Final Points Results

The final points have been tallied and Connelly has in fact finished third in the Young Lions points for the 2011 season at Sunny South Raceway. Even though he missed two races with one being a double points night he was able to race his way to third place. Eighteen cars posted finishes that earned points in the Young Lions division and another fourteen posted points in the Pro-Masters division. Since both divisions ran together this season Connelly was competing against some very experienced drivers. His goal at the beginning of the season was to win one race and finish third in points in this his first season in Legend Car racing. Fortunately he was able to accomplish both of his goals. This was supposed to be his learning season and learn he did. In his last race he was turning some very respectable times against some very tough competition. We are all very proud of him and we are already looking forward to next season.

Saturday Night September 17, 2011--Last Race of Season

iThis past Saturday night found the #32 team at Sunny South Raceway for the final time this season. Since it was the last race of the year, a couple of new wrinkles were in store. First they were going to qualify the Legends and Bandoleros, it was also a double points race, which was good for us as we were trying to get into the top 3 in Young Lions points. We were 103 points behind, which would be too many to make up in one race, but because of the double points it was mathematically possible.

There was a very strong field of 15 cars on hand to contest the last race of the 2011 season. In addition to the usual strong contenders; Brian McArdle two time track champion and current track record holder, his son Joseph current points leader in Young Lions, Cody Logan current points leader in the pro division and last year's semi pro champion, the #53 who won the pole in qualifying with a blistering lap in the low 13.1's, Cody Karl currently in second place in points behind Joseph (-30 pionts back). The wild card in this mix was Joey Padget who we were chasing for third place in Young Lions was racing in Kentucky and was not competing. Also racing was the #4,#7,#59, #97, #8, #1 and of course the #32 of Connelly Dubuisson.

When we went on the track for practice, Connelly discovered the toe had been knocked out in our altercation with the #4 in the last race. We lost about 30 min of practice time fixing it. We got on the track and the car felt good to Connelly. He ran some respectable times. We wanted to try a set of tires that we had used earlier in the year as they appeared to have a better stagger than the ones we had been running. We got the tires changed and presented the car to the gate for a test run but the track had just closed to practice. I asked Connelly what he wanted to do about tires for qualifying, he said lets try the ones we had not practiced, bad decision. We had run a number of laps on the old tires in the low to mid 13.20's. In qualifying the car just wouldn't handle and we posted a 13.53 good enough for only 9th place out of 15 cars. You just can't leave .3 of a second on the table in qualifying. We started 5th out of 8 cars in our heat race, made two passes got to third, got passed back by Cody Logan and wound up 4th in the heat. We started in the 7th position out of 15 cars for the feature. Connelly drove a great race and worked his way up to 4th by lap 7, the red flag came out for an accident at that point and it took 15 min to clear the track. During the cleanup, an accidental fire extinguisher discharge by the safety vehicle put a huge amount of dry chemical on the track. They blew it off and ran a few hot laps to finish the job, and got back to racing. Several cars took the "choose" which relegated Connelly to 8th. He worked his way back up to 6th then got into a slow slide and went through the infield at the entrance to turn one and knocked the toe out again and the car quit handling. The slide began right where all of that dry chemical from the fire extinguisher was dropped, could be that contributed to the slide. Before the spin he had run a lap of 13.11 and after the best he could do was a 13.78. We wound up with an official finish of 9th. I did the math and it appears that we might have gotten 3rd place in Young Lions points since Joey Padget was not racing. We picked up 104 which would give us the lead for third by one point. Each driver will have to drop his lowest point race and I don't know what Joey's lowest race was, so the jury is still out.

From my prespective, the 2011 season was a great one for us. We began with a new class of car that I knew little about, and with a driver who was totally new to legend racing. These cars are a complete different animal than the old bandolero. The setup is totally different, but with the help of a lot of people were were able to learn a lot about the car. I brought Connelly along slowly at first, but he grew into the position of driver and by the end of the season was really doing well. We are already looking forward to next season.

