Plenty to remember from Iowa

August 23, 2016

Last Friday, I was the last person from the Mifflin County Babe Ruth 13-year-old team to leave Ottumwa, Iowa, as my train was three hours late.That was OK - I had a few chores to do and I got to walk around the city before I left to come home.But, talking to a few people that morning, not many had picked Mifflin County to be the national champion.I stopped off at a grocery store to buy some newspapers and I told the sales clerk that I was from Pennsylvania and I was going home with a smile on my face as we had won the tournament."Is that right? We expected Hawaii to win the title," she ...

Racing season starting to wind down

August 20, 2016

The final leg of the local racing season is set to start. Area tracks are working their way through the remainder of this month before closing out the season.At Port Royal Speedway Doug Esh is the current sprint car point leader over Mike Wagner. Esh is seeking his first title. The pair battle tonight when the Juniata County oval presents 410 sprint car racing along with super and econo late models plus American Outlaw racers. There's also a kids candy scramble.Selinsgrove Speedway plans a special night of 360 sprint car racing tonight. The program is billed as the "double your money" ...

Race fans spend week remembering Clauson

August 13, 2016

It's been a sad week in dirt track racing. Many of you are aware of the passing of Bryan Clauson at the age of 27. Clauson lost his life after a racing accident at Belleville, Kansas, last weekend. Clauson earned the reputation of auto racing's iron man. His goal was to compete in 200 events this season.Clauson made 117 starts, 27 of which resulted in a win. Clauson raced in NASCAR, USAC, the Indy series and as a journeyman around the country. He was liked and respected by many. Clauson's final win was at Belleville. Clauson drove for Tony Stewart Racing when Stewart maintained a USAC ...

Port Royal’s Dream Race tops weekend card

August 6, 2016

Port Royal Speedway takes center stage this evening with the annual Living Legends Dream Race.Honored tonight are driver Randy Wolfe and car owners John and Pee Wee Zemaitis. An autograph session will be held behind the grandstand from 5 to 6 p.m. with the honorees plus former drivers and car owners affiliated with the trio.Wolfe car owners Jim and Laura Allebach, Glen Hyneman, and Rick and Joe Woelfing will be on hand. Zemaitis drivers Lucas Wolfe, Stevie Smith, Jeff Shepard, Bobby Weaver and Sean Michael also are expected.The race format will include two 16-lap features followed by a ...

13s earn special place

August 2, 2016

A team for the ages - well at least at age 13.Before the Babe Ruth postseason started, Belleville's Bill Corbin, who knows a thing or two about Babe Ruth baseball and all-star teams, had this to say about the Mifflin County 13-year-olds:"This might be a special team," Corbin said, "It has plenty of pitching. Sometimes you get an all-star team that has only two or three quality pitchers. This one has at least six. It has size, especially for a 13-year-old team. And it has experience on the tournament trail (in Little League) as Big Valley did well against Red Land last year and Mifflin ...

Franklin already 0-1

August 1, 2016

In two-plus years, we've learned that Franklin is an excellent representative of Penn State and has strong recruiting, leadership and communication skills.There are far more questions about his coaching ability, but even that's not entirely fair because he's less than halfway through his first contract after inheriting a depleted roster and a lingering cloud over the program.So regardless of how he managed or mismanaged Christian Hackenberg, it's not fair to fully judge Franklin's body of work on the field on this small of a sample size.What he says behind a microphone and how he handles ...