Crazy 8 time

#93 Westmoreland Fairgrounds (Rolling Rock Arena), Norvelt, PA (8/24/05)

Yesterday had to rank as one of the nicest days of the year- sunny/clear skies, temps in the mid to upper 70s, no humidity, and a light breeze. I believe the Pittsburgh area has one of the least amount of sunny days in the nation at I think 65 per year average and I would bet the majority of those come in the winter, and usually in the summer time we're known for our humidity.

With that in mind and nothing planned for the evening, I decided to head to Westmoreland County for their 51st annual fair. My only hesitation is my disdain for the PA Turnpike and Route 30 is always horrendous with traffic and stoplight after stoplight.

Admission to the fair was $7 and another $5 for entrance into the Rolling Rock Arena for the Figure 8 races. Although I am a calm person, I really don't have much patients to wait in lines for anything. I hate heavy traffic, I'm not an autograph seeker, I'm not an amusement park person, and I always eat and shop at dead times.

I got an excellent hot sausage sandwich as no one was in line and found a bottled pop stand for $1 where I walked up and paid and grabbed my own out of the cooler. I was hungry for fries, but seemingly everywhere fries were sold was a line. I found a concession stand that had French Fries wrote all over the trailer yet oddly no price was posted. They sold the general greasy foods like fries, blooming onions, wings, chicken tenders, corn dogs, etc.

A price list was posted on the stand and fries were $3, which included cheese and I thought that was kind of odd. Generally cheese is always extra. Two people were in line and both had ordered so I didn't expect the wait to be long. That was until the one ladies and her son decided to keep adding to their order and asking way too many mundane questions for me. It seemed like a long wait for the others' order.

Two women worked the trailer and while their appearance wouldn't have predicted, the two's IQ level was lower than most of the demographic of fairgoers. It's pretty bad when customers are telling them the total of the bill.I was finally up and placed my single order of small fries with cheese. Then it was wait, wait, and more waiting.

In the meantime two other groups of people came up to place their orders. So now we had 4 orders in place. One person ordered the $6 bucket of fries, but the girl wasn't sure if they even had any buckets left. The other lady said she thought there was a couple left and she did find one. You can imagine what happened next as the orders were confused.Then the people behind me got their fries (without cheese) before me as the girl really couldn't remember who ordered what. Now mind you this was just nacho-type cheese that was pumped out. The kicker was that each order was cooked individually and cooked in front of you while you waited!

I found a quiet place to sit and enjoy the fries, which were excellent, but no where near worthy of the wait and aggrevation things like that give me. I would never have imagined how long it would have taken to get fries when it was just two people waiting on their orders. I can't even fathom what happens on the weekends when they are busy.

I entered the arena at 6:50 p.m. for the 7:30 p.m. show. The crowd was slow to come in, but I would estimate 500 or so were in attendance as it was really hard to judge with the way their bleachers are.The grandstands are very steep aluminum bleachers, some of the steepest I have ever seen. When you enter, a walkway seperates the top portion (which are more like conventional stands) from the bottom section (which are the steep ones that make up 75 or % of the seating). I chose the top row in the bottom section. That way I had a fence to lean against, no one would be behind me, and nothing would obstruct my view.

A gentleman sang the national anthem and it was one the quickest renditions I think I have ever heard. The show started at 7:38. The 19 cars were split up into three heat races. Paul Miller, George Myers, and Mike Soliski (spelling?) were the names I gathered as heat race winners. The third heat race was opened up to any cars that ran in the first two heat races that wanted to race again. Three cars were scheduled and another five filled the lineup from the first two. They watered the track after each heat race and took about 20 minute intermission after the last heat.

The feature would be 15 laps and 13 cars were scheduled to start. 12 cars took the green flag of which I gathered the top 3 heat finishers and then they asked after each heat for the fan's choice by audience noise. A couple laps into the feature, about four cars go together at the intersection. Immediately the red flag was thrown as one of the drivers took a big hit and needed assistance.

I'm almost positive this wasn't a JM Productions event. Whoever put the show on wore orange shirts with a couple initials. They were like ants as I counted well over 30 at one point on the track. When the accident occurred all of the ambulance, fire, and orange shirts converged at the scene as there were well over 50 people standing on top of each other. A tarp was help up and the roof was cut off the car. The driver of the #84 car was transported, but no details (other than for precautionary reasons) were given just as Allan Brown has mentioned about the HIPPA Act.

The delay was nearly 30 minutes and when racing resumed 9 cars were left which went without a another hitch. Paul Miller, who won the first heat, in his #487 was the feature winner. The racing was good and the track was decent as they kept it watered. The sound system was good, but the announcer wasn't too informative or entertaining. He promoted the upcoming demo derby on Saturday, a couple of the sponsors, gave the lineups with hometowns, and a couple of the finishers. The one thing he did constantly promote was the two vehicles. He must have named 6 of them with the vehicle types, but one guy did nearly all the work and I think I only saw one other truck tow anyone off.

