Well my plan was to hit the SDS show at ‘Daigua, but working nights means your up all night and if you’re up all night it means you sleep until 3:45 and if you sleep to 3:45 it means you make it to the Track Of Champs just in time for the Modified heats and forget trying to make a 3 hour trip in 1:45 minutes. With that being said it was business as usual at Fonda Speedway for the season opening Ice Jam with 33 Modifieds on hand to take a crack at winning $4,000.

Since arriving fashionably late I had to shuffle quickly so as always my first stop was to Jumpin’ Jacks Pro Speed to chat with my favorite big money hustler aka parts dealer, Uncle Jeff Johnson. Caught up quick, chatted some racing, headed out saw RJ, visited for a moment to wish him luck then on to the infield down to turn 2 for what has been officially dubbed as “Hazerville.” (No not by me lol) On my way I met up with last night’s winner at The Ridge Big Time Little time and Tim Sr. who informed me it’s nearly impossible to carry me to victory lane, I’m expected to walk there on my own. My apologies, invite excepted, meet you there soon. Can we buy a golf cart though? (lol)

Images by DC made it a point to snap a pic of me doing an update on Twitter, which my apologies I don’t see questions sent in our live update window. I’m not on a laptop sitting in a tower, instead I’m normally wandering the pits or infield using my smarter than me phone. Got to turn 2 and who did I find? Mr. Rick At The Races himself Rick Young. Enjoyable chat with Rick led to a Chris Thayer sighting for the first time in probably 2 years. Caught up with him, while of course the younger McGaffin Jeremy was there snapping off photos for his poppa wild Bill. Erick Mack representing DKM/Shorty’s in Hazerville and of course a fixture in my neighborhood the Lunchbox who is expecting a little Edwards boy from the baby factory sometime soon. See I told you race fans I’m not all business at the track. (lol)

It may not have been a field full of star powered names this year due to some unfortunate scheduling, but it provided a feature finish worthy of a tour. Since it’s super hard to pick a winner all the time someone asked me who I thought would win since last year I seemed to pick the winner every other week. I said well, last night at The Ridge I picked all top 3 drivers to be there and Friesen for the win. Yeah that made me 100% going into Fonda’s Ice Jam. After seeing the lineup I quickly said to Big Time Little Tim “I’ll take Elmo man, he was fast enough to hold DeLorenzo off in the heat and he’s got a good starting spot. If he runs away nobody will catch him.”

Insert Mike Mahaney the 22-year-old kid from King Ferry, NY. Super fast in his heat he had everyone asking me the same question “Hazer who is the kid in the 21?” My first response was “listen the Internet is free and a big place, educate yourself” jokingly of course. Then I’d proceed to tell them Mike is an up and coming racer who dukes it out with the toughest of fields at Brewerton, Fulton, and Utica Rome. Normally Mahaney drives his number 33, but this was Mr. Davis car and it was a rocket ship. I won’t even lie I picked Elmo, RJ, and DeLorenzo for the top 3, which Elmo did just as suspected and ran away to start the race. The Modified feature started off awesome, as my gal pal Melizzaro finally came over to show some love. I can’t make it through a night at the track of champs without some racing laughter at the expense of someone else while chatting with her. (lol)

As the race wore on RJ and DeLorenzo made their way into the top 5 and I was thinking “man I need to start a horse race betting system on this, I’d bank dollar-dollar bills ya’ll.” Once Mahaney poked his nose under Elmo the two waged a slippery track war that was fantabulous to watch. Lap after Lap Mahaney poked under Reckner, which you could see Elmo appeared to be running a bit different. He was now hard on the loud peddle trying to keep Mike behind him.

While they were doing this DeLorenzo and Jim Davis were closing in. Matt Diesel got in there close to both, but Mahaney was able to make the pass with about 2 laps left. DeLorenzo and Davis got under Elmo in traffic, as it appeared Elmo was out of tire at that point. It was still a solid 4th place finish for the nicest guy in racing who has a new sponsor I frequent, Wendy’s. Mahaney was a treat in victory lane with a spirit and sense of humor you enjoy seeing in the young guys racing. He joked about thinking he was leading last year too, because he was in front of the pack, but found out he was a lapped car. (Kid is hilarious and can drive lol)

Brian Gleason and Jeff Rockefeller won sportsman dash races, which was a mild surprise. Gleason I had picked, but I will not lie I expected the inexperience on a slippery track to be tough for Rockafeller or Pessalano. While Pessalano found turn 2 a bit tricky in the 2nd dash, Rockafeller proved me wrong and won. Hats off to you Jeffrey, nice run. Johnny Scarbrough found the same tricky spot in turn 2 Pessalano did. Tough break for Jason Greco who rolled it in hot laps after racing was concluded. He has one of the sharpest looking cars in 2012. Hope he’s feeling well, which will lead to his return to the track soon. Get back on that horse Little J.

No Suprise that Kenny Gates won the Pro Stock dash, as he is a winning machine on slippery track conditions at Fonda. Great way to start the season for team Rabbit. (Kidding Joey) Nice run Mr. Kenny!

Well that wraps up my racing weekend race fans. These here posts are written as more of a blog style entry and not like my monthly columns, which are featured stories. So if they sound rambalicious just keep reading you’ll do fine. (Yes I make up my own words and language at times, read it, live it, love it.) Thanks to Jeff, RJ, and others who asked how I was feeling after some health issues kicked my a$$ this winter, it’s appreciated.

PS…my pick percentage so far in 2012 is a sluggish 56% after picking 5 top 3 finishers out of 9 spots. Stupid math. (lol) I'll still argue MLIU