Season's Greetings,

Just wanted to give everyone a brief update and extend the sincerest of holiday wishes.

Hope everyone is enjoying the offseason so far. On this end it seems as though there is no offseason anymore, it's amazing to me how this business is a year long deal now days.

I was really pleased to see so many of our teams at the recent IMIS show in Indy. Hopefully many of those who attended, and those of you who I mailed cards to, have taken a few minutes and said or sent thank you cards to our sponsors. I truly believe a simple thank you goes a long way. As a reminder, many banquet certs have a Dec. 31, 2011 experation date on them, so please take the time to look those over and take advantage of the savings provided by them, lots of those certs were good deals.

As we look forward to 2012, I thought I'd give all of you a early Christmas gift by telling you the 2012 schedule at this point will be the simplest I've ever done. It has less travel and less Friday shows than any prior, and of those Friday shows Oshkosh & Dodge are relatively local for most so possibly only a few hours of work, if any, is an issue on some of those.

I'm pleased to announce that we will have 5 Saturday night races at Beaver Dam Raceway this year, 1 each in April, May, June, August, and September with July being their WoO show. We'll still be running Dodge too, however we will not schedule the April back to backs as weather has made those not a wise move on my end the past few years. As of this writing I believe we'll have about 20 shows between BDR, Plymouth, Dodge, Wilmot, Oshkosh, and 141. What's really cool is that we've worked these dates so that we've been able to minimize conflict with our local tracks which only enhances our relationship with them. We will also be headlining both the Kenosha & Sheboygan County Fair's again this year. I'm really pleased with the relationships we have at all these fine local venues, it makes a schedule like this possible. Overall, actual dates are being penciled in and only a few dates are yet to be finalized. Our schedule will end up being somewhere between 27 & 30 dates.

In regards to Knoxville, I am pleased to announce that I have worked out an incentive agreement with Knoxville that gives our teams that truly enjoy running there, and who may want to compete at the Nationals, an opportunity to run there once a month or possibly as many as 4-5 times before the Nationals, if they choose, without conflicting with the IRA schedule. I've worked this arrangement out in place of having an actual IRA point race at Knoxville this year. This will benefit those who want to go, versus some of those who felt they were being forced to go. There is a financial incentive for those who decide to take a trip out there, even if it's only once, on one of those designated non-conflicting dates. Regarding these actual dates, IRA may run at Oshkosh or Dodge the Friday before, but Saturday will be an IRA off night, allowing our teams the option of going to Knoxville, Wilmot for a non-IRA show, or simply taking a Saturday off. There a 3 midseason pre-Nationals Saturday's like this, plus it's "possible" Knoxville may open the week before us this year, and that they are running the Sunday before the Nationals instead of Saturday this year, again with no conflict so that is how a team could get out there as many as 5 times before the Nationals potentially, without missing an IRA point show.

The overwhelming majority of our schedule will be in Wisconsin, and we do have 3 (possibly 4) trips to the NW part of the state planned, one still has to have the following touches finalized. 2 shows at Cedar Lake plus a Eagle Valley, Ashland, and Superior are in place, though we're working on possibly 2 other stops in that region too as we have had correspondence with Rice Lake and Menomonie too.

When all said and done this schedule will absolutely have less travel, less hotel stays, and less effected work days than any we've had in many, many a year. I truly believe you (and your families) will all be pleased.

We're still in need of a truck deal, anyone who has contacts that can get a foot in the door for us on a used or new 3/4 ton or dually would be tremendously appreciated.

We'll have a membership meeting following the Chili Bowl, on Wed Jan. 18th. We'll get everyone up to speed, plus vote for those 3 board positions..... we have 4 outstanding candidates whose opinion I'll always value no matter the outcome, (Jim Barr, Dave Uttech, Kevin Spease, and Bill Warren).

Please feel free to contact with any questions, concerns, truck & sponsor leads, etc....

Merry Christmas & Happy New Year,

Steve Sinclair