By Andrew Walsh
awalsh@wbcowqel.com
The spectacle of Figure 8 racing came to the grandstands of the Crawford County Fair on Monday evening with both trucks and buses racing around in circles.
The first heat was very dusty, but before the second they had the sprayers out to severely dampen the driving surface. After the water had been applied, they brought the pick-up trucks out to run for the first time. Although it did not take long for the dust to begin kicking up again, a pattern for the night had been established. Run a heat, apply water. Race begins, water is spun off, and it becomes dusty again. Repeat. So it went at the Figure 8 races for the Crawford County Fair.
This is a relatively new event for Crawford County, with the bus races having taken place for the last five years. The pick-up trucks are a very recent addition as this was only their second time out. The format for the evening was one heat of short buses, one heat of long buses, and three heats of pick-ups. Each category had its own feature race, with all of the buses that took part in the heats participating in the final. For the pick-ups, two drivers moved on from each heat to make up the feature roster.
The figure eight race is a fairly honest name, with the competitors driving in a figure eight, using tires as the turn markers at either end of the track. This means that yes, of course, there is potential for carnage in the middle of the track. They are lap races, with the winner being the first to complete a pre-described number of laps. For the buses, that was eight laps in each heat and 10 laps in the feature races. For the pick-ups that was 10 laps in each heat and 15 in the feature.
The populations of the various heats seemed to corroborate announcer Bill Creswell’s assessment that the bus races are on the way out, and that the pick-up races are really on the rise. Creswell’s reasoning is that the buses are too expensive to maintain and transport to events like this. There is also the fact that they are one-trick ponies. These regular, albeit heavily weathered, pick-ups can multi-task and compete in such events as the truck derby. This gives their owners and drivers more bang for the buck when they travel to an event.
The first red flag of the night game in the long bus feature, when the Marion #4 bus, driven by Chris Loyd, was rammed into one of the concrete barriers that surrounded the course. Loyd’s bus was driven up over the concrete, and the front of his bus was stranded on the barriers. Fork lifts were needed to help push and pry him free, as well as to reset the concrete that had been knocked aside. The break lasted about fifteen minutes, and sadly for Loyd, he was not able to continue.
In the short bus category it was Blair Garrison first, Todd Etgen second, and Jim Etgen third. For the long buses it was Anthony Schaffer first, Ron Schlaegel second, and Eric Lashlee third. And for the pick-ups it was Kevin Knecht first, Lonnie Scott second, and Tim Hoffman third.
After the race, Creswell offered his parting thoughts, “I’ll tell you what, we have some good racing every time, but tonight the trucks stole the show.”
See more photos from the 2013 Crawford County Fair on our Photos page.