Questions

9/24/03

Well, the season is winding down and the championship is all but settled, but the points battle from there back is still up in the air and will make for some great racing at the last two shows at Stafford and Lime Rock. Fortunately for me, Stafford will have their live internet broadcast of Sunday’s race, as I will not be able to attend in person. Likewise, due to High School Football, I’ll miss the finale at Lime Rock that I so enjoy. I really look forward to going back there next season, it is always one of my favorite races.

Mother Nature beat us out of another of our best and most well attended races at Dover Downs, which was a shame. I did manage to get to two of the past three shows. I went to Beech Ridge and to NHIS and both were excellent races this year and both drew very large crowds. Because I was able to attend those two races and heard so much about the Thunder Road race, I have a few observations.

There were 36,000 race fans in attendance at NHIS on Saturday to see what turned out to be a relatively boring CTS race and a pretty darn good BNS race. Which series do you suppose drew more fans? I want to know how we can find out.

Did anyone else see the irony in Billy Penfold’s BNS crew pitting the Racing for Jesus truck for Morgan Shepherd?

Did you notice how Thunder Road favors the guys with experience there more than any other track? Hoar, Dion, Olsen, Demers and Stub Fadden all had either tremendous qualifying or race runs this year. It always seems to happen that way. Do you suppose it’s the size and shape of the track or just being used to racing in the dark with just a few 40 wall light bulbs illuminating the track?

Speaking of Stub Fadden, does he have to report his race winnings to social security? Do they dock his monthly check? How about Morgan Shepherd at Loudon, does he report the income he gets from scuffing tires for other teams? I’d hate to think that there was a big financial scam going on at our local tracks.

I ran into Mr. and Mrs. Clayton Murphy at NHIS and had a nice conversation with them. I was happy to hear that they miss being involved with the BNS as much as we miss their involvement. Here’s to hoping that they are back in the mainstream next season, with Tic-Tac or with something else, we need folks like them.

Nascar calling off the Dover BNS race sucked but, when compared to going to Lime Rock 3 or 4 times to get a race in, I guess it was the intelligent answer.

What goes around comes around for the veterans. At Beech Ridge, Brad Leighton had a flat tire early and went on to a sub-par finish after a long night. A couple weeks later he won at NHIS. I bet he forgot Beech Ridge quickly. Mike Olsen, on the other hand, won a very controversial Beech Ridge race and then went on to spin out of the lead pack at Thunder Road and end up with a 14^th place finish. I hope Mike is remembering the win and not the spin.

In the press box at NHIS, after seeing the passing flag put out many laps in a row for a couple drivers that were having a hard time staying out of the way, I heard the comment "Geeze, can’t they keep the spectators in the stands?" I thought that was cute.

I also heard the Cup race at NHIS referred to as the "Cold Beer 300" and have to admit that it’s been a long time since I’ve had a beer in New Hampshire that wasn’t chilled to perfection. That and the great Media Center food are just two more examples of why this is always one of our favorite stops.

I had a great opportunity and learned a lot of key information at Beech Ridge this year. To begin with, the food at Beech Ridge is twice as good and costs half as much as it does at any other track I attend. They also broadcast their race on an AM radio station so you can actually run to the car and flip on the radio so as to not miss a single lap while you are having refreshments!

I was honored that evening to be asked by pace car driver Dan Walker to ride along. I’m not sure if that made me the official ‘pace car navigator’ or if I was there simply for right side weight, but it was a whole lot of fun. The coolest part is going fast enough to blow the Speedy Dry off the track and hurrying out to pick up the leaders when caution comes out.

Pacing the Truck division was a rush. These things are full-size pickup trucks with big V8 engines and they are just a bit intimidating rolling along behind you and revving the motor. It really is quite amazing how well they handle and how fast they’ll go.

The Wildcat semi-feature was a real barnburner with only 4 cars in it. Neither of us were sure why, exactly, it was being run at all but it was obvious that Dan had, at some point, ticked off the guy on the pole. He kept running up real close to the back bumper before the green flag and nearly caused the pace car to have to make a trip to the detail shop for a good right-side upholstery cleaning. When the ‘lightening bugs’ came out we stayed way ahead of them. I asked Dan why and his answer was something like "With these guys, I take NO chances". It was right after that race, I think, that I bailed out and watched the BNS race from the pit fence. Mike Olsen and Kelly Moore were on the front row for that race and I have no doubt that both of them would have taken great pleasure in putting me through ‘pace car hell’!

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