Racin'
& Different Stuff:
By Tom Avenengo
Volume # 117
11/21/2012
First:
There will be no column next week, and
columns will be every other week, for a while.
Second:
As you more
than likely know, my column comes out on two websites – Dirt Track Digest and
New England Tractor Race Report. Well,
for this week, due to Jeff Johnson (New England Tractor) being away from Thursday on, this column will be out
one day earlier, so Jeff can post it on his website. I have no problem with DTD, since I post the
column myself.
Third:
Last column came out ok on both
websites. Why? I have no idea. Everything was basically done the same except
for the headings of various section, like “Third” for
this section being in regular type and not bold face.
Fourth:
On this past Sunday, I received the
following, via an e-mail from John Snyder:
“Barbara Lupis Snyder
passed away early today at her home in Lake
Carmel, New York . Her 12-year battle
with cancer is over.”
Condolences go out to Mr. Snyder and his family
on their loss.
Fifth:
What with the racing season dwindling down, there
really isn’t much to report on. One
thing that was great was seeing Johnny Heydenreich at
the Lobitz party last Sunday. If you recall, Johnny was in a serious road
accident a while back, having fallen asleep while driving, and having some
serious injuries. The latest from
Johnny, via Facebook:
“Wish I had better news, but it looks like I have to go back
for one more surgery. Scheduled for Nov. 21 st in NYC. I am really looking forward to using two
legs again.
On another note, I had a chance to get back to
my old stomping grounds and join in the ARDC gathering at Lobitz'
catering last week. Was great to see some old friends and enjoyed the food. Will post after the surgery.”
Sixth:
NASCAR: Brad Keselowski's phone OK
Updated: February 28, 2012, 8:37 PM ET
CHARLOTTE, N.C. -- NASCAR said Tuesday Brad Keselowski can keep his cellphone
in his race car during events, and all drivers are encouraged to use social
media.
Keselowski drew worldwide attention for posting on
Twitter during a red-flag period in Monday night's season-opening Daytona 500.
He posted pictures, answered questions and kept fans informed of what was
happening during the stoppage that lasted just over two hours.
The tweeting gained Keselowski
roughly 140,000 followers during the race.
But there was concern having a phone
violated NASCAR rules. Teams are prohibited from having recording devices in
the car that are not for competition purposes, and two-way communication
devices are supposed to be analog only.
NASCAR said Keselowski
had not violated any rules and can keep his phone.
"NASCAR will not penalize Brad Keselowski for his use of Twitter during last night's
Daytona 500," NASCAR said in a statement. "Nothing we've seen from
Brad violates any current rules pertaining to the use of social media during
races. As such, he won't be penalized. We encourage our drivers to use social
media to express themselves as long as they do so without risking their safety
or that of others."
But – from Jayski:
Reason
why Keselowski was fined for cell phone:
#2-Brad Keselowski was fined $25,000 on Monday for tweeting during
the red flag at Phoenix International Raceway. The punishment was confusing to
fans who vented on Twitter, of course, wondering why Keselowski
was punished for Sunday's tweets when he was celebrated by NASCAR for doing the
exact same thing in February's season-opening race. Some alleged the Sprint Cup
Series points leader was actually being disciplined
for his profanity-laced outburst after Sunday's crash- and fight-marred race.
NASCAR spokesman Kerry Tharp on Tuesday dismissed the conspiracy theories, and
said drivers had been told after the Daytona 500 that electronic devices -
including cellphones - could not be carried inside
the race cars going forward. "Brad's tweeting at the Daytona 500 was
really our first introduction to the magnitude of the social media phenomenon
at the race track, especially how we saw it unfold that evening," Tharp
said. "We encourage our drivers to participate in social media. We feel we
have the most liberal social media policy in all of sports, and the access we
provide is the best in all of sports. But we also have rules that pertain to
competition that need to be enforced and abided by. Once the 500 took place,
and in the days and weeks following the 500, NASCAR communicated to the drivers
and teams that while social media was encouraged and we promoted it, the
language in the rule book was clear and that drivers couldn't carry onboard
their cars electronic devices, like a phone." NASCAR did not issue a
technical bulletin to clarify phones could no longer be inside cars, and the
clarification to drivers was apparently done quietly. In fact, Keselowski tweeted from Victory Lane at Bristol
in March, and from inside his car parked on pit road during a rain delay at Richmond in September.
It's possible someone could have handed him his phone both times.(in part from theAssociated
Press
)(11-14-2012)
Note: My thoughts:
Brad came across a tad too strong, word wise, in the press conference
following the Phoenix
race, with some “adult” words thrown in his talk. That, to me, is part of the reason for this
fine.
Seventh:
A week ago, while
out on the road, I was behind some Kia model car. At first, I thought the driver had his foot
on the brake pedal, since there was a bright “bar” of lights across the trunk
deck. He didn’t have his foot on the
brake, though, because when he hit the brakes, the light in the rear window
came on, along with the two brake lights in the tail lights. However, that “bar” of lights did go into a
blinking mode that really caught my attention.
More cars should have that!
Eighth:
And prior to the
above, I was in Walmart shopping and picking up a
prescription. The wife asked me to check
on some frozen vegetables, which I did.
It seems the large bag of frozen cauliflower, the Walmart
brand, comes from – uh huh – CHINA! Broccoli, too! What the hell? And we have farmers in our country not able
to keep their farms?
Ninth:
Over time, I’ll
keep posting this, below. A bus trip to
the 2013 Spring Dover Cup race:
NASCAR Dover Bus Trip
R/T Deluxe Motorcoach
Reserved Race Ticket $84 Value Turn #1
Barbecue Catered Lunch by J and A Caterers
Entertainment provided by Broken Dice from Americas Got
Talent
Tent.
Special Driver Appearance TBA
Raffles , Door Prizes
Cost $165 per person
Busses depart 4 am Middletown Wal
Mart
430 am Monroe Wal Mart
Proceeds to benefit local charities TBA
Incentives for small groups to join the trip
PM me here or at benzee95@hotmail.com for more info
Benzee
Note:
Our
entertainment is Tentatively scheduled to be the duo Broken Dice who have
performed locally in the Hudson
Valley for yrs and have
tried out for Americas Got Talent TV Show . They will
play from 1000am to Noon at the Motorcoach during the
all you can eat barbecue and pre race activities
Tenth:
Hey, before
you know it, it will be December 25th. Here are some links to various websites where
you might find some interesting things, gift-wise, for family and friends.
http://www.aarn.com/ (subscription)
http://www.coastal181.com/
http://www.davesracing.com/
http://www.emmr.org/
http://www.hotlapsracin.com/hotparts.htm
http://www.modelroundup.com/category-s/94.htm
http://www.ssspeedways.com/
http://www.pitstopbooks.com/videos-snyder.html
http://www.tbrwins.com/ (Kart items)
http://www.racerspreferredmodels.com/
Eleventh:
http://www.washingtontimes.com/blog/watercooler/2012/nov/8/picket-companies-plan-massive-layoffs-obamacare-be/
Note: Why do I have “Boston Scientific”
mentioned? They are the people that have
their pacemaker/defibrillator implanted on my left upper chest area.
Twelfth:
Are you an
Indy Car fan? How about the Indy
500? If you were to pick out the best
Indy 500 drivers, who would you pick?
Check these
out:
http://www.thegreatest33.com/default.aspx#home
http://www.thegreatest33.com/default.aspx#selecteddrivers
Note: Personally, I don’t go along with some of
those picks.
Thirteenth:
Condolences
going out to John Snyder on the passing of his wife, Barbara, who lost her eight
year fight with cancer, this past Sunday.
For anyone wishing to send cards, etc etc, his
address is:
John Snyder
21 Sedgwick
Road
Carmel, N.Y. 10512
Fourteenth:
I see that
OCFS has started work on the new pit area outside of turns 3 & 4.
Photos can be
seen, here: http://nepart.smugmug.com/2012/Bob-Armbruster-Racing-Photos/ocfs-new-pit-area-november-14/26524851_RGp4zB#!i=2215847511&k=3fsbD5Z
Fifteenth:
“Twinkie”
news:
While the company
was filing for bankruptcy, for the second time, earlier this year, it actually
tripled its CEO’s pay, and increased other executives’ compensation by as much
as 80 percent.
