All the parts are slowly going back on the car. We had the interior painted 2010 Camaro green, same as our exterior last year. Gauges and other bolt on stuff are in and next will be the quick change, suspension and the rest of the interior etc, etc. Thanks to Bob, Steve and Gehrig for putting in the extra effort. We are early, but that’s good. Every year I want to go to the gym about a month before racing but find myself too busy. Maybe I can do it in 2012.

    We got a good days work in today. Bob and Steve helped out immensely getting the final parts of the chassis on and all the brakes. Steve is working on the battery charging posts and Bob the seat belts. With the body off and most of the interior panels not yet installed, we have tons of room to get easy access to everything. Our hopes are to have the car ready for the engine next week end. Once the driveline is in, we can get the rad, hoss, shroud, and all the other bolt on stuff in the car before the body goes on. We’re in good shape and sure happy we’re getting this work done now…….I also pulled the gears 567, out of our Coupe to give to Billy Rowse. He loaned them to us last year when his son Rob drove the car. Billy has offered to help us anytime we are short handed crew wise at Sunset.

    There is one thing going to happen for certain before the 2012 season, me getting a little stronger. Not so I can be in shape to race, but so I can remove a set of 9″ gears out of my Coupe without half crushing my head. Billy Rowse loaned us gears for the final race in 2011 and needed them this weekend. We got the Coupe inside and I tried hard to hint and con, I mean have my crew, pull them out for me. Bob and Steve both had to leave around 1:pm, no problem, we were done on the LM, so it was okay, but I still had to get those gears out. Gears never use to be that heavy (when I was young), although I’ll admit they were never easy to mess with at anytime in the past 43 years. I thought maybe my grandson could pull them out…that thought lasted less time than it took me to write it here. In this picture Gehrig is under the car taking off the nuts holding the gears in the housing. He said it was ready, I said “I can lift the ten nuts, you get the one set of gears”, but he didn’t get the humor, nor was I serious, he couldn’t lift the gears out, no way not yet anyhow, maybe in a few years, but I only had a few hours. The problem with gears is multiple. They are awkward, slippery, 18″ off the ground, move when you grab them anywhere, did I mention “heavy” and do damage when they fall on your body. Okay, they’re not 100 pounds but they are heavy. So what’s the answer? Quick change boys, get quick changes in the Coupes. Anyway when we (I) got them out, Gehrig said “what happened to your head”. He was referring to the nice bump and lots of oil on my head. It wasn’t pretty. I’m glad someone else is driving my car at all the tracks but Sunset, I’m racing the Coupe at Sunset in 2012, and the good news for me is Mike March and his crew, or Rick Schurr and his boys will have the car ready for me when it gets to Sunset…..Gears & Transmission (another dumb piece). The tranny is just as heavy but at least it will slide back and can be rested on the cross member, then slowly angled down onto my stomach or chest then out the side. The gears are ruthless, when you do get them freed up and ready to come out, no matter how good the grip they immediately tilt and plunge the foot and half onto my Jurassic Park frame. Okay enough whining, we got it done. This week we will try and finish the interior of the Late Model. Then the drive line goes in. It’s getting done with little or no problems yet. More pictures will be posted every day.

    We knocked off a few more things tonight. Bob put in our new brake masters. Gehrig was given a box full of nuts and bolts and put them in the storage containers. We also install the battery charging posts and finsihed the seat belts. Steve was sick, but plans to be back with us Wednesday or Thursday when we get at it again. John Stefko thinks the engine update should be done by next week, if so, we’re right on schedule. We have an appointment with Steve Lyons to get the car lettered the week of February 4th, just in time for the CME show. Thanks to my crew Bob, Steve and Gehrig, for their consistent help, and the boys at Grisale’s for getting us all the right parts the first time. Dave Trendell has been a huge help.

    I decided to use this picture that Lisa Lott (Lisa Karley back in the day) drew of our car in 1986. She was a big fan of ours when she first came out to the races. Now she takes real pictures and videos, if I get close to Jason Shaw you will see me…lol…This was a great drawing and I apprecaited it very much, thank you Lisa. Her brother John Karley did one as well, it will be posted in 1986 somewhere, not sure where. He was no artist, but became a very good racer, a few years from 86………..Just starting to work on our 1986 CVM history. There are about 200 pictures to be uploaded, captioned and put in as close as possible “chronological order”. My notes help do that, as well as the club schedule and other news paper write ups. Example if I have pictures from Varney, I check my notes and if we only race there once, it’s good. I put the pictures in order of day to night, or heat races to feature race, based on how many cars are in the picture. My 1986 scrap book, like every book, has to be scanned on to a disc. Once the pictures are scanned they have to be put on my computer in a file that says CVM 72-2004. Once in the master file, and in their proper year, they are resized to fit the site. Then the pictures, (for the most part in order in our scrap book, because they were updated each year, week after week), are separated into specific files. There is a file for each track, “Flamboro, Sauble, Sunset, Cayuga” etc. A file for pre season, Hobby sponsors, promo stuff, banquet etc. Then each file is renamed so I don’t duplicate any photos. If I have a picture of Jim English winning a heat at Flamboro, I have to make sure I don’t just name it “English Wins” because he could have won a race at Varney or Sauble as well. So I name all the pictures in each file, let’s say in the Cayuga file there is 10 pictures. They will be “Cay-86” and then each picture in that file will be “Cay-86 (1)”, “Cay-86 (2)” and so on. That is only for me to make sure every picture has it’s own name and not duplicated. Once that’s done I still have to look close at the picture to make sure I get them in order when putting them on the site. So when uploading, “Cay-86 (4)” might be the first picture to go on because it’s an ad in a newspaper telling about the race, and to tell the story of the year properly, the earliest news should be posted first. I know what you’re thinking, this would suck the life out of a rock, but I love it and it keeps me thinking and remembering. My notes help a lot when writing comments for the pictures, although some incidents in certain years, were so profound and memorable, that a bunch of us, Ray, Kevin Cantwell, Jim Collision, Ron Shaw, Dave Bentley, Charlie Beck and many others could be sitting around talking about a special time in history and we’d remember it as if it just happened. It takes about 10 minutes to do each picture, that’s a little over 30 hours for each year. If I work on it for 4 5 hours a week, it would take a month a half to do one year. So if I was diligent enough to be able to dedicate that much time, on top of the rest of the stuff, I would be posting 1994 (Steve Lyons Rookie season) sometime in October, but the problem is, I don’t have the time in the summer to up load. I have reduced my on-line racing to three nights a week from seven, no TV, but getting our car ready, but should have time hopefully to get 1986 done by April, I hope. I mean April of 2012. By the way…just finished 1985, so don’t get too excited, I’ve been working on that year for 9 months….I’ll try to do better.

    Things have been going together very smoothly. We are checking every piece that we install and making sure they don’t have to be replaced. We did the finishing touches on the interior tonight, fuel lines, switches, wiring for radios. Really easy with no body on the car. We still have the seat and a few small pieces to put in. Then we want to get me geared up for the Hans set up and test the radio’s etc. Once the engine is completed at Stefko’s we will install all of the drive line and then the body.

    Steve works the drill, Bob lends support and I take the shot. It was a great day for us as far as things going together without trouble. We got the seat installed, the cage padded, the radio wiring in, radios tested, the electrical wiring secured, the sway bar in and here the boys work on one of two interior panels that need to go in. I even sat in the car with my new helmet and old Hans (haven’t used it yet) and we were fairly happy with the fit and comfort. Tommy Robb from Sauble suggested slightly smaller shoulder belts to better fit the Hans. We got them and they sure did the job. We still have to adjust them a little more but we’re close with that set up and it is a good idea to use that safety device, I’ve put it off long enough. We will get back at it again on Monday night.

    With the final interior parts completed the body was placed on tonight to do the final fit for the rear window panel. The complete body was painted inside as well as out. We will reveal a little more what the car will look like for 2012 over the next few days……the engine should be completed at Stefko’s by the weekend and this Saturday we install the complete driveline, rad, hose, all the bolt on stuff for the engine, shifters, and then the final securing of the body, front and rear windows, side windows and then a list of small items. Bob, Steve and Gehrig set the body on tonight. Bob is going to modify the bell housing for track inspection, and paint the drive shaft, a few other small parts have to be painted and then we will send perhaps our nicest looking and prepared race car ever, off to Steve Lyons at Creative Edge for his final amazing touches. The crew and I are so excited about our car for 2012, we consider not racing it, but instead buying another car and saving this one……no we didn’t 🙂

    We finally have all the parts we need to put our car back together. The body is on, needs to be secured, the engine is back, needs to have bolts on parts added on. Our plan is to secure the body then put the engine in and attach the wiring and the plumbing and we should be good. We could use help this Saturday from 10am until 3pm. Any volunteers would be appreciated. If we get a good day in we’ll be set to get the car to Steve Lyons next Thursday or Friday…..Note…I’m still in mild shock looking at that great big (HEAVY) flywheel….did I say it was big….I haven’t seen one of those since the Hobby’s last ran them in 1991. I guess if it’s okay for the Sunset track champ Kevin Cornelius, it will be just fine for the Quaker State team….wow it’s big, and looks so heavy…..SLIENCE!!!…moving on.

    Saturday January 28th was a huge day for us. We have been making good, uninterrupted progress the past month and knew this day (the last Saturday before the car gets lettered) had to go smoothly. It started out great with Bob, Steve and me starting in the garage just after 9:30. We were soon joined by Tim Tolton, Mini Stock racer, Matt Smith and his son Andrew. Matt brought his good friend Tim, and later after lunch Kevin Nichol showed up to help us get more things done. We worked in teams throughout the morning and afternoon. Shirley made us a great lunch around 12:45 and we stopped for a break and got back at it. Here Bob drills holes for the body and Steve rivets them in place. More pictures will follow today.

    More coverage of our work day in the shop. Tim got the u-joints done. Bob and Steve were securing the body. Matt, Tim, Kevin, Andrew and I worked on the engine.

    Bob and Gehrig were out tonight and we got a few more things off the list. Bob got under the car and with Gehrig’s assistance, got the collectors together. We need to weld tabs on the new headers so we can bolt them onto the existing collectors. Gehrig installed the front scrub rail and I worked on the rad hoses, gauges and power steering reservoir, relocating it. Our list is getting smaller, although the more we work on it the more parts I find I need…like I forgot to get a grill. Tomorrow will bring us a step closer to completion.

    With only three days left until the car goes to Steve Lyons for lettering, we are slowing getting all the work done that needs to be completed for the CME show following the lettering. Steve will have until Thursday the 9th to complete his magic. We won’t have any time to do more work on the car once he’s finsihed because we will head to Mississauga and set up for the show. That’s why the past few months have been fairly hectic. We are still waiting word from at least five sponsors we’ve presented proposals to. Hopefully we get their okay so their name will be on the car for this first of a few pre season shows we intend to be in.The list is getting smaller and that’s good news.

    We got some more things knocked off our list tonight. This picture shows the grill, wear strip and hood trim installed. Steve also finished installing the glass on the spoiler. Gehrig worked on the front wear strip, and helped Steve and I with the grill and hood trim piece. Steve and I worked under the car getting the starter installed. One more night should do it, but we’ll know for sure tomorrow evening. We still have Thursday to get a few things done, but we’re also loading it up Thursday night as well, so our plan is to finsih the list off tomorrow. Thanks to my crew for dedicating their time to get this done.

    It bothered me all day, the white inside our rad shroud. Sure it looked clean and even looked okay, but it didn’t go with the rest of the car. We created a monster for sure, because nothing on the car can be unpainted, or not color co-ordinated. That’s okay, I wanted it that way, the first time we ever went to this much detail. The big change from yesterday was the shroud, from white to green. My daughter Shirley thought at first we should leave it white, then thought maybe it should be black, and once she saw the shroud painted green, gave us the thumbs up……..Some of our peers think were nuts. One said “the car looks good but it will be tough to keep that way”. That’s true, but in the past 7 seasons our cars have been detailed paint and lettering wise, and required extra work to keep them looking good, but we’re okay with that. We always make sure we have extra touch up paint and extra decals on hand so the car will go to the track looking great for the fans and sponsors………Steve and I got a little more done, the oil temp gauge hooked up and secured, the fuel shut off mounted and secured. We tried installing the plug wires but they were not the ones we wanted, though the box said “over the rocker cover”. These were under the engine and too short for what we wanted. We’ll switch them tomorrow and then it’s just a few simple things left. Tomorrow we’ll load it up and head to Creative Edge on Friday.

    We got everything done we could for the CME show next week. It was most important that we loaded the car tonight so we could send it to Creative Edge for lettering. In this photo Bob is working on the breather, and that will be an issue for us, the engine is too high. The four barrell is a lower profile carb and will fit perfect, but we can use it. We decided to work on that plus some other things after the show. Also in this picture are Steve Bradts daughters Kaylie on the left and Shawnee in the middle beside our grand daughter Lauren. The girls did touch up for us and also stripped all the lettering off Laurens go-kart. We loaded the car without putting a mark on it and now it heads to Steve Lyons for his amazing work. We know exactly how we want the car to look and Steve will do what we want only with his excellent flair. The good news is weather wise, it looks good for travelling tomorrow to Kitchener, a true blessing.

    We heard the sad news today that our racing friend Charlie Beck has passed away. Charlie was an amazing man, great racer and always cared his family, work, racing peers and the Hobby club. Charlie was married to Georgia, and had a son Charlie Jr. Both Georgia and Charlie Jr. supported Charlie with his racing, it was a family ordeal, and they were a team that always brought more than they took when it came to racing, helping others and the being involved with the Hobby club. Our prayers are with his family, friends and co workers. Thank you Lord for allowing us to know and compete with this gracious man. May God comfort Georgia, Charlie Jr. and all those close to him. A longer story will be written on our message board very soon.

    In 1989 we ran Spartan Speedway in Michigan. Before the feature we a did drivers introduction and then got to racing. In this picture we see many Hall of Famers and club Champions, and some who would be Champions in years to come. Pictured 4th from the right, right in front of Steve Laking and behind John Hasselfeldt is our beloved Charlie Beck. Though I haven’t raced against Charlie for over 10 years, his smile, his easy going demeanor, his laid back life style will always be a memory I will charish. Thank you Charlie, God bless you. Here are the times for visitation and the funeral. Vistation at Marlet Funeral Home 195 King St Dundas Feb 7 2:00 to 4:00 and 6:00 to 9:00. Funeral Marlet Funeral Home Feb 8 11:00

    I had the pleasure of racing with Charlie from 1982 until 1998. He was a gentleman on the race track, but a fierce competitor. In all my years racing, I don’t remember a more content or dedicated competitor. Charlie was laid back when he was out of the car, and I suspect he was the same in the car, he sure looks it here. We got close this night when an inline let go and the two of us were jammed against the turn one wall. He cooly looked over and asked if I was alright.

    We dropped our car off at Creative Edge on Feb 2nd, with a long list of sponsors and names and color preferences for Steve and his staff to work with. As a customer my expectations were more than exceeded by the excellent work by Steve, Chris, Josh and Brock. Steve is seen here with our car, and though this picture does the finished product no justice, everyone who has seen the car likes it very much. Jim Hulzinga and I headed down to the CME show right after this photo was taken. Bob Pereira and our grand son Gehrig met us there to help clean and set the car up in the VP Fuels booth. Looks like a much bigger show than in the past. There were lots of excellent looking race cars in all classes. Hope to see you there.

    The CME show got underway tonight. Jim, Bob and Gehrig helped with our display, getting the car in the VP Fuel booth. We didn’t do much with the display but Randy, the owner of VP Fuels was happy with our car. We had lots of great comments and look forward to meeting more people tomorrow and Sunday….The Inside Track Power Ranking Awards were done tonight and we’re proud to announce that David Elliott not only made the top 10 in Ontario, but made the top five being voted at 5th. Congrats to David and Jeannie and all their team….hope to see you tomorrow, drop by, see our car and say hello.

    This beauty is at the CME show along with some other very nice looking cars. Tommy Robb is a hot shoe at Varney Speedway and will be at the show on Sunday. It was a great day with many people showing up in spite of the bad storm we had over night. I don’t remember ever having so many people drop by and say hi to us in all the shows I’ve been in since 1975….congrats CME organizers.