The event didn't seem real well organized to me as that's one thing that drives me crazy. I'm not sure how you serious trackchasers can put up with that at many of the rinky-dink-type operations you see. It was the case where there were seemingly too many people. The show ended about 2 hours after it started and they still had mini vans to race I guess though not much was said about it during the night or when the event ended and from what I could see into the pit area there were only a few of them.

I of course got behind a couple probably in the early 30s max that had four young children and three other friends with them. The one friend had no shirt on though he was carrying it, wore a white autographed cowboy hat, had tatoos, and reeked of beer. The other two young teen friends were up and down more times than I wanted to account for and thought they were very important. The one friend who I would surmise was about 16 or so wore a shirt that said "Save a Horse Ride a Cowboy". I question the fact that a guy would be wearing that type of shirt. Three of the kids were bad as it's more of the adults of the future we get to look forward to as the parents had their hands full and really didn't make a great effort to control them. They came during the second heat and left before racing resumed in the feature.

I grabbed another $1 20oz Mountain Dew and headed for the gates as my 40th Pennsylvania track and fifth new track of the year was recorded.

89. 1/2 Mountain Speedway, Saint Johns, PA
90. 8/12 Big Diamond Raceway, Minersville, PA
91. 8/13 Mahoning Valley Speedway, Lehighton,PA
92. 8/13 New Egypt Speedway, New Egypt, NJ
93. 8/24 Westmoreland Fairgrounds (Rolling Rock Arena), Norvelt, PA

When the weather's bad - head east!

It was good to hit the road again for a little track chasing as I haven't been able to record any tracks since January 2 at Mountain Speedway in PA. Work, my Saturday commitment to Mercer Raceway Park, and a girlfriend have kept me pretty much to just attending weekly racing at Lernerville, Mercer, and Tri-City this year.

With Mercer not racing Saturday and no desire to see the World of Outlaws, I decided to take Friday and Saturday to track chase. My love has always been sprint cars so the plan was to find two tracks relatively close together. I decided early in the week for Lima, OH on Friday and Butler, MI on Saturday. The forecasts looked favorable with dry conditions on Fruiday and just a 20-30% for Saturday.

With every passing day, the forecast went downhill to where it was 50% on Friday and 60% on Saturday. At that point, I decided to go the other way of the storm (east) deciding on Big Diamond for Friday and New Egypt on Saturday. Northeast "DIRT" Modifieds are my second favorite class and with both tracks running two classes of them and URC at NES Saturday, I figured this would make for a wise choice.

At the last minute I sent an e-mail asking if anyone knew of any afternoon shows in the region that I could sqeak in between the two. I got a quick response from Mike (not sure of his last name) stating that Mahoning Valley Speedway was running an features-only program starting at 2 PM. This would fit the bill perfect!With MVS now in the plan for Saturday afternoon I decided to get a room in Pottsville for Friday night, which would make for just a quick jaunt on Saturday. The Pottsville Inn worked perfectly as it was only about a mile from Route 209 as I would head east to Big Diamond then west to MVS on Saturday.

#90 BIG DIAMOND RACEWAY (3/8-mile clay)- Minersville, PA (8/12/05)Living in western Pa. I had always heard about Big Diamond and it was always a track that I wanted to get to. I was finally able to knock it off my hit list. Hazy and humid conditions with temps in the 90s made for a sultry night. Always hearing about Big Diamond, I was surprised at all the better shape the facility was in; however, the well run show and the excellent racing more than made up for the facility.

I was surprised to see that they charge $11 for students, I believe the ages were 11-15. That has to be one of the highest amounts for that age group for a weekly show in the country. Adult admission is $13 and seniors were $12.Racing started a few minutes past their scheduled 8 PM start time.

BDR is a NASCAR-sanctioned track and the 358 Modifieds are their headlining division. The Sportsman Mods and Roadrunners are also part of their weekly card. On this night the 600cc Mods were also scheduled. Car counts were 30 Sportsman, 26 358s, 15 Roadrunners, and 10 600cc Mods. The crowd was fair at probably 600 or so and I'm sure it wasn't a moneymaking night as the 358s pay $2,000 to-win for their weekly pot.

The heat races ran off like clockwork. Though the pits are outside of turns one and two, the next heat was staged in the infield and hit the track as soon the previous one was completed and went green in one lap. Three 358, three Sportsman, two Roadrunner, and one 600 heat were finished in one hour with just three caution flags. BDR totally handicaps their heat races and then inverts 15 for the feature.

While the heats ran off nearly caution-free, the same could not be said about the features.The 600cc Mods were first up and just 3 of the 10 cars finished the event. The Roadrunners went non-stop in their feature then they took about a 15 minute intermission before the two Modified features.

