Ready or not, race season is here. The 2011 season got off to a roaring start over the past weekend with the first two races in the six-race Wild West Shootout at USA Raceway in Tucson, Ariz., and Ice Bowl XX at Talladega Short Track in Eastaboga, Ala.

Billy Moyer Jr. of Batesville, Ark., kicked off the year with a $3,000 victory in Saturday’s Wild West Shootout feature, while Pat Doar of New Richmond, Wis., earned $5,000 for the round-two victory Sunday. Two-time Ice Bowl winner Shane Clanton MORE

Rarely do I leave a racetrack feeling completely satisfied with the race I witnessed. Maybe I am overly critical or just hard to please. Either way, I usually don’t get very excited over a race if it doesn’t involve multiple lead changes and plenty of passing throughout the field.

I most definitely was not expecting to be thrilled by the Ice Bowl XX feature at Talladega Short Track Sunday afternoon. No offense to the folks at TST, but if you’ve ever been to the Ice Bowl, or have heard MORE

You know you’ve made it somewhere in life when you have your own caricature in the DirtonDirt.com blog section. I guess you could call it a status symbol of sorts. Yes, I’m pretty excited to have my own blog and I’m going to do my best to make a post twice a week (I know it may be a bit overzealous, but that’s my goal). Since you’ll be spending so much time reading, and hopefully enjoying, my opinions and observations, I should probably take a moment to introduce myself.

Like so many MORE