Wife's view from the pits - by Lynda Makinson (July 2016)
Disclaimer: This is my view and opinion, not the view or opinion of Bruce Makinson or anyone else.
July 29, 2016
Hi Everybody,
Well this past Friday night didn’t turn out as good as I’d hoped. I’m confident if we would have had our Feature the previous Friday that the outcome would have been better but Mother Nature had other plans.
This Friday was a beautiful night for racing. For the first Feature from July 22nd , Bruce was starting 2nd but a win was not in the cards tonight. The race ran quickly and in the end he finished 9th. Yes, it’s not a bad finish but the car and the set ups have been looking better every week…I guess it just wasn’t his night.
As for the Heat race for this week he did great. He started second and took over the lead quickly to finish first…looking promising…yes but no.
Now for the Feature, Bruce was starting on pole. It should have been a great night but instead MIR decides to water the track before the Features but not give us hot laps. I guess some teams are better at figuring out what the track is going to be like but we didn’t. Hey MIR, if you’re going to change the track before the main races…can you at least give us a chance to adjust and maybe have hot laps to see what’s going on?!?! Just sayin’…
Well, the race ran straight through to green. Bruce did lead the first 4 laps and he had some competition early with Billy Cook on his heals but unfortunately the fast cars caught up to Billy and he got a cut in his tire possibly from a three wide pass situation. The strong cars eventually caught up to Bruce, in the end he finished 12th. This isn’t terrible considering the way the car was at the beginning of the year, it would have dropped to the back of the pack, at least it was only half way. The only redeeming thing about the race was that young Cook (Thomas Cook, Billy Cook’s grandson) won the race. I’m happy for them and him; he’s a good clean driver and a force to be reckoned with. Congrats Thomas!
I’m sure many of you know my saying “racing is stupid”. I still don’t know why people go at this sport so passionately and have limited success. I know, I hear it often “but when it’s good it’s really good”. And I know we’re not the only ones in this situation but I guess when you get DIRT in your veins it’s hard to get out.
I’m always proud of what the guys accomplish and how Bruce drives. He’s a good, clean driver and does his best to drive the heck out of the car. I guess it goes back to that speech from Teddy Roosevelt about the "Man in the Arena" (http://www.theodore-roosevelt.com/trsorbonnespeech.html). Yes, I’m getting deep again but that speech really speaks to me.
Anyways, this coming Friday is a special race for the Mod Lites and the regular show. It doesn’t seem like the entrance fee will be increased. And next Friday (the 12th) there will be no racing (Fair weekend). The 19th will be Vintage and Sprints visiting so no Bandits or Mod Lites.
Also there’s some really nice photos from Rick at the Races I’ve put in the gallery…it seems Bruce and Billy (M70) did a lot of battling this past Friday :)
We had an in/on car camera this past week, I’m going to try to put some of it on my Facebook page. It’s a cheap version of the Go Pro and the videos are pretty good. I’ve also put a video I took of Bruce’s Heat race on Facebook.
Well, that’s it for this week. Hope everyone has a nice and safe week and hope to see you at the races.
Cheers,
Lynda
Well this past Friday night didn’t turn out as good as I’d hoped. I’m confident if we would have had our Feature the previous Friday that the outcome would have been better but Mother Nature had other plans.
This Friday was a beautiful night for racing. For the first Feature from July 22nd , Bruce was starting 2nd but a win was not in the cards tonight. The race ran quickly and in the end he finished 9th. Yes, it’s not a bad finish but the car and the set ups have been looking better every week…I guess it just wasn’t his night.
As for the Heat race for this week he did great. He started second and took over the lead quickly to finish first…looking promising…yes but no.
Now for the Feature, Bruce was starting on pole. It should have been a great night but instead MIR decides to water the track before the Features but not give us hot laps. I guess some teams are better at figuring out what the track is going to be like but we didn’t. Hey MIR, if you’re going to change the track before the main races…can you at least give us a chance to adjust and maybe have hot laps to see what’s going on?!?! Just sayin’…
Well, the race ran straight through to green. Bruce did lead the first 4 laps and he had some competition early with Billy Cook on his heals but unfortunately the fast cars caught up to Billy and he got a cut in his tire possibly from a three wide pass situation. The strong cars eventually caught up to Bruce, in the end he finished 12th. This isn’t terrible considering the way the car was at the beginning of the year, it would have dropped to the back of the pack, at least it was only half way. The only redeeming thing about the race was that young Cook (Thomas Cook, Billy Cook’s grandson) won the race. I’m happy for them and him; he’s a good clean driver and a force to be reckoned with. Congrats Thomas!
