Entries from August 2006 ↓

On Saturday, August 19 I went to Wall Speedway to see a show that consisted of Wall’s regular divisions, the TQ midgets and the USAC Northeast Ford Focus midgets. This was the first time the USAC Ford Focus Midgets have ever raced in New Jersey and was the main reason I went. I also really like to see the TQ’s at wall, so that was an added bonus. The admission was $20 which wasn’t too bad for Wall (who normally charges more then most tracks in the area). The racing was pretty good and started on time. None of the divisions needed consi races so that helped move things along. There was one short rain shower though that delayed the action just before the Midgets went out for their main event. The midget race was enjoyable but not as good as I hoped. Wall is a one grove track for almost anything other then a Legend car or TQ midget. I was hoping that a full sized midget race would be more then one grove, but it turned out not to be more then say one and a half grooves. I think “regular” midgets with more difference in horsepower may have put on a better show, but all-in-all the show was very good and I had a fun evening at the “Shore Speedway.”

My 2006 race attendance stats after Wall are:
Races: 21
Tracks: 17 (12 new) (149 lifetime)
States: 12 (3 new) (35 + DC lifetime)

Regular readers of /. probably already seen this, but CRN is reporting that “more than 20,000 Indiana students are now Linux-enabled.” This is great news and I hope this program expands and more like it crop up.

Ed Summers and others have started books4code. It has a web presence, at least for now on Google Groups at http://groups.google.com/group/books4code.

In proposing books4code on the code4lib e-mail list, Ed Summers wrote in an e-mail on the code4lib list:

So a bunch of us in #code4lib are thinking of starting up a book club
to read tech books together, learn from each other in the process,
and hopefully use a bit of peer pressure to propel ourselves into
actually finishing a book

The first book that is going to be read at a rate (for the most part) of one chapter a week is Practical Common Lisp, available for free on the web or in dead-tree form.

I plan on trying to follow along, although I think my October may end up being too busy to keep up. If it works out, maybe LUG/IP can do something immilar with a Linux-related book.

Oddly enough, after not going to New Egypt Speedway all year, I went back for a second race in 5 days. This time was for the DIRT big block modified tour. Besides the 100 lap race for the DIRT modifieds, there was a 220 lap race for the Sportsman. While I’d rather see these types of races be ran off quickly as a one division show, if done correctly one added class can pad the back gate, provide enjoyable racing, and not add much time to the show. While the Sportsman did put on an enjoyable show, and I’m sure they padded the back gate, I’m not sure if they extended the show or not. The reason why I say that is while the Sportsman did take up time, I’m betting the track officials would have wasted that time anyway trying to sell hot dogs. They certainly wasted enough time as it was. At one point there was only one short (time and distance wise) modified consi race in over an hours time. This is just not acceptable, esp. for a mid week show. Basically, they wasted over 20 minutes on an intermission, ran the consi race that lasted about 8 minutes, and they wasted at least 30 minutes grooming the track. The race itself was pretty good, although not that eventful. Local racer Sam MArtz looked like he was going to pull of the upset after timing 3′rd quick, starting on the pole, and leading the first 69 laps until he broke an axel. It wasn’t just a fluke as he was clearly the quickest and even put distance on the “big name” drivers in traffic. After Martz Broke, Tim Fuller took over the lead and went on for the win, never being seriously challenged. Billy Decker finished second and Alan Johnson third.

My 2006 race viewing stats after the DIRT modified race on August 16′th race New Egypt Speedway:

Races: 20
Tracks: 16 (12 new) (149 lifetime)
States: 12 (3 new) (35 + DC lifetime)

I finally made it to the track down the street from me this year – New Egypt Speedway. I went to New Egypt and paid $20 to see the URC sprint cars. The URC sprinters usually put on a great show of 360 sprint car racing. This was not the case this time. It was probably the worst URC show I have ever been to. That said, it won’t stop me from watching the touring series again because I usually really enjoy them and I know this was just a fluke. What was not a fluke. unfortunately, was how New Egypt runs the show – not all that well. This is one reason I haven’t been going to New Egypt Speedway. They waste time all night long and the roaming announcer tells inside jokes and talks about his friends and family instead of talking about the racing. I can’t count how many times he was talking about something other then the action on the track when it would have been nice to know who was driving what car and how many qualify, what the rules as far as inverts are, etc. When the announcer was talking about racing, he was talking about NASCAR Nextel Cup racing. If I wanted to hear about that, why the heck would I be at a non-NASCAR sanctioned track when I can watch about 23 hours of NASCAR programming a day on Speed TV?

