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.
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 Start To The OSCAAR Season
On Saturday May 16th the 13 race OSCAAR Modified season began at Sunset Speedway. Our goal this year is to win the series championship. It will be a real challenge for us, there are lots of fast cars, but no championship is easy. Our crew were awesome this weekend. Marty, Billy, Jim and Karen kept busy getting us through tech, sizing tires and making sure we were ready for our first set of hot laps. Matt and Jon were unable to make it this day, Matt had to work and couldn’t get to the track. Hopefully they can make our next show at Flamboro Speedway on May 30th.
We had a great run in the heat races, taking 3rd in the first and then grabbing our first win of the season in the second heat race. We started 6th in the feature. It was a hard fought battle. Our car was a little loose on entry but other than that it was pretty good. We had some awesome battles with other cars dicing back and forth in the top 5, but we crossed the line in 5th, giving us a great night.
The full story of this night, including the roof height fiasco is on Diary of a Season 2015, located on our Message Board.
Next week we run at Full Throttle Speedway in our Late Model.
More updates on David Elliott, and Jason Legge later this week.
OSCAAR Opening Day Sunset Speedway
The season opener for the Modified is finally here. I am excited about 2015, our 47th season, but much discouraged about the look of our car because of jacking up the roof. I won’t let that interfere with our goal to chase for the points Championship. I am looking forward to racing this car and having fun with the OSCAAR Mod teams and fans.
There is no rain date for this race, and that is sad. Last year we ran a full show both days. This year we have one show with no rain date or make up date, so I hope rain stays away.
Special thanks to my crew, Marty, Matt, Billy, Jon, Karen and Paul for supporting us in 2015. I know they won’t make all the races, but hopefull most of them. Llyoyd recent joined our Late Model team, as did Jack and Zach, two students from West Dale high school.
I would also like to thank all our sponsors for their tremendous support for this coming season. Quaker State, Lincoln Welders, JDS Insurance, Timber Green Landscaping, Grind Stone Property Management, Open Doors, Scripture Union, PPG, Permatex, McGuiars, Uptown Sports Management, Oakville Trailers, The Black Bull, PCS Postma, Creative Edge, Flamboro Machine Shop, Project Track Champion, Drew Mac and Keepers of the Earth.
I will be doing a report on this race in Diary of a Season 2105 by Sunday.
Thank you for being a fan of our race team.
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.
2015 GEM Schedule
Please note…all Thunder Car races are cancelled….and on August 29th, we will be at Flamboro Speedway running the “rained out” rescheudled OSCAAR Modified race from May 30th….. 
2015 schedule. Since 1969 Gary Elliott Motorsports has been averaging over 25 nights per season. This could possibly be the last year we will try to make this many shows. Not because of desire, but because of the expectation a schedule of this amount puts on our crew. I appreciate very much all those who have helped me over the years. Every year it gets tougher for crew members to commit to so many races. Most teams in Ontario race 12 to 15 nights in a season, most series run less than 14, and even then it’s hard for some crew to make a full season. One thought is to just race at one track, but that would eliminate one of my race cars, and that isn’t going to happen. The other is to reduce my number of shows to 25. If I do that, I should have enough crew to facilitate 25 shows, making it easier on them. I never expect my crew to make every race, so having 7 or 8 crew members makes it possible for them to take nights off, yet still feel they are part of the team.
That is one of the reasons I race conservatively. It helps deflect the burden on my crew to spend extra time working on the car. I don’t mind racing that way really, because being conservative helps reduce the cost as well.
Our streak of 721 race nights in a row without a miss will jump considerably in 2015, however, when setting a 36 race schedule, chances of missing a night increase. I am hoping to complete this schedule in 2015 and then for 2016, God willing, reduce the race nights by 25%.
I am very thankful for our tremendous sponsor support in 2015. They are also the reason I race so many nights, to give them maximum exposure. Our team averages 15 to 20 off track shows a year, giving even more exposure to our valued sponsors. I will be doing a write up on each sponsor very soon.
Thank you for visiting our site, and thank you for your support.
Hope to see you at a race track near you soon.
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.