Got back from a FRIGID night at Flamborough Speedway, I promised myself if I wasn't gonna get my racecar running this season, I'd at least go to a bunch of races.

Thanks to the constant wind and frigid temperatures, and the Darlington race on TV (which rained out anyway) the stands were basically empty. It was a perfect example for our "is NASCAR killing short track racing?" thread... They certainly did kill it this weekend, usually Flamborough is PACKED.

I was again impressed by the quality of the track and the tight ship they run in terms of scheduling. Great food, great parking, fairly easy to find. Four classes and we still managed to finish up by about 11 pm.

I'm starting to notice a trend, and I wanted to know if any of you have noticed it as well... I often go to local short tracks when I hear of an "attraction" on that night... for example, the SOS cars at Ohsweken, Super Modifieds at Delaware, or in this case, the CanAm Midgets and Vintage Modifieds at Flamborough (neither of which I'd seen before.)

But what I've noticed, on every racenight that I can remember, EXCEPT the Canadian Sprint Car Nats last year, the best racing was in the local classes! I came to see the Vintage Modifieds, as I love building scale models of them (cheap plug: http://www.tigersdenhobbies.com)... And the racing wasn't terrible, but there was only a field of 16-17 of them, with a fair bit of attrition (understandable), and the feature was sort of run away with. Couple of good close races in the heats though.

And the Midgets, wow what a sound out of those 750cc motors; I'd never seen them, and wasn't disappointed in watching them lap (15 second laps on a 1/3 mile, just brutal speed), and lifting their inside wheels out of turn 2. But it was very much a follow-the-leader kind of race, particularly the feature... It was only attrition that changed the lead, as I recall. Maybe it was the track, maybe it was the class, I don't know enough about Midgets to say.

But the Thundercar feature had AWESOME racing all throughout the top 5, and the 4 Cylinder class had two great underdogs, one in a purple BMW 2002 and the other in a Volvo 240 fighting in the top 5... the Volvo held on for 3rd, and the BMW, unfortunately, had mechanical failure. The #16 Mustang came from 18th to finish 2nd, and there was lots of close racing all over the track. I thoroughly enjoyed both home classes.

Does this tend to happen to you guys a lot? I notice it a lot when I go to Ohsweken on the dirt and Barrie on asphalt as well--Awesome racing in the 4 cylinder and Thundercars, and kinda "meh" racing in the premiere classes (Sprints at Ohsweken, Late Models at Barrie.)

Here's a few good pics from the weekend btw:

http://www.efnetcars.net/view_album.php?set_albumName=album06

Got back from a FRIGID night at Flamborough Speedway, I promised myself if I wasn't gonna get my racecar running this season, I'd at least go to a bunch of races.

Thanks to the constant wind and frigid temperatures, and the Darlington race on TV (which rained out anyway) the stands were basically empty. It was a perfect example for our "is NASCAR killing short track racing?" thread... They certainly did kill it this weekend, usually Flamborough is PACKED.

I was again impressed by the quality of the track and the tight ship they run in terms of scheduling. Great food, great parking, fairly easy to find. Four classes and we still managed to finish up by about 11 pm.

I'm starting to notice a trend, and I wanted to know if any of you have noticed it as well... I often go to local short tracks when I hear of an "attraction" on that night... for example, the SOS cars at Ohsweken, Super Modifieds at Delaware, or in this case, the CanAm Midgets and Vintage Modifieds at Flamborough (neither of which I'd seen before.)

But what I've noticed, on every racenight that I can remember, EXCEPT the Canadian Sprint Car Nats last year, the best racing was in the local classes! I came to see the Vintage Modifieds, as I love building scale models of them (cheap plug: http://www.tigersdenhobbies.com)... And the racing wasn't terrible, but there was only a field of 16-17 of them, with a fair bit of attrition (understandable), and the feature was sort of run away with. Couple of good close races in the heats though.

