2010 Event Photos Page 2
July 17, 2010
Shippensburg Speedway
Photos courtesy
of Rick Mandelson
Pam & Dan (Vintage Oval
Racing Magazine)
The following story is
from a Drivers perspective in lieu of an
observer which is not normally done in your magazine.
I think that over the
years I've become sort of a Track snob enjoying no less than
a half mile up to the Michigan International Speedway's two
mile Track.
I went to a Track
yesterday called Shippensburg Speedway ( a quarter mile at
best)
only as a courtesy to Nancy and John Miller who have
participated in my last four
events I've done, last being Hagerstown Speedway in
Maryland.
I was just going to show
the car for the crowd as a representative of the Eastern
Museum
of Motor Racing and being lazy, left my 4:85 half mile gears
in the quick change.
(it's not so quick any more at my age)
My friend, Carl Snyder
(as shown in the accompanying pictures ) in the #69
Shuman Gun Shop Sprinter laughed as he put in a set of 7:92
gears for this occasion.
Well, after being
harassed by a few of the drivers, I decided, what the hell,
it's
only going to be a exhibition thing anyway and I found out
later that the other
classes being Micro Sprints and such have heard but never
seen our type of cars in action.
Well, we suited up for
what I thought to be a preheat your engine session which
after four
laps the green light was on and the officials around the
Track were beckoning us to get it on.
I surmised they wanted us to give the crowd a little show
so I stabbed the throttle and as
an immediate consequence, the car fell on it's nose and I
wasn't sure if it would re-light.
I learned one thing for sure, not to do that again and
maintained at a max, one third
throttle because of the high gears I was pulling.
After refueling and
everybody talking about the track, I got to meet some of the
"hot shoes"
regulars of the Track that ran the Micro Sprints, one of
which, Devin Beidel of Beidel Motorsports
http://www.beidelmotorsports.com/ who ran for Tony
Stewart for four years and was now
only twelve years old. He enjoyed sitting in my Sprinter as
I enjoyed he, his Father and
Grandfather showing me his car , setup, etc.
The Track's crowd was
pretty electric when we entered the track the second time
for
"our exhibition" and again after four laps we got the green
light and this time the officials
were really motioning us to get it on. Well, being an old
racer, (focus on the OLD) I
started to hammer pretty hard and being on such a small
track with tall gears, I was pretty
much sideways smoking the tires to keep the rev's up. This
was a lot of fun as Carl and I were
"putting on a show" for awhile but I started to realize as
the laps were winding down,
when in the Hell are they going to toss the checker
flag...............I'm getting tired and
I ain't got no wing or power steering, ninety five degree
heat, high humidity, damn..........
This went on for a long
time after I started to whine about it in my head but
finally by the
grace of God I saw the white flag and as I about to pass
John Miller I backed off as I knew
Carl would be blasting by and as it was, the three of us
crossed the finish line together.
(I thought if anyone one was taking pictures, well here it
is, you got it.)
Later, I calculated my
fuel consumption and figured we ran approximately forty
laps.
The Micro Sprint boys
were happy with us because we "rubbered up the Track" for
them
and we later talked to the owner and Track manager after the
payouts were done. Since it
was the first time most of us ran the track and the crowd
enjoyed our little show, Track Management
asked us if we would be back for next
year...............that certainly was a no brainer.
I'll still be lazy and run my half mile gears.
Now, if you think I've
embellished this story to any extent, there is a gentleman
that sells
still pictures at the track as well as makes DVD's for a
mere five dollars that filmed / recorded
our little episode. I and Carl gave him ten
apiece..........cheap.....
Pam & Dan, you know I've
run Michigan and Darlington and they are very memorable as
well as some of my other exploits over the years but last
night is "up there" and as I write this,
the adrenaline has subsided and the soreness has settled in
on these old bones but I'm smiling
and to think, I wasn't going to run my Sprinter on that
little Track as I thought it wasn't big
enough to light the car off from a push start.
I was happy to de-snob
myself and to learn that a Track is a Track is a Track.
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July 3, 2010
Winchester Speedway
Photos courtesy
of
Tom Coghlan
EMMR members were at the
Winchester Speedway, Winchester Va on the evening of July 3rd.
This was the 5th year
that EMMR members were at Winchester for the Forth of July
weekend.
The weather was good, clear and semi cool, but with the good
there is some bad. Well, one of the
tall race car haulers took down the main electric power service
while making a turn around in the
parking lot. Over 400 feet of cable had to be replaced. The show
finally got started a little after 8.
EMMR had 11 cars
present. We had warm up laps and a 10 lap feature.
Everyone enjoyed themselves as they have done in the A lot of
stories were also passed around.
Richard Bowser made his
yearly trip back north from Florida. He used to live in the
Winchester area,
so he makes Latimore, Hagerstown and Winchester plus a family
reunion get together.
A special thanks to
Chase Schneider Car # 31 for setting up the grill and cooking
hamburgers, hot dogs and other items that go along with a July
4th cook out.
And special thanks to Bobby Lowery and Dick Volante for handling
the leg work, phone calls
and working out the details for EMMR's part in the program with
the staff of Winchester.
For general information our presents at Winchester started with
the Potomac
Open Wheel Vintage Racing back in 2006.
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June 30, 2010
Hagerstown Speedway
Photos courtesy of Rick Mandelson
Leading up to "Speed Week " were the 410 Sprint Cars
better known as the Pennsylvania
Posse for the most part participate running a race track
a day for a week starting with a number
of historic tracks, the first one being Bedford. The
weather was beyond hot and humid and
temperatures were in excess of one hundred degrees for a
few days and the humidity
was really up there as well.
Along came the time were the Eastern Museum of Motor
Racing cars were to act as filler for the 410 Sprinters
show as we do each year around the 4th of July when
magically, as if God deemed it so, that very day the
maximum temperature got up to seventy eight degrees and
at night the low was forty eight and the rest of the
week the temperatures were attempting to hit the
hundred degree mark again.
Needless to say, the
weather was a wonderful relief which made for a perfect
night of racing for all.
Our overall car
count for EMMR was thirty-one.
We split up the cars
in three classes and each class would go out separately
throughout the night
(thanks to the Hagerstown Speedway Management) There was
an abundant amount of Track time
allotted for each class thanks again to the cohesiveness
of Track Officials and Track Management.
Our sincere
appreciation goes out to the Management of Hagerstown
Speedway as not only was
it a great time for all but while our cars were on the
track, it allowed the 410 Sprinters more
time to work on their cars. Definitely a win-win
situation.
Certainly, honorable
mention should go to Alan Kreitzler and Bryan
Householder and many others to numerous to mention as
well as the cohesiveness of the managements of the
selected tracks for Speed Week. It's an enormous
undertaking and have been enjoyed by many thousands of
Sprint Car followers over the years. (I saw a guy from
New Zealand as a fan and follower of the series) When I
was at Eldora Speedway at the Kings Royal years ago, I
became aware of the "down under boys" are terrific fans
of American Sprint Cars.
Me, a Marylander,
have to make note that the only track on the Speed Weeks
calendar is Hagerstown which in it's self is a fabulous
facility and even thought it doesn't have the National
recognition of Williams Grove, still can give the
"Grove" a run for it's money.
Rick
Click thumbnail to view larger image
Photos courtesy of
Joe Kruczewski
June 26 & 27, 2010
2010 Latimore Valley Fair
Curt Werner photos
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Rick Mandelson photos
