2007 IHRA Iron Man Event

Every year I look forward to a few races at our local track. Usually the premier events that it has such as the Sprint Car race a few weeks ago and today's IHRA Iron Man Event on the drag strip. Now I love drag racing and can't get enough of the smell of alcohol burning engines and nitro burning funny cars, but since there is no nitro burning anything here this weekend I went to see the next best thing, Pro Mods! They are fiberglass bodied replica cars of earlier generation cars that use modern technology for suspensions and body and engines. Engines run on blown alcohol or injected nitrous combinations. Sure looks cool when they "purge" the nitrous. There was also other classes running there today as well such as the local "Renegade funny cars that run in high 7 second range and jr dragsters and the bracket cars. I took the grand daughter there and she had a good time gettin autographs from variuos drivers and got to see her hero who drives Jr dragtsers. But I was there to see Pro mods as they are usually pretty exciting to watch, loud and squirrelly! There was 3 top alcohol dragsters there to.not much to put on an event but good enough to get an alcohol fix!

A Race of a Different Kind

Well hell I thought running was suppose to make you feel good afterwards, I feel like crap! Sore legs and knees, sure different from my soccer playing days when I was running on nice soft green grass. (Victoria grass fields). Sure different on pavement. Well anyway I said I would start running after the wife bought me some new runners in Seattle. Glad she did or my feet would be really sore. Anyway I went for a run for a run on Saturday and Biked on Sunday morning and ran this morning.........good thing I gotta go to work tomorrow to get a rest! Well for some reason she thinks I will be able to run a 5k race soon..I doubt it.........Oh I ran by a golf course today and kept thinking I should be out there golfing! Maybe a good idea I didn't golf cause my golf game has been below average this year.

Platinum Cup Sprints and Watkins Glen...........and Sprint 101

Hey remember a few posts ago I said I am truly home at the track? Well it is true and today the Wilrock Sprint Car series from my hometown Victoria on Vancouver Island came to Calgary to race. The only series of sprint cars that race on asphalt in North America, well besides the NSRA but they race with the Victoria boys during the Daffodil and Strawberry cups in Victoria so I guess they are all one . But anyway they are well worth seeing if you understand what they are about. So that brings me to Sprint 101 to all you wannabe Calgary farmers turned sprint car fans. I heard in the stands today some interesting comments from people who obviously were oblivious to what the Wilrock series is all about. They also questioned why they were all from Vancouver Island and parts of B.C and not from Alberta. The fact that some people were saying cause Victoria had no asphalt was enough to make me wanna drill some points into their fat Alberta heads! But I thought it's obvious they have no bloody idea so here it is for all you farmers:

Wilrock and NSRA Sprint Car 101:

• First of all the point about Victoria having no asphalt to run on is a farce cause they way better tracks and roads than Calgary will ever have.
  
• Secondly the Wilrock series ONLY runs on asphalt tracks from Victoria to the BC interior and a few in western Washington. But all are on asphalt! Including Saratoga speedway, Western Speedway, and Vernon (Sun Valley to name a few)
• The reason Alberta racers don't race here is cause unless they have a sprint car made for asphalt it is probably made for dirt. To convert a dirt sprint car to asphalt would be an expensive deal for one race as the shocks, tires, and springs would all have to be setup differently as well as rear end gears etc. Therefore the reason why the Victoria series comes here is cause they are already setup for asphalt.
• The NSRA is the same deal but they are the guys that should come here to race as well. The cars that race in that series have even more horsepower than the Wilrock series.
  
• One last point, the reason the races are so short is cause they only hold so much fuel and it only lasts about 30-40 laps give or take some caution laps, thus calling them "Sprinters" or Sprint cars due to their short race length but on asphalt alot can happen and they can turn on a dime.

So now you know Sprint 101

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Watkins Glen Nextel Cup race report.

Didi you see the fight between Jaun Montoya nd Kevin Harvick?
well wasn't really a fight but close enough as far as NASCAR is concerned, but Jaun Montoya probably deserved it anyway. He had it coming for along time the way he's been driving on the NExtel Cup series and Busch series. Even though this accident wasn't really his fault when you have a bad reputaion in racing for wrecking guys you will always get blamed if you are evn close to a wreck! Fellow Canadain drivers Ron Fellows and Patrick Carpatenier (spelling unsure) had good runs with Ron finishing 4th and Patrick actually led 7 laps for awhile. Dale Jr blew an engine and I hope it didn't squash his hopes for racing in the chase but it just got a little harder.

Kurt Busch wins in Pocono

How about the battle of the beer cars? Kurt Busch and Dale Earnhardt Jr fighting for the last spot to get into the Chase. As dale's day was not bad he faltered a bit with bad shocks until they changed it in the pit s and then ended up finishing second to Kurt Busch. The two beer cars sat o the pole and finished 1st and second.



This was the result of an accident

Robby Gordon Suspended from Pocono and potential merger problems?

Well I guess it was inevitable that Robby Gordon would be parked due to Saturday's shenanigans in Montreal. What else did he expect for disobeying orders from NASCAR. Good thing the Army doesn 't sponsor him.
So what about all these new mergers in NASCAR? Is it a sign of the times that the economic positions now are coming to crunch time that teams and owners must find money elsewhere instead of corporate America? The economic pinch is starting to take it's toll that teams lack sponsorship and are unable to find new sponsors. Plus all the layoffs and and families who have had their lives upset by mergers that left them in the dirt. Yes, the behind the scenes look at NASCAR.
Anyway my point is I hope that NASCAR doesn't get too expensive that it cost way too much to race or attend as a fan and end up being in financial situations that the NHL is in, (and the NHL and NBA went on strike for it). Also these corporate mergers and transactions with sports teams such as Rousch Racing and The New York Yankees is a sign of the times to. But some sports teams are broke to or have been before. Ray Evernham's pending deal with George Gillette is a chance I woudn't want to take. Gill;ette owns the Montreal Canadiens and 3 other sports teams but has also gone bankrupt a few times owning other sports teams such as the old Atlanta Flames.
So NASCAR better look back at the roots of the sport where it started and take a close look at the expenses and where it is heading or we could be having "work stoppages in NASCAR". well that is a stretch but what do you do when there are only 5 teams who can afford to race and 20 who can't?
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Harvick wins in Montreal

What an awesome track in Montreal for road racing. And what a finish although a bit confusing. what I know though is that Robby Gordon always has been and still is a whiner and ignoring the black flag when NASCAR gives it out more than once is only going to make matters worse. robby you should have obeyed the black flag then complained after the race, cause either way you were'nt going to get second place back and now you dug yourself a deeper hole with NASCAR.
And the fact that Robby Gordon was doing a victory burnout while Kevin Harvick was as well is pretty funny as shown in this picture from NASCAR.com because after being black flagged his laps won't be scored after that point and he must have known that, so to even think he won is a little speculative.