Veocity bit us. It was our worst night in the Mods points wise since June of 2014. The car was awesome in the final hot laps. Corey Horner and I were tied for 2nd in the points. He had a great night and we had our worst in some time. Even though our car was fast, we could not avoid being spun out twice, once in the first heat that resulted in much of our front end getting beat up, and we got spun again in the feature after moving from 20th to 10th, we were trying to pass 10th at the time. We finished 12th in the feature, now we’re 19 points out of 2nd, I know anything can happen, but that is a huge gap to close and our concern now is finishing in the top 3, and that lead is slim over 4th. It was still a good night for us, we have one more OSCAAR points race left at Autumn Colors on Thanksgiving weekend. Not giving up on our chase for 2nd, just going to race as hard and clean as we can.
We had this celebration after the races. Just want to say thank to Lloyd and Suzette for making this cake for me to celebrate our 750th night in a row, and our 1199th career night of racing.
From left to right are Corey, Billi, me, Lloyd and Daryl. The Horner boys, the team we were tied with prior to Saturday night, are awesome friends, and they we be our only crew at Octoberfest where we will reach our 1200th night. None of our team can make this race, as has been all season, but I am thankful when they could make it out. Lloyd has been awesome but he has a family event to attend but will be at Peterborough for the Autumn Colors Classic.
Thanks to Debbie-Jo Zardo for these photos.
Category Archives: Late Model History
The Velocity 250, This Weekend, Saturday & Sunday 26th – 27th At Sunset Speedway…We’ll Hit 250 Consecutive & Our 1199th Career Night
Velocity 250 this weekend. Tied for second in OSCAAR Modified points with the awesome rookie team of #79 Corey and Daryl Horner.
This will be our 750th consecutive night of racing dating back to June 5th 1987. Last year we celebrated our 700th in a row at Sunset Speedway on June 29th.
It will also be our 1199th career night of stock car racing. It all started in 1969 in a Mini Stock….love it all. the people, the thrill, the adrenalin and we get excited if we are in the top 5, top 3 you’d think we won, if we win?…..we all faint!!!
First Feature Win In Late Model Since 2008
I had to post this picture by Terry Robarts of our feature win at Full Throttle Motor Speedway on Sunday September 13th. We got the lead with 4 laps to go and on the while flag lap Paul Milligan and I tangled and the result was a flat tire on the left rear. The tire did not go flat until after the race was over……now that is a sign of alot of grace to our team….thank you Lord.
1198 Career & 749 Consecutive Nights In The Books
Mycomputer was down, I had no way to post on our website but thanks to Eric Uprichard, it did get posted on facebook.
We ran our 1198th career night at Delaware Speedway on Friday night. This flyer created by Eric Uprichard says 3 to go, but that was before this race. Just to clairfy.
It was a decent run. We finished 4th in the heat and held on to claim 5th in the feature. The top 5 feature finish was our best for our team in my own car since my Hobby days. I did win the feature in 2013 driving an Outlaw Pro 4 Modified driving for Dave Hodgkinson. I am thankful we took a top 5 on this special night, #1198 and our 749th in a row. Thanks to Lloyd and Billi for helping in the pits and making the night a fun and succesful run. We are 3rd now in OSCAAR Modified standings, one point out of the second place team #79 Corey Horner.
Feature Win #38 At Full Throttle Motor Speedway
What a night for my crew, sponsors and team. It was our 1197th career night, and our 748th consecutive night raced. It was also the final race of the 2015 Full Throttle Motor Speedway and would end up being our 38th career feature win. I was so happy and excited, what a blessing for us. Lloyd and I worked on the car for a long time before pracitce, before the heat and before the feature. Getting the ride heights and then setting the bar without scaling it. Only because I know this car pretty good and I just knew everything ride height wise was way out of wack. Lloyd and I talked about the race, and though I had David mount 2 decent Hoosier 10″ from my Mod inventory during the week, I really never thought of anything except finishing in one piece to keep the car good for our show at Real Burger on Wednesday. These cars have been very quick all year and though we were getting better each week I never dreamed we could win. Well not only did we set the car up great, we were very competitive and were in the right spot at the right time to take the win. The full story will be on Diary of a Season 2015 by Wednesday night. Special thanks to Lloyd Lariviere for supporting me the past few months. Many nights its just been the 2 of us and he has improved incredibly every week. I am so glad for him because he has slugged, and worked through pain to help get us ready for each race. Thanks buddy, I really appreciate your enthusiasm and glad you were with me for this big win. We also should move into 4th place in the Late Model points standing with our win.
