Friday Night 5-3-2013

Friday night found  the #32 crew at SSR at the appointed time got the car unloaded, pit set up, car registered, car through tech and got on the track.  We were going to run the new tires that we passed on last race, they were about one tenth slower, but we felt they would come to us by the end of the
feature.  We were going to use our "fast tires" for qualifying so we tightened the car up just a little as they have a tendency to be loose.  Connelly went out to qualify and on lap one he experienced a really bad vibration then his clutch went out, he pulled in.  The vibration had opened up the clutch bleed valve and all the clutch fluid leaked out.  We refilled the clutch reservoir and bled the line got the clutch working, but where did that severe vibration come from?  Connelly drove the car around the pits and no vibration, but he was going slow (speed limit in the pits).  Went out for our heat race starting last,one lap vibration still there.  Came in and started checking everything,  found out that the nut that holds the coupler that connects the engine to the driveshaft had loosened up a quarter of a turn.  It was enough to cause the severe vibration.  We got it fixed just as they were calling the cars to the track for fan appreciation night.  We were the last car out on the track and going down the back stretch Connelly nailed it and no vibration.  We had it fixed.  We got back to the pits in just enough time to give the car a quick once over put some fuel in it and get to the grid for the feature which we would start from the 15th position.  It felt that we had been thrashing on the car for a week, and we still had the car set up a little tight for the qualifying tires, and we were running the newer tighter tires, but at least we were running.

Feature Race:

There were 15 competitors registered and it would be a chore to get to the front with that many cars unless we have a caution to help.  The racers that were registered were Connelly in his #32, Andrew Johnson in the #66, Robbie Johnston in the #96, Dawson Keener in his #04, Dalton Chipley in the #33, another #33 of Dustin Smith, the #7 of Hunter Lewis, the #44 of Joseph McArdle, the #2r of Skyler Fleming, the #2 with Billy Elmore, Jr. driving, the #53 of Jeremy Lundy, the #94 of Brad West, the #59 of Terry Myers, the #91 of Jake Moore.  I hope I haven't forgotten any one.  At the start we picked up a spot here and there after 3 laps we had gained 3 positions,  but the car just didn't seem to have the pop  that it had last race, that is when I remembered that we hadn't loosened it up again after all the vibration/clutch issues.  We would up going from 15th to 7th or 8th at the finish, I lost track, we did not get a caution which would have allowed us to close up or take the choose and significantly improve our position.  Second race in a row that we really needed a caution but couldn't get one, the good news is that we weren't the cause of a caution.  We will just have to use this race as our "drop" race.  All in all a good save from what could have been disaster.  Next race is the Friday/Saturday memorial weekend classic with Saturday being the regional qualifier, a 35 lap event.  Hope we have gotten all of our gremlins out of the way.  We'll be there next weekend.