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.