Well it has been a few weeks since there has been anything about which to write home. Stories abound from this weekend’s past World Series of Asphalt event at Thompson International Speedway. Read along and I will promise to try to keep all of the facts straight.

We have all dealt with the delays of the World Series and the Twin 100s over the past several weeks. The inclement weather has been depressing as well as a royal pain in the (expletive deleted). This week’s adventure was devoid of trips through flood zones and U-turns in the Cross Sound Ferry parking lot. The latter occurred when I was informed one of the events had been cancelled while I was aboard the vessel to Connecticut. At least I had the hotel and ferry reservations I had made when the Twin 100s were postponed the second time.

The Hoenigs made lemonade out of the lemons they had been dealt over the past several weeks. They had changed the Twin 100s date into the World Series, added the Busch North race from the Twin 100s to the World Series and rolled back their World Series admission prices to those of the aforementioned one-day show. With all of the flack the Hoenigs have received from the peanut gallery about the high price for the back-gate at the World Series over the year, these actions were not only commendable but I feel some apologies are in order.

There was a nice snap in the air on Saturday. The brisk air led to many competitors encountering traction woes. It looked like spin city out on the track. Mike Christopher got loose in the middle of the North turns and slapped the wall hard with the #79 car during the practice session.

Prior to qualifying, I mentioned to Dale Wolbrink that I thought the over-under on spins during the time trial session would be four. When NASCAR announced that they had given an additional warm-up lap to the competitors, I dropped that number to two.

Although there were only two spins during time trials, when Chuck Hossfeld crashed the #50 on his second timed lap, we added that incident to the tally. Those who chose the over won. Several drivers struggled to keep their cars straight during the qualifying session. Jerry Marquis took down the pole in the Mystic Missile edging out Matt Hirschman by forty-four thousandths of a second.

Throughout the course of practice and qualifying, Shawn Courchesne kept telling us that the snow was moving in from the West. We laughed it off. Although the skies were only partly sunny, there had been bright sunshine at the track all day. I left the track after time trials bound for my hotel room. When I opened the curtains there, I realized Shawn had gotten the last laugh.

The return on inclement weather postponed the ten feature events that had been scheduled to be run on Saturday to Sunday. The Saturday schedule had allowed for approximately seven hours to complete those events. Now everything was going to have to happen on Sunday and that would not be an easy task.

Joe Fink tried to get the “Hot Stove League” started last week on the Message Forum. Unfortunately the thread turned into another Cup discussion and that makes few people happy. The problem with figuring out what will be happening next season is that so few people really know what they will be doing.

I took time Sunday morning to ask several of the team principles what their plans were for 2006. Most were playing their cards pretty close to the vest. Many are in the pursuit of sponsorship. Some are waiting to see what drivers might become available.

The two drivers who are leading candidates for top rides next season appear to be Ted Christopher and Chuck Hossfeld. If Mike Stefanik decides to return to the Modifieds full-time, that would be another player in the mix. Hopefully this will be sorted out in the next month and we will have plenty of news for everyone when we get back from the banquet.

One thing that was heartwarming this weekend was the tribute the Flamingo Racing team made to their fallen friend. The #16 was renumbered M-6 for the weekend in honor of Anthony “Beebe” Zalinski. The vinyl job the team did oozed class. Thanks to the NASCAR officials for permitting it.

We had an MSS meet and greet at the beer stand by the main entrance to the spectator area. I don’t think we wound up with a group picture but we had about eight to ten people show up. It was great to get together and the temperature Sunday was a little more comfortable for most than that of the day earlier.

Thompson track champion, Jeff Malave won the Sunoco Modified event. Jeff finished where he started in the Interstate Diesel #6. Malave fended off the fast closing Ronnie Silk at the finish.

The redraw had made it an all-Hirschman front row for the Whelen Modified Tour finale with the four-time champion on the pole flanked by his upstart son. If Ted Christopher, who was the Whelen Modified Tour point leader coming into the event, finished seventh or better in the race, he would clinch his first Modified Tour title regardless of what the defending champion and pole-sitter did. Christopher started from the tenth spot.

