Racin'
& Internet Stuff:
By Tom Avenengo
Volume # 2
First things, first:
I started working on this column late on Sunday afternoon. Here it is 4:15 PM on Tuesday, and it’s snowing like all get out, outside. Glad I went and voted (school stuff) earlier today. It’s been snowing about the hardest I’ve ever seen it – really. Weather folks are saying the heavy snow might cause problems with downed wires and trees etc, etc. At 5:20, we lost power, and I lost some of this column, too! Then on a nice, sunny Wednesday afternoon, yesterday, as I was working on this, yep, you guessed it – power went off – just enough to mess up things in ‘puter land. Later on, in the afternoon, I had an appointment with my Chiropractor, and while there, we talked about the power on/off deal. He told me he has a battery backup for his, so I guess I’ll have to get one for my ‘puter. I hope wherever you are, things are (were) better!
Some of my thoughts:
Later on, in this column, are links to various items, both motor sports related and some not related, as usual. Quite a lot has been said about the “Luck” of Jimmie Johnson – actually gaining spots when he pitted, just prior to a yellow coming out in last Sundays Cup race. A lot being said about NASCAR confiscating the Dave Blaney driven # 66 Cup car as soon as he “parked” it.
What I can’t figure out is why NASCAR has gone to a red/black flag to signal the end of its practice sessions. Why can’t they just use the good old-fashioned checkered flag? Hmmm, maybe they can’t claim they “invented” the checkered flags, huh?
Going
back, in time:
Going
back to late February, in: - from 23rd on:
On
February 23rd, in:
1958
Paul
Goldsmith wins the final NASCAR race held on the beach at Daytona,
1964
Richard
Petty won his first NASCAR Daytona 500.
1986
Sammy
Swindell won the World of Outlaws Sprint Car race at the Ascot Park,
Gardena, CA. ( Click here for the race report. )
On
February 24th, in:
1927
My sister, Rosemarie (Tiny) Back, was born. She’s still active as h*ll. How she does it – I really don’t know.
She got the nickname “Tiny” because she was a few inches short of even being five feet tall.
1932
Sir
Malcolm Campbell in his Bluebird set a new land speed record of 253.968
mph at Daytona Beach, FL
1963
"Tiny"
On
February 25th, in:
1961
Davey
Allison ... Born ...
A NASCAR race car driver, best known as the driver of the Robert
Yates Racing #28 Texaco-Havoline Ford. Born in
1973
Richard
Petty , coming back from a lap 66 tangle that dropped him 2 laps back,
won the NASCAR GN 'Richmond 500'. Buddy Baker finished 2nd in the K&K
Dodge, 13.6 seconds behind Petty's Petty Engineering Dodge, the only other car
on the lead lap.
2001
Alfred
"Pee Wee" Southcott ... Died ... He was one of
On
February 26th, in:
1903
Alexander Winton driving his Winton Bullet, set the
first speed record ever achieved at Daytona Beach,
1932
Johnny Cash was born.
1944
SCCA The Sports Car Club of America is incorporated
in
1956
Tim
Flock drove one of the Kiekhaefer Chrysler entries to the win in the
NASCAR Grand National race on the
1967
Mario
Andretti won the Daytona 500 in a Holman-Moody Ford. Andretti took the
lead to stay on lap 168 and held a 22 second lead over teammate Fred Lorenzen
when a caution came out with two laps to go, ending the race under caution.
James Hylton finished third in a Dodge.
2001
Duke
Nalon ... Died ... AAA midget, sprint and Indy car racer
.
2003
George
Rice (Viola) died. He was the ARDC’s
champion in 1947.
On February 27th, in:
1910
Ted
Horn... Born ... AAA driver from the 1930's and 40's.
Ted Horn has the best 9-year streak of finishes in
1939
Peter
Revson... Born ... Formula One and the Indy car driver. The nephew of
Revlon Cosmetics industry magnate Charles Revson, he was an heir to his father
Martin's fortune (reportedly worth over $1 billion). During a practice run for
the 1974 South African Grand Prix in
1949
1954
Bobby
Ball... Died ... AAA driver from the early 1950's.
On January 4, 1953, he was involved in midget car accident at Carrell
1955
Tim Flock , after
Fireball Roberts was disqualified, was declared winner of the 160 mile NASCAR
GN race on the beach & road course. Roberts led every lap in the Fish
Carburetor Buick, but a post race inspection found slightly altered pushrods,
elevating Flock to first. Flock had been disqualified from the 1954 race win,
leaving the circuit as a result. Flock returned to drive Carl Kiekhaefer's
Chrysler in it's first race.
