Final Race Weekend of The Season October 3rd & 4th

Well here it is the final weekend of the 2015 racing season.  It has been a long season, we greet it with mixed emotions, sort of glad to put it to bed, but know that in a couple of weeks we'll be looking for someone to race.  "The Dixie Clash" as this race has come to be known as is a little bit different in that Saturday is our normal program--qualify, heat race and a 20 lap feature, Sunday's program is qualify, and a 30 lap feature race--no heat race and no invert.  Tire management will come into play in the Sunday 30 lapper for sure.  The track sweetened the pot considerably for the "Clash" $500.00 to win each day plus Connelly had another BOUNTY placed on him $100 per day for anyone who could beat him fairly making an extra $200 bounty payout a possibility, so we could have a very good weekend if we are successful. 


SATURDAY OCT, 3rd:


We arrived at the track around 2:30 as it opened at noon, got the pits setup, got registered went through tech, got on the track to finish breaking in our last set of tires.  We got that done and got in  a couple of really good "hot" laps.  The track had a ton of grip (almost too much) but we were able to post a fast lap on the transponder of 13.00--not bad.  Our old friend Hunter Lewis was back with a new '34 Ford coupe, he was really quick, I had him on the hand held stopwatch in the very low 13's.  We also had a few cars in from Atlanta, who got rained out, one of which was a '34 Ford coupe also with the #32 on it, he would be classified as the #32j.  All in all we had 12 cars registered to race, a very good field. I guess the extra $500 and the bounty brought in some out-of-towners in to compete.


QUALIFYING:


Connelly felt like he had a good shot at the pole, but he went out and overdrove the car and wound up 5th a full quarter of a second slower than he practiced.  Hunter Lewis in the #7 got the pole with a 13.109, #32j Jorgendon 2nd with 13.152, #14 Conner Okrzesik 3rd with 13.180, #96 Robbie Johnston 4th at 13.198, #32 Connelly 5th at13.244, followed by #10, #01, #04, #5, #28,another Atlanta car and #1.


The lineup for our heat was Hunter, Conner, Connelly,#01Treyce, #5 Brandon #28 Arlas.
Connelly starting from third told me before the race "Pops I can win this heat race" my response was "prove it".  He got a good start and by the end of the first lap he had the lead which he never gave up and went on to win with Hunter in second and Conner rounding out the top 3.


FEATURE RACE:


Connelly threw a 3 on the invert dice meaning he would start third in the feature with Hunter on the pole and the #32j outside font row with Conner outside of him.  Connelly got a good clean start and by lap 3 had the lead which he held on to for the remainder of the race.  There was some very good racing taking place throughout the pack with positions being challenged constantly.  Top 5 finishing order #1 Connelly, #2 Hunter, #3 Jorgenson, #4 Conner, #5 Robbie.  Connelly drove a very good race,  he had to as the new #7 Hunter and the #32j were both wicked fast and it was all we could  do to win it, he had defended one leg of his two race "Bounty" as well as winning the $500 first place prize money. A good start to the weekend.  But there was still that 30 lapper to deal with tomorrow.


SUNDAY OCT 4th


We all got a good night's sleep at the LaQuinta inn, got to the track early as Connelly had to break in a set of tires for the #3 Pro Challenge that he was driving again today.  We got that all done and put one good hard run on the Legend--can't forget the #32.


QUALIFYING:


Pro Challenge-- Connelly qualified third out of ten cars, not bad as we had a couple of new cars tonight.


Legend--Connelly qualified the #32 on the pole for tonight's race at a 13.063 looks like he got his concentration back.  The legend participants from last night were joined by Jeremy Lundy in his #1.  It looked like Hunter was "off his game" tonight as he qualified 5th.


30 LAP FEATURE:


Pro Challenge--Connelly started inside second row behind Brad West on pole and Joseph McArdle outside front row.  Connelly got inside of Joseph and was able to take second where rode for a few laps when he made a mistake and Joseph took  the position back.  He rode there for a few laps (trying to conserve tires) then he made a move to get second back when Joseph spun right in front of Connelly and gave Con the position back.  Brian McArdle was now in third behind Connelly and he made a good pass to the inside for second, Connelly gathered it up and re passed Brian coming to the checkered flag for a second place finish.  A really good fun race to watch (and drive in) Top five finishing order, 1st Brad West, 2nd Connelly, 3rd Brian McArdle, 4th Andrue Nolen, 5th Jo Jo Floyd.

This was a very interesting race.  Connelly just loves these cars.


Legends--The participants tonight were the same as last night except for Jeremy Lundy #1j.  Starting lineup 1st #32 Connelly, 2nd #32j, 3rd #14, 4th # 10, 5th #7, 6th #1j, 7th #96, 8th 01, 9th #5, 10th 04, 11th #28, 12th #6, 13th#1  a very strong field of cars.  At the start Connelly got a clean start and Conner #14 got by the #32j and for the next nine laps Conner was never more than one or two car lengths behind Connelly and for a good portion of the race it was the Conner and Connelly show  then on lap 10 the oil filter on the #96 loosened and a couple of quarts of good ole' hot oil was laid down on the track bringing on a 70 minute cleanup, allowing everyone's tires to cool down-it was a cool night anyway, now all the tire strategy went out the window and it is just another 20 lap feature.  With cool tires and no need to conserve, everybody was going for it. On the restart the 32j got by Conner and spun Connelly coming out of turn 4, Connelly just looped  it 360 degrees and drove it away.  This could have been a disaster as the whole field was coming full bore and could have really done some damage, there was some bumping but no serious damage to anyone. After the restart things settled down and with cool tires, Connelly was able to open up some space between him and the #32j who now was in second.  The race concluded with Connelly winning the #32j in second the #14 in third with the #1 in fourth and the #7 rounding out the top five.  What a weekend, won both legend features, defended two nights of BOUNTY ran second in the Pro Challenge, locked up the track championship in the Legend class and went home with a nice payday. Glad this season is over, but we will be looking to race something in a couple of weeks.  To Connelly's fans who came out to watch us race, a very heartfelt THANK YOU  please continue your support next season.