Saturday June 30, 2012

Saturday night June 30th  competed three weeks of racing in a row.  While Connelly loves it, it puts a strain on your service program as you don't have that off weekend to thoroughly go over the car.  I can only imagine what someone like Joey Padgett goes through when they race 3 or 4 times a week.   Gotta be tough on people and equipment.
We got to the track right on time, got the car unloaded, got registered, went through tech and were ready to hit the track.   We still had to put one heat cycle on our last set of tires, so we got that done and put a couple of hard laps on them, however out lap times were not what we were looking for, high teens and low twentys, but the track temp was 121 degrees.  Connelly still comlplained that the car still wasn't rolling through the middle of the turn as well as he would like it to, but all in all the car was very close.  We discussed a chassis adjustment but didn't want to mess up what we had.  We opted for the adjustment thinking that we could always put it back.  After the adjustment he was all smiles, said it was the best car he had ever had under him and did not go back on the track again until it was time to qualify.
We had a very strong field of cars tonight.  The #53 of Jeremy Lundy, the #7 of Hunter Lewis, the #44 of Joseph McArdle, the #39 of Daniel Thompson, The #10 of Chad Robinson, the #66 of Andrew Johnson, the #59 of Terry Myers, and of course the #32 of Connelly Dubuisson.  Our good friends and long time competitors the Osmers with their #55r did not attend tonights race due to a prior planned vacation, we all missed them.

Quilifying:  Qualifying was devided into two heats, we were in the second heat and qualified in third place two one hundredths of a second out of second (#53) and almost one tenth of a second behind the pole (#7).

The Heat Race:  In the heat I told Connelly just to take it easy as the track was still quite hot (over 100 degrees and slick)  we were running third about 6 car lengths off of second knowing that they were going to invert some cars for the feature race.  With three laps to go there was a spin, bringing out a caution on the track.  This bunched the cars up and Connelly decided to give it a shot and see if he had anything for the #53, and #7.  During those last three laps you could have fit all three of those cars under a blanket.  Connelly was right on their rear bumpers.  The #53 won with #7 second and Connelly third by less than a car length.  We just put fuel in the car and waited for the feature race.  At intermission they had fan appreciation night.  All the cars in all classes were parked on the front straight a way and the fans came out on the track and got autographs signed and photos taken with the drivers and cars.  A lot of fun for all.
The Feature Race:  Jeremy Lundy #53 threw the big dice and rolled a 4 meaning that the first four finishers in the heat race would be inverted.  This put Connelly outside front row with the #53 behind him.  Something very strange happened next.  As soon as Connelly got on the track the upper ball joint came off the spindle block.  The right front was leaning out at about a 30 degree angle, and they were fixing to go green.  Jeremy #53 saw the problem and pulled up alongside Connelly waving his hand and pointing to that wheel.  The flagman called off the start and Connelly limped into the pits.  I got to the pits as fast as my worn out knees would allow, and Connelly's friend Thomas who helps us crew the car jumped the fence and we got to the car at about the same time.  It took a couple of moments to figure out what the problem was.  We carry a spare ball joint in the trailer, robbed the nut off of it got the greasy ball joint bolt back in place secured the nut and in our haste, replaced the right front wheel with the right front that we had just heat cycled instead of the one we had run in the heat race.  Now we have a mis matched set of tires, a hastily repaired ball joint with no cotter key in it and we get back on the track with two laps to go, but we got back out there and scored 8th place points.  Working in the dark on a greasy ball joint and getting it done in 18 laps aint too shabby.  Connelly had left the in-car camera on during the whole repair process.  It looked like a Chinese fire drill with Thomas and I fighting to get Con back out. The only damage done to the car was that we bent very slightly the lower right ball joint.  We replaced it in our maintnence work done this week.   After repairs, the car scaled right on the money.  We hope we are ready for Friday night's race. 

