ron.brown11

Mr Thorn is never happy if someone touches him, but he doesn't mind moving someone. My friend Jim Pettit II raced against him for about 3 seasons in the SRL Series out west. Yeah, he'll lean on you, move you, or turn you for a win. He's a good driver that's for sure, and is always up front. The Campbell family gives him great equipment too. I think he won all but 1 race this season in the SRL series. Apparently he really likes 5 Flags Speedway too. From everything I've read, Thorn would have swept every thing he entered this weekend, if not for that late yellow. Unfortunately for Derek, he's 35 and not likely to get a chance to race on a national level in NASCAR. I think he has the talent to. do so.

I've been watching him since he started racing in ARCA. Really good driver. I'm not sure if the track series, or driving for Kyle Busch is a little intimidating, but this is definitely going to boost his confidence. I think he'll have a good career, or at least I hope so. Nice job Chandler!! Thanks Rodney for keeping us posted!

Thanks Rodney for the updates!!

Looking forward to your reports RR. That's my bucket list race to see in person. I'll get it done one day soon..

Yeah Nick, I really enjoyed driving that car! I never was able to get my mod to turn like that center off. When I saw how easy it was to drive it off the right rear, I could never understand why Greg didn't/couldn't. I'm pretty sure I was about a 1/10 slower than Greg overall, but if you remember I NEVER got turn 3 entry correct. That car was bad fast, but I believe he was afraid of it. I'm certain that if I would have been allowed to take it out a second time, I would have been a half second faster than him. Do you remember what I said when I got out of the car, I told you that I tried everything I could think of short of parking the car on entry. You said "that's what you need to do at Thunderhill". When crew chiefing for Greg, I was always amazed how quickly he could go from a top 4 starting position, to nearly tagging the field in just a couple of laps. After hot lapping that car that day, I know that was a top 5 car every week, with a decent driver. One other thing came from that day. That was the last time Greg ever let me behind the wheel. A lot of times I'd drive the car to tech, etc. He even talked about letting race it one night. No More. That's ok, it was his car. The bad part of that day was Greg saw that you were impressed with my turn 1 & 2 speeds, and lap times really close to his. No too bad considering that I had never turned a lap in that car, or on that track. Greg went out on the next 2 sessions and tried to change how he was driving the car there. He nearly wrecked it both times. The second time was when he spun into the grass and plugged the radiator with grass & dirt, and destroyed the radiator overheating it. After that first session, you and I took tire temps at the top of the exit ramp. As we were walking back to the pit stall, you said we needed to do something. I thought you were talking about doing another dual front spring change. We'd done that twice already, and I didn't think my knees would handle it. Then you said, "We need to talk Greg into letting me race the car". I said then that it wouldn't happen, as I saw/heard Greg's reaction to the laps I'd turned, and how you had responded to it. I was right, he was offended. Again, that's ok as it was his car. Plus there was a time in Tucson, when I was struggling with issues. I couldn't figure out if it was me, or the car. I had a Super Latemodel track champ friend race it one night, to try and sort it out. It was really hard to watch someone else drive my car. In my case, it turned out to be a little of both. He identified a chassis issue, and pointed out a couple things that I needed to change. Greg was never interested in that, he just wanted to be on the track, and that's ok.

HiTech, I've never avoided eating what I like, but I'm usually pretty good at limiting things I know are good for me. When I was heavy into weightlifting & running 5-10 miles a day, I was a little more selective regarding what I ate. Thankfully I've always been pretty good about drinking water. I got real good at drinking water after a 3 year tour in England. It does't get hot there, and the humidity is always 80% or higher. We left there in June, and arrived at my next duty assignment on July 1st. In Tucson, AZ. When I pulled onto the base at the temporary quarters office, it was 109 degrees!! Oh year, the humidity was 4%. You sweat like crazy, unfortunately you don't see it because it evaporates immediately. The only places you will see sweat is anywhere skin overlaps. You get dehydrated very quickly. We were out for days, every day, trying to find a place to live. The second day out, I stopped at a 7/11 and bought a 52oz thermal mug. Two or three times a day I was stopping at 7/11 to refill it for like $.49. The third day of doing that, I thought my kidneys were going to explode. But for the next 14 years in Tucson, I carried that mug filled with ice water. That was 1992, and I still have it. I know that they say you can drink too much water, but I don't believe that. It's what you're made of...