    Here is a great picture from Dan Little. Dan got some other shots of cars in the show as well. You can see some of them on facebook. The show ended tonight, and what a great show it was. We were very happy with the turn out, the attitude and atmosphere by almost every single person that came to the show. Many of the vendors were pleased and for a show dedicated to racing, I give it an A+……thanks to Bob and Gehrig for being there the past few days, and to Marty Hagan for helping us load up after the show….more pictures and stories to come over the next week.

    David and Spencer Lewis ham it up at the Power Rankning presentations at the CME show in Mississauga. David had an amazing season with his Grisdale Triple Crown and Octoberfest wins, 2nd in the Flamboro points standings, no feature in 2012 out of the top five and two feature wins. Here David takes the mic’ and interviews Spencer,, catching Mr. Lewis by surprise, but it was all in fun. Congratulations to David for his much deserved award……the CME show was very good with lots of racing excitement throughout the week end. The air was filled with lots of hype and positive feed back……more to come on the show this week.

    Tim had been calling me on facebook the past month or so trying to get any part I had for his wreck room, or sports bar area. I didn’t think I would have anything, that is until I found the door from our 2009 Late Model. It was stil in good shape. Tim came all the way from Ottawa to visit the CME show. He got Carl Edwards autograph, and then got one of our doors. His friend Stacey took this picture. This was the first time I ever remember giving a part for a fan as a souvenir. I did give a fender to one of our crew members in the past, maybe I will start saving all our spare stuff, although, to be honest, this door could have raced again, just not that color….more pictures from the show still to come.

    Got a chance to talk to Kevin and the car owner Dick, as well as Grant the crew chief over the weekend. Kevin and his team are planning on defending their 2011 Championship. It seems no matter where you go, once you get to know people for even a short time, it’s like you’ve known them forever. It should be an exciting year for us. I’m looking forward to racing with Kevin, Tommy Walters, Chris Morrow, Mike Bentley, Sean Cronan, Taylor Holdaway, Bily Zardo and the rest of the Sunset Late Model drivers. They aure do have a list of talented racers at this wide fast oval. It will be our home now and that of our grand son Gehrig who makes his debut in the Mini Stock class, we’re not 100% sure in what, but we’ll know by mid March.

    We have completed our 2012 schedule. We are proud to have Sunset Speedway as our home track for 2012 and look forward to bringing our fans and sponsors to this great facility. There is a chance we could make a race at Kawartha, Delaware and maybe even Capital City Speedway, but those are unlikely because of the conflict potentially to our home track. Though we’re no longer running Flamboro as our home track, we will compete on their opening night and the last night of the season, Octoberfest. We will also make trips to Varney and Peterborugh. Our commitment is to support Sunset for all the regular shows and their Invitationals, both Limited Late and Pro Late Model. Our schedule shows 21 Limited Late Model races, 7 Pro Late Model races and 2 CVM shows, both at our home track. It is a busy but exciting season…………I want to start a petition to eliminate the name Limited Late Model. Most all Late Models in Onatario can now run against each other. The main difference between a Pro and LLM are basically the engine, straight rail, coil overs, wide 5’s and calipers. Cars with those up grades are known as Pro Late Models, and the cars without those parts are referred to as Limited Late’s. So I say drop the Limited Late Model title and call these cars Late Models, no more Limited…get rid of any negative title associated with this class and call it what it is…a Late Model. I am working on that and hope to get tracks to agree with me. It may take a while for the name change to stick, but I’m guessing more people would be for it than against it and hopefully we start calling these cars Late Models sooner than later.

    I often wondered why tracks like Mosport, Peterborough, Sauble, Sunset, and Varney changed the name of their primary division from Late Models to Limited Late Models. I understand there were some differences like the engine, but for the most part, up until three years ago the engine was the only difference. Years ago many Late Models had Camaro clips and steering boxes. I believe most of Joe Chisholm’s ALSTAR class were all like that, though a few may have had tube frames. The key was the engines, they were ridiculous, costing anywhere from $20,000 to $30,000. When ALSTAR closed, that’s when I believe the name Limited Late showed up, at least that’s when I remember seeing it. Prior to that, every track had Late Models, just different configurations. Lately the name Pro Late Models has immersed to describe Late Models with 604’s, rack steering, 4 piston calipers, coil over’s, wide 5’s and straight rail frames. Not all cars that became Pro Late Models had all of these options or upgrades. My car, the one I will run in 2012, was called a Pro Late Model when I ran it in 2010, and when David ran it in 2011. The only difference between it and a Sunset car was the rack, and the 604 engine. Sunset has made an amendment to allow rack n’ pinion steering, so the only difference between my car now, and the past six years, is the 604 engine, making it a Pro Late Model. Of course we have the 602 engine installed to make us legal with the Sunset cars. With most tracks in Ontario now calling the Flamboro and Delaware cars Pro Late Models, there is no reason to confuse fans by using the label “Limited” to describe their Late Model class. Some Limited’s are brand new McColl cars costing $45,000 turn key, hardly a Limited, and in most cases, a much nicer piece than most of the Pro Late Models. It makes no sense to continue using the negative descriptive “Limited” any longer. Let every track call their cars Late Model, and only when it comes to an “Open Invitational” should there be a distinction. Sunset Speedway can advertise they run Late Models, and when they host an “Open Invitational”, they can advertise that Pro Late Models will be allowed to compete with appropriate handicaps to bring parity. Pro Late Models will not be allowed in any specials that are not titled “Open Invitational”, unless the tracks want to allow them to run to increase car count. I’m hoping local Ontario tracks will consider removing the Limited from their Late Model classes. It will only take a month or so for fans to adapt, in fact, I’m guessing they will welcome the original class name back again.

    God has truly blessed me. I am so proud to be celebrating another Anniversary with my childhood sweetheart, and child bride. We were married when Nonie was 17, I was 22. The years have given us thousands of memories, absolutely most of them have been awesome. We have 2 children, 2 grand children, and some very good friends, some from back in the beginning when we were teens, some from work, and many others through our racing journey. I thank God for Nonie, she is an incredible wife, mother, grand mother and my best friend. We are heading to Florida for the Daytona 500 and a few other races. Quaker State is treating us to the 500 and putting us up for three days…just awesome, we are very thankful for our 39 year relationship with Quaker State. I will post some pictures when we get back….also, have been taking some time off on the race car and will start back up Saturday March 3rd….xoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxooxxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxo for Nonie.

    It wasn’t our best Florida vacation weather wise, but it was from every other aspect. We stayed in Orlando the first few days we were down, then headed to St. Augustine and were guests of Quaker State at the St. Augusta PGA resort. It was awesome. We had dinner on Saturday night with the highest people in Shell and sat close to Roger Penske and AJ Allmendinger. Here Gehrig and Lauren enjoy a tour of the infield that included standing on the front chute. It rained out this day, but we got to see a great race the next night. We left Daytona at 1:10 am Tuesday morning, and then headed to the Airport at 9:00. We were tired but not miserable as we would have been had the race been delayed again….but it didn’t get delayed and though it was late, it capped off a great week for us.

    My grandson Gehrig and I had the pleasure of spending the week end with Rick Schurr and Roger Spies at Rick and Sue’s cottage. It was located in beautifu six mile lake. At first it looked like we wouldn’t get out on the trails or the lake because of the mild weather and the call for rain on the week end. As it turned out we did get rain Friday night, but the temperature dropped producing a mushy, then solid snow fall. We headed out from Rick’s cottage at about noon. This was my first time on a snow mobile since 1986 when I had a short ride in one on our property on highway five. That ordeal ended with Shirley and I almost hitting head on but a diversion into the brush avoided that deal, but long hard thorns left me with some scratches and a bloody face, of course, since we were on our own property we didn’t have helmets. That was the last time I was on a sled. Our grand son just got his license and this was his first time. We took the road in front of the cottage for about a kilometer and then turned off heading down to the lake. My first encounter was climbing over the snow bank, made by the plows. Rick and Gehrig had no trouble, I simply followed them only tipped over on the drivers side with the sled pinning me on the snow. I wasn’t hurt, but could not get out. Rick and Gehrig were out of sight and didn’t know. Lucky for me Roger was behind me and pulled the snow mobile back enough for me to get out. Next was the long run, 3 miles, across the slushy lake. When I got on the lake Rick and Gehrig were 200 yards ahead. I thought this would be easy because it was wide open spaces. The only trouble was the ruts and the slushy conditions made the sled very unstable. I would get up to 30 mph and then it would shoot side ways and I thought for sure I was going over. As fast as I thought I was going, the two in front were pulling away. Then once 500 yards out it me that I was on top of water and I really didn’t like that…it was frozen but it was spooking me. Finally we got to shore picking up Rick’s boss Jim and his wife Rhonda. Things went great for the next 2 hours. Then feeling confident I was in second place and decided to run with Rick as he blazed through the 8′ wide paths through the woods. Things were great until we came over a hill down a steep little hill with a sharp right. Rick was through it easy. My sled started to push, I tried turning right, let off the gas, finally added some brakes, but I think the braking was too late because a second before was when I hit the tree. It was only a small tree, a foot thick, but it made the sled stop immediately. I went flying over the handle bar landing in the middle of the trail about four or five feet. Lucky for me Gehrig got stopped. The front end was much like slamming the wall at any oval, trailing arms and suspension parts bent. Rick towed me out of the woods, but that didn;t work either because he hit a huge puddle of ice, water and mud and the sled jammed in throwning me off again. I had enough, the sled to. That busted the windshield and the right mirror. We decided to leave the poor thing in woods and Rick and Roger retreived in Sunday morning. This picture dosen’t show the damage but it wasn’t good. My grand son? He did awesome. I may want to look into that license. Thanks to Rick and Roger for a great time. I hope I get another chance, although I might have to use my own sled, or a Mini Stock.

    Shirley headed to Shallow Lake early Sunday morning, in pursuit of help. We got the Honda in hopes it would be an easy prep for Gehrig’s debut in Stock Car racing. Not having much time, and no understanding of the 4 cylinder world, we had to do something to help us get ready for opening day. None of our local racing friends could help us, they either didn’t have the time or knew how to change an engine, front axles etc. We were discouraged somewhat. I thought for sure my 4 cylinders friends could help us. This all started when we traded the use of our CVM for the use of a Mini with the hopes of little financial in put. Things were great until it was discovered the engine not legal for Sunset. We had no choice but to try another route. We could have returned the Mini and bought another car, but the cars available would have needed a lot of work to get ready. The Mini we got from Mike March is awesome, very well built, very safe for our grand son, so saving this car was the thing we really wanted to do. If it was a Coupe or a Late Model, we could have done it, but I am out of my league with Mini’s. Mike offered to build another car, but that was not the route to go because of the time, expense and the fact that he already has his hands full trying to get the Coupe prepared for the season opener…….enter Jason Legge. Jason and I did a deal in 2011 for David’s first Late Model that I traded for my #9 Late Model of 2009, (the one I raced at Delaware Friday nights, the one Jeff Lancaster, Matt Dean and Tervor Monaghan also drove). The transaction between the Jason and I was very smooth, no issues, so he has offered to help us get the car ready. He tells me “don’t worry it will be fine”. Jason will spearhead this deal through the aid of Glen Schnurr and his other friend, Brad, a Honda expert. Glen is going to get some cosmetics, mechanical things and a door done, and Brad will switch the drive line. He says it’s easy and in two weeks we should have it back and then we’ll prepare it for paint. We can do that part. If we get progress pictures from Glen or Jason we’ll post it here…..meanwhile we finally got our clutch situation figured out with the Late Model. John Van Wyngaarten, one of our sponsors, machined our heavy flywheel, now I can carry it by myself. We installed it yesterday. Steve and his father in law, Alex came over for a few hours and today Bob and I got it finished. We should have our Late Model done by next week end….we hope. My Diary of A Season will be updated soon….PS…Saginaw transmissons are much heavier now, compared to when I was 50.

    This picture from earlier in the week shows our grand son Gehrig putting Quaker State gear oil in our quick change. Gehrig is learning slowly what to do and how to do it properly. We got a few things done during the week and then our main crew came over today to try to reduce our list even more. We got the brakes bled, the clutch, put the car on stands and worked on the left side and total weight. The left side at Sunset is 55%. We haven’t been down that low for 7 years. It meant moving a lot of led to the right side. Once we got 55% and 2851 total (it has to be 2850) we then had to secure the led we moved and paint it. Getting in place was simple enough, but drilling and bolting was where the work was. I messed us up by telling my crew we had to have 50% minimum rear. We had so much weight on the back it was crazy, then I read the rule just to make sure and it was 50% maximum rear. Some tracks print the rule different, Flamboro says, 50% minimum front. Anyway once all the led was in it’s proper place and the holes drilled through brackets and the sub frame, we painted them and put our number on them. we still have a few more pieces to install, under the seat and the two 15 pound pieces on the front rails. Then we can set the ride heights, and scale the car. We got the proper weight with no fuel in the car, so we’ll now add a few gallons to do our weight distribution……the sad news is we have a brake line leaking, no big deal, but the clutch will not disengage and we think we have to add another shim on the tranny shaft. That means removing the transmission and adding the shim, then hope it was enough, maybe we’ll add two….Monday night we’ll be back at it again…..thanks to Bob, Steve and Alex for helping our today.

    Bob, Steve, Alex, Gehrig and I spent all day Saturday, until close to 6:30 trying to finish the list of things we have to do on our car to make it race ready. Show ready it is, race ready it isn’t, but getting closer. The Sunset rules only allow 55% left side weight and this car is loaded with led giving it 57%. It dosen’t seem a lot until you start moving the led to the right side. Once we got the numbers where we wanted them we had to paint, letter and mount the heavy chunks. We still have four more pieces of led to secure. We also need to remove the transmission and shim the release bearing, the clutch won’t quite engage, and bleed the brakes once more they are a little spongy. Once that’s done we’ll start the engine, let it run and then we should be ready…not for racing yet, but for testing. It’s been fun and we are very much looking forward to running at Sunset Speedway. Our grandson’s Mini Stock is getting an engine exchange and hopefully we get it back soon so we can get it painted, lettered and do a final inspection as well. We have two more shows coming up in March at Banquets in the Pickering area.

    Tonight was one of the worst for me. I have this wore out drill, with a wore out chuck and most of our drill bits are from the same family as the drill and chuck…wore out!! Anyway, two trips to the hardware for nuts and bolts, and a few hours of work and this project is done……I was going to go to the gym to get in shape, but after slugging weights around the past few days I may just stay in the garage. What a work out. Drilling can be so frustrating at times, when the drill jams and twists your writs it really hurts, so you need to hold on real tight, a sharp drill bit helps eliminate that. That was the case on Saturday, but I was lucky tonight, no jamming of the drill, though other stuff happened. The boys couldn’t make it tonight, but my grandson was able to come out and help, and it was good that he did. I was struggling for 15 minutes and could not get through the steel. Suddenly Gehrig noticed I had the drill on reverse. With the drill, chuck and bits all wore, and the dummy using it having it in reverse, I was o-4!!…how ironic, by the end of the first period both me and Leafs were down 4-0. The good news for me is that I recovered, and once I got the drill going the right way my night went easier. The Leafs? Not so much, they were still in reverse….Our list is getting smaller, but has to be done this week. We need to scale the car again, to finalize the left side percent and total weight. Then add fuel, set the ride heights, scale it for racing, then start it. We have a brake line leaking, the clutch not working and the spoiler to set. Then I think we’ll be done with the car…I think. I do need a new drill, and hopefully it comes with instructions.

    Last night Gehrig and I went to the Pickering Christian school, for the Scripture Union hockey banquet. I had an opportunity to talk about racing and share my faith to the 140 or so kids and adults who were in attendance. After, the kids not only got an autographed picture of the car, but got to get in the car so parents could take a picture. They loved that part, though many disappeared when they got right into the seat….Gehrig helped make sure the kids got in and out safely……we will be heading out to Ajax on Saturday March 31st to attend another Scripture Union banquet. You can find out more about SU Canada by going to their web site, you can easily access it by clicking on their logo to the right of this picture……This was our 2nd show for 2012, it was an exciting and fun night for us…….it was also very cold -3 or 4. We made sure the car was put in the garage where it was warm….We’ll post another report once we complete the show this Saturday…..also, check out the Scripture Union summer camps for kids. They are taking reservations very soon.

