What a great time. I wish more people could have been there. The Concord Motorsports Park was bursting at the seams with competitors and the North-South Shootout™ proved once again to be well worth the trip. Speed turned out to be the key to victory but I’ll get to that later.

I planned to go to this year’s Shootout last year. About the time that tickets were available for air travel, I booked my flight. Charlotte was the one of the latest destinations for discount airline jetBlue. This past week, tickets were selling for nearly one hundred sixty dollars each way. When I booked my trip they were selling for half that amount.

Regional jets are generally not too comfortable. I’d never flown on an Embraer 190 before. What a great airplane. I listened to NASCAR radio on XM all the way down and flipped back and forth between the Texas race and the Giants game on DirecTV on the way home. Steve Collicchio told me that DEI was looking into getting one of those planes for team transportation when I met him at the pit party. I thought that was a great idea.

I got my rental car from the guys who pick you up. In no time I was at the track scouring the pits to update our roster sheets. The infield was packed with cars, as it was last year. However, this year there were too many cars to keep them all inside the track. The Pro-4 and 4 Cylinder classes were kept outside of the track which made communication with those drivers a little difficult.

It seemed a little brisk through the day. By the end of the evening, it was downright cold. Sub-thirty temperatures are not exactly ideal conditions to get traction from racing tires designed to last over 100 laps. Consequently we had a few competitors spinout during time trials and the heat races.

Tom Rogers, Jr. set fast time for the SK-Type cars and Matt Hirschman topped the charts for the Tour type cars. That was a harbinger of things to come. Those two were fast all weekend and that’s why one can find so many pictures of both posted in cyberspace.

I had two rows in the 3B media suite tied up on Friday with all of my gear. I had my computer, printer, camera, binoculars, wires after wires and more wires with paper everywhere. I was bound and determined to assemble roster sheets and lineups up there. It helped a few out but basically it looked like someone had opened up Mr. Peabody’s closet and its’ contents had spilled everywhere.

We got out of the track at about twenty after eleven on Friday night. I corralled all of my crap and headed toward my frozen rental car. It would have been nice if that thing had some washer fluid in it. I was driving with my head out of the window until the windshield defrosted halfway back down 601.

I stayed at my favorite hotel in Kannapolis. By the time I checked in it was midnight. I tried to call a place down the street to get a dinner delivery but I couldn’t figure out how to use the hotel phone. The clerk at the front desk helped me out and the folks at the Wing Zone delivered despite the fact that they were already closed by the time I got through.

Walter Johnston from the JAM was staying down the hallway from me. We departed for the track around the same time on Saturday morning. Johnston and his buddies were headed off to a breakfast buffet place that I couldn’t find on my way out. I was so close to that place I could have crashed into it. Maybe it’s time to see an optician.

I got down to the track in time for the pit party. It was HUGE. The fans looked like they had a good time. I asked just about everyone about their plans for 2007 and few had anything solid to report. What I was able to gather will be assembled into a short article to be released later this week. Much of what follows comes from interviews during the pit party.

I told Andy Seuss, “Good run last night.” Andy responded, “Before or after I spun?” I said, “You did a fantastic job. Not only did you have a great recovery after you spun to salvage a good lap but you were able to perform so well in the heat race.” Andy said, “Thank you, the car has been awesome all weekend. We haven’t really changed much. We struggled when we came here last year and got it pretty dialed in for the feature. We really haven’t changed much from the setup from last year. It’s clicking even better this year than it did last year even though we haven’t changed much.”

I asked Andy, “How do you see this race?” Seuss responded, “We’ll see. I don’t know. This car is good but I don’t know. I mean, everybody is good. We were fast on Thursday in practice and then everybody was catching up. A lot of people got down to good lap times and I was told that we ran pretty good lap times last night but the car was pretty tight to where it was holding me up so I guess we’ll just try to free her up but we might just leave it because it was pretty fast.”

I told Seuss, “These guys can’t pronounce your name.” Andy replied, “If it starts and ends with an S, I respond to it. It’s Seuss [pronounced Zeiss or Ziss, depending on how one spells phonetically] in my family but I even say Seuss too sometimes just so people can spell it right because it’s like Dr. Seuss.” In listening to my interview with Andy, I find it amazing how similar his demeanor and tone are to that of the late Alan Kulwicki.

Todd Szegedy told me, “This was last minute, there’s no question about it. We did not plan on coming down here.” I asked Todd, “How did this come about?” Szegedy said, “We were all hanging out and partying Wednesday night with Phil [Moran, Szegedy’s long-time crew chief]. Don [Barker] said to me, “Do you think you can fit in the seat?”

