News 2008:
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Points update:
We officially finished
6th (see page 6)! We're tied for 4th in best average Finish!
We had such a great season, celebrating at Tokyo Japanese Steakhouse:
We're
Selling out - this was our last season! Thank you for all your support!
Lowe’s Motor Speedway, Quaker Steak & Lube Summer Shootout, FINAL Round 10, 8/12/2008:
Damage report from last week: :
Couple of new bumpers and correct the setup, we’re ready to go.
Updates from last week:
Points Updates:
We're still 7th (see Page 7) for Summer Shootout with one week to go! In average finish, we're in 5th. In National Points, we've almost cracked the top 100, we're up to104th out of 358 Drivers
Season Finale: Lowe's Motor Speedway 8/12/2008: Cool One!
Very cool night in more ways than one. Only 90F in the trailer at 5:30. This was the most comfortable
night of the season, weather wise.
Big crowd in the stands, it always helps when God turns on the natural air-conditioning!
Our crew for last night:
Gary Pellet as Crew Chief. Fred Neise of Neise's Greases Amsoil Racing-handling
driver support duties. Kathleen was handling crew feeding and driver encouragement.
Alex: Timing & Scoring and all-round go-fer. Everyone is healthy this week! Thank you Lord!
At sign in, we drew a perfectly lousy #256, one number better than last week. Gary
had said last week that, just once, he'd like to see us draw a single digit for starting position.
I guess that is the single digit Gary wanted to see!
We’d line up 8th of 13 cars in the 2nd Heat race. There’d be only two Heat races tonight
for 26 cars.
In the Driver's meeting, they handed out the Trophies for the Red-White & Blue series. This is a point race
during the season that only included weeks 3, 6 & 9.
Clay Hair of course won, with Will Cagle 2nd and Hoyt Dennis in 3rd. During picture taking,
Will tried to poke out one of Clay’s eyes with his trophy! Hoyt didn’t show for the Drivers meeting and would
be sent to the back for his start.
John Sossoman missed out on a trophy since he missed last week to be at the Sturgis Bike Rally.
He’s back this week looking for a Checkered flag.
For our Heat race, Gary said it’s all a matter of survival. There were slow cars up front and fast cars, with
anxious drivers, starting in the rear.
At the GREEN to start our Heat race, we got a false start when the front row couldn’t stay together and the
#24 of Will Cagle, starting in the back, going through the barrels. We had gotten a good start from the outside
row, all for naught. On the second try, we got another good jump, but the #17 got spun by the #24 in Turn 3
of the first lap. The #24 got black flagged and sent to the pits. On the third try, we completed a lap! We
dropped to the inside of the #0 in front to take 4th when the Yellow came out again!.
This time we got to CHOOSE for the restart, we went to the outside and went to the front row, restarting 2nd.
The #1 of Tom Van Wingerden was on the pole. We tried to stay with him coming to the GREEN, but he jumped
quicker than I expected and pulled away. That dropped us into 2nd. We chased Tom back down, but we're now
getting pressure from his son-in-law, #32 Todd Johnson. Lap 5, Todd slipped below us coming out of Turn 2 for
2nd place. Todd kept pressuring Tom hard and I thought more than once they were going to wreck.
We stayed a car length back waiting for it to happen. It never did as we took the Checkered in 3rd.
This tied our best Heat race finish from 7/8/2009 during the rain.
Fred and Alex came down to Tech as we need to get weighed and our tires checked for legality
for our 3rd place finish.
The car was just a tick tight, so we made an adjustment to loosen the car up a bit and Gary put in the
magic tire air-pressures. We’re ready for the last race!
We’d be starting outside third row in 6th place. On the Pole would be #1 of Tom and #32 of Todd outside.
The next row had Clay’s #29 and #14 of Jon Sossoman. Starting alongside is the JOY FM #88.1 car of Eddie
Harwell. The guys we need to beat in the points are behind us. While awaiting to start on the grid, up walks
Humpy Wheeler, the creator of the Legend race cars in '92 and just retired President of Lowes Motor Speedway.
He shook everyone's hand and I thanked him for inventing the Legends. His new TV show would be on in the fall
during the Cup Chase.
When the GREEN flew we took off right on the #14’s bumper. We drop into line in 6th place, nose to tail.
By Lap 3, the #33 of David Denham is pressuring us hard from behind, but we keep pulling him down the straight.
The car is a little loose coming off the corners, I can’t flat foot the throttle off the apex. The #33 slips below
coming out of Turn 2 and passes down the back stretch. The #99 of Chuck Dohm is with him. We don’t need
any damage so he passes easily too. We’re back to 8th. Chuck is one of the guys we need to beat in the points.
Lap 6, Yellow comes out for cars in Turn 2.We CHOOSE the outside and restart 10th, boy that was a mistake!
On the GREEN of the re-start we charge to the outside of Turn 1 & 2 and pick up our lost spots going three
wide down the backstretch. Lap 7 Yellow when the #24 spins on the back stretch. We (master's Class) get yelled
at from the Tower on the RaceCeiver to COOL DOWN!.
This will be a single file restart from 8th. We have another good re-start and stay right with the #33 in front.
The #99 and #32 get into a shoving match and the #99 spins, while the #32 goes through the infield – no caution
as they both get going quickly. We’re starting to lap slow cars already. The #17 of Dennis White passed us
cleanly in traffic. We just can’t get off the corners quick enough. Probably should not have made the change
after the Heat race – oh well. The #01 of Hoyt does the same thing as we let him pass. Coming out of Turn 2
we’re catching the #17. He slows down the back stretch and we swerve to the left to miss him.
Now we’re catching someone in front. It’s #1 of Tom V. We’re on his bumper when the White Flag comes out,
but that’s a close as we can get. John Sossoman starts his victory celebration early by spinning down the
back stretch, almost wrecking the field behind him. That was fun!
We finished 7th! Our 7th top 10 finish of the year! This has been by far our best season.
Fred got a famous race-driver's autograph (Bill Elliott) on his T-shirt-ask him about it!
Our Team has put everything into it and we’ve run well with the best Legend racers in the Country.
These are the same guys that dominate the National Points and the National races. And we’ve had a Top Ten Year!
My un-official calculations have us in 6th for the Shootout Points Championship! Whoo Hoo!!
We’re going to celebrate at Tokyo Japanese Steakhouse this week with our fantastic Team.
Stay tuned for announcements and be sure to watch us this fall on SPEEDTV!
Thank you to all our loyal sponsors: Mr. Sink at Universal School of Martial Arts,
Thrivent Financial for Lutherans – Yadkin River Chapter, Child Safety Council,
and our very first sponsor Neise’s Greases-Amsoil!
Thank you Gary, Fred, Alex & Kathleen!
http://www.lowesmotorspeedway.com/news_photos/news/534125.html
Arriviving in the garage after our last race - 7th!
Our Team:Fred Niese, Gary Pellett, Alex Sawicki & Bruce Sawicki
Lowe’s Motor Speedway, Quaker Steak & Lube
Summer Shootout Round 9, 8/5/2008:
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Third race in 8 days - whew!Damage report from Friday at Bowman Gray:
Rear bumper busted due to the #24 Pro beating on it - replaced with a Gary repaired one.
We officially finished 15th-8th in Master's Division in that race – our black flag caused our last two laps to not count.
We thrashed Saturday trying to make the car better.
Updates from last week:
We've moved up to 7th (see page 7)in points, only 2 out of 6th place!Last night Lowe's Motor Speedway 8/5/2008: Hot One!
102F in the trailer at 5:30 PM
Our crew for last night:
Gary Pellet as Crew Chief. Fred Neise of Neise's Greases Amsoil Racing-handling
driver support duties - We were able to celebrate his birthday with a chocolate
Cupcake Grandma Cleary made for us, Kathleen was handling crew feeding and driver encouragement. She’s getting over her pneumonia. Alex: Timing & Scoring and all-round go-fer.
At sign in, we drew a perfectly lousy #257.
We’d line up in the 6th of 9 cars in the 2nd Heat race. In the Driver's meeting, #9 Carlos Moore,
wearing an eye-patch, got up and asked since he was racing with two replacement Knees,
no hearing aid and a one eye, would the Master's vote to give him a 1/2 lap head start!
We were set up for a hot slick track and we got it! In fact we overcompensated.
The car ended up having a push in it (front end won't turn).
At the GREEN to start the Heat race, our outside row was much faster than the inside row.
We cleared the #9, #1 and #22, passing on the outside. We finally dropped to the inside lane
on Lap 3, following the #28 of Charles Kiser. The #96 who started from the poll is in front of Charles.
The #28 is working real hard trying to get past. We're just waiting for an opening. The #17 of
Dennis White catches us and starts tapping on our rear bumper. Charles clears the #96, but we
can't take advantage. The #17 is still hitting us, but not hard. We have to slow going into the
corners because of the push condition. Once we get slowed down the car will turn and rocket
off the corner and pull away from him. We end up in that order finishing 4th. This will give us a
decent start for the Feature in 11th place. We've had 5 top tens out of the eight weeks (one top 5),
we need another!
In the pits we made an adjustment to loosen the car up a bit and Gary put in the magic tire air-pressures.
We’re ready!
Dennis apologized for hitting us in the Heat. No problem I told him; didn’t even bend the bumper.
My car was pushing, so I was slow into the corner, I knew I was going to get hit.
Starting the Feature race on the inside row gave us the advantage of shorter distance around the
track. We hoped to clear the outside row, although there were good cars in that lane. When the
GREEN flew we took off right on the #00’s bumper. We quickly dispose of him and the #57 who
started on the outside. The #17 gets to the outside coming out of Turn 2. Side by side we raced,
inches apart, never touching. Our cars were just dancing, sliding around the track, but never
enough to touch. Wow, this is great! For two laps we kept it up, before he finally cleared us
down the back stretch.
The #17 gets around the #96 and we follow him through on the inside of Turn 4. The #17 and
I start closing in on the #3 of Phil Sharpe. He’s currently 3rd in Points. By Lap 9, the #22 is
catching us from behind. Going into Turn 1 he hits us, but causes himself to spin out. We scoot
away unscathed.
Lap 11 YELLOW as the #96 and the #0 Todd Adams who started on the pole, spin in the
4th Turn. We’re 10th in line.
We CHOOSE the outside and end up still 10th outside of #3. We take the GREEN! but never
get sorted out because Lap 13 the #99 of Chuck Dohm and #32 of Todd Johnson wreck down
the backstretch. The #99 is missing it’s left front suspension, he’s out of the race.
We’re still 8th in line, again outside of the #3. We’re also just to the outside of the #28 of
Charles Kiser who started 3rd. We hadn’t raced him yet this race, but we’re closing in. Drop of
the GREEN we get a good restart and drop right behind the #3. The #00 is behind us as we’re
one big pack, nose to tail to 10th place. We’re right on the #3’s bumper but can not cut
underneath to make the pass. The #00 bumps us going into Turn 1 and we hit the #3. Phil
slides a bit as I check up and he gathers it back. White Flag! is displayed at the Start line; we
try Phil one more lap. The #33 gets around the #00 behind us and we can’t get Phil as he l
eads us by more than a car length to the Finish line. What a fantastic race, side be side with
the #17 and chasing down the car that’s third in points. We got another solid top 10 with 8th.
Our 6th top 10 in nine races. No damage to the car to repair, so this week we look for speed!
Thank you Lord!
Gary wants to see a single digit for our draw next week. We’ve been racing at Lowe’s since
2003 and have never drawn a single digit number for Heat race starting position.
Next week is the last for the Summer Shootout.
Goals for next week: Draw a one digit number for starting position, win the race and stay in the
10 in points for the season.
This is our best year by far in the toughest Legends series in the country.
Watch us this fall on SPEEDTV!
Thank you to all our loyal sponsors: Mr. Sink at Universal School of Martial Arts,
Thrivent Financial for Lutherans – Yadkin River Chapter, Child Safety Council,
and our very first sponsor Neise’s Greases-Amsoil!
Thank you Gary, Fred, Alex & Kathleen!
http://www.lowesmotorspeedway.com/news_photos/news/533884.html
Celebrating Fred's Birthday
Update from last Tuesday: Kathleen has what Alex had: pneumonia! She's on antibiotics and feeling better.
We've moved up to 7th (see page 7)in points, only 2 out of 6th place!
Fred, Alex & I did the maintenance & setup Thursday for tonight's race. This will be our 2nd of 3 races in 8 days.
Crew for Friday Night at Bowman Gray in Winston-Salem: Gary, Fred, Alex & Kathleen all made it!
What a great crowd showed up. The Stadium holds 17,000 about 12,000 seats were occupied!
Alex & I got to meet Will Cagle's wife waiting to draw for our starting position. She noticed my
Thrivent Builds t-shirt, and asked if we were Lutheran. We were having a nice discussion about
churches, that her family was Lutheran, when I asked which car she was rooting for. "#24 in Master's",
she said. Will Cagle! They're living in FLA in the winter and have a place north of Spartanburg, SC
for the summer racing season, 100 miles from Lowe's Motor Speedway. Will grew up on a flat
quarter mile built around a football field, just like Bowman Gray. I told her that my Dad took me to
my first race at Soldier's Field in Chicago - flat track around a football field.
Alex drew #72, which at the Shootout would be a fantastic starting position. Not so much for tonight.
We'd be starting 9th out of 16 cars.
We'd have two practice sessions and then our Feature race. All Legends classes would practice
together, Semi-Pro, Pro & Master's
There would be two Legends races, one for Semi-Pro and the second for Pro/Master's.
Daytime practice was warm, 100F in the trailer. Our first practice was OK, nothing great with the amount of traffic on the track. Our second one was much better, as we were able to cut thru the
traffic and keep pace with the fast guys from the first round. We gained speed, while they lost
some. Lots of our buddies from Lowe's were here tonight: #28 Charles Kiser, #24 Will Cagle,
#0 Todd Adams, #9 Carlos Moore.
The non-hometown drivers were impressed with the new Bowman Gray field house we used
for our driver’s meeting, “Wow, this is for racing?!” Then I pointed out the Stadium and Field House
are used for Winston-Salem State’s football team.
Some of the pre-race festivities included the Grave Digger Monster truck tearing up the track
and part of the infield grass. 1200HP is REALLY LOUD and can fling dirt a LONG way!
The track was pretty messy by the time we got out there. We got a pretty good start on the GREEN!
and took off with the pack.
Then a quick Yellow on Lap 3. We’re 8th in line and all re-starts will be single file instead of
the double file CHOOSE restarts we use at Lowe’s Motor Speedway.
Lap 4 Yellow again when the #8 spins. We’re still in 8th. The car isn’t that good, not able to
attack, merely keeping up with the pack. The #63 is right behind working over our rear bumper.
Laps are ticking off fast. We close in on the #24 of Will Cagle. He goes high into Turn 3 and
we slide past on lap 10. The #24 leaves the track for the pits. On lap 12, the #28 spins to the
infield in front of us. Charles had been lucky enough to draw #3 and started outside front row.
Missed restart.
For some reason the Tower over the RACECeiver was quiet during this caution. They had
been telling us when to get ready, when to start, etc.
All of a sudden the field in front starts pulling away from me down the backstretch. The Yellow
lights are out and we’re restarting! I floor it trying to catch up, but they pull away and 3 cars from
behind get us before we get out of Turn 2 after taking the GREEN. We’re way back now.
The #24 Pro started beating on my rear bumper. I wasn't blocking, but if he's a Pro he should
be able to pass cleanly. He finally shoved us thru Turns 3 & 4 - I felt like a dirt tracker cranking
the wheel to the right to go around a left-hand turn! Black flag comes out, I hope it's for #24 Pro
for rough driving. No, #5 is on the Flag stand, the RACECeiver is saying my back bumper is
loose. The scoreboard shows lap 18 - We're not coming in! We didn't get to finish our prior
race at Bowman Gray due to getting wrecked; we're going to finish this one! The White flag
comes out, and the Flagman withdrew the Black flag. We take the Checkered flag from way
back, maybe 11th, IF we get to keep our laps. On the cool down lap we catch the #24 and
give him a love tap to show my disapproval.
Once back to the pits, the rear bumper is still attached only on one side, but it’s not dragging.
Then Kathleen appears and says Alex got sick during the race. He has stomach pains and
his stomach is hard as a rock. We get the track EMS team to look him over. They can't rule
out appendicitis - so Kathleen calls our Dr. Dr says to bring him to the Emergency room!
Alex & I had driven down with the trailer, Kathleen came in her car. So Kathleen took him to the
Hospital, while I took the trailer home, praying all the way.
Bottom line at the Emergency Room- they found nothing and he was feeling better. They got home
about 3:00am, 4 hours of tests and waiting for results.
Unfortunately I can’t tell you where we finished. We missed the posting of results, since
Darryl Krentz, the INEX sanctioning official left the track. Don't know where we finished or if our
last laps even counted with the black flag.
We got the car ready again on Saturday, for our third race in 8 days. Check back next week!
Fred with a caliss Flathead racer - Big Legend racecar!
Bruce & Alex with Grave Digger
Alex pointing out the driveshaft-sized trailing arm on Grave Digger
(a LARGE version of the part we bent the prior week)
Grave Digger in Action!
Lowe’s Motor Speedway, Quaker Steak & Lube Summer Shootout Round 8, 7/30/2008:
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Damage report from last week:
There was front bumper damage and had to re-adjust our oil cooler fan on the oil cooler,
as it was rubbing. New Right Rear tire. Missing Right Front Axle dust cover- again!
We thrashed all last week trying to make the car better.
Updates from last week:
Going into tonight, remain in 8th in Points (see Page 7):
Last night Lowe's Motor Speedway 7/30/2008: Mamma said there’d be days like these!
Our crew for last night: This is the greatest crew in Legends racing and I would not trade them for the world!
Gary Pellet was back as Crew Chief. We were able to celebrate his birthday with a chocolate
cake Grandma Cleary made for us. Fred Neise of Neise's Greases Amsoil Racing-handling
driver support duties, Kathleen was handling crew feeding and driver encouragement.
She’s not feeling well; maybe the same thing Alex had a couple of weeks ago.
Alex, handling all-round go-fer.
