Racin'
Stuff:
By Tom Avenengo
First things, first:
A few things to get started, this week:
First, late last week, there was a big crash at our
house. My computer crashed. I couldn’t do anything or get into
anything. Thanks to Shane Decker and
Jeff Michelson, the problem was solved.
Shane is the boyfriend of our grand daughter, Samantha, while Jeff is
our son-in-law, being married to our daughter, Sarah. I will guess that I was extremely lucky that
those two could make the needed repairs.
It’s remarkable how some people can negotiate their way around and in
these computers, with Shane at my computer and Jeff at his, down in
Second, on Monday morning, after I had sent out another “Internet” article to the New England Tractor website, I received an e-mail from Jeff Johnson who runs that website. It was about my “Internet” article. It seems that there is a possibility that my doing those articles, and also for copying and pasting some things that are on the Internet, into those articles, and even into my columns, might not be to “Kosher”. With my not using names, I thought it would be ok, especially with the “Internet” articles. So, whether I continue with them, or not, is up in the air as of now. If I do, they would be completely different – and the same applies to my columns, too, as far as copying and pasting. If I see something interesting in the future, I guess I’ll make mention of it, then supply a link. I surely don’t want to get anyone in trouble due to my ignorance.
Third, there is another photo article on the New England Tractor website - http://newenglandtractor.com/racereport/ this one is about the late Jim DiMarco, a midget driver from back in the 40’s and 50’s. You might be surprised as to who owns the beautiful black # 98 Kurtis Offy that Jim drove. I know I was. Special thanks go out to his brother, Joe DeMarco, for the info and photos sent to me. Yes, as you can see, brothers with a different spelling on their last names. Find out why, in the article.
Some of my thoughts:
Last Sunday, I, like so many millions of others, watched the two football games on TV. I was pulling for the Jets, but they pooped out in the second half, and now they have to “Wait till next year”. As for the Vikings and Saints, in a way I was hoping that Favre would make it, and in a way, the Saints, too, since they have never been in the Super Bowl. What I got a kick out of, was towards the end of the Vikings/Saints game, they had a few “revues” on some plays. One play, in particular, that really did affect the outcome of the game, in my opinion, was a pass interference call on a non catch-able ball. I wonder why that wasn’t reviewed? It gave the Saints a first down, and shortly afterwards; they had the winning field goal.
And something else – the overtime “rules” - I firmly believe that BOTH teams should have at least one chance to score. This whoever scores first stuff is BS. Some kind of system, maybe like what they do with college football, should be used, I think.
Going
back, in time:
Going
back to late January on:
On
January 27th in:
1952: Troy Ruttman won a “Big car” race on the
one-mile track – Bay Meadows, in
1963: Parnelli Jones won a 100 lap midget race at
1966: Craig Dollansky was born.
1979: Jack Bertling won the TQ race in
1980: Nokie Fornoro won the TQ race at
On
January 28th in:
1926: Jimmy Bryan was born.
1967: Len Duncan won the TQ race in
1968: Don White won a 250-mile USAC Stock Car race
in
1973: Doug Craig won the TQ race in
1978: Jack Bertling won the TQ race in
1989: Rich Vogler won the 100 lap midget race in
the Hoosier Dome, in
1995: Steve Reeves won the 100 lap midget race in
the Hoosier Dome.
On
January 29th in:
1915: Johnny McDowell was born.
1929: Jerry Hoyt was born.
1950: Jody Scheckter was born.
1953: Bill Vukovich won a
AAA midget race at the Kearny Bowl in
1956: Shorty Templeman won a 100 lap midget race at
Saugus Speedway in
1966: George Sweeten won the TQ race in
1967: Al DeAngelo won the TQ race in
1972: Doug Craig won the first TQ race and Larry
Michaels, the second one, in
1977: Bob Cicconi won the TQ race in
1994: Jim Hettinger won a 100 lap midget race in
the Hoosier Dome.
2000: Brian Tyler won a 50 lap USAC Silver Crown
race at the Walt Disney World Speedway in
On
January 30th in:
1949: Johnny Mantz won a 30 lap AAA sprint car race
at Carrell Speedway in
1960: Len Duncan won the TQ race in the
1971: Tony Romit win the TQ race in
1972: Lee Kunzman won the 100 lap midget race in
1987: Bobby Davis, Jr. won a sprint car race in
1993: Ken Nichols won the 100 lap midget race in
the Hoosier Dome.
