Calumet County Racing Association 07.20.2007

It's good to be home. Back to the track where it all started (in my hometown). I sat with my friends Roger and Sharon like I usually do at Chilton. I said "hi" to a few racers that I knew from when I pitted for a street stock at Chilton. The track is short and fast. It's a 1/4 mile dirt track, but it's a 1/4 mile around the OUTSIDE.

The Grand National cars at Chilton are the second best division at a track in my opinion. They race really well at the track. Very competitive and very fast on the small 1/4 mile dirt track. This week they had a twin 25 lap feature, and the event would be won by the combined points. The first 25 lapper was won by Brad Lubach. Lubach has been hard to beat at both Chilton and Plymouth Dirt Track Racing action. Chilton driver and 2 time track champion Bob Cullen finished second.

Next up was the Chilton Challenger cars. They are entry level 8 cylinder cars with little modifications. I did notice that some drivers had plastic front ends, so it looks like they can do some modifications. Points leader Kevin Lubach went through the field for the victory.

Next was the 4 cylinder cars, called CCRA 4's. The quality of these cars keeps improving. Chevy Cavaliers appear to be the car of choice. Tim Simon won the feature starting near the front of the pack in his Cavalier. He has only started a few races at Chilton this season (maybe only a few starts in his careeer).

The street stock feature was won by Jesse Behnke. He is a distant second in the points, so he needed the win to keep in contention.

Then came up the second Grand National feature. They inverted all of the cars on the lead lap, so winner Lubach started 14th or 15th. Lap cars started behind the winners. Lubach and Cullen rapidly pulled up through the field. They were battling for fourth, then third, and finally second. Lubach tried to pass Cullen for second on the outside with around 3 laps to go. He almost pulled up to even with Cullen before he started slowly slipping back. The fourth place driver positioned his car behind Cullen, and gradually passed Lubach too. The win went to Terry Van Roy (second in points), who had a poor race in the first 25 lap event. Second to Cullen and fourth to Lubach. Cullen won the overall points. I bet Lubach would have won overall if he hadn't challenged for second, as his 1st and 3rd would have tied or beat Cullen's 2nd and 2nd. I bet Lubach would have been given the overall victory if it were tied since he had a win. After the races my friend Roger went into the pits, and Cullen gave the trophy to Roger to give to his wife Sharon! They have always been Cullen fans, and Cullen isn't very popular.

They announced that the state's biggest fall classic race was getting even bigger. They are adding 3 more divisions and another night. The annual 2 day event had boasted over 300 racecars each year. IMCA drivers say they look forward to it almost as much as Boone. All the best dirt track racers come to Chilton for the big racing party. The partying begins after the Friday night heats with a live music. I usually walk through the pits after the Friday night heats, and it takes me an hour. Past divisions include IMCA modified, IMCA stockcars, IMCA Hobby Stocks, Grand Nationals, Street Stocks, unmodified 8 cylinder cars, and unmodified 4 cylinder cars. This year 360 sprints, late models, and IMCA sport modifieds will be added. They will race their heats on Thursday night and features on Friday night. Friday night's events will start earlier at 5:30, so that the heats in the other divisions can happen before these 3 divisions host their features. Saturday "night's" events start at 3:00 so they can get all the remaining consolidation and feature events in before the 11:00pm city curfew. I would look forward to the event if the mid to late September event didn't mean the end of the racing season!