Well, this year really started off with a bang!

Last year we didn't make the World Series races because we were waiting on getting our motor back from the engine builder but this year we thought we were ready. We made several changes to the car and tested them as best we could at the shop but there are some things that you can only test to be sure they work at the track. So, we were thinking of this race as sort of a shake down of the car and not that we were really going to win or even do real well. We just wanted to see what the car would do and that everything worked as it should. Well, we sure found out.

I think I've said it before but if the track says it's going to do something, or not do something, than you can pretty much bank on that they will do the exact opposite. Sure enough, when we asked when the track was planning to open each day they told us they would open at noon and practice would start at 1:00 o'clock. So, we got to the track at a few minutes before eleven hoping we could get in a little early and find a parking spot. When we drove up the gate was wide open and there were already car's on the track. Before we even got the trailer parked the first practice for our group was already started.

So we missed the first practice session. No big deal right? Well, we went down and got the car through tech. We picked up the schedule for the day and found out that we would be practicing again at around 2 PM. I was planning on driving back to the trailer but as I passed the pit entrance one of the officials motioned me out on the track. So I went out and took a few warm up laps until they realized I was a Limited Late Model and not a Super Late Model. Then they started waving their hands and yelling like I did something wrong! I don't know how they expected me to know what was going on if they have no clue. Oh well, I finally got the car back to the pits but during those warm up laps I was encouraged about how the car felt.

On the way back to the trailer my crew chief spotted oil dripping out of the car. We got it up on jack stands and got the hood off and found that a hose that we put on when we added an oil cooler was leaking a little bit. The hose was a few years old and had been laying around our shop but we did get new fittings for it. We took it off and found that the fitting had cut into the side of the hose and that the inside of the hose was tearing up. The oil was leaking through the side of the hose and not the fitting. We cut the hose off below the damaged area and put the fitting back on, put the hose back on, added some oil and started it back up to see if we had it fixed but it leaked just as bad as it did before. We took it all back apart and found out that it did the same thing again. Figuring that the hose must have been bad we just by passed the oil cooler eliminating that hose and that solved the problem.

Now we were ready to practice but with only one practice left we really had to make this one count. The practice sessions were 15 minutes in length and you could just stay out there and run laps as long as you wanted. I ran and worked on getting comfortable in the car since I hadn't driven for 6 weeks. I was getting the car into the corner better and better but there were so many cars on the track, and most of them were going slow to scuff tires for qualifying, I could only get 1 or 2 good laps and then I would have to slow to go around somebody. After about 15 laps my spotter came on the radio and said he thought I had a tire going down and a few seconds later I felt the rear end slide out from under me. I got it slowed down and didn't spin out and then came into the pits.

When we got back to the trailer we realized that the left rear tire was rubbing on the quarter panel and it eventually cut through the side of the tire. Over the winter we put all new fenders, bumpers and doors on the car and, although they came from the same company as the ones we had before, each one is a little different. All we had to do to correct the problem was adjust the fender support a little and it was fine but now I had to decide what to do with my tires for qualifying.

Usually everybody scuffs their tires before qualifying. Last year I had a similar situation where I didn't have time to scuff my tires and I ran my fastest time ever, so I figured I would go out and qualify on new tires again. Well, things were a little different this time. First, they had been practicing and racing for 6 days with several types of rubber and lots of tire conditioner in the tires. All this goo was down on the track. The combination of that and the mold release that comes on new tires made my car feel really weird and unpredictable. I qualified almost a second slower that I had last year putting me 16th out of the 18 cars that qualified.

I guess I sort of got a little depressed after that. We have been working so hard and I really wanted to start this year off good. Last year it took us 5 races to get the bugs out of the car and it seemed like we were heading down that same road again. Then, my mom pointed out that we weren't the worst car out there and that even some of the Super Late Models qualified slower than I did, and that we knew what the problem was so it would be easy to fix before the race. I guess I really didn't want to hear all that but it did get me off my "poor me" gig and got my focus back on the race.

My crew chief said, as we rolled of the grid, that he wanted me to give myself some room and not be too anxious on the first start because they tend to eliminate a lot of the competition on the first lap and if we were going to do well in this race we needed to avoid that wreck. I took his advise but as I passed the flag stand the bottom opened up so I dropped down and got the preferred line into turn one. The wreck didn't happen on the first lap but on lap 2 - 3 cars tangled up in turn 2 and a lap later another 3 cars wrecked in turn 3 so in 3 laps, without passing a car, I went from 13th to 7th!

On the next restart I was following a friend of mine so I tried to run his line and see if that would help me get off the corners better. After 3 laps I realized that wasn't going to work for me so I changed back to a line that I was more comfortable with. I knew that I tend to go into the corners a little too low. It's sort of a bad habit I have developed racing at the same track all the time. I was working on getting into the corners a little better so that I could get off the corners faster. That's where I always seem to lose time to the leaders. Well, I was getting better and better and I was pulling away from the cars behind me and gaining on the cars in front of me but on lap 15 the motor started to lay down and I knew something was wrong. I was just about to come on the radio and tell my crew chief that I was coming in when the motor let go going into turn one.

I had a motor blow up once in go kart racing but I never had one blow up in a stock car before. In the go kart it all of a sudden got real quiet and I could hear the wind rushing over my helmet. In the stock car everything stopped as though I had slammed on the brakes and the car spun out from the rear tires locking up. As I went around another car clipped the rear end of my car and tore the rear bumper cover off and then everything came to a stop. I got out of my car thinking I had blown another tire but when I looked they were all still full of air. Then the wrecker driver came to get me and he said he thought it looked like I blew the rear end so he towed the car in and left me on the infield for the rest of the race. Since they all said that it looked like the rear end locked up I went and got a wrench and took out the axles so the car would roll back to the trailer. As we pushed the car away from where it was sitting, the puddle of oil under the front of the car revealed what had happened.

We loaded up and then dropped the trailer at the shop. I had to get home to bed because I had school the next morning so we just left the car in the trailer and didn't get to take a closer look to see how bad it was. The next day my dad went to the shop and unloaded the car. There were 2 small holes in the front of the oil pan and the fan belts were gone. The front of the crank shaft was sort of hanging down so you could tell the crank was broke. With the valve covers off you could see that the rocker arms were all cockeyed and there was one push rod mysteriously missing. Our guess is a cam failure caused the parts to fall into the path of the cam and lock it up. Then the crank shaft tried to climb the timing chain breaking it and the first bearing journal off the block. At this point it looks like I might a have a good set of heads and a carburetor to sell but that all that's left.

My dad didn't like that motor and has been trying to get me to buy a spec motor since last fall. I thought the motor was fine, I just needed to learn to drive the corners better. Well, dad got his wish, I have a spec motor on the way, but I still have to work on my driving. I have a driving coach coming out to work with me at the Desoto race in a few weeks and the motor builder is going to help us put the new motor in the car so hopfully, with all this help, we should be able to put the gremlins behind us and make sum progress on my driving skills.