What's Fabulous? FAB FOUR RACIN'

My plan after Charlotte last fall was to take the summer of 2016 off of racing. I figured it was probably time to let some young new chippy don the sash and prance around in victory lane. Let's face it-- there is no shortage of good lookin ladies in this world, and I think every single one who loves racing as much as I do should try and step in!

But last weekend, my Friday night opened up wide and I was offered the opportunity to visit one of my favorite PA tracks: Don Martin's Lernerville Speedway in Sarver. I could have passed it up, I could have left the sash at home, I could have left the dress on the hanger and the heels on the shoe rack... But I'm glad I didn't!

First of all-- I love the place. I love the atmosphere, I love the venue, I love the company. Second of all, I was afforded the opportunity to meet the new owners, the Tomson family-- who were, by the way, gracious, generous, and hilarious. Thirdly, I got to reconnect with the management there and those guys are not only top-notch in their program execution, they're friendly and warm and caring at the same time. 

Eric Westendorf, the public relations director, manned the mic as the announcer for the night. The presence of the late Dow Carnahan was missed, but Eric's tribal knowledge of the drivers made for a smooth transition, and he made for an informed race experience. 

I watched the heat races in the grandstands of turn 4, and watched the cushion grow and evolve on a heavy track. Gary's track crew really knows what they're doing out there, and it made for great racing all night.  

I transitioned from the grandstands to the tower and from jeans to a dress for the features. AJ flick took home his second feature win of the season for the PNG sprint division, after three red flags. Alex Ferree took the checkers for the Precise Racing Products late models. Mat Williamson was on top and brought home the trophy in the Diehl Automotive big block modified class, and Terry Young finished first in the Millerstown Pic-A-Part Sportsman division. 

There's something to be said for making new friends and keeping the old. I was silly to think I could stay away from dirt track racing this year-- it's in my blood. And the dirt was in my face, hair, and shoes on Friday night at Lernerville. 

Stay tuned-- gonna be hitting up the Lou Blaney memorial and the Don Martin Silver Cup this summer. So if you already have plans, CANCEL THEM-- we're going racing. :)

Xoxo

Lainey 

Alex Ferree 

Terry Young 

AJ Flick

Lemon Water

Here’s some shit.

 

I just argued with a guy at the other manufacturing plant that tomorrow, 4/22/2016, is Tuesday.  We argued for 15 minutes via email.  After I realized what had happened, I immediately said “Hey, Siri, am I going crazy?” (Cuz she's always listening now) and her reply was “I can’t say for sure…”

 

And that’s basically how I feel.  Just trying not to be lost.  I just looked around my desk and realized that I left my lemon water in the kitchen.  I was refilling it, and I noticed that the office coffee pot was empty, so I started making coffee.  

 

I don’t even drink coffee.

 

The reason I make the coffee from time to time is because the coffee machine is right outside my cubicle.  And when people arrive at the coffee, and there isn’t any, they make any variety of noises that range from guttural disgust to resigned sighing… and this brings me down or just annoys me.  So I make sure there is always coffee… that way people just arrive, get their coffee, and make no noises.  And somehow, in my little twisted way, I feel a little bit like the coffee fairy.  “Hey, have you noticed that we haven’t had to make coffee for like 3 months?  I wonder how that is happening..”

 

So I get up, go to get my lemon water from the kitchen, and I notice that the coffee is done.  So I close the lid, and move it to the servicing position, and then I return to my desk.  Sans lemon water.  Forgot the lemon water AGAIN.

A LOT of Plans Were Cancelled

I'll catch everyone up, eventually, but since it's been almost a year since I last wrote, I'm going to use this post as a chance to tell you what my UPCOMING plans are.

This blog is going to change formats, again.  It's going to be less about racing, and more about where my life evolves toward.  DON'T PANIC: we're still going racing.

I hung up the crown this year, essentially.  Victory lane is my favorite place to be, but this summer I wanted to run without representation and see where my legs take me.  I'll be hopefully getting involved in a LOT of motorsports promotion.  Will keep you posted.

Other than that, you're going to read the funny shit I think about.  Because that's what I feel like writing.  Hopefully I do it quite often.

Anyway.  Welcome to the new blog.

Cancel your plans-- we're going laughing.

We Are Canceling A Lot Of Plans

There are a lot of things in the world and my life that I feel lucky and blessed about. For starters, we didn't end up living on East Main Street, for example (which, among other faults, has terrible parking and is a bitch in the winter). I'm not hungry -involuntarily anyway.  I have the support and love of the racing community and I can pretty much go racing whenever I want.  I have close friends who would give me the shirt off their back if they thought I needed it.  I have the best family in the world. 