1960
Bobby
Marshman won the 35-lap TQ Midget race at the
Jackie
Evans won the Modified race at the Hialeah Speedway, Miami, FL. ( Click here for
the race report. )
1966
Richard
Petty overcame a day filled with tire problems to win the Daytona 500.
Chunks from disintegrating tires shattered the windshields of top contenders
Curtis Turner, Dick Hutcherson and Marvin Panch, knocking them out. Petty's
On
February 28th, in:
1940
Mario
Andretti... Born ... One of the most successful Americans in the history
of auto racing.
Note: American?
I thought he was born in
1964
This writer was
honorably discharged from the
1966
Joe
Gaerte... Born ... World of Outlaws sprint car driver.
1971
A.J.
Foyt won the 500 mile NASCAR GN race at
2000
Tony Schumacher drove his Top Fuel dragster through
the 1/4 mile at 330.23 mph at Firebird International Raceway in Phoenix,
On
February 29th, in:
1932
Masten
Gregory... Born ... Masten Gregory was born in
1976
Richard
Petty wins the only Cup race run on February 29 (leap day), winning the
Racing on TV - http://www.racefantv.com/USTV.htm
Thursday,
February 25th:
I
have no idea as to what “HD Theater” is, but they have some shows on about the
2010 World Rally Championship. Those are
some shows that I feel should be on SPEED TV – not some of the junk they have
on at night.
10:00
PM to 10:30 PM on HD Theater – 2010 World Rally Championship preview
10:30 PM to 11:00 PM on HD Theater – 2010 World Rally from
Friday,
February 26th:
2:00
PM to 3:00 PM on SPEED – Nationwide practice from
3:00
PM to 4:30 PM on SPEED – Cup practice from
4:30
PM to 6:00 PM on SPEED – Final Nationwide practice
6:30
PM to 8:30 PM on SPEED – Cup Qualifying from
10:00
PM to 10:30 PM on HD Theater – World Rally from
10:30
PM to 11:00 PM on HD Theater – World Rally from
Saturday,
February 27th:
12:00
PM to 1:30 PM on SPEED – Nationwide qualifying from
1:30
PM to 2:30 PM on SPEED – Cup practice
2:30
PM to 4:00 PM on SPEED – Final Cup practice
4:30
PM to 8:00 PM on ESPN2 – Nationwide race from
7:30
PM to 10:30 PM on SPEED – AMA Supercross Special from
Sunday,
February 28th:
3:00
PM to 6:30 PM on FOX – Cup race from
3:00 PM to 4:00 PM on SPEED – FIM World Superbike race 1
from
4:00
PM to 5:00 PM on SPEED – FIM World Superbike race 2 from
10:00
PM to 11:00 PM on HD Theater – 2010 World Rally from
Note: Not knowing where you might live, I sure hope
the weather forecast for Thursday/Friday doesn’t interfere with your ability to
watch some racing on TV!
Track
news:
Not really much to report on this week. Hopefully something will break over the next week. But, again, I’ll make mention of the Motor Sports car show for OCFS:
From the OCFS website:
“The 2010 Nostalgia night will
be held on June 5, 2010. As in the past we will have the stars from days gone
by, we are currrently looking to add to our already great list, if you have any
requests for someone we may have missed in the past, let us know and we will do
our best to get them to come to this event. Click
here to send your request.” Oh, the “Click here” – that leads you to an
e-mail address, which is:
ocfsevents@yahoo.com
The
History of the Sport:
Some
things about racing here in the Northeast in 1949:
1949 – For midget racing, the downhill spiral
picked up more speed, while stock car racing gained a lot of ground. What was so nice about stock car racing, back
then, and for a short time thereafter, was that you
could use the same car on both dirt and paved tracks. Eventually, “specialized” cars took over, and
with that, the race fans, in a way, got “cheated” from seeing ALL the good
drivers compete against each other at most of the weekly run tracks.
Here
in the Northeast, midget racing opened up with a 14 race schedule at the
Kingsbridge Armory in the
At
Hinchliffe Stadium, they opened up with midget racing in early April, with some
Sunday afternoon shows. Starting on May
3rd, they went to two night a week shows,
on Tuesday and Friday nights. That
didn’t last long, as there were slim crowds for those midget races. On Tuesday, May 17th, the stock
cars took over the Tuesday night shows, while the midgets remained on
Fridays. The last midget race, at
Hinchliffe, in 1949, was held on August 5th, due to small crowds,
and they were replaced with stock cars.
