Howdy all!
Well, just got back from the banquet and I have to say what a great party it was. I'll do the awards, then some notes, but I'll preface by saying (because everyone's probably wondering) there was really no big news or big announcements regarding the speedway at large. As was expected, the night was about celebrating the year past more so than talking to the future. I did have a brief word with General Manager Joe and he said they're thrashing hard already hammering out the schedule for next year.
On to the awards....
Rookie of the Year Awards
APC Late Model 72-Shawn Thompson
Powerade Modified 38-Tyler Hendricks
Demar Aggregates Trucks 99-Michelle Koricina
Super Stock- 84-Steve Smith
Delaware (All Ontario?) NASCAR Whelen rookie of the year in LM 4-Jon Urlin.
Sportsmanship Awards
APC LM 52-Sheridan
Powerade Mod 1-Newman
Demar Truck 56-Showler
Super Stock 51-Rabideau
Harborne/Lawrence Spirit of Racing Award
One award that has been near and dear to Delaware Speedway for a long time now is the Harborne/Lawrence Spirit of Racing award. It is awarded every year to one person who exemplifies and embodies the spirit of good sportsmanship, and is also special in that it doesn't necessarily get awarded to a driver. It is my personal honor to be able to say that one of the members of our own CRO faithful has won that award this year....Jim Ott, aka JWO Racing, father and crew chief to Jake "Juice Box" Ott, in the "It Aint Easy Being Green" Super Stock number 60.
Jim looked just a little bewildered at the whole thing, but the award couldn't have gone to anyone more deserving. Congratulations Jim. Most of the guys agree that you make the pits a brighter place, always ready with a helping hand or a spare part. We're glad you guys decided on Delaware.
Craftsman Mechanic of the Year
- John Johnston, 28-Robblee team
Ultimate Sandblasting and Coatings Chaos Car Champ
- Spencer "Bush Bomb" Rabideau
APC LM / Whelen NASCAR Championship - 28 Steve Robblee
Steve Robblee of course won Delaware as well as Ontario, which we knew. What we didn't know (or I didn't anyway) was that he finished sixth overall of the entire NASCAR Whelen North American series. This is out of about 3000 competitors. I mean, we all know that Robblee is one of the best guys to ever strap into a race car, but I think its just awesome to finally see it recognized outside of the region. Way to go Steve.
2 52 Ron Sheridan
3 4 Jonathan Urlin
4 20 Scott Lindsay
5 15 Steven Matthews
6 02 Mark Watson
7 10 Jesse Kennedy
8 22 Jamie Ramsay
9 27 Mat Box
10 37 David Elliott
11 38 Kirk Hooker
12 72 Shawn Thompson
13 14 Rick Emery
14 2 Doug Stewart
15 3 Chad Rijnen
Powerade Modified 2009 Champ: 3 Jamie Cox
2 1 Barry Newman
3 88 Paul Shipway
4 39 David McCullough
5 54 Darrell Limon
6 38 Tyler Hendricks
7 24 Stephen Richmond
8 70 John Saunders
9 57 Gary Brooks
10 19 Dean Scott
Demar Aggregates Trucks Championship 2009 Champ: 88 Paul Fothergill
2 56 Jeff Showler
3 00 Shawn Johns
4 01 Devon Bloemendal
5 75 Jordan Dupuis
6 77 Tom Zagorodny
7 7 Derek Clark Strathroy
8 99 Michelle Koricina
9 16 Kathleen Hosang
10 9 Michael Thompson
11 82 Justin Demelo
12 4 Lonny Thompson
13. 81 Dale Hilborn
14. 33 Sid McDonald
15. 97 Bill McDonald Jr
Owners points won by 82 Demelo
Delaware Super Stock 2009 Champ 11 Jason Lidster
2 77 Darrell Lake
3 76 Jeremy Reid
4 84 Steve Smith
5 67 Shawn Hewitt
6 24 Stephen Richmond
6 51 Jeremiah Rabideau
8 99 Scott Nagy
9 60 Jake Ott
10 52 Brad Clark
10 28 Kris Lawrence
12 04 Matt Humphrys
13 7 Jared Shields
14 3 Andrew Perkins
15 9 DJ De Jesus
16 5 Jim Mairs
Owners Points also won by Lidster
Other Notes
- John Houghton did a stellar job with a great end-of-season highlight reel for both the big cars, plus a great on for the Jrs too. (we found out that in fact, yes, a Jr Late Model can take down a full sized light pole....just in case you were wondering)
- The Truck girls, Kathleen Hosang and Michelle Koricina were both there, sipping fruity cocktails out of their trophies, both looking resplendent 😮 and making all us old guys wish we were 21 again. Great to see you both. Spoke with Kathleen's Dad Mike, and it looks like they're on track to run up near the front again next year after finishing out the season in a cobbled together machine after the big rain wreck.
