Saturday morning we woke up to a tremendous line of thunderstorms. They passed and went out into the Gulf to agravate the fish. We got to the track went through tech and got ready to go out for some parctice. Connelly said the car felt wicked fast. He ran about ten laps increasing his speed on each lap. He was on Joseph's tires and we wanted to try the car just like they had run it last. Joseph went out with his #44 primary car (we had put our #32 on the car he loaned us) his oil filter loosened up and began to leak. He saw the oil on the track and pulled in and the engine was refilled with oil. The oil was cleaned up and practice resumed. We felt like we needed at least 30 or so laps of practice to get Connelly used to the feel of the car as coupes have a slightly different "feel" than a sedan. In the next session Joseph blew the engine, he put the #3 connecting rod through the side of the block. That put things in a totally different perspective. How can we race Joseph's back up car with our motor when he dosen't have a car to drive and he is currently the points leader? Connelly went up to Mr. Joe and said we weren't going to drive the backup car with our engine and that Joseph could drive it, at first Mr. Joe said no but we insisted. We are in 3rd place for points and a no points night would really hurt. The #7 team brings a backup car that they are trying to sell to the races and they very generously let Connelly use it. We really didn't want to put the car in jepordy by mixing it up with the rest of the cars, we just made a light qualifying run, ran about 4 or 5 laps in the heat race before retiring finishing last, ran half the race easy in the feature then retired with a 7th place finish. We were in full points conservation mode. We lost 17 points to the 4th place car but still are in 3rd by 36 points. We may use this race as our "drop" race, each team must drop their lowest points race of the season before the final points calculation is done. All in all a very interesting night and thanks to the generosity of the #7 team we were able to salvage the night.
The Racing: The race was reletavely uneventful with no cautions with the #7 fininshing first, #32 (Joseph) second, #55 third, #39 fourth, #33 fifth, #53 sixth, #13 (Connelly put his little sister's soccer number 13 on the side of the "loaner" in red masking tape) finished seventh. However the saga is not over yet, we loaned Mr. Joe the engine we ran last year in our sedan until they get their motor back from Charlotte so musical motors/cars contiues. Currently we plan to race the #32 coupe (Joseph's #44 backup car) next race on the 25th of August. Come out and see how this saga plays out and treat yoursellf to some really good racing.
Monday, August 13, 2012
Saturday Night July 28, 2012
In our pre race preparation we found a small discrepency in our setup, something we had overlooked for the past two races. We felt like it was such a small thing it couldn't have made much difference in the handling of the car. We put it back like it was supposed to be ane after going through registration and tech Connelly put it on the track and it handled really well. We then went to a slightly different air pressure setting and the car took off. It was really fast and stable, Connelly was really excited and anxious to race. The track's transponder reader had broken so there was no qualifying and we had to draw chips for the starting positions.
There were seven racers available tonight, the #44, the #7, the #94, the #59, the #33, the B00 from Ft. Worth TX and of course the #32 Of Connally missing were the #55r and the #39.
The Heat Race: Connelly drew the 6 th starting position so it was outside the second to last row for us at the start of the heat. The B00 drew the pole and at the start he broke his motor mount and could not shift, which backed up the inside row. Connelly took full advantage and shot to the front he came out of turn two in first place and led for the first half of the race with the #7 and #44 in hot pursuit. Connelly overdrove turn 4 slid up the track slightly but it was enough for the #7 to get by. Connelly went on to finish second behind the #7 with Joseph in the #44 third. Connelly said this was the best car he had ever had under him and he felt like he might have something for the #7 in the Feature.