This will be short and sweet as we have to get ready for the Friday August 1st Bowman Gray
Stadium race.
At sign in, we drew perfectly lousy #379. This was the worst of all Master’s drivers.
We’d line up in the 9th of 9 cars in the 1st Heat race.
In the Driver’s meeting, Roger Slack, Lowe’s Motor Speedway’s Special Events Director
(including Cup races) returned for his final Drivers meeting. We all signed a fiberglass
hood in his honor.
At the GREEN to start the Heat race, I can tell the car is loose, but we hang in on the
inside and pass some cars up to 6th. Then on the 6th lap coming out of Turn 4, I flat lost it.
Back end swung around, I corrected and headed straight for the wall in the opposite direction.
Spun all the way around, 1, 2, 3 and the #53 of Bruce Silver clobbered us in the Left rear tire.
Safety worker told me the rear axle was cockeyed, so I slowly drove back to the pits.
The Crew arrived and quickly assessed the damage – bent left trailing arm and bent bracket
that holds it. We can make the Feature as there are no broken welds or structural damage!
The arm is normally straight and this one now looks like a hockey stick! Bruce Silver came
over to check on us; he got knocked out the next restart of our Heat race!
The Crew springs into action as Alex & I run for parts in our trailer. We bend and pry, while
Fred whales on the bent bracket with a carpenter hammer. Car is back together. We give
it a rudimentary alignment and we’re ready to go! We get no down time, as it’s now time
to line up for the Feature – what a Crew!
For the Feature, we’ll be starting 16th. Apparently 3 cars got knocked out so we finished 6th
in the Heat. We’re starting on the outside, which is a good thing since I don’t have a clue how
the car is going to behave. Just survive to the finish – please Lord!
We were pretty racy at the drop of the GREEN! The car hung in there on the outside, just a
little looser than I’d like. On the 1st lap in Turn 3 the #24 of Will Cagle & #21 of Bill Gardner spin.
We just missed both by less than nothing on the inside – Thank you Lord! How’d we miss
that one? No Yellow. Lap 4 the #1 then #24 spins in Turn 1, no Yellow. Lap 5 the #24 spins
again – Yellow as Will goes off on the hook. We’re in 11th on the lineup. We CHOOSE the
outside and re-start 10th. Again the car is good and seems to be getting better, passing cars.
Our new Right Rear tire is coming in. Lap 9, Turn 1 the #33 bumps us and pushes us into the
#22 of Gary Shannon and he spins out. That’s happened to us a bunch this year-I’m going to
have to apologize! No YELLOW. We start lapping cars as we go past the #11 & 5.1.
The #33 passes us coming out of Turn 2. The #00 is real slow down the middle of the
backstretch. We zig around him, wow just missed him! Yellow, as he stops on the backstretch.
It’s lap 16. We CHOOSE the outside and go from 9th to 6th.
Coming to take the GREEN! Clay Hair in the #29 on the pole takes a swing at the #14 of
John Sossoman. Don’t know what that was all about, but the re-start is called off.
We line back up and this time the #33 and #32 spin out in Turn 1 and bump the #88.1 of
Eddie Harwell. Re-start again! There is oil down all the way around the track from the #41.
The Safety Crew puts down Speedy Dry all the way around. Track is going to be a mess.
The #88.1 gets black flagged because his Left Front is bent, he looses 4th place.
This time we’re in 8th, CHOOSE the inside because it’s so messy from the oil and Speedy
Dry on the outside. So we line in 9th. GREEN! & White flags together. We close up on the #3
of Phil “Razor” Sharpe into Turn 3. Right on his back bumper, maybe nudge him a little
coming off Turn 4. We can’t make the run on him to the Checkered. We get 9th!
So a good thrash, then - RACY - night. Thank You Lord! I lost a pound
and a half, I can just imagine what my Crew spent!
Kathleen’s sore throat wanted a Vanilla Milkshake. Thank goodness for a 24 hour Steak & Shake!
We’ve got another race, Bowman Gray Stadium, Friday 8/1.
Check back for more updates during the week!
Thank you to all our loyal sponsors: Mr. Sink at Universal School of Martial Arts,
Thrivent Financial for Lutherans – Yadkin River Chapter, Child Safety Council,
and our very first sponsor Neise’s Greases-Amsoil!
Thank you Gary, Fred, Alex & Kathleen!
Fred thrashing before feature
All-Star Crew: (from Left) Fred Niese, Gary Pellett, Alex Sawicki, & Kathleen Sawicki
Celebrating Gary's bithday!
Lowe’s Motor Speedway, Quaker Steak & Lube Summer Shootout Round 7, 7/22/2008:
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Damage report from last week:
RV Tire had a bad valve stem, Goodyear replaced under warranty and it’s back on the RV.
There was front bumper & grill damage from the Feature race incident with the t-boned car.
Also the front & rear alignment, was messed up. We put on a repaired bumper and re-set the
alignment. Gary spent about 4 hours Saturday welding up a new grill bracket/brace
and straightening bumpers for us. Missing Right Front Axle dust cover – we’ll pick a new
one at the parts trailer.
Updates from last week:
Going into tonight, we’re back to 8th in Points (see Page 7)
Also, moved up to 179 of 346 drivers in National Points after 5 races
Last night Lowe's Motor Speedway 7/22/2008: HOT!!! Tuesday Night!
Our crew for last night: Gray Pellet was not able to make the race because of his work schedule.
Fred Neise of Neise's Greases Amsoil Racing-handling Crew Chief & driver support duties,
Kathleen was handling crew feeding and driver encouragement. Alex returned this week after a
bout of pneumonia. This is only the third week that he’s been able to attend
REAL Hot tonight, 104F in the trailer at 5:30pm.
At sign in, we drew an OK #145. We’d line up in the 4th in the 3rd Master's Heat; outside second
row of 8 cars. There are 26 cars tonight. There would be no B Feature.
In the Driver’s meeting, Roger Slack , Lowe’s Motor Speedway’s Special Events Director
(including Cup races) had resigned. This was a shock to all of us. His leadership and dedication
will be missed as he built this Series for the past 11 summers.
Weather didn’t look good as rain was heading into the area. The schedule would be re-arranged
to accommodate running the kids class that won’t run in the rain, first. Heat index is 106!
Lonnie Krouse of Motorsports Outreach returned to give the invocation. I got to speak with him a
little afterwards, he’s been running ragged at the Nationwide Series Chaplin for Motor Racing
Outreach, so hasn’t made very many Tuesday nights.
Will Cagle comes over and is drenched in sweat – “Hot enough?”
For our Heat race, #29 Clay Hair got a worse draw number than us and will start back in 7th.
We’re starting in the outside second row behind the #41 of Jim Gurley. I wish him luck and a
good jump on the Green flag so we can follw himn to the front! It’s cooled off some, merely 91F.
At the GREEN to start the race, we pull up right on his bumper down the front stretch and into Turn1.
The inside lane is a little quicker. We bump the #41 out of Turn 2 and down the back stretch.
Can’t get to the inside lane yet as Clay’s #29 shoots up the inside. Jim drops to the inside of
#96 Stephen Carter going into Turn 1 and we follow him. Side by side with the #96 down the
back stretch and clear him coming out of Turn 4. We close back up on the black & silver #41. I
’m loose coming of the corners, especially Turn 4. The track is real hot & slick.
On the 3rd lap coming off Turn 4, we get real loose and the right rear wheel kisses the outside wall,
then the right front. We lose a couple of car lengths to the #41, but nobody is catching us from
behind. We close back up on the #41, but just can’t get under him. The car hasn’t really changed
at all from the wall smack, just real loose off the corners. The Checkered waves and we finish in 4th.
Back in the garage we survey the damage: White walled right side tires, with lots of rubbery white
paint from the SAFER Barrier caught between the tire bead and wheel. Tires are not, cut, and are
holding air. Fred & Alex clean up the tires while I cool off. We find that the rear axle has moved,
so we correct that as the fronts seem to line up OK.
For the Feature, we’ll be starting 12th, outside of #7 Jan Ingram who has been having a rough year.
We’re behind #28 Charles Kiser, Clay’s teammate. He’s not happy with his night so far. #41 of
Jim Gurley is starting one row in front, to the inside. I tell him he ran well in the Heat.
“But I was real loose coming off Turn 4, almost hit the wall once”. I replied, “I did hit it!” Eddie
Harwell in the #88.1 would start directly behind us. It’s really cooled off now, down in the 80’s
with the wind picking up.
We were a little slow at the drop of the GREEN as the #28 pulled away from us down to the Start
line. We catch up going down the backstretch, just as the #57 of John Davis spins and collects
the #41. Jim looses his left rear fender. We try to doge both him and the fender – fender looses
as we run it over and take to the outside grass in Turn 4. YELLOW! with a total re-start.
The #41 is out with lots of left side damage. The #57 will gets it’s original position back and start
alongside us.
We get a much better start on the GREEN this time and stay right with the #28. Everyone gets
to single file racing after one lap. We’re chasing the #28 hard on his back bumper, but just like
the Heat race, we’re loose off and can’t get up under to make a pass. By Lap 9, #24 of Will
Cagle catches us from behind. Either he shoved us, or our throttle hung for a split second too
long and we go way wide in Turn 2. Will scoots underneath on the backstretch, and we bump
him in the rear bumper in Turn 3. The #24 gets around the #28 also, so we’re back racing Kiser
again. Until the #32 of Todd Johnson catches us from behind. He also gets us coming off Turn 2
down the back stretch. He passes the #28 shortly. I don’t think I’ve passed anyone all night!
I have to feather the throttle to keep from spinning out and the laps are clicking off
By Lap 16, we’re getting into lapped traffic. Eddie Harwell in the #88.1 JOY FM car has caught
us. We use the #5.1 lapped car as a pick to trap Eddie on the inside. We scoot away. Eddie
reels us back in. We’ve worked too hard to loose another position! The #11 lapped car is up
ahead. Eddie tries to dive to the inside and sees the #11 almost too late. We trap Eddie on
the inside as we lap the #11 to the outside. We’re getting slower as Eddie runs us back down.
White Flag! We take a real low line into Turn 1 to give Eddie all the room he wants as long as
it’s the outside. We stay low down the back stretch and into Turn 3 too. He’s going to have to
boot us to get by. We jump on the throttle coming out of Turn 4 hard. I kept expecting him to
shoot to the inside but he never showed in my left side window. We beat him to the line by
more than a car length.
Twenty Green flag laps after the initial miss-fire. It’s been a long time since we’ve done that!
When we checked the official results, we’re 13th. Just a little front bumper damage and
we’re missing the Right Front Axle dust cover we just bought. We may have wore the right
side tires out! The engine got real hot, 340F oil Temp - Thank you Amsoil!
The car did roll onto the trailer just as the Heavens open up with a down pour.
So a good, safe night. Thank You Lord!
We’ve got two races next week, the Shootout on Tuesday Night 7/29 and
Bowman Gray Stadium, Friday 8/1. Hopefully Gary will be able to make it.
Check back for more updates during the week!
Thank you to all our loyal sponsors: Mr. Sink at Universal School of Martial Arts, Thrivent Financial for Lutherans – Yadkin River Chapter, Child Safety Council, and our very first sponsor Neise’s Greases-Amsoil! Thank you Fred, Alex & Kathleen!
Lowe’s Motor Speedway, Quaker Steak & Lube Summer Shootout
Round 6, 7/15/2008:
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We’re back from upstate NY visiting family. We had a wonderful time with the Mount’s,
just eating way too much! Unfortunately Alex was sick the whole time, couldn’t shake the bug
he has. Kathleen took him to the Doctor in the morning and he has viral pneumonia.
Poor kid is miserable and he missed another week at the track. I unloaded our RV tow
vehicle from vacation to get it ready for towing duty, and found only 10psi in the Right
Rear inner tire! Another God incident, per Grandma Cleary! We made it all the way home
without changing a tire on the side of the road. I put the spare on, put air in the bad tire
(which held) and used it as the spare for tonight.
Damage report from last week:
There was front bumper damage from the Feature race incident with the #99 in the rain.
Also the front alignment, toe out setting was messed up. We put on a repaired bumper and
re-set the alignment and we’re ready to go. A week ago, we tested some changes to the set
up in the shop for the short Heat race on the scales. With last week’s rain racing, we didn’t
get a chance to try them out. If it doesn’t rain this week, we’ll try out our theory.
We’ll undo the change before the Feature, since we were so fast once the track cools.
Updates from last week:
Going into tonight, we’re up to 4th in Points (see Page 6)
Last night Lowe's Motor Speedway 7/15/2008: FULL MOON Tuesday Night!
Our crew for last night: Gray Pellet was not able to make the race because of his work schedule.
Fred Neise of Neise's Greases Amsoil Racing-handling Crew Chief & driver support duties,
Kathleen was handling crew feeding, timing & scoring and driver encouragement.
Hot tonight, 90F in the trailer. Great crowd too, almost as good as the 4th of July Week.
At sign in, we drew an awful #293. We’d line up in the 7th in the 3rd Master's Heat; inside
fourth row of 9 cars. There are 28 cars tonight. There would be no B Feature.
In the Driver’s meeting, Cotton Spry had been back at Practice Monday night, feeling better than
he had in his life. The #16 car was missing tonight for racing. Your prayers are working!
No rain tight, we’d get to test our change in the Heat race.
We were starting the Heat way back in 7th on the inside lane. We were ready to go at the
GREEN! We followed the inside lane, with #99 in front. Side by side with the #28 of Charles
Kiser, Clay Hair’s teammate, who started on the outside. Lap and a half and we finally clear
him coming out of Turn 2. Our change helped as we pulled away from the #28 and closed
on the #141 of Clayton Alston. We quickly get past him in Turn 2 and pull away.
The front 4 are out by a good ten car lengths, with half the race over. Then motor is screaming
on the straights, sounding very strong! We close in a little, when the #28 comes back. We
have to defend our position. He’s trying inside and outside, but we can outrun him.
Finally, the checkered falls, we’re 5th! We turned some really quick laps, going Green the
entire 8 laps. Another personal fastest lap at Lowe’s. We call Alex at home to give him
the update.
For the Feature, we’ll be starting 15th, right about the middle of the pack of 27 cars that
will start. We undid our Heat race change for the Feature.
We were great on the drop of the GREEN! passing the #41 and #22 who started outside of us.
The #1 gets hit and is on another car’s tires in Turn 1 to start the second lap, Yellow! Stand on
the brake, whew! missed everyone and no one hit us from behind.
We’re in 12th, but CHOOSE the outside and back to 16th – oops! On the re-start, a white car
gets hit & spins sideways in Turn 1. We try to go around on the outside, but he moved into our
path and we punch him in the door. Our momentum carries us to push him aside. Cars are
passing inside and outside, no Yellow. We both get going but way at the back.
Lap 5 another Caution; someone knocked the barrels into Turn 1. We restart 22nd.
On the Green flag, there’s a bunch of beating and banging. We keep getting caught behind
two cars battling. It’s tough to go three wide at Lowe’s! Another Caution on lap 8, the #11
gets spun on the backstretch, whew missed him too!. We’re re-starting on the inside of #88.1
Eddie Harwell who is 3rd in points, right in front of us. On the Green, traffic backs up in Turn 1;
we scoot around the #88.1. There’s a traffic cone on the racing line on the front stretch,
we mow it down! Were did that come from?
There’s that side by side traffic in front of us again. We try the outside off Turn 2 to make it
3 wide down the back stretch. We’re still 3 wide going into Turn 3. The inside car gives way,
now we’re merely two wide coming out of Turn 4! The car inside us passes down the front stretch.
There’s a snarling pack behind us! Coming out of Turn 2, I flat loose it, as the rear end comes
around. Cars coming head on at us; turn the wheel to finish the spin and end up with the rear
tires in the infield. Engine is still running, find 1st gear and motor off! No Yellow! Second then
Third gear, brake hard for Turn 3 and the rear gets loose again. We’re spinning a second
time in one lap! The leaders are coming – Yellow! We’re on the inside of Turn 4 facing the
outside of the track as the field slows to go around us. I get re-fired and shake the car,
something must be wrong. The Tower yells on the RaceCeiver: “Get it under control #5!”
We line up last for lap 11. We’ll CHOOSE to re-start on the outside in case something is
wrong, like a tire going down.
The #88.1 is several rows in front now, on the restart. We’re behind the #7 who is dragging a
front bumper. He gets black flagged to fix it. This restart is rougher than the last, with more
beating and banging. We’re trying to scoot around the outside. The car doesn’t feel too bad.
Another wreck between the #33 and #121 on lap 13.
This one is going to end soon because of the time limit. We race 20 laps or 15 minutes
whichever comes first.
I think we’re 21st in line. We CHOOSE the inside when the car in front goes to the outside.
On the re-start, we’re so far back that I hit 3rd gear before we get to Turn 3. We pass two cars
that started outside to complete that lap. White Flag, another car right ahead, make a late apex
into Turn 3, trying to sweep to the inside as we come to the Checkered. No luck as he gets a
good jump coming out of Turn 4 and beats us by a car length. Wow, what a rough race!
I had kept an eye on the oil pressure and temp, both we’re good, so I hoped the front wasn’t
messed up as bad a Week 1. Coming back to the garage, the car won’t turn to the right. Fred
has to back me up to get the car in. Aha! The front bumper is busted on the left and pushed in
so far that it’s hitting the left front tire. The grill brace is busted (Gary, we need welding!)
and the oil cooler upper brace is bent again. Oil cooler is not leaking – a very good sign.
Fred pulled the offending bumper so we could load the car on the trailer.
When we checked the official results, we’re 19th. As Fred and I were tying the car down in
the trailer, Eddie Harwell pulled up, “How’s your car?” I said “Just cosmetic, grill brace and
bumper, I hope. Bad night, managed to spin twice by myself!” “No, you got spun the first time,
I don’t know who it was, but you got hit” Eddie said. “That was a Full Moon Night” he continued
as he pointed to the sky, “It got so bad at the end I was just trying to ride out the finish.
Don’t know how I got up to 14th!”
We called Alex just at 10:00pm to give him the update, he's disappointed.
