I’m sure there are plenty of people who want to hear what I’ve got to say about the “Flash” race this week. There are some that might feel that these opinions will be biased from visions through rose colored glass due to a visit to Victory Lane. Regardless of that, you’ll have to trudge through the rest of what I have written to figure it all out.

Accidental death and dismemberment insurance
I got my accidental death and dismemberment insurance this week. That’s what I’ve referred to my NASCAR license as since first getting one in 1983. That year I seem to remember that somewhere in the materials it read that if a member were to lose an eye, two hands and a leg that a benefit of $2500 was available. I’m sure that makes everyone want to jump out in front of an open wheeled racecar.

A gift from China
Actually it was a gift from NASCAR. There was a plastic thing enclosed with my accidental death and dismemberment insurance package (along with a rulebook and the press guide) that was made in China. Most of us couldn’t figure out what this was and many have already discarded it. Apparently it is supposed to be a windshield screen for a personal vehicle. I’ll let Vicki try out mine.

Traffic and the tombs
I thought the Long Island Expressway was a parking lot? We got that beat. The BQE was a mess Saturday. The Brooklyn-Queens Expressway stood still. When one gets on the BQE from the LIE they can see the cemetery that I’m pretty sure was used for a scene in “The Godfather”. The funniest thing on the BQE was a sign declaring that there were no “Cons” in dealing with the company it was advertising. It was directly across the street from what appeared to be a correctional facility; where all of the “cons” are housed.

The compound
I got my first visit to the Blewett compound in Howell. I was actually quite impressed. The fact that most of the Blewett family lives in such close proximity is impressive too. If I lived that close to all of my relatives, I’d be a nutcase. Then again, many of the folks who are reading this have determined that I’m a nutcase already.

At the shop
We were there to pickup the TS Haulers #12 WMT car. JB III has been setting up our cars and he brought that car home from Stafford after last weekend’s race. Jimmy took Stan, Jay and I for a tour of the Blewett property in an old Thunderbird. I rode around with my head through the sunroof. I also thought I might have accidentally broken Stan’s ankle when I moved the seat back. He appeared to be in a lot of pain but assured me that I only injured his private parts.

Status Green?
They are the sponsors on Jimmy Blewett’s Wall Modified. Status Green has a website, www.status-green.com, where you can find out about their music. In addition, Gangstahic.com’s guys live somewhere between the wood and the hood and they stand on some good dirt.

Legends and TQs
The Legend cars and the TQs at Wall were amazing. They really fly down there. That track, which is a little tight for Mods, is perfect for these smaller racecars. John took out one of “Liquid” Lou Cicconi’s TQs in practice and he seemed to have a blast with it.

Woody’s
After the Blewett brothers both ripped off top-five finishes in the Wall Modified race Saturday night, we headed for Woody’s. Woody’s Tavern sponsors Jimmy’s Wall Mod and was the primary sponsor for Jamie Tomaino at the Wall WMT race. We had a great time there and we would have liked to stay longer but it had been a long day.

The Hotel and Roy
I don’t know if Roy Bartow was ready for the celebrity status to which I put him last week. People were asking for my “snoring buddy”. I was ready to write my first novel with a heroic character named Poulan Stihl (after the two chainsaw manufacturers) based on Roy. Poulan would save the lives of a Modified team by preparing them sensibly portioned meals to reduce their cholesterol.

A new position
Roy was ticked off about it. He doesn’t have to worry about the book anymore. Eddie Partridge changed his title from cook to technical advisor on Monday which put the kibosh on the whole book idea.

Zzzzzzzz
I was dead dog tired. I didn’t hear anyone snore. I think I fell asleep mid-sentence trying to explain to Roy who Sam Ard is.

Wall Stadium Pick 3
The winning 1-2-3 numbers for 5-6-07 were 12, 66 and 14 and the WMT race at Wall Township Speedway was brought to you by the letter Y as in Yellow. I thought we could get that out of the way and get on with Sunday.

Pit sign
The belly pan that slid into our pit stall at the Icebreaker turned out to have come from the nose of the #90 car. Renee asked me for a picture of it and that is forthcoming. By the way Renee, that thing has brought us such good luck that you’re never going to get it back.