-In other news, it looks like Brooksie has sold the 57 modified to a Varney competitor. The good news is, it looks like we might be seeing a number 57 truck in the Demar Aggregates division next year. ;D
-The CRO "Dellies" took the shape of a top 10 list of "moments". Quite frankly, with my recent move, I didn't have the resources to turn it into full blown awards like I'd initially envisioned, but I do have some ideas for next year. It was fun to represent CRO for a few moments, although I think I have proven that writing and public speaking do not necessarily lead into one another. 😀
In closing: To Arlen, Joe, John, Jeff, and Paul, great job putting the night together. You all proved once again that Delaware Speedway is a class act by putting on one awesome shindig. The band even rocked.
So....when's the spring meeting? I'm ready to go!
Bewildred!!! You could knocked me over with a feather! I'm not used to getting attention for what I do . I just do it.
Sometimes I think I'm too passionate about the whole racing thing, but I love it.
Most importantly it's real easy to help out and be a part of the "Big Team" at Delaware Speedway as this track is the BEST in Ontario and so are it's people, fans and competitors alike.
So thanks to everybody who had a part in bestowing this honour on me.
Lets hope we can give the fans another memorable season in 2010
The CRO Dellies - As presented at the banquet
The "That's Gotta Hurt" award goes to Tyler Finlay. On June 5th, the second Powerade Mod feature of the night saw what I thought was the worst wreck of the year. Tyler Hendricks was leading early on when Shawn Thompson passed him down the backchute. When they got to turn 3 Hendricks and Finlay got together and Findlay went piling hard into the wall, utterly destroying the 59 Modified. It was almost two months before we saw Finlay on the track again.
The "Flying Doughnut" award goes to Chris, the fronstretch gate keeper. In the mdst of the Transmission Direct Endurance Feature on Aug 15th, Stephen Richmond lost a tire on his 10 car on the frontstretch and it went bouncing high and over the fence. In a magnificent display of being in the wrong place at the wrong time, Chris caught the tire right in the shoulder as he was trying to get out of the way. A few scratches and bruises ensued, and a trip to Race-Med later, Chris was right back at his post.
The From the Outhouse to the Penthouse award goes to Jesse Kennedy...he battled gremlins and bad luck all season, then managed to pull off a win at the APC 300 in the Delisle machine.
The Humpty Dumpty Award. On August 21, a sudden rain at the end of the feature caused 14 of the 18 truck field to all go piling into the wall in turn 3 with lots of damage all around. And all the Kings horses and all the Kings men, helped put the truck division all back together again. (Plus a hell of a lot of other people) As far as I know, every one of them made it back for the next race.
The Takes a Licking and Keeps on Ticking award goes to Paul Fothergill. On June 5th, second feature of the night saw Paul battling for 3rd. Coming out of turn 4 in the Demar Truck feature, he got some contact and found himself hitting the tire on the end of pit lane square and dead on, sending the truck about 5 feet in the air with flames shooting out the bottom. In a testament to a well built machine, he put it back in gear and kept on going, managing to score 5th place.
The "You Gotta Have Heart' award goes to Devon Bloemendal's team. On Partsource 142 night, the 01 truck blew a motor in the last practice session before quiet time at 7. They loaded the truck on the trailer and hustled it back to the shop, where the crew swapped out the motor and got it back to the racetrack in time for their first heat, took 3rd there, then 2nd in the feature.
The "Baby You Can Lean On Me" award goes to Kyle Delisle. On Partsource 142 night, coming out of turn 4, Kyle got mixed up with a few other cars. When the smoke cleared, Robin McCluskey was sitting sideways on the wall with all 4 tires pointed toward the fans. The only thing keeping him from toppling off the wall and roof down on the race track was..Kyle's 5 car. Where he stayed for quite some time until the track crew worked out a way to get Robin down off of Kyle's race car.
The Little Engine that Could award goes to Gert. As Super Stock cars go, Gert’s a pretty old girl, but when Team Perkins found themselves with their A car messed up for the season, they pulled the tarp off the old girl and went to work. It was a tough go for a while, but at the end of the season, she was hanging pretty well with the frontrunners, managing a 3rd place feature finish late in the season.
The “Let's keep our local paint department in business” award goes to Gary Brooks. Gary has an older car and it needed a little sprucing up, so he redid the trim in red. Looked so good I wrote it up the next week in pitter patter, except that by the time the fans were reading about Gary’s spiffy new red trim, he’d changed it to green. I thought that was funny so wrote it up again for next week, except by then it was gold…then blue, then pink. I think we ended the season with pink.
Last award I couldn't figure out a name for went to Steve Smith and his crew. (This one might not have been so apparent from the grandstands) In the spring they lost a crewman and friend Steve to cancer and decided to dedicate the entire season to him, and backed it up on July 3rd by holding of Jim Mairs for his first ever Super Stock win.
In closing....I'm a little beside myself right now, as it just dawning on me that I think I made a horrible oversight. I think I got out of order and somehow missed the Bloemandal one when I was running them off at the banquet.
That's inexcusable...and I don't know what to say except I'm so sorry. I don't know how to make it right, but we'll think of something.
It was great to have the banquet back to a more formal event. The food was excellent and the awards ceremony was done very well. The band was good, but a little loud to carry on a conversation. Hope this tradition continues!
Congratulations to all the teams for a great year of racing. Also kudos to the Delaware staff for putting on a great race program this past season. Already thinking about next year!