That's right, you are not seeing things, you are not dreaming, it really happened. But let's back up a bit before we jump right to the punch line. I gotta give you the setup first. 😉
After our solid run in the last race we really didn't do much to the car. I had a list of things that I wanted to try heading into the final race. It was a major setup overhaul. I was looking to change both front springs, but that's a process that involves a lot of time and then putting the car back on the scales and going back through the full setup procedure. The guys needed a break from the non-stop schedule, so we chose to just leave the car alone and run what we had. Sometimes you have to remember that there's things that are more important than a race car. So with that in mind, we went over the car to do a general "nut and bolt check" and then put it back in the box and headed back to the track.
I was kind of shocked out of the box, because we ended up at the top of the charts for the first practice session, even though my main goal there was just to bed in some new brake pads. So that told us we had a decent car, which is always nice. The track was hot, so we were fighting a loose off condition, which to be honest we've been fighting for some time now. We sat out the 2nd practice session and discussed some changes we could make to help the loose off problem. Our problem is that it seems like every time we try to adjust for that, it just makes the middle super tight. So you're giving up the middle of the corner to try to gain on the exit. We can't find that magic adjustment that helps both. But we tried something for the final practice and it helped a bit, but hurt the middle, like always. We still ended up 3rd in that last practice session, so again, we weren't far off. But when you're in a points battle, every little bit matters.
We made a pretty big adjustment for qualifying after Tommy said "I wanna try this" and I went "Yeah, sure, let's give it a go and see what happens." At some point you gotta try something, even if you don't know if it'll help. We had tried a lot of things that weren't making a difference on the chart, so when Tommy came up with a different idea I was game. We may have gone a bit too far with it, because I wasn't super happy with it. But qualifying for us is a "Euro-Style" deal where you get 10 minutes and everyone goes out together. So we ran out there, laid down some laps and were sitting 6th I think after 3 or 4 minutes. I ran in real quick and we backed off on that adjustment a touch and I ran back out there and went to P3 on the chart. I figured that was good enough so we sat on that. I know Tommy wanted me to push a bit harder, but I was feeling like that was really all it had.
That placed us outside front row for the Trophy Dash. For those not familiar, the Trophy Dash is a 4-lap shootout for the 4 fastest cars from qualifying, winner take all. Well, winner takes a little $5 trophy. You'd be surprised how hard we will race for that little $5 trophy! 🤣
Trophy Dashes are funny. It's an inverted lineup, so the fastest guy has to start last and the slowest guy gets to start on the pole. Starting outside front row, you know you aren't the fastest guy out there, but you know you have track position and a limited amount of time on your side. When the green flag flew I got a good run down the front straight and managed to get through 1 and 2 good with a good drive down the back straight as well. By the time I got the turn 3 Tommy was telling me "Clear, Clear!" and it was just a matter of hitting my marks and running for my life. I have a tendency to get anxious in these moments so when he started saying "Clear by 4.......clear by 5.......driving away" I started easing up a bit and letting the car roll through the turns a bit more. We grabbed that Dash win convincingly. I gotta say, it felt pretty good to get a win, even if it's just a Dash. It's been almost 15 years since I snagged a trophy in a race car so the dry spell has been a long one. I got a bit choked up in the interview, so that one is on me. But it's been a long time man!
Like I said in the interview, that one goes to my guys; Les, Donny, Pops and Tommy. Those guys are working on that car every weekend, they are there when I tear it up, they are there at the track keeping it going. They deserved that one! 😎
We decided to try one more adjustment for the heat race, because we knew the car wasn't quite right yet and the lineup had me starting deep in the field. We had 9 cars on hand this night and I was lined up 7th for the Heat Race, so inside of row 4. With only 8 laps to get it done, that's a tall order. The other factor here is that the guy I was points racing would be starting 3rd, inside row 2. So he's got a jump on me here.
I did my best to stay calm once the green flag flew, but it's hard getting through this much traffic. More so when you know there's some fast stuff behind you. The biggest thing was just waiting for that inside line to work past the outside line. I was lucky that I was starting in that inside line and Tommy just kept telling me "Be patient......hold your lane.....be patient" and we slowly marched past the outside line.
