September 20th, Baer Field Speedway-HOSS


Results

Baer Field Speedway, Ft. Wayne, IN (1/2 mile paved)
Qualified: 12th, 15.623 sec
Heat: Started-1st, Finished-4th
Feature: Started-11th, Finished-17th

Well, our final race of the 2008 season is in the books! And unfortunately, the results summary is NOT indicative of how we ran. Since it was our first visit at the track, we raced extremely well for the limited laps we had around the place compared to everyone else. The track itself is pretty narrow, so finding a fast line is pretty tough. We unloaded and the car was pretty good in the practice sessions. For qualifying, we made a slight shock adjustment which knocked half-a-second off our practice times, putting us 12th. We were supposed to start 3rd in the heat, but the pole-sitter elected to start at the tail, so that moved us up to the pole. On the initial start, the car didn't turn great in the center, and I almost drifted up into the car above. Luckily, there's plenty of power, so a hit of the throttle got the car turned. However, we ended up having to do a complete restart since a car went off the 2nd turn and into the tire-wall. On the restart, I was able to get the car turned a little better, but we still came out of 2 in 3rd position. Going into 3, another car was able to get past, but I was able to hang with them. The car handled pretty well throughout the race except it felt like I was starting to spin the tires coming off the turns. Due to attritions in the in heats, our starting position for the feature was moved up to 11th. We only added fuel so we could make it the entire 30 lap distance. I was able to get a pretty good start being able to pass a couple cars in the first couple laps. For most of the race we were battling for 8th around lapped traffic. Each couple laps, I would pull the wing back a little more for more rear grip. Not to mention this whole time, my left arm-restraint was sliding down my arm. So, I'm driving one handed part of the time trying to slide it back up. With about 12 laps to go, I was still battling for 8th, but we were being held up by a lapped car. Ultimately, all of us got lapped. About a lap or two later, the caution came out when a car spun in turn 4. NOW, this is were the confusion starts. The car I was battling with had a flat left-rear tire and ended up leaving the track. HOSS has a rule that takes the lapped cars out of the running order, so the lead lap cars are nose to tail. So, we obliged and moved back. BUT during this, two cars I had past in the first couple laps were moved ahead of me! Needles to say, I was NOT happy about this. I should have been restarting 8th, and I'm back in 12th! For the last few laps, I drove extremely hard to get back to where I was SUPPOSED to be. Coming to the white flag, I dove under a car going into 3. I had to yank the car down to make sure we didn't hit. The car started to break loose, and I wasn't able to save it. I spun up the track. The other guy was able to get it slowed down though, and we didn't hit. We were sitting there for a couple seconds when one of the last cars in the field came along and clipped the other car driving his car into mine. It ended up bending the left-side nerf bars into the left-front wheel, and I couldn't steer. So, we were put on the hook and taken to the pits with one lap to go. As you can see, we raced much better than the results showed. Overall, we were very happy with the performance of the car, just not too happy with the performance of the scorers on that caution. But, it's over and done with now, and it's on to next season!! I have to thank Dale and Sandy Kremer for coming over to watch and lending a helping had as well! Also, I have to thank Kristyn Amundson for supporting us in the stands too! If any of my other Ft Wayne friends were able to make it out, thanks! Finally, I have to thank Dick Ross and my dad for a great 2008 season!!! We didn't race that much, but we were able to learn a lot and have fun when we did. We're already excited about going into 2009. I'm still trying to get all the videos up from the Ft Wayne race, but I'm having a couple problems.

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