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.
Monday, August 22, 2011
Sunday, August 14, 2011
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.
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.
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