His Name is Chad....need I say more...

“HE SAYS IT, THEY DO IT”

I got a rare glimpse of one of racing premier flagman in the South Saturday night prior to the racing action at New Senoia Raceway.

When I film my eyes are always on Flagman Chad Harrington because I know he is like a great orchestra leader, and he makes sure all drivers mind him. There is no special driver on the track, just a lot of drivers who want to win, and without a class act flagman like Harrington it would be a mess.

Drivers would have their way, and that is something Chad does not put up with, as kind as he is on the outside once he is standing on a flag stand he becomes a new man.
Most night he is up in the flag stand with his son Alex who Chad lets flag the lower class races, and that is great experience too, a father teaching his son.

I was privileged to sit in the tower and listen to Chad on a race receiver talking to the visiting flagman, giving him time to work the races under the eye of Chad and what I heard was amazing.

It is so strange while the cars were hot lapping to hear and see Chad talk to the drivers, telling them to run up top to clean up a groove, or even to hear him say “gentleman, work your tires back and forth, always adding a please at the end”.

Very rarely do I have a chance to sit and listen to someone I admire, but Saturday night was my lucky night at New Senoia Raceway.

When I first started filming at New Senoia Raceway, all I knew was the flagman was key to my filming of races, I watch him very intently because when he says one to go, I fade from black to start recording and the race is on, unless I see him throw a yellow, in which, it is my cue to fade the camera after getting the shots I need of the cars that were involved in the wreck.
Once he throws the green again, it is back to filming and it all ends on one of the most dramatic finishes in motor sports. As Chad throws his famous “Double Checkered Flags” and no flagman that I have seen does it better.

Chad is a quiet man, a family man, who loves his family and enjoys his work. When he is with family he is all family first man. When he is working on a flag stand Chad is a new man, and new breed, a rare breed.

Whatever the case, it was amazing just listening to Chad converse with drivers making sure they had their race receiver’s on, and if not they had better before the race started.


He was even giving small details to a driver that had numbers on one side of his car, he told him before he came out for his feature he had better have at least duct tape lettering on the fans side of the car. Small details, but they mean so much and when you have a class race track you expect the drivers to go along with every rule in the book.

One thing for sure I have seen Chad come down off the flag stand and get right in a drivers face and confront them about what they are not doing right, and when you see his hand pointing with a black glove on it, you know he is not happy at all.
To wrap it all up Chad is a flagman that I can admire, and I have seen my share in all the dirt track racing I have done filming some of the best and some of the worst drivers on tracks.
All I know is ever since I lost my wife on April 8th, 2011. Things have not been the same, except for Saturday night racing at New Senoia Raceway, where I believe I was embraced by a true racing community.

I have a young man helping me since I am getting older, and he is just 16, Mason Blair is his name, and a kind young man. While the Spectator races were going on, Chad walked onto the deck where I film in the HOT Georgia sun, and I heard Mason say he was the second best at something, I was concentrating on the race. But that is when I heard Chad give Mason some words of wisdom that could and only would come from Chad, he said to young Mason, “Never say your second best”, always try and be the best”.

Now this was coming from someone I admire and if you notice in some of the photos on this BLOG you will see the gently side of Chad Harrington that drivers rarely see.

All I can say it is a honor for me to sit and listen to Chad as he was talking to the drivers with so much respect, it was like a different world. It was a world that I have never entered into before, because I never knew much regarding race receivers. To me it was amazing, I mean there you had some of the biggest names in racing and Chad was chattering away in their ear and whatever he said they did.

Can you imagine, having the nerve to come down and talk to drivers like #54 Mike Head, #73 Jason Williams, #9 Shane Fulcher, #99 Rucker Orr, #21 Joe Armistead Jr, and so on, and these are drivers just in the Limited Late Model race. I have not even talked about the Hobby, or B-Cadet drivers or the Crate drivers.

All I can say is Chad has his hands full every Saturday night, the action is worth watching, the race and but please keep an eye on Chad Harrington, as he directs traffic like no one else.
I want to personally thank Chad Harrington for the rare insight of dirt track racing that I have never known before, I may be 61 but who says you can learn something new every time you or at a race track?

Too all the great racing fans in Georgia, please come out to New Senoia Raceway and catch some of the best drivers in Georgia and Alabama. Oh and keep an eye out for the young and talented flag man Chad Harrington. You will be amazed at how he handles the drivers and flags the race.

Many Thanks to everyone,

Tino Patti

A Freelance Photographer/ Video Journalist

With a worldwide racing BLOG following!