Ice Cream for everyone

[Lynn Hoosigian]

Originally Posted by GRIGGS

Such a shame we won't be there. Ice cream and drag racing go hand and hand. To all my D-1 friends good luck and save some for the boys down south!!!!

Hey my friend!! Don't know about saving you some, but we will eat some for you!
Miss racing with you!! Have been trying to figure out how to get back down there!!
How is your Dad & Mom??
Tell everyone I said "Hi y'all"

[Joe Pinkston]

Originally Posted by Lynn Hoosigian

"Hi y'all"

Ok. Now we know Lynn has come down here and drank the water a few too many times.

One burning question I have had for a few months now is this. After Gary's win at Commerce, someone mentioned something about a great meal he had one night during the event. What I want to know is if the meal was at a resturant in the area? If it was, I know Gary had to take along one of the locals to act as the translator between himself and the resturant staff. From the story Gary told us in Bradenton, his speaking abilities and the processing abilities of some people in Georgia just aren't on the same level. LOL.

[Eddie Arnold Jr.]

Is the Ice Cream open for Div. 3 racers ??

Derek/Tom
Is the track really that bad ? ,,, I haven't told the wife yet but I was thinking of coming East and playing with you guys this weekend ,,, I don't have to take Vacation and it is about a 7.5 hour tow for me coming out of Ohio ,,,,, I used to always go to Numidia and I really liked that track when I had my small block,,,Is Leb Valley compatible with Numidia or ,, Reading etc,,,,, I might have to bring the wife and teenage grandaughters so is there any shopping or something for wife and grandaughters to do ???

Where should I stay ,, hoetl/Motel wise that is not to far from the track ,,,,,
The schedule says that everyone runs 1st round but S/G ,,,, and we don't run untill Sunday morning
What gives ,,,, it seems like S/G is the step child of the family in Div. 1 ,,,,,

Any info woul be appreciated ,,,,

Hope to see you guys Friday morning ,,,,,,,"My wife will just have to understand that ,, we interupt this marriage to bring you the racing season " ( I hope she doesn't read this post


Colorful Racer

[Eric Merryfield]

Originally Posted by Eddie Arnold Jr.

Is the Ice Cream open for Div. 3 racers ??

Derek/Tom
Is the track really that bad ? ,,, I haven't told the wife yet but I was thinking of coming East and playing with you guys this weekend ,,, I don't have to take Vacation and it is about a 7.5 hour tow for me coming out of Ohio ,,,,, I used to always go to Numidia and I really liked that track when I had my small block,,,Is Leb Valley compatible with Numidia or ,, Reading etc,,,,, I might have to bring the wife and teenage grandaughters so is there any shopping or something for wife and grandaughters to do ???

Where should I stay ,, hoetl/Motel wise that is not to far from the track ,,,,,
The schedule says that everyone runs 1st round but S/G ,,,, and we don't run untill Sunday morning
What gives ,,,, it seems like S/G is the step child of the family in Div. 1 ,,,,,

Any info woul be appreciated ,,,,

Hope to see you guys Friday morning ,,,,,,,"My wife will just have to understand that ,, we interupt this marriage to bring you the racing season " ( I hope she doesn't read this post


Colorful Racer

I made the mistake or maybe I did myself a huge favor of doing a drive-by with my wife on my way back from playing baseball at Cooperstown last month.....the area looks a little bleak.......wife certainly wasn't too impressed(she knows Epping).....I wanted to play with my stocker, had thought it might be a fun fourth for the family, but had my doubts once I saw the area.....So I am staying home, and going to have the wife compete in street class up at Epping on Saturday instead....it will be her first trip down the track, and hopefully she gets the bug.......will be good for me!

From what I can tell, your best bet for a happy family is go towards albany or down into MA on route 20. If you go down towards Mass, you might look like super-granddad, if you pony up the $ for six flags....If they like watching racing, it will not matter, as it will be a great show. Good luck.

[Lynn Hoosigian]

Hey Eddie,
I wouldn't compare it to E-town OR Numidia!! Hopefully the dirt track won't run Saturday until we are done as they put dirt on the top end. We know how well dirt on the track works with slicks and mph!! If NHRA preps the track prior to race, we might be OK. Does have a great launch but you might not get that number on your time slip! Timing system left alot to be desired the last few Opens & Divisionals held there. Are they fixed? Don't know! Haven't been there since last years Divisional!!
Yes, S/G is the stepchild of D1. They are always last in rotation and get sc**wed when time constraints arise. Most everyone is used to it - tried rotation once - got lots of people po'd!!.