Saturday June 23, 2012

After all of the craziness of last Saturday's race (there must have been a full moon somewhere) we were back at Sunny South Raceway with the #32 repaired and ready to go.  We checked the morning newspaper and found that the I-10 was going to have two lanes closed all weekend, so we took an alternate route and got to the track ten minutes after the gates opened.  We got the car registered and teched got on the track and we were OK but the track temp was 119 degrees and loose.  We found out what we needed to know and finally got the last set of tires broke in (I would still like to get one more heat cycle in them).

 We had the usual competitors available the #44 of Joseph McArdle, the #7 of Hunter Lewis, our old friend Tucker Yance was back with his repaired #4, the #04 of Dawson Kenner, the #39 of Daniel Thompson, the #55r of Ronnie Osmer, the #59 of  Terry Myers, and of course the #32 of Connelly Dubuisson.

Qualifying, we qualified third behind Joseph McArdle in his #44, and the #7 of Hunter Lewis. We were 2 one hundredths of a second behind the #7 and about a tenth of a second behind the #44, not where we wanted to be but the car just seemed to not like the heat.  We were a full tenth and a half of a second off of where we were three races ago. 

In the heat race we started third and advanced to second by the end of the first lap, the #7 got under us and passed a few laps later coming out of turn 4.  Then both the #7 and Connelly passed the #44.  Connelly finished second in the heat race out of 8 cars, we still weren't as fast as we would have liked, but we finished 2 car lengths behind the #7 and about 5 lengths ahead of the #44.  Not bad for a car that was slightly off.

Feature Race; Hunter Louis the #7 driver, by virtue of his heat race win threw the big dice to determine the number of cars to be inverted.  He threw a 6 putting us in the 5th starting position.  The #04 who was to start on the pole opted to go to the rear of the field to avoid a situation like the one at the start of last weeks race.  By rule that moved the whole inside line up one position, now we are starting 3rd.  At the start, Connelly got a good start and was second coming out of turn two, he ran about 1 to 2 car lengths behind the #39 for a few laps then we were able to get under the #39 and take the lead for a couple of laps.  Joseph got under us in the #44, and he and Connally battled for the lead for a couple of laps.  Connelly finally over drove turn two and got real loose and slid up the track and went from fighting for the lead to fourth in one quick move.  Connelly was able to re pass both the #39 and the #7 and settled into second again, by now Joseph in the #44 was a half a straightaway ahead of us.  Now the bizarre comes back into play, as the flagman prepares to display the white flag indicating one lap to go, the handle of the flag accidently pushes the button on  the flag stand that turns the caution lights on around the track, so now the flagman is trying to end the race with a checker flag and everybody is slowing down to honor the caution lights being accidentally activated.  The flagman and race director decided that the only fair thing to do was to give the field a "green-white-checker" finish.  This gives the field the green flag to restart, then gives the white flag indicating one lap to go then the checker flag ending the race.  The finishing order was; the #44 first, the #32 second, the #39 third, the #04 fourth, the #55r fifth, the #59 sixth, the #7 who had mechanical issues was seventh, and the #4 who also had mechanical issues was eighth.  Not a bad night considering we were a little bit off, but we brought the #32 back in one piece and have already begun looking for that one and a half tenth of a second.  Hopefully we will get it back in time for the next race as we are certainly looking forward to the upcoming race this Saturday night.

Saturday Night June 16 2012

After a two race absence we finally made it back to SSR, Connelly was chomping at the bit to get back in the car.  We had run into that I 10 traffic snarl again and got to the track an hour later than we wanted to.  We had tires to break in and we wanted to try a couple of things to get the  car to handle better.  With the temps getting into the 90's there wasn't a whole lot of speed in the track.

