Racin'
& Internet Stuff:
By Tom Avenengo
03/03/2011
First:
Second:
Starting
with this column, you’ll see some changes made, with some sections now being
eliminated. Maybe not
permanently, but for a while, any way.
I’ll be dropping the following:
“The History of the Sport”, “Non-racing news” and “Is this true?” – At least for a while, unless something big should come up!
Third:
As
of February 28th, neither Brewerton nor Fulton has anything on their
websites regarding a 2011 schedule.
And, still no word as to whether they’ll be running as an independent or
still with DIRTcar, either. Lotsa rumors,
though!
Same
goes for OCFS, although I’ve seen a “Schedule” that was out prior to their signing back up with DIRTcar,
no schedule on their website.
Fourth:
No word yet as to whether Whip City Speedway has had a buyer, or not.
http://www.whipcityspeedway.com/
Fifth:
Danica – Yeah, you know who “Danica” is, right?
What are your thoughts of her – especially in NASCAR? There’s a thread about her on the Track
Forum. As of Wednesday evening, it’s
three pages long and has had 90 comments, so far. Some very interesting thoughts, I should say.
Check it out,
here: http://www.trackforum.com/forums/showthread.php?146709-The-ALL-Danica-Patrick-NASCAR-thread-for-2011
Sixth:
Coming
up:
OCFS:
March
26th /2011
April 1-Open Practice & Safety Inspection rain date 4/2
April 8-Open Practice & Safety Inspection rain date 4/9
OCFS
MOTORSPORTS SHOW
March
11-12-13
For more info call 845-343-4826
CUSTOM
CARS
&
BIKE SHOW
March
25-26-27
For
more info call 845-778-3839
OPENING DAY APRIL 15, 2011
Sunday,
March 13, 2011:
Daylight
Savings Time begins!
Sunday,
March 20, 2011:
First
day of Spring!
A
good way to get fired:
Kinda hard to believe on this one, but if you’re in an
announcers booth, it’s said that you should not “cheer” for a winner. This young man did, and was fired for it:
http://www.frontstretch.com/tbowles/32940/
Going back, in time:
Note: Most of the following information was found
here:
http://www.wheelsofspeed.com/history.html
Covering
the days of February 25th to March 3rd.
FEBRUARY 25
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
FEBRUARY 26
1903
Alexander
Winton driving his Winton Bullet, set the first speed record ever achieved at
Daytona Beach,
1944
SCCA The
Sports Car Club of America is incorporated in
1949
Danny Frye Jr.
... Born ... USAC midget and sprint racer
1998
Russ Congdon
... Died ... USAC midget and sprint racer from the 1950's and 60's
2001
Duke Nalon
... Died ... AAA midget, sprint and Indy car racer .
FEBRUARY 27
1910
Ted Horn... Born
... AAA driver from the 1930's and 40's. Ted Horn has the best 9-year
streak of finishes in
1925
Ebb Rose... Born ... USAC racer
from the 1960's
1930
Jack Conely...
Born ... USAC racer from the 1960's
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
1945
Steve Chassey...
Born ... USAC/Cart sprint and Indy car driver.
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
1940
Mario Andretti... Born ... One of the most successful
Americans in the history of auto racing. He has competed and won in many
different types of auto racing, including stock cars, midget cars, sprint cars,
IndyCars, drag racing cars, sports cars, and single-seater Formula One cars. During his career, Andretti won
four IndyCar titles, the 1978 Formula One World
Championship, and IROC VI (the 1978 - 1979 IROC). To date, he remains the only
driver ever to win the
Mario had a twin brother – Aldo Andretti. Some say that when they started racing, Aldo
was better than Mario. Aldo’s racing
career ended on August 17, 1969, when he had an accident while racing with the
IMCA in a Sprint Car race at
Singer Joe South (Joseph Alfred Souter) was born. (Check him out in the “Video” section, below.
1964
It was on this date that I was
discharged from the
1965
Richard Petty, driving in a
drag race at the Southeastern International Dragway
in Dallas Georgia, lost control of his car and it went into the spectators
killing an 8 year old boy.
1966
Joe Gaerte...
Born ... World of Outlaws sprint car driver.
1971
A.J. Foyt
won the 500 mile NASCAR GN race at
2000
Note: Any idea as to whether that might be the only NASCAR Cup race that started 3-wide?
