Apparently I'm doing a well enough job here in northern New England. Confirmed early this morning, The Godfather returned to his balmy Connecticut bungalow satisfied that the Connecticut Motorsports Media Mafia is firmly entrenched here in Maine.Or something like that.
It was not an uneventful weekend for The Godfather, although I did learn that in some places, apparently, single digit temperatures in the middle of the night constitute "cold." Not that the esteemed Mr. Courchesne and I were out carousing in the middle of the night. Not by any stretch of the imagination.
As my wife will attest to, I was home by the reasonable hour of 4 a.m. each night this weekend. (What? That's not reasonable?)
We did manage to get some actual work done, however. Here's what we learned over the weekend (and by "we" I mean "I," because Courchesne was so cold he couldn't write anything down after his tape recorder froze up on him...):
* 4-time PASS North champ Ben Rowe is going to enter some ASA races with his Richard Moody Racing team, though the exact number of events is TBD. Rowe said they'd at least like to hit Bristol, Milwaukee and Indianapolis. Bonus for RMR: An ASA car is legal in both PASS Super Late Model Series, so it's not an expense that will be wasted.
* As I've suggested all along, it looks like the PASS North Series will have someone other than Speed 51 handling it's PR duties. Word out of Augusta was that Norm Desjardins would be doing the press releases, etc., and some combination of photog Norm Marx and his wife, Fran, would be involved, too. PASS owner/president Tom Mayberry has also offered Marco Thomas the job on a couple of occasions already this off-season.
But what would an award-winning motorsports journalist know, anyway? As reader "Kristen" pointed out in a recent comment on the blog, maybe someday I'll be a "good motorsports journalist," just like my friend Mike Twist (her words, folks, not mine...)
* USAC's coming to Maine. It's Ford Focus midget series will be at Wiscasset Raceway in May. Of course, giving the ambitious slate new owner Doug White has put together there, it's easier to say what WON'T be happening at the track than what will be. I'm not sure, but I think they're going to race Sprint Cup Series haulers there in a 25-lap feature in November. Those haulers have to have 1998 or 1999 bodies on them, though...
* Caught up with the most recent ACT winner, the same guy who also just happens to be a 3-time Oxford Plains Late Model champion. All Travis Adams will promise is that he's going to be at the season-opener in April at Oxford. He's having a second baby boy in May, and is putting his focus into the one thing he's yet to do at the track -- win the 250.
Fair enough.
And, as I told Adams on Saturday, stop after the second child. Beyond that, they start to out-number you...
Trust me.
21 comments:
Great work again T.B.
Let's get the phrase "single digit temperatures" straight here. It was single digit as in 1. Not 1 digit, 1 degree.
It was 2. That's "2" degrees, knucklehead.
Digits. Plural.
I am writing all press releases regarding anything super that happens in Northern New England Motorsports..................
I missed meeting Mr. Courchesne. What 15 minutes were you guys there? I spent 38 hours and 15 minutes there this weekend.
I enjoy his blog. It is great to see someone else besides TB dedicated to our sport.
Bill
PS Did you hear that Kevin Harvick will be at Oxford on July 20? If not you can get more information on www.oxfordplains.com.
Harvick at the 250? I didn't hear that. Must have been ice fishing...
In all seriousness, it seemed the Harvick news was THE topic of the weekend.
And I know Courchesne wanted to meet you, too -- but he just stayed holed up in his hotel room, shaking in his chair, chattering his teeth and insanely repeating the words "bitter" and "cold" over and over... Very strange.
TB
It gets a little dicey when a journalist shills for a series while retaining their day job.
You simply can't get an unbiased story, especially when something controversial comes up. You don't want to bite the hand that feeds you.
So I greet Twister's departure as a positive thing.
Since Norm Desjardins has already done PASS press releases, he'll be a good fit for the series. As I recall, his copy was good and he always filed stories promptly, even from Halifax.
