Having trouble uploading today's photos - taking way too long and the library is
closing. Will try to update again tomorrow, along with photos from Friday's BMN
activities.
FRIDAY, AUGUST 5 UPDATES
Welcome to the 2011 Rev-Honey Belleville Midget Nationals!
27 cars pre-entered for this weekend's racing activities, with 5-10 more
expected as walk-up entries. Pretty good, considering USAC scheduled a
National Sprint Car race up the road in Lincoln, Nebraska, tonight. Many of
USAC's top stars who would normally be here this weekend also run for
USAC Sprint points, but surprisingly, some of the names like Bryan
Clauson, Dave Darland and Bobby East have chosen to contest
Belleville's famous Highbanks instead of traveling to Eagle Raceway
tonight. Good for them...and us! Should be a great show tonight! Many
wondering if some of the Sprint guys might try to race their way into
Belleville's A Main tomorrow night, as they have a night off before heading
to Knoxville on Sunday.
Weather has been good, but atypical, for Belleville, Kansas, this week. It's
actually been quite pleasant and bearable, as opposed to suffocating
because of triple-digit thermometer readings. OK, so Tuesday was a mere
97 degrees, but I guess I'm getting used to that temp as it didn't bother me.
The whole state (and surrounding states) are suffering because of the
extreme drought in the mid section of the country, so the rain storms that
have visited Belleville the past two nights were VERY welcome by the
locals. However...me - not so much.
Arrived in Belleville late, late Monday night and slept in car because it was
too late and too dark to set up my tent at the Fairgrounds. Got up Tuesday
and spent a good amount of time getting the tent up, and my sleeping
quarters arranged with bedding, etc., then took some time to relax before a
busy week of reporting and networking was to start. Had a lovely night's
sleep Tuesday night (very pleasant temperatures to sleep in). Friends
started arriving Wednesday and the fairground campgrounds started
filling up with familiar faces - a welcome site after missing a year here.
Love seeing people who have become good friends, all because of the
adoration we share for this place called Belleville!
Took some time to visit the National Midget Hall of Fame, located here in
Belleville. What a fantastic tribute to my favorite form of racing!! A
must-see for anyone who wants to educate themselves about the TRUE
heroes of the sport of auto racing - what a treasure!
Every year, here at Belleville during the Nationals, a group of legends gets
inducted into the Hall of Fame. This year's inductees include: Edd
French, Page Jones, Jim McElreath, Guy J. "Mac" McHenry, Charlene
Meents, Fred Offenhauser, Jack Petty, Dick Sutcliffe, Gary Swenson and
Fred "Fritz" Tegtmeier. Page and Parnelli Jones were on hand for the
ceremony, and will be staying throughout the weekend, as Page is also the
Grand Marshal for this event!
At that time (Wednesday), I was so happy to find out that I would have
Internet connectivity from my campsite, making my life (and reporting here)
a LOT easier. Slow service, but service, nevertheless! However, that
changed on Thursday when race fans and teams started arriving and
taking up what little bandwidth there was available in this location - so no
service on phone OR Internet this week, unless I travel to the city library,
where I can use their wi-fi connection. Would normally be nice to
disconnect from the world for a while (and Belleville is a great place to do
that), but not so good when I'm trying to work from here.
Spent the evening re-connecting from my campsite mates Chris and Brian,
then settled in for a nice sleep before a busy Thursday. Well, the only
thing that got settled that night was my tent on top of me, as a huge wind
and rain storm (and lightning and thunder) caused my carefully put-up tent
to collapse on top of me, heavy and wet, in the middle of the night as I'm
fast asleep, scaring me to death! Felt like I was being buried alive, as it was
dark and very disorienting, especially when I couldn't find the
zippered-shut door and the few possessions I kept with me. I got my
bearings and slugged my way out of the mess, grabbed as much bedding
(and bed) as possible, piled all of the soaked innards of my tent into my
car, and tried to figure out how I was ever going to get any more sleep that
night. Didn't have much success, for sure.
