NOTE-this will be appearing in the printed program on Sun, but thought I'd share early...just to whet the appetites of the CRO faithful. (right now I feel like a little kid on Christmas Eve and can barely contain it.  🙂 )

It will be appearing with some photos.

For your Saturday morning reading pleasure.....

Labor Day Weekend at Delaware...
...If Only This Old Track Could Talk

by Trevor "Shadowracer" Van Leeuwen

The campground is full, the stands are filling in nicely. Soon the cars will be parked all the way down to the road and fans will be shoulder to shoulder in the grandstands. The hot dogs and fries are sizzling, and soon a big field of Late Models will be roaring to life, as they have every Labor Day Weekend since 1981. Excitement comes guaranteed in the most anticipated event of the season. Its the 28th running of the Great Canadian Race.

Its been 28 years since Tony Novotny decided to cap the Delaware Late Model season off with a really big race on Labor day weekend. Labor day has always been special here, even dating back to the old quarter mile Supermodified days. So many races. So many victories. So many controversies. So many hearts broken. So much history right here at Delaware

If this old track could talk, it'd tell you about the very first Labor Day race in 1981. Tony Novotny had created his CASCAR series as a way to bring the floundering Ontario Super Late Model scene under a common rules banner, and the capper of the very first series was going to be a 200 lap extravaganza to decide the championship. The fans gathered here, just as we have today, and by the time they'd left the grounds, they knew they'd seen something that no other race fan had ever seen before: The always abrasive, outspoken and cantankerous Don Beiderman...crying.

It'd been a tough year for Don. He was one of very few drivers that actually still made his living driving a stock car, and the money was drying up. Times had changed, prize money had not kept pace with expenses, and hauling from track to track looking for a payday wasn't putting much bread on the table any more, even if you were winning. Old Don was beginning to make noises about quitting the game. But he was also in the CASCAR points battle, and the payoff for the Labor Day UAP 200 was impressive.  

Now, Don always had a fast car, so he was expected to do well. But he had some problems that day. CASCAR qualifying procedure was put together with an eye towards entertainment, and did away with time trials completely. Each competitor had to run 2 heat races, and unfortunately, Don ran into problems in both of his. In the first one he ended up tangling with Dorchester's Steve Knott, and in the second, he ended up running into London's Dave Isen, leaving the familiar blue number 43 with really bad front end damage. That left Beiderman in a bad position, unable to start the consolation race...but he had Knott in his corner.

Knott raced back to his shop in Dorchester to get the parts Don needed, but he didn't make it back in time to get Don on the grid for the last chance qualifier. Beiderman was relegated to the non-qualifiers race, but with Knott's parts now bolted in, he won it handily. That still wasn't enough. The only thing winning the non-qualifiers race got you was a spot as the first alternative in the main event. In other words, someone else had to drop out. Which meant Don ended up exactly one spot out of the 200.  His day was done. Or was it?

It's sketchy what happened next, but its basically accepted that there was a little bit of pitside wheeling and dealing before the race. They rolled out the lineup for the feature and after a couple of parade laps, the last place car, Michigan's Dennis Metapedigan, pulled off the track. Lo and behold, the 43 car joined the field just as the green was about to fall.

Don started methodically picking his way through the field and was soon up into the top 10. By the time the race had reached the halfway point, Beiderman was in front. 100 or so laps, and one competition yellow later, Don Beiderman was carrying the checkered flag around the speedway. In victory lane, Don got just a little choked up. Tears of joy at the win, or of relief for making the payout, no one really knows, but fans knew at that point that no one had ever seen cranky old Don Beiderman like this before.

The next year, McKerlie Millen took over the title sponsorship of the race, and for many years afterward the race was known as the McKerlie Millen 200. (The Great Canadian Race moniker didn't come until years later.) One thing that slipped through the cracks, and a wrong that hopefully will someday be righted, is the fact that Don was never credited with winning the inaugural 200. The speedway instituted its Wall of Fame at the spectator entrance after a few McKerlie Millen 200s had been run, but the wall only recognized the races run after McKerlie's came on board. That put Earl Ross on the board as the first winner in 1982. Now Earl's story was an interesting one too, and he deserves every bit of credit he ever got. But McKerlie's is long gone, and we owe it to the memory of the late Don Beiderman to recognize him as the very first Delaware Great Canadian Race winner.  

If this old track could talk, she'd tell you about the triumphant return of Ailsa Craig's Earl Ross in 1982. Earl had gone into retirement after winning the Wheelspin Late Model series in 1977, but had been enticed back into the drivers seat midway through the 82 season. He took up the driving duties on the Ron Box Auto Body Special, the familiar green and gold number 68 fomerly driven by Terry Kitchen. Always good for a quote, Earl had joked about having to take his old driving suit to Omar the Tent-Maker for a resize. Thus far in the season, Earl had been doing well in the 68 car, but not as well as he'd have liked. But coming into the McKerlie Millen 200, his experiences at longer races came into the forefront.

