Labor day weekend marked the last race I would run before headed off to start another chapter in my life, college. Both my Dad and I worked our tails off and was able to put two complete cars together, with the help of borrowed parts from Jimmy VanLare. Unfortunately, it was no Cinderella Story as our weekend was plagued with bad luck. Continue reading
- Tag Archives Calistoga Special
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Two shows, One night at Hanford 7/16/11
Earlier in the year we left Hanford in the rain after securing a feature starting spot in our heat race. So after a few weeks off and some promo time at the fair and parade over the 4th in Calistoga, Marty was back on track in Hanford for two main events in one night. I had a feeling they were going to try and keep the track wet with the extra main event on the schedule and I was right. The track was super wet and heavy. Thank God Kim and the younger boys came along, otherwise we would’ve never been able to keep the car clean. We must have removed over 100 lbs. of mud every time that car came off the track. Continue reading
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King of the West at Calistoga.
When you love a place as much as we love Calistoga, it always adds a little pressure to perform well there. I remember the night my car popped out of gear while qualifying and then I started one spot out of the transfer in the semi, only to have someone flip on the opening lap. The show was running late, so they called it right there leaving me on the sidelines for the main. The year before I had finished 4th. The year after, my race car was gone. That was the only night my car ever popped out of gear during the entire time I raced sprint cars. My wife and I believe we aren’t in control of everything (Thank God) and that things happen for a reason. This past weekend we headed to Calistoga for our first winged race in almost a year. After racing four straight weeks in central California with none of our sponsors or family there to watch us go forward, we were happy to be racing close to home. It was also the first time with our bigger motor in the car. Ron Nicholson and the Toiyabe Group went out of their way to get our 410 freshened up at Bailey Bros and we had a lot of work to do to get things ready. Our Schnee chassis had been working so well without the wing, that we didn’t want to risk any of those parts, so we just about changed everything on the car. Marty swapped out the long front axles for the shorter wing ones, the front radius rods, the rear arms, rods, bird cages, and all the torsion bars. He installed a shorter pitman arm, the short side nerfs and larger fuel cell. We added front wing mounts and of coarse the wings and hydraulic slider assembly. The other thing we had to do was change over to Goodyear tires all the way around. That was a big part of our decision to even race at Calistoga with the wing guys. The new series changed over to Goodyears and we didn’t have any. One new tire can cost you over $200 and you need 4 just to put the car on the ground. We didn’t think we were going to run this race until we saw the tires that the outlaws left behind in April. Then we heard more than once that if we switch back and forth between the tire brands, our beadlock rings will stretch and the tires will come loose, so we installed completely different rings with these tires (and that would bite us in the end).
The last big change about running Calistoga was Calistoga itself. Besides the new chassis, motor, tires and wings, Calistoga had a new surface and shape. I have always come to Calistoga with the same set-up in my car and Marty’s car. It was given to me by Duke & Scotty McMillen who have owned championship cars for decades. Things have changed over the years and I’ve had a few guys question my set-up and last year we ended up running the car very neutral on a heavy rough night at Calistoga and it worked well. I guess I thought that the new track was going to be tacky or maybe rough, so I started with the neutral set-up and that was a mistake. The wind was catching the wing so hard going into the corner that Marty bounced off the fence in qualifying just trying to keep it straight. Then to compound the problem, the motor was pulling so hard and the chassis was getting such good forward bite , that the front end was barely on the ground. Marty made a couple nice moves in his heat race to get into a transfer spot, but then almost drove it into the fence at the end of the back chute. I don’t know how he kept it out of the wall? Mike Benson and Jeff Griffin were watching closely and helped me figure out what was going on, so we made some changes just before the semi and Marty took one last shot at making the main. The car finally looked comfortable and he was able to drive it in straight. He started passing cars right away and was once again in a transfer spot, when the left rear tire went flat. Of course, my first thought was that we were running used tires, but it turned out that the beadlock had failed. I’m not sure if it was too loose or if we shouldn’t have run a beadlock that we never ran before, but it was just like when my car popped out of gear almost 15 years ago. It has never happened before and it will probably never happen again. So there we sat, watching the main event roll off without us. Our biggest fan support up in the stands and after all that work to get stuff changed over for one weekend of racing.
