| Place |
Time Points |
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|---|---|---|
| Qual Time: | 2 | 22.902 |
| "A" Trophy Dash: | 3 | N/A |
| "A" Heat Race: | 3 | 8 |
| Main Event: | 3 | 46 |
| Season Points: | 3 | 282 |
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We got the rear end fixed and the left rear axle replaced. This week the car felt really strong. The trophy dash and heat race were used to get tire temps and car setup finalized for the main event. I started towards the back of the 18 car lineup. I worked my way through the pack with Brian (64) and Terry Barnes (98). We got up to the front and then we went full speed bumper to bumper for 15 laps. My car was faster in turns 1 and 2 while their cars were faster in turn 3. I had to slow down on the front stretch so that I could be up to full speed and right on Terry's bumper coming out of the dogleg. He drove a lower line to make me work even harder and I bumped his rear bumper to let him know I was right there. We all drove hard and if any of us would have made a mistake the other cars would have taken advantage of the situation. Even though I ended up in 3rd place, the race was closer than that. We all pulled into the winner circle and looked at each other and said "Now that was fun"!
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The car was still in good shape and strong. Brian did not qualify tonight because his carburetor had a clogged jet. Brian was not allowed to race in the heat races and had to start in last place for the main event. We helped Brian's crew get his car running. It really isn't that much fun to race without your best competition on the track and some people think it is weird to see drivers helping other drivers. I was being selfish because I wanted to race against Brian with his best car setup possible. Not that his crew could not handle the problem, I was just lending a hand just in case.
The main event found me in the back and Brian only two cars behind me. Brian took advantage of a wreck and passed me and others so I followed him right up to the front. Charles McDonald (7) was very fast but a little out of control. Brian tried to pass him on the outside but had to give Charles so much room that he could not pass him. The two of them fighting left them both going slower than normal. I dropped back to give them room in case they were going to wreck or to give one of them room to make the pass. Unfortunately we came up on lap traffic and one car would not get out of the way despite getting the blue flag for four laps. The blue flag means that there are faster cars behind you and to yield to them by staying low and holding your line. You don't have to slow down, just hold your line. The lapped car did not hold a line and was racing the leaders. This slowed us down even more. This also allowed slower cars to catch up and try to pass me. I held my own as safely as I could but two cars kept diving in front of me in the west turn. I had to pass them on the next lap. I was faster than them but once I got past them I was back in the same situation behind Charles and Brian.
After a few laps of this Don Alspaugh (80) was on the outside of me in the west turn when his car broke loose. I let off the gas which caused my car to push up the track. Don tried to collect his car but we ended up running into each other. I decided to save my car by pushing Don out of the way. It sounds bad but Robert (11) was right behind me so if I would have stopped I would have gotten plowed and Don probably would have hit the wall. As it turned out I was able to push Don all the way around with him pointing in the right direction and going. Don lost only one position but because of the spin the flagman threw the yellow flag. There was only 4 laps left in the race.
Then the main track official made a really bad call. There were several wrecks before Don and I got into it and the officials just let the race go on. The official decided to send both Don and I to the back of the restart line. I ended up going from 3rd back to 17th with 4 laps to go. Needless to say I was extremely mad. I drove without regard to the other drivers. If a car was not in front of me then it was not a concern. I passed every car on the outside. In the end, I raced back to 6th place to salvage what could have been very damaging to my points standings.
Later we found out that the race did not count towards the points race because the track did not get the race into the official NASCAR schedule in time. Oddly enough, this worked out for Brian because Terry and I would have gained 9 and 8 points in the Heat Race. It also helped me because Terry would have gained 6 points over me.
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After the last race of being the fastest car but not having enough power to pass other cars I had enough. I asked Don Simmonson for a huge favor to let me use his shop to put my new motor together. The new motor is a 22R. The 20R that I just rebuilt was a 2189cc motor. The 22R is 2367cc and bored out 40 over. The only difference between the 20R and the 22R is the piston size and shape. The 20R has a piston size of 88.5mm and the 22R pistons are 92mm wide. The 20R pistons are flat tops and the 22R pistons are domed in a donut shape. I had the 22R block and the connecting rods line honed. I had the crankshaft, connecting rods, pistons, flywheel, and harmonic balancer all balanced for smooth operation to minimize damaging vibration. The block was decked so that it was truly flat. We shaved 47 thousandths off the head to create a combustion chamber that was 9.5 to 1 compression. This makes my motor more equal to the Mustang 2300 motors with the "D" shape combustion chambers.
