October 5-6-7.......................
Peterborough Speedway
Autumn Colors Classic
Race #16
High Lites
* 27 cars
* Kelly Balsom wins
* Cory Horner wins Championship
* Some serious wrecks
* We clinch 4th in points
* Heat win our 7th checker of 2018
* 574 final
Results
Heat #1......1st
Heat #2......7th
Feature......8th
Winnings
$335
Repairs
Overhaul for 2019, front end etc
Crew
Jim, Gehrig, Stephen Ken, Buttons and Dan Price on Friday night
Conclusion
I wanted to wait for some pictures to do this report and I finally got them. I will have this report completed by Thursday night.
Meanwhile I will see how far I can get tonight.
Buttons and I left Dundas Thursday morning around 10:30. I wanted to get to the track and get a decent parking spot. I would be alone both Thursday and Friday because none of my crew could get away those 2 days. Some wouldn't be coming at all, mostly because the weather forecast was rain all 4 days, Thursday to Sunday.
Once in my pit spot I headed to our hotel to register. After that Buttons and I went to MacDonald's. She already had her dinner, now it was my turn. I got my order and headed back to the truck, Derrick Tiemersma's truck. I borrowed it after Velocity when the water pump on my truck let go. Shirley and Derrick picked me while my crew stayed with the truck and trailer in New Market. We went to their place and borrowed his truck so I could get my crew home, Louie and Brian. I also kept the truck until mine was completed, and it was going to be brought to Peterborough Speedway on Friday.
I leave MacDonald's with my food order and head to the truck. Trouble started as soon as I looked for the key. I couldn't find it, anywhere. I went back inside the store but no one seen or had my key. I was stumped. I started to panic for Buttons, she was locked in the truck. Also, to make things worse, I left my phone back at the hotel. I was too upset to eat so I ran/walked back to the hotel, about 500 yards up hill. I was heart broken... I thought..."How stupid am I". Poor Buttons, seeing me look in the window, and then see me run away. I was a mess.
Once back at the hotel I grabbed my phone and headed back to the car. I called Shirley on the way to tell her what happened and she thought "Dad you must have left the key in the truck". Well maybe I did, but I had no way to get it out. She suggested to call a tow truck so I did and they put me on hold for 10 minutes as if they were so busy from the current blizzard.....no reason to put me on hold that long.
Soon Shirley called me back and said "Gehrig in on the way with a spare key and your truck, he will be there in an hour". Okay, thank goodness I thought and then went back inside after assuring a confused Buttons I would be right back. It wasn't cold or hot so she was good other than maybe stressed, who knows, maybe I was more stressed that she was, and I sure was worried for her.
Once back inside I asked one of the girls if they would consider replacing my cold food with hot food because I think I locked my key in the truck and she replied "yes I don't see a problem with that". She returned fairly quickly with my new order and no charge. I was starting to relax knowing things were being looked after.
About 25 minutes after I ate I was talking to a racer who was going to driving at Peterborough. We chatted for 10 minutes and then an employee whom I asked earlier if they found a key came up to me and said "is this your key". I looked at the black single key and smiled and said "YES, that's it....where did you find it"? She said "it was in your food bag. We found it when we dumped out the food". I hugged her and thought "are you kidding me...really....I have locked my keys in my car, dropped them beside my truck, left them at the cash....but dropping them unknowingly in my food bag"????? How would that happen? If it happened once every 70 years I would be worried what will happen in 2088
I opened the truck right away, hugged Buttons, called Shirley to let her know the mystery and then called Gehrig. He got there about 20 minutes later. I was so happy but felt ridiculous.....who would think to look in the food bag? Maybe if I ate my food right away I would have found the key
I treated my grandson to a gift card for Tim's was going to buy him dinner but he ate and offered to pay his way in for the weekend. Man what a dumb thing that caused me so much stress.....next time I guess I will tell people to check their food bag
Friday
Buttons and I got to the track on Friday in plenty of time to get the car unloaded and set up the pits. I was by myself this night but the car was pretty well ready to go. I did need a spotter and asked Dan Price if he would spot for me and he said he would.
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I got the car ready for the first set of hot laps and found it to be good, but slightly tight off the corners. I talked to my Jim and we agreed on a minor change, we did two. That helped a lot and on the second set of hot laps the car was much better.
I like this track although it demands being on top of the wheel constantly, no resting at this oval, not for a second. It's very fast and has aggressive turns, especially turn three and four. Our car was good and I was ready for our heat race.
