Wife's view from the pits - by Lynda Makinson (September 2014)
Disclaimer: This is my view and opinion, not the view or opinion of Bruce Makinson or anyone else.
September 2014
Hi Everybody,
Well, September did bring us some racing.
The guys did want to go to Mohawk two weeks ago but with the rain that Saturday and they're attitude of "we're going to race no matter what" the guys didn't end up going. I don't know what time the race started but we heard the checkered dropped around 4:00am. Maybe in our younger years this would be do 'able but not now. I really don't think this is a safe practice as the drivers will be tired and their reaction time would be off. I'm glad Bruce and Bobby made the call to not go. There was a big purse that night but not enough to risk my husband's wellbeing or the cars....thank you very much!
But this past weekend (Sept 19th) we did trek out to Brighton Speedway for the Applefest Shootout. Thirty cars showed up for the show and all were to race. Yup, there was a lot of cars on the track for the Feature....but first the Heat race. In Bruce's heat he started 7th and did a great job of working his way to 5th. You may think this wasn't anything special but I have to say there were a lot of very competitive cars there so I was very happy with how he did it.
Now for the Feature. Well, we didn't get the setup right and there were a lot of cars there. Bruce started in 17th and seemed to be working his way up but finished 24th. Now for my personal opinion...the officiating needs tweaking. There was a caution where Bruce had to slow to avoid hitting a spun car, now he only slowed after the yellow was thrown and yet he was put back in the field. OK my words did become colourful because now there are cars that couldn't pass him in front of him and he had to work with cars that were slower than him holding him up. It didn't help that the setup of the car was off but to have the officials make his job even harder was not appreciated. At most tracks when the yellow comes out it reverts back to the last lap. I guess at Brighton you're supposed to race to the flag stand....I'm not thinking this is a safe practice. All I have to say is if Bruce wants me to return to this track with him he's going to have to work very hard for it, why do we want to drive 3hrs for bad officiating!?!?! But on the positive, it seemed like a pretty clean race. I think most of the cautions were caused by driver error and there were no big mishaps. It was nice to see the drivers driving a good race.
Anyways, now our final race of the season will be at Brockville Speedway this coming October 18th. Again, weather pending, I guess at our age we're becoming fair weather racers but who wants to risk wrecking the car due to bad conditions??
Well, have a good fall and stay tuned for the October 18th report.
Cheers,
Lynda
Hi Everybody,
Well, September did bring us some racing.
The guys did want to go to Mohawk two weeks ago but with the rain that Saturday and they're attitude of "we're going to race no matter what" the guys didn't end up going. I don't know what time the race started but we heard the checkered dropped around 4:00am. Maybe in our younger years this would be do 'able but not now. I really don't think this is a safe practice as the drivers will be tired and their reaction time would be off. I'm glad Bruce and Bobby made the call to not go. There was a big purse that night but not enough to risk my husband's wellbeing or the cars....thank you very much!
But this past weekend (Sept 19th) we did trek out to Brighton Speedway for the Applefest Shootout. Thirty cars showed up for the show and all were to race. Yup, there was a lot of cars on the track for the Feature....but first the Heat race. In Bruce's heat he started 7th and did a great job of working his way to 5th. You may think this wasn't anything special but I have to say there were a lot of very competitive cars there so I was very happy with how he did it.
Now for the Feature. Well, we didn't get the setup right and there were a lot of cars there. Bruce started in 17th and seemed to be working his way up but finished 24th. Now for my personal opinion...the officiating needs tweaking. There was a caution where Bruce had to slow to avoid hitting a spun car, now he only slowed after the yellow was thrown and yet he was put back in the field. OK my words did become colourful because now there are cars that couldn't pass him in front of him and he had to work with cars that were slower than him holding him up. It didn't help that the setup of the car was off but to have the officials make his job even harder was not appreciated. At most tracks when the yellow comes out it reverts back to the last lap. I guess at Brighton you're supposed to race to the flag stand....I'm not thinking this is a safe practice. All I have to say is if Bruce wants me to return to this track with him he's going to have to work very hard for it, why do we want to drive 3hrs for bad officiating!?!?! But on the positive, it seemed like a pretty clean race. I think most of the cautions were caused by driver error and there were no big mishaps. It was nice to see the drivers driving a good race.
Anyways, now our final race of the season will be at Brockville Speedway this coming October 18th. Again, weather pending, I guess at our age we're becoming fair weather racers but who wants to risk wrecking the car due to bad conditions??
Well, have a good fall and stay tuned for the October 18th report.
Cheers,
Lynda