Bob
Disbrow had 4 feature wins. Mike Nazaruk
had three, while Art Cross, Don Morris and Ernie McCoy each had two. Single feature wins went to: Stan Disbrow, Jim Reed, Len Duncan and Fred
“Jiggs” Peters. Art Cross was the track
champion.
A
new track – paved, was put in Veterans Stadium in
Klar
also won the
The
midgets raced at the Hatfield,
A
100lap race was held in October, and Ralph Pratt won. He was followed by Len Duncan, Ted Russo and
Mike Little. On the 58th lap,
Chet Gibbons was fatally injured in an accident.
More
on the 1949 season will continue, next week.
Former Dirt Oval runners:
Last weekend, out in
Melissa Tsouhnikas was 1st in an Animal Light feature. Kolby Schroder was 1st in a Briggs Heavy “A” feature and 1st in a Briggs Medium “B” feature. Ricky Wolfe, Jr. was 3rd in a Briggs Heavy “B” feature. Randy Brundage was 2nd in an over 35 feature. Kevin Linton was 6th in the “Pro” feature. Not sure if a Dan Miller has run at the Dirt Oval in the past, but he was 2nd in a Briggs “G” feature. Sorry if I didn’t mention any others!
Other racin’ stuff:
Maybe I’m in the minority here, but I was kind of
thrilled, back in 1996, when Tony George came out with the IRL and the proposed
idea of having more American drivers in the IRL and the Indy 500. Unfortunately, what we have now is something I
consider to be “CART II”. There’s an
interesting thread, already 8 pages long, over on the Track Forum, a thread
titled: “Yeah - No Americans signed this week”. Check it out, here: http://www.trackforum.com/forums/showthread.php?t=133915
And a couple of more threads about American sponsors and American
drivers:
"The Problem" Isn't Foreign Ride Buyers, It's American Sponsors.”
http://www.trackforum.com/forums/showthread.php?t=133955
“Instead of a new car, why
not more American drivers?”
http://www.trackforum.com/forums/showthread.php?t=133732
More racin’
stuff:
Somewhere on the
Internet, I’ve read that Dave Blaney will not have the primary # 66 car for
Here’s a link to
the entry list, on Jayski’s website – 46 cars as of Wednesday:
http://jayski.com/stats/2010/entries/3lvms2010entry.htm
Video
time:
With
it being the anniversary the birth of Johnny Cash, this Friday, the 26th
of February, I thought it would be nice to have a couple of his videos this
week.
From
1957: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CnS57qkFnc4&NR=1
From
1958: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K3Ga_89U9w0&feature=related
From
his TV show: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7Cru2ld06-A&feature=related
Internet stuff:
Other
forums/message boards and websites:
Note: In this section, from now on, I’ll be making mention of some certain things being said on the Internet, and will give you links to those items, along with links to various websites, message boards and forums. Hope you get a kick out of what some people are saying.
Track Forum: - http://www.trackforum.com/forums/
Well, from what I saw on TV last Saturday, in the Nationwide race from
http://www.trackforum.com/forums/showthread.php?t=133811&page=1&pp=20
Frontstretch.com:
http://www.frontstretch.com/
I’ve always enjoyed what Matt McLaughlin had to say over on Frontstretch. Here is what he had to say after the Daytona 500:
http://www.frontstretch.com/mmclaughlin/28632/
Jayski: - http://www.jayski.com/
The birth of NASCAR, More about Jeremy Mayfield, tire
problems at
http://jayski.com/cupnews.htm#news41sun
More
on this: NASCAR
Confiscates #66 Start & Park Entry:
Hoseheads: - http://www.hoseheads.com/
Dirt Track Digest’s forum: http://www.dirttrackdigest.com/forum/index.php
Here’s a website for you to check out – especially if you’re into restored race cars:
Note: I see that they have, as of 2/24/2010 an incorrect date for their appearance at OCFS. The correct date is June 5th – per the OCFS’s website and per the ACOT Newsletter that was received on 2/24/2010, via the US Mail. June 5th at OCFS is their “Nostalgia” night, which seems to get bigger and better every year. Info on the “Nostalgia Night” is shown above, in “Track News”.
Other
(non racing) news:
Our
health:
Over
these last 14 years, ever since mid 1996, I have had some “health issues”. My smoking, ever since a
mid teenager, plus my diet, later on, were the culprits. And ever since mid 1996, I’ve been on various
types of medications. Over time, due to
cost, some of those meds were changed.
