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Crestview! I love this track! If you have never raced here, you would not believe it! It's a 1/4 mile oval, must be 60 feet wide, with 5 degrees banking in the turns and 4 degrees in the straights! You just stand on it and GO! I ran over 55 miles per hour on this track. It was awesome!
Well anyway, on Friday, we got to the track about an hour before practice and they started right on time. Since we had never raced here before and knew nothing about the track we came out with our regular setup and guessed at the gear. We hit it right on the money and we were fast right off the trailer.
Come Saturday morning we tried a couple of other things in practice, changed a tire and the gear, but the original setup worked the best. In qualifying for Heavy we were just a little too free and didn't get off the corners like we were earlier. Still we qualified second. Then in light we adjusted on the kart a little and got the Pole!
When we got back to the trailer my crew chief said he was going looking for a taller driver! I said, "What do you mean you want a taller driver? I got the pole didn't I?" Well, turns out that they call the gear on the motor a driver! My crew chief said I was not just a driver, I was a racer! I said, "YAA!" He looked everywhere to buy or borrow a gear but no one had one they could give us. We hoped that it wouldn't hurt us but it turned out that it did.
The rain clouds were coming in and you could see lightening off in the distance. We were sure that we wouldn't get to race. Everyone said that if it rained we would get the win because if you get rained out they use the qualifying results as the race results. Still, I wanted to race. Well, it was the strangest thing... The rain literally went around the track and we didn't get a drop!
In the first race (Heavy) I didn't get a real good start but I fell in at 5th and we began to race. It wasn't long and I was behind the leader and I think I was a little faster than he was. Then we came up on a lap kart that was right in the groove. He must have realized we were coming and started to pull up but we were already going to the outside to go around him. That forced the leader up in to the marbles and he had to get on the brakes. I hit him in the left rear tire and almost went over his kart. Then, I hit my brakes and got off his tire but that caused me to spin and I went to the back of the pack. I finished as best I could but only got 5th place.
In light, I got a good start and lead the first 3 to 4 laps but then the "Taller Drivers" that the other racers had started to come in. First, I went to second and stayed with the leader for a while but then I fell to third where I finished the race.
All in all I'm pretty happy with the way things turned out. The track was great, we qualified really well and I went faster than I have ever gone before. It wasn't long ago when I dreamed about getting a pole at a state race and running with the leaders. Thank you Jesus for making my dreams come true!
