HO-LY CRAP MAN!! What a night at the ‘bowl… So much to get to… Racing was tremendous with drama up the wazoo, but it also was LL Night and since that’s my baby, we’ll start with that shall we…
I gotta tell ya… with The Vault Report this season, I didn’t have nearly the time I did last year to prepare for this bad boy – the main part of which is rounding up kids… Last year (my last season as an active LL coach) it was a lil’ easier… I had my whole team there for backup if I couldn’t get other kids from around the area to join… this year I had a grand total of 0 kids lined up by the time the heats started… But no worries, I found 10 kids no prob by game time, and the drivers were all still ready to roll… Mother Nature hooked up us too and didn’t blow wind into the batters’ faces this year either… so that was pretty schweet… and… made for some serious long balls… some of the shots came close to the scorers’ tower and one kid even sent a liner that hit my man Roth right in the nuts… to which I promptly asked “Hey, this is fun ain’t it Bill?”
One tough moment was my man Soup – he went down after his second swing… and not Rob Janovic style – I think Soup really hurt himself. Soup’s a great dude, and although I asked ’em like 3 times if he was sure he wanted to do it, he said like he always does “anything for the kids Sid, I’ll be there” Luckily my man ‘chard was helpin’ out and stepped in to finish his at bats… and Soup seemed OK… he drove in the feature later one…
In the end, it was Brad Caddick and a LL’er from New Haven named Joseph Lamb who won the event. They combined for 15 total runs, the winning shot was Lamb’s 4-run bomb deep into the bleachers…
Props to all the drivers: Brad, Soup, Rob Janovic, Eddie Reed, Timmy Stock, Buck-EYE Bros, Dwayne Wayne, Diego and my man Kenny Jr who stepped in last minute when Puglisi had too much goin’ on in the pits to hang out this year. (Larry Goss agreed to do the same for Eddie if he wasn’t able to get to the track in time) Huge big-ups to my man ‘chard – not only did he help out on the track during the HR derby, but he helped (maybe let-me-watch is the better term) make the strike board late Friday night. Buckler did his thing on the mic, Zanards return as umpire, our boy JW helped keep things organized and running smoothly, Big Joe helped keeping the HR tallies and feedin’ Buckler the kids’ names. Lots of officials helping shag balls, Roth came through with a killer trophy for Joe Lamb, all the guys in the press booth were notin’ the kids’ names… and I dunno… it was just fun – exactly what it was supposed to be… so thanks to everyone who helped out!!!
So let’s get to the racing shall we…
Legend race was the starting feature and it was pretty brutal… can’t say I saw alot of it as I was fartin’ around with HR derby stuff still and then I could finally settle in and what not… all’s I can tell ya is I got a lot done while this seeming wreck-fest was going on. Jason Palmer won again – this cat’s got like 4 or 5 total this year between Wed & Sat…
Late Models up next and once again the drama on the track outweighted the car count (14 this week, though – a lil’ better at least). Anyway – Eddie Reed, runnin’ third, threw it in like a champ underneath his teammate Larry Goss and Ernie who were runnin’ side-by-side for the lead. As they came around into turn 1, I think they all touched and Larry ended up in the wall n’ off on the hook in the end. He threw some arms at Eddie and walked back to the pits.
Eddie held the lead for quite some time… then got some luv from Tony Macrino, who pulled a bumb-n-run and took the lead… Maybe Macrino was gonna win one finally… well wouldn’t ya know Eddie would race back to him and retake the lead. And oh yeah… at some point, Ernie lost it out of 4 and hit the wall hard – and the first guy down to the fence to mutha-F ’em was good ol’ Larry… Say huh? I thought he was mad at Eddie… not that Larry’s never been mad at more than 1 person at a time… I was hopin’ for one of his trademark retirement speeches, but I never heard one…
Curious Joe returned this week too and got airborne at one point before hitting the wall and demolishing the car… or so I was told – of course I missed it…. Unfortunately though, Joe wasn’t the only driver who got airbone this week…
Any-who, Eddie’s still leadin’ and now he’s got Bruce Jr to deal with… I’d say with a lap or 2 to go, Bruce got into Eddie thu 3 & 4 and threw it underneath for the lead and eventually the win. Eddie wheeled up to Bruce on the backstretch after the checkereds and pretty much junked the #35’s rear end – spun ’em right around…
Then… (thought the drama was over… no siree BOB)… Eddie ran down to Bruce’s post race interview all clappin’ up in his face… I can’t say I ever remember Eddie this wound up… So I dunno… to be honest, I didn’t have a problem with any of the moves (Eddie on Larry/Ernie, Macrino on Eddie or Bruce on Eddie)… none of them were the cleanest of moves, but it was racing hard – I friggin’ love that s*&t!!
