We were fortunate to have George, the crew chief for Donald Chisholm, not only tell us some amazing stories but let me take some pictures of their shop. I never asked Andrew, my camera wasn’t with me. There were some nice cars at Rollie’s shop as well. They will no doubt be strong rivalries.
Donald Chishom was the 2015 Parts for Trucks Pro Stock Tour Champion. Here is his banner proudly hung up in their shop.
Gary Elliott
Maritime Pro Stock Tour Cars….Very Stout
While in Nova Scotia my cousin Bill and I had the opportunity to visit both Rollie MacDonald’s and Donald Chishom race shops. Andrew the crew chief for Rollie’s team and George the crew chief for Donald’s cars, were a great help with questions I had. These were shops that looked like mini McColl race shops with multiple awesome looking race cars….and awesome facilities.
It seems that Port City is a popular builder for these cars although other builders are supplying cars for the Maritime Pro Stock Tour racers.
It looks like our car will be legal, but more than likely lack some of the high dollar race parts these teams will be using like the 2 speed $13,000 transmission. We will be running a 2 speed Richmond but doesn’t compare to the machine technology in the transmission the teams I met will be running.
I am looking forward to heading east for this the IWK 250, we need to raise the funds to make it happen and then give it our best shot with what we have. Not everyone has a brand new car, but many do. Being in that race, near the town I was born, Truro, with many of my family there, will be a big win for us. What happens on the track will be no different than any other night of racing……although it sure would be nice to once race a Late Model that is state of the art. Meanwhile our Late Model is being worked on and it will be much better than the car we ran the past 3 years. More on this race and our Modified and Late Model progress very soon.
….here is one of the cars in Donald Chisholm’s shop.
IWK 250 Getting Closer To Being A Reality
I had a great opportunity this week to go to Nova Scotia and look deeper into making the IWK 250 a reality for our team.
My cousin Bill Elliott offered to take me around to some of his friends who owned businesses in Nova Scotia.
I had proposals made out to give to potential sponsors. They were all exactly the same. I was willing to run the sponsor name on our car all year, as well as put their logo on our web site. Joe Chisholm from Race Time Radio offered to interview any sponsors we got on his weekly Canada wide radio program.
In total we saw six businesses. There were two that were not available to see, we left proposals for them to consider.
We visited 2 race shops. Rollie MacDonald, who owns King Freight, had a nice shop in Pictou, and Donald Chisholm who owns Nova Construction and Riverside International Speedway had his shop in Antigonish. We were able to ask questions to the 2 crew chiefs Andrew from Rollies team and George from Donalds team. Both teams had 3 to 5 cars in their shops and these cars were beautiful, well prepared and fully equipped. We had a great time meeting all these awesome people, who even gave us info we needed to get our car close to what it needs to be to race with these wild Pro Late models.
When we were done on Sunday we had accumulated 4 show presentations. We plan on being at the Walmart in Antigonish on the Friday night before the race. It is located very near the track. We will be at the Canadian Tire store in Truro, both of those for our sponsor Quaker State. We couldn’t get any sponsorship through Nova Trucks in Truro, but Rod wants us for a display on the Wednesday or Thursday, the same day we will be at the Canadian Tire. The other show we are committed to is in Bass River Nova Scotia for a fund raiser to support the local Fire Department.
I can only make this race with help from local businesses in Nova Scotia. The 8 proposals we gave out will hopefully be fruitful for us. My cousin Larry will work with Bill on another potential sponsor who they both know very well who operated his business out of Halifax, but lives close to my cousins.
I will update this big race once commitments start coming in. The IWK 250 will cost us $9000 and we need to raise that to make it happen. I’m praying about it, have been for all our racing endeavours for 2016. I hope it comes together. If so, it will be one of the biggest if not the most prestigious high light racing events of my 48 year career……..more info to come once things fall in place.
Andy Bathgate My Favorite NHL Player Passed Away…God bless You
This week Andy Bathgate my favorite all time hockey player passed away. He was an amazing graceful gentleman player and my hero. My favorite sports number was 9 because of him.
As everyone knows, I had two racers who stuck out for me as heros Glen Schurr who inspired me so much I ran #36 on my race cars from the beginning.
In 2009 I had 2 Late Models and one was #9. I called Mr. Bathgate and asked him if I could put the Ranger logo and his number on the hood of my car. It was the same I had been doing for decades with “36 for Schurr”. He said yes and asked me for my address and sent me some pictures of him.
I followed him very closely. New York Rangers were my favorite team because of Andy Bathgate although Leafs were a close second.
I was so excited when he came to Toronto. I remember he came to Leafs for Dick Duff and Bob Nevin. Don McKenney also came, Andy was the Captain of the Rangers and Don the Captain of Boston then. Leafs won the cup that year taking the series in 7 over Detroit.
I was watching game 7 when the puck was in the Leaf end and it came back to the point but it bounced over, or got by Pete Goegon. Andy Bathgate got a break away and scored the Stanley Cup-winning goal for the 1964 Maple Leafs. It was the first goal of the game and the Leafs won 4-0.
When he scored I yelled, going nuts. I made such a loud noise it scared my Dad who was in the kitchen playing euchre. He came running to the living room and said “what’s going on, why were you screaming so loud”? I realized for a second I might have woke people up in the next city, so I said in a shy but happy voice “Andy Bathgate just scored for the Leafs”. Dad looked at me and shook his head saying “what the hell is wrong with you”!!! I was just excited and Dad was okay after that.
