A Face In The Crowd

Hi.  Y'know, every now and then I'll run into somebody at Wal-Mart or a gas station and we'll get talking racing.  For those of you that haven't heard, yes, I'll be back at the Rumney track this year, and glad for it.  And, I really do plan on writing more for this blog in the future.  I have a lot more memories to share, and I don't plan on shutting up about them any time soon.

The thing I wanted to say today is that I'm so glad that there is so much about small NH (and VT) dirt tracks on the web these days.  Thanks especially to Billy "Gee-tar" Moses for posting all that video.  I used to watch Mary Emery taping all those races all those evenings and wondering, 'what the hell is she ever going to do with those?'  Now, I know.

Just in case there's somebody that doesn't know yet, there's a Facebook page you'll love if you've bothered to read any of this.  It's called Nor-Way Pines Through The Years, and it's awesome.  Billy's posted tons (hours?) of video, and lots of other people have shared photos and stories.  For your information, there are similar pages for Bear Ridge Speedway in Bradford, VT and the Canaan Fair Speedway in Canaan, NH.

There are also a number of websites dedicated to memorializing the sport we all love.  I am glad to be a small part of that history with this page, and I hope you enjoy - and will continue to enjoy - it.  I would like to know if there are also any sites or pages regarding some of the tracks that didn't last as long; like the tri-oval in Franklin, NH back in the sixties, or Bob Welch's try for one year in North Woodstock.  And for that matter, anybody that's got anything from the original 106 Midway Raceway in Loudon - later known as Bryar Motorsport Park, and then NH Int'l Speedway - I'd love to see it.

So keep the shiny side up, and don't forget to turn left.  See ya at the Legion Speedway in May.

Ultimate Race Weekend

Well, it's here.  Memorial Day weekend.  First of all, let me express my deep and heartfelt gratitude to those men and women who have served, and are now serving, in the uniform of the various militaries of the United States.  And please, a doff of the cap and a moment of silence for those who gave the ultimate sacrifice for our freedom.

I guess the next thing to say is, Drivers, Start Your Engines.  Got a couple races already in the DVR to watch, and as I write this the Grand Prix of Monaco is just finishing.  I've shut the TV off so I can watch the whole thing later on.  Then there's the Indianapolis 500, on its 101st anniversary, along with what we used to call the World 600 from Charlotte.  That's after the Rolex Grand Am series race, which I believe was yesterday at Lime Rock.  Or is it today?  Not sure.  Been busy.

Oddly enough, I won't be watching many of them.  The Grand Am race should be on my DVR, along with Monaco, but I have no plans to watch either Indy or NASCAR today or any time soon.  That's sad, really, but for me not as sad as watching the races.

Have you ever heard the term, "Spec series?"  Spec is short for . . . hmm, what is it short for?  Specific?  Specialized?  Certainly not Special, or Spectacular.  Spec refers to the fact that everybody's race car has to fit specific guidelines and parameters.

Well, now, wait a minute, isn't that just rules?  Every race series has rules, right?  Makes it fair, and makes it safe.  Ah, but there's a difference between simply having rules, and making everybody drive the same, identical car with the same, identical engine.  That's what a spec series is.  Cookie cutter cars.

You've probably gathered by now that I'm not too into that sort of thing.  I understand the whole motivation behind it, of course.  Makes the racing close.  It does make me wonder, though.  If the final lap being a nail-biter down-to-the-wire heart-in-your-throat event, then what's the other 100 or 250 or 500 laps for?  Why not just have the one lap?

I think major league racing the world over has forgotten what the original point was.  The original point was to find out which car was the best.  Not which driver, but which car.  Back in the day, the reason for racing was not so much to impress ticket buyers and television viewers, but to find out something.  The Indianapolis race was 500 miles long because it wasn't known if any of those cars could even go that far.  And because they did, then it became an issue who could do it the fastest, and this led to improvements for everybody's car. 