I sat in Don’s #50 car that Todd Bodine and Carl Edwards had driven at Loudon this year. “Don asked me, “Are we going to go racing at Concord?” I told him, “Yeah, if you want to go.” We ended up talking Phil into it and the next thing you know, we worked all day Thursday, got the car ready left nine o’clock at night and got there at nine o’clock in the morning, Friday morning. I’m glad we came down.”

I said, “So you were having a going away party for Phil?” Todd said, “Yes but we coaxed him into coming down here and race still. We could have stayed home and talk about it or come down and do it so we did it. We’re having fun. It’s a little cold but we’re having a good time.”

I asked Todd, “How was the action in the heat race last night?” Szegedy replied, “It was pretty much uneventful. I had to do some pretty bonsai stuff to get into the top-four but other than that it was just so cold that the cars didn’t want to hook up. It’s going to be a problem tonight too.”

I asked Donny Lia, “How did you like last night?” Donny said, “We would have liked to qualify better but under the circumstances, that was all we were going to get. It was twenty something degrees out and everybody around where I qualified didn’t do much better. You really had to go early.”

I asked Lia, “You had Joey Logano in your backup car yesterday?” Lia responded, “Yes, it was cool, he liked it a lot. He was thrilled and blown away by it. He’s only driven, I think Legends cars and well, he’s probably driven everything but he thought it was “pretty wicked.”” I asked, “Did he do well?” Donny said, “He did really well. He got up to speed quick and for that car, that car wasn’t all that great he did a good job. It was pretty cool. I’ve never watched my car go around the track so that was the first time ever. That was interesting.”

I asked Ronnie Silk, “How did things go for you last night?” Silk responded, “They went alright. We were a little disappointed in how we timed. We weren’t setup for the track to be that cold.” I asked Ronnie, “Where did you go out?” Silk replied, “I went out in the beginning, I went out sixth. I don’t know if that really had much of an affect because the SKs were on the same tires we were and they were right before us so I don’t think that had much to do with it. I just don’t think we were prepared enough for the cold. I don’t think a lot of people were because the few that were, were quite a bit faster than everyone else. We had a good run in the SK. We qualified fifth in that and were good in practice so hopefully we’ll have a good night tonight.”

I told Pete Brittain, “You had a rough night in time trials with the Tour car and even rougher in the heat race.” Brittain responded, “Yeah, we broke an axle going out for time trials and we couldn’t get the axle out of the rear so we had to change rears and the rear we had didn’t have the right ring and pinion in it so that hurt us in the heat race. We changed gears this morning so we should be good for the consi.” I asked Pete, “What are your thoughts on the track here at Concord?” Brittain responded, “I love the track. This is our fourth year here. We love coming down here.”

I asked Tony Hanbury, “Where are you from?” Tony said, “Owego, New York.” I asked, “Where’s this team from?” Hanbury said, “This team’s from Riverhead, NY out on Long Island.” I commented, “That’s a little strange combination. How did that come about?” Tony said, “Actually I met the car owner, Dave Koroleski, at Oswego Speedway. I ran into him again a couple of years ago down in New Smyrna and helped him out a little bit. Then last year he gave me a chance to take it out a little bit in practice. I liked the car; I liked the track and everything. He let me take the car out in the race and I finished fifth with it. Over the winter I did the body on the car for him and helped him out doing this and that with him and he told me all year long that he would give me a chance in it. So this is my chance right here.” I asked Tony, “Who’s been driving the car this year?” Tony said, “Dave drove it a couple of times and then George Kent drove it at the 200 at Oswego this year.”

I asked Woody Pitkat, “Are you going to Vegas?” Woody said, “Yes, this Wednesday. I’m not too fond of having to sit on a plane for six hours.” I asked Pitkat, “How’s your car for today?” Woody responded, “Pretty good, we were really fast yesterday. I don’t know what happened in time [trials] if it was just too cold or tires but we weren’t that good in time [trials]. Then we just went back to our old tires to see if that was what it was and the car was fine so hopefully we get a good set of tires. We’re starting fifteenth, as long as I can get somewhere in the top-ten and just ride for a little while and let it string out. Go from there and try to miss the wrecks if there is any.”

I told Earl Paules, “Great job yesterday.” Earl said, “Thanks, we were a little worried about the Modified coming in there, we were a little off but we made a couple of changes and it got pretty good.” I asked, “What do you think about tonight’s race?” Paules replied, “The way the SK car is working, good. We didn’t time trial good, we were eighth fastest. We started on the pole in the heat race and we won that. The car is really quick, so I know we’re going to race well.” Paules won his heat races for both the Tour Type and the SK-Type Modifieds.