    We are loading up tonight to take our car to Ajax Saturday for a teen hockey banquet hosted by Scripture Union Canada. We went to Pickering on Monday of this week and this time we’ll head a little south west to Ajax where a differnt group of hockey players, many in their teens, will get to see and get in the race car. I have been asked to share about racing and my faith and give out autograph cards, just what I love to do. My crew chief Bob will come with me on this event…..Gehrig gets comfortable in the Quaker State Impala, but will need to grow a little before he takes on the challenge of driving a Late Model. He will make his debut in stock car racing this year at Sunset Speedway in the Mini Stock division. Driving a Honda Civic, Gehrig hopes to get enough experience to move up to Late Models in 2013. It may be a stretch, and if we all feel he’s not ready yet (him included), we’ll wait another year. He seems to like sitting in the car and all accounts from him indicate he can’t wait to start racing the Mini Stock…..our goal is to win the Sunset Speedway Championship. Then before the next three years, run in a series with both my son David and grandson Gehrig. I already told David, and he likes the idea, and thinks a 4 or 6 race series would be good……we are waiting on two more sponsors to let us know if they will be with us in 2012. Once we have confirmation we will do a story on all our sponsors for 2012……we will report on the Ajax show by Sunday.

    For the second time in a week, we had our car on display at the Scripture Union hockey banquet. My crew chief, Bob Pereria and I headed, this time to the Ajax Community Center to show and tell our car and sing autograph cards. The kids loved the car. It was kind of cold, almost as cold as last Mondays event. It’s funny how we’ve had awesome weather the past month except for the two days we were on display. I guess weather wise it was actually okay, there was no rain, but it sure got cold signing autographs, to the point my sharpie was seizing up…..we will be doing more shows in 2012, some are already booked, and a few more will be confirmed in the next month or so…….the trip became a life saver of sorts for us. Bob started the car and while it was running he put the clutch to the floor and about a quarter way down it went right to the floor with no resistance. Bob got out to have a look and sure enough under the car a huge pool of fluid was growing as the clutch line leaked out fluid. We found the problem, a damaged line, so now we have to see if it hit any rotating parts. We do have the biggest clutch I’ve run since 1992, so maybe something inside the bell housing nicked the line. We will make sure when we put it back together Wednesday night…..we are planning on going to Sunset for practice, although we may shake the car down at Flamboro first before heading to Sunset to get the car in race mode. We are also planning on heading to Mike McColl’s on April 21st. That will be set up day and we will learn a lot on that visit, especially with bump stops. More on our progress later this week.

    Bob and I worked on the car in the early morning finishing off the brake ducts and welding tabs on the exhaust. We had a team meeting for both the Late Model and Mini Stock. Not all our crew could make it. Steve, Ryan and Justin were unable to attend but possibly we can do this again next Saturday. From right to left are Bob, Jason, JJ, Meagan, Lauren, Shirley, Gehrig and I…..Eric Uprichard, owner of Speedway Photo’s, and one of our newest sponsors for 2012, took this photo, then went with me to Jim Sweers gasoline alley. Eric got a bunch of photo’s at Jim’s as well.

    With just three weeks before opening day, we had a great team meeting with both the Mini Stock and Late Model crew members. Only one Mini Stock crew member was absent, J.J., and though not in this picture, our Late Model crew chief Bob, was at the early part of the meeting and had to leave…….pictured here from left to right are Alex, (Steve’s father in-law), Steve, Dylan, Ryan (Dylans dad), Justin, Gehrig, Andrew and his dad Matt and Jason. Our Late Model goes to McColls this week end for set up. We have it set and ready to race, but I’m guessing Mike will change it, and we’re good with that. We will also install and learn how to make bump stops work. I’ve been told by some race teams at Flamboro that bump stops take forever to learn, needs lots of maintenance and can be very expensive, and that I would be better without them. We agreed until they started turning Super Late Model lap times. When we asked Mike about the bump stops, he said, they are not that difficult to learn, they won’t wear out your suspension parts but they will make you go much faster, though the rest of the set up still has to be very close. Prior to us getting the Chenoweth car, we were fast and new our car. We have it back and are hoping after next weekend find ourselves competitive with the many fast teams already on bump stops at Sunset. We’re determined to take a run a the title and there is no way we can do it giving up speed for any reason. So Bob, Steve and I are heading out next Saturday morning to get that extra speed……the Mini Stock should be painted by the Thurday and off to Steve Lyons for lettering by the end of the week. Right now we’re right on schedule.

    Bob and I worked on the car on Thursday night. We had to remove the transmission (for sure they are heavier than they were a few years ago…when I was 50). We added a new clutch line and bled the system and now it works and does not leak. It broke on us when we were in Ajax last week end…..We will install brake ducts, those pretty green ones on the rad shroud, and the duct hoses. We decided to color coordinate them to stay consistent with the most detailed car we’ve ever put together. Once that’s done we have a few minor things to do and then we will be done, all but our visit to Mike McColl’s where we’ll get the car set up and learn everything we need to about bump stops…..Gehrig’s Mini Stock heads for paint on Saturday and we’l prepare it for paint and then it goes to Steve Lyons for lettering…..A team meeting is set for tomorrow. The closer we get the more exciting it’s getting….I went over to Flamboro today and saw a new covering for the pits. It should help a lot to keep the dust down. No doubt I will miss running at Flamboro, been there for so long. We’ll see if the excitement of Sunset over shadows missing Flamboro. At this point, I do plan on running the August 20th race and Octoberfest. Perhaps it should have been “we” plan on running the race. But right now my crew would prefer not to go and for at least one good reason and that is our status at Sunset. Depending on where we are in Sunset points might determine whether or not we go for the Monday Night Madness in August. It would be an awesome race to see and be in….time will tell. Meanwhile special thanks to Bob my crew chief for being here all winter working and getting our car ready.

    Season #44 for and our crew gets underway on May 5th at Sunset Speedway. We’re looking forward to a fun season. We’ll spend more every week on gas, but we’ll save a little on tires, but more than anything it’s the fun of racing on a good wide track. We’ll have some tough customers to race against, but no tougher than those we just finished racing with the past 7 seasons at Flamboro Speedway, or the field of incredible talent the CVM produced the 33 seasons we ran with them. Regardless of the Sunset Speedway competitors, we just need to have our car race ready every night and be consistent and competitive. Kevin Cornelious, Tom Walters, Mike Bentley, Sean Cronan, Chris Morrow and Billy Zardo, to name a few, make up the majority of tough customers at Sunset. We’ll go in with a game plan to learn the habits of these boys and race as hard as we can without getting into or wrecking anyone…like always. This schedule is agressive, but it’s what we love, want and wait to do. It’s been a busy off season, but instead of working on 4 race cars like ealry 2011, we worked on just one. Bob, Steve and I spent many hours getting our car rebuilt and once we leave Mike McColls and he gives us a thumbs up on our car we’ll be good to go. If Mike gives us any thumbs down on any part on the car, it will be replaced. We are running for the title, and though most at Sunset would rank us a top 7 or 8, our goal is first and we would be disappointed if we’re not one of the Championship contenders. The truth is, I’m a points racer, because winning a Championship is the greatest honor a racer can attain….winning a feature would be good as well, we having done that since July 29th 2008. A pre season report will be done soon on Diary Of A Season 2012.

    The Impala shines under the lights in the big John Bear GM new car parking lot. Quaker State is currently in the process of having their fine product sold in GM Service and Parts departments, and as an added promo we took our car to this awesome Dealership. This location, one of three owned by John Bear, is located on Upper James in Hamilton just south of the Lincoln Alexander Expressway. On Wednesday over 120 people came to see the beautiful GM cars and trucks and to consider buying a new vehicle with 0% finance being one of the benefits. This was our 4th show of the season, our next appointment is in the showroon of Mike McColl racing. Our hope is he will change this Impala into a Corvette during the four hours we’re there. Crew members Bob, Steve and Matt will be with me and we’ll learn alot from the master car builder and set up man. Matt will be in London on Saturday, and meet us there, but we’ll leave Waterdown around 5:15 am so we can get to Mikes by 7:00 for an early start…and fall asleep when Mike talks about bump stops.

    Tony Brent, a friend from Wisconsin, and a very good on-line racer, pits for Bret Sievert in the Dirt Late Model series in Wisconsin. We wish them a very successful 2012 race season.

    It was part of our 2012 budget to have Mike McColl and his staff set up our car before we head to Sunset Speedway. Bob Pereria watches as Matt Smith, our newest crew member, adds the turns back into the right front load bolt. Mike is pondering his next adjustment, but is overall happy with the numbers on the car…besides 36. Art, with the help of Bob and Matt removed the front hubs, springs, shocks, and rear axles and springs. Many things were checked and adjusted. The toe, top link and trailing arm angles were set in the rear. The toe, ackerman, bump steer, shock location, camber, caster and anti dive were set on the front, along with very nice looking bump stops. Once one piece of lead was reloacated, and a final rescale, our car was deemed to be as perfect as it could get. I asked Mike “could Kevin Cornelious win with this car”? I could have used Tom Walters, but Kevin is the reigning Champion, and Mike repsonded “of course”. Then I asked Mike “do you have Kevins phone number”?…anyway we were very excited about our car and headed home unable to shut up for at least the first 100 kilometers. It’s great knowing the car is set up and well prepared to race against the very competitive Sunset Speedway stars…..next is a test session at Flamboro to shake the car down and then head to Sunset for a competitve session of testing May 2nd, of course after our special event at MacDonalds in Bolton, more on that soon.

    Steve March, #95 CVM racer, changed his 2011 paint scheme from the black gothic lettered car to this beautiful Lightning McQueen randition. Steve will compete in 75% of the CVM schedule in 2012 and hopes to pull off a feature win. It won’t be easy with a short race season, but he almost pulled it off last year and has made improvements over the winter season to make it happen. If good looking cars win, he’ll win a feature for sure. Good job on the Coach Steve, the race fans, kids especially, will love it….Steve’s brother Mike is finishing our CVM and it should be race ready within a week or so, we’ll get a picture of it once it gets painted and lettered.

    When I bought the #89 Late Model from Shawn Chenoweth, I should have bought it when the car came off the track. Had I done that my results may have been much better in 2011. Finances wouldn’t let us get the car after Autumn Color’s, and Shawn won that feature, so I had to wait almost three months to pay the asking price of the car. Bump stops were attached to the frame, but didn’t come with instructions, I get that, Shawn was building a new car and wouldn’t be giving anything away, like secrets or maybe his best equipment. Early in the season I was told not to run bump stops because they were very tricky, and if I didn’t know what I was doing it would cause me trouble, plus, we had five 2nds with our 2010 car without bump stops. As most people know, we struggled for the first half of the season, and by mid July we were on our game, but way out of the point race and still without bump stops. It was our worst season in Late Models, with no feature finish above 4th. However we did win the pole and qualified 5th fastest for both Sunset shows. When I heard that Sunset Late Models were on bump stops, and saw the results of a good bump stop set up produced by Jason Shaws team, who went from 15:3’s to 14:9’s, I knew we could not expect to compete at Sunset, and give up the two tenths, or more that bump stops provided. I asked Mike McColl if the set up was just for a coil over car and he said “no” it worked on big spring cars as well. I also asked if not running them was giving up too much and without hesitation he said “yes, you need bump stops”. How hard is it to learn, I asked, and Mike said he would give us a quick lesson when we got our car set up and told me not to worry, learning bump stops was not as complicated as far too many people were making it sound. We were one of the first teams to try the rack n’ pinion steering in 1986 in the Hobby cars, and some said it would be very hard to get use to, we had a great season. We were the firts Flamboro team to run a Crate engine and were told we wouldn’t keep up, now 90% of the cars are running Crates. As seen in this picture we have installed bump stops and will go out one day next week and do some shake down testing at Flamboro and then head to Sunset to do some more serious testing. Our car has everything it needs, luck can’t be bought, but a good crew, good maintenance and a good handling car will give us the program we need to go after the Sunset Speedway Championship, and that program will include bump stops.

    We just got our Mini Stock back from Creative Edge today, along with the go-cart pods and the kids are ready to race….accept for a few small things. We need to change the oil and filter on the Mini Stock, plus install a head support. The go-cart needs gas and it’s ready to go. Gehrig will make his debut in racing at Flamboro for an exhibition race for him. He won’t be running at Flamboro Speedway full time, so the purpose for him is to get as much ice time as possible. He will learn a lot in one night starting at the back of the speedy Flamboro Mini’s. Lauren starts racing next week end, and so does the Late Model, but plans are to have both at Flamboro sometime next week in hopes of getting some hot laps and shaking both race cars down.

    Prior to Gehrig’s testing on Saturday at Famboro Speedway, he had only run 15 laps on the 1/3 mile oval. He did have knowledge of racing, getting that from his 4 years in Go-Carts. This was totally different, not even close to what he had experienced before. Running an older not so good Cart, Gehrig ran very well against the kids with new Carts, placing 4th and 5th in the points in his last two seasons. Driving a Mini Stock is much more complex, not to mention handling a 2500 pound car and going much faster. Gehirig watched track starter Dale Shunamun closely, as instructed, making sure when traffic was coming he got out of the way. The very competitive Flamboro cars run close and being lapped can be a very intense time for any driver, not to mention a youngster with barely 20 laps total under his belt. Each outing Gehrig improved, gaining confidence and learning to get acquainted with his own car, before worrying or even considering battling with his peers. He did that, and by his second and third time out he was racing his own car. All of us were very proud of Gehrig’s first outing. The full story of Gehrigs night will be posted on Diary Of A Season by the end of today.

    The Quaker State team going to Bolton on May 2nd to help the MacDonalds location in Bolton raise money for childrens charities. There will be some local heroes there including Firemen, Police Officers as well as Edmonton Oilers great, Paul Coffey. We will be there from 11:30 until after supper….if any of our fans are in the area we’d love to see you.

    The management team at MacDonalds in Bolton held their Annual McHappy Day, with $1 on certain items being donated to Childrens Charities in Caledon as well as other venues. Eric Uprichard and his sister Shannon (shown here) both members of our crew, and Eric a sponsor through his business Speedway Photo’s, helped all day, along with their very enthusiastic staff, to make this effort a huge success. The community response was incredible allowing the store to set a record for both Lunch and Dinner donations. The weather was nice at first, then an artic breeze came in, maybe from all the Smoothies they were selling, then it got cloudy and overcast and colder again. Finally it started to rain but not until 5:15 forcing us to load quick and save the car from getting to saturated. It was a great day for us, our 5th pre season show, and we were proud to bring our car and have our sponsors represented in this awesome event.

    Sitting by the drive through, we got lots of on lookers checking out the Quaker State Late Model. McHappy Day was a great success with well over $5000 going to kids charities….our next event will be at Sunset Speedway on May 5th, and there will be lots of action cooking throughout the night. Hope to see you there, check out their web site for times and location….www.sunsetspeedway.ca

    When the checker flag came out we were very happy. I understand we can make too much out of a win at times, but this was a great win for us at our new home track, plus getting the victory dosen’t come easy. Winning this race made a lot of people happy, my family, crew, fans and of course me. Special thanks to Bob, Steve, Ryan, Justin and Eric, and all our sponsors. It’s a team effort and this one was well celebrated.

    When the checker flag came out we were very happy. I understand we can make too much out of a win at times, but this was a great win for us at our new home track, plus getting the victory dosen’t come easy. Winning this race made a lot of people happy, my family, crew, fans and of course me. Special thanks to Bob, Steve, Ryan, Justin and Eric, and all our sponsors. It’s a team effort and this one was well celebrated.

    A high speed imapct with the turn three wall crushed the front end of Mike Bentley’s #51 Late Model. Dave Bentley, Mike’s Dad surveys the incredible damage. The good news is that Mike is okay, though sore. He will be out this week end, but not likely in this car. Mike got caught in the oil from our transmission that suffered a violent explosion half way down the back chute. We’re not sure exactly what happened but the damage under our car, to our floor, and many support bars under neath sure makes you glad we have safe built race cars. Our drive shaft was twisted and smashed in two pieces, the transmission looks like a grenade when off inside of it, the starter who busted from flying debris, and one drive shaft hoop was tore off and the second ripped but still in place. We have a lot to do but no damage compared to Mike. I gave Mike a hug after the races letting him know I was glad he was okay. Our car will be ready this week, more pictures will follow as we progress.

