I was hoping to meet the elusive Shadow today. Maybe tomorrow. Going tomorrow Shadow?

Sorry Ernie, looks like we missed our chance. Can't make it tomorrow.

Thats OK though, people always say "Geez Shadow, I thought you'd be taller...and a lot better looking."

😉

Maybe at the track soon. Be at the drivers meeting?

I'll make a point of getting to 'Richmond Row' this season.

Howdy all!  ;D

Its a mid winter special edition of the Shadow Report, this time not from the speedway, but from the Western Fair Agriplex where this years version of the CPT Racing Experience trade show is currently in full swing.

Lots of people out this morning, as Saturday's events are where those Rusty Wallace fans finally get to meet their hero. But the Rusty Show is not all that was going on, lots of race-cars, exhibits, and the chance to touch base with those members of the community you might not have seen since the banquet.

Seeing as how this is primarily a Delaware-centric report, I'll focus primarily on that. And there certainly were a number of Delaware competitors on hand. Delaware itself had a great display this year. Having gotten there early enough, I managed to say howdy to most of the Delaware brass before everyone drifted away. Paul Houghton, Joe Czernai, and Arlen Scherba were all on hand. When I congratulated Arlen on snagging the big NASCAR Challenge race, he said to me "Oh yeah, that....what's the name of the guy who's coming again?" My jaw kind of hung open for a second before I realized he was just pulling my chain. All those guys are pretty excited about the big show.

The Delaware exhibit consisted of a few familiar cars, namely the always spit-shiny 88 modified of Paul Shipway, and Super Stock Champ Jason Lidster's number 11. new rides of were Ron Sheridan's new NCATS ride seen here. as well as our own Jamie Grover's new LM ride seen here.

In speaking with Grover, he told me that the car has been in the works for a couple of years now, being built a bit at a time while Jamie does crewing for some other people. The car is somewhat of a Franken-car, with Ford deck and rear quarters, and Chev Impala everywhere else. Just to make it extra funky, the front end ornamentation (headlight decals etc) are Cadillac. Its certainly a sharp machine, and Grover is looking forward to a lot of practice laps to shake off some of the rust...then of course a baptism-under-fire at the first race meet, as he hasn't had much in the way of seat time for over a year.

Just around the corner from the main Delaware display was the Chaos Car exhibit, where I spent some time jawing with Capatain Chaos himself (AKA John Houghton) as well as our own Notingtolose who had his Undertaker chaos car on display, as well as Gary Triska's Blue Thunder. I happened to notice a flyer sitting on Blue Thunder referring to Demar Truck number 57. Is it possible that the Showler crew will have a second truck as a teammate and is planning to go to war with Team Ultimate this year?? (The thought whets the appetite.)

Likewaise had a chance to speak to Tyssen AKA SNotrod about his plans for the year, and he's going to be running enduros. Won't be the same Snotrod we're used to seeing, but Tyssen assured me there's be plenty of snotrod-green flames painted on the car....and if they don't find a sponsor for the back quarter, it may just well be the Snotrod II painted there.

Side note- Later as I was getting ready to leave, John came back to the booth grinning and waving a new treasure, namely a one-of-a-kind copy of the 2010 Chaos Car rulebook, with Rusty Wallace's signiature emblazoned across the front. An endorsement perhaps? Maybe John could wheel and deal Rusty into a guest spot as a chaos car driver.

Also in attendance around the floor were the 24 Super Stock of Smiling Stephen Richmond, and the "It Aint Easy Being Green" number 60 of our own JWO Racing. (I sniffed around and didn't smell chili, so I guess Jim and Juice Box weren't in attendance.) Other Delaware cars on hand were Marc Jacobs number 8 APC LM, Jay Hathaway's 61, Jay Christie's underslung LM number 5 (I think that's new)  Jon Urlin's number 4, and a new modified, the number 82 of Justin Demelo. It was a pretty decent showing by the Delaware crowd in all.

