End Of Season Overview

Well the 2013 racing season at Sunny South Raceway is in the books and it will be another four months or so until the 2014 season kicks off.  The next racing function is the annual banquet on Dec. 14, looking forward to it. Before the beginning of the 2013 season the #32 team sat down and established some goals that we would strive to attain.

               1. Win the track championship in the Semi Pro division.
               2. Win at least one race.
               3. Win at least two heat races.
               4. Win at least two pole positions in qualifying.
               5. Record at least one lap under 13.00 seconds.
               6. Represent ourselves in a professional manner,
                   exhibiting good sportsmanship and fair
                   and honest competition.

Lets examine the results for 2013:

1. Win the track championship. We fell short by 8 points. We were having a very successful season until Aug 2nd.  after the heat race made a chassis adjustment to the right rear of the car, and did not check the ride heights after.  The result was by raising the right rear we unknowingly lowered the left front, apparently we were right on the borderline of being too low (we had passed all pre and post race inspections up to that point) but we were now 1/32" too low and were disqualified.  Zero points for the whole night. Our 75 point lead was now minus 12.  We figured we would be able to make it up, which we should have been able to do, however Connelly began overdriving the car trying to make it up and to get a full feature win.  We wound up ending the season ahead by three points.The track rules state that you MUST drop your lowest points race, the disqualification doesn't count.  When we dropped our lowest points race and the #66 dropped his lowest points race, in our lowest points race we had outscored him by 11 points, so we had to finish 11 points ahead of him to win the track championship--we just didn't.  Congratulations to Andrew Johnson and the entire #66 crew - they did what they were supposed to do and we didn't.

2. Win at least one race. We were scored winning one race, but it was a rain shortened race and Connelly felt that its value was diminished by that, I kept telling him that a win is a win, the check said first place and the trophy said first place. We also had three second place finishes in feature races
               
3. Win at least two pole positions. That one we accomplished. We won four poles and were tied to one one-thousandth of a second for another.

4. Win at least two heat races. That one we accomplished also.  We won 3 heat races and also had 5 second place finishes.

5. Record at least one lap under 13.00 seconds. That one we did not achieve.  Our fastest lap that was electronically scored was a 13.03 which was only three one hundredths of a second off--you cant blink that fast.

6. Represent ourselves in a professional manner, exhibiting good sportsmanship and fair and honest competition.--We feel that we have accomplished this, the disqualification hangs over our heads like a black cloud, but rest assured it was unintentional, we gained no competitive advantage from that 1/32 of an inch, but the rules are the rules and we not only abide by them, but whole heartedly support them.

Overall the 2013 season was a very successful one for us.  We not only accomplished a lot, we learned even more.  We have finally began to gain an understanding of what it takes to make one of these little cars perform.  Connelly learned a lot and improved significantly in his driving abilities, we still have a long way to go but we made a start in 2013.  We are looking forward to the 2014 season.
Paul, Betty and Connelly