Anyway, there were some bright spots during the evening. he first was the 15 lap super stock (or whatever they are calling them this year) race went non-stop. It didn’t have the most action ever, but was quite enjoyable. The second was the ending of the dirt modified race. While I was rooting for underdog Sam Martz, Jimmy Horton made a pass in the last turn of Martz for the win. Too bad most of the first 2/3’s of the modified race was caution filled. The Sportsman race was also pretty good.

As I mentioned earlier, I am usually a huge fan of the URC series. However, they decided to take a queue from the modifieds last night and kept on spinning out. There were a lot of cautions and no flow to the race. By the time the URC feature was over, it was getting late with the Sportsmen race still to go. This is when the track finally decided to speed things along. It is amazing they can actually run a good show and not waste so much time when they try. The question is why weren’t they doing this all night? If instead of running needless laps under caution so the announcer can talk about nothing to do with the races, and if the put the cars on the track right away, etc., they ran the show well, they wouldn’t of had to rush at the end.

Oh well, if they ran the races like this all year, I didn’t miss much. I’ll probably go back on Wed. for the DIRT series race, but if something else comes up, I won’t worry about skipping New Egypt and I am certainly not in a hurry to go back for a regular show despite the track being only about 7 miles from home. I just don’t understand why most short tracks don’t try to put on a better show. Over half of the fan left before the end of the URC race, and probably 3/4’s were gone before the Sportsmen race ended. I know some new-comers to the track that sat in front of me weren’t happy with the wasted time and poorly ran show, and I doubt they will be back.

My 2006 race viewing stats after the August 12′th race New Egypt Speedway:

Races: 19
Tracks: 16 (12 new) (149 lifetime)
States: 12 (3 new) (35 + DC lifetime)

After over a month off from going to the races, I went toLernerville Speedway to see the World of Outlaw Late Model series on Friday night. This was my first trip to Lernerville, a track that was in my top 10 hit list. I’ve actually done pretty good on that list this year, making it to 5 of the 10 tracks that would have been on the list at the begining of the year (Waterford Speedbowl, Darlington, Winchester (IN), Jennerstown, and now Lernerville). This was my 149′th career track. One more to 150!

Lernerville was actually a little closer then I thought. Had I driven straight through it would have taken about 5.5 hours. The track advertised time trials starting at 7:15. Unlike many (most) tracks they started time trials on time (actually, 2 minutes early). After time trials the racing started about 8:10 ( a little after the 8:00 scheduled time). This was due to time trails taking longer then the time alotted and not due to a needless break, so it didn’t bother me much. In the first heat, Tim McCreadie had to start in the rear due to a car change. He made it into the top 4, allowing him to avoid the consi race. Tim started the feature in 13′th. Dale McDowell wasn’t so lucky having to rely on a provisional to get into the feature due to problems in the heat race.

The WoO late model 50 lap feature was excellent, Lots of action throughout the field. Eventually Rick Eckert and Tim McCreadie got into a side-by-side battle the last 7 laps or so. Eckert was running the low groove with McCreadie running the high grove. Coming into the last turn on the lat lap, the victory was still in question. However, Rick Eckert drove the car a little too hard and spun out coming off of turn 4, not on losing the win, but also second as everyone else left on the lead lap got by him. Eckert ended up 12th. Dale McDowell had a great run coming from his provisional starting spot finishing third behind Steve Francis who finished 2′nd.

Lernerville did a good thing by running only one other class this night, the UMP mods. Normally I enjoy the UMP (and IMCA) mods. This was not one of the times as they kept on spinning out. I assume it normally isn’t this bad, but it got to be a bit too much and the slow clean-up from the track crew of even simple spins made it drag on even more. The UMP mod race didn’t finish until 12:30 AM. This was without any real long breaks (only about 10 to 15 minutes in between the UMP modified b-main and the WoO feature). The first 6 laps must have taken 30 minutes. I was about to leave after one more caution, but luckily they finally figure out how to complete a lap without spinning so I stayed until the end of the race. I probably shouldn’t have bothered as it wasn’t all that good, but that is what happens sometimes. Anyway, Lernerville is a great track and I’m glad I made it there, and really glad it was for a Late Model feature as good as this one.

My 2006 race viewing stats after Lernerville Speedway:

Races: 18
Tracks: 15 (12 new) (149 lifetime)
States: 12 (3 new) (35 + DC lifetime)