Merry Christmas!!

Just wanted to wish everyone a very Merry Christmas! Hope everyone enjoys the day with their friends/family or however they spend their Christmas Day!

Bicknell Wins Down Under

Pete Bicknell represented Canada with a win in round 1 of the Rooster Cup last week in Australia. Bicknell held off 2008-2009 Rooster Cup champion Pete Britten for the win, and Mark Robinson rounded out the top 3. Interestingly enough, a Bicknell (Bicknell), a Troyer (Britten), and a Teo (Robinson), made up the top 3.

Friesen to Tom Cullen Racing; Other Tidbits

Stewart Friesen has been named the new driver of the Tom Cullen owned small block #1WGC modified. Matt Sheppard ran the car in special shows only last season, and collected a win with the team at Hagerstown Speedway. Friesen will run for the team weekly at Utica Rome Speedway, and will also run a handful of shows on the road with the car. Friesen will also have his own #1 for specials, and also the Bryan Chew owned #99 small block modified (according to Brett Deyo) if he ever wants it for specials. Chew runs the car part-time at Utica Rome.

Anthony Rizzardo, one of the sportsman divisions top drivers, is moving up to the 358 modified division. Rizzardo will run weekly at Ransomville Speedway with his self-owned equipment.

Look for a new driver in the Will Brown #1W for 2010.

Willix to run for SDS Title; Tobias Returns; Mike Payne Names Driver

2009 Can Am small block champion, and former 358 Dirt Series Rookie of the Year Lance Willix will be moving up to big block competition in 2010. Willix will run for the Rookie of the Year title on the Super Dirt Series tour, and will run weekly at Can Am and will run some select shows at Cayuga County. Willix may also run some of the big races at Utica Rome.

Richie Tobias, former Rite-Aid 200 champion, will be returning to modified racing, after only running the big block portion of Super Dirt Week the past 2 seasons. Tobias will be driving a blue #17 big block modified in select Super Dirt Series races and bigger paying big block races throughout the east coast. The car will be home built. Tobias may end up running the entire Super Dirt Series if sponsorship is found.

Mike Payne Racing has announced their 2010 driver. After running part-time last year with Gary Tomkins (which included a win for the team in Victoria 200 at Utica Rome Speedway which paid $10,000) Payne will field a car for weekly action at Ransomville Speedway. Danny Johnson will pilot the #7z small block modified at Ransomville next year. Johnson drove for Payne as recently as 2007, and also picked up wins with Payne at Five Mile Point Speedway in 2006 on the RoC Tour. Look for the team to also hit some RoC shows together.

Renninger/Hartz Team Up for 2010

Veteran racers Corey Renninger and Dale Hartz have hooked up to make an assault on Big Diamond Raceway's SBM and SPTS divisions. And honestly, anticipation is running VERY HIGH for this new combination, as both racers are former winners in their respective divisions at the track in "God's Country".

Both racers will be driving Teo race cars, as Dale will be in an '06 low rack with power under the hood from Main Racing Engines....And look for Corey to strap himself into a 2010 bow-flex car with an engine under the hood built by Gary Bouc from NJ....Also in the shop is a '07 Teo that will serve as a back up car for that "just in case" type of situation for this team....Look for both the cars to be designed/lettered just about the same, and carry the #JAISP 3....Stay tuned for more details about this new team/combo as the season gets closer.

Pauch Jr/Eastern Rigging @ Grandview

The word is out and the DEAL IS DONE....Billy Pauch Jr hooks up with the Ed and Karen Nowotarski Eastern Rigging racing team for a full on assault at the Grandview Speedway and the tracks prestigeous SBM champiosnhip....Jr will have 2 cars and 3 motors at his disposal for the weekly "wars" at the track on the hill....Only the best of luck goes out to this new combination.

Johnny Rea Names Driver; Cars on Track This Weekend

Johnny Rea, who recently was forced to find a new driver for his #R1 small block modifieds after Ryan Godown left the team, has found a new driver. Rick Laubach will take over the driving duties of the #R1 in 2010, Area Auto Racing News reports, for weekly competition at Big Diamond Raceway. The team will also enter Thunder on the Hill shows at Grandview Speedway.

Got the racing itch? Dirt modifieds will be part of a test this coming weekend at New Jersey Motorsports Park. That's right, dirt modifieds will be testing on an asphalt road course. If the test goes well, expect at least one dirt modified race on the road course next year.

Thank You Diamond Dog! New Stuff Coming

Just wanted to thank Diamond Dog for putting some blog posts up, while the news is slow, giving you guys something to read. Finals are coming up for me next week, and with final papers and projects, it's been busy. So, the blog has suffered.

With that said, I'm putting together a team chart, which myself and two of my friends, Mike Staiger and Chris Coogan, did two and three years ago. Since I'm on my own now, I didn't do it last year, but it's making it's return this year. It won't be as in depth as two years ago, but whenever I find out a big or small block modified drivers plans for 2010, it'll go on the team chart. Obviously, since it's early in the season, I don't have much together right now, but as it gets closer to the 2010 racing season, and more drivers begin to announce their 2010 plans, it'll go up on the blog. Stay tuned!

Van Horn & Hineline back at BDR 2010

While the brutal cold weather starting to settle in here in Pa, a couple of drivers have announced some of their plans for the 2010 season, warming our racing thoughts up a bit, lol.

