READING - The weather may have been 7 degrees on one of the Fairgrounds Square Mall outside thermometer, but the action in one of the mall's vacant spaces created plenty of heat.
There, several 358 modified drivers squared off in a matchup of remote controlled trucks on a tight oval on a carpeted area.
For now, such a racing program would have to do for the modified drivers who visited the 29th Annual Racing Legends Reunion and Car Show on Thursday night.
"It's not looking good here," Birdsboro's John Willman, who will return to full-time competition this season at Forestville's Big Diamond Speedway, said about the weather. "I'm going to be surprised if any track gets their opener in. I can't see anybody racing in March unless something drastic changes."
Meanwhile, Willman was occupying himself with the Birdsboro R/C Club, a group for which he competes in the offseason, as he organized Thursday's remote-controlled racing program, eventually won by Andy Ressler.
"I've been doing R/C cars since I was 12 years old, and I'm 43 now," he said, "so I've been in it a long time."
Willman's arrangement to return to Big Diamond, where he raced off and on for nearly 20 years, came courtesy of car owners Dave and Charlotte Eyrich, of St. Lawrence. They are returning to the sport as owners after a few years away.
"We've been talking about six months about it," said Willman, who will drive a Bicknell chassis based at his home shop. "Two or three weeks ago, they said, 'Here is what we want to do,' and we put something together, sat down at lunch one day and put it together."
Willman is not the only driver planning a steady schedule at Big Diamond in 2014. Another, Doug Manmiller, was a title contender in 2013, but was planning to focus his effort at Grandview Speedway this season until he met car owner Rod Breitenstein and they made plans to campaign a Bicknell chassis with an engine built by Larry Lombardo on the Big Diamond oval.
"I actually raced for them for five years at Grandview from 2006 to 2010. Then they kind of cut back, so I moved on," Manmiller said Thursday. "I was friends with him before I drove for him. Then we still were friends.
"I would have never thought that they wanted to go to Big Diamond because they've always gone to Grandview for the 30-some years I've known them. They've never gone to Big Diamond except for a couple of special shows. But Big Diamond is paying a little better purse this year and they wanted to hopefully win a couple and get some of that good money."
Manmiller added, "I feel I can come right out of the box and win. I'm not saying I'm going to, but we have a combination that will allow us to."
Kenhorst's Brad Arnold was similarly confident about his chances for his first career win at Big Diamond in 2014. His team, owned by parents Rick and Traci Arnold, will campaign a lightly-used, newly-purchased Teo chassis with an engine built by Greg Gatto in his third season in a 358 modified.
Noting his points finish improved from 24th to 14th in one season, Arnold feels he is poised for a breakout campaign on the Forestville track.
"A lot of throttle control and a lot of in-car adjustments," Arnold said of the lessons learned in his first two seasons of modified competition. "Tire stagger, I've always known, but just a lot of the setup with the shocks and torsion bars."
So far, Arnold, 21, learned much from his boyhood idol, Jeff Strunk, against whom he will compete for his third season in 2014.
"He gave me a lot of advice. Sometimes, in hot laps, he'd follow me around and let me know what I'm doing wrong or if I did good or not," Arnold said. "When I was younger going to Big Diamond or Grandview, I'd wait and go into the pits and get his autograph - every time. Every time I went, I got his autograph, just so I could talk to him.
"Now it's weird. A couple of years ago, I'd sit in the stands and watch, and now I'm racing with him."