Road Trip Day 1

Just after 6:30am, Jayme and I were leaving my parents' house in eastern Ohio and heading north.  After a quick swing through Martins Ferry, Ohio for some cheap gas ($2.91/gallon), we were ready to battle the orange cones, speed traps, and New York tolls.

I surprised Jayme with a visit to Niagara Falls on the way.  Because she had never been there, she'd been asking me to go for over a month.  Although I was secretly planning to take her the whole time, I kept making up excuses as to why we couldn't go ("it's too far outta the way"..."we don't have enough time"..."there's really nothing to see").  So, she was pretty excited when she finally realized we were taking the time to see the Falls.

We did the "Cave of the Winds" tour which, as Jayme put it, was "the best $11 waterpark" she'd ever been to.  Fully equipped with cheap ponchos and water sandals, the Cave of the Winds allows you to get as close to the Falls as you could ever want to.  It was time and money well spent and after a stay of nearly two hours, we were now east bound and down for Brewerton Speedway.

With the wind trying to blow away her poncho, Jayme gets soaked from the Falls.

From Niagara Falls, the journey to Brewerton should have only taken two-and-a-half hours, but thanks to New York's toll system coupled with Friday evening traffic in Syracuse, our first trip to the D-Shaped Dirt Demon was stretched out to three hours.  

Brewerton is a cool little track.  I'd have to say it's roughly a 1/3-mile with just a slight arch in the backstretch.  The pits are located behind the grandstands towards turn one and cars both enter and exit the track at the end of the frontchute.  The main grandstands are wooden and 15 rows high, while a newer set of tall aluminum bleachers sit in turn four.  The midway behind the grandstands is all gravel and offers the standard race track dining options ranging from cheeseburgers ($4.00) to hot dogs ($2.75) to chicken ($5.00) to pizza ($3.00).

A look at the Brewerton Speedway pit area.

Signed into the pits were 25 Big Block Modifieds, 12 IMCA Modifieds, 19 Mod Lites, and 14 4-Cylinders.   Hot Laps started right at 6:30pm and the Canadian and American national anthems were being sung right at 7:30pm.  The heats were run off without a flaw - nine total - and were finished by 8:12pm.  With new clay on the track being less than two weeks old, the track staff took advantage of intermission to rework the racing surface.

At 9:00pm, the Mod Lite feature hit the track and saw a three-car battle go right down to the checkered flag.  The Big Block Mod feature was a dandy with Dan Vauter getting the win in a pretty darn good show.  Behind Vauter, Larry Wight was puttin' on a show, charging from 18th to 4th in the 25-lap A-Main.  Just after 9:30pm, we were leaving Brewerton and heading to our hotel.  

Today, we'll swing through Cooperstown, NY for a stop at the Baseball Hall of Fame (Jayme's first visit, my second).  After that, we'll head up to Bear Ridge Speedway in Bradford, VT.  

A look at Brewerton from atop turns three and four.

Five Weekend Afterthoughts: 6/4/12

1.  Don O'Neal's win in Saturday night's Ralph Latham Memorial at Florence Speedway was convincing enough to make him a strong contender to repeat as winner of this week's Dream at Eldora.  Of course, there's that whole "history thing" where the Latham winner runs strong the following weekend at Big E.  That helps.

2.  Friday washed out everything, and I do mean EVERYTHING, even remotely close to my place.  Every single track in Ohio, Michigan, Indiana, and West Virginia was rained out.  And Paducah was the lone track in the Bluegrass State to get their show in. That's one track in a five-state radius that got to run.

3.  It must be Dream week because several drivers took Saturday night off in preparation for the $100,000-to-win show, including Matt Miller, Jon Henry, and Andrew Reaume among others.

4.  It upsets me that - in this day and age, and with technology we have available - it's Monday morning and some tracks still do not have any results posted from the weekend.  Inexcusable. 

5.  I was checking out the results from Brewerton (NY) Speedway Saturday night and couldn't help but notice their feature winners came from 10th (Big Block Mods), 9th (IMCA Mods), 12th (Mod Lites), and 8th (4 Cyl).  This makes me even more excited for my first ever visit there on June 29th.

Summer Road Trip 2012

Every few years, I try to save up some money and take a big summer road trip. Obviously, as I get more involved in racing, it gets to be more and more difficult. Likewise, being married and have a two-and-a-half year old adds an entirely new element of adversity to planning such a trip.

My 2009 summer road trip took me as far west as Gillette Thunder Speedway in Wyoming.

But this summer, the blueprint has been laid out for a New England journey that will take my wife and I to seven races in six different states over the course of eight days.  It's a fairly ambitious trip with plenty of time for leisure thrown in as well.  The schedule is as follows:

June 29 - Brewerton Speedway (Brewerton, NY)
June 30 a.m. - Baseball Hall of Fame (Cooperstown, NY)
June 30 p.m. - Bear Ridge Speedway (Bradford, VT)
July 1 - Legion Speedway (Rumney, NH)
July 2 - fun day
July 3 - Canaan Fair Speedway (Canaan, NH)
July 4 - Oxford Plains Speedway (Oxford, ME)
July 5 - Thompson Int'l Speedway (Thompson, CT)
July 6 - Seekonk Speedway (Seekonk, MA)
July 7 - Braves vs. Phillies (Phladelphia, PA)

We'll start off at the "D-Shaped Dirt Demon", Brewerton Speedway.  Although I've already been to races at eight different tracks in the Empire State, this will be my first ever visit to Brewerton.  The following day, we'll spend half a day at the Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown, NY.  This will be Jayme's first ever trip to the historic venue, my second.  That night, it's off to Bear Ridge Speedway for my first ever race in the state of Vermont followed by my first ever race in New Hampshire at Legion Speedway on Sunday.

Monday and part of Tuesday will be reserved for some R&R in Bar Harbor, Maine.  We'll follow that up with our final dirt race of the trip, a stop at the Canaan Fair Speedway in Canaan, NH.  The final three shows are all asphalt races.  Wednesday's short trip back across the state line will find us at Oxford Plains Speedway in Maine, Thursday's journey will take us south to Thompson International Speedway in Connecticut, and Friday's voyage will have us venturing over to Seekonk Speedway in Seekonk, Massachusetts.  Each of those three events will be my first races in their respective states.

Our trip will wrap up with a Saturday evening baseball game to watch Jayme's beloved Braves battle their rival Philadelphia Phillies.

All-in-all, it should be a fun trip that would help bring my "career" race-chasing totals up to 162 tracks in 33 states...if everything works out as planned.   Of course, that's a big "if".

What I like about this trip is that I've tried to keep everything within reasonable distance of everything else, which will allow us to spend a good bit of time taking in the sights in Vermont, New Hampshire, and Maine.  Whether she's shopping, I'm hiking, or we're grabbing a bite to eat at one of the local hot spots, I'm sure it'll be a trip we remember for a long time.

Oh, and I'm looking forward to visiting so many new race tracks too.  :)