After a winter that provided many of us with more than our share of cold weather and frozen precipitation, one could not have asked for better weather conditions than those we were blessed with at the Thompson Icebreaker this weekend. This race was the first that Whelen Engineering graced our beloved Tour as our sponsor. Whelen’s Motorsports Director, Phil Kurze proclaimed this as ‘Whelen weather’. I join along with all of the racing faithful in praying that if this is Whelen weather, we could have this for every event all season long. What about the Barnburner part? We’ll get to that later.

Before I ramble on and bore everyone to tears, there are a number of people that I need to thank. First of all I would like to thank Russ Dowd, Ben Dodge, Dale Wolbrink, the Hoenigs and the rest of the staff from Thompson for hosting this wonderful event and for providing Mod Series Scene with such great accommodations. Secondly, I’d like to thank Phil Kurze from Whelen Engineering, Don Hawk, Ed Cox, and all of the NASCAR officials for doing so much in such a little time to promote and guide our beloved Tour towards the future. There are many more people to be thanked. If I haven’t mentioned your name yet, I might get to that later too.

I arrived Saturday in plenty of time to see the ground-pounders get out on the track for the first practice of the season. Tony Hirschman looked like he had the field covered. The #48 was consistently turning laps in the 18.70’s and it appeared as though he was doing that effortlessly. Chuck Hossfeld was turning laps close to the same times as Tony in Don Barker’s #50 but it seemed as though he really had to drive the heck out of his ride to do so. Tony Ferrante, Jr. was one of the few others that seemed to keep pace with Hirschman and Hossfeld. Although his times tapered off a little towards the end of practice, the #31 looked like a great dark horse pick.

Chuck Hossfeld took down the pole for the 2005 Icebreaker in time trials. Many of you know about my opinion of time trials…boring! I do seem to remember that Donny Lia impressed me with the way he drove the #18 in his attempt. Donny’s car looked pushy-loose and I was amazed how easily he was able to jack the car around in the middle of the corner and how quickly he was able to stab the throttle to the floor without looping it. Zach Sylvester, Eddie Flemke and of course, Tony Hirschman also turned in impressive times during qualifying. When time trials were over, I headed to the hotel.

I stayed in Auburn at the hotel where you are supposed to be smarter because you stayed there. The accommodations included a spa equipped with a large whirlpool bath that a number of the Modified Tour guests enjoyed. I enjoyed that three times. I also ventured around the corner to the Piccadilly Pub. They have a Nachos Grande that is really a dinner for two or three normal people. I was back in my room and had a clear view of the backside of my eyelids before nine o’clock.

The Whelen weather continued on Sunday. I applied some heavy SPF sunblock in the morning. Did you ever notice that those lotions that indicate that they are ‘sweatproof’ invariably cause temporary blindness when one does perspire? Where is my cane? Never mind, I ran into Ted Baxter by Howie Brode’s car and for the brief time I was visually impaired, I had a guide dog.

Apparently I missed the post on the Message Forum that there was a MSS ‘Meet and Greet’. I showed up a few minutes afterwards by accident. Chris (CTGoldy) called out to me, as I was just about to pass the remaining members of the group. Goldy, SteveO, Jim DuPont, Fran Lawlor and about a half dozen others were standing right by my next stop, Lew Boyd’s Coastal181 booth. It was great to see all of them and I look forward to meeting more of our readers and posters in the future. By the way, anyone who thinks they might have a good idea for an article or would like to write about an event, feel free to contact us. The more writers we have the merrier our readers are likely to be.

When I finally did get to Lew’s booth, Bones Bourcier was signing a few of the books he had penned for those who were buying them there. Bones always shares the best stories, especially those not fit to print. If one’s stature in the racing world is determined not by whom one knows but, by who knows that person, Bones is near the top of the food chain. I find it amazing nearly every time I meet my favorite scribe that he introduces me to so many great people. Thanks to Bones, aside from being such an awesome writer, he is a lot of fun, an encyclopedia of racing knowledge and a great friend.

I went up to the press box in time to catch the Sunoco Modified race. Some of those on the press row referred to this event as an ‘Enduro’ as the Sunoco Mods tore up a bunch of cars and the race appeared to be overcome with ‘Yellow Fever’. The battle at the front kept everyone interested as periodic WMT competitor Jeff Malave threw everything but the kitchen sink at James Civali in his effort to wrestle the lead away. Their racing was clean and Civali ultimately kept everyone in his rearview mirror on the way to his second Sunoco Modified victory of the weekend.

The Pro Stock and Late Model races suffered from some of the same Yellow Fever from which the Sunoco Mods had suffered. The banter in the booth became more of the fallout from Shane Hmiel’s penalties for his behavior at Bristol than what was going on out on the track. As our beloved tour headed out to the track, I ventured to the infield.