Hey, I'm absolutely for the vaccine, and was shocked that they could develop one that seems to work so quickly. Yeah, I'm about freedom too. I think they've scared more people out of getting the vaccine, by mandating it. I haven't been to a doctor for being sick in probably 2 decades. Unfortunately I've seen way more doctors than I ever imagined. I've had 24 surgeries over the last 15 years. If you work hard and play hard, things are going to break or wear out. I'm finding out the hard way lol..

Sounds like you had a pretty early start in racing.I got to hot lap a late model at Tri-County at age 17. I ran about 1.5 seconds off the team driver qualified. That's a big difference, but I had never been in any race car, so I also hadn't been on any race track either. I started racing straight out of the gate in an asphalt modified, at the ripe old age of 42. Mine made about 620 hp on 8" wide Goodyear racing slicks. I have never raced anything else, always a mod.I'm pretty sure that's not the smartest way to do it, but it's what I did. I was whining to a very good race car driver, car builder, and friend one night. Pissed off that I should be getting better results more often. Keep in mind that the first couple of seasons I was usually running 12th to about 20th. Then I started consistently running the top 5-10, and I still was whining. So he asked what I thought was the problem. I said it was my old, (used when I bought it) Harris "Combo" car. Harris used to sell the same chassis that could run both dirt & asphalt by shifting the fuel cell and a couple other things, and wa-la a dirt car. They just weren't good cars because they were a compromise(not great on dirt or asphalt). I raced that chassis for a decade. He said "Well, how many of the guys that you are racing & running with every week are driving the same car as last year"? I said that over the last 3 seasons there were only 4 teams, including myself, that were still driving the same chassis, and three were 3 were mid pack or worse consistently. That's when my light finally clicked on. I was still running top 5-10 consistently in a car that was 15 years old, and I'm running in the top 5 now consistently. I never had to replace a clip on either end. He then told me that I was doing really well, with that chassis, and impressed with the results while still using it. That really cheered me up, for a while anyway. Then my next frustration well how much better could I be if I could have bought a good newer chassis. That was short lived though, because I knew I'd never have to money to buy it. So running top 5 consistently wasn't so bad when I looked at what I saved. Plus, I already knew I was moving back to TX, and I know that I couldn't afford to race then. I couldn't earn enough in that small town.

