Saturday, May 10, 2014
APRIL 4, 2014
Tonight was Betty and my 50th wedding anniversary, we were married 4-4-1964, the miracle is that she put up with me for all of those years. We were prepared to go to the track and race and celebrate later, but the rain gods made it possible to celebrate tonight. So we went for a fantastic dinner at Drago's restaurant and thoroughly enjoyed ourselves. we will be ready for the next race.
MARCH 21, 2014
On a sad note we learned tonight upon arriving at the track that Brian McArdle had been injured at work. He was using a hand held high speed grinder and the grinding wheel shattered and struck him in the inside of his left forearm and severed an artery and some nerves and tendons. He had to be rushed to the hospital and have emergency surgery to stop the bleeding. He is in a sling and cannot drive his personal street car let along a race car. We will keep him in our prayers and hope he can be back in the #44 soon. He is at the track observing--once you get racing in your blood you've just got to be there.
QUALIFYING:
Tonight in qualifying the #7 laid down a blistering qualifying lap of 12.888 the #32 was at 13.108 a full .2 of a second off. Wow that is huge, but who knows, we just will have to run the race and see how it shakes out. The rest of the field qualified at #96 3rd, #14 4th, #44jr. 5th #4 6th and #01 7th.
Participants tonight are: #7 Hunter Lewis, #32 Connelly, #96 Robbie Johnston, #14 Conner Okrezesik, #44jr. Joseph McArdle, #4 Ramsey Whittington, #01 Treyce Capers. A very stout field.
FEATURE RACE:
The invert was thrown and was a two which put Connelly on the pole, we had been adjusting on the car and didn't have a chance to try it (that is the problem with no heat race you loose that "test session"). So now we are on the pole and I know he will drive it in there to try and keep the position the question now becomes "will it stick"? Connelly got a good start and just as I expected drove it in deep and the car stuck perfectly and he came out of turn two with the lead and was able to lead for half the race. Then #7 spun us entering turn three, that put us to the back for bringing out the caution but they also put the #7 to the back for spinning us, so now we are 6th and the #7 is behind us. We worked our way back up to third with the #7 still behind us and with two laps to go, he was on out tail, we gave him enough room to pass us on the inside but he spun us again. leaving us to finish 5th. What a bummer. The #7 felt that we were blocking him, but we drive the same line as him and he is so much faster he should have been able to get by without spinning us. We had a solid second place car but wound up 5th. The finishing order was 1st #96, 2nd #44jr, 3rd #7, 4th #14, 5th #32 6th #4, 7th #01.
QUALIFYING:
Tonight in qualifying the #7 laid down a blistering qualifying lap of 12.888 the #32 was at 13.108 a full .2 of a second off. Wow that is huge, but who knows, we just will have to run the race and see how it shakes out. The rest of the field qualified at #96 3rd, #14 4th, #44jr. 5th #4 6th and #01 7th.
Participants tonight are: #7 Hunter Lewis, #32 Connelly, #96 Robbie Johnston, #14 Conner Okrezesik, #44jr. Joseph McArdle, #4 Ramsey Whittington, #01 Treyce Capers. A very stout field.
FEATURE RACE:
The invert was thrown and was a two which put Connelly on the pole, we had been adjusting on the car and didn't have a chance to try it (that is the problem with no heat race you loose that "test session"). So now we are on the pole and I know he will drive it in there to try and keep the position the question now becomes "will it stick"? Connelly got a good start and just as I expected drove it in deep and the car stuck perfectly and he came out of turn two with the lead and was able to lead for half the race. Then #7 spun us entering turn three, that put us to the back for bringing out the caution but they also put the #7 to the back for spinning us, so now we are 6th and the #7 is behind us. We worked our way back up to third with the #7 still behind us and with two laps to go, he was on out tail, we gave him enough room to pass us on the inside but he spun us again. leaving us to finish 5th. What a bummer. The #7 felt that we were blocking him, but we drive the same line as him and he is so much faster he should have been able to get by without spinning us. We had a solid second place car but wound up 5th. The finishing order was 1st #96, 2nd #44jr, 3rd #7, 4th #14, 5th #32 6th #4, 7th #01.