Saturday August 27,2011

Saturday night found us at Sunny South Raceway with saddened hearts. My Mother and Connelly's Great Grandmother passed away, and we had just buried her on Thursday. She lived a full and complete life and at 94 1/2 was ready to join her maker. She was active and lucid to the very end but had fallen and fractured her hip the Saturday before and had to have surgury or be confined to a bed for the rest of her life, which she refused. We, in concert with her, chose the surgury and it resulted in her passing. We will all miss her greatly. This puts a lot of things in prospective.

THE RACING:

We had to replace the starter, which we killed when Connlly spun in last weekend's race, turned the engine backwards and that took care of the starter. He reported that the brakes were getting "soft" after last week's feature. Upon inspection I found that the left rear hard brake line had suffered from metal fatigue and fractured. So we replaced both and adjusted the brakes, now we hoped we had a car that would both start and stop.

During practice, the track was slick and everybody was loose, with the track temparature at 118.7 that was to be expected. We did not adjust the car as we felt the track would "come to us" once it cooled down. Which it did.

The field of cars that was on hand was very impressive. Brian McArdle (2 time track champion and track record holder) was there as was his son Joseph (current young lions points leader) with his new super strong '34 coupe. Joey Padgett (# 8 in the US in young lions points) Cody Logan (last year's track champion in young lions and current points leader in the Pro division) as well as the usual SSR participants. We felt like we were probablly a top 5 or 6 car.

In the heat race we faced Cody Logan and Joey Padgett, the #1, #4, and #59 for a first heat consisting of 6 cars. We started outside front row. Connelly got a good start and fell in behind Cody and ran second for about half the race when Joey Padgett got by sending us to 3rd which is where we finished.

In the feature 13 cars answered the starter's call. We started 5th due to the invert and settled in and ran in the top 5 or 6 for most of the race. With 3 laps to go while in 7 th place Connelly spun going into turn 3, his right rear brake locked up and sent him around (he put too much brake in the right rear when he adjusted the brakes) that relegated him to last place. After the re-start he passed one car and in the last turn coming to the checker flag he attempted to pass the # 4, got under him they got together and Connelly spun into the infield and finished last. It was just one of those "racing things" with two agressive drivers going for the same piece of "reale estate" while looking at the finish line. When Tucker Yance (the driver of the #4, and really nice guy)came down to our pits after the race to talk, I jokingly told him I would have to keep him and Connelly separated because they don't play well together. We knocked off the right rear fender so we will have to re attach it before the next race which will be on the 17 of September, it will be the last race of the season. Come on out and watch some really exciting racing.

Saturday Night August 20, 2011

After last weekend's wreck, we left the car with the McArdles to try and repair the damage and get us to the point that Connelly would be safe and at least close to where we were before the accident. We arrived at the track early, about 4:30 as we had to re-assemble the body work, go through tech inspection and shake the car down before the race. When he finally got on the track he was very loose, but with the track temp over 115 degrees it was to be expected. We put one round in and that brought it to just "fast loose" we felt that when the track cooled down the car would "come to us". It did. Brian McArdle did an outstanding job getting the car ready, he really knows his stuff.

I drew the inside second row as starting position for the heat race, when the pole sitter decided to "tag" the field for the start (he was driving a car he had never driven before and didn't want to start up front in a strange car). That moved Connelly up to the pole. He took the start and lead wire to wire for his first on track victory. He drove a beautiful race. As a result of winning his heat he got to throw the big dice to see how many cars would be inverted. He threw a 5 meaning he would now start fifth in the feature.

In the feature we ran in the top 5 or 6 for 3/4 of the race. Connelly got passed, then passed back and was running a very strong race when he spun in the back stretch (one of the stinger cars had blown an engine in the race before us and oiled the track down) I believe he hit a bit of oil that remained, no one touched him, it just jumped out from under him. He worked his way back up through a few cars, making a pass for 6th position in the last turn. A finish of 6th in a field of 13 considering the spin on lap 14 was a pretty good result, and when coupled with the heat race win, I was estatic. Looking forward to next Saturday already.

