Saturday evening found us at the Sunny South Pit gate for 4 pm right at opening. We got there early, as we had a lot to do. We had put a lot of lead on the coupe since Joseph used a different set of wheels than we do and we were underwieght by almost 30 pounds. At home we got the car "legal" as to overall weight and left/right percentages, but the all important "cross" was way off of where we wanted it. Connelly had never driven a coupe in competition so he suggested that we wait until we get to the track to adjust the cross. When we got to the track he tried the car and he was way too tight. We came down, still too tight, came down again, same result, adjusted again still tight, so we put it back on the track's scales and all that adjusting only gained us 2%, we were still almost twice that off. We kept on adjusting until we had the ride hieght at the minimum so we stopped. We would now have to adjust the front and that is more sensitive and we were running out of time. The car was drivable, but not where we wanted it to be, so we adjusted the air pressures for qualifying and took a break.
The Competitors: There was an excellent field of cars for tonight's competition; the regulars of Ronnie Osmer in his #55r, Daniel Thompson in his #39, Jeremy Lundy in his #53, Hunter Lewis in his #7, Joseph McArdle in his #44jr, Chad Robinson in his #10, Dalton Chipley in his #33, Michael Beaslely in his #110, Robbie Johnston in his #96, Dawson Keener in his #04, Brad West in his #94, and of course the Blue #32 driven by Connelly Dubuisson. A good field of 12 cars.
During practice a strange event took place, our good friend and competitor Daniel Thompson in his #39 was testing on track when the #10 spun in the apex of turns 1 and 2, Daniel went to the outside to avoid hitting the spinning #10 and lost controll and hit the outside wall hard, the impact apparently cut the fuel line and the entire engine compartment went up in flames. The safety crew was there quickly putting out the fire and more importantly Daniel got out unharmed. Another competitor Jeremy Lundy got to the burning car first and helped get Daniel out, however the #39 was finished for the night. The car appears to need a signifigant amount of reapir before being ready to compete again. I offered whatever help we could give and will respond when called upon. The whole #39 team are good people and fine competitors and we want to see them back out there. The most important thing is that Daniel is OK, you can always replace broken parts, you know the rest of the saying.
Qualifying: Connelly in the Blue #32 qualified 5th out of 11 cars (no #39) starting him inside second row for his heat race. Not bad for a tight race car. In his heat race he finished third which would start him fifth in the feature
Feature: Connelly started fifth in the feature and held position for the first half of the race. Ronnie Osmer was always less than a car length behind, ready to "pounce" when the opportunity presented itself. They both were in close pursuit of the #10 and both finally made the pass. Connelly and Ronnie put on a really good race for fourth place for the remainder of the race. Finishing order was the #7 first, #53 second, #44 third, with Connelly #32 fourth and Ronnie in his #55r finishing out the top 5. The most hotly contested race for position was put on by Ronnie and Connelly for fourth place. Hey good racing is good racing no matter what positions are involved. We will work on the car if at all possible as the next race is Aug 31 and that is a short week. Looking forward to the next race already
Sunday, September 2, 2012
Monday, August 13, 2012
Saturday Night August 11, 2012
Saturday morning we woke up to a tremendous line of thunderstorms. They passed and went out into the Gulf to agravate the fish. We got to the track went through tech and got ready to go out for some parctice. Connelly said the car felt wicked fast. He ran about ten laps increasing his speed on each lap. He was on Joseph's tires and we wanted to try the car just like they had run it last. Joseph went out with his #44 primary car (we had put our #32 on the car he loaned us) his oil filter loosened up and began to leak. He saw the oil on the track and pulled in and the engine was refilled with oil. The oil was cleaned up and practice resumed. We felt like we needed at least 30 or so laps of practice to get Connelly used to the feel of the car as coupes have a slightly different "feel" than a sedan. In the next session Joseph blew the engine, he put the #3 connecting rod through the side of the block. That put things in a totally different perspective. How can we race Joseph's back up car with our motor when he dosen't have a car to drive and he is currently the points leader? Connelly went up to Mr. Joe and said we weren't going to drive the backup car with our engine and that Joseph could drive it, at first Mr. Joe said no but we insisted. We are in 3rd place for points and a no points night would really hurt. The #7 team brings a backup car that they are trying to sell to the races and they very generously let Connelly use it. We really didn't want to put the car in jepordy by mixing it up with the rest of the cars, we just made a light qualifying run, ran about 4 or 5 laps in the heat race before retiring finishing last, ran half the race easy in the feature then retired with a 7th place finish. We were in full points conservation mode. We lost 17 points to the 4th place car but still are in 3rd by 36 points. We may use this race as our "drop" race, each team must drop their lowest points race of the season before the final points calculation is done. All in all a very interesting night and thanks to the generosity of the #7 team we were able to salvage the night.