After all, what does the phrase, "Win on Sunday, sell on Monday" mean anyway?  Why does winning on Sunday count?  Because it's solid, documentable proof that your car is better!  That's the biggest difference, looking at it in terms of devices, between cars and airplanes.  Airplanes' biggest proving ground has always been war.  Good fighter planes led directly to better private planes.  Good bombers were the precursors to cargo and passenger planes.

But for automobiles, racing is the crucible in which new ideas are put to the test.  Speed, safety, reliability, all is revealed by setting a long-distance goal and mashing your foot to the floor.  Improvements in every aspect of automobile manufacture, from tires to chassis structure to windshield wipers, can be traced to success on the race track.  It's where countless new technologies have been conceived, tested, and either proven or rejected.  Go look at the car in your driveway.  Even if it's a humble minivan or econobox, there's hardly anything on it that didn't begin its life as a new idea for a race car.

That's all gone now, for the most part.  Oh, yes, there are little things that do get tried on racers that will eventually find their way onto our road cars, but for the most part racing has become, more and more, mere entertainment.  It is all managed in a way that makes the last lap the most exciting one, and everything else is just dramatic embellishment.  It sorts out the larger group into a much smaller group of a few players who will be eligible for that last-second push for the victory.  The only thing that makes it a sport is the fact that, so far as we know anyway, none of the result is decided in advance.

It used to be a lot more wide open, of course.  Even in the world of stock cars, there were huge differences between the cars in any given race.  Did you know that a NASCAR stock car race was once won by a Jaguar?  You could race literally any stock automobile that would pass the safety inspection.  I'm not going to go into the history of NASCAR or any other race series, because anyone reading this is probably already aware of anything I could say about it.

I believe the eventual direction will be for all the cars in a race series to be provided by one garage, in order that they will then all be prepared as identically as physically possible.  That would be the ultimate in "fairness."  It will also emphasize the drivers above all else.  It will be a clash of personalities, disguised as a car race.  They might as well be wrestling, or playing ping pong, but they'll be in high-powered mega-safe practically identical automobiles.

And all this has happened in my lifetime, or at least most of it.  Back in the early 1950's Mercedes-Benz put a body with fenders on their Formula One cars for high-speed circuits like Silverstone and Monza.  The FIA, which then as now was the sanctioning body for F1, mandated that all their race cars should be open-wheeled.  If they had been allowed to continue as logic dictated to their engineers, it would have led to the whole field being closed-wheel, probably at every track, and this surely would have spilled over to Indycars and so on.  And Dan Wheldon would still be alive.  And so it goes.

Or look at what NASCAR did in the '60's with the Chrysler Hemis.  Dodge and Plymouth came out with the hemi in late 1963, making it available on a limited basis on their road cars so that it was legally a stock car.  These cars dominated the 1964 season.  So NASCAR banned the hemispherical head starting in 1965, in spite of the fact that Ford had gone ahead and prepared a hemispherical-head engine of its own.  In response, Chrysler pulled all their factory teams for the '65 season.  Richard Petty went drag racing, Ned Jarrett won the championship by a country mile, and attendance was down by, in some cases, half or more.  So NASCAR gave in and allowed the Hemi, but it was certainly not the last time they banned a new idea because it won too much.

The same thing happened at Indianapolis.  Everything from diesel engines to supercharging to turbines got slapped with restrictions until they were "managed" into uncompetitiveness.  The Indycar series now runs one chassis, made by Dallara in Italy, and there are three engine manufacturers whose engines all have the same number of cylinders, the same displacement, and are allowed the same amount of turbocharger boost.  They might as well be making the same engine, because they essentially are.  Same with the chassis and engine rules in NASCAR.

Even Formula One, which has usually maintained the high ground in race car technology, has gone to mandate things to the Nth degree.  But at least you can still park a Ferrari, a McLaren and a Red Bull side by side with no markings and tell them apart.  If you parked the race cars driven by Jeff Gordon, Tony Stewart, and Greg Biffle side by side with no markings, you'd have to pop the hoods and look for the brand on the valve covers to pick the right ones.

