IntheGrooveAugust

In the Groove-September 2005
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Sept 7th - Delaware Dynasty - Matt Robblee
Sept 14th - Mark Sammut takes on a new challenge
Sept 21st - After the Crash / Modified Division Final
Sept 28th - Late Model Winners show the Class of Delaware Spdwy

Delaware Dynasty - Matt Robblee
Many people are involved with sports when they are growing up or as young adults, but these sporting interests tend to fall away as the busyness and responsibilities of life increase. So by the time their kids are car pooled off to practises and games, parents are often sports fans but not participating themselves. Kids hear “old” stories of Dad or Mom’s glory days as athletes but for many it never really connects on a learning level and parents are relegated to the position of observers of their children’s sporting activities.

In racing men and women of all ages and/or levels of experience compete on the track and in the pits together in the same divisions creating a very different situation. The race car acts as an equalizer; behind the wheel or in the pits differences in age, height, weight and strength disappear. Often, several generations of assorted relatives and friends will make up a race team and, in some cases, family members of different generations run against each other in the same series - take Dale Ernhardt Senior and Dale Junior for example.

It is difficult to say with any certainty how much heredity has to do with this tendency for racing to run in families, but with racing being so much about long hours of work preparing or repairing equipment, much of what is passed on in racing families is the understanding of how much money, work and dedication a life in racing takes.

Eighteen year old Matt Robblee is a third generation racer. His grandfather worked on race teams and his dad, Steve, holds the record for number of races won at Delaware Speedway. Steve continues to be a top competitor in the Cascar Sportsman and often the Cascar Super Series divisions.

The 2005 season is Matt’s second year in the Challenger Truck division at Delaware. His truck is housed at the same shop as his dad’s race cars and the crew that comes with him to each event is made up of crew members who have been with his dad’s team for many years and, of course, his dad. Matt has known these men all his life. “It is like being with family” Matt says “in fact some of them are family”.

Matt thinks nothing of working on his race truck until nearly midnight most nights a week – he knows how this game goes. But even with all the knowledge, experience, hard work and a well known last name, racing is not always smooth sailing.

Before this season even began, Matt’s truck blew an engine in practise. It was the beginning of what is known in racing as “an eventful” year. The team has replaced the truck’s engine three times in all, has experienced several flat tires and two wrecks the most recent of which caused extensive damage to the truck.

“It’s frustrating” Matt acknowledged. “We put in all this time and then things are still going wrong.” Matt would like the equipment to stay together so that he can work on improving his driving skills.

It has not been all bad news this season, however. Matt has two heat race wins to his credit and a string of top five finishes that put him near the top of the points standings for a while. And he had the opportunity several weeks ago, to test drive his dad’s Cascar Sportsman car during practise time. “I think everyone on the track passed me” he says. “But it was fun. It was a lot easier to drive than the truck and when you put your foot of the gas, it has a lot of power”.

Along the way, there is plenty for Matt to learn from his more experienced team members. When asked one evening how the truck was handling during a practise session, Matt replies “It’s perfect?” His dad and crew member Dave Alexander, who is also a former driver, shake their heads. “A race car is never perfect” they explain to Matt. “If you think it is, then you aren’t driving it hard enough”.

So what is the most important thing that Matt has learned from his dad this season? “I’ve learned that when my dad tells me something, believe him” Matt says laughing. But Matt doesn’t have to simply take his dad’s word for it. He can show up at any Cascar Sportsman race or the Cascar Super Series race this past weekend and watch his Dad demonstrate how to run with the best of the best. How many other kids in sports get that opportunity?

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Mark Sammut takes on a new challenge
Thirty three year old Mark Sammut is no stranger to the winners circle. He began go-kart racing when he was 9 years old and chalked up a array of wins before moving on to the Can-Am Midgets in 1991. He posted an impressive 22 feature wins in the Midgets on his way to winning the championship in 1996 and the 97-98 Indoor Midget Championship.

From a “winning” point of view, Mark would appear to have had it made. “Running the Midget was fun – they go fast for the size of them” Mark says “but it was time to move up and try something different.”

In 1998 he made the move to the IMSA Super Modified circuit. “These are the best class out there” Mark explains. But it has been challenging. Although Mark has won a few heat races and garnered the award for Most Improved Driver in 2003, he has yet to take home his first feature win with the Super Modified. “Sometimes I find it frustrating, especially after winning so much with the Midget” says Mark. “But this is a lot tougher class and we are getting closer.”

