Well there is really one word that sums up the end of August in Ohio and The BOTB HOT HOT HOT – No matter how many times you say it was for sure a HOT one. We were down 4 road crew members due to unforeseen circumstances on 2 and a bad four wheeler accident the week of the BOTB for the other – thank goodness all are ok and ready for the 2017 season.
We started out with a little jukebox rock at the chute on Thursday evening with a lil Kid Rock and Hank Williams Jr. Chuck Williams showed his pipes with a great song from Hank, Bubby and Bert showed us that TN has some moves. Todd and Mikayla was enjoying my version on Kid Rock (not really I like to think I can sing though) Jackie D was enjoying a little music and dancing 
to one of our personal favorites “Put another Log on the Fire”. Josh had his air guitar out for everyone’s enjoyment and Jose, Heath, Amanda, Troy, John from Iowa and the rest of the gang enjoyed some good times with the rest of Road Crew.
Friday would bring the weekend of Roadies trying to bring their existing points to the top for a piece of the $11,000 Finals. We would see the top BOTB Riders get their first run in for the weekend to try to get the piece of the $15,000 Slot Race Pot. The Pee Wee Riders would come in to try to get into the Top 10 for the Future BOTB Pee Wee Slot Race on Saturday night.
We would serve over 100 JHA steak dinners – they were amazing too – and serve over 400 pieces of chicken with sides prepared by our amazing friends Todd and Eric -Best Chicken east of the Mississippi. We love to cook for you all and hope you enjoyed it. For those sponsors that never made it to your dinner because your husband said we were closed (LOL and you know who you are) or you were working your tail off as a vendor we will hunt you are taken care of next time.
The Road Crew were troopers as usual taking vacation days from work and endoring the heat and sweat of the show to make sure we could bring you the best show and ceremonies we could. Gavin our newest Road Crew member would be a trooper as well. From setting barrels, to helping at the gates to being a Flag holder for the State of Pennsylavania. Scott Clasgens, the gentleman who help our great American flag, we thank you for your time, service and continued dedication to “Ol’ Glory” and the men and woman who give us the freedom we have. The BOTB Riders would look amazing in their Game Time shirts and we would see the smiles from them along with the determination. Jimmy Bryant would make them all smile with his kind hand shake to all the Pee Wee Riders prior to the ceremonies.
The Pee Wee Riders ranged in ages from 6 to 10 and Filly Luke would be the youngest of them all on her big horse Blitz. Her big sister Cheyenne on Belles Lily would take the Top 3 honors in this race but we are sure we have not seen the last of the Luke girls. Their amazing Mom always puts them on great mounts to make the race. Hadassah Mullet would take the Reserve Honors and Ali Bair and Brooklyn Butzer along with Raylee Hennen, Grace Havens, Kaylee Carnes and Meg Henkle would all finish in the Top 10 but it would be the Mason girls from Kentucky that would take home a win and a top 10 finish. Jennifer would finish in the Top 10 while Crystal would take home the win and the saddle and over $200 for her efforts.
The BOTB Slot Race would bring in riders from 14 different states and Canada. The Canadians showed a strong presence by Caleb Clingen winning the Friday Night Open and a Top 10 finish in the Slot Race and Caleb’s wife, Chelsie, would end up the Reserve Champion Slot Race Winner to make Canada proud. Tanner Shelton and Jordan Harrell would make the trip from NC Tanner would place in the Top 5 though out the weekend and take home some nice awards and a pocket full of cash. Troy Crumrine and Imasharpguy were favorites in the betting arena and with the fastest time of the weekend on Friday but a knocked barrel we would have taken part in that wager. Troy had a nice run with a Top 5 Finish. Jimmy Bryant and Cowboy have been on fire this year and they certainly were a Top Pick as well as Rhoda Carnahan and Sharp and Sassy who was looking for a repeat from 2015 both representing Indiana to the peak of greatness. This year we would have Karla Arthur join us from West “by God” Virginia along with new comer Antonette Gwinn – All the WV riders would make their state proud and with Ms. Gwinn’s finish in the Top 5 of the Slot Race and a win in the $6000 Added Saturday Open they would like all be smiles. The Grows were another strong favorite this year having 3 out of the family in the slot race and they were wanting to see the BOTB Title head to PA. Tennessee Riders – including one of our hometown favorites – Bert T – were here to win as well. Michigan showed up ready to make a stand with all 3 being new to the BOTB they came to win. Casey Cline – one of the youngest Quailifers from Ohio would finish in the Top 10 and make his Momma and Daddy proud. Summer Pauly – last years Pee Wee Champion – would not have the runs she wanted in the slot race but would represent her state of KY well. John Ressler from Iowa would enjoy a fist pumping run that would land him in the Top 10 for some cash and alot of smile from the people who came all the way to see him run. Our own Val Watson would come to the chute at the end of her run with a smile and a high five to Josh after a run that would land her in the Top 10. There were a few riders that had to draw out last minute do to horse injury but were there for the opens on different mounts. Raegen Stegner a local favorite and new comer Erika Spencer out of Wisconsin are hoping to return in 2017 to the Slot Race on their amazing horses. But we never count anyone out who is in the race, they are all Quailifers and the reason they are in this race is they are the TOP Teams.
