Happy New Year everyone! I know it’s 2006 but these awards are based on last year’s performances. Keep in mind that these awards are supposed to be fun and are based on the thoughts racing around inside of my head. For the lack of any other name, we will call these the Newky’s.

Before I get started giving out raspberries and kisses, I would be remiss in not recognizing a couple of people who we lost this year. Among others we lost Denise Barry Dion and Reverend Pat Evans. These were two people who were dedicated to the Tour and wonderful personalities that will be missed for many years. Godspeed to Denise, Pat and our continued prayers go out to the Barry, Dion, Evans and all of the families who have suffered losses this year.

The Newky for the Best Beard goes to the late Vic Brown. Vic was really great guy and a long-time mechanic for Jeff Malave. We miss him already.

The Newky for Best Non-Tour Modified event goes to Stafford Motor Speedway. The CARQUEST Xtreme Wednesday program was one of the best shows of the year. I will pay to see this show next season.

The Newky for Best Nickname goes to Ken “Cocoa Beach” Wooley. Apparently there is one of the drivers in the New Jersey contingent that has tagged him with that moniker. The reason for the name comes from his seemingly perpetual tan.

For going above and beyond the call of duty to call in Live Updates the Newky goes to ThE sHaDoW. ThE sHaDoW phoned in updates from the RoC race at Tioga Speedway. He had to momentarily stop feeding me updates as he put his phone down to fuel Matt Hirschman’s car. I’d also like to thank ThE sHaDoW for helping Amie when the Message Forum got hit.

The Newky for the most overloaded bench goes to Waterford Speedbowl. Dave Meredith, Val LeSieur and yours truly occupied one bench in the Waterford press box. Talk about a scary sight. Thank you Terry Eames for showing us media vermin such a good time.

Speaking of media, the Newky for the Public Relations Person of the Year goes to Dale Wolbrink. Dale diligently sends us releases from the myriad of drivers, teams, sanctioning bodies and corporations she represents. In addition she is our host in the press box at Thompson International Speedway.

Thompson gets the nod for the Newky for best press box catering. Don Hoenig’s staff served up Chicken Cordon Bleu on china with silverware. Honorable mention goes to Riverhead Raceway’s Bill Denniston for his barbeque cook out especially the roasted corn on the cob.

For excellence in entertaining fans the Newky goes to Jennerstown Speedway. Larry Mattingly and his staff pulled out all of the stops. The folks who show up at this facility are bound to have a good time. Mike Milliron from Jennerstown earns my First Annual ‘Bob Finan’ award for excellence in crowd interaction. Bob Finan makes it a show at Riverhead Raceway every Saturday night where he has for more than two decades.

The Newky for Best Single Event Promotion goes to Clay Campbell, Mike Smith and the staff at Martinsville Speedway. Most facilities know they have a good product to sell when the Whelen Modified Tour comes to town. This staff worked tirelessly doing radio shows, traveling to different tracks and other creative promotions right up to the day of the race. These efforts yielded a crowd that was larger than many had expected.

It takes a great staff to handle big events. None of our tracks had any weekends bigger than New Hampshire International Speedway. The Newky for the Best Public Relations Staff goes to Loudon’s Fred Neergaard and his crew. It would be very easy for anyone in their position to overlook those of us in the Modified community when the Cup, Busch and Truck teams are in town. Fred and his entire staff make us feel like we are the most important people there. We are proud to be part of their family.

The Newky for Best Pinch-Hit of the Year goes to Todd Szegedy. Todd drove the BRE #3 in the Spring Sizzler as Eric Beers recovered from the injuries he sustained at the Icebreaker. Szegedy brought home a podium finish in this cameo appearance.

The highest honor I can bestow upon anyone is the Newky for determination. The most determined drive I saw this season was by Wayne Anderson. Wayne won the inaugural Tom Baldwin 77 at Riverhead in a demonstration of some of the hardest driving I have ever seen in well over twenty years of going to that venue. Wayne earned a spot in the North-South Shootout™ with that win. Anderson didn’t look quite that stellar at Concord but on that night, the 30th of July, Wayne was a man on a mission.

The Newky for the Best Trophy goes to Martinsville Speedway. The Ridgeway Grandfather Clock is one of the most coveted prizes in all of racing. I can still hear the Tom Baldwin offering to show people his for twenty bucks.

We’ve known for a long time that asphalt Modified racing is awesome. I am singing to the crowd here. What we’ve needed was someone to tell everyone else about our beloved Tour.

