OCS Reunion UCAP
by Paul Spegal

Photos by Paul Spegal

My son, Jason, and I started to load the truck Friday morning in preparation to spend the weekend at the Ward estate in Chapel Hill, NC. I will admit to being very excited at the prospect of getting to meet members of RASN and see some excellent short track racing at the infamous Orange County Speedway, but nothing like my son. Jason had his bags packed for the last two weeks. When I went to wake him at 6am, this child who normally sleeps well past noon each day and then has to be dragged from his bed, sprung from his bed and was dressed in only minutes.

After a rather uneventful 8 hour trip we arrived at the Ward's around 5pm. We were greeted at the door by Ellen, Kathy's sister-in-law. Ellen, Jason and I had a pleasant and brief conversion soon to be interrupted by the grand entrance of the "Hostess of the Year", Kathy Ward. If you can imagine, this very charming Southern woman invited a bunch of overly opinionated nuts, most of whom she had actually never met, into her home for the weekend.

Soon after I started to have a conversation with Kathy the phone started to ring. One call from Tinadog and his S.O. to let Kathy know they had landed and were headed out to the estate. Then a call from Greg to inform Kathy he had left the bar-b-que somewhere and had to go back to get it. After moving to the front porch to continue the conversation the phone rings again. Steve Hatley called to inform Greg the engine, which had been sent in for a mid-season refreshing was not going to arrive until around mid-night. Gee, that would be what... 17 hours before qualifying. Heck, what would a race team need sleep for anyway.

About that time Jerry and Susan Kyte arrived. After brief introductions and being shown their weekend accommodations we all sat on the front porch and commenced with the weekend debates. Lou Lauer and Cheryl Thompson were the next to arrive pulling a gorgeous 5th wheel. Convening the debates on the back porch, the food started to flow. I had to forewarn everyone they should get any food they could while they could. I had brought an eating machine with me and even jEff was going to be challenged for the food. There were the non-believers at first but my son soon proved there is no such thing as too much food.

Greg Ward finally arrives home after retrieving the forgotten dinner. He doesn't stay very long. Just enough time for introductions, heat up the BBQ, grab a bite to eat, check on the status of the car/engine and then out the door he goes with Lou right behind, headed for a long night at the shop. No sooner than Greg and Lou left Karen Jensen and jEff come in the door. Finally, after many years of reading this man's opinions and hearing all the tales, I get to meet the great jEff Oswald, and I was not disappointed. Not only is jEff very knowledgeable of, and articulate in discussing racing, but in many other subjects as well. Karen and jEff were the last to arrive for the evening. Steve McCollom was due to arrive until morning.

We all ate, drank and talked racing until early into the morning. Greg came in sometime around 2am looking rather tired, and perhaps a little surprised we were all still up, but said he was happy with the progress they had made. He still needed to get up early in the morning and set the car up. But they had the engine back in the car and it had dyno'ed with a little more horse power than they had ever had before. He was optimistic about tomorrow's race. Shortly after Greg arrived we all turned in for the night.

Saturday morning I was the first up at 6am. I was not sure where Kathy kept the coffee so I thought I would jog down to the BP station on the corner, it was only 6/10ths of a mile from the house, and see if they had any coffee for sale. As it turned out they do not open that time of the morning. Not disappointed though, the Wards live in some of the most gorgeous country side on God's green earth. It made for an excellent run. When I got back everyone was getting up and the coffee was brewing. Greg was up and in a hurry to get to the shop. He said there was still a lot of set up work needed to be done before the race that evening. More food and conversation to fill the morning. Steve McCollom called to let us know his car had broken down. He was going to try to take care of the car and meet us at the track. The coffee table in the living room was loaded down with snacks and everyone convened in front of the TV to watch the BGN race.

The BGN race finished and everyone loaded up the caravan and headed to Orange County Speedway. As soon as we arrived the owner/promoter came out to the parking lot to greet us. We received first class treatment. He introduced himself and inquired as to where we all had come from. He was rather impressed that we had come from so many different parts of the country and from so far, especially Jerry and Susan from Phoenix and Karen from Boston. We were escorted to the ticket office and then to the "RASN" reserved seating. It was very hot day. We had passed a bank on the way to the speedway that showed the temperature to be 103 degrees. The time was only 3:30 and everyone agreed we needed to find some shade and wait for qualifying. We moved the vehicles to the back of the parking lot where there were some trees, and commenced with more eating and story telling. Just in time for qualifying, Steve McCollom shows up at the picnic site. Turns out he has been sitting in the hot stands for a while wondering where we were. Apparently sitting in the hot sun was one of the highpoints of his day. He had rented a car and continued his trip to OCS, leaving his crippled car in some town. Now that's dedication.

