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Race #2 at Columbia Motorsports Park
04-23-05
Hey! I think I'm starting to get the hang of this!
After 2 incredibly long weeks and quite a bit of adjusting and re-adjustng and checking and re-checking, we finally made it back to Columbia.
Race cars seem to need a lot of attention after you bump something. We found that things get lose and bent and miss aligned even if you don't so, if we don't check everything on the car every week, we just won't be as fast as we should be and I can't have that. So, my crew chief taught me about something called nuting and bolting the car. Basically, you go to every nut and bolt and tighten it and check it see if it looks the same as it did the week before. Good thing we had 2 weeks!
This race we worked on something called bump steer. We though that meant that the car would want to steer one way or the other when it hit a bump, which it does but it also does the same thing when the car rolls over on the right side in the turns. It sure seemed like I had to turn the car an awful lot and it also seemed that it wanted to steer towards the right even as I steered it to the left. I really don't understand exactly how it works but all I know is that we basically took all the steering parts off and added shims to get the wheels to not steer one way or the other as they moved up and down. Boy did this make a different! I thought the car was tight because it always wanted to turn up the track in the turns but now it stays down right where I want it to and I don't have to turn the wheel as much.
As I did last week I had to start in the back for the heat race except that an old racing buddy of mine joined our club this week so he had to start behind me. We took the green flag in the heat race and our 4 cars ran all 8 laps in single file. I figured it really didn't make much sense to mix it up out there because even if I won the heat I would have to start at the rear in the feature so I just worked on hitting my marks and feeling the car out incase we needed to make any changes before the feature.
The car was a little loose but I like it that way and they say the track tightens up once the sun goes down so we just let a little air out of the tires and lowered the track bar about a 1/2 inch and then waited for the officials to call us up for the feature.
Last race I was really anxious and took a few chances early in the race that turned out to be a pretty big mistake. My crew chief said that I should race with the same desire as I did last race but to take it easy in the beginning. That sort of sounded like opposites to me but I went ahead and gave it try.
We had 9 cars come out this week and I started the race in 8th. The race started real good and all the racers were more up on the wheel so we ran our race without a crash or even a caution. The closest we came was when I got the 8 car sideways when I bumped him coming off of turn 4 to pass him for 6th. Later the 6 car broke a rear end and left the track so I got another position there. I caught the 4th place car with 5 laps to go but he was really pulling down coming off the turns to block me and I didn't want to hit him to move him over and I didn't think I could pass him on the outside so I stayed behind him and finished the race in 5th.
After the race I went up to the 8 car and apologized for bumping him. He said, "Don't worry about! That's racing but did you see how I saved it?!" I was worried about making an enemy but I think he sort of enjoyed it! I guess he knew it was an accident.
I found out about something else in racing this week. Fans! Yaa!!! I have a few race fans now! I've been going up to the stands to meet some of the people who come out to see the races and they really seem to enjoy meeting a race car driver. I've got some hero cards that I give out and sometimes they ask me for my autograph! We took a lot of pictures and before the night was over they talked me out of about a dozen of my t-shirts. We had a really good time in the stands. Take a look at the pictures below and see.
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