THE HERO CARD STORE! PRESENTS--- 

HE SHOULD HAVE BOUGHT A LOTTO TICKET

by Mike Fields

February 19, Long Beach, NY--- After winning just about everything you can win in an open-wheeled Modified in Florida during Speedweeks, you can only wonder if he had bought a Lotto ticket before he left Howell, NJ.  Jimmy Blewett handily won the SK Modified title, hogging 5 out of the 7 checkers (with one night rained out). The other two nights, he was nice enough to “allow” Race of Champions standout Earl Paules and Kevin Goodale (driving brother Eric’s car) to take the wins.

Meanwhile, he did double-duty in the Tour-type Modifieds, winning three of those nights, including the highly prestigious annual Richie Evans Memorial this past Friday night. As an aside, the National Anthem that night was sung by Richie’s daughter Tara.

Despite those three wins, he didn’t win the championship for the Tour-type cars. That honor went to Eric Beers who took only one checker on Opening Night. Donny Lia had a win, as well as Jimmy’s brother John Blewett III with two wins.

And so goes the first competition of the year to have import to many of the northeast faithful…

THE REAL PARTY--- Every year, Bob Finan, along with Steve and Tim Halpin host their annual Long Island Daytona 500 Party. This year was no exception. Mike’s has giveaways such as T-shirts for everyone that shows up, tickets are given out for drawing Jackets, hats, specialty t-shirts, tool chest, neon racing signs. Of course there is the obligatory free buffet. Other drawings gone are by Halpin and Finan for 42” TV’s, and many other items. We’d like to thank and congratulate Bob Finan, Steve Halpin, Tim Halpin, and Joe Paprocky of Mike’s Place for once again doing a great job putting on and hosting this year’s event.

The first thing we did when we got there early was to grab a table, where the gathered media sat for the rest of the race. It was centrally located in the smoking tent right in front of the large-screen TV, while still being between two (very much needed) heaters. That was appreciated by Walter Johnston (LongIslandJam.com) and Marshall Lubin (New York Newsday). Unfortunately, it was also located to one very loud individual.  We couldn’t really tell who this individual was rooting for; however we were able to tell who he was rooting against--- and he was doing that rooting in an extremely loud, profane and repetitive way. Come to think of it, we left the party with the belief that he wasn’t rooting for anyone, and that he was there to annoy all the party-goers, while humiliating the young lady that he was attending the party with.

When we walked into the annual Long Island Daytona 500 Party at Mike’s Place in Coram, the first thing we did was enter one of the pools. As we predicted two weeks previously, we knew what kind of pick we’d have. I, of course, got stuck with Strerling Marlin and J. J. Yeley.  My wife Lori picked ‘Front Row’ Joe Nemechek and Greg Biffle.

Tom Anderson and ‘Slim’ Jim Donaldson had their Chargers sitting out front of Mike’s Place on the lawn displaying them to all that walked in.  Of course, there was a lot of interest. Slim had told me about a month ago that he wasn’t planning on running his Demo’s and Roll-Overs this season, as there is just too much on the table.

It looks like Ron Hlatky won’t be driving his Modified again this coming season, as he doesn’t have the necessary sponsorship to fund his team.

We had a chance to talk to Doug ‘Hurricane’ Wholey, who last week braved the ice/snow/rain storm (depending upon where you were at the time) to take the long drive out to Michigan to pick up the new Howe chassis for ‘Dynamite’ Dan Turbush.

It turns out that Doug is currently in talks with North Fork Bank for major sponsorship for all three of his cars, Doug’s own Late Model, Turbush’s Late Model, and Chris Turbush’s Charger. There are few drivers that deserve a major sponsor more than Wholey.  This is a man who has funded numerous teams, divisioins, riverhead Raceway, and the Long Island Motorsports News website out of his own pocket. Plus, we’ve learned that there are other sponsorships that you’ll never hear about. If it has to do with racing, Doug tries to be involved.

Oft times, if someone doesn’t have the money for that needed tire, he’ll stick his hand in his pocket and pull out a couple of hundreds; but you’ll never see Doug’s name or that of Ideal Cesspool on the side of that racecar. Bt that doesn’t mean that Wholey’s generosity isn’t appreciated.

Then there are the things that aren’t publicized, such as several years ago when Riverhead Raceway needed to have the access road from Route 58 all the way up to the pit entrance.  We’ll give you one guess as to who that was sitting up on the Bobcat grading the road.  And no, he wasn’t doing it to get paid; he did it because it needed to be done (for years).

We can’t count how many times over the past five or six years he has done giveaways for the kids at his trailer in the pits after the races handing out t-shirts, food, and soda for the fans that walk up to get autographs. Being the professional that he is and realizing that marketing is the key to any effort, he makes sure that those T-shirts have the names of every single one of his sponsors printed on them.

When Doug sponsors a race, he’s not shy of the microphone when it comes to awarding trophies afterwards.  Oh, by the way, when he puts money up to sponsor a race, he also always provides trophies not just for the race winner; he provides them for the top three.

