After a late start and a late dinner I was off to Five Mile Point Speedway and was anticipating a great show with Modifieds and Sportsman on the card racing. A total of 35 Modifieds and 27 Sportsman were in the pits for both competing in a Race of Champions Series race. They also had the enduro cars or what they call the Colossal Cats racing also. The place didn’t change much that I could remember from the last time I was there, however the pits were now behind the backstretch
and not off of turns three and four. I almost forgot to mention the new aluminum bleachers that were in place in front of the towers and also a new handicap seating at the top of them as well.
This is a great addition, as I can remember just the old school boards down as seats. I have a bunch of pictures I’ll be posting.
The first thing that I noticed was that when they were doing hot laps that they put the tires that normally sit on the very inside of the track out on the track. .
(Picture shows this) No idea why this is, but either way I figured it was to save the inside groove. They have a nice big Lap Counter down in turn one which is always good to see, as many fans love knowing how many laps left, or how many have been completed either way.
Hot laps were going on and they brought all the cars out on the track from the pits that are off of turn two now and staged them all in the infield. During the hot laps, it was getting dusty so I knew I was in for more dust than normal just like Uncle Dennis said to me, “I’m Warning You!” My cousin Rich brought all the family with him as he was one that had the opportunity to use the Family Pack deal, which is good for two adults and three children, and with his 8 kids, it was one heck of deal especially with all 17 and younger getting in free. Senior citizen prices were fair at $15 with just adult admission at $19. Normally series races it costs more and I thought this wasn’t that bad of a deal. Weekday shows it is sometimes hard to get people there, but the place was pretty filled up for sure.
During the heat races I noticed it was looking like a one-groove racetrack, which I was hoping it was going to get better come feature time. So I took some time and walked around taking pictures of the place. I spoke with Tom and Joanne Schwarz, owners of Racing Collectibles, who had their trailer full of racing memorabilia there for sale, and I can say they have a bunch of great stuff.
Speaking about great stuff, Garys U-Pullit was the sponsor of the nights racing and just from experience; they have a ton of parts in their yard for many cars. I think my uncle Dennis lives there as he is always going to get spare parts for all his vehicles and most anything you find there is cheap!!
The heats were run off rather quickly and notables that did not make it were Brett Hearn, Danny Johnson and also Matt Sheppard. There are many others, but I’m just getting used to the drivers down this way, so it has been taking me some time. Danny ended up breaking in his heat and later would still not make the consi and get a RoC Provisional to start the feature. Usually at all tracks I’ll get some popcorn and popcorn is popcorn right? Well for $2.50 you get a huge bag of it, more popcorn than any other place that I have been to before, not bad for the money. I also had the normal Hot Dog and Hamburger but was told I had to try the Cheese Steak Sandwich and for $4 it was well worth it, I recommend it now if you go there. The funny thing is at this place the condiment table with all the fixing’s for food is under a canopy, which is rather hilarious, as I would find out soon later on why it is.
I sat down in turn four on the good old wooden benches with a bunch of friends that I met over the Internet on the forums. We had Danny Johnson, Friesen, Planck and Holland fans their and we all were getting along just fine. That’s the best thing about racing, family. The sportsman feature was set to go for their 40-lap affair and let me tell you I didn’t know many of these guys but the competition was tough and very competitive. The leader Clay Butler was going into turn four after leading most of race and lost it all on his own
and gave up the lead to eventual winner Nick Petrilak in the #72.
I'm sure that Butler was mad at himself for sure on screwing up, but sometimes that is just racing I guess. This race was very exciting to see, a bunch of passing and these guys were really moving around this small bullring, so I couldn’t wait to see the modifieds! Of course it was dusty,
I loved the dirt coming at me because I was prepared for it, but never thought it put a damper on the good racing that I seen in all classes. Another bad thing was the Bugs were out in big numbers and all over you during the racing program after it was dark and getting later into the night.
I still was able to hear the announcers fairly well, which is always good to have a sound system you can hear. Another interesting tidbit is when I was looking at some of the Modifieds up close, while they were lined up is the front bumpers on them have another row of bars and are bigger than what I have seen before, has anyone else noticed this?
Well besides the dust problem the night would even get worse so it seemed. My phone was about dead from doing updates all night. (Backup battery ordered so it will last the whole night) Billy Decker was in the lead early on from his 2nd place starting position with Larry Wight who started on the pole right behind him most of the way. Stewart Friesen was running third in the later stages of the race and this was a 61 lap scheduled race. Well on lap 59 the yellow came out for no apparent reason that any of us could see. So the running order was Decker, Wight, and Friesen 1-2-3. They go green again and Friesen gets by Wight going into turn three and the yellow comes out again for a car slowing on the track going to the infield. So this is where it gets a little messed up. All night long when they had a caution they would go back to the last lap completed and if anyone passed someone like in this case would have been put back in position. But, this didn’t happen and Friesen was still in second place and the crowd could not understand why, along with myself. The checkers would fly one lap later and Decker wins
with Friesen second and Wight in third. I know from experience on being in a tower at a racetrack and one of the hardest jobs is to be a scorer. I’m not saying it was their fault by any means, but someone really screwed up and this is definitely not a good situation to be left with as many are thinking the place is playing favoritism to Friesen. I just don’t think that Andrew Harpell would go and do that type of thing. Everyone is human and when us humans get under pressure or in the heat of the moment we are prone to make mistakes at times, and if someone honestly made a mistake, Sh*t happens and it makes everyone pissed off at something or someone. It is human nature to always blame someone or something, I have been in the tower before at racetracks and it is no easy job for sure. That includes the scorers, race directors and even the announcers have all made mistakes. Andrew Harpell has a good staff set in place at the speedway and I’m sure he sticks behind him when they make a mistake and/or tells the public/media/fans the truth on what happened.