Jamie Tomaino told me, “Down south here, the Modifieds can be and will be as good as the north. They do need a stepping stone, so the kids can start in a Modified. This weekend, Charles Kepley let our SK Light cars down here with a three thousand dollar crate motor. That little three thousand dollar crate motor is running almost as fast as a forty thousand dollar motor. It’s a good stepping stone for the young kids. When they get a little bit better they can jump right into these Tour cars. I hope this does come about down here in the south.” Jamie will move JT Motorports to North Carolina sometime in 2007 or 2008.

I asked Daren Scherer, “Are you ready to race today?” Scherer said, “Yeah, I got a long night’s rest.” I asked, “How do you think things are going to shape up tonight?” Daren said, “It’s pretty promising. We need to get some traction in the tires before we come out of the darn corner for the start. We’re starting fourth [in the consolation event]; do you know how many they’re taking?” I said, “I think it is four.” Scherer said, “I’ve got to get a good launch, we’re hoping we can fall into third and just ride.”

There was an interesting occupant of Eddie Whelan’s #36 backup car. It was Bob the blow-up doll. Apparently it Greg Narducci’s at one point. Since then, Butch the cook adopted it from Greg when he moved to Florida.” It seemed to generate a little fun and people kept asking when they would find a girlfriend for him.

I commented to Junior Miller, “This is a little different car than the one you’ve had on the Tour.” Junior responded, “Yeah, we didn’t know we was coming until the last minute. This is our Bowman-Gray car. The other car we done started tearing down for next year. We just brought this thing to fill-in with and hope we can get the job done. We’re a little bit short on speed but we’re still working on it.”

I said, “Congratulations on another championship this year.” To which Miller replied, “We had TWO more! We had the championship at the Stadium [Bowman-Gray] and then we had the Whelen Southern [Modified Tour] Championship. We set the all-time win record at Bowman-Gray Stadium. We had a real good year. If we can take and win this one we’d finish it out perfect almost.” I asked Miller, “How do you think your chances are here tonight?” Junior said, “I’d say right now we probably have a top-ten car. If we can get a little more speed out of it maybe we can get up there and knock on that front door. That’s what we’re looking for.”

I asked Gene Pack, “How’s your car?” Gene said, “It’s pretty good. We’re guaranteed a starting position so we’re working more on race setup than qualifying setup. We’re a little weak on the motor. We lost our good motor three weeks ago. It’s tough running against these boys. They’ve got all new and freshened up motors. We’ll be alright.”

I said to Pack, “This is a different car than I remember seeing you run, tell me about it.” Gene responded, “Jamie Tomaino built this for us over the winter. It’s a good car. It’s quick. The old car had a lot of play and stuff in it. This one is a lot tighter. It’ll get around the race track for me.”

The language barrier is something to overcome at times down south. I never knew that Ted was a two syllable word. A fan shouted to Christopher, “Hey Tay-Ed!”

Austin Beers pedaled his way to victory before the internal combustion engine features started. This was the third straight win in the pedal cars by a northern competitor. Austin dashed to the win with the livery of his dad’s 2006 Whelen Modified Tour racecar, the Ole Blue #3.

Carl Pasteryak was a man among boys and a girl in the Non-Qualifiers race. Despite the cautions that flew, Captain Carl nearly lapped the whole field. He lapped some of it twice. In Victory Lane Pasteryak said, “We had a little mess up yesterday qualifying. We got mixed up with some tires and then we got mixed up in the heat race and then we made some wrong adjustments in the consi and then we were hopefully going to get it right. I appreciate all of the fans. Thank you for coming out. Thank you very much Charles for this race. This is a wonderful race. We always look forward to coming here.” Carl was offered the final starting position in the North-South Shootout™ in exchange for his winnings in the Non-Qualifiers race. He accepted and turned the thirty-sixth place start into a twenty-first place finish.

The SK-Type cars produced a lot of action and carnage. The challenge with those cars is that there are some very fast cars that catch up to lap the majority of the rest of the field in just few laps. Tom Rogers, Jr. did a masterful job of negotiating the lapped traffic and his Riverhead style restarts didn’t hurt him either.

I was happy for Rogers taking down the win but I was happier for his team. The #03 SK was the car campaigned last year by Keith Comiskey. Keith died after a race at Waterford last season. Dr. Paul Orlowski operates the #03 like the gentleman car owners of the Whelen Modified Tour have in the past. I couldn’t be happier for Dr. Paul. I just wish I could have spoken to him after the race.

