From The Streets of Spain....To The Missouri Dirt

A little over a year ago I got rid of my cable television package. All of my tv viewing comes from over the air antenna tv. That is why I no longer comment on NASCAR and most Indy Racing events. Fox Sports has recently come to my rescue by showing Formula One races on Sundays. After watching Sunday’s European GP from Valencia, Spain, I was satisfied and prepared to put racing behind me and move one to other things. I first made a general sweep through the channels and was shocked and delighted to find CBS Sports was about to show the taped Lucas Oil Dirt Late Model Series Show-Me 100 on the ½ mile dirt track of the same name. WOW! There could be nothing that fits my personality better than a sophisticated F! race followed by 100 laps of dirt stock cars. I thoroughly enjoyed both races. The F1 picture below comes from AP and the victory lane late model shot is from the Lucas Oil Series website.

Something was happening every moment in the F1 race and it was exciting to have Alonso (Spaniard) come from 11^th to 1^st and cause a lot of excitement. It is not normal to gain ten positions in F!. There has been 7 winners in 8 races and the points are very close. Great stuff!!  I love F1 cars, except for many years now they have had the ugliest noses of any race cars in the history of racing.  If I ran F1 they would be gone.  They mandate many tech aspects of a modern F1 car and one more won't hurt.

I was thrilled to see my first dirt late model race since around 2004. I was shocked to see that many of the same great drives (Billy Moyer, Dennis Erb, etc) were still competing and at the top of their game. While Jimmy Owens led 97 out of 100 laps in Wheatland, MO the racing was still good. The Lucas Oil Speedway was one of the best dirt tracks I ever saw. Even as parts of the track became hard and shiny the track still did not spew dust. Excellent!!

From AP:
VALENCIA, Spain (AP) — Fernando Alonso of Ferrari won an incident-filled European Grand Prix on Sunday to become the first driver to win two races this season, while Michael Schumacher earned a first podium finish since his comeback by coming third.

Alonso jousted his way up from 11th on the starting grid to claim an emotional victory for the Spaniard in front of his home fans after pole sitter Sebastian Vettel's Red Bull stalled on the track midway through the race.

Kimi Raikkonen of Lotus finished second, while Schumacher sneaked onto the podium after Lewis Hamilton and Pastor Maldonado collided on the penultimate lap as they fought for third place.

Jimmy Owens Wins Second Straight DART Show-Me 100 at Lucas Oil Speedway

WHEATLAND, MO

CBS Sports Special 6/24/12

1. Jimmy Owens
2. John Blankenship
3. Dennis Erb, Jr.
4. Austin Hubbard
5. Billy Moyer