It’s almost over folks. We were greeted by unseasonably warm weather at Stafford Motor Speedway this weekend. Congratulations are in order for a number of people and we will get to that later on. I’ll start off this week by expounding a little about a post I made last week on the MSS Message Forum.

I was emailed a link to a petition which heralds “Forget the Mountain, Build the Racetrack”. Most of us on Long Island have pretty much resigned to the fact that public and political sentiment against motorsports will make it quite difficult for a new racetrack to be built on our sandbar south of Connecticut. The decision made by the Riverhead Town board only goes to confirm those sentiments.

Several developers submitted their proposals to develop the largest portion of the former Grumman facility in Calverton. This is just a few miles west of Riverhead Raceway. In the end it appears that the board chose one of the only proposals that did not include a motorsports facility. What it does include is a three hundred fifty foot tall man-made mountain for an indoor year-around winter wonderland.

Basically this mountain is based on an indoor ski resort that was built in Dubai. It’s one thing to build a pretend ski resort in a place where people will never see snow in their lives, like the United Arab Emirates. It’s another thing to build a monster structure, to create what amounts to a bunny hill, in an area that gets snow every year and is just a few hours away from real ski resorts. Not to mention that the highest point on Long Island is about two hundred feet to begin with.

I could go on and write a twelve-page story about this project, why it won’t work and why U.S. Government officials should investigate this decision. However, this is supposed to be just about Modified racing. Perhaps I may post something on the Turn Left blog some other time. Meanwhile, I would appreciate it if anyone who would like to see a new racetrack on Long Island to please sign this petition.

Speaking of blogs; congratulations are in order for our friend Shawn Courchesne. His auto racing blog became the number one blog on the Hartford Courant’s website last week. I am sure that many of those who are reading this article contributed to this accomplishment. On Shawn’s behalf, I thank you.

We arrived at Stafford Motor Speedway a little later that when the gates opened up on Saturday. The paddock area was awhirl with activity as we pulled in. The car we rolled out of our transporter was not the black Sunoco Mod we had converted into a Tour car several weeks ago.

Some thought it might have been our old car. It was a new one. It was actually a car that John Blewett, III was in the process of constructing earlier in the year. The Performance Engine that had been in our previous car was under the hood, but everything else, besides the hood and the drive train, was new.

Speaking of JBIII, C&C Promotions announced this weekend that their North-South Shootout™ has been re-named. The new name of this event will be the John Blewett III Memorial North-South Shootout™. According to the press release, the name shall remain in perpetuity. It’s a fitting tribute to the man who won the inaugural event and two of its first three Tour-type Modified feature races.

Our new car seemed to perform well. The usual suspects were at the top of the charts when qualifying was completed. That was except for Doug Coby, who was qualifying Dick Houlihan’s #46, who turned in a great lap. Eric Beers edged out Coby for the pole.

While we were rolling out to tech our car before qualifying, Larry “Grub” Solbo came over and decided to kid around with George of the jungle. He promised that he was going to “pants” the young lad during the pit party on Sunday. By the time we got to the scales I almost had to bite my tongue to keep from laughing.

We stayed at the Country Club Q. When Roy and I arrived in our room, the heat was on full-blast! Roy actually put the air-conditioner on full force as if he might melt as well.

We turned on the Busch race so Roy could yell at Dr. Jerry Punch. Roy called Eddie to inquire about dinner. Ed told us to come downstairs and that we would probably eat in the hotel’s restaurant.

This place used to have a pretty good restaurant. Jimmy had ordered up a pizza about an hour earlier at the bar. Although he had paid for it in advance, the pizza never arrived. Apparently the bartender had given the pie to someone else at the bar. With a bad taste in our mouths we went across the street by the red Muppet.

The food was great and reports from those who actually dined in the restaurant at the hotel, so was theirs. I couldn’t wait to get back to the hotel. I needed some sleep. When I called Shopgirl on Sunday morning, I apologized for not calling her Saturday night. I had been so tired that I forgot I had called.

Sunday morning I grabbed a bite at the hotel’s continental breakfast. Roy had some juice or something down there. When we got to the track he fired up his grille and started cooking breakfast. He said, “Hey Walt, what do you want for breakfast?” I responded, “Don’t you remember I ate a half an hour ago?”

I bumped into Peter Adams at the Racing with Jesus Victory Chapel. Peter publishes the “Master Frequency List”. For those of you who enjoy scanning communications between drivers and their teams, this publication is a must have item. The latest edition is twenty-six pages in length and has the frequencies that most major touring series teams are using.

