As always, our annual trip to Bristol made a lot of memories. The Saturday night racing was great this year, and we’ve already discussed the Busch / Edwards war a hundred times. The general consensus is that Busch is a crybaby. No shocker there. Tickets were easily bought for $50, or half of face. And that was still a few hours before the green.

This trip has included Scott Seeley, Mike LaFlair, “Diamond” Dave Maidens, Ed Coombs, Andy Noto, and Chet the Jet. ( I don’t know Chet’s last name, but I’m told it rhymes with something inappropriate.) Matty LaFlair met us there. Good times. Apparrently I don’t look so good due to lack of sleep, and a bizarre shaving accident.

The long ride home started at 2:00 AM, and has so far included more storytelling, terrible sleeping, one flat tire (so far) and a lot of whining. I took the 4-7 AM shift. . It’s now 1:00 PM, and we’re still a couple hours from home. Which is almost what the flat tire cost us.

Who’s your money on? I’ve got Kasey Kahne and Matt Kenseth in the pool.
We’re headed on the long walk to the track soon. If you’ve never been to Bristol, it’s highly recommended. Especially if you’re camping with people from Cincy. Also, make sure you bring a guitar, so Diamond can sing some Johnny Cash.

We finished up some venison steaks for lunch. There was an incident with the golf cart that involved Scott vs. The ticket guy’s van. Winner: ticket guy.

I’ll try to update you from the track later, but Internet is tough here. Still no tickets, but we’re not worried.
Go Sterling Marlin!

Carnage!
But I’m not talking about the races. We haven’t made it to the race track yet. Seven sweaty guys driving through the night in a camper playing cards for money is how the week started on Wednesday night. I enjoyed taking $50 from Noto. Thursday night involved a trip to downtown Bristol, where a bunch of lunatics converged on a place called “Stateline". There are some pictures that must be destroyed.

Some eggs and sausage on Friday morning started the day off, while listening to the engines from the cars practicing. A couple hours of catching up before heading to Hooters of Johnson City.

We still don’t have any race tickets, but we’re confident that they’ll be pretty cheap later today. There are not a lot of people here. The campground we’re in is about 80 percent empty.
I’ll update later from the speedway.

Update 7:45…
stands are about 70% full. We paid $20 each for tickets. Weather is perfect. We’re in turn two. Look for me in the bright green shirt from Luther’s Atlantic City bus.

Go Steve Wallace!

Oswego Speedway management had a big problem. They were in BIG trouble. Joey Hawksby Jr. built the most awesome supermodified in years ( except for Clyde Booth’s, but he wasn‘t selling them), and started selling them. The Hawk Chassis were at least a half second faster than the conventional cars, and dominated the division. Greg Furlong, the track owner’s son, was one of the first to buy one, and destroyed the field. And I mean DESTROYED. Won most of the races, Classic, the $10,000 to win race, everything. He could have a flat tire, pit with 10-15 laps left, and still win the feature. I saw him do it.

People of course hated him for it, and claimed favoritism, because he’s the track owner’s son. Even though the team donated a big chunk of their $10,000 paycheck to charity, people still booed him after awhile. The car was awesome, the team, chiefed by Greg’s brother Pat Furlong Jr. was spot on, and Greg’s driving was amazing. They were doing everything right, but nobody likes a winner. Plus, they were smart. They were clever enough to tie up the builder, by ordering another new car, so nobody else could get one, since they are very labor intensive, and take months to build. Tie up the builder, and keep the competition away from your new secret car.

The next season, Furlong has TWO Hawks, but Tim Snyder sneaks one through over the winter. So that year was a two car competition, Furlong vs. Snyder, with everyone else forced to run for third, or hope they would break. Fans got annoyed, and the other drivers got downright pissed. If you wanted to compete, you needed a $35,000 (not including the $30,000 plus motor) Hawk, or you were out to lunch. And even if you had the money, Hawksby could only build a few a year. Car counts started declining, as all of the people with conventional cars didn’t have a snowball’s chance in hell.

Over the next few seasons, Hawksby started building them a little quicker, and more people on the Oswego and ISMA circuits were getting them. The separation between the haves and the have-nots got bigger, and a lot of teams weren’t having fun, and left. Even past champions like Tim Gareau and Bob Goutermout had had enough, and found other hobbies.

