Potomac Speedway, March 18 2005 (Track #120) 2005 March 19
Last night I went to Potomac Speedway in Budd’s Creek Maryland. This was the first time I was ever there for a race. Last year I stopped by the track on the way back from Richmond to see what it looked like. When I did check it out I saw a 1/3 mile dirt oval with high banks. At the time I knew I wanted to see a race at the track, so I figured I’d move it up on my hit list for this year. I had preciously taken Friday off from work to go to a concert, but do to unforeseen circumstances those plans were cancelled. So when I noticed Potomac was running their season opener, I had a new plan to get my first new track of the year (and first outdoor race of the season).
Potomac is about four hours south of me. To get there you have to past D.C. and almost all the way into Virgina. While traffic wasn’t all that great, it was a relatively uneventful ride. I made it to the track, bought a $13 admission ticket, and found a seat and then took a little map. Racing was scheduled to start at 8:00 PM with warm ups 30 minutes before that. I didn’t check to see if they started on time, but it must have been close as all 8 heat races were finished by 8:52 PM. They had four divisions, and each one had two heat races. Car counts weren’t great, but they had enough good cars to make it interesting in each division. Counts were between 13 and 18. Due to the low car counts no consi races were needed. After what I felt was a little long 33 minute intermission, the features started. Since it was the first race of the year, there was no handicapping and the heat winners started up front. The Street Stock race was the first up and it was a pretty good race. The Limited Lates were next on the agenda. They had a lot of cautions trying to get the first 5 or so laps in, but other then that it was enjoyable.
The third race was the Super Late Models, the headline class. Again, it was pretty good, enjoyable racing. The feature was over by 10:30 PM. Two and half hours and the headline feature was over, even with a long intermission. I wish more promoters ran their show like Rick Jones did this one. While the lower car counts helped, the main reason why they were able to run the race that they ran the show efficiently. They did have endless delays between races, run all sorts of laps under caution for no reason, and when the tow truck was needed they cleaned up the wrecks efficiently. Because of the long ride home, I skipped over the hobby stock race and headed home.
Another positive was the track conditions. There was no dust to speak of, and the track had more then one groove. The announcer was a rookie to dirt track racing but had announcing experience having announced at a drag strip before. He had some terminology wrong and pronounced some names wrong, but I think he did a good job considering and once he gets the hang of dirt track racing he should be pretty good. Hopefully he’ll do some homework to help himself get up to speed a little quicker.
The only track food I tried was the fries, and they were good.
All-in-all a very good night of racing. It wasn’t the best race in the world, but very enjoyable and a well-run show. If Potomac was a little closer, and all of their shows are like this one, I’d go there more often. The only thing that would be nice is a few more cars in the Super Late Model class. However, I might try to make another race at Potomac if I can get there for a touring late model series such as MACS or the World of Outlaw Late Models as I think it would be a nice track to see them on.
My 2005 racing stats are now:
Races: 6
Tracks: 3 (1 new)
States: 3 (0 new)
Lifetime stats:
Tracks: 120 (122 by trackchaser rules)
States: 29 (plus DC and Ontario, CA).
Countries: 2 (USA and Canada)