In this, the final column of the year, here are some of my random thoughts from the season:
P Tracks should start their programs on time. Otherwise, just tell the people to show up and you'll race when you're ready. Would you go to the movies if you could never count on them starting when they are scheduled to?
P Chris Borich, Chuck Paige and Elvin Diller were the best new sprint talents at Selinsgrove Speedway this year along with Gary Beward in late models.
P Infants do not belong at the races. What do you suppose it's like to be in a womb for nine months and then listen to a field of racecars thunder by?
P You know Donnie Kreitz has given up racing seriously when he doesn't compete in his forte on the daytime surface that the Port Royal Labor Day Classic provides.
P Selinsgrove Speedway still has the best run of all area track Web sites and its food is still second to none.
P Message boards and live updates on computers are detrimental to speedways. They spread misinformation and keep fans at home on race nights.
P The maximum price of a general admission ticket to the races in this region, considering today's economy, should not exceed $15. To a promoter, what's more expensive than empty seats?
P In general, people pay more attention to negativity than they do praise.
P The positive contributions and resulting effects that the brotherly team of Scott, Keith and Brian Harro have brought to Selinsgrove Speedway the last few years should not be overlooked.
P Saturday night racing programs should include no more than three divisions.
P Sprint teams that should have performed better than they did in 2008 include those of Phil Walter, Greg Hodnett and Keith Kauffman.
P Colby Womer and Billy Johns deserve to get their first sprint wins.
P Newspaper columns like this one can be and often are opinionated. That's why they are columns and not feature stories or race reports.
SHEPARD ENDS CAREER: Those close to Jeff Shepard confirmed Friday that he has called an end to his 20-plus year career as a sprint car driver. According to openwheeltimes.com, Shepard rolled up 97 A Main wins in his storied career while competing in 1,178 races. He won his first race, at Port Royal Speedway, on Sept. 3, 1988 and took his last in the Pa Speedweek main at Hagerstown Speedway this July. Shepard endured critical head injuries in August while racing in the Knoxville Nationals in Iowa. The showman that was Jeff Shepard, both on and off the track, will be greatly missed.
LAST HURRAH: Fred Rahmer ended the Lincoln Speedway season Saturday with his seventh win of the year. The final 410 sprint races in the region are this weekend at Hagerstown Speedway in Maryland during the two-day Octoberfest.
See you next year!
n Shawn Brouse writes a weekly motorsports column for The Daily Item.
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Shawn Brouse: View from the Pits
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Shikellamy Braves rally to stay alive
SELINSGROVE — With 11 losses, the Shikellamy girls basketball team is teetering on the brink of elimination from the District 4 Class AAA playoffs. And on Wednesday night, it looked like the Braves were going to go quietly into the offseason when Selinsgrove built a 14-point lead early in the third quarter.
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They learn to be tough young
It's difficult to recall exactly how the sequence unfolded because it happened so darn fast. Shikellamy made a couple baskets, and the crowd began to stir. It was still anybody's game, and the Braves had some momentum late in the third quarter of a recent run with Danville.
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Motorsports: Selinsgrove, Lincoln speedways to host 360 sprint series
MECHANICSBURG -- Mach 1 Chassis of Mechanicsburg will be the title sponsor of the Mid-Atlantic 360 Sprint Car Championship Series, a $120,000 six-race tour that will include five shows at Selinsgrove Speedway and one event at Lincoln Speedway in 2012.
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Girls basketball: Records fall, Red Tornadoes stay unbeaten
SOUTH WILLIAMSPORT -- An overflow crowd zealously cheered Tierney Pfirman's pursuit of the South Williamsport scoring record throughout Tuesday's game, until their breathless faces matched the Mounties' royal blue.
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High school roundup: Rosini pin lifts Ironmen over Tigers
DANVILLE -- Steven Rosini's pin over Connor Houseknecht in 37 seconds in the final bout of the day at 132 pounds prevented disaster for Danville as the Ironmen pulled out a 40-36 Heartland Athletic Conference crossover victory on Tuesday.
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College sports notebook: Antensteiner starts, finishes fast
ANVILLE -- Ines Antensteiner, a member of the powerful Lewisburg girls track & field team for the past four seasons wasted little time making her presence felt in college. On Monday, Antensteiner, a freshman at Lebanon Valley, was named the Middle Atlantic Conference's Indoor Track & Field Athlete of the Week after a pair of event wins at Saturday's Ducharme Invitational.
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Bill Bowman's column on college sports: Tale of two teams in the clutch
Because basketball season is so long it is easy to forget that one or two moments in a single game can essentially make or break an entire season. While teams might play 30 games or so, most of them come down to a couple of possessions, spots where one little thing can be the difference between winning and losing, between making the postseason tournament or turning in the uniforms.
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Sports court strips Contador of 2010 Tour title
MADRID -- Alberto Contador was stripped of his 2010 Tour de France title Monday and banned for two years after sports' highest court found the Spanish cyclist guilty of doping. The Court of Arbitration for Sport suspended the three-time Tour champion after rejecting his claim that his positive test for clenbuterol was caused by eating contaminated meat on a 2010 Tour rest day.
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H.S. boys basketball: Selinsgrove rallies to top Southern Columbia
CATAWISSA -- In a battle between two schools better known for their football programs, Monday's game between host Southern Columbia and Selinsgrove naturally featured plenty of physical play. After a combined 43 fouls and 55 free-throw attempts, the Seals finally pulled it out. Reserve guard Tyler Krebs made five foul shots in the final minute and a half in Selinsgrove's 54-53 victory.
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High School Bowling: Kratzer, Hartranft take home Pro-Am titles
SUNBURY -- The name might have changed, but the results were the same. Now called the 13th annual Best Bowl/Strike Zone High School Pro-Am Scholarship Challenge, the two-day tournament was another success as it pitted some of the Valley's best young bowlers against each other in friendly competition.
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