Trackside with Rick Minter

  Seeing Wade Knowles and Clint Smith, both of whom I watched making their first laps on a race track, getting inducted into the National Dirt Late Model Hall of Fame in Walton, Ky., this weekend has me in a nostalgic mood.   And it makes me very proud to have followed them from start to finish of their driving careers. And what careers those were.  In addition to the race wins and championships, both drivers had ways of connecting with fans. Clint carried on his dad’s unique checker-board tops on his race cars, and had a catchy nickname, Cat Daddy.  Wade, like many others from the Knowles family, used the No. 66 and made it famous across America.  He also was known, at least in the early years, for the floppy leather hat he wore in many a Victory Lane photo.  The first time I saw Clint behind the wheel of a race car he was driving his dad Roscoe Smith’s Late Model helping iron the track for a Sunday afternoon race at Senoia Raceway back in the mid-1970s. I wondered at the time if he’d

 It seems a bit unfair that one of the biggest factors in the success or failure of outdoor events like automobile races is beyond the control of the promoter.  The weather can be the Achilles Heel of promoters everywhere.  I felt for Senoia Raceway’s promoter Sonny Pollard and his crew last Saturday night, when a pop-up shower forced the cancellation of the race program. I can honestly say I know just how they felt, having had rain negatively impact our recent Inman Antique Truck Show here at the farm.  In my years as a motorsports journalist, I’ve written many a story about racing and the weather. Some of those stories recount events that occurred long before I ever l had my first byline, which by the way was about racing at Senoia.   A big part of the history of our area’s biggest track, Atlanta Motor Speedway, is that track’s battles against Mother Nature.  Eight of the first 10 races at the Atlanta track, originally known as Atlanta International Raceway, were rain-delayed