But a part of it that family is dying. For all of the things I'm lucky about, and blessed with, this is an awful stain on the white-hot amazingness of my life. 

It's becoming increasingly hard to accept that this beautiful ray of sunshine won't be with us forever, and likely not long at all. The love of my father's life, my second mother. I don't feel blessed that she's in pain and not long for our world.  I don't feel blessed that we are suddenly making preparations for something that wasn't supposed to happen for decades to come. I don't feel lucky that as she struggles for breath, dad's heart breaks a little more each moment. 

And I sit here next to her watching her sleep and I hope I never forget this. How hard this is and how amazing she is and I hope the reason why this is happening all becomes so clearly apparent and makes it less hard. 

I don't know what to say other than sitting here in the dark, crying my eyes out silently while I rub her back, has been oddly calming somehow. And I hope none of you ever have to feel this way. Ever. 

I love you, Arlene, and I am so lucky that we have had the years we did-- the beach trips, the concerts, the holidays, the milestones-- the highs were so good that I don't even remember the lows. I've learned a lot from the time we've spent in each other's lives and I wouldn't trade it for anything. And that's one thing I do feel blessed about. 

No regrets. Fight on. 

Winner Wednesday - Fab4 Lernerville July 17th

You guys, it’s Wednesday.  That means I have some information to share with you about the most recent winners I posed with in victory lane.  Who’s pumped??  Or, let’s don’t make this more than it really is… but at least admit that you’re a little curious, right?

 

Some of you (none of you) may be wondering how this post comes to pass?  Well, first, I go to a race track (usually on a weekend) for an event.  Then somebody wins, or if there are a few features, a couple of people win.  And then comes the hard part…getting the interview with said winner(s).  This is tough because the track or pits after victory lane is no place to try and get an interview.  In my opinion there are a couple reasons for this:

1)      The winner is tired, he (or she!) just worked his (or her!) butt off all night, and so did their team, to park it in VL.  I just think they deserve to enjoy their victory.

2)      They just got bombarded with photos and microphones in victory lane for the past 15 minutes.  I don’t think they want me in their face as well.

3)      I’m tired too!  I just changed out of my heels so I could walk back across the track without falling in front of anyone who might still be around.  And usually I need a beer (or vodka).

 

So anyway here’s the scenario at this point: somebody has won, and I have questions.  Here’s how I usually try to resolve the situation: FACEBOOK AND TWITTER STALKING. Sometimes this works (Shane Clanton) and sometimes this doesn’t (ARE YOU READING THIS SHELDON HAUDENSCHILD???) and sometimes the people just don’t have social media accounts and I don’t have their address (Joe Kelley… I don’t know where you live.  This is likely a good thing for all parties involved). 

 

So the next step is basically shameless begging.  In the event of my special edition of this post tomorrow, I’ll explain how sometimes this process can be easier from the get-go, but here’s the usual run-down:  If I’m not already a Facebook friend, I usually (creepily) attempt to add the winner with a friend request.  Then, I’ll make my case for them answering a few questions for me.  I usually try to mention that it’s not going to hurt, it’s not going to be any hard questions.  If the Facebook thing backfires, I’ll try a private message on Twitter, if they have it.  If that doesn’t work, I HAVE resorted to calling them out publicly on Twitter.  I’m not proud of it, but I’m basically a reporter here and I never wanna let down the public!!  (Also I should note that I’m not delusional… I know I’m not a reporter and I know the public already probably knows some of the information I “report”… but writing my blog is fun for me and I want that interview, dammit!) So then after all that   … I wait.   Some people get back to me right away!  But in some cases (ED LYNCH JR!) I’m still waiting.  I understand, I know these guys are busy, so I don’t take it personally.  But then, if they agree, as they say—we’re off to the races :)

 

So, now I’ve basically ruined the magic for this and you know all my secrets.  Suppose we should get to the interviews from Friday night Fab 4 racing at Lernerville Speedway, from this past Friday July 17^th.  I got two feature winners to answer my questions, so that’s basically a 50% success rate for the process detailed above.  In heart surgery, that’s bad odds, but if it was a baseball batting average it would be high… so it’s all relative.  I’ll take what I can get.  What more do you want from me?  I’m a dirt track trophy queen for goodness sake.

 

 

Class: Super Late Model-- #H1 Jared Miley (67 career feature wins)

How old are you?

28

 

How long have you been racing?

10 years

 

Who are your sponsors?

Colussy Chevrolet, Rocket Chassis, Broughers Machine Shop, HoosierBob Mid-Atlantic, Sunoco Race Fuels, fullyinjected.com, Octane Graphix, Schaffers Racing Oil, Integra Shocks

 

What is your favorite color?

Carbon Fiber

 

Who is your favorite fictional character?

