Craftsman Twin-75 night at ODS

Last night I was able to attend an evening at Old Dominion Speedway for the first time since the 2006 season. Although the day itself was a roaster, the evening was quite pleasant. The adult admission was $15 for this slate of races - Twin-75 lappers for the Late Models, 50 laps for the Grand stocks, 30 for the mini-modifieds and 30 for the speedway sportsman. The fields were smaller than I had remembered - there were 5 cars in the speedway sportsman race, and even the late models only had 11 for the first race.

The programs are again $3 this year, but the cover is on heavy gloss paper this year, an improvement in quality over last year. Fosters no longer has the food concession at the track - I was a bit disappointed to learn that after I had arrived, as I had only though to bring bottles of water and did not pack in food. (I would later order takeout from Philadelphia Tavern in Manassas - the best cheesesteaks around - not as good as Geno's in Philly, but it'll do in a pinch)

There were plenty of spins and wrecks on the night - including one on the first lap of the first Late Model race that knocked out the eventual 1st and 3rd place finishers in the 2nd late model race. Lots of loose race cars, and the occasional black-flag for spinning another competitor... Results

Craftsman Tools was the major sponsor for the night - from gifts to fans, both those wearing Craftsman logo items to those ticket numbers randomly pulled, to larger gifts to the winners of the major race divisions.

Also different for 2007 was the moving of the track entrance from along the frontstretch where it had always been over to off of turn two. The former location now sports a brick wall backed by a dirt berm. There have also been some wooden stands erected in turns 1 and 4, apparently for local TV, as it was announced that Comcast has been televising select races from select nights on their local cable outlets. In addition, the track itself apparently tapes every race, and gave out a few DVDs of those to people with birthdays.

I for one am glad that the track has survived to another season, and would hope that they will race again in 2008, and I look forward to making it back several more times in 2007.