Wife's view from the pits - by Lynda Makinson (August 2019)
Disclaimer: This is my view and opinion, not the view or opinion of Bruce Makinson or anyone else.
August 30, 2019
Hi Everybody,
Remember my last article about this is "the year that wasn’t". Well, this past Friday is a true example of this.
Let’s start at the beginning, very nice evening. Track was going to be dry and slick early so we knew it would turn into a parade eventually.
Heat race was good, started 8th of 9. Was on the outside and pushed back to last but was eventually able to get to the inside and raced to finish 6th. I wish I was closer to the flag stand because from my vantage point it looked like Bruce passed the 6th place car at the line or really close to it. It would have been a nice thing to see. Either way, he finished 6th. Not too bad considering he was last at one point and the track was getting drier and slicker.
So, to say the least, the car looked good and Bruce was making all the right moves. So now for the Feature.
Bruce was starting in 20th of 26 cars (because we missed the week before, so his handicap and starting position sucked). Bruce sat in the line up waiting for the Sportsman Feature to start. As he usually does, he turned the car off. So, nothing unusual so far, right!?!? Well, the car wouldn’t start again! Yup, it turned over but would not start. So, his Feature featured him being pushed around the track by the tow truck and back into the pits. That was it for the night.
By the way, I did glance over at the race and noticed the cars were spread out. So, it did turn into the parade as I had predicted.
The guys tried looking things over at the trailer to see if it was something simple but couldn’t see anything immediately. It will be a task for this week to see if they can find the issue.
Are we racing this coming weekend?!?! I guess it’s a wait and see if they can find the problem.
If the guys let me know early enough if we’re racing or not I will post it here. But they have a habit of leaving this information for me to the last minute often. They’re sweet that way.
Well, the season is coming to an end. Our plans were/are to race this coming weekend at Can-Am and maybe Brighton Applefest on the weekend of September 20th.
I’ll keep you posted.
Have a good week and hope to see you at the races.
Cheers,
Lynda
P.S.
I have a couple of pics from the pits and of the fire trucks. We got to see a beautiful sunset and it was Fire Fighters and EMS night, so they had a bunch of trucks go around the track. Still makes me feel queasy seeing that. I appreciate what they do but you never really see them unless things are going terrible wrong.
Remember my last article about this is "the year that wasn’t". Well, this past Friday is a true example of this.
Let’s start at the beginning, very nice evening. Track was going to be dry and slick early so we knew it would turn into a parade eventually.
Heat race was good, started 8th of 9. Was on the outside and pushed back to last but was eventually able to get to the inside and raced to finish 6th. I wish I was closer to the flag stand because from my vantage point it looked like Bruce passed the 6th place car at the line or really close to it. It would have been a nice thing to see. Either way, he finished 6th. Not too bad considering he was last at one point and the track was getting drier and slicker.
So, to say the least, the car looked good and Bruce was making all the right moves. So now for the Feature.
Bruce was starting in 20th of 26 cars (because we missed the week before, so his handicap and starting position sucked). Bruce sat in the line up waiting for the Sportsman Feature to start. As he usually does, he turned the car off. So, nothing unusual so far, right!?!? Well, the car wouldn’t start again! Yup, it turned over but would not start. So, his Feature featured him being pushed around the track by the tow truck and back into the pits. That was it for the night.
By the way, I did glance over at the race and noticed the cars were spread out. So, it did turn into the parade as I had predicted.
The guys tried looking things over at the trailer to see if it was something simple but couldn’t see anything immediately. It will be a task for this week to see if they can find the issue.
Are we racing this coming weekend?!?! I guess it’s a wait and see if they can find the problem.
If the guys let me know early enough if we’re racing or not I will post it here. But they have a habit of leaving this information for me to the last minute often. They’re sweet that way.
Well, the season is coming to an end. Our plans were/are to race this coming weekend at Can-Am and maybe Brighton Applefest on the weekend of September 20th.
I’ll keep you posted.
Have a good week and hope to see you at the races.
Cheers,
Lynda
P.S.
I have a couple of pics from the pits and of the fire trucks. We got to see a beautiful sunset and it was Fire Fighters and EMS night, so they had a bunch of trucks go around the track. Still makes me feel queasy seeing that. I appreciate what they do but you never really see them unless things are going terrible wrong.
