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6/24/06

Another long week of rainy weather had us guessing if we would race this week.  We went out in warm-ups and the track was wicked fast, which had me worried for later.  I started the heat 6th and it was pretty uneventful, I made it up to 2nd.  We made some pretty big changes for hot laps, and then decided to change a right rear torsion bar for the feature.  I started 10th and when the caution came out  after a few laps I had moved up 2 spots.  Back to racing and I was able to make my way to 4th when the next yellow flew.  On the restart I followed the 00 on the top and took 2nd.  From that point I had 10-12 laps to try and catch Chris but we had nothing for him.  Our cars were virtually equal and the harder I tried the more I would slip back.  We still hadn't got the car quite 100%, so we have some more to work on. 

6/17/06

...and back to Summer.  It was another hot one, and it looked like the boys had dug up the track a little bit.  We were pretty fast in warm-ups, which worried me for later.  For the first time in a long time we were a little loose, so we made a few changes for the heat and lined up 6th.  I was able to get to 3rd pretty quickly and had a nice little battle going with the 63.  I just about had him passed on the last lap, but I picked up the push from hell coming off of turn 4 and had to back off so I wouldn't get into him.  We made a few more changes for hot laps but I still wasn't happy with the car.  We made some more changes and that had us ready for the feature, starting 9th.  There were a couple of quick cautions and I think I was in the eye of the hurricane for each one.  Fortunately I was able to barely miss all the chaos and came out in 3rd by lap 7 or so.  And now I had 13 laps to try and get to the point and all I got for my efforts was a good deal of frustration and a great show in front of me with the 22 and the 16 battling for the lead.  As hard as I was peddling, I had nothing for them and came home 3rd.  We never got the car quite right, so we'll make some more changes this week and see what we can do.

6/10/06

And the Summer visit from 2 weeks ago was a short one.  It was very cool and very windy after what seemed to be 2 straight weeks of rain.  In warm-ups the track felt like it did in opening night, real tight on entry and through the middle with a ton of bite off.  We started with a few changes to loosen the car for the heat race.  I started 8th and had my work cut out for me.  Everyone was going in low and sliding up the track, so there was no good place to try and pick someone off.  Fortunately there was a restart and while every one was jumbled up, I was able to get to 3rd before the checkers.  We made some more changes to loosen the car up for hot laps and even more changes before the feature.  I started 16th and had my hands full just trying to stay out of trouble.  There was an early caution which allowed me to grab a couple of spots, and several laps later I was in 8th when the next yellow flew.  After that it was just a matter of trying to move forward on a track that had slicked up pretty good from the bottom to the middle.  I got to 4th with 4 or 5 to go and made up 10-12 car lengths on the lead pack, but didn't have enough car or talent to get any further.

6/3/06

Rain,rain,rain...

 

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