1st Practice - New Smyrna Speedway
07-14-06

I know it's only been a month but it seems like forever since I was in a race car.

Today, I finally got to drive my Limited Late Model and see what everybody has been telling me about it. They said I would have to get used to the weight but I don't think that's going to be the problem. It's the speed that things happen that had me constantly trying to get caught up with the car... (more)

First, the power steering is really nice but you have to be really careful not to turn too much too fast or the car will go where you don't want it to go. I think its the combination of the speed of the car and the speed of the steering. Plus, I had a hard time trying to keep the car up towards the wall on the straightaways. We didn't check the caster before we went out but I think it is way too much so that will make it a lot better when we get than adjusted out.

Next, the horsepower is awesome. I never really got on the throttle hard but I still spun the tires a little coming off the corners a time or two. That was weird! It sort of works like, if you want to be in the next corner, you press the gas and you are there. You know... Click your heals and you are back in Kansas or something like that. I'm still thinking about coming off the corner properly and the next thing I know I'm going into the next turn.

I guess this should be expected. I had the same problem when I got my first really good Go-Kart motor and I kept running into the back of the other karts on the track. Then, when we got the TQ I had to learn to control the power because I would run into the back of the slower cars coming off the corners. Now, I have to learn the same thing again but this time I'm going to do it before I get behind another car.

What we wanted to accomplish was to shake down the car for leaks and engine problems and stuff like that. We only checked to make sure things were tightened up and that we were in the ball park on the set up figures before we went to the track. Our plan was to go out and get the car up to temperature and make sure all the gauges worked and that nothing leaked. I ran about 4 laps until the oil temperature came up and then I ran another 4 or 5 moderate laps before my crew chief called me back to the pits. We checked the oil fittings, the radiator, the rear end, and the fuel lines and everything was OK.

Next, we checked the tires to see if they had changed size with a little heat in them. We run nitrogen and didn't really expect the tires to build pressure and grow that much but they really did. Almost 2 inches! Especially on the right side and I wasn't even going that fast. We let the air out and got them back down to where they were supposed to be and then we check the stagger and that was back where it was supposed to be. It was so hot I was about to die sitting in the car and I wanted to get back out there and run some more laps. Finally, my crew chief told me to start it up and go back out.

This time I just started to bring the car up to speed as quickly as I felt comfortable with it. My first few laps were in the low 20 second range and as I got more and more confident I got down to a 19:95 lap. We were thinking that If I could get below 20 seconds I might be able to race the car this weekend but we are off quite a bit on where the set up needs to be and I an not anywhere near comfortable enough in the car to go out on the track with other cars yet.

As I pushed the car harder and harder with each lap it got looser and looser. At about 10 or 12 laps I sort of slide the rear end out coming off the corner and my crew chief got on the radio and called me to the pits again. I though he was going to make an adjustment and let me go back out but he pointed me to the trailer so I knew the day was over.

He said there was no reason to run any more until we get the car completely set up. I was a little disappointed until he reminded me that we were just coming out to make sure that the car worked properly. Well, it does!

I guess its good that we quit and loaded up. My crew chief thought he heard something coming from the valve train that didn't sound right when I was sitting on pit road before I went out the second time. We stopped by the motor builder on the way home and had him check it and sure enough a few of the rocker arms had worked loose a little bit. He got them adjusted for us so now we are off to the chassis man to have the front end set up properly and get ready for practice at New Smyrna Speedway next Thursday night.