1100 N. Main Street, Lee County Fairgrounds, Donnellson, Iowa

 

 

 


 

Lee County Speedway Race Report

April 17, 2009

The car show and practice day are finally here.  We have been working very hard on the facility and our race program and now it is time to go green!  Our car show looks to be lots of fun if the weather will hold in good for us and our practice day is something that many drivers are counting on this weekend as well.  Although many tracks have had a night or two in before now there are many drivers that have not ventured out to get any laps in and are getting the itch to burn some fuel and test out their machines.  Hope we have a nice weekend of weather and we can get the season off to a great start.

The car show is set for Saturday and will take place rain or shine.  We have access to a large building and shelter area that will house several cars if the weather should be a problem.  We will hold the car show, fish fry, and kick off party regardless of the weather so come on out and enjoy yourselves in Donnellson.  We will have FREE hot dogs and Pepsi all day and we will be giving away lots of prizes and interviewing drivers for our podcast at the show as well.   Special thanks to KRNQ 96.3 and the Pepsi Inside Track Radio show for broadcasting live as well from 1-3PM.  If you can't make it to the show tune us in and enjoy Dave Jones talking racing with some of the competitors and fans.

Keeping it short this time around as I am off to the track to finish up some last minute things to get ready for the weekend.  Look forward to seeing you there.  Remember, the grandstands are FREE on practice day so invite your friends out to watch.

Until then, thanks for stopping by Promoter's Corner.

Terry Hoenig - Promoter

 

March 11, 2009

45 Five Days till RACE DAY!!!  Can you believe it?  2009 is going to be so much fun, I can't wait to get started.  Sponsorship sales are going GREAT and I am so thankful.  I truly believe we have the perfect product to sell to our sponsors and fans this year.  Great racing in a safe, family atmosphere at an affordable price.  We have put together a fantastic schedule of events this season and we have solid car counts with top notch drivers behind the wheels.  The newest additions to our schedule include the 2 nights of destruction which we are still putting together are going to be a real change of pace for us at LCS.  The vintage cars have locked in a date to run with our 360 sprint show on Wednesday night June 24th and we are looking forward to that as well.  We have made final plans for our car show to be held on main street in Donnellson this year and many people are excited.  April 18th will be an entire day and night of racing fun with the car show all afternoon, the fish fry in the evening, and the kick off party with live entertainment that night at the Stumble Inn.

Our track announcer, Dewain Hulett, and I have been putting a lot of effort into the production of our podcasts that we have been publishing twice a week.  Interviewing the drivers and talking with sponsors has been lots of fun so far this season and we are going to do our best to keep it up all summer long.  We have some great ideas on different elements we can add to the program as we go and we think our listeners will enjoy it.  If you have not had a chance to listen to the podcast, you can check it out and listen for free by clicking on the box at the top of this page.  Click on "play it now" and check it out.  For those that may not know what a podcast is...it is simply a short "radio show" that you can listen to at your leisure.  Follow the link above and give it a try.

GM Performance Parts and Shottenkirk in Fort Madison have really stepped up to the plate to promote the use of the GM Crate engine in the IMCA Sport Mod class this season.  The highest finishing sport mod each and every week has the chance to win a bonus of up to $200 by running the crate engine.  I am very pleased to have put this program together for our drivers and I am very thankful to GM Performance Parts and especially the guys at Shottenkirk's Parts Express division in Fort Madison.  If you have the chance to stop in and tell them "Thanks" it would mean a lot  to me, to Shottenkirk, and to the program we have put together for this year.  Especially if you are one of the drivers lucky enough to collect the bonus.  All of this on top of the bonuses paid out by IMCA and GM Performance Parts at the end of the season based on the points standings.

The Sport Mod division will also be racing for some extra cash on the Steve Kirchner Memorial night.  Dave Sapp and his wife have generously put up $600 in prize money to be paid out to the top 5 finishers in the Sport Mod Feature on July 31st.  $200 to the winner and $100 for each place 2nd through 5th.  The $600 being in honor of Steve's racing number, #6.  Thanks to Dave and Evonne for their generosity to the sport mod division this year.  Steve would be proud.

