Week 5-10th

Well, let's start by saying it wasn't quite what I had planned for this weekend. I'll post some pictures to give perspective.
This picture was practicing on Friday. This weekend was the first race on the 5/8's mile oval (big track) so we spent a few hours getting the car just right. And just right it was. It was bad fast after practice.

This picture is the side of the car that hit the fence on Saturday. I was doing a wedding on Saturday for the owner of Trinity Construction who is sponsoring my car this year. Usually I don't do Saturday weddings during race season because of the conflict, but I made an exception for Brandon and Taylor as they are supporting my racing in a big way this year.

As a part of my plan I wanted Roger to shake the car down and scuff tires in the first practice session. When I arrived at the speedway practice hadn't started yet. I suited up, but decided to let Roger drive the car because I was really excited about him being in that car; after all, it was a Habich built race car. For me to have him drive it meant a bunch to me, and even though things went wrong I know he was excited to drive it also.

Here's a picture of the inside of the car where the fire destroyed the windshield and cockpit. You can see the fire retardant all over the place corroding any parts that remained intact.

Anyway, Roger went a 24.3 on his first lap, then 23.4, then 23.3, then 23.3 again. He came on the radio and said, "Car is a little tight in." Afterward he told me that it was fast, and he hadn't even got the tires heated up in 4 laps. He felt like the car would have been a sub 23 second car on Saturday, that's fast on the 5/8's.

As I watched him come off turn four and go down the front stretch he was hauling. I turned to see who else was coming off turn four and watched them down the front stretch, but as I looked I noticed the red was out, meaning all cars stop. I look back to turn three and saw James Mugge, who Roger was behind, but Roger wasn't there. I looked to turn one and that's when I saw the smoke. The car was on the bottom of the track burning to the ground.

Roger blew a right front tire going into turn one. He was moving at well over 100mph when he hit the wal. The fuel line broke off the motor and the sparks from the mangled chassis ignited the fuel. The car began to burn while sliding across the track with Roger unbuckling the harnesses, removing the steering wheel and dropping the window net. In fact, Roger got clear of the car really quick. The fire crew went to work to put the flames out, it took 8.5 minutes.
Here's the car on Sunday night, motor out. What I was most concerned about is my friend Roger. I wanted to know he was ok. He was dropped off at our pit. I looked at him and asked, "Are you ok?" He answered, "Are you ok?" Shoot, it's just a race car, sure I was disappointed, but mostly thrilled that Roger was ok. A little sore, but ok.

In the background of the pic above you can see the "White Knight," last years car. I will either drive that car, or find another. The White Knight, though a good car is nothing compared to the "Weapon" who took his last lap on Saturday. Yes, I know, it's a bit strange, but we name our cars, most drivers do. I think it's because you spend so much time with them, they become friends. Like Wilson in Cast Away with Tom Hanks. An inanimate object becomes a friend, well so do our race cars. Is that strange? maybe so...it's true though.
Here is a few parts I am trying to clean. Most of what you see is junk, burned, melted and wrecked. In fact the car is a total loss. I will save about 15-20% of the parts, but the thing is done. I will put it out in the field, cover it with a tarp and start fixing it next winter. Until then, we've got to get something going for the next 5/8's race in two weeks.
A few of the team came up to help me salvage what we could, but there wasn't much that wasn't either destroyed by the impact, the fire or the corrosive fire retardant. Really, it is pretty much junk.
Here is the back end of the car where the fire was hot. The fuel cell is the red thing, and it is swollen like it was going to explode cause fire was up there. By midnight Sunday I got the car stripped down, at least what was worth getting off. The wiring harnesses, a few lines, gauge cluster, and other stuff is just sitting there, it's eery.

One thing that made me laugh was the water temp gauge. I had a gauge fail a couple weeks ago. We got the new gauge on Friday night, put it on on Saturday morning, and it's junk.

Well, I need to give a shout out to my teammate in purple, Natalie "Showtime" Sather. Seriously, I was given a car to drive by Chris Preston, which I was so thankful for, but it wasn' t my car and the last thing I would want to do is have to fix someone car, so I drove it for 20 laps and pulled it in. Then I climbed up in a pickup and watched Showtime do her thing. She drove the wheels off her car. I was really impressed with how she raced. I better get on my game now because my A car is junk and my B car is going to need some work to catch her!

Here's to better days racing. I figure that may be the most expensive fire I've ever funded! LOL. Really, 8.5 minutes of burning, divided by one late model stock car, equals; well, you don't even want to know. But should you want to help fund and build the next one, I'll tell ya!

It's been an interesting season for me so far this year. Good things are ahead for the 70 camp. You find out what your team, crew and yourself is made of when adversity finds your door. I intend to pass this testing! See you at the track in a couple weeks.