With the prospect of the heat index reaching 100 degrees, Crystal Motor Speedway has cancelled events planned for Saturday, June 30, 2018.
Tuesday, July 3rd, the track celebrates Independence Day with all of the regular divisions plus fireworks! Adults are $15, kids 5-11 are $5, and pit passes are $30. Gates open at 4:30 PM with racing getting started at 7:30. Further information can be obtained by calling the track office at 989.235.5200 or visiting the website at crystalmotorspeedway.com
SPECIAL ANNOUNCEMENT:
This is Verwayne speaking on my own behalf. This is quite probably the last mailing that you will get from me. I recently discovered that the pancreatic cancer that I beat back in the fall of 2013 has returned. The last episode was treated at a specialty clinic in a hospital in Florida, but due to the sudden health issues my wife suffered that has led her into the depths of dementia and beyond, I am not able to get back to that facility. They are working with the hospital I am currently in here in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan. It’s nice they are doing that, but I can see that it isn’t the same as the Florida specialty clinic.
I started doing this ‘results column’ for Ron Flinn back in 1993. Other than one column that was written by a friend of mine (now living in North Carolina,) I have penned this column for every event done at CMS in that time. Back in mid 2001, I told Ron Flinn that I would no longer take a pay check from him, as I found it an honor just to be able to report on my favorite race track.
I traveled the nation following the ASA Late Model Series in 2005, visiting roughly eighteen big tracks. I had press credentials at Michigan International Speedway, and interviewed a lot of drivers on the circuit. Of all of my interviews, the one I remember best was talking with Danny “Chocolate” Myers, the gas man for Dale Earnhardt in August of 2000, the last time that Dale raced at MIS. I met with Jeff Gordon and Tony Stewart, a man I met again in July of 2014. Tony will never be remembered for his friendliness. He was entirely focused on his racing… as well as he should have been. He wasn’t talking to anyone at CMS that day, but as he drove by me on his quad, he stopped, looked at me, and then asked me, “Why do I know you?” I reminded him where we had met, and he spoke with me for about ten minutes. He took off, and I was flooded with people in the pits asking me ‘You know Tony Stewart?’ I would talk with him one more time that night on the front stretch of the track when they drew lots for the top eight starting positions. When he was relaxed, Tony was an easy guy, you just didn’t mess with him on race day.
After his accident in New York, late one Sunday night, I got a call from WJR -760, the power house AM station in Detroit. I don’t know how, but they had heard that I had spoke with Tony that night, and asked if I would do a four minute conversation with them the next morning. I told them that I would have to get permission from Mr. Flinn to do that, but that I would call them back shortly. In all candor, I have the greatest respect for Ron Flinn, and I didn’t want to do something on a radio station with the range of WJR without his permission and blessing. I called him, and explained what was happening, and Ron gave me the permission to speak to them. The next morning, they told me to call in at a specific time, and to ‘just answer the questions I was asked.‘ The scheduled four minute interview ended up lasting 32 minutes. I was honored.
I’m a story teller and an author. I could go on for days about everything that I’ve experienced and enjoyed while in the employ of Mr. Flinn. There is a reason that he is in the Michigan Motor Sports Hall of Fame, and one of those reasons is he only takes on the best person to do the job. It has been one of the greatest honors of my life to have worked so closely with him all of these years. If I am lucky enough to beat this cancer again, I’ll try to come back in some form or another. In the mean time, I’ll keep writing books to keep my mind cleared.
Thanks for putting up with me so long!
Kindest regards,
Verwayne Greenhoe
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*Writing is the only thing that when I do it, I don’t feel I should be doing something else.
*The right to openly discuss ideas must be defended.
*Negative people have a problem with every solution.
*Never surrender your reason to your passion.
*If no one thinks you can, then you have to.
Visit my Author Page! http://amazon.com/author/verwaynegreenhoe