OPENING NIGHT MARCH 7, 2014
This season the track has made a change to the racing format. Instead of having qualifying, a 10 lap heat race, then a 20 lap feature, the new format is qualifying, no heat race and a 25 lap feature. This was done to try and get the out of town drivers, like us home at a reasonable time. Many times it is 3:30 or 4:00 Sat morning before we get to bed, so we will see how this works out.
QUALIFYING:
After all the planning for no heat races the electronic timing equipment failed so we had to draw chips for a 5 lap qualifying heat, won by Joseph McArdle, Connelly Dubuisson second and Brian McArdle third. The invert was accomplished by the race director choosing a number (3 tonight) and that was the number of cars to invert. It has since been changed to a dice being thrown after the qualifying to determine the invert.
Tonight's competitors were the #44 of Brian McArdle, #44jr. with Joseph McArdle at the wheel, #32 with Connelly Dubuisson driving, #7 of Hunter Lewis, #96 of Robbie Johnston, #4 of Ramsey Whittington, #14 of Conner Okrezesik, and the #01 driven by Trecye Capers, a very competitive field.
FEATURE RACE:
After the invert, the starting positions for the field was: #44 pole, #32 second, #44jr. third, #7 fourth, #96 fifth, #14 sixth, #4 seventh, and #01 eighth. At the start it took Connelly 3 laps to get to the bottom, by that time he was 4th. he stayed there for several laps when the #7 got loose around halfway Connelly made the pass for 3rd. Brian in the #44 "ran off and hid" from the field with Joseph #44jr. a distant 2nd. we were within 2 car lengths of Joseph and the #7 one length behind us. There was a caution with the #7 taking the choose, we were able to race our way to a third place finish behind Brian McArdle and Joseph McArdle. The #7 was 4th, the #96 5th, the #14 6th with the #4 next followed by the #01. The car wasn't perfect, but Connelly was able to drive it to a podium finish. We were OK with the results, but Connelly wanted a better finish, but with that kind of competition, we have to drive harder or get faster. Looking forward to next race.
QUALIFYING:
After all the planning for no heat races the electronic timing equipment failed so we had to draw chips for a 5 lap qualifying heat, won by Joseph McArdle, Connelly Dubuisson second and Brian McArdle third. The invert was accomplished by the race director choosing a number (3 tonight) and that was the number of cars to invert. It has since been changed to a dice being thrown after the qualifying to determine the invert.
Tonight's competitors were the #44 of Brian McArdle, #44jr. with Joseph McArdle at the wheel, #32 with Connelly Dubuisson driving, #7 of Hunter Lewis, #96 of Robbie Johnston, #4 of Ramsey Whittington, #14 of Conner Okrezesik, and the #01 driven by Trecye Capers, a very competitive field.
FEATURE RACE:
After the invert, the starting positions for the field was: #44 pole, #32 second, #44jr. third, #7 fourth, #96 fifth, #14 sixth, #4 seventh, and #01 eighth. At the start it took Connelly 3 laps to get to the bottom, by that time he was 4th. he stayed there for several laps when the #7 got loose around halfway Connelly made the pass for 3rd. Brian in the #44 "ran off and hid" from the field with Joseph #44jr. a distant 2nd. we were within 2 car lengths of Joseph and the #7 one length behind us. There was a caution with the #7 taking the choose, we were able to race our way to a third place finish behind Brian McArdle and Joseph McArdle. The #7 was 4th, the #96 5th, the #14 6th with the #4 next followed by the #01. The car wasn't perfect, but Connelly was able to drive it to a podium finish. We were OK with the results, but Connelly wanted a better finish, but with that kind of competition, we have to drive harder or get faster. Looking forward to next race.
2014 RACING SEASON
The 2014 racing season is upon us. In preparation for the new season we tore the car all the way down, went completely through the chassis, replaced all of the stress area bolts, inspected and replaced any bars-trailing arms that even suggested they had been stressed (a $10 bar is cheap insurance against it breaking and putting the car in the wall along with a couple of thousand dollar repair bill).
