Rain in western PA leads me to Midvale for #109
#109 Midvale Speedway, Midvale, OH (3/10-mile asphalt) 7/22/06
With most tracks in western PA cancelled due to the rain, I was hoping one of the three Ohio asphalt tracks in eastern Ohio that I have yet to attend were still racing. Painesville had already cancelled and even if they hadn't, there wasn't any way they would be able to race looking at the radar. Barberton and Midvale were still on. The majority of the rain passed through our area around noon time; however the backside of the system was coming off Lake Erie from mostly Cleveland east.
Barberton was slated to start at 7 and is only an hour drive for me. Late last summer on a very similiar weather pattern I considered going to Barberton, but it didn't look like they would be able to race and to my luck they did. Barberton seemed to be the edge of the rain that was moving south. I called throughout the afternoon and it didn't look much more than a few sprinkles in the area, though there was steady rain coming off the lakes but it appeared that it kept breaking up after it got south of Cleveland.
I left at 5:30 and kept calling along the way.
I figured if they cancelled I'd head south to Midvale. Only a few sprinkles fell on me until I go to Akron when the rain let loose and by looks of the shy didn't look like it would end any time soon. By the time I got within sight of the track at 6:30 they had just cancelled.
A quick call to Midvale found them still racing. The lady that answered said they started racing five minutes ago. I had already checked the distance prior to leaving for Barberton in case this happened and figured it would take me about an hour. I thought I could beat the rain down there and at least see some racing and hopefully it would break up by the time it would get there. I ran out of the rain south of Canton and I arrived just prior to 7:30. There was some peeks of blue sky and it was dark to the west. It was quite cool for late July as it was only in the mid to upper 60s.
A pretty decent crowd of I'd say around 500 was on hand despite the threatening weather. The pursuit races were just getting underway for the four divisions when I arrived. Car counts were 41 compacts, 18 pure stocks, 14 late models, and 11 sport stocks.
I later learned that qualifying starts at 4:20 for all divisions, which makes for a very long night. After the four pursuit races, a faster pastor race was held for local pastors and the features were called up.
The late model 25-lap feature took the green at 8:42 and was won by Ryan Tedesco. Midvale uses a rule where if you beat your qualifying time you either get sent to the rear or are black-flagged apparently depending on the division. Tedesco took the lead on lap 10 but the following lap beat his time. Tedesco though was able to come back through the field and make the winning pas on lap 21. Six cautions slowed the event. One very hard crash marred the event on lap 17 which saw the #8 car slam head-on into the turn two wall after contact with a couple other cars pretty much destroying his car. After the clean-up light showers began to fall. The racing restarted but had to be yellowed as the intesity of the rain picked up with 19 laps completed. The cars remained on the track and eventually it slowed up enough that they could get back
racing. The rain did stop for good just after the victory lane interview.
The sport stock feature saw just 9 of the 11 cars start the feature, which took the green at 9:31. This was a good race as five cars battled for the lead after the halfway point of the 20-lap feature. Keith Thomas, who started 7th, took the lead on lap 15 and went on for his 5th straight win. Thankfully this race had only one caution as the same cannot be said for the pure stock feature.
At 9:45 the pure stock feature took the green for the 30-lap special. Something told me this race would be a long one with 18 cars starting and being a special. Eight cautions and 47 minutes later the race was finally checkered with just 11 laps completed. Midvale uses time limits on all the races with 5 minutes added to the number of laps. The race would use a 35-minute time limit. When the time expires, they give them two more cautions, which was odd to me.
The compacts were split into 3 features, each being 15 laps. All three were good ones. The first one took the green at 10:38 and the last one ended at 11:10, not bad with only four total cautions. The first one had just one caution with Mike Hostetler picking up the victory after taking the lead on lap five. David Breehl returned to action for the first time in a couple years and scored the win after the first and second place cars made contact on lap 11. Just one caution slowed this event as well. The third feature went to Michael Keith, who inherited the lead on lap 13 after the leader was black-flagged for beating his qualifying time.
Midvale surprised me as the facility was much nicer than expected. Very well manicured, neat, and clean. There are two sections of bleachers with a break in between the terraced off area. The announcer called the action from a patio area instead of the tower with the scorers. You couldn't hear the announcer except when it was totally quiet and even then it was quite a strain. Way too long of a show though. They did a good job of moving the races along, but unneeded laps under caution and drivers constantly stopping to have officials check their cars on the backstretch border on insane. I have never seen so many cars stop for such long periods of time. At many times during the show I was totally dumbfounded as to what was going on. The officiating seemed very questionable to me at times.
Another different rule Midvale uses is that the first three cars are single file and the rest of the field is double on all restarts. Midvale does serve alcohol. The hot dogs I ate tasted like bologna.
Midvale does have a figure-8 track, but did not have any races on it on this night. Midvale, which is located five miles south of New Philadelphia just off Route 250, made for my 24th career Ohio track and #109 overall.
