July 3rd, Angola Speedway-HOSS
More details at the Angola Speedway website!!
Results
Angola Speedway, Angola, IN (3/8 mile paved)
Qualified: 14th, 13.118 sec
Heat: Started-2nd, Finished-3rd
Feature: Started-14th, Finished-11th
The mild weather Friday made for a perfect racing day at Angola Speedway. This would mark the 2nd time
that we have run the sprint-car at Angola, and the first time since making some changes over the
winter. Those changes definitely helped because our lap times were consistently a half second faster
than 2008! With the tight turns at Angola, it is always difficult to the the car to turn as quick as
you would like, and this visit was no exception. During the first practice session, the car wouldn't
turn well coming off the fourth turn. With a couple of adjustments though, we were able to free it
up in the second practice and got a couple high 12 sec laps. We tweaked a couple more things for
qualifying, but ended up hurting the car. It just wanted to push the nose from the center of the turn
out which produced the 14th quickest time out of the 21 cars. For our heat, we started on the
outside pole, and took out some of the changes we put in for qualifying. At the drop of the green,
I was able to hold my own on the outside of the first turn. I wanted to dive under the pole-sitter
off of two, but the 3rd place starter was able to get his nose there first. Down the back-stretch,
I wanted to set-up a pass coming off of 4, but again, one of the faster cars behind got a wheel in
underneath me going into 3. On the next lap though, I was able to complete the pass putting us into
3rd. That's where we finished up with neither the 1st or 2nd place guys really pulling away. We
stayed about the same distance apart. For the feature, we didn't make too many changes. Just added
fuel, and made sure our freshest right-rear tire was on the car. We also went over all the fuel
fitting to make sure everything was tight! After all, the main goal for the night was to finish all
30 laps. Before the feature, we had to run a few more caution laps than normal while we waited for
the track to turn on the lights. Then, another car had problems before the green flag, but he was able to start. At the drop of the green, the racing was furious! Everyone was battling hard
for position, but we all made it through unscathed. By the second or third lap, everyone had pretty
much settled into a rhythm for the race. The first 10 or 12 cars all pretty much ran nose to tail
throughout the race. I was able to gain on the car ahead, but then would lose a little at another
portion. A couple times, I lost ground when the car got loose going into the turn, but with a bump of
the wing back, it settled back down again. There a few cautions during the race which provided the
best chance for passing, but we just didn't have quite enough to get past the next guy. The car ended
up being a little tight on entry throughout the race which is where we would give up the most ground.
Either way, we were very pleased with finishing all the laps and coming home with an 11th place finish! It
was the 5th time we have raced the sprint-car, and the first time we were able to complete all the
laps in the feature! All the adjustments we did make gave us more data, so hopefully we can be faster
when we return to Angola Labor Day week-end!
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