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Dear Santa, I know this is a busy time of year for you, as all sorts of Christmas lists from boys and girls have made their way to the North Pole. I am sending along a wish of my own, and am hoping you may be able to help us out a bit. Here in Central New York we have a group of race drivers, teams, and fans that are a pretty close group. We spend our Saturday nights together at the race track. Through the years, we have gone through the ups and downs of a normal racing season. We have developed lifelong friendships, and really considered more of a “Saturday night family” rather than just a bunch of race fans. We have been going through a pretty rough stretch lately, and are just looking for a little help. First it all started with a trip to North Carolina in late October. Rising supermodified start Michael Barnes and his “Double Deuce” team wanted to support this new venture, and made the 12 hour haul to the Charlotte area. Michael is one of the newer talents to come into the supermodified division, and has taken the division by storm. He picked up a couple of feature wins this year, and has a bright driving career ahead of him. Michael is a guy you are proud to call a friend, and is as nice a guy as he is talented behind the wheel of a race car.  He just finished his time trial lap when the misfortune happened. It may have been a stuck throttle, may have been part failure or maybe something else happened, but the 22 took a right hand turn which resulted in a violent trip into the wall. The car viciously slammed the outside wall with great force, and then came across the track.. Michael, even though using the best safety equipment available, was stunned by the hit, and had to be removed from the car. He was transported to a Charlotte hospital with multiple injuries. The laundry list of ailments start with a lacerated lung and liver, fractured wrist, and included other assorted injuries that saw him do a few days of sheet time in the crash house. Now, after more than a month of doctors appointments and rehab, he is still hobbling around with the use of a cane. It looks like it will be after the first of the year to get back to a somewhat normal routine. We hadn’t totally dealt with Michael’s accident yet, and word reached that another member of our fraternity had a life changing incident occur. Sandusky, Ohio is another supermodified hotbed of activity. Through the last 20 years or so, Oswego and Sandusky fans have formed a unique bond. Joe Gillingham is one of those friends we met at Sandusky 20 some odd years ago, and has been a close friend since that first trip to the Hy-Miler. Joe owns the #55 driven on the MSA circuit by Rich Reid. The team was coming off the highlight of their season with a top five finish in the all star race in North Carolina. Joe has a thousand watt smile, and an infectious personality. He’s the kind of guy that can turn anyone into a good mood just with a conversation. All in all, Joe is one of the good guys, and a good friend.  November 12 started out like any other day for “Homey”. He and Crystal left 1416 Harrison St. and went to work, while daughters Megan and Ashley went to school. Shortly before noon, the Gillingham home exploded, victim of a natural gas leak that reduced what hours before was their home, to a pile of splinters and rubble. Family pet Trixie, a collie mix, was tossed around in the blast. She was treated at an Amherst vet and will recover from multiple injuries. Glass, wood and assorted debris was thrown over the neighborhood, while power lines were ripped from the poles, exposing live wires. Within minutes, the family home was gone. All the possessions, valuables, pictures, sentimental items, everything, gone. Fundraisers and insurance has gotten the family started on their feet again, but this will be a long road to recovery for the Gillingham family. The toughest one came just this past Sunday, November 25. Roughly 8pm or so, my e-mail in box received a disturbing note, one that made me just sit and stare at my computer for about a half an hour. The mail was short, and just said “Wheelie was killed in a car accident today.” I sat motionless, waiting for the inbox to get another mail and say “April Fool”. That one never came. Dave Johnson was as ardent a supermodified fan and supporter that you could find, anywhere. He was hooked on the supers since the day his dad took him to Oswego Speedway in his childhood, when he tagged the yellow supermodified of Doug Heveron as his favorite. From that day, supers were it for Dave. He got involved in the supermodified game, and for roughly 20 years, worked on pit crews for Gary Morton, Dace McKnight, and most recently the championship Greg Furlong team. Furlong Racing has re-written many of the modern day records, with Dave an integral part of the team. While he was Dave the other six days a week, once he walked through the gates of the “Steel Palace” on Saturday’s he was “Wheelie“. He put everything he had into the race team, and supermodifieds in general. He was tire specialist on the 72, as well as anything else that was needed. Anyone that knows supermodifieds knows how important tire technology is, and Wheelie knew the rubber on the four corners cold. As an example of that expertise, there are three main ingredients to winning the Oswego Classic, driver patience, fuel calculations and tires. Wheelie never had any substantial wear on the tires, in any of the record tying six Classic wins, including a record setting five in a row. He would be the first to get to the car, the first to defend Greg to no end no matter what(or any of his drivers), and challenge you to make the supermodified division just a little better each week.  This past Sunday, Dave was at his in-laws house, this time to lend a hand away from the speedway. He owned a landscaping business, and was there to help his father in-law clear the abundance of leaves that has recently fallen. As he was unloading his tractor to clean the lawn, he was hit by an oncoming car, fatally injuring him. This past June, Dave and Jen were married at DisneyWorld in Orlando. The couple just announced on Thanksgiving that they were going to have a baby. In the blink of an eye, the bright future a couple just had, was tragically taken away. Rest In Peace Wheelie. A longtime friend of mine, John Trenca, said this week things happen in three's. This bad luck streak didn’t stop at three. Supermodified driver from “back in the day” Bobby Stelter lost his life this week. Bobby was the definition of hell on wheels. He could take any super, manhandle it, and get every ounce out of it. There weren’t too many drivers that got more out of the machines they drove than Bobby Stelter. He lived up to the nickname that legendary announcer Jack Burgess tagged him with “Helter” Stelter. Bobby picked up his first Oswego supermodified win in 1969, and followed that up with five more career wins at the Big O. He was a master helmet carrier in the day, and Bobby Stelter goes into the supermodified record books as not only a colorful character, but one of the top all time drivers ever in the supermodified class. I know this was rather lengthy Santa, but I think you get the point. We have had a recently run of terrible luck. The only thing I am asking for this year, and hopefully it can be an early Christmas present, is for you to give us a bit of good luck, and stop this streak of recently bad luck that has come over the supermodified family. Please consider it, as too many terrible things have happened to too many good people. DJ |
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