"Live" from Earlville
 

Well, we are on our way. It is 500 miles for us. Drove 214 last night, then stayed at a Walmart in Litchfield, IL. We are back on the road now with 286 miles to go. It started raining during the night and it is raining pretty steady on us now. Forecast looks like a little rain here and there during the weekend, but nothing big. And if ya'll have ever seen their track dryer any amount of rain shouldn't be a problem. Looking forward to seeing all our racing friends from Division 5: Koppein, VanLant, Mosbeks, Briner, Shepherd, Knudsen, Kahout and the rest.

If you have never been to Earlville, you need to plan on coming. Earlville and Belle Rose are our favorite tracks. And it is mainly to do with the people. Everybody is really friendly.

Well we will give you mor updates throughout the weekend. Hopefully we will get more than 2 runs on the new Cuda like we had last week at Indy. You can bet we have enough weight in it this weekend!.

Patsy

Re: "Live" from Earlville
 

Patsy -- Earlville is a little far for us but Debbie and I will be leaving in a few hours for the two hour ride to Englishtown , NJ -- also a Lucas Oil Series race -- and like you and Larry we'll be "Live" .............Good luck to all ! ! !

Re: "Live" from Earlville
 

Thanks Patsy,
Good luck! We'll be looking forward to more reports.

Re: "Live" from Earlville
 

I really enjoyed my trip there a few years ago,
for some reason i was a "Big Hit" in Dyersville, as I went to "Fields of Dream" signed my name on the guess book list and people was asking to see my drivers lic.
Being a scale model builder and collector i was like a kid in a candy store at the AMT store as when i was done 3 full carts of models went into the lounge.
Hope you guys have a great race and Larry & Patsy, great seeing you guys at Indy.

Re: "Live" from Earlville
 

Hey Larry Hope you been eatin well since Indy!

Dont want you to come up lite on the scales out there!!!

Re: "Live" from Earlville
 

We are here!! Rained on us every step of the way today. Tech opens in 5 minutes but I haven't heard a race car running yet. We have a great spot up next to Jaclyn Gephart. Come by to see us and have a cold one. It is pretty cool here now, in the 50's. Good sleeping weather.

We have never arrived here on Thursday before, but it doesn't seem very crowded at all. Lots of spaces left.

After it quits raining I will get the golfcart out and see who is here. We pulled in behind the Findells and what appeared to be Joe Demarzo's car.

Larry said he will be putting on plenty of weight here. They have homemade cookies at fuel check. I didn't know about the cookies for a couple of years. He would eat all the evidence before he got back to the trailer!

We've been enjoying your stats, Nitro Joe.

Well, more later.

Good luck to ya'll, too, Jack.
Patsy

Re: "Live" from Earlville
 

Hey Jack,
If you see Dick Moreland tell him to call me,may have a plan to get our old car back.

Re: "Live" from Earlville
 

It has finally quit raining, but boy is it cold. Probably in the 50's. Supposed to be sunny and warmer tomorrow. We don't run until 10. It has started to fill up a lot this evening. I think they are parking until 12.

Saw Mike and Steve Koppein. They raced here last weekend and the car got up so high, Mike had to get out of it and it bent a bunch of stuff. As Alan Rhinhart said about Miller's B/SA car last week at Indy "He didn't stick the landing." ( I think he had been watching too much Olympics!) So anyway they have to work on the car.

Had some great cabbage and kelbasa for dinner. Now Larry is watching "Pinks". I can only stand so much of that!

Fred and Barb Suiter are here. Haven't seen a whole lot else. I will go out tomorrow when it warms up.

More later.
Patsy

Re: "Live" from Earlville
 

Well it is a bright beautiful day here in Earlville. Sun shining, blue skies! Got our wake-up call this morning with the National Anthem about 7:15. Tech started at 730. Good ole rock n roll playing on the PA radio station. Even heard some Jimmy Hendrix "Purple Haze" this morning.

They are starting out with Super Street at 10. Then Stock. There are a lot of super street racers in Div. 5, so it will take a while to run them.

It is cool but really nice this morning. I will give you all that weather after we run.

