Wife's view from the pits - by Lynda Makinson (July 2017)
Disclaimer: This is my view and opinion, not the view or opinion of Bruce Makinson or anyone else.
July 21 and 28th, 2017
Hi Everybody,
Sorry I didn’t have a write up for July 21st but I was on a work-ation last week and just didn’t seem to find the time to write something.
But here are the write ups for the last two races.
July 21 – car looked good, but Bruce didn’t start in a good position. I believe he started 18th and finished 16th. It doesn’t sound like much but he worked hard at getting there. It was an up, then down, then up hill battle. There was a caution because of a barrier tire being knocked into turns 3 and 4, which it took a lap or two before the caution was called. Once the tire was moved back into place the track didn’t have the drivers run low on caution to help pack in/dry out the inside line. Considering it had rained so much lately the tire did have water in it and it made that line very slippery. So, on the restart Bruce had a good start going but went low and lost traction because of the wet spot. In the end we were happy with the car and Bruce, both performed well.
July 28th – The race started one hour late due to a ruling “dilemma”??? It seems a bunch of cars had their transponders in the wrong locations. But I’m pretty sure they’ve probably been there since the beginning. The track was nice enough to give them a chance to fix the problem but at the same time it delayed the race. And last week’s winner didn’t even have a working transponder, technically he shouldn’t have received his first-place win. But everything finally got ironed out and the race begun.
This was a 35-Lap Sportsman race. And once again we didn’t have a good starting spot. It seems either by points or by draw, Bruce starts last in Heat races which doesn’t help him in getting a good starting position for the Feature race. I guess it’s sh.. luck! So, he started last in this Heat and was with a group of strong cars and the group kept pretty much to its starting line up so that means Bruce finished last.
There were 29 cars that showed up for the show. Out of 29 cars 28 started and Bruce started 26th! Yeah! 26th!
But the good part was the car and Bruce were still performing well and Bruce worked his way up to 17th. If you weren’t there you might be thinking, whippie 17th! But try to imagine 28 cars packed tight and everyone is trying to win. You should have seen Bruce, remember he’s a clean driver so he would work on passing people without the bump and pass method, but once he passed them he would lunge forward to the catch up with the next pack of cars…it was beautiful. None of us had unrealistic expectations that he was going to win, starting back in the second last row, but it was nice to see him moving forward with such command.
When the race was finished Bruce’s comment was “it was fun but hard work to get 17th”. At one point, he wanted to remove a tear off from his visor but he thought to himself, there’s no way in hell I can take my hands off the wheel right now.
I believe it, it was pretty much an action-packed race. We all left feeling good.
I do have a side comment for MIR, what’s with the Driver only registering at the office?!?!? Bruce has been racing for many years and I’ve always registered him and I believe many other teams are the same (wife, girlfriend, crew person does registrations) and it being outside the pit area?? I found this all odd and so did others. I haven’t been to every track but the ones I’ve been too have had registration close to the pit gate entrance. I just found this odd. There was an odd vibe to MIR this past week. I hope it’s not a reflection of what’s to come. MIR has always had good people working and racing there, I hope it stays that way (or should I say almost all good people working there, so far 99%).
Well, that’s it for this week. This coming Friday August 4th is the TUSA Mod Lite Series race plus the regular show for everyone else.
The following week we will be racing on Thursday night (August 10th) instead of Friday night. I believe it’s a make up race and the 11th wasn’t scheduled anyways due to the Fair weekend.
We do plan on attending both races.
Have a good week and hope to see you at the races,
Lynda
Sorry I didn’t have a write up for July 21st but I was on a work-ation last week and just didn’t seem to find the time to write something.
But here are the write ups for the last two races.
July 21 – car looked good, but Bruce didn’t start in a good position. I believe he started 18th and finished 16th. It doesn’t sound like much but he worked hard at getting there. It was an up, then down, then up hill battle. There was a caution because of a barrier tire being knocked into turns 3 and 4, which it took a lap or two before the caution was called. Once the tire was moved back into place the track didn’t have the drivers run low on caution to help pack in/dry out the inside line. Considering it had rained so much lately the tire did have water in it and it made that line very slippery. So, on the restart Bruce had a good start going but went low and lost traction because of the wet spot. In the end we were happy with the car and Bruce, both performed well.
July 28th – The race started one hour late due to a ruling “dilemma”??? It seems a bunch of cars had their transponders in the wrong locations. But I’m pretty sure they’ve probably been there since the beginning. The track was nice enough to give them a chance to fix the problem but at the same time it delayed the race. And last week’s winner didn’t even have a working transponder, technically he shouldn’t have received his first-place win. But everything finally got ironed out and the race begun.