That also follows
a trend of rising CEO pay in times of economic difficulty. At the manufacturing
company Caterpillar, for example, they froze workers’ pay while boosting their
CEO’s pay to $17 million. And at
Citigroup, CEO Vikram Pandit
received $6.7 million for crashing his company, walking off with $260
million after the business lost 88 percent of its value.
Salary Increases
at Hostess.
Some creditors question Hostess pay raises approved in late July.
Brian Driscoll, CEO, around $750,000 to $2,550,000.
Gary Wandschneider, EVP, $500,000 to $900,000.
John Stewart, EVP, $400,000 to $700,000.
David Loeser, EVP, $375,000 to $656,256.
Kent Magill, EVP, $375,000 to $656,256.
Richard Seban, EVP, $375,000 to $656,256.
John Akeson, SVP, $300,000 to $480,000.
Steven Birgfeld, SVP, $240,000 to $360,000.
Martha Ross, SVP, $240,000 to $360,000.
Rob Kissick, SVP, $182,000 to $273,008.
Note: Don’t ya just love
this sh*t?
Sixteenth:
This past Tuesday
morning I received a notice in my e-mail of a failed message sent. Funny, but I did not send such a message!
It was: “take a look, see what you think http://msnbc.msn.com-news9.net/jobs”
Next, I went into
my “Sent” folder. Sure as sh*t, someone got into my e-mail and started with the very
first name in my address book and sent the same message out to quite a few of
my contacts. Needless to say, I had to
change my password.
Seventeenth:
November 20, 2012
By Todd Cefaratti
Editor of TPNN
Yesterday,
Republican Congressman Jeff Duncan sent a letter to President Obama, warning
him of fierce Republican opposition to a nomination of Ambassador Susan Rice to
Secretary of State. The letter, which claims Rice “either willfully or
incompetently misled the American public in the Benghazi matter,” was signed by 97 members of
Congress.
The letter is the
most recent outcry by the GOP regarding Rice’s possible nomination to the
Secretary of State position, and it is satisfying to see that our
representatives are fighting to keep a liar and propagandist out of the high
position. Of course, with the disgraceful Senator John Kerry being the other
option, maybe we might have another fight on our hands soon. But we will cross
that bridge when we come to it…
The letter states,
“Her actions
plausibly give U.S. allies
(and rivals) abroad reason to question U.S. commitment and credibility
when needed. Thus, we believe that making her the face of U.S. foreign policy in your second term would
greatly undermine your desire to improve U.S. relations with the world and
continue to build trust with the American people.”
Rep. Duncan later
stated,
“President Obama
is sadly mistaken if he thinks that the House of Representatives won’t get to
the bottom of the Benghazi
tragedy and hold him responsible if the evidence points to the White House. In
the mean time, I think it’s important for the President to know that Ambassador
Rice’s role in this situation has made her unfit to potentially lead our
country’s diplomatic efforts as Secretary of State.”
What was it that
they said about Watergate? It’s not the crime, it’s the cover-up. So, too, is
the case of Benghazi.
It’s indefensible
that our government should have fallen down on the job so badly as to allow our
consulate to remain so unprotected, despite security requests and intelligence
that suggested an attack was a possibility. However, what makes this already
tragic story infinitely more enraging is the lies and constant attempts to
cover up the details of the attack and continually dishonor those that died by
pushing lame stories to try and sell to the American people.
As we trace the
cord back to the wall and get to the bottom of this scandal, we will soon get
to Obama. But for now, what we have is an ambassador who worked very hard to
sell Americans a story that didn’t fit, and now we are told that she didn’t
know what the details were. The State Department needs to either commit to the
story that Ambassador Rice is incompetent or that she’s a liar. In either case,
she’s unfit to be appointed to any office in the State Department, much less
the Secretary of State.
Eighteen:
http://espn.go.com/racing/nascar/cup/story/_/id/8656901/danica-patrick-divorcing-husband-7-years
Found on Jayski’s website:
http://www.jayski.com/
Note: Can the Nationwide Series be next?
Brad Keselowski Wins 2012 NASCAR Sprint Cup Series Championship:
#2-Brad Keselowski won the 2012 NASCAR Sprint Cup Series
championship today at Homestead-Miami Speedway, earning owner Roger Penske's
first title in NASCAR's premier series. For owner Penske, the wait that began
before Keselowski was born (1984) finally is over.
Penske Racing, which entered the NASCAR Sprint Cup races in 1972, ended the
longest non-championship streak among current ownership. Penske's best previous
finish was second in 1993 with NASCAR Hall of Fame inductee Rusty Wallace. To
be the best, Keselowski had to beat the best
#48-Jimmie Johnson. The pair traded the lead of the Chase for the NASCAR Sprint
Cup five times, the last on Nov. 11 at Phoenix International Raceway where Keselowski finished sixth and Johnson the victim of
an accident placed 32nd.
Keselowski's 15th-place finish in Sunday's Ford EcoBoost 400 at Homestead-Miami Speedway was all it took to
apply the finishing touches to a stellar championship season. Keselowski's championship came in his 125th start, the
fewest since Jeff Gordon captured his first of four titles in 1995 in 93
starts.
At age 28, Keselowski is the eighth-youngest
competitor to win a first NASCAR Sprint Cup championship. Keselowski
previously won the 2010 NASCAR Nationwide Series title, owner Penske's first in
NASCAR. He joins Bobby Labonte as the only drivers to
win both a NASCAR Nationwide and NASCAR Sprint Cup Series championship. After
experiencing mechanical problems in two of the first three regular season
races, Keselowski's #2 Penske Racing Dodge won at
Bristol Motor Speedway to begin a steady march toward the top 10. Backed by
championship crew chief Paul Wolfe, Keselowski won
three times during the regular season and entered the Chase seeded fourth. A victory at the Chase-opening Chicagoland
Speedway race, followed by another at Dover International Speedway, boosted Keselowski from contender to co-favorite with Johnson.
Dodge won its fifth series championship, and first since 1975 with Richard
Petty.(NASCAR Integrated Marketing
Communications)(11-18-2012)
Latest on JGR
extension with Busch:
Joe Gibbs
Racing is hoping to re-sign #18-Kyle Busch before the end of the year. Coach
Gibbs said Saturday that his company is working on a long-term deal to secure
both the M&M's sponsorship and the driver, whose contract runs through
2013. "We're working really hard on that. We want to do that early so
we're not going into the last year," Gibbs said. "M&M's is on
board, but their contract is still extended into the future. Hopefully, we get
everything clarified in the next two weeks. I'm expecting everything to kind of
be in place in the next two weeks. That would be a game plan for us if we
could. That would be exciting." Monster Energy is expected to join Busch
in the Nationwide Series at JGR. Kyle Busch Motorsports will continue to
campaign in trucks and perhaps a NNS entry as well.(FoxSports)(11-19-2012)
No poles for
first two drivers in points, 1st time ever: For the first time in the history
of the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series, both the champion and second in points failed
to win a pole during the season. Neither #2-Brad Keselowski
nor #15-Clint Bowyer won a pole in 2012. Keselowski
is the eighth driver to win the championship without scoring a pole. The last
was Matt Kenseth in 2003.(11-19-2012)
France holds press
conference to discuss the future of the sport and more:
NASCAR chairman
Brian France held a press conference at Homestead-Miami Speedway on Saturday,
November 17, 2012, some of the plans for 2013 and beyond include:
" The 2013 car will have more brand identity for manufacturers with the
vehicle looking more like those on the showroom floor.
" NASCAR is addressing changes in the car to improve competition as far as
more passing and tighter racing.
" The driver's last name will be placed on the windshield so fans can
better identify their driver in an era when paint schemes change frequently.
" Sponsor logos will be allowed on the roof for more exposure from
television.
" The average age for drivers in the Truck Series will be dropped from 18
to 16 for road courses and any tracks 1.1 mile or less.
" A digital cockpit is coming in 2014 that will offer new social media
possibilities.
(ESPN)....see full transcript at the Brian France Press Conference, November 17, 2012
Transcript page.(11-18-2012)
An Interview With:
BRIAN FRANCE
DAVID HIGDON:
Steve O'Donnell,
vice president of racing operations for NASCAR has a couple of announcements to
make. He will be available afterwards to talk, as well. Steve?