Well HiTech, I didn't have to wait until I was 65 to be called Senior, as I earned that rank in the Air Force. My wife and I are coming up on 45 years, and I still don't know why she said yes. I've been blessed more than I ever deserved, that's for sure. Our son is 35, and his wife is 38, so we were really starting to sweat that grandchild thing. I've seen, done and been some places that I probably shouldn't have come back from. I'm Thankful.. Most of my friends are long distance friends now since we moved to Liberty Hill 19 months ago, and COVID didn't help since then. People still seem to be nervous about meeting new people still. Sorry to hear Radical about the loss of your wife. It's strange how COVID has affected, or not affected our population. I had no family members lost to it, and none got sick, But my wife's family had at least 15 deaths and many sick. Both sides of our families have some underlying health issues, so why the disparity?? I've spent a lot of time trying to get some understanding. Nothing yet. But I have found out a couple of things that I think are important. Even that dingbat Fauchi finally said it I believe yesterday. We are going from the pandemic into the endemic stage, even with the new strain recently discovered. That just means that it will be just like the annual flu season, and they will be trotting out a new variant, followed by a new variant vaccine to treat that variant, just as they now do for the common flu. The public is basically being led to believe that science and medicine will end COVID, it won't, at least not in my lifetime. Something nobody ever talks about is a very easy to find fact. In the history of man, science and medicine, only 2 viruses have ever been eradicated, Smallpox and one that affects cattle, ox, yaks, bovine animals. They have only 2 things alike. They are both viruses, and neither can transmit to the other. Smallpox won't live in bovine animals, and the bovine virus can't live in humans. They were both eradicated from the world in the early 90s, although the US had defeated Smallpox in 1979. I can't remember to name of the bovine virus, but is was like 15 letters long. Please Radical, don't think that I'm making light of your wife's loss, I'm not. One life lost is 2 too many. Heck, I should have been terrified of the thing. It's a respiratory disease, that is incredibly hard on the lungs of those who's lungs have issues. Both my parents smoked while was growing up, strike 1: I spent 30+ years working around running jet engines (jet fuel) and usually with several jet engines running at once, & race car engines both on gas and ally, strike 2: I have asthma strike 3: I've had pneumonia twice strike 4; I have sleep apnea strike 5; and finally I had the Swine flu (another Chinese gift to us) back in 1976 strike 6 Oh, and I didn't get the Swine flu for somebody, no I got it from our US government via a vaccine. that they mandated. That vaccine is very different from the current vaccines being given out today. That 1976 Swine flu vaccine was a live virus. That means the our government intentionally injected us with a live swine virus.I spent 2 days in the hospital, and another week on quarters to get better. I was lucky. At the base I was stationed at we had 3 guys die, ands it was a small base. I started talking to a couple of doctors that worked on me, because that wanted to be pulling my blood to see if I was building up any natural resistance to the virus.That allow me to also ask about how the military as a whole was having deaths as well. Between the 4 doctors I spoke with I go 2 number for fatalities.Two of the told me about 2700 GIs worldwide had died. The other 2 gave me 3400-3500 deaths. You can actually goggle up the CDCs report to find out some hard hitting facts from that study of the 1976 Swine flu vaccine, but they hide the most important one. How many GIs died from it. That is not in their report. The reason why is because if they would listed them, they would be responsible monetarily for them, because they made it mandatory while it was still listed by the CDC as an Emergency vaccine. That vaccine at that time was just like the new vaccines that came out this year for COVID, and were listed as an Emergency med, and therefor they couldn't mandate it to the military again. Once the FDA approved it for routine use, now all military have to take it or leave the service. With the 1976 vaccine we were't given a choice. The 1976 Swine vaccine was still listed as experimental. From what I'm hearing, they aren't giving many waivers to the GIs for the new vaccine. I do have to say that 1 good thing came out of my bout with the Swine flu in 1976. That was the last time I had the flu, 45 years ago. I've been though 24 surgeries over the last 14 years, most are of there orthopedic variety, so with that volume of surgeries my systems are always heavily tasked. Yet, if not for those grand daughters, I would not hav taken a COVID vaccine. Hang in there Radical, God does have a plan for you! And then 1 day you and your wife will be reunited, this time it will be forever. God Bless!!!