Personally, my favorite race series right now are the Grand Am and Continental Tire series.  Which are, surprisingly, both owned and sanctioned by NASCAR.  These are all road course races, which I like anyway.  Each series has several different chassis and engine manufacturers.  Last year's Daytona Prototype champion in Grand Am drove a Riley chassis powered by BMW, and the Riley looked a fair bit different from the Dallara and the Coyote chassis that they beat.  For this year, the rules were tweaked so that they can look, and be, even more different.

I tend to lean the strongest toward the Continental Tire series, which is actual stock cars.  The second-tier Grand Am series is the Grand Touring class, with race chassis but bodies that match the templates of cars like Camaro, Mustang, and Porsche among others.  But in CT, they are actually the cars they look like, as they come from the manufacturer, with roll cages and safety equipment installed.  The races are shown on Speed channel, usually delayed a week or two.  The fields are huge, sometimes having 60 to 70 cars in two classes.  Their Grand Touring class is, again, Mustangs, Camaros, Porsches, BMW 3-series and so forth.  The Street Tuner class is for anything smaller, from Minis to Kias to Mazda Miatas and the like.

So far, it doesn't seem as closely managed as the bigger series.  Yes, if someone begins to dominate, the rules are adjusted somewhat to give everyone a better chance.  But basically there's not enough money or prestige on the line for BMW or Chevy to make huge changes to a whole line of cars.  And as a bonus, they get to find out just how good the cars in their dealers' showrooms hold up over some very tough miles.

So basically, as far as I'm concerned, there is one word that describes the kind of racing that will be held today in Indianapolis and Charlotte; fake.  And I'm sorry, I have no use for fake racing.  They might as well have Milli Vanilli lip-synch the national anthem.  I am convinced that any good shade-tree mechanic with plenty of local racing experience and ten thousand dollars to play with could build a car that would last 500 or 600 miles and beat whoever wins either of those races today.  They just wouldn't be able to do it within those rules.

Then again, I always liked home-made chocolate chip cookies better than Chips Ahoys.

New Owners in Rumney?

Hi, there.

I know I've been pretty quiet here lately.  And a lot of people have been asking me about the situation at the Rumney track, the former Legion Bowl/Nor-Way Pines/Pines Speedway/Legion Speedway/Rattlesnake Motordrome/Big Daddy's Speedbowl.  The story this list tells is that the track has changed management several times since Wayne Weeks sold his lease and retired.

Some of these new managers have asked me to work for them, and I have.  Some have not, and some have asked and I said no.  Last summer, before any of the brief series of Sprint car shows, I ran into Mike Kondrat at a gas station.  He asked if I was interested in announcing for those shows.  At the time, I said no, because I had been in contact with most or all of the parties involved with the operation, and closing, of Big Daddy's.  It sounded to me like, whoever was brave enough to put a key in the gate's padlock, they were going to have lawyers descending on them like locusts. 

Frankly, I didn't want to be involved with that.  Nothing against the Legion, Mike Rivers, Si Allen, or anyone else involved.  I was just . . . well, covering my own tail.  I am in the happy, and sad, position of being friends with people on all sides.  I listened to each of them say some very nasty things about each other; things that, I hope, they now regret, but that's their business.  I did not want to be seen as taking sides, so I stayed clear.  I didn't even buy a ticket to go watch.

Apprently, as it turns out, everything went smoothly last summer.  And, I've heard that Si is now either leasing, or has bought, the track, with the full blessing of the Legion and Mike Rivers.  That's the prominent rumor, anyway.  I hope that is the case.  All that I'm hearing now is positive, and everybody's looking forward to a summer of racing.  The 51st since the place first opened, as a matter of fact.  When the racing juices start flowing full-strength, I'll probably be putting more of my memories on this page, about this track and the others I've known, and eagerly anticipting the memories yet to be made.

I hope to be able to buy my ticket a few times.  And, if Si or anybody else needs some extra help from an old former announcer, just give me a shout.  I'd love another excuse to go get involved again.  I sincerely hope that all sides have buried the hatchet and taken care of their business.  And if anyone wants to know whose side I'm on, I'm on the side of the racers and the fans.  Long may the flag wave in the infield, no matter who owns the ground under it.  Let's go racing!!

