In 1999 we had our first complete new race car, built by Ray Hughes at Jim Wards shop. At the end of 98′ I asked Ray what I could do to make my car better. I wasn’t able to do much better than a top 4 every week. It was him, David and Rob Mass who were winning consistently.
Ray looked at my car and said “this is a piece of s%^&, you need a new car”. I asked him what was wrong with it and he pointed out several logical things. One being the rear springs, they were too short, only 36″, he recommended 54″. Then he asked me if I would like to drive his car in hot laps the following week, I said sure.
I drove his Coupe for about 10 laps and it was excellent. The only thing was my helmet was slightly hitting the roof roll cage. When I pulled into the pits Paul Fisher motioned me to their pit. When I got out he asked me how I liked it and I told him the 2 minor things I would change. He said “well if you weren’t 100% happy I am very surprised because your fastest laps were “2 hundreds” off Rays fastest. That settled it for me and in the winter of 98 I called Jim Ward and he had Ray build me a new car.
We won the 1999 Championship that year, our 2nd in my career and it felt incredible to win another Championship, but 2 years after my disqualification. That car would win a bunch more features over the next 5 seasons before I moved up to Late Models. In 2004 we were leading the points. We won 2 features but blew up 2 engines. It was a frustrating season, but this was a great car. It’s now in Michigan, but I sold it here in Ontario.
More pictures to come
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First Championship 1989 Hobby Division
1989 was my 21st season racing. At that time I had missed 17 nights from 1969 to 1987 with engine issues, getting to the track, not having the car fixed in time and a 2 night suspension in 87′.
I had some good seasons early but my best was 1989. Ron Clements had built me a new chassis and we put the rest together. We had one feature win in 89 along with 3 heat victories. It was a very good year consistent wise for us.
We won Hard Charger for passing the most cars in all 30 race nights, Best Pit Crew, the Twin 25’s and our first Championship. The Hobby Club had over 24 cars every night, and top points cars started at the back of the feature with only Consi cars behind us, not like today with top cars starting every night near the front or mid way at worst.
If this was only a 10-15 race series, like many today, I may not have been the Champion because I did have bad luck a few nights including a blown engine in the Mid Season Championship. When the engine blew, that took me and a few of my racing buddies hard into the wall in turn one. The top 24 in points were guaranteed to start the Mid Season feature. We hustled to change the engine, (thanks to Don Shaw for loaning us the engine) and fix the damage before the feature so we could start. We got out for the race okay and though I couldn’t steer the car very well, we finished 20th. We won the points by 4 over Ray Hughes, so by not starting that feature we would have lost the title.
Another tough night was when one of our crew members didn’t put the gas cap on tight. When I pulled on the track, the starter, Ding DeLeeuw saw gas leaking and motioned me off the track. I went to the infield and one of the track staff handed me the cap. He wasn’t allowed to put it on so I got out and put it on as fast as I could. I jumped back in my car but they threw the white and sent out the bubble car before I got my belts done up. They gave me very little time to fix the gas cap….I was upset with that deal, overall points leader given no time to make a small quick repair. In that race we didn’t get any feature points.
It’s one thing to win a feature, but there is no comparison to a Championship. Overall it was such a great year for my team, not easy but very rewarding. 1989 was my second year as a Christian, making the promise, that God gives the desires of our heart, come true.
I’ll post more soon.
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2016 Riverside International Speedway
My first trip to this track since 1984 when I raced here and finished 3rd in the feature in the Hobby class. I didn’t fair near as good this time but I had a fun (but exhausting) trip with Lloyd, Billi and Abby.
I will keep updating pictures of my past while we wait for 2020 to begin.
Thanks for McCarthy photo’s for this picture.
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Ken MacIsaac Photo 2017
This was a nice post today on facebook. Ken takes pictures of some of the Maritime Pro Stock Tour races. This is one of his for my birthday.
I will be posting more pictures soon of progress on our 2020 race program.
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He Is Risen Beating Death For Us
This picture sums it up very well.
Easter Sunday is the most important day in the Christian calendar. Yes Jesus birth was important in fact He was born through a virgin so man would not have anything to do with His birth and therefore contaminate Him by mankind’s sinful birth line.
Jesus was called the Lamb of God, gentle but also the sacrificial Lamb.
His death on the cross was extremely painful to read about but it was part of God’s plan to save us through the blood of His Son Jesus.
All of this doesn’t matter at all if He doesn’t beat death, He becomes like every other religious leader, who dies for a good cause but doesn’t overcome death.