STEVE O'DONNELL:
Thanks, David. As
David talked about, certainly saw a terrific race last night. One of the things
I think that was evident to everybody was the influx of young talent that we've
got coming up through the ranks. We announced previously an age limit change in
the tours where we went to 15, and based on the opportunities for a lot of
young drivers out there that are coming up through our system faster and
faster, you're seeing it in the tours, you're seeing it in our DForD program. We're going to move the age restrictions that currently exists for the trucks from 18
down to 16, and that rule will be in place for road courses and any tracks 1.1
mile or less.
We announced
yesterday the addition of Canadian
Tire Motorsports
Park. Great
addition for us. Keeps our national series presence in Canada, which
we said was important to us and we wanted to do, and as for the schedule, in
its totality, we're working on a couple of new facilities. I can assure you
that wherever we go, the proper safety measures will be in place. There's some exciting opportunities still out there, and we
expect to announce that very shortly. Proud to have Canadian
Tire on board and more importantly happy to see the path for younger drivers to
come from the tours up to trucks at the age of 16 next year.
Second I want to
talk about our Gen 6 race car, and you're going to hear our chairman Brian
France come up in a minute and talk about that, but one of the things we're
proud of is the collaboration that you've heard throughout the industry with
NASCAR, the race teams, the manufacturers, and ultimately everything we do is
for the race fans. What you're seeing up here today are some changes to the
look of the car, and this comes about from a working relationship with the race
teams. We know that we needed to offer them some additional space, some
additional things for sponsors in this day and age, so you're going to see some
different areas where the sponsor will be able to put their logo, particularly
on the roof that has not happened in the past.
One
of the other additions that we've looked at that we're proud of, especially as
we look to younger drivers coming up in the series is the driver's last name on
the windshield. So starting in Daytona you'll see that as an addition to
every car, as we said, into the 2013 season.
And then last but
not least is certainly the manufacturer presence. It's important for us to make
that car look as much as we can like the production vehicle you see on the
streets, so moving some logos around with the manufacturers, moving some
numbers off the headlights and taillights, again, all in an effort to have that
car reflect what's on the street and most importantly make it easier for our
fans to identify who's in that car race in and race out.
With that, as
David said, I'll turn it back over to David Higdon and then our chairman Brian
France. Thanks.
DAVID HIGDON:
Thanks, Steve.
We're going to circulate a zip drive to every one of you. That will include all
the graphics that you see up here if you want them for your sites, for your
publications. We'll also have a graphic which will show the Six Generations of
Speed and the evolution of the stock car that Steve just referenced. So that
will be on the zip drive, as well, for you. This poster I'm going to keep for
myself, though.
So again, welcome,
everyone. We're really pleased that you're all here. It's been a great media
turnout so far and we know we have a great race ahead of us with the Nationwide race. Without further ado, our
chairman, Brian France.
BRIAN FRANCE:
Thank you, David,
and good morning, everyone. Let me just start off by thanking or congratulating
James Buescher and his Turner Motorsports team for
their championship that they won last night. Also certainly
going to settle the Nationwide Series later on this afternoon, three drivers in
contention for that series, looking for hopefully an exciting conclusion.
And of course
tomorrow on Sunday we'll settle the Sprint Cup championship, and much like last
year, there's two drivers that are set to really go chase that championship.
And it's an interesting contrast because you've got a five-time proven
champion, you've got a young driver, a team that hasn't been together all that
long. One is the underdog in terms of the points
situation, and the other is chasing but with a lot of experience, which should
be a great, exciting conclusion to a really good year.
And as Steve
mentioned, while this is a time to certainly celebrate 2012, it's also my time
with you to talk about, A, what's happened a little bit in this season and look
ahead to what's going to happen in 2013, in particular since what we're now calling
the Gen 6 car is in play in terms of it's getting an amazing amount of
acceptance, and there's been an unprecedented amount, as you well know, of
collaboration to get here, to get that car in step with what the manufacturers
believe is what the best-looking race car, having enough technology in that
race car.
But the missing
and final piece, which we're working on now, is to improve on the quality of
racing, which as everyone knows is a stated goal of ours, to have the closest,
most competitive, tightest racing that we can, and that's what we're testing
now. Those are the rules packages that we'll be building around the car that
I'm seeing the kind of things that I was hoping to hear in terms of the
performance of these cars and how that's going to help us achieve our goal.
We're excited
about that. We're excited about concluding the season. We're excited about a
number of things from a business standpoint, which is our television agreements
with FOX have been, as you know, secured. We'll be talking to our other
partners as we go down in the coming weeks and months. Plenty
of encouraging signs there.
The tracks, economy still is what it is. We're still
disproportionately affected by sponsorship; in particular most of the other
sports leagues don't have nearly the reliance on that, and obviously that's
still under a lot of pressure. Teams will tell you, we will tell you, we're
working to do all the things that we can to make that challenge, to get through
that challenge as best we can.
So with that, I'm
happy to open it up to any questions.
Q. Can you just
talk a little bit about your vision, the opportunity, the possibility of NASCAR
racing on dirt in the future? I understand that's one of the possibilities for
the Truck Series next year.
BRIAN FRANCE:
Well, you know, it's part of our history at a high level. It still is at the
weekly level. And that hasn't been completely worked out, but that's a
possibility. That would put a unique twist on the Truck Series if that is able
to be worked out. But it's a part of our history. We have a lot of fans that
that's what they grew up watching and seeing at their local short tracks. I ran
a short track, a dirt track in Arizona
when I first got there; it was a dirt track. I've got a little experience at
knowing how to get the track surface in some order, especially in a hot, dusty
place like Arizona,
very difficult. So it would be fun, fun to see if it happens.
Q. After going
more than a decade, or at least talking about going to common templates, when
Dodge came back into the sport the first time, what took so long in the
evolution to get back to having cars look more like they're from the showroom
rather than just strictly a combination of four manufacturers and losing that
identity? Why the push now?
BRIAN FRANCE:
Well, we've been
at this for a couple years. It takes a while. It takes a long while, in
particular if you're going to solicit the interest of an-- the input rather of
the car manufacturers, the teams and everybody else that's affected. It just
takes time.
We've been hearing
for a long time that our fans like rivalries within the manufacturer group.
Obviously the car manufacturers like more identification the better, and that's
good for them. And then if we can have a Trifecta
where we can do all those things and then really put a rules package together
that I've said recently uses a lot more science than art to get closer, tighter
competition, then we've got a home run package, and that's what we're planning
to have.
Q. With the
changes forthcoming in SPEED and the dot-com of NASCAR.com changing and the TV
deal partially done and the different ways that fans are watching the races,
what do you envision leading into the future with the television side of things
and the media side of fans watching? What do you see as the innovation to
continue the coverage of our sport to increase the ratings?
BRIAN FRANCE:
Well, we're going
to be working together with all of our television partners and all of our media
partners to do two things: To continue to present our sport in innovative and
broader ways than they currently do now, and they want
to do that. And then we're going to be talking about all the places that sports
content is going to be consumed by race fans and potential race fans, both
digitally and otherwise, and how all that sort of marries up with building our
fan base and satisfying and interacting with our fans, and it's an exciting
time. It's an exciting time for anybody that has high-end, valuable sport
content to be in that position to look at all the things that are coming and
make the right decisions hopefully to make sure we don't miss one of those
opportunities that goes by.
Q. Two questions
about things that happened this week: The incident with Jeff and Bowyer, kind
of a fine line; you can't really have guys using cars as weapons, but it did
generate massive amounts of attention for NASCAR, so you're walking a fine
line, I guess, in what is and isn't allowed. It's sport but it's
entertainment. So what do you do? How do you sort of handle that because you've
got the boys-have-at-it policy?
BRIAN FRANCE:
Yeah.
Q. So what does
NASCAR do? And the Keselowski thing, I understand the
rule, it's not tweeting, you can't have-- it's not the phone itself, but it's
great for the fans that he can provide that access in the car. Is that
something that NASCAR can do going forward?
BRIAN FRANCE:
Sure. First part of the question, really not that fine a line. We
have a stated approach that this is a contact sport. We expect contact,
especially late in the race. But I always say there are limits. Drivers know
what those limits are, and you can cross those limits, and that's exactly what
happened on Sunday. It was very obvious and very easy for us to figure that out
and for everybody to figure that out, and so we deal with it. That doesn't
change the idea that we're not going to walk away from-- including Sunday, we
expect there is going to be-- there was contact last night at a pretty
significant level late in the race. That's the history of this sport, and we're
going-- there will be limits, the drivers know where the limits are. If they
have any confusion on that, they can certainly talk to us directly or look at
our calls and how we've dealt with-- when we think that those limits have been
broken, and that will be that.
