Race #8 at Columbia Motorsports Park
05-13-06

Well, some weeks I don't have a lot to tell but this week I don't know where to start.

I guess I'll go back to the swap meet we went to last weekend. We had been sort of looking at Limited Late Models for next year. It's a big step and we don't know a lot about the cars yet so we have been looking, and reading, and asking around to find out as much as we can before buying a car.

Then, at the swap meet, a guy showed up with an immaculate 2001 Lefthander with only about 12 races on it and he was really wanting to sell it. It has everything but the motor and clutch which is good because we're not sure where we are going to race this car yet so we still don't know what motor we need. It was a little sooner that we had planned to make the purchase but it seemed like a great buy so we went ahead and got the car. I hope to get a motor for it next month and then get a few laps in it so I can get ready to maybe run a race or 2 with it before the end of the year. Any one interested in sponsoring a Late Model?

Well, that brings us up to last Tuesday. My crew chief was getting a few things done on the car for the race. Something must have been in the air filter and fell out into the throttle bodies when he took the it out to clean it. When he started the motor up it made a tapping noise that turned into a knocking noise before he shut it off. After calling a few people for advise, he decided to blow air into each cylinder through the spark plug hole while the intake vales were open to see if anything came out. When he got to the 3rd cylinder a bunch of small metal particle blew out. We hoped that there was no damage to the motor and started it back up again but the knocking was still just as bad.

On Wednesday we spent the whole day looking for another motor with no luck but we found one Thursday morning in Hollywood, FL. By Thursday night we were back with the motor and then spent the whole day Friday switching everything over and putting the motor in the car. At 4:30 Friday afternoon we fired the new motor up and it sounded great but we still had to set the car up and get it the rest of the way ready for Saturday's race.

We got everything done and left the house at 2:00 pm like we usually do and thought we had everything under control. We usually stop for ice in Astor on the way to the track and when we did we noticed that we had a tire blow out on the trailer. Now we had to find a tire but there isn't a tire store or even a gas station in Astor. We pulled the truck and trailer into a Marina and they said we could drop the trailer there while we went back up the road to get another tire. So, we backed the trailer into a spot and then tried to crank the jack up to get the trailer off the truck. After about 3 cranks the handle on the jack broke off! We finally figured a way to jack the trailer up and then, after about an hour delay, we were back on the road.

When we got to the track things continued to go wrong. We weren't too late for practice and in the first practice the car felt good and the motor was a little stronger than the old one but all of sudden it just shut off! I had to be pushed in but my crew chief though he knew where to look and it turned out that a connector came loose that sends the power to the motor's computer.

We plugged that back in and then we noticed that the tail pipe had come out of the header. My crew chief had it about 1/2 way fixed when they called us back to the grid for our second practice so he let me go out but he told me to just get a feel for what the car was doing and come back in because he didn't know how long the muffler would stay on. Well, I couldn't really get a feel for what the car was doing for about 4 or 5 laps and then the tail pipe and muffler feel off so that was the end of my second practice.

It gets better! Our radios don't seem to be working very well. They work fine when I'm just sitting in the car but they only work part of the time when I'm on the track. I thought my crew chief couldn't hear me because I wasn't talking loud enough so I was yelling at him so he could hear me. When I got back to the trailer he was about to kill me because he thought I was giving him a bunch of attitude!

Fortunately, things settled down for the heat race. I started 4th but I didn't get a very good start. I was paying attention but my car slid up the track in turn two after we took the green flag and I had to wait on the car a little bit before I got back into the gas. By that time the leaders had left me behind. I was able to get one position before the end to finish in 3rd.

That was the end of my luck though. I started the feature 2nd on the outside row. I didn't make any changes to the car because it looked like the other classes weren't having any problems getting through the corners and I remembered that the track tightens up a little by the time we usually run the feature. Plus, we were the last class out so I figured there would be a lot more rubber down on the track too so I felt that, even though the car had been pretty loose in the heat race, it would be real good the way it was.

The start went fine and I held my position in 4th and my tires came in about a half a lap. I was chasing down the 3rd place car and gaining on him pretty fast. I watched as he slid up off the corners because his car was really loose so I was planning to roll into the corner just a bit easier and then beat him off the corner by driving under him. He must have seen what I was doing in his mirror and he turned down hard to block me just as I was planning to go under him. Yup, I tagged him pretty good and he spun half way around and then started to roll up the track. I got scared and got hard into the brakes so I wouldn't hit him again which I now know was a mistake. The 5th place car was coming just as fast as I was and as I spun up the track to avoid the 3rd place car, he drove right into the side of the nose of my car.

I was able to drive away but my radios weren't working so as my crew chief was trying to tell me what to do I couldn't here what he was saying. I guess he said if the car felt like I could drive it then stay out but if it didn't to take it to the pits. I drove around the track and the car felt OK but all I heard him say was "take it to the pits". I finally heard what he was saying so I went back out on the track and lined up for the restart.

What I didn't know was that the tip of my bumper was bent into my tire so that when I turned to the left it rubbed and acted like I was putting the brakes on this wheel only. When I would run down into the corner and turn the wheel the car would want to shoot up the track. Its a miracle that I didn't get creamed (especially by the guy that I spun out!) because I was really slow and all over the track, but somehow I was able to finish the race in 5th and salvage a decent finish.

When I got back to the trailer I shut the car off and looked up at the sky and there was the moon as full as it can get! Go figure!