We got to the race track Saturday morning and the pits were one big mud hole, I walked the race track with my dad and it was in shambles. I have never seen a bigger frost heave in my life it looked like a tree root was growing through the 1/2 corner in the second groove. Making a mental note to avoid that so I didn't clean off the oil pan we prepared the car for first practice.
I got out onto the track and felt a bit lost as to a line because of the odd shape of the 3/4 corner. I became frustrated because the car was stable and fast but the lap times weren't showing it. I ran 16.9 in the first practice session which was a second off the pace. In the second practice we put the new tires on to scuff them in, and were able to run a 16.6. Thankfully three time series champion Korbin Thomas arrived to the track just before qualifying and I was able to talk to him about what line to run.
With a new idea of where to run on the track I went out for qualifying, the car was loose everywhere we had the tire pressures a bit too low, I came into the pits thinking I had blown it. I soon found out I ran a 16.217 which was my fastest lap of the day by far and only 3 tenths off the top qualifier.
I started at the back of my heat and was able to make a few passes but the track had no top groove so in order to make a pass you had to wait for someone to make a mistake and slide up or move them out of the way. I finished 5th in my 15 lap heat.
The main event was a gong show, going in to the first corner one lap one I drove in the same as I had been all day and the car in front of me slowed up way more than I expected, I braked as hard as I could but ran into him and sent him spinning into the infield. (He is paralyzed and drives with hand controls, I later found out that his visor fogged up and he couldn't see the corner and couldn't take his hands off the hand controls so he just hammered on the brakes.) It stayed green and as I drove into turn three I had a car dive under me, I was cleared and I rolled it down the hill to get a run off. Unfortunately the #38 car ( Same guy who cut my tire last week) tried to dive in under me as well. I came down the hill as he was just under my bumper cover. My rear bumper slashed his RF tire sending him barreling into the front straightaway wall, and I was completely side ways in the grass luckily I managed to gather it up. The caution flew and because we hadn't yet completed a lap we went back to the starting line up. I was told over the radio that if I got into anyone else I was going to be black flagged, so I planned to be cautious. On the start I was crowded by the same driver who I had spun out previously,and I was crowded down the track and made the mistake of not holding my line. I tried to turn down more so that I didn't spin him out again and get black flagged but my car hit the bumps on the inside of the corner and the back end started to come around.
From there it was all bad, the field was tightly packed because of the restart and I felt like I was in a pin ball machine, I was hit in the LF which broke the tie rod and sent me spinning up the track where I was hit in the RF wheel and then to end it all the right side door. I tried to re-fire the car but the rad was puking so I just sat and waited for the tow truck.
One complaint I did have was that I hadn't dropped my window net or moved in the car and I wasn't attended to until the car was hooked on the tow truck and they wanted to tell me to drag the brakes. Not very impressed with the safety crew at all.
We came home with a smashed up race car and a sprained thumb from the wheel whipping around in my hands from all the violent impacts.
We hope to have the race car back together and race ready for the ASA race at Motoplex Speedway June 4th in Vernon, BC.
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