The second part of
your question, we are the most aggressive in social and digital media in terms
of our drivers and teams and tracks taking part in that. The trick is that in
the cars today, and particularly in the future, now with fuel injection, we'll
soon be talking to you about a digital cockpit that will be coming down the
road as early as 2014, and smart devices and smartphones
and other devices can have an effect on manipulating the technology that is now
going to be in the cars, and we have to be careful with that. And so that's why
our policy is that you're simply not going to be able to take a device into the
car with you.
It doesn't mean
that we're not going to be the most aggressive at hoping, pushing that they
have big social media plans and they take full advantage of it, and Brad is one
of the leaders of that with 300,000-some Twitter followers, and so we're going
to keep pushing for them to do just that.
Q. In the '50s and
'60s there was a lot of concentration on the cars in this series, manufacturer
rivalries, Ford versus Chevy fans fighting in the grandstands, etcetera. Then
we kind of moved into more of a driver personality focus. Now it seems like
we're moving more toward emphasizing the cars and trying to bring fans in
through that gateway. How do you see the balance now between those two things?
Are cars more important than drivers now?
BRIAN FRANCE:
No, we don't look
at it that way. I think we arguably -- by the new car
in 2007, arguably we didn't help ourselves with the manufacturer rivalries that
are always important, and so we want to try to elevate that back up to where it
traditionally is. That's number one.
The drivers are
always going to be, as my dad used to say, the actors on the stage or the stars
on the stage and so on, and that's-- we're doing a lot of things to elevate
their star power, and that's the number one connection to our fan base and
always will be, and we're going to do everything we can to make sure that our
drivers get the right attention and accolades, and not only in NASCAR but
throughout all of sports.
There are no
competing goals here.
Q. Go back to the
cell phone thing. After Daytona when Brad tweeted during the red flag, NASCAR
was pretty forthright about like this is a really good thing, and this is something
we want to see more of, and then this week the message kind of changed a little
bit. For fans that you're trying to reach through digital media, when you talk
about being tricky, is that where it's a difficult line to balance?
BRIAN FRANCE:
No, it didn't
change a bit. It evolved. That was the first time at Daytona that we had seen
somebody in real-time tweeting during a red flag at that point. We love that.
We just know now that we have things in the car that could be affected by
devices, smartphones and the like, that we have to
make sure that we don't interfere with that and give somebody an opportunity
to-- even if it was unintentional, to manipulate some portion of digital
devices that we're going to have in the car. And now with
electronic fuel injection.
And so we
immediately loved the idea, loved the attention that brought to the sport,
encourage it but have to balance it in the competition end to make sure nobody
gains an advantage.
Q. When you talk
about digital cockpits and the glass dashboards that you've mentioned in the
past, is there going to be an opportunity for social media through that?
BRIAN FRANCE:
I fully expect thatwe have one of the real incredible opportunities
because of how information, telemetry and all kind of things that are integral
to the running of each race, and for us to be able to share that information
down the road in very, very interesting ways with our fans, we are in the best
position in sports, just because we have so much of that information, that is
so relevant. So I fully expect that to be a part of it, sure.
Q. You mentioned
earlier, talking about the new car, one of the goals is obviously going to be
better competition, if you guys are able to give the teams the tools to provide
that. If you look at the view of the Car of Tomorrow, it took a while for teams
to get comfortable with that and to really make improvements on it so that the
competition could grow, get closer. Are you concerned that there's going to be
that period of learning and that the competition is not going to be what fans
are going to expect when the new car hits the track?
BRIAN FRANCE:
You know, I'll
tell you, we learned a lot and I learned a lot personally on that particular
debut of that car, and the collaboration-- I thought it was fairly high at the
time, it wasn't as high as it needed to be. The testing, the way we're doing
it, manufacturer sport, I thought it was pretty high. It wasn't high enough, it wasn't even close to high enough. Today that's
totally changed, and I expect the drivers to have a lot more time under their
belt-- we're also not phasing it in as we did as you recall in '07, which made
it more difficult. One week they're running one thing, next week they're trying
to adjust back. That made it more difficult.
So it's fair to
say as we are going down the road today, we want to change that. But don't
underscore, there's one more thing on that car that we did not attempt to do
with the '07 car. You're talking about body style, safety innovations, those
are all good things. Common templates, we can all debate that a little bit. But
the emphasis on the cars driving better differently,
and the ability to have hallmark close competition and particularly on the mile
and a half is what we're really seeking here, and we're going to make-- I've
told the team owners and we've talked to obviously everybody, that these are
going to be pretty significant things. Whatever the collection of things that
we're going to put on the car, they will be designed to have tighter
competition. It's as simple as that. Not every driver will like that per se,
because some drivers like the exact rules packages, notwithstanding the look of
the car that they have today.
And I hope we'll
be very successful at that. I know we will be over time. I hope we are earlier
than that.
Q. You noted in
your opening statement how much more NASCAR as an industry is dependent on the economy, and the owners out here assume so much risk.
Judging by what I see on this new car, it seems like there is a push being made
to offer a greater platform for the sponsor. What else can NASCAR do or what
responsibility does the sanctioning body have to make sure that the owners have
that platform that they can sell to corporate America?
BRIAN FRANCE:
Well, we have
traditional things that you would think we would have at our disposal, making
the space available differently and smarter on the car. That's one thing.
There's being ever mindful of the cost issue being another. But we're not going
to be in a position to change the economy, how just about every company is
being much more judicious and careful with their advertising expense, no matter
how well they work. They're not in a position as they were a few years ago to
make big bets out over long periods of time at the level that they were. It's
understandable.
And then you throw
in from an economy standpoint that our fans, the best in the world, drive the
furthest, they stay the longest, they often as you guys know build their race
weekends around family vacations and all kinds of things. Well, the cost to do
that and the unemployment, when you don't have a job and the costs are still
going up, it isn't hard to understand why we will be
in a little bit different position. So we're working on all those things, and
we're doing everything we can. Things will get better on that, and they have
gotten better in some areas.
We've put a lot of
new companies into the sport. We'll always have some attrition, too, so a lot
of these companies are starting to get early good results, like 5-hour Energy
drink being one, and there are a number of companies that we have. But we're
more reliant, there's no doubt about that, on corporate sponsorship.
Q. You've talked a
lot about the science and technology going into the new car, digital cockpit.
Brad's incident sort of brought that to light, as well. With the development of
the new car, do you ever see a future where NASCAR may allow real-time
telemetry during practice on competition weekend in order to hasten the
development of the new car?
BRIAN FRANCE:
You know, that's
obviously something that-- that and more in terms of how information flows
throughout the event and how that affects competition, cost and the like. But I
think we're going to try to figure all that out. You're seeing it with fuel injection, you're seeing it with, as I said, a digital
cockpit. We have Sprint as our lead partner in the wireless business, so
they're helping us figure that out. So we'll manage that differently than we
did in the past, but we'll still have to be careful of if we don't get some
unintended consequences with-- we're still race team versus race team and we
don't disturb that competitive balance.
Q. In the wake of
Dale Earnhardt Jr. having to sit out two races because of concussions, are you
considering and/or implementing any changes in your medical procedures as it
relates to the diagnosis or treatment of head injuries?
BRIAN FRANCE:
Yeah. Well, we do
look at that policy, head injuries and obviously concussions which are a pretty
big topic in a few different sports currently.
I was very pleased
the way Dale handled that. Obviously we've said that. There's a personal
responsibility if you feel like you're not yourself and there's some things
that your body is telling you that you just don't play on and race on, and it
starts there. So I think he took a big lead example. We have independent
doctors that do review, and we have a very clear policy that if you're not
feeling like yourself, in particular if you've had a hard crash, that that's--
follow Dale Earnhardt's exact plan. He's in the Chase, he's Dale Earnhardt, he
could have taken all kinds of different approaches, but he took the right one,
and so we're going to continue to look at it, but it's obviously an individual
driver or team that must figure out those early symptoms.
Q. Before the
common template, you'll remember that manufacturers and drivers would come and
lobby your officials, and when they didn't get satisfaction they'd come here to
us and lobby us.
BRIAN FRANCE:
Thanks a lot. I
forgot to criticize you for that years ago. (Laughter.)
