08/14/11 - Career Best 4th Place Finish at Luxemburg!
This past Friday night (8/12) at Luxemburg Speedway was a night to remember for all the right reasons. Things got off on the right foot as I took off from my front row starting spot in the heat race and led every lap on my way to victory. The win was my very 1st heat race victory of my career, as I had picked up a semi-feature win earlier in the season.
We took some notes during the past few weeks on how to get faster in the feature, and that time spent definitely paid off. With the adjustments we made, I ran right with race leader Tyler Hackett for the first half of the feature. Hackett ran the high line, while I was running right through the middle of the track. I had a close call when I nearly spun myself out coming off of turn 4, but quickly regathered myself to continue running 2nd.
I held my line throughout the race, and with about 5 laps to go Troy Jerovetz was able to use the bottom groove to get past me. Then with 2 laps remaining, Eric Arneson also got by on the inside lane to snatch 3rd place away from me. When the checkers flew, I found myself in the claim area for the first time in my career, finishing in 4th place.
I decided to take the rest of the weekend off, but my dad jumped into Ben Kroll’s IMCA stock car and raced at 141 Speedway on Saturday night. He had a pretty good night, starting 9th in the heat race and finishing 5th. Then in the feature, he started 10th and finished 9th.
We will be back at Luxemburg Speedway next Friday night, and we will see how it goes from there. Only 3 weeks left of weekly racing, and then we’re onto the end-of-year specials. The season has gone by way too fast!
08/08/11 - Near Miss at Luxemburg, 12th at Seymour
On Friday night at Luxemburg Speedway, I started 3rd in my heat race and ended up getting the short end of the stick on the start. The front two cars were a little out of control down the frontstretch, so I checked up coming into turn 1. Brian Bruechert got under me, and I touched tires with him and Greg Wichman to my outside. Everyone made it through without further incident, but I was playing catch-up right out of the box.
I finished the heat race in 6th, setting me up with the same starting spot (3rd) in the semi-feature. The top 3 would advance to the feature, and on the start I settled into the 4th position behind Jeremy Cota. I had started to reel in Cota in the waning laps, but ran out of time and finished in 4th.
On Sunday night, we went back to Seymour Speedway for the 2nd time this season. Originally we had 20 cars sign in for the sportmod division, but 4 drivers showed up late. The original heat lineups were 2 heats of 10, which turned into 2 heats of 12, making things very interesting. Cautions marred my heat race, for both incidents on the track and also some rain showers passing over the facility. I started in 10th place and finished in 7th when the showers eventually ended our race.
I would start 14th on the grid for the feature, and early on the car felt pretty good anywhere I wanted to run. Again, cautions would fly early and often, and before I knew it I was restarting in 8th place on the final restart. I roasted my tires a little coming off of turn 2, and that allowed Aaron Muhle to get by. I regathered myself and stuck to the bottom of the track, tight to the tires where there was a little bit of bite left in the track. It looked like I was headed for a top 10 finish, but Chummy Arneson and Brad Lautenbach came charging on the outside of everyone in the final laps. Rob Charapata would also get by me on the final lap, handing me a 12th place finish on the night.
Overall I was happy with how the car worked this weekend, we’re getting back to the adjustments that got us several top 10 feature finishes to start the year. We’ll be back at Luxemburg this coming Friday night, then heading up to Door County and Thunderhill Raceway on Saturday night.
07/31/11 - Streak of Feature Starts Broken
It was not a great night for us this past Friday night at Luxemburg Speedway, as I was unable to find my way into the feature for the first time since June 24.
In my heat race, I was unable to get around polesitter Russel Franks as quickly as I had hoped, and dropped back into 5th spot early on in the race. Brad Theys got by me on the inside on lap 2, and the field quickly went single file to the checkers on a very heavy and fast track. My 6th place finish would set me up with a 2nd row starting spot in the semi-feature.
I had anticipated the hotlap session for Paul Parker to last a little longer than it did, and was late getting to the lineup. I was not the only one, and that really hurt my chances of getting into the top 3 to transfer to the feature. Our semi-feature was stacked with feature winners, including Theys, Eric Mahlik, Troy DeGrave, Brian Bruechert and Randy LeMieux. I was able to come from 8th place up to 6th, but unfortunately that would be as far as I could climb.
Thunderhill Raceway was rained out last night, and Seymour Speedway was off due to the Outagamie County Fair, so that leaves us with only 5 weeks of racing left in the season before the end-of-year specials. Look for us back at Luxemburg next Friday night, with a chance of us heading to Thunderhill on Saturday or Seymour on Sunday.
