Keeping up with Mike

As the winter sports season winds down and spring sports gear up, a few of the athletic events in the area do not get much attention. I hope that that will change as I begin to hear about other events taking place in the South County.

This past weekend, Anderson Valley Post reporter Michael Woodward and I attended the Media Day event held at the Shasta Raceway Park track at the Shasta District Fairgrounds.

Rick Faeth, of Faeth Motorsports, moved to Anderson in 2006 from the Bay Area. He has been involved in car racing for 22 years and he knows the sport inside and out. He has been a driver and a promoter in what he called “a fun hobby.”

That hobby has now become his livelihood. He gave up a job as a test engineer for a biotech instrumentation manufacturer to become the full time promoter of Shasta Raceway Park.

One of the first things he did was hire Gary Moore and Gary Cressey to announce the races. What a good first move.

However, I digress.

Michael Woodward is a much braver man than I am.

Members of the media were offered a ride in a car going around the raceway track so they could experience, first-hand, the feel of the track at over 80 mph. Mike was ready to go (actually, if something involves excitement or food, Mike is in) as he is a topnotch reporter. On the other hand, I would need a new pacemaker if I were to go for a drive in one of those cars again.

One by one, various people including radio, television and the print media, had their chance to ride with driver Gary Pyszora. Mike, the trooper that he is, took along a camera to record the ride when it was his turn.

I took pictures from the pit, but it was not long into his ride that I discovered what Rick Faeth was talking about when he said “you begin to feel it.” With the electronic blitz on everyone, good family fun is often overlooked, because of hand-held games — and this was “first hand” — and I was feeling it.

Faeth is right. People miss so much watching an event on television or playing on their electronic games. Being there and seeing someone competing for the honor of having their name in a record book; to smell the burning, spinning tires; to hear the roar of the engines and the smell of the exhaust as the cars make their way around the track; and to feel the excitement in the air – it totally beats hand-held games — any day.

Mike Woodward has experienced yet another sensation in the name of journalism and on his way from becoming a good writer to a GREAT writer. Way to go Mike.

Car racing has been around for many years in Anderson, (ask Butch Schaefer) and I do hope that the fun and excitement will return as Rick Faeth tries to restore an Anderson tradition. I resist the temptation to say, “Have faith in Faeth.”

This new season, in the Late Models Class, one has to watch Alan Pyszora and Eric Gannon. One also has to watch Anderson’s Bill Lancaster in his ‘green sixteen’ and Joe Allen, from Modesto, fight it out. Kyle Borden from Cottonwood, Bian King from Millville, and drivers Joe Brattoli, Brian Smith and Mike Wright from Redding are going to bring some good racing entertainment back to Anderson.