Heat #1
I drew 4 for a starting spot and it turned out to be pole of the first heat. There were some very fast cars in this heat race including points leader Cory Horner #79, #99 Luke Gignac the 2017 club Champion, #51 Dale Reinhardt who finished 3rd in points plus both 77's, Brad Robertson the 2017 OMRS Champ and Chad Strawn a great runner with a new car.
Dan was awesome spotting, very steady and informative for me. I like lots of reply so I can get a mental picture where I am on the track. When he says "clear by 3" I feel very confident.
We lead the first 6 laps with no issues and then a yellow came out. That put Cory Horner outside pole for the restart. I was intimidated a little because I really wanted to win this race and he was one of the fastest, if not the fastest Mod this year.
I got a good restart and pulled Cory off 4 and was ahead in turn one. By the time we got to turn 3 on that lap the yellow was out again. That wasn't good. That means he would have a second chance to try to out gun me on the restart, and it would mean I would have to do the exact same thing I did the first time, only better. I knew Cory would be aggressive on the start, so I had to be as well, especially if I wanted to win this race.
Going down the back chute we were side by side with the pace car in front of me. I was getting anxious that I might hit that brand new Camaro because Cory had a clear lane, and would be wanting to jump ahead to beat me off turn 4. had to wait until the pace car was out of my range to make sure I didn't get into him.
We are suppose to maintain pace car speed once he leaves the track, but with this being a second restart I knew the rules might not apply here. As the pace car pulled we both immediately started to pick up speed. I am sure I was full throttle have way through the turn. Dan said right away "clear high" and that was a great thing to hear. Next he said "clear by one" as we raced down the back chute.
For the next two laps we were ahead by one until the final lap when #99 Luke caught up but only by half a car length in the middle of the turn, I was able to get on the gas quick and car rocketed off the turn taking us to our 7th win of 2018.
I was very excited, and couldn't wait to tell all my family and crew, who were not there yet, about the win.......yes I still get pumped
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Saturday
This was a cold miserable day with rain threatening all day. The weather forecast for the past week was rain, rain and more rain.
Jim, my crew chief for years, called me and asked what the weather looked like. I said it was overcast but no rain. He was going to come with Ken Stenhouse, but Ken cancelled because of the threat of rain. I was alone at that time until Gehrig showed up around noon. The car was already unloaded and ready to go for hot laps.
The rains did come but not much, not hard and not very long. Hayden Brown, another crew member, was going to get a ride with his Dad and stay with me and Buttons. I told him to call Jim and get a ride with Jim to save his Dad a 6 hour return trip. He did call Jim but at that time Jim wasn't sure what was happening. Soon Hayden cancelled. Soon after that Jim text me saying Ken was determined to go no matter what, rain or shine and they were leaving Waterdown then and would be at the track around 1:30
Because of the small amount of rain there were no hot laps until the afternoon, enough time for Jim and Ken to get here and help Gehrig and I. Gehrig is very energetic and a smart young man. Once he starts learning how front end geometry works, bump steer and shock/spring importance, he will be a huge asset to me and maybe get behind the wheel of my Modified or Late Model.
Jim and Ken arrived before practice and were ready to go, we were as well. We ran on the same tires I used for the heat on Friday. They were a little older, would have been perfect on a very hot day but would still work for the heat race this day.
After one set of hot laps we were content the car was decent and got ready for the heat race.
Heat #2
In this heat race we started 8th. This field of car was stout again and though we tried to make some gain we couldn't go anywhere really, passed one car and finished in 7th place. That finish combined with our heat win put us 11th on the starting grid.
After this race we packed up, loaded the car and headed for our hotel room. We watched the Leafs lose to Ottawa...?????.....and got to bed early. The weather still looked gloomy but better than it was Saturday. Louie decided not to come. I had plenty of help and realized that it was a 3 hour drive for him, plus he was taking his grand mother to Church and felt he should take the day off and relax. Louie has been an incredible crew member and friend helping me every week once a week for sure, sometimes twice, to get our car prepped for each race. I appreciate him very much as I do all my team mates. He's also developed into a great spotter. Listening to Jim will make anyone who spots for a race team better.
Sunday
Sunday greeted us with a nice day, a little cool, no sun but most importantly, no rain. When I sent my truck to Wilson Niblett where Shirley and Gehrig work, Shirley is Assistant Manager for service, and Gehrig is an apprentice technician, they fixed my leaking water pump and no heat condition. A year ago I had an issue with my truck with the battery going dead. I had it diagnosed and they found through TSB's for Ford, that my radio was causing the problem, so they disconnected it. I had no problems with that since, except no radio to listen to. While it was under Shirley's care I asked Gehrig if he would hook the radio back up. For some reason I felt it would be okay now.