    It’s been a frustrating start for Gehrig this year. His debut at Sunset ended in disappointment when a stuck throttle parked him for the feature. He was understanding about it, not getting upset, although I was feeling real bad for him because there is nothing worse than sitting in the pits when you planned all week to race. It was the right call to park him. The throttle was only part of the problem as an engine miss could not be detected etiher. This car might as well be a UFO, we are lost with every aspect of it. Even some of those with knowledge, who tried to help, really didn’t know why the car had a miss or why the throttle would not return. Back in my Hobby days we use to have problems but at least 10 teams would try to get us fixed up. We don’t the car, or any of the people that know four cylinders….I knew I should have started him in OSCAAR……our Late Model is getting closer, lots of parts ordered and now all the cosmetic and welding done. We have abuot 20 hours in the car already. The good news is we did not hurt the chassis, however everything else bolted to the chassis was either crushed, busted, broken, twisted, bent or lucky…..we still made out better than Mike Bentley. It is good no one was hurt, Mike from slamming the wall, and me from all the scattering parts trying to get at me in the car. Our wreck is on youtube through Sunset Speedway.

    This picture taken during the first heat race shows Kevin Cornelious #17 and Mike Bentley #51 racing hard. These two would have different results as the night progressed. Mike demolished his car in the feature after getting into our transmission oil, and slamming hard into the turn three wall. Kevin would celebrate in victory lane with his crew after winning the first feature of 2012. Congratulations to Kevin and his team on a very impressive main event win….the full story of this race is on Diary Of A Season 2012.

    It was a night that needed 300 feet of racing to make it perfect for fans and two racers, but would end in disaster when Mike Bentley #51 and Chris Morrow #11, running 1st and 2nd, side by side for much of the race, got together coming off turn four on the final lap. The tangle sent Chris hard into the wall, and Mike Bentley crossing the line with the checker flag waving. Unfortunately for Mike, he was considered an accident car and did not get the win. In an effort to get a winner for the fans, the track went back a lap, and gave the win to Kevin Cornelious #17, who was running third on the white flag lap. So much confusion followed the race as drivers protested the finish. Sunset officials decided to review the race and make a decision on Tuesday. That decision resulted in the race being left as the cars crossed the line at the checker. With Mike Bentley being sent to the back, the second car across was #7 Tony Tiemersma who would take the win and the trophy…the trophy will have to wait because Kevin still has it in his possession. Kevin limped across the line in 4th and will keep that spot, though his car was also beat up from hitting #11 Chris Morrow. The good news is that Chris is okay, and it surely was hard tough racing. More on that on our message board……..our web site had crashed and was down for a few days. I will get the race report logged on Diary Of A Season 2012 by Thursday night. Thanks for your patience.

    We are happy for the Bentley team, after all, it was our exploding transmission that covered the track with fluid and sent Mike flying into the turn three wall at Sunset Speedway on May 5th. The hard crash all but destroyed his car. He returned on the 12th with a newer McColl built car to battle up front all race with Late Model Champion Chris Morrow. A last lap wreck involving Chris and Mike severely damaged the Morrow car, and resulted in Bentley being sent to the back even though it appeared he won the feature. On May 19th things went his way when he captured the 30 lap feature with his first main event win of the young 2012 season. Late Models resume on May 26th with regular racing at Sunset, and then on Sunday, the first of four McColl Pro Late Model specials runs at 4pm………we hope to have our grandsons Mini Stock back by this weekend. Jason Legge and friends have been doing all they can to eliminate the engine miss from the Honda. This car has brought so much aggrevation and disappointment already that we are calling it “PLISTEEN’, the Japaneese version of “Christine”…..Mini Stocks will run on Sunday May 27th as well.

    Sunset Speedway May 27th …….The car was so good just before this wreck. After finishing 3rd in the first qualifier we made an adjustment to improve the car for our 2nd heat. The car was awesome, that is until we got body checked coming off four at full speed into the hard concrete wall. The car mounted the wall driving the right front wheel into the engine area and bending many bars in the front part, also bending and busting most of the suspenion and brakes on that side of the car. When it came down off the wall, still at high speed the car turned shartp and headed for the inside cement retaining wall, that is only 18″ thick (the front wall is four feet thick not to mention the 300 feet of earth behind the wall). With no brakes our car slammed the inside wall at very high speed taking out the left side of the car. This was one of our worst, if not the worst crashes ever. This not only extends, but brings our bad luck at Sunset to an amazingly cruel new level. Special thanks to all my crew for working very hard to get our car so it could be loaded in the trailer. ALso, to the incredibly thoughtful and caring staff, and promoters of Sunset who made several visits to our pad to make sure I was okay and let me know they deeply care for the bad luck we’ve had in May. There will be more pictures this week. Our car is at Mike McColl’s right now getting fixed……congrats to Tom Walters for winning the 75 lap Pro Late Model race……the full story will be on our message board , and there is lots to tell, on Diary Of A Season 2012, hopefully by tomorrow….congrats as well to David for having a strong run in the Pennzoil car.

    Just want to let everyone know that there is no issue with me and the youngster, Jaxson Jacobs, who lost control of his car on Sunday. After getting out of the ambulance and seeing the track was still under red, I ran over to his car to ask what happened. He was apologetic and felt sorry for what happened, I wouldn’t expect more. I know some will say other things relative to the accident, but as far as I’m concnerned it’s over, and I’m sure he has learned a few lessons with keeping his car under control, and more importantly, that when you make a mistake in racing, you don’t have to hang your head for a long time. Respect is very important, but so is forgiveness and understanding. I love this sport, and most important thing about this sport is not the race cars, it’s the people. Thank you to all those who have shown compassion to us, also to Jody, the mother of Jaxson who courageously let me know how she felt and instantly gave me peace and healing. What happens behind the scenes is sometimes the greater story.

    I called Mike Sunday night from Sunset and let him know that I would be dropping the car off to him early Monday morning. He said he would be ready, and sure enough when Eric and I arrived at about 7:45 there were five of them including Mike to help us unload the car. They immediatly got the car on these big jack stands and started taking wheels off and whatever bent parts were in the way. Mike wrote down a list of things that I had and decided to pull the engine to get a better look of the frame. Besides all the bolt on parts there was a lot of damage to sub frame parts like the front hoop area and the passenger side bars where the body was attached…..Eric Uprichard, one of sponsors and crew, came with me. Eric took this picture. We headed home shortly after this. I had to pick Nonie up at the hospital after her knee replacement surgery around 10:30. It would have been impossible for me to do much work on the car this week, I had to be with Nonie, I was her main care giver, and the last thing a Nurse can be doing is working on a race car…….It’s a bit alarming that in the past two seasons I’ve had my hardest hits ever in 44 years racing. This crash was very hard and will rank as my most expensive race repair ever, perhaps even including inline engines that were always in the four to five thousand dollar range. If all goes well our car should be ready before the end of the week…..this story is late getting up on Diary Of A Season 2012, but will be soon.

    When I started racing Late Models, it was a relief for me not to have the high costs of racing repairs like those I had with the Hobby car when our engines would explode, sometimes twice a year, and sometimes at $5000 a hit. Late Model racing has been more expensive on a nightly basis, but the winnings are much better. Overall I’ve found the availability of sponsorship for our Late Model to be more abundant than what we had with the Coupe. Perhaps in summarizing, when both financial reports are figured out, it comes out about even. The Coupe is cheaper to run (especially with the V8) but creates less financial opportunity because of the room allotted for sponsors, smaller schedule, smaller purse and lack of big fan driven shows, that provide better exposure and purses. The Late Model on the other hand can be a successful entity. There is more room to advertise on the car, more home track races, more opportunities to race around the province, greater purse payouts and invitationals that pay out decent dollars. The down side for Late Models use to be the ridiculous cost of engines, but the Crate engine took care of that deal. Next was tires, but many tracks have a one tire per night rule. The biggest cost is the unknown, damage caused by accidents. Our first serious wreck was in 2010 and by the time we got our car back from McColl’s it was $3800, plus extra parts I bought from Grisdale, as well, the extra time our crew spent putting the engine back in, fitting the body parts and going over the car to set it up. The final costs on that one was $5000 (not icluding our labour). We did most of the work to keep the cost down. In this most recent wreck at Sunset, it ranks as my hardest hit ever. This incident became the perfect storm of financial disaster for us for various reasons. Nonie was coming home from the hospital after having a knee replacement on Monday and I promised to look after her, we didn’t have the coverage to have a nurse come in. So in order to save money I wanted to be with her, espcially for the first two weeks. That eliminated me being in the garage 8 hours a day for four or five days. No time to strip the car down or pick up racing parts. The car needed lots of welding, and my equipment could not do the work required. We could have pulled the engine, replace the bent parts, installed the body etc, but that work load required lots of help, and that was my biggest area of need, enough help to pull this off. It would have been too much for our crew to dedicate, making it almost impossible to be ready for the next race. Enter McColl Enterprises. The car was completed in three and a half days with over 100 hours labour and tons of parts. The car is ready to race except for some very small maintenance by us. The cost? Double our 2010 wreck. It’s tough to have such a crash so early in the season. If this was September we would have repaired it enough to finish the season, but being May, made that impossible. We pray that we can raise the money needed to pay for this, and trust God will open those doors. We’re not discourage, but this has been our toughest start in 44 years….Mayhem in May. We’re looking for Jewels in June. Thanks to Mike McColl and his staff for getting our car ready quickly and doing an awesome job fixing it. Mike did say the car would be better than it was before, he made a few changes to it while it was on the operating table.

    Sunset Speedway will be back in action Saturday June 2nd as long as the weather is friendly. Last week end Tom won the first of four McColl Pro Late Model Open’s. There were 27 cars for this event. Tom started on the pole through the invert and was never really challenged. He will bring his winning car, winning team and winning ways to continue his chase for the 2012 Sunset Speedway crown. We should have 18 cars on June 2nd and our team is hoping to turn our dismal season around with a trip to the winners circle. Our car was badly damaged last weekend but sits at home now ready to go this Saturday…..we welcome a group from Youth Unlimited who will be bringing some guests with them to Sunset Speedway. For many it will be there first time at a race and we will have an opportunity to show them our car up close once hot laps are finished. Hope you can make it tomorrow to watch the very fast and competitive racing in all three classes, Mini Stock, Thunder Stock and Late Model.

    The races on June 2nd were rained out and for our team we can say we were ready for this night after the awesome work done by McColl Enterprises. I never like a rain out, but we have a show this Friday at Cross Roads in Burlington and Fan Appreciation Night at Sunset on the 9th, so missing the weekend because of rain is okay. It made sure we wouldn’t be messing up these new panels before they were painted and lettered. Bob and Steve drilled out all the rivets so I could drop the panels off to be painted on Monday. Our hope is they will be ready on Wednesday and then run them out to Kitchener for Steve to letter. Once they’re back home we need to get the panels on the car for the Friday morning TV show. Hectic yes, but glad we don’t have any other work to do on the car and can rest another week because getting the stuff back on the car will be very easy since all the holes are drilled. It will be like putting a model car back together……….the reason Bob and Steve removed the new panels is because I headed over to Flamboro to test drive the Honda. Our friend Jeff Windich knows a lot about these cars and did some work for us this week, and the good news is he’s only 150 feet away. The car ran slow for 10 laps turning times 2 to 3 seconds off the pace, but wasn’t missing, just no power. At the end of my session it started losing power again and when Gehrig took it out he commented when he got back in the pits “this car has no get up and go”. I took it back out again and it was clearly slower than my first session. This car is a 16 valve engine, and not allowed at Flamboro, so being 3 seconds off the pace means something is drastically wrong. It feels to me like the timing is retarded, there is nothing on accel, the engine is flat. We’re going to give one more effort to get this right, and if a new computure fails to bring this car within a second of the fastest cars, we’re going to park it for 2012. The reason I say a second is because we still need to lower the car, put some camber in it, and get decent shocks and springs put on, and we feel those changes could make up another half a second and then Gehrig will get faster as he gets more racing time. He doesn’t need anymore driving time. The chassis changes are important, but none of those things are going to happen until the suffering of basic power is corrected. I was told when I took the car out that we needed to hit 110K on the chutes at Flamboro to be in the ball park, and we were hovering around 90, not even close, but the stop watch told us that as well, 22.2 seconds per lap constantly…. we shouldn’t even report that. If this was a V8 or Inline, I would think the timing was out. The lack of power is alarming, but it may because it’s not advancing. The hour glass is now on the Honda and we hope to get it right but we’re not spending any more money on it. We will spend the money to haul it to Sunset next week and hope a new computer will get it going better, if not our grandson has already said he doesn’t want to continue on like this. None of us do, he can’t learn, and it’s not fun. We’re hoping we can get it right.

    After last weeks rain out, Bob and Steve immediately removed all the new unpainted panels. I got them to Jeremy on Monday and Anil had them painted in plenty of time so we could get lettering on the car for our TV taping for Cross Roads Friday morning, and of course to have our car ready for Fan Appreciation at Sunset Speedway on Saturday. It’s been kind of an easy week. Looking after Nonie has included making her meals, getting her whatever she needs, doing our laundry and taking our 3 puppies for walks throughout the day. All of our family have contributed to making things smoother around our home with Nonie laid up. I knew she always did a lot for us, but trying to fill her shoes is impossible. She is recovering and that is the most important thing. Once her knee is strong enough, she will be able to walk more and get some much needed exercise to help her back muscles. She sure has gone through alot the past few years and I hope this new knee gives her pain free days……..as for our Late Model we will take the doors and quarter panel to Steve Lyons to have him in stall new numbers and the big Quaker State on the drivers side. The Bob, Steve and I will install the panels Thursday night and load the car for a taping session for Cross Roads early Friday morning. I’m so glad we’re going to have the car back to where it should be, we just hope that our luck changes. We need to be optomistic and not worry about that, but it sure has had it’s toll on up so far in 2012. A feature win would make us all happy, but even a few weeks of good hard running with no incidents will do the trick as well….we’ll go with the feature win.

    Steve Lyons, owner of Creative Edge, and staff member Chris Berwick put the numbers on our doors and the left quarter panel. We ordered many decals from Creative Edge after our crash on May 27th and Steve got them done for us this week. We had no problem putting on the smaller decals, but I had zero interest in messing up one or both of the numbers, and for sure the big Quaker State on the side. If I tried I would of had bugs, dust, air bubbles and dirt between the beautiful sticker and the panel. I’ll pass. Creative Edge has lettered my cars many times over the years and do an amazing job for this very fussy race car owner. If you need graphics, Creative Edge is the place to go, they will meet your budget and if you want, sell you the decals for you to put on, or install them at a fair price. Another item on their menu is wrapping, that includes race cars, trailers and vehicles. We are taking our trailer to Creative Edge in the near future to have it wrapped. You can access their web site by clicking on the logo on the right side of this page….or call them at 519-741-1156…..more pictures of our progress will be going up soon. Bob our crew chief and Steve helped me install the decals for both sides, nose cone and rear left quarter, This was a huge help, now our car will be ready for a photo shoot and interview with Cross Roads, 100 Huntley Street Friday morning. This taoing will be aired at a later date, we’ll post it here when we know.

    It was a strange kind of night. We knew for a few days they were calling for rain in the Sunset area. Even on Saturday morning it looked doubtful that we’d get racing in. If it rained at Sunset Speedway we were heading to Flamboro Speedway for the Grisdale Triple Crown race. Last minutes calls to Sunset indicated the weather was very good, so we headed north. They were right, the sun was shining, it was a great night for the Fan Appreciation aspect, where drivers and crews went on the track and met fans, signed autographs and had a fun time in the hot sunny but humid background. We got all first round qualifying in, and second round for Mini’s and Thudner Cars. The rains came just as the Late Models were starting their final qualifying heats. It was after 9pm and when the rain got more intense the track had to make a decision to cancel. They told everyone in the pits they would honor rain tickets and to save wrist bands for the rain-delay show, to be announced later. It was just as good for us because though we found the problem with our brakes, we needed a little more time to get it right. Now we have a week…….the Honda episodes continued with the car still breaking down and missing, no power even to hardly keep up with the pace car on the white flag. We have tried everything, and had many very good knowledgeable people try to help us, but we are calling it a season for Gehrig. He is disappointed to not race, but not near as disappointed as he has been in his first five nights running so poorly. We don’t blame anyone, maybe myself for not getting a known, good legal car in the first place. We spent far more money than we planned on the Honda, and appreciate the many other hours spent by friends trying to get it to run competitively. Our last shot was installing a better module that would do the job, but when installed the car was no different. We may still try to get Gehrig in a car, but it means another few thousand dollars and we just don’t have the sponosrhip to get it done. We’re still trying, but the Honda is out…….on Friday we did a taping with Cross Roads, 100 Huntley Street and that show will air this coming Friday at 9:am in the morning……congratualtions to David and the Pennzoil team for finishing 2nd in the Grisdale Triple Crown race 75 lapper on Saturday night, as well to Paul Howse for taking the checker. The race was broadcast live on Sirius radio through Race Time Radio. Joe Chisholm, Josh Paxton and Robbie Thompson did the play by play and it was fantastic. Hope more Canadian tracks get RTR to do their specials.

