Full Throttle Friday night was the coldest its been since February, well it sure seemed like it. Minus one, and zero most of the time. We had more trouble trying to keep warm than anything else, but we had a fun night and learned a ton of things. We do know for sure that 8″ tires won’t work against 10″, but tonight was more of a test than anything else.
I want to thank Glenn, Scoob, Corey, Matt, PauL and Lloyd for coming out. The car count was low but our spirits weren’t and we will get things much better for our next outing at the fast little oval. There will be more Late Models as well.
The full story will be on Diary of a Season 2015 very soon, I am in the middle of moving and things are hectic for me right now. I hope to be operating on all cylinders soon.
Thanks to Tw Robarts for this great picture.
Category Archives: 2015-lm
Tonight we will debut our Late Model at Full Throttle Speedway. We hope to run every Late Model show in 2015, and can accomplish this with the help of Jason Legge and Glen Schnurr who will fill in for me while I am driving the Modified.
The weather looks great and some of our crew, Matt Smith, Lloyd Lariviere, Paul Douglas, Glen Schnurr, Coery Adams and
Hope to see lots of fans and drivers to support Full Throttle Speedway.
GEM & Jason Legge Team Up For Sauble & Full Throttle
I am very happy to announce that Jason Legge Racing and Gary Elliott Motorsports has teamed up for 2015 to run the full Late Model schedule at Sauble Speedway. Jason is driving 3 of the 10 nights in our Quaker State Impala, while I race in the OSCAAR Modified series. I will run the other 7 shows as listed on our 2015 race schedule.
Jason has also been gracious to allow me space to keep my Late Model and much of our racing history at his shop located a mile from Spring Mount just outside Owen Sound, not far from Sauble Speedway. I am very happy about that as well.
Jason ran our Late Model on opening night at Sauble Speedway on May 16th and ran very well taking a 5th and 2nd in the heat races and a 7th in the feature. Jason was getting use to the car, it was the first time he raced in in competition with our car. Afterwards he said “this is the best car I have driven”.
Our next show is this coming Friday at Full Throttle Speedway. We are hoping to run every Late Model race at Full Throttle in 2015.
I will race 7 nights in our Late Model and either Jason, or one of the other drivers, perhaps Glen Schnurr will fill in when I am away in the Modified. We are also fielding a Thunder Car on Friday nights and again hope to make every Thunder Car show. There will be 7 in total and I am scheduled to run 5 of those.
Looks like we are going to have a fantastic race season….thank you Lord.
Great Week At West Dale
High School seminar a great success. Special thanks to Peter De New for having us at the school and all the students that made it a fun and learning experience.
The students were very courteous. None were on their phones or texting, they were tentative and got into some work as well. Two classes changed the gears in the quick change so we would be ready for Sauble Speedway and two of the students have shown interest in helping me in the pits this year, and they have a cottage in the Sauble area.
It was a great week and I an thankful to have met and spent time with so many good people
Late Model Goes To School
We are proud to have our Late Model at West Dale high school in Hamilton. We were invited by Peter De New to come for Monday, Wednesday and Thursday. Monday was mostly orientaton, showing the students the safety equipment built in the car, explaining the suspension, shocks, why we use stagger and then capped each class off by letting them here the V8. They loved the engine roar. Today they will change gears to make sure we have the right gear for Sauble Sppedways opening night next Saturday.
It’s always fun to take the car to school, seeing how excited the students get, and helping them to understand more about cars they see racing on TV. It also gives an opportunity to introduce them to the automotive industry, from a customer service aspect. Some are taking Auto and not sure if they will continue seeking a career in the automotive industry, but there is also the many opportunities as a counter parts person, service advisor, warranty clerk etc. I’m looking forward to a successful time with the stuents today.
Car Show A Success….Opening Night Rained Out
We had a great day at Innisfil Beach being part of Cruisefest, seeing all the boys and girls from the Innisfil Beach Cruisers. Billy, Karen and Buttons joined me for the day.
It got very hot, actually seemed like July at times. The humidity was crazy for May and the threat of rain was throughout the day, although it barely rained a little when we were done.
Our team donated 150 of our Quaker State 40th Anniversary books, and Sunset Speedway donated some grandstand tickets.
We were suppose to race that night at Full Throttle Speedway. Yes, we could have ran Sunset, but they have over 30 cars and we were not ready to be racing in rush hour traffic with no laps on the car since 2014, plus the plan was to race Full Throttle this year and at least have some fun and maybe be a little competitive with our Late Model. But before noon, Gord Bennett called me saying he was going to cancel the racing for that night because the weather forecast was calling for severe rain in the evening with no let up. He cancelled early to save some of the members of the Ontario Sportsman Series, who lived far away, would not travel for 3 or 4 hours and get rained out. A good move for sure.