I consider myself very lucky to have grown up where I did in Cincinnati in the 60s & 70s. The Reds were perennial champs, and Tri-County (later to be called Queen City) Speedway was located in Sharonville, just outside of Cincy. It was a bad fast 1/2 mile in dirt or asphalt configuration. Forty miles up the road was Shady Bowl, and 65 miles was Columbus Speedway, both asphalt. A 100 miles away was Indianapolis Raceway Park. When Bill Redwine owned and operated Tri-County, they had what was called the Spring Series. It was 4 shows in March, it lasted for 4 years, until Bill decided he didn't want to be a promoter anymore, and leased out the track. If you have ever spent a spring in the midwest, it's not that warm in March usually. I had a little secret that I kept quit from Bill. I dated his daughter Dawn, to get free pit passes. Hey, I worked hard for that $1.85 I got paid, and pit passes were pricey back then too. One Sunday I was sitting in the control tower with Bill talking. It was snowing so hard you couldn't see the back stretch. He was certain they would have to call the show. Me being ever the optimist, no really just 17 and hopeful, said "no, we're going to race". And no kidding, we raced!! Good thing too, it was the largest car count we ever had for a Spring Series race, with 98 cars. It was for late models only, and it was normal to have 80-90 show up, for a 24 car main, with 2 promoter optional cars, usually reserved for a local hot shoe that had an issue in their heat race. The heat races were wild, but amazingly/thankfully not that many cars destroyed. Also, these were usually the teams' brand new cars for the season, because Bill always paid a good purse. In those days, short of being in the Carolinas, the midwest probably had the largest supply of great racers. Names like Trickle, Mike Eddy, Bob Sennaker, Mark Martin, Rodney Combs, Larry Moore, Jim Sauter, etc. I'm not kidding, nearly every race was like watching an All Star race! My last year in Cincinnati, I was lucky enough to work on Gary Bowsher's late model. He was one of the last to win at Texas World Speedway in a NASCAR/USAC/ARCA stock car, on the full oval. His dad Jack, was wild to be around, as he could be very hot headed and moody at times. And I've also seen him be the exact opposite, you just never knew. One thing was certain, he was incredibly competitive. I found out a couple of years ago that Jack never worked for anybody from the time he was discharged from the Navy after WW2, in 1948. He always earned his living racing. He also funded Jim, Gary, Bobby & Todd Bowsher's racing careers from racing. His race team operated from 1949 until his death in 2006. He raced ARCA, when it only had 1 series, unlike now with the NASCAR ownership. If you ran ARCA it was against the best ARCA drivers at every race. No East, West or main series. No kidding, pretty much everyone not named Bowsher was glad when he moved on to USAC stocks. Jack won over 50 races in 3 years, and held the title of the most series wins for a long time. It took Frank Kimmel 2 decades decades of driving to surpass Jack. In USAC, Jack ran fairly regularly, but his main focus was providing USAC stock cars to many of drivers for the annual Indy 500 field. They were usually given by Foyt, the Unser brothers, Parnell Jones etc. Jack hadn't been behind the wheel in USAC stock car for over 10 years, and at the dirt Springfield Mile, if I remember the track correctly (if not Springfield it was DuQoin), Jack's driver didn't show. Jack qualified on the pole, and finished 3rd. He was a wheelman. Gary had some wins in late models (none while I is was with them unfortunately, but he was just starting out), and some in ARCA & USAC. His little brother Bobby won the ARCA championship a couple of times. Bobby actually made the cover of Stock Car Racing magazine. At Daytona for the season opener one season, he and another car got together off 4, and the other car got upside down, ON TOP OF BOBBY'S CAR! It looked the the scene from Top Gun, where Maverick is canopy to canopy with the MIG, only he was literally resting on Bobby's roof. The photographer snapped it perfectly. Some how that car stayed up there for a couple of seconds. Still don't know how at those speeds. When I lived in Cincy, Tri-County Speedway was 4 miles from the house. That was great for me because I was there almost every Sat night. When they went to racing on Wed nights too, I was there. When I joined the Air Force out of high school, I truly went through withdraws. When I worked on Greg Baber's team, I lived in Del Rio, and Greg lived in Uvalde. I'd drive to Uvalde and off we'd go to either San Antonio or Thunderhill. I worked nights, and usually got off work a little after midnight. I'd get up at 4:30 to get to Greg's, and I'd usually get to bed about 24 hours later. That's a really long day on 3 hours of sleep. So when I bought our house in Buda, Thunderhill was just 8 miles away. I went as often as I could, and loved to stop in and say hello to Nick in the booth. Once I retired I had plans to try and find a team to help a little with. Of course they closed the track then. As I said back when the NASCAR weekend races were happening, I'm tired of seeing race tracks close. So Yeah, I'd love to see another asphalt track open for a change, instead of closing.