The Racing: The race was reletavely uneventful with no cautions with the #7 fininshing first, #32 (Joseph) second, #55 third, #39 fourth, #33 fifth, #53 sixth, #13 (Connelly put his little sister's soccer number 13 on the side of the "loaner" in red masking tape) finished seventh. However the saga is not over yet, we loaned Mr. Joe the engine we ran last year in our sedan until they get their motor back from Charlotte so musical motors/cars contiues. Currently we plan to race the #32 coupe (Joseph's #44 backup car) next race on the 25th of August. Come out and see how this saga plays out and treat yoursellf to some really good racing.
The Racing: The race was reletavely uneventful with no cautions with the #7 fininshing first, #32 (Joseph) second, #55 third, #39 fourth, #33 fifth, #53 sixth, #13 (Connelly put his little sister's soccer number 13 on the side of the "loaner" in red masking tape) finished seventh. However the saga is not over yet, we loaned Mr. Joe the engine we ran last year in our sedan until they get their motor back from Charlotte so musical motors/cars contiues. Currently we plan to race the #32 coupe (Joseph's #44 backup car) next race on the 25th of August. Come out and see how this saga plays out and treat yoursellf to some really good racing.
Saturday Night July 28, 2012
In our pre race preparation we found a small discrepency in our setup, something we had overlooked for the past two races. We felt like it was such a small thing it couldn't have made much difference in the handling of the car. We put it back like it was supposed to be ane after going through registration and tech Connelly put it on the track and it handled really well. We then went to a slightly different air pressure setting and the car took off. It was really fast and stable, Connelly was really excited and anxious to race. The track's transponder reader had broken so there was no qualifying and we had to draw chips for the starting positions.
There were seven racers available tonight, the #44, the #7, the #94, the #59, the #33, the B00 from Ft. Worth TX and of course the #32 Of Connally missing were the #55r and the #39.
The Heat Race: Connelly drew the 6 th starting position so it was outside the second to last row for us at the start of the heat. The B00 drew the pole and at the start he broke his motor mount and could not shift, which backed up the inside row. Connelly took full advantage and shot to the front he came out of turn two in first place and led for the first half of the race with the #7 and #44 in hot pursuit. Connelly overdrove turn 4 slid up the track slightly but it was enough for the #7 to get by. Connelly went on to finish second behind the #7 with Joseph in the #44 third. Connelly said this was the best car he had ever had under him and he felt like he might have something for the #7 in the Feature.
Feature Race: Due to the roll of the big dice for the invert (a roll of 6) Connelly started 5th in the feature, by the end of lap two he was second to Joseph in the #44, going down the back straight he got a huge run on the #44 and instaed of going to the inside of Joseph he went to the outside letting the #7 and #B00 get by so in one straignt-a-way he went from challenging for the lead to fourth. Another driving mistake. But the car was really flying. A couple of laps later a caution came out for a spin by tne #33 and Connelly took the "choose" which put him outside front row on the restart, it took him a lap to get to the bottom now in 3rd place. The #7 passed the #44 and Connelly got inside the #44 going down the back stretch, Joseph drove it in deeper than Connelly and they were side by side through turn 3. It appeared that the #44 may have gotten a little loose and came down just the slightest, Connelly checked up a little and the#B00 got into the back of us getting us loose, Connelly saved it but the #B00 got us again and sent Connelly straight into the wall at about 60 MPH. It was a really hard hit and lifted the rear wheels off the ground. The safety equipment did its job, he did have some tenderness where the seat belts held him but by Sunday morning he was fine. The HANS kept his head from thrusting foreard, no neck tenderness, the worst he got was he hit his knee on the steering colum and that was tender until Monday. While they were loading the car on the rollback Connelly walked all the way across the infield to where the cars were parked on the backstretch under the red flag and had a "conversation" with the B00 driver. The infiend safety truck official went over and made sure there was no altercation and drove Connelly back to the trailer. The car was signifigantly damaged. It will need to be clipped and the entire right front suspension will need to be replaced. Thank God for the safety equipment built into the car and thank God it worked as designed. You can always replace parts.
Then something really special happened. Mr. Joe and Brian McArdle offered us the use of his backup car that is without engine (it is in Charlotte being re-done). We tore our car down on Sunday assessed the damage, went to get the #44 backup on Monday night and installed out motor in it on Saturday. We went over as much as we could and by Friday were ready to go RACIN. Cant wait to see what our motor will do in that car.
There were seven racers available tonight, the #44, the #7, the #94, the #59, the #33, the B00 from Ft. Worth TX and of course the #32 Of Connally missing were the #55r and the #39.