On the bright side:
1) we do have a good time in the pits
2) the creek is close and VERY refreshing after a hot day
3) circle track bar is open Sat. night
4) fireworks are pretty good
5) Jeg's points & Divisional points
6) GREAT RACERS!!!!!

After this, if you do decide to make the trek, DeWitt Motel is only about 15 miles west of track. Albany about 1/2 hr - 45 min. with numerous hotels. Some quaint little towns along the way also.
See you there??

Forgot - they usually have a Racer BBQ on Sat. night! Not sure if they are this year - haven't heard anything about it.

[MikeSawyer]

Hey Eddie,

Let's put it this way... Lebanon Valley is our closest NHRA track (2.5 hours). They used to have an Open and a Divisional. We stopped going there for the Open a few years back and only went there for the Divisional because of Allstar points and it's closer than Georgia.

By the time you get there you'll get parked in a dusty (and sometimes muddy) field. Of course, you'll be able to take your time unloading and teching because they don't start until 10 or so on Friday. By then the water should be seeping up through the track causing a bigger delay. But they won't realize it until they almost wreck a few Super Streeters. Then once they do get started, the timing system will start having problems, causing another hour or so of downtime.

Eventually you'll get your first time run. If you're lucky it'll be when the sun is setting directly behind the tree so if you're in the right lane you can't see the tree, or anything for that matter until you're about halfway through the shutdown area. The shutdown area is quite short, mind you, and down the end there's a gravel pile before a concrete barrier with a road on the other side of it. Then you can make the turn onto the return road. If your car turns better than mine, you may be able to make the turn without having to make a three-point turn to avoid the curb.

Because they're running late, Super Gas will get their time run bumped Friday night to make room for their 4th of July spectacular. If we're lucky the fireworks guys will light the scoreboards on fire again. That makes for an excellent show.

Saturday morning is a suggested 8:00AM start time and usually by then things are rolling pretty good. Well, until the timing system acts up again. By the way, I hope you really didn't want ALL of your incrementals, especially the 60'. We'll get our time run and be done for the day by noon time. Then they hurry everyone else through to try and beat the start time for the dirt track that is literally adjacent to the return road right at the finishline of the dragstrip. This would be a good time to lock up everything you own and put everything in the trailer for the night. As the former track manager announced one night.. "This would be a good time to put away your belongings because our neighbors seem to like our stuff more than we like our stuff." I can vouch for that, too. My brother had his street car there a few years back because he had driven out from school and had it broken into and his book of about 500 CD's stolen out of it. I think that was the year before one of the racers saw someone driving away with his generator in the back of a truck, got in his truck and trailed him to a campground down the road, called the cops and they busted them with a whole pile of generators, coolers, chairs, grilles, etc.

Sunday morning has a nice gentle 10AM start. Which is good because it normally takes a few hours to get all the dirt off the track. But don't think about sitting in the stands on Sunday, unless that is you bring something to wipe the dirt off first with. Usually SG isn't first as scheduled because they had to at least bump SST and sometimes SS off of Saturday's schedule because they're running behind and need to get the alcohol final in before there's too much dirt on the track. Then it takes forever to run the race there, despite the alcohol cars being done on Saturday, and we wrap things up around 6-7PM on Sunday night.

And in terms of shopping, restaurants, etc, there isn't too much around there, save for a grocery store about 5 miles down the road and a little pizza joint. There is one permanent bathroom on the facility, which will be pretty much as far away as you can get from where you're parked. And it's not the nicest set of bathrooms, that's for sure. They usually look like someone at least cleaned them at the beginning of the season.

But besides that, the place is great! ;-) At least Federico will have ice cream... And after that much typing, I think I was channeling Oldfield...

Later!
.............. Mike

[Lynn Hoosigian]

HEHEHE!!
Forgot about the year the scoreboards caught fire!!!

[Eddie Arnold Jr.]

