5/17/03
For the second week in a row we had to work our butts of, right off the trailer. The first warm up session found us down on power with the engine popping. Pretty strange after a good run the previous week. We changed the mag and dropped in behind another heat race, but that wasn't the problem. We changed plugs and carburetors and dropped in behind another heat race and that did the trick. We had just enough time to make a few small changes for the heat race. I started 9th and took my time and got up to 4th I think. The track was similar to last week, except even slicker. I didn't have much confidence that it would get any better, so we started twisting bolts to try to adjust to the track. I started the feature in 14th and ran the first 3 laps right in line. We had a few cautions after that, but I thought we were in pretty good shape. Around lap 6 I came off of turn 4 and it looked like the whole field was wrecking in front of me. I went high and thought I had it cleared when I got shoved into the wall when another car came up the track to close the hole. Once the wreckers picked some cars away from me, I headed to the pits so the boys could see what they could do. They had just enough time to replace the left front shock and spring when the green flew again, just as I backed out of my pit space. I managed to get back on the track before getting lapped and before the guys could do anything about the damage to the rear suspension. The car was a handful, but we made the best of it and got back up to 11th by the time it was over.
5/10/03
Well it was an action packed night. We were wicked tight right off the trailer. I started the heat in 6th and we didn't come close to where we needed to be to loosen the car up. I was struggling to keep in the top 5. I got a run on the inside of the 7 and the 26 coming off of 2 and we ran 3 wide down the backstretch. I cleared them entering turn 3, but caught the berm wrong and slid up a little. The 26 had a run going from the top lane and ran over my tire. Got sent to the rear for my part in the whole thing and made it back up to 5th. We made some bigger changes for warmups and got closer, but we were still not where we needed to be. So Jimmy and I started twisting bolts for the feature. I started 10th and grabbed a couple of spots before the first caution. Grabbed a couple more before the second caution. The changes we made to the car were perfect and it wasn't long before I was chasing Artie for the lead. I tried him a couple of times, but the cautions kept coming out, messing up my rhythm. I took a run at him going into 3 on lap 8 and when stepped on the brake pedal I had no brakes. Not sure how I didn't wreck Artie. Buy the time I got to the end of the frontstretch, I figured out that I had no rear brakes at all. I thought for sure the whole field would be flying by before long, but I was managing to keep up a pretty good pace. Things quickly changed when the yellow came out on lap 17. I got into 1 a little hard and slipped up, letting Roy get by. I was able to hang on to finish 3rd.
5/3/03
It's been an interesting month. We ended up having some motor problems during warmups that had us scrambling to get ready for opening night. As it turns out, we got rained out, which relieved some pressure and allowed Jimmy and I to work on the 2 seat modified to get it race ready. So we finally got to race this Saturday. The track proved to be pretty interesting, with lots of bite in some places, and wicked slippery in others. I finished warmups with a big ole smile and lined up 7th for the heat race. On the start, I got a break when several of the guys in front of me slid up and by the end of the 1st lap I was 3rd. One lap later I went to the front, and spent the rest of the race trying not to spin out entering turn 3. We were all set to try out some changes for the feature, but the track management graciously declined to give us warmups. So we rolled the dice and started the feature in 11th. I was thinking we were looking pretty good for the first 2 laps, but it quickly came to an end in the 3rd turn. Got caught up in a big pile up and ended up with a flat right front. I restarted at the end of the line and went to work. We had a few more cautions, and went to single file before halfway. I made some pretty decent progress until I got to the 14 car. I spent a bunch of laps trying to get by, but it proved to be a little too challenging. I was fortunate to not wreck a couple of times when the hole suddenly closed. We ended up with a 7th place finish for our efforts, which is about 20 spots better than opening night last year.