I’m sure many of you know my saying “racing is stupid”. I still don’t know why people go at this sport so passionately and have limited success. I know, I hear it often “but when it’s good it’s really good”. And I know we’re not the only ones in this situation but I guess when you get DIRT in your veins it’s hard to get out.
I’m always proud of what the guys accomplish and how Bruce drives. He’s a good, clean driver and does his best to drive the heck out of the car. I guess it goes back to that speech from Teddy Roosevelt about the "Man in the Arena" (http://www.theodore-roosevelt.com/trsorbonnespeech.html). Yes, I’m getting deep again but that speech really speaks to me.
Anyways, this coming Friday is a special race for the Mod Lites and the regular show. It doesn’t seem like the entrance fee will be increased. And next Friday (the 12th) there will be no racing (Fair weekend). The 19th will be Vintage and Sprints visiting so no Bandits or Mod Lites.
Also there’s some really nice photos from Rick at the Races I’ve put in the gallery…it seems Bruce and Billy (M70) did a lot of battling this past Friday :)
We had an in/on car camera this past week, I’m going to try to put some of it on my Facebook page. It’s a cheap version of the Go Pro and the videos are pretty good. I’ve also put a video I took of Bruce’s Heat race on Facebook.
Well, that’s it for this week. Hope everyone has a nice and safe week and hope to see you at the races.
Cheers,
Lynda
July 22, 2016
Hi Everybody,
Friday night started out good but we didn’t get to finish our night.
The skies were clear when we arrived. Bruce started in the front of his Heat race and didn’t look back as he finished first. It was looking like we might have a good night again.
I kept an eye on the sky as clouds and storms were going around us. Then on my way to the pit tower I felt the wind change directions and head our way. Soon after the skies opened up….you know the type of rain that one drop soaks you…that type of rain. I ran back to the truck and the three of us jumped into it soaking wet. When it “slowed down” we got out to load the car. We knew the races were going to be canceled because of the amount of rain falling and the lightning (see in Gallery for pic of lightning, the flower was because it was ladies night).
So, it seems there will be a double feature this coming Friday night. From the line up on the board, Bruce will be starting on the front row. Hopefully the track will be similar to last Friday so the set up will work as good and maybe Bruce can bring home the win this week.
Sorry, not much to report this week but I hope to have great news next week.
Have a great week and a safe upcoming long weekend.
Cheers,
Lynda
Friday night started out good but we didn’t get to finish our night.
The skies were clear when we arrived. Bruce started in the front of his Heat race and didn’t look back as he finished first. It was looking like we might have a good night again.
I kept an eye on the sky as clouds and storms were going around us. Then on my way to the pit tower I felt the wind change directions and head our way. Soon after the skies opened up….you know the type of rain that one drop soaks you…that type of rain. I ran back to the truck and the three of us jumped into it soaking wet. When it “slowed down” we got out to load the car. We knew the races were going to be canceled because of the amount of rain falling and the lightning (see in Gallery for pic of lightning, the flower was because it was ladies night).
So, it seems there will be a double feature this coming Friday night. From the line up on the board, Bruce will be starting on the front row. Hopefully the track will be similar to last Friday so the set up will work as good and maybe Bruce can bring home the win this week.
Sorry, not much to report this week but I hope to have great news next week.
Have a great week and a safe upcoming long weekend.
Cheers,
Lynda
July 15, 2016
Hi Everybody,
Well, after spending Friday afternoon studying all the online weather radars, we made the decision to go racing….it may or may not rain but we better just go!
We got the Hot Laps in before there was a short rain delay. We could see over towards Canada that the skies were black. I’m sure Cornwall was getting all the rain. So, after a few cars got out on the track to help pack it in the races were on. (Bruce always goes out to help dry/pack the track, I wish more cars would so it would get done sooner but I guess they don’t want to get their cars dirty?!?!?).
Now for Friday nights' racin’. You remember how last race and for many races in the past few weeks Bruce has been starting last or near last…well this week he was starting first in both his Heat race and Feature. So, you know the saying zero to hero…well this was one of those weeks.
Heat race, started on the pole and he ended second…reason…he admitted that he went too low in corner one and there was still muck from the rain that he got caught up in so it slowed the car considerably but he was able to gain momentum again and at least finish second. The car looked good.
