Many of us got off to an early start on this latest trip to New Hampshire International Speedway. We left on Wednesday morning. I’d left on a Wednesday before, but usually it was pretty late in the day.

Our team needed some rims picked up in Massachusetts along the way. So Boy George or George, George, George of the Jungle and I followed Eddie, who was driving our hauler, out to the Orient Point ferry in Ed’s unofficial NHIS point of interest pickup. The hauler contained most of our other usual suspects.

I learned a lot about my vine swinging friend on our trip to Loudon and back. He likes hunting and fishing, racing quads and is blessed with about the same self-awareness as Roy. Jungle Boy in fact had a shark fishing expedition planned out of Montauk for Sunday morning.

The boat ride was fairly uneventful. I did however get a chance to sit and chat with Bryon Chew and his ever friendly father Buzz. They’ve had an up and down season on the Busch East Series trail.

When George drove off of the boat, I realized that the wrong person was driving. This kid had never driven to Thompson before, much less Loudon. I directed him, as carefully as possible toward our first destination.

Ed had given me directions to Independent Wheel. These guys have great rims but apparently they don’t know how to give directions to their own shop. Fortunately, I have a cell phone and I was smart enough to copy their phone number from Eddie’s address book before we left.

To make a long story short (I know; it’s too late) we loaded up the rims and dashed off to try to catch up to our hauler, which by now had a half hour head start. We got to the track about an hour after Eddie did. All that does is justify the difference in the size of George & Eddie’s right feet. You know what they say about big feet? They need big shoes.

Along the way my business phone rang. Although I had mentioned that I would be away for a few days, I was recalled to one of the companies I represent with great urgency. “We need to see if you can stop by before the end of the day.”

It was about a half hour before closing time for the Long Island based company to which I replied to the representative, “We’re going through a toll booth outside of Manchester, New Hampshire at the moment. If you would like, I can see you on Monday morning. Of course if you would like me to jump right in on this project, feel free to FedEx the information to my hotel.” I sounded like one of those suits I avoid at airports so often.

George saw the NH state liquor store. He mentioned that his dad wanted him to pickup a case of some adult beverage. I could just imagine our guys with a case of hard stuff around on a weekend away from home. Thank God we didn’t stop.

The reason for our early arrival was the necessity of getting our fuel cell inspected. All competitors at NHIS had to use the Sunoco unleaded racing gasoline that was provided at the track. It’s a good deal, because the gasoline is free.

However, we were told that the fuel inspection at Loudon would be conducted by the Nextel Cup officials. Any trace of leaded racing fuel could lead to a problem. Most of us bemoaned the fact that we had to get our fuel cells re-sealed as opposed to counting it all joy that we were getting a good deal. Save the stress for the engine builders of course.

Roy prepared some lunch for us at the track while Stanley and Freddie started bolting our fuel cell back in. Eddie said we weren’t going to dinner and to eat up. I had a burger but it was too early for dinner.

I mentioned, on our way back to the hotel, that I would probably take a walk to the seafood restaurant up the road about a mile from the hotel later. This piqued Eddie’s interest. I told him about the Lobster Stew they have at the place. As we checked in he said, “Let me know when you’re going. Maybe I’ll go too.”

An hour later I knocked, Ed answered and Roy peeked. Roy figured Ed wouldn’t walk. He didn’t, he drove us.

There we met a waitress who went on and on about the “Fabulous” Soup and Salad bar. In fact it is two loaves of bread, four vats of soup, some coleslaw, macaroni salad and that’s about it. What salad bar doesn’t have lettuce? It must be the “Fabulous” one.

When Eddie finished his Lobster, Roy showed us how to eat it properly. got lobstah? Roy did, he ate that thing like it was corn on the cob.

Thursday morning came early. One of the first things I noticed at the track was the aftermath of a trailer parking accident. Apparently, someone backed a trailer into a garbage barrel hard enough to crush the northwest corner of the east building in the North Garage. I asked the uniformed safety technician to stand where the barrel had been so that folks wouldn’t notice it.

I saw the former Chance2 trailer being parked. It was being towed by a DEI tractor. I figured Kevin Manion’s car had arrived.