I still believe that things happen for a reason. If Saturday night hadn’t gotten rained out, I would’ve had a completely different set-up in for Sunday. We would’ve gotten past the beadlock problem and made the race, but then we might’ve been in the middle of one of the big wrecks that took out so many cars. Marty hasn’t wrecked in so long that I don’t remember the last time, and after watching him you can’t say that he doesn’t try hard enough. I thought he was trying a little too hard to overcome a car that was just a handful most of the night. Someone said “It just wasn’t our night” and I guess that’s how you have to look at it. I just feel bad because Marty worked really hard and our sponsors came through big time. Thanks to all our fans and sponsors that came out to Calistoga this weekend to support us. Thanks to Bailey Bros for building us a really solid motor. We put 30 nights on this 410 before taking it in to get freshened up and Sam said it looked pretty good inside and rebuilt it within the quote they gave us. We would recommend Bailey Bros to anyone who wants it done right. This week Marty will graduate from high school with honors, then it’s off to Watsonville & Santa Maria on June 17th & 18th for some non-wing Western Classic Racing action with the USAC/CRA bunch! We’ll probably kick some butt and nobody will be there to see it, but I’m sure we’ll see you all back in Calistoga for “The Louie Vermeil Classic” in September.
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Hanford 360s
Marty and I headed off to Hanford this weekend all by ourselves. We drove past Tulare late Friday night and slept in the motor-home at Danny Faria’s again. The next morning we mounted up a few tires (Thanks to Faria) and headed to Hanford to run with the USAC West Coast 360′s. The track was tricky early; wet on the bottom, slick in the middle and a cushion up top. Marty and I had a tough time without anybody there to help us. We didn’t qualify well and went backwards in the heat, so we had to run our first B main of the year. After getting something to eat and settling down, we got the car figured out and Marty started going forward. He started 6th and finished 3rd in the B, then started going forward right away from his 19th starting spot in the feature. He was really fast off of turn 2 down the back chute. At one point he was inside the top 10 and looking good. The bottom had slicked off and the middle was really slick. Late in the race with the rear tires gaining pressure and the lighter fuel load, Marty’s car started getting loose and he got real sideways in turn 1 and lost a couple spots. In the end he finished 13th and rolled it in the trailer in one piece for the 4th week in a row. It was tough to tow out of Hanford and head for home after spending so many weeks at the Faria’s. We want to thank them again for their hospitality. We have had so much fun hanging out and racing with them here in central California and can’t wait to get back here soon. Next week we head to Calistoga with the wing.
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The Fun Continues, Our 360 vs. CRA
We headed back to the central valley this weekend for our first race with the USAC/CRA 410 guys. Uncle Greg came along and made the drive much nicer in his new Ford truck. We got to Danny Faria’s shop around midnight and were up first thing in the morning to finish getting the car ready. We hadn’t gotten our 410 back yet, so we were giving it our best with the 360. Danny worked all day on the family farm and let us have full use of his shop. The Majority of the work was done last week, so we mostly mounted tires, set the chassis and played with the bigger fuel tank. Once we were loaded, we hooked up with Butch Brazil and it was off to Hanford.There were 24 sprint cars and only three of us had a 360 under the hood. The car felt great in qualifying, but it just wouldn’t pull very hard off of turn four which still had moisture. We started on the pole of heat two, with the likes of Super Ricky Gaunt, Greg Bragg in the Moose Mobile, both the Williams boys and The Bullet, Blake Miller all breathing down my neck. The heat went non stop for 10 laps. I had one of the Williams poking his nose under me and The Bullet on the outside. I was hoping just to finish with a transfer position, but then I started driving in a little lower and the car hooked up really nice. I pulled away just enough to win my first CRA heat race. I have to say that since we have raced with these folks so much over the past couple of years, it was pretty special to finally pull off a heat win. I have a lot of respect for these teams.
The good news was, we transferred straight to the feature. The bad news, we had to start dead last. Knowing our odds of pulling off anything spectacular against these guys in the main (we already did that in the heat), we were ready to learn as much as we could since we are coming back here in a couple weeks with the 360 bunch. We all talked things over about how to hook up the car, but still keep it drivable in a pack. The track had been getting slicker as the night went on, so we killed stagger, tucked in the wheels and went to staging.