The Feature, he started on the pole and just rocketed away from the pack. Before long he was catching up to the pack. He started lapping cars, which I have to admit I hate because a lap car has the opportunity to really ruin your night. Not all drivers show respect and consideration by moving over to let the leader pass, some can’t hold a line or seem to think it’ll make a difference if they race the leader….you’re getting lapped…it’s not going to make a difference at this point, we’ve been there before and Bruce usually gives the leaders a lot of room to pass.
So, saying that, Bruce was battling a lap car around lap 20th…yes he had to battle for position with this guy and it put a stop on Bruce’s forward momentum. Coming to lap 23 down the front stretch Bruce was on the inside about to finally pass the lap car when out of nowhere Thomas Cook appeared and sliced thru the middle of the two of them to take the lead. I have to say everyone was saying “where the heck did he come from”…ok my words were a little more colourful. So it took a few seconds for Bruce to build back his momentum but Thomas was full bore at that point and Bruce ended up with second.
Yes, after this season so far second is great but after leading the whole race to come in second sort of sucks. Especially when it was because of a lap car.
We happen to know the driver of the lap car and his team member had already given him heck before we finally got back to our pit area. He’s new to these cars and can’t quite get a handle on keeping a steady line and he was following the flagman’s directions but I told him they don’t race, just get out of the way and don’t worry about what the flagman is doing.
If Bruce didn’t have to battle this car for so long would he have still won the race?? I’m thinking so because Thomas would have still had to go thru those cars and Bruce would have had a considerable lead by then as he did earlier in the race. Maybe it would have been a close finish but I’m confident Bruce would have won.
But I am glad it was a Cook that won, last year we had the win over Billy Cook so it was a 1, 2. This year in the line up I said to Billy, let’s do another 1, 2 tonight. It wasn’t Billy but Thomas that brought home the win for the Cook family and that's all good. The important thing is that Bruce learned more about lap cars and maybe he won’t be as accommodating next time, he may be a little more aggressive…just sayin’.
I’m still really proud of Bruce and I won’t lie and say it isn’t disappointing but I know it wasn’t because Bruce wasn’t trying. He did a damn good job but stuff happens and sometimes you’re the windshield and sometimes you’re the bug. Bruce is a clean driver but I hope next time he punts the guy out of the way…lol…come on…I have to be honest, don’t I?….a win is a win!?!?
The garage area was full of congrats and good race because they were all pretty clean drivers out front. MIR has a lot of clean drivers so it can be good racing. And as usual Bruce had a few stop bys in our pit area to shake his hand. Even our buddy Rick at the Races dropped by to say he was all ready to go and take a picture in the winner’s circle with Bruce and wondered where the heck the other guy came from. I guess that’s racin’!
So, let’s hope we can keep this momentum going and maybe this week will be another exciting week for us. It’s a regular night of racing this coming Friday so all classes will be there and the main grandstands entrance fee is $6 for Ladies.
I’d also like to welcome King’s Your Independent Grocer to the Bruce Makinson Racing family. Chris King has signed on recently to support Bruce and his quest for the checkered. King’s YIG is located in Richmond, Ontario. Thanks Chris and welcome!
Hope to see you at the races and have a great week,
Lynda
P.S.
And this time I was keeping the video steady, it would have been a nice one to put out there.
Well, after spending Friday afternoon studying all the online weather radars, we made the decision to go racing….it may or may not rain but we better just go!
We got the Hot Laps in before there was a short rain delay. We could see over towards Canada that the skies were black. I’m sure Cornwall was getting all the rain. So, after a few cars got out on the track to help pack it in the races were on. (Bruce always goes out to help dry/pack the track, I wish more cars would so it would get done sooner but I guess they don’t want to get their cars dirty?!?!?).
Now for Friday nights' racin’. You remember how last race and for many races in the past few weeks Bruce has been starting last or near last…well this week he was starting first in both his Heat race and Feature. So, you know the saying zero to hero…well this was one of those weeks.
Heat race, started on the pole and he ended second…reason…he admitted that he went too low in corner one and there was still muck from the rain that he got caught up in so it slowed the car considerably but he was able to gain momentum again and at least finish second. The car looked good.
The Feature, he started on the pole and just rocketed away from the pack. Before long he was catching up to the pack. He started lapping cars, which I have to admit I hate because a lap car has the opportunity to really ruin your night. Not all drivers show respect and consideration by moving over to let the leader pass, some can’t hold a line or seem to think it’ll make a difference if they race the leader….you’re getting lapped…it’s not going to make a difference at this point, we’ve been there before and Bruce usually gives the leaders a lot of room to pass.
