August 2, 2013

After the race of July 19 and all of the mis-steps that the #32 took, we brought the car home and went through it with a fine tooth comb.  We found that both the camber and the toe had been knocked out.   We completely went through the brake system on all four corners and serviced the entire system, we found that we were quite low on brake fluid, so we took care of all of that and bled the system and deemed the brakes ready.  We then scaled the car and got all of our setup numbers right and felt the car was as good as we could make it.  We left early as we still had to make sure the setup was there and yes, we still had tires to break in--this would be our 3rd try to get that set of tires ready--but you know what they say, the third time is the charm.

We got to the track before the gates were open so we were the third car in, got to our pit stall unloaded the car, got it registered, went through tech and was in the "grid" when the track was opened for practice.  Connelly went out got some heat in the tires we were going to race and then "busted" it for about 5 laps.  The car was wicked fast, it rolled through the corners perfectly was neutral coming off and perfect going into the turns, so we came in and put on "them tires".  It looked like we were finally going to get them broken in as we still had over an hour of practice time left.  Well we finally got them done, refueled put our race tires back on and did a quick check over and went to the drivers meeting. 

The cars on hand tonight were the #32 of Connelly Dubuisson, the #66 of Andrew Johnston, the #7 of Hunter Lewis, the #44 of Joseph McArdle, the #96 of Robbie Johnson, the #04 of Dawson Keener, the #29 of Blake Gaither, and the #94 of Brad West.

QUALIFYING:  We had a good qualifying run posted a 13.09 to win the pole position, followed by #66, #7, #44, #96, #04, #29, and the #94 who did not post a time (arrived late).

HEAT RACE:  By virtue of Connelly winning the pole position he got to start on the inside of the front row with the #7 to his outside with the rest of the field assuming their qualifying positions.  Connelly got a really good start and lead from start to finish winning by about 5 car lengths, the #7 was second followed by #66, #44, #04, #96, #94, and the #29.  Connelly threw the big dice to determine the invert and he threw a 1 meaning there would be no invert, all cars would start in the positions they finished the heat race.  Very unusual!!!

FEATURE RACE:   The track came up with a new wrinkle, they offered either car on the front row the opportunity to go to the rear of the pack for an extra hundred dollars in prize money.  Well Hunter Lewis in the #7 took the bet and went to the rear so he was starting the race with $100 in his pocket.  Connelly got a really good start and lead for the first half of the race, he was in a good rhythm was driving a good steady race, had a fair lead of about 3 car lengths when the #29 spun coming out of turn 4 at the halfway point.  We got another good restart when on the next lap the #04 and #96 got together spinning the #04, another restart.  Connelly got a fair restart but the #44 was closer to him than before the spins, Connelly then overdrove turn 1 and 2 slid up the track slightly but just enough for the #44 to get by and the #7 took advantage and got by too.  Connelly drove really hard and got back by the #7 and got close to the #44 but just couldn't pull off the win so he had to settle for second.  He was really disappointed but the worst was yet to come, in tech it was determined that we were 1/32 of and inch below the minimum ride height on the left front and we were disqualified.  Connelly drove the car around the parking lot and got measured again and the car passed, but the disqualification stood.  It was generally felt that we damaged the internal valve in that shock when we "wheel hopped" the #7 the race prior.  We seldom check ride heights as we set them with a good margin for error and they have never been an issue in over a year--you can bet the farm we will check them from now on.  The biggest effect was that we went from leading the points for track championship in the Semi-Pro division by 68 points to being behind by 12.  As car owner and crew chief it is my responsibility to make sure the car is legal, I have a rule book and know what they are so I take full responsibility. Oh well live and learn, now we will just have to get the lead back.  We are already looking forward to the next race on Aug 16, did I say August??? man the season is almost over. Only 5 races left if they can get in the rainout date of July 5.