Where! I know that guy!
There was a Joey Caraccia sighting at Wall! I heard rumors for a couple of hours that he was there. I found him near the Brady Bunch #00. He confirmed to me that the rumors of his New Smyrna Speedway exploits were all true unless the authorities wanted to inquire. Thanks for all of the help!

Flash 50
The “Flash” format was not as bad as anyone had forecast it to be. There were some very good questions raised prior to the event but most of those were answered on Sunday. It will probably work okay in the future with a little tweaking.

Wow! Who was picking?
The way that the draw worked out, several of the drivers who needed to practice least started at the front of the heat races. That allowed them to scuff and wait. Those who hadn’t seen Wall were at a distinct disadvantage.

Problems loom
Prior to the event there had been a concern about the tires. What if someone pulled into the infield after a lap and took a provisional starting spot? What if someone waited until the end of one of the heat races with fewer than the number of qualified cars remaining to take on four tires? Those questions were largely based on the premonition that teams would only be able to race on the set of tires with which they started the heat race.

Where’s the tire garden?
Teams were allowed to purchase two sets of tires. One set had to be in the impound area whenever the car went out onto the track during practice. Teams were permitted to scuff both sets but one set had to be pre-determined as the qualifying set. That was the set that had to be used to start the heat race.

Solution
Once the heat races had been run, qualified cars could start the feature on whatever combination of the tires they had remaining. Most teams scuffed both sets; ran the heat race on one set and the feature on the other. Jamie Tomaino told Ed Cox at the driver’s meeting that the right-side tires should have been of the same construction to give teams flexibility were flats to arise. The right-rear and right-front compounds were different and thus that limited options in the event of a problem. Cox agreed and said that would be addressed prior to the next flash event.

Execution needs work
The pit area that was coned off would have worked a little better had NASCAR officials released the first heat cars from impound a few laps before the end of the second heat. Once the cars from the second heat pulled to their pit locations, it was quite difficult to get the first heat cars from the impound area to their stalls. That made getting the cars to go across the scales difficult too. A little more planning would have made the whole thing a lot easier for the competitors as well as the inspectors as cars were going through tech while there was active traffic coming in and out of the paddock from the racetrack.

I know how to make a gazillion dollars!
If I could teach people to be like Tony Ferrante, Sr., I could charge a million dollars per lesson. I’d win the Nobel Peace Prize too. For now, I’ll just try to be more like him. It was sad to see him leaving before the feature. He gets even better with age.

Did that lap count?
As we were not counting caution laps, the restart order reverted to the previous lap. I thought we were on Lap 30 for about an hour during the feature. Some of the cautions weren’t actually called from the tower. Whoever was in control of the caution light switch was not on the same page with the WMT flagman or the Tower. Several times the yellow flew just because the guy on the switch seemed to either get flustered or maybe he wanted to see the disco lighting come on.

Why is that car still out there?
That isn’t to say that the guy at the switch was to blame for the carnage. Unless that switch was connected to electromagnets that kept about a half-dozen cars bashing into each other in the middle of the field. Several of those competitors should have been asked to leave before they completely wrecked their racecars or finished wrecking others. Chances are if one or two of the competitors had been parked, the rest of the field would have settled down as to avoid a similar penalty.

That’s a nice Vette
A Corvette pace car was used during the race. It had no strobes and they didn’t even use the flashers until the feature was past the half-way point. Officials could have asked Reverend Dan to use the Racing With Jesus Ministries pace car. That car has a full set of Whelen lights on it and a driver who knows how to use them. There. I said it.

Jet set
Jamie Tomaino had a great run going. Here’s a Bronx cheer from everyone in attendance for letting cars out of the pits in front of the leaders on a restart. Ppppbbbhhhlllllppp! At least Jamie recovered to finish eleventh but he had a top-five car.

Get that guy a t-shirt
Donny Lia put on a show. The “Old Man” would have been proud of him. I’m pretty sure he passed more cars than anyone else out there and it seemed like he passed some of them a dozen or more times. I know that Joe Hartmann won the move of the race award, and deserves an “atta boy” of his own, but Donny came from the back several times.