We had a great bunch of cars racing tonight, the #83 of Joey Padget, the #53 of Jeremy Lundy, the #7 of Hunter Lewis, the #44 of Joseph McArdle, the #59 of Terry Myers, the #55r of Ronnie Osmer, the #04 of Dawson Kenner, the # 39 of Daniel Thompson, and of course the #32 of Connelly Dubuisson.  All very good and fast cars.  After a few practice sessions on the track we were not where we wanted to be but it was time for the drivers meeting then qualifying.  Connelly qualified 3rd just 4 one hundredths of a second out of second place.we started the heat in 3rd behind the #83 of Joey Padget. got to second and hung there for a while then the #53 got under us going into turn 3 and we just couldn't hold him off.  We hung there for a couple of laps when a late caution came out and bunched the field up and we got passed by the #7, wound up 4th in the heat.

Then came the feature and things got crazy.  Joey Padget by vitue of winning the heat race threw the big dice to see how many cars would invert, he threw a 6 which ment that we would start 3rd. behind the #59 of Terry Myers with the #44 next to him and the #7 of Hunter Lewis next to us.  The #53 heard a rattle in his brand new engine and withdrew before even coming on the track.  The rest of the field settled in behind the #83 of Joey Padgett who startrd 6th.  After a false start, we had a do-over, Connelly got a good start and got under the #59 almost to the rear of the #59's door, as they went into turn one it appeared to me that the #59 came down a little on Connelly and they got together pretty hard.  Connelly came off so I could acess the damage.  he was toed out way more than we wanted, but this was a double points night and we had to get as good a finish as possible.  After the restart we were last because we had "worked" on the car during the caution.  The car wasn't handling well but he was able to maintain position.  After a few more laps there was a caution when the #7 and the #44 got together racing for the lead in turn 3 and damaged both cars.  A crew member of the #7 took exception to the official's call on the placement of the two cars involved and got into a shouting match with the flagman.  A scuffle insued when track security was called.  It wasn't officially a fight as I don't believe any punches were thrown, it was mostly pushing and shoving and grabing, although the combatants did go to the ground.  On the restart we took the choose and went to outside of the first row where we settled into second place and managed to hold on to it to the finish.  Aparently we got our rear bumper inside the right front wheel of th #55r and knocked his valve stem off and he was forced to retire.  I hate that it happened because the Osmers are great friends and Ronnie is a very good up and coming driver.  All in all we came away with a better finish than we deserved, but sometime you get one that is worse than you deserve.  We had a good points night and are thankful for that, looking forward to next Saturday already.  When we checked the car over on Monday we found that we had bent the right front steering arm and we were toed out one and 5/8 of an inch when it should have been 1/8", no wonder the car wasn't handling.

Saturday May 12, 2012

The old rain bug finally caught up with us on Saturday night.  We had a run of five races with no rain, which is super good, and Saturday we had to pay the piper.  Hopfully we got it out of the way and the Memorial Day weekend event will be good.

Saturday April 28,2012

Saturday night found the DMS 32 team arriving at Sunny South Raceway shortly after 5 PM.  Although we left  early enough we ran into construction on I 10 before the twin spans, it took us over an hour to go just 3 miles, I was fit to be tied as was Connelly.  This would not give us the time we needed to properly set the car up.  Before you knew it practice was over and we still had a few things we wanted to try, but we won last race with the car the way is was, so we'll give it a shot.  The problem with that philosophy is BRIAN MCARDLE.  He was to drive the #44jr, with Joseph his son driving the #44.  When you go into McArdle "land" against Brian (4time track champion) and Joseph last year's champion and current point leader, you had better bring your "A" game and your best car, set up right.  In addition to the two 44's the #7 of Hunter Lewis, the #55r of Ronnie Osmer, the #39 of Daniel Thompson, the #94 of Brad West, the #59 of Terry Myers, the #04 of Dawson Kenner, and last but not least the #32 of Connelly Dubuisson were in competition.