There was a mandatory pit stop in the Hoosier 100. Although I am sure the presenting sponsors of the event, Hoosier Tire Asphalt South, would have loved for everyone to change tires, I had told folks earlier, that probably wouldn’t be the winning ticket. The unseasonably cool temperatures took away much of the advantage new tires might yield and track position would be key.

Matt Hirschman brought his #60 down pit road under caution once the first one came within the window under regulation. The team did a jack and go. Matt had completed his obligation and his crew could go back to eating baloney burgers.

Second place finisher, Ted Christopher, bulldogged his way to the front in Joe and Linda Brady’s #00. Ted drove like a man on a mission. I don’t know whether that mission was to win the race, earn a bunch of lap money or see how many cars off of which he could bounce. Regardless of his intentions, it was exciting to watch, Christopher pulled down a significant amount of lap money and he came up only one spot short of victory.

Arguably the best run of the night was by Eric Beers. Eric charged through the field from the thirty-first place starting position to put his #9 RoC Modified on the podium. Beers ran much of the race on seven cylinders after a broken rocker arm limited his power. For those who say that one needs big power under the hood, Eric’s run proved that handling was far more important. There were a lot of stout cars that finished in his wake.

Tony Hirschman was a proud papa after the race. In Victory Lane he said, “I really wanted to bring my own car here, the #48 and we just couldn’t get enough crew guys. I’m here to help Matt and got to thank all the guys that come down from up north. Matt runs the two other Tour cars and a couple of guys are here. Matt did an awesome job. This car was flawless all weekend. He run the wheels off of it as you can tell. He deserved, finally, to get a big win under his belt. I guess next year he needs to get a Whelen Modified Tour win and he’s well on his way.”

In Victory Lane, Matt Hirschman said, “I don’t know what it is but [the #60 car] has been awesome since we unloaded it. We really haven’t touched a thing. We practiced good, we timed fastest and pretty much dominated the event. It’s a good car. We’ve had great success with it all year but this is probably the best car I’ve driven in my life. It’s just been awesome. I drive for some great people but I am so proud that I done this on my own. I just can’t believe that I won this race.”

When questioned about some of the runners behind him that took on tires, Matt responded, “I wasn’t worried about tires. I like these tires. These are similar to what we run on the RoC and this car is just awesome on M series Hoosier tires, they just work great. These were a little bit harder but I just love these tires and the car just loves them. This car could have won more than two races this year. The Race of Champions was a heartbreaker but this is a big win. I so proud and thankful for all of the people that helped me get to this point.”

When I caught up with young Mr. Hirschman after the race, I asked him, “What were your thoughts coming back through the field after you pitted?” Matt said, “I had to keep the car clean. I knew we had a good car. That’s why we didn’t even take tires. The car has been good from right when we unloaded it the thing has been awesome the whole time. I didn’t even think tires would help us. So we went without [changing] them. I just wanted to keep the car clean. I got a lot of easy spots because other guys had to pit. You know we got a little racy there, had to dice a little bit to stay ahead of the guys that did pit. Once we did take the lead, when Chuck [Hossfeld] pitted, it was it.”

I asked Matt, “How are things looking forward?” Hirschman replied, “This is a big win for my career. I won some races and have run really good in different series but this is the first big win that I got. I just missed [at] the Race of Champions this year. Probably, should have won it. Just didn’t get a break. Wrong break when the caution came out after I run my way by the guy and then got blocked to the finish: that was a heartbreaker. This definitely helps because I needed a big win at this point in my career.”

I said, “So is this car your own effort?” Matt said, “Yeah, this is my own car. This is the car we’ve been running on RoC all year. The thing has just been awesome lately. I DNFed the first race of the year because of a mechanical failure. I think we have eight or nine straight finishes of sixth or better. I’d prefer to drive for other people but I’m pretty proud of coming here and doing this with this car. I had help from both of my Tour teams that I drive for. Both owners helped me, people from both crews helped me and then I had my own people and family so it’s a total team effort but at the same time I’m pretty proud of winning it with this car, a car that comes out of my shop. This is the first year that I’ve owned it myself.”

I told Ted Christopher, “Way to cut through the field young man.” Ted said, “I was carving out there.” I responded, “A little early carving for Thanksgiving?” Ted replied, “I guess I still know how to drive, no matter what I’m in. I had fun. It was a good run.”

“It was my call in the beginning to run the way we did and it was too loose. What happens then is you really don’t get a good plan for your adjustment on your stop because you tighten it up but, did you tighten it up enough? We were so loose that we tightened it up some and we didn’t go enough. It was my fault. It’s hard when you’re bouncing from car to car a lot too, to get a good baseline. Have seat will travel. It was a good run. We made some lap money. We ran third for a while. So we made some money there second place is pretty good. I might get paid!”