I like Mr Higdon's idea, but with a little twist on it. I know that some (Nick) wouldn't like it though. How about a nice 3/8 mile, progressive banking asphalt track on the grounds at COTA? Got to be progressive banking, no follow the leader, or running over each other racing. Great side by side racing is very fun, and you sure tear up a lot less cars when you don't have to wreck someone to pass. Almost all freeway miles from OK, Houston, Dallas, SA, Laredo, El Paso, and not too many backroads from Corpus. I bet you could draw some from Mobile and Pensacola too. Especially if you run some Super Late models. Because it's already a racetrack, permits shouldn't be an issue. All the basic infrastructure is there. Who knows, maybe they could negotiate 1 race a season on the big track, a la Texas World Speedway. It would also make a great prelim for a cup weekend. But we all know the reality of it. Whoever wants to do this (or any asphalt track), must have deep pockets to start, and be willing to not see a profit for at least 3 years. I personally don't know anybody with those kind of pockets. However, I really believe that if something could be worked out to partner with COTA, maybe just maybe, it would take only 2 years to break even. I'm also pretty sure that COTA would like to have another revenue stream too. I know that it's not worth 2 cents, but that's the best bet I see to having another asphalt track in the heart of Texas. I'd love to work on that project!

Nick, you are the glue that's held this together. A lot of people know this, and many really appreciate it. I am one of them.You have been a great friend to all the racers in TX, whether they know it or not. I've always enjoyed talking and working with you when I was involved here in TX. Your knowledge, and your "want to" in keeping TX racing going has been incredible. I hope that you are able to continue to do so for years to come. I miss being able to pop my head in the booth at Thunderhill, while you worked. I pray that 2022 will be a better year for you and your family. 2021 wasn't a good year for me, so I am very thankful for our now 2 year old identical twin grand daughters. AS we only have 1 child, our son has held the key to grandchildren for us. They had said on many occasions that they only wanted 2 kids. They REALLY weren't expecting them at the same time. SURPRISE!! But that also means they these little beauties will probably be our only grandchildren. Still beyond grateful!! WE Nick, like you are a mixed family. My wife is Hispanic too. So our son is half & half. His wife is first generation Taiwanese. These girls are just 24 months old, and they are already speaking some words in English, Spanish, and Chinese. Hell, I'm still working on English, and I turn 65 in 1 month. Lordy, I'm getting old. Hang in there Nick, God has a plan!!

Hey, I'm not knocking dirt racing, or dirt racers but asphalt was my favorite. I really wish that I could have run a season or 2 on dirt, as I feel it would made me a better driver on asphalt. I know that I hated a loose car especially upon turn entry. I didn't mind a push on entry, because as my modified had more that enough engine to drive over the push. But that's not the fastest way around. It seems that I never had a neutral car very often. I still love racing, and I still miss racing, However, I'm pretty certain my body will ever allow me to compete again. Couple that with the fact that I am now retired and living on a fixed income, I can't afford to anymore. I ran some laps at Thunderhill and at San Antonio in 2 of the cars that Greg Baber had. I really liked his orange and white car that he raced at Thunderhill the best. That car really liked being driven off the right rear, and was fun to drive it that way. I wasn't really wilde about Thunderhill or San Antonio's track layout. I would loved to have had a chance to run some laps at HMP. It was pretty similar to the track that I raced most often, Tucson Raceway Park. So, barring at least 2 major miracles, bench racing & spectating is about all I have left. Nick, I really hope that somebody (person or company) will step up with whatever you need to keep it going.

Enjoyed the show! Dave Moody is a pretty smart guy when it comes to racing. Man, I'd love to see the Texas asphalt racing make a comeback. I started out attending races at a great 1/2 mile high banked dirt track, that had the pits in the infield. I loved it. Then they paved it. Fifty years later, I still remember that first race after it was paved. As I started to cross the track through the crossover gate, I was nearly rear ended by the ramp truck that was hauling the late model that I helped on. As I crested the road, and started to cross the track, I just stopped. I had an epiphany, this was where I was supposed to be. It took 20 years before I saw the next dirt race in person. I still love a good dirt race, but it has never held the same feeling as a good asphalt race. I'm certain that there are just as many race fans that feel the opposite, and that great. There's no such thing as too much good racing!!

