Oskalooska non wing 410's.

Good evening all,

Well tonight at Oskalooska we had a blast.

I was allowed to return to the steering wheel again, but as we neared McDonald's they started again, we want McDonald's, I am awaiting for the "Are we there yet chant" to start, never have I had to drive such a big bunch of juveniles around, I thought my two kids were bad but Gavin and Glen make the kids a joy to be around.

We started at Knoxville and looked over about 8 teams cars, we looked at Tony Stewart Racing's 4 trailers and 4 cars, a sprintcar team they are not, the parts on their cars are more like formula one and Nascar, carbon fibre radiator deflectors that are moulded around the bottom bars, chassis with the rear radius rods that have slides for adjustment on the old car, the new car has two holes for mounting the rear shocks, the Craig Kinser car has slides for adjusting the left front shock and more small mods than you can poke a stick at.

Donny Schatz unveiled a new car paint job, it is sponsored by STP, a long time since we saw that brand sponsoring anything in Australia.

We visited the Simpson van, purchased a trick Hans device quick detach mechanism, it has rings on the tether and you pull a cord and a latch opens on the helmet, no more trying to get the slides to line up with the clips on your helmet anymore.

Impact have a stand with some of the best helmet paint jobs you will see except for the Mud Crab painted on my helmet holding Watto and Dhuys cars in its claws.

Tomorrow the Motorsports shops will start selling their gear so we will check out what is for sale.

Gavin went and checked out the motorhomes and decided that my good lady Janette should have come over and seen the vast selection of motorhomes, some of them would be worth more than 1m US each.

The outlaws have rolled into town and their are transporters are everywhere, you cannot go anywhere without running into a driver/mechanic working on a car.

Gary and Steve Brazier were working on their new car on the main street.

We arrived at Oskalooska after a small detour off the track to let a few of the fireworks off that we brought in South Carolina, we got 4 rockets that fly at the speed of sound and let off a little pop at the end, we also got some crackers that you throw on the ground, Annette has been throwing them at our feet for 2 days, Gavin got a 2kg monster thing that we are to scared to set off incase we end up in jail.

So finally at Oskalooska we went to our seats and who should be sitting next to us but the Dillon family from South Australia, Gary, father of Luke and Lee is a great guy, he has a wise head on his shoulders and we chewed the fat on speedway politics for a fair while, he has some views that most of us would concur with, it is easy to see why his boys are going ok in the sport.

So to the racing.

Dean McAllen from the WA midget scene was running, he did hot laps and missed heat one, he came out in heat 2 and off the start first turn he forgot that a wingless sprintcar was somewhat larger than a midget and put it in where it did not fit, his night was over right there, in the next heat we witnessed the most spectacular crash you will ever see, Brad Sweet also on the first corner poked the car in where it did not fit, he got flipped and as it end for ended the tail tank flew off and it went higher than our fireworks rocket with fuel going everywhere, he got out of the car slightly shaken but ok.

The wingless division was 5 seconds a lap slower than the 410 winged warriors but it would be the most exciting close division you will ever see, the passing was on all night, 3 heats were won by people who were well behind going into the last turn, Kevin Swindell won the best heat race we have ever witnessed, he was fourth going into the last turn and crossed the line about half a front push bar in front.

The final winner of the A main was Jesse "The Rocket" Hocknett, he led all the way but was always under the pump.

I can recommend that you all come over and see these guys run, they are fabulous, it is easy to see why this is the most watched and supported division in the USA, and look forward to posting again tomorrow after the running of night one of the 49th KNoxville 410 Nationals.

Cheers.