This was a 35-Lap Sportsman race. And once again we didn’t have a good starting spot. It seems either by points or by draw, Bruce starts last in Heat races which doesn’t help him in getting a good starting position for the Feature race. I guess it’s sh.. luck! So, he started last in this Heat and was with a group of strong cars and the group kept pretty much to its starting line up so that means Bruce finished last.
There were 29 cars that showed up for the show. Out of 29 cars 28 started and Bruce started 26th! Yeah! 26th!
But the good part was the car and Bruce were still performing well and Bruce worked his way up to 17th. If you weren’t there you might be thinking, whippie 17th! But try to imagine 28 cars packed tight and everyone is trying to win. You should have seen Bruce, remember he’s a clean driver so he would work on passing people without the bump and pass method, but once he passed them he would lunge forward to the catch up with the next pack of cars…it was beautiful. None of us had unrealistic expectations that he was going to win, starting back in the second last row, but it was nice to see him moving forward with such command.
When the race was finished Bruce’s comment was “it was fun but hard work to get 17th”. At one point, he wanted to remove a tear off from his visor but he thought to himself, there’s no way in hell I can take my hands off the wheel right now.
I believe it, it was pretty much an action-packed race. We all left feeling good.
I do have a side comment for MIR, what’s with the Driver only registering at the office?!?!? Bruce has been racing for many years and I’ve always registered him and I believe many other teams are the same (wife, girlfriend, crew person does registrations) and it being outside the pit area?? I found this all odd and so did others. I haven’t been to every track but the ones I’ve been too have had registration close to the pit gate entrance. I just found this odd. There was an odd vibe to MIR this past week. I hope it’s not a reflection of what’s to come. MIR has always had good people working and racing there, I hope it stays that way (or should I say almost all good people working there, so far 99%).
Well, that’s it for this week. This coming Friday August 4th is the TUSA Mod Lite Series race plus the regular show for everyone else.
The following week we will be racing on Thursday night (August 10th) instead of Friday night. I believe it’s a make up race and the 11th wasn’t scheduled anyways due to the Fair weekend.
We do plan on attending both races.
Have a good week and hope to see you at the races,
Lynda
July 21, 2017
Hi Everybody,
Looks like a beautiful night for racin'!! A wee bit on the hot side but no real rain in the forecast so here's hoping.
MIR has a regular show on tonight and general admission is at Par.
Hope to see you there.
Happy Friday,
Lynda
Looks like a beautiful night for racin'!! A wee bit on the hot side but no real rain in the forecast so here's hoping.
MIR has a regular show on tonight and general admission is at Par.
Hope to see you there.
Happy Friday,
Lynda
July 17, 2017
Hi Everybody,
Guess what?!?! It rained Friday…yeah…I know, sounds silly, doesn’t it??
At least it was nice racing last Wednesday night. Not the easiest to arrange but at least he got some of his itch scratched.
Well, here’s hoping for this Friday, of course the forecast is iffy but you gotta have hope. If not, we’re hoping to go somewhere on Saturday night. Sunday is definitely not in the cards this coming weekend as it’s our Anniversary and I have to put my foot down sometimes. :)
Check out the gallery, I added a nice pic of Dale Earnhardt.
Have a great week Everybody and stay dry,
Lynda
Guess what?!?! It rained Friday…yeah…I know, sounds silly, doesn’t it??
At least it was nice racing last Wednesday night. Not the easiest to arrange but at least he got some of his itch scratched.
Well, here’s hoping for this Friday, of course the forecast is iffy but you gotta have hope. If not, we’re hoping to go somewhere on Saturday night. Sunday is definitely not in the cards this coming weekend as it’s our Anniversary and I have to put my foot down sometimes. :)
Check out the gallery, I added a nice pic of Dale Earnhardt.
Have a great week Everybody and stay dry,
Lynda
July 13, 2017
Hi Everybody
Now for your rain update, yes there was rain but not until we were almost home.
Bruce got to race last night!!
Now for your update:
It was a nice night, not too hot, cloudy but no rain. The track was very dry, considering all the rain we’ve had over the past weeks, the track was dusting up during the Hot laps. I heard that the owner that waters the track had an on-track accident and was in hospital. I hope John is doing well.
That’s ok, we adjusted.
Bruce started in the last row in the Heat race (7th) but he quickly moved forward (as much as you can move quickly forward on a dry track) and finished in 4th. The car and driver were looking good. Bruce said the car felt good.