This race was full of carnage. It started with the #75 of Carl Pasteryak across the nose of the #36 of Mike Ewanitsko. It continued with separate hard frontal contacts for the #13 of Ted Christopher and #12 of Jimmy Blewett. Christopher’s incident dashed his title hopes. It included an incident where one car got loose and a pack of cars behind just plowed into each other.

Denis had posted on the Message Forum “…the 99 and 10 teams did amazing jobs getting their cars back on the track.” Those two teams were battling in the point standings. The #99 edged the #10 by six points to finish eleventh in the final season tally.

Jerry Marquis won the battle as he streaked to his third victory of the season. Of the drivers and teams that might be brought up over the hot stove, Marquis and the v4 Mystic Missile are staying together in 2006. They will be a threat for the championship right out of the box.

Chuck Hossfeld finished second followed by Doug Coby. Great runs for Mike Christopher, Alex Hoag and Tony Ferrante, Jr. who may have completed his final Tour event. I would love to see the #31 back at the track but this may have been the swan song.

Tony Hirschman won the war. The war wasn’t with Ted Christopher; it was with a former championship teammate. There was the sound of accomplishment seldom heard in the voice of the now five-time WMT champion. Hirschman pointed out that his former crew-chief, Barry Kuhnel, had gotten him fired from the #25 Gary Cretty ride after Tony had won the championship for that team in 1999.

“Last year was a tune-up running against Eddie Flemke and their great team. We ran hard last year but this year going up against that [#13] team, that’s a big team. I’ve got nothing against their crew guys but I got him [Kuhnel] back” said Hirschman. It gives Tony great satisfaction that he brought Kuhnel his last championship and has kept his old head wrench from winning one since. Tony continued, “We got ‘em back. Right now and that’s the way I feel. Now we can say “Are we even now?”

“This one is for the little guys. It can be done!”, said Hirschman, “One car, we did it with one car, two motors all year until late in the season we finally got another motor when we went to New Hampshire. We didn’t do it with cubic dollars. We had good equipment but, all common sense stuff.” Congratulations to Tony, the Kehley gang and all of the Harrys on their back-to-back championships.

After speaking with the champ I headed for my new ride in the parking lot. It was then that I realized I had made a terrible error. Remember the ferry reservation that I had booked for this date that had been for the Twin 100s weekend? That was when the Busch North and Modified events would be run late Saturday night. I had booked an 11:00AM ferry reservation!

I walked back up to the press box, resigned to the fact that I would have to drive through New York City with all of the foliage traffic to get home. I watched most of the rest of the Busch North race. There was a crash after a restart. Then the lights went out. I was waiting for the next shoe to drop.

The lights came back up, the race headed towards its’ conclusion and I headed out to the car to beat the traffic. I called the ferry to tell them of my dilemma. There was no chance of getting on the 8:45 ferry was there? Well, apparently, at the moment I called, someone who had a reservation on the 8:45 had just purchased tickets on the 7:30 boat and I was able to switch my reservation. Someone up there is looking out for me. Thanks TB.

Amie did a great job on the live updates for the race. Where is Shopgirl? Vicki traveled to her hometown of Columbus, Ohio last weekend. In retrospect she was very fortunate to have booked the trip to spend time with her family there several weeks earlier. She left shortly before they closed the airport in Fort Lauderdale for hurricane Wilma.

Vicki had planned on returning last Monday morning. FLL didn’t reopen until Friday and she finally got back home around the time of our meet and greet. She reports that the damage there is devastating and that she will probably be without power for several more weeks. Fortunately her apartment was spared any structural or flood damage. Thanks for all of the emails inquiring as to her well being.

Friday I will be heading to Concord Motorsports Park for the North-South Shootout™. We are planning to do live updates from that event. Hopefully I will see many of our readers there.