Opening Night 2010 at Evergreen Speedway

It feels great to post this update. Knightrous.com has been pretty dormant over the winter. Not to worry, in a few weeks we will have a brand new look and with the race season upon us it's time to get to some racing recaps, reviews, discipleship and of course the local church!

Preparation.
We took both cars apart after the Fall Classic run. The open motor car is a work in progress as we focused our attention to the crate car. First off, we stripped it down to the chassis for brand new powdercoat. Production Plating Inc hooked us up with a gloss white for the chassis. After getting the chassis back Steve, Tony, Toby and Myself, along with the help of Will, Roger, Tony S. and some others started the reassembly process. We cleaned parts, components, changed a couple minor things, but most importantly turned it from purple to red! Brent from Firedown helped out the finishing effort and the car was ready for the track. Awesome off season.

Side note: Getting the hauler ready was not such an easy chore. Thursday night, while charging the batteries one of them blew up in my face. Seriously, at an arms length a deep cycle marine battery exploded by my left hand. I had no safety glasses or protection from the explosion. Miraculously I was unhurt, no acid in my eyes, or on my face. I am a blessed man!!! However, I had the "Call of Duty" flash grenade syndrome when my ears were ringing and my vision disoriented. Thankfully God watched out for me.

Race Day.
Snohomish Pie Company got us to the track with some race tires, fuel and pit passes! I appreciate the help very much, and anyone rooting for the 70 needs to go buy a piece of pie and tell them, "Jeff sent you from the track." Your effort will put more fresh Goodyears under my race car!!! Fresh pie = Fresh Tires!!!

Practice.
We unloaded at the track on Saturday. Usually we test a bit in the off season, but this year funding is tight, so we elected to make the car perfect in the shop and show up ready to be fast. The knowledge we've gained as a team the last two seasons paid off big time as we set the fastest lap in practice.

Qualifying.
With minimal laps on the car I was confident in the setup. the car was "in the track" meaning it was turning good and getting the power to the ground. We qualified on the pole! That's my second pole!

Heat Race.
Starting from P-1 was great. On the first start I went a bit early. I didn't think it was "huge" early, but the officials didn't agree, and I got the nasty black flag warning to "not do that again." On the next restart the car outside of me jumped! I spun the tires and gave up the lead right away. The car was hooked up pretty good after the start and we turned the fastest lap in the race, but didn't win the heat. I asked someone why I got the caution for jumping the start and he didn't? The answer, "Because he's a 8 time track champion." Well, Okay then.

The Main.
After the invert I started outside row two in 4th position. I got to the lead after a few laps, and checked out by about 15 lengths, turning the fastest lap of the main. Things were going pretty smooth until another car got backwards and the caution came out. Again I was P-1, and on the restart I got a good jump, but so did the 12 car outside of me. We went down the back stretch side by side. It was tight tight racing. As I went into turn 3 the car pushed really bad because the left front tire locked up. It was all I could do to not wreck Tom, but the worst part was I fell to second place, argh.

It wasn't over though. Tom got a way from me a bit, but as the race went on my focus was laser like. I reeled him back in and was banging on his bumper when a small distraction caused me to overdrive the car with 9 laps to go. I went from racing to "savin it" down the backstretch! Once I gathered it up I was back about 6 lengths. We got to his bumper again with 2 to go, but didn't have the time to try and pass him. If only we had another couple laps. I ended up 2nd.

Summary.
I was stoked about the day. Of course I wanted to win. I always want to win, but to have the car in one piece, the fastest laps in practice, qualifying, heat and race were high points for sure. The truth of the matter is I have to work on my restarts. I haven't been in the P-1 for restarts very often, and with a cagey veteran like Tom Moriarty I stand to learn a lot.

I am so proud and thankful for Steve, Tony, Toby, Stevie and the whole team. We got a great race car and it's going to be a great season. See ya next race at Evergreen Speedway.

WEEKEND REFLECTIONS: RACE RECAP

Saturday the 16th was a hot one! Temperature wise anyway. I'll summarize the last two weeks (14 days) this way, long race car nights. We hung a full nose and a half, fixed some other damage, and changed some wore out components. Yet, after all that something snuck up on us right before we were loading today--a bent track bar!

Yes, I had hit the wall last week in Meridian. The front wheel bent, but the rear wheel was good. I guess I should have thought through it more because the right rear wheel did not bend because the track bar did.

Right before loading this afternoon we checked the chassis for square. It was not, in fact, not by a lot. Problem was we didn't have another track bar that would suffice, so we start adjusting other ways. Well, the car was never quite right tonight.

Practice.
Car was loose in, tight in the center and loose off. We made it much better into the corner, but the tightness in the center remained.

Qualifying.
Not good, I qualified 9th, I think that is the 2nd worse this year as car was tight, bad. I ran a 17.7.

Heat Race.
We started 5th, finished 4th. We made a huge change before the heat race. I mean huge. I ran the largest right rear spring in my history as a driver. I wasn't tight anymore! Problem was it still wasn't quite square and there was nothing we could do.

