September 29th, Berlin Raceway-WOMS

Results

Berlin Raceway, Marne, MI (7/16 mile paved)
Qualified: 19th (17.521 sec)
Heat: Started-2nd, Finished-5th
Feature: Started-19th, Finished-10th

Well, our final race of season was last night at Berlin Raceway. It was an all open-wheel show with the midgets, Auto-Value Super Sprints, and International Super-modifieds. The fans were spectacular since they don't see these kind of cars very often. Also, since it's their home track, Johnny Benson and Randy Sweet both raced super-modifieds. Anyway, after the long trek up there (about 5 hrs) we finally pulled into the track with 23 other midgets on-hand. The race was acutally a tri-sanctioned event too with cars from our normal series of WOMS, USAC Regional cars, and United Midget Auto Racaing Associaton. This was the first time we had been to Berlin since 2004, and we had wings on the cars then. It definitely took a little getting used to the track again. Not to mention, I decided not to buy any new tires for the week-end since it was the last race of the year. All through practice, the car was loose (wanting to spin-out) every time I would get back in the throttle. It just seemed like the RR wanted to just eat the track up. For qualifying, we made some minor adjustments on the shocks and air pressure in the tires. The car felt more stable, but coming to the white flag, I was really loose off of 4 again. Luckily, I kept it outta the wall, but it definitely didn't help the lap-time much. We ended up 19th out of the 24 cars. Before the heats, we had an autograph session which was really fun. The series provided us with 50 pictures of our cars to sign and give to fans. I ended up going through all of them which I was really surprised about. Our time put us on the outside pole for the first heat. On the start, fellow WOMS driver and owner, Dan Vandermolen, raced side-by-side into 1. Coming out of 2 though, the faster cars behind us were on the move making it 4 wide! Dan and I decided to just let them go and settled for some laps. The car was still kinda loose off the of the turns, but more manageable than earlier in the day. After an early caution, I quickly found out that my radio was not turned-on so that made getting the line-up right a little more difficult. When we went back to green, the faster cars just took off. I tried to settle in for some smooth laps, but with about 3 laps to go, the car go REALLY loose off of 4, and I almost hit the wall. I was able to save it though. After a late race caution, I was able to come home 5th and stick with the leaders in the last lap. We really didn't make too many adjustments for the feature since we thought the track would be getting tighter as the night went on. On the initial start, two cars got together about the middle of the pack. I was able to miss everything though, and made it through without any damage. On the restart, the car felt extremely comfortable and very racy. I was able to stay with all the cars near us, getting past a couple. An early caution bunched the field again, and I felt it was the best time to pass a very cars. On the restart, I went high into the first turn and picked-up a position. I was then on the tail of Dan again, along with Mel Kenyon, a midget racing legend at 740 years young! For a couple laps, we all battled until Dan was able to get under Mel, and I followed him through. The next couple laps I was right on Dan's bumper trying to figure out the best way around. I was getting ready to make my move when we came up on a lapped car. Dan went under him going into 1, and I was going to follow him through, but the lapped car came down not knowing I was there. I quickly turned the wheel left, jammed the brakes, which pitched the car sideways. I probably missed running over the lapped car by about 3 inches. I was able to get past him down the back-stretch, but Dan was gone by then. For the remaining laps, I tried to get back up to Dan but couldn't. So, after a little excitement, I ended up 10th. I was extremely happy with the car in the feature as it handled great! I guess I 'gamble' worked out ok. Our last race of the season was extremely fun since we were able to race with someone almost every lap out there. The car came home in one piece with only maintenance things to do over the off-season. The WOMS awards banquet will be in Nov., so hopefully we'll find some stuff out about next season. We ended up 6th in the WOMS points which is the highest that we ever have!

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