I’m back from Atlantic City after a wonderful weekend of racing and great experiences. Even with all of the fun we had, there are always people who seem to want to rain on everyone’s parade. Like a (expletive deleted) rent-a-cop at one entrance. I don’t need to expound on that when there are so many good things to talk about.

One of the first people I ran into at the Motorsports 2008 show was Donny Lia. Donny has just opened a RC (remote control) race track. Business is booming and the way that it sounds, he has invested to make 360 RC Speedway & Hobbies one of the classiest RC racing venues that has ever been created.

There was a beautiful John Blewett, III tribute booth. I took some pictures of it but they do not give it justice. It turned into one of those places where folks chose to take their photo opportunities.

Donny and Woody Pitkat signed autographs at the Racing With Jesus Ministries booth. The Mystic Missile, Woody’s #52 SK from Stafford and Joey Logano’s Camping World East Series racecars joined the RWJM pace car in that booth. Logano had planned on attending the autograph session but he was called away to test for Toyota in some far-off land.

One person was insistent that Reverend Don Rivers was Donny’s twin brother. This gentleman was quite inebriated. He got Chuck Hossfeld and Lia to sign his shirt. After a friend took a picture of him with Donny, he earned the Walt’s Cup quote of the week. “God bless all of you. Now it’s time to go to the (adult entertainment) bar.” By the way, did anyone realize that all Reverends in New Jersey are named Dan?

Ken Spring sells some of his pictures at the RWJM booth. I wrote a story about Ken for Alan Claffie’s, East Series site last year called “The Man in the Grass”. I’m glad he found the negative for that picture.

AARN has a really cool autograph session. They had a special flyer for those at the session to sign. Jimmy Blewett and Brett Hearn were among the racers at the session.

It’s always a pleasure to see Lew Boyd from Coastal181.com. He gave me a copy of David Poole’s book, “Tim Richmond”. It is billed as, “The fast life and the remarkable times of NASCAR’s Top Gun”. I will write a review of this book shortly on StockCarCity.com.

Doug Wolfgang was there as well. He and writer, Dave Argabright, were there to promote their book, “Lone Wolf”. Doug’s biography features a forward by Steve Kinser and is one of the many great titles available from Coastal181.com.

Mike Smith, PR Director for the Martinsville Speedway told me that they were bringing back the pond. He told me that they were going to race boats in it and then pointed to an Unlimited Hydroplane in the adjacent booth. Mike said, “We’re going to race these.” (An Unlimited Hydroplane could barely fit in the old pond.) Smith was handing out ISC legal souvenir bags and they were a big hit with the fans.

The brochure for the AC Jitney says that the word jitney means nickel. Apparently, that is what it used to cost to take this form of mass transit. One of the folks who joined me on the Jitney to Boardwalk Hall said that the $2 fare was, “the best two bucks I’ll spend all weekend.”

Historic Boardwalk Hall is a massive old building. This place hosts all kinds of sporting events including boxing, ice hockey and basketball in addition to these indoor races. It is also quite a concert venue and where the Miss America Pageant was held for many years. The most memorable events I’ve seen televised from the hall were the Arturo “Thunder” Gatti fights.

A plywood box filled with assorted accessories for different sports sat near the track entrance. The concrete floor of the arena is sprayed with cola syrup to create traction. The outside walls of the track are made of linked temporary Jersey barriers and the infield rail is Armco. Infield spectators stand inside a ring of hockey board sections laid out flat.

Three divisions competed at the Gambler’s Classic, Champ Karts, Slingshots and TQ Midgets / Micro Sprints. I tried to find someone who could tell me the difference between the TQs and the Micro Sprints that raced against each other. I’m sure there were plenty of people who could have explained that to me in detail but everything seemed to be in hurry-up mode whenever the thought crossed my mind.

The Champ Karts are Go Karts with roll cages. They needed those cages this weekend. Several competitors wound up on their lids.

The Slingshot cars looked like advanced karts with Dirt Modified bodies. It looked like Mini Dirt Modified insanity when they were out there. Once they’d get going for a few laps, they looked like a lot of fun.

The TQs looked like Modifieds on Fast Forward. Last year’s winner, Joey Payne, had quite an eventful weekend. Friday night he attempted to win his heat race after starting in the rear to earn a $1000 Gambler’s bonus. I guess he felt Ken Schrader chopped him as he was passing Ken for fourth place. Schrader wound up on his lid.

Well over ninety cars showed up for the TQ/Micro race. Three transferred from time trials as long as they took the green flag in their heat races. Four transferred from three heat races into the A-Main in addition to the three fast qualifiers. The balance would fight it out in alphabet soup. Those who weren’t in the top-sixty in time battled in one of two D-Mains. Somebody get me a rulebook.

One of the TQ/Micro heats included a multi-car pileup in turn one. I happened to be sitting directly above the accident and got a few pictures of the mess. I yelled down, “That’s what you get for playing with your toys inside the house.”

When the racing was over on Friday night I headed for the place where you’re supposed to be smarter for staying there. I called it the Boiling Point Casino on the Message Forum because I was staying in room 212. I had checked in there earlier in the day before going down to check out the action.

When I got back to the hotel, I noticed a couple of distinct odors. After getting settled in and making a post, I set out to get some groceries. As I went out, I inventoried the smells. Okay, the smell in the elevator is Curry. The smell in the lobby is hemp…burning hemp.

Saturday I was listening to NASCAR radio on the way to Boardwalk Hall. Donny Lia was a phone-in guest. The host asked him about the RC event he was hosting. Donny explained that about a hundred competitors had shown up for the “Carpet Cooler 200”.

I parked in the basement and walked to the Convention Center. These two venues are not too far apart. It’s a good idea to take the #4 Jitney in the evening as pedestrian traffic through those dark-purple properties is not recommended after dark.

The Media PR workshop certainly showed me that the guys at Lincoln Speedway in PA have their act together. Perhaps we can get some media people to attend this in the future. Valuable information was discussed but most of it will be kept secret by two Long Island scribes in attendance.

Back at the Hall, every time I walked past the “Scoreboard Control” room, it seemed like the guys in there were having too much fun. They played the “Smooch Game” in cahoots with their cameramen and the roving announcer. Everyone waved for the camera and the fans were very well behaved.

Several times on Friday and Saturday nights, the event was shut down by a New Jersey State agency. Air pollutant levels were monitored constantly. Even through the delays, the fans were entertained with t-shirt giveaways and presentations. Len Sammons’ staff did a masterful job of keeping the ball rolling.

Mike Tidaback did a great job taking down the win in the featured TQ/Micro event. Joey Payne finished second after Tim Adams crashed across the finish third. Bobby Santos, III finished fourth. Apparently, Santos was driving a 600cc Micro-Sprint because he won the $600 bonus for being the first Micro across the line. For further results, the press release from this event is posted in Lou’s House on the Message Forum.

I got out of there in a hurry. I remembered getting trapped in the basement garage last year. My departure was easy. Flakes dropped from the sky as I drove past Don King Plaza.

Everyone I talked to thought that the feature was an awesome race. The highlight of the race to me was a move that Payne put on Stevie Smith. It almost seemed like there had to be a warp in the time-space continuum for it actually to have happened. Joey was two lengths behind Stevie on the outside here and three lengths past him on the outside there a split second later. I know he went underneath Smith, but how?

A great time was had by most and I can’t wait to go back next year. I should have a few more articles to post shortly. In the meantime we await Speedweeks. Thanks for reading along.