This year we had two people who were well deserving of the Newky Ambassador Award. Phil Kurze from Whelen Engineering was highly visible and talked us up everywhere he went. Our national drumbeater, Mike Joy, also gets the nod as he seems to get a Modified mention by minute nine of every broadcast and then about every half hour after that during all of his NASCAR endeavors.

We have great people in the Modified racing community. There are a couple of people who deserve to be recognized for their efforts to give to those less fortunate. The Newky Philanthropy Award goes to Norm and Linda Case for their unwavering support of Victory Junction and other worthy charities.

The Steve Urkel “Did I do that?” Award goes to Donny Lia. I know he didn’t mean to do it but the incident that wound up putting Doug Coby into the wall directly in front of the officials under caution at Thompson deserves recognition. All I can say about that is let’s hope we don’t see that again.

Donny also gets the Newky for Most Exciting Finish. Lia was charging toward the front on the last lap of the Fall Final at Stafford when his left front spindle broke, sending his left front wheel through the catch fence. As embarrassing as the previous award was, this is one of which to be proud. My voice went up several octaves describing this to Shopgirl as she posted the Live Updates. I still can’t believe Donny kept his car off of the wall and brought it back to the line without losing a spot.

Shopgirl gets the Patience of Job Award. She has had to deal with phone troubles, loud background noises, cancelled flights, hurricanes, blackouts and much more this author. Thank you Vicki for posting so many of our Live Updates this year.

Best Hotel Award goes to Microtel. This place is the best bang for the buck of any hotel chain. Too bad there aren’t more of these closer to our racing locations.

The Newky for Best Restaurant goes to Makris Lobster & Steak House. This place is the best kept secret that is right in front of everyone on the east side of Rt. 106 going to NHIS. I highly recommend the Lobster Stew.

The Most-improved Newky goes to Steve Whitt. The Greenfield Dodge team really stepped it up in 2005. If they step it up another notch this year, our readers will hear of him regularly.

The Most Admired Newky goes to our esteemed shutterbugs, Howie & Mary Hodge. This couple has demonstrated that retirement doesn’t really mean retirement. They worked tirelessly this year to bring us wonderful images from every WMT event.

Creativity counts. Ted Baxter gets the Newky for most creative alteration of an image. He doctored one image of a baby with a “Cup” to insinuate that I was that baby and another where he put a birthday cake in front of me in the Stafford press box. This only goes to show that I can be bribed with cake, even if it is only imaginary.

The Best Call of the Year Newky goes to Ed Cox. Ed directed that the red flag be flown near the end of the August race at Stafford when it showered briefly. The track crew got the racing surface dry and the competitors got to finish the race. There were a bunch of people who were criticizing Mr. Cox for making that decision at the time he made it, yours truly included. Sometime we have to give credit where credit is due. Thanks Ed for getting that race in.

The Worst two Calls of the Year Newky deal with the #48 WMT championship team. At the Icebreaker, the decision to stay out and not take tires yielded an eleventh place, last car on the lead lap, finish for the car that was clearly the class of the field. Although it didn’t seem like it at the time, when it came down to the end of the season, that decision could have cost them the championship.

The other bad call was not by the #48 team but by the officials. The official that had the #48 car on pit road during the mandatory caution period at Martinsville okayed the team to make a bumper change during the break. When that official then told the tower what he had approved, the tower then penalized the team for said change. That penalty took a team that was contending for the win and relegated them to also-rans.

The Best Track Vehicle of the Year goes to Beech Ridge Speedway’s “Bunny Bus”. I’d give the Newky to their mascot bunny but he misbehaved when the scorers took their seats before the race. Too bad we won’t be hopping there this year.

The Best Mascot Newky goes to Wally from Wall Township Speedway. We didn’t get to see our beloved Tour at Wall this year but the Turkey Derby was great. Wally interacts with the fans and is quite colorful.

The Most Exciting event of the Year goes to C&C Promotions, North-South Shootout™. We had a blast bringing the Live Updates to everyone from Concord Motorsport Park. Too bad I had to type so much stuff in during the course of the features; they were great races.

The Best Race of the Year goes to the Sylvania 100 at NHIS. The duel between Mike Stefanik and Ted Christopher was well worth the price of admission. Put on top of that Mike Ewanitsko’s return and dash to the front and a race that was full of passing everywhere on the track and I’d say that was heaven. It was also one of the most unique events as the race finished in twilight at a facility that is not illuminated.

Now we present the award for which everyone has been waiting, the Newky for the Person of the Year. This year’s Person of the year is Harry from the #48 team. Enough said. Thanks for reading along.