Welcome back to my world folks. I want to thank everyone for all of their kind words about my Martinsville article. All that I can really say is that everything did happen as explained, no pets were harmed in the writing of that article and that commercial names were eliminated because those companies don’t pay me.

Let’s go to Thompson and discuss the first part of what used to be the “300” weekend. I apologize to Don Hoenig, Russ Dowd, Ben Dodge and Dale Wolbrink for referring to this event as something else in my last missive. In fact I probably owe an apology to the folks at Seekonk as well. I called it Madness, it’s supposed to be Mania; by any name it’s still a great idea.

The great idea is that we have an event where only Modifieds race. This weekend was once one that many drivers, car owners, crew members and fans circled as the most important Tour date on the schedule. It was when we got together for our Auxiliary picnic and it was the weekend when the Whelen Modified Tour cars raced their longest distance race of the year.

For various reasons, the 300 weekend wasn’t working the way that it had in the past. I have to commend the Thompson International Speedway staff for putting Modified Mania together. Last year this race weekend was the first time there was an event where these three Modified touring series, the Whelen Modified Tour, the Race of Champions Tour and the True Value Modified Racing Series, met to race and represent their sanctions in individual races. Modified Mania creates an amazing confluence of competitors out of which might one day lead to the advancement of Modified racing as we know it. I’ll get back to that later.

Before I go anywhere else with my writings this week, I want to thank God for providing Linda Brady with a new liver. The Lord works in mysterious ways and had Linda not needed a transplant. Joe would not have been at a hospital where he was checked out and consequently underwent a procedure that will probably extend his life as well.

I spoke to Art Barry on Sunday. Apparently his wife has had some complications. She suffered a stroke several weeks ago. Our thoughts and prayers are with the Barrys and the Bradys as they face these trying times.

For the T.S. team, it was an interesting week. Monday, I dropped by the shop and helped Connie Partridge book a flight for Joey Caraccia. After our engine soured at Martinsville, we needed to put a new bullet under the hood of the #12 car. Joey was flown in to help plumb and prepare an engine that he had built for John Blewett, III. This Nu Skool engine was what JBIII had used in Joe and Linda Brady’s car for Speedweeks at New Smyrna Speedway.

One might wonder why a team with our resources didn’t just plunk a new engine into our racecar. Unfortunately, to this point, we haven’t gotten the one and only Tour car that we had raced this year back from that fateful night in Thompson. My understanding is that NASCAR has it and consequently the engine that is in it is not at our disposal. Whenever that does come back, the engine builder will want an opportunity to go through that one as well.

Meanwhile we are fortunate to have one of Joe’s potent engines under the hood for the time being. Those of you who were around when Joe Caraccia was a rookie on the Whelen Modified Tour might remember that I worked with his family run team that season. We had very limited resources, traveled to the track with a flatbed trailer that didn’t even have a tire rack and had a blast wherever we went. Joey’s father Joe, the guy with the Steven Segal-like pony tail and his “Uncle” George liked to eat well. I think that a year with them contributed heavily to my figure.

Joe met his bride at Loudon that year. Pattie Cadorette was working as a race-weekend employee for New Hampshire International Speedway when Caraccia and I ventured into K-Lot before one race there. After chatting with her for a few minutes, he returned and said, “I think she likes me.” Ten years later, Joe and Pattie are expectant parents and I couldn’t be happier for both of them.

Please excuse me if I call anyone “Dude”. Joey calls everyone Dude. Consequently after I spend more than an hour with him, I start calling everyone Dude. After this weekend, I’ll be calling customers of mine Dude for weeks.

Last week’s early exit had one benefit. Andy Lynch and I only had to mount one set of tires this week. It’ll be different at Loudon.

We had an adventure Sunday in the Sunoco Modified race. I think Jimmy started thirteenth and passed about seventy cars during the race. The fifty lap affair was shortened to thirty-five laps due to time constraints. It was an absolute wreckfest.

When informed of the reduction of the race distance, Ed Partridge’s response earned the quote of the week. He told the official who informed us, “Come on. Are you kidding me? If you run the full fifty laps you could put us to the rear at least three more times.”

The Race of Champions Tour ran their race prior to the Sunoco Mod show. Matt Hirschman ran away with the win. “Pistol” Pete Brittain and Rick Kluth followed him across the stripe.

The True Value Modified Racing Series was out on the track when the heavens opened up. It seemed like they ran the two full laps they had under a downpour. Fortunately, the race was halted before there were any accidents.

It appeared to be a passing shower, but then it rained harder. The event was called and that was the right decision. With so little rain over the past several months, the infield grass areas have turned into hardpan. The water sat on top of the infield surface making conditions there hazardous no matter whether the track had ever been dried.

The features were postponed until Saturday, September 22nd. This was incredibly disappointing for many people. Although that is the next available weekend and no one wants to be racing too late in the year; that is the same date as the 57th Annual Sunoco Race of Champions race at Oswego.