Then Paul Collocca built a better mousetrap. His new Xtreme Chassis, sporting independent suspension, was even faster than the Hawks. The division started spiraling out of control, as now an Xtreme was the hot ticket, which took even longer to build. And probably cost even more money. Average Joe with a normal job was almost completely eliminated, and the new independent suspension design promised to make it even worse. Get one, or get out.

Speedway management was faced with a horrible position: do something now, or risk having the division turned into a rich man’s game. Months of research, meetings, soul-searching, and agonizing brought the speedway owners to a decision to try to stop the bleeding. The independent suspension was outlawed, eliminating the cars of some of the more popular drivers at the speedway, such as Bobby Bond and Joe Gosek, who had acquired Xtreme Chassis cars, and owner Clyde Booth. Other changes were also made in the rules, to attempt to equalize the cars and lower costs. Damned if they did, and damned if they didn’t.

This was not popular with many. Yes, Bond and Gosek had the option to cut their cars up, and convert them to a front axle suspension, but chose not to. It was a matter of principle for Bond, and the owners of Gosek’s ride, who were not happy with the changes. Gosek’s owners parked the car, Bond defected to ISMA wing racing after a lifelong love affair with Oswego Speedway, and Booth decided to not come back to Oswego, hiring Oswego’s popular young star Michael Barnes, away from the track, reportedly out of spite.

So now, as the season winds down, we can take inventory. Here’s the bottom line: nobody is dominant! Yes, five drivers in the top ten drive Hawk Chassis machines. But five don’t. Second place Greg Furlong, who is within striking distance (only 28 points away), is driving a several year old C and C Chassis car, while awaiting a new car. Stephen Gioia (5th), Jason Spaulding (6th) also flirt with the top five in older design chassis. Supermodified rookie Louie LeVea almost won the $10,000 to win race in an older Snyder built car that hadn’t been able to get out of its own way the last few years. And although most of the races have been won by the newer style cars, the rules changes implemented by the speedway involving shocks, body, etc. have slowed them down a few notches. There have been no runaways this year.

Has the much-maligned speedway management team of Pat Furlong Sr. and Steve Gioia been vindicated?

But as with everything else, there’s always a catch. Maybe this new-found parity is only temporary. And the spoiler just may be the track owner’s kid. The same one who started this whole chain of events by ruining the field a few years back. Greg Furlong has been running the old car because they sold their other Hawk cars, in anticipation of the newest and greatest Hawk Chassis design, which will probably be raced this weekend.

What if Greg comes out and destroys once again, like before? And right behind it is another, due to be completed any day now for owner John Nicotra, to be driven by Davey Hamilton and/or Otto Sitterly. I’m not saying anything negative about the team, Hawksby, or the idea of a new car to go faster. These guys are all very smart, and Greg is an incredible driver. You’re supposed to never quit trying to get faster. But what a bummer if this new car revolutionizes the division once again, so everybody has to go back to the well for yet another new car.

In addition, Paulie Collocca will certainly have a new Xtreme in the works to even that out. He’s already built a new solid front axle car for the Steve Stout / DJ Shullick team, that hasn’t debuted yet. The team took delivery of that recently, and should have that out for Classic. I’m also hearing that Collocca has another one started, that will be for Doug Didero, possibly by Classic.

So what a PR disaster it would be for speedway management if the owner’s kid causes yet another revolution.

I spoke with Pat Furlong Sr. a few weeks ago on that very subject, and asked him if he would make new rules, or change the rules to “equalize” this new car if Greg wrecks the field again. “I’d HAVE to”, vowed Pat.

What a crazy position that would be, to have to slow down your own son, to keep him from winning all of the races. I think I’d ask my kid to look for a new hobby. Stay tuned…..

I know this is old news, but I thought now would be a good time to revisit a column that I wrote last year. I’ve updated it a little. Please leave your comments at the end…

Is the internet killing auto racing? Auto racing message boards allow people to freely say the most damaging, hurtful things about anyone involved in the sport. Usually under anonymous screen names, people will bitch and chew and complain about anything that comes to their minds, for thousands of impressionable race fans to read, with zero thought about what their “opinions” may do to the sport. It doesn’t make sense that people who claim to be passionate about the sport, and have such interest in “getting the word out”, are exactly the ones who are ripping the throat right out of the sport.