1999: Kevin Besecker won the 100 lap midget race in
the Hoosier Dome
2005: J J Yeley won the 25 mile USAC midget race on
the one mile track in
On
January 31st in:
1960: Jim Lacy won the TQ race at the Island Garden
in West Hempstead, LI, NY - ( Click here for the race report. ), while Cotton Owens won a qualifying race for
the Daytona 500, at Daytona - ( Click here for the race report. )
1965: Les Scott won the 100 lap midget race in
1970: Bing
1971: Pedro Rodriguez and his co-driver, Jackie
Oliver, won the 24 hour race at Daytona.
1976: Jack Bertling won the TQ race in
1981: John Jenkins won the TQ race in
1987: Bobby Davis, Jr. won an All-Star sprint car
race at the Volusia County Speedway in Barberville, Fl. - ( Click here for
the race report. )
Note: A majority of the info that I get for this section, above, can be found here: http://www.wheelsofspeed.com/history.html. Special thanks to them for allowing me to, at times, copy from their website.
Racing
on TV - http://www.racefantv.com/USTV.htm
Saturday:
3:00 PM to 10:00 PM on SPEED – Grand-Am Rolex Sports Car Series, 24 Hours of Daytona – Part 1.
10:00 PM to 2:00 AM on SPEED – NASCAR Toyota All-Star
Showdown – the top teams in NASCAR’s National and Elite divisions from
Sunday:
7:00
AM to 4:00 PM on SPEED – Part 2 of the 24-hour race.
Next
week:
Thursday,
February 4th:
5:00
PM to 6:00 PM on SPEED – Cup practice from Daytona
6:30
PM to 7:30 PM – Cup practice from Daytona
Friday,
February 5th:
2:00
PM to 3:30 PM on SPEED – Cup practice from Daytona
4:00
PM to 5:30 PM on SPEED – Cup practice from Daytona
Saturday,
February 6th:
4:30
PM to 6:30 PM on SPEED – ARCA 200 from Daytona
6:30
PM to 8:00 PM on SPEED – Preview for the Budweiser Shootout – not racing.
8:00
PM to 10:00 PM on FOX – Budweiser Shootout – Cup cars from Daytona
Other
forums/message boards and websites:
Note: I’ll no longer copy and paste what’s said on the Internet, but will give a short “lead in” and if necessary, a link to a particular thread or subject.
Jayski:
- http://www.jayski.com/
Some of the drivers that will be in the 24 hour race this Saturday and Sunday:
Jimmie Johnson, Juan Pablo Montoya, Jaimie McMurray, Max Papis, A J Allmendinger, Paul Menard, Bobby Labonte, Colin Braun, Boris Said, Dario Franchitti, David Donohue, Butch Leitzinger, Andy Lally, Anthony Lazzaro, Davy Jones, Jack Baldwin, Mike Borkowski and Buddy Rice. http://jayski.com/cupnews.htm#daytona24
Also: Scott Pruett, Max Angelilli, Wayne Taylor, Hurley Haywood, Memo Gidley, Ryan Hunter-Reay, Alex Gurney, Jimmy Vasser and Patrick Dempsey
Track Forum: - http://www.trackforum.com/forums/
NASCAR.com: http://www.nascar.com/
Dirt Track Digest’s forum: http://www.dirttrackdigest.com/forum/index.php
Hoseheads:
- http://www.hoseheads.com/
http://theboard.southjerseydirtracing.com/DisplayMsg.asp?ForumID=27&Msgid=1240785&page=1
Note: Not sure if you have to sign up to view
what’s said.
Coming
up:
Info
for this event can be found here: http://www.aarn.com/
Racing
starts down in
Track
news:
OCFS:
Something new came out on the OCFS website about “Nostalgia Night”.
“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 currently 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.”
The
History of the Sport:
A few things about the Langhorne Speedway:
Did
you know that there were two dirt tracks at Langhorne? Beside the big mile circle, there was also a
¼ mile track in front of the stands. The
ARDC midgets ran there on August 24, 1951.
It wasn’t a very good night.
Veteran driver Lou Krouza was involved in an accident in the first turn
and was fatally injured. On the restart,
Tommy Goggin ended up on his noggin, and received some cuts to his chin and
right leg. A little after that, a
transformer was struck by lightning, and the whole place went dark. That finished the night of racing, and also
finished any more appearances by the ARDC on the ¼ miler.
In
1952, the AAA refused to race the Indy cars there due to some things that they
had asked for not being done. NASCAR
took up some of the slack with a few events, including a race for their
“Speedway Division” – open wheel dirt cars, just like the Indy cars, but with
stock block engines.
