Saturday April 14, 2012

Well the moon, planets and all the stars finally aligned for what was to be our best Legends showing to date. We arrived at Sunny South Raceway just a few minutes after the track opened about 4:05, there were already quite a few cars in their pit stalls, although the track had not opened for practice. We got our pit passes, went to our pit stall, got set up, registered the car, went through tech and got on the track for some practice. We tried a few minor adjustments as the car was close and the track was at 108 degrees. We tried a couple of different setup combinations and finally settled on what we were going to run. Connelly went out and had a 13.05 on the hand held stop watch, but with that you can be off by as much as a half of a tenth. We had the set of carburators that had come with the new engine and we had never tried them, we still had a half hour of practice left so we decided to give it a try. Got them on and couldn't get them to idle, rushing too much. So now we are going back to the old carbs, couldn't get them to idle either---we just got flustered, so we pushed the car down to Joseph McArdle's pit and Joseph put the magic touch on them and got them right in about two minutes, Mr. Joe kept saying, "don't worry dude, we'll get you back out for a couple of passes" as practice was rapidly coming to a close. There were a couple of other cars that wanted one last shot before qualifying and we all got our chance. The car ran good, so we just checked the air pressures for qualifying.

We were in the third qualifying set and the track had cooled down somewhat and Connelly laid down a lap of 13.04 on the transponder, no finger error there. When Ms. Marcie came to the tech barn to post the times and the starting positions for the heat races, I was kidding with her and she said "quit complaining you got the pole". The next closest time was a 13.11 with the third qualifier at 13.17. Connelly's first pole!! At the driver's meeting they announced that this would be an inverted start race, you might know it our first pole and they are going to throw the big dice. What happens is that after the heat race the winner of the #1 heat race throws a three foot dice off of the scoring tower stairs, whatever number comes up that is how many cars are inverted for the start of the Feature Race.

The competitors for Saturday's Legends race were the usual; Joseph McArdle in the #44jr, #44 with Billy Elmore Jr. driving, #94 Brad West driving, #7 Hunter Lewis at the wheel, #39 with Daniel Thompson driving, #52 back for his first race this season With Cody Karl driving, #55r of Ronnie Osmer, #59 driven by the track chaplan Terry Myers, #04 driven by Dawson Kenner who finally got his ignition gremlin exorcised, #4 driven by Tucker Yance, #j8 driven by Alan Kirkfield, and of course Clonnelly Dubuisson driving his black and orange #32. A very impressive field by any standard.

In his heat race Connelly in #32 on the pole, with the #44jr on his outside followed by #52, the #55r, #j8, with the #04 in 6th. Connelly got a perfect start and got out front followed closely by #44jr. for the first half of the race the #32 and #44 were glued together, seldom separated by more than one car length, by about lap six Connelly began to stretch it out to about a 5 length lead which is where they finished with the #52 third followed by #55r, #04, #j8.

As the winner of the first heat, Connelly had to throw the big dice, he threw a "2" so the first two rows were inverted. So instead of starting on the pole he would start inside second row, with one of his best friends Joseph in the #44jr starting on the pole. So now the starting positions would be the opposite of the Heat Race. The outside row also inverted with the #4 front row and #94 second row outside. The rest of the field kept the starting positions they earned in the Heat Race. At the start Joseph got out front with Connelly passing the #4 for second with the #94 getting to third. They ran that way separated by only one or two car lengths with neither the #32 or the #44jr being able to gain any advantage. On lap 6 a caution came out for a spin by the #j8. On the restart Joseph left just the slightest gap on the inside and Connelly took full advantage shot through for the lead, with the #94 in third. Joseph and Connelly put on a fantastic show for the fans seldom being more than one or two car lengths apart. On one occasion the #94 got under Joseph and took second, Joseph executed a classisc "slide job" and took second back. Some really exciting racing for the fans. There was an extended red flag for the #j8 who got into the wall hard coming out of turn #4 knocking off his right front suspension, the wheel rolled all the way to turn two. That left 9 laps to go at the restart, Connelly was able to hold Joseph off for those 9 very hotly contested laps for his first Legend win. This was a case of two cars which, on that night, were very close in speed, with two equally skilled drivers that raced each other very close and very clean. Connelly stopped at the exit to the pits where Mr. Joe gave him the checkered flag and congratulated him, Connelly said, "man he is strong he almost broke my arm congratulating me". Connelly did the "Cajun Victory Lap" (wrong direction) and got a good round of applause. I am proud to be a part such a race and to be associated with such classy people as the McArdles. Thanks Mr. Joe for providing us with such a great venue. Come out next race on 4-28-12 and treat yourself to a night of great and exciting racing.