HO….
LY….
CRAP!!!
Did I miss a show or what!!!!
To make it worse, my wiffle team couldn’t even defend our title and finished 3rd (what can I say, sometimes the beer tastes that much better than usual and ya don’t worry too much about the hand-eye coordination needed in the game at hand) …so needless to say, our early tourney exit stings a little more knowing what I missed at the track.
Props for all the recaps …. ya all done so good, now I got plenty to say… so let’s giddy up….
For starters – it’s absolute garbage that Jeff D & Jen show up the one time I’m MIA… but whateva, it’s just more material to verbally abuse you both with sometime later… Last time Jeff D showed up, ‘chard won and he saw some craziness in the Family Section, but looks like that pales in comparison to what happened this week…
I guess we should start with the Big One, huh? ‘chard told me when I called for the mini recap that the LM was the show of the nite. Whenever “barrell roll” is used in a post-race description, ya know there was chaos. Sounds like many involved and Stuart seems to be the focus here as it seems the 35-42 rivalry hit new heights.
I don’t Stuart or Junior personally – and to be honest, I like their ‘rivalry’… maybe not to the extent to what it led to this weekend, but rivalries are good for the sport and as a fan, we need them to be compelled. It seems the majority of what I read points the finger at Stuart’s over-aggressiveness leading to the mayhem. That’s not too suprising… Stuart is rough… although I saw nothing of what happened this week…
I’m glad to hear JLoz is OK – I couldn’t imagine what his family felt as the car went down the frontstretch …it’s always amazed me what racecar drivers escape from without serious injury…. but sounds like his return on a weekly basis is unlikely now and that’s not good…
I’ll let you guys handle the particulars as I start enough crap when I think I see the whole thing – so onto other things…
I’d have to say the “Least Enviable Position to Have” Award to this week goes to Steve Harraka. Ay-yi-yi… talk about being tested. Sounds like the LM’s are on the verge – if not already – of outta control, and as a race director, that can’t happen in any division and when it does, it has to be dealt with.
So there’s a couple things that concern me here:
I read Harraka already had a meeting with the LM’ers about the on track chaos. So that didn’t seem to work, now what…
Read something else about giving the division a week(s) off. I’d vote no on this idea. Will we get a 20% discount at the gate for having one less of the usual 5 divisions out there?? Or a replacement feature event of equal caliber (read ARTS and Pro 4 are not Late Models)? I doubt this will actually happen – but woulda doubt I’d read it as a suggestion a couple of hours ago too…
20 point penalty has been eluded too – and yeah, I don’t know what the significance of 20 points is. I know it’s the equivalent to 10 spots and I know I’ve never seen someone in a race been sent back 10 spots for anything (save to-the-rear from any spot 11th from last or higher). Point is – does it do anything? If a point penalty doesn’t change a drivers approach, then it’s ineffective as I see it…
Suspensions – they can work. If Harraka deems Stuart should be disciplined a suspension for 1 event will make more of a difference than 20 points that’s for sure. Ya know, my first reaction towards any type of suspension was minumum 4 weeks like St Hilliare got – BUT even though the result of this past week (barrell roll) was more dangerous than the 3-28 issue under caution (rammed under caution), to me – it’s about intent, not result.
St. Hiliare’s action were premeditated towards JLoz back earlier this year. Stuart’s toward JLoz were not. If anything, if Stuart had any intent, it seems it was towards Jr Thomas, not Lozyniak. Still doesn’t mean he should go without penalty if Harraka deems the Professor’s driving decisions unacceptable, because it sounds like the 3-5 hit hard too. Point I’m (trying to) make is – to me, intent on the accused drivers is always a part of the equation…
Heard the red-checkered decision wasn’t pleasantly accepted. And with 12 laps to go, that doesn’t sound great… but how many cars were left to run… 4?? 5?? With all that action, did ya really wanna see the equivalent of half-a-heat-race to finish it?? I’ll trade a red-checker with 12 to go over any suspend-the-whole-division (and-rob-the-fans-of -more-action-at-the-same-time) anyday… If the racing was that bad, maybe they deserved to call it a wrap for the night..
So like I said – Harraka’s got some work for him this week…. YIKES – good luck with that….
Congrats to Rob Janovic Jr as the first repeat SK winner – although seems SP stole the show with some non-racing theatrics. I friggin’ love meltdowns and I’m pretty bummed I missed this one. And without knowing too much, it sounds like that sniffs of suspension too… but I also saw Goss, out of his car and on the track, attempt some fist-a-cuffs at Jr Thomas’ window-net and then saw him come out to finish the very same race a couple minutes later…. so who knows if anything will happen here..
And yeah – the Mini’s hold up the car count title proud…. they may be the smallest…. but they ain’t the slowest division… and there’s plenty of cars to choose from in the pick ’ems. Crafty vet Miller with the win… he’s like JP, just keeps throwin’ up wins every year…
So I take a week off from tryin’ to pick someone other than Dorr and someone other than Dorr wins…
Anyway – bummed I missed the show… but I’ll be back next week. I’m sure between the “under review” status’s of some feature events and the press conference tomorrow about the ‘bowl’s future we’ll have plenty to talk about until then…
I’m OUT
Sid