    Congratulations to David and his team for winning one of the qualifying races on Saturday night and more importantly pulling off a second place finish in the 75 lap feature. The race was broadcast live on Sirius chanel 157 through Race Time Radio, and it was fantastic…what we heard. It was difficult for us to pay attention to our own show in Sunset with the excitement of the broadcast……David will try and defend his 2011 Grisdale Triple Crown title. Paul Howse won the feature and Brad Corcoran finished 3rd in the 18 car field, congrats also to both of their race teams……special thank you to RTR for the awesome job they did covering this race and making it so exciting. Joe Chisholm, Josh Paxton and Robbie Thompson did the play by play, it was fantastic to hear our local racers getting so much air time, good for everyone invloved……also a special thanks to Bill Grisdale and all the management at Grisdale Enterprises for not only supplying Scott Lyons a car for this race, but also dedicating the car to our great racing friend Bill Lyons……our team can’t make these races because of our commitment to Sunset Speedway, but we’re happy to hear it was a very successful event.

    Please meet Andrew. He is a huge race fan, and a true dedicated fan of our race team. Andrew is shown here helping us just prior to the CME show in February. Andrew and his family have been an amazing blessing to me and our race team since we first met them. Here are a few blessings: 1) Opening day we see a huge green and gold sign in turn four welcoming our team to Sunset 2) After some bad luck early in the season, Andrew prays specifically for me 3) On May 27th we suffered our worst crash in 44 seasons. Andrew witnessed the crash and wants to help us. He asks his dad to give our team a gift from him…..every cent in his piggy bank. Andrew we want you to know how much we appreciate your thoughtfulness towards our team, and to me personally. You have been such an incredible blessing it’s hard to put in words. I want you to keep watching and cheering for us, and when we win our next race, and it will be soon, please come down and get your picture taken with me. Thank you for making our season such a joy in spite of the trouble we’ve had. God is good, and I thank Him for you and your generous heart.

    This excellent looking art design by Joe Archer, could be the final picture we see of Gehrig for 2012. We have basically tried everything on the Mini Stock….Help Me Honda…even the Beach Boys new better and called it “Help Me Ronda”. The Honda can’t help us and neither can anyone else right now, I think there are too many changes made to get it back to normal. It would need to be totally gutted wiring wise and start over and that’s a winter project, as well a money project. We are parking this nice looking car, but are tyring to do something to get Gehrig a car within the next few weeks. We are looking for a sponsor for Gehrig to go along with Quaker State and a few other associates we have already. His season has been very frustrating for all of us, but especially Gehrig and he’s been very good about having six terrible nights resulting only in him being parked. He would soooner be parked than go another lap in the car…….special thanks to Joe Archer for this awesome creation.

    Unfortunately the weather man has called for heavy rain for today’s race, the second of four scheduled MRE Pro series Late Model races at Sunset Speedway. The Father’s Day invitational has been rescheduled for Sunday August 26th. This is the third rain out in a row for Sunset Speedway. Last Saturday’s races were cancelled in the evening before all qualifying was completed and the June 2nd race was called at noon. The next MRE show is July 11th, a Wednesday night. Regular racing resumes next Saturday night at Susnet Speedway, races start at 6pm.

    The pre season hype and plans favoured the Quaker State Late Model and Mini Stock teams. Most know however that both cars have gone through an incredibly disappointing start for 2012. Not giving up, because that’s not what we’re about, we hope to turn around the season for both the Quaker State cars……On ther other hand, the Pennzoil Late Model and Go-Cart teams are doing very well. Daivd has been amazing in his start with a 3rd on opening night at Flamboro, a win and 6th at Delaware Speedway for their opener and he followed that up with a heat win and 2nd in the first Grisdale Triple Crown race. Lauren has done very well moving up to the next level and racing against some very tough competitors. She has had a top five already and seen a few nights of great running. Lauren has had some tough luck this season but does show promising signs of being a decent competitor in the 25 cart field. Lauren’s next race is this weekend and is looking for her first win………..Gehrig is still in limbo, we’re trying to get his race program up again, with a different car……..this coming Saturday we’ll be back at Sunset for a night of racing with the Late Model.

    Late Model stock car racing resumes this coming Friday at Delaware Speedway. David had a good run in the season opener that saw 25 Late Models put on a good show for the huge crowd. David won his first Late Model race at Delaware taking the heat win on the last lap coming off turn four……Lauren will race her Go-Cart this Saturday and she could use some good luck. Lauren has been racing hard in a very comptetive field, and holding her own very well…….though on hold, Gehrig’s Mini Stock career could get kick started in a few weeks, we’re trying to put together a program to put him on the track in a car that runs proper. He’s been very good with the disappointment and has made it clear that he knows the meaning of the move over flag ………..the weather shows signs of being dry for us at Sunset Speedway this coming Saturday night. We lost three consecutive nights of racing, two regular shows and the second leg of the MRE Pro Late Model mini series. Two of the three are rescheduled so techically we didn’t lose them. We feel our bad luck has passed us by and we’ll get to show our true racing colors this weekend. It’s been a very frustrating and expensive start for our team, by far the worst in our 44 year history. We’re not giving up, it’s not an option for us. The best remedy for this ailness would be a feature win, and that’s our goal. Thanks to my family, our crew and sponsors for their incredible support. Hope to see you there.

    Dario Capirchio #03 and Kyle Mombourquette #22 are book ends for this battle through the middle of turns three and four. Stuck in the middle is #29 Sean Grossman. Not sure how this worked out, but the same kind of excitement will be seen again on Saturday June 23rd. Front gates open at 5:pm, and races start at 6:30, hope to see you there…RAIN TICKET RACE…if you were in the pits at Sunset Speedway on June 9th, your rain tickets are good for tomorrow, don’t forget to bring the bracelet!!!!!

    It was a beautiful night of racing, hot, then cool, and a decent size crowd. MacMaster Pontiac was the nightly sponsor. We ran well in the warm ups and then won our first heat of the night. Our struggles continued in the next heat and the feature. The full story will be on Diary Of A Season 2012 later today or tonight……Being at Sunset without Gehrig and the Mini Stock was kind of a sad day for us. Gehrig didn’t race, although the racing he’s had so far this year could hardly be considered fun for him or any of his fans. We’re hoping to resurrect his race program. We are on the edge of deciding to let him run for Rookie in 2013. He may be too far out right now to have a shot at it, and none of it by his own doing……David had an awesome run Friday night at Delaware finishing 2nd in the feature…….Lauren was banged up again, had one Cart drive right up on her shoulder. She was okay and managed an 8th in her feature.

    Sunset has a few differnt policies than Flamboro and both I didn’t realize until I got to the track. The first is that drivers don’t pay to get in, something many racers over the years argued for. I remember asking in 1974 why we paid to get in, the Leafs didn’t pay to play hockey, the Beatles or any other musician or entertainer didn’t pay to perform, so why did we have to. Thanks to Sunset for seeing it that way. Second, crews and fans are allowed to get their picture taken on the track right after the race. Flamboro stopped doing that about 10 years ago or more. It’s great for these people to get in the action. All tracks allow pictures with crews and fans for the features only. That would eliminate most teams of ever getting a chance for a picture if they could only get their family or crew under those circumstances, so thank you Sunset Speedway…..here Matt and Andrew Smith lead Bob, Justin, Steve, Debbie our neice, Lauren our grand daughter and #1 daughter Shirley make their way to the car. It sure felt good to win. We really want to get a good finish in a feature, and hopefully it’s coming soon.

    Congratulations to Bentley race team. He started 4th in the feature and didn’t take long to get the lead and pull away from the field. On every restart he pulled away by 3 or 4 car lengths. When the race went green for a few laps he was out of site. This win moves the Bentley team into 5th place in the points, though still aways back from the leader Kevin Cornelious who started 12th and picked up 2nd.

    Not all of our crew could be here tonight, but those who did make it were happy and relieved that we made it back to the winners cirlce. From left to right are Matt, his son Andrew, our awesome neice and fan Debbie, grand daughter and go-cart ace Lauren, our beautiful daughter Shirely, Steve, Bob and Justin…….It’s been a tough year on me, but clearly on my family, crew and fans as well. We had hearts drop in the next race after this heat when we were hit in the left rear and cut down a tire. The car went out of control but we were lucky to miss the cement walls and competitors. We sure do need a few weeks of clean competition to let us all relax and not be too over the top concerned everytime we go on the track. Meanwhile, winning a race like this does help everyone feel good and claim under their breath “yes we can do it”. There are no Late Model races this weekend at Sunset, but Varney is holding a July 1st Limited Late Model special. Any Pro Late cars will have to add about 250 pounds to their cars making it tough on the short tight Varney oval…….we will be at Sunset Speedway this Saturday in our Vintage Mod Chev Coupe.

    When a race team is struggling, whether it’s bad luck or any other reason, there are many people who suffer. The driver/owners of course, but so do the fans, crew and sponsors. Our crew have been through so much already and yet have been resilient in their effort and support. After winning the first heat from the pole, we made one change to help the car turn a little better in the corners. We were hoping to have a good run in the second to see how we would measure up starting from the rear. By lap three we were hit, sending the car in a wild spin down the front chute, after cutting the left rear tire. It was our 7th lost tire in 2012. Unable to continue the car was sitting in the in field and two of our crew came to the infield with a jack, spare and chordless impact gun. They changed the tire and we stayed in the infield watching the rest of our second heat and the Mini Stock heat before heading to our pit area. I am so thankful our team is not giving up, in fact they seem to bounce back after every event hoping for a better finish in the next race. Our feature races have been terrible with 9th being our best finish. We are totally out of the points chase for a top three, maybe top five, unless those teams head to Italy for a month. Sitting outside the top 10 by a small margin is our next goal, but in reality, even 8th to 6th seem a mile away. We badly need to put a string of good finishes back to back, our only hope to salvage this season. In spite of the poor results overall, our team has been an incredible bright light to me and my family, supportive, encouraging and inspiring and to them I am very grateful. Like me, they won’t give up, and for them, a feature win would sure make the tough times worth the wait, for me to………thanks to Dan Craik for this photo.

    I was heading along highway 89 yesterday and saw my old trailer in a driveway. The people who own it use it now for storage they don’t have a garage…..Jim Sweers built this trailer in 1989, we were the first team in the Hobby class to have an enclosed trailer, we were also criticized because our car was not exposed for people to see but hidden inside the trailer. I kind of agreed and thought about putting lexan on the side to see the car, but that never happened. The positive’s of this trailer was that we could carry many more parts and keep them dry, lots of Hobby drivers would drop by our trailer to borrow stuff, a deep contrast in the 70’s and early 80’s when we were the team borrowing parts. Oh yes and when it rained I usually had lots of friends inside the trailer……this was our first lettered (kind of a mini wrap) trailer. It was white the first few years but 10 years after it was built we had it lettered up to match our race car…..our new trailer is being wrapped at Creative Edge, wait and see what 14 years of technology in the graphic industry can do to a trailer when lettered by a professional company……picture coming very soon!!!!!

    Thanks to Quaker State for sponsoring the wrap on our trailer and to Creative Edge for an amazing job, not amazing in any sense but that it looks amazing, we knew it would be fantastic, but this is more than that. Steve and the boys took almost four days to do this and Quaker State and our team love it. Our first opportunity to show it will be the July 1st race at Varney Speedway……….today we race our Coupe with the boys of the CVM at Sunset Speedway. This is the third show of 2012 for the Hobby club. We are looking forward to running both the car and of course at our favourite track. Hope to see you there.

    We headed to Sunset today to race with our Hobby friends in the CVM. Nineteen cars showed up putting on a good show for the packed house. There were three heats and a feature. Ron Easton #00 won both his heat and the 25 lap main event starting on the pole in both races. In the past few races feature winners have come from the front row. It was the same back when we ran 25 to 30 nights in a season. Fast cars with bad luck would eventually start up front and once they could put it all together, like Ron did tonight, they would move further back in the field. Congrats to Ron, his family, team and sponsors……we had a so-so night finishing in one piece, and there is a lot to be said about that. We started last in our heat race and finsihed 7th, and started 15th in the feature and finished 11th. We were running 8th and looked like a few more spots were possible. On lap 16 or 17, during a yellow, our engine started to over heat. I was reluctant to pull in the pits but decided the better choice. Our single crew, Roger Spies, really couldn’t do anything. I restarted 15th and with a few laps left was able to come across the line in 11th and no more spewing of water. We have a few things to do to the Coupe to make it right, and one is to order a new front axle right away, and that will get done Tuesday……..July 1st we head to Varney for their big race event, a 75 lap Late Model invitational. Should be fun, but could be crazy. Were all thinking turn four!!! I am thinking to take hostage of myself and let things sort out. Be on the pole or at the back, they may be the two safest places. It should be a great show for the fans as the TQ Midgets will be there as well. Races start at 2pm and lots of big name Late Model drivers will be there including Mark Dilley and Scott Steckley, two top running NASCAR drivers. See you there.

    In mid February Tommy Robb, Late Model Champion at Varney Speedway helped Kent Nuhn, new owner promoter of Varney, organize an Invitational for July 1st. He went to all the drivers he could see at the CME show asking if they would be interested in coming. When asked, I said I’d be there. It was our first time at Varney in a Late Model and first return back since 2005. On that visit we blew up Dave Watson’s engine in the Hobby car. I always like running Varney, even on the old track and won a few heats over the years, a feature in 1987 and a little feature in 1989. The driver’s that promised to come, some made pre entry commitments, totalled 15 to 20 for the show. They included Mark Dilley, Scott Steckley, Jason Parker and Tom Walters. Because it looked like a big field, many decided not to come, and others who said they’d be there headed west to Peterborough. David would have brought the Pennzoil car but it looked like the weight penalties were going to be too high so he decided not to enter or even say he would come. There were two Sauble Late Models, running built engines. These two were 3 tenths faster than any other cars in the field. So much so, we really didn’t have a chance to win unless we could have added a four barrel, even then I’m not sure, but it would have helped. We knew we’d been running for 3rd, as would the rest of the cars there, and we did get 4th, right on 3rd place at the end. In spite of the small field of cars it was a good competitive race. I like the new track, never really had an issue with turn four on this visit……….The owner, staff and people at Varney are great, reminded me of back in day, in our early years in the Hobby club, everyone friendly and helping each other out. The show was a success, beautiful day, good size crowd, autograph session with the Late Models and TQ Midgets who put on another great race…… Congratulations to Dan Wright on his win, and special thanks to Tim and Donna Tolton for their help and hospitality. Also, Jason Green for making the trip and pitting for us. Jason usually helped Gehrig, but came with me and was a big help…….. Eric Uprichard made the trek as well, taking pictures for Ontario Oval. This shot is of us going into the gates with our newly wrapped trailer……the full story on the Varney race will be up soon……PS, our trailer looks like it has a peak roof, it doesn’t but if it did, would make for some nice storage, or sleeping area. Maybe not for sleeping.

    Eric from Speedway Photo’s and Jason Green, one of our crew members, and crew member for our grand son Gehrig, joined me on the track at Varney on Sunday afternoon. I think one of the best things tracks can do for their customers is the “Autograph Session”. It gives the fans, young and old an opportunity to meet the drivers, get a picture and a close up look at the race car. Some kids are very excited when they come down to the track and are so excited they can hardly talk when you ask them their name. Sometimes, if possible, putting the kids in the race car is a memory that will last a long time in a very positive way. We build our sport when we participate in these kinds of promotions, but the tracks gets a huge pat on the back for allowing it to happen, they call it “Fan Appreciation”, and I’m sure the fans truly appreciate it. I love it and always participate, and on this day I think every Late Model and TQ at Varney were on the track.

    Ray Michaels, disc jockey at CKOC 1150, invited us to participate in his 5th Annual Kings & Classic show at the Rockton Fair Grounds on Sunday July 8th. We had to survive the racing at Sunset Speedway July 7th, and we did, so Bob, Maggie and I will be there. Hope you can drop by.