In a recent interview by Doug Elkins on Doug's Dirt Diary, David Van Horn announced that he'll be back at Big Diamond Raceway every Friday night next season, also announcing that his Saturday night plans are still up in the air a bit, but it could be back to OCFS on Saturdays, but he wasn't ready to confirm that....DVH also mentioned that he'll be back in the same cars he ran last year, as all of them have only around 20 races on them or so....I'd look for DVH to pick up career win #2 in "God's Country" next season, backing up his first win from last year.


In a pretty recent phone conversation with Dan Hineline, he mentioned that he will be back at BDR in 2010 in his #15X sbm....Dan really impressed many last year at BDR, and almost picked off his first win at the track twice....The one Friday night Dan was GONE, CHECKED OUT, and was leading the race till around lap 19, when a mechanical failure seen him come to a stop in between turns one and two....Then a few weeks after that, Dan DUSTED the field again, this time though he took the checkered flag, the celebration was on, but a post race inspection found an issue with the carburetor on the Bicknell #15X, and it was deemed illegal, taking the win away and Dan getting the 'ole DQ....But there is no doubt in many peoples minds that Dan will get back to victory lane at BDR in 2010, with the same Bicknell chassis he ran last year, and this time it will count for good, and Hineline will add his name to the prestigeous BDR record books.

WOW....Questions on the Pa Mod Scene

As the holiday season is upon us, seems there are many questions surrounding on what drivers will be racing what cars, at what race tracks for 2010....It's still pretty early yet in the off season, but no doubt questions are abound as to what's going to all go down when spring time rolls around, as even some of the "top dogs" haven't offically announced plans yet....Two of the "Big 3" here in Pa, Craig Von Dohren and Jeff Strunk have yet to offcially announce plans or the race teams they will be driving for next year, but SPECULATION (that's all it is) has it both COULD return to their deals for '09, with CVD back with Mike Harvey, and Strunk back with the Gagliardo racing team for next year, but nothing has been offically announced....The other part of the "Big 3", Duane Howard, has announced plans for next season, as Howard will be back with BPG Racing, and their main focus will be winning the title at Grandview Speedway, with many big block specials planned during the season, as there has been no mention of definite Friday night plans as of now....Many qustions and rumors going around about Ryan Godown for 2010, as Ryan won some BIG races at both BDR and Gview last year while driving for JR Motorsports, but that combo has split, and Ryan is exploring all his options for 2010, maybe even leaving the Pa sbm scene and returning to NES next year, stay tuned on that one....Billy Pauch Jr is another who is out there putting together plans for next season, as PPB Racing has decided to take a year off from the sport, and word has it he's close to announcing them, at least for one of the 2 nights of weekly racing next year....With Norm Hansell wanting one driver that will run both nights next year, which can't happen with Rick Laubach as Rick runs NES on Sat, who'll be in the seat of the #357 is a "hot" topic right now....Talk has several teams are cutting back or are waiting to see what kind of sponsorship can be is found to see if they will be racing next year, as Brett Deyo reported in this weeks AARN that Shawn Reimert and Kyle Weiss are two of them....Brad Missimer's owner Don Schaeffer has announced he'll be stepping away this year, leaving Missimer looking at options for racing at Gview next season....Guys like Rick Laubach and Ryan Watt have made it known they are looking for deals for BDR next year as of now.

With the tough economy and the times being really tough right now for so many, it's going to be interesting, to say the least, as to what the local 2010 racing scene is going to look like once April comes along, and right now, just seems there are way more questions then there are answers, I guess we'll find out what some of those answers are as the winter rolls along.

Mastrocola Racing Announced New Driver

Mastrocola Racing has announced who will take over in the team's second modified for the 2010. Jeff Richardson, the 2009 Accord Speedway crate sportsman champion, will take over for Tom DeMarmels in Mastrocola Racing car, and will run as a teammate to Mike Ricci weekly at Accord Speedway. DeMarmels, as previously reported, had to leave the team to focus on his business, and will not be racing in 2010.

Finally, Some Good News!!

After seeing a few teams already fold, and some driver retiring, finally, we racefans get some good news. As previously reported, HP Motorsports can't afford to field a car in 2010, and also previously reported, Troy Wink can't afford to field his own operation for 2010. The solution; Wink and HP Motorsports will be teaming up for 2010, combining Troy Wink's team and the HP Motorsports team. The team will compete at Big Diamond Raceway on Fridays, and will run Saturdays at Grandview Speedway. Also, look for the team to travel to some select small block races at tracks like Hagerstown and Delaware, and possibly Selinsgrove.

Also, as for HP Motorsports former driver Ryan Watt, who also lost his Saturday night BPG Motorsports ride, look for Watt to team up with Ron Roberts Racing in a second team car (the first, of course, driven by Roberts) for weekly competition at Bridgeport Speedway.Nothing is official yet.

Also, rumors are swirling that Tom Cullen Racing, who ran part-time this past season with Matt Sheppard behind the wheel of the #1WBG small block modified, will be replacing Sheppard with Stewart Friesen in 2010. Cullen is interested in running weekly again, as opposed to specials-only, which is all Matt Sheppard's schedule allows him to do. Once again, nothnig is official yet.