WEEK 9-STRANGE
Edits: 6/30/09 from Guam. That'll teach me for writing on the plane, and then sending to the blog. I've got to edit for grammar and spelling...sorry.
We had a great car on Saturday, the best this year. I felt like we had a shot at the win more than any other race in '09. Steve, my crew chief, was out of town, and Tony Smith, a friend and team member of Jeff Barkshire's crew, filled in as crew chief for the day.
He and Steve put together a game plan, and it was successful. We qualified 2nd. Instead of a heat race we had a 5-minute hot-lap session. The car was better, so we gave it some more of what we did earlier.
As we lined up for the main the Street Stock class was under yellow because a hole opened up on the track, chunks of asphalt were breaking apart. The SS race ended and the officials thought we might be able to
run, but the hole on the front stretch was big. The track crews did their best to fix it, but it was right in the groove off of turn 4.
I started 6th. The first laps I was saving my stuff, staying clean and picking off positions. The yellow flew as we were coming to the stripe, lap 5. I was 4th overtaking 3rd and Natalie was 1st, she started outside front row, when the caution came out.
The caution flew because the hole opened up big time with softball size rocks punishing our cars. It was a dangerous situation for drivers and fans. Imagine a rock getting into the cockpit or one bouncing like a ball off a car and into the stands, bad deal.
The night ended and I thought, "Oh what might have been." I really appreciate the track taking care of us this night. It is yet to be certain how this race will impact the season as NASCAR will have to decide what is fair, but the speedway offered us some tires for later in the year which they didn't have to do. I also understand the fans were given some half price tickets for another show.
It's too bad Snohomish county won't pave their race track. It's a convoluted deal, but with the revenue the county makes off of racing I'd think they could fix the best track in the NW. Sadly, If they don't fix it racing days at Monroe are numbered, an industry cannot survive long when it's infrastructure is crumbling.
Did you know that fire departments train at the speedway? Police departments also train at the track. The county exec and council authorize many ton trucks to run drills on a very old surface loosening the bond between asphalt and subsurface.The track is an asset to our county generating serious revenue for Monroe and Sno-county.
It's not our 2800 lbs race cars hurting the track surface. It's the years of neglect by the county. Maybe Fred Meyer will let us race in their parking lot?
Sent from my iPhone/edited on my PC
