It was an interesting weekend for us. Shopgirl flew up on Thursday to accompany me to the Whelen Modified Tour Awards Banquet. I’ll relate some of our travels in here and an overview of the banquet. If anyone feels they don’t find out enough about the banquet in this article, might I suggest showing up next year?

Believe me; we didn’t need any more people at the WMT banquet. There were over six hundred people in attendance. That was more than a time and a half as many as they had at the Busch East show Friday night. We were actually invited to the BES banquet on Friday afternoon. However, Vicki and I politely declined as we had our priorities in place. Friday night was our opportunity to help provide struggling Native Americans with enough wampum to buy holiday gifts for their friends and families. Yes, we flushed our share of money down the slots.

Fortunately for me, the natives had run out of rooms by the time I chose to make my reservations at the Reservation. Because of that, we stayed at my favorite hotel across the street. The money we saved on accommodations allowed us to help more Native Americans as we flushed the savings down the Wheel of Fortune slots.

During our time cruising through the casino on Friday, we came across some old friends. It was great to see Janice Chew up there. There is no one I know who has worked harder to improve themselves in the last year than Janice. She looked great.

I saw Eric Beers near the champion’s car display by the Casino of the Earth. Eric has no plans as of yet for the 2007 WMT season. Beers plans on going to New Smyrna Speedweeks with his #9 Modified.

One of the things I had kept under wraps was that I had the honor of presenting an award at the banquet. As last year’s winners, it was kind of fitting that Jeri Duefrene and I got to give out the Donna Parks and Smiley Waterman awards. The biggest thing for the two of us was to keep the names of the winners in confidence. Lisa Brice-Erm and Mark Mockovak were both quite surprised when Mike Joy announced their names.

Our friend, Mike Twist presented the Speed 51 Designs, Most Popular Driver award to Tony Hirschman. Tony was kind of tickled by this. It was the second consecutive time that Hirschman has won the Most Popular Driver award. Tony said, “I’ve got to thank the fans whoever voted for this award. They must of heard some rumblings a year or two ago that I was thinking about cutting back. If they keep voting me most popular I guess they’ll keep me here.”

Several of the award recipients were moved in their acceptance speeches. Ted Christopher cracked only slightly at the end of his speech. Ted said, “It was definitely a trying year with different team leaders but the goal was the same for me; to win races.” It appears as though married life is treating him well. Look for Ted next at the Atlantic City Indoor Race January 12th & 13th.

Like two years ago, when Eddie Flemke, Jr. first finished runner-up in the standings, the second generation driver brought his crew to the stage. Eddie has encountered similar personal challenges to those he had in 2004 and was thankful to all of his guys and his business partner, Reggie Ruggiero for their support. Then there was some screaming.

Apparently, one of the members of the team wanted his favorite photographer to step up from the photo area onto the stage with them. From the back of the room, it looked like the crewmember was picking a fight. It was actually all in good fun and once the music played, the team made a flawless exit.

Eric Sanderson was the recipient of the NASCAR Sportsmanship Award in addition to the Championship Car Owner’s Trophy. Everything about this man oozes class. He is humble, thankful and the kind of person who does the right thing whether anyone is watching or not.

The NASCAR Driver Achievement Award was given to Dick Houlihan. Mike Joy noted that the winner of the NASCAR Dedication Award had four hundred and fifty Whelen Modified tour starts. When the award was presented to Jamie and Cheryl Tomaino, Jamie said, “Are you sure it’s only four hundred and fifty? I know I went back and fourth across the George Washington bridge at least five hundred times.”

The Sunoco Rookie of the Year Award and a check for $3500 was presented to James Civali. James said, “I tried all of my life to do well. Last year, I came to the realization that I was going about it all wrong.” He added, “I’d like to thank Reverend Rick from Racing with Jesus. Over the winter he worked with me very hard on an anger management program.”

Stan “Sly” Szaban did a wonderful job in his acceptance of the champion’s Crew Chief Award. Sly asked Chris Kopec to join him on the stage. Szaban had a duplicate trophy made for the Flamingo Motorsports General Manager. Sly commented, “Chris is my boss over at Flamingo Motorsports. I think I’ll take Monday off.” He also noted that he’d like to thank Dan from Hoosier Tire East but he wasn’t sure for what. Szaban was cool, classy and humorous.