At the drop of the green, everyone in front of me went to the bottom and had to use the brakes to stay off of the car ahead of them, so I went to the middle and drove around 4 cars before the yellow came out on lap two. Then I was able to pick up about another 5 spots before the next yellow on lap 8. I was feeling pretty good and our Schnee chassis was going wherever I pointed it. As long as we kept things in a pack, I could keep up and even drive by some of the more powerful cars. Then we had a string of long green flag laps and a few of the veterans were able to get back by me. The car ran great and we were able to hold onto a 14th place finish. All in all we were pretty happy to have another successful weekend. Our gracious host however didn’t have as much fun. You would think that a guy who opens his home and his shop to people he hardly knows, then works all day before heading to the track, would have a little karma on his side. Danny lost his brakes in the lap two incident when another car ran over him. He kept it going and drove from his 8th place staring position, past Spencer, and past Kruseman to take the lead (WITH NO BRAKES). He led for 12 laps lifting the throttle pedal to choke the motor down and toggling the kill switch while steering with one hand. On lap 26 while battling with multi-time USAC National Champion, Bud Kaeding, he lost the handle and spun it in turn four. Kaeding went on to win the race, coming from the back after his lap 2 altercation, while Danny watched the last 4 laps from the pits. It just didn’t seem right, and yet when the fans came down out of the stands, Danny put on a smile and was his normal, upbeat self. I guess if we race long enough, we’ll have nights like that too. I hope he has more luck next week at Tulare (while I follow him right to the front).
Since we were the highest finishing 360, we won a $200 Bonus and 20 gallons of fuel (Thank you USAC/CRA and Steve Howard at SoCal Performance). We also want to Thank Danny, Butch and Uncle Greg for making the weekend so much fun. We are looking forward to heading back to Tulare this weekend and pulling off a great finish for our wonderful sponsors, The Toiyabe Group, Blakeley Landscaping, Santa Rosa Auto Parts, HMS Airless Repair, Carmichael Auto Service, The Barricade Company, Ted Surber and Palisades Ranch, VanLare Steering Repair, and Johnny Franklin’s Driveline & Hitch Service.
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Tulare 4/30
These past couple of weeks have been spent working on equipment to get us to the track rather than working on the actual car. Two weeks ago dad and I decided it was time to change the roof on our trailer. The way it was originally made was with ¾” plywood and then just sealant over the top, but after years of it sitting in the rain it began to leak and rot out. After removing the old roof, we replaced the plywood, and of coarse that night it decided to rain. Thanks to some help from Terry Shank, we put galvanized steel over the top of the plywood, and then sealed it off real good. On the inside dad finished off painting the walls white and the floor gray. When it was all done, he listed it on Craig’s List and within 2 hours had 12 phone calls. So after all that work (probably over 40 hours between the two of us) we sold the trailer two days later. Thank God we had a plan. Greg Cato had offered us his 28ft triple axle trailer at a great deal. So the next day we picked up our new trailer at 8:00am and spent the next 13 hours cleaning it up and putting our racks in it. We also spent a day putting on the diamond plating that they had for the sides and front of the trailer. After about two weeks of trailer work, I was ready to go racing. The only problem was that fixing the trailers up was a little more expensive than predicted, but thanks to Ron and the Toiyabe Group we were able to load up and head for the Thunderbowl Raceway in Tulare.After arriving in Tulare, we met up with Randy Wright who was making sure he got his fill of racing in before having a month long project at the nuclear power plant he works at. We hadn’t been to the track in over a month, so we had our fill of early problems to deal with. It was the first time out with our new tail-tank and of coarse it had a leak at the fittings. We stayed calm, figured everything out, then headed out for hotlaps. Tulare is notoriously sticky early in the season, but for some reason it was dry slick again. I qualified 15th out of 21 cars. Not a good qualifying position by any means. I lined up on the outside front row in the 3rd heat and at the drop of the green flag I drag raced the pole sitter into turn one. He slid up across my nose in the turn and I was able to turn the car down and take the lead coming onto the back chute. Rusty Carlisle and Ryan Bernal were close behind, but I was able to hold them off for the 10 lap heat and pull off my first heat race win. This put me 15th for the start of the A-main. Early on in the race I was able to pick off a few cars, but the track was really dusty and loose. Most guys were all the way on the bottom of the track or about a foot off the wall. I was doing alright and about half way through the race I made it into the top 10. I played it a little too safe and stayed in line, only picking up one more position and ended up with a 9th place finish.
I want to thank Danny Faria Jr. for opening his shop and his home to us, and for allowing us to leave our car and trailer at his house in Tulare, so we don’t have to tow it back and forth over the next few weeks. I also want to thank Butch Brazil and Randy Wright. We wish Randy could come help us every weekend.
I am looking forward at the chance to better my finish when we go back to Tulare next weekend with the West Coast 360′s. This weekend we are planing on making it to Hanford to run with the USAC/CRA bunch. We don’t have our 410 back yet, so we will be making the run with our 360.
We want to thank all our sponsors who keep us going: The Toiyabe Group, Blakeley Landscaping, Santa Rosa Auto Parts, The Barricade Company, Carmichael Auto Service, Ted Surber and Palisades Ranch, VanLare Steering Repair, Johnny Franklin’s, HMS Airless Repair and SoCal Performance.
See you at the Races!
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Beating the weather.
