Charleston Speedway
August 23, 2008

I learned we were going to be heading to Charleston late in the week... I was excited to go back to see my friends there...
Thankyou Dean for taking care of me at the gate.... very much appreciated and was nice to meet you...
I headed to the pit area a little after five..... I was looking for Jesse Leo... He was the first car I ran into .... glad to finally get to meet you Jesse...He is one of our members and he runs the JL3 hornet.. Got to talk with Jim Cross,jr who was standing with Jesse and Donovan Stark........Jim Cross informed me that he has the track championship cinched as of tonight.......WAY TO GO JIM !!!! I next interviewed Donovan and then the #17h of Daryl Hellman... I also got interviews with Nick Miller, the #30 street stock who I learned is a good friend to David Shain.... Nick told me that David was suppose to be out here tonight racing but that he had got burned in a fire incident at his home.............I intended on coming home amd shooting a pm to David right away...but later in the evening when I was in the grandstands David came over to talk with me............he had a very close call.....HOW MANY OF YOU OUT THERE HAS DONE THE SAME THING DAVID DID....I KNOW I HAVE..... he threw some gasoline on a fire from a gas can and the flame followed the gas back to the tank.......it got David in the face.......he said he ran in and washed his face right away tearing off the skin on his face.... he said they told him at the hospital that was the best thing he could have done....my son recently got burned and told me that was the worst pain he had ever been in....David agreed.... he said that he put neosporin for pain on his face and took vicadin...he said he didn't think he could have made it without the vicadin.... David said they were surprised at how fast he was healing..... David has red places on his face but you really have to look at him to see it............David knows how lucky he is and says that he will never do that again.....said he has poured gas from a can into fires for years......my husband just did it last weekend...............!!!!! DAvid is getting married in October...thankgoodness he is okay............
While in the pit area I got an interview with Chuck Martin #7x and Eric Winn #95 Ligthning McQueen Car....J.R. Wilterman #93j street stock, Josh Smyser #1x street stock,Michael Donley,jr #78 street stock, Joey Smyser #4s hornet.. Was nice to meet all of you and am hoping some of you will join the website .. Randy Smyser and Jim Cross, Justin Watkins and Jesse Leo are all members... ...
I walked down and talked with Chad Kinder #22 modified and Kevin Short...I asked Chad if he was going to be racing both saturday and sunday next weekend and he said he would if he could get his boss to give him time off.......
It was so HOT tonight....... I decided to go back to the grandstand... on way back I talked to Rodney Gould, Greg Shorts crew chief..... always nice to run into him....
I headed to the bleachers....street stock had already started their heats..
The #89 won heat one...Josh Griffith won the second heat and Randy Smyser won the third heat....
Next out were the modifieds....heat one was won by Chad Kinder ,2nd Lambert and 3rd Bill Wagoner.....great job Chad... heat two was won by Chad Evans over Denny Schwartz and Danny Schwartz...and the third heat was won by Cody Hood over Rob Fuqua and #83...
Then the hornets came out...heat one was won by Jim Cross,jr over the #27..heat two was won by the #4s of Joey Smyser over Jesse Leo...
In the features::::::::::::::::
Street Stock..........several cautions, several questionable calls.....end result:
1..JOsh Griffith #97
2..Randy Smyser #26
3..Tim Henson #T11
4..Mike Donley #78
5..Travis Phipps #00
6..J.R. Wiltermood #93j
Josh got out to the lead in this feature and never looked back....Randy gave him a run for his money for a while......his hood started coming up and I don't know how he could see .........they did blk flag him but was overthrowed by another official............Tim Henson was also up there giving the top two runners a lot of pressure............****I have three pages of notes on this race but I am just not sure of how the calls on the cautions were made so am not adding the notes...

The modified feature.............same thing..........lots of questionable calls on cautions..............
top four rows in lineup:
1...Kinder...Evans
2..Hood...Fuqua
3..de Schwartz...da Schwartz
4..Wagoner...Wiltermood
???????????????????????????????????????????
finish:
1..Chad Kinder #22s
2..Chad Evans #59
3..Rob Fuqua #3f
4..Danny Schwartz #21d
***in this race the #9s of Greg Short lost a header......WOW...
lots of crazy stuff went on in this race......... it is almost like anything goes....
Denny Schwartz pulled off after about three laps....he looked like he broke something .........
two cars went over the burm ..should have went to tail...didn't
a car spins to infield and pulls back on track to bring out the yelllow.......he should have been blk flagged for coming back on track after clearing it... oh well... I could keep going......

Next was the hornets............let me tell you........this little race is a wicked one....these guys don't mess around...they look to be racing for ten thousand dollars...
the 25c was on the pole and the 4s was outside front row....the 4s got out to an early lead but 25c was right on his tail.....on the backstretch the two made contact when it looked like Cross was being squeezed up to the walll......Cross ran over his tire and Smyser got worse end of deal.....Cross got around him and stayed there for the win...
finish
1..Jim Cross,jr
2..Joey Smyser
3..#77
4..Chuck Martin
5..Eric Winn
6..Justin Watkins
7..Jesse Leo
8..#63

CONGRATULATIONS JIM CROSS,JR ON YOUR TRACK CHAMPIONSHIP #####

Was really nice to talk to all of you at Charleston again.... You are a great bunch of guys and you do put on a great show for the fans....... I just hate seeing some of the calls.......not fair to any of you....

to the guys I interviewed...........I am going out of town tomorrow... I am not sure when I will get them finished............I will as soon as time allows....
Again... thanks for all your hard work to give us fans entertainment....we do appreciate your effort...
cj

