First of all, huge thanks to Mike Graham at Perfection Automotive for being around for us when we made a last minute decision to run this weekend.
Thursday we looked over everything and got things ready for testing some oil pressure gauges and found the new stepper gauge is faulty, or maybe the sender. We’ll look into it deeper the next few weeks we have off.
Made it to the track and was very hopeful the track would stay heavy as it was in hot laps; however, it did not. Made some changes and just couldn’t get it right and sucked big time in the main. Huge apology to Chaz Wilder for getting into him off 4 and damaging the RR quarter panel. Completely messed up and just couldn’t get my head right after.
We love running against all the guys that were there and even though we didn’t take anyone out, getting into his panel was just dumb. Went back and watched our replay and confirmed I just flat out sucked.
As we can’t get to the track for a month or so, we plan to go through everything and try some different things to get this thing going back in the right direction.
Had fun during the fan appreciation period of the night, and we have some glorious ideas for the next one. Shoutout to Alanna Day-Wood for making those goodie bags on the fly.
Got to drive this bad boy tonight and had some fun figuring it out throughout the night.
Car ran a little rough and had some issue with that to stay consistent, but overall was a great night. Car is stupid fast when it can get cleared out and rolling down the track.
Halfway through the main going into turn 3 the engine cut out a little bit and we jumped the cushion that was in the middle and tagged the wall. Pulled er off thinking the deck was destroyed but I guess the thing is built different because it was absolutely fine. Thank God.
YUGE thank you to my brother and Amanda McCullough for taking time out of their lives to get their car and trailer ready the last few days and bring it out so I could run it and get points and keep our streak going for the year. Glad I could shake those cobwebs off and help get some things figured out to hopefully get them out there soon.
The night started off looking over the track after mud pack and boy were we happy when the clouds decided to grace us with their presence to keep the track wet. Made for the track to rip up a bit and be a little rough but also have a great 3 and 4 corner to throw the car into and have a ton of fun.
Heat race: Started on pole, got passed by Greg Walters and tried following him to learn 1 and 2, when we got completely railed from behind in 3 and 4 and spun around. CRAIG! Quickly realized he had made an error and we were all good. Restarted and made it back to 2nd before Craig passed us at the end to finish 3rd.
Fixed up the quarter panel so it didn’t rub the RR tire and got ready for the main.
A-Main: Started pole again and same thing. Drove away until a restart where Walters got around us in 1 and 2, as well as Craig a couple laps later, and was running a comfortable 3rd trying to get more consistent in turns 1 and 2. Everything was going great until it wasn’t great anymore. Coming out of 4 with under 10 to go, I heard things smacking things they shouldn’t have been touching. At first thought it was a flat RR, to then being told the rearend was all over the place on the raceceiver.
J-bar bolt sheared in half and decided it was done working. Everything shifted left and driveshaft tried making its way into the cockpit. Seemed we were lucky to just tear up some cockpit sheet metal and bend some heims, but we would have to look it over after unloading on Sunday.
Unloaded the car and took panels off to assess the damage to realize we have some more broken things than we originally seen (of course, we were diggin when it broke).
The car is getting looked over and hopefully it isn’t too bad, but there were definitely some things being yanked on in ways it shouldn’t be and things on the rearend are bent more than they should be.
Probably done for the year, probably not? We will see. We are so close to 2nd in points after this weekend and the 2nd place driver not showing, that we could maybe get there to just run around and get points this weekend, but we will have to wait and see how bad things are. We have some options but will wait to assess the damage.
Thank you to everyone for their support throughout this year and to Craig Cassell for being a stand-up guy after what happened in the heat race. Shit happens in racing and it was obvious things just happened in that situation and we appreciate him for his honesty and help afterwards unlike some other situations we’ve been in this year with others.
We will keep you all updated on how things are going throughout the week.
The heats went how we expected, fast from the last time we loaded car. Could tell it was going to be a bit loose later in the night so made a few changes, but nothing crazy.
Made the dash unexpectedly as we usually just use hot laps for feeling the car out. That was cool. Started pole, got 3rd. Car seemed way looser in a small amount of time than anticipated. For some reason the car after that race felt like the entire front end was going to fall apart so we were trying to diagnose that for the main. Nothing seemed off or out of whack, so made sure we were good on wheel torque and went out.
Started 3rd for the main and just sucked. I was bad, really bad. Car did the front end wobble a couple times but nothing crazy and didn’t really affect anything. Engine sounds a little pissed off, so luckily we have a couple weeks to look into that. Hopefully just a few maintenance things for that issue.
Overall, I myself just sucked. Looking back at videos from in car and in stands I was just bad. I’ll fix that for the July 22nd race.
Thank you to everyone that came and seen us in the pits before and after the races, and to all of our supporters and sponsors.
Well, the speedweek curse bit us again. The part that sucks the most is it affects our top 3 points run for the track when someone else decides they want to just dump someone out of the way when they realize they can’t get around them clean. It’ll be another one to remember and take care of another day.
The car was phenomenal after completely redoing the rearend and putting an actual dirt setup in vs an asphalt set. We realized some things were backwards when transferred from old car and that’s a mistake I’ll own up to. The best part of that? We made it work for 6 races in a row.
Want to thank Andrew Olsen for the pit spot again. Was awesome to not have to worry about that after the 2 weeks we’ve all had.
Thank you to all of our supporters and to each and every single person that makes this thing go. We definitely could use some help with a sponsor for fuel/entry fees/or whatever, so if you know anyone, send them our way .
Next race is the 4th of July back at Sunset Speedway. See you all there!
Ordered a new birdcage that finally came in Friday. Been running some cages from 2004-06 that don’t even use bearings and had the car way off measurements and was ruining expensive stuff, so we decided it’d be a fun time to change it and try to make it happen for Saturday to test before some big races coming up in the next couple months.
Started the heat race race 4th, finished 2nd. Car turned very nicely but had no drive so back on the stands it went to make more adjustments.
For the main, the car was much better but still lacked some of the drive we had before with the old birdcage, but didn’t break those important parts!
Started 6th and the race was just a cluster fuck. Entire field got caught up in chaos on a restart which got us up to 3rd but got out of rhythm and bent some shit on the RF after being driven into the wall on the following start. Luckily the rim had just enough to hold air for the remainder of the race and we finished 6th.
As we’ve said many times this year, the group we race with each and every week is amazing to race against. We just lost some brain cells last night apparently. You would have thought our race was for $2,500. Fortunately, our damage is minor so far. Others definitely didn’t fare so well.
FINALLY have a week off which will help us tremendously and catch up on things.
Thanks to all who support us. Big thanks to my mom who’s here visiting and helping out. Also thanks to Jeremy Means for the like contest and comping our entry.
Lastly, yuge thank you to my wife for everything she does. She has now put up with me for 12 years, 7 of em married today. Happy Anniversary, Alanna Day-Wood!!
Made for the track to rip up a bit and be a little rough but also have a great 3 and 4 corner to throw the car into and have a ton of fun.
Quickly realized he had made an error and we were all good. Restarted and made it back to 2nd before Craig passed us at the end to finish 3rd.
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