Lack of confrontation with Homeland Security is where this missive starts. Upon the origin of my jaunt to the New Hampshire International Speedway weekend, I happened upon a sign that read, “We are now at MARSEC 2” at the Orient Point ferry terminal. Apparently this elevated level of security has been determined to be necessary, by the powers that be, for public transportation over and about our waterways. MARSEC is some kind of alphabet soup like CINCPAC and DEFCON that has probably been used to make “Marine Security” sound important.

I figured these security screenings might lead to someone questioning why my steering column has been dismantled. Might a terrorist use a stolen car? Apparently that flew under the radar. Rick Jarzombek’s pickup truck didn’t. He was questioned about the pit cart he had tied down in the back of it as he tried to board the ferry to New London.

Rick told them it was a toolbox. The security people (maybe the MARSEC Police), asked if there was anything flammable inside the box. It amazes me to think that someone might consider that a can of WD-40 in a toolbox was more dangerous than the gasoline in the hundred or so vehicles that were already onboard the vessel. There was no confrontation, Rick’s truck and pit cart were allowed to board and we departed from Orient Point.

Rick and Chuck Leja were getting a jump on the race weekend Wednesday afternoon. They were heading up to Loudon to help Ralph Solhem and his driver, WMT regular, Nevin George with their Busch North Series car. I was heading for Extreme Wednesday at Stafford. Many of us think alike. It scares me how many times that we find ourselves on the same boat traveling to different races without ever discussing the details ahead of time.

The Wednesday show was awesome! Thanks to Rob, Mark, Jackie and Jack Arute and Scott Running for being such great hosts. I look forward to next year’s event, perhaps there will be more than one. Click on the link above for the story.

Ken Schrader was asked about racing the Silver Crown cars regularly on tracks like Stafford. He told us that they would probably be really great if someone could change the engine rules. Schrader feels that those cars have way too much power to be controllable the way they are for a regular show. I’d love to see someone try to put something like that together for those cars.

I stayed in Nashua, NH Wednesday night at the place where they’ll leave the light on for you. There was no internet access there but I was too tired to do anything by that point anyway. The one thing they did have was air-conditioning that was cold as ice.

Early Thursday morning I was off to Loudon. One nice thing about the New Hampshire State infrastructure is the recent addition of E-Z Pass to the toll stations. As I heard of the delay of the Space Shuttle launch, I passed the sign for the Christa McAuliffe Planetarium.

About three years ago I became Uncle Walt. My sister had given birth to her wonderful son Robbie. When I spoke to my sister on Thursday, I told her, ‘thanks for making me an Aunt.’ Nancy gave birth to her second child, a 9lb 2oz baby girl Wednesday night around eight o’clock. And big brother was breaking the new mother’s shoes all of the way to the track Thursday morning as she recovered in the Hospital. Mother and child are doing quite well thank you and they went home shortly thereafter.

I got to the Jack Ratta Media Center early on Thursday morning. Fred Neergaard has done so much for all of us and the addition of wireless Internet access was something of which most in the media were looking forward to take advantage. The wireless and high-speed Internet connections worked flawlessly during the test session a few weeks ago. Unfortunately, the NHIS facility may have been hit by lightning Wednesday night and that might have led to many members of the press encountering snafus in their attempts to access the web with the new system. I was thankfully able to get full access throughout all of the difficulties.

Donny Lia and Chuck Hossfeld seemed to battle over the fastest times in practice with Lia eventually coming out on top. Weather was a big concern for the entire weekend. On Wednesday morning, the forecast called for afternoon showers in the Loudon area everyday. Thursday we got a little more than that.

As Doug Coby went out to attempt to qualify, some rain began to fall. It rained, fairly hard for a few minutes and then cleared. A look at the weather radar showed that we had had a small burst just pass over us. It also showed a large mass of turbulent weather heading our way. We had about a half hour of sunshine and hot weather that combined with the moisture which had just precipitated that created conditions suitable for the worst case of swamp (expletive deleted) many of us had ever witnessed.

I visited with some friends in the Busch North garage area during this time. I was mindful of the impending weather and bolted for the Media Center for cover the second I saw the slightest precipitation start. We had quite a show.

There was wind and rain and marble-sized hail and lightning like some had never witnessed before. I stood by Howie as he snapped the sequence of photos documenting a small portion of the carnage on pit road that was posted in the gallery. The power flashed on and off what seemed like a couple of hundred times in the Media Center. I am glad I didn’t have my computer plugged in at that point.

Numerous Tour teams had trouble with their pit tents during the passing storm. None of the teams had the kind of trouble that the folks at the Chevrolet Experience encountered. Their tent is one of those that probably took a couple of days and a crane to set up. It took a couple of minutes for that huge thing to be flipped over the top of an adjacent big-rig.