Feature Race: Due to the roll of the big dice for the invert (a roll of 6) Connelly started 5th in the feature, by the end of lap two he was second to Joseph in the #44, going down the back straight he got a huge run on the #44 and instaed of going to the inside of Joseph he went to the outside letting the #7 and #B00 get by so in one straignt-a-way he went from challenging for the lead to fourth. Another driving mistake. But the car was really flying. A couple of laps later a caution came out for a spin by tne #33 and Connelly took the "choose" which put him outside front row on the restart, it took him a lap to get to the bottom now in 3rd place. The #7 passed the #44 and Connelly got inside the #44 going down the back stretch, Joseph drove it in deeper than Connelly and they were side by side through turn 3. It appeared that the #44 may have gotten a little loose and came down just the slightest, Connelly checked up a little and the#B00 got into the back of us getting us loose, Connelly saved it but the #B00 got us again and sent Connelly straight into the wall at about 60 MPH. It was a really hard hit and lifted the rear wheels off the ground. The safety equipment did its job, he did have some tenderness where the seat belts held him but by Sunday morning he was fine. The HANS kept his head from thrusting foreard, no neck tenderness, the worst he got was he hit his knee on the steering colum and that was tender until Monday. While they were loading the car on the rollback Connelly walked all the way across the infield to where the cars were parked on the backstretch under the red flag and had a "conversation" with the B00 driver. The infiend safety truck official went over and made sure there was no altercation and drove Connelly back to the trailer. The car was signifigantly damaged. It will need to be clipped and the entire right front suspension will need to be replaced. Thank God for the safety equipment built into the car and thank God it worked as designed. You can always replace parts.
Then something really special happened. Mr. Joe and Brian McArdle offered us the use of his backup car that is without engine (it is in Charlotte being re-done). We tore our car down on Sunday assessed the damage, went to get the #44 backup on Monday night and installed out motor in it on Saturday. We went over as much as we could and by Friday were ready to go RACIN. Cant wait to see what our motor will do in that car.
There were seven racers available tonight, the #44, the #7, the #94, the #59, the #33, the B00 from Ft. Worth TX and of course the #32 Of Connally missing were the #55r and the #39.
The Heat Race: Connelly drew the 6 th starting position so it was outside the second to last row for us at the start of the heat. The B00 drew the pole and at the start he broke his motor mount and could not shift, which backed up the inside row. Connelly took full advantage and shot to the front he came out of turn two in first place and led for the first half of the race with the #7 and #44 in hot pursuit. Connelly overdrove turn 4 slid up the track slightly but it was enough for the #7 to get by. Connelly went on to finish second behind the #7 with Joseph in the #44 third. Connelly said this was the best car he had ever had under him and he felt like he might have something for the #7 in the Feature.
Feature Race: Due to the roll of the big dice for the invert (a roll of 6) Connelly started 5th in the feature, by the end of lap two he was second to Joseph in the #44, going down the back straight he got a huge run on the #44 and instaed of going to the inside of Joseph he went to the outside letting the #7 and #B00 get by so in one straignt-a-way he went from challenging for the lead to fourth. Another driving mistake. But the car was really flying. A couple of laps later a caution came out for a spin by tne #33 and Connelly took the "choose" which put him outside front row on the restart, it took him a lap to get to the bottom now in 3rd place. The #7 passed the #44 and Connelly got inside the #44 going down the back stretch, Joseph drove it in deeper than Connelly and they were side by side through turn 3. It appeared that the #44 may have gotten a little loose and came down just the slightest, Connelly checked up a little and the#B00 got into the back of us getting us loose, Connelly saved it but the #B00 got us again and sent Connelly straight into the wall at about 60 MPH. It was a really hard hit and lifted the rear wheels off the ground. The safety equipment did its job, he did have some tenderness where the seat belts held him but by Sunday morning he was fine. The HANS kept his head from thrusting foreard, no neck tenderness, the worst he got was he hit his knee on the steering colum and that was tender until Monday. While they were loading the car on the rollback Connelly walked all the way across the infield to where the cars were parked on the backstretch under the red flag and had a "conversation" with the B00 driver. The infiend safety truck official went over and made sure there was no altercation and drove Connelly back to the trailer. The car was signifigantly damaged. It will need to be clipped and the entire right front suspension will need to be replaced. Thank God for the safety equipment built into the car and thank God it worked as designed. You can always replace parts.
Then something really special happened. Mr. Joe and Brian McArdle offered us the use of his backup car that is without engine (it is in Charlotte being re-done). We tore our car down on Sunday assessed the damage, went to get the #44 backup on Monday night and installed out motor in it on Saturday. We went over as much as we could and by Friday were ready to go RACIN. Cant wait to see what our motor will do in that car.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