As far as just milling around the show, I bumped into Neil and Stephen Richmond, wandered around a bit with Doug and Don Perkins (although I lost them...I think Don got mad because there were no nachos on the menu at the food stand and left.) Also had the chance to meet up with the always gregarious Matt Lake, owner of the 77 Super Stock. He had a booth and was drumming up business for his new enterprise, London Drive Systems. If you need his services, you can look him up, or likely PM him here. (Laker77) Also had a brief chat with Duane Manning at the BT Racing display, which consisted of their junior cars and Joe Lawrence's new Micro Sprint that he'll be campaigning at Grand Bend. I was also pleased to bump into Mike and Kathleen Hosang. (Mike was telling me they'll be loaded for bear this year, with possibly the best truck they've ever had, as well as a second as a teammate.)

I also met up with Ken Chaplin again. Most folks around Delaware know Ken as the Old Tim Rock and Roll guy, who is usually front and center whenever there's anything involving custom cars, or some sort of charitable event. Ken asked me to remind the CRO faithful that once again they will be doing the Jesse's Journey walk around the speedway at 7 o clock on opening night as a fundraiser.

As far as other roundy round stuff, there were displays for some other tracks and sanctioaning bodies. OSCAAR has a display with a couple of Super Late Models, notably Rob Clarkes 49 car. The Lucas Can Am Midgets had a display as well with some video and a couple of cars. The printed Can Am Midget schedule did show a tentative date for Delaware, but the gent I spoke to didn't know yet if it would happen or not.

Chatted at length with the folks at the Ohsweken Speedway booth. There were a couple of Sprints on display, notably Glen Styres's, and a golf cart decked out like a dirt late model. They're certainly excited to be launching their Sprints-Every-Fri-Nite program. I'd actually drifted over there in hopes of bumping into TommySalami, but he was nowhere to be found. However I did end up speaking to the Corr-Pak gentleman who was manning the booth. (They were quite proud to be involved with the Tammy 10,000 dollar ISMA show at Delaware last year. These guys are hardcore open wheelers, and it shows in their excitement when they're talking about Supers and Sprints no matter what track they're at...maybe another lesson for asphalt guys?)  And I walked away with an official Ohsweken Speedway Wooden Nickel - worth a buck at the Ohsweken concession stand. (its actually a coin made of wood...cool.)

Other exhibits of note:

Of course our own Jamie Maudsley had his Maudsley Motorsports booth, featuring some of his photography as well as Cassidy March's micro sprint for Tillsonburg's Indoor Speedway. Jamie's  promoting his business of driver hero cards, t-shirts, photos etc. If your team's looking for some giveaways, give him a call.

The Southern Ontario Sprints had a couple cars on display, however their schedule is still TBA.

Sauble Speedway had a few cars on display, as did the JCAR organization, with a few Jr LM type cars as well as some mini trucks.

And, lest we forget teh other aspects of the show, there was motocross bikes, a rally car or two, some dragsters, including a vintage drag racing club. There was the Lucas Oild racing simulator for the kids, a tractor pulling organization, as well as some mini-tractors on display. Plus there were racing boats, a number of exhibitors doing graphics, lettering, car wraps etc. and of course, NASCAR Bob's remote control speedway where you can try your luck against 4 others on the high banks.

Oh, and that Rusty guy. Quite a few folks paid the fee to get in to see him at the VIP meet and greet, which was happening back behind the main stage. Oddly enough, the lineup to see him in the regular autograph line seemed a little small at first but steadily grew. Rusty came out about 12:30 to the mainstage and did a very brief Q and A with the general public. By that time the lineup was pretty huge and Rusty went over to his table and went to work signing everything and anything that anyone had. (Saw one guy standing there with a life size cutout of Rusty from some floor display, waiting for Rusty to autograph it ).

So thats the CPT show from where I stood. It looked like a smashing success, and there certainly were a lot of people and great diplays. Congrats to CPT on their success, and congrats to Delaware on a great showing.

Don't forget, its on tomorrow too, and you could get the chance to meet Ken Schrader who will be in attendance. It's worth pointing out that even though there was a pretty big crowd to see Rusty, I'm pretty sure that nearly everyone that wanted to see him did. The crowd was big, but not unweildy. If you want to meet Ken, I think its a pretty good bet you'll be able to.

Shadow out.