For Mark, and his dad Tony who has worked on race cars most of his life, it wasn’t just the challenge of racing in the ISMA division that attracted them. Both agree that the “do it yourself” nature of the Super Modified division continues to intrigue them. “There is a rule book” Tony Sammut explains, “but not lots of rules. No two cars are the same and everybody has their own ideas about what makes them fast.”

Unlike the Late Model divisions, there have never been any major car builders for Super Modifieds. From time to time, a driver might build cars for other racers and such names as Page Chassis or the current favourite, Hawk Chassis, become well known.

However, for the most part, Super Modifieds continue to be entirely fabricated by the teams that race them and it is this aspect of Super Modified racing that the Sammuts and their team love as much as the speed and quality of competition that the class offers.

In the garage in north west London that serves as a race shop for Sammut Racing, the Super Modified takes up most of the space It is a tangle of red and grey bars set between immense slick tires, still coated with melted rubber, stones and debris from last weekend’s racing, and overshadowed by a huge wing. Weighing in at 1850 lbs, the super modified has an 850 hp engine making it fast and manuverable, and an open wheel design that encourages low contact racing.

Around the car in the cramped quarters, is the usual clutter of benches, parts and equipment needed to repair and maintain the race car, but in this shop there is also a rack to hold tubing and all the equipment needed to actually build a race car.

At first, the team purchased a damaged race car, repairing it over the winter to run the first year. It was 2002 before they completely built their own car. “It took us the whole winter” Mark says. “We don’t do this for a living - only at night. We started when the season was over and had it done for the spring.”

The car runs coil overs (a spring wrapped around a shock, rather than the two being separate) where many other teams choose to run a torsion bar suspension and every week the team is experimenting with different ideas to improve the car’s speed and performance. Currently they are working on a hydraulic plus air system to lift the wing as the car goes into the corner rather using either air or hydraulic.

“This year” Mark says “the car has run a lot better than it has any other year, so we’ll just keep plugging away at it and hopefully we will get a win here.”

Because, when it comes right down to it racing is the most fun when you win and when that first Super Modified win does come Mark’s way, it will be sweet.

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After the Crash - The Modified Division Final
“There was a slight noise, and then boom and the car looped around” Jamie Cox says. He is explaining how the wreck, which wiped out almost the entire open wheel modified field September 3rd, began with his car’s blown engine. When Jamie’s car came to a stop, he sat for a second before the car of Lloyd Rawlings hit his. “There were no tires squealing before he hit me” Jamie says “because he was sliding in oil.”
Roger Newman, father of driver Barry Newman, was watching the race from nearby turn one. “There was all this smoke, couldn’t see anything and then the sound of metal and concrete hitting – I hate that sound – and then there was silence.”
When the smoke cleared and the track was cleaned up, only three cars out of the original 12 car field were able to take the green flag to finish the remaining six laps of the race. It was the first win for Mark Watson, who told the crowd that being handed a win he hadn’t expected felt like Christmas.
With only two weeks until September 17th when the final race of the season was scheduled, many teams had major work to do to get their machines race ready again.
Jamie, who had a 60 point lead going into the final race, only needed to start the feature in this event to secure his seventh championship. In addition to the blown engine, his car had a bent front clip and needed “pretty much everything else in the front end”. For him, a car borrowed from former modified division driver Robb Starr was the answer.
For nineteen year old driver Paul Shipway, many hours of repairs were needed to replace a front clip, an engine and transmission. His grandfather Don Shipway, put in several weeks of long hours in the shop to make the repairs. As often happens when there is major damage in a race, Paul’s car broke a panhard mount in the heat race on the final day of racing. “It likely got fractured in the wreck” he explains “and fortunately it is repairable because we want to do well in this race.”
Windsor native and long time modified division runner Lloyd Rawlings estimates that he, his brother Doug and one other crew member put in about 100 hours reassembling their car after it came back from being reclipped. “When I got out of the car after the wreck, I could see water, so I knew the rad was toast” Rawlings says. “Even the steering wheel was bent. It must have hit me in the chest, cause it still hurts to breath in.”
“The right front wheel was pushed back as far as the windshield” says Barry Newman explaining the damage to his car. “We had the car straighten and that took a lot of work.” Street Stock division driver Dave “Stretch” Silverthorne came through for them with his many years of experience straightening car frames. “Straightening the car is faster, easier and less expensive - but it’s not as straight as replacing the clip” Barry explains. “It is still working well though”.
His crew, including sponsors Ralph and Mike Laurs who own Laurs Automotive in Springfield put in the extra hours needed to bring the car back to the track in good racing condition. “We wouldn’t be here if it weren’t for them” says Barry.
When asked why all the work is worth it, Barry Newman’s team has no shortage of answers. “It’s the sound of the motor, the smell of the gas, it’s like a drug, we’re hooked on it, it’s better than drugs, it’s better than sex”. They all talk at once, laughing as the throw out suggestions.
The final race of the season is filled with cautions which begin before one lap is even on the board and in the end; it turns out to be Barry Newman’s race - his first win of the season.
“This is the reason we do all that work” an elated Roger Newman says as he dashes by on his way to meet his son’s winning car in tech lane for a post race inspection. “It is this feeling. That is why we do it”.