The former NASCAR rookie of the year knew that first and foremost, he had to stay out of trouble for the first portion of the race in order to be in striking distance at the end. He almost managed it too. While running in 7th spot early in the race, he was dumped from behind on a restart and ended up 18th. The rest of the race was spent playing catch up. But Ross was a cool customer under pressure, and gracefully picked his way through the field. Near the end, he found himself on the bumper of the Green Hornet himself, Ed Howe out of Michigan, who was subbing in the 43 car for an under-suspension Don Beiderman. With 26 to go, Ross made the pass on Howe into first and went on to win the race. This reporter (a strapping young lad of 12 at the time) was standing on the grass right at the flagstand when the checkered flag flew, and remembers turning to look at the crowd just as Ross crossed the finish line in front of Ed Howe and Speedy Jack Monaghan, and seeing everyone going bananas for Earl.

Earl Ross had come home, and the crowd rejoiced.

If this old track could talk, she'd tell you about the heartbreaks that balance out the triumphs. She'd tell you about the day that Russ Urlin smoked the entire field with a borrowed motor. Junior Hanley had set the fast qualifying time at 18.92 and was the favorite to win, but dropped out before the green with a cracked engine block. No one else had anything for Urlin's 91 car, and the real race was a distant battle for second between Don Beiderman and Ohio's Chuck Roumell. That battle saw Roumell finally get around Beiderman on the last lap to take second place. In tech afterwards, it turned out that Urlin's motor had too many cubic inches for what the car weighed and was disqualified. Turned out Roumell's last lap pass actually won him the race. Unfortunately, the trophy ceremony and victory interview had to be done 2 weeks later, because everyone had gone home by the time a decision was reached.

If this old track could talk, she'd tell you about the transition...when the Super Late Models died out and the CASCAR Late Models came to the forefront. In 1988 the McKerlie Millen 200 was split into two segments - 100 laps Super Late Model, 100 laps CASCAR Late Model. Junior Hanley won the Supers easily, and the first Labor Day win ever for CASCAR Late Models was the Big V Drugstore number 50 of George Wall. The CASCAR segment had been a race of attrition, as only 7 cars finished. Not bad for a division who's longest feature to date had been 25 laps long.  

If this old track could talk, she'd tell you that even Mr. Delaware himself, Steve Robblee, has seen his share of Labor Day heartache. Mechanical trouble put him out of the race in 89, leaving the race in the hands of Brad Jaques and Al Chute, who put on a show that had the fans on their feet for the last few laps. Jacques went on to win it. In 1990 it was a tire problem for Robblee and a win for veteran driver (but CASCAR rookie) Wayne Keeling. In 1993 it was a blown motor for Robblee and a win for Kerry Micks. Robblee eventually won a few Labor Day races, but suffered a lot of bad luck in the CASCAR early years.  

If this old track could talk, she'd tell you about the years it grew into the Great Canadian Race under the CASCAR banner. By 1993 the race was 250 laps long, and a little later it became a 300 lapper. We had pit stop competitions in Victoria Park and twin 100 lap qualifiers on the Thursday leading up to Labor Day weekend. Lots of press, huge crowds and thrilling finishes were the order of the day. Who could forget the last CASCAR 300 finish...a thrilling last lap duel between Don Thomson Jr, Mark Dilley and Peter Gibbons?

If this old track could talk, she'd tell you about the controversies, like the year Caledonia's Randy Slack was leading with only a handful of laps to go, but was black flagged because he had smoke coming out of the car, leaving the win to Michigan's Tracey Leslie. Slack was none too happy and publicly accused the track of favoring the American competitors.

If this old track could talk she'd tell you about some famous battles. Harmer vs Robblee, Beiderman vs Hanley, Hanley vs Leslie, Gibbons vs Whitlock, and Micks vs everybody!

And if this old track could talk, she'd tell you about the year that 20+ year campaigner Jesse Kennedy finally made it work. Jesse had been running here since the early 80s, some years in Street Stock, some years in Late Model, usually running well but not blowing anyone doors off. The closest he'd ever come to winning anything big had both been stolen from him. One year in CASCAR Late model he'd been running 1st with 2 to go when Bill Rowse Jr sent him spinning. In 2006 he'd been poised to win but found himself in the wall again at the hands of someone else.  Then the 2007 season was upon him and his team finally clicked. APC 300 day was all his in 2007, where he nailed both the Delaware APC points championship, then went on to win the main event on the same day. How could you ever forget the sight of Jesse Kennedy's fist pumping in the air as he sailed across the finish line, a culmination of 20 years of trying?

Yep...if this old track could talk, just imagine the stories it could tell. Every Labor Day weekend seems to end with one, and this year will be no different. Someone will have their heart broken, and someone else's name will be added to a list containing the likes of Don Beiderman, Earl Ross, Junior Hanley, Tracey Leslie, Steve Robblee -  a list that just may be the most prestigious list of winners in Canadian Motorsports history.

If only this old track could talk.

NOTE-Thanks to Statsman for helping me out with this.