Three cars and four drivers from our team participated in the multi-day event. On Friday, we targeted fun as the main objective and switched the ROC Modified car and driver combinations around putting Terry Cheetham back in his own #11 and Kris Hillegeer ran his first competitive race in the #50 Modified. Terry and Kris competed in the 50 lap Ron Lux Memorial finishing 11th and 17th respectively.

Jody London was also in attendance trying for the 3rd time to complete the SST 50 lap feature that Mother Nature had stalled at lap 7 several weeks earlier. Jody and his RE Chassis had his most competitive run of the season finishing 10th. With his car up for sale this would conclude his season on a high note.

On Saturday, Terry was back in the #50 and Kris returned to the #11 for practice and qualifying. There was a new twist with team owner Torpedo Tom Fecteau driving Jody’s #89 SST in the SST portion of the show. Terry would finish his Heat in a redraw position and Kris enjoyed some good door to door racing. With the modified portion completed, cars were put away for the main event on Sunday. Now the attention was on Tom (and a very nervous young car owner). Tom’s last trip to Lancaster was in 2000 and the “rust” in his driving showed during practice. Tom completed the Heat and was preparing for the Consi when it was announced that the field would be expanded to include all remaining cars. Starting 29th in a 33 car field, Tom would avoid several accidents and spins while improving his pace. The car had been having clutch problems during the weekend that had become severe by race time. During a pit stop to try and fix a radio problem, the clutch would finally give up. Although the finish doesn’t show it, everyone had a good time which was our priority.

Anxious for Sunday and the running of the 20th US Open, Mother Nature would again be a spoiler and sent us home with plans to return the following Sunday.

Next Sunday arrived with rain in the eastern part of the state but sun and cool temperatures in the western half, allowing us to complete the event. During the redraw, Terry ended up with a 10th place starting position and more good fortune was his when he won the GATER Racing News $500 Bonus drawing. We each hoped the good luck might continue.

The 100 lap event started with a game plan but that plan would change quickly as Kris would fight a bad vibration early on and Terry would be forced to pit earlier than planned for a smoking engine. Kris would forge on and finish 14th while Terry recovered for a 10th place finish. It turns out we did have good fortune; the very tired motor did not expire even though the smoke grew worse throughout the race.

As we loaded up our cars for the final time, we reflected on the season and our many successes. Clearly as a team, we had raised the bar another notch thanks to everyone’s talents and team work.

Next up is some celebration time at the Spencer Speedway awards banquet this Friday and a few of us will be fans at Saturday's Fall Shootout at Wyoming County International Speedway, Perry NY. Tom will be there to cheer on those drivers participating in the Dave London Memorial-SST Super Stock Special. David was father to Jody London and Tom’s good friend. We hope you and your family are well and that we get to see you all soon.