Well after a wretched year at Delaware 10x of shepherd looks like it's finally parked. Following a simple racing incident [no damage] which saw Shepherd and Christie get into each other as Shepherd tried to defend his position, Christie found it necessary to try to turn the 10X car on the main straight under the caution. There was some rear quarter damage as a result of this under-caution incident on the 10X car which, whilst looking minor, ended up being anything other. A side bar was pushed rearward onto the tire causing minor rubbing which looked innocent enough so it was decided to run the last 4 laps without coming in. Unfortunately the left rear tire, as the car compressed going into One, was thrust further into the bar causing the rear to break loose throwing Shepherd into the wall. As I could see in the pits, the clip on that shiny new 2010 car is toast and I can't see the Guys, all with shoulders down, managing to get the thing rolling again this year, especially considering how much work and money they've already thrown into Delaware this year. It took them 2 weeks and a complete body-set to get the car ready last time after the #21 rolled down the banking into the 10X after having spun, stopped, and then letting cars go round him before deciding, inexplicably, to roll down the banking, clipping Shepherd as he desperately tried to go under him, like the previous 2 cars in front of him had already successfully done.
These guys are part of a small team trying their hardest to get along with everybody in their first year at Delaware. Not newbies by any stretch either, Shepherd, having raced for many years, is 2009 Barrie champion (2009 was a year when Barrie was fielding 20+ hard charging LLM's, not like this year).
The #37 car also appears to be parked after being tossed into the wall damaging his clip a couple of weeks ago.
Crazy.
The #37 isn't parked and didn't suffer any damage to the clip. But, with limited sponsorhip this year and a couple of costly wrecks, the budget is too tight to keep running at Delaware.
David Elliott will be running selected races closer to home at Flamboro for the rest of 2010 and will determine his 2011 schedule once sponsorship for next season is finalized.
The #37 isn't parked and didn't suffer any damage to the clip. But, with limited sponsorhip this year and a couple of costly wrecks, the budget is too tight to keep running at Delaware.
David Elliott will be running selected races closer to home at Flamboro for the rest of 2010 and will determine his 2011 schedule once sponsorship for next season is finalized.
I'm happy to be corrected on that Brett. After they were wrecked the other week I understood that they were Uber upset and the car was hurt bad.
Shepperds are a class act and true racers at heart. If what truth sayer said is true, that's pittiful! A nicer bunch of guys you will not meet. Gord is a phenominal talent behind the wheel, and a great addition to any field of late models. I guess him not being a london area driver, and not driving a cookie cutter mccoll chassis didn't aford him the luxury of being accepted into the delaware fraternity. Delawares loss I guess!
Its too bad. I just had the chance to meet Gord and crew last Friday and they seem like good guys.
There's no question that Delaware can be a bit of a meat-grinder for newer guys, especially if you're running mid field....that's where most of the shenanigans take place. It's usually not with the top guys - they want to win and don't often get mixed up in the monkey business.
As for the business with the 5 car, I didnt see what led up to it, but I did see him take the swat at Gord on the caution. If something like that causes damage then the agressor should be ruled against for sure. Not sure why he wasn't. Although at Delaware the worst you get is sent to the back of the line. You pretty much have to kill someone before you actually get parked, which IMO is a shame....and is basically the reason some of this stuff goes unchecked. Sent to the back isn't much of a deterrent in a 16 car field and you were most of the way back there already. (This topic has been done to death already here)
regarding 21-Pritiko, Not making excuses for him, and I don't know him, but he seems like a pretty clean runner. (gets into trouble being a rookie from time to time) Considering its not his own car he's driving, I don't really see him backing into you guys on purpose. Maybe he didn't see the black car?
Gord and the guys: I understand that it must take a hero's effort to fix it every week and tow it all the way down here every Friday night. Your efforts did not go unnoticed by the fans, and some of us were hoping that we might see a bit of an influx of Barrie cars pending a positive season review of our place....which it looks like we won't be getting. (Unfortunately drawing visiting cars seems to be low on the priority list....heck if we could get back a few of the guys that have quit us over the last few seasons, we'd have quite the field of race cars - Forth-Barlass-Delisle-Elliott-Elliott etc.)
We're sorry its come to this but I understand you have to do what you have to do. Go forth and be successful wherever you decide to go. Its been good watching you guys race.
Signed
A Fan