This past race weekend was a "Double Main" night. So basically we had two main events in one night. This would count as Race #2 and Race #3 of the 2022 season.
After a very long couple of weeks rebuilding the entire back half of the car, and a huge thanks to my crew who put in extra hours during the week while I was at work, we made it to South Sound Speedway for this one. After unloading the car we set about preparing for our practice sessions. The early notes were that the car was a little tight in the middle and then a touch loose off. It seemed more loose off of turn 2 than off of turn 4, but that's probably because of the way turn 4 closes up so much, it tends to slow the car down more at the apex at that end of the track, so you aren't carrying as much speed coming off. If fans could sit on the backstretch, I think they'd be surprised by the difference in the amount of speed the cars carry down the backstretch as compared to the frontstretch.
We made a few adjustments after practice, trying to free the car up through the middle, also trying to judge how much the track would tighten throughout the evening. That's part of the gamble, how far do you go, how much do you chase the track and how long do you wait before you start chasing it? Another practice session and we learned that our adjustments were starting to make some inroads for the middle, but also causing it to be even more loose off. So somewhere there was a fine balance there that we were clearly not finding. Or, alternatively, we were on the wrong adjustment. Which is more likely the case.
Qualifying time saw a very busy track. We qualify in group style here, so you get a timed session to set your fastest lap, regardless of the number of laps that takes. You can even run in the pit and make an adjustment if you want, then come back out, as long as you do it before time runs out. I gave it about 6 or 8 laps or so before it started getting super crowded and hard to find space to lay down a good lap. Some of these guys think we are racing and they will start blocking you, it's crazy. I had to slow down for a few laps to create some space and then go hard again, at that point dad told me I was 4th on the board so I decided to call it good, because honestly I felt like that's all the car had in it. Interestingly enough, after our whole ordeal with the illegal rear end from the last race, the car ran almost exactly the same time with the legal rear end as it did before. So clearly that wasn't what was making the car fast. In fact, in our last race we ran a 15.279 and this time out we ran a 15.236. So in actuality the car was 4/100ths of a second faster than last time. Again, I'll admit, the car wasn't legal and that was my fault. But clearly it wasn't a single part that made the car go super fast. And honestly, from the driver's seat I really couldn't tell the difference on the track. Huge difference in the pits trying to move the car around slow or turn around in tight quarters such as the pits. But at speed, can't tell a thing. Makes me seriously question the reason for the rule if the only thing we're doing is making it harder for cars to maneuver in the pits. 🤷♀️
So, as luck would have it, after I came in during qualifying, a couple other guys stepped it up a bit and knocked me down to P6. So I just barely missed the Trophy Dash, but that's okay because honestly I wasn't sure I even wanted to be in it. It's just another chance for someone with a grudge to wreck you again, and frankly I just don't need it. I'll just go to the main events, thank you.
Getting the lineup for Main Event #1 I found myself starting inside of row 3. A full field invert, meaning the slowest car starts on the pole and the fastest car starts dead last, put me basically 5th for the start. So here's the rub, the guy on the pole was quite a bit slower than those of us back there, and I knew it. The guy behind him? Also not that quick. So I basically had two guys in front of me that I expected to not really go anywhere, while the outside line looked a lot more...speedy. Now an additional rub, a couple of those four really fast cars behind me were the crew that we had the run-in with during the last race. They are starting behind me, where I can't see them, and don't like me. I told my spotter (pops) that I planned on just letting that outside line go by, the guys behind me can follow them around the outside as well and I'll just drop in behind them and try to follow them to the front. I had zero intentions of trying to race them early in this one. There's a whole extra race after this one that you only get to run if you can finish this one without destroying your car. My plan was simple, protect the car and just let them sort it out.
The green flag drops and yeah, that outside line started marching way faster than my line. Before too long I had dropped back to 13th out of the 14 that started. I think my spotter may have panicked a bit at that point, but just stick to the plan. Trust the plan, stick to the plan. I settled in and started going to work, be smooth, be aggressive, stay with them, but stick to the plan. It didn't take long before it started happening. I was heading into turn 1, had just set the car in when my spotter comes over the radio and says "Spin on the backstretch, car is down low in the grass." I come off turn 2 and there he was, the #18 car that I tangled with last race, way down in the infield grass. I don't know how he got there, don't care. I just wanna know where he is when we go back racing because now he's gonna be behind me again. But, he could not continue on and ended up out of the race. A slight sigh of relief to be honest.