The thing that really bothered me about NASCAR's no penalty to Hamlin was this. For the life of me I can't remember who, but I believe it was the 00 Houff got into someone intentionally, under caution. They parked him for a 5 lap penalty, because there was a safety truck driving on the track near them. Well, when Hamlin pulled that stunt on the frontstretch, there was a camera crew on foot getting ready to interview the 48. Nobody was outside the safety truck when the 00 did his stuff. I'm certain those on foot would have been much more at risk for injury than anyone riding in a full size pickup. NASCAR should have treated both incidents that same, I don't care that Hamlin was trying to get to the championship 4. I've always thought that Hamlin is an incredible talent, and I've followed him since back in his late model days. He did an awful lot in family owned equipment, and Mr Gibbs was bold enough to hire him straight into Cup. But he does some things that make you go huh? He's never been as blatant as Kyle Busch (until that day), but he's getting closer. I doubt that we'd see anywhere near as much carnage, if these drivers were also having to fix or pay to have the cars fixed. It's pretty easy to crash somebody else's stuff. If you're pissed at a driver, go see them. It costs too much to fix them, I know from not even being the target of someone's anger. Way to often more people's stuff gets torn up, that weren't involved with said anger. Plus, it's really unfair to those that work for free trying to help someone get to the track to race, have to work that much more to fix a car for no reason. That kind of stuff isn't good for anybody, teams, tracks or fans.

I'm sorry, I left out Janette's name in a sentence from my first post. I never had the pleasure of meeting Janette.

WOW, what a broadcast crew. Bob Jenkins, Ned Jarrett, Benny Parsons in the booth, and Dr Jerry Punch doing the pit reporting. There was more than 1 occasion where they carried a poor race or a long rain delay, and they did it with class and dignity. For those that were lucky enough to see them do their job, it sure is hard to watch a lot of these announcers over the last 10-15 years. I met and talked to both Benny Parsons & Bill Weber during ESPN's coverage of the Winter Heat Series, throughout the late 90s. What an honest and sincere man Benny Parsons was. All I'll say about Bill Weber is, karma is a bitch. The way he treated people there I guess was his MO everywhere. It's what got him fired. I would have loved to meet Bob Jenkins. He always struck me as a class act. God Bless Bob Jenkins

I met James once, and he struck me as one of the good people. Never had the pleasure of meeting. I hope that you will accept my condolences and prayers. We're not supposed to out live our children, let alone our grandchildren. I can't imagine the grief you all are experiences. God Bless

Hey Nick, I saw the Lost speedway episodes for the Texas tracks. I never got to go to Texas World Speedway, and wish I could have seen the track for a Cup race then. An Air Force pilot that I knew around 2014, raced the road course in an orange #15 1970 Mustang Boss 302. It was made to look like the Parneli Jones driven, Bud Moore prepped Trans Am champion car. Back in the 80s, I drove from Del Rio to SAS many of weekends. I loved John Kelly. That was the first racing t-shirt I ever bought. I remember the competition was usually pretty fierce. I hated to see SAS close. It was really sad how all that went down, to shut it down. Unfortunately that wasn't the only track to close under such circumstances. Oh yeah, I almost forgot, Love the ponytail!! God Bless you my friend..

