My Top-10 Memories of the Cowtown  Midget
Championships & Feb Fast 50, 2/13-14, 2009
years, I have compiled some great memories, in my head, from those events.

I'll share just one for now. This one would be the spring World of Outlaws show at Knoxville in I
believe 1990. My friend Patty, my brother and I met for the 2-day spring event. The Saturday show
ended up being postponed due to a tornado that blew through at race time. So it was rescheduled to
Sunday afternoon. The storm blew through, and in typical Iowa springtime weather, it went from
balmy to 33 degrees with 30mph wind out of the north and sleeting at race time.

We all huddled together in blankets and parkas, along with a couple of hundred fans. We were all
huge Doug Wolfgang fans and he dazzled us by completely destroying the field, lapping up to about
5th place in the feature race. We left the track amazed and talked about the race all the way home.
About 5 minutes into that trip home, thanks to our car heater, we had forgotten that is was cold, but I
can still see the feature race in my mind like it was yesterday.

More on that subject on another day, but below are the memories I'm going to take with me from the
Cowtown Midget Championships & February Fast 50 of 2009.

Memory #10. Some of the top midget teams in the country converging upon Cowtown for the first
time ever...as a matter of fact, there were over 100 first-time ever Cowtown teams in action.
Indiana's Bryan Clauson
Memory #9. Over 40 cars in each division of cars racing, including many of the region's best.
Memory #8. In economic times stated by the media as some of the most difficult ever, we not only
set a new track record for car count, but we had to get the assistance of Kennedale Speedway Park
to park overflow cars in their pit area. We also had the largest 'Feb Fast 50' fan count ever.
and efficiently park all of those teams when we they arrived. Many teams commented how smoothly
that made their experience.

Memory #6. By those drivers pre-registering, it allowed me to let all of the race fans know exactly
who was coming; so they could plan their trip knowing what was going on.

Memory #5. Having a driver that raced the Indy 500, Daytona, TMS, USAC Triple Crown Winner (only
other driver to do it was Tony Stewart);  race at "our" local track to put on a show for the fans
- and because he wanted to.
Memory #4. Action like this...4 tires on the track between 2 cars, and not even touching each other.
Memory #3. The look on this fan's face, whom I've never met, from the autograph session tells me
'mission accomplished.' Many people, most whom I've never met came up to me during the weekend
and said what a good time they had and pleaded for us to do it again. Similarly, I'll remember the
emails and phone calls from fans and teams saying how much fun they had.
Memory #2. The fact that the Cowtown Midget Championships were selected as the #1 national
featured news story on whowon.com for 48 hours during Daytona 500 weekend. And for the millions
of fans worldwide that logged onto their site to see this photo of the finish of the midget feature race:
Memory #1. My mom turns 70 next month, and the look on her face when she got to meet one
of her all-time favorites, J.J. Yeley.

That alone made the 3 months of preparation, planning, phone calls, emails, forum posts,
press releases, weather worries, all of the track workers and track management pulling
together and working as a team to pull it off, and everything else all worth while;  
as I'll...and she'll...share this memory forever:
My feeling's always been, no matter what you choose to do in life,  or whatever your 'job' is;
do it to the best extent that you can.

If you're not willing to step off to the edge, or willing to take chances, you're just taking up space.


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