This is the Stattmann Baby!!  Time to Scatt a little bit.

I’ve said before I love Saturday night short track racing.

It’s not so much the competition as it is the fun of being outdoors under a Saturday moon eating food my doctor doesn’t like and meeting people with whom you share little except Saturday night short track racin’!

I was at Irwindale Speedway here in Southern California last night and talked with everyone from a Mopar promoter to drift champion Sam Hubinette to an Auto Club executive who had as many stories of racin’ “back in the day” as I did.

And while all this socializing was going on, there were races that involved 12-year-olds in full-bodied go-karts, old men in very fast trucks and young guys in late model stock cars with dreams of racing on Sunday in Nextel Cup.

And all this will be going on in spades next weekend when the NASCAR Grand National West series stops at Irwindale bringing a points race that would make a Cup driver blush.

Grand National West cars are just like the Cup stuff you see on Sundays but the racing’s closer and the guys aren’t millionaire conglomerates with a media staff.

In short, it’s fun and what’s wrong with fun on a Saturday night!

Peace.