"Hello pot, meet kettle."

I picked up a copy of the April edition of Speedway Illustrated that they were handing out at the Marshalltown Frostbuster a couple weeks back. I’ve toyed with subscribing, but haven’t made the commitment yet. Knowing me and my subscription collection, I’ll probably take the plunge someday.

At any rate, I was reading the column by Bones Bourcier entitled “Unscheduled and Unsuccessful” and getting my dander up. Bourcier was writing about the short track websites out there that never seem to get updated with pertinent information. I could totally relate, having found several sites that never seem to have the latest points or results. He went on to relate how these tracks were not only doing a disservice to the racers and the fans, but also themselves when they did not update their sites. I hate when they do that. It is really frustrating and it also… wait one second – he’s talking about ME!

I have this great website, covering a great sport, and obviously, I haven’t been around here for a while. I can’t get mad at others when I have the same problem. Pot meet kettle!

So this marks my formal return to PositivelyRacing.com and I am excited about being back. I didn’t totally disappear. Last season I submitted photos to magazines, websites and so forth, just not to my own. I did very little writing, covering two events at Iowa Speedway for Sporting News, and that was it. After 30-plus years of writing for others’ consumption, I hit the wall. I always thought that writer’s block was a load of hooey, but after suffering some degree of it myself, it does exist, or at least it did for me. I wrote thousands of words worth of stuff in my head in my “time off”, but getting it on the keyboard proved difficult.

So I’m back, refreshed and ready to go. I’ve seen some good shows so far and have many more on the schedule as the summer progresses. I have to thank my fellow PositivelyRacing members for sticking with me and not succumbing to blank page fever as I did. I don’t think you could find a better assortment of writers/race fans out there on the web.

Upon returning, my goal is to stay timely and give you a glimpse of what is going on out there. I can tell you I won’t be driving home through the wee hours to give you immediate results from a night at wherever. I figure if you wanted to know that bad, you would have been there sitting in the stands. Give me a good night’s sleep and I’ll be catching you up on what happened from my point of view both on the track and in the pits.

I’m also starting something new this season. With the show at Oskaloosa last Wednesday, I’m starting to put together driver profiles and will be featuring these in my blogs. I’m not going into lengthy life histories, just the basics along with a photo or two so you can get an idea of who some of the people are behind the wheel at your local track. Some of the names may be familiar, but I hope some of them will be faces that aren’t all that familiar to you. I’ll keep a list running on the right side of this blog as to who has a profile posted so far.

Again, its great to be back and I look forward to checking in with you frequently this season.