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News & Notes From John Padjen Motorsports Mini Speedweek |
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Waterford, Ca...Oh man what a weekend. 3 races in 4 days, you've gotta love it! After work, Mike Sala and myself made the trip to Placerville on Wednesday. 24 cars awaited us on a beautiful day for racing. I was having an absolute blast watching the guys ripping around the speedway, and talking with friends. It doesn't get much better for me than talking with the solid dudes, and watching race cars. That's what some people don't understand is one of the many reasons why we fans love to be at the races. It's not just the race, it is the friendships that are made at the tracks. I have to say, I do have a lot of friends outside of racing. But majority are at the track, it's just another plus for being involved in such a great sport. It was nice to see Brad Sweet & Chuck Gurney Jr. doing battle in California. Yes, of course this writer wishes them nothing but the best wherever they run, but for selfish reasons I sure do love when they race here. Hell, Brad looks like my 12 year old, so when I see the red head walking around the pits, it's like watching my own kid. Look for "Chuckie" to run the "Night Before The 500" in Indy, then fly back out to Cali for some winged Civil War action, Sunday. As you already know, Jonathan Allard took the trophy and money out of Placerville. I do have to mention Robert Ballou. This isn't to show any type of favoritism, because as most of you know I am the publicist for Ballou Motorsports. I would write the following on ANYONE. Robert caught some flak for turning over while leading the semi. It's not something that I haven't seen many times through my 35 years of watching racing. You can form your own opinion, but what that kid did in the main event was not only exciting, but he had his elbows up big time, and kept digging. To try and take someones thunder away from them is wrong, I don't care who it is. Anyway, enough of that. Jason Statler finished a strong 5th in Placerville, and is not one to count out of the Championship. The big dude is a fighter, and will never tap out. He also has one of the coolest father's around, that being the other handsome bald guy Bob Statler. Like I mentioned earlier, I have been going races for 35 years, but I got weak in the knees when my favorite Aussie, Peter Murphy was strapped in and ready to do battle. He looks tough when all belted in, and he flashed me the thumbs up sign. I ain't gonna lie to ya, I loved every second of it! I find it pretty cool that after all these years the excitement hasn't gone away. I was like a caged dog let loose and charged my ugly ass into Chico Friday. I figured after I checked into my room, I would just chill for a bit. Yeah right! I threw my boys big ass in the car and left that joint like I just robbed it! Friday's show was absolutely fantastic. The pits were jam packed with 44 winged Sprint Cars and 35 Spec-Sprints. "The Hammer" Darrell Hanestad won an exciting Spec-Sprint main event. Darrell had the fans on their feet! The old school driver still has it. I was telling him just that, before he went out in the main. When he pulled in, I went to offer my congrats to him, and as I was helping push him on the scales, I was reminding him of what we were talking about earlier. I was jazzed to coach him through his win.....yeah right. "Hammer" was staying at the same motel I was, and was on my way to get my 15th cup of coffee, when I see my other brother Darrell, drinking some joe. More reminicing went up to the racing gods. With cars battling all over the racy track, "BK", Jonathan and Ballou went at it. The legendary "BK" showed why he is who he is. I take my hat off to you guys. Then for Saturday's Dave Bradway Jr. Memorial we enjoyed a 53 car turnout! It was neat to see nice guy Garrett Ishii at Chico. He is one super cool cat, and told me, he is of course going to run as many GSC races as possible. His weekend ended with a Saturday night heat race flip. Hang tough my friend. Willie Croft won Heat 1 in convincing fashion. I was watching "Double Down" in hotlaps and he was driving the shit out of the #29! What impressed me about him, is that not only is he a really nice guy, but I like to see a guy move around the race track, and feel her out. Two thumbs up for my dawg Willie! Heat 2 went to my favorite Aussie Peter Murphy in the Kumar #1K. By the way, congrats on your new status as an American citizen my friend. Heat 3 went to the youngster Brett Rollag. Brett is another super cool dude, who had the elbows up. I had a nice chat with the 18 year old, and he is very well spoken, and has a very supportive family behind him. Extremely nice people. Look for the beautiful #27 at Chico on Friday's and Civil War shows, with some Petaluma events thrown in as well. Heat 4 went to veteran Ronnie Day. His father was telling me some really cool stories in Placerville. Speaking of Placerville, Ronnie had to be at work at 3:30 am the next day, so his dad was the pilot home, so Ronnie could get some rest. In this heat, Kyle Hirst put on a show. He was running the top fighting to make it through his heat. Although he fell short by one spot, this kid proves he has no quit in him. Good job Kyle. The "C" was won by Robert Ballou. Also transferring was another young shoe, Jeff Delte. I had a very nice chat with his father Jeff Sr. "JD" in his third year of Sprint Car racing. They run a Maxim, and are going to put it through its paces at as many GSC events as possible, as well as 360 events. They will be full time travelers with the GSC next year. The "B" was like an "A" main. With guys like Kaeding, Colby Weisz, Brian DeRuyter, Johnny Gray, Hirst, Delte, Stephen Allard, Ballou, I mean it was stacked! The transfers to the finale were the top 6 mentioned above. In the 40 lap finale the track took rubber and "The Shark" Sean Becker did a masterful job by winning the prestigious event. The crew must be mentioned. They hit the setup just right, and my hats off to them. Sean was genuinely happy to win this event, it about brought tears to my eyes. In victory lane Sean said, "It's an honor", mentioning winning The Bradway. Damn right it is bro. It's also an honor watching you wheel a race car. I went to congratulate Sean after the race. He said "Hammerdown!!!!!!!!!" (My nickname) No my friend, you put the "Hammerdown" congratulations on your big win. The top 5 were: Sean, Jonathan, Brad Sweet, DMJ, and Mike Henry. Mike Henry did a great job in this race. He was up on the wheel, and drove smart. Good job Mike. Good job of course to all of the drivers above. I have to end this with a mention about Chuck Gurney Jr. Chuck was leading the deal, when Willie spun in 3. Gurney also spun to avoid, but kept his foot in it, and maintained the top spot. In the waning laps of the feature, Chuck was doing a great job, but the tire was going away. It finally let go on lap 31. Talk about tough luck. In ending I would like to thank John Padjen Motorsports for putting on the three races. Race fans can catch JPM Motorsports at www.JohnPadjenMotorsports.com for news, results, and upcoming races. Thanks to everyone and see ya soon! |