I thought it was pretty good too. Then I really loved it when Doug Coby won!! One thing did bother me though about the entire night, and reminded me about an exhibition race that I saw while living in Tucson, AZ. When NASCAR was getting ready to launch the truck series, they had the beginnings of the truck field (about 12 trucks if I remember correctly), run at Tucson Raceway Park. TRP was the track that hosted the Winter Heat Series in the late 90s on ESPN. What bothered me about it was that it was advertised as a real race. But by the end of the race, every single truck lead at least 1 lap. It looked staged, and as I found out later that night it was. That was the feeling I had watching a good part of the heat races and the main. It wasn't until about 3/4s through the main that it actually started looking like a real race. I get that too. They want to gin up excitement for the series, and that's a good thing. I'm very hopeful for the remaining 5 races. I would expect Tony Stewart to win this weekend, but he will make a show of it. After all, he has a personal and financial interest in it. Can't wait to see Willie T Ribbs on dirt!!

I waited a little while to digest my time at COTA. As I said on page 1 of this thread, I went all 3 days. It was my first road race, and there is no doubt that road racing will never replace my love for oval racing. That being said, except for the rain on Sunday, we had a good time. Friday we got 2 practice sessions for the Lambo Series. In a deviation from the printed schedule, we got practice sessions from the trucks & Xfinity cars. That was great, and the weather was too. Didn't go for the morning qualifying for the trucks and Xfinity, got there an hour before the start of the truck race. The trucks ran the entire race in very light showers, and it was a good race. The only cautions were for the stage breaks. The wind seemed to be a bigger issue than the rain. Ten minutes after they took the checked flag, the rain stopped and that wind dried the track before the Xfinity cars ran. NASCAR allowed the teams to change onto slicks before the race started. That kind of surprised me because it was an impound. However NASCAR made the right call. There were only a couple of yellows for off track excursions. Good Race Too! The Cup race had light rain throughout the first stage. Unfortunately it got heavier in the second. The race should have been stopped after the Wallace/Harvick incident. Yes the Air Titans were able to remove a lot of water off the back stretch area, where it was pooling, but it was now raining harder. They should have never restarted that race. Of course then they did. Big Mistake!! By the grace of God, and only by his grace, nobody got hurt. We were seated on the top row in turn 1, and there were times it was hard to see the cars entering turn 1 that weren't at the front of the field, and we were looking down! Plus turn 1 is at the top of a hill. The back of the track is much lower. I really love racing, but not when it absolutely doesn't make any sense. That made no sense. Racing is dangerous enough without introducing stupidity to it. The facility is beautiful. I went there once before for a tour of the facility. The rain of course was a disappointment, but by far wasn't the biggest disappointment. There was almost no food choices. I really expected that COTA & Austin would have done a better job of promoting some of the really great food available in the Austin area. We were seated in turn 1, and the only thing available there was a pizza place and a taco wagon. As I am a disabled vet, we parked every day in the main lot by the main grandstand. So we walked every day through the main concourse twice. Maybe we missed it, but that's all we saw there too. There wasn't many merchandise trailers either. I don't know it it was because of the predicted weather that kept those venders from coming, but sure was surprising/disappointing. Before the end of the second stage, the taco wagon close in turn 1. Don't know if they ran out of food, or nobody was buying. I looked for Tavo, but never saw him. I really didn't expect to, because I'm sure that he would be very busy. But I still wanted to thank him for all that he has done to make that track happen. He wouldn't know me from Adam, because I only got to meet him thanks to Mr. Holt. But I have always believed that a person should be thanked for their hard works and good deeds. He did both, so Thank You Tavo!!