The car did roll onto the trailer, we had no tire problems on the car or the RV, so all in all a
good night; Thank You Lord!
Thank you to all our loyal sponsors: Mr. Sink at Universal School of Martial Arts,
Thrivent Financial for Lutherans – Yadkin River Chapter, Child Safety Council, and our v
ery first sponsor Neise’s Greases-Amsoil!
Thank you Fred & Kathleen! Hurry back Alex!
Lowe’s Motor Speedway, Quaker Steak & Lube Summer Shootout Round 5 7/8/2008:
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Damage report from last week:
There was front & rear bumper damage from the Heat race. Alex & Gary straightened them out. We tested some changes to the set up for the short Heat race on the scales. We’ll undo the change before the Feature, since we were so fast last week.
Updates from last week:
Going into tonight, We're 5th in Points after Round 4! Scroll down to page 7 .
We’re leaving for a quick trip to Upstate NY to visit the Mount’s, Kathleen’s sister’s family.
Grandma & Grandpa Cleary are making the trip with us. We’ll be back for next Tuesdays’ race.
Last night Lowe's Motor Speedway 7/8/2008: Grandma Cleary’s Birthday, Happy Birthday!
Cotton Spry is home resting, told by his Doctor rest for a week to ten days lifting nothing heavier than a
gallon of milk. Keep him in your prayers.
Our crew for last night: Gray Pellet our Crew Chief, Fred Neise of Neise's Greases Amsoil Racing-
handling driver support duties, Alex is sick –has a heck of a head cold, so he stayed home. Kathleen
was handling crew feeding, timing & scoring and driver encouragement.
It was cool tonight, and rain. Yes, we race in the rain.
At sign in, we drew an OK #113. We’d line up in the 3rd Master's heat starting 3rd, inside second
row of 9 cars. There are 27 cars tonight. There would be no B Feature.
In the Driver’s meeting, Lonnie Krouse of Motorsports Outreach was missing, so someone else gave
the invocation. They said there would be rain tonight, and they would need to adjust the schedule
accordingly. The little kids in Bandoleros don’t race in the rain and the Thunder Cars don’t either
when they run the big 1.5 mile track.
Coming out of the driver’s meeting, it was a dark, black sky to the west.
The Semi-Pro Heat race started and two laps into the race a downpour hit. And they red flagged the race.
Then what looked like a typhoon blew in, with horizontal rain and flying trash cans! This took over an
hour to stop, so we ate dinner. I called Alex to see how he was doing and give him an update.
It hadn’t rained yet in Winston.
We were starting the Heat behind the pole sitter #41 of Jim Gurley. The track had puddles and
was raining steady straight down, no wind. When the GREEN! Dropped, I was early on the shift
into 3rd gear due the slick track. The #88.1 of Eddie Harwell jumped his former crew chief in the
#41 and took the lead. We were still third. Coming into Turn 1 & 2 we about completely lost control
when I hit a puddle or something. The #01 of Hoyt Dennis jumped around us on the inside while I
was swatting flies trying to save it. The #41 was ahead of us, not that far. We ran him down in a
lap and a half. Going down the back straight, I saw a slow car in the outside lane, right where the #41
was going to end up. We used it as a pick to jump inside Jim and pass both in Turn 3 & 4 on the inside.
Back up to Third! The #01 had gotten around #88.1 and they were both half a straight ahead.
We slowly start reeling in the #88.1. But not near close enough as the Checker flies.
We sail through Tech as they only checked our driveshaft & brake bias valve.
Best finish this year in a heat race. I called Alex to see how he was doing and give him an update.
Because the rain is coming down harder now, the official totally change the schedule and the
Master’s class will be the first Feature of the night. So we hop back in for another go. It had
stopped raining, for the most part, but the track has rivers running down the back stretch and
across Turn 2. We get the lineup from the official at the grid, we’re 9th, inside row five, our
best of the season.
We were great the GREEN! as we get up to so-called speed (more like slow motion on the
wet track!), the inside lane is slow, as we get passed. So we make it to the outside to get around
the #96 in front of us. On the grid, his team had changed his right side tires – wish we
had that luxury!
We’re behind the #99 of Chuck Dohm on lap 4. Going into Turn 1, we drop below him.
In the wet we pushed up and he came down. He hits our right front with his left running board
and left rear tire. This spins him in front of us, as we t-bone into the drivers door – gently.
The momentum carried our car and pushed him out of the way – no Yellow. Sorry about that!
The next lap the #24 of Will Cagle spins to the outside of Turn 3 – Yellow. We’ll get a double
file restart, with a CHOOSE of which lane to start in. The officials are pressed for time, so we
line up quickly. We choose the outside, I think we’re 10th. The outside is not bad in the rain
except Turn 4 where a river is running down the banking. We pass to the outside some cars
beating and banging on the inside. Now we’re chasing down the white #132. We close in
fairly quickly and try to pass to the inside of Turn 2. But my right foot gets happy and applies
way too much throttle. We get sideways and the #132 pulls away. We repeat running him
down, this time I try the outside. Same right foot problem and he pulls away again. We catch
him a third time in lapped traffic. I try on the inside, darn old happy right foot keeps getting
excited – and about spin out! We get through traffic and the #3 of Phil Sharpe is up ahead,
fading. The #132 gets around him, but we can’t get there as the Checkered ends the 20 lap
race. I think we’re in 6th or 7th.
Kathleen got the official results, we’re 6th. What a great night, that was fun!
Only two drivers ahead of us in points finished in front of us in the race tonight: winner Clay Hair
and Eddie Harwell.
Thank you to all our loyal sponsors: Mr. Sink at Universal School of Martial Arts, Thrivent Financial for
Lutherans – Yadkin River Chapter, Child Safety Council, and our very first
sponsor Neise’s Greases-Amsoil! Thank you Gary, Fred & Kathleen! Hurry back Alex!
We’re off to upstate New York!
Lowe’s Motor Speedway, Quaker Steak & Lube Summer Shootout Round 4 7/1/2008:
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Damage report from last week:
There was some front bumper damage; we merely straightened the bent tab. The front & rear alignment was out of
whack from the hit from #91 Ronnie Laney on the right side; Gary & I re-aligned the car. We also blead the clutch
Last night Lowe's Motor Speedway 7/1/2008:
Big Crowd for Fireworks! Largest of the season. Seven full sections open on the Big Track frnt stretch. At $7,
a great family value.
Our first full crew of the season for last night: Gray Pellet our Crew Chief, Fred Neise of Neise's Greases
Amsoil Racing-handling driver support duties, Alex, our 14 year old son back from Scout Camp, handling
timing & scoring, & Kathleen, handling crew feeding, and parts running & driver encouragement.
It was cool tonight, only 82F.
At sign in, we drew a middle of the pack#179. We’d line up in the 1st Master's heat starting 5th, inside third
row of 10 cars. The Heat race transfers the top six cars to the Feature. If we didn't make the cutoff, we'd be
in the B Feature and the top ten from it would go to the Feature. There were 30 Master’s tonight.
In the Driver’s meeting, the whole group got yelled at: 6 flips last week (lay off the free energy drinks, maybe!) and
7 Disqualifications (DQs). Also, Cotton Spry #16 Master’s Champion is in the hospital with medical problems.
We signed a car hood to be given to him. Keep him in your prayers. Lonnie Krouse of Motorsports Outreach
gave the invocation.
Before the Heat Race, Gary set the magic tire pressures for our short 8 lap sprint. We would start the
Heat in 5th,
behind the #96 of Stephen Carter. We were starting in front of the #14 of John Sossoman.
Fred spoke with him,
he’d take it easy because we had a slower car in front. When the GREEN! Dropped, I was early on the
shift into 3rd gear due to what happened last week. I wanted to make sure the car was going to
shift or get out of the way if it didn’t. The front four cars pulled away. Going through Turns 1 & 2,
we quickly caught up and started passing the outside row of cars. Completing the 1st lap, we were
in 4th, about to take 3rd from #1 of Tom Van Wingerden.
We passed Tom cleanly going into Turn 1, were 3rd behind #24 of Will Cagle and the #96.
Going into Turn 1 of the third lap, #14 bumped me and I hit the #96. Then the car got real loose
(back end wants to spin out) on braking. It must have looked like I was swatting flies in the cockpit
as I tried to save it. It swerved and I caught it three times
through Turns 1 & 2. Nobody hit us, but the #14, #1 and #32 of Todd Johnson (son-in-law to
Tom Van Wingerden)
got by. We’re back to 6th.
I was able to run the #32 back down, but could not get off the corners, rear tires were not sticking to the track to
make a pass. So that’s how we finished in 6th, the #0 of Todd Adams not able to pass us. No B Feature for us
this week! Also we set a new lap record for ourselves on the 5th lap. Track was cool and fast, just too loose for us.
Alex & Fred changed the bumpers out, as both had really bent attachment tabs.
Kathleen got the lineup for the A Feature. We’d be in 16th, outside row behind the #57 of Scottie Nagle.
I hadn’t raced the #57 before, so was unsure of how fast he was. The #6 of Jeff Turner was the only fast car starting
behind us. All of the good drivers were out in front. I was really hoping not to get run over or left behind.
In the Pro race before ours, someone broke an oil line and made a mess of the track. Gary corrected tire pressures
for the start.
We were great on the GREEN! as the shifter was fine again. We hung in on the top groove passing cars.
Starting the third lap, we managed to get to the inside lane and quickly disposed of the #57. The car had been
real good on the outside line, I was impressed. Starting the fourth lap, we got loose going into Turn 1.
Slid sideways all the way around 1 &2! I made a cockpit adjustment, one click to the front on the brake bias
calmed down the rear brake lockup. We were hunting down cars now, passed the #7 cleanly. Next up the #96,
got him easily too.
Big wreck in the middle of backstretch, YELLOW! YELLOW! came the call on the RaceCeiver from the Tower.
The #88.1 of Eddie Harwell was nosed into the backstretch wall, the #99 of Chuck Dohm was into his
passenger’s side door and the #33 of David Denham had rear ended the #99. Lap 10, mid way point of
the race. If they clean it up quickly, we can get the whole race in. This was the first incident of the race,
as I had seen no other problems thus far.
I counted we’re in 11th; I’m pretty sure the leader haven’t lapped anyone yet. The #3 of Phil Sharp is leading
with #29 of Clay Hair, last week’s winner, in second. I’m going to go to the outside on the CHOOSE, because
we’d been good up there earlier.
We restart in 10th. On the GREEN! we head to the outside of Turn 1 three wide and I start passing! We get to
the outside of #24 and race like that for a lap and a half. I can’t quite clear him. This is Will Cagle, a boy hood
hero of mine, winner of 400+ modified races on the dirt in the Northeast & member of the DIRT Hall of Fame.
This is fantastic! I’m surprised my helmet doesn’t split from the smile on my face! Side by side coming out of
Turn 4, I decide I can’t pass him clean this way, so I drop behind him down the front straight. We try to pass
coming out of Turn 2 on the inside, but he chops us going in to Turn 3. He trys an early apex to Turn 3, but his
car won't stick. He slides wide. We drop to inside in 3 & 4, side by side.
Down the front stretch we pass cleanly going into Turn 1. Whoo Hoo! We passed Will Cagle!
Next up is the #22 of Gary Shannon about 10 cars lengths in front. We quickly eat that up and we’re right on
his bumper. He blocked us badly going Turn 1. Stand on the brakes and dive for the inside, we barely missed
him! Close back up down the backstretch into Turn 3 and he does the same thing. This goes on for another lap.
Finally in Turn 4, we nudged him up the track, dive to the inside of the front stretch, then side by side into Turn 1.
He lets me go, as we pass cleanly. Scoreboard says lap 18 and #1 is in 5th. As I come to the line we take the
White flag and can see the #1 up ahead. Can’t make up that distance in one lap. A white car, #5.1 comes out of
nowhere ahead of me in Turn 2. Maybe we need to pass him for 6th? I go to the inside, but he goes down too.
I bump him then sweep to the outside on the backstretch. Tom’s #1 is way ahead as we take the Checkered flag.
We’re either 6th or 7th.
Kathleen estimated a 7th place finish, but when the official results came out we’re 6th. What a great night,
more satisfying than our 5th a couple of weeks ago: That one ended too soon, only 9 Green laps, This one.
we charged to the front, passed one of my heros and finished ten places better than we started. Only got passed
once all night and that was in the Heat race when we nearly spun out.
Thank you to all our loyal sponsors: Mr. Sink at Universal School of Martial Arts,
Thrivent Financial for Lutherans – Yadkin River Chapter, Child Safety Council,
and our very first sponsor Neise’s Greases-Amsoil! Thank you Gary, Fred Alex & Kathleen!
Thrivent Builds - House Dedication - Sunday, June 29th, 3:00pm.
All volunteers & guests are welcome.
We're still in the Top 10 in points (see Page 7):
Lowe’s Motor Speedway, Quaker Steak & Lube Summer Shootout Round 3 6/24/2008:
Damage report from last week:
The rear bumper damage we received under caution broke the welded insert on the left bumper tab.
Alex, who returned from his Beach trip, helped Gary and I work on the car Saturday.
He sprained his ankle the last night at the Beach, so he was hobbling.
That’s a restaurant chain that’s playing off the Quaker State Oil name. Their logo is similar too.
Also, in racing, the term Hooked Up means the car has good grip (traction) with the race track.
The driver can pass cars without slipping and sliding.
Last night Lowe's Motor Speedway 6/24/2008: NOT HOOKED UP!
Our crew for last night: Gray Pellet our Crew Chief returning for his first race this season (as it turns out,
we really needed him); Fred Neise of Neise's Greases Amsoil Racing- handling driver support duties,
& Kathleen handling crew feeding, timing & scoring and parts running. Alex is up at Scout Camp
at Raven Knob this week.
At sign in, Kathleen told the lady to draw number 75 and the number 74 popped up!
We’d line up 2nd in the 1st Master's heat starting outside pole of 10 cars. The Heat race transfers the top
six cars to the Feature. If we didn't make the cutoff, we'd be in the B Feature and the top ten from it would
go to the Feature. There were 30 Master’s tonight.
In the Driver’s meeting, the whole Master’s class got yelled at: In the B Feature,
even though everyone was going to transfer
to the A Feature, they managed to wreck 3 cars on the last lap. Then the A Feature only went 9 laps
because of big wrecks!
Gary set the magic tire pressures for our short 8 lap sprint.
We would start the Heat in 2nd, outside of the #16 of Cotton Spry, last week’s 2nd place finisher.
When the GREEN! dropped, we fired, right with Cotton until we hit the front stretch and I attempted to
grab 3rd gear. But nothing happened! I pulled again on the shifter, nothing. The engine was screaming,
bouncing off the rev-limiter.
Everyone behind, managed to miss us. The transmission would not go from 2nd to 3rd gear.
The shifter at this point was just flopping in the car. I made one lap and pulled to the pits off Turn 3.
I thought a nut had fallen off the shifter linkage, and we could easily repair it for the B Feature.
The Crew was running back to the pits, as I yelled “Shifter broke!!” They pulled off the front body work and
grabbed wrenches.
All of the parts were still present on the car, but the shift adaptor had stripped its splines.
We tried to tighten it back on the transmission shaft, but on the first test it came loose again.
Gary managed to get the old piece off (it was uncooperative: not only didn’t want to do its job,
it didn’t want to be replaced!).
Kathleen & Gary ran to the parts truck for a new one, $15! The new part was steel to my aluminum one.
The parts guys told them “Oh, these break all the time!” Ours has made it since 2001, so I guess it was time!
We hurriedly got the car back together, and headed for the B Feature line up. We’d be starting 7th of 12 cars.
Ten cars would advance to the A Feature. Just as we were ready to go, they announced the
Master’s B Feature was canceled – unnecessary due to only 28 total running cars.
So, we went back to the pits waiting for the A Feature starting lineup to be posted.
I tested the shifter on the way back and it seemed to work, 1st, 2nd & 3rd gears.
We’d be in 25th starting position, right behind the red #9 of Carlos “Mercury” Moore.
We were awful the GREEN! as the transmission was balking again and didn’t want to go to 3rd gear.
Going down the backstretch, we were falling to last, but managing to keep up in 2nd gear.
We made a full lap and a half, when it finally shifted to into 3rd!
Now we’re cooking!
We quickly caught up to the back of the pack and started passing.
First was the blue and flames #141-got him on the inside into Turn 1.
Next up, the #00 of Chip Ferguson. I tried him at both ends of the track and he blocked me on the inside badly.
So we went around him on the outside of him in Turns 1 & 2, power move!
We’re closing in on the pack ahead, when #1 Tom Van Wingerden spins coming out of Turn 2 to the inside.
We sweep to the outside to go around, no caution on Lap 7. We’re catching cars and passing them,
not a lot of dicing. Until we get to the #91 of Ronnie Laney. He’s blocking us on the inside like the #00.
But we get a great run down the front stretch (we have a motor!) down inside going into Turn 1.
He tried to turn in, but we already have the position. He bangs off our right side wheels and slides up the track!
We catch up to the next pack and #53 of Bruce Silver. It takes a little longer to set up the #53,
but I get a great run out of Turn 2 down the back stretch, and we pass cleanly. We’re fast even in traffic!
Coming into Turn 4, we’re behind the #0 of Todd Adams (I think) and #22 of Dr Gary Shannon.
The #22 spins, very slowly. The #0 almost stops, so we head to the outside, right into the path of the
spinning #22. I put the outside wheels in the grass, missing the barrels and the #22! YELLOW!
We got passed by a bunch of cars while I was busy dodging the #22 & #0.
But we get our place back in line because the field is frozen at the Yellow flag.
It’s lap 18 and we’re way back, maybe 15th position. On the CHOOSE for the restart, I make a boneheaded
decision to stay on the inside and get passed by most of the cars I had been battling.
We’re almost at the rear of the field again with two to go. GREEN! we get a good restart, shifter OK.
We have to pass the #53 again, get him on the inside coming out of Turn 2.
White Flag! I’m chasing down the pack in front as hard as I could. Heading into Turn 3 of the last lap,
we go to the outside of #96 Stephen Carter. Our motor pulls hard on the drag race to the Checkered,
and we get him by half a car, per Gary. It looked closer in the cockpit! I was leaning as far forward
in the seat to get the car to accelerate, and it did!