Results
of that race:
Langhorne 100
Langhorne Speedway
1 Mile Dirt Oval
100 Laps/100 Miles
June 29, 1952
|
Finish |
Start |
Driver |
Car # |
Sponsor/Name |
Chassis |
Engine |
Laps |
Status |
Points |
|
1 |
1 |
Tom Cherry |
38 |
Cherry |
X |
Mercury |
100 |
1:08:43 87.315 |
300 |
|
2 |
6 |
Steve Yanigan |
X |
X |
X |
Mercury |
99 |
Flagged |
288 |
|
3 |
2 |
Wally Campbell |
1 |
|
X |
Ford |
98 |
Flagged |
276 |
|
4 |
20 |
Tony Bonadies |
10 |
Red Crise |
X |
Chrysler |
97 |
Flagged |
264 |
|
5 |
13 |
|
75 |
Al Wheatley |
X |
Mercury |
94 |
Flagged |
252 |
|
6 |
8 |
Bob Halston |
12 |
X |
X |
Nash |
93 |
Flagged |
240 |
|
7 |
15 |
Gene Darragh |
X |
Leland Colvin |
X |
Ford |
90 |
Flagged |
228 |
|
8 |
10 |
Mike Magill |
X |
X |
X |
GMC |
88 |
Flagged |
|
|
9 |
4 |
Buck Baker |
87 |
Penny Mullis |
X |
Cadillac |
87 |
Flagged |
204 |
|
10 |
3 |
Lyle Scott |
77 |
Scott |
X |
DeSoto |
80 |
Flagged |
192 |
|
11 |
9 |
Charlie Miller |
X |
X |
X |
Ford |
74 |
Flagged |
|
|
12 |
5 |
Pete Peterson |
X |
X |
X |
Olds |
73 |
Flagged |
|
|
13 |
18 |
Mickey Fenn |
27 |
Bob Colvin |
X |
Mercury |
72 |
Flagged |
156 |
|
14 |
12 |
Budd Olson |
X |
X |
X |
Olds |
62 |
Overheated |
144 |
|
15 |
17 |
Frankie Schneider |
5 |
Ike Kiser |
X |
Ford |
61 |
Radiator |
132 |
|
16 |
7 |
Al Keller |
88 |
W.W. Burroughs |
X |
Cadillac |
60 |
Oil line |
120 |
|
17 |
19 |
Dutch Schaefer |
X |
X |
X |
Ford |
59 |
Rear end |
|
|
18 |
11 |
Bob Johnson |
X |
Arch Yates |
X |
Kaiser |
43 |
Spark plugs |
96 |
|
19 |
21 |
Sam Waldrop |
X |
X |
X |
Ford |
54 |
Overheated |
84 |
|
20 |
16 |
Steve McGrath |
33 |
Johnny Tadlock |
X |
DeSoto |
37 |
Spark plugs |
72 |
|
21 |
14 |
Jiggs Peters |
52 |
Edwin Darnell |
X |
Ford |
26 |
Radiator |
60 |
|
22 |
22 |
Len Brown |
X |
X |
X |
Kaiser |
5 |
Overheated |
48 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
-- |
-- |
Bill Miller |
7 |
Raymond Parks |
X |
Olds |
-- |
Burned piston practice |
|
On
July 27, 1952, three different classes of racecars ran in front of a reported
21,645 race fans. The NASCAR Speedway
division ran two 8-lap hearts and a 12-lap feature. Buddy Powers won the feature race. He was followed by: Charlie Miller, Budd Olsen, Mike SanFelice
and Vern Harriman. Others in that event
were: Wally Campbell, Tony Romit and
Steve Yannigan. The midgets had a
50-mile race, and it was won by Fred “Jiggs” Peters. Mike Magill was second, Nick Fornoro third,
Jim DiMarco 4th and Steve McGrath 5th. Others in that race were: Miller, Bert Brooks and Al Keller. The modified stock cars also had a 50-mile
race. Ken Marriot was the winner in the
modified feature, and he was followed by:
Bill Tanner, Campbell, Holly Bunn, Frankie Schneider, Bill Arrico, Al
Pomponio, Rod Schaefer, Irv Willis and Walt Swiak.
Note: This writer has been in communication with
Joe DeMarco, brother of Jim DiMarco (yes both last names are spelled
different), and Joe has sent me some information on his brother along with a
bunch of photos. Look for a small
article, along with those photos, on the New England Tractor website, any day
now – if it hasn’t already been published.