In his Victory Lane interview, Eric Beers said, “If this thing had eight cylinders, it would have definitely been a one-two Mud Lane finish and I think Matt would have been behind me.” Afterwards, Beers told me, “They gave me an awesome racecar. I could put it anywhere on the racetrack I wanted to go. We had a restart on about lap fifty and I was right up on Teddy’s back bumper and under John [Blewett] for fourth or fifth or whatever spot it was. I got near the end of the backstretch and it [the engine] started popping. It popped for three or four laps. Finally, she just quit popping and just had no power. Must have broke a valve spring or something, that’s what they think. I was running on like seven cylinders, it just would never go.”

“I could drive it in a ton, get to the middle and put it to the floor and that’s all you could do. Everybody started backing up and our car was so good. To start where we did [thirty-first] and drive by all them guys. It’s a shame that something like this happens.”

I caught up with Junior Miller and asked him how his night went. He said, “So, so, started out pretty good. We put tires on, we got way too tight and then we never did run real good after that. They said we was leaking water and black flagged us. Held me up three or four or seven, eight, ten laps. I don’t know how many down there. It wasn’t our night. The car run pretty good early.” Junior’s warm southern timber is combined with the speed of an auctioneer in his oratory. It is absolutely amazing how many words he actually says during a statement that sounds so calm and soothing.

Chuck Hossfeld told me, “Let’s face it. We finished seventh. That’s not a win but I’ve been saying that we’ve had a fast car and we have had a fast car the last month or so. We just had bad luck. Tonight we had good luck. We pitted around lap fifty-five or something like that. We did that because some guys pitted early and we wanted to get some laps between us tire-wise and maybe if we had pitted one [caution] earlier we might have been up there dicing. That’s just part of it.”

“I agree with the calls that we made as far as pitting and all of that. Everything was perfect and I had a riot. If we had maybe one more caution we probably could have been up there mixing it with the leaders. But I’m really thrilled. The bottom line is that I had a riot the whole weekend. This team is really going to be good.”

I told Chuck, “A couple of times it looked like it got a little crazy on the front straightaway where guys were going three wide with the lapped cars.” Hossfeld responded, “Well, sometimes with this track, the speeds are so much different between the fast guys and the slow guys and you’ve got to keep standing on the gas and pick a lane. If you’ve got a lapped car and two cars in front of you, sometimes you’ve got to split them or go to the inside and that kind of stuff. It’s about the “funnest” track to drive, it really is. I had a good time.”

I looked long and hard for a happy bunch of guys from Long Island. I never found them. I can only hope that Dr. Paul and his band of merry men were somewhere celebrating. I know in spirit somewhere, Keith Comiskey smiled.

Dale Wolbrink was about to leave when I approached the red trailer. The red trailer was the nerve center for Charles Kepley’s operations for the event. The finish of the race had been posted but there was no written copy. Dale made a copy of the final scoring tape for me. I could tell that she was tired but, I think she was more happy than tired because Ron Yuhas had decided to make the trip to Concord at the last minute.

The windshield of the rental car was frosted over again. This time, I took a break and waited for it to melt off. I went to the Wing Zone to grab dinner. I was so thankful that they had delivered to me after closing the night before that I felt obligated to give them more business. They would do great business on Long Island.

48 hours later and I try to put this all together. It was a really great show. I have told everyone not to miss this for two years now. It’s your 51 week warning. Book it. Be there! It is worth the trip.

In case anyone hasn’t noticed, I have been changing my avatar to display the sponsor of the next Modified touring event sponsor from race to race. After this race, I posted the logo for the University of Michigan, my mother’s alma mater. One might also notice that Shopgirl has had an Ohio State flag as her avatar for a while. Vicki grew up in the shadow of the Horseshoe in Columbus, Ohio and is a rabid Buckeye fan. By the way, so is Whelen Modified Tour Media Coordinator, Mark Mockovak.

The next big event for us will be a clash of the titans as these two University’s football teams will likely face each other as #1 and #2 in the nation with undefeated records. We are like the couple in the old ESPN commercial that stated; “If it weren’t for sports, this wouldn’t be disgusting.” As a couple kissed on a couch wearing the attire of these two fine institutions of higher education. GO BLUE!

There are several announcements that team owners requested me to make. They will be included in the next article as this one has run on far too long already. “What Are Your Plans for 2007?” should post later this week. And for now, I’ll let everybody bicker about which race they will choose to support on Thanksgiving weekend.