Stories had circulated that Bono was building a Modified for Tony Stewart to race with us this weekend. When NASCAR directed those dozen drivers in the Chase for the Championship to New York to be on latter evening television, Manion lost his driver. Enter J.J. Yeley.

When this car was rolled back out of the trailer, it created quite a stir. The 7ny is back? I believe the original idea was for Tony Stewart to pay tribute to the Tiger. Those two had butted heads at New Smyrna years ago.

The car was sponsored by JR Motorsports. It bore a color scheme that several of us had asked TB to run. It was nearly flat black with a florescent orange background of a white 7ny. It matched closely to “The Show” tee shirt combination.

I had mixed feelings about seeing the 7ny. The actual number was close, but not right. I have a bitmap image of a genuine Eddie Schneider 7ny on my computer. Anyone could have asked me for it.

Even though it would be great to see that number out there again, I’d have preferred that the driver had been from Long Island. After all, it’s the 7ny not the 7az. I should probably just keep my mouth shut and be thankful to have seen it anyway.

When I ran into Shawn Courchesne and Travis Barrett in the Jack Ratta Media Center, Shawn was already composing a Blog about the 7ny. Two members of the C3M were at it again; meanwhile, their former compadre, Jason Christley was nowhere to be found for the second week in a row.

Christley, who had been serving, at least in an interim capacity as Whelen Modified Tour Media Coordinator in the wake of NASCAR’s decision to dump Mark Mockovak, had good reason not to be there. Apparently he missed Modified Mania II – Part 1 because he got married last weekend. This weekend he skipped camping in a tent at Loudon in lieu of hiking on the island of Crete. That’s in Greece, not grease.

Paul Schaefer was pulling double-duty this weekend with the Busch East and our beloved Tour. By the way, the most interesting post I saw from the weekend was a subtle link in one of Shawn’s Blogs. “Looking for a job? The Modified Tour is looking for you!” It linked to this classified ad.

Roy Bartow has an open mouth policy. He has continued his rants about Dr. Jerry Punch that started at Stafford back at the Spring Sizzler. Based on what Roy had told me about his past criminally psychotic episodes that he says include assault, battery and arson, I’m almost inclined to take out an insurance policy on Dr. Punch as a part of my diversified investment portfolio.

We practiced, qualified and packed up everything we had used in the North Garage. Then we waited to park in the infield. Eleven hours seems to be quite a bit more time that should be necessary to accomplish this. Let’s get back to the hotel and sleep.

One thing that we have been doing when traveling in Eddie’s pickup truck is acknowledging the attention that it gets. We started doing a queen wave whenever we drove through throngs of people. Many of the folks who we passed reciprocated and I find that hilarious. If someone charged a dollar for every picture taken of that silver beast this weekend, it might have paid the tire bill.

Friday was our “day off”. It was also the day of the Modified Series Auxiliary picnic. Cheryl Tomaino really made the whole thing happen. It was more like a cover-dish get together and it was really successful. Thanks go out to everyone who participated.

I got there about half an hour before it was all supposed to start. I left about forty-five minutes later. The food was great and everyone was having a good time. I just thought the barley, hop and malt beverages was flowing a bit too freely. I shuddered to think that one slip of judgment where there was one misplaced body part might lead to.

The other reason for my early departure was the music. The music wasn’t bad. It just gave me flashbacks.

Shopgirl and I waited out a six and a half hour rain delay at USA Speedway in Lakeland three years ago. During that delay five songs played in a continuous loop. There was Cheeseburger in Paradise, The Devil Went Down to Georgia, It’s Five O’clock Somewhere, I’ve Got Friend’s in Low Places and some country song about sitting on daddy’s lap steering a car. We heard this over and over about every fifteen minutes. I heard two of those songs, then one of them was played twice and I was out of there.

Reverend Don had similar feelings about the alcohol. Fortunately for him, he had an out. He had to go to the infield to conduct Victory Chapel services for the Busch East teams. That didn’t spare him from party music.

In the middle of Don’s sermon, which took place across one of the access roads from our hauler, he was interrupted. Stanley, fresh from the picnic, yelled out “Love Shack!” from the top of our hauler. The Racing with Jesus Ministries PA system also works as a karaoke machine. Don had to explain to the devotees that he had promised to let Stanley sing the B-52’s song on it sometime in the future.

