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.
Our night didn’t start off hot but we kept crawling our way back each race to at least make the show and not be one of the few out of it.
Qualifying was rough as we had a car spin and couldnt get the lap we needed. Ended up 9th.
Started 4th for the heat and just got stuck battling for spots. Dove into 1 and washed up just enough that the outside car ended up in my RR quarter panel and turned me around. Kept it going green and ended up 5th after a wreck later in the race. We take those.
Got some things figured out in the rear of the car and went out on pole for the B-main. Held off the field to win and move on into the A-main.
Changed some things that ultimately didn’t help get through traffic, but we were still fast battling for 10th for half the race and just stuck behind a crazy amount of talent until wrecking in turns 3 & 4. Restarted in the back and ultimately ended up 14th. Not exactly the result we should have gotten but we’ll move on.
We have some things to go over that look broke or is leaking but overall it was a successful weekend and I can’t wait to try again in a couple weeks
Special thanks to my mom for everything especially the last month and my mother-in-law Martha Wood for helping with a new oil pan .
The last race before the Banks Nationals did not go well as said in previous post. Hot laps we were diggin and caught the car ahead of us and didn’t fall far enough back when disaster struck in 3 & 4. Moment the car set in the corner, the car ahead spun and I couldnt avoid the impact.
Another huge apology to Trevor LaBarge. I feel bad as he has some major things to fix on the front of that car.
So far we have everything in the rear to go through and straighten as best as we can to finish the year. Somehow it even broke the tab to the battery box and it’s just wedged into the rest of the frame.
Was able to thrash and get out for our heat race and got caught up in another car spinning in front of us that bent the front bumper over.
Fast forward to trophy dash time. I wasn’t planning on running it to give us more time to try and fix what we could; however, someone came and asked for lineup purposes and mentioned we were starting on the front row. My racer brain instantly said we have to at least try to make something positive for the night as the LR was just hanging on for dear life. So I went out and somehow was still as fast as lap times earlier in the night and won. (Thanks Jeremy Means)
Felt great for the main even with all the bent parts we had and was excited to get it going. Unfortunately the oil pan we had just repaired blew another hole and started leaking again. Decided to start the race and see how far it would last and pulled off after 5 laps to not hurt anything.
Sucks but that’s racing sometimes. I feel amazing on how far we’ve come with our program and just hope to get things dialed back in enough to make the race on the 9th. We’ve had bad luck before in the big events so I know how fast it can go sideways.
We had an expected low car count due to nationals up north but had a blast just running against our friends at our home track since we scrapped going up and running that show earlier this year.
Started 3rd in both the heat and main and finished 2nd in both. For whatever reason I waited and waited to try a different line to try and get faster times but just got too comfortable running the low line. Definitely need to work on moving around when I get comfy like that. Congrats to Craig Cassell on the win!
Thank you to our biggest supporter and sponsor for everything she did to make our prep week as easy as possible while she was here. Thanks, mom!! (We’ll give you another chance to beat us at Sorry next time )
Another thanks to Greg Walters for his support and help after last week. Parts work flawlessly! Shoutout to Drager Performance for their help again to get our broken parts where they need to go for service.
And of course thanks to the following for everything this year:
We have our #1 sponsor and fan (Mom) up here for a couple weekends and we are pumped about how the GRT by Drager Performance has been lately.
After thrashing until 4AM Saturday on some minor things we were ready to roll. Started 4th in the heat and was riding behind when lap 3 all hell broke loose. A couple cars got out of shape and as one got sideways avoiding contact, I slowed to avoid that car and the car behind had nowhere to go. Railed into the LR. Bad luck.
Thank you to the Hillsboro Towing group and track staff for getting us off when you did as we didnt have a lot of time. Shock was killed, slider shaft broke and a new wheel toast. Luckily we have a few spares that was exactly what we needed and Greg Walters came to the rescue with a shock to borrow. Thrashed to get it done as we were the 2nd feature instead of last for the night and got it done right before going out.
Car seemed quick but was lacking a little here and there. We started 15th and gained 8 spots to 7th. We’ll take it! There was a lot of fast cars that showed up and it felt great to be around them towards the end.
We’ve gone through and found what’s still wrong and have some repairs to do for Saturday.
Big thanks to Greg Walters and everyone else that came over and helped us or was there in case they were needed. Andrew Olsen thank you for getting the shock to us in time . Our community there is absolutely amazing.
Thank you Mom and Alanna for everything you do and did to get us back out.
Friday was the start of a busy July as we are set to run each weekend this month and we started off with a great run.
Heat race went horrible as I self spun twice and didn’t finish.
Started 11th in the main and felt the car was way better after fixing our issues from the heat. The initial start was rough as we got bunched up coming off of 2 and then a wreck in 3 & 4 taking a couple heavy hitters out early. Sorry again, Kenny!
We were able to pick off spots which has been very hard to do in the past so that felt amazing. Even was able to run up front with some of the best to race at this track. Picked up another spot after 2nd broke and spun in front of me late in the race. Tried running the leader down but just wasn’t consistent enough.
Congrats to Trevor LaBarge on the win (even with his puny crate ) and to everyone for a fantastic night at the track. The fireworks show was amazing and we had a great time hanging out with friends afterwards.
We will be back this next weekend on the 12th running the same night as the late models which should be an amazing show in itself.
Massive thank you to Kenny Kfm Miller for helping us get more consistent throughout the race instead of just the beginning. All of his help this year has made a massive difference. Also a big shoutout to Craig Cassell for helping me get out of my own head after the heat race. Sucks to see the bad luck he’s in but I plan to have to chase him around as well soon!
Been pumped to race for a few weeks and went into the main feeling good about what we had. And we had a winning car.
Let’s rewind a little bit. Heat race was good, finished 2nd. We had a blast with the fans during the break for the meet and greet. Thanks to everyone for coming out and having fun with us. Even got some more signatures on the nose.
Ok, let’s talk about the main event. Track was spot on for me. Car was amazing. Started outside pole and took off at the start. We were diggin and had it if we just stayed green and kept hitting my marks. Entered 1 after 10 laps or so and hit the hole per usual, as I was using it to help gauge where to set the car. I hit that hole wrong, with the car getting unsettled and it was unrecoverable. Self spin.
I won’t lie, I was furious with myself and it led to the following restart trying to get going and when we didn’t go, I ended up into the LR quarter panel of the 32 car who’s out there figuring it out and shouldn’t have even been touched. Sorry Ethan Hannemann.
Ended up crawling our way back to 4th after restarting 11th so we will take it and go on to Friday.
Sorry to the Live feed group for the camera working its way to the roof and killing the view of the race. Going to get new mounts so we hopefully don’t have that happen again.
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came and asked for lineup purposes and mentioned we were starting on the front row. My racer brain instantly said we have to at least try to make something positive for the night as the LR was just hanging on for dear life. So I went out and somehow was still as fast as lap times earlier in the night and won. (Thanks 
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