RACELINE: It’s a dirty job, but somebody has to do it!

By Erik Tomas... Raceline Radio

Most of you know my roots in this magical sport of ours are dirty. That is, my background in motorsport is rooted at the clay ovals of Southern Ontario and Western New York.

I didn’t play hockey, baseball or football, I went to Merrittville Speedway in St. Catharines. I paid my first visit at age 7, and 48 years later, with a few years away when my radio job took me out of the area, I’m still there, working as the track announcer. I met my wife Janice at this track and my daughter Katelyn now works with me in the tower in lap co-ordination and scoring.

Janice grew up with this sport as her Dad Kurt was first a mechanic for a local driver, then in the 70’s moved into management purchasing not only Merrittville Speedway, but Ransomville Speedway across the bridge in upper New York State as well. They ran both tracks simultaneously for 13 seasons, and I announced at both for a while. Janice started working her families’ 2 tracks making popcorn and selling hot dogs and eventually graduated to scoring. So to say our families were immersed into dirt tack racing would be inaccurate. We were all more like dunked into the deep end!

Raceline Radio and ChampCar Radio work has me connected in big ways to the pavement stuff: NASCAR, Formula One, The IRL, drag racing and lots more, but work with DIRT Modifieds has never fallen off. In fact, race cars that navigate the clay have me busier than ever!

Katie and I will return to cover Super DIRT Week at the New York State Fairgrounds in Syracuse this Thanksgiving. It’s the big fall championship for big and small block modifieds. There are plenty of Canadian drivers who excel at this, especially “Mr. Small Block” Pete Bicknell of St. Catharines. Peter has won Syracuse more than a few times in his own cars. Hundreds of drivers across the DIRT circuit use and win in his BRP creations. He now owns Merrittville Speedway too! He’s another busy boy on dirt!

I’m also doing a little work on this end for The World of Outlaws Late Model Series this season.
One of the best racing shows in Canada this summer was the World of Outlaws sprint car clay-flinger at Ohsweken Ontario for AM 900 CHML. The first Outlaws show in Canada in 25 years drew over 8 thousand people to the oval near Hamilton. So impressed, the series will be back next year for a pair of races. They’re also working on a Late Model race. Castrol Raceway Edmonton had their own Outlaws double-header for The TEAM 1260 and they’ll do it again next year.

One of the most entertaining races on TV this season was the pay-per-view “Prelude to the Dream” Tony Stewart put together at his Eldora Speedway. He got a large handful of his NASCAR Nextel Cup friends, borrowed some Late Models from the Outlaws boys, packed the joint with over 20 thousand and had a blast going sideways. They raised over 800 thousand dollars and donated half a million of it to the Petty families’ Victory Junction Gang charity.

Tony’s even talking to Jay Signore about a round of the IROC Series on Eldora’s clay in 2008 when the series comes off a year’s hiatus. Some of those CUP drivers who drove the Prelude were joking it would be way too cool if NASCAR scheduled just one dirt race again for The Nextel Cup schedule like they did in the early days of the sanction. I always get Mario Andretti wide-eyed when we kick around the idea of running races on dirt tracks again. Mario’s history goes back to fond memories of dirt roadsters. Of course NASCAR won’t take their cars off the pavement now, but we can dream I suppose.

The point here, is that despite all the asphalt racing we have, it’s amazing and very gratifying to see dirt track racing as alive and vital as ever! My old ACT colleague and current MRN announcer Dave Moody described it best. He said short track racing, including the dirt tracks are the roots of our sport, and if the roots die, the whole tree dies. How right David is. I also remember A.J Foyt’s famous quote, “ …asphalt is something you drive on to get to the dirt tracks!” My favourite? “If you ain’t got dirt in yer beer, you ain’t been to a race!”

What do YOU think?
Drop me an e-mail and let me know! Any suggestions? Opinions? Comments? Better ideas? Keep the E-Mails coming for The Raceline E-Mail Bag! The address: erik@raceline.ca Do you agree or disagree with the commentary? We invite your feedback!
Until next time, talk to ya’ll on Raceline Radio! ET