Now, when will PASS hire someone to do the stories and results for the Mods and Sportsman Series? Or will they be the forgotten stepchildren of the series?
Maybe a retraction on "Kristen's" part is due, since she was so quick to ask you for your's. Or maybe an apology from the others that decided to argue with you a month ago.
But we know that will never happen.
Hola!
It is me, Kristen!
Travis congrats on your pat on the back! I look forward to reading more stories.
I honestly hadn't been on the site till my phone started going off telling me you had put a link to my post. Lucky me. You should go to Lakeland, now that is a good time!
As for Tristan, I am not like any other blogger on this site. If I am wrong, I will say so. If I look like an ass, it will be seen. I have no problem admitting when I am wrong. But I WILL stick up for someone who I beleive is doing a good job, and is a friend, i.e. Mike Twist and Speed51.com, it is an opinion. It is an open blog, therefore I will comment. Thanks everyone! See you in Lakeland if you are going!!
-Kristen :)
My "that will never happen" was more towards the others that arguesd until they were blue in the face that TB was wrong.
But you did a good job of not admitting you were wrong. Haha.
Have fun in Lakeland!
If I'm wrong, I'll admit it. In fact, I did jump to a conclusion about what was meant in one of Travis' blog entries a while back. I posted an apology in the comments section and e-mailed Travis one as well.
What was written about 51 Sports and PASS back in October simply wasn't true though. He might have done a good job predicting the future because nothing was decided until the morning of January 3rd, but what he wrote in October weren't the facts.
In the end, nothing came down the way that it was reported in October. It was a friendly decision and not based on any kind of a poor job being done or any bad blood between anyone at 51 or PASS. 51 Sports did exactly what was promised to PASS and more. Unfortunately, the atmopshere around racing in Maine made it impossible to do the kind of job that we wanted to do for our client and still maintain a perception of being objective. So it was in everyone's best interest not to continue. Our original intentions were to help short track racing in New England with our PASS involvement. If we used our race stories and wrote some races previews for any newspaper or racing website to use as well, wouldn't everyone benefit? Unfortunately, it just became too hard for that to happen.
Ironically, the whole chain of events that Travis put into motion back in October ended up making his report eventually come true. I just wish that he labeled it a prediction or suggestion at the time because it wasn't the "fact" that he reported. He's entitled to say that I'm the worst writer ever. He's entitled to say that I do a poor job. All of those things are opinions. But it's not right to write what isn't true and portray that as fact without any confirmation or clarification from the people he is writing about.
I'll continue to say all of that until I'm "blue in the face". I take what I do for a living seriously and when someone questions the job that I do by using bad information, I will stick up for myself and the company that I work for. What I have just written is the truth pure and simple and can be confirmed by anyone who cares by just asking either owner of the companies involved. Go right to the top and what I've said will be confirmed as fact.
I not going to blame Travis for any of this anymore though. Sometimes sources just give you bad information and in this case that is appears to have been what happened.
Whether we get along anymore or not, I think that what Travis and I both do is generally good for short track racing in Maine. Slinging mud at each other is not good for anyone, so I'm waving my white flag and saying that I'm not going to attack Travis and I hope that he will refrain from any cheap shots at well. As far as the newspaper and blog coverage of racing go, I hope that he continues doing what he's doing. I know that I will.
OK, all, for the 150th time, if you go back and read the original entry, there is nothing -- not one word -- that criticizes Mike Twist or the job that he did.
The spirit of the original post was simply to suggest that the agreement PASS entered into with Speed 51 wasn't the best deal for the series. Plain and simple. They needed a hands-on PR person working in-house.
It was then that Twist attacked the way I did MY job, how I got MY sources, how I SHOULD run a retraction. Not once have I EVER said Twist was a terrible writer or did a terrible job. Not once. All I've said and stuck to from the beginning is that Speed 51 is a PR site, not a news one. Simple as that.
A retraction? For something that was true? Sorry. It's not going to happen.
