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!