Going to go out and see who is here.
More later.
Patsy

Re: "Live" from Earlville
 

79 stockers went down 1st pass. We went 1.02 under. Need to work on leaving a little better. Fred Suiter did a nice wheelstand, then almost hit the wall. D/SA cars going fast. VanLant went 10.60, then Burton went 10.53. DRC should have results up soon.

More later.
Patsy

Re: "Live" from Earlville
 

Larry & Patsy: Appreciate the first hand reports.

Re: "Live" from Earlville
 

Hey Larry,

Ask Bob Shaw if he changed spark plugs again. Last year when he went more than 1.4 under he blamed it on a new set of plugs.

Thanks for the updates, I can't make Earlville this year. Have some Bar-B-Q for me.

Marty

Re: "Live" from Earlville
 

Marty, bob was trying to go fast, set record and passed tear down,Tom

Re: "Live" from Earlville
 

Just went down for the nice Bar B Q and potato salad dinner put on by Tri-State Raceway. Thanks. It was very good as usual. Saw Bob Shaw there. Larry told him to go ahead and eat a lot since by Monday he will have to weigh more. Congrats for #1 qualifier. I wasn't aware he was setting a record. Congrats for that, too.

Been down by the Koppeins and friends where Larry ate again. He is still trying to make up for being light last weekend! They put on a big dinner also. Sorry I don't know their names. I will find out and thank them properly later.

There was a clean-up run late that barely beat the rain. It is sprinkling pretty heavy. Don't know just what the schedule is for tomorrow. The weather is looking iffy Saturday and Sunday.

As I said before, if you have never been here, you got to come at least one time. Really nice track and friendly people. I even got a cookie after the 2nd run today. Larry didn't eat all of them before he got back to the trailer this time.

Our car finally left good for the 1st time. Wheels up a little and a nice wheelstand.

Well more tomorrow. If the weather is good, they may try to run a few rounds tomorrow.

Patsy

Re: "Live" from Earlville
 

I heard it is raining there now

Re: "Live" from Earlville
 

patsy,when you see steve koppien again tell him db said hi.

Re: "Live" from Earlville
 

Well cars are going down the racetrack. And stock doesn't run til after Super Comp. Of course we didn't know that until this morning or we could of slept a little longer. Next time I will go and check out the schedule.
It is really overcast now. Everyone is getting 1 shot and then going into eliminations. The weather is supposed to turn bad tonight, so they are going to try and get in as much as possible since this is the last race of the season for Div. 5.

Super stock seems to be going 5-8 quicker this morning.

More later.
Patsy

Re: "Live" from Earlville
 

There are now 94 cars. Had a little tailwind this morning. We didn't make a good run. Got in something and about took out the tree. A/SA cars of Ben Line and Dikema are getting out of it at 1000'. Everyone is running 1st round today, weather permitting. It is partly sunny now. Oh Shaw lost his # 1 spot to the EFS car this morning, so he gets HP on Monday, too.

More later.
Patsy

Re: "Live" from Earlville
 

Records set yesterday: All tore down and passed. Bob Shaw, T/SA 13.277, 98.77 mph. Bill Dyer, N/S 12.110. David Cech, J/S 11.537, 112.

We are on the schedule to run 3 rounds today. Right now everything is running great. Partly sunny, a little windy.

More later.
Patsy

Re: "Live" from Earlville
 

Won the 1st round. Have Sam Hamod next round. Lots of good runs. A couple of Heads-up runs. Chris Knudsen lost a killer to Mike Johnson. Chris went 10.56, 123 to Johnson's 10.57, 125. Schadt red-lighted to Stealy in G/SA. We should run 2nd round in a couple of hours. Weather still holding up.
Patsy

Re: "Live" from Earlville
 

Sam Hamod beat us 2nd round. He had a .029 package and Larry was dead late.

Track prep this round was lacking. Steve Hagberg spun in front of Larry. Then Larry left initially, got in some oil and went left. The reason he knows it was oil is because the left wheel on the wheelie bar had oil all over it, but the right one didn't. But if he hadn't spun Sam would have still killed us!

Hopefully next week's report will be from Shreveport, LA unless Hurricane Ike gets them.

We are going down to the Grosz's for dinner cooked in a milk can! Sounds really great. Start out with corn on the cob on the bottom then lots of other stuff. Cooked on a turkey fryer.

