Terre Haute Action Track, August 20, 2005. 2005 August 21
The Hut Hundred is one of seven “big” midget races held every year. I say seven because these are the most known races and the ones that are giving extra weight in the National Midget Driver of the Year Award. This is the fifth one of the seven that I’ve made it to. It was also the first time to actually see a race at the Terre Haute Action Track (although I did stop and look at the track a few years ago while driving from Tri-state speedway to Puttnamville during Indiana Sprint Week a few years back).
The other four big midget races that I have been to are the Chili Bowl in Tulsa, Oklahoma, the Copper World Classic in Phoenix, Arizona, the Fireman’s Nationals at Angel Park in Sun Prairie, Wisconsin, and the Belleville Nationals in Belleville, Kansas. The two still on the list are The Night Before the 500 at Indianapolis Raceway Park, in Indianapolis, Indiana, and Turkey Night currently held at Irwindale Speedway in California. These other two are on my hit list, but going to The Night Before the 500 may be tough, because if I’m Indianapolis that night, I’d probably rather go to the Little 500 at Anderson (a 500 lap sprint car race!) which is held at the same time.
I was really looking forward to this race. The track is legendary and do is the race. However, for some reason there didn’t seen to have the buzz in the air that these races usually create. I’m not sure why that was. By the time I made it to Terre Haute is was a little late, so I bought a reserved ticket on the top row of the covered grandstands. One good thing about going to the races solo is that you can usually get a good seat even late because one person doesn’t take up much room. The races really were not very well run and it took them forever to clean up after a red or even a yellow flag. I was pretty disappointed in this. A big race like this should be better run. Maybe that is one of the reasons while there were more empty seats then I expected for this event. The midget drivers, however, made up for the poor running of the event by putting on a heck of a race. They start the midgets 3 wide at this race which is a site to see. Not quite as never-racking as the three-wide start at Anderson that the sprint cars do in the Little 500, but exciting none the less. Johnny Rodriguez started from third place (outside of the front row) and took the lead on the start. He held it for the first 82 laps. While he was leading, the battles behind him and even the moves the racers trying to make on him to take the lead were awesome. The award for being involved with the most passes must go to Cole Carter, son of Poncho Carter. It seems he was either passing someone or being passed by someone every other lap. I think he came home 10′th which doesn’t do justice for the show he put on. Anyway, back to the lead. On lap 82 Rodriguez jumped the cushion in turn three and Davey Ray passed him. Davey Ray pulled away and looked like he would win his first Hut Hundred. However, caution flags flew with about 6 laps to go bunched the field back up and on the restart Johnny Rodriguez dive-bombed into turn one and took the lead and held on for what was somewhat of an upset win. I was pretty happy to see him get the win, especially over the Steve Lewis #9 that Ray was wheeling. Nothing against Ray, but anytime a Lewis #9 car is the field, I get a little bit of joy over seeing it beat (even though I am often a fan of the drivers who pilot the #9s). After the race it was back to Indianapolis to the Microtel to stay the night. One of the down sides of Indiana Midget Week was that it was scheduled against the Sprint Bandits non-wing tour through the Kansas and Oklahoma area. Because of this, some of the top USC drivers such as Dave Darland and Levi Jones didn’t run any of the midget races. Hopefully in the future they can schedule this so it doesn’t conflict with the Sprint Bandits non-wing tour. All-in-all a great three days of racing with four new tracks attended.
A quick update on the Northwest Airline strike….. We were delayed for about 2.5 hours in Detroit while waiting for a tire to be changed. I’m not sure how much of this delay was strike driven as I have waited about that long for a tire change before. Overall the number of canceled flights in Detroit didn’t seem so high, but I think as the strike continues things may get worse.
My stats for the year after the Hut Hundred on August 20 show at the Terre Haute Action Track:
Races: 37
Tracks: 24 (14 new)
States: 14 (3 new)