Wife's view from the pits - by Lynda Makinson (July 2015)
Disclaimer: This is my view and opinion, not the view or opinion of Bruce Makinson or anyone else.
July 31, 2015 - UPDATE
Hi Everybody,
Remember how I've mentioned that I appreciate Mohawk and their officials. Well, it seems they either were told by another team or realized their error and have adjusted where Bruce finished last week.
He is now listed as finishing 14th instead of 19th. In the end it doesn't make a difference considering the money most likely doesn't change and we aren't in the running for points because we haven't raced there a full season, but it's just nice to see a track that can admit a mistake and then fix it.
You may recall another track we were at in the beginning of the season where I had to point out an error in line up to the officials from a rained out night and was given a lame answer and then they didn't do anything about it. (and was told by many other teams not to bother, "they won't do anything anyways").
Well, not here at Mohawk. They found fault and fix it.
Thank you Mohawk, you are a ray of sunshine in the DIRT racing community.
Now, if this doesn't convince you to get your passport and come on down to Mohawk Speedway (just a couple of minutes from the Cornwall boarder crossing) I just don't know what would. Good racing, clean and modern facilities, and good food (pizza logs rule!), can't ask for anything more.
Take care and have a great week,
Lynda
Remember how I've mentioned that I appreciate Mohawk and their officials. Well, it seems they either were told by another team or realized their error and have adjusted where Bruce finished last week.
He is now listed as finishing 14th instead of 19th. In the end it doesn't make a difference considering the money most likely doesn't change and we aren't in the running for points because we haven't raced there a full season, but it's just nice to see a track that can admit a mistake and then fix it.
You may recall another track we were at in the beginning of the season where I had to point out an error in line up to the officials from a rained out night and was given a lame answer and then they didn't do anything about it. (and was told by many other teams not to bother, "they won't do anything anyways").
Well, not here at Mohawk. They found fault and fix it.
Thank you Mohawk, you are a ray of sunshine in the DIRT racing community.
Now, if this doesn't convince you to get your passport and come on down to Mohawk Speedway (just a couple of minutes from the Cornwall boarder crossing) I just don't know what would. Good racing, clean and modern facilities, and good food (pizza logs rule!), can't ask for anything more.
Take care and have a great week,
Lynda
July 31, 2015
Hi
Everybody,
Well, finally we had a decent night…sort of.
Friday night we were at Mohawk, the skies were blue and so was the moon.
The Heat race was decent; of course it was a slick track so not many cars were passing; therefore, Bruce was running about where he started, 5th. But then a funny thing happened on the last lap. The two leaders hooked up (literally) on the back stretch as the rest of the pack passed them. So, in the end, Bruce finished 3rd. Hey, you take it when you can J.
As the night went on we could see lightning in the distance. The track announced that they were going to move things along to get the racing in before the storm hit. And that they did. They didn’t mess up the line up this week; in fact they seemed to take extra care in making sure it was right. I did stay at the line up to make sure Bruce was where he should be and they even gave me a smile, wink and thumbs up when it was all in order. I guess they do listen to the teams when they have a complaint/concern.
Bruce was starting in 5th. Ideally, a good spot to start in…if you don’t have a swinging door in front of you. The car directly in front of Bruce was slower than him but he kept shutting the door on Bruce every time Bruce tried to pass him. At one point, Bruce had a good run on him on the inside and this guy almost ran Bruce into the infield. Bruce then tried to go high to get around him which didn’t pan out because as he did that the guy tried to block Bruce and the rest of the pack went by on the inside. It was almost like the guy had a mirror in his car. And we all know that that’s not allowed but its uncanny how this guy was able to block Bruce’s every move. So, before Bruce knew it he was back to about 10th. Then some of the top cars started to come up and use their bumpers to get around cars. This is the first week I’ve noticed that. Usually most drivers at Mohawk have passed using their skills not their bumpers. This race looked really rough out there (and I don’t mean the track conditions), I could see Bruce being pin-balled around. In the end, Bruce was competing for 15th with two other cars. Then the stupidity happened. The flagman was giving Bruce and the two other cars with him the checkered flag and on the radio saying “checkered, checkered” but Bruce was only on lap 24 (of 25). In Bruce’s situation he can only be looking at one thing at a time, so he was watching the flagman so he thought his race was over…so did the other two cars with him. They pulled off the track and into the pits. I told Bruce that they threw the checkered too soon. They should have waited for them to go by then throw it for the leaders that were about a ¼ track behind. Bruce said he thought it wasn’t right but was going by the flagman’s instructions. After all, the tower and flagman are the orchestrators of a race. Well, they screwed up and I’m thinking not just us but several other cars were screwed. We should have finished around 15th but officially got 19th because Bruce didn’t finish the race.
