Sounds like John has cut way back.

I bought a chassis for one of those dirt track modifieds a while back and
last summer I talked to a guy who had some junk parts I needed to make it go
that I thought he wanted to sell me.  When I showed up at his place with my
bare chassis on the trailer he told me my chassis wasn't good enough and
that there was no money in the sport anyway, I should just buy, for a modest
amount, one of his fully completed chassis (less engine) for less than what
I would spend to get mine ready to roll (also less engine).  I decided to
drop back and think about it for a few days and never went any farther with
it.

Racing for me was always some thing you did for fun, not money.  Yeah, you
try to get some sponsors to defray the cost of the fun but you aren't likely
to break even.  This sour puss said once you get any kind of serious money
you've got to keep the sponsor's name from getting banged up, make
appearances at car shows and be looking good doing it (mainly the car, I
mean), etc.  Not worth it in his opinion.  And the rules were all wrong...

Anyway, the Dryden Spedway is a place of mythical memories for me.  Our
father took my brother and I there on or twice back when I was probably four
or five years old and some images were etched into my mind, one of a stock
car going over the back embankment (facing Tweetman's) and coming back onto
the track by driving around outside and coming in through the pits.  Little
open-wheel midgets too...  There is a story about my mother and father going
to the small dirt tracks in the area on their honeymoon (a couple of Ivy
Leaguers, no less) because he worked for a newspaper up in Seneca Falls and
they maybe were doing a feature on a local hero or just had an interest in
the action.

Now there is a variety of local action, mostly on dirt but there are a few
paved tracks around (notably the old "ShangriLa" track in Owego, one Ontario
up east of Rochester on the lake, and Oswego, the "Home of the
Supermodifeds," weird cars offset way to the left).  I think the dirt
tracksfeature more "action" but are more rough and tumble (you certainly get
more of the "atmosphere" on you).

There's a track up in the hills above Blodgett Mills (between Cortland,
Virgil, and Marathon) that seems to be particularly rough.  I saw some
pretty rough action there one night when a driver went mental on another out
on the track.  The 25 year old (and cheerleader cute) daughter of a friend
of Deb's goes there and hangs out pretty much alone so I guess it can't be
all bad.

Dirt tracks include Five Mile Point down near Binghamton (I'm not sure it's
still in operation), Thunder Mountain (I think it's above Center Lisle),
Black Rock near Dundee, Fulton, Brewerton, Rolling Wheels in Elbridge,
Cayuga County Fairgrounds in Weedsport, etc.  And of course the "Moody Mile"
at the Syracuse Fairgrounds.


-----Original Message-----
From: Ken Follett [mailto:[log in to unmask]]
Sent: Wednesday, April 19, 2000 8:17 AM
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Racing


In a message dated 4/19/00 6:59:54 AM Central Daylight Time, [log in to unmask]
writes:

<< The question now is whether ][<en is going to report that his partner
Senior
 is  a Racerhead. >>

I'll take the bait.

John Weiss, Sr., president of Apple, and my partner is involved with dirt
modifieds. He has been fairly heavy into it the past few years with multiple
cars and running around the East Coast on extended weekends with his racing
team that is out of Western MA. He is this year downsizing and sticking with
a Camero dirt stock that he, and a group of his fellow enthusiasts, take
around to children's hospitals for the kids. Besides race cars John likes
kids. He spends most of his racing leisure at the dirt track in Middletown,
NY.

Racing is a community activity regardless of the type of vehicles. Kathy & I
like to go to the track in Riverhead on Saturday nights (closer to us than
Manhattan), though we have not done it much in the last few years. The
people
tend to be down home, gross, outlandish, illiterate and loud -- I feel at
home, reminding me of going to upstate tracks as a kid, and I love the
excitement. I'll never forget as a kid riding around in the street stock on
the dirt track in Dryden one night that I won a ticket raffle.

][<en