Q. What
procedures-- everybody is nice and playing well now, but what happens when the
competition starts after Daytona and they want changes? What procedures are in
place to make sure that there will not be that similar type of lobbying?
BRIAN FRANCE:
You know, I bet
it's exactly what happened in the past, and that'll be fine. We're going to--
we have an R & D Center that we didn't have years ago to examine who's
ahead or behind in terms of aero and every other conceivable thing, so we'll
have a much better handle on, A, getting it right in the first place, and B,
correcting things that go wrong. We're okay with that. That's part of the
sport. We're not going to run around and complain that somebody has grabbed a
media member and doesn't like a certain situation.
As long as our
drivers and our teams don't criticize the integrity of the sport, they may not
like certain things, they may think we're running a little slower or may make a
bad call or two, we certainly will do that, but as long as that's not the case,
we fully expect there to be lots of back and forth.
Q. What's good
tomorrow for NASCAR, a Brad win or a Jimmie winning a sixth championship? And
who do you think will win at the end of the day?
BRIAN FRANCE:
Do you really expect
me to answer both those questions? I'll say this: Look, Roger Penske is an
unbelievable owner and person, and what's surprising is he hasn't won more
championships, multiple championships so far, and this would be obviously his
first, so that would be a tremendous thing. Brad would be-- I can say that
it'll be earned no matter what because both drivers, what we're finding out in
the Chase, what always happens is that certain drivers, Tony and Carl did it
and Tony to a little higher level, elevate their game, and if you remember,
there was a lot of discussion, well, that really doesn't happen in motorsports
and it really can't happen, and everybody is trying as hard as they can and you
can do anything you want and that really wouldn't get better performances, and
we now know better than that.
So tomorrow
whoever is on their game, both teams, one mistake, we all know what happened
last week, there's going to be some contact out there going on, and you know,
we'll just have to see.
Q. Statistics
currently show right now that only 16 percent of chairmen and CEOs are
currently utilizing social media. Do you have plans to aggressively start to
interact on Twitter with fans, drivers, etcetera?
BRIAN FRANCE:
Well, you know, we
do. NASCAR has lots of ways that we communicate with our fans. I'll be careful
myself of how I want to do that directly, but I fully expect to have lots of
ways that I'm going to be interacting with our fans in a digital way.
Q. What's the time
frame currently to be able to have a digital integration in the cars for social
media?
BRIAN FRANCE:
Well, we don't
have a timeline.
Q. I was at the
SEMA show recently where O'Donnell was on a panel of motorsports--
BRIAN FRANCE:
How did he do?
Q. He did well.
But the whole talk was about the future of motorsports, and it seemed-- and
things you've mentioned here with the dashboard and the digital and all, the
thing that came out of it is NASCAR has kind of lost its cool factor,
especially trying to bring in the younger audience, and they're talking about
shorter races, shorter schedules and things like that. Are you looking at
things like that to try to bring back that cool factor, and does a driver such
as Brad Keselowski, who whether he wins it or not
because he does some of these things with the phone and all that, does that
bring some of the cool factor back?
BRIAN FRANCE:
You know, I think,
sure, young people today, young potential fans, the younger you go, I tell our
guys all the time we're in the middle of a conference room and the computer breaks,
go call a 12 year old. That's who can get us back online.
The idea that
young fans are digitally engaged and getting excited about things much
differently than they used to, not just plopping by the TV watching sports and
other entertainment, sure, that's all changing at a rapid clip, and we're going
to do everything we can to stay apace with that and take advantage of it. It's
a great opportunity for us.
Q. Can you talk a
little bit about the objective of putting the driver's last name on the windshield
of the car and what you're looking to accomplish with that?
BRIAN FRANCE:
Yeah, it's just--
we are striving for raising their awareness all the time and every time, and
we're striving for continuity. As these paint schemes have had to change more
frequently than they used to, the continuity of Jeff Gordon in a flamed 24
DUPONT is a little different now, and so we're trying to do things that will
build their star power and at the same time have a little continuity for our
fans to follow their favorite drivers.
Going back,
in time:
This past
weekend, George Rice was inducted into the New England Auto Racing Hall of
Fame.
Here is part
of his win list from when he drove Midgets here in the Northeast. The rest of his wins will be in my next
column.
The following
information was sent to me from John DaDalt.
George Rice
1939:
Feature wins:
West Haven Speedway; West Haven,
CT-6/22
Newfield Park; Bridgeport, CT- 6/12 6/26 7/3
Notes: June
26 Bridgeport, CT set 1 lap, 5 lap and 25 lap track records
1940:
Feature wins:
West Haven Speedway; West Haven,
CT-6/13
Cedarhurst
Speedway; Cedarhurst, NY- 8/7
Bronx Coliseum;
Bronx, NY- 3/17
1941:
Feature wins:
West Haven Speedway; West Haven,
CT-6/19 6/26 8/7
Danbury Speedway; Danbury, CT- 5/18 6/27
Bronx Coliseum;
Bronx, NY- 1/19 3/16 4/6
4/27-60 laps
Notes:
Champion at Bronx, NY Coliseum indoor racing series held during
the winter/spring.
Drove Bourgnon #11 to Bronx Coliseum title.
1946:
Feature wins:
West Haven
Speedway; West Haven, CT-6/13
6/27 8/18 9/2
9/19-50 laps
Cherry Park Speedway; Avon, CT:
9/15
Thompson Speedway; Thompson,
CT-5/19
Springfield Speedway; West
Springfield, MA- 5/25 6/18 6/22 6/29 7/6
7/13 7/27 9/7 10/5-100 laps
Hatfield,
PA-6/16-2 laps
Notes:
Champion at West Haven, CT
and West Springfield, MA
May 19
Thompson, CT-set 50 lap track record in 1st race after the war (not confirmed)
won 5 straight features at West Springfield, MA
June 16 won
at the Montgomery County Fair in Hatfield,
PA in a race halted after 2 laps,
had set a 1 lap track record in time trials.
Set 25 lap
track record at Avon on Sept. 15th, 6:30.20
1947: ARDC Champion
Feature wins:
Cherry Park Speedway; Avon, CT:
5/14 6/1 9/21
Springfield
Speedway; West Springfield, MA- 7/12 9/13
9/17-50 laps for V-8 9/27
West Haven
Speedway; West Haven, CT- 5/8 6/19 6/26 7/10 7/17 9/4 9/11 9/18 9/25-75 laps
Danbury
Fairgrounds; Danbury, CT- 8/30 9/20
10/5 10/11-100 laps
Candlelite Stadium; Bridgeport, CT-6/30 7/7
7/28 8/18 9/1 9/22 10/6-100 laps
Deer Park Speedway; Deer Park, NY-
4/6
Hinchliffe Stadium; Paterson, NJ- 7/18 7/25-50 laps 8/12
9/5 9/23
Notes:
Champion: West Haven, CT Bridgeport, CT Danbury, CT Deer Park, NY
won 39 feature races
and 4 track championships
Started
season in the Curtis Offy, switched to Bourgnon cycle powered car in July, Bourgnon
installed an Offy in August.
Drove Bourgnon cycle powered car, one of the lightest in the
country 525 lbs.
Oct. 12 -
Langhorne, PA ARDC race 100 laps- started 23rd, took the lead on lap
24 and lead
until lap 49 when he ran out of fuel. He returned to the race in 4th and worked
his way
back to 2nd and was challenging for the lead with 2 laps to go
when he had to pit for more fuel.
Danbury, CT- set 25 lap track record
on August 30th, broke his own record on Sept. 20th.
Bridgeport, CT set the 25 lap track record 4 times that year, won
races at Bridgeport
in a cycle powered car, a Ford V-8
and an Offenhauser in 1947.
News from the
AARN:
http://www.aarn.com/
Covering just one week here, this
week, and not as in depth as what has been done in the past, since the 2012
racing season has just about run it’s course.
The November 13th issue
had their car builders guide in it – 36 pages, easily
pulled out.
If you’re a subscriber to the AARN,
here’s some great news:
Subscribers will be able to enjoy
both print and digital issues as of January 8, 2013! Digital will be available on Tuesday
mornings, while the paper will still arrive (hopefully!) later in the week at
your home. Due to cost increases, the
AARN has been forced to increase their charge for a years
subscription to $51.00 for the 50 issues.