I will let you know how it was.

They only ran 2 rounds of everything tonight, then hopefully the weather will co-operate to finish up tomorrow.

We are all packed up and will hit the road first thing in the morning for our 9+ hour drive home.
Later.
Patsy & Larry

Re: "Live" from Earlville
 

Pasty & Larry -- Too bad you got your "Pink Fish" into some oil -- no one likes losing that way .Better luck will find you next weekend .Meanwhile we're still trying to chase Hurricane Hanna out of town so we can have first round tomorrow morning -- have a safe drive home ............Jack & Debbie

PS--That milk can deal sounds neat .Gotta try it ! !

Re: "Live" from Earlville
 

Just got back in from a wonderful dinner down at the Grosz'. Sweet corn, onions, potatoes, carrots, brats, and sausage all cooked in a milk can. This is what racing is all about. Making new friends and having a great time. Must a been 40-50 people there. Most all of us had already been beaten. Some of the winners still there: Jamey and Dave Picht, Jamie Kilgore, Mike Koppein Losers (only for today!) : Brian Schultz, Chris Knudsen, Randy Sheperd, the Cooks ( I think 1 of them is still in). Of course Steve and Melinda Koppein were there. Lots of other people were there that I didn't get their names and everyone had a great time.

Well hopefully we will be down in Shreveport next weekend if Hurricane Ike doesn't scare us off and we will tell you all about the big dinner Bobby Brannon is putting on.

So til later.
Everyone have a safe race and a safe trip home.

Good luck to ya'll up in Hanna land. Hope you get your race in too.

Patsy

Re: "Live" from Earlville
 

It is 7:40 and we are on our way home after getting diesel for $3.99.

Just saw another racer at the pumps who was talking about the 2nd round last night. The starting line crew cleaned the starting line after 2 A/SA cars both spun. We love going to Earlville and had never had a problem with the line until this trip. We lost a time trial run because of getting in something and then it was a contributor to our loss 2nd round. 500 miles is a long way to come and hopefully the starting crew will do a better job next year ( and for the rest of this race). Whenever you guys get home, let us know if they took better care of it today.

Until the next race.
Be safe.

Patsy & Larry

Re: "Live" from Earlville
 

Patsy & Larry,

I'm sorry to hear about the starting line problems.

Thank you for the great posts and look forward to more in the future.

Bruce

Re: "Live" from Earlville
 

Great report Patsy.
As I told you at the track,I thought I was the only one that nearly took out the Christmas Tree Saturday morning, and then I read your report on my cell phone,and realized that it just wasn't me.I just got back from Byron today,and the car was working well,so I definately think it was track prep and not the car.
The track was in good shape for the first run on Friday.My mom ran 11.14 in one of the first few pairs of cars out.She then weighed,and went to fuel check,but nobody was there,so she went back to the pits.Sure enough,they didn't count the run.DQ!!!!
I ran my first qualifying run,and then went to fuel check.On the second run,I went a little faster,so I went to fuel check and they said that It wasn't necessary because it was okay last time.So if my mom's fuel was fine on the second pass,you would think that they would have counted the first pass????
One thing that I never saw before was that the first three pair to run were listed on the ladder,which was an interesting idea.Do any other divisions do this?I thought it seemed to work well.If you were picked to be one of the first three pair out,there was no hanging out at the rear of the lanes.
I'm sure the track was probably much better today.They seemed to be in way too much of a rush.At least I didn't drive as far as you,because that has to be pretty disappointing.

Re: "Live" from Earlville
 

442olds. if you are talking about stock on friday, I was first down track in the right lane and bob blackwell was giving out cups for fuel checks, if i recall, I`m old, on the track my 60` foots were 1.584, 1.567, 1.559,1.560 I know my car is slow, Tom

Re: "Live" from Earlville
 

Larry wanted me to come back on here and say he didn't blame the starting line for his loss. His bad light was the reason he lost ( and Sam's good driving and run).

Patsy

Re: "Live" from Earlville
 

Larry and Patsy, I drove by your trailer with my golf cart and didn't put 2+2 together to figure out it was you folks. I read all your track updates, its almost like being there. I love your car color, you can't go past it without looking. Will have to stop by and jabber next year.