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!
- Tag Archives Civil War Series
-
Perris 10/23
-
Calistoga Civil War ’10
We headed back to Calistoga for another wing race. This time with the Civil War 360 Series. During the pit meeting officials stated that they had a shortage of cars and that in order to put on a good show for the fans they were going to switch to the ASCS format of running two heats for your starting position in the feature. They also told us that they were going to ask the track officials to put one more load of water on the track to make sure there was enough moisture in it for 4 heat races and a main event. Let me tell you that there was plenty of moisture in the track. After the first session of wheel packing there was so much mud on the car that it took us an hour to get it clean. Needless to say we opted out of the second session of wheel packing. After the track finally came in we were able to go out for some hot laps and the first heat race. I started 4th row outside and almost finished there, but on the last lap I got passed and ended up finishing 9th. In my second heat race I should have started second row inside but got moved to the outside. I managed to stay in that position for a few laps until I got passed by the 18 car of Mike Henry on lap 3 and ended up 5th at the end. That was the first time I held the throttle wide open all the way around Calistoga and let me tell you, at the end of the chutes my brain kept saying “Lift”, but my gut said “Hold On Tight”….and it was one heck of a ride into turn one. The track was so sticky that most of the guys who won a heat ended up at the rear in their other heat (because they inverted the line-up the second time out). In the A-Main I started 8th row inside. It took us a while to actually get a lap in. After a few reds and yellows and a fuel stop, the officials finally just lined us up single file. When we finally got going I tried playing with the wing but my car was just a little to tight. I lost a few spots and then would gain a few, but really stayed around the same spot. After 21 laps officials had to call the race due to curfew. At the end of it all I came home in 12th place. It might not have been the best finish, but it was our first time finishing at Calistoga this year, and with the Louie Vermeil Classic coming, I hope we have the DNF’s out of the way.
-
Sponsors