The Heat Race: Connelly drew the 6 th starting position so it was outside the second to last row for us at the start of the heat. The B00 drew the pole and at the start he broke his motor mount and could not shift, which backed up the inside row. Connelly took full advantage and shot to the front he came out of turn two in first place and led for the first half of the race with the #7 and #44 in hot pursuit. Connelly overdrove turn 4 slid up the track slightly but it was enough for the #7 to get by. Connelly went on to finish second behind the #7 with Joseph in the #44 third. Connelly said this was the best car he had ever had under him and he felt like he might have something for the #7 in the Feature.
Feature Race: Due to the roll of the big dice for the invert (a roll of 6) Connelly started 5th in the feature, by the end of lap two he was second to Joseph in the #44, going down the back straight he got a huge run on the #44 and instaed of going to the inside of Joseph he went to the outside letting the #7 and #B00 get by so in one straignt-a-way he went from challenging for the lead to fourth. Another driving mistake. But the car was really flying. A couple of laps later a caution came out for a spin by tne #33 and Connelly took the "choose" which put him outside front row on the restart, it took him a lap to get to the bottom now in 3rd place. The #7 passed the #44 and Connelly got inside the #44 going down the back stretch, Joseph drove it in deeper than Connelly and they were side by side through turn 3. It appeared that the #44 may have gotten a little loose and came down just the slightest, Connelly checked up a little and the#B00 got into the back of us getting us loose, Connelly saved it but the #B00 got us again and sent Connelly straight into the wall at about 60 MPH. It was a really hard hit and lifted the rear wheels off the ground. The safety equipment did its job, he did have some tenderness where the seat belts held him but by Sunday morning he was fine. The HANS kept his head from thrusting foreard, no neck tenderness, the worst he got was he hit his knee on the steering colum and that was tender until Monday. While they were loading the car on the rollback Connelly walked all the way across the infield to where the cars were parked on the backstretch under the red flag and had a "conversation" with the B00 driver. The infiend safety truck official went over and made sure there was no altercation and drove Connelly back to the trailer. The car was signifigantly damaged. It will need to be clipped and the entire right front suspension will need to be replaced. Thank God for the safety equipment built into the car and thank God it worked as designed. You can always replace parts.
Then something really special happened. Mr. Joe and Brian McArdle offered us the use of his backup car that is without engine (it is in Charlotte being re-done). We tore our car down on Sunday assessed the damage, went to get the #44 backup on Monday night and installed out motor in it on Saturday. We went over as much as we could and by Friday were ready to go RACIN. Cant wait to see what our motor will do in that car.
Sunday, July 22, 2012
Friday The 13th 7-13-12
Friday the 13th, one is always aprehensive on that day. Although I am not superstitious, I don't believe in taking chances. I had on my lucky T shirt, left home at the same time as usual, took the same route, filled up the truck at the same gas pump at the Shell station in Grand Bay, AL, and parked in my usual pit stall. I had done my part so lets see if Lady Luck will smile on us tonight.
We got to the track on time, the track opened at 5 pm due to the Friday night program. Got the car registered, went through tech, got on the track for a few practice laps, God, that track was slick. Track temp was 124 degrees, couldn't tell much about the car but Connelly said other than being loose (hot track) it felt good.
QUALIFYING: The participants tonight were the #53 of Jeremy Lundy, the #7 of Hunter Lewis, the #44 of Joseph McArdle, the #10 of Chad Robinson, the #39 of Daniel Thompson, the #04 ofDawson Kenner, the #59 of Terry Myers, the #55r of Ronnie Osmer, the #94 driven by a new driver who just purchased the car, this being his first race. and of course the #32 of Connelly Dubuisson.
Connelly qualified third, 2 one hundredths of a second behind second place #53 and 8 one hundredths of a second behind the pole sitter #7 of Hunter Lewis and only 1 onehundredth of a second ahead of the #44 of Joseph Mcardle. A very close field the first four qualifiers were within one tenth of a second of each other.
HEAT RACE: We started on the outside front row in the heat race and before we could get to the inside we were third behind the #7 and #10. It was an uneventful heat race with Connelly driving the #32 to a third place finish only one car length behind the #10, but almost a quarter of a lap anead of the 4th place car. Connelly was never more than 2 car lengths behind the #10 at any time in the heat.