    Bob and Matt go over the car just before hot laps. Though our car was ready, we always double check the basics even after a thorough maintenance check during the week. We also went to tech and scaled the car, it seemed right, ride height and numbers wise, the wedge never seems the same as what our scales read, but we went with it. We had our newly wrapped trailer on Saturday night, our team looked awesome. More pictures to follow.

    Almost every intimidation has crossed our path in the past 2 months, mechanical problems, our worst crash ever in 44 years, opening night $1500 loss and being reminded everytime we come to Sunset that the other drivers there are …not afraid to race hard…the best in Ontario…and so on. Just to let everyone know, we have been racing against the best drivers in Ontario since 1972, the toughest Hobby drivers on earth, and the past 7 seasons at Flamboro with many top Champions at that track. We’re not afraid, we’re not intimidated, we feel we may be trying to get too much out of our car that we felt at the beginning of the season would be competitive. The jury is still out, but it sure looks like we need some major up grades to run with the bulls. We’ll get it, we’re not giving up……..thanks to my crew who have been very dedicated and taking this roller coaster ride of a season with smiles and encouragement. Not sure if they get that from me, but I sure appreciate it from them, and all the fans we have you have been so supportive not to mention the incredible staff encouragement, thank you crew, fans and Sunset Speedway. We love it here.

    A lap one crash took out a few contenders including Brandon Watson and Chris Morrow. There was only two more cautions after that and then a long run of green till the end saw Tom Walters and Mike Bentley destroy the awesome field of Pro Lates. Every car was lapped at least once expect Bentley who would have been lapped if it was a 100 lap race. It wasn’t anything like the Pro Late Invitationals in 2010 and 2011 where parity was much more evident. The full race report will be on Diary Of A Season soon.

    Coupe Heads To Flamboro, Trailer Heads To Sunset With Late Model

    Flamboro Speedway will host the Hobbies on Saturday night. Derrick Melenbacher will pilot our Coupe for this event. Some major work was done at Ron Easton’s Oakville Trailer shop last week. A new axle, other front end parts and a complete set up. Derrick will do fine in the car. Good luck to our CVM Quaker State team……….Meanwhile we head up to Sunset Speedway to run our Limited Late against the Pro Late Limited Late Super Lates. As many of you know, Tom Walters engine was sealed after Wednesday night, and will be checked after the races Saturday. To be honest, it really doesn’t matter to me. It’ more than the engine that needs to be checked. To run in the Pro Late Model series, the Limited Lates were allowed to remove 120 pounds, put in the small 5.5″ clutch, run 10″ rims and add the 4 barrel. Those changes should have made the Limited Lates with the 602 competitive, not a second faster than their regular night lap times, and certainly not to the point where both Tom and Mike Bentley lapped the field. Mike passed Tech after the race, so all was okay with his car, though not all was okay with the hot shoes from Delaware and Flamboro who were smoked, as well as the rest of the builts and 602’s who apparently all missed the set up. I really think that Tom and Mike should have used some discretion. A spotter or someone could have suggested to get the lead and slow down a little, make a race out of it. That didn’t happen, and what did happen has most of the racing community buzzing. Maybe it’s good they ran the way they did, because now something can be done to implement a Crate program that works, and stick to it, although more than just the Crate has to be reeled in. It will mean starting over, and that should be done before things are so far out of control there’s no turning back. After what we seen on Wednesday, it appears we’re already there and some major changes should be in place for 2013. There will be changes no doubt for the next MRE race, hopefully we get the cars to come back. It sure is an amazing place to race, and in spite of what’s been going on lately, I have no regrets of making the move north for 2012……..we will have our Quaker State Late Model on display at New Roads Chevrolet in New Market on Sunday from 10:am until 2:pm. If you’re in the area, drop by and say hello…..see you at Sunset Speedway, we’re hoping to inch a little closer to the front, sure is a tough haul with this core of racers and cars, but we love the track, staff, fans and competitors.

    Keith Maiato #6 leads this heat race going down the back chute with Tom Walters #47 ready to strike on the inside. Our car was much better this week end, still need to be able to get on the gas quicker in the middle. We’re working on it. Tom won this race and we finished 2nd. The complete story of July 14th is on Diary Of A Season 2012…………Gehrig was out in his new ride the 1993 Bullen Honda that we purchased last Wednesday night. Pictures of his outing will be up next.

    The first 5 weeks for Gehrig were a nightmare for him, his family and crew. We were all disappointed with not being able to get the Civic to run competitively. Those who gave us the first car, who changed the engines and who helped try to get it going again were frustrated and disappointed as well. It became a project that was better to let go then invest more money in. We decided to take some time off and wait for a car that was proven and one we could watch race and then buy. We chose the Brandon Bullen car. He is the 3rd generation driver in that family and races very well. The car was fast as Branden showed the night we made our decision. We also requested the car go through tech and then Shirley made the purchase………Gehrig is shown here battling for the first time in his racing career. He raced hard in his heat until he experienced his first crash. Going into turn three while passing cars he got too high and into the marbles making the car impossilbe to turn. He hit the turn four wall, breaking a lower control arm. He was okay physically but learned the hard way by not being able to return to the track. He is a racer and will need to be patient before racing that hard again. Once he can handle his new car, to steer, counter steer and pass clean, he is free to go. That will come with lots of laps running fast. Grampa will be his mentor for the next few weeks in hopes of teaching him a few basic lessons and what to expect in certain situations. I like the fact he was staying with the pack, it won’t be long before he feels confident in his new car allowing him to race it. Gehrigs next race is Saturday the 21st, but we are taking him to Flamboro this week for some practice laps.

    Drop by and see us tomorrow from 11:am until 2:pm at 7171 Jane Street. There will be lots to see with many companys participating including Rheem and Noble two of our sponsors. We will hand out autograph cards and visitors are welcome to have their picture taken in the car. Hope to see you there.

    We had our car on display Friday from 10:am until 2:30 pm for the Noble Appreciation Barbeque annual event. We were there promoting our sponsor Rheem Canada and supporting Noble. There were many vendors with displays, it was estimated that over 700 visitors including contractors dropped by for the awesome barbeque. This was our 12th show of the year………we return to Sunset Speedway tomorrow night, as well as Gehrig and the Mini Stock team. Races start at 6:30 pm.

    Sunset Speedway held their second Fan Appreciation for 2012. It was a packed house and lots of fans dropped by our car. Every car was on the track to give fans pictures, candy and sign the souvenir programs they purchased. We are developing a good size fan base at Sunset, many fans wished us well and let us know they were cheering for us. We had a decent night, the race report is on Diary Of A Season 2012, we have an easy week and are looking forward to our visit to Faith Church Summer Camp next Friday and then on Saturday night Sunset Speedway will host their first ever Family Faith Night. Many local churches and churches from Oshawa to Wasaga to Hamilton will be represented. More on that later this week.

    Sunset Speedway will host the first ever Family Faith Night on July 28th. The event got it’s genesis when Paul Johnson director of Open Doors Canada, and Lawson Murray President of Scripture Union Canada and I discussed the possibility of having a special spiritual night. Once we talked to the management team at Sunset Speedway we were on our way to having a night at the races, where God would be front and center….namely Jesus. The FFN entourage of workers, members and guests, will take over the VIP lounge area. We’re hoping for 100 or more people. There will be other local churches in attendance and one of the organizers will open the night in prayer, just before the national anthem. Open Doors, SU Canada and the Canadian Bible Society have all partnered in this endeavour, and collectively will present the first 500 fans with a gift bag. We will be giving out t-shirts as door prizes, and some t-shirts may fly through the air for waiting fans. It should be an awesome night. If you would like to be part of this night, and involved in the VIP hospitality area, click on the Scripture Union logo on the right side of this picture, third from the top, and on their front page is the big checker oval that links you to ticket purchases. I’m hoping this night brings a new awareness to the love God has for everyone of us.

    Gehrig had his newly painted and lettered Honda in the fast lane Saturday night. He was racing hard and picked up a 10th in the Mini Stock feature, his best Stock Car feature finish in his very young racing career. Gehrig showed lots of potential and simply needs seat time to get faster each week. His issue before was the Civic had no get up and go. That’s not the case now, and with a good car to drive, he will learn this sport much quicker. He still needs to learn his own car, and how to pass cars properly and with confindence, that will all take time. The more times he races in a pack, the more he’ll learn his own limitations, and just as important, the characteristics of his competitors. We were all proud of him Saturday night, and he smiled a lot to……….the Late Model had another strong run, that’s three in a row. We finished 5th in the feature. Both our heat races were tough as we got boxed in and could not get out until we were near the tail end, however in both heats we came back to gain a few valuable points. We are now 8th in the standings, but have a long way to go to hope for a top five. We’ll keep digging.

    We’ve had a terrible start to this season, but based on our performance the past three weeks, it would have appear that we’ve turned a corner. We’ve done it with some good luck but also a decent car in the feature races. We had a 4th two weeks ago, then 7th and now 5th. Attrition helped us this week, but our car was better for most of the race. We’ve been trying new things hoping to gain a little on the top three, but we have a ways to go to battle with those dudes. We still need to get through the corners better, come off better and go in further. Seems simple enough, and we have a game plan. We are certain there is still a lot more in both the car and me to close the huge gap between the three Amigo’s and our team. The top cars are running awesome times, getting through the corners and not one of them is listening to the track manager who says “you don’t have to win it on the first lap”. They are flying from start to finish, but so is the rest of the field, we’re just having trouble flying as quick as they are. We have more troops coming in to fight this war. Some better parts and strategies will gain us a few more feet per lap and that seems to be the only way now to improve is a little each week…….this weekend is a double header with a Limited Late Model special on Sunday. That race starts at 6:pm front gates open at 4:30 and back gate at 1:30. Hope to see you there.

    We’ve had a terrible start to this season, but based on our performance the past three weeks, it would have appear that we’ve turned a corner. We’ve done it with some good luck but also a decent car in the feature races. We had a 4th two weeks ago, then 7th and now 5th. Attrition helped us this week, but our car was better for most of the race. We’ve been trying new things hoping to gain a little on the top three, but we have a ways to go to battle with those dudes. We still need to get through the corners better, come off better and go in further. Seems simple enough, and we have a game plan. We are certain there is still a lot more in both the car and me to close the huge gap between the three Amigo’s and our team. The top cars are running awesome times, getting through the corners and not one of them is listening to the track manager who says “you don’t have to win it on the first lap”. They are flying from start to finish, but so is the rest of the field, we’re just having trouble flying as quick as they are. We have more troops coming in to fight this war. Some better parts and strategies will gain us a few more feet per lap and that seems to be the only way now to improve is a little each week…….this weekend is a double header with a Limited Late Model special on Sunday. That race starts at 6:pm front gates open at 4:30 and back gate at 1:30. Hope to see you there.

    We’re always looking for the perfect shot of our team. This one has the idea of what I would like to get. The car, and flags flying, but missing of course is Gehrig, our crew, the Mini Stock, the CVM and the CVM crew and a good shot of the trailer. We will find a windy day soon and get all the components together for a great shot, but I liked this one just the same. Thank you Urban.

    Gehrig goes high coming off two, following the path of #99 Rob Krystal. Unfortunately Ken Townsend #21 has no where to go, nor does #1 Dave Henderson as they jam on the brakes to avoid the spinning Mustang of #78 Wendy Adams. Mini’s have a double header this weekend racing both Saturday night and Sunday at Sunset Speedway. Races start at 6:30 on Saturday and 6:00 on Sunday. Click on the Sunset logo on the top of our front page to see the prices and other info on this weekends racing.

    This weekend the racing community is hoping for awesome weather for the the long weekend double header. Saturday night it’s regular points with Tom Walters on top. Mike Bentley is 28 points behind followed by Kevin Cornelious who is 51 points behind. The points are structured in favour of having flawless nights. One bad night and you could be out of the hunt. Though Mike had a disaster opening night, he has been incredible ever since. Kevin had been very consistent but dropping out of the feature on lap one two weeks ago hurt his team badly. As for the battle for the top five, its between Sean Cronan and Taylor Holdaway. Jason Witty and Dario Capirchio hold 6th and 7th, but need a good night to close the gap. We are back of those two and also need a hot August to gain on 7th and 6th………..Sunday is the first of two Limited Late Model specials. We will be in that show instead of the Sauble show, which we’ve been in every year since 2006. Hoping for good weather and a good night for our team. I will be without any crew this weekend. Bob and Matt are on holidays, Ryan is working and Steve can’t make it out. The good news is David will be helping me as spotter and with any changes we need. Races start at 6:30 on Saturday and 6:00 on Sunday.

    What a night for David and his team as they won the 35 lap feature at Delaware Speedway Friday night. This was David’s first feature win ever at Delaware. The victory moves him into 2nd place in the points standings, with a shot at winning the title. We are all very proud of David and his team, fantastic run……..David will be with me tonight at Sunset Speedway as crew chief and spotter. Wouldn’t it be nice to make it a family weekend of winning….we sure are going to try.

    We had our best feature finish in since 2010 with a hard fought third in the thirty lap main. Our car was very good all race. My crew were on holidays, or working. David offered to help me, and so did J.J. and the Zardo crew, namely Glen. David was crew chief and spotter, doing both jobs well. David won the feature Friday at Delaware Speedway and we were hoping to make it a family weekend of feature wins. We sure tried and did lead for the first 15 laps until a fifth caution allowed both Mike Bentley and Kevin Cornelious to catch up. Bentley was gone on the restart and a lap later Cornelious got by, but we held onto 3rd even with another caution with 2 laps to go. On that green-white-checker Sean Cronan #84 and I had a side by side battle for those final two laps. David kept coaching me to drive in harder, but he knew I would be doing what it took so I didn’t run into Sean. We got him by half a car length at the line. Even more incredibly amazing was the battle for the win. Kevin beat Mike by .001 of a second in a photo finish…….Matt and Ryan were going to come to the Sunday show at Sunset but rain cancelled that event…….Special thanks to David for all his help, and doing a great job spotting and helping get our car better………we are at a Teen Camp all week and will return to run the Grisdale Triple Crown race………..Thanks to Joe Archer for this neat shot and graphics.

    We took our car to Wesley Acres on Tuesday of this week to be part of the Teen Week event. A three day seminar, learning about the safety, maintenance and suspension was taught to the 44 teens who came to the pavilion in four groups starting at 8:30 in the morning. The sessions were approximately 50 minutes each. One visitor, not part of Teen Week, was Caleb Sayer from Pennsylvania. He loved the car from the moment he laid eyes on it and dropped by every day, not saying much when classes were around the car, but asking many questions about the car when there was just the two of us. I gave Caleb a hat and t-shirt courtesy of Sunset Speedway, and he immediately went back to his cabin to tell his family. It was great to be able to make so many youngsters happy these past three days including Caleb. The final day was a version of the Amazing Race. When the various classes got to the pavilion where the car was they had to rotate the 2 right side tires, and recite 1st Corinthians 15:57. It was a great day, even the rain stayed away giving the teens an enjoyable day going to each station, there were 6 including the race car stop. The fastest time rotating two tires from jacking it up to the tires hitting the ground when they were done was 80.620 seconds…………. Our car was prepared for Flamboro’s Grisdale Triple Crown race before we left, and that was a good thing because getting home late on Friday would not have given us much time to get our car some what close to running at Flamboro. The weather doesn’t look too promising, but we never worry about the weather much anymore, most tracks call it off early, but if Flamboro doesn’t, we’re only 15 minutes away……we wish David and the Pennzoil team a great finale, they are leading the series, and it would be great to see them win it two years in a row.

    The final race of the Grisdale Triple Crown series runs today at Flamboro Speedway. This will be our only appearance in the G3, never missing one of the shows in the past seven seasons. Our commitment to run Sunset Speedway as our home track made it impossible for us to make the other two races, but we are going to be in the finale. David leads the series and we hope he can win his second Triple Crown series in two years. Hope to see many of our fans there today.