Kathleen estimated a 20th place finish, but when the official results came out we’re 17th.
Not terrible for starting 25, going back to 28th and coming back. The car rolled onto the trailer, so all in all
a good night.
Too bad we wasted a good draw number for a $15 part!
Thank you to all our loyal sponsors: Mr. Sink at Universal School of Martial Arts,
Thrivent Financial for Lutherans – Yadkin River Chapter, Child Safety Council, and our very first sponsor
Neise’s Greases-Amsoil!
Lowe’s Motor Speedway, Quaker Steak & Lube Summer Shootout Round 2 6/17/2008:
Damage report from last week:
New Fiberglass nose - Alex spray painted the new nose and did a great job while I was at work.
New Oil Cooler Fan
Replace Front & Rear Bumpers
Replace Right Front Fender
Repair grill bars
Attempt to straighten oil cooler – it’s ugly but doesn’t leak!
Alex is going to miss the next two weeks: this week he's going to the Beach with St. Johns Youth Group and
next week he'll be at Scout Camp. He said we should not win without him; he wants to see it, since I have a
planned celebration. We're going to be shorthanded!
Last night Lowe's Motor Speedway 6/17/2008: HOOKED UP!
Our crew for last night was Fred Neise of Neise's Greases Amsoil Racing- handling crew chief duties, &
Kathleen handling crew feeding, timing & scoring. Gray Pellet, our normal crew chief has been working some
crazy hours, and was not able to make the race again.
At sign in, I drew a fantastic #69 to line up the 8 lap Heat races. We’re in the 2nd Master's heat starting outside
pole of 11 cars. The Heat race transfers the top six cars to the Feature. If we didn't make the cutoff, we'd be in the
B Feature and the top ten from it would go to the Feature. There were 33 Master’s tonight.
Nothing exciting at the Driver’s meeting, other than our new spec fuel was available & required each week:
Sunoco 260GTX 98 Unleaded racing fuel @ 6.80 a Gallon. Lonnie Krouse of Motorsports Outreach was present
again but someone else did the invocation- “Watch over us, Lord!”
They told us they’d be making an adjustment with the pace car: instead of it making a U-turn in Turn four to get out
of the way of the field, it would go straight off in Turn 3 instead. The old way gave a huge advantage to the inside
row, because the 2nd place car had to wait on the pace car to clear. The new way, the pole sitter would control the
start to the Green, with 2nd place given a fighting chance!
Last week’s Heat race, we were just barely hanging on, so Fred adjusted tire pressures for this short 8 lap sprint.
We started the Heat in 2nd, outside of Jon Sossoman, last week’s winner. When the GREEN! Dropped, we fired,
right with John’s #14. But outside is not the place to be this season. The #3 of Phil Sharp & #24 of Will Cagle got
around me on the 1st lap. We settled into 4th place. We had Clair Hair’s teammate,Charles Kiser in the #28 right
behind. Our top four cars started pulling away. Cagle was getting loose in front of me as I was on his rear bumper.
Just as I was starting to make a run at Cagle, he clipped the grass on the inside of Turn 2. I checked up for a
second when I thought he was going to lose it. Then the White and Checkered flags came out just as I closed back
up. We finished 4th. No B Feature for us! The car was fast and handling great. A few more laps and we would have
had Cagle.
Fred & I made one small change to tire pressures to keep the car consistent for the Feature. We’d be starting 11th,
on the inside of the 6th row, behind the #29 of multi-National Champion Clay Hair. On the grid I was able to
apologize to #7 Jan Ingram for taking him out last week. He said he didn’t have a clue who had hit him. He’d have to
wait to see it on TV in November to figure out who to be mad at. He was OK with it and didn’t take a swing at me!
We shook hands and I wished him luck.
We were great on the GREEN! again, passing Eddie Harwell in the #88.1 and #1 Tom Van Wingerden on the inside.
Three laps later we had our first caution, spin in turn 4 which we dodge on the inside by taking to the grass. On the
double file restart we CHOOSE the outside line, we were 8th place. Again I found the outside is not the place to be as
it took a while to get to the inside lane again. Coming into Turn 2, Clay Hair is sitting sideways on the track. The car in
front of me split to the outside of him, I went to the inside. He’s rolling towards me! We clipped the grass, and Clay
stopped and we missed him by inches. Yellow again on Lap 6.
We’re lined up in 8th, so really we had lost one position on the CHOOSE, because Clay had been in front of us. This
time on the CHOOSE, we stay on the inside following the #7 of Jan Ingram. I really want to race Jan clean after last
week. On the GREEN! we jump right to his back bumper and follow through Turns 1 and 2, passing the #1 and #28.
In Turn 3, I make a late apex into Turn 4, swoop down low under Jan coming onto the front straight. We’re side by side
past the Starter’s stand and into Turn 1. I have the inside, so he gives way. So smooth, so clean, so HOOKED UP!
That’s racin’!
We’re up behind the #03 of Bobby Pence. Coming down the backstretch, there’s a big one. The #3 is high in the air
backwards, another car underneath him and lot of sparks. They land in the new flower bed in the infield grass. Race
is red flagged to clean up the mess. We’re up to 5th! We Choose the inside lane again and on the restart another
melee!. That lap won’t count. Time is running out (We get 20 laps or 15 minutes whichever comes first), so single file
restarts from here out. I don’t mind. I’m up to 5th.
On the next GREEN! we hang with the leaders. #16 Cotton Spry is in the lead with #14 right behind. They’re bumping
in Turn 2, down the back stretch and again in Turn 3. Cotton got shoved wide off Turn 4 slid all the way down to the
bottom of the front stretch and we’re closing on him fast. Then he turns right taking a swipe at the #14. The #24 gets
between them heading to what turns out to be the Checkered! The #16 is still mad, swerving at the #14, who stops
directly in front of me at the Start/Finish. The race is over? I’m confused, as I heard nothing over the RaceCeiver.
Pulling off the track, we’re waved to Tech as one of the Top 5. I was disappointed, if we’d had more green flag laps
and we could have got them all! John & Cotton were pushing & shoving, then suddenly shook hands, it was over and
done with. Hardest hit we got all night was lining up for the last re-start: the Tower ordered us to stop on the backstretch.
Myself and the 4 cars in front did, but the one behind me didn't! Broke the left rear bumper's tab.
I had to wait a long time for Kathleen and Fred, as they were cheering in the stands and forgot about having to go
through Tech! The officials were going to be checking batteries for size & weight and front spindles. We’d need some
wrenches and a jack for the front of the car. Fred had already left for the jack and I made the sprint back for wrenches.
Our pit is a long way from the Tech Garage. Poor Fred was wore out! Come back Alex!
We passed Tech with flying colors and got to keep our 5th place trophy. The photographer took our picture for the
Speedway: me, John & Will Cagle. 3rd & 4th Cotton & Bobby had left.
We whooped it up back at our pit and took lots of pictures for the website. We’re off to the best start of a season for us
ever a 9th and a 5th! We set a personal best lap time in Heat and the Feature.
From 11th to 5th in only 9 Green flag laps - wow!
HOOKED UP! Thank you Lord Jesus!
Thank you to all our loyal sponsors: Mr. Sink at Universal School of Martial Arts,
Thrivent Financial for Lutherans – Yadkin River Chapter, Child Safety Council, and our very first sponsor
Neise’s Greases-Amsoil!
Thank you Fred & Kathleen!
Linup for the Heat Race:
Line up for the Feature Race:
Feature Finish Order:
In the Tech Garage with Scott Reinhardt (John Sosoman's #14):
Pulling the battery for Tech:
Spoils of Victory - 5th place!
The 2008 Quaker Steak & Lube Summer Shootout Season has begun!
We've practiced the four Saturday mornings at Bowman Gray. One word about the new engine, FAST! The last
session of last week with new race tires, we were .1 better than the prior week over all, and the best of the
other Legends practicing.
Last night Lowe's Motor Speedway 6/10/2008: Graduation, HOT, Fast and busted noses!
Alex graduated from 8th Grade at Paisley in the morning then we headed to the race track, talk about two days
in one!
HOT! We’re in the middle a week long heat wave. We saw 101F in the trailer before the start of our Heat race
(we took that name literally!). Our crew for last night was Fred Neise of Neise's Greases Amsoil Racing-
handling crew chief duties, Kathleen & Alex handling timing & scoring. Gray Pellet, our normal crew chief has
been working some crazy hours, and not able to make the race. We have an actual garage stall this year #24
in the Nationwide garage. This was much cooler than on the black top and a flat surface for setting up the car.
Saw lots of old friends and new faces at the driver’s meeting. We’re back to running 28 car fields for the Feature
(from 24 in ’06 when we last raced). Roger Slack, who is the Events Director for all of Lowe’s Motor Speedway’s
events, spoke first. Roger asked those who thought they were moving to NASCAR Sprint Cup series & this was
a proven method to Cup to raise their hands. About half of the room (all the young gun racers) raised theirs.
Then he asked, who's here to have fun, I raised mine with the other half. Roger then said, "You in the first group
don't screw up the second half's Fun!". Roger also pointed out this is the 15th year of the Shootout: The biggest
Weekly races series in both attendance & race cars. It is the only weekly race series televised and will be on
SPEED again this year. We’ll be racing with Sunoco Race fuel ($6.50/ gal) as our spec fuel. Coke is
sponsoring most of the Classes and will be adding $1500 to the winner’s payout for the championship of each
class. We put on our new Coke Classic Master’s class decals. We have a new Race Director, Shamus Curley
from Thunderoad Speedway in Vermont. Lonnie Krouse of Motorsports Outreach was there, but did not give
the invocation, someone else filled in.
We met Chad Little, former NASCAR Cup driver in the garage area. He had rented our pit spot last year since
we didn't race. He was kind of sorry to see us return, "You've got the best pit location! We loved it last year."
He's the crew chief on his son's Bandolero race car.
At sign in, I drew a horrendous #284 to line up the 8 lap Heat races. I'm in the third Master's heat starting 7th of ten
cars (some people had a worse draw – or showed up late!). I’d be starting behind Cotton Spry (’06 he wrecked
me the week of 4th of July) in his blue & yellow #16. The Heat race transfers the top six cars to the Feature. If we
didn't make the cutoff, we'd be in the B Feature and the top ten from it would go to the Feature. I was wound up!
Hadn’t raced in almost 2 years, but Kathleen calmed me down.
We took a few warm up laps and my heart was pounding through my chest, GREEN! I was a little slow at jump of
the green flag, a little rusty. The #6 of Jeff Turner pulled away from me on the outside and dropped to the inside
lane going into Turn 1. We’re 8th. I was just barley holding on to the pack, trying too hard and getting loose off the
corners. At lap 4, I took a look under the #6, got loose under braking going into Turn 3 and the #01 passed me
when I slid wide. Back to 9th. My tongue was hanging out as we followed in that order, keeping up but not able to
pass. And then the Checkered flew and we were done! I thought we were going to be in the B Feature. As we pulled in
the pits, there was Cotton’s car with it’s right front suspension broken. I hadn’t seen him go off, concentrating on
the car ahead of me during the race. Later he told me that the upper ball joint broke and he went off through the
barrels in Turn 3 and right to the pits. When Kathleen & Alex checked the results, we were 7th and there would be
not be a B Feature. All 29 surviving cars (the #133 from our race didn’t make it) would start the Feature. We’d be
starting 21st. Our new earphone speakers worked great with the RaceCeiver so we can hear the tower fine from
inside the car.
Cooling off with two ice packs in my driver's suit!, Fred & I made one small change to the car to correct the loose
off condition. We’d be starting on the inside of the 11th row, behind the #9 of Carlos “Mercury” Moore. I had on
my Thrivent Build T-Shirt in honor of our new Thrivent Financial for Lutherans sponsorship. Carlos noticed and
asked where we were building a house; he had been the Habitat for Humanity specialist for Cabarrus County.
Such a small world!
I was able to talk to Will Cagle a former dirt modified champion with over 400 wins in the ‘60s ’70s & ‘80s. He
said these cars were trickier to drive than his old modified!
We were much better on the start of Feature and passed the #21 of Bill Gardner on the inside. The #24 of Will
Cagle starting on the outside of the front row, spun in Turn 1, no yellow. Coming out of two, I could tell the car
was much faster, we could hang the inside, fast line. Lap 4, yellow for a spin in Turn 3, dodged one on the
outside than another on the inside. We were up to 14th. On restarts we line up double file, and get to CHOOSE
which line we want to start in, inside our outside. We were 21st CHOOSING to stay on the inside while cars
behind us moved up by CHOOSING the outside. I saw that Cotton had moved way up by CHOOSING the outside.
I could tell at this point the inside was the fast choice. On the GREEN! We jumped ahead of the outside row and
passed two cars. I bumped a black & copper car. Then I got hit from behind ,which shot me into the car again,
he spun, no yellow. The #00 was behind us but fell back, so we had no challenger. I was following a pack of four
cars, trying to get inside the #03 of Bobby Pence who was smoking. I would start to get a wheel inside and he’d
come down for the turn. We ran this way until the 18th lap when the yellow came out when the #41 of Jim Gurley
spun. On the CHOOSE, we were up to 15th staying to the inside line. Cars were getting black flagged for jumping
the CHOOSE, so we were moving up. I was right behind the #7 of Jan Ingram. We got a great jump on the re-start
and was right on Jan’s bumper with a lap and a half to go. All of the outside lane cars fell back; we were surging to
the front! Going into Turn 3, my brake pedal went to the floor and I smacked Jan’s bumper. He saved it as I checked
up, but then I got hit from behind, and again I spun another car, this time Jan! Yellow came out and it would be a two
lap shootout, as that lap didn't count. I was 10th going into the CHOOSE and again picked the inside. More cars
were black flagged for jumping the CHOOSE. I was behind the #99 of Chuck Dohm. On the GREEN! I had the #24
of Will Cagle behind. I chopped him off bad going into Turn 3, but he never touched me. I wanted to hang on for one
more lap! We completed the last lap in that order and I thought I counted 10th.
Checking the official results, Kathleen found we were 9th. What a great night from 21st to 9th in 20 laps. Our 12th
lap was the fastest we’ve ever gone at Lowes and even in traffic we were faster than we’ve been in the past.
Then I got out of the car and saw that we used up the front end to do it. The fiberglass grill nose & right front fender
are busted. The front bumper pushed back into the grill which shoved the oil cooler back into the engine. The oil
cooler fan is not working, which explains the 300F I saw on the oil temps at the end of the race. Also the back
bumper is beat into the frame rails. The front brakes were smoking. We’ve got lots of work to do this week!
The 1st pic on this one is the start of our Master's race; we're on the inside, 4th row from the back
Our new Summer Home:
Modified Legend Will Cagle:
Fred & Bruce confering before the Race:
Post Feature when I thought we were 10th - notice the damage!
Our Twisted Oil Cooler:No Leaks! Setrab Coolers are tough!
6/6/2008:Queue the music; "Let's go racin' boys". Its time for the 2008 Summer Shootout season to begin!
Racing Season is upon us!
We've practiced 3 Saturdays on Bowman Gray Stadium's 1/4 mile. We've broken in the new race motor and tires. We're fast!
According to Legends Nations, there are 183 cars registered for the Shootout at Lowes Motor Speedway this year We'll be proudly displaying our sponsors: Thrivent Financial for Lutherans - Yadkin River Chapter, Universal School of Marshal Arts, Child Safety Council & Neises Greases Amsoil Racing.
Our racing Schedule this year:
6/10 Tuesday Lowe's Summer Shootout
6/17 Tuesday Lowe's Summer Shootout
6/24 Tuesday Lowe's Summer Shootout
7/1 Tuesday Lowe's Summer Shootout
7/8 Tuesday Lowe's Summer Shootout
7/15 Tuesday Lowe's Summer Shootout
7/22 Tuesday Lowe's Summer Shootout
7/29 Tuesday Lowe's Summer Shootout
8/1 Friday Bowman Gray Stadium
8/5 Tuesday Lowe's Summer Shootout
8/12 Tuesday Lowe's Summer Shootout
Getting ready for 2008 season:
First practice at Bowman Gray Stadium:
The rebuilt engine is back in the car (New & improved driver's seat with headrest & sholder supports):
Here's some pics from our Daytona 500 benefit for the Child Safety Council:
We're throwing a party for the Daytona 500 to help raise money for The Child Safety Council!
The North Point Grill is donating a portion of the days receipts (2/17/2008) to The Child Safety Council!
Come join us, have a fine dinner, and root for your favorite driver in the Daytona 500!
Help out a fine cause that supplies child safety items such as car seats, bike helmets, and fire escape ladders.
The 15th Annual Lowe's Motor Speedway Summer Shootout begins Tuesday night, June 10th for 10 weeks in 2008. Last week is August 12th.
See you there! http://www.lowesmotorspeedway.com/summershootout/
Results 2007
12/2007
We've working with new and returning sponsors!
New for this year is an organization near and dear to our hearts; Thrivent Financial for Lutherans, Yadkin
River Chapter.
Bruce has been the Records Director for the last 4 years of this start up Chapter. It is the Fraternal side of Thrivent Financial,
a not for profit membership organization, that sponsors national outreach programs and activities.
Its programs enable members to demonstrate their care for others through support of congregations, schools, charitable organizations and individuals in need. Thrivent is working with Habitat for Humanity on a joint build house called Thrivent Builds in Winston-Salem this year. Get your hammers and saws ready!
We're also going to put on some exciting fund raisers for the Child Safety Council. This non-profit organization provides car seats, bike helmets, and fire escape ladders to families in need.
Last year's dead engine will be pulled the weekend of Jan 19-20. Pray for good weather! We'll be delivering the engine to the new in-house engine shop at 600 Racing in Harrisburg, NC (builders of all Legends racecars) the following Monday.
Our plan is to race at the Summer Shootout at Lowes Motor Speedway - Charlotte, Bowman-Gray Stadium - Winston-Salem, & a new to us track, Friendship Motor Speedway in Elkin NC. We visited that track for their final race and the Legends put on a fantastic show!
More progress news and schedule to follow.......
