(Words and photos by Doug Gregory) – For those that read and look at my stuff on here it will be no shock to see some images with intentional lens flare.  I like it and will actually seek it out at times when the mood strikes and if I can’t get away from it I’ll put as much of it in the image as possible.  Before we get too far I have to point out something extraordinary that happened within the SAM race at this event.  Falcon Around belonged to Tony McConnell and has been seen previously in several events we’ve covered.  This day it was being piloted by Dwight McGuire, who owns and normally drives The Steel Lady Nash.  As a guest driver he took his borrowed mount all the way to the winner’s circle.  The celebration following that victory was nothing less than hilariously epic.  The sad part of this story is Tony has sold this car and it will no longer be entertaining folks at SAM events.  Word is it’s getting an infusion of power courtesy a much larger and fresh engine which is something Tony believes is against his religion as are new car batteries.

The racing surface at Thornhill is considered the great equalizer as it can be tricky even when well prepped.  The red Chevy II wagon didn’t show any signs of traction issues and was regularly carrying the nose many yards.  We never got a peek under the hood of the brilliant blue Monte Carlo SS, but I am pretty sure that wasn’t a dying power steering pump I heard.  The car looked and ran great.  As I stated in one of the stories covering an event at US-60 this year, Chris Huls’ ‘twisted mouse’ Austin is always a cinch for a solid, rolling burnout photo.  That light blue ’62 B-body is a nice ride and it seemed every time it came to the line I was out of position to capture a decent wheelie.  Eventually I caught it, but I can’t say it’s a great shot.  When it got dark we tried out my new flash and spent most of time trying to dial in the settings.  Couple that with the breeze blowing tire smoke into my zone and few images actually came out good enough to share.

Hope you all enjoyed.  Now I’m almost caught up with the events from earlier in 2018 that I didn’t complete in a timely manner.  I have an excuse and if you want a doctor’s note I’m sure that can be arranged.