WEEKEND REFLECTIONS: RACE RECAP

Saturday the 12th was a 3/8's race. The temperature was a balmy, HOT! We had a good day considering the changes on the team this week. Everybody really rallied to get the car ready on Friday and even some of the guys from previous years were there in full force. Thanks Dan, Scott, Aaron, Roger, Steve, John, Clayton, Shanna and Melinda. Tony even stopped in to say hey, that was cool.

Practice.
We were the fastest car in practice. We had new tires on for practice as we didn't have much to choose from in the shop for good practice tires. There is nothing worse than tuning the chassis to the performance of bad tires only to put the new tires on and have the car be wrong.

Qualifying.
Practicing on new tires was not a fluke. We qualified 2nd. It was the fastest I've been around the 3/8's this year.

Heat Race.
We won our heat race. That was the first time I've won a heat race.

Main Event.
The invert was 8, so I started 4th row inside. At about lap five I got chopped by the car on the outside turning me into the wall pretty hard, somehow I saved it before hitting anything. The force of the contact ripped the steering wheel out of my hand and lifted the right front tire off the ground before slamming it down. When it hit the track it bent the upper control arm pretty good. After that, the car wasn't very fast anymore.

I think I would have been top three and battled for the win had that not happened. The car was fast before the contact. After the contact it was a handful to say the least. I battled some guys pretty good and eventually finished 5th.

One observation I'm making this season is that all the drivers are getting really close in speed. It's tough passing out there. The lines are a lot less defined and it seems that the old chrome horn (front bumper) is being used more by most. Racing is a contact sport so it makes it fun; at the same time, there is a point where skills got to get a driver to the front. Sometimes a driver must use the bumper, but most would rather limit the contact and just pass clean.

Another thing to watch is the points battles that are heating up. In the last three weekends I've been able to reel in 3rd in championship points, only 12 point separate 3rd-5th. I'm right in the middle holding 4th position right now.

Congrats to John Z for his first win this season. Also "good job" to Fred Hall who led some laps and finished 2nd.