If Mike wants to believe that I was only right because I "guessed" right, or because my speculation "caused" it all to happen, so be it. I prefer to believe that I did my job thoroughly, put my trust in the right sources and ultimately served my readership.
Let's just clear one thing up.
I never once asked you for a retraction. Only in very rare cases do I believe that anyone should retract what they have written. This is not one of those cases and I wouldn't be so bold to even ask.
I did ask that you follow up with the other side of the story that you reported. I've reported on things in the past and then had new facts come to light afterwards. I've followed up stories plenty of times, so I felt that was pretty fair, but you didn't agree. So be it. I had to take the long road, but I've told my side of the story now.
Gosh I feel like I am on Maineracing.com! :)
Wow, glad I got out of the state when I did. The heat alone on this comment section could have surely melted those 15 foot snow piles at the Augusta Civic Center. Shoot, wish I could say more, that's Donny Lia on line 2, he wants to talk about his PR staff fabricating his quotes in stories. Gotta run.
Shawn...
Just so there is no misunderstanding, what exactly are you trying to say there in your last line?
Kristen said: Gosh I feel like I am on Maineracing.com! :)
Well, I can attest that you're not. I've been banned from that site. They don't take criticism of PASS very lightly, so screw 'em.
Besides, this blog is a lot more fun. For the record, I think Travis and Twister both do a great job covering motorsports. Maybe they should have a beer together.
I think Mike has the right idea!
Let's put all this to rest finally and get on to better times!
It was a joke Twist, and really, you and I both know that the last thing you want me doing here is dredging up and documenting in detail your fear of personally standing behind the legitimacy of a story you wrote when you got accused , very publicly I might add, by one of your clients/story subjects of fabricating his quotes. And we won’t get into what happened after that little episode when the principals of the so journalistically credible company you work for spent weeks harassing not only me personally but also sending inflammatory, untruthful and threatening missives to my superiors while spreading lies about me to anybody that would listen. Remember that Twist? Trust me, I do. You don’t soon forget when your phone rings for a week in November with calls from car owners, drivers and crew members asking you if you got fired from The Courant because everybody from Speed 51 is telling anybody that will listen that they got you fired. I know I won’t hold my breath waiting for any apology about that little show that YOU personally sparked to life Twist. Still funny that to this day you’ve still never been man enough to face me and tell me your story was right. I learned all too well after that though how you and your colleagues at Speed 51 operate.
Well I for one would to love to continue reading "As the Racetrack turns", but I'm sure Speed 51 has a journalistic piece up on the Expo show. Maybe you should try to put one up too Backstretch.
Focus people focus.
Anyone who takes the ethics of journalism seriously knows you can’t mix PR work & reporting together. Shame on any organization that knowingly allows such a conflict of interest to occur or tries to profit from it. It’s pretty evident to me some individuals flunked Journalism 101 (or never took it in the first place); in either case it’s a sad commentary on the news reporting industry today.
I think the decision by PASS will be much better for all concerned, and Norm has a ton of racing experience that should serve him well in the PR role.
The way I view this "conflict of interest" part of this discussion is that Twisty was put in a difficult position when he was asked to do the PASS PR by the folks he works for.... (Speed 51)
I'm no journalism major or anything approching that, but I can see just how this all come about from a repoters viewpoint...
I personally think Speed 51 does a wonderful job of reporting and their reporters (all of them) do a very fair job at getting the stories out on line for all of us to read...
They should all be commended for that!
It's just sad that Speed 51 (apparantly) needs to to do private PR work to keep the whole organization going....(It does pay their bills)... but it also put's their reporters in a tough spot from time to time and prompts these ethical questions....
I hope we as readers, understand what's going on here and take things with a grain of salt...
And lets just put this battle to rest once and for all...for the greater good...
I too am glad that PASS and Speed 51 have seperated that part of their buisness relationship...
Norm Dejardins will do a great job for PASS, just like he always has in the past.... this is a good move for PASS IMO...
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