But Jesus did overcome death. He said in John 2:19 “destroy this temple and I will raise it in 3 days”. They argued with Him that it took 46 years to build the temple, so how would He restore it in 3 days? He was referring to His body.
In Mathew 28:6 when both Mary’s were looking for Jesus they met an Angel, and when asked who they were looking for they replied “Jesus”. The Angel replied “He is not here, He has risen, just like He said”.
Easter is mostly celebrated with bunnies and chocolate, if only people knew how much God loved them….how much Jesus, knowing what would happen to Him still went through with the torture of crucifixion to save us.
The Bible says in 1st John 5″12-13 “He who has the Son has life”.
Happy Easter to you and your family.
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Feels So Good To Have All My Scrap Books Up To Date
From 2013 until last year I had kept scrap book material in show boxes, one for each year 2013-2019. For some reason I just didn’t have time to get them caught up, so glad I saved the material, like programs, advertising flyers, schedules of different series etc.
I also had many pictures from each year on my computer in files titled Racing 2008 and up, and those were put in smaller folders within those years of shows I did, Late Model races, CVM and OSCAAR Modified.
I took pictures from my computer, put them on a USB stick, went to Staples and had them printed off and put in chronological order.
Since I didn’t have a computer to do that in my early years, I just redid the books making them organized like the ones I have today. Surprisingly though, I did take lots of pictures in the 70’s with throw-away cameras, and was able to have some to put in scrap books. Early years had less material and less pictures but got better as years went by.
Hear is a picture of my scrap book collection, all caught up. Inside the books up until 2007 are 3 ring note books with all my stats, and a story of the night. The rest of the write ups and stats are on this site, Diary of a Season 2008 to 2020. You can get there by going to Message Board and then clicking on General Chat.
In the 3 ring note books in the older scrap books are write ups and stats of each race.
I used the same format I do today
Date
Race #
Results
Winnings
Repairs
Crew
Conclusion
I would like one day take copies of every race from 2008 to 2019 and put them in the scrap books for those years, as back up.
That will be a big project but I could do it. I guess copy each race event, put it on a document and print it off….not too hard, maybe tiring though lol.
The reason for different colored books is that some are 3″, the black and white ones.
The one yellow book is for my 50th year, as close as I could get to gold.
More to come.
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All Equipment Painted…..Wow…..Only Dreamed This
I must say I am so excited to be this far ahead, organized and having things done the way I want them. All my equipment done and painted, car complete, just needs to be started and a final set up.
Here’s a picture of our tire dolly and new air tank, painted and lettered.
I am very thankful to PPG for supplying this awesome green paint, for PYE Chev Buick GMC for the fantastic paint job and of course all my sponsors, Quaker State, Lincoln, Permatex, Grind Stone, FMS, Strictly Hydraulics, Inscapes and Brand Apparel.
This is most organized and ready I ever have been. There’s a reason, only one car, not 3, time to get the things done I wanted to for years.
My museum, that includes my racing since 67 in Demo’s to last year with my kids and grand kids on display as well.
I finally got caught up on my scrap books, that’s for tomorrow night.
I must say simply, thank you Lord for your many blessings and giving me all I have
To God Be The Glory.
More soon,
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Pit Cart Done…Buttons Approves
Here are some more decals on our pit box courtesy Kirk Alexander and First Line Graphics.
More to come.
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Buttons Likes Our Pit Box….2020 May Be The Nicest Our Team Has Looked
Just received decals form Kirk Alexander to finish off my pit box. The paint job was perfect and the lettering sets it off very nice.
Both ends are lettered with PYE Chevrolet Buick GMS logo and of course Quaker State.
More to come soon.
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Almost Ready For 20202….Whenever That Will Be
Here is a picture of my car, some sails I had made by Knightworks and our pit box. There are still a few things to be done.
I haven’t started the car yet but I will soon, no rush really. I didn’t hear it running when I picked it up, but I prefer to start it outside when it gets a little warmer.
I like the sails to promote my sponsors and the pit box, though half the size of most used by teams, with 20 times cheaper and looks great.
I am currently working on all my scrap books to get them looking more like a library and color coordinated. I will show a picture of that soon, still about 8 out of 30 books. A few books have multiple years in them, back when pictures and advertising material wasn’t as abundant as it is today and has been for the past 35 years.
More updates soon.
Thanks for visiting our site….be safe and pray for a cure and that people will use distancing to help prevent the spread of this evil virus.