August 23, 2019
Hi Everybody,
This past Friday we did not race due to a family thing. But all seems to be getting better so we are hoping to race this coming Friday.
This year has been the year that wasn’t for us. We missed races along the way for various reasons, which didn’t put Bruce in good starting positions. We’re feeling it was the year to slowly get Bruce back into the car and regroup. Bruce has been itching to race but I’m thinking the Racing Gods decided he should take it slower then he would have liked…this is what I’m going with.
We’re hoping the Racing Gods feel Bruce is going to be better for next year and he will hopefully have a great come back year. Bruce is also slowly coming down to the “retirement from racing” stage, yes, a couple of more years and we’re done. Bruce and I have an agreement that maybe one day we could put some of this racing money into a retirement plan…what a crazy idea!?!? I know!
Anyways, we are hoping to be back racing this coming week, it’s the last race of the regular season. Then the following weeks there are special races we may attend. One might be the Can-Am races the weekend of Sept 6th and/or Sept 7th. Then we are considering Brighton Applefest Sept 20-21.
We will again have to see what the Racing Gods have planned for us and see if we will be attending these events.
By the way, Bobby is now, again, a proud grandpa of a baby girl, Lily. She had to make it a dramatic event, coming into this world, but at least she made it! This is Bobby and Cheryl’s 3rd grandchild.
Congrats to Kim and Luc! Lily is a fighter and a tough cookie, can’t wait to meet her and teach her some new and fun things…lol.
That’s it for this week, hopefully I’ll have more exciting racing news for next week.
Cheers,
Lynda
This past Friday we did not race due to a family thing. But all seems to be getting better so we are hoping to race this coming Friday.
This year has been the year that wasn’t for us. We missed races along the way for various reasons, which didn’t put Bruce in good starting positions. We’re feeling it was the year to slowly get Bruce back into the car and regroup. Bruce has been itching to race but I’m thinking the Racing Gods decided he should take it slower then he would have liked…this is what I’m going with.
We’re hoping the Racing Gods feel Bruce is going to be better for next year and he will hopefully have a great come back year. Bruce is also slowly coming down to the “retirement from racing” stage, yes, a couple of more years and we’re done. Bruce and I have an agreement that maybe one day we could put some of this racing money into a retirement plan…what a crazy idea!?!? I know!
Anyways, we are hoping to be back racing this coming week, it’s the last race of the regular season. Then the following weeks there are special races we may attend. One might be the Can-Am races the weekend of Sept 6th and/or Sept 7th. Then we are considering Brighton Applefest Sept 20-21.
We will again have to see what the Racing Gods have planned for us and see if we will be attending these events.
By the way, Bobby is now, again, a proud grandpa of a baby girl, Lily. She had to make it a dramatic event, coming into this world, but at least she made it! This is Bobby and Cheryl’s 3rd grandchild.
Congrats to Kim and Luc! Lily is a fighter and a tough cookie, can’t wait to meet her and teach her some new and fun things…lol.
That’s it for this week, hopefully I’ll have more exciting racing news for next week.
Cheers,
Lynda
August 16, 2019
Hi Everybody,
What a night, did you see it was a full maroon…oh, I mean moon. Yes, for those that know me, I did mean maroon! and the moon didn't help either. Can-Am doesn’t disappoint when it comes to maroons.
Let’s start at the beginning. It was Fan Appreciation night, and a hot one. Can-Am has the fans see the drivers and cars before racing begins. Different then we’re used to but nice. The cars lined up in the go-kart track area in a large circular formation, nicely done, great for fans. The slight downfall was the rainfall, not hard but enough to get people wet, but I think most crews and drivers didn’t mind much because it was refreshing considering it was hot and humid out (I had an umbrella, not my first rodeo!). We ran out of hero cards and candy pretty quick because this way the fans were walking in a circle and getting to visit all the cars. And what’s nice is afterwards the pit steward thanked all the crews and drivers for doing this.
I have to say, Can-Am does have nice staff.
Because of the rain, the track was tacky which means a fast track…for everybody. And because we missed last weeks race, Bruce was not in a good position to make this work for him in the Heat race. Out of 9 cars he was starting 7th. And he finished 7th. So that meant in the Feature he was starting 18 of 27 cars.