I worked very hard and very late every night except Friday. I took Friday off at work and worked on my motor all day. I quit around 6 pm that night to take Laura out for a nice evening. She has been very supportive during this last year about my racing.
On Saturday morning Laura and I pulled the 20R motor out of the car and went to put the 22R motor in. At about 10 am we ran into our first snag. The right side motor mount on the 22R is not symmetrical with the left side. I had two left side 22R motor mounts. Tommy was out of town but I went to his house and pulled one out of a parts car in his drive way. We rushed back to the shop and put the 22R motor into the car. It went in fairly well. The next snag was the temperature sensor housing broke. Laura ran to the parts store for us while we finished putting the motor in the car and connecting all the electrical and fuel system. Laura got back and we put the temperature sensor in and the car fired right up. Don set the spark plugs and timing on the car for a final tune up. We cleaned up the shop and put most of the tools away. Then we loaded up my tools and put the car in the trailer. I ran home, hopped in the shower, ate a quick sandwich, and headed to the track at 2:30. The gates opened at 2:00 but I was able to get there, unload, put the trailer out in the parking lot, and get back in before the first practice session.
I was by myself today and I had tires to get mounted. I took the tires down and they mounted the first one but then the tire machine broke. I mounted the second one using the old bicycle tire mounting technique with a long pry bar. It took lots of muscle and time but I got it mounted and aired up. I got the tires on the car and got ready just in time for the last practice session. I took it easy on the motor and broke it in on the new tires. My friend Brian Lambert timed my laps for me and said I was turning 22.7s.
I qualified with the fastest time of the night at 22.715. I got that time on my first lap. My second lap I hit the brake too hard and sent the car into a skid so my time was really bad.
The trophy dash and heat races were simply used to make sure the car was still running well and gain a few more points towards 2nd place in the season points total.
Because of the poor turn out for the Limited Sportsmen (4 cars) and Late Model (8 cars) classes, our Pure Stock class was given 10 extra laps for the main event for a total of 40 laps. I started in 9th place after the invert. The start of the race went well and I used 3rd gear and lots of power to work through the field but then I could not figure out why I was going so slow. It turns out that I forgot to shift to 4th gear. Once I shifted to 4th the car hooked up and I was able to get up with the other faster cars. When I got up to the leaders we ran into a stale mate. The four fastest cars ran side by side and front to back in a very tight pattern for 5 laps. Then a yellow flag came out for a car getting stuck on the track. After we went back to green the same formation of four cars occurred again. I was so tired and fatigued from all the work on my motor this week that I was not driving at my peak skill. I touched the rear end of Robert Claphan (11) as we came out of the dogleg and he started to lose control. Brian shot out in the lead and I slowed down to let Robert gain control of his car. He did gain control and I was able to pass him. The flagman gave me a stern warning with the crossed yellow and black flags but we stayed under the green flag. Brian was 15-20 car lengths out in front of me and I was going to have a hard time catching him. Then another car wrecked and brought out a yellow flag. This was a great break for me since it put me right behind Brian on the restart.
It took a few laps but I was able to get under Brian coming out of the dogleg and force him to try and pass me on the outside in the west turn. I was able to race him down the front stretch and get by him coming out of turn 1 to take the lead. After that Charles and Brian and Robert all battled for 2nd, 3rd, and 4th. This gave me the ability to extend the lead to about 20 car lengths. Then on lap 38 I noticed something shiny in the west turn that was in the shadows. Before I knew it I jerked the wheel to avoid it once I saw how big it was. When I jerked the wheel I upset the cars balance so that when I hit the object I ran over it with my right side tires and lost control of the car down into the dirt. Talk about things flashing before your eyes. All I could think of was that I had a very hard week with lots of stress and little sleep only to get into first place and then wreck by myself with one lap to go. I relaxed as I headed for the big monster tire that claims several cars a year. The car slowed just enough for me to ease the car back onto the track without losing much speed. It felt like I had flattened the right rear tire when I was going through the dirt but it felt all right when I got back on the track. I took the white flag and raced the last lap to victory with a 10 car length lead. It turns out that one of the cars lost about 6 feet of muffler on the track and I was nice enough to remove it for the other drivers :-)
I was so tired after the race that I was not really that excited as I was relieved that it was over. I am extremely happy that my car is running great and I don't have much to do over the next four weeks for the race on August 12.
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QUOTE: | A barking dog seldom bites. -- English Proverb |
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