I had actually spoken to Andy Harpell earlier in the day about going up to Oswego to cover the race for Mod Series Scene. This postponement makes those plans moot. Although there are several WMT competitors that are up in the points that planned on racing at the RoC, I wouldn’t be surprised if a couple of drivers skipped the completion of Mania II in lieu of that event.

Update! Although I didn’t get a press release, the Mania II WMT and TVMRS events will now be made up on Sunday the 23rd. At least that is according my buddy Courchesne. This means that some folks might be interested in becoming frequent flyers. Sorry Andy, I still can’t make it.

The Modified Series Auxiliary will be having a picnic on Friday at NHIS. My understanding is that we will be getting together outside of turn two at the Loudon facility. Anyone who is interested in attending or helping out should contact Cheryl Tomaino.

There was quite a bit of banter between the ladies in the T.S. Haulers camp during the rain delay. Some of it was really funny. I was oblivious to most of it. Either way, no one will read concerning any of this because I’m not allowed to write about it.

The venture home from Thompson put us on a seven o’clock departure toward Orient Point on the boat. This was the first trip on the ferry for Ed’s new rig. I found it amazing that while we have a lounge that will easily seat at least a dozen people that I was the only one sitting in this comfortable area. The rest of the guys spent the trip sitting on coolers and folding chairs down by the cabinets.

As we approached the shop, the conversation revolved around dinner plans and the possibility of a visit to a local restaurant for some adult beverages. I decided to go and join whoever went. It was supposed to last an hour. It turned into an affair that lasted most of the night.

We were at an establishment where everything is supposed to be better, one day of the week. The attendance dwindled from what could have been a full crew to Stanley, Joe and I. The Giant game was on and Stanley and I are big fans of the G-Men; who promptly got their (expletive deleted) handed to them by the pokes. Stan’s phone kept ringing with people breaking his shoes until I think he might have stopped answering it or shut it off.

Apparently, this particular location of this chain restaurant has become of note lately. One of the bartenders threw Tommy Lee, the drummer of Mötley Crüe fame, out of this place for drinking two shots at once. This is a no-no as far as this restaurant’s policy and he was summarily asked to leave. The bartenders that were working while we were there basically implied that that particular bartender was an (expletive deleted) about the situation, that Pamela Anderson’s ex-husband left without incident and that Tommy had been cool about the whole thing.

We tried to get thrown out of the place too. They weren’t having any of it. The bartenders smiled and laughed at us.

Stan and I then gave Joey a tour of Long Island Modified racing history that would be the envy of many fans. We spent three and a half hours visiting several shops and looking at Modified racecars of legend. It was a great time and one of the most enjoyable evenings I have spent sober with two guys who had consumed that many red, white and blues. Oh yeah, they sponsor that guy who didn’t make the chase.

Now is later. I spoke earlier about the confluence that is created by having the three different racing series all at one event. We missed an opportunity this past weekend where we could have brought all of the owners, drivers and crew members across the Modified racing community together to discuss issues.

We could have discussed engine technology, ways to reduce costs or a myriad of other things. Most importantly we could have discussed how to make Modified racing safer. It’s the pink elephant sitting in the corner and it is not being addressed.

We are under the illusion that our Modifieds are safe. They are considerably safer than they have been in the past. Our trip down Memory Lane with Joe demonstrated example after example of that.

Each of the racecars we looked at was state-of-the-art for their time. They were among the safest racecars of their time. When one looks at those cars in hindsight, with the knowledge we have today, it seems insane that people actually raced these things.

I can only think that twenty years from now, those of us who are still alive will be explaining to people that a car saved and restored from this season was state-of-the-art as far as safety in 2007. Young people will stare in amazement at what they think is a relic from a time gone by. They’ll probably ask, “Who was crazy enough to drive this thing?”

This is not about NASCAR. It’s not about the RoC or the TVMRS. Modified racing is about what we, the competitors, make of it. If we want our drivers, crew members and fans to be safer, it is up to us to make it that way.

Although sanctioning bodies put regulations in their rule books, it’s up to us to figure out what is necessary to move forward. Waiting on the sanctioning bodies to make difficult decisions, like some we might have to make to build safer racecars, is like waiting for the government to clean up our drinking water.

There’s no money in cleaning up public water supplies for the people who could make a decision that would make a difference. Politicians receive campaign contributions from companies that bottle drinking water. The electorate will sit and wait for the day they can drink water from the tap safely again without a whimper until no one alive has ever consumed anything but bottled water.

Our sanctioning bodies can become politically charged as well. Officials rise to prominence through maintaining the status quo as opposed to being pro-active. Those who stir up the pot generally don’t get to keep their positions.

Let’s commit to getting together as a community in the coming months. We can make a difference. Everyone has different ideas and many of them will work together. If we don’t make changes, we will have no one to blame but ourselves.

By the way it was really great to see Mark Mockovak this weekend. Mark was working with the TVMRS. He said he was just pitching in but suddenly I get press releases. Imagine that? It was also good to see Paul Schaefer, who was filling in for Jason Christley with NASCAR this week.

I guess we’ll get together at Loudon. It should be a wild time up there. The chase will be on and the USAC Silver Crown cars will be there as well. I can’t wait to see everyone there.