First Race Finally in on the Dirt at I-70 Speedway

(April 1, 2007) -- With a full moon rising, the first race is finally in the books at the Dirt Track. After trying to out guess Mother Nature and heavy rains on and off for over a week, racing began at 2:30 pm on Sunday afternoon. Three classes were on the bill, Modifieds, Stock Cars and SportMods. Strong winds and bright sunshine rapidly dried the new D shaped track. “I know you are never supposed to say never, but I never intend to have another day race again” was the first thing out of I-70 Promoter, Brad McDonald’s mouth. “I want to apologize to all the fans and drivers for the dusty track conditions. We have had so much rain and have worked so hard on the track all week to have this race and now we get sun and wind”. “I want all of the fans to save their ticket stubs from today’s event, we will accept them for admission to any Friday night race, once we are racing under the lights”, McDonald commented as a decision was made to stop the Modified A Feature, due to the track conditions.

20 Modifieds checked in for the April 1St event along with 16 Stock Cars and 10 SportMods, and several Sprint Cars, who were on hand for hot lap sessions.

Top 10 in the Stock Car Feature were: 11X, Jerry Schmidt – 12, Russell Walter – 22, Alvie Christofferson – 29, Greg Deters – C15, Eric Weyer – 73, Mike McCullough - 65X, Thomas Roberts – 6J, John Roberts – 45J, Jeremy McConnville and 16, Curtis Morris.

Top 5 in the SportMod Feature were: 22A, Brent Alverson – 32M, Jeff Meeker – 75, Scotty Martin – 09S, Jeremiah Stephens and M20, Michael Mullins.

The Modified A Feature was canceled after several attempts to start the race. However, all of the qualified drivers will be paid. Qualifying line –up for the Modified A Feature was: 93S, Chad Shaw – 15T, Justin Gregg – 8R, Eric Anderson – 68, Dean Wille – 90, Terry Schultz – 86, Buddy Benedict – 40, Jesse Willard – 51, Tim Setzer – 44C, Randy Grimmett – 09, Joshua Stephens – 54, Paul Snyder – 7S, Jeff Shepard – 33, Nick Newton – 20T, Mike Tanner – 4, Virgil Jeffries – 42, Gene Claxton – 17, Lucas Connley – 8X, Darrin Roberts – 57, Tim Powell and 62, Bob Ford.

The modified event was the” Mike Fitzpatrick Memorial”, rescheduled from the Grand River Speedway last week. Mike was an IMCA Modified contestant in our area, building his first car in 1983 and competing at the I-70 Speedway and Riverside Speedway.

The Official Friday night dirt track season will begin on Friday night April 20th and will feature the IMCA Modifieds, Stock Cars, SpotMods and SportCompacts. General admission prices will be $5.00 and pit pass will be $15.00.

For further information call the I-70 Speedway Office at: (816) 230-0080 or log on at: www.i70speedway.net