We raced the Modified on Saturday night. It was terrible at the beginning, but thanks to Tommy Robb, Jason, Jacob, and my son David, we were able to get the Mod very competitive. David talked to Tommy and they came up with a plan and the car was very good in the feature. we finished 3rd in time trials, 3rd in both heats, and 5th in the feature.
Great weekend for us………thank you Lord.
2nd Overall..Rick Woolner Memorial..5th In 50 Lap Special…1196 Nights
Last night we ran our 26th night of the year and our 1196th career night. It was the 2nd half of the Rick Woolner Memorial. The Mods ran a great close tight battle. We finished 3rd in qualifying, 3rd in both heats. We needed 2nd in the feature to win this prestigious special event, but did finish 5th. Congrats to Gary McLean for winning the Rick Woolner Memorial.
Buttons and I came home last night with the Mod and we head back up to Full Throttle Motor Speedway this morning for their year end finale, this time with the Late Model.
This will be our 27th race this year, our 1197th career night, and our 748th consecutive start.
Special thanks to Lloyd for his tremendous support and to Tommy Robb, and his crew Jason and Jacob for helping us take a terrible car in hot laps to a strong runner in the 50 lap feature.
Thank you Lord for keeping us all safe and allowing me to continue this incredible journey. Not a lot of Championships or wins, but a lot of fun with great people,
1195 Nights Raced…….746 Consecutive
We are on the horizon of a huge milestone. So many people to thank for this to be possible. I thank God for good health, and sending me so many awesome people, family, friends and sponsors. My family, Nonie, David and Shirley for their long time support over the years, even though they think I’m nuts smile emoticon
The many friends who helped me through this journey, from the start, and those who are with me now.
Quaker State has been with me through my entire streak of 746 consecutive nights.
Thanks to Eric Uprichard for creating this flyer/poster.
More to come, more to thank.
Quaker State Late Model & Modified Having A Great Season
Special thanks to John from Ontario Speedway Memories for this very cool shot.
Jason Legge and I finished 7th in Late Model points at Sauble Speedway. Our team is is 5th at Full Throttle Motor Speedway with one night to go and we are running 2nd in points with our OSCAAR Modified. It’s been a tiring year, not because of the races, but because of the travelling to Sauble and Full Throttle. I have enjoyed the drive every week, but it has been a little draining. Thanks to Lloyd Lariviere for his awesome support the past 2 months. He has surely been a blessing to me with his help. He use to race many years ago and was involved with a road racing team and is just back into it and he’s learning by fire every time out.
FLamboro Finish Puts Us 2nd In OSCAAR Mod Point Standings
We had a great run on Saturday night in the Modified. We had the hat trick of 3rd place finishes, grabbing 3rd in each race. We are now in sole possession of 2nd with 4 shows to go, but it will be a grind with some great teams close behind.
Top 5
1st #8 Gary McLean 555…….2nd #36 Gary Elliott 488…….3rd #79 Corey Horner 482…….4th #63 John Baker Jr 479…….5th #47 Brian McLean 468.
Podium Finish At Flamboro Moves Us Into 2nd In OSCAAR Point Standings
Wow, what a great night for us at Flamboro Speedway in our OSCAAR Modified. I went to Flamboro on Tuesday night for practice to see if we could get the car dialed in. I wasn’t happy with it at Sunset the week before and just needed to get a handle on it. David offered to help me, and with him leading Flamboro Late Model points, who better to get then my own son. After Tuesday’s practice, that nearly ended in disaster when the RF rotor broke going into turn three, but a quick heads up by David let me know to get off the gas “You lost a rotor Dad” was his emergency cry. Besides the incredible luck, and him on the radio’s, usually you wouldn’t use a radio but I asked him to in case I needed directions to get around this oval I have many laps on. Anyway, once we were done, David made one suggestion only, “make sure you have a least 4″ of stagger, or more”. On Saturday the car was awesome from practice to the heats. The tires were not in good shape, but we managed to get a 3rd in the first heat. I added two new rear tires and we got another 3rd, but this one was much better. We started 5th in the feature and crossed the line in 3rd, our best finish since June 13th.
The finish moves us into sole position of 2nd with four more shows to go.
Thanks to my crew, Matt, Lloyd and Jonathan, my sponsors, David, Ron Easton, Brad Pearsoll, Gary McLean, and Scott Wylie for all helping to get my Modified to handle better, and it sure did on Saturday.