“uh, yeah! It was like the best time EVER!”
…that was what one of my LL’ers said on the ride home when I asked them if they enjoyed the races. I guess that’s a good thing, right?
However BEWARE – I ain’t all peaches & pie this week…
It seemed everyone enjoyed the HR Derby. The kids certainly did, and the drivers were all smiles down there too… so I hope it was a good show. The wind didn’t help much as it was blowin’ towards the hitters and keeping the home run totals down, and it also didn’t help my pitches any as I could basically only throw e-fuss pitches without the wind sending them wide right…
For the record – Jake Swanson from Waterford LL South won with 9 runs (2 grand slams and 1 solo shot). Soup took me deep on the first pitch – the big guy’s still got it. ‘chard brought out some deluxe 65 bat and then hit 3 solo jobs, I believe. da house did some damage, and I believe Mark Bakaj smacked 4 or so into the catch fence, one or two more than Diego (who definitely didn’t hit the 6 he was yappin’ about in the papers ) … maybe… honestly, I have no clue who hit how many really… we only had 30 mins to get the contest in, so I was in Beat the Clock mode.
But the best show of the night was Mr Janovic Jr. Coming to the plate with 2 bats in hand, he followed up the 1st HR of the day with an overswing that sent him to the ground on the next pitch If I had a trophy for most entertaining swing, Rob woulda taken it home… thanks to the kid Paul, Timmy Stock, Chris Buck-EYE! and John Puglisi for hangin’ out with the kids as well…
I gotta take time to also thank Pete Zanardi for all his help puttin’ this together, Dave Dykes for keepin’ score during the event, Gary Danko – who filled in for Matt Buckler on a moment’s notice, Mr. Iguana for rollin’ tape with the video cam, the drivers, staff and officials who help shag all the balls and keep the show moving and to Bill Roth, who basically trusted me enough to give me the freedom to format this bad boy at my own discretion as long as I could do it in 30 minutes.
By the way – the LL Night festivities were done on a budget of $0.00 – just goes to show that ideas are more important than money sometimes… I gotta say, I was bummed to hear there were actually grumblings through the backpits of “What is this? Wacky Wednesday? What’s the hold up” If any of those people were in the car with me on the ride home, do you think they’d still feel that way? Ah well, can’t please everyone… 6 divisions, a 1/2 hr exhibition and a quick rain delay and the show was still done by 10pm – ain’t nothing wrong with that!!
BACK TO RACING:
Let’s talk about Dwayne, shall we? Mr. Dorr sure is putting on a show. His 5th straight ties the “modern” record of 5 straight by Dennis Gada in 1999 and Phil Rondeau in 1992. The overall record, which I personally told Dwayne in the pits earlier in the day, is 6 by George “Ed” Bunnell in the ol’ Bomber division in 1966 Um, that’d be 40 yrs ago – it’s safe to say Dwayne’s in historic territory…. let’s see what next week brings….
Then we have our my main man Timmy Jordan takin’ home his first LM win. The 4-7 was the class of the field during this race. Neither Goss (who started scratch with his back-up car) nor Stuart (the current point leader) could catch Timmy over the last part of the race Congrats Tim!!
Legend Cars could be a family duel for the track championship if this keeps up. Mark Bakaj with win #2 – and with Chris’ win last week, it’s 3 in a row for the family. They’re also 1-2 in points, Chris tied in 2nd with Mark Esposito (the only other winner in the division this year)
And how ’bout our man JP. Can I just tell ya, Jeff Pearl just knows how to win races – every season this guy’s taking home the trophies at least once. In fact, since 1994, JP has stood atop the podium at least once every year except 2001 (we were both wrong Jeff, I looked it up… where you say? In Sid’s Vault of course… ). That’s a 13 year span in which he’s won a total 21 times. Now tied with 2-time champ Jimmy Broderick for 4th on the SK Career Win List behind some pretty good company: Dennis, Teddy & Bob Potter…
…speakin’ of which, the crafty veteran (now 65) tooled around in the orange #4 Pro 4 Mod. Looked good in the heat, but I think he got involved in a wreck during the feature. Missed the last half of the race doin’ anutha LL Night thing… my bad
The minis to wrap things up and my man ‘chard’s nite just absolutely blew. A tangle with Godbout in 2 sent him into the wall early, then after a pit stop and restart, homeboy has the right front down and has to pull off. Went about 6 or 7 laps down until the next caution, pitted, got blocked by something… a van I think – in the mod pits, and then was stuck at the turn 4 gate after we heard Julie say something to the affect of “let ’em go, the 65’s 5 laps down” – eventually getting back out after the next caution very late in the race…
Nice, huh?
