Champ Trail by Phil Smith

NASCAR's elite head for New York City this week where Jimmie Johnson will be
crowned the 2008 Sprint Cup Champion. Johnson, who drives for Hendrick
Motorsports is now a three time series champion. While Johnson and team
celebrate many of those, anywhere between 200 to 1,000 are getting their
pink slips. We all know the economy is bad and auto racing has not been
excluded from the general downturn this country is presently having.

 Down on the New Jersey shore the Wall Township Speedway reopened for the
annual Turkey Derby. Wall Township, modeled after the famed Lonsdale Arena
Speedway in Rhode Island was silent throughout the 2008 season. The historic
speedway received a good shot in the arm and had a successful event which
hopefully leads to a grand reopening in 2009.
According to reports, Jimmy Blewett roughed up Matt Hirschman on lap 89 to
take the lead which led to the 100 lap Tour Type Modified win. Hirschman,
who was extremely unhappy with Blewett, finished second. Hirschman had
attempted to run the 100 lap contest non-stop while Blewett elected to pit
for fresh tires during the event. Steven Reed finished third and was
followed by Earl Paules and Tom Rogers.
Blewett attempted to go two for two but ran out of time following a pit stop
and a late race spin in the SK type 100 lapper. Blewett led from the drop of
the initial green and was in control of the race until lap 69 when he pitted
for fresh rubber. Restarting from the rear, Blewett worked his way up to
second spot with nine laps to go when he spun out. Rowan Pennick took the
win with Woody Pitkat, second and Bob Schultz, third. Blewett recovered to
finish fourth.
Deemed a rousing success, the Turkey Derby was run with temperatures in the
low 40's. The grandstands, parking lot and pits were jammed. Cars were
actually parked at the Monmouth Airport and fans were bussed to the track.

The Waterford Speedbowl will host a meet and greet this coming Monday,
December 1 at the Groton Motor Inn in Groton, CT. Property owner Terry Eames
and Modified Competitor Shawn Monahan have partnered up for a new
corporation that will operate the shoreline oval in 2009. The new management
team
Hopefully former track operator Jerry Robinson will pay the competitors what
he owes them.

In TV land this week viewing will be sparse with mostly re-runs from years
past presented on the tube. The NASCAR Sprint Cup Series Awards Banquet
which will be held at the Waldorf-Astoria Hotel in New York City will be
shown on  ESPN Classic from 9:00PM-12:00m on Friday night. The Speed Channel
wraps up the weekend on Sunday night with The Speed Report at 7:00pm.

On the Speedway Stock Market Scene last week it was a time of recovery. All
three speedway stocks had good gains for the week. Leading the pack was the
International Speedway Corporation which went up 4.02 to 25.95. Speedway
Motorsports went up 2.55 to 13.83 and Dover Downs went up 0.34 to 1.50.
NASCAR Cup series sponsor Sprint went up 1.08 to 2.79. Nationwide which
sponsors NASCAR's second tier jumped 1.93 to 50.80. Fuel supplier Sun Oil
took a huge jump as they went up 5.87 to 39.74. Goodyear also had a positive
week as they went up 1.42 to 6.43. Team Sponsor's stocks also had a positive
week. Dupont went up 2.03 to 25.06, Coca-Cola went up 3.74 to 42.56, Target
Department Stores went up 5.68 to 33.76 and Aaron's Rentals went up 3.33 to
26.43. In the home improvement sector Home Depot went up 3.82 to 23.11 and
Lowes jumped 3.51 to 20.66. The parcel carriers had a real good week. Fedex
went up 9.74 to 70.65 and UPS went up 5.29 to 57.60. On the
 down side was World Racing (DIRT) which dropped 0.01 to 0.02.

That's it for this week from 11 Gardner Drive, Westerly RI 02891. Ring my
chimes at 401-596-5467. E-Mail is smithpe_97_97@yahoo.com