Fred Neergaard, Kristen Costa, Jolene and the rest of the NHIS PR staff really took care of us this weekend. They always do and all of us at Mod Series Scene and Speed51 really appreciate it. These folks provide us with access and support that is unrivaled.

I ventured out to pit road to watch qualifying for the Nextel Cup Series. I’m more interested in running into old friends than figuring out who qualified where. It’s great to talk to all of my buddies over at BDR, some of whom were helping out with Donny Lia’s Craftsman Truck debut.

Travis Barrett and Shawn Courchesne were seated side-by-side in the north press box getting ready for the Busch East race when I got up there. I noticed something that was going to make the Live Updates considerably more difficult for whoever would do them on Saturday.

The person who was in control of the scoring monitors decided to include a whole bunch of extra information. This required a different screen setting. Thus the sizes of the numbers on the display were quite small and difficult to read, even for those with keen eyesight.

When the Joey Logano benefit race was over and the driver that Shawn Courchesne found had all but secured his first NASCAR touring championship, it was time to leave. We traveled back to K-Lot to see what was going on where Jimmy was staying. They were playing poker.

Apparently the MPT or the Modified Poker Tour has been going on for quite some time. My understanding is that Eric Beers has been bullying everyone around in these games of No-Limit Hold ‘em Poker. Stanley was the big winner there where he was going all-in in the dark.

A few of us got a game going later. It is quite obvious to me that the best players don’t usually win these games. Two of us flopped open-ended straight draws. Another player went all-in with an Ace high. Both of us were pot-committed at that point. The Ace high won. I think they should invite Courchesne to play with them.

After the MPT action settled down, or was it after I busted out, we headed off to dinner. Lobster Stew for all of us. We had a different waitress this time. She’s so skinny that if she put a dime on her head we could call her a ten-penny nail.

Our eyes were bigger than our appetites. Eddie and I labored to finish our meals. Mike Olsen was in there fresh from the Busch East series race. He enlisted the help of the wait staff who handed out air-fresheners to all of the guests in the restaurant. There was a Glenn Sullivan sighting as well.

Back at the hotel, Roy’s bed had been made. Mine was still a mess but my luggage had been put on top of the bed so the table could be cleaned. We were told that the staff has been instructed not to remove anything from the beds and not to make them if any of the guest’s things are on them.

Roy wanted answers and he was ready to yell and scream. I took the sash out of the window, removed the screen and threw the evaluation cards and tip envelopes out on the roof. Come to think of it, that’s where I should have thrown the bedding. Roy was walking in circles, flipping through all of the channels on the television and wanted to talk more about Dr. Jerry Punch but I just wanted to sleep. Enter sandman.

Overnight the weather changed for the worse as expected. We had been discussing the possibility that the Modified race might not even go off until Monday. Although the rain never seemed to become torrential, it fell fairly consistently and the mercury was falling quickly.

Did anyone happen to notice that this is the traditional weekend for the Race of Champions? I used to determine when I’d break out my sweatshirts and jackets by that point on the calendar every year. Global climate change my (expletive deleted). We’re on the same temperature schedule as we were in ’83.

Many of us figured that we’d never get the race in. The jet dryers were fired up and track drying efforts were underway before it stopped raining. The efforts seemed in vain but eventually those efforts may have yielded a bit more track time once the sun came out.

There was a meeting. Ed was going to walk over to it and borrowed my umbrella. When he came back he told us that they think they’re going to run our race after the Craftsman Truck race.

Ed was wrestling with my umbrella like it was a misbehaving E-Z up. He said, “How do you close this thing?” I reached over and pushed the button on the handle. It folds up nicely.

Hurry up and wait. Suddenly there was a change. Maybe it was a new weather report, maybe it was something on the radar but the officials started to scurry from car to car in the Modified paddock area. “Get scuffs on your cars and go across the scales, park ‘em in the Truck garage, bring your qualifying tires there and be ready to go!”

We all prepared our cars and brought our pit equipment out to pit road. When the time came the track still wasn’t dry but the clearing was definitely coming. We pushed our equipment against the fence so the CTS boys could bring their big boy toy boxes out from the Center Garage.

