Seat time. I’ve been vocal about it but haven’t always been able to get as much consistent seat time as I have wanted throughout the years. Thankfully, the last few years we’ve been able to focus on running our home track at Sunset Speedway even though I’ve always struggled at these shorter, bullring style tracks.
2023 we finished 2nd in points but struggled to get a consistent handle on the car. 2024 we were only able to run a few races due to some fun weather related repairs. When we seen the schedule for this year, we realized this was the year to go for it again.
I did tell Alanna at the beginning of the year, “With 17 races, there’s no way we don’t figure this out and get a win.” I felt a ton of pressure as I remembered that last night. I was ready to make multiple adjustments from what we learned this year to get the car to handle on a dry surface. Luckily, I didn’t have to. Sometimes, we get lucky and the tracks come to us. Sometimes, dirt tracks get to be just what they are, dirt tracks.
Won the heat from 4th. Starting the main in the same spot, I felt pretty good about our chances, especially with the track staying nice and grippy with our open engine. I’ll let the videos being uploaded tell the tale of how the race went.
We know our strengths. We know the obvious weaknesses. But this year proved that if you put the time and effort in, it will happen. It almost didn’t, and I’ll say it now, I’ll never make that bet at the beginning of the year again. The talent of the drivers that race at this bullring and around the NW is top notch. Someone can be struggling over and over again, but with most the programs running, it only takes one correct adjustment and it’s lights out for the rest of us. We have lots of work to still do, but we plan to get there eventually. We definitely want to travel more next year and will be looking for sponsors to help with that this offseason.
Thank you to everyone that came up and congratulated us on the year and the win, and of course to everyone that helped us this year get our program together. Some individual posts are coming soon.
Thank you to Andrew Olsen and Courage Graphics for the photos!
After going through the engine we loaded up and headed to our home track at Sunset Speedway.
Sucked during hot laps and sucked harder during the heat finishing 4th.
Made our changes that had us fast the last race and rolled off 5th for the main. The car was obviously much better but it is so difficult to get our car handling on dirty tracks with the big engine. We were able to make up time through 3 and 4 and down the front stretch which made it very interesting to drive, but I kept losing in 1 and 2.
Towards the end I realized where to run to make up even more time but self spun running 3rd and made it back up to 4th for the checkered.
Overall it was a fun night on a very different track than usual, which was freakin’ awesome! Everyone knows how much I like a track with character and last night it had all of it. It was a rough one for all and we all appreciate the staff trying to fix it throughout the night, but sometimes you just gotta let dirt be what it is. .
Shout out to the kids that gave our car an end of year makeover! Pictures below!
Got some work to do before it gets going again, probably make it to next Perris race, but we’ll have to wait to try orange show another time.
In-car video from the first outing in the new car. Have some stuff to fix. It has an overheating issue after just 6 laps and when i took the lower hose off yesterday at the motor it was bone dry. Got some water in and pressure tested to find a leak at the water pump weep hole and the thermostat gasket. Then I ran something over with only halfa lap to go and wiped the belts off the front of the motor, and put a hole in the fuel tank.
Rolled into the pits ready to have a good time, and a good time was had.
Qualifying wasn’t very good as I had no clue what was going to happen, .
After finishing 4th in the heat, the car sounded horrible. Pulled the valve cover and found a rocker arm just rattling around. End of the push rod got ate up and I decided to ask around to see if anyone would happen to have anything. Luckily our pit neighbor had just put a set in the trailer and they were the right size. Cleaned up the hole and retightened that rocker and the car came back alive sounding great again.
Started the main in 7th. Quickly got up to 3rd and after a caution, we rocketed to the lead on the following restart. I tried to get out and away but the faster cars were right behind after a few more cautions.
Got passed before the final caution that ended our race early due to curfew and ended up 2nd. Got lucky as right before that caution we bent a wheel and the LR tire went down while pacing.
Close again but just not able to finish out front, just yet.
Massive thank you to everyone that welcomed us especially the Cornerstone Cafe crew. Alexander BozarthAaron Bozarth Alex went above and beyond to make sure we got back out to race and I can’t express enough gratitude for all of it.
After our scare on Friday night and early into Saturday night, we finally had the car back on track and running right. Went out and was fast for hot laps but struggled to do anything in the heat.
Made some tire changes for the main and was instantly better. Car held straight and all we needed was a little more to get the car to go forward a little bit better to pass. Pretty sure we know what we need but we’ll have to wait 3 weeks to try again. I am horrible in the dry slick and no character so finishing 6th with the group in front of us feels pretty damn good.
The talent of the drivers that race at this bullring and around the NW is top notch. Someone can be struggling over and over again, but with most the programs running, it only takes one correct adjustment and it’s lights out for the rest of us. We have lots of work to still do, but we plan to get there eventually. We definitely want to travel more next year and will be looking for sponsors to help with that this offseason.
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