Saturday Night Aug 13, 2011

We had worked on the car all day Friday trying to loosen it up and thought that we had it.
When we got to pre race tech we found that the ride hight was too low, so back to work on that, then the good 'ole SSR thunderstorm hit. We took refuge in the parts room to work on ride hight, got that squared away as the rain stopped, track drying began. We then presented the car to the tech inspector and was approved, however our "cross" was a little higer than we were looking for. We had a new set of right sides on and when the track was dried Connelly went out and announced that the car was "perfect". The tires probablly had a lot to do with it.

In the Heat Race I pulled #51 chip which put us starting last. A new driver chose to tag the field and that moved us up one spot. We ran a very respectful 4 th out of 9 cars, and was pushing the top 2 at the end. The #44 was the class of the field and we didn't have anything for him.

In the Feature we started outside second row and got passed by two before we could get to the bottom, (I have never seen anyone make the outside work at SSR). Connelly made a pass or two and was contesting for 4th, just about had the pass made when the car he was racing lost it spun right into him and he nailed him. Connelly went directly to the pits as we had instructed him to do so we could make sure that the car was safe. Upon inspection we found that the bumper was trashed and the "toe" was knocked out but we couldn't find much else wrong. The race had been red flagged, so we were able to get back out without losing a lap, we did have to start last because we had worked on the car. Upon restart we wound up picking up one spot from the new driver who had started last, he could have passed us but he had been instructed not to by his crew chief (father). When I asked Connellyhow the car handled in those last 4 laps his response was "it was evil". We got Brian and Mr. Joe to look at it and we have a couple of bent front suspension parts, so we left the car with them to get us ready for next Sat. Only 3 more races left.

The # 4, the other car involved in the crash wasn't so lucky. His car had to be removed from the track on the low boy trailer. His entire left front suspension was destroyed. Broke off the lollypop, broke the shock off, bent the upper A frame, lower A frame, fender was total loss, and God knows what else. The car will probably have to be clipped before it can be raced again. The driver of the #4 took responsibility for the crash and was very apologetic, which I appreciated. He helped us take the front body work off of our car, really nice guy. When we went over to look at his damage I was shocked to see how bad it was. He said, "I guess I got what I deserved". To which I responded, "no one deserves this". All in all a stressful night. But we did get the "tight" out of it and Connelly was really driving it and raeally looked good out there. Lets hope that the handling will still be there when it is ready to run again.

Saturday Night August 6 2011

Saturday night Aug 6th found the 32 crew at SSR ready to go. Connelly had spent the week since the last race with the McArdles. Four days going to racing at and returning from the "million", then another 3 days with Joe, Brian and Joseph. We were looking forward to seeing him. We made a couple of adjustments to the car, but we are having trouble getting the "tight" out of it. He had an uneventful Heat race finishing 5 th out of 9 cars, and in the Feature he got a 4th in class YL/SP. We made good gains in the points as two cars that were close to us didn't show up for the race. You don't like to gain like that but they could have been there if they had chosen to do so. Already looking forward to next Saturday night.

Saturday Night July 30th 2011

After waiting for six weeks between races and having the July 16th race rain out, Connelly had already gone into racing withdrawals and it was fixing to go South from there. As we pulled out of the driveway in Metairie, LA it was raining, Connelly said he was racing even if he had to go to rain tires. We arrived at Sunny South Raceway around 5:30 the sun was out but we drove through a rain shower about 3 miles from the track. Got lucky, it didn't hit SSR. At registration I let Betty pull the chip for starting position, she drew 8th out of 11 cars, said she was sorry and will let the drawing to me or Connelly.