Last night there was a 50-lap Modified race which actually went quite quickly but we were the last race of the night. The track conditions had become very slick by the time the Sportsman got out there. Bruce started 13th of 26 cars. I’m not fond of Bruce starting centre pack on a slick track. This is usually a recipe for disaster.
Well, the first lap was not going to disappoint. Young Thomas Cook and another driver…. let’s call him my maroon for tonight, led the pack but the maroon drove down into Thomas sending Thomas’ nose in the air and the rest of the pack spinning and crashing. His antics almost took out the whole Sportsman race on the first lap. Bruce was involved but luckily with only minor body damage and was able to continue on. Thank goodness because I was the only pit crew for the night and I wouldn’t have been able to change a tire in a timely manner unless Bruce wanted to wait an hour for me to do it. But that didn’t happen so all was good.
They restarted the race and lined everyone back up. This time the race started without incident. Bruce moved up a bit but couldn’t find a good line until a couple of cars passed him so he was back in 13th where he had started. But with a track like this the race soon becomes a parade, cars spread out and it’s hard to move forward or pass. But luckily a late race caution came out around lap 20 which tightened the field. On the restart, Bruce was able to take advantage of two cars and pass them in a very stylish manner. It looked great, I loved it. In the end, he (unofficially) finished 11th. Bruce said it was a lot of work but we were both satisfied with the results.
For non-race fans, you think 11th isn’t great, but when you have a track that’s slick like a skating rink and you start in the middle of the pack, we feel lucky to have survived it. He held his own and was able to do some passing. Like I said before, he looked good out there. If Bruce would have had a better starting position the story might have been different.
In the end, Thomas Cook took the checkered. But like I’ve said before, if Bruce can’t win, I’m glad when it’s a Cook that won.
A couple of notes (good and bad), first good…Bob Herne the track official that guides the drivers out onto the track did something that I thought was nice and it seemed all the drivers liked it too. As they were lined up partially on the track waiting for the signal to go out, he walked down the row of cars and fist pumped every driver. I thought it was a really nice gesture and I believe many drivers did too, many had their hand out the window before he got there. Thanks Bobby, that was nice, it really gives MIR a family atmosphere.
Now on the bad side, I heard that, once again, there was a commotion after the Mod-Lites race. There’s only a hand full of cars that show up and they don’t take much room on the track yet they can’t run a race without incident on and off the track. Maybe MIR should penalize them by having them the last race of the night for the season. That way they don’t hold up the rest of the races with all their cautions and they can mess around in the pits afterwards. Just sayin’.
Well, that’s all for now. Friday is another race night, maybe.
I don’t want to sound negative, I believe I’m more a realist, but this Friday isn’t looking all that good. But you can never tell from day to day so here’s hoping.
Have a good end of week and weekend.
Cheers,
Lynda
Now for your rain update, yes there was rain but not until we were almost home.
Bruce got to race last night!!
Now for your update:
It was a nice night, not too hot, cloudy but no rain. The track was very dry, considering all the rain we’ve had over the past weeks, the track was dusting up during the Hot laps. I heard that the owner that waters the track had an on-track accident and was in hospital. I hope John is doing well.
That’s ok, we adjusted.
Bruce started in the last row in the Heat race (7th) but he quickly moved forward (as much as you can move quickly forward on a dry track) and finished in 4th. The car and driver were looking good. Bruce said the car felt good.
Last night there was a 50-lap Modified race which actually went quite quickly but we were the last race of the night. The track conditions had become very slick by the time the Sportsman got out there. Bruce started 13th of 26 cars. I’m not fond of Bruce starting centre pack on a slick track. This is usually a recipe for disaster.
Well, the first lap was not going to disappoint. Young Thomas Cook and another driver…. let’s call him my maroon for tonight, led the pack but the maroon drove down into Thomas sending Thomas’ nose in the air and the rest of the pack spinning and crashing. His antics almost took out the whole Sportsman race on the first lap. Bruce was involved but luckily with only minor body damage and was able to continue on. Thank goodness because I was the only pit crew for the night and I wouldn’t have been able to change a tire in a timely manner unless Bruce wanted to wait an hour for me to do it. But that didn’t happen so all was good.
They restarted the race and lined everyone back up. This time the race started without incident. Bruce moved up a bit but couldn’t find a good line until a couple of cars passed him so he was back in 13th where he had started. But with a track like this the race soon becomes a parade, cars spread out and it’s hard to move forward or pass. But luckily a late race caution came out around lap 20 which tightened the field. On the restart, Bruce was able to take advantage of two cars and pass them in a very stylish manner. It looked great, I loved it. In the end, he (unofficially) finished 11th. Bruce said it was a lot of work but we were both satisfied with the results.