Mohawk doesn’t usually screw up so much. I’m not sure if it was because of the impending storm approaching or the full moon. And it didn’t matter too much to us because 15th or 19th is the same amount in payout…but really!! Stupid mistakes piss me off. So, yes you guessed it, I will be talking to the officials this coming Friday. It had started raining after all the racing was done so no one was around for me to “mention their error”.
Anyways, believe it or not, we are enjoying Mohawk. The officials do listen to us and care, and again, the facilities are amazing! Once we figure out the proper set up for their slick track we will enjoy it even more.
Have a great week and stay safe,
Lynda
Well, finally we had a decent night…sort of.
Friday night we were at Mohawk, the skies were blue and so was the moon.
The Heat race was decent; of course it was a slick track so not many cars were passing; therefore, Bruce was running about where he started, 5th. But then a funny thing happened on the last lap. The two leaders hooked up (literally) on the back stretch as the rest of the pack passed them. So, in the end, Bruce finished 3rd. Hey, you take it when you can J.
As the night went on we could see lightning in the distance. The track announced that they were going to move things along to get the racing in before the storm hit. And that they did. They didn’t mess up the line up this week; in fact they seemed to take extra care in making sure it was right. I did stay at the line up to make sure Bruce was where he should be and they even gave me a smile, wink and thumbs up when it was all in order. I guess they do listen to the teams when they have a complaint/concern.
Bruce was starting in 5th. Ideally, a good spot to start in…if you don’t have a swinging door in front of you. The car directly in front of Bruce was slower than him but he kept shutting the door on Bruce every time Bruce tried to pass him. At one point, Bruce had a good run on him on the inside and this guy almost ran Bruce into the infield. Bruce then tried to go high to get around him which didn’t pan out because as he did that the guy tried to block Bruce and the rest of the pack went by on the inside. It was almost like the guy had a mirror in his car. And we all know that that’s not allowed but its uncanny how this guy was able to block Bruce’s every move. So, before Bruce knew it he was back to about 10th. Then some of the top cars started to come up and use their bumpers to get around cars. This is the first week I’ve noticed that. Usually most drivers at Mohawk have passed using their skills not their bumpers. This race looked really rough out there (and I don’t mean the track conditions), I could see Bruce being pin-balled around. In the end, Bruce was competing for 15th with two other cars. Then the stupidity happened. The flagman was giving Bruce and the two other cars with him the checkered flag and on the radio saying “checkered, checkered” but Bruce was only on lap 24 (of 25). In Bruce’s situation he can only be looking at one thing at a time, so he was watching the flagman so he thought his race was over…so did the other two cars with him. They pulled off the track and into the pits. I told Bruce that they threw the checkered too soon. They should have waited for them to go by then throw it for the leaders that were about a ¼ track behind. Bruce said he thought it wasn’t right but was going by the flagman’s instructions. After all, the tower and flagman are the orchestrators of a race. Well, they screwed up and I’m thinking not just us but several other cars were screwed. We should have finished around 15th but officially got 19th because Bruce didn’t finish the race.
Mohawk doesn’t usually screw up so much. I’m not sure if it was because of the impending storm approaching or the full moon. And it didn’t matter too much to us because 15th or 19th is the same amount in payout…but really!! Stupid mistakes piss me off. So, yes you guessed it, I will be talking to the officials this coming Friday. It had started raining after all the racing was done so no one was around for me to “mention their error”.
Anyways, believe it or not, we are enjoying Mohawk. The officials do listen to us and care, and again, the facilities are amazing! Once we figure out the proper set up for their slick track we will enjoy it even more.
Have a great week and stay safe,
Lynda
July 24, 2015
Hi
Everybody,
Sorry I’m late on my update but I’ve had a summer cold since Friday night, so this one might be short and sweet as I’m still sick.
Friday night we were at Mohawk and so were 31 other Sportsman. But luckily the track is so big that they qualified everybody. Bruce most likely would have qualified anyways but it’s nice to not have that added stress.