The Punisher

 

Who is your hero?

My wife – I have been with her for 13 years.  We got married a year and a half ago.  She is my biggest supporter and constantly pushes me to be best at everything I do and supports me 100% with racing, working on the cars, and the fact I am out of town 4 days a week working in West Vriginia away from her.  She does everything for me and never asks for anything in return.  I am blessed to have her, so she is my hero.  And I’m know I’m hers.

 

What else do you want the public at large to know?

We’re really looking for an opportunity to be able to step up to a national touring series in the near future, after racing regionally for the past several seasons and picking up wins at many different tracks we feel like we’re more than ready and able to jump up to the next level.  We’ve run very well against national competition when they come to our area and we would love to be able to travel and race at that level on a regular basis.

 

What’s your favorite racing memory?

1^st career feature win in just my second start driving a race car!  (Limited late model at Pittsburgh’s Pennsylvania Motor Speedway)

 

Any advice or wisdom you want to impart?

Pursue your dreams and never give up!

 

 

 

 

 

Class: Modified-- #6 Mat Williamson (32 career modified wins?  He’s not sure. “Someone else does the counting for me hahaha”-he says)

How old are you?

25

 

How long have you been racing?

Since I was 4, started in karts then modifieds when I was 14

 

Who are your sponsors?

FOX shocks, Bicknell Racing Products, and S and W service centre

 

What is your favorite color?

Red

 

Who is your favorite fictional character?

Jax from Sons of Anarchy

 

Who is your hero?

My hero would be my dad.

 

Words of advice?

Words of advice for anyone trying to make it in racing would be to just keep trying, a lot of people will tell you no along the way but you can’t give up.

So those are my Friday guys. Up next: my post from the Don Martin Memorial Silver Cup at Lernerville. And for my next race? Cancel your plans-- I'm hoping to make it to Sportsman's Speedway in Knox sometime in the next month.  

<3/ Miss Dirt Dog

 

Winner Wednesday (Lernerville 6/25-6/26 2015)

Okay well look at this, you came back!  The last race I went to before this, I caught up with some weekly program feature winners.  I wanted to keep that going, so this week I caught up with this past weekend’s preliminary night A-Main winners: Shane Clanton (the Georgia bulldog himself) and Chase Junghans (whose last name literally sounds to me like “young gun”, and he is!).

 

I didn’t know how this was going to go, because when you’re traveling with the WoO and winning features, I don’t know if you have time for some girl to be facebook messaging you begging for the answers to some questions.  But I got lucky.. because racecar drivers are people too.  :)

 

OKAY.  Let’s dive in.

 

Class: Super Late Model-- #25 Shane Clanton (over 300 career feature wins)

How old are you?

39

 

How long have you been racing?

21 years

 

Who are your sponsors?

WeldBank Energy, Super K Express, PennGold, Hornburg Drilling, Keyser Manufacturing, Capital Race Cars, Clements Automotive, Hoosier Tire, GW Performance.

 

What is your favorite color?

Yellow

 

Who is your favorite fictional character?

Don’t have one!

 

Who is your hero?

My dad

 

What else do you want the public at large to know?

Never give up, follow your dreams

 

 

Class: Super Late Model-- #18 Chase Junghans (9 career feature wins)

How old are you?

22

 

How long have you been racing?

Been around it since I can remember, been racing for about 6 years

 

Who are your sponsors?

ShopQuick Convenience stores, Sunoco race fuels, Capital Race Cars, Keyser Manufacturing, GW performance, Integra shocks, Hooker harness.

 

What is your favorite color?

Probably blue

 

Who is your favorite fictional character?

Joe Dirt for sure

 

Who is your hero?

Probably my brother

 

If you want to add anything else, I’d be happy to put it in!

Uh we should get married!

So, spoiler alert, I didn't get married to Chase (surely you would have seen that on Twitter by now) but I do have a sense of accomplishment for keeping up my idea and interviewing winners. And you read this so, technically even though this isn't a game, I think I win. :)

I love you guys. And I can't wait to write to you all again. My TDD sash is packed for Sharon Speedway on July 11th, so cancel your plans-- we're going to the Lou Blaney memorial. :)

<3/

Miss Dirt Dog

Fast Firecracker

Morning, Amigos.  Last we spoke, I had just gone to Bedford with my mom on mother’s day weekend in my Youth Racing Solutions sash.  Since then, some things have changed.  And it’s all positive!! 

