The night started off really bad. The motor was still missing and cutting out. I was worried that it was going to be just another night of struggling to keep up and keep out of the way. We got a piece of aluminum and wrapped the fuel line with it where it crossed paths with the exhaust and the radiator hose. After that the problem got even worse and came on sooner. One guy we talked to told us that if it was an ignition problem the tach would drop to zero but if is was fuel related the tach would hold at what ever RPM the engine was turning. When the engine started acting up again I looked down and it was holding at 5000 RPM. So, it was a fuel problem but it really wasn't that hot and it started acting up right away so we started looking for a fuel line blockage.

We took off the fuel line where it attached to the fuel filter and blew some air into it from the nitrogen tank. At first nothing happened and then fuel came shooting about 5 feet out of the line! We put it back together and I made it out for the final practice. This time the car ran great and I was fast! We had it fixed! Finally!

The points are starting to shuffle out a little and I am slowly moving up. After last weeks 2nd place finish I'm now in 5th place and there is one car that regularly runs with us that is behind me. That put him on the pole this week and me on the outside pole. He chose to drop to the rear so that brought a couple pretty fast car up to the pole beside me and behind me. I figured I would be able to fall in at 3rd because there were 2 slower cars behind them that would give me a gap. Sure enough, the start of the heat race worked out just as thought and I fell in behind the leaders. The car that was in first was really not any faster than I was but the 2nd place car was the 2 time State Champion in our division and he was really fast. He took about 3 laps to get around the leader while I gained on both of them a little but once he got by he pretty much checked out. I never caught them but they didn't pull away fro me either! My car was handling and running really well.

I didn't make any changes on the car for the feature race. The car would handle differently depending on the line I took so I could make it tighter or looser if I needed to by doing that. The line up was the same for the feature as the heat and I was going to try to do the same thing on the start as I did in the heat but it didn't work that way this time. I actually got a better start than before but had to soft pedal it through turns one and 2 on the high side so that gave one car the chance to get in under me and I had to wait until the back stretch to drop into 4th place. We ran a few laps and then the last place car spun coming off turn 4 bringing out the caution.

On the restart I was planning on giving the car in front of me about a car length and then try to get to the gas a little bit sooner than he did so I could beat him off of turn 4 but I didn't close it up soon enough and he beat me off the corner instead. We ran about 5 more laps before the caution came out again and I was doing pretty good at staying with, or maybe even catching, the leaders. I think I had been driving it in a little too hard though because the nose of the car was starting to slid a little in turns one and two. Under the yellow I put a little bit more rear brake bias in thinking that this would help me turn in the corner better.

On the next restart I tried to set up the car in front of me like before, and again it didn't work out too well. This time the leader started the race about as slow as I've ever seen and we all got bunched up at the starting line. I had to move up or down to avoid hitting the car in front of me and I chose up which let the car behind me get under me. Once we finally got going I wound up loosing another position going into turn one.

It took me 2 laps to get back by him for 4th and then I was racing as hard as I could to catch back up to where I was before. The leaders were about a half straight away in front of me and the 3rd place car was bottoming out and throwing sparks so I figured I would catch him for sure. I guess I pushed it a little too hard and, with the brake bias to the rear, when I had to get hard into the brakes in turn 3 the car just came around on me.

I sat on the apron for a while sort of collecting my thoughts while I waited for the yellow to come out. Once we got lined back up it started to sprinkle and after about 3 or 4 laps it started to pour. So, that was the end of the race and I finished in 5th place. All in all, it was a good night for our team to finally figure out what the motor problem was and get some fast laps in. I also figured out where the brake bias should be set at too!

Well, unless I get a call from Mr. Hendricks or something like that, you won't be hearing from me for a couple of weeks because we don't have any more races scheduled for this month. So, after the first 4 races of the season I am now in 3rd place in the points and I think I have all the gremlins out of my car! I'm planning on some good things happening when we come back to the track next month. I'll be sure to let you know how we do!