Phil care to elaborate on the Nichole Morgillo/ Waterford speedbowl incident from Saturday?
Story and comments from both sides: http://speed51.com/nichole-morgillo-furious-with-handicapping-decision-at-waterford/
Give me a few to finish dinner and I will gladly
Alright, so… here’s the deal. Nichole has been in a few crashes this year. However, not all of them have been her fault. She has had an ongoing issue with Ted Christopher since last year. Ted runs her real hard and really abuses the front bumper when he is near her. Typical TC.
The week previous to this, she had been having engine issues related to an accident the previous week. She was having an issue with the car breaking up at the top end. She chose to keep her starting position of Pole for the heat race because they believed the problem was finally fixed after 3rd round of practice. Unfortunately on lap 2 she realized it wasn’t fixed and tried to pull low to let the field go by. TC was directly on her bumper and as soon as she moved, they made contact and sent her up the track destroying the 21 car and damaging hers again. She got the car back together and started something like 12th in the Feature and ran 2 laps and parked with more issues.
My Late Model team that I crew chief on, is pitted directly across from Nichole on a weekly basis and when race director Pat Williams and official Eric Webster went to her trailer to speak with her, we all knew something was up. They conducted the conversation right in the front opening of her trailer and even from about 35 feet away, you could tell Nichole was visibly upset. So the story they are saying where she was in agreement with the move of position is complete horse shit. As soon as they left her trailer, she told her guys to load up. The car was quickly in the trailer and locked up.
If she was in agreement with moving to the back as the articles say, she would not have loaded up so quick and so visibly upset. It’s a bunch of crap. Nichole won a feature last year, beating out TC for the win actually. She’s had numerous podium finishes and very strong top 5 runs the past couple of years and is always among the fastest cars on a weekly basis. This year, her setup has been a little off and she has struggled a little bit but she has still had some good strong respectable runs. There are much worse drivers on the track than her by far…
Now, here’s my take on the state of the Speedbowl. October 18th 2014 is the Forclosure Auction. Terry Eames, the Owner/Promoter of the Bowl has not put a penny more into that track than he has needed to. The town threatened to shut it down before the season started due to the state of the grandstands, so he hired 1 sub contractor and had about 30 volunteers rebuild the grandstands under his direction. They were not completed fully until about 4 races into the season and to this day still have not been painted to match.
The bathrooms have not been cleaned in weeks and are disgusting, the scoreboard has more than 30 light bulbs that are dead, there is a wiring issue with the caution lights that occasionally causes a malfunction. The PA system barely works and can not be heard in the pits most of the time. This scum bag is mailing it in. Collecting as much money as he can and putting only what is needed to continue that cash flow back into the track in order to keep the doors open. he jacked up the back gate prices to $38 for pits and front gate is $18-22 usually. He has fired most of his best help as well as pushed us (SidsView) away and even some other drivers besides Nichole and only kept those who drink his koolaid. He crys poverty yet we constantly see on Facebook his wife going on vacation to Puerto Rico or Florida or somewhere else, and driving brand new BMW’s and their gorgeous brick and stone home. It’s sickening. Truly Sickening.
For whatever reason, we still have 18-20 cars per division field, sometimes more. Maybe because we all see the possibility that due to his recent neglect, any prospective buyer may not be looking at the track for what it currently is and much like the old Riverside Speedway, we are enjoying it while it’s still here. It’s sad to see what is taking place. Scott Garrity can surely agree with me when I say it is one of the best 2 groove 3/8 mile ovals there has ever been. I know myself, I do not enjoy paying the $38 weekly, but I do it in hopes that it shows prospective buyers the support this track has and it could stay a track because I truly do enjoy racing there with my team. The Speedbowl community is a very tight knit family and it would be a shame for it to go away.
“This year, her setup has been a little off…”
http://t.co/CGC8civ0
I don’t know about you but to me her set up doesn’t look too far off…
[QUOTE=ScottPrentice;149557]“This year, her setup has been a little off…”
http://t.co/CGC8civ0
I don’t know about you but to me her set up doesn’t look too far off…[/QUOTE]
HAHAHAHAH!
It’s sad to see the Speedbowl going down the drain. I hope Eames doesn’t destroy the image of it so bad that it’s not viewed as a viable business entity as a racetrack. For as long as I can remember Eames has been in financial trouble with the place. I thought when Rocky Arbitell got involved it would be a rebirth for the old gal, but not so. My hope still is that Rocky will step up and take the place for himself. He is a successful owner of a chain of convenience stores and has always been a huge supporter of local racing in New England. The 'Bowl is one cool little place to race and once you can get alongside is one of the best two groove tracks anywhere. Allen Coates once taught me a cool trick for restarts. The 'Bowl is round on the short frontstretch and only really has a straightaway on the backstretch which is longer. Allen told me “If the restart is slow you can run flat out through 1 and 2 because you’re not going fast enough to have to lift, but only if you’re on the outside where there’s more banking”. Man, I tried it and it worked. You shoot off the topside off of two looking like you have traction control! It’s a unique place and it would suck if it were to go away. It’s the first racetrack I ever turned laps at and the last one I ran before I left CT to come to FL. I hope someone buys it and keeps it a racetrack.
Thanks Phil for the clarification. Some media publications tend to be bias towards some people. I wanted the real truth from a side that has had problems with the officials in the past ( Tom aka Sid).
Guess short track racing is going through a lot of scandal up there. Just read about the Valenti Modified Racing Series.
[QUOTE=ScottPrentice;149557]“This year, her setup has been a little off…”
http://t.co/CGC8civ0
I don’t know about you but to me her set up doesn’t look too far off…[/QUOTE]
Yuck, Stephen Tyler said it best: “Dude looks like a lady”
except her butt!
[QUOTE=RSB;149563]Yuck, Stephen Tyler said it best: “Dude looks like a lady”
except her butt![/QUOTE]
LoL!..train kept a rollin’ all night long… 
I am honestly the only member of the SidsView crew that has returned to the Speedbowl since that day. Definitely an extremely sad situation. On the other hand, it has allowed me to focus 100% on getting our Late Model up front which we have been running stronger and more consistent so the track kind of did me a favor lol!!!
As for the MRS deal… That series has struggled with stability since day 1 and I don’t think it will change any time soon. Jack Bateman, the Owner/Promoter of the MRS likes to play favorites and it’s very evident especially when it comes to the #17 car which he personally owns which is driven by Todd Owen. It’s not a competitive car at most tracks and has finished LAST in the consi race multiple times, yet still somehow seems to make the main event every week. The inconsistency and inability to allow hired officials to do their job properly without interference is why Scott Tapley left as Race/Competition Director for the MRS.