Twenty years ago, people didn’t always like what track promoters did. They didn’t like the rules. They felt that the purses were too small. Pit passes cost too much. Certain drivers were roughriders. Other drivers cheated. Tech inspectors didn’t know what they were doing, were helping their friends cheat, or they just didn’t care. Promoters didn’t care about the drivers. There were arguments. There were fights. Some drivers had an unfair advantage. The lineups were unfair. Nobody ever got the black flag. And the ones who did didn’t deserve it. Not to mention the hot dog prices.

I tell ya - we were fed up. And we talked about it, too. A lot. How could they treat us like that? We were the show. Without us, they had nothing. No show at all. So we started bitching. We didn’t hold back. Our whole circle of friends at the track heard about it. I bet I told ten people about it when Ricky Miller spun me out. Maybe fifteen. Cost me the win, it did. And that night we were DQ’d for undercut valves, I told several people. Not fair. We didn’t gain an advantage. Since when are they illegal? It was stupid. Especially after we had paid $12 for a pit pass!

But when we complained about it, we were at the track. We had already bought our admission tickets. And so had the people that we were complaining to. We weren’t telling thousands of people about it via the internet. We weren’t talking to many impressionable people on a computer, who were then coerced into staying home. We didn’t rush home and put all of our thoughts, hopes, dreams and threats online. We didn’t spend all week rehashing the details on racing message boards, over and over, in eye-glazing detail. By the next week, we were pretty much over it, because you had to pick up a phone or go to someone’s house to fuel the fire. Yes, that’s right - if you were mad at someone you actually had to talk to them about it - FACE TO FACE! Can you imagine? Having a problem with someone and actually talking to them about it, where they could find out who you were, as opposed to blabbing it to thousands of people anonymously? THAT is why things that happened at the speedway weren’t such a big deal in those days. We worked it out, or we got over it. But no matter how hard we bitched, we couldn’t influence hundreds of people to stay home.

Short track Auto Racing as an industry is getting smaller and smaller. Wherever you are reading this, compare the crowd and car count at your local speedway to the same numbers in 1997. I’m sure there are some exceptions, but I’m willing to bet that you’d see a big difference. Same promoter, different promoter, it doesn’t matter. I don’t have the numbers, but I bet that most tracks don’t even have the same owner that they had ten years ago. Car counts especially took a radical drop. Fans are down - most promoters will tell you that. Why?

I bought my first computer in 1997. While I wasn’t the first one to get one, home computers have really picked up in the last ten / eleven years. Of course, along with that came the racing message boards and internet communication. And the “Negative Nellies”. Is it a coincidence that the decline in local short track auto racing started around the same time as the internet?

Race fans, we need to chill. Yes, we are passionate about the sport. Passion is a good thing. But let’s use that passion for a greater good. I’m a big fan of internet message boards. Probably more than most. I check them several times a day from my iPhone, and read every post. I even chime in myself sometimes. But I think we have a responsibility to the industry, if we really love it as much as we say. Despite what some may think, I believe that a negative post from you ABSOLUTELY influences and dictates what fans and/or race track owners and/or car owners do. We’re reading it. And if you share enough negative, whether it’s the truth or not, you can bet that you are taking fannies out of the seats. To the people who scream “freedom of speech” or complain if one of their hurtful, negative posts are censored or deleted from some of the more selective message boards, don’t get offended. Racing message boards should be designed to help the sport, and “opinions” that reflect poorly on the sport or reflect negatively on a track or driver should be censored immediately. Everyone is entitled to their opinion, but let’s talk amongst ourselves, and not try to intentionally influence others on the worldwide web, without telling the full story. If your racetrack sucks, the word will get around. But it’s not your job to convince others that it does - let them decide for themselves. Ladies and Gentlemen, we have a responsibility to this sport. YOU do. I’ve lived and breathed this sport for most of my life, and so have many of you. Let’s instead concentrate our efforts on propping it back up.

And one final word of caution. Anyone representing a speedway must tread very lightly when responding on a message board. Remember that internet posters are also customers of your racing establishment. No matter how angry intrusive, random, faceless internet posters can make you, don’t let them pull you down. Don’t stoop. You must remain positive and professional, and if you do feel obligated to respond or explain something, remember that there are a thousand eyes on your words, and they will be very carefully scrutinized by your customers. No insults or name-calling. Take the high road.