Bruce qualified to start in 19th position of the 32 cars. Not a bad place to start, not the greatest but not that bad…if they would have started him there. This is the first time I’ve seen Mohawk speedway not be on the ball and professional. It was a free for all line up. In other words they didn’t line anyone up except maybe the top 5. With all the confusion I think Bruce ended up starting around 27th. (Yes they did hear about it after the race, would you expect any less from me?!?!?). The track is big but there were a lot of cars and again it was slick so passing was difficult, very evident in the Sprint race before Bruce’s race, which was just a parade of cars (ya know…follow the leader). Anyways, in all this confusion it led to Bruce’s frustration and he came off the track and not in too good of a mood. He felt that he was getting nowhere and didn’t want to burn off the tires especially considering this season has cost us more than expected. He’d rather race a good and fair race then use up equipment with no chance of advancement or victory.
It was a frustrating night. I wasn’t too pleased with the officials not lining the cars up at all. I know there were a lot of cars but come on…it’s your job and it does affect the psyche of the drivers when they think they should be at least 6 positions higher and now they’re practically at the back of the pack.
I’m confident this doesn’t happen often at Mohawk…at least I hope not. We really do enjoy going there.
So, this Friday night we plan on being there once again.
Really, if you haven’t been to Mohawk you should come out for the experience. It is usually a very well run track, the people there are nice, the food is great and the facilities in general are great (clean washrooms with warm running water and they don’t smell!!).
Have a good week and hope to see you at the races,
Lynda
Sorry I’m late on my update but I’ve had a summer cold since Friday night, so this one might be short and sweet as I’m still sick.
Friday night we were at Mohawk and so were 31 other Sportsman. But luckily the track is so big that they qualified everybody. Bruce most likely would have qualified anyways but it’s nice to not have that added stress.
Bruce qualified to start in 19th position of the 32 cars. Not a bad place to start, not the greatest but not that bad…if they would have started him there. This is the first time I’ve seen Mohawk speedway not be on the ball and professional. It was a free for all line up. In other words they didn’t line anyone up except maybe the top 5. With all the confusion I think Bruce ended up starting around 27th. (Yes they did hear about it after the race, would you expect any less from me?!?!?). The track is big but there were a lot of cars and again it was slick so passing was difficult, very evident in the Sprint race before Bruce’s race, which was just a parade of cars (ya know…follow the leader). Anyways, in all this confusion it led to Bruce’s frustration and he came off the track and not in too good of a mood. He felt that he was getting nowhere and didn’t want to burn off the tires especially considering this season has cost us more than expected. He’d rather race a good and fair race then use up equipment with no chance of advancement or victory.
It was a frustrating night. I wasn’t too pleased with the officials not lining the cars up at all. I know there were a lot of cars but come on…it’s your job and it does affect the psyche of the drivers when they think they should be at least 6 positions higher and now they’re practically at the back of the pack.
I’m confident this doesn’t happen often at Mohawk…at least I hope not. We really do enjoy going there.
So, this Friday night we plan on being there once again.
Really, if you haven’t been to Mohawk you should come out for the experience. It is usually a very well run track, the people there are nice, the food is great and the facilities in general are great (clean washrooms with warm running water and they don’t smell!!).
Have a good week and hope to see you at the races,
Lynda
July 18, 2015
Hi Everybody,
Mohawk was rained out Friday night so we thought we’d go to BOS Saturday night…this was our boner move of the weekend.
BOS in its usual fashion was a…how can I say it? …a shit show! Caution after caution. Let’s start at the beginning.
The night was hot but manageable because of cloud cover during the heat of it. The Heat race was mostly a parade, Bruce started at the back and finished where he started but his race was filled with top cars and they didn’t go anywhere either so it was expected with the track condition. The track wasn’t in that bad of shape so no blame goes to the condition of the track. It was just how it was.
Now for the Feature. There were 19 cars and Bruce started 18th (because he hasn’t been there much this year he didn’t have a good starting position). Well it started with cautions, then another caution, then another caution…you get the idea. On one caution Bruce came down the back stretch to a blocked turn 3, he swung the car sideways to avoid t-boning the other car that was blocking the track and smacked his right back corner into the car. A way better outcome then what could have happened. No crucial damage. Bruce continued on and during the race Bruce had made his way up to 10th at his highest point…then it happened.
Now, I’m not going to call him one of my full-fledged Maroons but it was a bit of a boner move. Before I explain what happened I want to say that the culprit in this case did come over and apologize. This is a lost practise at the tracks. But he was man enough to know he screwed up and was sorry it put us out.