I ran into Eddie afterwards, and he seemed regretful about the whole thing… didn’t talk to any of Bruce’s clan, but I hope everyone cools off and next week the LM feature will be entertaining once again…
Word was there was a piece of cake with my name on it in the Fox Hill trailer (puttin’ JP on the cover sure changed Diane Pearl’s tune, huh) so thinkin’ the Sportsman were next, I was on my way… but wha… I see the 4-bangers comin’ out… whoa-ho-ho… I don’t think so… revert… back to the Family Section…
Earlier in the day, I saw not one but 2 W&P machines toolin’ around… reinforcements for some previous weeks shananigans possibly. BB’ers ran the back up car for a while… I dig… But only one W&P on the track come feature time – and Danny Boy finally took home the checkereds – on his birthday no less… the Big 5-0 – which Danny pronounced “twenty one” during his Buckler interview… Field held off Kenny Jr and Sylvia to get his first win of 2007 and 13th MS win of his career I believe…
Still had to wait for my cake, as CraigM got me a gig as the honorary starter for the SK race! How friggin’ cool was that you ask… well… it was just the coolest thing I’ve done all season… but I gotta tell ya, with the WMT tour off this week, that meant Brooksie was yappin’ in the pits somewhere – so I had to be sharp… I was workin’ the figure-8 technique in the Family Section and just wanted to make sure I didn’t drop the damn flag…
So I get up there with Craig & James… chillin’… they say to wave the green when there about here and I’m sayin’…
“dude, just tap me so I don’t screw it up”
Lights are off…
Buckler calls me out to the crowd…
Family Section erupts…
Pace car pulls off…
and I start wiggin…
“Oh boy… Here we go…”
“Okay… figure 8… work the figure 8”
“Don’t drop it”
“Where’s Brooksie”
“Oh sh*t… here they come…”
“Don’t drop it A-hole”
…and…
…c’mon… I worked the Figure 8 wave like a champ of course, the SK’s go under us and it was probably the coolest place I’ve ever hung out while the mods go green… Loud as a mutha and like you’re in a wind tunnell, it was just awesome… Gained a whole ‘nutha perspective on how fast these guys tool around the track… it was really a cool moment…
… at the same time, part of me was a lil’ nervous… I dunno, I’m a wuss-bag like that I guess… Craig said I could hang if I wanted, but after the first caution I was audi… back to the Family Section where I feel more comfortable. In a way, that lil’ gig was like a Thank You from the track for my volunteer LL Night efforts, and that was pretty cool… I’m easy to please… :wiggle:
SK race had Jay Miller leading most of the way… it sure has been a while since he’s won a ‘bowl feature – but after several restarts, he eventually lost out to Dennis Charette. It’s been a while for the #35 gang too, and on this night it was Charette who took the win… and like the Vault Report hinted at, it was his 7th career SK win at the ‘bowl.
Unfortunately though, Charette’s celebration was halted by a terrifying accident just before the finish line… I don’t know how it started… all I know is right in front of me, Wendall Dailey’s #66 got airborne and flashed the bottom of his car to the Family Section before landing on all 4’s… Seriously, it seemed like his car went off the ground like 10 ft or maybe even higher… it was truly frightening…
Wendall got out of the car under his own power, but needed medical attention immediately afterwards. He left in the ambulance, although reports were that he was talking and moving his arms and legs… so let’s hope everything’s A-OK…
I’ve had the chance to meet Wendall this year, and he’s just a really nice guy… He’ll probably be sore like a mutha for a couple days, but I hope he’ll be back soon as possible.
So FINALLY… finally it’s time to head to Fox Hill land and score that piece o’ cake… Totally worth JP on the cover… giddy up… and so I watched the Sportsman race from the Mod pit fence – and I gotta tell ya… it just ain’t the same… I’m on my tippy toes, can’t see the scoreboard… I’m definitely a fan – give me the Family Section view any time… The 84 had a huge lead for most of the race, but it was Al Stone III who won in the end. I believe that’s #2 for him this season.
So I head back to home base to wrap things up and I finally see Brooksie…
“Yo – did ya check me out on the starters’ stand”
“You… doin’ what?”
“Awe man, that’s f**ked up, I had that Figure 8 techique down”
“Huh”
“You mean I was the Grand Marshall for the SK’s n’ ya didn’t even see it”
“You weren’t the Grand Marshall, you were an honorary starter… Grand Marshalls say ‘Gentlemen, Start Your Engine’ and all that…”
Whateva dude – ya don’t have to get all official on me…
I’m Out
Sid