Current subscribers will continue to be charged the $49.00, however.
To subscribe to the digital service,
you have to send an e-mail to the AARN at:
sub@aarn.com You must include
your name, complete postal address and your e-mail address.
There was a full page about the DIRTcar
banquet. In it, it made mention that DIRTcar handed out over $800,000.00 in prize monies for the
2012 season. No mention as to what
monies were handed out at the banquet, however.
It seems that Duane Howard was not too happy with
late race contact from Ryan Godown and Kevin Hirthler at Bridgeport,
the last time they raced there.
*Spencer Speedway had their banquet – Rusty Smith the
Modified champion.
*Big Diamond had their banquet – Craig Von Dohren the 358 Modified champion.
*Airborne had their banquet – Nick Heywood the
Sportsman/Modified champion.
*Oswego Speedway had their banquet – Otto Sitterly the Super Modified champion and Kreig Heroth the Small Block
Super Modified champion.
*Holland Speedway had their banquet – Andy Jankowiak the NASCAR Pro Modified champion.
*Potomac Speedway had their banquet – Kenny Moreland
the Late Model champion. No Modifieds at Potomac in
2013.
Bryan Sebetto was the
F.A.S.T Kistler Cup 410 Sprint Car champion, and got
$10,500.00. DJ Foos
was the F.A.S.T. 305 Sprint Car champion and he got $2,205.00
Stewart Friesen was the Utica/Rome Speedway Modified
champion, and at their banquet he got $10,000.00
*- None of those above made mention of any monies
won, or how much, for their champions.
At Path
Valley a couple of weeks
ago, for the Tobias SpeedSTR’s feature event that
would decide the SpeedSTR national champions, Toby came out with a “Revenge
Draw”. They re-drew for the top
six. First to pick was Dale Plank, and
he picked # 6. He gave that starting
spot to Rick Eckert. Eckert piced and drew # 4, which he, in turn gave to Plank. Sinion Egan was the
lucky one to end up with the pole position, that was
picked by Travis Bicher. Ending up with the championship was Maxime Plant, from St.
Hyacinth, Canada. For that, he got $5,000.00. Maxime is still in
his teens and does not speak English.
There will be fund raiser for George Stevens this
coming Saturday, November 24th, at the Belvidere (NJ) Manor, from
7:00 to 11:0 PM. $25.00
admission, with all proceeds going to George and his family. Info and tickets can be had by calling Linda Macomber at: (908)
453-4215 and/or (908) 319-3270. George
is at home, but is still paralyzed from the waist down.
15 year old Matt Pappa will
be a “team mate” to Brett Hearn in 2013, running a Brett Hearn Sportsman car at
Lebanon Valley and possible big races at the end
of the season. Pappa
is the 2012 US Legends Pro Points and Touring Champion, as well as the Chemung Speedrome champion, having won 45 races in 2012.
Notices on the passing of Indy Car engineer Tim Wardrop, and Gaston “Gus” Andrey,
86, a multi-time SCCA driving champion made this weeks issue.
Lenny Sammons:
In his column, he makes mention that Joe Skotnicki says that Rolling Wheels is still for sale, but
it is still on their 2013 schedule.
Cayuga County Fair Speedway
ran only one DIRTcar 358 Modified Series race in
2012, during SDW, and it was very successful.
Reports are that crews were recently stopped from dismantling the Speedway. Maybe the track still has a future?
Ernie Saxton:
Ernie was questioning whether people wearing “flip
flops” in the pits, and working on race cars could be a safety issue. He makes mention that it cost 50-70 thousand
dollars a day for an Indy Car team to test at a track. Indy Car will be eliminating some testing in
2013. Robby Gordon’s Stadium Super Trucks
will be seen on NBC and NBC Sports Network.
Look for NBC and NASCAR for some possible future telecasting.
And from the issue due out this week – November 20th:
In AARN
This
Week:
RUSH Crate
Late
Model Group Formed;
Will
Battle FASTRAK
Brad
Keselowski
Wins
First NASCAR
Sprint
Cup Championship
Lingo
Triumphs In Georgetown;
Purse
Reduced, Drivers Race In Support
SEMA
Joins PRI & IMIS
In
Mega Trade Show Merger
Wall
Stadium's Turkey Derby
Takes
Green Flag This Weekend
North-South Shootout Winning Team
Fined
Four Grand A Day After Victory
New
Smyrna's Governor's Cup
To
First Time Starter Augie Grill
National
Parts Peddler
High
Bidders Save Big
On
Race Car Chassis
Former
Oakland Valley Speedway (Dirt Oval) runners:
A week ago – plus,
at Bridgeport,
in the Modified feature, Mike Mammana was 13th. Luke Schostkewitz
was 20th in the Crate Sportsman feature.
Last weekend,
some of those that ran at the Dirt Oval in the past, returned to run the Novemberfest event.
BK Rizzo was
1st overall in the KT 100’s.
He had a 1st and 2nd on Saturday and a 3rd
on Sunday.
Wyatt Clark
was 1st overall in the Senior Slingshots. On Saturday he had two first place finishes
and on Sunday a 2nd.
Brian Krummel, in Mediums, had a 10th and 4th
on Saturday and a DNS on Sunday.
Keith
Leonard, in Mediums, had a 7th and 8th on Saturday and a
DNS on Sunday.
Jason Roe was
14th & 13th in the Lights on Saturday and a DNS on
Sunday.
Novemberfest links:
Saturday race
1: http://karting.4cycle.com/showthread.php?t=460193
Saturday race
2: http://karting.4cycle.com/showthread.php?t=460196
Sunday race 3: http://karting.4cycle.com/showthread.php?t=460327
Overall: http://karting.4cycle.com/showthread.php?t=460336
Press Releases:
Perris Auto Speedway
18700 Lake
Perris Drive
Perris, CA 92571
(951) 940-0134
http://perrisautospeedway.com/
For further
information contact Scott Daloisio (909) 226-7768 or mailto:racesatthepas@aol.com
Note: This is mentioned in the PR,
below:
“For those who live more than 100-miles away, the race will stream live
at the following link for $14.95. http://circletracknetwork.com/. Interested
fans can purchase their online ticket beginning Wednesday morning.”
Maybe one of these
years, it will be on live TV.
For Immediate
Release
72ND RUNNING OF
THE TURKEY
NIGHT GRAND PRIX ENTRIES!
(Perris, CA,
November 18) The 72nd
running of the Turkey Night Grand Prix for the Mopar
USAC National and Western States Midgets at Perris Auto Speedway is four days
away. Sixty-three drivers
have confirmed their intention of participating in what is Midget racing's
longest running and most prestigious event.
As it stands now
drivers from four countries (USA,
Canada, Australia and New Zealand) and 13 different
states have already entered.
