We put in some time into the car for this weekend in hopes we would have a better run then we have the last 2 years at Madison International Speedway. We have struggled to get traction there. So we knew we had to change things up some.
Practice started and we where happy for the most part with the car. Did try a couple small things and we just got the car better each time we went out. Qualifying we gave it a shot and qualified 2nd quick. Tough competition to make things work. And to be that fast.
Heat race we played defense and did not want to mess up the car at all. Started outside 2nd row and fell back a little and just played it to safe. Went to wide one lap so had some work to do to get back to everyone. At the end we finished 4th.
Feature time we started outside 6th row and had a lot of ground to make up. An issue happened and we had a caution. So we started out in single file when we took the green. Went to work the best we could. Slowly picking drivers off one by one. We made it to 5th just before the halfway mark and we knew we had a piece to get to the rest of the front runners. But, an issue happened and we lost 3rd gear ending our night.
This has been the best we have done sense 2021 at the track and just like then, our race was done early because of an issue.
So we did what we had to do and hoped we could find the transmission we needed to make a run at Dells Raceway Park. But no luck. So we put in our spare transmission that is different gearing Saturday morning. No idea how our RPM’s would be. We also decided to put on our 13 inch wheels to help us out.
We get to the track and finish prepping the car for our practice session. Went out and we made things work the best we could. Made an adjustment and went right back out. Doing what we can, we got the car better.
Qualifying time. We made little more adjustment and gave it our all. Qualified with the same time as we did in our practice session. And I mean same exact time. Putting us 4th fastest.
Now we have a good idea how things where, we made a small adjustment to try and help get us through the corner better. We went out for our heat race and the car just did not run correctly and the handling was worse. Then we started pushing water out of our overflow. Pulled the pin.
Got back to our pit and started working to see what the issue was. Hoping we just had a little to much water in the system. Made the adjustment back and worked on the water. It is now feature time.
We get lined up and we did what we could. Started 9th and did what we could to get to the front right away. Issue at the start of the race allowed up to restart in 5th. We took the cone and decided I would go to the outside and in the 2nd row. Green flag flew and I went charging to the front as fast as I could taking the lead over for lap 6. But it was short lived when Karter got to me taking the lead away. Then Kyle, and the yellow flag flew again. We lined back up and I took the inside line. When we took the green and my car started acting up again with a major miss. It was starting to act up earlier, but not like this. Was not able to get up to speed as I would normally. Fell back to 5th and did what I could to hold on till the end of the race.
We had fun. We know we could have done better. But we finally got our first top 5 at DRP.
This coming weekend we had on our schedule to run Sandusky Speedway to run with the National Compact Touring Series. But that has now changed. We are not sure what this weekend will bring just yet. Got some work to do and got to figure out the miss issue.
Thanks to my family and my crew that is also family for making this weekend work. My wife Heather, for everything she and Rebecca does to help. Wayne and Ken for all the shop help each week. And my wonderful sponsors. Would have not been this far without them. Show your support and support them. They are the biggest reason why we are able to keep racing. Go to them for your stuff and they keep supporting racing.
Lilly Auto Care Center
Josleyn transport
Fisher Valley Felines
Reynolds Heating and Cooling
GDT
Dave’s White Rock
Computers-3s
Blake Liddicoat in memory of Randy Liddicoat
Jeremy Libick Racing Photography
Redneck Fabrication
KP Oil
Legacy auto sales
Andy Bolton
