The Races at Millville, New Jersey

The PLANET MIATA Team arrived at Thunderbolt Raceway in Southern New Jersey late Saturday night for the race on Sunday. The PRO IT races are run in conjunction with the National races of SCCA. Thunderbolt Raceway is only 160 miles from home and the roads are great. I should mention I did not think so on my trip down. I went to visit a friend I race with who has some serious health issues at this time. I went by my GPS system and it took forever, and he lives a mere 30 miles from the track. It took me more than three hours to get to his house, so I figured it would take that long to go home after the races. Just so you know the trip going the speed limit took only 2 hours 45 minutes.

Lets get back to the track. I described it as a "hoot" of a track. The facility is well planned and new. The track itself is different. It's neither Lime Rock nor Summit Point nor Pocono. It has massive run-off room in case you run off the track; it has some blind turns. The fast turns are massive sweepers that get your adrenalin going, and then there is a section called the octopus - a combination of off-camber, decreasing-radius turns that kill your tires and should be redesigned. I know the track designer would say that's the way the cookie crumbles.

Speaking about race tracks, there are only a few race tracks that have a name that rings with the general public. The tracks that have magic names are: Indianapolis, Daytona, Pocono, Watkins Glen. Once you leave those names, the public thinks you’re speaking Chinese when you say you race at so and so track. Granted there are some tracks that are gaining name recognition such as Laguna Seca, Lime Rock, Mid-Ohio, but it will take several generations to gain the name recognition of the big four. Interesting that we get to race at one of the most famous tracks in the world, Pocono. Some don't care for the track, some don't like the location but you can't say you don't know the name. Some say we should not race at Pocono, that is fine but tell your neighbor you race at Podunk and see how impressed he or she is. Pocono should be a track we race at for as long as we can.

Millville, New Jersey

Many of you may wonder what Millville, New Jersey, is all about. Millville is a small town in the southern part of New Jersey. As I was watching the races from a high tower, I struck up a conversion with a man during one of the quiet times (when no cars were blasting by with the sound level so high you can't even think). I asked what they did in Millville years ago. The answer was interesting. He said to turn around and look at that building that houses the concession stand (which is an old airplane hanger) and look at the old hangers out at the airport (you can see it from the track), they housed the fighter airplanes here, the Thunderbolt and the Lighting, that's where they got the names for these race tracks. There are two separate race tracks at Millville, the Lighting and the Thunderbolt. We raced on Thunderbolt and as I said before it a HOOT to race on. I just started to get the hang of the place when the checker flag fell; 4th place in Spec Miata, not bad even if I must say so myself. I also watched Marc and Joe Diminno, from a distance, put on a great show in ITA, they passed each other a total of six or seven times. Joe got the last pass for a win in ITA and Marc got a new track record. Great show guys.

The Races

The day went so fast I only got to watch one race, the last one of the day. The National race, which had a cluster of classes, like the Touring classes 2 and 3, the showroom classes B and C, Spec Miata and some throw in's like STU (I don't know what that class is) but they are fast. A father and his two daughters were racing in one of the classes, Tom, Elizabeth and Amy Aquilante in SSB. Their uncle, Joe Aquilante, and his son were also there watching the action, one as a driver and the other a spectator like me. Our home town dentist, Dr. John Costello, was looking good driving his Honda in T3. A class act from the first moment I met him and every time since. Nick Leverone, driving one of his Flatout Racing Miatas was putting a great show, passing all the heavier cars in the turns only to be passed on the straights by faster and more powerful cars. It was enjoyable to watch the action. Mike Rossini was tooling his Spec Miata around, but I never knew it was him. Mike's trademark car is orange #12. He had a red #6 so I never knew he was even out in the pack of cars. I found out the next day when I called him to say "hello" and he mentioned the new car he built. Mike you need to call me ahead of time so I can tell you what I think of your driving! The overall winner was Phil Parlato in a fast BMW and I mean fast. Joe Plunkett had his Subway car looking good. His license plate on the car reads EAT FRESH. I have to get him one of our plates so the colors match better.

The PRO IT race, which I was in, proved interesting. I hung with the faster ITS cars for a long time, then the rear view wink mirror came off right at the end of the race. It hit my helmet and stuck in the space near my shoulder harness. My first instinct was to throw it out the window, I thought if it was on the track it would interfere with someone else, so I threw it down on the floor. Interesting how you remember your thoughts, it’s like in slow motion but actually happens in milliseconds. Driving without that mirror was interesting, I had to guess where people were around me so I gave cars lots of space, but was never passed by a car in my class, fortunately.

Lunch

I am not going to tell you what I ate. I went into the workers lunch room and before I could get a word out Earl Hurlbut's wife said, "Did you leave church early?" I didn't realize what she meant until I realized she was the lady I walked out of church with just before the services ended. I said to her everyone is watching me including your husband. Earl Hurlbut, the pit steward, came up to my car after the morning qualifying session, and I said to myself "What the heck did I do now?" He smiled and said he just wanted to say hello. Thanks for the kind gesture, Earl.

Sitting next to me was Brian Holtz, one of the chief honchos in our division of SCCA. We struck up a conversion about a young man who always keeps in touch with me. I write about him often, he doesn't race, in fact he can just about get to Pocono, but he calls me all the time just to say "how are you?" Those calls mean more to me than a call from the President of the United States. I got a call from Jeremy Anthony on my way home Sunday afternoon. "How'd you make out?", were his first words. I responded, "man you made my day." It's the little things in life that make it worth living.

Joe Willer was also there, another official in SCCA. I had seen him five seconds after I arrived in town the day before, in the motel parking lot. I said, “Joe you're following me around again." His wife, Nancy, responded, “He's harmless." She's right until you do something wrong.

If you want to see all the officials, go to the place where they eat lunch. That was my luck, so I got to talk to the Chief Steward Terry Hanushek, Walter Huber, Marc Gerstein and George and Judy Bloeser. The conversation with everyone was light as I don't want them to remember me saying the wrong thing.

I also sat next to Walt Michael, a safety steward, and asked if he was related to the former coach of the New York Jets, as he came from the town Marc has his business in. The answer was no relationship.

I was thinking about all the things I learned as I've gone through life and I think the most important is: I've learned that I wish I could have told my Mom that I love her one more time before she passed away.

BE SAFE GO FAST HAVE FUN
Love "the commander" Mike Cefalo