We finally hear the Late Models fire up so we all headed up to the track to watch the qualifying runs. Steve Hatley managed an 11th place starting position. It was apparent early on that OCS has some serious competition. The pits did not look like the standard Saturday night bullrings I normally go to. Most of the Late Models had enclosed haulers of some sort. Steve had one of the few open trailers there. The promoter was also putting up a special two race series purse to entice additional talent in to beat Barry Beggarly, who had been winning almost every race this year. It was promising to be a good night of racing.

The races started of with mini-stocks. It was a decent race. A lot of close action with plenty of passing. The most notable thing about the race was some of the competitors. Three of the cars were VW Beatles. And I thought I had seen just about everything. The Beatles ran very loose and did not fair all that well. Though I will admit they did far better than I had expected. The mini-stocks were followed by a Limited Sportsman Division. This too was a very good race.

The third race was the one we all came to see, the Late Models. The race started out fine. I was keeping my eye on Steve as he was settling in. He was maintaining his own as everyone was working hard for position. I was clocking Steve and he was gaining speed with every lap. On lap seven everything was just starting to settle down as the racers were going into single file. Steve was still in 11th. As he approached turn three I could see out of the corner of my eye the number 7 car, who was in second, go sideways between 3 and 4. As I turn to see what was happening the third and fourth place cars slammed on their brakes and also got sideways. The track was blocked from the apron to the wall and Steve was coming at speed through three. There was no way he was going to get out of this. Sure enough Steve locked the wheels as he came out of three and slid into the #7 car. Everyone behind Steve also locked up and cars just started to pile into him. The safety crew quickly responded and started to clean up the mess. We waited impatiently to see what damage there was to the #41. As the tow truck brought the car back to the pits we could see there was considerable damage to the car. My son pointed out the roof of the car was buckled. jEff and I tried to tell him it was just the hood of the car that was placed on top. But then as we look closer we could tell the roof of the car was indeed buckled severely. Greg came over to the stands and confirmed the car would not be able to run the race tonight.

The safety crews finally got the mess cleaned up from the accident. Though we were very sad for Greg, Steve and Kathy, there was still a very exciting race to follow. We watched a rookie take on Barry Beggarly. He stayed close on Beggarly's bumper for about 40 laps, constantly testing Beggarly out high, then low. Finally, with about 20 laps to go, this rookie makes a bold move between turns 3 and 4 where he dove down below Beggarly, getting both himself and Beggarly loose. Both drivers straighten out their cars coming out of four with the rookie in the lead. Beggarly stayed all over the rookies tail and twice got up beside him, almost making the pass. But the rookie was able to hold him off for the checkered flag. The stands went nuts!!!

After the Late Model race there were two legends races. After the two 25 lap races were over the pits were opened so we could visit with Steve and the crew. I am sure they were not in the mood for it but were very gracious and accommodating. We got to look over the car, socialize and get autographs. There is obviously a lot of work and money that is going to have to go into getting the car race ready. A very unfortunate part of an otherwise outstanding weekend.

We tried not to spend too much time holding Steve up. It was now after 11pm and everyone was feeling tired. We said our good-byes to Steve and the crew, loaded up the caravan and headed back to the Ward estate.

Arriving back at the Ward's we were quick to take up our positions on the porch. More discussions on the days events and other subjects. Before we knew it it was after four in the morning. Finally we all headed for bed.

I was unable to sleep past 6:30. I got up and, now knowing where the coffee was, made a pot and went to the porch where Chevy and Levi kept me company. These two dogs did not miss out on any attention during the weekend. I can not recall a time when someone wasn't petting them. I am sure they are looking forward to the next reunion. :-)

Everyone else woke around 8:30. Greg got up and commenced preparing the Sunday morning feast. Unfortunately for Jason and I, probably fortunate for those who wanted to eat, Jason and I had an 8 1/2 hour drive home so we needed to get on the road. We sure wish we could have stayed and watched the Michigan race with everyone but Jason had school in the morning and I had to go to work. But still this was one of the best race weekends I have ever had. The Ward's are fabulous people to open their home to so many strangers and ensure we had such a good time. Thanks Kathy and Greg!! I just hope Jason and I can make it for the next OCS reunion.