Car # Driver Hometown Owner Chassis/Engine
0 Johnny Murdock Dallas,
TX Zero Motorsports
0 Cameron
Beard Atwater, CA Dave Lamott Stealth Honda
05 Jake
Swanson Anaheim,
CA Swanson
Motorsports Stealth/Honda
2 Levi
Roberts Broomfield,
CO Dave
Roberts Spike/Esslinger
2G Terry
Goodwin Belleville,
KS Misty Goodwin
2X Robby Josett Santa
Clarita, CA Ron Josett
Spike Esslinger
3 Darren
Hagen Riverside,
CA RFMS
Racing DRC/Esslinger
3F Dave Darland Lincoln,
IN RFMS
Racing DRC/Esslinger
4 Bobby
East Brownsburg, IN Klatt
Enterprises Beast/Chevy
5 Danny Ebberts Canyon
Lake, CA Tres Van Dyne Edmunds/Van Dyne
5D Zach Daum Pocahontas,
IL Don Daum Eagle/Fontana
7 Shannon McQueen Bakersfield,
CA McQueen-Eskesen-Rescino Spike/Esslinger
7A Dalton
Armstrong New Castle,
IN C&A
Motorsports Spike/Toyota
7C Caleb Armstrong New
Castle, IN C&A Motorsports Spike/Toyota
8 Randi Pankratz Atascacadero, CA Wally Pankratz Edmunds/Fontana
9 TBA Sean Dodenhoff Spike/Fontana
9D Sean Dodenhoff Bakersfield,
CA Sean Dodenhoff Spike/Fontana
9E Wink Schweitzer Bakersfield,
CA Sean Dodenhoff Spike/Fontana
10 Brad Kuhn Avon,
IN Mason Cook
11 Brady Bacon Broken
Arrow, OK Wilke-Pak
Racers Stanton/Toyota
11X Greg
Bragg Visalia,
CA Dave
Thurston Spike/Esslinger
12 Riley Emmel Estavan, SK, Canada Dave Ray Spike/Mopar
12JR Chad
Boat Phoenix,
AZ Robbie & Gaye
Allen Spike/Esslinger
12 Josh Pelkey Peoria,
AZ Robbie & Gaye
Allen Spike/Esslinger
12X Rick
Hendrix Palmdale,
CA Rick
Hendrix TCR/Van Dyne
15 David
Pickett Fresno,
CA Neverlift
Motorsports Spike/Van Dyne
17K Nathan Smee Sydney,
Australia Kruseman
Motorsports Spike/Esslinger
19 Richard Vander Weerd Visalia,
CA Mike
Sala Spike/Chevy
19W Jonathon
Henry San Luis Obispo, CA Mike Sala Spike/Chevy
21 Jimmy Voitel Covina,
CA Jimmy Voitel
21K Cory Kruseman Ventura,
CA Kruseman
Motorsports Spike/Esslinger
22AZ Rick
Shuman Gilbert,
AZ Rick Shuman
Cobra/Fontana
24 Tracy
Hines New
Castle, IN Bob
Parker Spike/Toyota
25 Danny
Stratton Riverside, CA Jerome Rodella Toyota
26 Shane Golobic Freemont,
CA Doug Bock
27 Nick Chivello Manteca,
CA Paul Chivello Spike/Esslinger
27 Casey
Shuman Mesa,
AZ Calvin
Martens TCR/Mopar
33 Davey Raye Davenport,
IA Team RayPro Spike/Speedway Toyota
35 Scott Pierovich Alamo,
CA Lance Pierovich Spike Mopar
39 Dillon
Welch Carmel,
IN Tucker-BCI-Curb-Agajanian Spike/Esslinger
39K Kyle
Edwards Fountain
Valley, CA Gordon
Edwards Ellis/Van
Dyne
47 Damion
Gardner Concord,
CA Andy Bondio Bondio
Barnes
50 Evan Margeson Tacoma,
WA Evan Margeson Beast/VDS
51 R.J.
Johnson Phoenix,
AZ Bobby
Martin Spike/Fontana
55 Taylor Ferns Shelby Township,
MI Jim
Ferns Spike/Stanton Mopar
56 Jason Leffler Long
Beach, CA 5IVE-61X, Inc. Beast/Esslinger
57 Andrew Felker Carls
Junction, MO Bill
Eckert Spike/Fontana
57S Mike
Spencer Temecula,
CA Bill Eckert
62 Britton Bock Angwin, CA Doug Bock
Spike Esslinger
63 Jerry Coons,
Jr. Tucson, AZ Joe Dooling Spike/Esslinger
67 Bryan Clauson Noblesville,
IN Kunz-Curb-Agajanian Bullet/Speedway Toyota
67K Rico Abreau Rutherford,
CA Keith Kunz
Motorsports Bullet/Speedway Toyota
67X Brad
Sweet Grass
Valley, CA Willie Khane Speedway/Toyota
68 Ronnie Gardner Norco,
Ca Mitchell Johnson Stewart/Esslinger
71 Kyle
Larsen Elk
Grove, CA Kunz-Curb- Agajanian Bullet/Speedway/Toyota
71K Trevor
Cooper Auckland,
NZ Kruseman Motorsports Spike Esslinger
71X Cody
Swanson Norco, CA Kirk
Swanson Edmunds/Van Dyne
72 Nic Faas Huntington Beach,
CA Keith Ford Spike/Wirth Fontana
73 Michael
Pickens Auckland,
NZ Keith
Ford Spike/Esslinger
73X Ryan
Bernal Hollister,
CA Keith
Ford Spike/Wirth Fontana
86 Troy Rutherford Ojai, CA Calvin
Martens TCR/Mopar
115 Connor Kassik Lake
Havasu, AZ Neverlift
Motorsports Spike/Van Dyne
151 Jim Waters Salt
Lake City,
UT Neverlift
Motorsports Spike/Van Dyne
Thank you to Kirk Spridgeon from USAC for comprising the above list.
Fans can come out
and watch practice for the Turkey Night Grand Prix and the inaugural
1-800LoanMart Street Stock Turkey Bowl for free on Wednesday night, November
21st.
The two nights following
the 72 Running of the Turkey Night Grand Prix, The PAS will host the inaugural
1-800LoanMart Street Stock Turkey Bowl with a purse of $22,500. Thus far. the Turkey Bowl has drawn entries from as far away as Iowa (a separate release
on the Turkey Bowl will be coming within the next few days).
Advance tickets
for the Turkey Night Grand Prix and the 1-800LoanMart Street Stock Turkey Bowl
are available 24 hours a day, 7 days a week by calling: 1-800-595-4849. You can also order tickets online at:http://www.perrisautospeedway.com/ or http://pas.tix.com/Schedule.aspx?OrgNum=7
For those who live
more than 100-miles away, the race will stream live at the following link for
$14.95. http://circletracknetwork.com/. Interested
fans can purchase their online ticket beginning Wednesday morning.
The remaining 2012
PAS schedule is listed at the end of this release.
To keep up with
all of the latest Perris Auto Speedway news, photos, gossip and receive special
offers, sign up at The PAS Facebook site at: http://www.facebook.com/home.php -
!/pages/Perris-Auto-Speedway/11387679868
You can also keep up with the latest news and receive special offers from
The PAS Twitter site: http://twitter.com/perrisautospdwy.
Perris Auto
Speedway wants to thank its corporate sponsors for the 2012 season.
1-800LoanMart, 777 Racecars, Aaron's, Ahern Rentals, All Coast Construction, Amsoil, Ayers Hotel and Spa, Budweiser, Champion Towing,
City of Perris, Comfort Inn, Day Construction, Daytona Boat & RV Storage,
Frazee Paint, Hoosier Tires, K&N Engineering, P.I.P.E., Pepsi-Cola,
Pick-A-Part Auto Salvage, Prolong Super Lubricants, Scott Sales, Snap-on,
Soboba Casino, Square H, Swedish Speed, Temecula Valley Pipe & Supply,
Trench Shoring, US Foods, Valley Auto Salvage, White Nuckl
USA and Zanzabuku Sports Lounge.
Video and DVD
productions of all racing events at Perris Auto Speedway are available from Loudpedal Productions. For more information on these
productions you can contact them by calling (805) 844-3854, E-mailingmailto:trtruex@gmail.com or you can visit the web site http://www.loudpedalvideo.com/
For more information call The PAS at: (951) 940-0134.
Perris Auto Speedway is located on the Lake Perris Fairgrounds (home of
October’s Southern California Fair), approximately one hour east of Los Angeles and one hour
North of San Diego. To get to the track, take the 215 freeway, exit on the
Ramona Expressway and go three miles east to the fairgrounds.
racesatthepas@aol.com is the only authorized Internet
address to issue official media news released from The Perris Auto Speedway or
Oval Entertainment
2012 PERRIS AUTO SPEEDWAY
SCHEDULE
November 21st - Practice for the Turkey Night Grand Prix - free for fans
in the stands
November 22nd - 72 Running of the Turkey Night Grand Prix for the Mopar USAC National and Western Midgets.
November 23rd & 24th - 1-800LoanMart Street Stock Turkey Bowl - $1,500.00
to win on Friday and $4,000.00 to win on Saturday.
I get e-mails:
Actually, from a week ago:
Just confirmed yesterday with Fairgrounds Square Mall management, the
2013 Racing Legends Reunion & Car Show dates are set for Feb. 24-March 2.
Registration begins mid-November and there will be entry forms at the Grandview
Speedway Awards Banquet Nov. 17. The form will be posted online at www.bdmotorsportsmedia.com and www.thunderonthehillracingseries.com among other sites.
Also, there will be gas card incentives for early registrants this year.
The show is moved a week later to get away from the Florida dirt-track racing which had been
adjusted last year. Thanks!
Found on Facebook:
From Facebook - started on Nov 12th:
Some responses:
pack the stands
nights, $3.00 admission nights.. and 5.00 a carload in
the drive in
open sportsman
motor, with the latest rules cost to much money. go
back to the 1990's motor rules. or just run crates with
a 11" tire. no gear rule. and
handicapping. hoosier or american racer designate compound hardness, maybe tire cost
will come down with some competition.