I was not comfortable that we had not done all that we could have done to have the car perfect.  And against a field of this quailty????  Truth is, I don't know enough to get it perfect, so I guess I had it about as good as I could get it.  In qualifying Brian McArdle in the #44jr sat on the pole with a 13.08, Joseph McArdle in the #44 was second with a 13.10, and Connelly was third with a 13.11.  The top 3 cars only separated by .03 of a second.  I thought to myself, we aren't too far off.  In the heat race we started 3rd hung there for a while but Connelly had started the air pressures in the tires too high and when they built up we were too loose.  The #7 got by for third and  we wound up 4th.

During the intermission Brian threw the dice for the invert and rolled a 6 meaning that the first 6 cars would be inverted.  We wound up starting 3rd, with the #55r on pole and the #94 on the outside row 1, the #7 outside of us in 4th, with Joseph in the #44 5th and Brian in the #44jr 6th, the #39 started 7th, the #04 8th with the #59 in 9th.   Connelly got a good start and had the lead by the end of the first lap.  He went on to lead the first five laps with Brian in the #44jr right on his rear bumper.  I knew we were on borrowed time, Connelly was trying his best, but we just didn't have anything for the skill, experience and speed of the #44jr.  He got by us and we got "freight trained"  by the #7 with us now in 3rd.  Connelly was pressing the #7 when he got into his rear bumper, and we almost lost it, and slowed a bit and Joseph shot by in the #44, in the next turn Joseph got into the #7 and spun him.  Connelly went to the outside and just about had the accident cleared when the #7 came up toward the outside wall and hit us in the left rear tire cutting it down.  Now we had a flat to deal with.  I began running toward our pit area as Connelly left the track.  When I got to our pit the car was up on the jack, the tire removed and about 6 people looking for the spare left rear.  It was still in the bed of the pickup.  For the last 3 races we had laid out our jack and spare tires in the pit area for just such a problem,  but not tonight, so we had to thrash.  Many thanks to our friends and competitors Cliff Osmer and his crew along with the #37 Bando crew as they changed the tire once I found it and had Connelly back on the track in 1 minute and 50 seconds.  That ain't bad considering he had to drive all  the way around the pits at very reduced speed.  When he got back on track it was just in time to take the "choose" and he started outside second row in 4th.  By the time he was able to get to the bottom where he could pass he was 5th, plus he wanted to feel the  car out as we had mismatched set of tires on the car and had no idea of what the air pressure was on that replacement tire.  He said the left rear was the only tire that had any grip, so it took some driving.  He made a couple of nice passes, he was able to get by the #94 coming out of turn 4 and got the 39 coming out of turn 2, so now he is third again and angry.  He was gaining ever so slightly on Joseph, don't know if he could have done anything with him if he had caught him.   However he was really over driving the car in his attempt to catch Joseph and spun right in the middle of turn 3 and 4.  Now back to the rear again.  He took the "choose" and moved back up to the outside of row one, after the green flag he was able to manage to get to the bottom in third place and hold on to it to the finish although the #7 was literally on our rear bumper.  Connelly wasn't handling well at all, but that new motor we got through Mr. Joe was making plenty of horse power to keep us in third place down the straightaways.  At the finish we were about 5 to 6 car lengths behind Joseph, with Joseph another 5or 6 back from his father, Brian.  The apple doesn't fall too far from the tree.  Rounding out the field at the finish was the #39 in 5th, the #55r in 6th, the #04 in 7th, the #56in 8th with the #94 leaving the track with 4 to go.  All in all a very eventful night.  Connelly got some practice driving an ill handling race car,  He got to lead a few laps while driving against some of the best drivers in the Southeast.  In the end we just didn't have anything for the 44's and they just spanked us, but we are trying, and to be able to compete against and learn from drivers like the McArdles is truly special.  We are already looking forward to the next race on May 12, come on out to SSR and treat yourself to some truly exciting racing

