As we start to really focus on the 2021 racing season, it's probably a good time to start actually setting some goals.
I know, as a racer it's trendy to say cool things like "win x number of races" or "win a championship". We're supposed to be competitive, we're supposed to be focused on winning. And that stuff looks good on social media, right? Hey, nobody likes a loser, everybody likes the winner, that's just the way it is. But I'll be honest with you here, looking back at the last several seasons (and you have to really go back because I was sidelined for almost three full seasons) it's a lot more realistic to say that my goal is to finish a race. Let's start there.
See, we've struggled to do that for a while. We even regrouped and built this new Vintage Modified and sort of "stepped down" a few classes to go back to something we could honestly afford to operate. And even then, things didn't go as planned. We had some issues that found us with a mechanical failure just three laps from the end of the race. so yeah, it's easy to say "win a race", but you gotta finish one first.
I'd love to make an honest run at "Rookie of the Year". In all the years that I've raced, all the classes I've run, I've never pulled that off. And that's an interesting one too. My very first year racing, back in the Hobby Stock class, we finished 7th in the championship standings. The "Rookie of the Year" award went to the guy who finished 11th and I was told "Well, it goes to the top finishing rookie unless you are already getting a trophy, so since you get your trophy for 7th place, it goes to the next guy behind you." That's a true story, feel free to ask my dad if you don't believe me. Years later I built my very first Late Model and finished 6th in the championship with the LLMRS series. I was the only person in that series who had never driven a Late Model before. They told me "Well, this is a brand new series, this is our first year, so there is no Rookie of the Year because technically everybody would be a rookie." So yeah, I've never had much luck with Rookie of the Year. I'd love to make a run at it, but I also have no doubt that somehow I'd get screwed out of it once again. My brother Tommy said "How about we run for the Championship and let Rookie of the Year take care of itself?" That's why I love my guys, they honestly believe we can do that and they believe in my abilities enough to say things like that. But let's be honest here, we could go four races deep and then lose an engine or something that puts us out for the season, then someone else shows up at mid-season, rattles off three wins and steals it all from us including Rookie of the Year. That's a real thing, it could happen, there's a real probability that it could happen. Looking at our performance over the past several seasons, I'd say it's a very real probability. I'm excited that the car is a contender. Our one race we made it to last season showed us that the car can run. It also showed us that the drive isn't that terrible. We've spent some time this off-season regrouping and fixing the issues we found. We pulled the engine out, went through it with new rings and bearings and made sure it was right. See, we purchased this engine from a reputable builder, and we didn't question this person at all. We just drove the engine home and put it in the car. We felt like it was a bit low on power during that race, and the video shows it. We were shocked to find two plug wires crossed when we pulled it out to freshen it up. Don't ask how we didn't hear it, because neither did anyone else. nobody at the track said "your engine doesn't sound right..." Nobody who has watched the video said "it sounds like it has a miss...." Literally nobody else heard it either. But there it was, plain as day, two plug wires crossed. Needless to say, we've fixed that. the engine sounds right as rain now. We've made some upgrades to the chassis too, nothing I plan on sharing, but things I'm excited about and things that should make this thing even better. I believe we've got a competitive piece, I believe we CAN win a race and I believe we CAN be a threat in the points. But I'm also tempering this with the reality that we have not put together a competitive season since 2008. For my sake, I need to regroup and start from the bottom again.
So, heading into this season, I'm gonna be real here and say that the goal is to just finish a race. Where we go from there, that's yet to be seen. But I am very optimistic about our chances.
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