The Master Frequency List is available at Thompson Speedway, Stafford Motor Speedway, Beech Ridge Speedway and that track near New London which I refuse to name from the track concessionaires. All editions include listings for those local competitors as well. Adams updates and re-issues the Master Frequency List five times per year.

Anyone who wants to stay up to date can subscribe and receive the next five issues by mail. There is a subscription coupon in every issue. For the next five issues, send a check or money order for $20.00 to Master Frequency List, P.O. Box 8001, Portland, ME 04104. Kids, please don’t forget to include your mailing address.

Off to the track and on to the pit party. My guess is the pit party at Stafford is a primer for kids to go trick-or-treating. There were a whole bunch of kids hopped up on candy Sunday.

I saw the ever-jovial Steve Halpin at the pit party. Steve earned the Walt’s Cup quote of the week. He commented to Donny Lia, “Your hair looks nice this week. What did you get a haircut or something? Last week it looked like you brushed your hair with a firecracker.” Halpin says he stole the line from David Roys.

Donny Lia and Jimmy Blewett exchanged barbs by drawing on each others hero cards. Jimmy gave Donny long hair, wrote American Idol with a star on the quarter panel and replaced Lia’s name with Paula Abdul. Then he asked a kid to have Donny sign it. Lia returned the favor with a likeness of Ricki Lake on one of Jimmy’ hero cards. We were having more fun than should be allowed by law.

So we’re running along in the race and it looks like we’re going to wind up with a good finish. We picked up a couple of spots by only taking two tires when we pitted. We would have gained five spots if an official wasn’t standing in front of our stall when Jimmy pulled in.

Then there was an error. Our spotter believed that there were twelve laps to go. Unfortunately, there were twenty-two laps to go. He counted Jimmy down, encouraging him each lap until; well there were ten more laps to go.

By that time, Jimmy had used up whatever good there was left in the car, the tires and perhaps even himself. Guys were passing us like we threw out the anchor. Hey, it was an honest mistake and if we had a better view of the scoreboard from our pit stall, we would have straightened it out before it became an issue.

Regardless of that, we still finished sixteenth. Congratulations to Donny Lia, Bob Garbarino and the whole Mystic Missile team on winning the Whelen Modified Tour championship. For Garbarino, this is something that has been “a long time coming”.

Mike Stefanik pulled out the victory by fending off Tony Hirschman and Ted Christopher. The podium looked like the top of a Pick-6 list from last season. It was the defending champion’s first victory of the year.

Upon arriving back at our hauler, we discovered that we had been locked out. Rumors have circulated that there have been some things “missing” again which has prompted many of us to be a little more cautious about leaving things wide open in the paddock area. Roy had the keys and we figured he was trying to get into the #4 team’s championship pictures.

George of the jungle lived up to his name. He pulled himself up onto our elevated ramp and did a home-invasion style entrance through the upper deck. About when George had the doors open from the inside, Roy showed up with the keys.

We loaded up and headed home. George and I rode in the trailer. We were both famished. Neither of us had eaten since breakfast. George and I discussed that Roy was so hot to trot to fix us all breakfast after we just ate. Where the (expletive deleted) was lunch?

George raided the refrigerator and we polished off what little remained of the cold cuts. Then I called Roy on his cell phone. Roy answered his phone up in the cab. “Roy, where are the cookies?”

There were no cookies to be had but George raided the pit candy so he could have some dessert. George went to sleep with his eyes half way open. That set off my weird alarm.

When George woke up, he started waving at people through the window. I told him to turn the lights on so people could see him. I think he felt like a rock star. The American Idol of the Whelen Modified Tour hauler scene.

We traveled in the center lane at Partridge speed. That meant George on the right side got to wave at people we passed. On the left side it meant I saw very few faces along the way. That’s because we were moving at a good clip.

On the Long Island Expressway, one thing did pass us on the left. It was one of those green coaches. I called up Halpin to see if their bus had passed us. I don’t know whether it was too much time in the sun, the alcohol or a screwed up GPS but he and the people around him somehow believed that they were in Rhode Island.

I gave him another ring when we left the shop. They still hadn’t gotten to the Throgs Neck Bridge. That’s the advantage of traveling with someone who has a heavy right foot and refuses to stop.

The World Series is next. A few of our guys are excited about the baseball playoffs. I’m one of those on suicide watch as the Mets demonstrated their futility over the last weeks of the MLB season. At least the Giants won.

Our World Series in Thompson kicks off on Columbus Day. Get your firewood ready and keep those pallets away from the motor homes. I look forward to seeing everyone there.