Stonewalled again it looks like the best bet for any coverage in my hometown rag is if Robby Gordon Sheldon Creed and "The team from the United States" has a strong showing out of the blocks. I invited some folks from the Buffalo News for lunch atop one of the grain elevators for lunch to make another pitch for running a piece on this years Rally. They called at the last minute so to speak-to cancel- because of high winds. I guess they have no idea how beneficial a strong wind can be when you are thrown from the top of a what....300 feet high silo. In any event I ran into a high ranking sports personality from the paper while selling pencils to help raise money for the awareness of the plummeting tree population in our area. One lady asked me what they were for and I could not help myself so I told her "To stir your drink.....they're lead". I bought the guy a drink from the tips I'd received and proceeded to explain, express and in all manner ill and focused about how the United States had one entry, a two car team entered against all the big corporate money and testing and all that. The ball was headed for the fence, the center fielder was just standing there watching as this sky rocket of a blast was heading over the horizon. Finally an alligator skin shoe was in for the show. His tie cost more than my Thanksgiving day meal. Then as we really melted into one in this conversation he noticed a buddy in the bar and called him over. We had the iron as hot as the sun. We bounced facts off the wall and most were sticking, some hung there for a bit and slip hopelessly to the floor but we were cooking with gas on this shit. Then his buddy pulled out a shotgun and with the sound of the needle dragging across a Benny Goodman record he pulled the trigger that blew the ball right out of sky. "Well you know in the political climate of today the us against them angle is not such a good idea"............. Pregnant Pause........... "Yeah you know Michael it would be great but ...I don't know about calling any attention to our country being in competition as it were with...and so on and so on. Hey, I'm all for what have you this and that and he and her but when you stab patriotic adherence in the face I draw the line.....three of them. A Red one A Blue one and a White one. I crushed a few peanut shells into the floor thinking it was him and shook my head in observance of the bigger goal, the bigger picture. At this point the Rally was an afterthought behind Robby Gordon and Robby an afterthought of the Rally...neither of which could find the floor in this tangled web of stupidity. The dust settled when it was a given there was no lead in to the Rally or Robby Gordon being printed. However in fine fashion my acting was at its zenith and I ran with it. I held fast to my values mind you, but these two guys were no longer my brothers in arms but mere pawns in my loathing plan to twist the warped shortsightedness they exhibited back onto themselves. Working for us and not against. They would sleep well not knowing the enemy was all the while right next to them. In the end it was and is an existing condition that submission of results would be gladly taken and taken back for consideration. So here is hoping we are in the money early and we have something to write about. I'm pretty sure you can hang yourself with a clip on tie if you take it apart and I fought hard not to do just that but.....Am I to believe this sad definition of the state of affairs where spineless people cower in the face of patriotism...? We'll see if there minds thaw out in time and Robby Gordon and perhaps Sheldon Creed give these chumps cud they can't help but chaw at.