Well, what another crazy weekend this past one was! Saturday night at Lonesome Pine International Raceway held both the highest of highs, as well as the lowest of lows for us. It seems that our bad luck from last weekend at Dillon Speedway carried over to this past one. This was the first race on a brand new car. It started off very well with me being one of the fastest in practice and capturing the pole in qualifying! My luck changed dramatically after this, though. The first thirty laps or so of the race proved to be a very rough one, resulting in me falling back to second quickly. After restarting on the outside after a caution, I realized just how well my car worked on the outside. Well, after about two laps I had the leader passed coming off of four when once again I was wrecked. Our car once again suffered substantial damage. Stick with us as hopefully our luck will turn around quick!
Ok, so this past weekend at Dillon Motor Speedway was our roughest this year, by far. We arrived on friday morning for a practice being held that day. I learned alot throughout the practice and we gained some ground. We had a few problems that developed that we were able to get worked out such as a vibration in the front end. We made alot of changes in the shock department and were able to gain some time there. The next day, we kept getting faster and faster, much more than I was anticipating as a matter of fact. Through qualifying I was able to make a seventh place effort, in which I felt very good about considering how competitive this feild is. With the exception of one car the entire feild was separated by only six tenths of a second! Well, we started the race and as we figured, throughout the night the track tightened up, more than we aniticipated , actually. Still running in the top ten, contact from a pressing car put me into the wall. It was enough to cause some damage, and the cockpit continually filled with smoke, hinting to me that I had a tire rub. I came into the pits for the guys to check it out and left with a new right-front tire and some cleared body damage. Now, this is where it gets very interesting! Due to my slowed pace I opted to stay towards the bottom of the track, out of the racing groove as you’re supposed to. For whatever reason, the 73 car of Owen Kelly hooked my right rear on the front strait away and sent me head-on into turn one. The wreck caused significant damage, and i’m just thankful that we have a back-up car to race next weekend. Join us at Orange County Speedway next week for somemore exciting action!
This past weekend we traveled to Tri-County Speedway in Hudson, NC. I was excited to come here as in a practice earlier this year we were very fast here! This luck carried over for us last weekend. We didn’t show all that fast during practice due to old tires, but with a new set of tires, we were able to pick up almost half a second during qualifying. This put us starting 12th in the race. We had a great race, staying out of trouble and in contention all race long. I was told by many that this was the best race they had witnessed, as first through fourth was racing three wide all race long as well as sixth through tenth was doing the same thing! It was a pleasure racing this race, as I was able to mix it up with many of the greats in the UARA series, racing clean and respectably. The night ended with a tenth place finish, and no damage sustained. Stay tuned as next week we travel to Dillon, SC!
This weekend we traveled to Concord Motor Speedway, and if you havn’t been there its truly and experience! With its Pocono-like shape, it was unlike any track I had ever driven before! Once again we had a slight learning curve to overcome, as I do at alot of these asphalt tracks due to my inexperience. We were able to overcome it, though and stay fast most of the day. We were able to make the changes necessary to advance ourselves a few positions in qualifying. The race was a little hairy though, as the configuration of the track only allowed passing in certain places. I got spun early in the race, and about 20 laps after that the car that had spun me earlier broke a rearend, oiling down the track and causing me to spin again! I was able to rally back for a 14th place finish, though, ending our night alright overall!
Man, yet another milestone in my racing career as we traveled to the historic Rockingham Speedway in Rockingham, NC this past weekend! It took me a little while to get used to this place. This was as fast as i’d ever been I think, being that the qualifying speeds were around 150 mph plus, not too mention the the draft was in affect! We were able to post a decent qualifying time, still not quite what we would have liked though. In the race, I was quickly able to gain around ten positions, inching me closer and closer to the top ten. However, getting into some type of fluid layed down in my line lead to a long, lazy spin in turns three and four. A spin at this place kills tires, so I was not blazing any trails after that. I was able to come from the back up to 17th and capture a top twenty finishing posistion at this historic racetrack. Stay tuned as next we go to Concord!
