2006 Halloween 200 At Salem Speedway
By: RacerRich (Rich Boteler)
Salem, IN (October 28, 2006) - We want to start this
by giving a big ‘Thank You’ to Richard Deaton and his
staff for allowing us to witness and report our thoughts on this
most exciting race. For the third time in the past four years
this race was on our schedule and as usual it proved to be a
race fans delight. With no question in my mind, this race should
be on every true race fans schedule at least once in their lifetime.
After you experience it one time, many fans will make this an
annual adventure.
After securing my pit credentials, our first chat of this
day would be with Jim Saunders of the Pit Security Staff. Jim
welcomed me to the speedway and gave me information about future
plans for the Halloween race. With the promotional help of the
Kentucky Speedway, it is a vision to have at least 150 entries
next year. There would be a practice session on Friday evening
followed by heat races on Saturday afternoon. Eighty entries
from the heat races would then make it to the 200 lap race on
Sunday afternoon. We had brief visits with Jim before and after
the race and we want to thank Jim for his hospitality.
One of my favorite highlights of our Salem activities is being
able to spend the day with our ole buddy Danny Burton. Visiting
with and learning from Danny over the past many years has been
a very special experience for me. He is a true veteran race fan
that simply loves our great sport and shares his knowledge through
his ever improving writing skills. Thanks again DB for making
our trip south another exceptional event.
Mother Nature treated us to a very pleasant day with abundant
sunshine and temps in the low sixties. Not bad for southern Indiana
at the end of October. With 105 Stock Cars officially entered
and most of them taking the green flag by lining up three abreast,
this is a racing recipe for a lot of fast action on the high
banks of Salem.
The popularity of this annual event and the comfortable weather
for the day caused the grandstands to be filled to capacity.
In fact, the start of the race was held up for over a half hour
to allow the huge crowd to enter the gates, thus assuring them
of watching the entire race.
With 27 caution flags during the race and after 204 laps of
competition, Beau Mitchell from Owensboro, Kentucky drove his
#06 across the finish line first. Beau raced amongst the leaders
throughout the entire race and he was rewarded with a large trophy
and a check for $5000. Chuck Barnes, Sr., the defending race
winner from last year, brought his #5 mount home second after
running out of gas and going a lap down near the halfway mark
of the race. Chuck raced hard and with the help of many caution
flags he made his way back to the front of the pack to race for
the possible win. Brian Hopkins was the top finishing Hoosier
as he drove his #95 to a very credible 3rd place finish. Rounding
out the top five found the #12 of David Bayens finishing fourth
and Doug Miller claiming the fifth finishing position. Eleven
cars were able to finish on the lead lap.
 While
we enjoy the whole race, our main beat is to report on our local
drivers from our local track. This year Kyle Cooper was our only
competitor and his day was short lived as on a lap four caution
he had things under control but a driver crashed him in the rear
hard enough to punt the fuel cell into the rear end housing,
thus ending his race. This was Kyle’s first try at this
season ending race and certainly not the dirt surface he is used
to but he enjoyed getting the experience and he’ll no doubt
be back next year for another try.
We counted 46 additional fans from our track that had come
to enjoy this racing spectacular and to watch Kyle’s first
attempt on this historical speedway. I doubt that I saw everyone
that was in attendance for this purpose but this is a great turn
out to support our local guy. Traveling over 200 miles each way
to help Kyle is quite a statement and I’m sure he appreciates
this loyalty.
 Our
other buddy with local association is R. J. Scott, who has tried
to win this race on several occasions. R. J. made his way forward
from his 44th starting spot and was in the top 15 until his transmission
let go on lap 65 which put him out of the race. Thanks to R.
J. for introducing me to his sister Melissa and for the pictures
we were able to take with each other. We always appreciate our
conversations with R. J. and look forward to our visits a couple
times each year.
For the fans that read this report and wonder what the great
attraction is for the Halloween 200, all you have to do is attend
one of these extravagances and you’ll answer your own question.
Due to the dreaded word ‘JOB’ we are late getting
this out. Again we want to say thanks to Richard and his staff
for the courtesy extended to us. Thanks also to Diva at www.racestarpublications.com
for securing us the race credentials and to John LeVan at www.openwheelracers.com
for continuing to use our reports. Our trip to Salem is made
possible through these fine folks and we appreciate the opportunity
to enjoy a day at the Salem Speedway for one of the most exciting
races a fan could ever attend. |