So, here’s my version of the incident. Bruce was coming into one and the car ahead of him had spun himself out between one and two. Bruce had no place to go and spun sideways to avoid t-boning him and from what I hear hit the tires with his front end. The other car was able to drive away but Bruce was on the hook. The front right tire was pushed back to the side panels.
I’m glad that driver involved didn’t come over right away, he waited a few minutes which was the better choice, it gave Bruce time to cool down. Yes, for those of you who know Bruce personally, he does get angry, but it takes a lot to get him there.
Well, if anyone’s interested we have a special Italian axle for sale; it’s a Bend-a-lini. Very rare but you can occasionally come by them. Asking $500, I think it’s a bargain!! We also have some special aluminum boomerangs as well; we’ll throw them in if you buy the Bend-a-lini axle. Check out the new pictures in the Gallery.
Once we got home and discussed the events of the evening Bruce did make some comments I’d like to share with our favourite Maroon (and remember, this is my wording not his, it may be nicer or not, who’s to tell). He watched you for the last 5 laps before the accident and you were out of control through most of them. You need to learn to keep your car straight, if you can’t due to set up (and we all miss set up sometimes) you need to just suck it up and hang back so you don’t ruin someone else’s night. A few weeks back we were at Mohawk, there was something wrong with our car, Bruce just pulled it in so he wouldn’t ruin someone else’s night. I already see that you can man up sometimes in the pits (by apologizing) but now we have to work on your on track skills (don’t worry; you’re not the only one). If the car isn’t working just stay out of the way or pull off. You may have an unlimited budget but we don’t. If it keeps up this way we may have to shorten our year due to finances. We have some great sponsors but we can’t expect them to give us more than their budgeted amounts.
Well, that’s my rant for the week.
Racing sucked, we drank beer and now we have to fix things.
On the bright side, we did have our fan from last year’s autograph night (the woman that we had climb into the car and laugh the whole way thru it) show up during the autograph portion to say Hi and tell us she follows my articles and Bruce’s racing. Thanks Cindy, it’s nice to know someone’s out there cheering for us and thank you for the kind email of encouragement, hope to see you at Mohawk.
Hope you all have a great week and I’ll keep you posted as to whether or not we’re racing this weekend and where.
Cheers,
Lynda
Mohawk was rained out Friday night so we thought we’d go to BOS Saturday night…this was our boner move of the weekend.
BOS in its usual fashion was a…how can I say it? …a shit show! Caution after caution. Let’s start at the beginning.
The night was hot but manageable because of cloud cover during the heat of it. The Heat race was mostly a parade, Bruce started at the back and finished where he started but his race was filled with top cars and they didn’t go anywhere either so it was expected with the track condition. The track wasn’t in that bad of shape so no blame goes to the condition of the track. It was just how it was.
Now for the Feature. There were 19 cars and Bruce started 18th (because he hasn’t been there much this year he didn’t have a good starting position). Well it started with cautions, then another caution, then another caution…you get the idea. On one caution Bruce came down the back stretch to a blocked turn 3, he swung the car sideways to avoid t-boning the other car that was blocking the track and smacked his right back corner into the car. A way better outcome then what could have happened. No crucial damage. Bruce continued on and during the race Bruce had made his way up to 10th at his highest point…then it happened.
Now, I’m not going to call him one of my full-fledged Maroons but it was a bit of a boner move. Before I explain what happened I want to say that the culprit in this case did come over and apologize. This is a lost practise at the tracks. But he was man enough to know he screwed up and was sorry it put us out.
So, here’s my version of the incident. Bruce was coming into one and the car ahead of him had spun himself out between one and two. Bruce had no place to go and spun sideways to avoid t-boning him and from what I hear hit the tires with his front end. The other car was able to drive away but Bruce was on the hook. The front right tire was pushed back to the side panels.
I’m glad that driver involved didn’t come over right away, he waited a few minutes which was the better choice, it gave Bruce time to cool down. Yes, for those of you who know Bruce personally, he does get angry, but it takes a lot to get him there.
Well, if anyone’s interested we have a special Italian axle for sale; it’s a Bend-a-lini. Very rare but you can occasionally come by them. Asking $500, I think it’s a bargain!! We also have some special aluminum boomerangs as well; we’ll throw them in if you buy the Bend-a-lini axle. Check out the new pictures in the Gallery.