OPEN TEST DATE--FEB 8, 2014
We had our open test date on Feb 8th, I don't know how Joe did it, but the weather was perfect--it had rained almost all week and on Saturday it was beautiful and on Sunday it rained again--way to go Joe. We had two sets of tires to break in so we set about the task of doing that. It took us almost all day to get that done, but we did have time to get in one set of "hot laps". The car handled really well and appeared to be fast. So we felt like we were ready, however--and there always seems to be a "however" the #7 sold both of his sedans and showed up with a really fast coupe he got out of Atlanta. He seemed to be really fast. Brian McArdle was back with a new coupe--really fast. The #96 Robbie Johnston had Mr. Joe build him a brand new coupe in the off season, and he appears to be quick, also there is always Joseph McArdle. There will be plenty of challenges this season, we will just have to see what we can do. Looking forward to opening night on March 7th.
OPEN TEST DATE--FEB 8, 2014
We had our open test date on Feb 8th, I don't know how Joe did it, but the weather was perfect--it had rained almost all week and on Saturday it was beautiful and on Sunday it rained again--way to go Joe. We had two sets of tires to break in so we set about the task of doing that. It took us almost all day to get that done, but we did have time to get in one set of "hot laps". The car handled really well and appeared to be fast. So we felt like we were ready, however--and there always seems to be a "however" the #7 sold both of his sedans and showed up with a really fast coupe he got out of Atlanta. He seemed to be really fast. Brian McArdle was back with a new coupe--really fast. The #96 Robbie Johnston had Mr. Joe build him a brand new coupe in the off season, and he appears to be quick, also there is always Joseph McArdle. There will be plenty of challenges this season, we will just have to see what we can do. Looking forward to opening night on March 7th.
Monday, November 25, 2013
End Of Season Overview
Well the 2013 racing season at Sunny South Raceway is in the books and it will be another four months or so until the 2014 season kicks off. The next racing function is the annual banquet on Dec. 14, looking forward to it. Before the beginning of the 2013 season the #32 team sat down and established some goals that we would strive to attain.
1. Win the track championship in the Semi Pro division.
2. Win at least one race.
3. Win at least two heat races.
4. Win at least two pole positions in qualifying.
5. Record at least one lap under 13.00 seconds.
6. Represent ourselves in a professional manner,
exhibiting good sportsmanship and fair
and honest competition.
Lets examine the results for 2013:
1. Win the track championship. We fell short by 8 points. We were having a very successful season until Aug 2nd. after the heat race made a chassis adjustment to the right rear of the car, and did not check the ride heights after. The result was by raising the right rear we unknowingly lowered the left front, apparently we were right on the borderline of being too low (we had passed all pre and post race inspections up to that point) but we were now 1/32" too low and were disqualified. Zero points for the whole night. Our 75 point lead was now minus 12. We figured we would be able to make it up, which we should have been able to do, however Connelly began overdriving the car trying to make it up and to get a full feature win. We wound up ending the season ahead by three points.The track rules state that you MUST drop your lowest points race, the disqualification doesn't count. When we dropped our lowest points race and the #66 dropped his lowest points race, in our lowest points race we had outscored him by 11 points, so we had to finish 11 points ahead of him to win the track championship--we just didn't. Congratulations to Andrew Johnson and the entire #66 crew - they did what they were supposed to do and we didn't.
2. Win at least one race. We were scored winning one race, but it was a rain shortened race and Connelly felt that its value was diminished by that, I kept telling him that a win is a win, the check said first place and the trophy said first place. We also had three second place finishes in feature races
3. Win at least two pole positions. That one we accomplished. We won four poles and were tied to one one-thousandth of a second for another.
4. Win at least two heat races. That one we accomplished also. We won 3 heat races and also had 5 second place finishes.
5. Record at least one lap under 13.00 seconds. That one we did not achieve. Our fastest lap that was electronically scored was a 13.03 which was only three one hundredths of a second off--you cant blink that fast.
6. Represent ourselves in a professional manner, exhibiting good sportsmanship and fair and honest competition.--We feel that we have accomplished this, the disqualification hangs over our heads like a black cloud, but rest assured it was unintentional, we gained no competitive advantage from that 1/32 of an inch, but the rules are the rules and we not only abide by them, but whole heartedly support them.
