I think that the show Saturday night at Manzy was just a great show for the most part.  I got to meet up with some old friends from California, the Lloyds.  Marci Lloyd and I used to talk a lot at Perris when I went there.  I know of her family [Harold, Larry, Sr., Bill AKA Bub] from when I was a child and my dad was a crew chief on a midget with the [now disbanded] USRC.  It was good to see her and she told me that now her brother Larry was driving the #87 car.  Larry did pretty good in my eyes.  He didn't make the main, but he did really good in the semi and was moving up until something happened.  Larry and the Lloyd family drive over from Calif. to Phoenix to race.  Keep in mind Larry could go to Ventura which is a lot closer (and cheaper in gas too) to race than come here to Phoenix, but he seems to like ASCA and the track.  Lets make sure to make Larry and the Lloyd's feel welcome when they come out.

 

It was a tough night for some of the favorites.  Lap one of the main or rather the first green flag ended up in a pile up in turn one with Bernie "the Bern Dog" Smith and Rob Davis both flipping.  Thankfully neither driver was injured but their cars were sure torn up.  The second start of the main saw rookie driver Michael Mundy, Mike Martin and Scott Pasmore get together.  Only Pasmore was able to restart as both Mundy and Martin were too damaged to continue.  Bob "The Bullet" Ream, Jr. has some bad luck as well.  He was in turn four and his car just turned right and he slammed into the wall hard.  Thankfully, Bob was not injured, except for a small cut on his knee.  Come to find out the steering broke on Bob's car.  It was a scary sight to watch, but the outcome was wonderful since Bob was OK.

 

Jeremy Sherman drove to victory over Nathan High, Matt Rossi, Bobby Boone, Chuck Buckman, Mike Leslie, Jeff Henry, Jay Ervine, Bruce St. James and Josh Pelkey.  All in all it was a great race Saturday night. 

 

After the race, as usual I made my rounds in the pits.  I stopped to talk to "The Radio Flyer" Bruce St. James who always has a smile on his face and good words.  Of course you all know that Bruce is a local radio talk show host, Bruce St. James Has Issues can be heard on 620 KTAR am radio or you can listen on the net just go to www.ktar620.com and follow the instructions.  Bruce is on from 1:30pm - 4:30pm Monday through Friday.  I was happy for Bruce as he finished in the top 10 in the main and he seemed a bit happier with his performance.

 

I stopped Mike Martin, who is another driver who tows from afar to race with us, and talked to him for a minute.  He seemed pretty bummed out over not finishing the main, but he still had a smile.  Mike tows from Yuma to race here.  Another long haul guy who we all need to make feel welcome and wanted here.

 

I walked over to see my bud The Bern Dog.  Even though he had a rough night and had a beat up looking race car, he still had a smile on his face.  Nothing would make me happier than to see Bernie get a hold of some good luck for a few months.  Bernie has come such a long way as a driver since I've been watching him.  He's now smooth and really seems to be in control of his car now.  Bernie is one guy to keep your eyes on as he's a contender.  I know that first main event win is right around the corner for him.  I can't wait to see that happen.

 

I got a chance to catch a few words with our racing news anchor Scott Pasmore.  Scott is a driver I really watched when he drove the mini sprint and now that he's graduated up to sprints he's coming around too.  Scott really seems to enjoy his racing as he had a smile on his face when I saw him.  Make sure to watch Scott in the mornings on Channel 3 on Good Morning Arizona. 

 

It was really nice to meet Jay Ervine's wife Rosa Saturday night.  Thanks to Cindy Henry introducing me, I'm finally getting to meet more and more of the ASCA gang.  It was good to see Robbie Allen's wife down for the race too.  Racing can be such a family outing and I really think it's great when the entire family can enjoy the sport.

 

What can I say about Robbie Allen and Jeff Henry!  They always have fun in their pit area and Saturday night was no different.  Everyone was laughing and having fun.  I really like talking to the "Minions" as they are fondly called. 

 

One thing I asked everyone that I talked to was if they were going or racing Tucson the next night.  Jeff Henry said yeah he was going along with a few others.  I had already made up my mind that I was going but I wanted to see how many would be representing ASCA at the show.

