Well here we are at the pit gate of SSR for the Sunday race of Memorial Day Classic. We bedded down at the La Quinta Inn, I fell into a "coma" I was exhausted, ate the classic La Quinta continental breakfast and got to the track for opening time (12 noon). We still had a lot to do, had to change the oil and filter on the race car, nut and bolt it and check everything for today's race. The weather was threatening and I wasn't entirely sure we would be able to get the race in. We got in a practice session and the times were just fair, but every one else said the same thing, oh well we all have to race on the same track. We had the drivers meeting and qualifying was set for 3:30. At 3:29 it started to rain, the track got respectfully wet, Mr. Wayne got out his tractor with attached blower, and in about 30-40 minutes the track was ready. We got qualifying in and guess what--more rain-- got the track dried and started heat racing, more rain, more track drying. Finally got finished with the rain and started racing.
QUALIFYING: The cars available for today's racing in order of qualifying were the #44 Brian McArdle on pole 12.977, #32 Connelly Dubuisson 2nd, we had some brake issues and I think it got into Connelly's head, #96 Robbie Johnston 3rd, #44jr. Joseph McArdle 4th, #14 Conner Okrzesik 5th, #10 Chad Robinson 6th, #94 Brad West 7th, #15 Dustin Harvison 8th, #6 Fred Laing 9th, #114 Michael Beasley 10th, #01 Treyce Capers 11th, #30 William Wilson 12th, #5 Brandon Slater 13th, and #38 Jayme Corry. Again another strong field of cars the first 5 are all within a quarter of a second of each other. Should be a good race.
HEAT RACE: We were in the second heat due to our qualifying time, but we were starting on the pole. Got a good start and led from start to finish without incident, a good shakedown. The car felt better, the track had cooled down a little and had a little more grip, and I think Connelly got the brake issue out of his head. (somewhat) Finishing order for top 5: #32, #44jr., #14, #10, #30.
FEATURE RACE: As the winner of the first heat, Brian #44 had to roll the invert dice, he rolled a 6 putting him on the outside of row 3 with Connelly to his inside. The race started just fine with Connelly getting a good start, after one lap he was up to 3rd, after the second lap Brian got by and he was 4th, by lap 5 he was back to 3rd behind Brian who was second with Joseph on the lead. They rode like this for a few laps, which I found strange because Brian can and will pass Joseph at a moment's notice. At the crossed flags (halfway) Connelly said, "enough of this, it is time to go" and he passed Brian and Joseph. Brian immediately passed Joseph for second with Connelly now in the lead. It appeared to me that Brian and Joseph were trying to set up something where Brian could stay in front of Connelly until the last lap and shoot ahead of Joseph at the finish and gain some extra points. Who knows ?????? sounds like a plan that I would implement if we had a teammate. Connelly ran in front of Brian for a couple of laps, and then while going into turn one Brian got into the back of Connelly and spun him out. The race director, by rule sent them both to the rear. Now we are restarting 12 out of 13 with 6 laps to go. On the restart Connelly passed up one car #6 and coming out of turn 1 the #5 spun right in front of us and Connelly got into him--no big damage but the #6 then slammed into our left rear bumper bending the bumper and both rear frame horns. Pretty hard impact, Connelly thought he was finished but the car was still raceable. Because we did not complete a lap--complete restart--again starting 12th. We began to pick off cars in front of us with Brian "in tow" we both moved up to a 6th place finish for Connelly and 7th place finish for Brian.
The top five finishers were #44jr. with the win, #14 2nd, #96 3rd, #94 4th, and #10 5th. Connelly said he was so mad he didn't know who to be mad at. He finally cooled down and soon after we got home Brian texted Connelly and accepted responsibility for the accident. The good news we didn't lose any points to Brian in fact we gained two. However we did lose about $300 in prize money and points bonus. Well such is racing, if you can't stand the heat stay out of the kitchen, but if the kitchen is where you want to be you have to learn to deal with it. We will have to go through several things on the car to get it back in top form for the next race on June 6th--we will be there if the good Lord allows us.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment