I am excited to be writing my thoughts about this past weekend but also sad at the same time.

As most of you know, Saturday we had a memorial service for our beloved “Tiny”. For any racer who could not attend the service, it was very nice and went well. I know that Terry Taylor would like to thank Meme, Jack, Mark and Georgie, John, Moe, Mike and Kathy, the Riche’s and his Mother, Karen. Moe and John and Terry did a good job speaking without breaking down and everything they said was so true as he was a gentle giant, loved racing and loved the children. I think it is great that we are going to dedicate the new tower to Tiny. The displays that Karen Taylor did with Tiny’s trophies, boots and pictures were awesome! I hope that most of you also had a chance to sign a tribute yo him on his race car. Karen also made up memorial sheets for everyone to have. I hope everyone liked the memory DVD that I created of Tiny. I burned over 50 copies and most of them were taken. If anyone wants a copy of the movie just send me an email and I will burn you one. It was also nice to see some of the firemen from Cumberland in attendance as well as friends from far away and Tiny’s brothers and their families. I have to say though that when Mark Jones took the microphone I fell apart and I do not think there was a dry eye in the place. Very sad, but how happy Tiny would have been, like Mark indicated, that we were all together. I know that Tiny was looking down upon us happy that we could all partake in this celebration. The food was spectacular. Gordon and I ate too much and I am sure we weren’t the only ones. Big thanks to Mark for the ceremony at the starting line and his kind words and Georgie for making the box. Our memories of him will be with us always.

Now remember Marco… you have promised to go to the Fall Nationals pot luck dinner. Can you believe Marco has never stayed for the dinner after a Fall National race? I told him that he and his son would have a great time, that the kids love all getting together and it’s about time that he attends… So we will be expecting to see him there, oh and Marco, bring something yummy to eat..

Now to Sunday, was it hot or what!! As Sue Trafford put it, “it is hotter than the hinges of hell”. I had to laugh at that comment but she was right. I had absolutely no energy and actually couldn’t wait to go home. I didn’t walk around and count vehicles as I usually do because I didn’t have it in me. I even fell asleep in my lawn chair during the top class time trials, with all of that noise, as I was so tired from the heat. I did water down the return lane a couple of times and thought I would sweat to death. Gordon, Greg and Robbie set the track up Saturday night and I am sure they were glad they did. As I sat in my chair and looked around on Sunday I thought about how in a few weeks we will all be wishing it was warm as we will have to wear light coats and drink warm coffee to stay warm at the track while pine needles fall from the trees. That is a beautiful time of year. I wish we had more races in the fall because the motors probably do better in the cooler air.

Tina and Frank O. came up from Connecticut on Saturday as they were close friends with Tiny. Terry told me that they used to race at our track years ago, but that was before my time, as I had never met them before. Tina agreed to race Darryl Trafford’s rig in the time trials. Now Tina has a dragster of her own and she is used to going 3.0 seconds in 300 feet, so to say that the boys were razzing her about driving Darryl’s car is an understatement. (No offense Darryl…… just all in fun). Moe told her that if we needed to go buy some more twine for the weed whacker they could… John said that she could always go the Yabba daba do avenue and put her feet down if she needed to…. She asked Darryl where reverse was and he showed her that reverse is getting out and pushing it backwards if she needed to in at the starting line, but he was probably kidding though. Darryl took it all in stride being the good sport that he is. Well she raced it and did very well in it…

Now if we could just get Robbie Weymouth to stop blatting his throttle at the end of the track! That guy needs to get beat by someone!

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Feature Feature Feature

As promised, I will be doing my “Feature” today. The person I choose for this weeks feature is not your typical “racer”. He is what I would consider a true “NEVORCA-ian”. He has been going to our races for 25 years. He has had several different jobs, including being a starter, staging lane official and the water truck driver. He is on the Board of Directors of our Association. He attends every race and is always willing to help out anyone who needs it. He’s not one to float about and socialize with everyone, as he stays with his buddies on the top class side of the track, but he is a loyal friend to all and would give any one a helping hand if needed. He is a very nice man and has agreed to drive Tiny’s car for the rest of the season in tribute to him. I am talking about Mike Ward. He is Terry’s crew chief and he and his wife Kathy rarely miss a race. A true “NEVORCA-ian”! If you would like to recommend a racer who you think should be in the feature section let me know.

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I got talking to Larry Dagan on Sunday and I asked him about his ATV business. He said business has been good and he feels fortunate that he has been able to work at something that he loves to do for the past 18 years. I asked him about the ATV’s that race with us and how many he did the complete drag motors on. He told me that the following people are racing ATV’s with complete motors that he built. They are as follows, himself, of course, Peggy Dagan, Rachel Dagan, Dean Dagan, Richard Bissell, Tom Daigle, Tommy Daigle, Rob Hilton, Norm Picard, Carl Morin and Corie Bissell. Corie has Greg Seward’s ATV, Dan Leborgne and Gary Norton. I think that you can almost tell when an ATV was built by him by the sound of it going down the track and of course how fast it goes. Larry has also helped several other racers with machine work. I think that having this many machines that run at the track that Larry either built or helped build shows that he definitely knows his stuff when it comes to racing engines. Larry said he averages 4.3’s with his machine. Larry has a new website if you would like to check it out. It has a lot of information on it including a link to the Nevorca website. It is www.ldrmachine.com. I appreciate Larry taking the time to talk with me on Sunday.

There were a lot of very close races on Sunday and congratulations to all of the winners. Now don’t forget that the next race is at OVF and it is the Fall Nationals. Everyone bring something good to eat so we can fill our bellies. One thing that I would ask is that if anyone has any time to help set up that pavilion on Saturday after time trials, where we will have dinner, that would be great. Maybe we could even set it up on Friday night. I know that after the race on Saturday everyone wants to go back and relax at their campers but the people who are responsible for setting that place up could really use the help. It is just not fair for only a couple of people doing all of the work when we all go down and enjoy the party. It wouldn’t take very long to clean up the place and get picnic tables ready in that building with a few people volunteering their time. Let’s pitch in and get ur done! Thanks

One note of safety for the ATV drivers. When your class is up and you are waiting in line to go to the starting line, and you have your machines running, please make an attempt to not burp your throttle as to cause rocks or dust to hit the driver behind you. Also be careful not to do that coming down the return lane as well. We would hate to have anyone get hit in the eye with a rock.

Like I have said before, if anyone wants to have something in this column, let me know and I will write about it. You can email me at darleneperry08@yahoo.com

Hoping you all have good days till we meet again!

Race Results

Juniors

1^st – Chris Whitimore

2^nd – Patty Brady

3^rd – Evan Butters

4^th – Adrianna McAllister

4X4 Top

1^st – Mike Riche

2^nd – Mad Jack (John Keene)

3^rd – Moe Ouellette

4^th – Larry Reed

ATV Top

1^st – Leon Adjutant

2^nd – Leonard Gavel

3^rd – Carl Morin

4^th – Marco Morin

4X4 Street

1^st – Rob Weymouth

2^nd – Scott Anthony

3^rd – David Charnick

4^th – Tom Dede (Diane Kitchen)

ATV Trail

1^st – Mike Chute

2^nd – Jordan Trafford

3^rd – Ryan Maloney

4^th – Melissa Brady