If North Fork is looking for someone to be a public face for their advertising efforts, they would never go wrong with ‘The Hurricane’…

THE TOM BALDWIN MEMORIAL OPEN--- will once again be held at the Bellport Country Club on Thursday, June 7^th.  Scheduled to appear is Tommy Baldwin Jr., Deale Jarrett, Michael Waltrip, Kyle Petty, Jimmy Spencer, Dave Blaney, Jeremy Mayfield, Larry McReynolds, Slugger Labbe, Bobby Dillner, Matt Yokum, Mike Joy, and Ed D’Hondt. Note that the celebrity appearances are subject to change--- especially if the Club officials find out who is going near their golf carts…

All proceeds from the tournament will benefit the Village of Bellport Summer Concert Series, Victory Junction Gang Camp, Susan G. Komen Breast Cancer Foundation, and the Autism Society of America. Those proceeds are garnered from thee $400 per golfer that is charged (there is a maximum of 144 players that will be allowed to play with the celebs). There is also monies brought in by sponsors ($200 per hole, $5000 for the Platinum package hosting the Dinner and 2-hole sponsorship, $2300 for the Gold package sponsoring the breakfast and 1-hole sponsorship, $1600 for the Silver package hosting the lunch cocktails and 1-hole sponsorship, and $1600 and for the Bronze package covering the course beverages for the day and 1-hole sponsorship). Finally, the admission for spectators is $125, with a maximum of ten spectators per hole, with the celebs signing autographs at each hole. There is also a silent auction of NASCAR & Sports memorabilia, which is open to the public.

For more information, you may contact Steve Halpin at TBGolfOuting@Yahoo.com or by phone at (5116) 790-6178.

The funny thing is that the day before I got the info on this year’s Golf Tournament from Steve Halpin, I was going through some of our old notes that hadn’t been filed properly away. In those notes was a comment that Baldwin gave to us back in 1999. At the time, we were talking about how difficult it is to set up a car to run quickly at any particular track and how much money car owners spend. He surprisingly then told us that it didn’t matter.

“Money doesn’t make you go fast,” Baldwin Sr. stated flatly.  “Desire makes you go fast.”`

IT AIN’T EASY BEING NAMED KVAPIL--- We’re not going to get into this subject too heavily--- but how would you like to be Travis Kvapil?  This guy would come in 12^th in a three-truck race!  Did you see the end of the Craftsman Truck Series race on SPEED this past Friday night?

So there he was about 200 yards from the coveted Daytona checkered flag, and had what appeared to be a comfortable lead (well, for Daytona anyway…), when he looks around coming to the stripe and sees Jack Sprague blow by him to the outside for the win. Then as he’s probably cursing to himself, he gets nipped by Johnny Benson on the inside at the line. It’s Déjà vu all over again! Can you believe almost the same thing happened last year to him at the same track? Just for the heck of it, it should be noted that the difference in the truck race between 1^st (Sprague) and 3^rd (Kvapil) was 34/1000 of a second.

Jack Sprague (60) on the outside blows by Travis Kvapil (6), who then gets nipped by Johnny Benson (23).
(Jonathan Ferrey/Getty Images for NASCAR photo)

They say that a picture is worth a thousand words.  Well, if we had a picture to show you, it would be Kvapil’s crew chief, Mike Beam. SPEED focused on a shot of Beam sitting atop his pit box with his head in his hands. It appeared he didn’t know whether to curse, cry, throw something, or commit suicide. The man looked totally numb.

IT AIN’T NO PARTY--- At most NASCAR-sanctioned race tracks across the country; the rule normally states that the driver is responsible for the actions of everyone signed in for his race car.  So why is it that Michael Waltrip was allowed to drive in the 500, while his crew chief was one of two from his team who was ejected from the premises for the foreign substance found inside his intake manifold? Along with the ejections, there were a couple of $100,000 fines levied against team members.

Of course, Ray Evernham released a big sigh of relief, since that took the attention off of the two cars out of his stable. Then let’s not forget… Well, never mind, there were so many that it’s easy to forget.

When you have so many that cheat, you get the answer as to why NASCAR ignores the “driver is responsible---“ rule.  If they didn’t, who the heck would be left available to drive? Let’s see… there is James Hylton at age 72.  Then we could ask good old DW to come out of retirement. Hey, has anyone heard from Judah Ben Hur lately?

 *****

Those are out thoughts this time.  What’s yours?   Questions, comments, and complaints will reach us at liracenews@hotmail.com. Until next time, Happy Motoring!

     Mike Fields has written for the Area Auto Racing News, Raceway Media Magazine, as well as being a contributing author for the book Chicken Soup for the NASCAR Soul.  He has also been a co-host of a weekly motorsports radio program, and a track announcer. Fields currently writes a weekly internet column, and is an occasional contributing columnist for the Riverhead Racer, the track program for Long Island's Riverhead Raceway.

     While not at his full-time job (babysitting his very rambunctious almost 4-year old grandson), he is the owner of The Hero Card Store!, providing specialty autograph cards to racecar drivers and teams. He may be contacted by e-mail at info@LongIslandMotorsports.com, or by phone at (516) 376-4028.

This truck was painted by Tom Coufalik of www.pcracers.net.

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