Overall the 2013 season was a very successful one for us. We not only accomplished a lot, we learned even more. We have finally began to gain an understanding of what it takes to make one of these little cars perform. Connelly learned a lot and improved significantly in his driving abilities, we still have a long way to go but we made a start in 2013. We are looking forward to the 2014 season.
Paul, Betty and Connelly
1. Win the track championship in the Semi Pro division.
2. Win at least one race.
3. Win at least two heat races.
4. Win at least two pole positions in qualifying.
5. Record at least one lap under 13.00 seconds.
6. Represent ourselves in a professional manner,
exhibiting good sportsmanship and fair
and honest competition.
Lets examine the results for 2013:
1. Win the track championship. We fell short by 8 points. We were having a very successful season until Aug 2nd. after the heat race made a chassis adjustment to the right rear of the car, and did not check the ride heights after. The result was by raising the right rear we unknowingly lowered the left front, apparently we were right on the borderline of being too low (we had passed all pre and post race inspections up to that point) but we were now 1/32" too low and were disqualified. Zero points for the whole night. Our 75 point lead was now minus 12. We figured we would be able to make it up, which we should have been able to do, however Connelly began overdriving the car trying to make it up and to get a full feature win. We wound up ending the season ahead by three points.The track rules state that you MUST drop your lowest points race, the disqualification doesn't count. When we dropped our lowest points race and the #66 dropped his lowest points race, in our lowest points race we had outscored him by 11 points, so we had to finish 11 points ahead of him to win the track championship--we just didn't. Congratulations to Andrew Johnson and the entire #66 crew - they did what they were supposed to do and we didn't.
2. Win at least one race. We were scored winning one race, but it was a rain shortened race and Connelly felt that its value was diminished by that, I kept telling him that a win is a win, the check said first place and the trophy said first place. We also had three second place finishes in feature races
3. Win at least two pole positions. That one we accomplished. We won four poles and were tied to one one-thousandth of a second for another.
4. Win at least two heat races. That one we accomplished also. We won 3 heat races and also had 5 second place finishes.
5. Record at least one lap under 13.00 seconds. That one we did not achieve. Our fastest lap that was electronically scored was a 13.03 which was only three one hundredths of a second off--you cant blink that fast.
6. Represent ourselves in a professional manner, exhibiting good sportsmanship and fair and honest competition.--We feel that we have accomplished this, the disqualification hangs over our heads like a black cloud, but rest assured it was unintentional, we gained no competitive advantage from that 1/32 of an inch, but the rules are the rules and we not only abide by them, but whole heartedly support them.
Overall the 2013 season was a very successful one for us. We not only accomplished a lot, we learned even more. We have finally began to gain an understanding of what it takes to make one of these little cars perform. Connelly learned a lot and improved significantly in his driving abilities, we still have a long way to go but we made a start in 2013. We are looking forward to the 2014 season.
Paul, Betty and Connelly
Friday October 4, 2013--The Dixie Clash
Friday Oct. 4 found us leaving Brother Martin at the usual time, 3:10 and proceeding to SSR. This weekend was scheduled to be the "Dixie Clash" a two day program with Friday night being the regular qualifying, heat race, feature race format, and Saturday night being the "Dixie Clash" with qualifying and a 30 lap feature for the Legends. The Pro Challenge were to have their National Championship this weekend with qualifying and one 40 lap feature on Fri and another qualifying and 40 lap feature on Saturday.--However and there always seems to be a "however"--tropical storm Karen was scheduled to arrive on Saturday so they condensed the Pro Challenge to everything on Friday and the Legend and all other classes 30 lap races to Friday, with Saturday open for Karen. Wouldn't you know Karen fizzled out and Saturday was rain free, oh well!!!