Mike , Lynn , Eric

Thanks much for the info , straight scoop , hotel , and entertainment for the grandkids ( If they decide to come )----- Right now I'm not sure if I'm coming or not ,,,,, I'll know more tonight after I brake the news to the family that I'm thinking of going racing this weekend vs cooking ribs and celebrating the 4th at home


Colorful Racer

[Tom DePascale]

Originally Posted by MikeSawyer

Hey Eddie,

Let's put it this way... Lebanon Valley is our closest NHRA track (2.5 hours). They used to have an Open and a Divisional. We stopped going there for the Open a few years back and only went there for the Divisional because of Allstar points and it's closer than Georgia.

By the time you get there you'll get parked in a dusty (and sometimes muddy) field. Of course, you'll be able to take your time unloading and teching because they don't start until 10 or so on Friday. By then the water should be seeping up through the track causing a bigger delay. But they won't realize it until they almost wreck a few Super Streeters. Then once they do get started, the timing system will start having problems, causing another hour or so of downtime.

Eventually you'll get your first time run. If you're lucky it'll be when the sun is setting directly behind the tree so if you're in the right lane you can't see the tree, or anything for that matter until you're about halfway through the shutdown area. The shutdown area is quite short, mind you, and down the end there's a gravel pile before a concrete barrier with a road on the other side of it. Then you can make the turn onto the return road. If your car turns better than mine, you may be able to make the turn without having to make a three-point turn to avoid the curb.

Because they're running late, Super Gas will get their time run bumped Friday night to make room for their 4th of July spectacular. If we're lucky the fireworks guys will light the scoreboards on fire again. That makes for an excellent show.

Saturday morning is a suggested 8:00AM start time and usually by then things are rolling pretty good. Well, until the timing system acts up again. By the way, I hope you really didn't want ALL of your incrementals, especially the 60'. We'll get our time run and be done for the day by noon time. Then they hurry everyone else through to try and beat the start time for the dirt track that is literally adjacent to the return road right at the finishline of the dragstrip. This would be a good time to lock up everything you own and put everything in the trailer for the night. As the former track manager announced one night.. "This would be a good time to put away your belongings because our neighbors seem to like our stuff more than we like our stuff." I can vouch for that, too. My brother had his street car there a few years back because he had driven out from school and had it broken into and his book of about 500 CD's stolen out of it. I think that was the year before one of the racers saw someone driving away with his generator in the back of a truck, got in his truck and trailed him to a campground down the road, called the cops and they busted them with a whole pile of generators, coolers, chairs, grilles, etc.

Sunday morning has a nice gentle 10AM start. Which is good because it normally takes a few hours to get all the dirt off the track. But don't think about sitting in the stands on Sunday, unless that is you bring something to wipe the dirt off first with. Usually SG isn't first as scheduled because they had to at least bump SST and sometimes SS off of Saturday's schedule because they're running behind and need to get the alcohol final in before there's too much dirt on the track. Then it takes forever to run the race there, despite the alcohol cars being done on Saturday, and we wrap things up around 6-7PM on Sunday night.

And in terms of shopping, restaurants, etc, there isn't too much around there, save for a grocery store about 5 miles down the road and a little pizza joint. There is one permanent bathroom on the facility, which will be pretty much as far away as you can get from where you're parked. And it's not the nicest set of bathrooms, that's for sure. They usually look like someone at least cleaned them at the beginning of the season.

But besides that, the place is great! ;-) At least Federico will have ice cream... And after that much typing, I think I was channeling Oldfield...

Later!
.............. Mike

Hey Mike that pretty much sums it up! Thats why I'm going to Lake George for the weekend! I still think it would make a great nuclear test site! Good luck to all !!

[Jason Oldfield]

Originally Posted by MikeSawyer

But besides that, the place is great! ;-) At least Federico will have ice cream... And after that much typing, I think I was channeling Oldfield...

.............. Mike

I have to say Mike that was a pretty impressive post. I don't think anyone has typed that much since, well, me! It's amazing how the words fly off your fingertips when you've REALLY got something to say, isn't it?

Eddie - Lebanon Valley certainly isn't Route 66. The pits definitely leave something to be desired, but so do Maple Grove and Columbus. I guess I would say just be prepared to have your stuff get dusty...unless it rains then its muddy. But, it's better than the alternative (not racing), right?

I've never experienced any thefts there, but maybe it has gotten worse over the last couple of years. This is a rural area of NY, not Cleveland where all the hoodlums hang out.

All that said, if possible I would pick a different race to take the wife to unless she likes the races because there really isn't much around there. Like I said above, it's a rural area of NY.

If you go, have fun, and good luck to everyone out there!