For non-race fans, you think 11th isn’t great, but when you have a track that’s slick like a skating rink and you start in the middle of the pack, we feel lucky to have survived it. He held his own and was able to do some passing. Like I said before, he looked good out there. If Bruce would have had a better starting position the story might have been different.
In the end, Thomas Cook took the checkered. But like I’ve said before, if Bruce can’t win, I’m glad when it’s a Cook that won.
A couple of notes (good and bad), first good…Bob Herne the track official that guides the drivers out onto the track did something that I thought was nice and it seemed all the drivers liked it too. As they were lined up partially on the track waiting for the signal to go out, he walked down the row of cars and fist pumped every driver. I thought it was a really nice gesture and I believe many drivers did too, many had their hand out the window before he got there. Thanks Bobby, that was nice, it really gives MIR a family atmosphere.
Now on the bad side, I heard that, once again, there was a commotion after the Mod-Lites race. There’s only a hand full of cars that show up and they don’t take much room on the track yet they can’t run a race without incident on and off the track. Maybe MIR should penalize them by having them the last race of the night for the season. That way they don’t hold up the rest of the races with all their cautions and they can mess around in the pits afterwards. Just sayin’.
Well, that’s all for now. Friday is another race night, maybe.
I don’t want to sound negative, I believe I’m more a realist, but this Friday isn’t looking all that good. But you can never tell from day to day so here’s hoping.
Have a good end of week and weekend.
Cheers,
Lynda
July 10, 2017
Hi Everybody,
And now for your RAIN update.
Yes, it rained. But at least this time we were at the track and Bruce did get to sit in the race car and drive it around the pits. Because before he could even make it onto the track for Hot Laps it poured.
It wasn’t a constant rain, it would slowdown a bit then pour again. So, it took us several tries to get the car loaded up before finally we said screw it and the guys got soaked loading it. I was wise enough to have a jacket on so I wasn’t as wet but the guys really got a soaking.
Check out the gallery for photos of our exciting night at the track.
Due to all the rain-outs, MIR has decided to try to get this race in this coming Wednesday night. And yes, we are planning on being there.
Mother Nature sure hasn’t been kind to many of the tracks this year. But I’m happy and thankful that MIR usually cancels races early so we don’t have to drive there for nothing. This past Friday was wishful thinking on everyone’s part, we knew darn well that there was no way we were going to race but Bruce just wanted to go there and try, he’s getting pretty desperate. He really wants to race and it just hasn’t been in the cards. Sunday night Cornwall got rained out.
So, stay tuned later this week for an update on Wednesday’s race and we hope to be racing this coming Friday as well.
Have a good week,
Lynda
And now for your RAIN update.
Yes, it rained. But at least this time we were at the track and Bruce did get to sit in the race car and drive it around the pits. Because before he could even make it onto the track for Hot Laps it poured.
It wasn’t a constant rain, it would slowdown a bit then pour again. So, it took us several tries to get the car loaded up before finally we said screw it and the guys got soaked loading it. I was wise enough to have a jacket on so I wasn’t as wet but the guys really got a soaking.
Check out the gallery for photos of our exciting night at the track.
Due to all the rain-outs, MIR has decided to try to get this race in this coming Wednesday night. And yes, we are planning on being there.
Mother Nature sure hasn’t been kind to many of the tracks this year. But I’m happy and thankful that MIR usually cancels races early so we don’t have to drive there for nothing. This past Friday was wishful thinking on everyone’s part, we knew darn well that there was no way we were going to race but Bruce just wanted to go there and try, he’s getting pretty desperate. He really wants to race and it just hasn’t been in the cards. Sunday night Cornwall got rained out.
So, stay tuned later this week for an update on Wednesday’s race and we hope to be racing this coming Friday as well.
Have a good week,
Lynda
July 7, 2017
Hi Everybody,
Well, another Friday but this one looks like it may be ok.
The weather is more unpredictable then the last few but let's keep our fingers crossed anyways.
So, the news is....so far we are racing!
The Modifieds will be having a 50-lap race and everyone else has a regular show. (here's hoping we aren't the last on the schedule for the night).
That's the news for now.
Cheers,
Lynda
Well, another Friday but this one looks like it may be ok.
The weather is more unpredictable then the last few but let's keep our fingers crossed anyways.
So, the news is....so far we are racing!
The Modifieds will be having a 50-lap race and everyone else has a regular show. (here's hoping we aren't the last on the schedule for the night).
That's the news for now.
Cheers,
Lynda