We got lined back up to go racing again and as we came down the backstretch and the pace car (the mini-van, yeah, not very sexy) pulled off I saw some guys in front of me starting to get a little aggressive beating and banging with each other. This is a tough moment, you know a green flag is coming, you know guys are getting dicey in front of you but you need to start picking up the throttle. But...stick to the plan. As the green flag came out and I started wicking it up I saw them totally tangle, spin in unison and literally come right across my nose as they both spun into the infield. I made a slight move to the right as it happened and rolled into the gas as I went by them, suddenly finding myself in 3rd place as the yellow flag came back out. It was really one of those Matrix moments where time sort of slows down in your mind, things move in slo-mo and you just sort of go right through the middle of the chaos and out the other side. I remember seeing the two spinning cars moving to the left, both of their rear bumpers spinning away from my nose as I approached, and another car to my right as several other guys got completely off the throttle during the melee, and me totally splitting the gap and squirting out the other side like coming out of a dark tunnel into the sunshine.
This one took them a very long time to sort out, we had a bit of a red flag while they cleaned up the scrum and tried to sort through the scoring to get us back lined up. In the end, yeah, they placed me 3rd. So we went back to racing and I got to line up inside second row behind the leader, who clearly had a fast car and knowing that the guy to his outside also had a fast car. There were no worries about anyone not taking off at the restart this time, so when the green flag flew I wicked it up as quick as I could, let the guy on the outside fall into place behind the leader and settled in to run this one out. Stick. To. The. Plan!
At the end of it all we came out with 3rd place finish. My first podium in this class. No, they don't give trophies for that, but I don't really care. You and me both know, that's a podium finish! I'll take it!
The lineup for the second Main Event is determined by the finishing order from the first Main Event, with some sort of chosen invert. Apparently 6 was the chosen invert for this one. So take the first 6 finishers, flip them and then place everyone from 7th back behind that. Okay, so I'm not really gonna move much, I finished 3rd so I'm gonna start 4th, outside of row 2. Well...you'd think anyways. Apparently the pole sitter for this race could not report to the grid due to a problem, so they reshuffled us once out on the track and I wound up starting this one 3rd, inside of row 2 instead of outside. We were still fighting that push in the middle and the loose off that we had been fighting all day. Before this Main we took another swing at an adjustment in the hopes it would be better. This race would play out completely differently. The green flag dropped and I fell back a couple spots to 6th before I was able to get settled in and start going to work. The car just didn't fire off very well and there was a couple really fast guys behind me that hadn't finished the first Main who slipped by before I could gather myself. No problem, just remember the plan, we're not married to the plan at this point but we certainly want to be cognizant of it.
Having settled into 6th place I started going to work on the 5th place runner, but he was having a pretty good run and protecting his line very well. About all I could do was fill up his mirrors as I tried taking a look to his outside, then to his inside, back to his outside, back to his inside. I'm sure from his point of view it looked like that scene from Top Gun where the three MIGs are completely dancing around that F-14. but basically I just couldn't do anything with him other than pray I pressured him into a mistake. That mistake never really came, and as this race ran flag to flag with no cautions my car started going away, getting more and more loose off as the race went on. All I could do was make a show of it and stay glued to his bumper, but never could get around him and we came home in 6th place at the finish.
Don't get me wrong, it was a great night and I'm super excited about our run in both races. But man, when you're in the seat staring at the bumper of a top-5, 6th place kind of sucks. I'm a little bummed that we never could get a handle on that small push in the middle without affecting other areas of the corner. We had some ideas on adjustments we wanted to make, but we had run out of adjustment in that part, so at that point you're looking for a crutch. But, at the end of the night we had two solid finishes, we put the car in the trailer in one piece and we have a lot of notes that we didn't have before. We now have something to build on moving forward. I'm super thankful for my guys who worked very hard to get the car back together and make sure it was as good as it was before. They put in a lot of hours in the shop without me while I had to be at work, and I'm very thankful for that. I'm also very thankful for all my marketing partners who have been very patient with my disasters in previous races, it's about time we had a good result. And lastly I'm extremely thankful for all the help from Jim at Race Car Help for putting up with me and answering my endless questions along with helping us make adjustments to this thing. We're headed in the right direction, now let's keep going that way.