Saturday, May 15 – It was the day of the big yard sale and for the past 6 weekends and some weeknights I have been trying to get ready for this day. Everything in what was my mother’s house would be for sale but first it was all cleaned to shine, as my mother would have wanted, categorized and labeled with a price. I realized my mother had enough Christmas decorations for three homes twice the size of hers and endless other things that we accumulate. It was a lot of hard work and since I am the only child I could not ask my brothers and sisters to help. I had taken off work Friday to get together the final touches and a trip to Big Diamond was made Friday night. Luckily they were over early and Bruce and I were sleeping in the blowup Aero bed by 11:30. Saturday morning it was up at 6:00 and Bruce and I started to lug the items outside by 6:30 and by 7:00 the sale, which started at 8:00, began. All was complete at 2:00 and it was one long 7 hour stretch. In the end we made close to $900 and almost all the furniture, small appliances and dishes were gone. We still have a few odds and ends and enough Christmas decorations to decorate two large houses. We were beat as we sat on the empty dining room floor counting the money made. We wanted to go to the races but knew it could not be too far. We were sure as the night went on we would get more tired and those muscles we had not used in a while would start to stiffen up. Yes, you are correct we are getting old and after a day like this you sure felt it. We both took a nap and at 6:00 took off to the closest track to our home, Grandview Speedway.

It worked out great as the ARDC midgets were running along with the small block modifieds and Tobias Speedsters. I grew up going to Grandview Speedway, a track located approximately 10 miles from the high school I graduated from. Two of the top runners here are Craig VonDohren and Duane Howard. VonDohren’s dad delivered coal to our house, for heating, when I was growing up and both VonDohren’s and Howard’s older brothers were only one class behind me. I refer to them as the Oley boys, Oley being the school we all graduated from, and coming here always has a flavor of home. Walking through the parking lot I ran into a friend from my teenage years, long time ago, and chatted a bit. There was a time in the past this was my Saturday night home but as my love for sprint cars developed my visits to Grandview came only during the midweek Thunder on the Hill shows.

Racing started at 7:50 with the Tobias Speedsters, a car I just do not care for. I call them transformer cars because of their rigid looking appearance. They are a start up division and the 18 cars ran two heats. The ARDC midgets had a respectable field of 34 cars in the pits and they ran three heats followed by four 12 lap heats for the 49 modifieds. Yes, 49 small block modifieds. This track for as long as I can remember has always had unbelievably high car counts. Twenty eight cars start the 30 lap feature which means twenty one load up and go home. Yet they keep coming. Maybe it is the bullring effect that keeps them coming with it high flying, rough, and sometimes slamming style of driving. I do not know but most tracks would love to have 49 cars in their main division every week. The heats have car counts of 12 and 13 with only the top 5 moving on to the feature. The top drivers start in the back of the heats. Not 4 through 8 but 10 through 13. You need to pass cars to qualify. How do you think that would go over south of the Mason Dixon Line? Twelve qualifying events plus the speedster 15 lap feature were run by 10:25 when a 25 minute intermission took place. During this down time I started to feel the effects of the day and was really getting tired.

The ARDC feature was first and I thought that was a great idea. They ran 20 circuits and I thought it would be a good one as top ace Steve Buckwalter would be starting in the back due to a tangle in the heat that sent him to the consolation to qualify. That anticipation was shot lived as Buckwalter became involved in a turn four tangle before they ever got to the initial green and he was done for the night. In total there were 6 cautions in the event which eventually saw Billy Pauch Jr. come home the winner. Pauch took the lead on lap 13 and was never challenged. Following Pauch was Trevor Kobylarz, Drew Heistand, Bruce Buckwalter Jr. and Frank Polimeda

I must admit when the modified feature got started at 11:25 I wasn’t sure if I wanted to watch it or lay down on the bleachers and sleep but I quickly chose watching. For the first 17 laps they scrapped, bumped and hit but there were no cautions. The action was exciting. Grandview uses a great handicapping system and the high point men do not start up front. VonDohren took the lead on lap 20 and the caution would wave two more times in the final 7 laps. In the end it was VonDohren in victory lane with Jason Hamilton, John Willman, Duane Howard and Sean Merkel rounding out the top five. The time was 11:42 and both Bruce and I were ready to get home to bed. Thank goodness this is only a 40 minute drive home. Yes, you are correct again, we are getting old.