May 19th, Kalamazoo Speedway-WOMS
Results
Kalamazoo Speedway, Kalamazoo, MI (3/8 mile paved)
Qualified (18 cars): 9th, 13.399 sec.
Heat (9 cars): Started-1st, Finished-5th
Feature (16 cars): Started-1st, Finished-12th
Well, our first race of the season (and in a year-and-a-half for that matter) is finally in the record
books! Unfortunately, our finishing positions doesn't show how well we really ran. In hot laps, the
car felt pretty good. It took me a little while to get back in the groove of things after being out
of the car for so long. We made some changes for qualifying though, and ended up qualifying 9th. The
car was a little on the loose side. I didn't want to abuse the right-rear tire too much either since
we had to use it the rest of the night. With our qualifying time, we ended up starting on the pole
for our heat race. Actually, that's more to do with the amount of rookies we had in our heat. The
WOMS rules say that all rookies start on the tail of our races for the first 3 race week-ends, no
matter what their time is. Anyway, we had a pretty good start. The outside pole-sitter was able to
keep us on the bottom though. I wasn't able to let the car move up on the straights, keeping the
speed. When I was able to move up where I wanted to be, the rest of the field had lined-up behind me
and could get by easier. When the train had ended, we ended up coming home in 5th. For the feature
race, we ended up on the pole again. This time, because the 8th qualifier had motor problems in the
heat and couldn't race the feature. WOMS inverts the top 8 positions, so we were on the pole. We had
a much better start this time, and I was able to run a line I wanted. The first couple faster cars,
got past us, and started racing amoungst themselves. We kept right with them though in about the 7th
or 8th position. We went for 14 laps until two guys ahead of me got together, with one spinning. On
the re-start two lapped cars were ahead of us. It took me a couple laps to get past them, letting the
lead pack to get away. When I got clear track, I was able to start tracking down the leaders. We
were closing in when the cautiong flew agains for a spin. We were sitting 7th when the leaders got
together in 3 and 4. No laps were completed, and with them going to the tail, we moved up to 5th.
Under the caution, I noticed the oil temp. was getting a little high. I was getting ready for the
restart, liking where we were at. Everyone ahead of us seemed to be smoking the right-rear, so I felt
we could finsh in the the top 5 or better if they had issues ahead of us. As we came around under the
caution though, the car popped out of gear. I wasn't able to get in back in though and had to pull
in. So, that's how we ended up 12th. I have to congratulate Chris Hettinger for coming back to win
after being involved in a earlier incident. That's pretty much our racing action. We found today that
the shifter was elongated, so it wouldn't stay in gear. Also, the rear-end gasket had gotten rolled
over leaking rear-end fluid most of the way home. The other eventful part of the night was the drive
home. We had some truck problems. Luckily, we made it to the I-75/Turnpike exit. I have to thank
Bob Mandeville for helping us all we could, but we ended up having to tow the hauler back home. We
pulled in the drive-way at 6:15 Sunday morning. Needless to say, we're all pretty tired today. Well,
we should have everything all fixed-up for Saturday though, ready to race again.
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