WEEK 2~3RD

It's Sunday night. I have been thinking about the race last night. This could be the one that got away from me, I hate saying that.

Practice.
We struggled in practice. I am not sure what's going on with the car, but it wasn't turning very good. Thanks to Mike who sent me some pictures I think I can now see why. We will go to work to make it better. Steve and the guys did a great job getting stuff together for qualifying, the heat and main.

Not only was the car not turning very well, but something is amiss in the steering. At times it shook like that machine that mixes latex paint at the home improvement center. The worse part is that it gave me no warning.

Qualifying.
I qualified 3rd, which wasn't horrible, but the car wasn't comfortable, at all.

Heat Race.
I started the heat race 3rd, gave up the spot to Christ Preston, who won week 1, but then he just hucked it off the back stretch and wrecked, so I finished third. Again, car was not even close. I was getting worried at this point.

Race.
So here is where the night went from bad to worse. The track had another race right before us that threw dirt and water all over turns one and two. If was super slick. The officials told us to run through the stuff to dry it out, which I did, not once, but every lap before the green flag. Well, I spun out, while scuffing tires. Sure it was embarrassing, but what was worse is that I hit a tire and crushed the nose of the car. Worried that I pinched off the air box and limited air flow to the radiator I headed for my pit to have it looked at. Turns out all was clear, but the officials deemed it necessary to put me in the back, I would have stated 2nd row inside.

Thankfully the back wasn't very far back, there were only 7 cars (more on that in a minute). We went green and the track was super slick because of all the junk on it. I changed my line a bit and found some grip. By the middle of the race we were doing pretty good and I had worked my way to third. It was one of those times where you put your head down and go. You don't care what lap it is, you don't pay attention to your position, you just drive as fast as you can for as long as you can.

Well, Steve comes on the radio and tells me that I am quicker than the leaders. Sure enough, I had gained on them quite a bit. In the closing laps I had reeled them in a ton, but all of a sudden the white flag was out, then the checkers, it was over. I finished third, Naima, 2nd; and James Mugge got his first win.

All in all, the night turned out alright. Car was decent in the main, which is the only thing they give purse money for. Car is a little tore up in the nose, so much for me helping the officials clean the track next time. I have some calls to make about my steering, and the team and I are getting together Tuesday night to revamp some set-up and stuff to find out why the car was so different than the week before. Definitely something was different. You can see it in the pictures, the nose is just not on the ground where it needs to be.

Finally, and open letter to all my racing comrades who have cars in their shops and not on the track.

Dear Racer,

Where are you? We miss you. We had 7 cars at Evergreen on Saturday.

Come on! Let's go racing this year. Put that thing together, buy yourself or get someone to buy you some tires and let's go. Everyone is on a limited budget this season, so don't worry that you don't have 4 new practice tires every week and the finest of all the stuff. Just put your stuff together and race it.

Jeff Knight