This past weekend had it’s ups and downs. There were 31 USAC cars at Hanford and about 26 WoO cars. No qualifying for us non-wing guys and Marty drew a last place start position for his heat race. The track was slick and everyone was riding the rim making it hard to pass. Marty started 8th and finished 5th, and that gave him enough passing points to lock himself into the A feature. The Outlaws got their B Main in, but the rain started to fall as soon as they got lined up for the A. We loaded up and got out of the pits before it got too muddy to move.It rained hard until midnight and the next day we got up and drove to Danny Faria’s shop in Tulare. Danny and his guys are bunch of Good Ol’ Boys. We washed the car and got things ready while keeping a close eye on the weather. It sprinkled as we drove to the track and everyone’s trailer was still closed up expecting the rain to fall. We finally rolled out the cars and started getting ready. We drew for starting positions again and after advancing a few spots in the heat, Marty lined up 13th for the feature. Tulare was unusually slick and some of the guys were risking running up next to the wall while others were on the bottom. Marty lost a few spots early but made them back up as he found some places to pass. He ended up 10th and we rolled it in the trailer in one piece.
Of coarse it stormed most of the way home and rained while we washed the car and put everything away in the shop. The make-up date for the Hanford show is on Thursday the 31st and there is just no way we can make it, so it looks like our next race will be April 16th in Tulare. Hopefully the sun will be out much more by then.
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2011 Season Opener!
Amongst the rain showers we were able to squeak in the opening night of the new USAC Western Classic Racing Series at Silver Dollar Speedway in Chico. Friday night’s John Padjen Classic was a rough one. The track still had grass on it, probably because the crew was too afraid to take any heavy equipment onto the soft damp surface. The pits weren’t much better as we had to leave our trailers in the parking lot and carry in all our tools and spares.The midgets were the first to test the track and they blew off a layer of loose dirt before the sprints finally got to the racing surface. It was soft all night and that produced moving ruts and holes. At times it looked more like super-cross with cars bicycling and jumping completely off the ground.
After watching guys slide over the cushion and loose the heat race leads, Marty played it cool from his front row spot in heat 4. He dropped back to third place while trying to figure out the best way around the tricky track. By the end he had raced his way back up to a 2nd place finish behind Kyle Hirst and ahead of Miller, Kaeding, Sherman, and Meyers. The recently acquired Schnee Chassis was working great and we didn’t make many changes for the feature. Marty lined up 14th for the feature and after a few restarts for cars flipping, started charging to the front. By lap 20 he was up to 6th and had Brent Kaeding leaning on his rear bumper. Keading tried the top and bottom, and did get by in turn 1 just to have Marty pass him back coming off of 2. The two raced tight for a few laps before the left rear shock retainer came off of Marty’s car. He noticed the wheel hoping and wisely pulled it into the infield relegating him to a 14th place finish. If anything was going to fail, it would fail on that type of track. Marty was bummed, but excited to be going forward inside the top ten.
USAC’s 2010 National Champion, Bryan Clausen came out from Indiana to run both divisions and after breaking both track records in the midget and sprints, things got a bit weird for him. He looked like the winner of a very close midget feature, but the electronic scoring system gave him second place as Kody Swanson took the win. Then in the sprint main Clausen was out in front when he somehow locked REAR bumpers with a lapped car and ended up getting towed backwards through the infield. His engine must’ve turned over in reverse as it would not restart the race. Bill Rose took the sprint win.
Next weekend we head to Hanford and Tulare to race with the USAC West Coast 360′s in conjunction with the World of Outlaws. Marty can’t wait, and he is already replacing all the quick-pin shock mounts with simple bolts and lock-nuts. We would like to Thank Ron Nicholson and his grandson, Jake for coming out to Chico and cheering for us. Thanks to Chance and Papa for their help in the pits. Thanks to the Vermeil Crew for haulin’ stuff around for us. We also want to Thank our great sponsors, Santa Rosa Auto Parts, The Barricade Company, Blakeley Landscaping, Carmichael Auto Service, Vanlare Steering Repair, and especially The Toiyabe Group for the Schnee Chassis and so much more!