Probably the most talked about image of the weekend was a golf cart suspended in the air off of one of the legs of that tent. Rumor has it that the person who had been using that cart either chained or cabled it to the structure to keep others from stealing it. Too bad Mother Nature had other plans for the fixture of which that user chose to take advantage.

Perhaps the most entertaining part of the weekend was sitting like a fly on the wall listening to Bones Bourcier and Val LeSieur bench racing (or bench writing as the case may be) during that delay. The stories and opinions flew. I shan’t repeat any of those stories as there is doubt concerning the statute of limitations and some of the surviving parties contained within those anecdotes.

Qualifying was cancelled and I departed before the WMT Happy Hour had concluded. Thanks to Bob and Matt Dillner from Speed51.com for giving me a lift on their golf cart all of the way out to the I-Lot Thursday. I am glad I got a lift in that muggy heat. Sorry Amie.

I stayed at the best kept secret in New Hampshire. The accommodations were wonderful. Thanks to Mr. X and Mr. Y for making my stay at hotel Z possible. It will stay a secret.

While I worked on a few future stories in my room, ‘The Great Escape’ came on the tube. That movie is a classic. There is nothing like an us against them movie like that one.

With the arrival of the hordes of National media in the offing, I departed the secret confines in Manchester to the speedway early Friday morning. I was going to walk all of the way in to the Media Center from the I-Lot until Fred Neergaard stopped and picked me up. Thanks for the lift Fred.

In the morning I kept trying to find Donny Lia. We need to get together for a few minutes to get a story together. Unfortunately, I never did find Donny before I crossed the track to go to the press box to cover the race. Fortunately I was able to talk with his crew chief Kevin Crowley to lay the foundation for what may become one of my first ‘Getting to Know You 2’ stories. When Donny reads this, I hope that he shoots me an email so we can get together this week.

I stopped by the #4 car and noticed something on their wheels. One of the team members told me that the xac-t-balance weights on their wheels nearly eliminate any tire shaking that some drivers experience when rubber of other debris accumulate on the tires during a race. It was mentioned that the team was informed about these weights by a person who is involved with a road racing.

The tower was crowded with spotters and personalities. Meatloaf, macaroni and cheese, potato salad and chocolate chip cookies were on the menu. Email Shopgirl to guess which delicacy I skipped.

Once the race got underway, I was quite busy. It might have been a great race but I didn’t get to enjoy it too much. I was punching in numbers as quickly as I could, confirming my posts with the scoring monitors and listening to the officials on the scanner. It amazed me that the race was under caution six times. It didn’t feel like there was a break from start to finish.

Judging by the amount of people and the number of hits the live updates page got during the race, there were enough folks out there slacking off at work to drop the Gross National Product a couple of points. Don’t get me wrong, I love everyone checking out the updates, I just wish all of you were there. I might sound like I’m whining about doing the updates but I was thrilled to be able to do them.

At the end of the race, the rest of the media vermin blasted down the elevator and scrammed across the track to get their interviews. I was shot. I stayed up top and started to put this together while the Busch and Cup teams took to the track for their practice sessions.

Congratulations to Ted Christopher, who led thirty laps on the way to his victory. Tony Hirschman failed to lead a lap but was fast all day and was inches away from wrestling the win away from Teddy at the line. Eric Beers got a well deserved podium finish and led fourteen laps.

Doug Coby showed us just how well he can run. Doug led fifteen laps and put a move on Christopher that Teddy will not soon forget. If Coby had just a little more understanding of how to run in the draft, he very well might have pulled down his first Tour win at the Magic Mile.

Almost overlooked in the finish is Rick Fuller. Rick ran well all day and led a second best twenty six laps. I am sure he is disappointed with a sixth place finish but the results page won’t show how well that team performed.

Chuck Hossfeld made it back to seventh place after he served a penalty for jumping a restart on lap twenty eight. I think that Teddy may have snookered him into doing that and as a consequence, Christopher lost the lead at that point. Chuck had one of the fastest cars all day, that penalty pretty much eliminated the #50 team’s chances for victory.

The biggest surprise of the day was arguably Steve Whitt. Steve ran up front all day, led six laps and stayed out of trouble with the veterans. Whitt and the #06 team are beginning to demonstrate the kind of consistency that should move them up in the Modified world.

Whelen Southern Modified Tour competitor, Brian Loftin ran well and finished twelfth. Loftin won the most recent WSMT race at Caraway. Brian performed surprisingly well for what I believe was his first effort at the New Hampshire oval.

There were surprising runs by other drivers as well; they just didn’t have finishes to show for them. Alex Hoag, grandson of legendary Modified campaigner Dutch, was very fast in his first Loudon effort. His race was cut short due to an oil leak.