Tony
Schumacher drove his Top Fuel dragster through the 1/4 mile at 330.23 mph at
Firebird International Raceway in Phoenix,
FEBRUARY 29
1932
Masten Gregory... Born ... Masten
Gregory was born in
MARCH 1
1903
Harlan Fengler
... Born ... AAA driver from 1923 to 1927. Fengler
acted as Chief Steward of the
1919
Leroy Warriner
... Born ... an American racing driver from
1941
Dave Marcis...
Born ... NASCAR Cup driver from 1968 to 2002
1995
Jackie Holmes ... Died ... AAA
racer from 1947 to 1953
MARCH 2
1913
Duke Nalon
... Born ... AAA midget, sprint and Indy car racer .
1947
Ken Nichols... Born ... USAC
driver
1949
Lonnie Caruthers... Born ... USAC midget racer 1970's. Cousin
to Jimmy & Danny Caruthers.
1996
Randy Anderson sets NHRA Top
Alcohol Funny Car national record of 253.73 mph at
2004
Louie Unser... Died ... He was
the twin brother of Jerry Unser, who in 1958 became the first of the famed
racing family to qualify for the Indy 500. Louie served as chief mechanic for
Jerry in that race and handled the same duties for younger brother Al Unser's
500 debut in 1965.
MARCH 3
1944
Pete Halsmer...
Born ... USAC/CART driver from the 1980's
1981
Ed Carpenter... Born ... IRL
Indy car driver
1984
Mike Mosley... Died ... USAC/CART driver from 1967 to 1983. Mosley died in
an off-road vehicle accident.
Former
OVRP
I see that Davey Franek ventured down to
Also,
in the AARN, they showed how the modified drivers finished, point wise, and
with monies won, from their racing at Volusia.
It shows that Billy VanInwegen was 25th
in points and had won $675.00. However,
I did notice that in the AARN a week ago, they were showing Billy to have run
only 3 of the 4 races, while in actuality, he did run all 4. In a conversation with his father, via the
Internet, it seems that Billy won at least $1,000.00.
More racin’
stuff:
For 600 Modifieds:
ALL DRIVERS IN
BOTH DIVISIONS MUST SIGN IN TO RECEIVE
5 BONUS POINTS
FOR 2011 SEASON SERIES MEETING
MARCH 13TH
12 NOON
POLK TOWNSHIP
FIREHOUSE
IF YOU DO NOT
SIGN IN, NO POINTS WILL BE GIVEN.
THIS IS A VERY
IMPORTANT MEETING FOR THE UPCOMING RACING SEASON !
ANY QUESTIONS,
PLEASE CONTACT DOUG
Some
Racin’ stuff from the AARN:
If you recall, a while back, there was some talk about the WoO Sprint Cars going to a larger tail tank in order to
eliminate “fuel stops” in their racing events.
Well, it seems the drivers “rule the roost” as far as that goes, and
those larger tail tanks will NOT be in use.
Volusia
– the track in
Wayne
County Speedway, out in
A
photo of Glenn Donnelly, holding a sample of his synthetic racetrack was on
page 7. Sadly, no comments could be
found throughout the paper on what some thoughts were about it.
The
USAC Sprint Cars will return to the Ocala Speedway in 2012
While
at
Yes,
Bryan Clauson will be racing in the Firestone Indy
Lights cars for those six races – at least, with that $300,000.00 in
scholarship monies he won last year.
Looking
at the asphalt modifieds that raced down in
In
other Open Wheel racing, in Mini Sprints, at
Additional
Racin’ stuff:
On the Dirt Track Digest’s forum, there’s a real good discussion going on about how the economy might affect racing in 2011.
http://www.dirttrackdigest.com/forums//topic/38001-will-speedways-and-racing-in-general-survive/
More OCFS news
– from their website: “OCFS is proud to announce that longtime announcer,
Tim Pitts, will once again be behind the mic weekly
at OCFS. Welcome back Tim!”
As of noontime on
Wednesday, I see that there are only 44 entrants for the Cup race at “Lost
Wages” and 42 for the Nationwide race.