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Perris 10/23
We headed off to Southern California for the last race before the Oval Nationals. We stopped in Tulare to watch the first night of the 17th annual Trophy Cup. It didn’t stop raining until we were about an hour north of the Thunder Bowl, and both my dad and I were amazed that it hadn’t actually rained in Tulare. When we arrived the B-main was being pushed off, and after watching some intense racing through the B and the A-main, we were back on the road and headed for the PAS. After about a six hour nap we awoke to a parking lot full of legendary race cars. It was the Legends of Ascot event and there were some cool cars and even some of the guys who drove them. We had a great time talking with some of the old car owners who use to run at Ascot. We eventually had to pull ourselves away and go get ready for the nights racing. Once again I did not qualify well and had to start in the back of my heat race. After Damion Gardner and Matt Mitchell got into it and had to restart behind me, I was shown where I sat on the horsepower totem pole as I got passed instantly by Damion and then pushed 
around a little a lap later by Michell. I started in the middle of the pack in the semi and moved into a transfer spot pretty quickly. In the Main I started dead last, and then got into a car on the first lap who was spinning out. It busted the right nerf and did a little damage to the right side header, but nothing too major. We restarted and I began moving forward, but after a few cautions my car slowly began to go away and I wasn’t advancing any more. About half way through the leaders caught me, and once I went to the cushion to try to get out of their way I realized that my right front was going flat. We got lucky and pitted just as a red came out for a crash on the front chute. We were able to change the right front and get back out on the track. I ended up finishing 14th. We’ve learned a lot in these last couple of races and I’m hoping we can put it all together for the upcoming Budweiser Oval Nationals. We’ve got some work to do. Rip Williams hooked us up with a better set of bird cages and Ray has been refining our chassis set-up. It’s going to be a tough three nights of racing, but we’re looking forward to improving on what we did last year. Hope to see you there on November 4th, 5th, & 6th at the PAS!
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410′s at Santa Maria
Plans to go to Petaluma to run our winged 360 were postponed on Thursday when I cut open the oil filter to find a bunch of metal in the bottom. In an effort to find where the pieces came from I started to take apart the engine. The top end looked good and the valve lash was fine. I pulled off the pan and to our amazement we didn’t find any shavings of metal and all our piston rods were intact. However we did notice one large chunk of metal coming out of the gear drive. We pulled off the dry sump pump and front cover to find teeth missing from each one of the gears. Of coarse those teeth had passed through the dry sump and done some damage there also. This was the end of our plans of running our 360 engine any time soon.
So if we wanted to race, we only had one choice. We had to swap everything over to our non-wing Stinger Chassis, bolt in the 410 and try to make the Santa Maria USAC/CRA show. Dad and I worked late Thursday night determined to get the car ready for Santa Maria. At the end of the night the two of us were exhausted, but had the bulk of the work was done. Thankfully everything came together on Friday and we were ready to go. We left early Saturday morning and arrived at the track in just under six hours. After unloading the car we were greeted by Chuck Rosling from Racers for Christ. Chuck was surprised to see that it was only my dad and I, and no other crew members. So Chuck set out to find us some help and came back with Randy Wright. Randy lives in the area and has been going to the races as long as we have, plus Randy had on a Louie Vermeil Classict-shirt, so he fit right in. Things just got better from their as Ray Stansberry decided to help us out as well. Ray is a long time Southern California car owner who we met through Steve Howard last year. He hasn’t been running his own car lately so we’ve been chatting over the phone asking for advise on chassis set-ups and so forth. Ray made some ride height adjustments to our car and had us ready for hot laps. We drew an early number for qualifying so Ray made a few changes and gave me some advice on how to get around Santa Maria. You know you’ve done well when you out-qualify Kruseman and Sheridan. We ended up 17th quickest out of 31 cars. I started second row outside in my heat race, behind Austin Williams. Austin took the early lead and I pulled up next to the pole sitter going down the back chute, but had to let off to keep from getting squeezed up into the wall. Going into turn three I got run over on the left rear and then passed by the whole field before we made it back to the flag stand. I ended up finishing 5th after making a few passes, but that wasn’t enough to make the feature so we got ready for the semi. I only had to finish 6th out of the 12 cars in the semi, but with names like Spencer, Kaeding and Faria, I knew I had to be on the gas. We finished 6th and were starting 14th in the main. The track was getting tackier all night and our right rear wheel was out as far as it would go, so Ray made a few tricky changes to the front end, while dad and Randy fueled it up and checked the air pressures. A lot of cars were too tight as they bounced and bicycled through the turns. My car felt great and after avoiding a few flying cars and doing some passing, I brought it home to our first top 10 finish. It was a lot of fun racing mid pack with those guys. At one point Danny Sheridan had to restart behind me and we raced together for a bit. I mention guys like him because he is one of the fast guys that I try to learn from and hopefully someday can compete with every week. I want to Thank Chuck and Randy for their help and Ray for his help and advice throughout the night, and of coarse my dad. I also need to thank Mom, because she was the one who pushed us to change out the 360 at the last minute and head to Santa Maria in the first place….Thanks Mom!
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