Rick Clogston

A sad farewell to Dan Wheldon

Sincere condolences to the family, friends, and fans of Dan Wheldon, who died last Sunday in the season-ending Indycar race in Las Vegas.

There's already a lot of talk about how inappropriate a venue Las Vegas is for Indycars, and that may well be true.  But maybe it's finally time to face up to the very real issue of open-wheel racing in general.  I've read the articles and seen the footage of the crash, and I think an argument could be made that the crash might not have been so bad if the car had fenders.

Let's face facts; automotive engineers have known for 75 years that enclosing the wheels improves the aerodynamics of a car.  Open-wheeled cars came about because fenders were heavy and easily removable, and tires were very skinny, and speeds were low enough that aerodynamics had not yet been noticed as a factor.  To have open-wheeled racers is one of those ridiculous traditions that serve absolutely no purpose whatsoever.

It's time for the IRL and Formula One to accept the reality; a car with full bodywork is not only more practical, it's safer.  Any Modified or Sprint Car driver can tell you what happens when exposed wheels touch anything, and that looks exactly like what happened to Wheldon.

Open wheels also force the builders of these cars to stick the front shock absorbers inside a very small piece of bodywork that aims the shock towers directly at the driver's head.  Remember how Ayrton Senna died?

In the 1950's Mercedes-Benz put full bodywork on their F1 cars on the faster tracks.  It made them faster.  So the FIA outlawed them, and we've been stuck with this ridiculous, dangerous affectation ever since.  Seeing as good a driver, and person, as Dan Wheldon die cannot help but raise the question; when is somebody going to speak out against open wheels?

The Purpose

Hi.

Just a word about the purpose of this blog. It's about the history of stock car racing in New Hampshire and northern New England. It is NOT about venting your spleen about the current state of racing. Yes, I happen to work currently at a track, but there are other places that you can rant about them. Not here. If it's going to be about that, I'm going to delete everything and shut it down. There are plenty of good sites about this history now, and this one probably won't be missed too sorely.

So Mudman, please keep your childish and inaccurate opinions to yourself, especially if you're not man enough to actually use your name.

Rick

Rumney Changes Hands

Hi.

First of all, let me say thanks to everybody who’s told me they wish I’d add something to this page more often. Sorry that I’ve been so busy of late, but that’s the way it is I guess.

Next, I would like to confirm some rumors you’ve probably heard. The Rumney racetrack, still known to many as the Nor-Way Pines, has changed management once again. Mike Rivers will be taking over, and the name has changed to Big Daddy’s Speedbowl. I will be adding the link (bigdaddysspeedbowl.com) to the sidebar soon. In fact, looky looky! There it is! And, yes, I will be returning as your humble announcer, but please come check it out anyway.

Anyway, thanks for keeping in touch, and I’ll really try and get some more on this page in the near future. I at least owe you part 2 of the early Groveton story.

Rick

Still More Random Snaps

All taken from the old Nor-Way Pines, circa late '80's or early '90's. Maybe even mid-70's actually. Man, I can't believe I haven't put anything up here since December of '07! Got to busy, I guess. Well, I'll try and make up for it.

And, once again, I would ask that you please leave comments. Especially if I got something wrong, but mainly so that the other people who check this page would be able to communicate with each other. After all, that's the whole point, isn't it?

There were two Bill Moses'; one, Big Bill, I've already done an extended piece on with plenty of pictures. He was Buck's son. This one is Dusty's son, Billy "Geetar" Moses. Dusty was one of the best-loved country musicians in New England back in the day, and Billy inherited Dusty's musical talent as well as his talent behind the wheel. Above is his late-model, which he won the track championship with back in the early '90's. Warren Emery was part owner of the car. I actually drove this car to a victory in the annual Official's Race one year, but don't have a trophy to show for it. Ah, well.

