Around the Track with Jalopy Jack
The column might’ve been delayed. Haven’t seen much live racing lately. Made Wall for that show on 9/26. In a real “never give up deal”, Chas Oskerson in #99 took the race and the Modified title. This was actually a double case of “never give up”. First of all, that #99 must’ve gone straight to the scrap iron yard after the opening feature of the season. Bet that he wasn’t counting on the track championship after that night. As its final 40 lapper of the season was progressing, Chas was running second with his rival for the title, #91 Shaun Carrig was right behind him in third. If they kept running like that then Carrig would’ve been champion. Oskerson got his break when Stevie Reed dropped out of the league. That’s what he needed and that’s what he got. It also helped that Wall management made a “heads up decision” to make the feature second instead of next to last. Because as soon as the next feature was starting, so did the expected lousy weather. That was it for the show, but the real business was done as the Modified champion for 2009 was crowned. Congratulations to work well done by #99, Chas Oskerson.
The Sportsmen was next out to be followed by the street stocks with the best field in quite a while and of course, the Factory Stocks. To my shock I found out just before the races that the Factory Stocks were not racing for points that night. As some of you know, the #5 Mike Bellilo and the #27, Whitey Miller were absolutely tied for the title. The reason this race was a non-pointer, it wasn’t going to decide the championship was because Whitey’s daughter was getting married that night and this was known way ahead of time and it was already a rain date.
So this sets up an even bigger show on 10/24 which’s the Tommy Comerford Memorial and we already know the Tour Type Modifieds will be there for a $40,000 purse and it’ll be engaged in 2 features of 66 laps each that’ll pay the winning driver $6,600 for each 66 lapper. And the size of the field’s looking good. All together, there’ll be 9 feature races that day and night. I say “day and night” because the first race’s at 1:45PM in the afternoon and I guarantee [an easy one], that lights will have to be turned on. The show will start with a made up features for Sportsmen, Street Stocks and Factory Stocks. Those 3 divisions will have a feature later on in the show, plus the Legends cars will be there. Now in the first Factory Stock feature, Mike Bellilo’s entered.
However, it’s non-points. Will he come on the track for this race and risk his car? If he does race, what kind of race will he run? Because it’ll be the second Factory Stock feature that decides the title. And whoever finishes in front of the other will be the 2009 Wall Stadium Factory Stock champion. This should be a classic car vs. driver contest. I believe Mike has the better car but Whitey’s the far more experienced driver. I’m looking forward to a good one here.
I kind of wonder sometimes how my writing measures up with other columnists. I try to tell it like it is and admire others that do so. I also try to make my writing interesting and admire others who do so. Through my work I’ve often complimented the writers that I have a chance to read. There’s 1 particular racing writer I’d like to bring to your attention. He writes for Area Auto Racing News and his name’s J.R. Kennerup. This is a man who knows what he’s talking about and is seriously concerned about the fate and state of Short Track racing. Hopefully you all read installment #1 of “Story S”. If you haven’t, just press “category” on top of this page and type in “Jalopy Jack” and my work for the entire season’s up there. Well funny thing here folks, at about the same time I was writing “Story S”, Mr. Kennerup was doing a similar thing in his latest column. One friend of mine upon reading both of us thought that we were at the same place and at the same time. Truth is, J.R. was at a different track, but like me, didn’t mention the name of the track or the participants or the division of that particular, unfair incident. The only difference here’s that people pretty much know the tracks that J.R. goes to. Only my closest friends know which track I was at that night. The only thing I’ll tell you is that it wasn’t Wall Stadium. Don’t worry, you’ll find out. When the time’s right it’ll be “Part 2” of “Story S”.
But for the most part it’s always the same story, why we don’t have more cars and more fans at our average Short Track. This brings up 15 minutes of your time. That 15 minutes is for WLAR [We Love Auto Racing] at 718-707-1052 and it’s 24/7. I’ve been updating after midnight on Thursdays so you have until Thursday at midnight for my current piece and it’s about Johnny. You’ll know what I mean when you call WLAR. Once I do another hotline, the previous week gets erased. I’ve no equipment currently to record it. So please give this a listen and it’s something the entire sport, business and industry should be listening to.
Just a little bit about recent TV racing. The Modifieds from New Hampshire was very good. I’m starting to hear that there’ll be more Modifieds on TV next year with money to follow. Is this a good thing or what? If we continue to get the same kind of coverage and I’m speaking of the announcing team and the camera work, then we could be in for a good deal. The other race that was a good show was the National Open from Williams Grove Speedway. This one was live and there was enough action for 10 races. If you haven’t seen it yet and you’re reading this by noon Monday, it’ll be repeated on Speed Channel this Monday for 3 hours. With respect to those that haven’t seen it yet and still want to, I won’t say another thing. I also got unofficial news that the big Modified race from Syracuse’s scheduled to be on again this year. Thank Goodness. Unofficially, the word’s that it’s on Saturday night 10/31 at 8PM. I believe the entire 200 miles will be on and I heard from a good source, the small block race will not; however highlights from the rest of the week, including other tracks will be shown as part of the telecast. I’ve always found this race to be an exciting TV event. Just too bad it can’t be shown sooner.
I’ll have a little more on getting along in the pits next week either in print here or on WLAR. You should be reading this and listening to WLAR to get the full picture. Don’t forget both are available around the clock. So because I don’t live next door to a speedway that races 7 nights a week, I’m out of ammunition for this week. That can only mean, keeping the fans in the stands and the cars on the track, this has been Jalopy Jack.