October 3rd and 4th--The last weekend of the 2014 Racing Season

October 4th.

After last night's performance by both car and driver, we will be hard pressed to repeat or come close to repeating.  But it is our job to get the most out of both car and driver.  We got to the track early at around 2:pm as the motel allowed us to check out at 1:pm.  Connelly went over the car with a fine tooth comb, nut and bolted everything lubricated all the necessary areas, fueled the car and even put a coat of wax on it.  During the night a front had come through and the temp was almost cool.  Nothing to do now but to wait until the track opened for testing.  After registering and going through tech we finally got on the track to practice, the car was good, Connelly said that it didn't quite have the grip that it had last night and maybe he would tighten it up a little, I told him "you touch that car I'll break both of your arms".  The track temp was 77 degrees and cooling off all the time, by race time it will be perfect. We practiced one more time before qualifying and track had indeed "come to us" in practice we ran a 13.00.  In the driver's meeting Mr. Joe reminded us that there would be double first place prize money if we could win tonight's feature--just a little added pressure.

Qualifying:  There were 14 cars tonight mostly the same participants as last night.  We went out and laid down a blistering lap of 12.892 a pick up of 5 hundredths of a second from last night--had to be that coat of wax?? Hunter #7 second with a 12.936 good for the pole on most nights, and Brian #44 with a 13.047  the top 5 were all within 3 tenths of a second with the top 10 within a half second.

Heat Race:  Tonight's program called for the same format as last night, so we started on the pole for the heat.  We got a good start but Brian snookered us on the first lap and we ran second to him for the first two laps, on lap three we got past him and led the remaining laps of the heat race.  Top 5 in the heat was #32, #44, #44jr, #7 and #09 from Monroe.  After Connelly's heat I wanted to watch the second heat so I just stayed in my spot under the flag stand, Connelly parked the car in our pits, put the fans on the engine to cool it down and joined me to  watch the other heat.  As he walked up he had a scowl on his face, I said man you should  be smiling ear to ear after a race like that.  His response was "I still have work to do." Very mature for someone who had just turned 18 two days earlier.

Feature Race:  Again the heat race win gave us pole position for the feature, the early part of the feature was closely contested, we were able to lead the race through the halfway point, with Brian in the #44 right on our rear bumper, one slip by Connelly and he is around us.  Joseph in the #44jr. and Hunter in the #7 are in hot pursuit with the #09 of Ronny Freeland from Monroe a close 5th.  Then "yellow fever" hits, after running 2/3 of the race with just one early caution, we now were beset with a plague of cautions.  Cautions bunch cars up and that is when "things happen" we would stretch it out a little, get a 3 or 4 car length lead then another caution, back to bumper to bumper with your competition right on your tail, stretch it out another couple of length then another caution. It starts becoming frustrating especially when you have led the whole race and with only a few laps left for the win.  Will this race ever get over with???  I'm sitting there on my chair under the flag stand timing the laps with my hand held stop watch "managing the race" (mostly worrying) when I remember Mr. Joe's words at the driver's meeting about the double prize money if you could win both nights.  It hadn't even crossed my mind until that last caution now the pressure really sets in, Mr. Joe's curse now start to work on me, now I am really worrying, fortunately the race goes green for the last 5 laps and we win it by about 6 or 8 lengths.  Top 5 were #32, #44, #44jr, #09 and #7.  After the race I asked Connelly if he was thinking about the double prize money and he said "the whole time, why do you think I was driving so hard?"  Young kids, pressure don't mean squat to them.  All in all a remarkable weekend, won two poles, two heat races, two features, ran our fastest lap ever, lead all but two laps of the 70 that were run,  come away with two really nice trophies and $670 of Mr. Wayne's money, you really couldn't ask for more.  Only 4 and a half months before we start all over.


October 3rd.

Well here it is the end of the 2014 racing season at Sunny South Raceway.  It has been a long season, but it seems to have flown by.  So that brings us  the second annual "Dixie Clash" to be run Fri, Oct 3rd and Sat, Oct 4th. There were a couple of things that were changed for this race.   First of all the Legends purse for Friday's race was increased by $200 to be spread over the first 3 finishing positions.  Additionally if Friday night's Legends winner can also win Saturday night's race the first place prize money would be doubled,  definitely sweetened the pot.  Being the last race of the season they gave us a lot of racing, there would be normal qualifying then two 10 lap heat races with a 25 lap feature.  The 7 fastest qualifiers would run the first heat and all the finishers would start on the inside row for the feature, the remaining 7 cars would run the second heat and all finishers would start the feature on the outside row, with no invert.  We had 15 cars registered with several from Monroe that we had raced against a couple of weeks ago plus the normal contingent from SSR.  One car from Texas on his way back from a race in Florida stayed over and was going to race with us, but blew his engine in practice and had to withdraw.

We got to the track got registered went through tech and got on the track.  The car wasn't bad but the track was still hot,89 degrees.  We made a slight chassis adjustment made one more practice run and logged a 12.970 lap, Connelly brought it in and let it rest up for qualifying. Connelly qualified on the pole at a 12.948 which was the fastest lap we turned this year. Hunter Lewis qualified second at a 12.958 only 1 one hundredth of a second behind.  The rest of the field qualified as follows with the top 10 cars all within 3 tenths of a second of the pole third was #44jr. 4th #44, 5th #66, 6th #96, 7th #94, 8th #14, 9th #09, 10th #4, 11th #99, 12th #91, 13th #01, 14th #18, the entire field was within 3/4 of a second of the pole sitter.  Pretty sporty!!!

Heat Race:  Starting from the pole Connelly got a really good start and set sail. He led every lap and was followed by Brian in the #44 Joseph in the #44jr. and Hunter in the #7. Those three traded positions several times in the 10 laps and put on a good show.  The top 5 in the heat were #32, #44, #7, #44jr, and the #94.

Feature Race:  Connelly' win in the heat race would give him the pole position start in the feature.  Again Connelly got a good start and led the first few laps followed closely by Brian in the #44, Hunter in the #7 with seldom more than one car length of daylight separating each car. They ran very close until a caution came out at about halfway.  The same process played out, very close racing in the front of the pack until with two laps remaining another caution waived.  Since there were less than 3 laps to go, there would be a single file restart--no choose.  On the restart Brian was right on the rear bumper of Connelly's car with Hunter almost touching Brian's rear.  Coming out of turn 2 they hooked bumpers with Brian's right front hooking inside of Connelly's left rear.  The potential for a really serious wreck was at hand, however both drivers continued to "drive" their cars and somehow they got unhooked, Brian slowed slightly causing Hunter to swerve to avoid hitting him and causing him to almost hit the wall and fall back several spots.  Connelly ran to the finish winning the feature with Brian #44 in second, Joseph #44jr. third Conner #14 in 4th, and Andrew #66 rounding out the top 5.  What a phenomenal night!!! we sat on the pole with the fastest time we had ever run, won the heat race, won the feature and led every lap of competition, plus won first place money plus the bonus money, a trophy and first place points--what a night??   Can't wait until tomorrow night.