The EpicVentures Motorsports Group and their affiliated teams shared an evening of mutual respect and celebration with their fellow racers and the management and staff of Spencer Speedway. First to be recognized was our chassis advisor and Super Six past champion, Kris Hillegeer, who finished 6th while only racing part time in the Super Six class. What made Kris a part timer? He was busy driving the Terry Cheetham #11 NASCAR Tour Type (ROC) Modified. His efforts in Terry's car netted him a 9th place and Rookie of the year awards, validating our confidence in his driving talents. Kris is looking at options for 2009 where he can continue to race for the fun and challenge while being more available to his wonderful family. I think they call that looking for balance and Kris is a man who deserves many good things. The EVMS team will hopefully be involved in Kris' 2009 efforts, whatever class he decides is appropriate.

Naturally our main driver, Terry Cheetham, received awards for his efforts. First he was recognized in the NASCAR Modified (SST) class with a 9th place finish. That finish represented many accomplishments as it included a return to victory lane and was accomplished running part time as the team had agreed that this year the NASCAR Tour Type Modifieds would be the higher priority. And in the Tour Type Mods class he finished 4th, having enjoyed being in contention for the win a few times. Overall, we had jumped our plans ahead one year and are now poised to accomplish more next year as we look to race in more ROC events in 2009.

Our associate team member (and everyone's favorite mascot) Jody London was in attendance. GaterBoy received everyone's personal congratulations as he accomplished his goal of racing faster and more competitively every week that he could bring the car. Team owner Tom Fecteau's racing accomplishments in 2008… let's just say that it made for far more laughter than congratulations.

EVMS picked up two additional awards in 2008. Doug Cheetham was recognized as the Spencer Speedway NASCAR Mechanic of the Year for the second year in a row. An accomplishment we believe is an understatement to how hard he works for us. We are curious who the contenders will be in 2009 as NASCAR has implemented a rule limiting consecutive-year winners from future awards. Darn, it would have been nice to see how many consecutive years we could have recognized Doug. Lastly, team owner Tom Fecteau was pleasantly surprised at the start of the event when he was recognized with the Sportsmanship Award presented by Kathleen Grodski & John White for his involvement in several teams and his genuine love of the sport. Whether it's financial help, hands on help, lending parts or sharing words of encouragement, Tom wants to see his fellow racers enjoy this challenging and demanding sport.

Next up for the team was some well deserved time off before we get to work on our 2009 plans, except for Jody and Tom, as they headed out the next morning for Wyoming County International Speedway and their Fall Shoot Out featuring the 2nd Annual Dave London Memorial for SST Super Stocks.

We hope our team has contributed to your overall enjoyment of stock car racing in Upstate New York these past two years and look forward to more. In return we would like to ask that if you know of a local area business that is either launching a new product or service or you have noticed a business has been marketing/advertising regularly, that you drop us a note about them. We will take that information and separately determine their viability as a potential marketing partner. We thank you in advance of any help and can't wait to entertain you further in 2009.