Race.
I started 9th on the grid. I got as high as 4th, but finished 5th, again. I got turned around early in the race, I wasn't happy about that, but good thing the caution had already come out because they gave me my spot back. One thought I had while doing a full throttle 360 was this, "If the nose gets hit on this thing..." Getting turned is getting old...

Congrats.
Congrats to JZ, first; Naima, 2nd; Mugge, 3rd and everyone else. I wasn't disappointed in the least. We knew we had a wounded car the moment we unloaded, and we did the best with what we had. We'll fix it this week and get after it next week for the fair race! I love the fair...

Conclusions.

• Bent parts on a race car are like a shaved cat, aint right!
• I think I drank 3-4 gallons of h2o and Gatoradetoday!
• I know I looked like a goof running around with my fire proof nomex underwear beneath camo shorts, but it was cooler, and my suit shouldn't be under the car, ever.
• Naima Lang has the best food in the pits, period!
• Although, Pam made a hearty sandwich today. It was scrumptious.
• It's nights like these, where the car isn't right, that I appreciate the opportunity to do this. I used to be a kid in the stands, now I'm the lunatic in the #70. Hey kid, stay in the stands, go boating...nah, go racing!
• I am always surprised by who reads this blog. Thanks for tuning in.
  

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.

A SNEAK PREVIEW

Let's Get Ready to RUUMMMMBLE~! April 12th is the brand new race season! Yes, the same weekend as the Mitosis Conference.

Here is a sneak preview of the T-shirt that will be available the last weekend of March!

Stay tuned to hear about the kick off party at Taco Del Mar in Monroe!

WEEKEND REFLECTIONS

It's Tuesday, time for Weekend Reflections.

1. Preparing a Place
As you may or may not know by now I'm gonna be a dad (we are adopting)!!! Since selling our home on August 31st Melinda and I have been working really hard to prepare a place to have a family. It's been a ton of work...

2. Enterprise Breakfast
Enterprise Breakfast was Saturday morning and about 45 of our business people attended. Wow, what a time. I am so very passionate about this group of people in our church. I shared on the topic, "The Profile of a True Business Leader." I will post the notes here later in the week.

3. Saturday Night Race
Wow! I started 2nd row outside (4th). By lap 2 I was in the lead. We had a red flag for a bad wreck on lap 32ish. Somehow I picked up some debri and got a leak in my RF tire. I lost the lead on lap 35ish and settled into 5th. At about lap 110 I was feeling a pretty bad vibration and the car was starting to push real bad. I dropped to sixth because of the push. I settled into sixth through about lap 135ish and then we had a caution. After the caution the tire went completely flat and I had to pit. I ended up 8th overall and finished the race. It was an amazing weekend and the last race at Evergreen this year.

4. A BIG THANK YOU.
To all the guys and gals on the race team. People have no idea the work, maintenance, cleaning and preparation it takes to race a car--not to mention 2 cars! Thank you to the cleaning crew, who on Sundays pushed the cars out to pressure wash them; the Monday-Thursday crew, who repaired and maintained all the mechanical elements; and the Friday and Saturday crew, who set up the car and made it better at the track.

Racing would not be possible without our sponsors MTS Construction, Noland and Dixie Bender; Rock of Ages Plumbing, Rock and Sue Borchardt; Hometown Lending, Aaron and Nikki Anderson; Speedway Autocraft, Fred and Jaylene Hall; and all those--Tim and Linda, Jim and Laurel, Ryan and Jenny and others--who have given me a gift certificate for tires, fuel and miscellaneous parts. Also thank you to the church who took a special offering for me on Father's Day to live my dream of racing.

Especially I want to thank my friend Roger. Without Roger Habich I would have never experienced what I experienced this year. His determination to get me in a car for the last 6 years prevailed. Saturday night as we were crossing the finish line together (almost side by side) I had my hand out the window saluting you. Thank you man for all your hard work.

5. Sunday Church
We launched a new series called IFIT this weekend. IFIT evolves around John 1:6-8, "There came a man who was sent from God; his name was John. 7 He came as a witness to testify concerning that light, so that through him all men might believe. 8 He himself was not the light; he came only as a witness to the light."

There was a man who was sent from God...Each of us is that man/woman sent from God. Each of us "fits" God's great big purpose--the local church! I am so stoked for the IFIT Banquet coming up this Sunday night. It is going to be one of the best nights of the entire year!!!

Well, that's a quick recap of last weekend. Looking forward to what's on the plate this week.

OPENING NIGHT AT EVERGREEN SPEEDWAY

The 31st was opening night for our race team. As previously announced I was to race the opener, but in light of some new sponsorship, Roger is competing for the NASCAR Washington State Championship and the Evergreen Speedway Championship.

We got started of good finishing 3rd to Busch Series Co-team member to Juan Pablo Montoya, Kevin Hamlin and local racer, Kelly Mann. Both Kevin and Kelly are not running the full season, so unofficially we are leading the points for the championship after week 1, 20 races left!

Check out http://www.rogerhabich.com/ to see his chronology of the race.

I want to say a great big thank you to MTS Construction, Rock of Ages Plumbing and The Rock Church who have been great supporters of the our race team. Also, big thank you to the eldership of TRC who got together and bought four tires for the race! We are off to a great start and it is going to be a lot of fun this year.