Once we got home and discussed the events of the evening Bruce did make some comments I’d like to share with our favourite Maroon (and remember, this is my wording not his, it may be nicer or not, who’s to tell). He watched you for the last 5 laps before the accident and you were out of control through most of them. You need to learn to keep your car straight, if you can’t due to set up (and we all miss set up sometimes) you need to just suck it up and hang back so you don’t ruin someone else’s night. A few weeks back we were at Mohawk, there was something wrong with our car, Bruce just pulled it in so he wouldn’t ruin someone else’s night. I already see that you can man up sometimes in the pits (by apologizing) but now we have to work on your on track skills (don’t worry; you’re not the only one). If the car isn’t working just stay out of the way or pull off. You may have an unlimited budget but we don’t. If it keeps up this way we may have to shorten our year due to finances. We have some great sponsors but we can’t expect them to give us more than their budgeted amounts.
Well, that’s my rant for the week.
Racing sucked, we drank beer and now we have to fix things.
On the bright side, we did have our fan from last year’s autograph night (the woman that we had climb into the car and laugh the whole way thru it) show up during the autograph portion to say Hi and tell us she follows my articles and Bruce’s racing. Thanks Cindy, it’s nice to know someone’s out there cheering for us and thank you for the kind email of encouragement, hope to see you at Mohawk.
Hope you all have a great week and I’ll keep you posted as to whether or not we’re racing this weekend and where.
Cheers,
Lynda
July 10, 2015
Hi Everybody,
This weekend we have not decided where we are going to be racing. It's either Brockville on Saturday night or Cornwall on Sunday night. If you plan on coming out please call one of us or send us an email to see where we will be.
And check out the article about Bruce Makinson Racing in the Stittsville News, pages 25-26
http://issuu.com/stittsvillenews/docs/stittsville070915
Happy Friday!
Lynda
This weekend we have not decided where we are going to be racing. It's either Brockville on Saturday night or Cornwall on Sunday night. If you plan on coming out please call one of us or send us an email to see where we will be.
And check out the article about Bruce Makinson Racing in the Stittsville News, pages 25-26
http://issuu.com/stittsvillenews/docs/stittsville070915
Happy Friday!
Lynda
July 3, 2015
Hi
Everybody,
As most of you know we went to Mohawk Speedway this past Friday night.
Well, the best part of the night was the pizza logs and the $1 hotdogs before 6:00pm.
Yeah, that’s how the night went. The facility was its usual great, the track was slick not tacky (not the greatest but no potholes) and the racing was clean. But the car isn’t cooperating. It seems there are more issues happening then just the set up. The car isn’t reacting to any of the set ups at all. Bruce has raced slick tracks before and has had better results.
Long and the short of it was the night was a bust. Bruce pulled off just over half way thru the race because he couldn’t do anything with it. You could almost see it spinning on takeoff from corners and it just seemed to get worse. He wasn’t a happy camper when he got back to our pit area, to say the least.
It sounds like the guys are going to be going over the car with a fine tooth comb to see what’s going on.
We aren’t sure when or where we will be racing this coming weekend. We have a family obligation on Saturday that if we don’t attend (and go to Brockville) we will be without a crew chief but then Mohawk is racing Thursday night instead of Friday night and the only other option is Cornwall on Sunday night. Also it depends on the car; will they find the problem this week? See our dilemma??
Stay tuned to the website to see when, where or if we will be racing this coming weekend.
Have a good week.
Cheers,
Lynda
As most of you know we went to Mohawk Speedway this past Friday night.
Well, the best part of the night was the pizza logs and the $1 hotdogs before 6:00pm.
Yeah, that’s how the night went. The facility was its usual great, the track was slick not tacky (not the greatest but no potholes) and the racing was clean. But the car isn’t cooperating. It seems there are more issues happening then just the set up. The car isn’t reacting to any of the set ups at all. Bruce has raced slick tracks before and has had better results.
Long and the short of it was the night was a bust. Bruce pulled off just over half way thru the race because he couldn’t do anything with it. You could almost see it spinning on takeoff from corners and it just seemed to get worse. He wasn’t a happy camper when he got back to our pit area, to say the least.
It sounds like the guys are going to be going over the car with a fine tooth comb to see what’s going on.
We aren’t sure when or where we will be racing this coming weekend. We have a family obligation on Saturday that if we don’t attend (and go to Brockville) we will be without a crew chief but then Mohawk is racing Thursday night instead of Friday night and the only other option is Cornwall on Sunday night. Also it depends on the car; will they find the problem this week? See our dilemma??
Stay tuned to the website to see when, where or if we will be racing this coming weekend.
Have a good week.
Cheers,
Lynda