Tuesday, August 30 - This was a race scheduled for last Tuesday but was postponed due to rain for two straight days and rescheduled to tonight. Pat was not able to go so I almost bagged it until calling Jeff Alhum on my way home from work and he was debating about going also. We talked a while and finally decided to meet at Jeff’s house in the Quakertown area and go from there. It was 5:55 when we left Quakertown and pulled onto the grounds of the New Egypt Speedway at 7:25 for the scheduled 7:30 start. Jeff dropped off out front and he went to park in the lot outside of turns one and two. When I secured our seats in the aluminum grandstands to the left of the entrance two rows from the top warmups for the ARDC midgets were still being run. The day had been hot but not humid with temperatures in the 90’s but the evening turned out to be quite pleasant with temperatures dropping down to the low 80’s. I was worried the track surface would be dusty due to the sun beating on it during the day but to my surprise the surface held up very well during the evening with little to no dust the entire night.

Racing finally got underway at 7:49, nearly 20 minutes late, but that was about the only thing that was a negative on the evening. A field of 23 big block modifieds pulled into the pit area for the Tri-Track series with only three being Bridgeport regulars, the same number as New Egypt drivers that showed up at Bridgeport last Saturday. It doesn’t look like this series will continue in 2011 after the reported rantings by New Egypt owner, Bill Miscoski, on the South Jersey Dirt website forum. My opinion on owners, promoters or track employees posting on forums is that it should not happen especially if you are going to complain about other tracks and so forth. I believe the only time any of the above should ever post on a racing forum is if there are malicious lies or to post updates about an injured driver or someone else injured at their facility. To bash another track or drivers shows a lack of professionalism. Enough said on this subject!! Back to the racing. A good point during the evening was the fact that track management only ran two heats for the 23 car modified field with no consie and just three heats and no consie for the ARDC midgets. All qualifying was in the books by 8:21 and a short intermission (25 minutes) followed. Next was another good move calling out the traveling series’ feature first with the ARDC midgets taking the green at 8:57. This one was the better of the two features with more passing than the modifieds. Steve Buckwalter started 12th and worked his way to the front taking the lead coming off turn four to start lap 9 and was never headed. Drew Heistand, the racing cop from York, Pa, finished second after starting 11th with 2nd starter, Bruce Buckwalter Jr., coming home third with 13th starter, Ryan Smith, netting fourth and Alex Bright driving in from the University of Akron in Ohio rounding out the top five. The race was spun off in 11 minutes with only one caution and was a competitive one.

The Summer Sizzler 40 for the modifieds was ready to go by 9:22 and only was slowed twice by cautions with the first one not waving until the halfway point when Jimmy Horton stopped short of the turn three exit with a flat left rear tire and the second occuring on lap 39 when Dom Buffalino running third at the time tangling with a lap car of John Keller and fourth running Tim Tanner Jr. on the homestretch with Buffalino ending up the worse for wear hitting the outside hall and ripping the right front wheel off his racer. In between Ryan Watt surprised first starter, Billy Pauch, beating him into turn one and leading until lap 15 when Pauch caught and passed him in lap traffic for the lead he would never relinquish. Tanner Jr. notched third with Frank Cozze making the charge from 12th to take fourth and Rick Laubach, the Bridgeport Tri-Track winner, rounding out the top five. New York’s Johnny Guarino turned in an impressive performance moving from 21st to 6th but losing two spots on the last restart and ending up 8th behind Richie Pratt Jr. and David VanHorn. Two New Egypt regulars, Gary Butler and Sammy Martz, rounded out the top ten. The final checker of the evening fell at 9:45 bringing down the curtain on a good night of racing at a reasonable hour for a mid-week show. Arrival back at 50 Riverview Drive in Williams Township was 12:15 which allowed almost six hours of sleep before rising for another day of work.