In practice the car was "snappy loose" out of two and four, which ment it was probably tight and when he hit the throttle at the transition out of the banked turns onto the flatter straights it would snap loose on him. He was turning some pretty good lap times so we let it alone. In the heat race he got loose coming out of two, got into another car and a third car spun so we restarted in 10th. Connelly worked his way back up to 8th which is where he would start the feature race. We took a half turn out of the left rear hoping that would help the tight and solve that "snappy loose" condition, it worked. For the feature, I told him to feel the car out for at least a couple of laps before leaning on it, which he did. He then proceeded to drive the best race of his brief legend career. He started passing cars and worked his way through the field, with about 4 or 5 to go we got a caution and he restarted 4th. Made a nice pass for third and was pushing the front 2 at the end. He crossed the finish line in third place but was first in the Young Lyons/Semi Pro division, and after one of the top two failed post race inspection Connelly was awarded the first place trophy and points for YL/SP and a second place check for the overall second place finish. This was Connelly's first cash prize money and first Legends WIN. The goal he set for himself before the season was to get at least one win and finish in the top 3 in YL/SP points. He is halfway to achieving that goal.

Many of our friends in the pits an grandstand all said that he "drove the wheels off" of that car.
He looked like he had just gotten out of the shower he was so wet from sweat, and he said "I drove my butt off and I think I got everything out of the car", which I agree he did. All and all a very good outing, this was Connelly's breakout race.

Due to the rescheduling of the two rainout races we will be racing for the next 4 consecutive Saturdays. Connelly is at Charlotte,NC as I write this with the McArdles for the big $100,000 race he is helping pit crew for them. Good luck to them.

Double Points Night Saturday 6-18-11

Saturday 6-18-11 found the DMS 32 team at our home away from home Sunny South Raceway. It was a scalding hot day, temps in the high 90's with accompanying humidity, however a fairly nice breeze came up as it got closer to dark which made it bearable. There were a fair number of legends on hand (Father's day weekend). We had 6 Young Lyons/Semi Pro and also 6 Pro/Masters. They ran the heat races by classes, but combined classes for the feature. Connelly drew inside second row as his heat starting position. At the start of the heat he missed a shift and fell back, then got loose coming out of turn 2 on the second lap got passed and was running in 5 th position. You could throw a blanket over the 2nd through 5 th place cars. They were all about the same speed. Coming out of turn 4 for the checkerd flag the #14 got into the #44jr with both spinning giving Connelly the third place finish in the heat. He ran some very respectable times in competition with his fastest lap being a 13.55 but all were very consistant in the mid 13.5's and low 13.6's.

Feature race: New wrinkle, the winner of the heat race throws a huge 3 foot cube foam rubber dice off of the tower stairs with the resulting number thrown being the number of cars inverted at the start of the feature. As a result of the dice throw they inverted 5 putting Connelly on the outside pole with a swarm of screaming hornets on his rear bumper. He was somewhat apprehensive, but I told him sooner or later he would have to start up there and if he ever wanted to do the "choose" the same situation would present itself. He got frieght trained on the inside by almost the entire field, ran a good race with fairly good times and even made a pass or two. He said that he was so concerned about the cars behind him he didn't look out of his front winshield for the first 3 laps. He was "mirror driving" his little butt off. He did come home with a 1st place troophy for the Young Lyons/Semi Pro class. I don't know how that happened because he finished toward the back of the pack, but we didn't ask NO QUESTIONS!!!!!!! All in all a very successful outing and he brought the car home in one piece. He tells me that he needs to be loosened up a little bit, so we will give that a try. If he ain't sliding through the turns he ain't happy. We'll see how happy he is after the next race on July 16.

Memorial Day Race To Glory, and Regional Qualifier

On Memorial Day weekend Sunny South Raceway hosted its 6th annual Race to Glory and Legends Regional Qualifier. The Friday the 27th was the standard format ie. heat then feature program for all classes. On Saturday night the 28 we had timed qualifying for all classes with 20 lap features for the Bandoleros, Stingers and Pro-Challenge with a 40 lap feature for the Legends. There was a good field of really fast cars on hand to challenge SSR's 1/4 mile banked oval. There were 21 Legend cars available. For Friday's program they ran the Semi-Pro and Young Lyons separately as a class (13 YL/SP) and (8 Pro/ Masters). There were cars from Charlotte, Florida, Louisiana, Alabama, Georgia, Nevada and I believe one from Texas. Additionaly we had our friends The Massaro family fron Gadsden, AL; Tommy, Traci, the upcoming driver Ryan and his brother (whose name escapes me at this late hour) on hand.

