Nice weather was well appreciated Saturday night at Crystal Motor Speedway with a large contingent of cars and fans on hand to welcome the first decent race night of the year. The evening’s event was sponsored by H&H Excavating of Carson City.

After weeks of rain and clouds, the sunshine finally made an appearance. It was perfect timing as the 6th annual Yellow Jacket Challenge took place at Greenville High School on Sunday.

As we near the end of January, high school sports teams have reached at least the mid-point in their respective seasons. So far this year, several of our area teams are having outstanding seasons. Some with legitimate chances of conference titles, district titles and beyond.

There was some optimism early this week that the nonsense called the NHL lockout would be coming to the end. After all, the NHL owners actually submitted a proposal, which included some amendments from previous “going through the motion” offers. That was late last week.

Former Greenville High School basketball star Zach Ingles is using his talents to help area youths with their offensive basketball skills. Ingles — who played college hoops at Eastern Kentucky and professionally overseas — is hosting the Sports Galore Basketball camp Saturday at Greenville High School from 8 a.m. until 10:30 a.m. The camp will focus purely on learning how to create opportunities and to score points.

If you thought the Detroit Tigers made things interesting in 2012, wait until the 2013 season begins in April. Last year, the experts anointed the Tigers American League Central Division champions before the ink was dry on the new mega-deal of Price Fielder.

Just two more weeks remain in the fall high school sports season. Winter basketball and wrestling practice has already started, but until football season is over most won’t pay attention to the fast approaching second season.

A 24-year old Rockford man is in custody after being arrested for drunken driving after he ran over a gravestone at the Montcalm Township Cemetery on Johnson Road. Montcalm County Sheriff’s deputies responded to a report of someone running over headstones in the cemetery at 11:07 p.m. Sunday night.

Jerry Foley, 78, was one of 30 lucky hunters in the entire state to get an elk hunting license this year and he made good on it, bagging a 900-pound, 12-point bull in September near Onaway. Foley hunted with his son, Mike Foley, and a guide, who helped him call in the bull on the third day of Foley’s hunting trip. “It was a once-in-a-lifetime deal,” Foley said. “Talk about a thrill.”

Wasn’t it just 90 degrees? Didn’t you just buy back-to-school supplies? Is it really week eight of the high school football season? I don’t know how it feels to you, but I’m pretty sure I was just scrambling to finish The Daily News Fall Sports Preview last week or so. Unfortunately, that is not the case.