So, saying that, Bruce was battling a lap car around lap 20th…yes he had to battle for position with this guy and it put a stop on Bruce’s forward momentum. Coming to lap 23 down the front stretch Bruce was on the inside about to finally pass the lap car when out of nowhere Thomas Cook appeared and sliced thru the middle of the two of them to take the lead. I have to say everyone was saying “where the heck did he come from”…ok my words were a little more colourful. So it took a few seconds for Bruce to build back his momentum but Thomas was full bore at that point and Bruce ended up with second.
Yes, after this season so far second is great but after leading the whole race to come in second sort of sucks. Especially when it was because of a lap car.
We happen to know the driver of the lap car and his team member had already given him heck before we finally got back to our pit area. He’s new to these cars and can’t quite get a handle on keeping a steady line and he was following the flagman’s directions but I told him they don’t race, just get out of the way and don’t worry about what the flagman is doing.
If Bruce didn’t have to battle this car for so long would he have still won the race?? I’m thinking so because Thomas would have still had to go thru those cars and Bruce would have had a considerable lead by then as he did earlier in the race. Maybe it would have been a close finish but I’m confident Bruce would have won.
But I am glad it was a Cook that won, last year we had the win over Billy Cook so it was a 1, 2. This year in the line up I said to Billy, let’s do another 1, 2 tonight. It wasn’t Billy but Thomas that brought home the win for the Cook family and that's all good. The important thing is that Bruce learned more about lap cars and maybe he won’t be as accommodating next time, he may be a little more aggressive…just sayin’.
I’m still really proud of Bruce and I won’t lie and say it isn’t disappointing but I know it wasn’t because Bruce wasn’t trying. He did a damn good job but stuff happens and sometimes you’re the windshield and sometimes you’re the bug. Bruce is a clean driver but I hope next time he punts the guy out of the way…lol…come on…I have to be honest, don’t I?….a win is a win!?!?
The garage area was full of congrats and good race because they were all pretty clean drivers out front. MIR has a lot of clean drivers so it can be good racing. And as usual Bruce had a few stop bys in our pit area to shake his hand. Even our buddy Rick at the Races dropped by to say he was all ready to go and take a picture in the winner’s circle with Bruce and wondered where the heck the other guy came from. I guess that’s racin’!
So, let’s hope we can keep this momentum going and maybe this week will be another exciting week for us. It’s a regular night of racing this coming Friday so all classes will be there and the main grandstands entrance fee is $6 for Ladies.
I’d also like to welcome King’s Your Independent Grocer to the Bruce Makinson Racing family. Chris King has signed on recently to support Bruce and his quest for the checkered. King’s YIG is located in Richmond, Ontario. Thanks Chris and welcome!
Hope to see you at the races and have a great week,
Lynda
P.S.
And this time I was keeping the video steady, it would have been a nice one to put out there.
July 07, 2016
Hi Everybody,
We went to the track last Thursday night as it was the Big Block special event….we should have stayed home.
First, we get to Cornwall and it was raining a bit then crossed the border and it was spitting rain but it stopped shortly after.
We got to the track around our normal time and the pits were packed. We finally found a parking spot and when we got out of the truck they were announcing that it was hot laps for the Sportsman….WTH (what the heck)!! It seems they were starting early and everyone else knew about it except us and a few others that were showing up around the same time. I checked the website before leaving and later checked Facebook and there was no mention of starting early. Well, we had to move our butts; Bruce was jumping into his race suit, and Bobby and I were unloading the car. The guys didn’t have time to make any of the usually preparations before sending Bruce out to test the car.
Once that was taken care of I walked up to the pit tower to see where we would be starting in the Heat race. We weren’t on the board and no one seemed to know how we were to get on the board. I spent 20 minutes running around trying to find out who took registration. It wasn’t until I ran into Hilary that she told me who to see….Hilary isn’t official track staff but she knew?!?!? (Thanks Hilary). Once I found the right person I was told they stopped registration at 6:00pm, I told her we were at the gate before 6:00 and no one was at the gate at that time for registration. She was nice enough to register us but told me to go back to the pit tower and tell them to add Bruce to the line up…they’d know what to do…yeah... Well, that was another event on its own, I finally told them to give me a pen and I would put Bruce on the sheet. Of course the only spot available was last!
