Morning Musings In The Midday Maybe: Glorified Hot Laps

A little bit of this, a little bit of that. Who really knows what’s in here. It’s the Morning Musings In The Midday Maybe.

— It’s been the talk of the local racing scene this week and has had fans aplenty taking pot shots at Valenti Modified Racing Series driver Tommy Barrett Jr.

Look at this this way: Don’t hate the player, hate the game. Barrett didn’t break any rules and just took an advantage of an easily manipulated system when he seemingly concocted a plan with Mike Willis Jr. to essentially sandbag a heat race and still win it.

It’s the age old debate between the two Modified Tours locally, heat races vs. time trials. The fact is, as boring as time trials might be, the system is pretty cut and dried when it comes to working well.

For all the talk of the greatness of heat racing in the Valenti Modified Racing Series the past few years, the qualifying events have hardly done much to bring any more competitive action to the series. The decision earlier this year to award points for heat races has helped some, but it’s still a system that can be manipulated easily, as proven Saturday at Lee USA Speedway.

So the next person that tells you heat racing is way more exciting and dramatic then time trials, tell them to watch the video below.

On a side note, the best part about the video is hearing announcer John Spence Sr. call the action, attempting to make it sound ultra-dramatic in an effort to convince the fans that bought tickets to see racing that what they were seeing wasn’t actually a farce.

— We understand that beer drinking is part of the very fabric and culture of short track racing, but when it goes too far, well things get ugly fast.

The drunken joy ride behind the wheel of a truck towing a trailer  around the Waterford Speedbowl by Late Model division competitor Rich Staskowski Saturday brought plenty of attention. Staskowski was arrested for driving under the influence after driving his truck and trailer from the pits and onto the track during an event and then trying to elude track officials before being arrested in the track parking lot.

There’s no denying it wins the local short track racing dumb move of the year title, probably dumb move of the decade for that matter.

But what made us really lose some of our faith in humanity was the people that came out in the days following through social media and such in defending Staskowski’s actions or making excuses for what happened and trying to rationalize his behavior.

There’s nothing wrong with having a good time and there’s nothing wrong with consuming some adult beverages, but don’t get behind the wheel of a truck and trailer when you’re sloshed. That’s not really that hard to figured out.

Unfortunately, short track racing in general regularly gets a bad rap by the mainstream media, who like to stereotype  it as just a bunch of drunks who could care less about hurting themselves or others. Unfortunately, Staskowski went far in helping that stereotype become more truth than fiction.

— Let’s let the Lee USA Speedway video festival continue with this classic.

We’re not very familiar with Bob Murphy but we couldn’t help having a good laugh at the post-race shenanigans he was involved in after losing out to Steve “Danger” Dickey during one of the seemingly 983 features last Sunday at Lee.

Murphy shouldn’t be winning any masculinity awards. First, you have a female in your posse who comes out on the track to beat guys down for you? Really?

Funnier still is as after Murphy’s Beauty tries to beat down the competitors, Murphy is still terrified, walking around the track clearly with no intent on removing his helmet before things simmer down.

Remember when racing was tough?

— Ok, ok, more video. This might be the all video musings edition.

Do yourself a favor on watch the final SK Modified feature webisode from the Waterford Speedbowl from the good folks at Sid’s View Productions.

Normal host Sid DiMaggio had to leave the track early for a prior engagement, meaning Mike Serluca got mic’ed up for the gig. We all win.