 

One thing I heard a lot about, and that I've seen on the message board and in emails was the incident involving Chuck Buckman and Brian Hacker.  I've heard a lot of people talking about how Chuck Buckman should be fined and suspended just like Jeremy was.  I happened to have my eyes on Brian when this incident happened.  Now, I wasn't in the car with Mr. Buckman, so I can't comment on that aspect of the wreck.  However, in my own personal opinion, I do think that Mr. Buckman should be punished.  I feel that since Mr. Buckman caused Brian to flip, be momentarily knocked out, and all of the damage to Brian's car, I feel that the punishment needs to be greater than what Jeremy got.  Again, this is just my opinion.  I have seen emails and seen on the message board that there are people who feel the same way.  I have no idea what the ASCA board will do because I'm not on it.  However, I have faith that something will be done. 

 

On to Tucson.  After getting some great driving directions from my own personal directions guru The Bullet (thanks again Bullet your directions were awesome!), my roommate Sandra and I were headed to Tucson.  Arriving at the race track I couldn't believe my eyes.  The parking is awesome.  The track personnel were very friendly and welcoming.  Walking into the track, you know the first thing us women do is check out the bathrooms.  OK.. I thought, these bathrooms are comparable to Perris Auto Speedway's.  So far so good.  Then I walked up to the grandstands.  There's not a bad seat in that place.  They have handrails in the main aisles which can be handy for people that have a hard time climbing up to the top.  I was impressed with the facilities for the fan.  This track is for the most part fan friendly.  Until I heard the PA system.  It bites.  I couldn't hear anything that the announcers were saying when a car or cars were on the track.  When it was quiet, which happened a lot, I could hear them just fine.  They either need to turn up the PA system when they are trying to talk over the cars or get a new one, I'm not sure which.  Manzy's PA system outdoes Tucson's even when the track mike cuts in and out.  In looking at the surface of the race track, I have to wonder and ask if they have ever put anything other than dirt down.  I didn't see any clay down and the way it went from wet to dry as fast as it did makes me think that this track doesn't have any clay in it yet.  It was also so rough and bumpy.  In the back of my mind, I wondered if I really wanted to watch this race because I got an eerie feeling in the pit of my stomach.  After driving for 2 hrs. and paying to get in, I figured what the heck. 

 

When they finally got the cars on the track for wheel packing, it was great to see so many hometown racers there.  On Sunday, Jeff Henry, Jay Ervine, Mike Martin, Chuck Buckman, Jimmy Drinan, Mike Leslie, Jeremy Sherman, Andy Reinbold, Shon Deskins, James Aragon were there along with Charlie Davis, Jr. and driving Super Rickie's car was Tony Smiley.  I was cheering for anyone who was with ASCA and of course Tony and Charlie since they are hometown guys.

 

Without going on and on about Sunday night... let me think here how can I say this nicely..... it was really messed up!  They qualified over 50 cars which put the entire night behind schedule.  Now, I'm not sure if the promoter realized that there would be that many cars or just didn't think about it, but hey, it's a race, on a holiday weekend, where did he think other racers were going to go?  This race seemed to go on forever.  They would race a couple of races and then there would be a break.  Race some more and lets have another break.  Between the announcers not being able to be heard over the cars it was next to impossible to keep track of heat races and things like that.  I was slowly getting frustrated.  Then all of the accidents, incidents or whatever you want to call them.  Tony Smiley got upside down right in front of where I was sitting.  Scared the living daylights out of me but thankfully he was OK.  That announcement I was able to hear because they said it when no cars were running.  Between the accidents and spins and other divisions they didn't start the C Main until after 1am.  They ended up calling the race when Tim West flipped violently through the turn 2 billboards.  According to one of his crew and the track he is OK, one person said he had a broken collarbone.  Either way, he was lucky.

 

They announced at 145am that the race was called and that on Monday night they would run the C, B and A Mains.  They also said that Sunday's ticket stub would get you into the track on Monday.  Sandra and I got home from Tucson at 4am on Monday morning, got up at 730am to make it to work by 830am and then ended up getting off early so we could make it back down to see the rest of the race.  I called and talked to the general manager Pat Roble at Tucson and he assured me that I would see 3 mains that night.  Sandra and I discussed it, for about 2.2 seconds, and decided what the heck lets go for it.  So back down I-10 we went. 

