Sunny South Raceway Results 8-21-2010

Last Saturday was the last race of the season at SSR. It called for a unique fromat in that a double program was scheduled to make up the cancelled race from July 24th due to tropical storm Bonnie. We arrived at the track about 30 minutes late after having to deal with a blow out on the right trailer tire. We got that repaired with the help of the Motorist Assistance Patrol on I-10. The track was very hot, 113 degrees and somewhat loose. Connelly went out and I called him in after only 5 laps, he was sideways coming out of both turns 2 and 4. I didn't want to tear up the car at this point of the season, so I put a half turn of wedge in the left rear to tighten him up. He went back out and said he was too tight, so I took half of what I put in out. He then said he was OK. (should have left it alone as the track came to us and we probably would have been fine if I had given the track time to cool off).

We had a good field of 4 cars for this weekend's event, the #32, the # 39, the #55r, and the #18. Connelly drew the pole to start the first heat race, got a great start and led every lap. The finishing order for the heat was #32, #39, #18, #55r. Connelly reported being a little tight, but the track was still quite hot, but he was turning some dynamite times.

For the feature we started on the pole, followed by the #39, #18 and the #55r. Connelly got another great start and lead every lap. The finishing order was #32, #39, #18, #55r. After driving a great race Connelly made a mistake, instead of going directly to the technical inspector for post race inspection, he inadvertanly went back to the trailer area, where he realized his error and without turning the motor off went back to tech the car but it was too late the damage had been done, he had been disquilified. Connelly was crushed. He desperately wanted to win these last two events. I told him it was just one of those things and to get his game face on and go get the next heat and feature.

We re-registgered the car for the next event, drew third for starting position for the heat race. The program dragged on due to an oil spill in one of the legends races. It got late fast, the driver of the #55r (age 10) was falling asleep in the staging area and his father did not want him up front with the mad dash that was to come at the start with him being so tired, so he moved him to the rear of the field, which by rule moved the whole line up, which put Connelly on the pole again. Connelly got another great start and by halfway had half a straight a way lead. Connelly went on to win the heat by a large margin, folowed by the #18, #39 and #55r. In the second feature the #32 started on the pole due to the heat win, followed by the #18,#39, and #55r. Connelly nailed the start and proceeded to gain a large lead over the #39. The #18 blew another engine, his second of the year while running third and had to retire. He wound up 4th. Connelly went on to win by a large margin, with the #39 second and the #55r third, which guaranteed him the Bandolero Championship of Sunny South Raceway for the 2010 season.

Although we did not go home with the first place trophy for the first feature race, no one crossed the finish line ahead of us all night. We led all 46 laps run in competition Saturday night, but did not qualify for the first place trophy because we did not correctly present ourselves to the track inspector at the required time, even though the "inspection" was nothing more than a drive through. For the last feature of the night Connelly put a piece of tape on the dash board with the words "GO TO TECH" printed on it. I'll bet that he never misses tech again.

Connelly conducted himself in a very professional manner all season, we are proud that he raced everybody clean, was involved in only one minor incident, got spun by the #18, no harm no foul (he still got the win that night). All in all this could be considered a prefect season, 7 wins, 3 seconds out of 14 races