Saturday night racing

A couple hundred people show up every other Saturday night at Ona Speedway to catch up with friends and see a night of local racing.

Last Saturday, fans got an added treat with the Super Cup stocks, which included local driver Jake Keaton. Yes, after a few weeks' absence, "Jake the Snake" was on Ona asphalt for three races.

Brenda Pitts, the Super Cup scoring director, said Jake's become her newest son. She also said at the series tryouts, the young man from Barboursville won, and gained a spot in the series.

After taking a position in my usual spot in the bleachers under the press/announcer box, looking around I didn't recognize anyone and they all had on R/E headsets with mouthpieces. Family members of the Super Cup drivers. Then, Brenda came up and asked if I'd like to be a scorer for the night. Sure, why not?

She handed me a clipboard with a name and car number. All it said was "Jake" and "10." Did I really need to ask who the driver was? Serendipity. The local blogger got the local driver.

It was not necessarily a good night for young Mr. Keaton. He DNF'd the Super Cup race around lap 50 of 100. Shoot. In front of the home crowd, no less.

He came back in the Modified race to finish 4th, and took the checkered flag in the Classics division. OK, it didn't toally redeem the night, but it ended better than it started.

Winner of the Super Cup race was a teenager, Todd Peck. It was his first series win, and obviously his first win at Ona Speedway. Keeping with tradition, when you take your first Ona checkered flag, you get to wear the Jester Hat of trackside reporter Mike Gue for a victory lane photo. But the hat's been altered. It now lights up. Yes, there are photos from Jim Ellis Photography on the Ona Speedway Web site.

Other winners at Ona on Aug. 16th were Hobby Stock, Gary Queen; Modifieds, Thomas Mays; Classics, Jake Keaton; Street Stock, David Bell; and U-Car, Keith Watson.

Racing continues Saturday, Aug. 30 at Ona Speedway, with a Kids Bike Race before the featured events.

Notes on the Glen

Give me a B-O-R-I-S!

Yep, despite the rain, my buddy Boris Said will be driving this weekend at The Glen for Petty Enterprises. Woo-Hoo!

Ford has given Boris the OK to run the Dodge for Petty. Like has happened so many other times in the 2007 and 2008 seasons, Boris’ chance to qualify or his awesome qualifying runs were doused by a rain-out, Friday was just the most recent.

In an article on Scene Daily this afternoon, Kyle Petty said he hopes Boris can get in their car and tell them how they need to tweak it for road courses. He’s looking for constructive comments, not positive and not necessarily a win, just how to make the package better.

They know who’s the go-to guy on the road course.

Now, since qualifying got rained out, that puts the other Kyle, Busch, that is, on the pole.

And that puts Tony Stewart at 9th. Not an impossible place, very probable, really.

Plus, he does have six road course wins, with four of those at The Glen.

It’s time to git-r-done, Tony! You’ve been close, so close, but not over that line first.

While on the subject of Tony, I would be remiss, and all you Tony-haters would claim prejudice, if I failed to mention the return of bad-boy behavior at Indianapolis.

He was his big-hearted, benevolent self early in the evening before the Silver Crown race, meeting with ill children and giving major help to the K-9 units of the Indiana State Police.

Then, he snapped, shoving a race official, ripping the electronics of his head and throwing it to the ground, going nose to nose and toes to toes. It’s quite the popular video on You Tube. And as they say in the hockey world, he probably spoke fluent French, too.

My thought is he’s a passionate guy when it comes to racing. He just couldn’t keep the beast completely under control.

Anger management classes (again) anyone?

News and notes from

If you noticed, there was no Keaton on the track at Ona Speedway last weekend.

Simple explanation. Jake Keaton has a ride in the Super Cup Stock Car Series and was racing at Lonesome Pine Speedway in Virginia.

Yep, Jake is now one of the registered drivers in the new series, which incidentally, will be making a stop at Ona Speedway Saturday, August 16, with a 100-lap feature race.

That night, all other classes will race, except the Late Models.

*****

Happy Birthday to #27 Late Model car owner R.Z. Hill – his 68th cake day. He got a pretty good ribbing all night long about it being his birthday, but he exacted his revenge on everyone when driver Eric Maynard bested Harvey Harrison and Shane Koontz for the win.

Not a bad present for Hill.

*****

And speaking of Shane Koontz, he put on quite the show Saturday night in what was the best race I’ve seen him drive to date.

Starting from the pole, he led a good bit of the race, but was passed by Maynard. Then, it was the battle for second with Harvey Harrison. So Shane finished 3rd, not quite 2.5 seconds behind Harrison and almost 4 seconds behind the race winner Maynard.

*****

And finally from Ona Speedway, you gotta love the Kids Bike Races. They’re just soooo cute – the bitty kids, sometimes with training wheels. They always get about a half-track lead before track spokesman Mike Gue lets the big kids take off. And yes, they catch up before turn three.

I don’t pull for the big kids, let their parents and buddies do that. I don’t have kids, just a pit bull. So I scream like crazy for the tiny riders. “Go little people, go!” or “Keep pedaling little riders!” and when they cross the start-finish line, they each get a big “woo-hoo!” from me, sitting underneath the press box.