Friday Night August 15, 2014

Friday night Aug 15 found the #32 crew at the pit gate for about 5:20.  We got to our pits, set up, went through registration and tech and got the  car ready to break in tires.  We were breaking in a new set of right sides.  Two heat cycles with a water cool down in between got us halfway there.  Need another two cycles at the next race, OK for now.  We put our race tires on and did a test set, then put another set on trying to decide which to use in qualifying.  We got some real good times in practice on the second set and decided to qualify on those.  In qualifying we didn't get close to our practice times, and we qualified second a full tenth of a second behind Hunter Lewis who won the pole.  I think Connelly was overdriving the car, trying too hard.

There were 14 cars registered for tonight's event, they were in order of qualifying: Hunter Lewis #7, Connelly Dubuisson #32, Bred West #94, Robbie Johnston #96, Conner Okrzesik #14, Ramsey Whittington #4, Andrew Johnson #66, Dustin Harvison #15, Joseph McArdle #44jr, Brian McArdle #44, Chad Robinson #10, Michael Beasley #1, Treyce Capers #01, and Jayme Corry #18, a very capable and fast field.

After qualifying the race director threw the "big dice" and rolled a four meaning that they would invert the top four qualifiers, which put us starting from position #3.  We would rather start from the #3 position than the #2 spot as it is sometime tough getting to the inside lane where you can actually race and pass someone.

At the start there was a spin before all the cars had taken the green flag, so a complete restart.  The restart was clean and by the end of lap one Connelly was only about 3 feet from the lead.  by the end of lap #2 we had the lead, a spin brought out another caution, restart went well. We only lead two laps when Hunter Lewis in the #7 got by us for the lead.  So on to plan "B", fall back and ride saving our tires for a run at the lead late in the race.  So much for plan "B" a  late caution let everybody's tires cool off, but no big loss we were still in second place and we would see if we had anything for the #7.  The race restarted with nine laps to go, Connelly latched on to the rear bumper of the #7 and stayed within 3 or 4 car lengths of him for  the remainder of the race--we just didn't have anything for him--don't know if we missed something in the setup or we ran our tires off the car but we just couldn't get our lap times down to where they needed to be.  Giving us a second place finish. Connelly was very disappointed as he felt he hadn't driven hard enough.  He is still learning the coupe but he is getting it. We will try to improve for the next race.  The top 5 finishing order was the #7, #32, #96, #44 and I believe the #94 wound up 5th.  All in all a good race, not a lot of passing up front, but back in the pack there was some really good racing, hey--good racing is good racing no matter where you find it.

On another note we had a professional photographer come to the track and take a bunch of photos.  I'll post some when we get them back.  Looking forward to the Aug. 29th race already

Friday Night August 1, 2014

The #32 team arrived at SSR at about 5:30 pm got to our pit stall got it set up, got the car out and went through registration and safety inspection. We had a couple of things  we had to check as  we had made a couple of slight adjustments to the car before the feature race on July 12th and the car was trying to "step out" when Connelly pushed it really hard going into turn 3.  He went out and gave it a quick run and the loose condition was still there.  We un-did the change and it was back to normal.  This new car is very sensitive to even minute changes, so you have to be careful of what you do.  The track temp was blistering hot 118 degrees so we waited to go out for another test run until 20 min. before testing was over.   When we went out again we  tried a set of tires we had run on the sedan and they were fast, high 12.9's and low 13.0's, then we tried the set that had come with the car.  Connelly said that even though this set wasn't quite as fast only one 12.99 and the rest of the laps 13.0's  the second set was more comfortable.  We discussed which set to qualify on  and he wanted the second set.  I told him in qualifying you  go with your best stuff, you can hold onto anything for 3 laps but lets get a good qualifying lap.  He insisted he would get us a lap with the second set--OK--Mr. race car driver show us what cha got!!!  Well what he had was a 13.027, not a bad lap but on a night when the top 3 cars were all in the 12.9's it was only good enough for 4th place.  When they threw the dice for the invert they threw a 2 meaning we would start 4th on the outside with three really fast cars in front of us.  So much for the driver dictating to the car owner what tires to use.  Since the "more comfortable" set would be more appropriate for a 25 lap race we were in agreement to go with that set in the feature race.

Tonight we had 12 cars competing; Hunter Lewis #7, Brian McArdle #44, Andrew Johnson #66, Connelly Dubuisson #32, Robbie Johnston #96, Joseph McArdle #44jr, Brad West #94,Conner Okrzesik #14, Dustin Harvison #15, Ramsey Whittington #4, Chad Robinson #10, and Treyce Capers #01, a very fast field with the top four qualifiers all within a tenth of a second of each other and the top six within a tenth and a half.  We were starting fourth with three 12.9 second cars in front of us.  Good luck with that.  Connelly has a tendency to "get down" on himself when he makes a mistake and he felt terrible about the tire selection thing, so I reminded him of something that happened in a race earlier in the season, we had a solid second place going with a few laps to go and he made a mistake on a restart and fell to third, he then started pushing too hard made another mistake and fell to fourth.  So I told him we can't change the qualifying thing and he had come from 9th and 10th in the last two races to finish third, so just go out drive your race like you know you can and have fun and everything will take care of itself.  Did it ever!!!

At the start Conner in the #14 broke something in the rear end and spun in turn one of the first lap, every one was able to avoid hitting him, so we had a complete restart minus the #14. Connelly got a good start and stayed in 4th place on the outside for 2 1/2 laps when he was finally able to  get to the inside where he could race, the next back straightaway he got buy Hunter #7 (who was on the far outside) and really abusing his tires and Andrew #66 to take second place.  He stayed very close to Brian #44 and was able to pass him for the lead on lap 8.  Brian stayed glued to Connelly, never separated by more than one car length with Hunter a equally close third for the next 12 laps or so.  It was a very entertaining race. At about lap 20 or so Brian and Hunter had overheated their tires to the point that they were unable to challenge for the win.  Had we had a caution,  they both would have been able to cool down their tires as well as us, and things might have been different, but we didn't get a caution and no tires were cooled and we won our first Legend race of the season.  What a race? Connelly really redeemed himself and probably drove the best race of his career.
The final order of finish was the #32, #44, #7, #44jr, #66, #96, #94, #4, #10, #15, #01, a very competitive and exciting race.  Looking forward to the next race already  August 15.

July 18, 2014

Well the rain bug bit us again, due to heavy rain coming out of Texas and Louisiana and falling on the track, the race was called before we even left for Sunny South.  I have suggested that an alternate name could be "Rainy South Raceway",  just kidding we have been very lucky this season and have had only one rainout, which was made up last Saturday.  This race will be made up some time in Sept.  So now it is on to the next race on Aug 1st.