May 2nd, Sandusky Speedway
More details at the Sandusky Speedway website!!
Results
Sandusky Speedway, Sandusky, OH (1/2 mile paved)
Qualified: 11th, 18.990
Heat: Started-2nd, Finished-5th
Feature: Started-11th, Finished-12th
We raced the Modified for the first time this past Saturday, and had a pretty good time. The car is much heavier than a sprint car or midget with even less rubber to hold you to track.
It will take some getting used to, but it will be a fun process. We already learned quite a bit from the first night of racing. In the two practice sessions, the car entered into the turns
fine, it was coming off that was the problem. It was very tight from the center of the turn off which was something we fought all night. Sandusky is doing group qualifying now, so you are on
the track with 2 other cars for a total of 4 timed laps. Your fastest lap counts as your time. I know it makes it more interesting for the fans, plus it doesn't take nearly as long.
Our qualifying time of 18.990 put us 11th out of the 13 Modifieds that were there. The fast time for the night was 18.250, so we weren't too far really. In order to try and get the car to rotate
in the center of the turn, we decided to try a shock change for the heat. I started on the outside of the front row. I held back a little, being cautious entering the first turn. I believe I came
out of the 2nd turn in 4th and stayed there under coming out of 2 the second time when I looped the car. Luckily, everyone made it through without incident, but I had to go to the back on the restart.
The restart was clean, and I wanted to settle into a rythmn for the rest of the race. As I said, the car was very tight from the center of the turns out, and about 4 or 5 laps after the restart, I spun
the car coming off of the 4th turn. This was the 2nd caution I caused, so I can to report to the pits and our race was done. For the Featuer, we undid the shock change from the Heat race since the car
would get loose a lot easier. We didn't make any other drastic changes for the Feature since we just wanted to bring the car home in one piece. I started 11th and settled into a rythmn for what the car would
give me instead of pushing it too hard. There were a couple cautions throughout the race, but thankfully I wasn't around too many of them. The most eventful one was with about 4 laps to go when a few cars got together
coming out of two. With the smoke it was hard to see, but one of the cars ended up in the outside wall. When it was all said and done, we ended up finishing 12th and learning a lot about the limits of the car, and where
we need to improve. I have to thank my Uncle Bob, Cousins Rob and Andy, Rob's son Owen, and my wife and dad for helping with everything they could on race night. Also, thanks to the Chasteen's for stopping by even though
they didn't know we would be racing! The next time the Modifieds will race at Sandusky is May 16th. Gate times and ticket prices are listed on the Sandusky Speedway website. We're making the changes to the car to make it better, so come out and see how we did!
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