This weekend was the season opener at Lonesome Pine Raceway, in Coeburn, VA. The previous night we were able to attend an autograph session along with some of the other drivers from LPR at the Food City in Coeburn. I was a little apprehensive of this race mostly due to the facts that it was their first race and a new “choose” format restart was going to be taking place. I posted a strong fifth-place qualifying position, and ran second and third throughout most of the race. My suspisions held true though, as the restart format caused a wreck in front of us and collect myself as well as four others. We sustained fairly significant damage, but will be able to repair it with no problem. Stay tuned as the next race will take place in Rockingham, NC!
Man, what a milestone this weekend was in my racing career. This weekend we visited the famous Bristol Motor Speedway. We were able to come here and test a couple weeks ago and gain some valuable experience. We stayed in the top ten on the speed charts all day until a blown right front tire ended our day. We were fortunate enough to have a good two weeks or so to fix the car back in order to race. When we came back for the race, we were off our pace a little bit, mostly due to the track having been rained on a few times. We had a very fast race-pace, however, our qualifying attempts were not what we would have liked. I qualifyed 26th for the race, was able to miss some wrecks and stay out of trouble and bring the car home virtually unscathed. We ended the night with a ninth-place finish, which I was very proud to have done so close to my home town!
Wow, another great weekend in the books at Lonesome Pine Raceway. It seems like every time we go back we just keep getting better and better. We really weren’t all that good all day, throughout practice. We had a different shock package for sticker tires that worked really well, however, it was a little too much for the worn out tires we have to race on from week to week at Coeburn. If I even thought about getting into the brakes as hard as I needed to I would lock the left front up. However, even with that I was able to qualify fifth for the race. Right at the start, I was able to collect fourth place. I lost some ground on the third place car, but was able to make it up under green. The third place car, Brian Blevins, and I raced side-by-side, door to door for ten laps. With neither of us giving and inch, it seemed like an eternity. No paint was traded though, I couldn’t believe it! Its nice to race a clean driver, I tell you! I finally was able to make the pass with five laps to go. Running the same lap times as the leaders, I was able to make up a little ground on them as well as pull off a few car lengths from the fourth place car. It was a great race, I just wish we could have gotten a caution at the end to take a run at the top two cars. Join us next week as the excitement heats up again at Lonesome Pine Raceway!
This past Saturday night the UARA sanctioning body came to Lonesome Pine Raceway in Coeburn, VA. It was an exciting day altogether. Our car looked great lettered with the Bill Elliott Driver Development color scheme! This was a tough field to race being that it was the best of the best in late model stock racing there to run. We were fast all day throughout practice, both sessions, within the top ten actually. Qualifying time rolled around, and I was able to lay down a decent lap, placing me 16th in the starting line-up. The race started and i was able to hold my position, plus a couple more. On about lap 70 I went a lap down, and then got spun. So, I was sent to the back and raced my way back up to receive the lucky dog. Back on the lead lap I was able to capture a few more positions and finish 12th with all 150 laps in the book. This was my second asphalt race, and the longest by far. I enjoyed it a lot, and can’t wait until the next one, though. Its looking like LPR again for this weekend, so come see us!
My Saturday night on this night was a little cleaner. This was my first late model stock race on asphalt at Lonesome Pine Raceway, in Coeburn, Virginia, and it went pretty well. This was the Alpha Resources night at the races. Every class, including the late models, had two races. In my case it was two 25 lap races. I qualified seventh for both of them. In the first race, i was running sixth and got spun out, sending me to the back, i ended up rallying back for a seventh place finish. In the second race, i worked my way up to fifth and held off charges for my position. I feel that i had a better car than that, but in such a short race, it was hard to do anything more. Now up is the September 13th UARA race at Lonesome Pine, see you there!
