Nonie and I started our 15th season with the Hobby Club in 1986. After our disastrous 1985 season we wanted to make a better run for the title in 1986. That meant rebuilding our car complete. We sent it to Jim ward, where Ray Hughes worked, and got a lot of repairs done. Half our 1986 budget was spent at Jim’s place. We also got a new engine built, went over our car very carefully and landed a great sponsor in Dixie Ford, my place of employment. Brian Pratt lead the Hobby club through a very successful season. It was the 20th Year for the OARC as a club. Brian was energetic and brought new ideas and events to make the year exciting, like the match race at Kalamazoo. Brian also worked on a deal for our pace car and was very good working with all the issues the club went through including dealing with John Casale. I remember Brian right in Johns face a few times over issues with the club but he always came out smiling. He was a great President and a good friend. Merile Elliott (my dad) Paul Cornwall, Steffon Zoskey, David Elliott, John “OJ” Hyduk and John Saucier also helped us when he could. Both David and Shirley were not allowed in Flamboro pits, David was 14 and Shirley 12, she would be 13 in the summer but could not get in the pits because of insurance regulations. My Dad didn’t make every race, but made it when he could. It was a very hectic year for our family. Half way through the season we moved from Toronto, where both Nonie and I lived all our lives, to Waterdown. I could believe the size of home and property we bought. Our Toronto home went up for sale and within a few days we had bids higher than what we were asking for. The move was a great one for us, both the house and the shop suited us and would hopeful make things easier in the coming 86′ season. Things were great everywhere but on the track. By the fourth night of racing we were 28th in points, and still our next two Flamboro races would produce feature DNF’s. It was extremely frustrating for us. There were times when I lost my cool, mostly because of the things that were going wrong, but aside from the bad luck, we still had some positives. We won six races, including our first feature in 2 years. John Benson, from Kalamazoo Michigan drove our car to an exciting win against one other American and six top Hobby drivers. The club booked 31 races in 86′ but lost four to rain, giving us 27 race nights. We made every show, but missed one feature, the only night we ran at Sunset. We tried everything we could to get back out for the feature and had help from Jim Collison, Paul Fisher, Dave Bentley, Ron Shaw and others, but we would watch that feature race, a moment in racing I found very difficult to accept. Some positives included having a great crew with Paul, Steffon and John being there most every week. Nonie and kids made every show as well. Getting Dixie Ford as an involved sponsor also was a great asset for us. Winning the Sauble feature was feature was an exciting night for our team, then winning the heat the next day at Varney gave us some confidence. However 1986 was not going to be a year that we would remember in positive way. Our first thoughts once the year ended was planning for 1987. Mike Witter won the Flamboro Points on the final night, getting by Charlie Beck who was leading the Flamboro points. Charlie did win the Gold Cup series. We won Best Appearing car for the second year in a row, the first time with #36. Special thanks to everyone that participated in making this year as good as it was. The photographers for providing us with awesome pictures. All the great write ups by Georgia Beck. Also to those who helped us directly, my crew, friends and competitors. I hope I didn’t leave anyone out as we pay tribute to 1986 in the following pictures, captions and articles of the characters that made it a special year.