You can read more about all the riders and the Pee Wee Riders later this week on this site. Www.ontheroadwithdawnandclea.com we will have post interviews of the riders and their weekend. Watch for the post.
Although the riders all came to win there would only be one BOTB Champion at the end of the race and it would be an Ohioian who would take home the win – A young Blonde gal from Beallsville, Ohio Alie Campbell who would have, not one, but 2 grey horses in the race and one name Sixy would take home the win. We want to congratulate her on her victory and we want to congratulate all the qualifiers and all who came to run for the $15,000 at the BOTB!
With over 45 riders placing in the 1D of the Opens it was a salty race- Some of the high money would stay in Ohio making Alie Campbell a nice pot of $3000.00, Alyssa Schneider would take over $3500 and a Top 3 finish in the Slot Race – West Virginia’s Antonette Gwinn winnings would earn her over $3000, The Clingens would take home over $4500 to Canada along with Leslie Richards taking home over $2500 to the place where the maple leaf flag flys. Tanner would take some cash back down south of over $2500, Bert would go back to Tennessee with over $3000 bucks – not Buckeyes – in her pocket. To see all the placings and money earned for all riders go to Results at the top of our home page.
The show went as smooth as could be considering the extreme hot weather, our missing kitchen/tent/office crew, the lack of being able to keep ice at the bar for cold beverages, the heat, the truck fire, did we mention the heat, and the storm that shut the show for a bit. As the days went on the arena would gather more humidity and more heat making a rain forest atmosphere by Saturday – you would walk into the arena and be hit with a wall of heat. The heat was hard on every one and had our ground crew ready to pull their hair out come Saturday as they could not get the ground to perfection as they always strive to do. They and we are not accustom to having any “ground” issues and pride ourselves in consistent “good ground”. Although it is what it is and everyone ran on the same ground we couldn’t help but feel their frustration on Saturday. As Mr Williams said “everyone is running on the same ground – it’s barrel racing”. None the less we sure hope that is a one time occurrence and the next time we are in the rain forest atmosphere we are on vacation with an umbrella drink.
The Roadies Finals – once we all figured out how the hell they worked and who was doing what went pretty well for the first one. We had someone comment on our previous post –
Jane September 5, 2016 at 8:04 am I think the roadies finals itself needs a little tweaking for example if you are there to run the finals you should not be eligible for the final payout…something should be included for your division winners or double point it so the roadies have and incentive to come run in the finals …you should not get a chunk of the 11000 if your not participating in the finals….other than that it was very well run”. Our Response
On The Road With Dawn and Clea September 5, 2016 at 8:29 am. We couldn’t agree more. We unfortunately couldn’t change that mid stream and had to stick our rules for the season end. We are working on fine tuning those rules and getting them up in the next couple weeks. Thank you for your input greatly appreciated.
We appreciate ALL input about the Roadies after all if it is all about the contestants and together we all can make it better each year by input.
We will be rapping up any open items for the 2016 season and getting the final checks out from the BOTB. We will have our 2017 dates posted soon and look forward to another great year and we hope you like the changes we have in store for the shows in 2017!
We want to thank our year sponsors and all the sponsors that were part of any of our shows. We appreciate you helping us bring these shows to the people who love the sport and continue to follow their passion and their dreams.
Remember be kind to one another and love each other a little more each day. It matters
Dawn and Clea
On the Road with Dawn and Clea 