Some of his NHL stats:
* Played for Rangers for 10 years
* Won the Hart Trophy, MVP in the NHL scoring 40 goals in 1959
* Tied for points lead with Bobby Hull in 62, Hull won the Art Ross, he had more goals
* Had 56 assists and 28 goals in 1962
* Scored the winning goal in 64 playoffs game 7 giving Leafs the cup
* 1967 NHL expansion season he went to Pittsburg Penguins and scored their first NHL goal
* Scored in 11 consecutive games. That record lasted until Gretzky broke it
* He is famous for contributing to one of the greatest innovations in NHL history. Renowned for the strength of his slap shot, during a game against the Montreal Canadiens, Bathgate shot the puck into the face of Jacques Plante, forcing Plante to receive stitches. When Plante returned to the ice, he was wearing a mask. That started a trend that continues to this day
* WHL MVP (1970)
* A slap shot at Jacques Plante took the glove off Plante putting both puck & glove in the net
* In 1998, he was ranked number 58 on The Hockey News’ list of the 100 Greatest Hockey Players
* He was ranked No. 8 on the all-time list of New York Rangers in the book 100 Ranger Great (2009)
* His sweater was retired on Feb 22nd 2009
* Inducted into the NHL Hall of Fame in 1978
IWK 250 Riverside International Speedway
Gary Elliott Motorsports is excited to annonuce that our team has committed to racing at Riverside International Speedway for the IWK 250 Parts for Trucks Maritime Pro Stock Tour on July 16th. These cars are basically Pro Late Models. The full story on how I decided to add this race in my 2016 schedule, all the plans and preparations to date are on our Message Board under Diary of a Season 2016…..get a coffee 🙂
Modified Getting Make-Over At Oakville Trailers
Our Modified was taken to Oakville Trailers where Ron Easton will make some repairs to the chassis, side bars, front and rear bumpers and body sheet metal.
There are a few more repairs and changes that need to be done as well. Our quick change needs repairs as do some shock mounts and the pan hard bar adjuster.
The Mod is in good hands with Ron and his team, although Ron will do 90% of the work needed to get our car ready. Mike Larkin and I stripped the body and suspension parts. Then we cleaned all the parts we removed. I made it down to clean the chassis by hand with varsol. There was no power washer so I may take our Mod to a car wash to do a final more thorough cleaning before we paint the frame….more news and hopefully a few press releases are on the horizon. Stay tuned…and thanks for visiting our site.
Late Model Stripped As Updates & Rebuild Begins
I am happy to report that both our Late Model and Modified are well on the way to being updated and rebuilt in some areas as we prepare for 2016, our 48th race season.
Thanks to the help of Jason Legge my Late Model has been stripped down by Glen Schnurr, at Leggers Race Shop.
Glen has repaird bad or cracked welds and our car will have wide 5’s installed, a Richmond transmission and a 604 Crate engine. Our hopes are to once again be compeptitive in the Late Model class, something we haven’t been since 2012.
The Modified is currnetly at Ron Easton’s shop, Oakville Trailer. It won’t have major changes but it to will undergo safety and equipment rebuild, as well as shocks and springs with the hope of making us more consistent in the corners.
Special thanks to crew member Lloyd for helping get the Mod prepared for Oakville Trailers in Oakville.
More news on our team as progress continues.
David Celebrates His 2015 Flamboro Pro Late Model Title With His Team
Saturday night David and his team celebrated their 2015 Flamboro Speedway Pro Late Model Championship. Left to right are Jim, David, Eddie and Pete.
This is a great picture showing both the Annual trophy and the keeper the team gets for being crowned 2015 Pro Late Model Champion.
Very proud of David, his crew and sponsors. Our team is looking forward to being part of the 2016 Pro Late Model roster at Flamboro Speedway…..can’t wait.
David’s Night….2015 Flamboro Speedway Late Model Champion
Saturday January 30th Flamboro Speedway held it’s annual banquet at the Legion in Waterdown. It was a night to celebrate and remember for David and his team. They won the title in a very tough a competitive field.
This was David’s 8th title with 4 CVM and now 4 Late Model Championships. He was the first driver in CVM history to win three club titles in a row, 2000, 2001 and 2002.
This coming season we will race our Late Model full time at Flamboro as well as five OSCAAR Modified races.
I am looking forward to racing against all the Late Model stars at Flamboro and for the first time since 2011 with David in a track series.
Note:…..Missing from the banquet was the Flamboro Speedway Late Model Champions Annual trophy, the main award showing all the previous winners. Track Promoter John Casale was very upset the Annual trophy was not returned to him or Frank for the banquet by last years winner. Many attempts were made to have the trophy returned but calls and requests were ignored.
The missing trophy didn’t take away the joy of being the Champion and celebrating that with his family, crew and friends.
“Best Appearing Car”…..Full Throttle Motor Speedway
January 23rd Lloyd and I attended the Full Throttle Motor Speedway banquet, a fun night with delicious food and seeing some great friends. It was the 3rd banquet this year for me. Special thanks to Gord Bennett and his staff for choosing us for the “Best Appearing Car” award in the Outlaw Late Model class. This was our 12th time winning this award.
It’s time to start rebuilding our cars, a process that has already begun. I will be finalizing our 2016 race schedule very soon with at least one big surrpise…..stay tuned.