We arrived at SSR on time and got registered, teched, and got on the track for some practice. The car was fast in practice so we only made two short runs and got ready for qualifying. The cars available tonight were the #44 of Brian McArdle, the #54 of Clayton Green out of Texas (he was only six points out of third place nationally for the Pro division in Legends and this was the last points race of the season), the #32 of Connelly, The #66 of Andrew Johnson, the #7 of Hunter Lewis, the #44jr of Joseph McArdle, the #94 of Brad West who was involved in that wreck last weekend and got his car back together for the "Clash", the #55r of Ronnie Osmer, great to have him back competing in the Legends (has been racing the Pro Challenge but blew his engine last race sorry it took a blown engine to get him back), the #33 of Dustin Smith, and the #96 of Robbie Johnston. The order mention above was the qualifying order with the difference between all cars was only .375 of a second a very fast and competitive field. Oh by the way did I mention the "Dixie Clash" paid $600 to win!!!!!!
Since this was to be a 30 lap race and SSR is "hard on tires" this 30 lap race would require some tire management. You have to run hard enough in the early laps so that the leaders don't get away from you, but not abuse your tires in doing so. We qualified 3rd which put us on the inside of row two, a prefect starting spot. At the start of the race Connelly ran third for about 6 or 7 laps, (conserving tires) the #7 who started behind us started getting a little anxious to get to the front, and he passed us, we really didn't contest it too hard, the #7 got into a passing duel with the #54 with each passing each other two or three times--both using up their "stuff" at lap 16 the #55r and the #96 got together bending the right front spindle on the #55r finishing his night. On the restart I signaled Connelly to take the choose, almost a bad call as he was 6th before he could get to the inside. He worked his way back up to 5th. With the #7 on the outside of the #54 and #44 they went three wide through turn three and four, they were all running the tires off of their cars, we then got by the #7 for 4th., then with 5 to go got by the #44jr for third, which is where we finished. The remainder of the finishing order was #44jr, #66, #7, #96, #94, #33, and #55r. Connelly felt like he may have had something for the #54 but I had instructed him that we needed a podium finish for our points. Finishing third behind Brian McArdle (three time track champion) and the #54 (third place in national Pro points) isn't too shabby. Connelly was really disappointed as he felt he had a better car than he had shown. All things considered a very respectable night for the #32 team. This was the last race of the season, so it will be probably 4 months before we go racing again.
On several occasions in these posts, I mention the "#32 team" I probably should introduce them to you. We are Myself a 72 year old Grandfather, Betty, I won't mention her age, Grandmother and Connelly, the only youngster in the bunch.
We arrived at SSR on time and got registered, teched, and got on the track for some practice. The car was fast in practice so we only made two short runs and got ready for qualifying. The cars available tonight were the #44 of Brian McArdle, the #54 of Clayton Green out of Texas (he was only six points out of third place nationally for the Pro division in Legends and this was the last points race of the season), the #32 of Connelly, The #66 of Andrew Johnson, the #7 of Hunter Lewis, the #44jr of Joseph McArdle, the #94 of Brad West who was involved in that wreck last weekend and got his car back together for the "Clash", the #55r of Ronnie Osmer, great to have him back competing in the Legends (has been racing the Pro Challenge but blew his engine last race sorry it took a blown engine to get him back), the #33 of Dustin Smith, and the #96 of Robbie Johnston. The order mention above was the qualifying order with the difference between all cars was only .375 of a second a very fast and competitive field. Oh by the way did I mention the "Dixie Clash" paid $600 to win!!!!!!
Since this was to be a 30 lap race and SSR is "hard on tires" this 30 lap race would require some tire management. You have to run hard enough in the early laps so that the leaders don't get away from you, but not abuse your tires in doing so. We qualified 3rd which put us on the inside of row two, a prefect starting spot. At the start of the race Connelly ran third for about 6 or 7 laps, (conserving tires) the #7 who started behind us started getting a little anxious to get to the front, and he passed us, we really didn't contest it too hard, the #7 got into a passing duel with the #54 with each passing each other two or three times--both using up their "stuff" at lap 16 the #55r and the #96 got together bending the right front spindle on the #55r finishing his night. On the restart I signaled Connelly to take the choose, almost a bad call as he was 6th before he could get to the inside. He worked his way back up to 5th. With the #7 on the outside of the #54 and #44 they went three wide through turn three and four, they were all running the tires off of their cars, we then got by the #7 for 4th., then with 5 to go got by the #44jr for third, which is where we finished. The remainder of the finishing order was #44jr, #66, #7, #96, #94, #33, and #55r. Connelly felt like he may have had something for the #54 but I had instructed him that we needed a podium finish for our points. Finishing third behind Brian McArdle (three time track champion) and the #54 (third place in national Pro points) isn't too shabby. Connelly was really disappointed as he felt he had a better car than he had shown. All things considered a very respectable night for the #32 team. This was the last race of the season, so it will be probably 4 months before we go racing again.