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Late Model Winners Show the Class of Delaware Speedway
It was a little bit confusing. When the green flag dropped on the final late model feature race on September 17th, two separate championships were being decided.

First, there was the Delaware championship. Based on the points for the eighteen races that made up the Delaware season, this one was fairly straight forward. Pete Vanderwyst, who led the Delaware points from the beginning of the season, finished second in the final race to wrap up his first Delaware Championship; 11 points ahead of second place Scott Lindsay.

Last year, this win would also have given Pete’s team a second title; the Nascar Dodge Weekly Series championship but changes to the scoring system Nascar uses for their regional racing programs made it possible in 2005 for tracks to have different teams win the two titles. And that is what happened at Delaware.

Two events on the Delaware Late Model schedule were “triple” races – where teams ran three races, all for points, in one evening – and NASCAR rules only permit two of the three to be counted for Nascar Dodge Weekly Series points. This resulted in the Nascar Series points being calculated on only 16 races.

Scott Lindsay came through as the Nascar Dodge Weekly points winner; his second year winning the title. “We won the main one as far as we are concerned” Scott says. “It is really hard to put it all together to win two years in a row. And we are happy with that”. Part of the reward for being Delaware’s Nascar Dodge champions is an invitation to the gala awards event held by Nascar to honour all the regional winners and award those who finished with the most points overall. Lindsay’s team made the trip last year and Scott says it was the highlight of his racing life.

After the flash, professionalism and high profile faces of last year’s gala event in Nashville, Scott’s entire team was determined to make the return visit. “My crew worked really hard this year. They gave me great cars every week, no mistakes” Scott says. “In two seasons, we have only missed running one lap – and that was near the end of last year. That is what wins these points deals; you don’t always have to be the fastest car out there”.

The 2005 season was a ton of work for the team who switched mid season to a new style late model. “We put a lot of work into the old car “Scott explains “and then, when we decided to go with the new car, it was a really short time frame – only 2 weeks – to make the switch. And everything was different. It was a steep learning curve.”
The team brought home one victory early in the season with the old car and another one July 8th in their second week out with the new car. “It was a ton of work” Scott says “but worth it.”

Pete Vanderwyst is disappointed at not winning the Nascar Dodge title; however, he is more than happy with his team’s results this season. “It has been a fantastic year” Pete says. “We accomplished what we wanted to accomplish, and we were very happy with that.” Pete’s team won the season’s first race, and led the points through the entire season, posting four more feature wins along the way.
Pete returned to Delaware racing this season after many years racing in the Cascar Super Series. It had been exactly ten years since he won Delaware’s Rookie of the Year Award.

It has been a year of firsts for the St Thomas, Ontario native; his team’s first championship, the first championship for a crate motor car running against built racing motors. It has also been the first year in twenty years that Delaware late models have had the opportunity to travel to other tracks to run in their late model divisions.

And Pete’s team has been busy through the season taking advantage of this. They won all three races at Flamboro Speedway to take home the Grisdale Cup, and they are currently poised to win their division of the Lucas Oil Weekend Warrior Series.

The positive results Pete has shown outside of Delaware confirms what many have always thought - that at Delaware Speedway has some of the best drivers and teams in Ontario and beyond. The Lucas Cup isn’t decided until the Thanksgiving weekend race at Peterborough Speedway, so if you haven’t had enough racing yet, and what fan of racing ever has, you still have time.

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