I sort of snuck this race in on yaa! I didn't list this race on my schedule but we didn't even know about it until Tuesday afternoon.

After the race at Lakeland, I decided that we needed to try the soft spring set up again. Although my car was the best it has ever been, I just couldn't get the tightness out of it in the center of the corner. No mater who I talked too, everyone said the soft spring set up was the way to go. So, although we've tried it unsuccessfully 3 times before, I decided to try it again and test it before my next race on July 19th.

There was supposed to be an evening practice a New Smyrna Speedway last Thursday and I was ready to give the new set up a try but just before we left the shop the sky fell in and the practice was rained out. I was in sort of a pinch because I'm going to Lafayette, LA for 2 weeks for an apprenticeship in TIG welding and I won't be back until the 18th just one day before the race. I really wanted to get a few laps on the set up to decide if I wanted to use it or go back to the conventional set up so now I didn't know what I was going to do.

Then, we got this idea that we would go and try to practice with the super late models as though we were going to to try to run the Clyde Hart Memorial Race on July 3rd. My dad jumped on the internet to see when the track would open and what the practice schedule would be. The speedway web site didn't say anything about the schedule but there was a post on one of the racing forums about the schedule and it also said that there was going to be a 25 lap Limited Late Model race sponsored by the Children's Miracle Network. That's just what we needed so we loaded up the car and headed to the track.

I don't know what the deal was. The race didn't pay any more than a typical 15 lap Saturday night race and the speedway didn't think it was important enough to post the event on their web site. Still, the secret got out and 9 Limiteds showed up for the race. I've often wondered why there are so few sponsors at New Smyna Speedway and now I can see why. These speedways know that, no mater what they do, at least a couple cars will show up for an event because we want to race. So, they pocket the money from the sponsors and don't promote the races. I would be surprised if anyone would ever sponsor a race again like that. Sponsors drive this sport. Without them there isn't going to be any cars or race tracks in the future. I still don't know anything about the Children's Miracle Network but I'm going to find out because I really needed the seat time and I appreciate them sponsoring this race. I hope you all will check them out too.

As for my sponsor's its come to the middle of the year so it's a good time to give them credit for helping this spoiled poor kid's dream come true! The Fabricators and Manufacturers Association (FMA) has been my primary sponsor this year and has helped me in many ways both on and off the track. Their publication "Practical Welding Today" has also been on board. They call me "the face of youth in manufacturing"! If you are involved in manufacturing you aught to check out their web site: www.FMAnet.org. They offer many great benefits to manufacturers which are especially valuable in this tough economy.

My local sponsors, Culligan Water of Central Florida and Universal Pest Control are really unique people. They help me out even though it's really hard to track the benefit of being on a local race car and it would be easy to pass on the opportunity. They will never have any idea how much their help means to me. I sure hope that the phrase, "What comes around, goes around..." works for good deeds too. They certainly deserve it and more.

Well, about the race, somehow I pulled the number #1 pill and got the pole for the race. I tend to start the race a little too slow when I'm on the pole. I also tend to jump the start too. So, I tried to bring them down at a little faster pace than usual and waited a little too long to fire. The outside pole sitter got a jump on me and got the lead going into turn one. It took me a few laps to really get up to speed and then I started to pull away from everyone else behind me but by that time the leader had about a half a straight away lead on me and I was never able to catch him. We ran all 25 laps without a caution and it was pretty much follow the leader the whole race. There was a spin behind me on about the 3rd lap but everybody got back underway without having to restart the race. This helped me because one of the really fast cars got caught up in that and when they got going again she was more than a half a lap down and couldn't make up the distance on the track before the end of the race. So, I finished 2nd and had a pretty good race.

What is even more exciting is that the set up worked really well. I think our shocks weren't done right the other times we tried this because I had them rebuilt just for this set up and the car feels really stable underneath me now. I know I could go faster but I just didn't feel confident enough to drive it any harder just yet. I heard once that you need to set up your car so that it works best when you drive it really hard. Well, this is exactly what the car is doing now so it's sort of waiting on me. I can drive it into the corner until I see Jesus, then let it roll through the corner right on the yellow line, and get back full on the gas from the center off and the car loves it. After every lap I thought, "I could have done that better" and then I would try a little harder on the next lap but it still wanted to go faster! I guess the ball is back in my court now. I've finally got the car, I just need the cajones!