[Jim Zeek]

There is no promoter for the race at Maple Grove like the events by Pete Woodruff and myself. I was talking to George at the division race in May about Virginia and he said I should take over the race at Maple Grove. Trying to be polite I avoided telling him the reason I would not be interested. The reason? They have treated enough people like crap over the years that no matter how many or deep of friendships I have will I be able to bring people back to this event make it what it could have been. It is not just the Pontiac people they treat bad. At Super Chevy I was on the staring line with my friend Harry when he motioned for the guy to put some more water down in the water box so he could do the proper burnout his car needs. The guy looks over at me and I make a spraying hose jesture to him and he looks back at Harry and shakes his head no and waves for him to pull in. This is in 90 degree plus weather so water is evaporatin quickly. ( And we sure as h@#l ain't having a drought in this part of the country!) Harry pulls in, does a burnout. I know it is not his normal burnout. He stages the car. When the car leaves it spins the tire so bad that a blind person could see it. 60' is off .08 and he loses first round. So we are not the only ones. I guess you have to be a regular to be treated nice. Why has this event had 4 sponsors in its time? I think there may have even been a year with no major sponsor. Congrats Jeff on your win but since this was your first time there you really don't know the history of this track. Even though you won I think you got screwed. The original purse for the Pontiac day was $450.00. You got $600.00 for yesterday. That was a bonus right? Not in my opinion. Anybody who won yesterday was going to win $450.00. So you should have gotten that PLUS the $450.00 from the ORIGINAL purse payout. George Case kept $300.00 of your prize money. If this is how you like to be treated then I will send you my address and you can send me part of the money you won at the gamblers race in Virginia. (Just kidding). You could have went and raced the same type of cars at Virginia Motorsports Park this weekend at the 2 $5000 races they were having. I was thinking of going but decided to try and help the Pontiac event and see all my friends and talk about Norwalk and next years VMP event. My mistake. At least at VMP this weekend anyone who went 2 rounds would have been in the money. Ken, I will not go back there for a Pontiac event or regular race day again. I will only go back for the swap meets and to race in the 1 National event I want to race in. I know there are plenty of others who this is the last time there also. As to moving to Cecil County....I raced there many weekends and spoke to the owner in Oct/Nov last year. Told him what I wanted to do. Told him I wanted a Saturday and asked how much, what hours etc. I asked when was a good time to get in touch with him to talk more about it. He said to call him anytime during the week. After 3 weeks of calling and emails I finally get him on the phone tell him who I am, that I talked to him about a Pontiac event there. His response: I have your number, I am working on the schedule now and will call you when I'm done. This was in December for the 2004 schedule. He must still be working on it because I have not heard from him yet. I called VMP on December 18th, (2 days before they were away for 2 weeks for the holidays). I told Bryan what I wanted to do and when. He said he might have a date but was waiting on the other party to confirm whether they wanted it or not and that he would get back to me after the 1st of the year. He called on Monday Jan 5th and gave me a date. I went down 2 days later and set up the VMP race. He was excited and looking forward to having a new Pontiac race at his track because I told him about the Pontiac community. After the event both Bryan and Todd the track manager told me they enjoyed having us and were looking for the event to grow over the years. This is what makes an event enjoyable for everyone, the participants and the workers. When we like what a sponsor does for us at these events we need to let them know how much we appreciate the money they are spending so they know they are spending it for a good reason. Therefore I also think that we also need to let them know when we are not happy and that they might be wasting thier money. I don't think Jim Butler or Performance Years got thier moneys worth out of Maple Grove this year. As I said before this is hard for me because I have been going to Maple Grove since I was 3 years old and have lots of good memories but it only takes 1 to make you forget them. Sorry for being so long but most of you know I have many friends and how I love the Pontiac community and only want the best for us