Is this page ran
by someone who has any authority at OCFS? Just curious
because if not, all ideas are just like talking to walls.
Open and creat
motor in different classes so its fare and the track in better condishions
Def . The a. Racer
and hosier comp will bring tire cost down do something with the track for
better tire wear and maybe some paint and landscaping make the place look nice
like it use to be I been going there 40 years they use to take pride in there
place they dont no more and that's a shame
Get rid of Maxwell
!!!!
Lets see.. To start-
I agree with most on this post- BRING BACK THE SMALL BLOCKS!! I have heard it
said a couple times over- Running 358's and Big Block Modifieds
every Saturday is financial suicide. Well, OCFS did this for how many years??
The place was packed and people were spending $$. That is why it was
affordable. The track (or Cagle) made their $$ off quantity! When the stands
are packed, you can afford the payout for both classes. But, when there are so
many open seats on a given Sat. Night, I am surprised the place hasn't gone
belly up. We will never be able to re-create the "Brett and Danny
Shows" of the 90's, but it would be nice to see some of the premier teams
in DIRT call OCFS home on Sat. Nights. Running both classes just may do this, also it just may put some asses in the stands. Also,
they need to talk to "Maxwell". His food prices are highway robbery
for the "shit" he is selling. Did you ever wonder why the drive-in
draws a bigger crowd than the stands? The food, concession and bar prices are outta control. Don't even get me started about fair week.
NEXT!!- Put a new skirt on the ole whore!! Clean her up, buy some paint and
some sprayers and have a painting party!! ]
Just wondering - Might the
"Powers that be" read this, and if so, how about some feed back?
You guys need to friend request gurda and put all of this on his page.
One Simple answer bring
Jay back to run the place period...
after a few
rainouts make a makeup date for any additional rainouts
small blocks more
times than not best race of the night when they ran em
on a regulaer basis!
More concession stands......bring
back someone like jp.....better food and prices when
that snack bar was open .
bring back 358
Mod's and do away with street stocks (pure stocks)
What would happen if you ran ROOKIE
Crate Sportsman with a 2 barrel and PRO Crate Sportsman with a 4 barrel?Crates only for those 2
classes, if you want to run an Open Sportsman class so be it but give them
their own division.Sounds like a lot of divisions but
the show is lacking right now.Without 358's and a
struggling field of fender cars you need to add classes/cars.
they got rid of
the open class. just got confirmed at the show in syracuse.
there keeping the crate class every week. and the 358s and rookie sportsman will alternate every other
week
358's every
other week?
yea. they were suppose to make it a knock off 358 class so only
sportsman drivers would be moving up. but now
apparently its a open 358 class. so hearn and everyone can come and sweep up every other week
in big blocks and small block. so anyone with a open
motor has to decide either move down to crates. or go
358 every other week against the big boys
Claimer rules fix cheating.No
intelligent person will dump 8 grand into a crate if they know it can get
claimed.
ALL THE RULES that you may have, do
not work, unless you have a tech person who knows how to enforce the RULES.....
I agree but a claimer rule transcends
tech altogether.The thought "I might get
caught" does not scare people more than "I will get claimed".
Note:
Hmm, a return of 358’s – every other week? I wonder if there are enough of them left in
this area? How
many of the “Open” Sportsman will move up to the 358 class, and be satisfied
with racing every other week?
Some non-racing stuff:
http://cnsnews.com/news/article/white-house-announces-6-billion-promote-clean-energy-asia
http://news.yahoo.com/republicans-rice-must-testify-benghazi-statements-183752476.html
http://news.yahoo.com/video/mccain-rice-still-explaining-172508590.html
http://news.yahoo.com/congress-investigate-benghazi-talking-points-152953594--politics.html
http://www.weeklystandard.com/blogs/another-version-benghazi-talking-points-story_663737.html
Note: It will take some time to get a
more complete picture, but Mike Rogers' office says the new version doesn't
match what the House Intelligence Committee was told behind closed doors:
So who was it
that changed the wording? James R.
Clapper, Director of National Intelligence – at least he came out and said it
was he, on Tuesday. This, after he was
in a room with other government officials a week ago, and never spoke up when
it was asked who changed the wording.
http://news.yahoo.com/house-republicans-rice-unfit-head-state-dept-203525367.html
“It's going
to get real ugly in the inner cities. A lot of fast food chains are pulling
out, a lot of food markets are pulling out and a lot of service businesses are
closing. The inner cities will have no jobs and no food. Welcome to Detroit USA.
I predict Chicago and New York will start imploding within a year.
When that happens, there will be a mass exodus. But, where will they go? Florida is going to get
swamped with people who have no money, no job, no home and no way to leave. The
rest of the South will not be very receptive to people from NYC and NJ who beat
up folks that came up there to help repair damage. We may see the construction
of huge refugee camps to house and feed these idiots.”
“I predict there
will be some sort of sticker or indicator on business doors that says they've
had to pass on obama taxes to their employees or customers.
Sympathetics could patronize those businesses.”
http://finance.yahoo.com/news/wal-mart-seeks-head-off-033600803.html
http://finance.yahoo.com/news/responsible-moms-nursing-home-bill-080045548.html
Hostess
Blames Union For Bankruptcy After Tripling CEO’s Pay
http://thinkprogress.org/economy/2012/11/16/1203151/why-unions-dont-shoulder-the-blame-for-hostesss-downfall/?mobile=nc
http://finance.yahoo.com/news/judge-asks-hostess-mediate-union-203749038.html
http://news.yahoo.com/hostess-union-fail-reach-deal-mediation-002101478--finance.html
Note: Since I put that link up, it seems that all 50
states have now got some kind of petitions to secede.
Note: It’s being said the same happened in Cleveland, too.
Video time:
Something different this week, folks. Not racing related at all, but goes to show
you what kind of people we have today, what they expect, etc etc. Problem: Dumb azz people
like this tend to multiply and vote.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=DL-a-r7iJIU
Photos:
Note: The photos are not available on Dirt Track
Digest, only on New England Tractor - http://newenglandtractor.com/racereport/
Since I went back in time with George
Rice, I thought it would be ok to put a photo of him in this week’s column. He’s sitting in the Ed Bourgnon
# 24 Cycle powered Midget.
Closing with
these:
Subject: Football Humor
Ohio State's Urban Meyer on one of his
players: "He doesn't know the meaning of the word fear. In fact, I just
saw his grades and he doesn't know the meaning of a lot of words."
Why do Tennessee fans wear orange?
So they can dress that way for the
game on Saturday, go hunting on Sunday, and pick up trash on Monday.
What does the average Alabama player get on
his SATs?
Drool.
How many Michigan freshmen football players does it
take to change a light bulb?
None. That's a
sophomore course.
How did the Georgia football player die from
drinking milk?
The cow fell on him.
A University of Cincinnati
football player was almost killed yesterday in a tragic horseback-riding
accident.
He fell from a horse and was nearly
trampled to death.
Luckily, the manager of the Wal-Mart
came out and unplugged the horse.
What do you say to a University of Miami Hurricane football player dressed
in a three-piece suit? "
"Will the defendant please
rise."
If three Florida State
football players are in the same car, who is driving?
The police
officer.
How can you tell if an Auburn football player has a girlfriend?
There's tobacco juice on both sides
of the pickup truck.
What do you get when you put 32 Arkansas cheerleaders in
one room?
A full set of
teeth.
University of Michigan Coach Brady Hoke is only
going to dress half of his players for the game this week;
The other half will have to dress themselves.
How is the Indiana football team like an opossum?
They play dead at home and get killed
on the road.
Why did the Nebraska linebacker steal a police car?
He saw "911" on the side
and thought it was a Porsche.
How do you get a former Illinois football player
off your porch?
Pay him for the pizza.
What are the longest three years of a
University of Kentucky football player s life?
Freshman I,
Freshman II, and Freshman III.
Here’s wishing all my readers a Happy
Thanksgiving. May you eat too much like
I plan on doing!
Again - Special notice: There will be no column next week. And columns will be every other week, for a while.
Wishing all race fans, drivers,
teams, team owners and sponsors to remain safe and out of harms way!
As usual, you can reach me at: ygordad@yahoo.com