7/18/2007
We're going to be displaying at Hanes Mall again this year in support of the Bowman Gray Legends race. We'll be at Hanes Mall all day Thursday 8/2/2007.
Stop by and see us!
6/9/2007
We practiced again this Saturday at Bowman Gray, in preparation of starting this Tuesday at the Summer Shootout. We were fast again, but with a sad heart we have bad news to report.
We made the first practice session without problem, but 5 laps into the second session, we started smoking badly.
The engine is terminal and in need of replacement or rebuild. It's blowing oil severely out the breather.
Unfortunately, the family budget has taken too many unexpected expenses this year. We have decided to put racing on hold for 2007. We will regroup and save our pennies to do this right.
We briefly thought about renting a ride, but then our sponsors would get no recognition.
As Gary Pellet our crew chief is fond of saying, 'guys like us either have money or time, but not both'. Well, at this point we have neither.
So we'd like to thank all of you that have supported us through the 5 years we've been racing Legends:
Crew Chief Gary Pellet, has been with us since the beginning 2001 when we picked up the used car from 600Racing in his go-kart trailer. Just barely fit! Thanks Gary! (Donna, too, for letting him!)
Long time sponsor and crew-member Fred Neise of Neise's Greases is our Amsoil Racing oil sponsor. Fred just had gallbladder surgery Friday. I talked to him today, and he's ok, but they are keeping him in the hospital another day because of some pain he's having. Please keep him in your prayers.
Kathleen, my wife, and Alex, my son, without them I would not be here!
Sponsors: Longtime supporter, Mr. Sink was returning with the Universal School of Martial Arts. Alex just earned his Red Belt last week (3 away from Black Belt)
Returning was Scott's Services (paving grading work).
Also returning was G&B Energy (Gas Logs, Propane, & Heating Oil). We displayed the racecar at their Open House near Farmington at the end of March last year. . http://www.gbenergy.com/Thanks to all of our long time supporters, who just like receiving my email updates of the races. And like the Governor of California says, “We’ll be baaaack!”
Since we're not racing, we are available to do more shows with the racecar to promote your business!
Thank you, everyone! 6/4/2007
Finally, racing again! We've practiced the last two Saturdays on Bowman Gray Stadium's 1/4 mile. This last week we broke our personal best time for the Stadium by .06 of a second that we set in 2005.
The car was consistent and fast, even though we are working through some motor issues. Unfortunately, we have been the only Legend car practicing, so we don't know where we stand with the competition yet.
This is our tentative schedule for this year:
6/12/2006 Lowe's Summer Shootout
Miss two weeks for vacation at the Lutheran Women Mission League convention in South Dakota.
7/3/2006 Lowe's Summer Shootout
7/4/2006 Lowe's Summer Shootout
7/10/2006 Lowe's Summer Shootout
7/17/2006 Lowe's Summer Shootout
7/24/2006 Lowe's Summer Shootout
7/31/2006 Lowe's Summer Shootout
8/3/2006 Bowman Gray Stadium
8/7/2006 Lowe's Summer Shootout
6/2007
We're getting ready for the new Season. Stop by to see our schedule and what we're up to!
The Lowe's Motor Speedway Summer Shootout Series starts Tuesday, June 12th thru Tuesday August 7th.
We're also going to get a race in at Winston-Salem's Bowman Gray Stadium on Friday August 3rd. We're going to be practicing at Bowman Gray most Saturday mornings from 10:00 until 12:00.
Results 2006
The 13th Annual ('06) Summer Shootout to air on SPEED-TV The 13th Annual (2006) Summer Shootout will air on SPEED TV beginning Sunday, December 10th at noon (EST).
Subsequent rounds are slated for:
Sunday 12/17 noon (EST)
Sunday 1/7 noon (EST)
Sunday 1/14 noon (EST)
Saturday 1/20 noon (EST)
Saturday 1/27 noon (EST)
Saturday 2/3 noon (EST)
Sunday 2/4 noon (EST)
Sunday 2/11 noon (EST)
Saturday 2/17 2:00pm (EST)
Replays will be shown: All Times EST
2005 ratings show over 900,000 viewers for the 10 week series!
In the Summer Shootout points, we moved up one place after the last race, to Finished 13th, 59 out of 10th, of 38 total drivers.
http://www.600racing.com/PDFs/2006SummerShootoutPoints.pdf
In the National Master's class, Asphalt, we finished 217th out of 464 total drivers.
http://www.600racing.com/points_standings.aspx. Clay Hair tied with Terry Plummer of Colorado.
Round 9 pics: http://www.lowesmotorspeedway.com/news_photos/photo_gallery/sf4852.html That is the #5 at the back of the photo showing the Black #29 leading.
Round #10 pics: http://www.lowesmotorspeedway.com/news_photos/photo_gallery/sf4862.html
From Speed51.com:
http://speed51.com/2006stories/Summer_shootout/week9_report.html See Clay's new son.
http://speed51.com/2006stories/Summer_shootout/week10_report.html
MCA 30th in Birmingham trip
As many of you may know, my daily car is a '95 Mustang GT we purchased new in the fall of 1994. It's been on a bunch of racetracks, (Farmington Dragway, Atlanta Motor Speedway road course, Summit Point road course, Charlotte Motor Speedway road course, Virginia Motorsports Park dragstrip, & Atlanta Dragway) but none lately.
Until Labor Day weekend 2006.
The Mustang Club of America was celebrating it's 30th Anniversary at BarberMotorsportsPark (2.3 mile road course) near Birmingham Alabama.
We unloaded the racetrailer of Legend racecar and all of it's associated parts and tools. Then loaded up with Mustang.
Alex earned his purple belt in karate at Universal School of Martial Arts the night before we left. He's now half way to being a black-belt!
We towed to Alabama, camped in the racetrack and spent two days driving the Mustang around the track at speeds not to exceed 100MPH for it's class (it lacked a roll cage to move up to the top class).
Our sponsor's logos were proudly displayed about the South-East, as we took two different routes to and from Alabama.
BarberMotorsportsPark is a beautiful track built in 2003. It is a rolling majestic track, & safe with plenty of run off room.
We saw more Mustangs in one place than Kathleen wanted to see. Alex can now tell the diferance between the new Ford GT and a real Ford GT40. He also can tell the difference between a Roush and Saleen Mustangs. He has his eye on a classic Cobra Daytona Coupe. We didn't see every Mustang on display, but we made a huge dent. Plus there's nothing better than 20-30 Mustangs, Ford GTs, & Cobras on a racetrack at full song!
Summer Shootout Round X: 08/08/2006
Sorry this is so late! We left on vacation to upstate NY the Thursday morning after the race. We were visiting Kathleen’s sister’s family in Trumansburg. We traveled in the Great White Whale (our transporter RV) with Grandma & Grandpa Cleary. We dropped the race car trailer and got the RV ready for travel on Wednesday.
Also check out our website: http://www.kb-promotions.net/
Points: We dropped to 14th in points after last week's disappointing 20th place. 14th out of 38 drivers. That puts us 87 points behind 10th place #15 John Barilka.
Last week: Alex & I got sick as dogs end of last week. We ended up missing the Friday Bowman Gray race. I guess we got sick because we were missing crewman Fred, who spent the weekend in Chicago for a wedding. We left the car the same way it rolled onto the trailer last Tuesday. Alex is staying with Grandma & Grandpa this week, trying to shake his flue bug. Doctor thinks Alex may have “mono”!
Final Night Race X! 08/08/2006:
Weather: Cooler overcast and a few raindrops on the way down to the track.
Draw: Since Alex isn't with us this week (Get well soon, we miss you!), Kathleen did the honors, which earned her a new job with the team. She drew the second best number in the Master's division, a #23. We'd be starting the second Heat on the Pole!
Driver's Meeting: Roger Slack and crew announced the Speed51.com most popular Driver awards: Cotton Spry won the Legend’s Driver. http://speed51.com/2006stories/Specials/MPD06_SummerShootout.html
Also announced was the attendance: A brand new attendance record was set for the season with the twin Independence day races. They would do the same again next year.
Lonnie Krause, MotorRacing0utreach Chaplin, John 14:1, “Do not let your hearts be troubled. Trust in God, trust also in me.” Lonnie’s point: Don’t worry about a thing, always trust in Jesus!
Crowd: Huge! The biggest one of the season, passing either of the July 4th races.
Heat Race: We’re starting on the pole for a ten car race. Starting on the pole is a big deal. The better we finish the better starting position we earn for the Feature. In overcast with threatening rain, we lined up for the Heat race. We got a great start at the drop of the green flag and out-dragged the #6 to the first turn (Gary thought almost too good!). As we pulled down going in to turn one, I could see in my mirrors that Brian Weimer in the #40 was trying to pass us low into turn one. I made the turn in and waited for the bump from behind. He missed us and dropped in behind. We’re leading down the backstretch until they all wrecked behind us and brought out the caution. It will be a complete new re-start. Booo!
I ended up in 4th gear for the new start and really bogged down. Most of the field passed me as we got shoved to the outside lane. We ran everyone back down but only managed a 5th place finish. This would give us a 14th place starting position for the feature. There would be no B feature as there were only 28 cars starting tonight.
Feature: Between the Heat Race & feature we feasted on Kathleen's Hamburgers & Hotdogs. Gary spoke to one of the Carburetor gurus at the Track and Jim offered to let us try one of his carb setups for the Feature. We were game. Jim & Gary & Fred swapped the carbs while I chilled out. The new carb set up would make it easier to drive off the corners without spinning the back wheels. That was the theory anyway.
At the drop of the green flag, we got a decent start (I remembered my shifting problem from the Heat race). Since we started in 14th on the outside row, we stayed there and passed cars slowing for the inevitable traffic jam on the inside. We were hanging in there and passing cars until the fifth lap, when the #17 and #21 got together and brought out the yellow. If I counted right, we where up to 8th already. For the re-start, I CHOOSE the outside. I can see the front from here!
On the start, again we hang in on the outside. We passed two cars, but then after another couple of laps, the inside lane is faster. We get passed again. We finally get an opening to drop to the inside lane. I’m noticing an engine flutter half way down the straights. It’s not really slowing us down, but it’s not helping. We’re good coming off the corners, just like Jim thought we would.
We’re chasing down the #6 again. We get to his bumper on lap 15, when the caution comes out again. This time for a spin by the #44 and #1. We’re back to 14th for the restart. We’re re-starting on the outside again, but the inside lane clears quickly going into turn one. We drop to the inside behind the red #69. We get a real good run coming out of turn two. We slip in side the #69, side by side down the backstretch. I’m slightly ahead going into turn three. But he hangs with us on the outside. We’re side by side down the front stretch too! We’re still even going into turn one. Coming out of turn two, we inch out about a quarter car length. That’s not enough lead to clear the #69 yet. He’s driving us hard, keeping us pinned down to a tight, slow line. Going into turn three, we have maybe half a car length lead. He comes back on the outside to pull even. Then coming out of turn four, I’m able to ease into the throttle just a touch sooner and power past him coming down the front stretch. Almost two laps side by side, EEEEHAW this is fun! There’s the #6 in front. We start to run him down again when the white flag comes out. We close up coming out of turn two, getting a great shot down the back side. We’re on his bumper going into turn three. If we can get a good run off turn four, we’ll beat him to the finish line. Coming off turn four, he accelerates just before us. He beats us to the finish by a car length! Whew, what a finish. I’m exhausted! We made a full race, 20 laps for the first time in a real long time (yeah, last week!).
Back in the pits, the only damage is a mangled rear bumper; I don’t even remember that happening! Jim took back his magic carbs; $300 if we want to buy them! We finished in 13th.
We’ve had a wonderful, adventurous summer. We completed all 10 races of the Summer Shootout, which is an accomplishment. Too bad we missed Bowman Gray with the flue. I didn’t move for 3 days! We called the doctor in NY, and Alex does not have mono! We’re all just tired and in need of a vacation. Fortunately we had that seeing the Cleary’s in NY!
http://www.lowesmotorspeedway.com/news_photos/press_releases/510736.html
Vote for your favorite Legends Driver at: http://www.speed51.com/2006stories/Specials/MPD06_SummerShootout.html
Vote for Charles Kiser in Semi-Pro, Chris Morgan in Outlaw, and Kendall Sellers in Young Guns
August 4th 2006:
No Bowman Gray tonight
Alex and I both have a flue bug. We won't be able to race at Bowman Gray tonight. I've had something all week. Alex came home from Lego camp last night with 101F fever and throwing up. I didn't sleep much last night.
Sorry for the letdown for our only in town race!
Summer Shootout Round IX: 08/01/2006
Updates from last week:
Round 8 Photos & Story: http://www.lowesmotorspeedway.com/news_photos/photo_gallery/sf4848.html
Our #5 is in a photo in link above. Toward bottom of page, the #29 & #16 are battling into Turn One. We're at the back of that photo, just coming onto the front stretch.
http://speed51.com/2006stories/Summer_shootout/week8_report.html
Points: We're still in 13th place out of 37 drivers. That puts us 69 points behind 10th place #88 Eddie Harwell.
Last week: Bought a new Right Rear tire from our tire cutter Ole Dawg, Mike Smith in Suffolk, VA. He UPS shipped it in one day.
It’s going to be a busy week: 3 races in eight days. Shootout on Tuesday, Bowman Gray on Friday, and last Shootout race next Tuesday. We practiced this Saturday at Bowman Gray and made 40 laps during practice. There was a big turnout of cars getting ready for the show on Friday. Gary enjoyed a weekend off with his wife in Asheville visiting with his sister and family.
Double Points Night Race IX! 08/01/2006:
Weather: HOT! Fred saw 104F in the trailer about 4:00pm. It was still 103F at 6:55 when our Heat race ended.
Draw: Alex drew a #233 from the bingo machine. This would give us an 8th place start in the second Master’s Heat race.
Driver's Meeting: New route to the grid since last week a errant tire almost hit some folks waiting for their race. Lots of race cars going the wrong way, trying to figure out how to get to the track! The Master’s would not have a B Feature if there were 30 cars or less. Master’s would only get on shot at a double file re-start, after that all single file.
Lonnie Krause, MotorRacing0utreach Chaplin, read 1 Peter 1: “you may have to suffer grief in all kinds of trials. These have come so that your faith-of greater worth than gold-may prove genuine.”
Ephesians 5:2 “and live life of love, just as Christ loved us and gave himself up for us as a fragrant offering and sacrifice to God:.
Crowd: Really large considering the Heat index. And they stayed to the end too!
Heat Race: We’d be starting outside row four in eighth place of ten cars. A new driver in the #188 would be starting inside our blue #5. At the start, we got hung out on the outside. Everyone when down the inside passing us. We managed to close up on the #35 and pass him going into turn three. We’re back up to ninth. We quickly closed on the silver & purple #01. But once we got there, we couldn’t pull off the pass. The whole field was single file, nose to tail. Only the #35 behind us, was dropping back. We were trying every move in the book to get along side the #01, but just didn’t have enough speed. When we took the White flag, the field jammed up going into turn one. I bumped the #01 hard, but not enough for him to loose it. All to soon the checked flag waved and we finished ninth. I was pretty exhausted and the front bumper was flattened.
Feature: There would be no B Feature again tonight, since we had 30 cars. We’d be starting 26th in the 30 car field. I couldn’t even see the front of the field from my vantage point! Clay Hair’s wife had a baby boy last week, Clay Stone Hair. No cigars though since he had to buy a new frame!
We made it to lap 2 this week before the first caution. This happened in turn three when the #03 and the #44 got together. For his part, the #44 was black flagged for rough driving – out of the race! For the re-start, we CHOOSE the outside lane. Kathleen thought we were in 20th. I couldn’t count that high, as I can’t see my toes though my full faced helmet! We ran the outside for several laps on that restart. Then lap5 the #114 got spun in turn two, we missed him on the inside. We lined up again on the CHOOSE restart to the outside, Kathleen had me 17th or 18th. We got a good jump on the green, outside of the #21. We ran about five laps side by side. This was great! Each turn, we would creep a little forward of him. We just didn’t have enough to clear him. Then #01 spun out in front of us. We had to drop in behind the #21. No caution as he kept going. Then #35 slowed down the backstretch and got in our way, heading to the infield. The #8 started smoking, the #16 was smoking also. We were racing hard behind the #21 and #4 . We weren’t loosing anything to the leaders but we just weren’t fast. Pretty soon we had completed 20 laps. Wow, we ran a whole race! Again I couldn’t count all the cars in front of us (I need more fingers!), but I knew we were pretty far back. It looks like we took 20th. We somehow managed to gain 6 places.
The engine got real hot, but the car has no new bumps. Gary has only one bumper to fix; the one from the Heat race.
On to Bowman Gray Stadium on Friday Night!
www.lowesmotorspeedway.com/news_photos/news/510418.html
Summer Shootout Round VIII: 7/25/2006
Updates from last week:
Round 7 Photos & Story: http://www.lowesmotorspeedway.com/news_photos/photo_gallery/sf4844.html
http://speed51.com/2006stories/Summer_shootout/week7_report.html
We're still 13th in points out of 36 drivers, 59 points out of 10th.
Last week Saturday, Fred was visiting family in Atlanta. So, Gary, Alex & I found more damage from last week: the right rear tire was cut on the sidewall and a chunk of tread was missing from it, all the way to the cords! This happened when the #03 was spinning and clipped us. So now we're on a spare tire from 2004. We also made substantial changes to the setup to compensate for the bent frame from 7/11. We're either going to be real good or real bad!
Weather: We drove down in drizzle, but by the time we got to the speedway the rain had cleared. We had a nice sunny day. Merely 90F in the trailer after our Heat race at 6:00pm
Draw: Alex drew a rousing #169, better than last week’s #228 to start the Heat race.
Driver's Meeting: We had received some sad news from our guard friend and confirmed at the dirver’s meeting Cliff Correll, long-time guard at the Speedway had passed away on Monday. He was 84 years old and had been at the Speed way since the earliest days of Fireball Roberts & Ned Jarret in the 1960’s. The family had also lost his sister the prior week. Keep the family in your thoughts.