On several occasions in these posts, I mention the "#32 team" I probably should introduce them to you. We are Myself a 72 year old Grandfather, Betty, I won't mention her age, Grandmother and Connelly, the only youngster in the bunch.
Wednesday, November 6, 2013
September 27, 2013
Friday found us leaving Brother Martin High School at the normal 3:15 time and proceeding to Sunny South Raceway. We had an uneventful trip and arrived at the track just a few minutes after gate opening. Got to our pit stall, unloaded, got registered and went through tech and got on the track in the first group. Connelly laid down a fast lap in practice of 13.03 which is very fast for a track that was still pretty hot. We felt that we couldn't gain anything by more practicing, so we just checked it over and got ready for qualifying. It felt good to not have tires to break in or adjustments to deal with.
The cars available tonight were the #7 of Hunter Lewis, the #32 of Connelly Dubuisson, the # 44jr. of Joseph McArdle, the #44 of Brian McArdle (who is just back from kidney transplant surgery three weeks ago. His doctor said he could go back to his normal activity, I am not sure that the doctor knew what Brian's "normal activity" was).the #04 of Dawson Keener, the # 94 of Brad West, the # 96 of Robbie Johnston, the # 7b (Hunter Lewis' backup car) driven this week by Andrew Johnson, and the #33 driven by Dustin Smith. A very impressive and competitive field of cars. In the practice session for the pro challenge cars the #55r blew his engine (connecting rod through the side of the engine) and emptied the entire crankcase of oil in the middle of the "groove" from the center of turn 3 to the entrance of turn 1, after an extensive cleanup the track was just barely raceable.
QUALIFYING: The timing system at SSR records the lap times to the thousandth of a second and the #7 and the #32 posted identical times for qualifying to the thousandth of a second a 13.169, the #44jr was third followed by the #44, then #04,the #94, the #96, #7b, with the #33 rounding out the field.
HEAT RACE: Since the #7 went out to qualify first he was awarded the pole with Connelly relegated to outside front row. With all of the fast cars tonight I figured we would be in fifth or sixth position before we could get to the bottom. The heat went just about a I figured we were in fifth by the time we could get to the inside where could race, we raced in fifth for several laps and was having difficulty getting by the 04 when with three laps to go Connelly drove it in to turn three very hard, made the pass on the 04 but was carrying too much speed when he hit the part of the track that had been oiled down by the 55r and he spun the car. He went from fourth to ninth in one spin. With only three laps to go he wound up finishing in 8th place a net loss of 8 points toward the track championship.
FEATURE RACE: Due to our poor finish in the Heat we started outside of the last row with a mob of really fast cars in front of us. The invert was a #5 so the up front cars were scrambled. After a caution on the first lap creating a complete restart, things settled down with Connelly working his way up through the field and by halfway he was in fifth. Shortly thereafter a caution came out, we took the "choose" and in one lap was third. We worked our way up to second, but another caution came out and since we hadn't completed one full lap in that position we had to give it back, got back to second as a result of the #7 and #44 getting together in turn 4, the #7 fell back to about 5th then another caution and another restart. The #7 was driving very hard and had gotten up to third behind us and the #44, with two laps to go we were right on the tail of the #44 when the #44 broke a rear trailing arm bolt and began to slide, we were still at middle of the turn speed and our right front wheel went inside of his left rear, at that moment the #7 touched our rear bumper (something that happens many times in the course of a race) and we got into the #44, then the #04 hit our rear bumper launching him into the wall on the exit of turn 2 taking the #94 with him. Connelly was able to drive the car away but with all of that contact he came off the track to check on the safety of the car. Which now relegated him to last place among the remaining cars. The officials red flagged the race and called it complete, awarding finishes and points by last completed green flag lap, which would have placed us second. A very "heated discussion" ensued and the finish as announced was reversed and we were given 6th place since we left the track. The net result was a loss of another 12 points. The finishing order as recorded was #7, #7b, #96, #33, #44jr, and #32. This race was to be crucial in our chase for the track championship. Next weekend will be the final race of the season "The Dixie Clash" a normal program for Fri. night with just qualifying and a 30 lap feature on Saturday. That will be our last chance to regain the lead in points.