And the Midgets, wow what a sound out of those 750cc motors; I'd never seen them, and wasn't disappointed in watching them lap (15 second laps on a 1/3 mile, just brutal speed), and lifting their inside wheels out of turn 2. But it was very much a follow-the-leader kind of race, particularly the feature... It was only attrition that changed the lead, as I recall. Maybe it was the track, maybe it was the class, I don't know enough about Midgets to say.

But the Thundercar feature had AWESOME racing all throughout the top 5, and the 4 Cylinder class had two great underdogs, one in a purple BMW 2002 and the other in a Volvo 240 fighting in the top 5... the Volvo held on for 3rd, and the BMW, unfortunately, had mechanical failure. The #16 Mustang came from 18th to finish 2nd, and there was lots of close racing all over the track. I thoroughly enjoyed both home classes.

Does this tend to happen to you guys a lot? I notice it a lot when I go to Ohsweken on the dirt and Barrie on asphalt as well--Awesome racing in the 4 cylinder and Thundercars, and kinda "meh" racing in the premiere classes (Sprints at Ohsweken, Late Models at Barrie.)

Here's a few good pics from the weekend btw:

http://www.efnetcars.net/view_album.php?set_albumName=album06

Flamboro is really too tight of a track to put on good races in any of the real "purpose-built" racing divisions...the problem is that it's a one-groove place and everybody figures out the setup well enough that it is almost impossible to pass...On a track with more than one groove, a class like the Can-Am Midgets is excellent...I've even seen them put on a couple of decent shows at Flamboro too, but nothing like what I've seen out of them at other places...I'm holding some hope that this newly renovated Grand Bend Speedway is going to be a good place for them...

As far as Ohsweken goes, I agree some of the sprint car races there last year were kind of "meh", but that is generally the exception to the rule. Some of the best races I've ever seen have been sprint car races at Ohsweken.

Ya, there was clearly only a line, line-and-a-half to race on, although the 4 cylinders made a good time of making two.

^ Yeah, when it comes to the street stock type cars, because they're not purpose built race chassis they seem to be more able to use different lines through the corners...and because there are some pretty big differences between the cars and types of suspensions and things, what works for one may not work for another...

I have to say that I really kind of enjoy the mini-stock/4 cylinder classes at many tracks...they usually put on a pretty good show, and it's fun to see how many different kinds of cars are out there and how different things work for the different kinds of cars...Everything from 4 cylinder Camaros and Mustangs to Volkswagen Rabbits, Volvos, Hondas, etc...

Totally true. And the improvement in FWD cars has been impressive--5-6 years ago at Barrie I might've seen one Jetta or one Cavalier, and they SUCKED, could only take the high line, tearing strips off the front tires. Glad to see some racers stuck with their guns and have figured out the chassis. At Flamborough alone I saw several Dodge Daytonas, a couple Shadows, a Grand Am, a Golf and a Civic, many of which were competitive. Gives you some hope for this class in the future when all the Mustangs disappear.

I want to go back to Flamborough Primary!
We want to go back to a time when
* 'Harribob' was considered a hilarious insult....
* Laura Hanson lived in fear of smokey joes...
* Michel tied peoples laces together in assembley...
* Adam Woodhouse had a nosebleed every day...
* Harrison told the story of marcos with his neck stuck in a chair to every class every year from the incident onwards...
* Red rover been banned due to chris clarke & co getting ''very silly'' and hurting pupils
* Been forced to sing some truly shocking songs by Mrs. Scott every wednesday morning
* The dinners....having to ask to ''turn round'' when you'd finished your main course and it been an unspeakable crime to turn without asking, no doubt whipping the dinner ladies into an absolute frenzy...
* The chicken pie, and the deserts, my god the deserts..
* The water jugs which would without doubt have some form of mouth fluid floating in them ewww
* You were considered an actual super hero if you could scale the terrifying height of the blue climbing frame!