Jimmy Blewett had a great run going in the TS Haulers Modified. Jimmy led twelve laps and was a force near the front of the field. Blewett raised the ire of officials for some of his actions on the track but I’d say he had a pretty good day right up until his engine decided to explode.

Donny Lia fought a loose racecar all day but, was running much better than his finish indicated. Donny had to restart at the rear after spinning on lap seventy one. Lia did well and to pick up thirteen spots in the last fourteen green flag laps.

Congratulations to Mike Stefanik, who took down the win in the New Hampshire 125 Busch North Series race Friday afternoon. Stefanik had an awesome car and was strong the whole race. This was Mike’s second Busch North Series victory at NHIS.

A bird whispered in our ears Friday to let us know that Whelen Engineering will be holding a press conference at their Chester, CT plant this Thursday. Mum is the word about this and no one has leaked anything to us yet. My original speculation was that there might be some tube time in the future for our beloved Tour. Upon my arrival home I learned that it probably had more to do with the Labor Day weekend event at Martinsville.

By the time I ventured back to the media center, most of the folks who cover the WMT had long since departed. The sun went over the hill and before I knew it the clock had wound past nine thirty. Although I had had enough, Fred and his staff were still hard at work trying to prepare things to be ready to be inundated with media vermin Saturday morning.

At that point I decided to stay over. A return home would have meant driving around through NYC and getting home somewhere around four in the morning. I figured it was better to stick around and catch a boat ride Saturday afternoon.

Once I had walked out to I lot to get into the death trap, I ventured to the gas station on the corner. I needed ice (or oooyyyyss) as some of the campers might relate. That cry has been heard over the sound of smoldering campfires for years.

The area around the whole NHIS facility is swamped with police from all over New Hampshire and even other states. It is interesting to watch how cool these guys operate. Where someone might get arrested for something on their home turf, here near the track, the cops generally ask people who are obviously blotto drunk, with beverage in hand, to step back onto the speedway property and all was forgiven.

I ventured out to K-Lot after that to find some Modified people. It took a while. Once I realized where they were I ran into all of the Harrys, the Crowleys, the Boehlers and Dick Houlihan’s gang. Some of our big shot friends stopped by who shall remain nameless. If you would like to know who they were, stay at the campground next time Harry.

I took no chance of having to walk back to the media center in the morning. After I departed that motley crew, I walked back to the death trap, drove it into the infield and parked it. It is much quieter inside the track than it is outside that’s for sure.

I got cleaned up in the driver’s lounge shortly before the Maine State Police showed up. I didn’t ask whether they were attached to the MARSEC Police. After all, the Tidy Bowl man could have something up his sleeve. They wore bomb squad logos on their uniforms and paraded an explosive sniffing dog through every little nook and cranny in the garage area.

I moved into the Jack Ratta Media Center shortly after it opened at seven AM. It was interesting to hear how Fred rallied his troops to get things underway. The NHIS public relations staff was ready for a busy day.

I spoke with Claire B. Lang from NASCAR Radio in the media center. I kind of hope that we might be able to expand our audience through xm channel 144. We may do something to promote future events. Stay tuned.

I left the confines adjacent to the Cup garage to the press box, high atop the grandstands. I used the quiet confines of the south press box to get some work done. Once Busch and Cup qualifying had been completed, I headed for the death trap and my return home.

I stopped in the Media Center to get out of the heat and said goodbye to all of my friends. Matt Dillner was the envy of everyone in there. He was eating lobster he had procured from the TNT compound.

I listened to about half of the Busch Series race on MRN. Vicki gave me the play-by-play of the last several laps on the phone. Congratulations to Martin Truex, Jr. and the Chance2 gang on their victory.

The MARSEC Police were out in force at the New London transportation center. Actually they were more than likely National Guard soldiers. I got on the six o’clock boat and headed for the Island.

When I got home I realized how well received my Jennerstown article had been. I got emails from Larry Mattingly and several individuals who I had met at the track. Those people do it right.

I went to Riverhead after the festivities had been completed. Jimmy Blewett had taken down the win in spectacular fashion. From the sound of Bob Finan’s voice, it was either the most amazing race he had ever seen or he had taken a few too many happy pills on Saturday. Ironically, John Blewett, III took down the win at Wall Township Speedway Saturday night as well.

Thanks for humoring me and reading along. We look forward to bringing everyone live updates from Beech Ridge next Saturday night. I got spoiled at NHIS with the scoring monitors and high speed internet access. Shopgirl will have her keyboard smoking just trying to keep up next week. Thanks to Bob and Gary Bahre for all that they do to provide our beloved Tour with its’ finest racing venue.