Mother Nature granted us one more weekend of unseasonably fine weather to go and enjoy our favorite hobby. This week we traveled to Wyoming County International Speedway in Perry, NY for their season ending "Fall Shootout" special. With a huge thank you to Johny Giglio, Kris Hillegeer and his Dad Dale, we commandeered Johny's #18 Super Stock so I could participate in the 50 Lap Super Stock "Dave London Memorial". David was a past champion at WCIS and a very dear friend for over 30 years and our racing interest was merely where our friendship began. David's son Jody "Gater Boy" was on hand as well to run in the 75 Lap SST Modified "Butch Drenan Memorial" and to represent his family during the Super Stock presentations.

Tom focused on the Super Stock events with an eye towards fun for himself and his family as his wife Donna and son John were his crew for the long day. Asking only for minor adjustments and declining to tackle any major chassis changes, Tom made sure that Donna and John could say the day allowed time for the fun side of racing. Tom started the day a bit anxious as his past appearances at WCIS had always (yes 100% of the time) ended with hard crashes in his Grand American Modified. With our borrowed car, we hoped that streak would end. Tom would be involved in a couple spins and scraps over the course of the day. Running near the back for most of the main event (we did not upgrade the tires or gears for this one time vent), Tom managed to gain positions while watching the laps click away as other competitors crashed or had mechanical woes. During a restart with 7 laps to go, Tom asked his old friend to look over him and help him see his first checkered flag at the speedway. With a rainbow visible off of turn 3, Tom finished the race in 13th position and thankful for a chance to honor his friend with his first WCIS finish. Once in his pit stall, and the motor shut down, Tom got to reflect on his many years shared with a good friend and how they would have agreed that this day had been a lot of fun as well as exciting.

Jody's SST Modified struggled with its lack of RPMs (we were unable to change gears in time) and he worried about qualifying for the 30 car main event. However, attrition in the qualifier events assured Jody a starting spot. He started scratch and stayed out of the many wrecks and spins. Several times he would be lapped by the leader only to immediately see a caution fly, allowing him to get his lap back. As the race consumed so many caution paced laps, overheating became Jody's next worry. "Gater Boy" forged on, eventually seeing the checkered flag for a 16th place finish. His attempt at a post race celebratory "burn out" was interesting but the stalled vehicle would not re-fire. A simple push and he was returned to his pits and his waiting friends.

Dave would have been very proud of his son for hanging in there and finishing [although it would have been quickly followed by a lesson on fixing the alternator-LOL]. We were all glad to finish the season feeling like we had each accomplished something important and had put some fun back in to racing.

We thank all those supporters who contributed lap money and additional prize money to the Dave London Memorial race.

David, we hope you enjoyed the show to.

Be well friend…

 # 89 
London Engineering