Seriously, what the @(*! was that!! We’re leading the points ova here!! woops, I mean were leading… thank you very little – There are plenty of track champs out here in forum land – am I wrong?? Every point counts, does it not???
I don’t want to sound like sour grapes, but man…. I’m just all jammed up on this one. ‘chard probably doesn’t care – or at least he shouldn’t as Big Ball rules don’t allow the driver to watching points are for geeks on his team like me to worry about and hey – maybe we wouldn’t have gained any more points anyway cuz we were so many laps down but shouldn’t ‘chard get the oppurtunity on the track instead of sitting at the gate going even more laps down?? Is this too much to expect from the officials??
I mean, what’s the point of having a pit crew if you’re not on the lead lap might as well tell the boys to come chill with me up in the bleachers if ‘chard ever goes a lap down again, cuz any effort to get our boy back on the track gets completely disrespected by the officiating crew…
Ya know, we’ve debated the intentional cautions and the guys that cause them for years out here, haven’t we? And I gotta tell ya, I take great pride in rooting for a guy who just won’t do it. It’s respectful to the sport as a whole and that’s easy to root for. But ya know what, after this garbage, I kinda want to tell him to just loop the thing and get the yellow next time. Why the hell not? We’ll probably get it – pit and start at the rear. What could they do? Park us for the night instead…. So what, that’s the equivalent to what we got tonite, so why not give it a shot??
See, when it came over the driver’s frequency for the 65 to pull off, what’d he do – he pulled off. But seems he woulda been better off spinning out to cause a yellow – at least he woulda stayed on the lead lap… although who knows if pit road would still been blocked…
What the hells a van doing on pit road during a feature anyway?? Where was the pit gate dude who coulda redirected him?? Why’s Julie making the call to go green??
And what if, say, Danny Boy, Silvia and/or Phil balled it up on the restart and it ended their nite(s) early?? Do the officials understand how different that would have made the situation?? Do they understand that’s the reason for moving whatever the hell was in his way on pit road and hold the race up until then – cuz it’s racing…. HELLO… anything can happen in a split second… Why should ‘chard suffer consequences when he did nothing wrong? CLEAR PIT ROAD DURING THE DAMN FEATURES FOR CRYIN’ OUT LOUD AND KEEP ‘EM CLEAR!!! MAN AM I JAMMED UP…
10, 9, 8, 7, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2……. :wiggle:
An-y-way… with the Buzzsaw MIA, the Wildman threw down his 2nd win and takes the point lead by 2 over Dave Sylvia. Godbout III, Rich & Phil round out the top 5. I gotta say, with ‘chard out of it, I was hoping to see the 21 of Kyle James get what I believe would be his first career mini feature win.
And how ’bout Dennis quietly attempting his 6th SK title quest?
Did I tell ya how pshyched my LL’ers were about saying “Gentlemen, Start Your Engines!!” Ay-Carumba!!! Every caution I tell ya “Coach, when are we gonna say…”
LL Night was more work than I thought, but it was for a good cause. It’s hard to have a smashing success the first time out on a quick idea, but hopefully we’ll have the oppurtunity to do it again, tweek it and have it catch on a little more… And shouts out to Darling Auto Parts, Flanders Bake Shop, Big A Auto Parts – No Branford, Karns Automotive Centers, Waterford LL South, makinglaps.com, vojanmotorsports.com and of course jeff-pearl.com for helping spread the LL Night flyer out to the masses. And to Pete Vandeveer, Dave Dykes and even our friend Mardy from the Pro 4 tour for doing articles promoting the event.
These no-budget operations had a lot of people pitching in – Big Thanks to all of ’em you guys were great!!
Yo – where was Norm Root Jr… ‘chard said limited schedule. Uh Oh – limited schedule + massive wreck = buh-by sometimes :sadwave: let’s hope the Pumkin 80 returns….
BTW, when ya break a sweat pitching Wiffle Balls for a mere 1/2 hour… well, ya feel a little old I tell ya…
… nah – not me!!
I’m OUT
Sid