 

In June I signed on with Team Dirt Dog!!  If you’ve never heard of DIRT DOG GEAR, then kindly crawl out of your cave and get a social media account or visit DirtDogGear.com.  Actually, I’m going to highly recommend the social media account anyway—and it should be twitter (@queenielainey is how you can follow along with my racing and non-racing shenanigans and @teamdirtdog is how you can follow theirs!).  TDD is a media, merchandising, and marketing company based in Tennessee that ships merchandise, wait for it, GLOBALLY.  It’s also a neat company to get involved with if you’re an actual car or team owner, because they will partner with drivers to raise money for your program.  It’s win-win.  Anyway, back to the meat and potatoes of it, I’m representing their brand for the remainder of the season as Miss Dirt Dog!!  After a couple of lengthy emails and phone conversations, I fell in love with the philosophy and the values of the company and I’m happy to say I think I’ve found a fun place to stay for a while as a victory lane representative.  

 

So I packed up my new sash and headed to Lernerville this past weekend for the World of Outlaw Late Model Firecracker 100 weekend.  To say that the weather “did not look good” would have been akin to saying “no, no, go ahead… light that candle near the freshly poured gallon of gasoline, I think you’ll be able to avoid the fumes”… i’m not going to lie, people: I was NOT optimistic.  But I got on the road Thursday after work all the same, and it rained on the way down.  And it rained til I got there… and then it kinda stopped raining.  And the sun came out.   And I texted my friend in the next town over to find out when he was coming to the track and he said that he wasn’t in a hurry because of the pouring rain- and I told him it wasn’t pouring at the track, it was actually SUNNY.  I was met with disbelief, but anyway.  So then if you can believe it, it didn’t rain through the entire race program.   Eric Westendorf and the entire Lernerville team kept the program moving at break-neck speed and nobody got wet!  The group of people running the show in Sarver, PA, really know what they’re doing.  In the end, Shane Clanton ended up parking it in victory lane with me, but let me tell you: Jared Miley was a contender and really showed his grit (both nights, actually).  

 

I’m going to pause here and just say that I don’t understand why more girls don’t go dirt track racing.  Even under the premise of running a SUPER fast-paced show to beat any rain that might have been on the way, the competition and the drama of it is amazing.  Girls love drama, right?? Anyway.  At some point, someone looked at me and asked if I came by myself.  YES, sometimes you just really want to go racing and nobody else does, so you go alone.  It’s not like I won’t know people when I get there, and it’s not like I can’t make friends (kinda the point)… anyway.  So if any girls out there are reading this and want to go dirt racing with me, even if you’ve never been… I’ll take you.  Stick with me, kid, we’ll go places.

 

For night two, I decided to bring a friend along—my mom!   (There’s a trend here… she’s hopefully going to be racing with me a couple other times this summer!)  She met me at the track after work and once again we had BEAUTIFUL weather.  We bought ourselves a bag of beer and got cozy in turn 4 after a quick lap through the pits to make appearances.  When I say we bought ourselves a bag of beer, I mean MOM WENT TO THE STAND AND ORDERED SO MUCH BEER… I don’t know what she was doing, I expected her to come back with a 6 pack but .. she just had so many cans.  Anyway, night 2 was much much dustier than night 1—but just as fast-paced.  Big E and the WoO team did not waste any time, and before I knew it (without any pageantry or fluff or time for me to get in the infield for the feature) Chase Junghans was taking the checkers.   And good for him!!  So we marched down to victory lane, and I even had a partner in crime!  Gerald Netwon of GottaRace graciously loaned his daughter for the duty of Miss Firecracker and she’s so pretty.  She handed Chase his hat, I handed him the trophy, and then it was all over… for racing anyway.  And it still hadn’t rained!  So I kept my dress on and decided to sign some autographs (some guy’s chest?  Another guy’s suspenders?) and then party it up.  Headed to the Froggy concert pavilion and danced a little!  

 

Then, as all things must do, it came to an end for us and we called it a night.  Sleepover at my house!!

 

Since you’re probably already a racefan and you probably don’t live in the cave I mentioned above, then you probably also already know that Lernerville didn’t run night 3 of the Firecracker with the 100-lap A-Main (among other scheduled sideshows like the Uncle Sam for non-qualifiers).  The weather was a disaster on Saturday and there was just no way—so they rescheduled to September.  If you’re wondering what I did, I capitalized: my friend had a bachelorette night and I attended.  It was a lot less clay dust in my hair and nose, but it was equally as fun on a different level.

 

So what did we learn here?  I love racing (by myself or with others), mom needs some guidance when it comes to how much beer to buy, and team dirt dog is newly well-represented in the northwestern Pennsylvania region.

 

Stay tuned for my next entry—Winner Wednesday.  I interview Chase and Shane for fun, and to keep the new tradition going. 

 

Where am I going next?  Glad you asked.  Cancel your plans, because we’re going to Sharon Speedway for the Lou Blaney memorial on July 11th. 

 

<3/

Miss Dirt Dog