It was time to hit the road as we have a thing going where we have seen at least one race in every month of the year for the past 18 years. We also enjoy attending new tracks and this one was an indoor one to boot. We’ve been to 26 indoor tracks in our racing endevors. Today it was north into the state of Connecticut for our new indoor track at Mototown, USA near Windsor. Along for the ride were veteran trackchasers, Gordy Killian and Will White also of Pennsylvania. White is the creator of the web site named www.trackchaser.net which lists the top 40 world wide trackchasers along with much more information on tracks in the US as well as around the world. If you get a chance check it out, it is a excellent site and Pat and I are #19 and #20 on the list.

The banter among the group made the 3 1/2 hour trek seem much shorter and we arrived at the beautiful facility at 11:30. Mototown, USA started out as a motocross facility but the owner decided this year to add a 1/6 mile dirt oval in the main area of the 208,000 square foot building. There are three levels of shops with two motorcycle stores along with eateries such as Blimpie’s, Doogie’s Restaurant and Dunkin Donuts. They also have a Gold’s Gym on the top level. The stadium itself is a giant L shaped setup with aluminum grandstands located off of turns three and four with the track situated like a football being thrown away from you. Even though the track was under roof the stadium was not heated. It was cold!!! In fact if you were outside in the sun it was warmer than inside especially sitting on aluminum bleachers. Thank goodness friends, John and Joellen Osowski, had an extra blanket and gloves for Pat to wear.

In the world of entertainment today there are many options for people on where they will spend their dollars. That is why you will notice numerous times in these blogs that we mention about the starting and finishing times of the races. Many promoters still have not gotten the point that they are in the entertainment business and should present a tight program and try to get people in and out in about a three hour window. People do not want to come to an event which starts late and ends even later. Give the person an entertaining package and they will come back again. With this in mind the first race of the 12 race winter series was scheduled for 1 PM and actually started at 1:25. On hand to race were 8 600 cc mini sprints, 7 750 cc mini sprints, 13 1200 cc mini sprints, 9 mod lites and 4 4 cylinder/8 cylinder stock cars evenly split.

I would like to tell you that the racing was fantastic but that would be lying. Actually the top surface seemed to be loose and sandy while underneath was packed hard. Spin outs were the norm of the day with 15 cautions in the shortened 30 lap 1200 cc min sprints the low point of the afternoon. Marc Guerard won both the 750 and 1200 cc features for the highlight of the day. Two things we felt led to a long afternoon were the length of the features (30 laps) and the double file restarts which led to more restarts. We decided to pull out at the halfway mark of the mod lite feature at 5:10 to start the ride back home. There was still one feature to go at this point. Hopefully the drivers will get the hang of the tricky surface and the racing itself will improve as the facility is sure a winner!! Great conversation on the return trip which included phone calls to another group of our racing buddies who ventured south for some outdoor racing at Atlanta and Rockingham made for some humorous moments.

It seems that management is indeed looking to better their product at Mototown as at the January 13th race some of our racing buddies attended and sent back word that the racing was much better than what we had previously described. Also to Mototown management’s credit the above two things we mentioned were addressed as the features were shortened to 20 laps and the restarts were started in single file. They also started on time and finished around 4 PM.

Until next time from 50 Riverview Drive, Easton, PA where we are expecting freezing rain tomorrow morning turning to heavy rain later in the day take care and have a Great Day!!!!