FEATURE RACE: In the feature, Connelly started in fifth position because of his heat race finish (there were two heats) We raced in fifth place for the entire race always in touch with the #10 (who held down fourth place) but never quite able to pass. Connelly got alongside of the #10 at one point but before he could complete the pass, a caution came out and the restart was determined by the last completed lap prior to the caution, back to fifth. The #32 appeared to be a handful to drive, he wasn't able to keep it on the bottom in the turns and he was snappy loose coming out of the turns especially #4. As a result he could not get back to the throttle as soon as he needed to coming out of the turns and on several occasions after he got back to the throttle he had to "burp" it to get the rear end back under him. I didn't realize how bad the car was handling until I saw the in car video. His hands never stopped moving. He was definately sawing on the wheel. A fifth place finish was not what we were looking for, but under the circumstances, we'll settle for it. We gained pionts and are within 8 points of third place. The finish of the feature was #53, #7, #44, #10, #32, #39, #04, #59, #55, #94. In his first race the #94 did a great job, he didn't spin didn't get involved in any incidents, and overall handled himself and his car well.
I couldn't wait to get a look at the car and try to figure out what was causing our "tight in the center" problem. After going over the car with a fine tooth comb, we found that we set the fender bracket too low and the right front fender was draging on the tire in the turns so much that it cut a groove in the tire. That rub was causing the right front to not turn as freely as the left, causing the tight in the middle problem. The "snappy loose" off was caused by Connelly having too much "wheel" in the turn to try and hold the car down in the center that when he ran out of banking coming off the turns, the car was jumping out from under him. We have gotten all of that corrected and am looking forward to the next race July 28th.
CONCLUSION: I have learned that the secret to sucessfully running a Legend racing team is that there is no SECRET, just constant and deliberate attention to a thousand small details, all of which have to work in harmony to make one of these little boogers run. It is a slow process, but we are learning.
We got to the track on time, the track opened at 5 pm due to the Friday night program. Got the car registered, went through tech, got on the track for a few practice laps, God, that track was slick. Track temp was 124 degrees, couldn't tell much about the car but Connelly said other than being loose (hot track) it felt good.
QUALIFYING: The participants tonight were the #53 of Jeremy Lundy, the #7 of Hunter Lewis, the #44 of Joseph McArdle, the #10 of Chad Robinson, the #39 of Daniel Thompson, the #04 ofDawson Kenner, the #59 of Terry Myers, the #55r of Ronnie Osmer, the #94 driven by a new driver who just purchased the car, this being his first race. and of course the #32 of Connelly Dubuisson.
Connelly qualified third, 2 one hundredths of a second behind second place #53 and 8 one hundredths of a second behind the pole sitter #7 of Hunter Lewis and only 1 onehundredth of a second ahead of the #44 of Joseph Mcardle. A very close field the first four qualifiers were within one tenth of a second of each other.
HEAT RACE: We started on the outside front row in the heat race and before we could get to the inside we were third behind the #7 and #10. It was an uneventful heat race with Connelly driving the #32 to a third place finish only one car length behind the #10, but almost a quarter of a lap anead of the 4th place car. Connelly was never more than 2 car lengths behind the #10 at any time in the heat.
FEATURE RACE: In the feature, Connelly started in fifth position because of his heat race finish (there were two heats) We raced in fifth place for the entire race always in touch with the #10 (who held down fourth place) but never quite able to pass. Connelly got alongside of the #10 at one point but before he could complete the pass, a caution came out and the restart was determined by the last completed lap prior to the caution, back to fifth. The #32 appeared to be a handful to drive, he wasn't able to keep it on the bottom in the turns and he was snappy loose coming out of the turns especially #4. As a result he could not get back to the throttle as soon as he needed to coming out of the turns and on several occasions after he got back to the throttle he had to "burp" it to get the rear end back under him. I didn't realize how bad the car was handling until I saw the in car video. His hands never stopped moving. He was definately sawing on the wheel. A fifth place finish was not what we were looking for, but under the circumstances, we'll settle for it. We gained pionts and are within 8 points of third place. The finish of the feature was #53, #7, #44, #10, #32, #39, #04, #59, #55, #94. In his first race the #94 did a great job, he didn't spin didn't get involved in any incidents, and overall handled himself and his car well.
I couldn't wait to get a look at the car and try to figure out what was causing our "tight in the center" problem. After going over the car with a fine tooth comb, we found that we set the fender bracket too low and the right front fender was draging on the tire in the turns so much that it cut a groove in the tire. That rub was causing the right front to not turn as freely as the left, causing the tight in the middle problem. The "snappy loose" off was caused by Connelly having too much "wheel" in the turn to try and hold the car down in the center that when he ran out of banking coming off the turns, the car was jumping out from under him. We have gotten all of that corrected and am looking forward to the next race July 28th.
CONCLUSION: I have learned that the secret to sucessfully running a Legend racing team is that there is no SECRET, just constant and deliberate attention to a thousand small details, all of which have to work in harmony to make one of these little boogers run. It is a slow process, but we are learning.
Thursday, July 12, 2012
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.
Tuesday, June 26, 2012
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.
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.
Monday, June 25, 2012
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.
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.
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