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For
Release - Friday April 11, 2008 - Jim Irvine -
Merrittville Speedway Public Relations - 905-892-8266
Thorold, Ontario
(April 11) – Merrittville Speedway’s 2008 Season is 15
Days away. Yesterday we learned about three young
drivers that share the #16. Today the number 16
continues with a special Merrittville edition of Tomas
Tales.
Tomas Tales is a
weekly e mail blog that you can sign up for that is
generated by the voice of the nationally syndicated
Raceline Radio Network.
And in just 15 days
and counting down – you will hear that voice along
with his announce partners Clinton Geoffrey and Fran
Buschardt when the Baron Roofing Windows and Doors
Spring Sizzler 100 takes to the track – Saturday April
26th.
The voice you will
hear belongs to Erik Tomas.
A native of Niagara on
the Lake – Erik lives in Fonthill with his wife Janice
and their daughter Katelyn – so close that he even
walked to the track one day.
Erik’s wife Janice is
the former Janice Uhl – daughter of former Speedway
Owner Kurt Uhl and Merrittville is where they met.
Janice was scoring and as a Niagara College
Broadcasting Student – first announced at Merrittville
in the mid 70’s.
Fast forward to 2008 –
and Erik’s ‘day’ job – anchor and host of The Raceline
Radio Network, Canada’s only national motorsport radio
voice is celebrating it’s 16th season on the air –
heard locally on 105.1 The River in addition to 18
other stations coast to coast across Canada.
Since his radio start
at CHSC in St. Catharines in 1975 – you may have heard
ET on the air on CKTB, CJRN, several stations in
Calgary Alberta in the early 80’s, CFTR and MIX 99.9
in Toronto.
Television viewers
have also seen him on TSN, the Empire Sports Network,
DIRT Motorsports Television and most recently on SPEED
around the World of Outlaws Late Models and the
DIRTcar Modified Series and Super DIRT Week.
If you have attended
what was the Molson Indy in Toronto you may have heard
his voice and for the last three years on the Champ
Car Radio Network for the 3 Canadian Events.
Hopefully, in 2009 we
will hear his voice again when at least the Toronto
Event returns to the IRL Schedule!
So if you are new to
Tomas Tales – here goes – sit back and enjoy …
The sport has changed
tremendously since I first watched the action at
Merrittville in 1960, and started announcing in the
mid 70’s.
Local racing through
the years? The die hards now are just as enthusiastic
as the fans were back in the 70’s. They have
their favorites and villains.
Once the old 30’s-40’s
era coupe and coach bodies became scarce, the
cheese-wedge shaped AMC Gremlin bodies brought us
around to building cars that were aerodynamically
sleeker, while the custom built tube frames helped
hook up the power better and were easier to repair.
Modified/Sportsman
cars became big, wide, heavy sprint cars with bodies
on them. Drivers could throw the cars
into the corners much
more aggressively, ala a sprint car.
Heroes like Ivan
Little, Jeno Begolo, Bill Rafter, Chuck Boos and Bruce
Van Dyke gave way to the dominance of Davey
Moore as team and car owners starting applying bigger
budgets
- “Cubic
Dollars”.
Glenn Donnelly brought
DIRT into the picture to homogenize the rules and
tracks.
Now we were all part
of a larger sanction. A bigger picture.
This meant local
drivers started running other member tracks and,
tours. The picture
grew well beyond the border of your local track.
The target got larger.
Instead of battling for the local track championship,
you also aimed to do
well at Syracuse and the “DIRT” overall Championship”
Pete Bicknell turned
his hobby into a ground breaking business while taking
over the dominator roll. Big Blocks became too
expensive for local shows and the small block arrived.
But still expensive, the crate engine idea to save
money is our insurance policy for the future. So we
don’t go broke and out of business.
It’s still utterly
amazing to me there’s still opposition to the crate
engine and cost containment in general. That makes no
sense to me!
One thing I miss? The
sound. We need to use mufflers now to stay good
neighbors, but the cars of today are no where NEAR as
loud as the cars in the 60’s into the 70’s.
Listen to that deep
rumble when a vintage modified visits.
Think about the big
block at full song times 24-25 cars. Music and
earth-shaking. Not like a sprint car. That’s alkie and
short collectors. I’m talking a big block V8 on gas
(or aviation gas) and that note never gets forgotten.
Along with that little blue flame out the end of the
headers. The smell was exquisite too!
Even though there’s an
overload of asphalt racing with NASCAR and open wheel
with the IRL and Formula One, dirt track racing is
just as popular, if not more popular now than it’s
ever been.
All the big money
short track races these days are on clay.
Going sideways,
3-wide, full bore is still one of the greatest thrills
in motor sport.
I can still get Mario
Andretti’s Italian eyes to dance when I ask him about
his dirt racing days.
This stuff is still
top notch affordable entertainment, and as budgets get
tighter for fans, it makes more sense than ever!
I have the utmost
admiration for the Bicknell and Williamson families.
Their hard work keeps the sport alive in The Niagara
Region.
And in reality, it’s
that same hard work ethic the owners of Canada’s
oldest dirt track deployed through the decades to
ensure the sport has been the only sport in Niagara
that’s survived for close to 60 years.
Not hockey, not
baseball... the racing at Merrittville Speedway.
That’s an amazing feat
not duplicated in too many places in this country.
We are very lucky this
track is still a part of lives.
Career hi-lites...
working in Toronto for the first time at CFTR (now 680
News), doing Toronto Maple Leafs play by play on TV in
the mid 80’s, the arrival of Indy Cars in Toronto in
1986 and my close association with the “bigs”.
The launch of Raceline
Radio 16 years ago, and to this day, I might be the
only sportscaster in the Canada that makes his full
time living in motorsport. That’s the most special.
Erik Tomas
Merrittville Speedway
and the local tracks not to mention all those across
the country are fortunate to have ET and his keen
interest in racing of all levels.
Listen for ET in just
15 days and all season long at Merrittville and Monday
Nights at 9:06 PM locally on 105.1 The River in
Niagara Falls.
Race fans can also
visit www.raceline.ca – powerful sport – popular
radio! |
