Spin Cycle Sickos

07/24/03

Speedweeks is over. I know most of you think of speedweeks as something that goes on in Daytona Beach in early February but, up here in the north country, we think of it as the two week period when we have the True Value 250 at Oxford Plains Speedway and the New England 300 at NHIS. These are our big races. Many folks plan their vacations around these couple of weeks and camp at the track, while others travel back and forth. It doesn’t matter how you do it as long as you do it and if you are reading this publication, chances are that you did it.

In a 10-day period I saw about 30 races including every division imaginable from Street Stocks to Winston Cup. A lot of others saw these races too and, because they did, there are questions. There are always questions and, as usual, I’ll do my best to answer them here.

Dear Fish; As I was walking through the Winston Cup pit area I noticed that Ricky Craven’s pit had 40 sticker tires laid out and each one of them had a metal cover on the wheel. Are the Cup cars allowed to run hubcaps, or what?

Signed, Ima Nooby

Dear Ima; Had you been paying attention, you would have seen the sign on one of the covers that read "These aluminum covers are used to protect freshly glued lugnuts from rain, heat and fingers!" Had you gone ahead and put your grubby little fingers on the wheels anyway, you might have noticed the other cover which was painted with a little emblem and read "Spin Cycle Sickos, A Division of Tide Racing" That, alone, would stop most people from touching much of anything.

Dear Fish; I noticed that there were only two Beech Ridge regulars in the Oxford 250 this year, was there a rule problem, or what?

Signed, Bubba D. Walker

Dear Bubba D.; No, I don’t think it was a rules problem, I believe it was a name problem. Bubba Pelton and Bub Bilodeau were the only two Beech Ridge boys that did show up, this leads me to guess that Bubba is the only name in use in that part of Maine and if many more Bubbas had entered, track announcer Bobby Walker would have had a heart attack trying to keep them all straight.

Dear Fish; I was excited to see that my favorite driver, Morgan Shepherd got into the Cup race at NHIS this year but I didn’t understand why he pitted so often and so slowly and why someone said he was ‘scuffing’ tires, what did all of that mean?

Signed, Doug

Dear Doug; Morgan is 61 years old. When a guy gets to be 61 years old, he goes more often, scuffs his feet getting there and takes a long time when he gets there. I’m sure Morgan is just thanking God that he can still go let alone do it fast!

Dear Fish; Over the NHIS weekend I heard the words "Gentleman’s agreement" many times by many different people including Mike Helton. Can you tell me what the "Gentleman’s agreement" is?

Signed, Robbie

Dear Robbie; Sure, I can tell you what it is. The "Gentleman’s agreement" has nothing to do with on-track activities but has been around for many years in the camping areas and parking lots. The agreement is "What happens at the track, stays at the track" it’s a motto that has kept many of us alive for years.

Dear Fish; The BNS race this year at Loudon was excellent but what happened to Matt Kobyluck? I looked away and when I looked back, he was wrecked.

Signed, Otto B. Slapt

Dear Otto; A little bad luck caught up with Matt. NHIS was the first outing since repair for the car he wrecked at Phoenix early in the year. Ironically, he wrecked it again, even more ironically, the mess he got caught up in started with one of the Winston West drivers that was in the race. And, even more ironically, the mess involved Paul Wolfe who was the only other BNS driver to go to the Phoenix race. I guess Matt probably isn’t very excited about the "Western Hospitality" right now.

Dear Fish; My favorite driver, Jeff Taylor, didn’t qualify for the True Value 250. He’s an eight-time OPS champion, why wasn’t there a provisional for him? I was devastated and felt like going home!

Signed, Blondie

Dear Blondie; I don’t know why, but I can tell you that I was even more devastated than you were as I lost a one-beer bet on the outcome of the provisional issue. I don’t know why these guys don’t listen to me more often. The only funny thing that came out of that was a little girl running around the parking/camping area after qualifying singing, to the tune of Jack and Jill went up the hill, "All Rowe front row show, and Taylor in the trailer" Obviously, she was happier about it than you, me, or Jeff.

Dear Fish; What is a Zoomie? I heard a guy in the pressbox at NHIS on Saturday saying he wanted one and that it was available at a gas station. I slept through the rest of the conversation so I don’t know where or how he got it.

Signed, Kate

Dear Kate; I don’t know. I heard that myself and it sounded like a very interesting and provocative conversation but just as I was going to find out what a Zoomie really was, Dave showed up with the Groovy M&M’s and I lost all interest in Zoomies.

All in all it was a couple of great races. The Oxford 250 has always been one of the great races in the east, and with the new pavement at NHIS and now that I have found a place in New Hampshire that stocks lots of ice cold Busch beer, the New England 300 and it’s support races are also at the top of the list!

As always, send Questions, Comments, Hate Mail, and Indecent Proposals to, Fish c/o Busch North Scene or e-mail them to fishy@gwi.net