Move of the race
The move of the race was performed in the pits. It had been surmised that twelve gallons would be enough fuel to complete the race…even with excessive caution laps. Fred and Jay decided that it was better to just dump the last half-gallon or so of gasoline out of one of our fuel container into our racecar. When the dipstick was checked after the race, it just about came up dry. I mean there was a dark spot on the bottom of the stick but that was it. It might have made it difficult to provide a fuel sample if there were none left. A splash of gas gets the cash at the flash.

Showtime
Jimmy Blewett did a masterful job of keeping his brother and Reggie Ruggiero behind him. It was frustrating for a time after the Tower had announced that the restarts would be single file if the field couldn’t pull it together on the next one. Time and time again, Showtime pulled away out of the inside lane. Several cautions later we got to lap forty and it was time for down-finger restarts.

Who gets a hat?
Mark Mockovak was handing out hats in Victory Lane. I haven’t worn hats that much of late but I like this one. I was a little upset that “Guru” hadn’t gotten one of the hats. Thanks to Crafty for giving his up. How many fingers is Roy holding up? Thanks JB for all of the setup work.

Two guys from BAIT
Before the rest of the crowd broke up down at the photo shoot, two of us walked away. Kevin Reardon and I are both former students of BAIT. That’s an acronym we 7ny folks jokingly made up for the Baldwin Automotive Institute of Technology. Kevin and I aren’t graduates. The graduates all have fancy titles and full-time jobs in Nextel Cupland. We are thankful for of our time with the Tiger and for many of the lessons he taught us along the way.

Speaking of Tommy
The 3rd Annual Tom Baldwin Memorial Open is just a month away. We’re trying to send as many deserving kids from our (New England and Long Island) areas to the Victory Junction Gang Camp this year. Please contact Stephen Halpin at tbgolfouting@yahoo.com for further information. I look forward to seeing everyone there.

Thanks
I appreciate all of the congratulatory emails. Some knew this was the first time I got to celebrate in the winner’s circle at a Whelen Modified Tour event. This win was a team effort and Jimmy and the TS Haulers, United Crane Rental team would have won Sunday whether I was there or not. Thanks to Ed and Stan for pulling this all together and allowing me to be part of it.

Festival?
There will be plenty of folks, mostly from inside the racing community that will call this race a “wreckfest” or a “cautionfest”. There were fifteen cautions in fifty laps. It seemed like there were even more. The track is not to blame. Neither is the format or the cars.

Race or crash
There were drivers out there that couldn’t seem to get through an entire lap without locking up their brakes. On top of that there were several drivers who were defending their position by blocking. I thought that was ridiculous. Wall is a track on which it is so difficult to pass that if a driver can bring their car along side of another, especially on the outside, they deserve that spot. They don’t deserve to get run up into the fence.

The Law
When things get out of control in a domestic dispute, someone calls the law. If things get hairy in the streets, someone calls the law. Things were out of control on the track, not just this week but last week as well. The folks in the Tower are our law. It is time for the Tower to lay down the law. Any questions? There. I said something else.

Back to the compound
We dropped off the #12 at the Blewett Motorsports shop before heading home. A cooler spilled on whatever food was left. “Does anyone want a soggy sandwich”? We stopped on the way out to sing happy birthday to John Blewett, IV. Seven candles on a cake in the shape of a 7. Don’t cry Walt, too late.

Are we there yet?
We were actually surprised with the limited amount of traffic we battled on the way home. Jay, who was driving, might not have agreed but we got home about an hour and a half quicker than I had anticipated. I think Stan sang most of the way home.

Test on the horizon
There is a testing session rapidly approaching at New Hampshire International Speedway. The testing date is next week, Tuesday, May 15th. If anyone has questions about this session, please contact Fred Neergaard by email at pr@nhis.com.

And they’re off!
We’ll see each other on Memorial Day weekend in Stafford Springs. Meanwhile it’s nice to be a part of the team at the top of the standings. Next week there is an open comp show at All-Star but I will be out of town. Shopgirl is calling and I am on my way.