So, in Bruce’s Heat (once again) he was starting last. And of course the track was dry and slick so there wasn’t much passing going on. He had to run the Consi and of course start last. They were only taking the top 8 out of 12 in the Consi. Bruce started off great and made it to 7th, he had to battle for the position and hovered around 7th and 8th until a caution for someone spinning out on his own (this guy is soon becoming one of my maroons). On the restart the group around Bruce charged forward only to make it 4 wide and of course Bruce lost out on that one. He dropped back but raced back up to 9th only to finish 9th.
Let’s just say Bruce wasn’t in a good mood when we returned to the pit area. He didn’t get out of the car right away and barked orders about loading the car. They had Consi’s for the big blocks as well so I’m sure we had good company in not making the shows…and heck, we spend a lot less than they do, so if that’s a consolation we should be less pissed off…right?!….just sayin’.
The night was a cluster f@#$% from the beginning. It really sets the tone for the night.
We heard that after the Big Blocks race the track had one lane…the bottom, if you got outside of that lane you were passed until you could get back into it. It would be nice to have more than one lane of racing. We’re there to race, not follow each other around and only have a couple of cars able to pass on restarts or from behind someone that doesn’t have the funds to have a competitive car.
Anyways, this coming Friday looks like a regular night of racing. But really MIR, if you decide to start early can you at least post it on your website early in the day?!?!
Have a good week everybody,
Lynda
P.S.
Some new photos added to the gallery. Thanks to Rick at the Races and Hilary.
We went to the track last Thursday night as it was the Big Block special event….we should have stayed home.
First, we get to Cornwall and it was raining a bit then crossed the border and it was spitting rain but it stopped shortly after.
We got to the track around our normal time and the pits were packed. We finally found a parking spot and when we got out of the truck they were announcing that it was hot laps for the Sportsman….WTH (what the heck)!! It seems they were starting early and everyone else knew about it except us and a few others that were showing up around the same time. I checked the website before leaving and later checked Facebook and there was no mention of starting early. Well, we had to move our butts; Bruce was jumping into his race suit, and Bobby and I were unloading the car. The guys didn’t have time to make any of the usually preparations before sending Bruce out to test the car.
Once that was taken care of I walked up to the pit tower to see where we would be starting in the Heat race. We weren’t on the board and no one seemed to know how we were to get on the board. I spent 20 minutes running around trying to find out who took registration. It wasn’t until I ran into Hilary that she told me who to see….Hilary isn’t official track staff but she knew?!?!? (Thanks Hilary). Once I found the right person I was told they stopped registration at 6:00pm, I told her we were at the gate before 6:00 and no one was at the gate at that time for registration. She was nice enough to register us but told me to go back to the pit tower and tell them to add Bruce to the line up…they’d know what to do…yeah... Well, that was another event on its own, I finally told them to give me a pen and I would put Bruce on the sheet. Of course the only spot available was last!
So, in Bruce’s Heat (once again) he was starting last. And of course the track was dry and slick so there wasn’t much passing going on. He had to run the Consi and of course start last. They were only taking the top 8 out of 12 in the Consi. Bruce started off great and made it to 7th, he had to battle for the position and hovered around 7th and 8th until a caution for someone spinning out on his own (this guy is soon becoming one of my maroons). On the restart the group around Bruce charged forward only to make it 4 wide and of course Bruce lost out on that one. He dropped back but raced back up to 9th only to finish 9th.
Let’s just say Bruce wasn’t in a good mood when we returned to the pit area. He didn’t get out of the car right away and barked orders about loading the car. They had Consi’s for the big blocks as well so I’m sure we had good company in not making the shows…and heck, we spend a lot less than they do, so if that’s a consolation we should be less pissed off…right?!….just sayin’.
The night was a cluster f@#$% from the beginning. It really sets the tone for the night.
We heard that after the Big Blocks race the track had one lane…the bottom, if you got outside of that lane you were passed until you could get back into it. It would be nice to have more than one lane of racing. We’re there to race, not follow each other around and only have a couple of cars able to pass on restarts or from behind someone that doesn’t have the funds to have a competitive car.
Anyways, this coming Friday looks like a regular night of racing. But really MIR, if you decide to start early can you at least post it on your website early in the day?!?!
Have a good week everybody,
Lynda
P.S.
Some new photos added to the gallery. Thanks to Rick at the Races and Hilary.