Monday a group of about ten Modified and twenty Busch North teams assembled for a test session at the Magic Mile in Loudon, NH. The session got underway right around 9am and was scheduled to finish at 5pm. Track officials decided to extend the session to 5:30 after a track cleanup for an oil-down took longer than expected.

Steve Whitt was there coming off a great top-5 run at Waterford with his #06. Tyler Haydt turned some fast times in the King Racing #28 but suffered from mechanical problems several times. Eric Beers was consistent and fast in the BRE #3.

Chris Kopec brought Robbie Summers along and that pair shook down the two nearly identical #16 Modifieds. Chris demonstrated some of the most consistent laps early in the session. Darrin Steven was there with his #44 and he turned some times that were probably better than some expected.

Alex Hoag, grandson of the Modified legend ‘Dutch’ tested his #87. Alex told me that he has been running the Whelen Southern Modified Tour. According to the SMART site, Alex has two top-10s in the three races the Southern Tour has run this season and is seventh in the points just sixty-nine markers back of current point leader Junior Miller.

Hoag turned a couple fast laps and let his car sit. When I asked Alex why he wasn’t lining up to go out again immediately he told me, ‘We have one car and one engine. I’ll get a couple more laps later.’ He did and he was fast again.

Some of the biggest gossip was generated by the #50 team. First off, the car was painted blue, much in the way that their Mustang had debuted at Stafford several years ago. Bob Cuneo told me that the reason the car was blue is that the painter refused to paint it white. I told Bob, ‘(expletive deleted), there are two people that I have never met; a sign painter who could spell and a painter who gave an (expletive deleted) what color he had to paint a customer’s car.’

Some people thought that Rick Fuller was testing the blue Chassis Dynamics car. This rumor started because there was a number 1 on the door. Apparently track officials requested that all of the cars carry a number. Don Barker’s guys thought it was easiest just to put a couple of strips of duct tape on the door to keep them happy.

Chuck and the Barker team were actually there to test tires for Hoosier. Hossfeld turned the fastest laps that I witnessed. We know that the #50 will be stout, we don’t know how soft the tires were that Chuck was using when he turned those blistering laps.

When Howie, Mary and Amie arrived, Howie was interested in getting his camera mounted on Hossfeld’s ride. Those guys were pretty deep into testing tires at that point. Eventually, Howie got the camera mounted and there are some great pictures from it I the photo gallery.

James Civali was testing a Busch North Series car #7 that matched the paint scheme that he ran on the Tour car Saturday night at Waterford. My understanding is that Civali will compete in the Busch North Series for the remainder of the season with limited participation on the WMT. I think that Civali has talent but this team appears to be trying to go too far, too fast.

There were other Modified drivers who took to testing cars with fenders. Mike Stefanik tested his two Burnham cars. Ted Christopher tested the #35. And Sean Caisse put the #5 through its’ paces.

Donny Lia was very quick in his #18 Modifieds. Other than Hossfeld, Lia appeared to be the fastest of the WMT competitors in attendance. That was far from the most impressive part of Donny’s test experience.

When Nevin George told Ralph Solhem that he wouldn’t be able to make this test session, Racer Ralph asked Donny if he would take the #00 BNS car out at the test. My understanding is that the original idea spawned out of the fact that Lia would already be there. These guys were fast.

When I walked past the #00 in the garage after Lia had taken it out on the track a couple of times, he motioned me over. Donny asked me, ‘How do you think I am doing?’ He didn’t realize at that point how well his session had gone. I just winked at him with a smile and gave him a thumbs up.

As the test session went on and on, the RSR team adjusted and tuned on the #00 and Lia became more comfortable with the heavier car. Donny’s times continued to drop throughout the day. I figure it will be almost impossible for Ralph to keep Donny out of that car for the Loudon race. I think it would be just as difficult for Donny to avoid Solhem long enough to keep Ralph from stuffing him in the seat.

This test session wasn’t just for the competitors. This was also a test for the NHIS staff. The folks at the Checkered Flag restaurant were figuring out what they would need to do on a race weekend. They served all of the patrons, rang everyone up and then informed all of us that our money was no good. Bob and Gary Bahre basically gave everyone in attendance whatever we wanted from the restaurant. That just goes as another example of what great people they are.

The Jack Ratta Media Center has seen some big changes. Well, most won’t see most of the changes because many of them have to do with Internet access. Fred Neergaard and his staff have installed three zones of wireless Internet access between the Media Center and the Press Box. In addition there are several new Ethernet ports at the desks for broadband access.

On behalf of all of the competitors of the WMT and the BNS I would like to thank the Bahres for being such gracious hosts and for providing us with our greatest venue. On behalf of MSS and the rest of the media vermin I would like to thank the Bahres and Fred Neergaard for providing us access, credentials and the most cutting edge technology currently available which will help us with everything from live updates to getting our stories out. I can’t wait to get back there in a few weeks!