Kevin Ramsell (ultimatelapphoto.com)

American Speed Association PR Department
DAYTONA BEACH, FL (Wednesday, October 28, 2009) – Dennis Huth, American Speed Association President, has announced the hiring of Kevin Ramsell to the ASA’s Public Relations Department. Ramsell will be advancing from the public relations director position he has held for over two years with the American Speed Association Midwest Tour Super Late Model Series.

“We are very excited to have Kevin come on board full-time with ASA,” Huth said. “His passion for this sport, especially to short track racing, has shown through the articles and columns he has written, especially with his work for the ASA Midwest Tour as well as for the Joe Gibbs Driven Racing Oil ASA Member Track National Championship.”

You have to love the many personalities you find at the local tracks. They actually give character to this sport. What made this sport unique and interesting was the character of the drivers and their accessibility to the fans. The latter is still happening today.

The reason I say that is because that is one thing that many fans are hearing today about the well known drivers, that they are no longer themselves but more of a marketing machine or spokesperson. In today’s politically correct society, we have to choose our words carefully or we a scarlet letter on our foreheads.

Many things that have started at the top levels of this sport has transcended down to the short tracks, but I think there is a slower progression of a driver’s character being removed. The short tracks today still have those drivers with their unique characteristics.

Here are a few types that I think of…

Want a great example of how racing is a bonding experience for the entire family? All I have to do is point out the feature field in last Sunday’s 40th Annual Oktoberfest 100 at the La Crosse Fairgrounds Speedway in West Salem, WI.

This event is one of the premiere Midwest fall events. Its four days of racing, with over a thousand campers and over 500 cars competing in 20 different divisions.

There were many story lines over the weekend, but one story line that started to unfold was after the last chance race where Skylar Holzhausen won it and put himself into the American Speed Association’s Midwest Tour’s field for the main event.

Why was this so important? Because for the first time that I personally could ever remember, there were three father and son combinations racing in the same event, Skylar along with this father Steve Holzhausen, Mike and his father Steve Carlson, and Travis and his father Tim Sauter.

Oh you just have to love this time of the year, no matter where you live in the United States. The changing of the seasons, weather going from 80 degrees one day to 55 degrees the next and race tracks having their big end of season events.

The weather typically plays a huge factor anytime during the year. Sometimes you get perfect weather to have fans outdoors to see some racing or you have a streak of days where it rains and it ruins or alters everyone’s plans.

For instance, Thunder Road in Barre, VT had to delay their annual Milk Bowl event by one week due to the weather but they got it in last weekend with John Donahue winning the 47th annual event.

Or how about the 44th Annual National Short Track Championships at Rockford Speedway where this three day event was crammed into one day? Yes…you read it right, they had three days of racing in one day.

Last week, the American Speed Association Southeast Asphalt Tour made a tough decision that many different businesses, racing series, and tracks are stuck doing that is to cancel the rest of their season or shut down completely. John Kee, the ASASEAT Series President sent out an open letter to everyone making the announcement.

In his letter, while he announced the situation with his series, he also made this comment, “We remain confident that short track racing is a good product for the current economic conditions, with the correct balance of promotion, affordable ticket prices for the fans, reasonable costs to the competitors, and more emphasis on the many positive aspects of the sport from the media.”