Once we had single filed up I could start trying to get to work. It's a tall order to go to the outside, but with Tommy telling me "No pressure from behind...." I gave it a go and made it work on the 27 car. I got a good run on his outside coming off 4 and we started heading down the front stretch and as he kept moving up towards the wall I started thinking "Okay bud, I'm pretty deep in here, leave me a lane..." At some point you have to decide if you're backing out or not, and this time I chose the latter. I was clear up to his front wheel, so I felt I had the line, but that tunnel was getting tight too. Eventually I ran out of room and we connected, the contact picked my left side tires up off the ground and sparks started flying up over the left front corner. I wasn't sure if they were my sparks or his, I was just hoping this didn't go badly. Gizmo set back down and I saw him get a bit sideways under me. I landed pretty square so I just stayed in it and set her into turn 1, leaving him room on the bottom so he didn't clean me out. Luckily, he hadn't quite gathered it up yet so his entry into 1 was much slower than mine and I cleared him out the other side of 2. By that time I saw that Eric in the 18L had gotten out front and was a good straightaway ahead. At that point I figured that we're just gonna finish 2nd to him, which is good enough. I ran him down in a very short time though. As we were heading into turn 3 on the white flag lap I closed on him so hard that I thought I was gonna drill him. I don't know if he had a bad corner or if Gizmo was just running that fast, but I almost ran right over him. I jumped on the brakes pretty hard to keep from totally annihilating him and just chose to make a show of it coming to the checkered flag. Sometimes discretion is the better part of valor. I chose to settle for 2nd place, we'll take this battle to the Main Event. By finishing right behind Eric I only lost 4 points to him, so we managed to minimize the damage as best we could. If my math is correct, and since it was a double-points night. we gained 16 points on Eric in qualifying, and then lost 4 points to him in the heat race. So at that point we were up 12 points on him for the night.
Heading into the Main Event the guys asked me what adjustments I wanted to try. I told them "Don't touch it, it's perfect." That heat Race, we had finally hit on something that was really working well. I really felt like I had a car capable of winning. So we left it alone. There was a couple races ahead of us and each of those races had a blown engine and several crashes. There was quite a bit of cleanup taking place out there and lots of Speedy Dry being used to soak up oil and whatnot. At the end of the day, the track changed a lot, so my choice to leave it alone would come back to bite me. But predicting track conditions is about as easy as predicting earthquakes. The other problem we overlooked was that apparently on Championship Night South Sound Speedway lines them up by points. This means that the current points leader gets to start on the pole. Me? Well, I was 7th in points so I get to start deep in the field! Oh yeah, Eric was 6th in points, so he gets to start in front of me...kind of. He had the pleasure of lining up right next to me, on the inside line. So my Heat Race plan of letting that inside line march by the outside line isn't gonna work this time, because I'm in the outside line now!
Once the green flag flew I went to work, doing my best to work that high line. I got super lucky on this one, I think Fulmer in the 75 car must have spun his tires or something on the start, because he really didn't go anywhere and I got a good jump and cleared both Eric and him before turn 1. Since the 75 was starting right in front of Eric, it really held him up. So on lap 1 I found myself in 3rd heading into turn 3. Tommy was telling me I had no pressure from behind so I once again wen to the outside of the 27 and started to work my way by him. This time with a bit more room. 😉
It took a few laps to make the pass on the 27. By the time I got clear of him I was a decent ways back from Duman in the 8 and I could see Dominic out front by a healthy margin. You could see that he was just on cruise control. He had opened up a gap and just started riding. That car is so fast and he is so smooth, it's a tall order to run with him and I knew he was a solid 3/10th of a second faster than me. I honestly figured this was as good as it was gonna get, but as the laps ticked away I could see that I was gaining on Duman in the 8 car. Tommy was on the radio telling me "You see that you're catching him, keep hitting your marks....No pressure from behind, just keep hitting your marks." I put my head down and reeled him in, but by the time I got to him I knew that was all I had. It's one thing to catch him, but another to pass him. You just hope that you can worry him enough that he makes a mistake. I think it was working, because he seemed to be really struggling with grip coming off, but so was I. I got up to his bumper but that was the best I could do.
At some point we started working lapped traffic, which always feels god to be the one lapping instead of getting lapped. 😎
In the lapped traffic I really ran Mike down pretty good and we also ran Dominic down too. I'm pretty sure Dominic was just being very cautious with the lapped traffic, really taking his time to find the right moment. But from my seat I felt like Mike had a shot at him, and I had a shot at Mike too. In the end, time ran out and I was still clearing lapped traffic as the checkered flag came out. I was kind of happy to see this one run flag to flag, sometimes it's best just to get it done and over with. We headed to the tech pad for post-race inspection, which is always a good feeling.
I was told Eric finished 6th, so we gained another 12 points in him in the Main Event. He was 21 points ahead of me going into the night, so with our total points I should have moved 3 points in front of him. I'm going to wait for confirmation before I go bonkers, but by my community-college math we should be 5th in the final standings. I'm going to cherish the moment of my Trophy Dash win for a while and look forward to the awards banquet. It's been a very long time since we had a night like this, I'm beyond happy with the way we closed out this season. We've got a LOT of work to do to the car, it's pretty roughed up and looking really beat. When you get down to the end of the season you kind of stop trying to make it look good and just start focusing on getting to the end. Now I need to go back and fix everything we tore up over the season. But for now, we just enjoy the moment! 😎
And wait for the final points standings to be published.