In the official Press Release from the RoC Series on there website found here> http://www.rocdirt.com kills all the confusion on what happened. Andrew Harpell is quoted with the explanation. I was waiting to post this as I made a call to Andrew myself and wanted to hear his side of the story, and him being a professional returned my phone call and explained it to me.
Andrew told me on the phone, “If their isn’t anyone more disappointed with the dust, it is myself, I work hard on the surface the whole week and we do our best, Tuesday night there wasn’t much wind, and the track has been super smooth weekly and you have some good nights and bad nights; The hot weather with the sun beating down didn’t help much either.”
There was a pile up early on and a few of the drivers from way back got to the front quick and there was passing and close racing all night, the sportsman were almost coming of turn four 3-4 wide at times along with the Modifieds. The bathrooms are a bit small and they are what they are, no feedback on the ladies room, but still a 7 out of 10 bathroom rating. The people were friendly, food was good and so was the racing. I’ll try to forget the drama and move on to the next race. Andrew Harpell does a great job with the RoC Series and also Five Mile Point, as the weekly car counts prove it.. The best thing to do is go back out there Saturday night and go racing again!!! I had a fun time at this track and I’ll go back. The next RoC Series race is next Tuesday Night on July 12th at Lincoln Speedway
in PA. And also Five Mile Point will be racing this coming Saturday night on July 9th. The info sheet for the Lincoln event is found under the schedule page on the RoC Dirt Site.
Until next time Let’s all try to stay positive and go to the track near you and keep on doing what we all like to do, go to the races, talk races, and live racing!!! While doing so keep it on “The Write Track” and be part of the solution not the problem… Any and all feedback is welcomed and can be sent to me via email at tomames2@yahoo.com . I’ll post some pictures when I get the blog updated I’ll let you all know. Also Jay Fish was there shooting with his camera, who Does work for RacePro Weekly and Luvracin.com and also Dougs Dirt Diary. I have included his link to the pictures below, Thanks Jay for the great shots and work you do! I also have two small videos that will be on my youtube channel soon.
LINKS OF INTEREST>
Five Mile Point Speedway>
http://www.fivemilepointspeedway.net/
RoC Dirt Series>
http://www.rocdirt.com
Gary’s U-Pull It>
http://garysupullit.com/
Racing Collectibles>
http://www.07racingcollectibles.com
Jay Fish Pictures>
http://luvracinphotos.smugmug.com/Jay-Fish/Five-Mile-Point-ROC-Mods-July/17925530_dW9Pkq#1372290147_dMMLJFv
My YouTube Channel
http://www.youtube.com/user/tazman27j
Full Results>
Gary’s U-Pull It Official RoC Modified Feature Finish 61 laps: BILLY DECKER, Stewart Friesen, Larry Wight, Dale Planck, Rick Laubach, Danny Johnson, Pat Ward, Jeff Strunk, Justin Holland, Matt Sheppard, Bobby Varin, Joey Grammes, Danny Tyler, Kevin Bates, Kevin Albert, Mike Colsten, Ryan Watt, Tim Votra, Scott Brady, Mike Nagel Jr., Jim Gabriel Jr., Jimmy Phelps, Ronnie Johnson, Joey Colsten, Glenn Knapp, Dan Vauter, Brett Hearn, Doug Manmiller, Nick Rochinski, Ken Titus.
Lap 61 Bonus $ Sponsors…In Memory of Five Mile Point Speedway Track Founders Anna and Irving Heat ($100), Keystone Electrical Contractors, Inc. Lake Ariel, PA ($61), Spiegel’s Recycling Elmira, NY go Mike Bills Woodhull Speedway ($21), LogoThis – Logothistee.com ($20), 07 Racing Collectibles Endwell, NY ($20), To 99L Lightning Larry Wight Good Luck from Dillon Falter ($20), Village Train & Hobby Windsor, NY ($10), Good Luck to the New Egypt Speedway (NJ) teams ($10), VanDyke Trash Hauling – Sidney, NY ($10), Webstore.com ($10), RJM Automatic Fire Protection – Phillpsburg, NJ ($10), Martini Room – Grosset Drive Kirkwood, NY ($10)…
Gary’s U-Pull It Official RoC Sportsman Feature 40 laps: NICK PETRILAK, Chris Wood, James Cornell, Sammy Piazza, Ryan Olsommer, Jeff Crambo, Greg McCloskey, Mike Dougherty, Ben Bushaw, Claude Hutchings, Jerry Tonti, Clay Butler, Brad Szulewski, Alex Stanton, P.J. Goodwin, Anthony Perrego, Vinnie DeCicco, Chris Stevens, Bryan Batzel, Bill Shire, Dusty Barton, Bob Lineman Jr., Chance Spoonhower, Mike Austin, Ryan Beltz, Justin Andrews, Brad Weaver.
Gary’s U-Pull It Official Colossal Cat Challenge Feature 20 laps: ANDY BRIGHAM, Nick Griest, Dan Wood, Duane Kinne, Andy Colwell, Travis Hayes, Jeff Hayes, Dave Husnay, Jason Colwell, Bobby Edwards, Robbie Finney, Dennis Keesler.
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