The 358 main was a great race, but was ruined by 8 cautions over the course of the 25-lap race. Doug Hoffman came from 14th to score his 4th win of the season. Jeff Strunk was 2nd after starting 12th and Ray Swinehart was 3rd after starting 15th. The Sportsman main was drawn out with 8 cautions, but the winner Doug Hendricks put on a great show between the cautions coming from 12th.

Overall it was a very enjoyable show that was completed in just over 3 hours. BDR's surface held up very nice throughout the program producing 2 and 3-wide racing. The Mods really run hard and fast. The selection of food was impressive as well.

#91 MAHONING VALLEY SPEEDWAY (1/4-mile asphalt), Lehighton, PA (8/13/05)

Record heat was predicted and boy did it come true. This was the hottest weather I have experienced in I'm not sure how long and most likely the hottest at a race. With the temperature bubbling over 100 degrees and even higher stiffling humidity, it made for almost an unbearable afternoon.

Apparently Friday's 358 winner, Doug Hoffman, is either leasing the track, owns the track, or co-promotes it as he plugged the race in victory lane at BDR, and was visible throughout the day.Six classes plus an enduro was scheduled. Car counts were 22 modifieds, 20 street stocks, 15 late models, 13 pro 4 stocks, 13 4-cylinder stocks, and 13 factory stocks. There weren't many more fans than cars as probably only about 150 people braved the heat.

I was amazed all the bigger the track was as it really didn't have any straightaways- more of a circle. A seven-car B main was held to eliminate two cars for the Modifieds and thatwas followed up by the 20-lap 4-cylinder feature that went non-stop.

Up next was the Pro 4 feature that had only two cautions. At just past 2:30, I was happy that I was going to be able to see the late models and mods before my 3:30-3:45 departure time for NES.

The Late Model 25-lapper had only 2 cautions and the Modifieds hit the track at about 2:50. I figured no problem at getting out there on on the road for NES, who started at 6:30, at my scheduled departure time.12 cautions during the 30 laps and some 50 minutes later the Mod feature came to a merciful end and I was on the road. I felt like I lost 10 pounds as the sweat just dripped from just sitting.MVS made for my 39th track in my hometown state.

#92 NEW EGYPT SPEEDWAY (1/2-mile clay), New Egypt, NJ (8/13/05)

It honestly takes a lot to impress me at a race track. It's been a while since I've been to a new track or a race in general that I can say I was totally impressed with not only the facility, the racing, the food, the track, the general operation, etc. NES certainly fits the bill. This is one of these where do yo start first. From their very welcoming entrance, to their amazing selection of food, to a surface that never threw any dust, starting on time, quality, meaniful, and excellent races, Musco lighting, great bleachers that offer a great view of the speedway, pits outside the track to offer an unobstructed view, one of the highest catch fences I have ever seen, and I could go on and on. I thoroughly enjoyed my night and the racing was excellent.

very good crowd was on hand paying $20. Car counts were 36 Sportsman Modifieds, 29 URC 360 Sprints, 30 Super Stocks, and 27 Big-Block Modifieds. With those car counts that would be easily a four and half to five hour show. NES started a few minutes past 6:30. They split the field for the sportsman and stocks with timed dashes. Each driver gets three laps and the fastest 14 are locked into the feature. The remaining cars were split into B mains.

Like Big Diamond, NES totally inverted their heats. The top 6 cars from the Big Block heats transfered to the feature and were again totally inverted. This meant point leader Billy Pauch would start 18th in the feature!

To top off the night, URC was on hand. They also handicap and I personally believe is the best sprint group around. The quality of cars and racing is second to none. They didn't disappoint on this night. Brian Seidel rode the cushion stealing a win away from female racer Mares Stellfox on lap 23 with an outside to inside move off turn four. Stellfox thrilled the crowd with her runner-up.An opening lap crash in the big blocks took out top runners Pauch, Jimmy Horton, and Ryan Godown. Frank Cozze narrowly missed it and won from the ninth starting spot for his third win.

The sportsman main was a good one as Gene Stravinsky passed Lou Farina III on lap 9 and held him off as both racers were looking for their career first wins. The super stocks had the fans on the edge of their seats as Kory Fleming passed Pat Freiberger on lap 14 as the two battled side-by-side over the last four laps.

Four great features and the entire night done in about 3 and half hours. Even though NES is considered a 1/2-mile (more like a 4/10th) it didn't have that big track feel. It had the short track side-by-side type racing not stretch 'em out like the big tracks.

The only downfall of NES is where everyone has to park and walk because of it's close proximity to the highway all the parking is generally in turns one and two. The one announcer saying hell constantly got very old after while. It seemed like everyone did a "hell of a job".

Very happy with my weekend. Big Diamond and New Egypt were certainly worth the trip and I'd recommend both tracks to anyone.

I hit my weekly Sunday night track Tri-City Speedway in Franklin, PA then on Sunday night.

MVL