This photo, taken by Eve Prentice, shows a few of the 40 Bikes given away in 2008. We were fortunate that many of the bikes were sponsored. Our goal is to do this again in 09', only instead of them being given through Gary Elliott Racing, I'm hoping the Late Model class will take on this commitment for the young kids that cheer for us every week. I'm thinking we would give away 2 a night, a boy and girl bike, and if we have 20 teams, that's less than 2 bikes a night each, about $200 per team, maybe less if we can get a deal on the bikes. I'll ask Late Model drivers at the rules meeting in January and announce the resuts here. I know the cost for racing is expensive, and with Flamboro not giving us a raise, it may be tough for racers to commit to this, but hopefully everyone has enough in their budgets to buy at least one kids bike in 09'. The annoucner would say "tonights Late Model Kids Bikes are presented by Paul Howse racing"...etc, and Paul and his team would go out on the track at intermission and present the bikes and get a picture with the winning boy and girl.

    Grandma Elliott gets a picture with two of her four great grand children. We're about to watch "Polar Express" in 3D, then we'll head to bed and wake up hopefully long after day light. Knowing these little ones, the anticipation of us making it past 6 am will be a bonus. The excitement will be too much, for them and for us. Perhaps the most excited people were those who experienced the first Christmas eve, those shepherds who were just doing their duty on a hillside near Bethlehem when the sky suddenly lit up by the presence of the Angel of the Lord, who came to proclaim the birth of Christ the Lord. That story's in the Bible, in the 3rd book of the New Testament, Luke chapter 2. If you get a chance, read verses 8 to 19 and feel the excitement those shepherds did on that awesome night....Merry Christmas.

    We started working on our car right after our appearance at St. Annes church on November 1st. A month a half later and here we are, ready for paint. The car had some serious maintenance done to make sure it was in good shape to take a run at dethroning Jason Shaw, no easy task for anyone. We had the quick change tore down and rebuilt by Junior Hanley. He also rebuilt all our shocks. Mike McColl repaired the bent chassis parts, although the frame was perfect when put on the jig. We built our own new style front and rear bumpers and mounted a new body, less roof. The chassis was sent out for powder coating, a first for our team. Every part of our car was cleaned and inspected before they were put back on. Many people helped get our car to the place you see it in this picture and they deserve special thanks. Our own crew, Jim, Jason, Perry and Troy. The Lancaster family Art, Jeff and Jason. Finally Pastor Mike, Andrew and our newest crew member Tracey. The car will be ready for lettering before Christmas, but not sent out until January. At that time I'll figure a way to drive Steve Lyons nuts with the lettering scheme. Steve will put his masterful touch to accent Jim's excellent paint job. We won Best Appearing Car in 08', thanks to Jim and Steve, and our own efforts to keep the car looking great every week. We have a new look planned for 2009 and we need to try to make the car look a little different, maybe better than it did in 08'....at least as good as it did last year. It may seem we are ahead of schedule...trust me, we're a long way from being ready for racing. Our racing team will be making an announcement very shortly, stayed tuned.

    It seems impossible to think there would be something our team has never done or tried in forty years of racing. Well, it happened. It's not the black chassis, we use to paint our Hobby frames and roll cages black in the 70's and early 80's with Tremclad paint. This year our frame is again black, the first time in over 25 years...but it's "powder coated". The process is quite amazing and the results are excellent. We thought about doing this before after seeing the amazing finish on Mike Podds powder coated #5 CVM. Our chassis was sent to Mike McColl for repairs. Then taken to Teff Line in Burlington, where it was sand blasted and powder coated, a process that took the chassis to 400 degrees. I waited outside. It was a little expensive, but we're glad we got it done.

     Our family has been saddened by the loss of my uncle Percy Elliott, far right standing behind his good friend Roger Peach, who passed away in 2004. Uncle Percy never missed a Hobby race when we ran at Sunset. He always had good things to say no matter how I ran, always encouraging me. He got the most excited when we won, making this picture even more special because he came down to get in the victory lane shot. David and I always ran well at Sunset, a track he could make every time we raced because it was so close to his house. He usually came with his son Don, daughter Kim and their children. Many times, like on this night, his grandchildren would come with him to the races, and on this special night, they got in the photo with their Papa. He was incredibly gracious to me all my life, starting in my early childhood. We use to call each other before the Leaf games back in the early 60's when Hockey Night In Canada came on half way through the second period. I always took the Leafs unless the Rangers were playing them, and then of course I cheered for my hero #9 Andy Bathgate. Uncle Percy asked me one time "Who's purple and plays hockey"? I had no idea...he said "Andy Bathgrape"! Then he hugged me knowing I didn't like him making fun of my favourite player. Usually we would try to guess the score of the game and call each other again if something special happened or we were right on our predictions. On a few occasions he supported me when I needed someone to take me to an outing. Once he acted as my dad for the Boy Scouts Father and Son banquet. The day this picture was taken, we stopped at his home just south of Cookstown to play horseshoes with our daughter Shirley and Roger Peach. He was unbeatable. Stopping at his home was a ritual we had to do in the afternoon prior to our race at Sunset. Our family has been so blessed with music and uncle Percy was an awesome piano player, making two LP's with his brothers playing down home fiddle music. A few weeks ago he went to Nova Scotia to spend some time with two of his brothers and two of his sisters. On November 7th they were playing music, fiddles, guitars and uncle Percy on the piano, just like they did a thousand times. Uncle Carl, his brother, said he played incredible that night. Then suddenly uncle Percy collapsed. He was rushed to the hospital. On November 17th, with his son and daughter in his room and all of his grand children giving him their love on the phone, he left this life to receive the checker flag of eternal life, the one he received through faith in Jesus Christ. I am so thankful to have known this humble loving gracious man, and am proud to have called him my uncle. Thank you dear Uncle for leaving so many good memories, we'll miss you, but we won't ever forget you and for sure we'll see you again.