Below is the coupe that Billy ran in the early '80's. I spoke with him about this car recently, and he said it was one of his favorites. I remember it being rather heavy, but very well built. Tough as nails, and he won quite a few races with it. If you know Billy, you know the car had to be tough.

Below is a picture of one of my favorite dirt cars ever. This is Bunky "Grizzly" Adams, from somewhere in Vermont. Just look at the lines on that thing. Low, narrow, all business. Man, that's a pretty race car. As for the driver, well . . . MAN, that's a pretty race car. In the early days of the Nor-Way Pines there was a Modified 6-cylinder class and a stock V8 "hobby" class. After four or five years the sixes got upgraded to coupes. In the first year of the coupe class Butch Clogston and Ed Smith shared the title. The second year it went to Bunky Adams. After he won the championship he vanished, and never returned to the Pines. I don't know if he ever raced anywhere else, but while he was around he was the one to beat.

The sharp-eyed among you have spotted the car sitting next to Bunky's # 42. Yep, that's Franny Comeau's old 89. More on him at a later date, I promise.

This is just one of the late, great Larry Welch's race cars. He raced in the coupe division toward the end of his career, but this was the car he won the Late Model (formerly Hobby) class with one year. Larry tragically died in an off-season accident, but his memory lives on. He was a great driver, and one helluva guy in general.

The last two seasons the Legion Speedway has featured a Sprint car division. Alan Nichols showed up in this Sprinter back in the early nineties and ran with the coupes. A couple other fellows tried the same things, but Sprint cars are just too fragile to run with the heavier coupes. They sure put on a great show when you've got a full field of them, though. All the Sprint car fans at the Speedway have Alan Nichols to thank for breaking the ground.

That's about it for now. In the news, the Legion Speedway had it's second annual March Madness Enduro in the snow. It was a bit of a cluster, uh, ahem, well, let's just say it could have gone off better. Still had fun, though, and I met several of you readers there. I'm gratified that the word is getting around about this page. Please, leave comments here, especially so that others can see what a dope I really am about all this stuff. Really, the only thing that makes me anywhere near an expert is that fact that I know all of you. So keep checking in, and don't forget you promised to send me pictures.

ps - Billy, I forgot to pick up that CD you said you were going to leave me in the eating shack. And, if you leave a comment, be sure to leave the link to your music site. Folks, Billy "Geetar" Moses has given up racing to spend more time doing music, and you've just got to hear it. It's great. Bill, you've got to leave a link now!

See you all Memorial Day weekend in Rumney.

When emailing me . . .

Put "DIRT TRACK NH" in subject line of emails!

Hi.

This post is intended to address a possible problem. The biggest kick I get out of doing this blog is getting feedback from you readers. There hasn't been much, and yet I get the impression that the word is getting around. I hope you are enjoying seeing the history of the sport I love through my eyes, and be assured that it will continue.

I would like to ask one favor, if I may. If you email me at rclogston@hotmail.com, PLEASE mention Dirt Track NH in the subject line. The reason for this is that this account is set on 'exclusive,' so unless you are a regular contact of mine your message will go into my spam bucket. I do look through those, and if you put that in the subject, I'll fish it out and read it. I just read one that said 'blog,' and I took a chance, but I learned the hard way NOT to open emails from people I don't know unless I have good reason to believe that I should.

What I'm saying is, if you've emailed me, it probably got deleted. Supposedly, it is possible for anyone to leave a comment, and that is how I would prefer to hear from you, because I would also like everyone else to have a chance to see what you want to say as well. Still, there are indications that some people have found it difficult to leave a comment. That is something I have no control over.

But I do like getting emails from you, so feel free to write. Just remember; if you don't put Dirt Track NH in the subject line, it WILL be deleted. Don't get mad because you put 'blog' or 'race fan' or something, and you don't hear back from me. Twice I've been wormed and lost my whole hard drive, so I take NO chances. I've spent a lot of hours digging through old photos and scanning them into my computer. Yes, I've saved them to disk, but I'm still not risking a bad spam.

And please, leave a comment if you can.

