Race #2 at Orlando Speedworld
02-10-06

Well, after last night I know I have a great race car. Unfortunately, I still have the same luck!

We switched to a different wheel this year and the valve stem is really close to the edge of the rim. For years we have used a steel valve stem because in my karting days we had trouble with the plastic body panels of my competitors getting into the wheel centers and cutting off the rubber valve stems during the race. Well, the exact opposite happened to me this time.

I didn't really practice much today. We went out once and the car was just like it was the day before, perfect! Since I finished second last night, I was supposed to start at the back of the line in the first heat, but there was a new driver that was on the pole and she decided that she would rather drop to the back so I moved up to 4th.

The inversion of the heats is something that we started this year for a couple of reasons. First, it makes the drivers a little more cautious on the starts. They always say in the driver's meeting that you can't win the race on the first lap but I don't think those that say that have ever raced much. If you mess up on the start and let the leaders get away from you, you may not have time to run them back down. Therefore, you lose the race on the start don't you? Oh well, there are some things that adults say that I still don't understand yet... Second, it makes for a more interesting and exciting race for the fans.

The heat was pretty smooth with lots of passing just as planned. We all made it around the 1st place car on the same lap and the car in front of me made it around the new leader in the next lap. I guess that got him focused and he gave me no ground to pass him. I kept working on him and finally got by after 3 or 4 more laps but by this time the leader had put a pretty good distance on me. I did my best to catch him but I ran out of laps and finished the heat along side the leader under the flag stand about 3 feet short of the win.

We also invert the feature race by putting the winner and the second place finisher of the prior race to back on the feature so, since I finished second last night, I was supposed to go to the end of the inside row and start in 9th. The girl that was new was still wanted to drop to the rear so I got to start in 7th instead.

The start was pretty basic and we all settled in pretty nicely. I came out of turn 2 in 5th and my tires came in about a lap later. On the 4th lap I was right on the bumper of the 4th place car and then he seemed to just stop coming off of turn 2. I got into the brakes to try to keep from hitting him but that was a bad idea and the car behind me hit me and we both spun up the track into the outside wall. I only had a small amount of damage to the right side of my car and both of us were able to restart the race. Unfortunately, we had to re-start the race almost at the rear.

When the green flag came back out I jumped to the outside of the car in front of me and made a position up under the flag stand and then started to work my way back up to the 5th place car ahead of me. A few laps later the yellow came out again for a spin and we had to restart the race again. I guess I ran the car in a little too hard and that caused me to slip up a little coming off of turn 2 allowing the 7th place car to get under me. I let him go as my spotter got me calmed down and then I started to set up the car that passed me for a pass back.

About 2 laps later he gave me the inside lane going into turn 3 so I dropped down under him and drew all the way up to even with him in the center of the turn. At the same time the 2 cars in front of us did the same thing so instead of 4 in a row we were now 2 by 2. The outside car ahead of us seemed to slow down and the car on my outside just drove down the track over the nose of my car to avoid him. This is the part about the valve stem I was telling you about. When he hit me, my right front tire rubbed his car and the valve stem broke off and let the air out of my tire. I made one more lap and then pulled to the in field where I watched the rest of the race.

I was the first car out of the race so that means, with the inversion, I will be starting the next heat on the pole. Hmmm, I think I'm going to like this inversion thing after all.