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!
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.
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.
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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