I saw Myrtle Beach there too. There were glimpses of a track in NC that I think I went to as a kid. Can't remember the name though. It really sucks to see that most of these closes tracks are asphalt. Many of them used to be big time facilities that attracted large fields and crowds. I truly hope she makes it work. I read a good (but short) article in the latest Speedway Illustrated magazine that addressed what's going on at HMS & Mobile. She's got the right idea. Standardized rules, and not trying to hurt other tracks by having race dates that compete against each other. I grew up in Cincinnati in the 60s & 70s. Asphalt racing in Ohio, Ind, ILL, Mich, Wisconsin, and to some extent MN, the names of the drivers and the tracks were very well known. Most of those drivers could run 7 days a week, with very minimal changes to their cars. Some would run 2 different tracks in the same day. Several of these drivers wound up in Cup. Several of their offspring have also ended up in the top 3 NASCAR divisions. Some of the times it was some of NASCAR's early attempts at regional series', but there were several tracks that simply got together with other tracks near there's, to construct rules and racing days working together. I was lucky enough to see that usually twice a week. Tri-County Speedway (later being called Queen City Speedway) on Wed, Indianapolis Raceway Park on Fridays, Tri-County again on Sat, and Columbus Motor Speedway on Sundays. The norm was 20 very good late models at every track, every night. It was absolutely great for a handful of years. Then 1 thing screwed it all up. The owner of Tri-County, Bill Redwine, decided he didn't want to run things anymore. So he leased out the track to someone else. All was going good for the first part of the new season under the new promoter, until 1 Sat night when only 12 late models showed. There had been a major crash on lap 1 at Indy Raceway Park. Because of that the new promoter person decided that he wanted his rules to be different, so that he wouldn't have to share "his cars" with the other 2 tracks. Tri-County stumbled around for a few more years, and a promoter or two before closing. And until Bristol jacked the banks way up, Try-County was the fastest 1/2 mile track in the country. For many years the track sat there, but had a softball complex around about half of the track. The infield pits and part of the parking lot was used by a truck driving school. They finally bladed it down in about 2010. I left Cincinnati in 1975 when I joined the Air Force that Aug. I went a few times when I was back in Cincy on leave. I went there in Oct 2007. There were no fences or gates to get through. I walked up to the grandstands at the end of the front straight. I've only cried 3 times over racing. The first was when Davey Allison died, the second was when I sold my modified, and that day standing there at Tri-County. For Davey it was because I really admired him and his tenacity and approach to racing. With my modified it was because it was a realization of a part of my life that I loved was ending, and never to be repeated. With Tri-County was because I saw what was possible, and how 1 person could destroy the very thing that hooked me into loving racing. If Dale JR was to do a Lost Speedway episode on Tri-County, I'm not sure I could watch. It would hurt that bad. That's the reason that I posted on the COTA thread that I would go to the Cup weekend. I'm sick of seeing the thing that I love, continue to die, 1 track at a time.

I'll be there all 3 days, and my brother is flying in from Ohio for it too. Tired of seeing TX asphalt tracks close, so I'll try to do my part. I got to meet Tavo courtesy of Nick, at Thunderhill one night. Seems like a good guy and racer at heart. Both of those things mean something to me too Nick. Very glad Tavo wasn't destroyed by all that transpired, and I'm sure I don't know 1 percent of what went on. I found out thru purchasing my tickets that Texas Motor Speedway (SMI- ie Bruton Smith)) was basically running that side of it. Not sure if that's because of TMS losing a date to COTA, or if SMI is maybe trying to purchase some or all of COTA, and splitting future NASCAR racing dates in TX. NASCAR says it's committed to running more road courses in the future. And why not, with the Next Gen car basically being an Australian V8 Supercar. Now I'm just hoping for good weather for all 3 days!!

The truck race has now moved to noon EDT on Monday. No mention yet as to which channel it will be aired on.

I did a little research to see if Ryan was driving for someone at New Smyrna. He was driving a Mike Skinner (RCS) car. At Five Flags he will be running a car from Jett Motorsports. Ryan had signed to race for Jett before the Prelude race for Skinner. Apparently he has made enough money racing in the IRacing league to allow him to get into these seats. The interesting thing about that is that Jett Motorsports protested Ryan's win at New Smyrna. It sounds like the protest had more to do with the conflicts between the Skinner & Jett organizations than it was about Ryan. After all that, Ryan was still the winner. Ryan smacked the wall Friday in practice. Hopefully they can get it repaired to pre-crash shape, because he was fast. Also, Jett is the team that fields cars for Stephen Nasse, so it's a very good team. Hopefully this TX driver can bring some hardware back home today.