Final Update on 2012 Season

Well, the 2012 racing season at Sunny South Raceway has drawn to a close.  We had an up and down season but overall it was very successful for us.  We were not able to compete in the final race of the season.  We had wrecked Mr. Joe's loaner car "The Blue 32" and only had a short week to repair it, we had the wreck on Saturday night Sept. 15 and the next race was the following Friday night.  I tore the rear suspension down and repalced all the bent parts; trailing arms (both rear), the panhard bar, the pinion angle third link, the rear end housing, one rear shock, all heims, all bolts in the rear suspension.  I did not have time to set the car up in that short week, so rather than put the car in harm's way plus we had over a 150 point cushion for 3rd. place points, I elected not to chance it and we didn't attempt to race on Fri night the 21st.  That decision was further validated when Mr. Joe tore the car all the way down to go completely through it, which was his plan all along, he discovered that the top members of the frame were bent.  So I made the right decision after all.  It was  tough  to stay home and not race, but it was the right thing to do.  We will have Mr. Joe's frame repaired.

On Nov 17th we attended the 2012 SSR banquet.  It was a great affair and was held in a church, not the church's hall, but in the main church.  It was very well attended the trophies were spectacular, the food was great and all had a good time.  Connelly finished third in points behind Joseph McArdle who was second and Hunter Lewis who won the track championship.  Joseph missed out on winning his second consecutive points championship by 11 points.  That margin represents one position in qualifying, heat race and feature race for two races.  Very close and since Hunter and Joseph were both involved in a couple of accidents/spins during the season it could have been either one of them's championship, just a matter of racing luck or one turn of the wrench in setup.

The record for the #32 team was one overall victory 3 seconds and 3 thirds a couple of fourths.  We only had 2 DNF's (did not finish).  Additionally we had one flat left rear that we changed with the help of half the people in the pits and got back on track without losing a lap to get a 3rd place finish, another replace a brake pedal bolt to get a 4th place finish with the help of Allen Luthor, another to get the right fender put back in place (thanks to Cliff Osmer),
another to re-install the nut on the upper front ball joint, we did loose a number of laps, but got back out there to finish the race--laps down.  Some of this taught us lessons on pre race inspections and the true value of good friends.  All in all we learned a lot, got some valuable seat time, and moved forward.  We are now in the process of putting the black and orange #32 back together and are looking forward to the open test date in February that Mr. Joe announced at the banquet.