Phil Kurze from Whelen Engineering presented some fancy watches to the drivers that finished in the top-ten in points. When Phil came to the stage to present Stefanik with his watch, he announced that Mike had accepted his invitation to participate in the Bo-Dyn Bobsled Challenge. When I spoke to Mike earlier, he was quite excited about the upcoming event at Lake Placid.

Phil also presented Mike with a flag that hung with all of the championship banners on the wall of the Uncas Ballroom. Kurze announced, “I have a certificate here that states, “This flag of the United States of America was flown in honor of Mike Stefanik of Coventry, RI upon winning his ninth NASCAR championship in 2006 at the request of United States Senator, Jack Reed.” That flag flew over the United States capitol and it’s yours.”

George Silberman presented Stefanik with his championship ring. Ever since it was apparent that Mike Stefanik would win this title, the rumblings of the media have been about Mike tying Richie Evans number of NASCAR titles. Without fault, when the subject has been raised in conversation, Stefanik has spouted his respect and admiration for Evans. He feels in his heart that there is no way that his accomplishments rival those of the man he considers his mentor and hero. In his acceptance, Stefanik was moved when he spoke of the Modified King.

Silberman had addressed the crowd earlier and briefly mentioned the 2007 schedule. The “Flash” races were a hot topic of discussion at the banquet. Three tracks, Wall Township Speedway, Twin State Speedway and Riverhead Raceway will host these flash races next year. Here’s my take.

NASCAR has had to deal with a lot of bellyaching from teams that show up to a venue where there is a short field and a dozen or more tour regular teams make the “Go Home” list with two laps on their tires. This has been a particular sticking point at Riverhead where the local competitors are accustomed to breaking off a good time trial lap even though some of their chances of completing the show might be just an optimistic daydream. I’ve said it before, “Be careful what you ask for because you might just get it.”

Are “Flash” races the answer? It’s too early to tell. However, at least the sanctioning body is trying something. Perhaps we could change this into some form of time trials with consolation races? We will see how well this works before making any harsh judgments.

Schedule notes. The confirmed schedule lists sixteen races over the course of twenty-seven weeks. The heart of the schedule will begin at Riverhead when the WMT will embark on seven races in seven consecutive weeks. The final four races of that seven race swing are Mansfield Motorsports Speedway, Martinsville Speedway, Modified Mania at Thompson (the traditional 300 weekend) and the September date at New Hampshire International Speedway. That stretch could be telling between the haves and have-nots.

Also make note that one week after the World Series at Thompson that there is a place on the schedule marked “Save the date”. Popular opinion makes this the date for the “Toyota Showdown”. There are a couple of reasons that make me feel that this is subject to change.

First off, if NASCAR wants the competitors of the Whelen Southern Modified Tour to participate in this event, the venue had better be in close proximity to their base of operations. With that as the same weekend as the NEXTEL Cup race at Martinsville, I find it unlikely that the Showdown would be held on the east coast.

The other thing that I find fairly assumptive is that NASCAR would count on the World Series going off without a hitch. We know that we have been blessed with Whelen weather several times in the past but if the final regular season race hasn’t been finished, how could we run this All-Star event and then return to conclude the season?

One thing I have to say about the folks at Mohegan Sun; they know how to throw a party. The menu was awesome. The chocolate fondue was a hit for dessert and more than a few people appeared as though they might have had just a little too much to drink. For their sake, I hope they drank and stayed put. Connecticut’s finest setup a sobriety check point on CT32, just up the road from the casino Saturday night. They stopped everyone, even me.

One person who would normally appear at the WMT banquet was absent Saturday night. Ralph Solhem was in Daytona for an ARCA test. Former Tour competitor, Ed Kennedy turned impressive laps in the RSR #00.

Two events are closing in on the horizon other than the holidays and the New Year. The Bo-Dyn Bobsled Challenge will be at Lake Placid in January. This year’s event will be run in conjunction with the U.S. Bobsled National Championships on the 4th thru 6th. As Mentioned earlier, Mike Stefanik will be participating. Anyone who comes will make this an annual pilgrimage. For more information on the Bo-Dyn Bobsled Challenge visit www.bodynbobsled.com.

Also on tap is the Motorsports Show in Atlantic City which will be run in conjunction with the Atlantic City Indoor Races. MSS will be there to cover all of the breaking stories. For further information on the Motorsports Show or the Indoor Races at Atlantic City visit www.aarn.com.

The 2006 Newcomb Awards are just around the corner. Also look for my interview with Ben Dodge to post in the New Year. Until next time, may everyone have the happiest of holiday seasons, Merry Christmas, Happy New Year, shalom and Amen.