Saturday April 14, 2012

Well the moon, planets and all the stars finally aligned for what was to be our best Legends showing to date. We arrived at Sunny South Raceway just a few minutes after the track opened about 4:05, there were already quite a few cars in their pit stalls, although the track had not opened for practice. We got our pit passes, went to our pit stall, got set up, registered the car, went through tech and got on the track for some practice. We tried a few minor adjustments as the car was close and the track was at 108 degrees. We tried a couple of different setup combinations and finally settled on what we were going to run. Connelly went out and had a 13.05 on the hand held stop watch, but with that you can be off by as much as a half of a tenth. We had the set of carburators that had come with the new engine and we had never tried them, we still had a half hour of practice left so we decided to give it a try. Got them on and couldn't get them to idle, rushing too much. So now we are going back to the old carbs, couldn't get them to idle either---we just got flustered, so we pushed the car down to Joseph McArdle's pit and Joseph put the magic touch on them and got them right in about two minutes, Mr. Joe kept saying, "don't worry dude, we'll get you back out for a couple of passes" as practice was rapidly coming to a close. There were a couple of other cars that wanted one last shot before qualifying and we all got our chance. The car ran good, so we just checked the air pressures for qualifying.

We were in the third qualifying set and the track had cooled down somewhat and Connelly laid down a lap of 13.04 on the transponder, no finger error there. When Ms. Marcie came to the tech barn to post the times and the starting positions for the heat races, I was kidding with her and she said "quit complaining you got the pole". The next closest time was a 13.11 with the third qualifier at 13.17. Connelly's first pole!! At the driver's meeting they announced that this would be an inverted start race, you might know it our first pole and they are going to throw the big dice. What happens is that after the heat race the winner of the #1 heat race throws a three foot dice off of the scoring tower stairs, whatever number comes up that is how many cars are inverted for the start of the Feature Race.

The competitors for Saturday's Legends race were the usual; Joseph McArdle in the #44jr, #44 with Billy Elmore Jr. driving, #94 Brad West driving, #7 Hunter Lewis at the wheel, #39 with Daniel Thompson driving, #52 back for his first race this season With Cody Karl driving, #55r of Ronnie Osmer, #59 driven by the track chaplan Terry Myers, #04 driven by Dawson Kenner who finally got his ignition gremlin exorcised, #4 driven by Tucker Yance, #j8 driven by Alan Kirkfield, and of course Clonnelly Dubuisson driving his black and orange #32. A very impressive field by any standard.

In his heat race Connelly in #32 on the pole, with the #44jr on his outside followed by #52, the #55r, #j8, with the #04 in 6th. Connelly got a perfect start and got out front followed closely by #44jr. for the first half of the race the #32 and #44 were glued together, seldom separated by more than one car length, by about lap six Connelly began to stretch it out to about a 5 length lead which is where they finished with the #52 third followed by #55r, #04, #j8.

As the winner of the first heat, Connelly had to throw the big dice, he threw a "2" so the first two rows were inverted. So instead of starting on the pole he would start inside second row, with one of his best friends Joseph in the #44jr starting on the pole. So now the starting positions would be the opposite of the Heat Race. The outside row also inverted with the #4 front row and #94 second row outside. The rest of the field kept the starting positions they earned in the Heat Race. At the start Joseph got out front with Connelly passing the #4 for second with the #94 getting to third. They ran that way separated by only one or two car lengths with neither the #32 or the #44jr being able to gain any advantage. On lap 6 a caution came out for a spin by the #j8. On the restart Joseph left just the slightest gap on the inside and Connelly took full advantage shot through for the lead, with the #94 in third. Joseph and Connelly put on a fantastic show for the fans seldom being more than one or two car lengths apart. On one occasion the #94 got under Joseph and took second, Joseph executed a classisc "slide job" and took second back. Some really exciting racing for the fans. There was an extended red flag for the #j8 who got into the wall hard coming out of turn #4 knocking off his right front suspension, the wheel rolled all the way to turn two. That left 9 laps to go at the restart, Connelly was able to hold Joseph off for those 9 very hotly contested laps for his first Legend win. This was a case of two cars which, on that night, were very close in speed, with two equally skilled drivers that raced each other very close and very clean. Connelly stopped at the exit to the pits where Mr. Joe gave him the checkered flag and congratulated him, Connelly said, "man he is strong he almost broke my arm congratulating me". Connelly did the "Cajun Victory Lap" (wrong direction) and got a good round of applause. I am proud to be a part such a race and to be associated with such classy people as the McArdles. Thanks Mr. Joe for providing us with such a great venue. Come out next race on 4-28-12 and treat yourself to a night of great and exciting racing.

