25 Aug 2008 undisclosed location. I am proud to announce that that this will be the final edition of the High Banks Drifter to be penned from an undisclosed location, at least for awhile. This week I'd like to address the fall special shows and the amount of them. First here's a fun fact for you, did you know there are more operational oval tracks in Ionia County than there are in the entire state of Maryland? How does this have anything to do with the fall specials in Michigan? I'll get to that.

When I was a kid picking a Fall Special show to go to was about like buying coffee in the Soviet Union. Regular or Decaf that's about all you had. The Super Shoe and The Dealer's Choice were the Big two, sure there may have been more but I don't remember what they were. Then in the mid nineties there started to be a plethora of specials. The Michigan Cup, The Owosso Nationals and the list goes on. To me it means that a series of smaller parties have somewhat taken away from the year end family reunions envisioned by Dick and Pat Beebe. Not that it is a bad thing but it sure does make it quite a bit harder for a race fan to decide where to go.

When I get to Michigan in Mid September there are no fewer than five two and three day special shows and I bet I am missing a few. This is all over a 2 week period. You have the Whittemore Fall invite, Rolling Thunder at T-Bird and traditional mid summer stalwart The WoodTic 100 at Merrit all going down the 19th and 20th. I'll probably go to Wood Tic. The mid Summer date AKA my Mom's Birthday has never let me make it to this race. So I suppose the choice that weekend is relatively easy for me, but what about everybody else?

The Next weekend see's the return of the Owosso Nationals and most of my freinds are gonna be there. Easy pick right? Not so much The Corn Harvest at Palo is the same weekend. This race is the closest thing there is to a Dealer's Choice going on right now. 6 divisions including Super Late Models 200 plus cars and a huge party. How can anything compete with that? Then there is some show at Auto City that weekend to, 5 miles from my folks house!

The following weekend has the Super Shoe Nationals at the Zoo. I will be home by then racing at the Southern Maryland Nationals but if I had a shoe car, this is SUPER SHOE, pound for pound the best party in the state all year!!! That same weekend I could also head over to Cumberland for the MACS sanctioned Big Kahuna for 50 plus Super Late Models including big guns like Rick Eckert and Chub Frank. Hagerstown has Octoberfest the next week. Then The Vernon Harris Memorial at Potomac to close the season.

All in all this is enough to make a guy's head spin. The Maryland stuff is easy enough stay at home and race but what the heck to do about the rest of it? All I can say is choose and choose wisely. Down I Maryland there are plenty of tracks near enough outside of state lines but up in Michigan there is darn near an overload of races to choose from right there in state! The main thing to know about all of this? The High Banks Drifter will be where the wind blows him. See you at the races!!!