Welcome!

Welcome to my racing log. Here's a recap of the racing I caught so far this season:

Friday the 13th of April was my first night out at the races this year, and it was a cold one with flurries in the air. Some friends and I hit up Black Rock for their season opening T3 All Star Series 358 Modified race. It was damned cold, but it was great just to be at a race track again after not having done so since October of last year. The racing went alright, and it's always great to see DIRT modifieds tossing it around. Track conditions were exceptionally good...track was smooth smooth.

The next day, I woke to find it was a nice sunny day. I knew there was no racing going on in NYS that day, but I thought, "hmm, I wonder what the forecast looks like for PA." I checked around on some weather sites and all said low 60's and sunny... my mind was made up. So I hit the road for Mahoning Valley Speedway in Lehighton, PA. 4 hours later, we arrived at the track. I had never been, so I was surprised at just how small the track really is! Before racing started I couldn't imagine how modifieds could even race on such a small track. Then the modifieds rolled out for time trials...modifieds are easily my favorite pavement cars to see (besides supers of course). Was good to see modifieds again, especially with a few guys I recognized from the RoC Tour making the call. I also really like Mahoning's 4 Cylinder Late Models. They weren't too bad to watch for a 4 cylinder class. (aka not big piles of junk). The modified feature started out well, and looked like it was gonna be a good one. Rusty Smith was up in the top 5 by lap 30 after having started 20th, and Earl Paules was looking awfully fast as well. It was looking like it would come down to a 3 way battle between Smith, Paules, and Zane Zeiner. Then around lap 35 I think it was, the #5 car was spun coming out of turn two, collecting pretty much half the field in the backstretch. The race was never really too exciting after that, except for the good battle for second between Lee Sherwood and the #22. Anyway, Mahoning Valley I think is a decent track and I bet it can probably make some pretty good racing.

This past Friday, the 20th, we went to Black Rock again. It was a good turnout of both fans and cars this week with the track still in tip-top shape. Saturday, the 22nd, I went up to Canandaigua for my first time. The track, I have to say, was a rutted, dusty piece of junk. Until the sun went down, we couldn't see anything that was happening in turn 1 because of the dust. However, the racing definitely made up for that. In the DIRT Sportman race, it looked as though the #18 was going to just walk away with the win, but on a restart he was passed. A great battle ensued and he eventually regained the lead when his opponent's engine blew up. It was disappointing, but at least we got to see a good battle up until that point. Then came the Big Block Modified race. Canandaigua has many of the top Super DIRT Series teams there weekly. On hand were Danny Johnson 27j, Vic Coffey 32c, Steve Paine 7, etc. The race started off looking as though Steve Paine had the car to beat. Vic Coffey spun from 2nd just a few laps in. It was great to watch him come back through the field to finish 3rd. Also good to see was Ron Cartwright #2B in his 358 modified making it all the way up to 5th at one point against the best in the business before spinning late in the race. Amazingly, the whole show at Canandaigua lasted only 3 hours. Got there at 5, gone by 8. I'll definitely be checking that place out again, probably in August when the ASCS Patriot Sprints are there.

Next up: the plan is to check out the T3 All Star Series race at Woodhull Raceway on Saturday the 28th. I also might take a ride up to Freedom Raceway on Friday since I'm very curious to see what kind of turnout they get for the new FASTRAK crate late model series.