These were to be Connelly's third and fourth legend race, and he had never qualified on time before. His qualifying time was OK a 13.74 which he was not pleased with, but all in all it was a fair lap and gave him the 17 th starting position out of 21 cars for the 40 lap race on Saturday.

On Friday he drew fourth starting position for the heat got to third, then got snookered on a restart and fell to fourth which is where he finished. He had a fairly good feature passed a few cars, then had them take the "choose" and go up to the front and he would have to pass them again. He wound up 9th in the feature out of 13 cars.

On Saturday, I told him to stay in touch with the pack for the first 20 laps than try to make some passes in the second half of the race. He did that and stayed out of trouble. At around the 3/4 point in the race our friend Ryan Massaro got together with the white #91 (Ryan's car is the black and white#91) with the white #91 going for a two flip ride, landing on its wheels against the back wall just about destroying the white #91, fortunately no one was injured. There were a couple of other incidents that required a red flag situation, but no injuries only burised pride.

Connelly wound up finishing 12th. He did get lapped but he managed to lap at least one car that was still running at the end. Man, they had some strong cars there. The winning car came out of Charlote with one of the Plot brothers winning and his brother second. Local driver Cody Logan was third. All in all it was a very good experience for Connelly and the #32 team. Liked to worked me to death. Had to break two sets of tires, we had the hood blow off in practice, I think Connelly forgot to put the front hood pin in, had to repair that. Also in practice had a weld break on the muffler it came off but we were able to retrieve it and Cliff Osmer found a 110 v mig welder and welded the tab back on with the help of Tommy Massaro. I used the old racing fix of two loops of bailing wire to insure that the muffler stayen in place, it worked and we came home with our muffler. As mentioned before Connelly got a lot of "seat time" and I got a lot of practice fixing stuff, and we brought the car home in one piece, all in all a good weekend.

Second Legend Race 5-7-2011

Saturday night was Connelly's seccond legend race. There were 13 cars on hand for the competition with some very strong contenders. Connelly drew third starting position for the heat, the fourth starting position car got slightly ahead of him going into turn one (got to work on those starts) and came down on him and slowed (another rookie driver, bad combination) and Connelly got into him and spun him--complete restart. On the restart he got a better start and after two laps, coming out of turn two Con was completely alongside another car, they got together and we cut two holes in the right front the size of quarters, so much for the heat race.

In the feature we started last with a mis-matched set of tires, the car was so tight he had to hold about 15 degrees of left wheel in it going down the straightaway. He did manage a couple of passes in spite of the handling woes and gained a lot of experience on how to drive a tight race car. All in all a good learning experience. New tires are on their way. Looking forward to the next race.

Connelly's First Legend Race, 4-23-11

After the first race at SSR rained out, Connelly got himself put in the "Report Card Penalty Box" until he pulled his grades up. (No B's no keys) He demonstrated what he is made of and worked his butt off and earned back the privilege of racing. After losing two races to grades, he was ready to go this past Saturday night. We had made changes to caster and toe, so when he finally got on the track he said the car was perfect--his exact quote was"don't lay a finger on it".

There were 13 Legends registered and they split the field between two heats. Connelly drew 4th in heat #2 out of 6 cars, so I moved him back one row to 6th so as to give him an excape route and told him not to pass unless he had a real easy pass. He got hung behind a really slow car and just played cat and mouse with the 5th place car. He handled himself well, so in the Featue I turned him loose and let him race. Of course he started last due to the heat race finish.