Speaking of Memorial Races, Jeremy Townsend and his family just confirmed today that they are adding prize money to the IMCA Modifieds on a night yet to be chosen this season.  In memory of Doug Townsend, Jeremy's father, the family will be making the top prize total $1,000 for the IMCA Modified winner.  The date will be selected soon so watch for more details.  Doug Townsend raced all over the tri-states for many years.  He and Jeremy have many great memories racing here at the Lee County Speedway and he will be missed this summer and beyond.  Again, thank you to the family and I hope we can make this night special for everyone involved.

Work continues on track equipment on the weekends and evenings when we can get "the guys" together in the shop.  I am thankful that I have been able to gather up 6-8 guys for the past 2 weekends to work in the shop.  I really appreciate them.  Transfer case repairs to a packing truck, continued work on the new water truck, and firing the replacement engine up in the Suburban are all on the agenda this week.  I was able to snag onto a Chevy Suburban (minus the engine) with big, wide ditch witch tires on it to use for packing the track.  This thing looks like one of those "stomper trucks" (you know the ones we had in the 80's) on steroids.  It should be fun to drive and do a great job packing.  My track packing crew will be fighting over who gets to drive this baby!  The question I have is how muddy are they going to get driving it because this truck is going to need 10" fender flares...

Well, those are the highlights for now.  I am looking forward to seeing you all very soon.  Until then, thanks for stopping by Promoter's Corner.

Terry Hoenig - Promoter

 

February 11, 2009

It's my last night in Daytona Beach, Florida and Jenni and I have just finished our last day of promoter's workshops.  It is in the high 70's and the sound of the waves crashing on the beach outside the hotel room will be missed tomorrow.  Although Jenni and I both miss our kids and our animals and are ready to go home, I think I could be talked into hanging out for one more day pretty easily.

There have been so many great ideas talked about this year at the workshops that it gets a little overwhelming when you start to think about all of it.  I want to run home and start implementing everything I took notes on over the past 3 days but the reality is that I would be doing well to pick 5 ideas that I want to focus on for 2009 and make sure I do them well.

Viral Marketing seems to come up in every session we have had no matter what the session topic was.  Email blasts, text messaging, website updates, facebook, and myspace are great tools to use to promote the races to our fans, drivers, crews, and sponsors weather they are current or potential customers.  We had great speakers like Humpy Wheeler, former President of the Lowe's Motor Speedway, Roger Slack, Lynn Phillips from the Talladega Short Track in Alabama, Robert Laughton from Boone Speedway, Jack, Chuck, & Tom Deery, Ted Austed with Atlanta Motor Speedway, Bill Martens from GM Performance Parts, representatives from both K&K Insurance and Hoosier Tire and more.  Jenni & I gave the workshop session on 20 Ideas to use to turn your "Regular Race Night" into a night of Special Activities.  It went well and people seemed to enjoy the presentation.  I also sat in on a panel for discussion on "36 Ways to Treat Our Customers Better Than Ever."  At the end of the last day we shared Ideas used to promote Group Ticket Sales.  That session went good as well and there were many great questions and ideas exchanged with in the room.

With a 20 hour drive home I hope to get out my note pad, prioritize my bucket list I have made of things to do before opening night and hit the floor running when I get home.  Be on the lookout for our upcoming efforts to build a text messaging list.  We will send out messages to keep you informed, offer special discounts, rain out cancellations, reminders of upcoming events and more.  You will be able to text in to join or visit our website to join very soon.

I hope you are as ready for this season as I am.  I can't wait till opening night and look forward to seeing you soon.

As always, thanks for taking a look at Promoter's Corner.

Terry Hoenig - Promoter

terry@leecountyspeedway.com

 


 


Promoter: Terry & Jenni Hoenig

 

terry@leecountyspeedway.com    or     jenni@leecountyspeedway.com

 

Office: (319) 528-4301

RACE DAY:  (319) 835-5523

 

Mailing Address:

PO Box 226, Denmark, Iowa  52624

 

Shipping Address:

1461-295 Avenue, West Point, Iowa  52656

 

FAX: (319) 528-4302