The Feature was not a disappointment when it comes to maroons. The track official on the radio kept reminding the drivers that you aren’t going to win the race on the first lap but boy did many of them try.
As I mentioned, Bruce started 18th but was on the forward move, he was up to 14th when the latest maroon made himself known to us. You see, some of these drivers come from the go-kart circuit and from what we hear about that is there are many aggressive, dirty drivers and these are kids!! Well, they jump into a Sportsman with daddies’ money behind them and have no respect for the car or other cars and just drive into people. So, this is what happened to Bruce, our maroon drove into the side of him pushing him off the edge (I’m sure I sound like I’m repeating myself cuz didn’t this happen a few weeks ago?!?!?) and Bruce ended up dropping back to 27th as a caution came out for someone else. Well, Bruce drove around on the caution a couple of times then thought to himself, “the heck with it, even if I pass 10 cars, I still get the same payout and the car is still in one piece so I’m outta here!”
Bruce came into the pits around lap 8 and we called it a night. We did notice the moon was full and with a tacky track, it could easily turn bad to worse in a heartbeat. I think it was a wise call on his part. As we were loading the car there was a caution. We were later told by another pit crew that if Bruce had stayed out in 14th or so he would have been part of it. I guess 5 over zealous maroons got into it on turn 4.
I remember years back, we had gone a couple of times to MIR and were always wrecked. I had put my foot down that we would never return. But then people told us they cleaned up and got rid of those drivers (well, I now know where they went to). Then we returned to MIR and it was a pleasure racing there because we rarely had damage. The only reason we aren’t there now is because of that wall issue that Bruce got badly hurt at last year. And a couple of drivers got hurt at this year. I’m not willing to take that risk.
I’m thinking Can-Am needs to maybe clean up too. Maybe they should start with the kart kids?? Or maybe have a Novice Sportsman class that’s mandatory for newbies. I don’t know if BOS still has it but they had a rule that if you were new, you had to win several Novice races before you were allowed to move up to Sportsman. Also, they need to speak to these kids about the dangers of racing and that a race car can be a lethal weapon and that it costs people money, real money, not this money tree of mommy and daddy, and maybe discuss ‘patience’. Some people actually work for their money and we don’t need this kind of unnecessary damage happening. Yes, racing can be dangerous and yes accidents do happen. But we seem to see a lot of maroon behaviour there. One reason we left BOS was for the maroons and the car damage all the time. There were other reasons as well but I’m not getting into that now. The lack of officiating was apparent, that’s a whole story on its own. MIR cleaned up and they have no problems with car count.
One thing though, Can-Am race director was trying to get things organized but I don’t think they have enough spotters because they really didn’t call out enough incidents. Bruce himself saw another car blatantly drive into another car, I asked him if he thought it could have been an accidental move…he said “no, it didn’t look like an accidental move to me”.
This year seems to have been a rebuild and regroup year. Bruce has a great car, thanks to our Sponsors, and Bobby and Bruce’s hard work. But we’ve just not been able to get it going. I guess it didn’t help we moved to a different track part way thru the year and the handicap system.
Well, that’s it for this week. Two more regular season races coming up. Then one week off then the Can-Am race weekend (which I’m not sure if we’re going yet). Then the guys want to do Brighton for the Applefest Shoutout, I’ll keep you posted on that one too.
Have a great week and hope to see you at the races.
Cheers,
Lynda
What a night, did you see it was a full maroon…oh, I mean moon. Yes, for those that know me, I did mean maroon! and the moon didn't help either. Can-Am doesn’t disappoint when it comes to maroons.
Let’s start at the beginning. It was Fan Appreciation night, and a hot one. Can-Am has the fans see the drivers and cars before racing begins. Different then we’re used to but nice. The cars lined up in the go-kart track area in a large circular formation, nicely done, great for fans. The slight downfall was the rainfall, not hard but enough to get people wet, but I think most crews and drivers didn’t mind much because it was refreshing considering it was hot and humid out (I had an umbrella, not my first rodeo!). We ran out of hero cards and candy pretty quick because this way the fans were walking in a circle and getting to visit all the cars. And what’s nice is afterwards the pit steward thanked all the crews and drivers for doing this.
