BILL STEPHENS “IN THE GROOVE” 8/17/09

Well, as we look at the Brainerd line score, there’s not a tremendous amount of good news to be seen. John did advance to the semi’s and looks like he’s in fairly solid shape to make the Countdown to 1. But Mike and Ashley were first round victims and Robert didn’t qualify. Ouch….

John made a rather significant announcement after the race, declaring that he and Robert would switch cars beginning immediately at the next race in Reading, PA next weekend. That, according to my records, would be the first time John has done the swapperoo with any of his drivers for tactical reasons.

John has, on occasion, jumped into another team driver’s car during testing but ever since John added a second team car in 1996 with Tony Pedregon aboard, he and the rest of Team Castrol have never played musical chairs.

John explained the move after his semi-final finish in Brainerd this weekend:
“I said I wouldn’t shuffle my crew chiefs for three races but I am moving a driver. Today, (I think) I earned enough to get my Castrol Mustang into the Countdown. It’s not secure, but it’s close enough. To be safe, I should have gone one more round, but I didn’t (so) I’m going with what we’ve got.

“I have about a 100 point lead with two races to go. Somebody is going to really have to do some damage to catch me, but we’ve got to get Robert back in the hunt, so I’m going to move Robert over to my car and I’m gonna drive the Auto Club Mustang.”

Of course, at the moment, Ashley is the only driver from JFR with an ironclad spot in the C-to-1. And unless Robert makes up some ground between now and the end of Labor Day weekend, his championship hopes will be on hold until 2010. Not good.

I wanted to share an observation that came to me this past Saturday night a couple of thousand miles east of Brainerd. I was in Seekonk, MA, about an hour from where I live on Cape Cod, attending a stock car race at Seekonk Speedway with my 19-year-old son, Will. I really enjoy those Saturday night outings with him (and sometimes my other son, 13-year-old Sean) at the 3/8-mile paved oval which has been hosting a weekly racing program between May and October for many, many years.

It’s a track very similar to those which at one time could be found in thousands and thousands of communities from coast to coast where homebuilt hot rods, jalopies, and modifieds raced fender to fender during those long, hot summers when gasoline was cheap, we didn’t have 150 cable TV channels, and the stock car races were the best show in town. Make no mistake, the number of local short tracks still operating across the country has declined dramatically over the past 20 years as urban development, the skyrocketing value of real estate, and the ever-climbing expenses which track owners must cover to stay in business have wiped out countless small-time racing venues.

Including drag strips.

When I was a teenager growing up in the Boston area, the excitement which was generated in 1968 by the opening of New England Dragway in Epping, NH—about 90-minutes from downtown Boston—jolted through every gearhead in the area. I even worked there for a couple of years and can remember the huge crowds every Sunday when big-time, professional drag racing was on display at that spanking new facility owned by the Sidebotham family.

Connecticut Dragway in Colchester, CT was also a very popular New England track but was a bit too long a hike for many Boston-area hot rodders to visit on a weekly basis. Connecticut Dragway is long gone, New England Dragway is hanging in there, but one  of the most beloved drag racing facilities which constantly drew a legion of fans to its weeknight programs was in Norwood, MA, a short drive south from Boston, built right alongside Norwood Arena, where a paved oval track held stock car events on Saturdays.

On Wednesday nights, a few bucks would buy you an evening of watching local hot rodders and Muscle Car owners scoot down the 1/8-mile strip, pair after pair after pair. It was Norwood Dragway that I flashed back to this past Saturday as my son and I watched the action in Seekonk; grateful that a small, family-owned track had—at least so far—avoided the real-world threats to its existence from land values, insurance premiums, and the flimsy economy. Once these racing throwbacks to a simpler time are all gone, it’s very doubtful new tracks will be built to replace them. It’s a numbers game and the numbers aren’t working in favor of a local racetrack renaissance.

How great would it be to have a new generation of clean, safe, top-notch 1/8-mile strips offering a weekly program for a reasonable admission price scattered across the suburban areas of America like they were 30 to 40 years ago where dads and sons could either race their tricked out street cars and street rods together or families could afford to come out and watch?

Then again, has that concept run its course?  Am I envisioning something from yesterday which couldn’t survive in the New Millennium? Perhaps. And if so, I’m surely not the first person who has ever done that.

Enough philosophizing. John and the troops are on their way to Maple Grove Raceway in beautiful rural Pennsylvania as you’re reading this for this coming weekend’s Toyo Tires Nationals. The Countdown to 10 is drawing ever so closely to a conclusion and this weekend’s race will be pivotal in getting all four JFR Mustangs into the title tournament.

More from “In the Groove” after the race. Until then, please drive safely!