    If there’s one driver that has to stop spinning David out, it’s Jason Shaw. Shaw was maybe 2 to 3 tenths faster than everyone but during the first heat race, while David was leading, Jason got into David spinning him off turn two. David went scratch but the track let Jason keep his spot. Jason was 11 points behind inteh Grisdae Triple Crown, and needed to close the gap between him and David in the heats. David was leading the series with a 10 point lead over Paul Howse and 11 over Jason. Jason went on to win that heat and David finished 8th, a gain of 7 points. In the next heat David finished 4th and Jason 3rd. Heading into the feature David had a 3 point lead. Paul finished first in his first heat and 8th in the 2nd but had trouble with his clutch and was unable to use his car in the feature. He got to drive Shane Gowan’s #39. David had trouble in the feature, finishing 8th with a power issue. Jason took 3rd and Paul was beat up near the end of the race after doing an awesome job getting back up to 2nd. Jason won the series by 3 points. Had he been sent scratch after dumping David, he would have finished 2nd in the series………we finished 11th with our very limited, Limited Late. Old tires, 54% left side, too high, too heavy and no power, were ingredients for last place, and that’s where we finished, but ahead of everyone from 12th back. Our 11th place finish was better than expected, and I can’t believe I said that…..this Wednesday is the 3rd race of the MRE series. We are 14th in that series and still trying to finish in the top 10…hope to see you there.

    Congratulations to Mark Watson and his team for fighting a hard battle, holding off some tough customers to take the checker in the 75 lap feature at Flamboro Speedway on Sunday. Mark is currently leading the Delaware points, a few ahead of David who sits 2nd in both the Delaware regular night racing, and their triple crown series. David finished 2nd in the Grisdale Triple Crown, Jason Shaw took top honors in this years event….our next race is the Sunset Speedway MRE four race series, this will be the third race of that mini series. Races start at 7, expect to see Mark there to battle with Tom Walters and Mike Bentley, though it’s not officially certain he is going. Steve Laking and Brad Corcoran are running 3rd and 4th behind the two Sunset aces, and will be there to close the gap in the MRE standings. The question isn’t so much who will be at the race, but who will be able to catch Tom Walters. The extra added weight will slow him down, but he is my pick to win this race. I can’t see the weight being a factor. but hopefully it’s enough to make it a race for the fans…..hope to see you there.

    It looks like a full field is shaping up for the MRE show tonight at Sunset Speedway, including the fast and very classy APC team of Luke Ramsay with Jamie Cox driving the #22. Cox was hard luck at the Grisdale Triple Crown race on Sunday, but has ran very well at Sunset Speedway in all the special events the past few seasons……..Sunset promoter Mark Dilley added 75 pounds to the Limited Lates in hopes to make the show more competitive. It’s not sure what will transpire at the fast banked oval with this weight penalty, but the goal was to make the racing exciting for the fans, and hopefully it works. Tom Walters won the first two rounds, lapping all competitors but the second place car of Mike Bentley. In spite of the extra tonnage, both he and Mike will be tough to beat……This year Bentley has 4 feature wins, and Walters 3, including the MRE shows. The talent and achievenments of the field that start the feature should include some of the best stock car drivers in Ontario, but they’ll have to be the best to have a shot at winning. It’s expected a full field will be attending and many trying to end Stompin’ Tom’s streak. My guess is he will win again, though Bentley will be very tough. Some of the invaders will no doubt have changed their cars as well to give themselves a better shot at taking the win. Hope to see you there, should be a good one.

    Well my complaints about no parity in the last MRE race were answered with an awesome competitive 75 lapper. The July 11th show saw the winner lap every car but one. That wasn’t the case on Wednesday night, as 22 of Ontario’s finest Late Model drivers showed up to battle on the very fast third mile high banked oval. Mike Bentley won this race but was a long way from lapping everyone, in fact Mike had his hands full as a group of cars ran tight near the end, battling for the win. The crowd size could have been better, and it’s a shame it had to rain when it did. Had the rains came early in the afternoon we may have seen a much bigger crowd, but it rained around 4:00 and took an hour or so to clear out of the area. That may have scared some fans off that otherwise would have made it out. The Quaker State team had a much better race this time, running hard battles for most of the race, finishing 10th. The full story will be on Diary Of A Season 2012 tonight. We qualified better as well……….our next race is Saturday at Sunset, races start at 6:30PM.

    The next 2 weeks will be busy stock car racing wise in southern Ontario, especially for our team. David is racing at Delaware and is currently 2nd in both the regular points and the Delaware Triple Crown series. In the next 14 days our team will run seven times, Sunset the 18th, Flamboro the 20th, the 23rd at Barrie for the Garry Reynolds Memorial, then a double header at Sunset on the 25th and 26th, the Sunday race being the final MRE 75 lapper…just like the MacDonald commercial says “I’m lovin’ it”.

    Flamboro Speedway will host it’s first “Gold Rush Shoot Out”. There are 24 cars pre-entered and another six expected making the field up to 30 cars, maybe more. The deal is a $10K pay out to the top qualifer who says they will go to the back of the field. If any one of the top qualifiers says they will go to the back, the pole sitter has first choice, or last choice depending on how they do it, and they win, they get the ten thousand dollar, $5000 for the win and a $5000 bonus. The pay out is good regardless, so there is really no need for guys to drive like they’re on a day pass from the asylum, 10th is $650. This is the best payout in the past 15 years, maybe ever for Late Models….$500 to start. We will be there, only this time with our var prepared better than it was in the Grisdale Triple Crown race. We are likely not to be one of the quicker cars because of our engine, but we may improve a little with newer tires, and a better chassis set up. The MRE races have drawn top runners, this should draw all of them. Gates open at 5 races start at 7, no other classes just Late Models.

    Kenny Wallace was awesome on and off the track at the Flamboro Gold Rush event. He was kind enough to come over to our team, meet all our crew and get this shot, taken by one of our sponsors Eric Uprichard. Kenny went on to qualify and finish 3rd in the race, he said we had an awesome looking team…….we were hoping to be somewhat competitive, but fell short power wise, it was like taking a dog-sled to an NHRA national event and hoping to beat the Funny Cars. We did improve alot over our last race time wise but with our HP down, a 5″ ride height, we were struggling to keep ahead of the much more powerful engines. We were happy that we ended the night clean, no serious damange, but perhaps the high light of the night was meeting this very friendly and awesome sportsman Kenny Wallace. The full race report will be up hopefully by tomorrow, we are changing our car back to where it was on Saturday as we prepare for the Gary Reynolds Memorial this coming Thursday at Barrie Speedway.

    The month of August has been incredibly busiest for our team. We had scheduled 8 races and 2 shows including a four day Teen Camp. Back in 1978 the Hobby club ran 17 races in 6 weeks, and in 1990 we ran the most nights in a season with 39. If we make all of them in 2012 we could hit 30 making 2012 our 4th highest number of races in 44 years. Add to that 15 appearances, and one more to go, and we will be over 45 race nights and show events for one season, making 2012 our busiest ever…..thanks to my wife for allowing me to race this much, my crew for making as many races as they can, my sponsors for their tremendous support, for the race tracks for hosting these races and thank you Lord for keeping us safe……finally to Joe Archer for making this awesome graphic.

    The Gary Reynolds Memorial 100 lap invitational was an incredible race with only two cautions in the first 50 lap feature, the second half went green to checker with lots of side by side racing. Mike Bentley won the feature continuing his domination of 2012 everywhere he goes. It was our first time on the new designed Barrie Speedway. The last time here on the old track we won the CVM feature. We didn’t win, but ran awesome finishing 7th in the feature. It was a hard fought battle with some of the top Barrie drivers, Dwayne Baker, Keith McLeod, Gord Shepherd, Al Inglis, Robin Jongen and of course some strong invaders. I really enjoyed everything about the race and track. It reminds of racing back in the 50’s and 60’s, covered stadium, short track, close hard racing, a perfect scenario. Thanks to Barrie for having the race, to all the racers for running us hard and clean and to my crew Ryan, Matt and Paul for helping put an a competitive race car on the the track…..the full story will be up on Diary Of A Season 2012 on the message board later tonight.

    We head to Sunset for a double header this weekend. We’re hoping to have a good run on Saturday to help us move closer to 7th in the points chase, and then on Sunday we have the fourth and final MRE race. We are currently 11th in that series, hoping to get in the top ten. Our last MRE race was the best yet and just this past Thursday we had a strong run at Barrie. Our car is working very good, in spite of the fact it;s on the verge of being outdated, not quite obsolete, but clearly outdated as far as chassis and engine go, compared to many of the cars we’re running against. We’ve worked hard getting it to where it is now, making it possible for us to be compeititve, and we are still trying to inch it better every race. Our next major step is engine and chassis updating. That won’t happen this year but will definetly be at the top of our list for 2013………Sunset should have awesome racing this weekend, the weather looks great, very hot, hotter in the cars……we’re looking to pull off a win see you there.

    The final round of the MRE four series was held on Sunday and our team had a good start to the race with a 6th best qualifying speed. Tom Walters won the pole with a 14:550, our time was 14:734. The invert was 8, putting us 3rd on the start of the race. Our car was very good for the first 30 laps, running awesome on the outside and not so good low, very loose off. We had one green flag run of 22 laps and ran outside of Steve Laking the entire time. Our hopes of a top five finsih came to an end when our rotor broke in the distributor cap on lap 50. This was our 8th race in 22 nights…….Next weekend we have a double header again at Sunset Speedway including a Limited Late Invitational on Sunday…..Special thanks to my crew for working hard on Saturday and Sunday.

    Taping the grille was only one thing we did to help make our car as good as it could be in the MRE time trials on Sunday. We increased tire pressure on the right rear, scaled the car a few times to make our balance was good and added a spacer plate for the carb, something we didn’t do last time. Though our times were slower than August 15th, the last MRE race where we turned a 14:634, putting us 9th, they were faster than all but five cars for this time trial session. Our 14:734 was 6th quickest. We were very happy watching the board for the final 10 cars seeing our number still on the board, and then, Dwayne Baker, the final car, turned a few hundreds better putting us to 6th, but not getting us down. The boys did a good job all weekend…….congrats to Brandon Watson #9 for winning the race and Tom Walters #47 for winning the series.

    Gary Elliott Motorsports will be on display Friday August 31st to help raise support for the local Flamborough Good Bank. Drop by and see my crew chielf Bob Periera and I. You may even get a chance to win tickets to Sunset Speedway. We’ll be there from 3 until 6 pm….please bring an item for the Food Bank.

    Bob and I arrived about 2:45 to set up for our part of the Flamborough Food Bank & Back To School event at Wal-Mart in Waterdown. We were scheduled to be there from 3pm to 6pm but stayed until after 7pm. It was a great day. lots of people came by. Flamboro Speedway benefited as well, although free tickets were provided by Sunset Speedway. There are two days left to drop off a food or school item in the containers inside the Wal-Mart store……..tomorrow we head to Sunset in hopes of recovering after a tough Saturday night last weekend. Then on Sunday we have a Limited Late Model Invitational….hope to see you there.

    We ran a double header this weekend at Sunset Speedway. We ran okay in both, had decent runs getting a 6th and 7th in each feature. Our car has a severe push, it’s too tight, making it hard to get on the throttle without waiting, and when I do it’s very loose off. We will have that fixed this weekend. Our crew have been very good, working on the car steady, trying to get it right. We have 2 nights of points racing left and cap the season off with three double weekend Invitationals. ONe at Sunset, Flamboro and the finale at Peterborough……in this picture by Dan Craik #29 Sean Grosman was able to pass us and take the win….our next race is this coming weekend September 8th…..Monday morning we take our car to school in Milton at the Milton Christian School for a welcome to the kids and an opportunity to speak for a few minutes and encourage them for the coming year….our Saturday night race, September 1st, is posted on our “Diary Of A Season”, the Sunday race will be finished by Tuesday night….thanks for visiting our site.

    During the driver introduction at Sunset Speedway’s 75 lap Limited Late Invitational, these two youngsters were placed on our roof by Mark Dilley for a photo opportunity. Matt was standing by to lend a hand and to make sure the window net was up and I was all set……Ryan called the race, did a great job. It was his third time spotting, all have been 75 lap races…..This was a good show with lots of diciing throughout. We finished 7th with only two rivets taking a beating, and that to me is a victory of sorts…..the full story is on Diary Of A Season 2012…..our next race is this Saturday at Sunset Speedway.

    This picture was taken from the Sunset Limited Late Model Invitational on September 2nd. Sean Grosman #29 started behind us and after battling a few laps he finally got by to take another checker in 2012. Sean won the feature two weeks ago, and is having a strong late season surge……This weekend things tighten up in the points chase as cars battle for the top 15 spots. Tom Walters leads Mike Bentley and Kevin Cornelious by 30 points, but it’s not a comfortable cushion with the way the points are given out. Each spot is worth four points in the feature and any car that has a DNF or goes to the rear of the main event in the closing laps is in danger of losing a lot of ground on the car in front, or to the cars behind. The battle for 5th between Sean Cronan and Taylor Holdaway is close, so is the battle for 6th to 10th, and 11th to 15th, as cars fighting for those positions are very close….Stock car racing resumes this Saturday at 6:pm.

    We ran out of 10″ Chrome wheels for the last three MRE races so we used some black wheels and the car looked great with them on. Not sure what the fan favourite would be. We don’t have any black 8″ wheels, but these 10″ will run on the car the final races of 2012, Octoberfest and Autumn Colors. We’ll decided next season what wheels we’ll go with, I have been chrome since 1983 for most of my racing career, but the black does look nice….maybe for the specials we’d be black. A Black or Chrome topic is on the message board and your comments are welcome…….after racing 10 nights in October, waiting 14 days to race again seems a life time….this Friday we are at Rheem Canada for a barbeque event…..Saturday night is the final points race and we can mathematically finish 6th, that’s our hope and our goal.

    Our race team heads to Rheem Canada early Friday morning for a barbeque event. This promotion will run from 11:30 until 1:30. Our display will feature autograph cards signed and given away as well as answering any questions about racing…………..On Saturday we’ll be invaded by the Canadain Motorcycle Cruisers (CMC), a posting will be put up on Friday to promote their event with us at Sunset Speedway on Saturday the 15th.

    On Saturday the Candian Mortorcycle Cruisers will come to our place in the morning, have a meet and greet, coffee and snacks, get a tour of our shop, the museum and see our daily routine for preparing to go to a race every week end. After we load up they will follow us up the 400 highway. Sunset Speedway is going to make a donation to the CMC that will go towards their charity, supporting the Durham Childrens Aid. Should be a fun night…..I wonder if my peers will be intimidated by our gang of friends……maybe not so much……but we’re glad they are coming to support our team and our sport. We hope for a strong run, and to put on a good show for our fans and the CMC members in the final points night at Sunset Speedway for 2012.

    It was to be a great fun day with the Canadian Mortorcycle Cruisers, and in spite of the finish to our night, it was a fun day and night. The boys came, seven on motorcycles from the Oshawa area, they spent about an hour or so in our garage and then headed from our place to Sunset Speedway to get, for some of them, their first up close glimpse of stock car racing. Lead by my former crew chief Steffon Zoskey, the boys got to see and how we set up our pits, they even helped quite a bit, including changing tires. We finished 5th in our first heat, and then after starting 8th in the next heat, our car lost power half way through while in 4th place…….the engine let go, possibly a rod. We will take off the pan and peak, but there is no way we’ll do what we did over 70 times with our Inlines’, and that’s rebuild it. A brand new engine is $3200, an Inline is twice that for a rebuild, but comes with a warranty, an hour glass. A new engine will be included in our 2013 budget…….meanwhile Gehrig gave me a hand today pulling the engine out. We’re hoping to borrow a 602 for Sunset’s Velocity weekend special. A few people are looking for an engine for us, inlcuding Mark Dilley. We asked last night at the track, and did get an offer to run Jason Witty’s built engine. Thanks Jason, but all our bolt on stuff is for a crate. Hopefully we can get an engine for next weekend, if not, we’ll put the 604 in the car for Octoberfest and Autumn Colors……special thanks to Steffon for organizing the day at the races with the CMC members and spending it with our team and helping us out…..now we clean all the bolt on stuff and wait for someone’s generosity.

    Since we heard about Shane’s illness and pending operation our family have all been concerned for Shane and his family. Nonie have been doing the only thing we know, pray. We’re praying for wisdom for the Doctor’s, for a succesful operation, and for complete healing, delivering Shane from the pain he’s had for far too long. His operation is today, Wednesday September 19th and we continue to lift Shane up in prayer and blessing from our Lord. God bless you buddy, we know this is a tough deal for you. We can’t be there, but we’re there in spirit. Looking forward to talking to you soon……******UPDATE****** September 20th….operation was a success, still some concerns, please keep praying for full recovery for our friend

    “Thank you Lord for giving our friend not only a successful operation but getting him back home quick with his family”…..Shane was sent much sooner than most of us would have guessed. I thought we’d be visiting him this week in the hospital once he got out of intensive care, so we were very surprised, in a good way, to hear he was home with his family so fast after this scary operation…..we wish you a speedy recovery Shane, but take it easy, racing is over for now, you have 7 months to fully heal and get strong. God bless buddy.

