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One of my biggest complaints, and that voiced by many of the spectators, has been the fact that the Pahrump Valley Speedway's racing program never seemed to start on time ... you know ... the advertised time.

It has been that way since Robert "Bobby" Bolling and has carried through until the present; Dave Hall has worked hard on this issue.

He has succeeded. The outlaw karts are out on the track just prior to the singing of the National Anthem, between 7 and 7:15 p.m.; that's been the norm. So far I'm impressed with the track's devotion to getting things moving.

The speedway will be active Saturday night, starting at 7 p.m., with all classes scheduled to compete, including the IMCA modifieds, according to the track publicity release.

I'm impressed that the track has decided to take a definitive stand when it comes to enforcing rules and regulations, and handling whatever takes place on the racing surface.

Christi calmly, and with authority, has handled several potentially volatile situations concerning rulings made on the track. As an innocent bystander, I heard her state the rules and then enforce them without hedging despite increasing interference from spectators and "jilted" racers.

It's official. Jeff Talley has been banned from the track for an indefinite period of time. And who is the real loser in all of this childishness? The real loser is Talley's son, Matt, who was in fifth place in outlaw karts.

Mohave Valley Raceway has indicated that Talley is very close to being banished from their track for behavior that has been less than expected from a professional racing under the IMCA banner. Talley apparently has to learn the hard way that "discretion is the better part of valor."

The re-design of Pahrump Valley Speedway makes it comparable to the configuration found at the home of the IMCA Supernationals, Boone, Iowa.

The current track resembles the shape of a paper clip, long straight-aways and tight turns. Dave Hall insists that this isn't an easy track to master and if a driver succeeds here, "he should dominate at any other track that he competes at," said Hall. Perhaps that is one of the reasons the Busch boys have enjoyed so much success on their rise to "the Show."

Speaking of the IMCA's, the Supernationals begin Wednesday, right after the long Labor Day weekend. If you're a IMCA junkie like me, I hope you're planning on attending the Duel in the Desert scheduled for the Las Vegas Motor Speedway's half-mile dirt track.

What began as a one-day affair, then grew to two days, is now being touted as a three-day event. The Duel is scheduled for Nov. 16-18 (Thursday through Saturday) and will pay $5,000 to the winner. In addition, the super dirt late models will run Friday and Saturday.

According to Chris Bair, LVMS Senior Director of drag strip and dirt track operations, "The popularity of the event has exceeded our expectations and has continued to grow at a tremendous rate."

Last year, 170 IMCA's from across the nation and 62 dirt late models provided some of the best racing action this side of the Mississippi and indications are that those numbers will grow significantly.

Brett Root, IMCA vice-president, echoed Bair's assessment of the event. "The Duel in the Desert was the largest IMCA-sanctioned event in the Western Region last season and the second largest IMCA-sanctioned event in the United States in 2005." I'd say that the possibility of 604 laps of IMCA racing in three days is awesome; this includes 16 heat races, eight B-Features, and an A-feature on Thursday.

Friday there will be eight IMCA heat races and a 20 lap-qualifying race with six last-chance races and an A-main scheduled for Saturday. LVMS isn't even speculating on how many late models will be showing up, but if the numbers surpass the previous 62, we're looking at some serious racing.

Why doesn't Dan Fitzgerald run regularly at Pahrump?

Fitzgerald admits, "it's not easy competing at PV Speedway because there are six to eight drivers who I have to try and beat." Visiting tracks to the north, Dan only has to beat the one or two local hot shots to capture the most points for a feature win.

It's important to know the competition when you're running for a national championship. As of Aug. 3, Fitzgerald was holding a precarious five-point lead over Johnny "The Jet" Saathoff for the IMCA National Championship.

Some IMCA drivers have switched from alcohol to 108-octane gasoline. While alcohol allows the engines to run "cooler," there has been no appreciable loss of performance with the switch to gasoline.

I still get my high from the sweet smell of the alcohol, but then again, I used to work on the starting line at a dragstrip. Do you think I'm addicted? You may have heard that NASCAR is experimenting with the use of unleaded gasoline in the Busch and Truck series.

Apparently other journalists share the same view as I do. I made a comment on the tossing of beers out on the track at a recent NASCAR event.

Bones Bourcier, in an August 2004 issue of "Speedway Illustrated," commented on the Talledega race won by Jeff Gordon: "If you happened to be at Talledega on April 25, and you tossed a beer can, a chicken bone, or anything else onto the track surface, please walk to the nearest bathroom, face the sink and gaze into the mirror. Take a good long look at an idiot.

"What happened at Talledega stained the sport. If you toss a beer can onto a speedway, you don't just reinforce every bad hillbilly-fan stereotype, you are that stereotype."

I have been around and associated with race car drivers for quite sometime and have found that most drivers have varying degrees of swagger, brashness, and/or cockiness often mislabeled as "bad attitude." Drivers have incredibly large egos, which quite honestly, need to be massaged.

I have only dealt with a handful of drivers who haven't exhibited their egotism in public. Bob Clark, Ken Schrader, Derrick Cope, Dan Fitzgerald, and Wyatt Ehrp are a few that come to mind.

Don't you just hate racers who relive their undocumented "huge victories" over some of the greatest competitors who have ever strapped into a five-point harness? I love it when there is someone around to refute the exploits as the driver finds an excuse to change the subject. One of the Little Rascals said it best: "They'll never learn."