4 Crown Nationals, Eldora Speedway, Sept 22-24, 2006 2006 October 8
On the weekend of September 22 – 24 I went to western Ohio to see the USAC 4 Crown Nationals at the legendary Eldora Speedway. This was the first time for me at this race – and also the first time I’ve been to Eldora since Tony Stewart bought it. Tony did make a lot of improvements like a new catch fence, a lap counter/score board, and new bathrooms, but I’m happy to report Tony didn’t do anything to make Eldora lose any of its “Eldora-ness.” In fact even Earl Baltes was there sitting in the owners booth!
This race was probably the highest race on my hit list for the last few years so I was really looking forward to it. The racing part didn’t disappoint, but the rain sure did. I’m sure any dirt track racing fan has already heard about the problems caused by the rain. For the most part, Friday night was a wash. They started pretty early on Saturday, but they would get a race or two in, and then it would rain, they would dry the track, and run another race or two, and this was repeated about 5 or 6 times. We finally left the track at 6:00 AM on Sunday morning after being there for 19 hours! And, there was still the UMP modified race left to go (I herd that ended at 6:48 AM). Not fun as far as the rain, but we persevered and I got to see my first 4 Crown nationals.
My 2006 race attendance stats after the 4 Crown Nationals are:
Races: 23
Tracks: 19 (13 new) (150 lifetime)
States: 14 (3 new) (35 + DC lifetime)