    We ran our first Velocity race at Sunset Speedway. There were 27 cars on hand, a very good field of Late Models, okay, Limited Lates. Mike Bentley won the 75 lapper. Our race ended on lap 57 with this mess, though a bent spindle took us out of the show. We had a good car, the crew were awesome as we made three pit stops for various reasons……..More on Sunset as the week goes on……Our team is preparing for the Flamboro finale, Octoberfest. We have pictures to post with our repairs and other changes to our car for the big races over the next two weeks. Keep watching for up dates……Special thanks to my crew Bob, Ryan and Urban for making it out on Sunday and a big thank you to Matt and Jason, who made both days and to Matt who had his debut spotting in the two heat races…….Our Diary Of A Season, race #26, will be updated very soon, just crazy busy right now on the car.

    So far we’ve ran 26 race nights, and been in 18 off track shows and events. The off track shows have been awesome and included many great opportunities to show case our sponsors. This has been by far the toughtest, busiest and yet most rewarding season ever……..I loved Sunset Speedway even before they rebuilt it and made it one of the best tracks on earth. Our team won quite a few races at Sunset in the CVM, including back to back features in 2001, one Saturday night and the next on Sunday. Coming here with expectations of winning a title, was an enthusiastic, if not miscalculated goal, were soon dimished after our first night wreck, an omen of things to come. Stuggling the next few weeks made May 2012 our worst month of racing in the past ten years. The high-light of May was our mega wreck in the first MRE race, all but demolishing our car, and creting my highest expense repair since blowing a few engines in one year in the CVM. It wasn’t just the bad luck, it was clear throughout the season, our car was at best a top five, yet only managed three top five feature finishes. It would take us until late June to finally show any reason why we should be in this Late Model class at all. I remember days in the CVM where we had a run of bad luck, but once we got things turned around we won. Not here, not with this field. The only way to turn things around was with 50K. There were nights I felt like I had a Thunder Car, or was running my Late Model against OSCAAR Super Late Models. I would say Limited Late Model, but that handle is so far off the truth, it’s like calling a terrorist group a peace movement. The top Sunset cars are as advanced in technology as any stock car in Ontario, in fact maybe the best of all. Getting a new car was not on our budget, had it been we would have considered it after the MRE wreck in May. Even the repair with all new suspension parts, though better, was no match for the top three. Over the summer we spent a lot more money on our car, not to fix it, but to steadily improve it, trying to make it more competititive. A new carb, increased fuel octane (racing fuel $$$), increased reving of the engine, all things that definetly made the car go faster, but additions to our race program that cost alot of unnecessary dollars, but were needed in order to have half a shot a finishing in the top five, never mind winning, or even coming close to winning. We led two features by half a track but were eaten up on restarts and not only beaten off the corner, but falling back nearly half a straight away within a few laps. As gloom as it was, we very much enjoyed every other aspect of racing at Sunset. Most all of the racers, Mike Bentley included were encouraging. A great group of guys who run hard and who all want to win. The staff were amazing, also encouraging and most of them very knowledgeable about racing and what goes on. The management team were also great people to work with, making our visit a true blessing for all of us. I didn’t see I to I with every racer, one thinks I’m a whiner because I wanted to bring parity to the shows. He admitted he cares for himself, and pretty well only himself, so fundamentally we are at opposite ends of the racing spectrum, although it would be nice at times, maybe once or twice to enjoy his on track accomplishments of which he has mastered….I wasn’t whining there was I………Bottom line for our team is that we need to take our nine year old car and make it a show car and get a newer car, or retro fit this car and hope with some luck and proper set up we could put ourselves in a position to win a race. We are looking at a new car, but that’s also a dream, not really so much a reality, doing a retro fit it a reality, we just want it to be enough to make the leap to where we want to be……..The talent and competition at Sunset was the toughest I ever competed against. That would be compared to the hot shoes at Flamboro and the many years of running against some very tough racers in the Hobby class. Our goal for 2013 will be to concentrate on our race program and do all we can to close the gap between us and Mike Bentley who is overall the quickest car at Sunset. We’ve already started on our 2013 race program and the main focus on the list is bringing a better equipped car, chassis, engine, transmission and suspension, to compete each week….in the meantime, we have Octoberfest and Autumn Colors to run and a Church event on October 20th before we finish out 2012. Still looking for a win, maybe Peterborough, we’ll be better prepared for Autumn Colors.

    Unfortunately for the fans David will not make the 2012 Octoberfest to defend his title, due to other commitments. We will make this event for the 8th straight season, and fortunately we will be without the 602 engine, replaced by the 604. No offense to our new 602, it’s just that Flamboro put excessive heavy penalties on us the last time out, so we went with the bigger engine and the less weight, yes less weight…..We’re hoping our performance will be much better than the other two times we visited Flamboro in 2012, the final Grisdael Triple Crown race and the Summer Shootout. Our car is set up to run with the Pro Lates, and we will be at the proper ride height, and weight distribution. It’s kind of nice running the 604 again…..races start at 3:pm Saturday and 1pm on Sunday, hope to see you there.

    Pre race photo of most of our crew for 2012. First of all we congratulate Brad Corcoran and Brennan DiDero for winning the season finale at Flamboro Speedway. They were tied at the end of the 2nd feature. The track officials decided to allow them to split the winnings. I think that was the way to do it given the fact we only ran one heat race. The boys were good with it as well……… Octoberfest 2012 was disappointing for our team, but in spite of that, we were not defeated with our results. They worked very hard all weekend to give us the best car possible and we thought we could be a contender. A great car on Saturday disappeared on Sunday and a late wreck in the first 50 did too much damage for us to be in the hunt. We finished 9th and 13th in the two races, and 11th overall……there is a fair amount of work to do over the next few days, mostly cosmetic, as as set our sites on Peterborough’s final race, Autumn Colors. More pictures and updates throughout the week….thanks to Eric Uprichard of Speedway Photo’s for this picture.

    We had high hopes of running stong at this race but the car fell off from the rain Saturday night, or the hockey stike, we’re not sure why we went from so close to so-so. Our car wasn’t the same from one day to the next and we knew it wasn’t from changes we made. Even in the Sunday hot laps we looked good, 3rd fastest in practice, but a severe push on about lap 20 cost us to fade away from the leaders………..we were running on the inside on the back chute coming off turn two when Steve Laking checked up on the outside lane, a move that had cars going everywhere. Brennan DiDero came off the wall and hammered our car, sending us in a spin and basically done for the night. It wasn’t his fault, it happened very fast. We did get back out to finish the final 13 laps. We could hear the lyrics of the body shop jimgle that said “Better get MAACO”.

    We started work as soon as we got home Sunday night from Flamboro. Paul drilled out the beat up nose cone and front steel bumper and we sent it out to Jim Sweers to be fabricated. Jim did a great job with Bob helping out. We are ready to install the new bumper and front nose cone. The front bumper cover shown here is from our spectacular crash at Sunset during the first MRE race. This nose cone needed some tender care, offered by Paul, and now with a little paint and some decals will look okay, from a few feet. We plan on leaving Thursday for Peterborough so tonight will be important to get the car, trailer and parts finished. Our crew as well as Glen and Wayne from the Zardo team will ‘get er done’.

    We ran our 8th consecutive Autumn Colors Classic this weekend and the car was very good for us. Jim, Ryan, Matt, Jsaon, Ken, Linda and Steff all contributed to making this a fun weekend for us. I wanted a top five finish, and we felt we could do it with some luck. You buy almost anything, but luck is not for sale. We’ll post more pictures this week of the race and resutls……special thanks to Drew Mac Security Systems for their support on the week end. All of our sponsors came through for us, Open Doors also contributing to this weekend being a success in every way but the official finish stat…….we have been preparing for 2013 for the past few months and will keep our fans up dated as events happen.

    The final three races of the season were the same for our team, fast car, moving through traffic, wrecked in the hunt. We were three for three in the wrecking category stat wise, although we did cross the finish line at Flamboro…..The race at Peterborough was a tough one, we had a good car, very quick, made a few stops to improve it but ended up getting into a wreck ahead of us on the front chute and bounced off the spinning cars slamming the cement outside wall with a hard devastating blow. As for the control arms upper and lower, the shock, rack, steel front bumper, nose cone and RF wheel….there were no survivors. My hands are still paining from the initial impact two seconds before the harder slam into the front chute wall…….the car is in the garage, will be stripped of broken parts and an effort will be made to get it together for our October 20th show in Stayner. The rack is the determining factor, we have no spare, but do have back up control arms and shocks…….more pictures of our AC crash to follow……as for the weekend itself, I had a lot of fun for times leading up to lap 39, but did not get too discouraged over the wreck. Things happen and we were in the wrong spot at the wrong time. That’s why I agree the best spot is first at the checker.

    Coming off four we came upon cars wrecking and spinning. There was no way to stop and no place to go although we did go hard into the cement where we did stop. It was another hard impact for me, my fourth in three years. The worst was this year at the first MRE race, the second was our severe crash at Flamboro in the final Grisadle Triple Crown 2010, then last year on September 3rd I hit the wall hard coming off four. This was ranks right up there. I lost a brake line and the steering, making impossible for me to turn away from the wall or slow. It was like being in some demented sick ride where you pay money to strap into a car and it goes around and then suddenly slams into the wall….it was tough for all of us, we had a good car and got bitten again at the biggest race of the year…..thanks to my crew for an amazing job all weekend, Jim, Ryan, Matt, Ken Linda, Steff, the Zardo boys and Bobby Mercer who helped us in tech during the 39 lap feature…..also congrats to Peterborough for pulling off an amazing weekend on schedule……..we are working on the car right now to get it ready (hoping to) for a Men’s breakfast on Saturday October 20th in Stayner Ontario. They have been advertising the Late Model will be there, we could and may still take the Coupe, but with some luck this car could make it, but would be far from race ready. My only concern would be the rack assembly, it busted in half and I do not have a spare. That rack has been in the car since 2008 APC 300. If anyone has one we can borrow let us know here we’d appreciate it very much.

    Our car was so good just before this wreck. We were moving up quickly and had a great run down the back chute when cars started flying everywhere. I moved down and tried to go through but Ryan Kimball #16 could not hold his car up, and I nailed his left front wheel. He was able to continue, as were we, but it was a sign of things to come for the Quaker State team…..I headed to the pits right after this wreck and our crew removed the left side nose, front bumper so I could continue….it was a rough night no doubt….in this Eric Uprichard photo, Marc Jacobs #8 is in the middle, with Jamie Cox #22 on the top and maybe Mike Bentley behind him.

    Our car was so good just before this wreck. We were moving up quickly and had a great run down the back chute when cars started flying everywhere. I moved down and tried to go through but Ryan Kimball #16 could not hold his car up, and I nailed his left front wheel. He was able to continue, as were we, but it was a sign of things to come for the Quaker State team…..I headed to the pits right after this wreck and our crew removed the left side nose, front bumper so I could continue….it was a rough night no doubt….in this Eric Uprichard photo, Marc Jacobs #8 is in the middle, with Jamie Cox #22 on the top and maybe Mike Bentley behind him.

    After our wreck on lap 8 when a bunch of cars got chaotic, we made several pit stops to get the car so it could race without stuff falling off the front end. Ryan. Ken, Jason, Matt and Bobby did the best they could to get the bashed front bumper secure……in this Eric Uprichard pic we are charging with super racer Mark Watson. Mark had an overall good finish, but had trouble through the race as well, including making Marc Jacobs upset. Marc was chasing Watson through pit row with his entire tail section flapping and dragging. I assume Mark undid some of the rivets making Jacobs go crazy…..we hope for a better year next year. We had many bright spots in 2012, but just as many bad nights like this one. More pictures to come of the race and our progress getting it ready for the Men’s Breakfast event on October 20th at the Clearview Baptist church.

    Ryan, Ken, Jason and Matt all helped as we made several atempts to get the car better. By lap 30 we were back to where we were on lap one and optomistic about our chances. We just had to get away from the cars struggling, but I would see later that even the top three or four cars were causing cautions, usually by a single car spin. After this stop and restarting 20th we got back up to 10th, by lap 40.

    2012 started with a terrible crash and ended the same way. This picture shows the end result for us in the 112 lap race, not what we planned for sure, but things like this do happen, apparently frequently on this team as our last three track finales ended in crashes, this being the worst by far. After a number of pit stops our crew got the car working very well. Jim was spotting and gave instructions on changes for the crew to make with the many cautions in the first 20 laps. By lap 30 Ryan, Matt, Ken and Bobby got the car turning some decent lap times. On lap 45 if ended for us. Coming off turn four, #3 and #61 got into it and were spinning as we were flying right into those spinning cars. There was bo way to stop, and worse no where to go. Trying to avoid the cars we clipped one and slammed hard into the cement wall just past the start finish line. The impact was hard enough to snap the long “rack” shaft on our rack n’ pinion, as well as destroy the front steel bumper, spindle, upper and lower control arm, shock and 2 wheels…..we are in the process of putting it back together to fulfill our committment to have the car at the Clearview Pentacostal Church in Stayner on October 20th. They have been advertising we will be there with the Late Model, the CVM is on standby, but our intent is to take the Late Model….pictures on that repair to follow.

    Here are most of the parts that were casualties from our crash at Autumn Colors last Sunday night. Most everything on the right side was permantently retired from future use on the car. Also, not in this picture, but in “intensive care”, is the rack part of the “rack n’ pinion”. It was snapped in half, a repair for Junior Hanley……….we have a show to do this coming Saturday at the Crestview Community Church in Stayner. They have been advertising the Late Model will be there, and so we are doing everything we can to make sure that happens….more on our progress soon

    My biggest concern for getting our car ready for the Clearview Community Church show this coming Saturday was the one part I didn’t have a spare, the rack n’ pinion. No one really would weld this broken part, but I would because it would save money in this already expensive season and get us to this show. Technically I wouldn’t weld it, but would ask someone to do it for me, that someone being Junior Hanley, and he said yes he could do it, but for not for racing……that’s not a worry in this case, because the season is over and there is no chance we’ll have this rack in another month, maybe for a souvenir….BUT!!!….lets say this is Saturday at Autumn Colors. Hotel rooms are paid until Sunday, so is our 3 day pass, and this is the only part can’t get, but it could be welded, we’d be doing that… but not to load the car, at least not yet. Then we’d be thinking, what if the rack broke and wrecked the car even worse than it already is? Well, we’d have all winter to fix it, but we would reason we came to race not watch and though start and park isn’t really racing, in this case ist would be. We’s consider ourselves lucky enough to even start the feature, and strategize that we could go to the back, take the green, the $300 to start and call it a day…..now to reality….the rack did get fixed, welded, thanks to JR. He made several passes, letting it cool and then filling in the big valley with weld. Once finished he slid it in the body and installed the pinion and it worked fine except for being a lot of free play at the end where the body was broken away. I said that would be good enough. Junior said, no, he’d make a shim to take away the play. Once finished he said it would be good, not perfect, Then he looked at me and said “for loading only”.

    A close up from our phone shows some of the chassis damage to the support bars and bracing that hold the body panels. Black tire marks can be seen on the aluminum container, as the right front tire hit the overflow can. On Saturday Matt and Bob came by to help prepare the front end. Paul came by on Thursday night and we got the damaged nose panels repainted (again) and ready to be installed….the suspension parts were installed and the steel reinforcing bumper installed to give some support for the front nose assembly, although it will only serve as a temporary repair to get the car to Clearview Community Church on Saturday.

    We have the car so it will look good from the drivers side, the passenger side had a lot of damage to the chassis, suspension and body. Now that the suspension is in, the chassis can wait for the 2013 rebuild, and the body can be touched up one more time to be presentable……Bob and Matt came over on Saturday to get the front end secure and a few other little repairs done. We’re done to cosmetics now. This has been our longest season since 1995 when we ran 32 nights in the CVM….from 1983 until 1995 we had 7 seasons with 29 or more nights…..if the Frost Fest ride is a go, we will have run 29 races this season…..added to that will be our event at Clearview Community Church, our 19th special show giving us 48 times in 2012 that we raced or put our car on display, that’s almost a full year of racing and promoting. Thanks to all the sponsors and crew who’ve stuck by us in this hectic and tough season….more to come on Countdown to Clearview.