 

Side note here, of course since it was Monday and Bruce St. James was doing his talk show we were listening to it.  I had to call in when Bruce was discussing the Indy 500 rookie and 4th place finisher Danica Patrick.  I was one of the fortunate ones to have been put on the air and Bruce and I had a short discussion.  At least this time he gave me more than 30 seconds like the last time I called in.  I just had to say Thanks to Bruce and his screener for putting me on the air and it was fun.

 

OK, driving down to Tucson with no a/c is NOT FUN by the way.  Murphy's Law was at it again and the a/c in Sandra's car decided to go out on us.  Being the troopers that we are we didn't let that stop us.  We arrived at the track about 30 minutes before the race was to have "started."  I have to give them credit, because they did put the cars on the track before 5pm.  It was to wheel pack not to race, but they were on the track.  So many were missing on Monday night.  Jeff Henry, Jay Ervine, Chuck Buckman, Jimmy Drinan, all stayed home.  It was a bummer too as both Jay and Jeff qualified for the main event.  Imagine my shock when I saw the #21 car out on the track.  Come to find out later after the race was over that it was car owner Jim Tuttle in the car.  I was happy to see him collect the money for his team.  By this time there were some vicious rumors going on about racers not being paid, but I just listened and figured I'd wait to hear about it from those who were there and raced.

 

The powers that be decided that there would only be a B and A main.  I was a little upset because I drove 2 hrs. to watch 3 races not 2.  They finally pushed off the B main.  It was going pretty good with Andy Reinbold in about 5th or 6th place when he got shoved high and hit the front straight wall which seemed to just launch him into the catch fence.  Andy came down right in front of me after bending 2 poles and tearing down the chain link fencing.  After Andy landed, another car came down the front straight and just nailed Andy and sent him spinning.  I have never seen or heard anything so horrendous in my life.  I don't normally get scared from wrecks; worried yes but not frightened.  This one scared me so bad, I let out a blood curdling scream that I think the entire grandstands heard.  Yes, Andy, that was my scream that probably rattled your ears.  After what seemed like hours, I saw Andy moving in the cockpit, taking off his steering wheel and helmet which made me feel a bit better.  After seeing the hit that Andy took, and watching him walk away from it, you have to say that we have some of the safest race cars and great safety gear. 

 

Now I don't count this delay against the track or anyone.  It wasn't safe for the drivers to race with the pole bent like it was and with no chain link to keep cars and parts on the right side of the track.  I do however have a problem with them canceling the rest of the B Main and putting all the cars into the A Main.  It wasn't like they had a great car count for the Modified Midgets or Modifieds that were running with the sprints.

 

After watching the other two divisions run their main events it was finally the sprints turn.  If the track had some moisture and/or clay and had more than one groove it would have been an awesome race.  There was a bit of passing but not as much as you'd normally see at tracks like Ventura or Perris.  It was pretty much a one groove track.  Dry, and very slick.  Jeremy's type of track.  The Sherminator did it Jeremy style as I call it and he pulled off a win over Johnny Herrera and Rick Ziehl.  I was so glad to see an ASCA driver win it after all the trials and tribulations that it took to finally finish this race.  The race was over early and we actually had time to go into the pits.  I was disappointed because Charlie Davis, Jr. had already left by the time I got to the pit area.  I did get to see Mike Martin who ended up with a 15th place finish I think.  I got to meet Mr. Tuttle, oops I mean Jim, who really is a nice man.  He has a great sense of humor just like Jay so it's no wonder why they get along so well as owner and driver. 

 

Sandra and I pulled into our apartment before midnight and we were both extremely exhausted.  We are both glad we went to the track to see it and glad we got to see Jeremy pull off another win.  I just don't know about going back unless it's an ASCA sanctioned race with ASCA officials or with another experienced association.  Don't get me wrong I like the track.  I'm more worried about the safety of the drivers, the conditions of the race track and the time factor. 
This weekend ASCA is at Manzy again and of course I won't miss it.  I'll be in the usual spot, blue bleachers, turn one near the top.  Stop by and say hi if you can.

 

Good luck to everyone racing this weekend.