I went back the hauler where Eddie was playing with the Aflac duck and Road Rage. Aflac actually says Aflac when he is squeezed. He has been onboard T.S. racecars for so many races that he looks more like a baby Mallard from all of the track grime that covers him.

Road Rage is a semi-articulated plastic doll that is attached to a platform. A key switch and shifter handle are in its base. This little device has given quite a bit of levity to everyone on the T.S. Haulers crew as it shakes and makes humanlike engine noises and tire screeches. Ed was laughing like a little kid playing with it. We are so easily amused.

Who is this (expletive deleted)? Who is in a limo; with a full police escort? Maybe it was Steven Tyler. I’d like to think it was probably some (expletive deleted) politician.

I asked Don King and he tried to calm me down. He said, “Walt that could be a really nice guy.” I reasoned with Don, “A really nice person, a celebrity or anyone of public concern anywhere else is nobody here. All of the people who need to be protected from the public are hiding in their haulers in the Cup garage right now.”

Oprah Winfrey and Elton John could walk through here and the worst thing they would probably hear is “Who’s the guy in the funny glasses walking with the book chick?” If Michael Jackson came through here riding on a golf cart the worst response would probably be “Eww, enough with the Bondo buddy”.

Finally Don agreed. Hey, I’ve got no problem with anyone riding to a race in a limousine. I traveled with the T.S. gang to the JBIII memorial race in one. The accompanying police escort however was quite an annoyance. Just a suggestion; next time take a helicopter ride in. The NHIS staff can handle the ground transportation for any VIP.

I did see pictures on the NASCAR media site of Steven Tyler posing on a motorcycle and “riding past” the (Jack Ratta) Media Center. Uhh, it’s in the corner of the garage area. The only way to ride past it…is to drive through a fence.

While that was going on the USAC Silver Crown cars went out for their practice session. It was brief and it was neat to see them out there. I don’t know exactly what speeds those cars were running but several folks said they were about a second slower than the Modifieds. At least their departure from the paddock area held up the exit of the limousine and its escort group.

The inclement weather on Saturday morning washed out Craftsman Truck Series qualifying. Fortunately for us, Bill Davis’ #36 truck was high enough in either the owner’s point standings or attempts for Donny Lia to make his truck debut. The Whelen Modified Tour point leader was very impressive in his first NASCAR national series race.

Lia started shotgun on the field. Ron Hornaday put a bunch of trucks a lap in arrears early. The Whelen Tundra was one of those trucks. Despite that, Donny continued to move forward. He was battling to pass three-time CTS champion Jack Sprague as the caution flew. Lia was ahead of Sprague at the moment of that caution. Thus he was the beneficiary of the free pass back to the lead lap.

Tom Baldwin, Jr. indicated later that he made a mistake at that time. Baldwin said, “I should have had Donny pit for fuel.” The trucks went on another long green-flag run and Lia had to pit under green. Those who had topped off under that caution wound up cycling back to the lead lap when the leaders were forced to pit.

Donny wound up finishing twentieth. He turned a lot of heads, got a bunch of TV time for Whelen and didn’t put a wheel out of place all day. Congratulations to Donny, TB, Phil Moran, Trey Tomaino and the rest of the BDR gang on a really good run.

I want to thank the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series officials who really did a fantastic job facilitating our Modifieds when the Truck race was over. It was really nice for once to listen to a race director from another series express as much concern for our gang as I heard on Saturday. They held up the trucks and their pit bulls until our cars had been moved to pit road.

There has been much written and said about the fact that the Whelen Modified Tour only ran three competitive laps under green before three caution periods had nearly caused our race to reach the half-way point. Based on the amount of daylight that was remaining, we weren’t going to get a red flag until the race had reached an official distance. Two of those cautions would have led to a red flags had time constraints not been so tight.

Danny Sammons and Dick Houlihan tangled in an incident that left them sitting in turn one. Had that the accident been over at that point, we probably would have gone green in a few short laps. Rowan Pennink plowed into the side of Sammons’ #0 at speed long after the yellow had flown. Isn’t this the reason that we have spotters?

