Sunny South Race Results 6-19-10

Saturday night's race was quite eventful to say the least. An early rain shower rendered the track green and somewhat slick, setting up some mishaps. There was a strong field of 5 cars set to race, The #55r, #18, #39, #32, and the# 00. The #55r had just completed a one week journey of the southeast making tonight's race his 5th race in one week, whew! In practice the #39 got loose coming out of turn two, overcorrected and hit the wall on the back straightaway very hard. He bent several key components including his rear cassis. The car will probally need a new rear clip. He was unable to race due to the damage sustained. In the next practice session the #55r blew his engine. Something broke internally then it locked up. They had a spare motor with them and were able to change it in time for the last practice and made the race.

The heat race found the #32 on the pole. We drew the lucky chip, I am afraid we are using up all of our luck on the draw. Connelly got a good start and gradually increased his lead to an entire straightaway. The #00, #18 and#55r put on quite a show dueling for 2nd through 4th for more than half the race. The #00 develloped a mechanical issue and retired from the race. The #55r and #18 continued their duel for second until the end of the race with seldom more than a car length separating them. On the last lap the #55r got under the #18 but he couldn't quite pull off the pass. Finishing order; #32, #18, #55r, #00.

In the feature race the starting lineup was the same as the finish of the heat race. At the start Connelly got off to a fair start, the #00 who was starting outside of row 2 appeared to jump the start then turned left running the #55r into the infield, the field was jumbled going into turn one with Connelly running second to the #00. Connelly went up a little too high coming off of turn two allowing the #18 to get under him. Connelly just about had the pass on #18 completed coming off of turn 4 when they got together spinning both the #32 and #18. They became locked together (bumper of #18 under rear bumper cover of #32) and it took some muscle to get them apart. At that point the rains came again raining out the rest of the event. The track officials allowed the heat to count for the feature, giving Connelly his 4th win of the season. As Connelly said on the drive home, this is not the way we wanted to win it, but we will take it. Finishing order; #32, #18, #55r and the #00.

Sunny South Race Results 6-5-2010

Sunny South Raceway? they ought to consider calling it rainy south raceway. Two minutes after we came out of "tech" we had another one of those southern thunderstorms, a regular frog floater. It rained for an hour and a half and it took another hour and a half to dry the track. The first heat race kicked off at around 9:00 pm. We only had four cars tonight the #55, #32, #18 and the #39. We only got 8 laps of practice on a semi dry racetrack, we needed more as we had made a couple of changes and needed to get a feel of where we were. During practice the #18's oil filter vibrated loose, he lost all of his oil and blew his engine. Sounded real bad, probablly broke a crank or a rod. Only 3 cars answered the call for the heat race. I told Connelly to feel out the car before pushing it hard. We ran second for the first 6 laps, then closed to the rear bumper of the 39 but just ran out of laps and finished second with the 55r in third.

In the feature Connelly started outside pole as a result of his second place finish in the heat race. on lap 3 the 39 broke his chain and dropped out leaving Connelly and the 55r. Connelly won his third race of the year with the 55r finishing 2nd, the 39 was given credit for 3rd place. We had a good points night adding to our lead.

Sunny South Race Results 5-29-2010

Saturday was the regional qualifier for the Bandoleros. Overnight three additional cars showed up to run the regionals, in addition to all the cars that ran on Friday the #08, #92, and the local driver #55r arrived. Again Connelly drew the outside pole and did a much better job of holding position in the early stages of the 25 lap race. We had a max load of fuel on board (for 25 laps) so we were loose early in the race. The race started under very threatning skies. we traded positions with a couple of cars and there were a couple of accidents which slowed the process down. on lap 14 the skies openend up causing a red flag situation. After over two hours of hard rain the race was cancelled and considered complete because more than half the laps had been run. We finished 7th but were closing on some of the cars right in front of us as our fuel was burned off and the car started to come to us. All in all a very good learning experience, man those guys drive aggressaively. Our times were mostly in the high 13's with our best lap 13.77, couldn't do an average as I accidently erased the stopwatch. Race results, #83 1st, #40 2nd, #08 3rd.

Sunny South Race Results 5-28-2010

Tonight was the first night of the Memorial Weekend schedule. The normal race format was on tap for Friday, with Saturday running the 25 lap regional Qualifier. An extremely strong field was on hand Friday. In addition to the local cars #83, #39, #32, #18 we had cars from Naples Fl, Atlanta, Ga, Charlotte, NC, and Halafax, Nova Scotia. They included the #40, #5, #13, #03. Connelly started on the outside of first row and got hung out to dry on the outside and was frieght trained on the inside by several cars. He fell to 6th where he ran with the fastest Bandoleros in the south. They couldn't pull away from him nor could he gain on them. Finishing order for the top 3 was, #40 1st, #39 2nd, #83 3rd.

In the feature he started 6th and ran with the other cars, but couldn't pass finishing 6th, however he ran the fastest race of his career. He had 10 laps in the 13 seconds, with his best lap being 13.66. His overall average for the 15 laps was 13.98, not too shabby. All in all we learned a lot and will be better prepared next year. Finishing order for the top 3 was; #83 1st, #40 2nd, #39 3rd.