September 6th, Angola Speedway-HOSS
More details at the Angola Speedway website!!
Results
Angola Speedway, Angola, IN (3/8 mile paved)
Qualified: 17th, 12.8 secs
Heat: Started-2nd, Finished-6th
B-Main: Started-6th, Finished-5th
The Labor Day week-end is usually a big racing week-end, and the 2009 edition was no exception. We
were at Angola Motor Speedway for the season finale of their Wide-Open Tour. We decided to go try a
little different set-up this time out there. The first practice session, the car really wanted to
roll to the right rear, and as a result was hard to handle coming off the turns. We made a couple
minor shock adjustments for the second practice session which made us half a second faster, and the
car much more stable. We had drawn the last qualifying position, so we decided to make a couple more
shock adjustments. The car wasn't nearly as comfortable durint the qualifying run. However, we were
able to shave a couple more tenths off our time which put us 17th out of the 30 cars there. Since we
had so many cars, a B-Main would have to be run. Because of that, the track decided to switch the
order of events with the sprint-car heat races first. We were in the first of the four heats, and we
decided to make a rear stagger adjustment. With the order of event change though, we didn't have time
to make the other adjustments we needed to in relation to the stagger change. I started on the outside
pole, and on the start was able to hold the 2nd position for a lap or so. The changes we made had
helped a little, but the car felt loose just after entry. While racing for the 4th position, which
was the transfer position, I ended up spinning the car in the 3rd turn. So, that put me at the tail
of the field with 5 laps to go. On the restart, the 6th and 7th place cars were really racing hard,
and I had no way to get around, even though we were much faster. Finally, I was able to get around
and up to 6th. With that finish, we had to run the B-Main. Again, only the top 4 cars would transfer
to the Feature. Now, we had plenty of time to get everything reset for the stagger change that we had
made for the heat. I started 6th in the B, and the car handled a ton better! We had a clean start,
and stuck right with the pack. There was a close battle for all 8 laps between the 4th, 5th, and 6th
place cars. When one would gain ground, another would lose ground which kept us all pretty tight.
The 4th place car was tight getting in, and the 5th place car was loose coming off, so I had to be
careful on where to go. In hind-sight, I problably should have just gone to the high-side of the
track to try and get around them both. Coming to the checkered flag, the leader broke a right-front
wheel which bunch the whole field back up and put us 5th. I made a huge run going in the 3rd turn
under the now 4th place car when we were coming to the white flag, but I wasn't able to get it stick
off of the turn. So, we ended up coming home 5th, one spot out of the transfer. Shortly after we got
back to the pits, it started to sprinkle a little bit. As we loaded everything up, it started to rain
a little harder. We stuck around for a while to see if they would run the feature, but decided to
head home since the rain persisted. I have to thank Mark Pridemore and Dick Ross for coming out to
help us out in the pits. We couldn't have gotten everything done that we did without you. I also
have to thank anyone that was up in the stands cheering us on! I thought come of my Layman family
relation was going to try and make it, but I'm not sure if you did. Well, our final race of the 2009
season will be Sept. 19th at Baer Field Speedway. We already have a few things we'd like to try there,
so we'll see how things turn out.
Back to 2009 Reports