Other
racin’ stuff:
Might
this include some “fisticuffs” with the NASCAR stars?
http://sports.espn.go.com/rpm/nascar/cup/news/story?id=4845878
Video
time:
If
you are not a fan of Country Music, you might want to skip this part. If you are not a fan of the late Johnny Cash,
you might want to skip this part. But
following are a couple of videos of a couple of Johnny Cash impersonators –
David Stone and Johnny Trouble. I was,
and still am a pretty big fan of Johnny Cash, and am happy to say I had the
opportunity to see him in person on quite a few occasions. In a little over a week from now, it looks
like I’ll get to see David Stone – he’ll be appearing at the Paramount Theater
in
Johnny
Trouble: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_6ktvEadtC4&feature=related
David
Stone: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mNCvGCpRs6M&feature=related
And: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NqWYDpuwDJ8&feature=related
Here’s some info on the up-coming David Stone show in
http://www.middletownparamount.com/calendar.aspx?mnu=cal&evt=418
Other
(non racing) news:
In a way, this might make some sense – sending “Illegals”
– prisoners in
http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20100126/ts_alt_afp/uspoliticscaliforniaprisons
A possible coming thing?
Ford to add 1,200 jobs, lower wage hires possible
http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20100126/us_nm/us_ford_chicago
Hmm, interesting read about drilling in the
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20100125/ap_on_go_ca_st_pe/us_offshore_drilling
But what gets me is that there supposedly is enough oil
in
Have you seen this video: http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=3340274697167011147#
Or, read his book: http://www.reformation.org/energy-non-crisis.html
Is this true? - #1:
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20100127/ap_on_bi_ge/lt_haiti_us_aid
Kinda sad, if so, I’d say!
Is
this true? - #2:
Quite a while back I got this from Internet friend, Ralph
Laino, who lives down in
Ever wonder what is on your magnetic key card?
Answer:
A. Customer's name
B. Customer's partial home address
C. Hotel room number
D. Check-in date and out dates
E. Customer's credit card number and expiration date!
When you turn them in to the front desk your personal information is there for
any employee to access by simply scanning the card in the hotel scanner. An
employee can take a hand full of cards home and using a scanning device, access
the information onto a laptop computer and go shopping at your expense.
Simply put, hotels do not erase the information on these cards until an
employee reissues the card to the next hotel guest. At that time, the new
guest's information is electronically 'overwritten' on the card and the
previous guest's information is erased in the overwriting process.
But until the card is rewritten for the next guest, it usually is kept in a
drawer at the front desk with YOUR INFORMATION ON IT!
The bottom line is: Keep the cards, take them home with you, or destroy them.
NEVER leave them behind in the room or room wastebasket, and NEVER turn them
into the front desk when you check out of a room..
They will not charge you for the card (it's illegal)
and you'll be sure you are not leaving a lot of valuable personal information
on it that could be easily lifted off with any simple scanning device card
reader.
For the
same reason, if you arrive at the airport and discover you still have the card
key in your pocket, do not toss it in an airport trash basket. Take it home and
destroy it by cutting it up, especially through the
electronic information strip!
If you have a small magnet, pass it across the magnetic strip several times.
Then try it in the door, it will not work. It erases everything on the card.
Information courtesy of: FBI & Law
Enforcement's Departments
Closing with these:
Random Thoughts for the Day:
1. I think part of a best friend's job
should be to immediately clear your computer history if you die.
2. Nothing sucks more than that
moment during an argument when you realize you're wrong.
3. I totally take back all those times I didn't want to nap
when I was younger.
4. There
is great need for a sarcasm font.
5. How
the h*ll are you supposed to fold a fitted sheet?
6. Was learning cursive really necessary?
7. Map Quest really needs to start their directions on
#5. I'm pretty sure I know how to get out of my neighborhood.
8. Obituaries would be a lot more interesting if they told
you how the person died.
9. I
can't remember the last time I wasn't at least kind of tired.
10. Bad decisions make good
stories.
11. You never know when
it will strike, but there comes a moment at work when you know that you just
aren't going to do anything productive for the rest of the day.
12. Can we all just agree to ignore whatever comes after Blue Ray?
I don't want to have to restart my collection...again.
13. I'm always slightly terrified when I exit out of Word and it
asks me if I want to save any changes to my ten-page research paper that I
swear I did not make any changes to.
14. "Do not machine wash or
tumble dry" means I will never wash this -- ever.
15. I hate when I just miss a call by the last ring (Hello? Hello?
Damn it!), but when I immediately call back, it rings nine times and goes to
voicemail. What'd you do after I didn't answer? Drop the phone and run away?
16. I hate leaving my house confident and
looking good and then not seeing anyone of importance the entire day. What a
waste.
17. I keep some people's phone numbers in my phone just so I
know not to answer when they call.
18. My 4-year old son asked me in the car the other day "Dad,
what would happen if you ran over a ninja?" How the h*ll do I respond to
that?
19. I think the freezer deserves a light as well.
20. I disagree with Kay Jewelers. I
would bet on any given Friday or Saturday night more kisses begin with Miller
Lites than Kay.
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