In addition to cleaning up the mess from that devastating crash, the pace car driver indicated that there was oil on the track. This led to an unprecedented amount of oil dry to be put down. Some drivers were crying foul that there wasn’t any oil out there. Meanwhile there were others complaining that one of the cars had to be leaking based on the evidence on their windshields.

The culprits were probably the #79, which later pitted to repair an oil leak, the #7 which spewed water out of the overflow under green like a fire hose and the #9 who looked as though he might have been leaking from something in his drive train. Could this get any worse? In fact it could.

Back to green past a second caution for a spin by Ron Yuhas, Jr. after contact from James Civali and we’re ready for a big wreck. I don’t know whether Richard Savary knew he was close to being four-wide when he tried to pass on the north end of the speedway on the flat. Unfortunately, that would end the day for he and several other competitors.

Once that incident was cleaned up, the racing really began. For forty laps our beloved Tour demonstrated why Modifieds are the most exciting cars to watch at NHIS. Todd Szegedy took his #2 to victory lane.

Holy cow! We were actually quite amazed that Jimmy was able to pull out a top-five finish. With our primary engines still out of service, it was not expected.

What would you like us to do? We waited for post-race tech inspection to begin after surrendering our restrictor plate and transponder. The top-five were all moved into garage 12A where we could shed some light on the situation.

At one point we realized, they’re still racing? The Silver Crown cars were out on the track when it was so dark that we couldn’t see the fence around the Center Garage just fifty feet away. Those guys are crazier than we are.

After tech, we pushed our car and equipment back to the hauler, loaded up and got out of there. Ed gave George cash for fuel and we stopped at the station on the corner. The place was packed. Long lines at the register were generated by volume and the fact that everyone who bought cigarettes or beer was being ID’d regardless of age under the supervision of New Hampshire’s finest.

I thought that George had told me to tell the cashier pump #1. Apparently it was pump #10. It led to some confusion but it all worked out. Except the receipt; apparently George was supposed to get a receipt and he remembered that about when we caught up to our guys at the Interstate.

There comes a time when nature calls. I forgot, ever forget? It happened to me. I could have gone at the gas station. I hadn’t gone since before our race. My molars were floating before we reached Massachusetts and George stopped the beast, leaving our convoy to go on ahead in Worcester.

I was ready to jump out barefoot and run into the woods. Fortunately I decided to put my shoes on at the station where we stopped. The commode was stuffed with paper and waste overflowing onto the floor. Where’s Eddie Murphy to make fun of me?

We stopped for dinner across the street from Country Club Q. Phyllis was there and Roy got a chance to see her eyes. I had a burger there. This burger looked so good that it was almost a shame to eat it.

George and I kept the backdoor of our little convoy while in CB communication with our other vehicles. George demonstrated his dancing styles behind the wheel and I chimed in with air-guitar when I thought the songs warranted it. We were having too much fun.

Normally we have to be concerned about the street racers on I-95 driving their tuner cars. Saturday night it was a motorcycle club from Brooklyn. They’d buzz by us at about ninety mph and then gather on the side of the highway and do it again. I figured they’d wind up as road pizza.

As we got close to home a couple of fancy bobtails pulled out onto the expressway. Jay chirped over the CB, “Hey Ed, isn’t that your old truck?” This led to an interesting exchange between that truck’s owner, who had just left a truck show and Eddie over the radio. Ed Partridge, king of the show trucks.

We got home safe. George was off to go shark fishing. My pillow was calling me. We were all just glad we didn’t have to stay over to race on Monday.

By the way the quote of the week was made by Travis Barrett. He called Hall of Fame Racing the Joe Gibbs Racing “JV squad”. Honorable mention goes to Edgar Goodale.

Roy snuck up to the press box where the spotters had been allowed to move out of the rain. Roy was partaking of the food intended for the working media. He loaded up a plate with candy, brought it over to Edgar and asked if he wanted some. Edgar said, “Roy, you have the biggest (expletive deleted) of anyone here”.

Also on our trip home we learned that we might have moved up a spot in the results. Apparently there had been an issue with some part of the winner’s engine. We were just glad to get out of there with a good finish.

We’re going back to Thompson Sunday for Modified Mania II – Part 2. Who will show up? Who will win? Who knows? I hope to see everyone there.