Saturday March 31, 2012

Saturday night brought the 32 team to SSR early!! like 4:05, right after the gates opened. The Osmers #55r, pulled in 5 minutes after us, their comment was, "my God you know you are late when the Dubuisson's get here before you". The early arrival was good as it gave us time to get registered, go through tech and not have to rush like crazy. It also gave us time to sort the car out as we were pushing pretty bad last race. Couple of adjustments and the car settled down and handled much better. In qualifying Connelly posted a 13.124 which was good enough for 5th place out of 13 cars. The first five cars were seperated by only .04 of a second -- real tight. There were the usual competitors; the 7, 53, 44jr, 44, 59, 55r, 4, 39, 94, the 94 (yellow) 08, a new driver from Houston driving his fourth race in the #81 and of cource Connelly in the #32.

Connelly's 5th place qualifying earned him the inside of second row in his heat race. He was in the heat with the super fast #7 of Hunter Lewis and the #53 of Jeremy Lundy. He started 3rd and ran in that position for the whole 10 laps never being more than 2 or 3 car lengths behind the #53, which is where he finished. That finish earned him inside 3rd row for the feature.

Connelly got off to a fair start in the feature and settled down in 5th or 6th place for the first 7 or 8 laps, which was his plan, to save his "stuff" for the last 8 or 10 laps. Then it got rough for us. During a caution we lost our brakes, thank God it was during the caution, he came off and got out of the car forgetting to unplug the Raceiver, broke the wire to his earpieces, so now he will have no Raceiver if he gets back out. The race had now been red flaged trying to get the lineup straight, which gave us a couple of minutes to find the brake problem. We found it, the heim that connects the brake pedal to the master cylinder had the nut that secures it vibrate off, thus NO BRAKES. We found the heim and the rod that activetes the master cylinder put it back on, still no nut, one of the Bandolero owners had a compartmented box full of assorted nuts and bolts, within seconds we found the right one, got it secured, Connelly got buckled in and got back on track just as the red flag was lifted. Since he had come off the track and worked on the car he would have to start last. No problem at least we were back in the action although from 13th position. He made a couple of passes, took the "choose" on a couple of occasions and got up to 4th on one of the restarts. Then he and the 39 got together we got spun and hit in the driver's door. No serious damage. But guess what?? back to the rear of the field again. After working his way back up to 6th, he was trying to get past the #44, who was trying to get past the #94. Connelly was giving them plenty of room, but the #44 and #94 got together and wrecked, Connelly had no place to go and he plowed into the back of the #44 tearing off both front fenders, the bumper and grille were destroyed, the oil cooler was pushed back into the front of the engine. No suspension parts appeared to be damaged, we won't know until we scale the car this weekend. At this writing two new fenders, a new grille, bumper and oil cooler bracket have all been installed. We plan to scale and "nut and bolt" the car tomorrow and take the fenders off and get them to the paint shop on Monday and be ready for next Saturday night at SSR. Much of our misfortune could have been avoided had we checked the 1/4 nut that holds the brake m/c rod in place. You can bet that has already been added to our off weekend inspection protocol. All things considered, it could have been a lot worse. We tore up a couple of hundred dollars worth of parts, but Connelly just got his pride brused a little. If that brake heim had come off at full throttle we could have been in big trouble. But we were able to push the car into the trailer and it appears none the worse for wear, and we are already looking forward to next Saturday night at SSR. Come out and see some really good racing.