#109 Midvale Speedway, 7/22/06
#108 McKean County Speedway, 6/29/06
#107 Hesston Speedway, 6/17/06
#106 Grandview Speedway, 5/16/06
###
With most tracks in western PA cancelled due to the rain, I was hoping one of the three Ohio asphalt tracks in eastern Ohio that I have yet to attend were still racing. Painesville had already cancelled and even if they hadn't, there wasn't any way they would be able to race looking at the radar. Barberton and Midvale were still on. The majority of the rain passed through our area around noon time; however the backside of the system was coming off Lake Erie from mostly Cleveland east.
Barberton was slated to start at 7 and is only an hour drive for me. Late last summer on a very similiar weather pattern I considered going to Barberton, but it didn't look like they would be able to race and to my luck they did. Barberton seemed to be the edge of the rain that was moving south. I called throughout the afternoon and it didn't look much more than a few sprinkles in the area, though there was steady rain coming off the lakes but it appeared that it kept breaking up after it got south of Cleveland.
I left at 5:30 and kept calling along the way.
I figured if they cancelled I'd head south to Midvale. Only a few sprinkles fell on me until I go to Akron when the rain let loose and by looks of the shy didn't look like it would end any time soon. By the time I got within sight of the track at 6:30 they had just cancelled.
A quick call to Midvale found them still racing. The lady that answered said they started racing five minutes ago. I had already checked the distance prior to leaving for Barberton in case this happened and figured it would take me about an hour. I thought I could beat the rain down there and at least see some racing and hopefully it would break up by the time it would get there. I ran out of the rain south of Canton and I arrived just prior to 7:30. There was some peeks of blue sky and it was dark to the west. It was quite cool for late July as it was only in the mid to upper 60s.
A pretty decent crowd of I'd say around 500 was on hand despite the threatening weather. The pursuit races were just getting underway for the four divisions when I arrived. Car counts were 41 compacts, 18 pure stocks, 14 late models, and 11 sport stocks.
I later learned that qualifying starts at 4:20 for all divisions, which makes for a very long night. After the four pursuit races, a faster pastor race was held for local pastors and the features were called up.
The late model 25-lap feature took the green at 8:42 and was won by Ryan Tedesco. Midvale uses a rule where if you beat your qualifying time you either get sent to the rear or are black-flagged apparently depending on the division. Tedesco took the lead on lap 10 but the following lap beat his time. Tedesco though was able to come back through the field and make the winning pas on lap 21. Six cautions slowed the event. One very hard crash marred the event on lap 17 which saw the #8 car slam head-on into the turn two wall after contact with a couple other cars pretty much destroying his car. After the clean-up light showers began to fall. The racing restarted but had to be yellowed as the intesity of the rain picked up with 19 laps completed. The cars remained on the track and eventually it slowed up enough that they could get back
racing. The rain did stop for good just after the victory lane interview.
The sport stock feature saw just 9 of the 11 cars start the feature, which took the green at 9:31. This was a good race as five cars battled for the lead after the halfway point of the 20-lap feature. Keith Thomas, who started 7th, took the lead on lap 15 and went on for his 5th straight win. Thankfully this race had only one caution as the same cannot be said for the pure stock feature.
At 9:45 the pure stock feature took the green for the 30-lap special. Something told me this race would be a long one with 18 cars starting and being a special. Eight cautions and 47 minutes later the race was finally checkered with just 11 laps completed. Midvale uses time limits on all the races with 5 minutes added to the number of laps. The race would use a 35-minute time limit. When the time expires, they give them two more cautions, which was odd to me.
The compacts were split into 3 features, each being 15 laps. All three were good ones. The first one took the green at 10:38 and the last one ended at 11:10, not bad with only four total cautions. The first one had just one caution with Mike Hostetler picking up the victory after taking the lead on lap five. David Breehl returned to action for the first time in a couple years and scored the win after the first and second place cars made contact on lap 11. Just one caution slowed this event as well. The third feature went to Michael Keith, who inherited the lead on lap 13 after the leader was black-flagged for beating his qualifying time.
Midvale surprised me as the facility was much nicer than expected. Very well manicured, neat, and clean. There are two sections of bleachers with a break in between the terraced off area. The announcer called the action from a patio area instead of the tower with the scorers. You couldn't hear the announcer except when it was totally quiet and even then it was quite a strain. Way too long of a show though. They did a good job of moving the races along, but unneeded laps under caution and drivers constantly stopping to have officials check their cars on the backstretch border on insane. I have never seen so many cars stop for such long periods of time. At many times during the show I was totally dumbfounded as to what was going on. The officiating seemed very questionable to me at times.
Another different rule Midvale uses is that the first three cars are single file and the rest of the field is double on all restarts. Midvale does serve alcohol. The hot dogs I ate tasted like bologna.
Midvale does have a figure-8 track, but did not have any races on it on this night. Midvale, which is located five miles south of New Philadelphia just off Route 250, made for my 24th career Ohio track and #109 overall.
#109 Midvale Speedway, 7/22/06
#108 McKean County Speedway, 6/29/06
#107 Hesston Speedway, 6/17/06
#106 Grandview Speedway, 5/16/06
###
posted by Mike Leone at 1:33 PM
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