Warren Randlett

Here's a couple of shots of Warren Randlett's '34 Ford, which raced around NH in the '50's and '60's. Warren is the gentleman standing beside the car, and these shots are only about 10 to 15 years old. The assumption is, this car is still around. Last I knew, Warren was living in Homosassa Springs, Florida. The pictures are by my father.

Promises Kept - More Random Snaps

Hi. I've been promising to post some more, and here it is. I've also been promising all summer to post some pictures just as soon as I could put my hands on them and get them scanned into the computer. Well, I finally found them, and here's some of them. These pictures show some of the family connections of NH dirt track racing.
Here's a shot of a pair of young men who would grow up to both be very good race car drivers. The big guy in the white t-shirt is Corey Avery, who became a very good Late Model driver. He got off to a slow start, but after a couple years became very fast indeed. The real shame of it was that he climbed out of the car just as he was getting good. The little guy on the left is his brother, Ryan, who just won the Mod title at Bear Ridge Speedway. And the car they're standing in front of? Why, that's one of the 01's that their dad, Jim, co-owned with driver Butch Clogston. Ryan and Corey have both carried on with that number since Butch's passing.

I kept getting requests for any other pictures I could find of "Sweet Lou" Ottati. Well, here's the only other one I've found so far. Lou was a very good driver and a really good guy.

Do you attend the races at the Legion Speedway in Rumney/Wentworth? Well, if so you've seen this big fella. That's Bob "BA" Ayer, the managing director, back when he was crewchief for Billy "Git-tar" Moses. The lady in red is Mary Emery, the wife of the car owner.

This is two of my favorite drivers, together as always. On the right, Donnie Sharp, Sr, one of the greats of the Late Model drivers. To his left is his son, Donnie Jr., who went on to star in Sprint Cars in New York state. They both came back to their roots this summer, taking turns racing the Sprint at the Legion Speedway. This is one of Donnie Jr's first Modifieds at the same track back when it was called the Nor-Way Pines.

I've been promising to post this one for a long time now, and couldn't find it until recently. If you remember the old 106 Midway Raceway in Loudon (now known as NHIS) then you probably remember Ernie Gilbert's #51. Well, this is Ernie Jr at the Pines.

Stay tuned. More coming when I get time.

Random Snaps

Been digging up some old pictures, which is what drives this whole thing in the first place. You who have been following this right along will be interested in seeing some new additions to the Big Bill and Tommy Richardson pieces. I've been scanning in a bunch of stuff, including some really old black-and-whites from the early '60's which I'll let you see in a while.

By the way, if you happen to have something that you'd like me to post here, just let me know.

This particular batch of photos were taken at the Nor-Way Pines Speedway in the early to mid 90's.

This gentleman is "Sweet Lou" Ottati, who I think hailed from Franklin or somewhere near there. (As always, feel free to leave comments that correct my errors. Hey, I'm a race fan, not a historian!) Lou drove mostly in the Dirt Stocker class at the Pines. I think this was one of his later cars, or at least paint jobs. By his own admission, Lou sometimes got a little over-excited and drove a little rough, but he was actually a very good driver. He collected several feature wins over the years, and challeneged for the division title on a regular basis.

He had one of the scarier moments in local dirt track racing one night when his engine went up. The radiator exploded and doused Lou with boiling-hot water and anti-freeze. The safety crew got him out of the car and he sat down right on the front straight while the EMTs determined whether or not he was going to be all right. He turned out fine, but he sure had us worried for a while.



This is "Flying Fred" Fecteau, from Belmont, NH. As of 2006 he was still driving this car, although with completely different body work. It still ran great, too. This car was originally one of a pair built by John and Royal Moses, who came from around Hill and Franklin. This was Royal's, while John kept his and eventually got a track championship with it. It's a great little car, from the days when the Modified division at the Pines (and most everywhere else in the area) was running on V6 power. The engine is placed almost in the center of the frame, and it was a beautifully balanced little rig.