Sunday morning it was slow to start and at first I though, what is that? But I knew what it was. I went to Tim's to get Buttons and I breakfast, actually she had eaten already in the hotel room, but I needed a coffee and something to eat. Diesels are loud so when I got to the order sign I shut the truck off......lucky me.....it barely started. I headed to the track and when I got there I shut it off again and decided to try and start it and it would not start, just like it wouldn't 6 months ago. It did start with a boost with 2 vehicles, but after 15 minutes running I shut it off and when I tried to restart it, there was silence....totally dead. Gehrig pulled both batteries out of the truck and charged them, The truck fired up right away, so then I asked him....."can you unplug my radio #1 grandson" and he did.
The Mods had 24 very fast cars to start the feature. It was going to be a wild race no matter what. One reason is because it's a very fast track, made even faster by the cold temperatures. The other issue is the tight race surface. Okay if you turn 15 second laps, but a much different animal when turning 13.5 with all your buddies doing the same thing. Close fast racing is awesome. But sometimes there can be a few cautions. Add to that racers who show little respect and cautions will be fluent, including some red flags. And that's what happened.
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The first red was on lap 1. The track gave us 5 hot laps to get heat in the tires and my car felt great. We doubled up to take the while and on the green we bolted into turn one. We completed that lap and raced in to turn one again, only this time most of the field slid up the track. Something was on the track, oil, water or maybe rear end fluid. I couldn't believe my car slid up the track so bad but was one of the lucky ones to miss the wreck. This deal eliminated #97 Tyler DiVenanzo, #21 Chris Milwain and #20 Mike Hearty. Two with damage and one perhaps who lost the fluid. The red lasted quite a while, so guess how good our tires were after being warmed up!!!....not so much.
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Once the mess was cleaned up we got the yellow and drove around to clean up the speedy dry that was from the starters stand to turn one.
The next few laps were crazy with racing everywhere. Cars side by side, and an awesome battle up front. John Baker Jr. was on the pole with Kelly Balsom #10 outside. John got the early lead and Kelly followed for about 10 laps until he got by on the outside.
I was in a constant battle most of the race. We got up to 8th and fought side by side with my good friend and veteran #3 Tim Tolton.
We soon ran into a few cautions but in each case I could not get by Tim. He was very fast off the corners and with short straights, front especially, he was able to hold me off.
On lap 14 two OMRS cars got into it when the #16 of Anthony Di Bello slammed into Chad Strawn #77. Chad got into the front chute wall and unfortunately hit the starter stand opening. His car flew down the front chute into dogging cars, including Tim, who's car went air borne. Jim was saying "go high, go high", but I decided to stay low and it worked barely missing the spinning cars. What a wreck and it brought out another long red. Good news was Chad was okay, but the gauge on his anger mood was at the top....he was furious to get hit so hard, so early in this race.
On the restart we were still 8th, got down but a few laps later got nailed in turn 3 and 4 sending us to the infield. But the time I got back out (no yellow) we lost 6 or 7 spots, putting us back to 17th. However we gained a few spots back when another wreck on the back chute coming off turn 2 had us dogging spinning cars and heading to the top of the track to get clear and we did. Jim was praising me for missing the wrecks. Some of it is luck, and other times its knowing a scenario and making a good guess whether to go high, low or come to a stop. Coming to a stop is a viable option as long as the guy behind you isn't texting and slams hard into the back of your car.
As the race went on I got into a battle with #90 Rick Warrens. His car was very fast on the straights but terrible in the corners. The problem with Peterborough is that fast cars can hold off cars in spite of a bad push. If they slow down and keep their car front pushing up, they are easier to pass but ramming the car into the turn and sliding up with a ton of HP to get them down the track is hard to beat and I couldn't beat him.
There was another wreck with 12 to go or so and they put us single file. After that there were no more cautions. Kelly would win this one with Cory Horner on his tail. Congrats to Kelly Balsom for the win, his first ACC win.
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We would finish 8th and clinch 4th in the points......thank you Lord, thank you team mates and sponsors, fans, competitors and promoters.
Congratulations to Cory Horner on winning the Championship. They made some very good changes over the winter and were the best car no doubt.
Special thanks to my family, team, crew, and sponsors for a very successful 50th Anniversary. It was a good year and though we got off to a rocky start we did well the last half of the season.
Our next race is October 13th at Flamboro Speedway for Octoberfest Classic Triple 50's. Hope to see you all there. Wear something to keep you warm.
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.....not fun for sure. 
.....anyway nothing could take away our joy on this night. We were "TOP Qualifier"