I have to say, Can-Am does have nice staff.
Because of the rain, the track was tacky which means a fast track…for everybody. And because we missed last weeks race, Bruce was not in a good position to make this work for him in the Heat race. Out of 9 cars he was starting 7th. And he finished 7th. So that meant in the Feature he was starting 18 of 27 cars.
The Feature was not a disappointment when it comes to maroons. The track official on the radio kept reminding the drivers that you aren’t going to win the race on the first lap but boy did many of them try.
As I mentioned, Bruce started 18th but was on the forward move, he was up to 14th when the latest maroon made himself known to us. You see, some of these drivers come from the go-kart circuit and from what we hear about that is there are many aggressive, dirty drivers and these are kids!! Well, they jump into a Sportsman with daddies’ money behind them and have no respect for the car or other cars and just drive into people. So, this is what happened to Bruce, our maroon drove into the side of him pushing him off the edge (I’m sure I sound like I’m repeating myself cuz didn’t this happen a few weeks ago?!?!?) and Bruce ended up dropping back to 27th as a caution came out for someone else. Well, Bruce drove around on the caution a couple of times then thought to himself, “the heck with it, even if I pass 10 cars, I still get the same payout and the car is still in one piece so I’m outta here!”
Bruce came into the pits around lap 8 and we called it a night. We did notice the moon was full and with a tacky track, it could easily turn bad to worse in a heartbeat. I think it was a wise call on his part. As we were loading the car there was a caution. We were later told by another pit crew that if Bruce had stayed out in 14th or so he would have been part of it. I guess 5 over zealous maroons got into it on turn 4.
I remember years back, we had gone a couple of times to MIR and were always wrecked. I had put my foot down that we would never return. But then people told us they cleaned up and got rid of those drivers (well, I now know where they went to). Then we returned to MIR and it was a pleasure racing there because we rarely had damage. The only reason we aren’t there now is because of that wall issue that Bruce got badly hurt at last year. And a couple of drivers got hurt at this year. I’m not willing to take that risk.
I’m thinking Can-Am needs to maybe clean up too. Maybe they should start with the kart kids?? Or maybe have a Novice Sportsman class that’s mandatory for newbies. I don’t know if BOS still has it but they had a rule that if you were new, you had to win several Novice races before you were allowed to move up to Sportsman. Also, they need to speak to these kids about the dangers of racing and that a race car can be a lethal weapon and that it costs people money, real money, not this money tree of mommy and daddy, and maybe discuss ‘patience’. Some people actually work for their money and we don’t need this kind of unnecessary damage happening. Yes, racing can be dangerous and yes accidents do happen. But we seem to see a lot of maroon behaviour there. One reason we left BOS was for the maroons and the car damage all the time. There were other reasons as well but I’m not getting into that now. The lack of officiating was apparent, that’s a whole story on its own. MIR cleaned up and they have no problems with car count.
One thing though, Can-Am race director was trying to get things organized but I don’t think they have enough spotters because they really didn’t call out enough incidents. Bruce himself saw another car blatantly drive into another car, I asked him if he thought it could have been an accidental move…he said “no, it didn’t look like an accidental move to me”.
This year seems to have been a rebuild and regroup year. Bruce has a great car, thanks to our Sponsors, and Bobby and Bruce’s hard work. But we’ve just not been able to get it going. I guess it didn’t help we moved to a different track part way thru the year and the handicap system.
Well, that’s it for this week. Two more regular season races coming up. Then one week off then the Can-Am race weekend (which I’m not sure if we’re going yet). Then the guys want to do Brighton for the Applefest Shoutout, I’ll keep you posted on that one too.
Have a great week and hope to see you at the races.
Cheers,
Lynda
August 9, 2019
Hi Everybody,
Last Friday we did not race. Bruce didn’t feel like dealing with the Sprint cars being there and the weather was if’y. Can-Am did have a heavy downpour late in the afternoon and because the Sprints were coming, they pushed racing thru. We just weren’t in the mood for it I guess.
But this coming Friday we plan on attending. It’s autograph night so during intermission all the cars will be out on the track to meet n' greet with fans. So, if you’re planning on coming out, this would be a good time.