Lonnie Krause, MotorRacing0utreach Chaplin prayed for the family and had this Bible verse: In John 13 Jesus predicts his betrayal by Judas and Peter’s denial of him. Sandwiched between these bookends in John 13:34-35 “A new command I give you. Love one another. As I have loved you, so must you love one another. By this all men will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another.” Lonnie said that Love is the emotion that motivates our action.
Roger Slack announced that all Master’s would race in the Feature tonight (even though we had 30 cars) instead of sending a few home. At the beginning of the season, all Feature races would only start 24 cars, down from past years 28 starting fields. Bill Gardner #21, came over to apologize for hitting me last week. “Which one?” I asked. “The one under caution” was the reply. I had forgotten that one! He said he was looking at the stands, and hadn’t realized the field had slowed; popped me good. We had no problem and shook his hand.
Crowd: About the same as last week, maybe a little more, even though the temperature was comfortable
Heat Race: We’d be starting 6th of ten cars in the first Master’s Heat race. The way were lined up, I could imagine we’d be in 4th by the first lap. The car on the inside row, #35 , was a newcomer and behind him was the #4 of Jim Gurley. I could visualize the inside row getting bogged down, while the #40 took the lead from the pole, the #7, #15 and our #5 scooting around the outside. And you know what? That’s exactly what happened! We were in 4th by the completion of the first lap. Unfortunately by the second lap, I found we weren’t too good. Our changes from Saturday had gone overboard and now the car was loose everywhere (wanted to spin out). By the third lap the #99 and #1, who’d started ninth & tenth, were knocking on my back door. The #99 bumped me a couple of times. Going into turn one, he slipped to my inside and brought the #1 with him. Back to 6th. I tried driving the car different, but kept losing time to the cars in front. We were better than those behind though, as they were not catching us. All too soon the eight lap race was over. We’d completed the Heart race without a Caution! Wow, we hadn’t done that in several weeks! Gary said we finished right where we ought to. We had a 6th place car speed. Our best lap was two tenths better than anything we had last week, it's just not consistant.
Feature: Gary made an air pressure change and Fred fueled the car. We’re starting in 16th in a 29 car field (the #221 , who was to start last, scratched). The #3 of Phil “Razor” Sharpe who had flipped during the July 4th race was inside us. The #03 of Bobby Pence who sliced our right rear tire last week was behind us. Phil said he wasn’t sore after his flip, but the damage to the car was $1500; and he did all of the labor! Bobby Pence didn’t know I was the last one to hit him last week or my cut tire. He was amazed the tire held air.
The #69 of James Stanton was starting on the pole. I thought this might slow the inside row, and I was right again! We went around the inside row at the drop of the green. We’re in heavy traffic bumping and sliding. Going into the second turn to start lap two, the #32 and #44 got together and spun in front of us. We dodge to the inside and kept going. Down the backstretch came the call “Yellow, Yellow, Yellow!” through my RaceCeiver. One lap down and a Caution! I counted we were up to 14th. We had a full double file restart with only the #32 & 44 going to the back. We restarted to try to complete lap two, but the #8 hit the #7 which lost a wheel in turn two. They slid to the outside as we zipped past. We’re up to 12th (Kathleen had us in 13th, but it’s my story, right?), but we’re still on the first lap! The Officials stopped the field on the front stretch, while they cleaned up the carnage in turns one & two. At one point, Roger Slack came over the RaceCeiver, “Ok guys, were 12 minutes into the race and we’re only on the lap one! Calm down!” Also no more double file restarts this race, as we’ve proved we can’t handle it. At the drop of the green, the #41 scoots underneath and cleanly passes for position. We can run with him, but can’t get on the throttle quick enough to passed him. The car seems more controllable, but not enough to be real fast. We’re outrunning the #21 behind us. On lap seven, another yellow, as the #9, #19, & #03 get together behind us. This is a quick caution. We take the green for the 8th lap in 14th place., single file. It’s a green, white, checker flag finish as we complete only ten laps out of a scheduled 20. I don’t think we’ve completed a whole race since Round Three! We finished a car length back of the #41 in 14th place. This is a reverse of last week when we started 14th and finished 16th. The car doesn’t have any new scratches, and Gary has no new bumper work from this week! Now if we can just find some speed (a new right rear tire), and better luck in the draw!
http://www.lowesmotorspeedway.com/news_photos/news/510252.html
Summer Shootout Round VII: 7/18/2006
Updates from last week:
Round 6 Photos & Story:
http://www.lowesmotorspeedway.com/news_photos/photo_gallery/sf4840.html
http://www.speed51.com/2006stories/Summer_shootout/week6_report.html
I forgot to mention Humpy Wheeler last week. Humpy is the world famous promoter of Lowe's Motor Speedway and the creator of Legends cars back in 1992. While sitting in the grid waiting to go out for the Feature, I got to shake his hand. He patted Fred on the back, so he must be OK!
We're still 13th in points out of 36 drivers, 46 points out of 10th.
Summer Shootout Round VII: 7/18/06
Kathleen & Alex, Grandmap & Grandpa took a quick jump to Winchester, VA to meet Kathleen’s sister Doreen’s family halfway from their upstate New York home.
We spent last week beating the bent frame back into shape. My favorite tool is getting to be the sledge hammer! Then it was a long Saturday getting the setup back to where we thought it needed to be. We believe the car is now in pretty good shape.
Weather: Only 101F in the trailer at 4:00pm. Not near as hot as it was for the two races on the Independence Holiday.
Draw: We’re back to normal, #228! We’ll be our customary back of the pack start.
Driver's Meeting: Lonnie Krause, MotorRacing0utreach Chaplin was back from his Costa Rico trip with the youth. He said it really made the youth appreciate what they had, seeing how these poor refugees live in such rough conditions. Everything was temporary, since the Government may make them leave at any time. In 2nd Corinthians 2:14 Paul writes, “But thanks to God, who always leads us in triumphal procession in Christ and through us spreads everywhere the fragrance of knowledge of Him…… in Christ we speak before God with sincerity, like men sent from God.”
The crowd was good, but not as large as last week. Maybe the heat kept them away.
Heat Race: We were starting 8th in a nine car field for the second Master’s Heat race. We need to get pass two to qualify for the Feature race. At the start, we hung in there on the outside lane. It was like a pace lap at full speed, the field two by two. Then the #44 of Danny Williams made it three wide under the #21 of Bill Gardner who was inside me going into turn three of the second lap. We got squeezed high in turn four and fell back to 9th. We quickly closed on the #21 in turn one. We couldn’t turn down underneath him.
We keep trying underneath but can’t get far enough along side, then he chops us off. The next lap, going into turn one, the #19 of Bruce Little, #69 of James Stanton & #44 got together. We missed all three as they spun the barrels that ring the outside of the track. We’re up to 6th without actually passing. We restart on the outside to begin lap 5 of the eight lap Heat race. We’re following the #21, but he spins off with the #22. No caution and we’re up to 4th; can we hang on? The #44 is closing quickly from behind. We take it easy going into turn one, but he bumps us at the apex of the turn, moving us out of the grove. Going into turn three, we repay the bump, but not enough to move him out of the way. We take the checkered flag in 5th and make the Feature race by passing no one.
Feature: The car wasn’t that good in the Heat race. I didn’t think we were that bad, I was just being patient. We discussed changes over dinner of Subway subs Kathleen prepared (my crew chief did not get hit in the face with any sandwiches! A reference to Greg Biffle‘s commercial!) We made an adjustment to try to cure our loose condition out of turn four. Waiting in the grid for the Feature, Gary started explaining our frame problems to Clair Hair. Clay told us we went the wrong way with our adjustment. Oh well, we’d have to live with it now.
We were starting 14th in the twenty-four car field. This is our best Feature start since the forth week when we started 17th and got wrecked by Cotton Spy. Hopefully we can get a top ten. We’re starting right behind Clay in the black #29.
Coming out of turn four to take the Green flag, I found out how bad the car was. It pushed big time (car wants to go straight even though I’m turning to the left). I have to lift on the throttle to get it to turn without hitting the front stretch wall. The field pulls away. We make up some of it going into turn one on the outside. The inside lane was getting jammed up. We’re on the outside dodging sliding cars. Down the backstretch of lap two, a bunch of cars get together. The #03 of Bobby Pence is side ways sliding down to the infield. Gary later said, “It looked like he tried to hit you twice, I don’t know how you missed him!” Inside the car, it just looked like one continuous motion as I zigged high then gassed it to clear him low. Just as I thought I cleared him, Wump on the right rear and knocked me sideways a little! Either he hit me or I ran over something, as I gunned it away from the crash scene. I hope the right rear is ok, the tire seams to have air. Red Flag on the second lap! This is the kind of race we’ve been having lately. We’ve not had a full 20 lap feature since the first week of the season. Alex timed a 5 minute red flag while they picked up the #15, #8, #03, & #22 cars. More speedy dry would be spread as someone broke an oil cooler or line.
We were up to 12th or 13th by my count. I could see that Clay was up to 9th. We’d be starting on the outside. At the drop of the Green, we got a much better restart and was able to hang with the pack. But we only made one more lap. Coming down the front stretch, SMOKE!, then lots of sparks. “Yellow, Yellow, Yellow!” in my ears from the RaceCeiver. It’s Clay! His right front suspension is gone and the frame is dragging the track causing a fireworks of sparks. He tries to slow and turn for the first turn, but is sliding wide. The cars in front of us deftly turn underneath, while #29 grinds to a halt at the exit of turn two. Caution on lap 4! During the yellow, the #21 bangs into the rear, but quickly throws his hands up in apology. That hit probably flatten the rear bumper.
We’re in 12th and will be starting on the outside. I know we won’t get many laps, let’s hope we can get two more positions. It really has been a race of attrition to this point. I don’t think I’ve actually passed anyone for position all night.
The Green flag drops to start lap 6. The outside was the wrong place to start at this point. We get hung out to dry on the outside as four cars line up to pass on the inside. I can’t get to the bottom and the outside lane is not fast. The #44, #8, #99, & #221 all go by. I drop in behind the #221 and race him hard in to turn one and bump him slightly. Coming down to the checkered flag on lap 12. I take one more shot at passing the #221. We get real loose coming out of turn four, but cross the finish line in 16th I think. The Crew thinks we’re anywhere from 13th to 15th. Checking scoring afterward, sure enough we’re in 16th. This was a real disappointing night. I just need to be grateful that the car is whole AND we had no towing problems! We won’t have as much thrashing this week!
http://www.lowesmotorspeedway.com/news_photos/news/509840.html
Summer Shootout Round VI: 7/11/2006
Updates from Last Week: The RV's body damage has been repaired. Domino's Pizza insurance payed $550 to fix it! Maybe we finished with a whole car last week because of Donna's blueberry cake! Send more Donna!
Check out these pics (see the large crowd!) from last week: http://www.lowesmotorspeedway.com/news_photos/photo_gallery/sf4833.html http://www.lowesmotorspeedway.com/news_photos/photo_gallery/sf4832.html
We're in 13th of 36 Master's in Points after one wreck and a sub-par performance in the two Features from last week. We're 26 points out of the top ten: http://www.600racing.com/PDFs/2006SummerShootoutPoints.pdf
You can vote for your favorite Legends driver in the Shootout (you'll need to pick a driver in each class, you can vote for Charles Kiser in Semi Pro and anybody else in the other classes):http://www.speed51.com/2006stories/Specials/MPD06_SummerShootout.html
Also a couple of good stories from Speed51.com: http://www.speed51.com/2006stories/Summer_shootout/week4_report.html
http://www.speed51.com/2006stories/Summer_shootout/week5_report.html
Also remember to visit our website for all the latest: http://www.kb-promotions.net
Summer Shootout Round VI 07/11/06: A Double Points night tonight and full moon, usually not a recipe for good things! We spent a long Saturday preparing the race car to get it back to where it needed to be after our misadventures last Monday. Fred spent some of his time under the RV again. This time he was fixing the fuel filler neck leak from last week. We managed to give him a gasoline bath, sorry Linda! Nothing was broken, just loose, two hose clamps are always better than one! No leaks this fill-up. Great work Fred! We bought new ear buds for the RaceCeiver, to avoid the problems we had last week not hearing the Tower.
Weather: Not near as hot as last week, merely 90F in the trailer slightly overcast. Our Pit has become popular with the security guards at Lowe’s because we’ve been offering shade and a chair to these hard workers.
Draw: Alex drew a bingo ball for the spinning selector, and #58 came out! How did that happen, we must have gotten some other driver’s number. That’s the lowest draw we’ve had in a LONG time, several seasons.
The crowd was really good again tonight, almost filling 6 full sections a smattering elsewhere.
In the driver’s meeting, (which they played over the PA system, so the crews could hear) they made some severe changes: A Black flag for aggressive driving, 0 points for the night. Causing an oil down will cost 25 points and $250 fine. Retaliation after a race will result in a $1000 fine, & two week suspension. Phil Sharpe is back after his flip last week, looking no worse than usual. Lonnie Krause, MotorRacing0utreach Chaplin was missing again this week, as he was taking the MRO Youth to a mission trip in Costa Rico. Standing in was his friend Phil, who spoke of Paul in Ephesians 3:20, “Glory belongs to God, whose power is at work in us. By this power he can do infinitely more than we can ask or imagine”. We may think finishing first is the greatest thing we can do, but God can do for us and through us, so much more.
My new RaceCeiver ear phones are working great and I can hear all the announcements from the Tower.
Our draw would put us third in the third Master’s Heat race. We’d be starting right behind Dr Mark Moskowitz in the yellow #8. The good doctor is a surgeon from Washington and has been flying in since the Shootout started. He’s racing with his son this year, who is in the Pro division. If we finish in third we’ll be starting in 9th in the Feature. That would be by far our best starting position ever. We got a good jump on the field at the drop of the green flag. The #8 and our #5 were pulling away. I politely followed the Mark’s yellow car, but I was faster through the corners. I almost spun out once in turn one trying to not hit him, as he was slowing way more than we needed in the corners. The next lap by, the yellow caution flag came out: the #17 was into the back stretch wall with the #03 spinning. We were second and much faster than the leader. For the restart I CHOSE to stay on the inside as my car was working so good there. The #114 of former Shootout Champ John Sossoman pulled up on the outside lane and would start second. At the drop of the green on lap 4, I shifted into third gear too quick. John got a great jump and out dragged me on the outside, dropped to the inside of the #8 and passed for the lead in turn one! Wow he made it look easy. We were still third and battling with the #8. Going into turn one, I got inside the Dr’s sliding car. Just as we got to the apex of the corner he turned down toward us. I tried to brake, but too late. His left front tire hit my right front. WUMP! The car’s front end is pointing at the sky! My tire had climbed over his and now we’re on top of his left front fender and hood. Yellow flag, we’re dead in the water. The Track workers survey the damage. One lifts my car off Mark’s as I see his fender break off. I’m on all fours again, while the track worker has me check out the steering. Looks ok to him, “no leaks?” I yell. Looks good! I fire it up, engine seems normal and pull around to the back of the field. We’re in ninth with the #8 behind. We CHOOSE the outside starting position for the restart on lap 5. The #8 CHOSE the inside lane. Getting the green to restart, the #8 was real aggressive down the backstretch for a hole that was not there. He tangled with the #4 and sent the #98 spinning at me. Just missed him, wheeehaw! The good doctor had someone on top of him again, on the backstretch this time. Alex told me afterward, that the #8 sprung a leak like a geyser, shooting oil out of the front of the car. We were red flagged while they cleaned up the backstretch mess. This was already the longest Heat race I’ve ever been in! I counted that I was 6th in line. I only need to finish 6th to make the A Feature, so my plan was to drop back at the restart for clear racetrack and find out how messed up the car was. As we pulled off to restart, another car pulled up behind. That would mean I have to race him to finish 6th. As it turned out, he couldn’t keep up on the pace lap. We took the green in single file and ran one full lap to complete the race. The car was not terrible. We finish a clean 6th.
Back in the pits, we surveyed the damage: front bumper is laid back; right front frame rail is bent up and no longer level with the left side. An aluminum spacer on the right lower A arm cracked. Well, there’s nothing we can do at the track to fix the frame, but we can compensate for it. A new bumper will fit the frame, so that’s a good sign. We measure the ride heights and find that right front is now too low, 1/8” under the minimum legal height. Besides, now the right front is lower than the left front, just the opposite we need to make left hand corners. Kathleen fed us BLT sandwiches while we contemplated our next moves. Fred added fuel for the Feature while Gary and I reset the front end height. We eyeballed the alignment as best we could. Gary quickly checked all of the bolts after we found loose stuff. We were just hoping for the best.
We’d be starting 18th, with the back-up car for the #8 two rows behind on the inside. Starting on the outside has it’s advantages. At the start of the race I went way wide through turns one & two while the cars on the inside were slipping and sliding. By the time we got to turn three, they were wrecking. Clay Hair in the #29 went sliding through the barrels lining the outside of the track. Yellow flag after one lap! We’re re-starting in 15th on the inside this time. On the restart, we get a good jump and the inside lane pulls away form the outside. We’re in constant traffic, and the car is not too bad. Clay comes up from behind and “bump drafts” me down the front stretch. I let him go down into turn one. Following him, I amazed at his smoothness. It’s lap 10 already. The #88.1 of Eddie Harwell popped me in turn one. I let him have the position. We make it all the way to lap 13 before the next caution when the #9 spun for the second time. He had started on the outside of the front row too! We’re restarting in 12th on the outside lane. Just as we get lined up, the #41 who was directly ahead of me, pulled off into the pits. Its’ getting down to it and it’s getting rough again. The #114 is on the outside with me. He hits me hard in turn one, but we manage to save it. The next lap he does the same, I save it again but both him and the #03 slip by underneath. We can close up on the #03 ahead, but never really get a shot at him. My best line was taken away because there is grass on the inside of turn two. The #22 spins out in front of us down the backstretch. We take the white flag trying to get under the black #03. Coming to the Checkered flag on the front stretch, the #32 is spinning and facing us. We go to the outside while the #03 went to the inside just beating us to the line. I think we’re in 12th through 14th.
