| Place |
Time Points |
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|---|---|---|
| Qual Time: | 2 | 23.502 |
| "A" Trophy Dash: | 1 | N/A |
| "A" Heat Race: | 2 | 9 |
| Main Event: | 1 | 50 |
| Season Points: | 1 | 59 |
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The car was pretty fast. It wasn't the fastest on the track but it survived much longer than the 2 faster cars.
The car was second fastest in qualifying with at 23.502. The fastest time was 23.25. I managed to avoid a wreck in the trophy dash and mirror drive the faster car for a lap to win the trophy dash. During the heat race the fastest car (99) sprung an oil leak so they made him leave. The next fastest car (64) (who screwed up qualifying) is my friend and we raced side by side but his car was faster so he won the heat race and I got second.
The main event was 35 laps and the 64 car was starting on the outside pole. Meanwhile me and the 99 car were sitting in 8th and 9th. We worked our way through the pack pretty quick and I chased the 64 car for 16 laps. Then a caution came out. I pushed hard to pass on the restart and passed the 64 car within a lap. He stayed behind me for several laps but started dropping off. After 5-8 laps I could not see him in my rear view mirror but I knew he had to be close. That is when I came up on a pack of 8 lap cars. They were 5 wide (no kidding) coming out of turn 2 heading to turn 3. I had to pick my way through them watching my mirror for the 64 car. After I got through the field with only a few laps to go I passed the 64 car (lapped him). Then I figured out that the entire field was going slow. I lapped every car except the 21 car (no matter what the Tri-City Herald wrote). The techs warned me about the car being too fast (even though it was not the fastest). In comparison to last year the 1999 car qualified with a better time of 23.3. The techs may force me to add more weight to the car but I think the other two cars are much faster than mine, they just broke down this week.
I am now first in points and the car only got one minor ding in the strap metal between the rear fender and rear bumper. Running the engine at high RPMs might cause me to need some expensive motor work done. I don't think it will last the whole season so I am rounding up parts and lining up labor to freshen up the motor or swap out motors around mid-season.
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The night started off pretty well. The two fastest cars in the division were running extremely well. The trophy dash was difficult because the car was loose at strange points on the track. There could have been dirt or oil on the track. The heat race went well and even though I was in 5th after the first lap I was able to pass the 4th place car and avoid the wreck between the second and third place cars to finish second.
The main event was pretty difficult. I started out in 10th place. The eight cars in front were bumping and banging around so it took several laps to get through the pack. Then all of the sudden I must have hit some oil on the track in turn 1. It is hard to explain what it feels like when you hit oil but it is kind of like hitting a sheet of ice and having a coating of ice stick to about 1/3 of your tire and then driving across sand paper. The car slips then sticks then slips then sticks. Needless to say, the car is difficult to handle and I lost the battle. I spun the car around in lots of traffic and decided that the middle of the track was not a good place to be so without hesitation I dropped the car into reverse as the car came out of the spin and floored it to the bottom of the track. One car went high, one car went low, and one of my friends, Mike Kaufman, did not go low enough. You can see the result in the picture above. It was actually worse because the impact bent the wheel as well. I saw Mike was going to hit me so I relaxed and waited for the impact. The car died and I thought I was done for the night. I dropped my window net to let the safety crew know that I was all right. Then I looked over to the side of the car where Mike hit me and I could not see ANY damage to the car. The roll cage that Tom Hangartner and I built did not budge at all! I started up the car but could not get the safety net up. I had to wait for the safety crew to get the net in place before I could take off.
I rejoined the race but I was already 1 lap down. The car felt fine. The flagman black flagged me for having a bent wheel. I went to the pits and Tommy and Ryan were ready to change the wheel. Other people from other crews came to help. I went down another lap and started in the back of the field in 15th place. I was able to get by several cars. The car was running well but was slower due to the bent axle or axle housing (couldn't tell). Then I came up on a driver that decided that I did not need to pass them. This driver was obviously blocking me and I did not know why. I tried to pass high, low, and even gave the driver a tap on the rear bumper down the straight to let this driver know I wanted by. This driver did not give up. This driver blocked me so bad that a slower car was able to pass us both. Since I already had one wreck I just rode out the rest of the laps to salvage points. I ended up in 9th place but probably should have ended up in 6th or 7th. This driver's actions cost me the lead in the season points race. When I asked the driver why they blocked me I was told that it was done on purpose because I was cheating and running illegal engine parts. It was a very frustrating night.
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QUOTE: | The dog is a saint. -- Alex Munthe |
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