Well, have a great week and hope to see you at the races soon.
Remember, only 3 more regular races left this season.
Cheers,
Lynda
Last Friday we did not race. Bruce didn’t feel like dealing with the Sprint cars being there and the weather was if’y. Can-Am did have a heavy downpour late in the afternoon and because the Sprints were coming, they pushed racing thru. We just weren’t in the mood for it I guess.
But this coming Friday we plan on attending. It’s autograph night so during intermission all the cars will be out on the track to meet n' greet with fans. So, if you’re planning on coming out, this would be a good time.
Well, have a great week and hope to see you at the races soon.
Remember, only 3 more regular races left this season.
Cheers,
Lynda
August 2, 2019
Hi Everybody,
It was a beautiful long weekend here in Canada. But Friday nights’ races weren’t what we were hoping for.
The Heat race didn’t start out great. Bruce started in 5th and ended in 7th out of 8 cars. He just didn’t have any bite in the car, he couldn’t get it to grip and move forward. I did notice some other cars with the same issue. The car did come in very muddy, this is something that hasn’t happened in a long time, did that have something to do with it??!! Lately tracks seem to be dry not muddy.
As for the Feature, not much better. Bruce started 26th and only made it to 24th. His car did seem to get a little better throughout the race, but he wasn’t able to pass a few cars that were holding him up, so it made it difficult to get ahead. Bruce also said the track was crappy at points, turn one had a strip that was in his line that he couldn’t seem to miss, and he had rocks pelted at him, he has a bruise on his arm to prove it.
Like I’ve mentioned before, in the Sportsman class, you may have around 20 cars that are at about the same level of speed and that’s where we are now, so it’s not like putting your blinker on the highway and politely passing the car ahead of you. Those other 19 drivers are trying like heck to make sure you don’t get around them. It’s called racing!
Anyways, Bruce wasn’t very pleased with Friday night. I was pleased that the car came home in one piece and so did Bruce.
This coming Friday the sprint cars will be there. Yeah, they may be fun to watch at times but they are a pain in the butt because they have to be push started all the time so if they stall on the track it becomes annoying when you have to wait for them to get a push to get started again….at least annoying for us watching or waiting to race. Also, Bobby won’t be around this Friday, so I guess I’m the pit crew…yah.
Now we’re down to 4 more regular races this season. We most likely will be doing a few other races after that, I’ll keep you posted as to which ones.
Hope you all had a safe and good long weekend and hope to see you at the races soon.
Cheers,
Lynda
It was a beautiful long weekend here in Canada. But Friday nights’ races weren’t what we were hoping for.
The Heat race didn’t start out great. Bruce started in 5th and ended in 7th out of 8 cars. He just didn’t have any bite in the car, he couldn’t get it to grip and move forward. I did notice some other cars with the same issue. The car did come in very muddy, this is something that hasn’t happened in a long time, did that have something to do with it??!! Lately tracks seem to be dry not muddy.
As for the Feature, not much better. Bruce started 26th and only made it to 24th. His car did seem to get a little better throughout the race, but he wasn’t able to pass a few cars that were holding him up, so it made it difficult to get ahead. Bruce also said the track was crappy at points, turn one had a strip that was in his line that he couldn’t seem to miss, and he had rocks pelted at him, he has a bruise on his arm to prove it.
Like I’ve mentioned before, in the Sportsman class, you may have around 20 cars that are at about the same level of speed and that’s where we are now, so it’s not like putting your blinker on the highway and politely passing the car ahead of you. Those other 19 drivers are trying like heck to make sure you don’t get around them. It’s called racing!
Anyways, Bruce wasn’t very pleased with Friday night. I was pleased that the car came home in one piece and so did Bruce.
This coming Friday the sprint cars will be there. Yeah, they may be fun to watch at times but they are a pain in the butt because they have to be push started all the time so if they stall on the track it becomes annoying when you have to wait for them to get a push to get started again….at least annoying for us watching or waiting to race. Also, Bobby won’t be around this Friday, so I guess I’m the pit crew…yah.
Now we’re down to 4 more regular races this season. We most likely will be doing a few other races after that, I’ll keep you posted as to which ones.
Hope you all had a safe and good long weekend and hope to see you at the races soon.
Cheers,
Lynda