Cooling off in the pits, I noticed that John Sossoman drove over the rear bumper. It’s knocked down. The front bumper only has one bent tab. Since we were in traffic all night, Alex & Kathleen only timed us two tenths off our fastest laps ever. Just as last week, we had a good night, starting 18th finished 13th, and the car rolled onto the trailer.
www.lowesmotorspeedway.com/news_photos/news/509409.html
Summer Shootout Round V: 7/04/2006 More Fireworks!
The track put on a great fireworks show last night for the Holiday, and we were in store for more tonight!
Weather: Hot again,104F in trailer. Looks like rain is coming, so the schedule gets shuffled to run the kid's Bandoleros first.
Draw: No draw, we're starting inversely from the draw last night. If you had a bad start last night, you'd start from the front tonight.
The crowd was even larger than last night, filling seven full sections and part of a eight and ninth on the Big Track. There were 31 Master's cars signed up tonight.
We had a fitful night camping: problems getting set up, a mile walk to the bath house and lights shining in. We were in bed by 12:30 am.
Up bright and early with a homemade pancake breakfast. We filled the RV up with more fuel. We were burning a lot since the generator was running constantly, 10 hours, to run various fans, and the RV's A/C. That's when we noticed another problem from our blown tire: While re-fueling, the filler pipe leaks! I filled slowly to minimize the leak, and prayed real hard that we didn't catch fire.
We arrived at the track just at noon. Gary & Fred were several cars in front us. We were all queued to go through the tunnel into the pits. We quickly found Busch Garage #20 was empty, so we unloaded the car in the garage. The floor was perfectly flat, great for doing the alignment. About an hour and a half later, we had it back to normal. We had corrected the steering wheel pointing to the right when the wheels were straight, realigned both front wheels, squared the rear axle, rebolted and taped up the right rear fender, and the normal nut/bolt maintenance. The car was ready.
In the Driver's Meeting, Lonnie Krause of Motor Racing Outreach was back and had a great talk about freedom on Independence day, freedom from sin! In John 8:32 Jesus says, "You will know the truth and the Truth will set you free...So if the Son sets you free, you will be free indeed".
Tonight we'd be starting in 5th of 10 cars in the third Heat race. We had a decent start and hung onto 5th. On the 4th lap the #05 spun and the #44 collected him, Red flag for the #05 busted up in the infield. The car had been ok, not near as loose as the start of last night, so we had made some progress. The temperature was also coming down as a front was starting to move through with cloud cover. For the re-start, I missed the CHOOSE because my RaceCeiver had died. Two cars behind passed me and lined up on the outside lane. I was 7th for the start. We only ran two more laps (the last one was our fastest we've run in two nights!), and we could not pass. We finished 7th and would have to run the B Feature to get in to the A Feature race. We bought new batteries for the RaceCeiver radio, but it still wasn't loud enough.
For the B Feature, we'd be starting third out of 8 cars. We needed a 6th to qualify. I was starting behind the #4 of Jimmy Curley on the inside row. At the start, the #4 was kind of slow, the outside pole sitter, #22 of Gary Shannon, passed him on the outside of Turns one & two. The track was pretty messy from infield dirt and speedy dry. I finally got a run #4 coming out of Turn two of lap 4. We're in second! The #22 is 5 car lengths ahead. We catch him by the 6th lap. With the track conditions, there is no second lane, and we can't get by. We finish the 10 lap race right on his bumper and the car in one piece.
Our second place translates into a 20th place start for the Feature. The way the race started, you would have thought it was a full moon! The #116 spun from his second place starting position, no yellow. Then the next lap the #3 spun to the infield bringing out the caution. I noticed that the #88.1 of Eddie Harwell is dragging his back bumper. Someone's already gotten him good. We were restarting in 16th place for the start of the 3rd lap. Coming down the backstretch, the #3 of Phil Sharpe started flipping from contact. From the RaceCeiver, I can hear "Red Flag! Stop!" Phil is upside down facing traffic and sliding down the backstretch, as we dodge him going into turn three. We get popped in the back, but manage to stop in turn four. I shut the motor down. It was quiet while they got Phil out of the car. Over the RaceCeiver, I hear, "The #5 and the #69 to the back because you didn't stop!" I had stopped as quick as I could considering I was dodging a flipping car and trying not to get run over by those behind. This was going to be a long Red Flag: during that lap, someone covered the track in oil. The officials were looking for the culprit, bending down and looking at each car. It wasn't me this time! They finally found the #41 and sent him to the pits. After Roger Slack, who runs the show found the leaker, I waved him over to ask about the call for me to go to the back of the pack. I pleaded my case and he said, "OK, We'll get you back, Bruce". The trucks came out with what seemed like tons of speedy dry to cover the mess. This is going to be a dirt track when we re-start! My RaceCeiver was acting up again, I could hear fine while the engine was off, but only static when running.
The command to start was given. We were only on lap 4, I knew we were not going to get many more because of the time to clean up the track. We cycled many times cleaning the speedy dry, but it was still a mess. All of a sudden, the leaders started hauling out of turn two. I was still on the front stretch! No CHOOSE, no double file re-start, here we go. I'm way back of the car in front, may 10-20 car lengths. The #32 spins off ahead, we clear him and start chasing down the #9. Another car spins, we picking up places even if we're not passing! I'm closing, but not fast enough on the #9. Turns one & two are getting better but the other end is real sloppy. I was having to stay two lanes out through three & four, just to find traction around the track. I'm catching the #9 as we take the White Flag. But just like the B Feature, we have no grip to get around him as we take the checkered one car length back. We finished 14th in only 12 laps run!
The car is whole other than two banged up bumpers and rolls onto the trailer. We watched the fireworks with the huge crowd, it was better than last night!
http://www.lowesmotorspeedway.com/news_photos/news/509194.html
Summer Shootout Round IV: 7/03/2006
Updates from last week: Tires: North Point Goodyear made it right. They gave us full credit for the 6 tires they sold us in error. We now have 6 new H/D Goodyears on our towing RV. The RV is a Class C (van chassis, Ford E450), ’99 Coachman 28ft, also known as the, “Great White Whale”. Fred and his buddy, Clyde figured out why the “house” battery wasn’t getting charged after our tire blowouts. Turns out the power inverter’s (from 110v A/C to 12v D/C) plug got knocked out of the outlet by the force of the tire explosion. This plug was hidden behind a cabinet wall under the kitchen sink. Not an obvious place to look, thanks Fred & Clyde!
We needed a full functioning RV this week because we’d be camping at the track for the two night show.
Last Saturday, Gary and I worked on the racecar, while Fred called into Clyde and worked on the RV. Gary & I put in the same setup we had to start last week since it was so fast. We replaced a bent front bumper. We have the car ready for two straight nights of racing.
Alex was back from Scout camp this week. He survived the rainy week with only a bruise and a cut left hand (during wood working class).
Monday July 3rd Round IV: We're tied for 11th in points with past Champion Eddie Harwell in the #88.1
Weather: Hot at 4:00pm 104F in trailer
Draw: Alex drew #197, better but not great
It was a great holiday crowd, filling six full sections and part of a seventh on the Big Track. There were 30 Master's cars signed up this week.
We had a crowd also. Our friends Norman and Cheryl came down and visited us in the pits. Fred's wife Linda rode down with him and brought some of their friends.
In the Driver's Meeting, Lonnie Krause of Motor Racing Outreach was missing. His friend Phil was standing in for him while Lonnie was getting back from the Daytona Busch race.
We were starting 6th out of 10 cars in the second Master's Heat race. At the start if the race, we were real loose, the track was much greasier then ever. All that heat in the track made us handle real bad. We fell back to 8th place. The #05 spun off in front of us, we're in 7th. On the sixth lap the #21 spun out, we managed to miss him too. The red & black #221 was up ahead, and quickly passed him to the inside of turn 1 & 2. White flag! Made the last lap without incident and finished 5th, solidly in the A Feature.
We would be starting 17th of 24 cars for the A Feature. While waiting to get started, some of the drivers were sitting on the first turn wall of the Big Track. Cotton Spry was mentioning how his car's engine was hesitating last week under cautions. He didn't know if he had fixed it yet.
We started on the inside and and got a good start, with the inside pulling away from the outside row. On the third lap the #7 of Jan Ingram and #9 of Carlos Moore got together in turn 4. We dodge them cleanly. During the caution, Cotton's #16 pulled up high down the front stretch and let everyone pass. Maybe his motor is giving problems again. On the CHOOSE, we're on the outside re-starting 16th. Cotton is right behind.
On the drop of the Green flag, the inside row jammed up into turn one. We're on the outside row passing them. I feel a bump, then a WHAM from behind. We're spun and facing traffic. The next car on the outside lane, hits our left front hard. We spin around completing the 360. We're in the grass, and get restarted. Yellow's out. We get going down the backstretch, but something is wrong, the car won't stop for turn 3. We almost go off the track trying to get slowed down. Front end is broke somewhere. We drive back to the 3rd turn exit, waving for drivers to get out of my way, and still get clipped, by the #99 I think. It's real hard to steer.
Back in our pit, we start to assess the damage. Gary & Fred both thought Cotton had creamed me and spun me out.
The clevis on the left front upper A arm was broke, it's tie rod was bent. The steering arm was bent. Both bumpers were mangled and the right rear fender was cracked were someone went over the top of it. The rear frame horns were bent enough that a new bumper wouldn't fit. We had work to do if we wanted to race tomorrow. Kathleen fed us while we got busy getting the car ready to load on the trailer. It's a good thing I've got so many good friends willing to pitch in!
We only had to buy a new steering arm, everything else we had spares or repaired: Norman and Fred took my biggest crow bar and straightened the rear frame rails. Gary with Norman's help repaired the front suspension. The car rolled onto the trailer! We made a game plan to set up the car before tomorrow's race. Gary was going home with Linda & Fred, while Kathleen, Alex & I camped out at the track. Gary was going to grab his alignment tools, plus stuff from my garage that we needed and come back by 12 noon, when the track re-opened.
We finished 23rd out of 24 - boo! Even the website doesn't like it, they listed the #05 David Sung in 23rd!
www.lowesmotorspeedway.com/news_photos/news/509184.html
Summer Shootout Week III: 06/27/2006 Double Points night.
Updates from last week: I forgot to mention the great crowd. They filled up four full sections and a smattering of the fifth on the front stretch of the big track. Shows what good weather will do at the gate.
We’re 13th in the points out of 35 drivers, after a 10th and 17th.
A big thank you to Donna, Gary's wife for the great cake she sent with him! More big thanks to my crew: Gary & Fred repaired the plumbing on the RV when the tire blew. Gary patched an unseen crack in the black-water tank. New fuel cap from Ford.
Tires: North Point Goodyear is trying to make it right. Turns out, 3 years ago they sold us the wrong tires. The oldest only have about 8,000 miles on them.
Sit down there’s more news! While the RV was waiting at the Goodyear store (after Goodyear parked it), a Dominos Pizza truck (a semi) hit it. He bent some side molding at the rear. Brother! Goodyear called the police and the Dominos driver had to fill out insurance forms. We had to go down to witness the proceedings. The RV was not going to be ready for this week, because they didn’t have enough tires on hand. They’ll get them in on Friday. Our backup plan was Fred’s turbo diesel Dodge pickup to haul the race trailer.
The Crew came over to work on the car Saturday. There was more damage than originally thought from my spin and subsequent hit by Vanwingerden: We replaced the left front fender and front bumper, but there was frame damage where the bumper attaches. The frame was slightly offset to the right, in front of the suspension pick up points. This threw the alignment way off. We weren’t able to straighten it, so we made adjustments to the alignment instead. We were able to put the exact same setup back in from last week.
On to this week, fastest laps and leading laps!
Weather: We’ve had monsoon weather lately in Winston-Salem. We were in a drought, but then we sent Alex to Scout Camp at Raven Knob for the week. It’s been pouring ever since. What’s more, it happed the same way last year to him! At least he’s not tent camping. His troop is in Adirondacks, little huts that hold 6 campers. The huts are built off the ground, so he shouldn’t get flooded out. We’re planning on going tonight to see him on Parents night.
Driving down we went through a monsoon, but then about Kannapolis, it started drying out. By the time we arrived, the clouds had broken, and the sun was coming out. We heard that it had rained hard that morning at the track. In fact the infield was under water until noon! All was drying nicely and we’d have a dry night instead of the wet one we had planned for.
Draw: Alex wasn’t here to draw my starting position. So I drew, #200: we would start 9th out of 11 cars in the second Heat race. There were 33 cars signed in for Master’s.
Driver's Meeting: Lonnie Krouse of Motorsports Outreach had remembered me and our St John’s Church group that had gone to repair the Gulf Coast. We had prayed for them the first week at the track. Then last week we never made the driver’s meeting, because of the tire problems. He didn’t see me last week and was worried. I told him that they got back safe and sound late Saturday night, just tired.
His verse for this week was Philippians 4:8 were Paul writes, “Rejoice in the Lord always. I will say again: Rejoice! Let your gentleness be evident to all. The Lord is near. Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus”
Crowd: Not bad, but not as good as last week, but that was because the weather was iffy earlier.
Heat Race: We’d be starting on the inside of the 5th row. I needed to pass three to finish in the top six and qualify for the feature. These darn bad draws keep me at the back. Gary set the tire pressures and Fred checked the lug nuts. We’re ready.
GREEN! Starting behind the black #57 of Terry Cochran I made a move around him into turn one. One car down. We closed up quickly on the #19 of Bruce Little. We had a good little battle until he slipped up coming out of turn four of the 5th lap. I can see the next car way up ahead, the black #05 of David Sugg. It took three laps but I closed down on him going into turn three of the last lap. Made a desperate lunge, but not close enough. He pulled away to the stripe. We’d finished 7th. Boo! The car was really good. Gary had made some great calls on tire pressures, so we were flying!
I drove back to our pit and started unbuckling, when Kathleen yelled, “Don’t get out, they’re lining up for the B Feature!” Gary and Fred serviced the car while Kathleen handed me a bottle of water. Have you ever tried to drink a bottle of water through a full face helmet? I got about half of it down my throat, and went back out to the grid. Gary showed me the lap times: while running down the #05, we were another 10th faster than last week, broke into the 17 second bracket for the first time! We’re not far off the really fast guys of Legends racing.
We’d be starting from the outside of the front row along side the #21 of Bill Garner. We just needed to finish 6th or better in ten laps to make the A Feature. I got a great jump on the drop of the Green flag and was ahead on the outside of turn one & two. I passed cleanly and dropped to the bottom of turn three, we’re in the lead!
The #13 of Bill Mathers and the #91 of Ronnie Laney were battling side by side behind me for second. Heading into turn two of the 4th lap, someone had gone “agricultural racing”: cut through the muddy infield and drug grass and mud onto the track. It was a mess, so I tip-toed through without incident. Got to Turn four and the same sort of mess was waiting there! Where’s the caution? I just took my time at both ends of the track being very careful not to spin out in front of the 14 cars behind us. I was not being challenged for the lead until the #17 of Dennis White came up through the pack on lap 6. He bumped me in turn four, I slid to the outside and he went by. Just as we crossed the finish line the caution came out. . For the restart I stayed on the inside and the #19 CHOOSE the outside, so we were third. I was slow at the drop of the green flag and the front row got away down the front stretch. I out ran the car on my outside. I was pressuring the #19 but could not quite get inside of him and ran out of laps! We finished third, made the Feature and managed to lead 5 laps! Drove to tech were they scaled the car, we’re legal at 1322lbs (minimum is 1300lbs with driver). That’s about what our scales at home show, so we’re spot on with the official scales.
Feature: We were starting way at the back. Twenty-first out of twenty-four cars. I managed to get out of the car after the B Feature to wolf down a banana and bottle of water before they called us again. I was becoming “one with the car”! While sitting on the hot grid, two of the Semii-Pro cars came sliding off the track at us. The Official had to jump out of the way.
For warm-ups I noticed the track was still a mess, we were going out after the “Crash Cars”. And they had!
This was a double-points night, were crazy things happen because the drivers are so amped. From the start of the race, we were in heavy traffic the whole time. I don’t know how many wrecks I dodged. In turn 4 on the third lap, there was a melee! I zigged to the outside, back inside, then almost hit the #05 sitting across the track. We quickly swerved to the outside and managed to miss him and the outside wall! Wheeeph, that was close. The yellow caution came out. We CHOOSE the outside lane and restart about 16th. One lap later there is a huge oil slick from the #03. Y
Yellow again to put down speedy dry for the oil mess most of the way around the track. This was a long yellow, while the track crew cleaned up. Two cars went by me. Hey is my RaceCeiver not working? I didn’t hear anybody tell them they could pass under caution. Then the #41 went by. This time I stayed side by side with him arguing the position. From the Tower came “Get single file!” over the RaceCeiver. There was no place for me to go. Then from the Tower again “Ok #5, to the back of the pack!” So they lined us up and I was two from the back. We were only on lap 6 officially and time was ticking. Our races are 20 laps or twenty minutes, whichever come first.
On the restart, we were outside again about 20th. I quickly passed a car on the outside then dropped the inside lane for the next lap. Going into turn one the #17 ahead, the inside stopped quicker than I expected and I popped the #17 to the outside. We drag-raced down the backside, where he just barely cleared me going into turn three. It must have looked like I was swatting flies in the car! Dodging traffic and more spins. Another quick caution on lap 10. I CHOOSE the outside again. I can’t count all the cars in front of us. On the restart in turn two another big pile up! I miss most of it until I couldn’t dodge Jan Ingram in the #7 sitting sideways across the track and a car on the back of his. I hit his left front tire hard which stopped me dead. I never had a change to even hit the brakes. I hit the starter button, grabbed 1st gear and took off! I just knew the front end was a mess. I hoped we hadn’t split the oil cooler or knocked the bumper off. I didn’t driver over anything (like my bumper), and the engine was cool and had oil pressure. Maybe we’re ok. The scoring pylon was showing lap 11, we won’t get many more, maybe 4 to make lap 15. The Tower wasn’t telling us. I CHOOSE the outside again, I think I’m eight rows back, but I don’t have a clue who is on the lead lap with us. Clair Hair in the #29 is starting behind us. Let’s se if we can outrun him for a few laps. We get a great restart on the outside. The inside groove is a mess, and cars were slipping sideways below us. Passed two in Turns one & two and got two more in Turns three & four. Just as we line up for the front stretch, I see the Starter waving the checkered flag! What happened to the White Flag? Talking to the other drivers, and my crew, after the race, there was no white flag. The Officials probably didn’t want any more wrecks! We had no idea where we finished. When we went to the Timing & Scoring trailer, they said the Master’s results were under review and would not be posted until the end of the night. Fred needed to get up at 5:15 am to take a friend to the airport. We loaded up. The front-end was not near as bad as I feared. The only real damage was a mangled front bumper. Some of our prior frame damage got straightened out in this wreck. We got home early this week about 11:30pm. I started this news letter and checked out Lowes Motor Speedways website: We finished 12th! WOOWWW! 21st to 12th, beat Clay Hair again (this time in the dry) and rolled the car onto the trailer! A satisfying night, even got to lead some. The performance is there we just need to start at the front once to show them what we can do.
http://www.lowesmotorspeedway.com/news_photos/news/509058.html
Summer Shootout Week II: 06/20/2006
Wow, what a night! We never have an uneventful one, but last night was almost too much! It proved Kathleen right, we have guardian Angels.