Click to view attachment Dean

Click to view attachmentJesse Leo

Click to view attachmentDonovan Stark

Click to view attachmentJim Cross,jr..Jesse Leo and Donovan Stark

Click to view attachmentDaryl Hellman

Click to view attachmentNick Miller

Click to view attachmentJoey Smyser and Jeff Sidenstricker

Click to view attachmentJosh Smyser

Click to view attachmentMike Lewis, Nick,Josh and dad Randy Smyser

Click to view attachment son Dylan and dad JR. Withermood

Click to view attachmentMatt Huddleston

Click to view attachmentChad Kinder

To Mike Cobble:

I hate getting on here and complaining .....................but............. I can't help it... I do NOT understand the officiating at that track................ and apparently no one at the track understands it either.....

I am not even sure if I can give an accurate rundown of the heats and features...all I can put down is how they were listed when they crossed the line..

Cars spun out........got their spots back....
cars went over the burm...got their spots back
cars got black flagged........was over ruled by track owner..got spot back...
at least one car I will not mention I known spun at least twice and did not leave track........another spun twice..he had to leave the track....

It is very stressful to watch these races because you never know what is going on.... I have attended many many races and in quite a few states......mistakes are always made.......human is to error..............but..........not like this....

I went to a couple of people in the stands for answers.....they said this is the way it always is......what is a rule one week is not the rule the next week....
I asked who was the ones making the calls..........was told that the owner does not wear head sets..........Mike.... if you are going to over rule your track officials you need to have head sets on......and you all need to be on the same page....

I talked to some drivers......they told me the same thing.... one week you spin and you go to tail.....well ......that sure was not the case tonight....
I asked why they put up with it....why they did not discuss it at their track meetings before the race.......they laughed and told me there are no meetings...
AT EVERY TRACK I HAVE BEEN TO SINCE I HAVE BEEN GOING TO THE RACES.... Track rules meeting is mandatory for the drivers........... you do have out of town drivers that come that have no clue how you run your track.... in Charleston's case...no one knows how they run the track.... it was told to me "it fluxuates week to week..............YOU GUYS!!!!! This is not fair to any of you............
Two things that are a must
1..rules meetings before each race...........and
2..consistency

Not everyone is going to agree on rules........that is for sure.........but....there needs to be rules set and stuck to weekly...........

I feel like a traitor coming on here and complaining..........I DON'T WANT TO...but I have to be honest................ Everyone I have dealt with personally at Charleston I have liked.................... I have many members on my board that race at Charleston and I love to go there and watch them.... I love going to the pits and talking with them..... The announcer Mike......he is super.... he puts the results and track pts on the site for everyone...
But............. I feel like ALL OF YOU are getting taken advantage of....
When you go out there and get beat......you get beat......but when the rules change from week to week..........how in the crap do you know how to race?????

I am open for debate on here.........I have plenty of Charleston people on this site.... pm if you don't want it on the forum..........but I would like some responses to this............the people I talked to tonight had none..........just that : that's the way it is at Charleston and we have learned to live with it......

Charleston gets a great crowd of people in the stands.......although I was setting between two groups that I thought were going to come to blows.......I AM SERIOUS...
Mike....... when a car brings out a caution.....no questions...to the tail...it would stop a lot of your problems......and stick to it.............
if a car goes over the burm.........if someone was shoved over.......he should get spot back..one doing the shoving to the tail.......if two go over the burm and you DON'T KNOW WHAT HAPPENED........if they bring out the caution..both to the tail...
If a car gets black flagged.........he should go off the track.... if he can get over rode by another track official.............those two need to be discussing it before the black flag gets thrown....................
There also needs to be a flag thrown or pointed at a slower driver to tell him to hold his line so a faster car can get around him..........a couple of incidents in the hornet class could have been pretty bad....

These are rough times for all tracks.....with the gas on the rise and everything else going up ...........the little things are important.....like consistency...

cj

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Click to view attachmentJR Wiltermood

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Click to view attachmentchad kinder

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Click to view attachmentJim Cross,jr

Click to view attachmentEric Winn and family

Click to view attachmentDarrell and Daryl Hellman

Click to view attachmentChuck Martin

Click to view attachmentJosh Griffith

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Click to view attachmentChad Kinder in winners circle

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You are so right!!!!!!!!!! The guys never know from race to race which rules to drive by. But if they want to race they put up with it. It's sad and to bad for the track, people just don't want to bring their cars anymore. But it's getting like that at alot of track. I hate it when I hear the drivers say "let it go, don't make a fuss" but that is what is wrong, they let it go and it doesn't get fixed. JMO Lois Burton K9 Racing

the calls and rule changes at charleston are going down hill and fast. i agree with everything that has been said. To be 100% honest, the only reason i am running charleston is cause i dont have the money at this time for the extra gas to pull to another track. I ran flora (clay county) alot last year and loved it there. Fast, consistant, and in 4 weeks, i never got a speck of someone elses paint on me. If they had the laps and payout that charleston did though, i wouldnt even mess with charleston. This is the main reason most of us run charleston cause of fuel costs now. They need to quit complaining about the rouph driving and stick that black flag out there. If they alow people to plow there way to the front, people will. If they flag them for it and get them off the track, it will change. And what these guys dont get is that if they go to other tracks and drive like that it puts more bad names out there for charleston. I love the track layout of charleston and the basic set-up of everything, they just need to get the stands and flags in check out there as well as constant rules