The Icebreaker was not merely the debut of Whelen as the Tour sponsor; it was also the first opportunity for our staff to use the new Mod Series Scene live update section of the Message Forum. A number of us had discussed how we would get this done. Some of the options included entering updates from the press box directly or using a laptop with a cell connection. Ultimately we wound up doing it the old fashioned way, I called the updates in over the phone and the MSS faithful were introduced to shopgirl.

Calling in the updates was a little more difficult than I thought it would be. My girlfriend, Vicki posted as quickly and as completely as she could. The ambient noise in the infield must have made it quite difficult for her to hear what I was trying to convey. Also it was really difficult for me to determine exactly what was the cause of many of the cautions. Beyond that it was great to be in the infield as I was able to get good pit information from the various competitors.

I didn’t realize how great a job Vicki had done until I got home and looked at the Forum. Who would have thought twenty-five years ago that someone could stand on the backstretch of a racetrack with the ability to listen to communication between the officials and phone the information they witnessed to another person over a thousand miles away over a device that looks like a Star Trek communicator so that it could be enjoyed by people around the world? Thank you Vicki for doing such a great job. I can only hope that our efforts would make Lou proud. The first person that determines the name of the shop that Vicki’s ‘shopgirl’ moniker comes from wins a Nextel Cup schedule card. Second place is two Nextel Cup schedules. Send me an email with your guesses.

There was a really good size crowd on hand for the Icebreaker. Although it wasn’t SRO (standing room only), one wouldn’t have believed that based on the volume of the boo birds when Ted Christopher was introduced before the event. Ted had asked me, ‘whether I thought that the booing would ever end?’ I told him that it would but that he would have to stop winning long before that happens.

This race had its’ own periods of Yellow Fever and that combined with the first use of NASCAR’s ‘Beneficiary rule’, or what has come to be known as the Lucky Dog pass, made for some confusion and a few extended caution periods as officials attempted to get the free pass beneficiaries around the pace car before restarts. I am sure that this will work more smoothly as the season progresses.

Despite the rash of cautions, there was great racing towards the front through much of the event. When Eric Beers collided with the wall and Howie Brode off of turn four, the field was first brought down pit road and then stopped on the backstretch as the red flew. I get an uneasy feeling when the conversation on the official’s frequency sounds the way it did in the aftermath of that incident. I was glad to hear that Howie was okay and that Eric was alert and responsive.

Everything I have heard of Eric’s condition was hearsay. It would be foolish of anyone armed with that information to discuss a prognosis at this point. Eric Beers is a fine racer who at times hasn’t gotten the press he deserves. Because of his unassuming nature and the way he quietly improves his position on the track, Eric and his performances have often been overlooked. This was Beer’s debut with the BRE team and I believe that they were a perfect fit for one another. Let’s hope that Eric has a speedy recovery.

Ultimately the race came down to pit strategy and where the cautions flew. Had the #47 been able to limp to pit road without assistance, we may very well have discussed Zach Sylvester’s first Modified Tour victory. The finish was a Barnburner and Pete posted a link to his awesome video clip for us all to relive the moment in Lou’s house. Ted Christopher beat Sylvester to the stripe by about a half a bumper length.

Ted’s car had the freshest tires; they gambled and won. The #48 team tried to run 150 laps without pitting as they had at the World Series in that 125 lap event; they were beaten, if perhaps only by themselves. The new combinations of Chuck Hossfeld with the #50 and Mike Stefanik with the #00 yielded third and fourth place finishes respectively; what a great way to start the season. Rick Fuller finished fifth; that’s not bad considering he rode to the finish on a flat right rear tire. Zach and his crew will talk about the one that got away but they can keep their chins up, that was a great performance.

The spectacular finish up front blurred the events that transpired further back in the field. Apparently there were a couple of wrecks that occurred during those final two laps and several drivers thought that they finished many positions ahead of where they ultimately were posted in the final order. That is an issue for another day.

Meanwhile there are more people to thank. Thanks to all of the competitors for putting on such a great race. Thanks to all of the people who approached me to say hello. Most of all I would like to thank the moron who tried to hit Ted Christopher with a beer by throwing it through the fence in front of Victory Lane. The imbecile got Glen Davis, Matt Dillner, Mary Hodge, a bunch of expensive camera equipment and myself instead. The next time a chump wants to make me smell like a brewery, I wish they’d meet me in the parking lot to discuss why their facial features are contorted first. But most of all I have to thank all of the loyal readers of MSS for their continued patronage of this site. I hope to see you all at the Sizzler.