Race #9 at Columbia Motorsports Park
05-27-06

It's amazing how different the races can be from one week to the next. Last race, everything that could go wrong seemed to go wrong all at once. This race presented a few new challenges but the outcome was a lot better.

I had to replace a good bit of the frame and nose piece on the front of the car after last weeks wreck. I also got an 06 Monte Carlo nose that looks a little different than the 05 version we have been running. It doesn't have as much area to drill holes for the radiator air box inlet. I put about 8 small holes in it and thought that this would be enough but it turned out that on this Saturday nothing would be enough.

Practice went well except that the car went to over 200 degrees in about 3 laps so I came back in to open up the nose a little bit more. Then, we were the first group out this week so, after one more short practice, we lined up immediately for our heat race.

I started the heat in 4th, second on the outside row. Since we only had 7 cars this week they decided to only run one heat. On the start the 3rd place car and I split to go around the pole sitter and outside pole. He went low around the pole sitter and I went high around the outside pole. We wound up side by side in turn 2 racing each other off the corner. My car was a little bit too loose and I just couldn't get back to the gas as hard as he could so he beat me into turn 3 and that was pretty much the end of the race. We ran in that order for the next 6 laps and I finished the heat in second. That put me on the outside pole for the feature.

The car count for all the classes was pretty low so there wasn't a lot of rubber being put down on the track. Ad to that us being the first class to race and our feature was more like a heat race as far as track conditions go. Usually in the first practice the car is real loose. Then, in the second practice the track starts to get a little grip but the nose of the car still slides a little. In the heat the car is usually a little loose and then in the feature it gets a little tight. We were trying to step back one event and anticipate how the car would be for the feature. It seemed like we needed to tighten the car up a little but that would usually be a bad idea so I decided to leave the car alone.

On the start, the pole sitter brought us around a little bit slow. I usually start in 6th gear because the car takes off so fast that I don't need to shift. With him starting so slow I really should have been in 5th. Still, I laid back just a little and anticipated the green flag just right so I was right with him when we crossed the start - finish line. Then, the pole sitter seemed to miss a shift or something and I popped him in the rear which slowed my momentum a little. That gave the 3rd place car the opportunity to get under me going into turn one and, like in the heat, I wound up on the outside with a loose race car and had to wait too long to get back to the gas. I came out on the back stretch in 3rd and started trying to set myself up to get back past the second place car.

We were both pretty loose and he was trying a lot harder than I was. He almost wrecked coming off every corner for about the next 5 laps. A few weeks ago I was in the same position behind this car. He is always on the edge of wrecking and usually he finally messes up and I can get by him without having to push things too far. Meanwhile, I had the 4th place car on my bumper so I was about to get in a wreck with the second place car trying to pass him while I was about to get wrecked by the 4th place car who was trying to pass me.

It took us about 10 laps to get sorted out and eventually the 2nd place car's tires got some grip and he pulled away while I ran just a few feet ahead of the 4th place car. On lap 12 the 4th place car slipped up in turn 2 and I got away from him and that was pretty much the way the race ended.

When I got to pit road to come off the track I noticed my motor was at 240 degrees. I had my radiator fan on but I usually can hear it run and I couldn't hear anything. When I got back to the pits I took off the hood to look and sure enough it had quit running. I talked to a few of the other drivers after the race and everybody was running hotter than normal.

The good thing is all I have to fix this week is my radiator fan.