Fred's never really been a big threat to the big-money teams, but he's really a very good driver and has taken quite a few trophies home over the years. The biggest memory I have of Fred, though, was one night when he gave Warren Emery's wrecker crew a chance to show just how good they were. Fred got in a wreck, and I mean he really trashed the thing. They towed it off the track and left it in the infield until the end of the night. Then, they got two wreckers and put one on each end of the car. They picked the whole thing up off the ground and Fred backed his trailer underneath it, and then they lowered it down. It was the only way they could load it. Happily, he was back in a couple weeks, and as I've said he's still racing that car.


Beany O'Haire's number 09 was a good car, but I always liked the old Nova he used to run. Won a bunch of features with that old rig. By the mid 90's the Late Model class was going to these tube-frame cars, and this was one of the better ones. I still think Beany just raced for fun, though. If he got behind he seemed to lose interest. Great driver, though, and always raced clean. Eventually his wife, Carol, became the Pines' pit steward, and Beany stopped racing for the most part. I've heard he's still got this car.

I always loved this picture. I was writing the weekly piece for the Plymouth Record, and took my own pictures. I was getting tired of pictures of the winning driver shaking hands with the flagman in the dark, so I went around the pit before the races and asked the drivers to "do something interesting." Mark Jenot of Rumney did this. About this time he won his first feature, so I got to put this picture in the paper. God is good!

I used to call him "Miracle Mark," because of a move I saw him pull in a Dirt Stocker qualifier one night. There were three cars dicing for the lead going through turns three and four, and they were taking up the whole track. Coming across the back stretch was Mark, and you could tell he had his foot in it and wasn't going to back off. Coming out of four, just at the last possible second, all three of the cars ahead of him bashed fenders and parted like the Red Sea. Through the gap, with inches to spare, was Mark. He went on to win the qualifier. Beautiful, gutsy, and incredibly foolish move that paid off.

I'll throw some more stuff on in a while. Enjoy. And, don't forget that racing season starts up pretty soon. Hope to see you at the races.

Why I Don't Watch NASCAR Any More

Wow. It's hard to believe that I haven't posted here since last November. To tell the truth, I've been busy with work, music, watching Star Trek reruns, and so forth. Yesterday something happened that made me think about dirt-track racing, and longing for spring and the sound of V8 iron; the Daytona 500.

Now, don't get me wrong. I'm a long-time NASCAR fan. In fact, I like just about all kinds of racing. I particularly like Formula One, and will watch just about anything this side of shopping carts. I'm really getting sick of NASCAR, though, and The Chase in particular.

The start of this season had a lot of potential, too. For once, Fox got to cover the 500. I'm so-o-o-o glad that NBC isn't doing it any more. I like BP, may he rest in peace, but if I never get to hear Mike Joy announcing a race again it will be too soon. Give me more DW! Boogity, boogity, boogity!!

Ah, but we're in the New NASCAR era. It's not about the race, it's about the chase. And, about making every single second as exciting as . . . well . . . a WWF wrestling match, actually. I think that's the audience they're after now. More and more I'm hearing long-time race fans that are more and more tired of the New NASCAR.

Think about your favorite sport for a minute. What's it really about? Where did it come from? Besides auto racing (and baseball, of course) I was always a boxing fan. It's easy to figure out what the beginnings of boxing were; two guys having a fistfight. The basic fistfight has nothing to do with excitement, crowd-pleasing, money-making, or any of that. It was about two guys with a disagreement, and honor being served (somewhat perversely, I'll grant you) by one knocking the other one down and making him stay there. It's awfully exciting to watch a good fistfight, though. Once you set up rules, mark a square, pad their fists, and take the anger out of the equation, you have a sport. The more barbarism you remove, the bigger your audience, but it's still just a fistfight.

Racing is just as simple. Pick a start point and an end point, and the first to traverse the distance in between is the winner. It wasn't long before two different places were replaced by an agreed-upon distance. 500 Miles, for instance. There was a time that travelling 500 miles in one shot was quite an accomplishment for any automobile. Now, they do it in about three hours, and you'd better have faster pit stops than everybody else, or you'll finish off the lead lap. Yesterday, there were (I think) 28 cars on the same lap. If not for the finish-line pile-up, the 20th place car would have finished about five seconds behind the winner.