And, from Jayski’s website:
Displaced
Super Bowl fans to enjoy NASCAR Weekend: When the NFL and the country’s largest football
stadium dropped the ball on hundreds of disappointed football fans, Las Vegas
Motor Speedway and the Stratosphere Hotel, Casino & Tower recovered the
fumble and scored a touchdown with many of them. Earlier this month, LVMS
and the country’s tallest hotel-tower partnered to offer tickets to the March
4-6 NASCAR Weekend in
Who’s the
GOAT (Greatest of all time):
It’s really kind of hard to pick
just one, that’s for sure.
http://www.trackforum.com/forums/showthread.php?147019-The-GOAT
Other forums/message
boards and websites:
You might find some
interesting reading if you go to the links below.
Track Forum: - http://www.trackforum.com/forums/
Frontstretch.com: http://www.frontstretch.com/
Jayski: - http://www.jayski.com/
Open Wheel Racers3: http://www.openwheelracers3.com/
Race Pro Weekly: http://raceproweekly.com/
(must register to post)
Victory
Yahoo Race History
Group:
http://sports.groups.yahoo.com/group/RacingHistory/ (when one posts something on an
e-mail to the group, they do have what is called the “Len Sutton rule” – you
put in your name and where you live. And, yes,
things are “policed” too.
Wheels of Speed: http://www.wheelsofspeed.com/
The
First Turn Pro: http://www.firstturnpro.com/
Vintage Sprint Car:
http://www.jalopyjournal.com/forum/showthread.php?t=236178
Vintage Midget: http://www.jalopyjournal.com/forum/showthread.php?t=337192
Racing and
television:
Racing on TV - http://www.racefantv.com/USTV.htm
2011
Track and other Schedules:
OVRP
– The Dirt Oval (Oakland Valley Speedway):
http://www.oaklandvalleyspeedway.com/schedules-fees/
Wall
Stadium: http://www.wallspeedway.com/
Utica/Rome
From previous columns:
Accord: http://www.accordspeedway.com/
Big
Diamond: http://www.bigdiamondspeedway.net/
Selinsgrove: http://www.selinsgrovespeedway.com/
Wyalusing: http://www.wvmpracing.com/
CRSA
Sprint Cars: http://www.crsasprintcars.com/
NEMA: http://www.nemaracing.com/
ARDC: http://www.ardcmidgets.com/
Williams
Grove: http://www.williamsgrove.com/
Xcel
600 Modifieds:
http://www.xcelchassis.com/
Mountain
Indy car: http://www.indyracing.com/
Kutztown: http://www.kutztownfairspeedway.com/
RoC
– Dirt: http://www.rocdirt.com/
New
Hamlin: http://www.hamlinspeedway.com/
Video time:
As mentioned,
above – Joe South. (More tunes by him are
over on the right)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ijq3_tkQK_w
Closing with these:
STRANGE BUT TRUE AND UNVERIFIED FACTS
-Look
at your zipper. See the initials YKK? It stands for Yoshida Kogyo Kabushibibaisha, the world's largest zipper manufacturer.
-40 percent of McDonald's profits come from the
sales of Happy Meals.
-315 entries in Webster's 1996 Dictionary were
misspelled.
-On the average, 12 newborns will be given to the wrong parents daily.
-Chocolate kills dogs! True, chocolate affects a dog's heart and nervous
system. A few ounces is enough to kill a small sized
dog.
-Ketchup was sold in the 1830's as a medicine.
-Leonardo Da Vinci could write
with one hand and draw with the other at the same time.
-Because metal was scarce, the Oscars given out
during World War II were made of wood.
-There are no clocks in
-Leonardo Da Vinci invented scissors. Also, it took
him 10 years to paint Mona Lisa's lips.
-Bruce Lee was so fast that they actually had to
slow a film down so you could see his moves.
-The
original name for the butterfly was "flutterby"..
-By raising your legs slowly and lying on your back, you can't sink in
quicksand
.
-Mosquito repellents don't repel... they hide you. The spray blocks the
mosquito's sensors so they don't know you're there.
-Dentists
recommend that a toothbrush be kept at least six feet away from a toilet to
avoid airborne particles resulting from the flush.
-The first product to have a bar code was Wrigley's
gum.
-Michael Jordan makes more money from Nike
annually than the entire Nike factory workers in
-Marilyn Monroe had six toes on one foot.
-Adolf Hitler's mother seriously considered having an abortion but was talked
out of it by her doctor.
More to
come, next week
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