Well, we went back to Hanford again. This time with the West Coast 360 group. I was hoping we would be back up to speed with the 360 group, but after qualifying 15th out of 19 that would prove to be trivial. We started in the front row of our heat and since everyone was to make the main event we figured we would test out some set ups. We went from first to fourth in our heat and me being the inexperienced mechanic that I am, really didn’t know what to do to make the car go forward. So what does everyone do when they don’t know the answer? You guess! And in terms of racing and wanting to be competitive, we guessed pretty aggressively. Unfortunately all our guessing was for not. The track was slick and most people where running over each other on the bottom. On lap 5 some cars got bottled up in front of me. In an attempt to avoid it I ended up clipping the left front tire off someone else’s car and knocked the front end out. It’s a bummer that the only time I got to test out the set up was under yellow and in heavy traffic. It would have been interesting to see what the car would have done in open air. Nevertheless, we got it all put back together, loaded it up and headed home.
- Tag Archives Hanford
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Hanford USAC/CRA May 19th
We haven’t raced with the CRA boys since the Gold Cup in Chico last year, so we were excited to bolt in the 410 and head to Hanford. Our great friend and sponsor, Ron Nicholson had our 410 freshened up at Bailey Bros. last year and we are still trying to figure out how to get all that horsepower to the ground. We didn’t qualify very well and finished 6th in our heat as the car just seemed loose. The CRA guys don’t have any trouble getting it to the ground. They run cockpit adjustable shocks on the car that can cost around $2000, and they know how to tune em’ during a race. We have one cockpit adjustable shock on the left rear, but our biggest struggle was once again tires. While most guys were on the wider and softer HTW right rear tire, we still had the harder DT3 that CRA ran last year and we didn’t have $500 for a couple new tires. We must’ve changed the gear 4 times throughout the night in an attempt to stop the wheel spin. After throwing some drastic stuff at our set-up, our pal Steve Ostling (USAC official and former New Mexico Sprint Car Champion) made a deal with Bruce Bromme for a nice used tire. After working out the trade details, we mounted it up. I started 14th and right away could feel the difference. We had a long green flag run and I worked my way to 8th before the yellow came out for a car that spun. The yellow seemed to last a long time and I think the tire cooled and sealed over, because once we went back to green, I just couldn’t get a hold of the top like I was earlier. I drifted over turn two and lost a few spots and had a great battle with Rusty Carlisle. At the end, I finished 11th and was really happy with how well our 410 ran. We want to congratulate Danny Faria who got his first CRA win in a commanding drive….Nice job! We also want to Thank Ron Nicholson and The Toiyabe Group once again for the motor work and all the support they have given us over the years! Thanks to Jimmy VanLare at VanLare Steering Repair for their support as well! Finally we want to Thank Steve-O and the Ron Chaffin gang for the tire! OH YA…and THANK YOU Grandpa for the use of your truck! It takes a lot of great people to keep us racing, and we can’t thank them enough.
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“Chris & Brian Faria Memorial” May 11th & 12th
Mom covered for us at the shop while we took Friday off for the Tulare Thunderbowl and two nights of USAC West Coast 360 racing. The race is in memory of two of the Faria brothers, and it’s the first time we’ve been able to make this race and show some support for our good friend, Danny Faria and his family. Marty qualified 8th out of a stout field of 28 cars, but then things just got slicker and slicker. Starting deep in his heat, Marty would only get to 5th and would need to run the semi in order to make the main event. He would finish 2nd in the Semi, but wore a new left rear tire half way out doing it. We made some more changes to the car and lined up for the main. Marty tried every line on the track, from rubbing the fence, to hooking the berm. At the end of the show, he had dropped to 17th and wasn’t happy. The track was so slick and dusty and he just couldn’t get a hold of anything. After the race, our new friend Johnny Vermeer came over and dropped off a new right rear tire for Sunday night.
Sunday was hot while Marty washed his car and did his regular maintenance routine. Johnny showed up with more help in the way of some tire bleeders to keep the pressures down as the tires get hot. Qualifying didn’t go as well, ending up 19th out of 33 cars, but he did transfer straight out of the heat race and that meant we didn’t need to wear out any tires in the semi. Lining up deep in the main event, Marty was patient as he raced in heavy traffic and worked his way into the top ten and passed about 5 cars in the last five laps to bring the Blakeley Landscaping maxim home in 7th place. New tires made all the difference and Marty felt pretty good after this one. We don’t get alot of double headers and it was nice to get a second night and a second chance to get things right.
We’d like to Thank Johnny Vermeer and his boys for coming by and helping us out. We really appreciate their generosity. Thanks to all the folks who helped make the Faria Memorial a great event. Thanks to the volunteers from KWS who put on the breakfast Sunday morning (Marty and I don’t eat to well when were gone…so Thank You). We also want to Thank Donny Austin at Nor Cal Drive-line and Johnny Franklin’s Driveline Service, along with Frank Giammona at Santa Rosa Auto Parts. These are just some of the wonderful folks that make racing possible for us.
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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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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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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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