As racing has become refined over the last century, the rules have gotten tighter and tighter. There are now more different kinds of race car than Carter's has got little liver pills. Stock cars, Champ cars, Formula One, Prototypes, Outlaws, Sprints, you know the drill. That's all just to decide who gets to start the race; what the layout will be, how much power they're allowed, how heavy, how safe, etc. etc. etc. Once the green flag drops, it's back to basics. There's the finish line, first one there wins.

But NOT in the New NASCAR. 500 Miles isn't enough if there's a caution period during the last ten laps. Then, we stick a green-white-checker onto the end. Or, red-flag the race and begin again with a whole new two-lap race. Seven times during the 2006 season races were finished with the green-white-checker. The first year of The Chase, the whole season championship was decided by one. A three-lap mini-race tacked onto the end of the last race of the season decided the championship by Kurt Busch over Jeff Gordon and Jimmy Johnson, AFTER the regulation 500 miles were already finished. And none of those three even won the race!

And don't get me started about the chase. Nobody is allowed to dominate a season. If you have a really outstanding season, you find yourself five points in front of your nearest competitor, and a flat tire or bad pit stop can ruin what should have been a championship.

As far as I'm concerned, they can make the rules as convoluted as they want before the race. Once the green flag drops, let who's best decide who wins, even if they win by a mile.

There. Enough ranting. Back to REAL racing, please. Don't forget the Legion Speedway's 100-lap enduro on March 3.

A picture of me and Leanne Weeks

Tractors

It's Columbus Day weekend, and I just spent the last two days being the announcer at Sandwich Fair's antique tractor pull. Had a blast, as did everybody else, and I can never go to one of these without noticing the similarities between the antique tractor crowd and the dirt track racing crowd.

First, it's heaven on earth for the shade-tree mechanics. Even more so for the mechnical dummies like me, because the tractors look like even I could work on them. Engine, drive train, four wheels (sometimes) and a seat.

There's also a lot of overlap with both the participants and the fans. There's a lot of the same people in the pit area, and in the stands. It seems to be a place where burnt-out racers go to get their gadget fix. It's a good place, because the entry fee - i. e. the price of an old tractor - is relatively low, and you don't go banging up your equipment against the other guys.

It's also a lot more family friendly. Literally anybody can drive a tractor. The youngest competitor over the weekend was 12, and one of the class winners was 13. Another of the winners was 77. Men and women both compete with equal standing. Dirt track racing on the local level is also very family friendly, but the pit area is a lot more intense and, quite frankly, more dangerous as well.

The most disturbing thing, although it's also very amusing, is how John Deere is the center of the universe. You either love or hate John Deere tractors. There seems to be little middle ground here. I guess it's not all that black and white, as both sides will easily acknowledge the value of the other's preferred tractors, but it is rare to find somebody who collects both. You're either all JD, or all anything else.

At the antique tractor pull JD's won their share of prizes. They also have a very distinctive sound all their own. They seem to do best at low rpm's. Still, it's such a partisan thing that, to me at least, rooting for John Deere seems too much like rooting for the Yankees. The Farmalls, Olivers, Cases, Cockshutts, and the rest certainly held their own in every division, and no single brand dominated.

The greatest extreme that anybody takes brand loyalty to would have to be Rick Merrill of Loudon, NH. Rick has a working farm, so he's not just a rich collector with a herd of trailer queens. From what I understand, most of his tractors earn their keep. They'd better. He owns 45 of them, and every single one is a Farmall. Still, many agreed with Tom Marston when he stated that, "Tractors are green and yellow. All the other colors are for scrap metal."

Don't get me wrong; I'm not quitting the races to go tractoring. Still, it's a great atmosphere, and if you get the opportunity to go to an antique tractor event, you should. I know, if you're reading this blog, that you're going to have a great time.