David wanted me to come to Flamboro to shake the car down but Flamboro was running 10″ Amercian Racer tires. I was considering going but with our 8″ Hoosiers, but I told David John might not let me do that. David asked and sure enough John said he couldn’t open that can of worms and so I parked the car, leaving it in the trailer for our 4 day semiar at West Dale high school in Hamilton.
So all and all, it was a great day and David ended up finishing 2nd and 3rd in both 30 lap features. Flamboro has eliminated heat races now and are running twin 30’s.
Pictures on our seminar later this week.
In this picture is me, Karen, Billy, Neal and Buttons on the hood.
Our 3rd show of the year is May 9th with the Innisfil Beach Cruisers at Innisfil Park from 9 am until 3 pm, and then we head quickly to Full Throttle Speedway, driving right by one of my all time favorite tracks, NASCAR’s Sunset Speedway. I know they will miss me, but they have close to 30 Late Models. I will blow the horn, as we pass by. I am going to miss all my fans and competitors there, and a great bunch of owners, managers and staff. Great people I will see at least 6 times tho when OSCAAR visits, and once in the Late Model for Family Faith Night.
We will proceed west on 89 heading to Varney and Full Throttle Speedway, where our 2015, and 47th season begins.
The last time we raced our Late Model at Varney was 2012.
We are hoping for a great day at the beach with the Innisfil Beach Cruisers and a fun night of racing Full Throttle Speedway. Hope to see some of our fans at both places.
Modifed Takes New Look….Not A Troyer
Last year our car was declared legal, and the roof rake passed tech. However, for 2015 the body height rule, measured 10 inches back from the windshield is suppose to be 45″. Ours was 45 at the back of the roof and only 42 at the 10″ point. Ron Easton did some fabricating, to get the car to the proper height and even he is disappointed at the new look we have now. Nothing like a Troyer, little rake, in fact I am very disappointed.
I always loved the look of the Whelan Modifieds, my favorite race car in the world. When I saw Brent McLeans #7 three years ago, I was surprised that the Mods had that look. I was use to the All Pro Modifieds that to me were nothing in style like the Whelan Mod. I found a car I liked and bought it last year and was very excited to have that Whelan style. It was also refreshing that OSCAAR stated they were heading in the direction of Whelan style bodies. Well a 45″ roof at 10″ from the windshield sure messed my car up. It looks like a transit bus now and I am terribly upset and disappoined. I take a lot of pride in my cars and I loved racing and being in this car, but now, at least right now, I have lost a lot of my love for how it looks…..terrible. I expect to be waved down by someone soon looking for a ride, thinking it’s a bus taxi and then have them complain cause there are no seats.
There’s nothing I can do about it now, but I feel like I’ve lost something and maybe I will get over it, but right now I feel kind of awkward getting in this car now. It just dosen’t appeal to me.
Time heals….we’ll see.
Late Model Ready For Pracitce
We got our Late Model back from Creative Edge, and once again Steve and the boys did an awesome job. This paint scheme is different than any before, but similar to 2011. I like it very much and know all my sponsors will be happy with the car and the look. Marty Hagen came over on Sunday and we scaled the car getting the numbers where we wanted to start. We still have a few minor things to do and then we’ll be ready to go. The Modified is 95% ready, just a few things left. It sure would be good to get a little more help but most of my crew are 2 hours away and I appreciate them coming to the races. Matt and Jon Smith will be at many races, as will my cousin Ryan, when he can get out. Marty will make most of the Mod shows, and new crew member Billy Redgift will make as many as he can throughtout the season.
Billy and I were on the same Dart team, we had fun playing Darts and when I told him about the races he got very interested. I still could use more help but it seems most everyone is way too busy to help out. Once the cars are ready, and they will be soon, then we know we will be fine with our crew making it to the races.
Special thanks to Marty Hagen, Matt and Jon Smith, Ryan Elliott, Jason Legge, Corey Adams, Ron Gibbons and Billy Redgift.
Practice for the Mod is this coming Sunday, with opening day at Sunset on May 16th. The Late Model starts racing on May 9th at Varney. Our schedule will be done this week, and posted on our web site and face book.
Late Model Ready For Creative Edge
Thanks to the hard work of one of my crew members, and crew chief, Marty Hagen, our car is ready to be lettered. The Modified is getting lettered now and will be done soon. I will be posting my 2015 agressive schedule very soon, so watch for it and other interesting things happening for the coming year.