Race #11 at Auburndale Speedway
09-17-05

Well, all I can say is we tried!

We wanted to be real good at this race so we went to practice at Auburndale on Thursday night. Our plan was to get the car freed up with our current set up and then keep freeing it up more and more by changing springs. We were going to then tighten the car back up by adding in cross weight. We thought that this would help the car to turn in better but have more bite coming off. We got the car real good just about the time the sun went down. This was when we figured the track would be like a typical race evening so we could get some good information. The next thing I know they are telling us practice is over. The track owner wouldn't turn on the lights so we had to pack up and leave before we got the rest of the adjustments made.

We thought we had a pretty good set up on the car for the race even though we didn't get to try to make it a little better so on Saturday afternoon we went out for our first practice and, as we had thought we would be, we were a little bit loose. We sat around a while and waited for the sun to set a little thinking we would get another practice but the next thing we knew they were calling for the cars to line up for the heat races!

One thing I still got going for me, I can pull a good pill number! I got the outside pole again! This track won't let you split the cars into two heats unless you have 12 cars or more so we had to line up on the outside pole for the heat. Last week, you may remember, I had a little problem leaving the inside open on the starts and lost a couple positions so tonight I was going to do my best to make sure that didn't happen again. When the race started I was in the wrong gear again and I started a little slow. As we entered turn 2 the car just spun around and I got sideways and 2 cars plowed into me. The damage was minimal and we lined up again and tried to restart the race. I made it through one lap but on lap 2 I looped it around again. This time everybody got by me. The car was so bad I couldn't drive it at all and my crew chief signaled for me to take it to the pits.

When I first got the car we took it to a guy's welding shop to have some work done on it and he was a racer himself. He looked at the car and really like it and then he gave me some advise about racing. He told me that sometimes when you are right on the edge the car will feel like it is loose but it's actually a little tight. He said you'll want to try to tighten the car up but then it will be awful. He said that he struggled with that one year until he figured it out. I remembered him saying that but I didn't think that the car was tight. Some of the other drivers came over to help me and they thought the car was tight too but it didn't make sense because it felt loose and I had to steer the car up towards the wall coming out of the corner otherwise it would feel like it would come around on me. Everything I was feeling was loose, loose, loose, but what everybody was telling me was I was tight. So we decided to really tighten the car up!

About the only thing good about this track is that during intermission you can run a few laps of practice if you need it and we really needed it. When we got the changes made I jumped in the car and went out for about 5 laps. It still felt loose to me but it seemed better. Still, everybody along the fence kept saying I was tight. I talked it over with my crew chief and convinced him that they didn't know what they were talking about so we tighten the car up a little bit more and went out for the race.

Since I didn't finish the heat race I had to start in the back and when the race started I was still struggling with the gear, the car felt awful, and sure enough, I spun in turn 2 again. This time they keep the race green and I got the car turned around and going again but not before the cars lapped me. I tried my best to keep the car going but I was very slow and I got lapped again before the race was over. The only good thing was that 2 cars fell out during the race so I didn't finish last.

My crew chief has been saying that he's over his head and I guess I'm not helping him much either. We decided we were going to try to hire a chassis expert for the next couple races if we can find one. Since we don't have a lot of money to pay him it may be pretty tuff though. If you know of someone let me know will you?