In the Feature, he made two really nice passes and there were a couple of cautions. Being hung behind two slow cars put him way back, but once he got clear of them he progressed well. With about 6 laps to go he got lapped, he was about 15 car lengths ahead of the lead pack and when they gave him the "move over" flag he slowed too much and pulled over and let the whole pack go by. He told me after the race "those guys were racing for the win and I didn't want to mess them up, I didn't have a chance for a top three finish, so I didn't want to ruin somebody else's chance for one". All in all he had a very successful outing and he got better with each lap.

Betty videoed the entire Feature and I put it on YouTube. It can be viewed at "Connelly's First Legend Race" hope you enjoy it.

Opening Night, 2011 Season at Sunny South Raceway

Saturday night March 5 was the scheduled opening of the 2011 season at Sunny South Raceway. We had a very successful open test date on 2-12-11 after which we changed the oil and filter, treated the motor to a new set of coils, spark plugs and wires. Connelly waxed the car to within an inch of its life, shined the chrome wheels, greased a lubricated everything that didn't move (he almost got me) but I got away. And guess what, Saturday brought a terrific line of thunder storms complete with very strong winds (up to 55 mph) along with a tornado in central Louisiana. We had over 3 inches of rain and the weather was in a word was awful. Joe McArdle cancelled the race as that line of storms was due to hit the track just about the time the gates were scheduled to open. So much for opening night 2011, Connelly was so dissapointed, you would have thought someone had stabbed him in the heart. The first race is now scheduled for 3-19-11. It is pretty obvious that the "weather god" was not a racer, but there will be other days. Looking forward to them.

Getting ready for 2011 season

We started around the first week in October tearing down the legend to paint and change a few things. We removed the body and all of the inside sheet metal with the exception of the floor. Connelly sanded down the entire chassis, roll cage, all of the tins and anything else that didn't move. He then primed and painted everything two coats of grey on chassis and roll cage. The tins he did in flat black. We had the body painted by Terry at Manhattan Collision center in Harvey, La. He did a fantastic job. We then replaced all of the nuts and bolts for all of the trailing arms and suspension parts. We then installed a new Richardson full containment seat complete with wrap around headrest. Then added a new set of Simpson seat belts before replacing all of the repainted sheet metal. Next the fuel tank went back in followed by the body, fenders, hood, grille and graphics. We had the graphics done by A.J. Fulgenzi of Victory Graphics out of Florida, www.victorygraphicsusa.com. We finished off the rebuild with a new set of tires on chrome rims. I am proud to report that Connelly did 90% of the work by himself, with some supervision and help by me. I think he did a fantastic job. The proof is in the pudding, or in this case the outcome of the job.

This past Saturday Feb. 12th, 2011 was open test day at Sunny South Raceway. Joe McArdle (the track manager) reported that we had 27 cars participate. We arrived around 10:30 went through safety tech and scaled the car, after adding 17 pounds of lead, the weight of the paint, new seat the car scaled almost perfect. With a full load of fuel we weighed 1324 pounds which gives us a comfortable fuel burnoff cushion. The cross and other numbers were almost perfect.

Connelly finally got on the track with the old tires to see if the car felt the same as when we ran it in September. It was close. We then put on the new tires, and proceeded to run them in. On the second 10 lap session on the new tires Con spun going into turn 3, I had put too much front brake in the car, he almost saved it he did a half spin then stopped on the grass and came back in.

We had a few issues; the ignition develloped a slight pop when it was cold, with the help of James Wilson (who we purchassed the car from) got that sorted out, I ordered a new set of red coils today. James helped us adjust the camber and toe and reset the brake bias and the car was almost perfect. We had Cody Logan who raced the car before we got it, take it out and shake it down and he reported it was good to go.

Connelly took the car back out for the final run of the day. He got 14 good laps in turning a fast lap of 13.66 on the1/4 mile banked oval. His fast lap of the day was 13.49. All in all a very successful outing for the opening of the 2011 season. Hope to have many more.