This week we skipped Saturday practice at Bowman Gray to perform the maintenance on the racecar and try some small tweeks in the setup.
Weather: Hot & dry this week, doesn’t look like any chance of rain.
We drove down with the whole crew again, including Gary & Fred. About 15 miles from home, we had a flat on our RV tow vehicle. It was the right rear inner tire of the dualies. The valve stem was cut and let the air out. The tire was fine except for the valve. We found a nice wide flat spot on top of a bridge. With Gary & Fred’s help (Gary must have walked a mile to fine the hub cap!), we put the spare on. Pit crew got the chance to practice our pit stops, and we were on our way in about half an hour.
Forty miles later without any warning, the left rear inner tire blew, Blam! No racing tonight guys! The whole outer tread was missing. It took out the plumbing for the gray-water tank, broke the gas cap, and made a mess of the undercarriage. This time we were in no-mans land. No mile markers in site. We decided to limp along the shoulder to see if we could find a sign for an exit. We plodded along at about 25mph, traffic whizzing by on our left. I’m not sure how far we went (seemed like a long time!), before we could see a green exit sign ahead. Exit #63, that’s where RPM Racecars is, I know there is a Pilot Truck stop at that exit.
We limped off and pulled into the Pilot Station. Kathleen & Gary found that there was a tire store about a mile up the road! We gently drove over to this small Cooper tire place with a mostly gravel drive. We found the service manager. He had what we needed, but it would be awhile because they were fixing a dump truck and it had the spot our RV would need. It was after 4:00PM. The normal race schedule is the draw for stating position closes at 4:15, driver’s meeting at 4:45 and Heat races start at 5:30. We told the manger we were heading to the track, but this was our second flat today, so we were just going home. He told us we could still make the race as he looked at the racecar. We were less than 20 miles from the track. They did have an air-conditioned waiting room with lots of chairs, so we cooled our heels in there. And waited, and waited. Finally the dump truck was moved, they could start on us. They had already fixed the first flat with the valve stem. That’s when we found the RV wouldn’t fit backed in where they wanted it. It was too tall for their overhang. So we pulled in and just cleared to a flat spot on the gravel to place the jack under the rear axle.
Their crew finished up a little before 6:00pm, we hooked the trailer up and were on the road. Every one voted for heading to the track since we were so close. I didn’t know if they’d let us run, being we were so late.
We pulled to the sign in booth at 6:15; they were still open and we weren’t too late. Looking at this week’s schedule, the first heat for Master’s was at 6:50. We of course missed the draw for position and would start at the back of one of the Heats. My original thought had been, we were going to miss the Heats and if they let us start, it would be at the back of the B Feature. We hurried down to our pit, but the gate was closed! This night is getting frustrating! We had to enter from another gate. By the time we got to this gate there was a stalled kid in a Bandolero blocking the gate. The security guard was talking to him, telling him he was in the wrong place. I offered to push the Bandolero, while Fred drove the RV. I pushed him all the way to his pit, which was past ours and up the hill to the road course, Wheph! Kathleen & Alex checked us in with the Officials and got our starting position. We’d start twelfth out of twelve in the second Heat.
We scurried about to get the car unloaded and the driver stuffed into the car. Kathleen told me to have fun. Gary and Fred did their magic setup for the racecar. I had my work cut out. I needed to pass 6 cars in the eight lap Heat to make the Feature without having to run the B Feature. Did I mention it was hot? It was 92F in the shade of our trailer. Waiting on the grid, I waived the Methodist Ministries Faster Pastor over. He said a prayer with us, and I felt a lot calmer
Since I was starting shotgun on the field, I could lag back and really clean my tires off. I was focused and the heat race was pretty much a blur at the time. This is what we’ve pieced together.
I managed to time the drop of the green flag just right and passed two cars on the outside in turns one & two. Then going down the back stretch caught two more cars and passed them on the inside. Quickly ran down the two cars in front battling furiously side by side. I tried the inside and the outside but couldn’t pull off the three wide pass. It took what seemed like forever for the inside car to inch past the outside car. We followed him through for the pass. We got a great run coming out of turn 4 and passed to the inside. The White flag, one to go. There were more cars but they were too far ahead for one lap. Checkered flag. I remembered passing at least 4 cars. As we pulled off the track. I counted those in front and I was 8th. One of those cars was pulling out of the grass, so I was pretty sure we were ahead of him. That put us 7th.
Back in the paddock passing the Tech building, an official waived me over. Me? Yes. Usually the top three finishers of the Heat race need to have their cars inspected (teched). She said she needed to check my scoring transponder, as they weren’t picking me up at the tower. She asked where it was mounted (this is when I knew she didn’t have a clue). There was a mandated location, in the trunk behind the fuel cell. She could find it! Holy cow, did I loose it during some of my furious passing? She finally found it by looking under the car. Time is ticking and we need to get ready for the B-Feature, let go! She told me the LED lights weren’t showing on the transponder. You didn’t tell me to turn the ignition on! She still couldn’t see the lights (in more ways than one)! She said I wouldn’t be DQ’ed, they scored us manually, but I needed to get a new transponder from the parts trailer before racing again. I managed to drive back to our pit without running over anyone!
Gary and I both checked the transponder and we both could see that it had power to the lights.
Kathleen and Alex were up at the scoring trailer for our results. Nobody on the crew was sure where we finished. Gary thought we were 6th, and Kathleen wrote them down as we crossed the finish line in 6th. They were late posting the results because of the manual scoring. I was wound up, kicking, throwing things, yelling at my crew (I’ve been watching too much Tony Stewart)! It was just frustrating! The night was getting to me. That’s when I remembered: this week no one at the sign in booth asked my transponder ID. I ran to scoring, sure enough with being a late arrival my transponder ID had not been entered into the scoring system! The nice official quickly corrected that! Then Kathleen sent me back in to find out where we finished: 6th! We passed 6 cars in 8 laps! Wow! I was feeling much better now! No thrashing to install a new transponder to start the B Feature.
We would start one position better than last week, 17th of 24 cars. We had 35 Master’s show up tonight. Eleven were going home, but not us! Kathleen showed me our lap times from the Heat: another tenth better than last week! Our Saturday tweeks had worked. I was feeling like King Kong: we’d already passed 6 cars in 8 laps, we should be able to get to the front in a 20 lap Feature!
I’d be starting directly behind Jan Ingram in the #7 and Carlos “Mercury” Morris in the #9. Gary told me that the #9 was the only slow car in my inside lane, all the rest were good cars. We got a decent start at the drop of the green, with my inside lane pulling away from the outside lane. The #7 could not quite get inside the #9 and was being polite. But Jan had wrecked last week and was taking it easy. About lap 8, he started taking shots on the outside of the #9. I slipped up inside and passed the #7 cleanly. We caught the #9 on the next lap as I got a run coming out of turn two. I dove to the inside, side by side down the backstretch. He swerved at me; by I swerved away from him and beat him into turn three. I pulled away from him down the front and through turns one & two. Still feeling like King Kong, on lap 11 , I went into turn three way too hard and spun. The pack behind split around me, except for Tom Wingerden in the #1. He was on the inside and clipped my left front. Caution! I quickly got restarted just as the pace car and the leaders went by. We’re a lap down.
I pulled up third in line when an official waved me around the pace car; they were giving me my lap back! Making up the lap, I could tell the car was all-OK from the hit. We restarted on the outside in last, I think 24th place. Oh well, lets see what we can get back.
GREEN and we’re racing again in constant traffic. We zigged and zagged through with the #15 of John Barilka behind us. I really wanted to finish in front of him, because he wanted my racing #5. He had to run the #15 because of me. I had the #5 in Master’s before he moved up.
The last part of the race flew by, with the crew agreeing we passed at least 5 cars. Pulling off after the cool down is the first time I noticed the engine was running hot. That’s the first time this year it’s run hot. Trouble was I don’t know when it started because I was concentrating so hard on the race. Getting out of the car in our pit is the first I saw the damage to the front bumper and left front fender. When did that happen? Oh yeah, during my spin. There is a chunk missing from the fender and the bumper is pulled out.
Checking the scoring we were 17th, not bad considering, as Ryan Newman would say, “the driver ran out of talent!” I apologized to the crew for screwing up in the race and being a jerk.
Made up 7 places in 7 laps. The car still rolls. It was a good night. We arrived back home after midnight. It could have been a lot worse. We could have been just limping home after the second blow out.
Like I said at the beginning, we were blessed to have such a day and a half! Gary said he much prefers getting to the track early, and being bored just waiting, to the excitement we had! We’ll try to do just that, next week.
http://www.lowesmotorspeedway.com/news_photos/news/508792.html
Lowe's Summer Shootout Week I 06/13/2006
The 2006 Season has begun!
We've practiced the last three Saturday mornings at Bowman Gray Stadium. One word about the repaired car, FAST! The last session of last week with new race tires, we were .2 better than than the prior week and the best of the other 3 Legends practicing.
Last night Lowe's Motor Speedway 6/13/2006:
Hurricane Alberto is pushing up weather our way. We drove down to the track in a slight overcast. At the track, it was socked in, rain any minute. And that's just what it was doing as I walked out of the drivers meeting.
Speaking of the drivers' meeting, lots of new rules this year: We have a new fuel pump cutoff safety switch, we a going to be scored by transponder mounted on the car, we are required to run VP MS98L racing gas (at $6.00 a gallon), and the big change, only 24 cars will start in the features. We had been starting 28 cars, so potentially 4 more will go home. My Master's class (Driver's over 40) had 38 registered drivers, 32 showed up tonight. Roger Slack, who runs our show at Lowe's has been promoted to Events Director for all events at Lowe's, including Nextel Cup. Roger asked those who thought they were moving to NASCAR to raise their hands. About half of the room (all the young gun racers) raised theirs. Then he asked, who's here to have fun, I raised mine with the other half. Roger then said, "You in the first group, don't screw up the second half's Fun!"
Lonnie Krause of Motorsports Outreach has been promoted to Busch Series Chaplin, but will still do our series this summer. His verse for this week is one that he likes to start the season with. In I Corinthians Paul writes, "Do all things for the Glory of Christ". Lonnie spoke directly to one of the young racers, "Ask yourselves, if what I'm about to do will glory God?"
We'd arrived at the track early enough to install the new transponder, fill our fuel jugs with racing gas and do the maintenance on the brakes. Lowe's demands good brakes. At the sigm- in booth our lousy luck for drawing for starting position resumed. I pulled a #256! I'll be starting the Heat race way in the back.
After the Driver's Meeting the lineups were posted. We're in the third Master's heat starting 9th of ten cars (someone had a worse draw - holy cow!). Gary, my crew chief, pointed out I'd be starting 31st out of the 32 cars there! The Heat race transfers the top six cars to the Feature. If we didn't make the cutoff, we'd be in the B Feature and the to six from it would go to the Feature. We REALLY didn't want to have to race the B Feature as our last one was not a good experience: The third week in 2004, we were in a big pile up, and the #95 flew off the back of my car. The wreck tore the body off the car; I was so disgusted, I "retired" for two weeks!
As we lined up to go out for the Heat race, it was drizzling. I had my secret weapon with me, a towel to wipe my visor. Two tear-offs on the helmet visor, lower air pressures in the tires and we were ready to go for our 8 lap Heat race.
Sitting on the Grid waiting for our race, I was able to watch the first two Master's heats. Clay Hair in the #29, former IHRA champ, Legend's PRO champ, and Legends Master's Champ. was starting dead last in Heat #2. I watched him hug the inside and methodically work his way to 7th. With 2 laps to go, he was going for the pass of 6th place when that car lost it on the front stretch. Clay went low, low, trying to miss the spinning car coming off the wall. Not low enough as Clay got hit in the right rear that sent him spinning. Both cars collected it, Clay spun twice in the wet trying to get going. No caution! Clay was going to run the B Feature after finishing 9th of 11 cars!
He's my bull's-eye this year. We want to be able to outrun both Clay & Cotton Spry.
Pulling out for warm up laps was my first look at the new Lowe's Motor Speedway 1/4 track on the big track's front stretch. The whole track had been paved for the Nextel Cup races, including ours. It was silky smooth, plus they'd added some things. There were new "speed bumps" entering and around the bottom white line of the corners. These were 8" diameter, 2" high "bumps" designed to keep us out of the grass. You could no longer hang a left wheel off inside the white line, as you be hitting these bumps and upsetting the car. They had also made the entry to the corners higher with the bumps and yellow lines. "Hmm" I said to myself, "I used to use that area for passing in the past, now you have to go flying over the bumps to use that section of the racetrack". I was inside the fifth row for the start, inside the #22 of Gary Shannon and directly behind #98.
The track was real damp but not raining when we got the GREEN! The inside lane was slow, so I was last as the #22 passed on the outside. I went to the outside to start lap two and started passing. Got by the #22. Lap 3 caution for a spin by #08. At Lowe's on restarts, we line up in double-file and get to "CHOOSE" which line we want, inside or outside. I typically I go to the outside, but with the damp track, cars were sliding outside while I could hug the inside coming out of Turn Two. So I started on the inside restarting in 9th because the cars behind choose the outside & went around for the restart. GREEN, GREEN, GREEN! The inside jammed up, so quickly moved to the outside in Turn One and went 3 wide coming out of Turn Two. Almost ran out of race track as the wall was mighty close! Closed in on the car in front. We were starting to figure out the track and could really charge coming off Turn Two down the backstretch. Closed up on the White #98 but he chopped me off bad going into Turn One. I braked hard to avoid him. Put us down on the "speed bumps", wump, wump, wump. But got by the #98 by getting a good run off of Turn Two, passing on the back stretch on lap 6. I think we're in 7th place. Two laps to go, the #6 of Jeff Turner is up a ways but we close down on him. We're almost to him as we take the white flag for the last lap. I get a great run coming out of turn two, dive to the inside of him going into Turn Three. He slips as I gas it and beat him to the finish for 6th! Whew, we made the Feature!
The track had dried quite a bit by the end of the race, we were turning low 20 second lap times. On a dry track we've been in the low 18 second bracket. Weather was the big question mark. It was foggy, humid, and could pour at any second. We checked the line up for the feature, we'd be starting 18th, outside 9th row, last of the cars qualified from the Heat races.
We were able to watch the Master's B Feature, which Clay ran away with. He'd start on the inside of the row behind me.
The Officials were changing the schedule of races by the minute, because of the weather. The Bandolero cars can't race in the rain, so they ran a bunch of their races in a row while it was dry. We were scheduled to be after the School Bus Slobberknocker, which always messes up the track, but is fun to watch. This time they stayed out the grassy infield, so I though the surface would be ok. Wrong! Going out for warm-ups, I could see large orange clay mud clumps pressed all over the track. Don't want to hit one of those at the wrong time!
Goals for this race: Don't wreck the car. I really want a top 10. I really want to outrun Clay starting behind me.
GREEN, GREEN, GREEN! Immediately went to the outside and passed a car. Started following the #99 of Chuck Dohm. The #05 of David Sugg and #29 of Clay passed me on the inside. The track was drying quickly and the outside was not the place to be. I quickly got to the inside and started passing cars again. Lap 5 Caution as the #05 spun and #29 had to go wide to avoid him. On the Choose restart, we went to the outside and would restart 12th. Still following the #99 on the restart but can't get passed him. Car is driving real good, but I can't get under him in the corners. Lap 10, nasty wreck as the #41 went up into the drivers door of #7 Jan Ingram. Both are OK, but it took a while to get Jan out of the car.
Ten laps to go, I Choose to start on the Outside in 10th place. Clay's Black and White #29 is right behind me. Green on the restart! We're in traffic the whole time, running down the cars in front, but not able to pass. Clay gets passed by the #19 of Bruce Little. The line in front of me jammed up going into turn one. I jumped on the brakes, but someone hit me from behind and shoved me into the #3 in front. I hope the bumpers are on! That was a hard hit, but square in the back, so he didn't spin me out.
I start pulling away from both behind me. That's when I noticed the engine stutter a little at the end of the straights. I looked down at the Tach: 10,200. I'm hitting the rev-limiter(mandated by the sanctioning body), that's never happened before. We're getting out of the corners so good we're out revving the engine. It's not hurting anything, just slowing us a little. Maybe need a higher gear.
Last 10 laps went quickly and never did get a clear track or a shot at the cars in front. Sometimes the were two wide in front of us. Whew, I was working hard! I caught a car, the #05, just as we got to the finish line. I went to the outside and maybe beat him to the line!
Checking the results, the #05 was a lap down, so it didn't matter. We finished 10th and Clay finished 12th. On this night he had nothing for us. Cotton Spry on the other hand, started on the outside front row and won the race. Anybody got a 55 gallon drum of good-luck for when we draw for starting position?
All goals accomplished: Car rolled on the trailer with only bent front & rear bumpers. Got a solid top 10. Beat Clair Hair. Oh, and our best lap time, in traffic no less, was a tenth better than our best lap ever at Lowe's.
http://www.lowesmotorspeedway.com/news_photos/news/508493.html
Bruce