The cars available tonight were the #7 of Hunter Lewis, the #32 of Connelly Dubuisson, the # 44jr. of Joseph McArdle, the #44 of Brian McArdle (who is just back from kidney transplant surgery three weeks ago. His doctor said he could go back to his normal activity, I am not sure that the doctor knew what Brian's "normal activity" was).the #04 of Dawson Keener, the # 94 of Brad West, the # 96 of Robbie Johnston, the # 7b (Hunter Lewis' backup car) driven this week by Andrew Johnson, and the #33 driven by Dustin Smith. A very impressive and competitive field of cars. In the practice session for the pro challenge cars the #55r blew his engine (connecting rod through the side of the engine) and emptied the entire crankcase of oil in the middle of the "groove" from the center of turn 3 to the entrance of turn 1, after an extensive cleanup the track was just barely raceable.
QUALIFYING: The timing system at SSR records the lap times to the thousandth of a second and the #7 and the #32 posted identical times for qualifying to the thousandth of a second a 13.169, the #44jr was third followed by the #44, then #04,the #94, the #96, #7b, with the #33 rounding out the field.
HEAT RACE: Since the #7 went out to qualify first he was awarded the pole with Connelly relegated to outside front row. With all of the fast cars tonight I figured we would be in fifth or sixth position before we could get to the bottom. The heat went just about a I figured we were in fifth by the time we could get to the inside where could race, we raced in fifth for several laps and was having difficulty getting by the 04 when with three laps to go Connelly drove it in to turn three very hard, made the pass on the 04 but was carrying too much speed when he hit the part of the track that had been oiled down by the 55r and he spun the car. He went from fourth to ninth in one spin. With only three laps to go he wound up finishing in 8th place a net loss of 8 points toward the track championship.
FEATURE RACE: Due to our poor finish in the Heat we started outside of the last row with a mob of really fast cars in front of us. The invert was a #5 so the up front cars were scrambled. After a caution on the first lap creating a complete restart, things settled down with Connelly working his way up through the field and by halfway he was in fifth. Shortly thereafter a caution came out, we took the "choose" and in one lap was third. We worked our way up to second, but another caution came out and since we hadn't completed one full lap in that position we had to give it back, got back to second as a result of the #7 and #44 getting together in turn 4, the #7 fell back to about 5th then another caution and another restart. The #7 was driving very hard and had gotten up to third behind us and the #44, with two laps to go we were right on the tail of the #44 when the #44 broke a rear trailing arm bolt and began to slide, we were still at middle of the turn speed and our right front wheel went inside of his left rear, at that moment the #7 touched our rear bumper (something that happens many times in the course of a race) and we got into the #44, then the #04 hit our rear bumper launching him into the wall on the exit of turn 2 taking the #94 with him. Connelly was able to drive the car away but with all of that contact he came off the track to check on the safety of the car. Which now relegated him to last place among the remaining cars. The officials red flagged the race and called it complete, awarding finishes and points by last completed green flag lap, which would have placed us second. A very "heated discussion" ensued and the finish as announced was reversed and we were given 6th place since we left the track. The net result was a loss of another 12 points. The finishing order as recorded was #7, #7b, #96, #33, #44jr, and #32. This race was to be crucial in our chase for the track championship. Next weekend will be the final race of the season "The Dixie Clash" a normal program for Fri. night with just qualifying and a 30 lap feature on Saturday. That will be our last chance to regain the lead in points.
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