North Country Race Talk

Well then...Maybe we should be completely correct in our investigation of ride height. I myself raced a ranger at AIS for 3 years. I find it funny that with an UNALTERED frame with a FRAME RAIL ride height of 5" my crossmember measured 7 or 71/2 ". Must be i had an oddball ranger? Its over and done but just my 2 cents. Thanks for 6 years of racing it was fun while it lasted!

Themadman09,you said it right,so lets move on to next year and get our cars and trucks ready.do not want to hear anymore about AIS,it's over!!! would like to know were everyone is going so i can come and watch and so would a lot of other fans.

If the mills stays dirt I'll i might try that or Utica Rome not sure yet....

The # 22 truck being illegal, i forgot about the morning after that race, i had nothing to gain from him being disqualified except for the 10 dollars i would have got from finishing 2nd instead of 3rd. I did what i did because i wanted the racing to be fair. now that i know i can drop all off my crossmembers down lower then the frame rail, it makes me think of was to make my truck faster. As for the week after the race i posted alot of remarks on the forum about the legalality of the 22 truck, I would not have done this if i was not 1) harassed by Dr Sam Yancey sunday night 2) made to look like a fool, when someone tells me i am wrong, when i whole heartly know i am right then we have some problems. So the track officials did what they did and the ruling was the #22 truck was legal, Congratulation to Greg Roes for keeping the truck clean all season. Now that that is said here is the serious note.......


1) Where is the payout from the last points race?

My winnings were only 75 bucks so it isnt much but it would still be nice to get some of the 200 dollars i spend on a given race weekend

2) When is the award banquet going to be?

I got my 9th place plaque from 2 years ago my 7th place from last year now it would be nice to get that 3rd place trophy on the shelf

3) If we dont have an awards banquet do we still get a check from the points fund?

This are my concerns as of now, i dont care what happens at the track but the track owes all the racer there last race winnings, there points fund check, and the plaque or trophy for the good work and hard racing and putting on a good show for the fans, because isnt that what it is all about, The Fans!

So if the AIS management could reply to my question that would be really appreciated for everyone concerned, lets try and save some of these burning bridges before it is to late


Thanks, Dan Bellinger Jr., Driver and Fan

Dan:

I'm not sure who, if anyone, is officially responding from AIS management, so I'll tell you what I've heard. As far as I can tell, there is some kind of plan to get plaques, trophies, and points money handed out in a setting other than a banquet. Not sure what that would be. There is also a question of whether ASA will be coming through with some additional points money or not. Last year they didn't and I can't imagine they'll be any better off this year.

I usually stop in to the speedway offices every ten days or so and if I hear anything else, I'll post it here.

Keith

Thanks Keith

announcer wrote:Then there's the state grant that under a new administration mysteriously became a loan that needed to be paid back after it was all spent.
Keith

In the interest of keeping one's facts accurate, I suggest reading the following press release and drawing your own conclusion. The reason the state grant became a lien against the speedway isn't exactly a 'mystery' after all...
http://www.oag.state.ny.us/media_center/2004/dec/dec7a_04.html

thanks for the link ! its good to see a little of what really went on

well i still dont understand .......

Chuck,

I'm no attorney, but this is what I see;

A non-profit corporation by the name of Lewis County Opportunities, Inc. (LCO), secured a $500,000 grant from Lewis County (not New York State) to fund development of the Almost Mile Track at AIS (not Paul Lyndaker.) The New York State Attorney General's Office felt $382,725 of the grant was inappropriately dispersed to Paul. In a legal settlement, Paul agreed to pay back $40,000, and have Lewis County hold a mortgage on AIS for the $342,725 balance. There's no interest, and it is and will always be subordinate to any other liens. In fact, the only time the mortgage is due and payable is if the facility is no longer used as a race track! Even if the track is sold, the new buyer could assume an interest free loan automatically if it continues to be a race track. Sweet deal!

In another attachment, that same non-profit corporation received a USDA Rural Development Grant for the purchase and installation of bleacher seating for 1400. Then it entered into a Partnership Agreement with AIS agreeing to a long term lease with AIS for the bleachers. AIS didn't own the bleachers at the time of the legal settlement, but there was an arrangement to continue the lease after the settlement. Whether AIS currently owns the bleachers is unknown. According to the ruling LCO and AIS were to cut all ties to one another.

Hope this clears up the "Grant became a Loan" mystery.

Cleveland - Thanks for the link.

Steve Burton, TA SS #10

When you get a government grant, it is usually a good idea not to award a no bid contract to another company to do the work, ESPECIALLY when the proprietor of the facility in receipt of the grant is also the owner of the excavation company to whom the no bid contract was awarded... Not only is it not in the best interest of the tax paying public, it is a violation of the law. As far as the Steamer is concerned, someone is very lucky that it would not have been a good political move for a then Attorney General who was aspiring to be Governor of New York State (Spitzer) to throw the book at the culprits in this case... Then again extracting the monies back was likely tantamount to 'squeezing blood from a stone'...

I'm not sure who the bigger fool was in this case, but anyone who believed the 'Almost Mile' could be completed or nearly completed for $500,000 has been sniffing the vast amounts of cow dung in Lewis County for far too long. For $500k you cannot even put a concrete retaining wall around a one mile speedway, never mind the excavation necessary to build it, the asphalt needed to pave it, provide proper drainage and access tunnels, or finally put a fence around it. Likewise your politicians should be ashamed that they allowed such a wasteful expenditure of money without any comprehensive plan and an audited review of that comprehensive plan... It's Obamanomics but just on a much smaller scale! Do you think an administration that cannot reliably and orderly set entry and admission fees or purses on a regular basis could produce an estimate within 10% of the actual cost or time to complete any of the aforementioned aspects of racetrack construction?

Now time to look at the $342k lien on the speedway from another angle... Ask yourself this, if your neighbor had a free mortgage from the county for his big, but uncompleted house, do you think he should be entitled to a significant tax adjustment down to a small ranch from the county before you get one? One has to wonder if the speedway's ability to change its tax situation might be enhanced if this lien--or 'interest free loan' as some call it--was paid off. It doesn't take a genius to figure out that the lien/loan is more like 342,725 thorns of bad will stuck one by one in the derriere of Lewis County... At some point someone has to pay for the opportunity cost for that money no longer being available to for projects that might actually employ people in Lewis County. Yes you can call it a sweetheart deal, yes indeed...