And, over time, some of the meds I’ve been on,
have made the news due to some not so nice things about them. Today, Wednesday, February 24th, I
went over to Yahoo! to check out what was new.
Well, guess what – now they’re saying that ASPIRIN might not be all that
good for certain people – those that might, like me, take on a day. Check out what they’re saying, now:
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704511304575075701363436686.html?mod=yhoofront
Funny what 8
million dollars will make people say:
Yep, I’d probably
say the same thing as Johnny Damon, when they had a press conference announcing
that he’d signed to play for the Detroit Tigers for a one year deal worth 8 mil.
Questions are: With Detroit being
one of the hardest cities hit, money wise, will they draw enough fans to even
pay for his salary?
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20100222/ap_on_bi_ge/oil_prices
Higher premiums for health insurance. I could see this coming – could you?
Closing with these:
I figure most men reading this will get a kick out of what follows – some tool “Definitions”:
*DRILL PRESS:*
A tall upright machine; useful for suddenly snatching flat metal
bar stock out of your hands so that it smacks you in the chest and flings your
beer across the room, denting the freshly-painted project which you had
carefully set in the corner where nothing could get to it.
**WIRE WHEEL:**
Cleans paint off bolts and then throws them somewhere under the
workbench with the speed of light. Also removes
fingerprints and hard-earned calluses from fingers in about the time it takes
you to say, "Oh, shit!"
**SKILL SAW:***
*A portable cutting tool used to
make studs too short.
**PLIERS:***
*Used to round off bolt heads. Sometimes used in the
creation of blood-blisters.
**BELT SANDER:**
An electric sanding tool commonly used to convert minor touch up
jobs into major refinishing jobs.
**HACKSAW:**
One of a family of cutting tools built on the Ouija board principle ...
It transforms human energy into a crooked, unpredictable motion,
and the more you attempt to influence its course, the more dismal your future
becomes.
**VISE-GRIPS:***
*Generally used after pliers to completely round off bolt
heads. If
nothing else is
available, they can also be used to transfer intense
welding heat to the
palm of your hand.
**OXYACETYLENE TORCH:***
*Used almost entirely for lighting various flammable objects in
your
shop on fire. Also
handy for igniting the grease inside the wheel hub
out of which you want to remove a
bearing race...
**TABLE SAW:***
*A large stationary power tool
commonly used to launch wood projectiles
for testing wall integrity.
**HYDRAULIC FLOOR JACK:**
Used for lowering an automobile to the ground after you have
installed
your new brake shoes, trapping the jack handle firmly under the
bumper.
**BAND SAW:**
A large stationary power saw primarily used by most shops to cut good
aluminum sheet into smaller
pieces that more easily fit into the trash
can after you cut on the inside of
the line instead of the outside edge.
**TWO-TON ENGINE HOIST:***
*A tool for testing the maximum tensile
strength of everything you
forgot to
disconnect...
**PHILLIPS SCREWDRIVER:**
Normally used to stab the vacuum seals under lids or for
opening old-style
paper-and-tin oil cans and splashing oil on your
shirt; but can also
be used, as the name implies, to strip out Phillips
screw heads.
**STRAIGHT SCREWDRIVER:**
A tool for opening paint cans.
Sometimes used to convert common slotted
screws into
non-removable screws and butchering your palms.
**PRY BAR:**
A tool used to crumple the metal surrounding that clip or bracket
you
needed to remove in
order to replace a 50 cent part.
**HOSE CUTTER:**
A tool used to make hoses too short.
**HAMMER:**
Originally employed as a weapon of war, the hammer nowadays is
used as a
kind of divining rod
to locate the most expensive parts adjacent to the
object we are trying
to hit.
**UTILITY KNIFE:***
*Used to open and slice through the contents of cardboard
cartons delivered to
your front door; works particularly well on
contents such as seats,
vinyl records, liquids in plastic bottles,
collector magazines,
refund checks, and rubber or plastic parts.
Especially useful for slicing work
clothes, but only while in use.
**And this is my personal favorite hand tool.....**
**Son-of-a-b*tch TOOL:**
Any handy tool that you grab and throw across the garage while
yelling,
"Son-of-a-b*tch" at the top of your lungs.. It is also, most often, the
next tool that you
will need.
May “Guardian Angels” sit on the shoulders of all of our race drivers and race fans, and guide them safely around the tracks!
Drive safe!
As
usual, you can reach me at: ygordad@yahoo.com