Spent Thursday morning disassembling the still-wet tent, flipping it
inside-out to drain several inches of water from the inside, and trying to
spread it out to dry out. Frustrating!!! After staring at the mess of my tent
for awhile, hoping it would put itself together (nope, not this time), I
decided to get on with putting it back up sooner rather than later. Went up
pretty easily, and after an afternoon of hot weather, most of my bedding
had dried out so I could get the inside settled once again. I guess no harm,
no foul - there are a lot of worse things that could have happened, but still
very frustrating anyway!
Slept great Thursday night, too!! Well, after I figured out a way to block out
the noise from a neighboring campsite (about 20 feet away) as dozens of
people partied through the night (strange that I wasn't one of them, but
was too tired after the previous night's escapades). Endured another
sizable storm Thursday night, but the tent - and I - survived without a drop
getting inside! Happy for the locals, who desperately needed this rain for
their crops.
Went to the United Rebel Sprint Series race on Thursday night (305
winged Sprint Car series). They put on a great show! Track held up well
after the torrential downpour the night before. Show dragged on a little
longer than it should have (gotta sell those hot dogs!), but that was OK.
Beautiful panoramic view of the farmland from the top of the grandstands
reminds me of why I love this place so much - such beautiful country
surrounding one of the most wicked race tracks in the world!
Spent some time talking to Nate Brown, who is the Founder, Owner and
CEO of Rev-Honey Energy (www.revhoney.com), a local company who
has stepped up their program and is the title sponsor of the Rev-Honey
Belleville Midget Nationals. The product is a honey-based energy drink
(healthier than rivals Monster and Red Bull). Nate is VERY excited about
the opportunity to support racing, as he gave up his own racing career to
concentrate on developing this drink (he had his winged midget on display
under the grandstands). As a former racer, he is using racing as his
primary marketing tool - a smart move considering that every Fortune 500
company has a motorsports marketing program. Aside from many, many
cash and product sponsorships Nate has instituted with various teams,
drivers and sanctions, he's expanded his reach and now has major-league
affiliations outside of racing (a few just solidified on Thursday). What a
refreshing conversation with a guy who really realizes the value of
aggressive marketing through sports properties, in particular
motorsports. I'll be following this company closely as they develop into a
powerhouse in the highly competitive energy drink market!
Love everything about this race week here in Belleville, but very much
miss the extracurricular activities that were so much a part of this event in
the past. Everyone used to make the trek to Eagle Raceway in Lincoln,
Nebraska, the Tuesday before the Nationals for a USAC National Midget
Car Series event, and were welcomed by a packed house, even though it
was a mid-week event. Fantastic track - one of my favorites! Teams would
then stay locally and kick off the week with a friendly party in a local
establishment, with everyone excited about the week ahead. Wednesday
would see the teams travel to Belleville and set up camp and their pit areas
at the Fairgrounds, all within walking distance to the track. Later
Wednesday, teams and officials would contest a friendly game of softball
(most of them really needed to stick to racing and officiating, although
there was usually a surprise ringer from the driver category that was fun to
watch). Then we'd all head over to a kick-off party put on by the Fair
Board, with lots good beverages, and a driver autograph session. In years
past, there were so many cars pre-entered that Thursday and Friday
hosted separate shows, with a designated number of drivers locked into
Saturday's A Main. Car counts are down in recent years, so Thursday's
show has been a Sprint car filler. When Midgets held three complete
nights of racing, the day of the first show started off with a gathering on
the Belleville Court House lawn where drivers and teams would draw for
their night of racing - it was made into a big deal and was fun to be a part
of, as the entire city of Belleville seemed to come out to welcome the
teams. Food and beverages were served in a picnic-like setting - very fun
way to start the week of racing. This weekend was usually the time when
USAC's Silver Crown division would also have a race at Indianapolis
Raceway Park (still refuse to call it anything else), which was televised - a
big deal. So teams and drivers and media would gather at someone's
house or somewhere at the Fairgrounds to watch the race, in which
inevitably the announcer would give a "shout out" to the teams in
Belleville, which was always met with a lot of cheers (yes, we waited for
that acknowledgement, and loved it)! Of course, the racing is ALWAYS
great here, but I miss these other activities as they lent a very distinct
"flavor" to this week, and are now completely missing.
Will post more from Friday on Saturday when I can get back to the library.
For now, have to get ready to head to the track for Night One of this
fantastic event! Hope and pray for a safe, fast and fun night for everyone!