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8/30/03

Not much to tell here.  We were good in warmups, and good in the heat race.  That track had a ton of bite, and got a little snotty later in the night when the sun went down and it got cooler.  I started the feature 9th and got about 3/4 of a lap complete before we trashed the car in a wreck coming off of turn 4.  Talladega anyone?  The car was too damaged to continue, a pretty crappy way to finish the season.  Soooo...  looking forward we'll be running the race of kings and the last Sportsman race the weekend after that.  And that will probably do it for the year. 

8/23/03

We started out the night feeling not so good in warmups.  The track was a little tricky, it seemed to have a lot of marbles on it.  So Jimmy decided to make one small change for the heats.  I started 5th, and the caution came out immediately.  They ended up putting the 90 to the rear, and I restarted 4th.  I quickly made my way to the front and had a ball with the car, it was set up perfectly.  After hot laps, we decided to make one more minor change, and that set us up for the feature.  I started 11th and is was like the seas parted.  I made my way up to 6th before the 1st caution flew.  On the restart I got a good run and a couple of laps later I fighting for 3rd.  Coming down the front stretch I got about 3/4 inside the 117 and he cut down on me going into 1.  We got locked together for a second and I thought I was all done, but I ended up continuing after losing a few spots.  I knew we had bent the tie rod, the steering wheel was off about  1/4 turn.  I started moving back to the front, but the caution quickly flew again.  As the field came down the frontstretch under the yellow I lost all steering control when the heim pulled out of the tie rod and ground to a stop just before I was going to run into the 52 who was stopped on the inside of the track.  I got towed back to the pits where the guys quickly replaced the tie rod and got me back out without losing a lap.  So I had about 14 or 15 laps to make something out of nothing.  I think we had maybe one more caution till I ran out of laps, taking the checkers in 6th.

8/16/03

Hmmm, probably would have been better if it rained out.  No heat races this week, they used the ones from last week.  So there was a lot of waiting around.  We got 2 set of warmups, then it was feature time.  I started 13th ( the 15th out of 16 races that I had an inside row start).  Passed a couple of cars on the first lap, then the caution came out.  Inside row restart and another caution, this one unfortunately collecting me.  Jimmy says he saw the belly pan the car got so high.  I restart from the rear and start passing cars in clumps.  Lap 3 I'm heading into turn 1 when the 90 bonzai's me and takes me right up to the wall.  Back about 5 spots and here we go again.  Plus another caution.  I start working on the two cars in front of me on the restart, and coming off of 4 they tangle.  I shoot low and think I have them missed when the 90 takes a hard left and catches my right rear.  We end up getting hooked together and it takes the wrecker crews about 35 minutes to get the cars apart.  We ended up busting just about every bolt on part in the rear end, plus the 1st wreck ended up bending the shock tower and axle bracket when I landed.  Your basic rough night. 

8/9/03

Well, Thursday was pretty interesting.  Got a late start to the track, managed to get a flat on the trailer (which I did not stop till I got to the track to fix), and got the car out just in time for warmups.  We were pretty good in warmups, but definitely not as good in the heat.  We managed to get up to second, but we had some serious work to do to get the car the way I wanted it for the feature.  So Jimmy and I changed about a half a dozen things for hot laps and got the car much closer.  I couple more minor tweaks for the feature and we were all set.  I started 12th and we got to hard racing right off the bat.  Artie and I were in a torrid battle for about 10 laps.  The closest call I had was when he locked bumpers with a car right in front of me and just about collected me.  A couple of laps later he and I split a car coming off of 4, I was on the low side and as we got down to 1 he turned into me thinking he had me cleared.  I tried to stay off of him the best I could and he was able to collect his car and the battle went on.  Around lap 13 or so I was able to pass him and the 69 going into 3 on the outside which put me into second about 3/4 of a straight behind Roy.  I was reeling him in, but wasn't going to have enough time to catch him.  Wouldn't you know we got a caution on the last lap.  Roy fired better than me on the restart, and I caught him going into 3 and got my front wheel about halfway to his door as we got the checkers.  Pretty cool stuff.  

Saturday was very overcast.  I got to the track and they hadn't opened the gates yet.  There must have been a wicked storm that passed through, the place was a mess.  I went out for warmups and we were pretty good.  I started last in the 4th heat and got to the front in about 4 laps.  So I was definitely ready for the feature, but the rain started just as the 3rd Mod heat was on the track.  I would think that Howie would give us double feature next week, but for some reason he decided to let everyone use their rain checks next week.

8/2/03

We made a couple of small changes this week, trying to get just a little bit better for the way the track is.  It looks like we twisted the bolts in the right direction, we were in the low 21's again in warmups.  The track was kinda weird again this week, tons of bite though.  I started 8th in the heat and picked my way up to second.  Kiddie rides and a very caution filled mod feature pushed our feature back some.  I started 12th and quickly made my way up to 5th by lap 5.  I got stuck on an inside restart and fell back to 6th when the caution came out again on lap 7.  I thought I was all set with an outside restart, but the 52 slid up into me going through 1 just enough to send the front of the car sliding.  I had the brakes locked down but that wasn't helping.  I let up just in time to avoid hitting the wall straight on.  I got into it with the right side pretty hard, but was able to continue.  Once again I got to see the whole field on the restart.  Did I mention that it was spitting rain as the feature started?  It looks like the moisture was getting worse as the race went on.  By lap 17 I had made it back up to 8th and was looking for a couple more spots when they threw the checkers as the rain got heavier.  We race again this Thursday for the Mr. DIRT show.  And I finally got some new pics up on the pic page.

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